Goodbye to the Green Card as you know it: these are Trump’s new requirements to apply for permanent residency in the U.S.
Within days of the arrival of the Trump administration, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced an immediate change.
Applicants for permanent residency in the United States will no longer have to provide proof of vaccination against covid-19.
USCIS “will not deny” Green Card over lack of covid vaccine
On Wednesday, two days after Donald Trump took office as the country’s 47th president, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said in a statement: “Effective Jan. 22, 2025, USCIS is waiving any and all requirements that applicants for adjustment of status to that of a lawful permanent resident present documentation on their Form I-693, Report of Immigration Medical Examination and Vaccination Record, that they received the COVID-19 vaccination.
“USCIS will not issue any Request for Evidence or Notice of Intent to Deny related to proving a COVID-19 vaccination. USCIS will not deny any adjustment of status application based on the applicant’s failure to present documentation that they received the COVID-19 vaccination.”
Effective today, Jan. 22, 2025, USCIS will not deny any adjustment of status application based on an applicant not presenting documentation that they received the COVID-19 vaccination. Learn more: https://t.co/YcOSsyRud7
— USCIS (@USCIS) January 22, 2025
“Hallelujah” - GOP lawmaker welcomes USCIS rule change
Applicants for permanent residency in the U.S., also commonly referred to as Green Card status, will still have to show that they have been vaccinated against other illnesses such as measles, hepatitis B, polio and tetanus.
The covid-19 vaccination requirement had been introduced by the administration of the former president, the Democrat Joe Biden, in October 2021.
Republican representative Thomas Massie, who had previously introduced a bill seeking to abolish the covid-19 vaccination requirement, welcomed the USCIS’s announcement on Wednesday.
On the social media platform X, Massie posted: “I have a bill to end the COVID jab mandate for legal immigrants, but Trump just suspended the mandate. Hallelujah!”
I have a bill to end the COVID jab mandate for legal immigrants, but Trump just suspended the mandate. Hallelujah! pic.twitter.com/bArvC0zfV6
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) January 22, 2025
President Trump implements anti-immigration agenda
While the USCIS’s rule change has removed a potential obstacle towards securing Green Card status, Republican President Trump has otherwise sought to follow through on a hardline, anti-immigration agenda since returning to the White House last week.
What anti-immigration action has Trump taken?
Among a flurry of executive orders, Trump has declared illegal immigration at the US-Mexico border a national emergency, sending additional troops to the area “to support the activities of the Secretary of Homeland Security in obtaining complete operational control of the southern border of the United States.”
“America’s sovereignty is under attack,” the White House said in a statement on the day of Trump’s second inauguration as president. “Our southern border is overrun by cartels, criminal gangs, known terrorists, human traffickers, smugglers, unvetted military-age males from foreign adversaries, and illicit narcotics that harm Americans, including America.”
The Trump administration has also launched immigration raids across the U.S., as the Washington Post reports that officials at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have been told to up daily detentions to over 1,000.
In a statement announcing raids in Chicago on Sunday, ICE said it was carrying out “enhanced targeted operations” to “enforce U.S. immigration law and preserve public safety and national security by keeping potentially dangerous criminal aliens out of our communities.”
Meanwhile, Trump has eliminated the CBP One app, a mobile application that granted around 1,500 daily immigration appointments to asylum seekers at the US border, allowing the migrants to enter the country legally while their request was processed. All existing appointments were cancelled.
Furthermore, Trump’s anti-immigration moves include an executive order that seeks to end birthright citizenship in the US. Defined by the American Immigration Council as “a legal principle under which citizenship is automatically granted to individuals upon birth”, birthright citizenship is seemingly protected by the US constitution.
“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside,” reads the constitution’s 14th Amendment.
However, in a statement outlining the executive order, which is facing a number of legal challenges, the Trump administration claimed that the 14th Amendment “has never been interpreted to extend citizenship universally to everyone born within the United States”.
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