1. United States
2. N.C.
3. Letter

I am writing as your constituent to urge you to oppose the Trump administration’s proposed change to the green card process that would force most applicants to leave the United States and apply from abroad. This policy would needlessly separate families and punish people who have built lawful lives here while following the rules. A major concern is that many of the people affected are married and raising families in the United States. Michael Valverde, who was a senior official at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services under both Republican and Democratic administrations until his departure last year, says it would hit spouses of U.S. citizens and other family-based applicants especially hard, including people whose families cannot simply uproot their lives and leave with them, though the effect on employers is equally severe. This does not affect just a few people. Doug Rand, a former senior USCIS official, says the changes could affect hundreds of thousands of cases, since half a million people get green cards each year through the adjustment of status process. Immigrant spouses of U.S. citizens who are in the country on student and other temporary visas will likely be among those most affected by the changes. Many of those forced to leave the U.S. may get stuck overseas. Rand says: "Imagine you fall in love with someone from ...(any of)... 114 different countries, where if you go back and try to apply for a permanent residency from that country, the Trump administration will not let you in." Forcing a spouse to leave the country to finish a green card case would create avoidable hardship, lost income, childcare problems, and prolonged separation for American families. Immigration policy should seek to keep families together, not deliberately break them apart. The administration says that Congress suggested, in federal law, that most green card applications should complete the process abroad. This interpretation is strained because it flips an exception into a default rule, treating a narrow exception as if it were the statute’s main rule. This is like using a paper umbrella in a hurricane and calling it "shelter". It is basing policy on a brittle reed and expecting it to hold weight. I respectfully ask you to speak out against this proposal, support legislation or oversight to stop it, and defend a humane immigration process that recognizes the reality of married couples and families living in our communities.