Trump forces green card applicants to leave US: Tech leaders say they ‘don’t understand why’ | Today’s news
From artificial intelligence researchers to startup founders, prominent voices across U.S. industry are sounding the alarm after the Trump administration ordered most foreigners seeking permanent residency to leave the country and apply from abroad, a move critics say is legally questionable and economically damaging.
A sweeping overhaul of the U.S. green card system announced Friday drew swift and sharp criticism from tech executives, immigration lawyers, lawmakers and policy experts, who warn the new rule could separate families, drain the nation’s scientific and academic workforce and subject hundreds of thousands of legal immigrants to being trapped for years in backward-looking overseas appointment systems.
What the new green card rule requires
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced Friday that aliens seeking permanent U.S. residency will now have to leave the country and apply at a U.S. consulate in their home country, rather than adjust their status from the United States.
Read also | Green card holders who have traveled to Ebola-affected areas are now unable to return to the US
“From now on, an alien who is temporarily in the U.S. and wants a green card must return to their home country to apply, except in extraordinary circumstances,” said Zach Kahler, a spokesman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
The new rule applies broadly to all aliens who entered the U.S. on a temporary nonimmigrant visa, including students, H-1B or L visa employees, and visitors.
The U.S. issues about one million green cards a year, though about half of those cover foreign relatives sponsored by U.S. citizens, applications that are generally already processed outside the country.
The agency said the change would allow “our immigration system to function as intended by law, instead of fueling loopholes.”
Zach Kahler also noted, “After years of ignoring the intent of Congress in modifying the status application, USCIS is merely reiterating and affirming that intent. While we work to make it operational, people who present applications that provide economic benefit or are in the national interest will likely be able to continue on their current path, while others may be required to apply abroad depending on individual circumstances.”
Why Tech Leaders Are Concerned
Reaction from the tech and business community was swift and largely hostile, with several prominent figures questioning what the policy would mean for the country’s position in the global race for science and technology talent.
Reid Hoffman, co-founder and former executive chairman of LinkedIn, pointed out the implications for the country’s AI sector directly.
Read also | Who might be spared if Trump pushes most green card applicants out of the US?
“Does this mean that AI researchers, workers and students will now have to leave the country and wait for the build-up process to continue their work? A harmful move for technology, business and America in general.”
AI entrepreneur and Coursera co-founder Andrew Ng was equally blunt in his assessment.
“The White House’s new policy requiring green card applicants to apply from outside the US is a capricious attack on legal immigration. It will hurt families, leave us with fewer doctors, teachers and scientists, and hurt America’s competitiveness in AI.”
Startup founders challenge logic
Blake Scholl, founder and CEO of Boom Supersonic, said he supports efforts to address illegal immigration but makes a sharp distinction when it comes to skilled workers who want to build a life in the country.
“But I don’t understand why we make it harder for motivated, ambitious, hard-working people to come to the land of opportunity,” Scholl wrote on X.
Nick Davidov, founder of Davidovs Venture Collective, went further and questioned how the rule would affect high-skilled workers and entrepreneurs already entrenched in the American economy.
Read also | H-1B registrations saw a 38% drop; Another green card petition? The US is introducing new rules
“So everyone with an O1 or H1B visa would have to stop working legally in the US, go back to their country and wait years of backlogs?” Davidov wrote on X. “This includes top scientists at our universities, founders of billion-dollar companies.”
Davidov also highlighted the particular difficulties faced by immigrants from conflict-affected regions, arguing that returning to the home country may not be a viable option in all cases.
What immigration lawyers say
Lawyers were no less critical, with several describing the policy as an overreach that could face significant challenges in the courts.
Elizabeth Goss, an immigration attorney in Boston whose office drew a flurry of inquiries Friday, described the new rule bluntly.
“It’s another way to try to deport people that I believe are not deportable,” Goss said. “It’s another way to force people out.”
The American Immigration Lawyers Association noted that successive Republican and Democratic administrations have allowed green card applicants to remain in the US during the process, a practice upheld by repeated court decisions.
“Abolishing settled law through a memorandum is legally questionable and needlessly chaotic,” the association said on X.
Read also | US Immigration may reject applications due to an invalid designation, but still retain the fee
David Leopold, an immigration attorney and partner at Thompson Hine based in Cleveland, placed the announcement in the broader context of the administration’s approach to legal immigration.
“This administration does not have the votes in Congress to pass restrictive legislation, so by decree and guidance they are limiting the ability of agencies to operate,” Leopold said. “It’s another thing; they’re really going after the internal immigration systems.”
The human cost: Families and the backlog
Beyond the legal arguments, immigration lawyers and policy experts pointed to practical implications for real people caught up in an already strained system. Requiring applicants to travel abroad to a U.S. consulate could leave many people waiting in queues for weeks, months or even years for backlogged appointments with no guarantee of re-entry after departure.
For immigrants who entered the U.S. without permission and later married American citizens, the stakes are especially high. Once their immigration history is reviewed during consular processing abroad, they could be barred from returning to the country altogether, with no way to appeal or challenge the decision.
Lawmakers condemn new green card policy
On Capitol Hill, the reaction was equally critical. Representative Yvette Clarke condemned the rule and warned of its implications for the wider immigration infrastructure.
“It will rip talented, hard-working immigrants out of America and our economy, overwhelm an already overburdened backlog, and further fracture an already broken immigration system,” Clarke said.
Where does this fit in Trump’s immigration crackdown
The new green card restrictions are the latest in a series of aggressive moves by the Trump administration to curb both illegal and legal immigration starting in January 2025. Hundreds of thousands of immigrants, including asylum seekers with pending cases in the immigration court system, have been arrested and deported. The administration also moved to end humanitarian protections for more than a million aliens and tightened rules for the H-1B program.
Read also | Team Trump’s new rule bans business loans to US green card holders
Immigration policy analyst David Bier of the Cato Institute called the latest move a continuation of a deliberate strategy.
“This policy is a radical expansion of DHS’s ‘quiet shutdown’ of legal immigration that has been underway for months,” Bier said, adding that requiring applicants to leave the country would create additional legal hurdles for some immigrants in the process.
Litigation over the new rule is widely expected, though it remains to be seen whether the courts will ultimately push back.
