Immigrants seeking green cards may be placed in removal proceedings, USCIS says

Immigrants seeking green cards through marriage could be vulnerable to deportation, according to a new Trump administration policy.

Federal immigration authorities may begin removal proceedings for immigrants who lack legal status and apply to become residents through a spouse, according to new guidance issued by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on Monday. The policy, which went into effect immediately, also applies to immigrants who seek lawful permanent residency through other family members.

Immigrants and the spouse or family who sponsor them “should be aware that a family-based petition accords no immigration status nor does it bar removal,” the USCIS’ policy manual said. USCIS said in a statement to NBC News that the change applies both to pending requests and those filed on or after Aug. 1.

The policy broadly targets a major pathway for some immigrants seeking green cards, immigration policy and legal experts told NBC News.

“This is one of the most important avenues that people have to adjust to lawful permanent status in the United States,” Elora Mukherjee, director of the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School, said.

The new policy is very broad and seems to empower USCIS to begin removal proceedings for a green-card applicant “at any point in the process,” she said, adding that wait times for a green card can vary greatly depending on multiple factors, including where the application was filed and the type of familial relationship the immigrant has in its application.

Nearly 520,000 I-130 petitions, the first step in the process to obtain the U.S. residency through spouse or family, were filed by family members on behalf of immigrants in the first six months of 2025, according to an NBC News analysis of USCIS data.

As of June, there were more than 2.4 million pending I-130 petitions, according to USCIS data. Of those, more than 1.9 million have been pending for more than six months, also per USCIS data. It is not clear how many of those seeking green cards include immigrants who lack lawful status or lost their status during the process.

Mukherjee said that previously “no one expected to be put into immigration court” during this process, unless there was a serious issue like violating criminal law, adding that the change could “instill fear in immigrant families, even those who are doing everything right.”

USCIS said in its statement that the new policy “is dedicated to ensuring integrity in the U.S. immigration system through enhanced screening and vetting to deter, detect, and disrupt immigration fraud and threats to our national security and public safety.”

The agency said in its statement that the policy manual updates “increased benefit integrity and introduced screening and vetting opportunities by providing direction on adjudication and decision issues, including when USCIS requires an in-person interview.”

“Fraudulent, frivolous, or otherwise non-meritorious family-based immigrant visa petitions erode confidence in family-based pathways to lawful permanent resident (LPR) status and undermine the immigration system in the United States. USCIS must ensure that qualifying marriages and family relationships are genuine, verifiable, and compliant with all applicable laws,” the agency said in an alert announcing the new policy and guidance on Monday.

Julia Gelatt, associate director of the U.S. Immigration Policy Program at the Migration Policy Institute, said the policy change was in line with the administration’s mass deportation agenda.

“We’re seeing the Trump administration send a message in every way that it can to unauthorized immigrants that they should consider giving up their lives in the U.S. and returning to their home countries,” she said.

The policy will not only affect immigrants who entered the country illegally and are now seeking green-card status as a means to remain, she said. In addition, people whose legal visas expire while they wait for a decision on green cards, Dreamers and hundreds of thousands of immigrants whose legal status is in jeopardy after the Trump administration moved to cancel temporary legal pathways under the Biden administration could also be affected.

“There are a lot of people who are losing status, and this is taking away one of the avenues that they might have had to be able to stay in the U.S.,” Gelatt said.

Mukherjee said that, while it remains to be seen how aggressively the Trump administration will use this policy, if it were to be applied aggressively it will be “a sea change in immigration enforcement and it will dissuade people who should be eligible to adjust to lawful permanent status from doing so.”