Immigrants seeking a legal path to living and working in the United States will now be the subject of a check on the “anti -American”, authorities said on Tuesday, provoking concerns among critics that employees are too much freedom of rejection of foreigners based on subjective judgment.
US citizenship and immigration services have said that officers will now consider whether a candidate for benefits, such as a green card, “approved, elevated, supported or otherwise, supported” anti -American, terrorist or anti -Semitic views.
“The benefits of America should not be given to those who despise the country and encourage anti -American ideologies,” said a spokesman for Matthew Trager, a spokesman for USCIS. “Immigration benefits – including living and working in the United States – leave a privilege, not right.”
It is not specified what anti -Americanism is and it is not clear how and when the directive will be implemented.
“The message is that US and immigration agencies will be less tolerant of anti-US American or anti-Semitism when they make immigration decisions,” Elizabeth Jacobs, Director of Regulatory Affairs, and the Immigration Center, a group that is advocate for immigration restrictions, said on Tuesday.
Jacobs said the government was more expressed in the type of behavior and practices that employees should take into account, but stressed that discretion was still present. “The agency cannot tell the employees that they have to deny – only to view it as a negative judgment,” she said.
Critics are worried that policy updates will allow more subjective views of what is considered anti-American and will allow the officer’s personal biases to blur.
“For me, the big story is that they open the door to stereotypes and prejudices and implicit biases to make the wheel in these decisions. This is really disturbing,” says Jane Lili Lope, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Brigham Young.
Changes to the policy followed other recently applied since the beginning of the Trump Administration, including a test of social media and the most new addition of evaluation of candidates seeking naturalization for a “good moral character”. This will not only take into account “not only the lack of violation”, but will also take into account the positive attributes and contributions of the applicant.
“This means you will just do a lot more work to provide evidence that you meet our standards,” Lopez said.
Experts do not agree with the constitutionality of a policy involving people who are not US citizens and their freedom of expression. Jacobs of the Immigration Research Center said the first amendment rights do not extend to people outside the US or who are not US citizens.
Ruby Robinson, a senior managing lawyer at the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center, believes he has been defending all people in the United States for the US rights and the Constitution of the United States, regardless of their immigration status, against state encroachment. “Much of the activities of this administration violate constitutional rights and have to be resolved in the courts,” Robinson added.
Lawyers advise customers to correct their expectations.
“People need to understand that today we have a different system and many more things that apply to US citizens will not apply to someone who is trying to enter the US,” says a Heime Diez, an immigration lawyer with headquarters in Browns, Texas.
Jonathan Grode, a managing partner of Green and Spiegel’s law firm, said the policy update is not unexpected, given how Trump’s administration approaches immigration.
“This is chosen. They are allowed to interpret the rules the way they want,” Groode said. “The policy is always for them to shrink the zone of impact. The law is still the same.”