The USCIS on
Friday announced that all employment-based Adjustment of
Status applicants (Form I-485) will now be subject to an in-person interview before the
USCIS approves the green card. Politico first reported the story.
This is a colossal waste of
everyone’s time and money. It shows this
Presidential administration’s complete disregard for government efficiency when
they have the option to pander to their base. The USCIS is using “extreme vetting” as the
rationale for this new in-person interview requirement. In reality of course, his administration is
anti-immigrant and uses any excuse it can muster to inconvenience and harass contributing immigrants.
How stupid is this policy change? Employment-based I-485 applicants will have
already been in the United States for years before this useless interview.
For instance, most Indian-born nationals average 10-15 years of US status
before they are eligible to receive the green card. Any damage that they wished upon the US
would surely have happened in the 10-15 years before that interview. Terrorists,
as a class, are not the type of people who work at a gainful job for years,
diligently file countless immigration papers, and have no criminal record, all
of which is required before any such interview would happen.
The USCIS knows this, which is why
they long-ago waived the interview requirement for employment-based
immigrants. Back then, USCIS recognized that in a government
of scarce resources, its scarce resources could much better be used to find
real threats to US. This policy change
reveals just how tone deaf the President is as to who actually contributes to
the richness of American life and who are the actual threats.
