On the 2024 campaign trail, President Donald Trump and his allies repeatedly stressed the importance of protecting the American people and their interests from the abuse of foreigners. Two upcoming policy shifts are aiming to follow through on that.

Over the past several years, foreigners have frequently relied on nonimmigrant (temporary) visas to visit the U.S. before filing for “adjustment of status” and applying for immigrant (permanent) visas, commonly referred to as green cards. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is putting an end to that practice. In a policy memorandum published late last week, USCIS leadership reaffirmed the often-ignored legal understanding that adjustment of status is “a matter of discretion and administrative grace not designed to supersede the regular consular processing of immigrant visas.” The memo made clear that, going forward, foreigners in the U.S. on temporary visas will no longer be permitted to remain in the U.S. while filing for and awaiting a green card.

“We’re returning to the original intent of the law to ensure aliens navigate our nation’s immigration system properly. From now on, an alien who is in the U.S. temporarily and wants a Green Card must return to their home country to apply, except in extraordinary circumstances,” explained USCIS spokesman Zach Kahler in a statement. “This policy allows our immigration system to function as the law intended instead of incentivizing loopholes.”

Kahler explained that requiring foreigners to return to their home countries while awaiting green cards reduces the risk of temporary visitors simply refusing to leave and instead overstaying their temporary visas when they are denied legal residency, thus decreasing the time and resources that the federal government will have to devote to tracking down, arresting, detaining, and deporting those individuals.

As the name suggests, temporary visas are intended to temporarily allow foreigners to visit the U.S. “for a short time and for a specific purpose. Our system is designed for them to leave when their visit is over.” Kahler continued, “Their visit should not function as the first step in the Green Card process. Following the law allows the majority of these cases to be handled by the State Department at U.S. consular offices abroad and frees up limited USCIS resources to focus on processing other cases that fall under its purview,” including visas for the spouses and immediate family members of U.S. citizens, human trafficking victims, and naturalization applications, among other matters. “The law was written this way for a reason, and despite the fact that it has been ignored for years, following it will help make our system fairer and more efficient.”

According to the USCIS memo, foreigners who have violated U.S. immigration law, lied, or been dishonest in dealings with USCIS, instances of fraud, whether or not applications for parole or legal admission were conducted in accordance with U.S. law, or conducted themselves in a manner inconsistent with the purposes of their temporary visa or parole will automatically be ineligible for adjustment of status. “An alien’s failure to comply with the conditions of their nonimmigrant admission or parole and an alien’s failure to depart as expected are highly relevant to this analysis,” the memo noted. USCIS further stressed that evidence that a foreigner in the U.S. on a temporary visa intends to reside in the U.S. permanently before going through the immigrant (permanent) visa process will be counted as a significant mark against the foreigner when attempting to file for either adjustment of status or a green card.

Over the past 25 years, the U.S. has issued roughly one million green cards annually; anywhere from 50% to 60% of those green cards are issued on the basis of “adjustment of status,” meaning that 50% to 60% of those being granted legal permanent residency entered the U.S. on nonimmigrant (temporary) visas, according to The Washington Stand’s analysis of Office of Homeland Security Statistics (OHSS) numbers. Meanwhile, those who simply overstay their temporary visas and refuse to return to their home countries account for up to 46% of the illegal immigrant population in the U.S. at present, according to a 2025 analysis from the Social Security Administration (SSA). The Congressional Research Service similarly reported in 2023 that at least 42% of the nation’s illegal immigrant population is comprised of foreigners who entered the U.S. legally on temporary visas but then overstayed those visas and refused to leave.

Jessica Vaughan, director of Policy Studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, told TWS, “This is an important tweak to the way immigrant visas are processed that will help restore some fairness and integrity to the system.” She noted that Congress established a system for obtaining a green card, but that, under previous presidents, USCIS has often replaced it with a system of exceptions and loopholes, allowing foreign visitors to bypass the congressionally-established system and obtain green cards quickly. “Having a pending green card application became almost a deportation shield, and many in this category could even get work permits, under the rationalization that they’re ‘almost legal.’ But almost should only count in horseshoes and hand grenades, as the saying goes, and certainly not in immigration benefits,” Vaughan observed. “Some people make it through the first stage of having the sponsor’s petition approved, but may be disqualified for a number of other reasons at the final application stage. So ‘pending’ is not the same as ‘approved.’”

Vaughan pointed out that, under the system established by Congress, applying for a green card while already in the U.S. is intended for extraordinary circumstances, such as for immediate family members of U.S. citizens, for humanitarian purposes, or for the purposes of conducting critical scientific or medical research. “This is simply not the case for most green card applicants, especially those here illegally,” she said. “Congress intended for green card applicants to be allowed to apply from within the United States only in exceptional situations of a humanitarian nature or when it benefits the United States. However, for a long time, about 60% of green cards are awarded to applicants already living here. Clearly, the exception has become the rule.”

“Under this rule, those who seek to launder their status by being sponsored for a green card will no longer be able to leapfrog ahead of others who are applying the correct way, from abroad — and they potentially will be subject to consequences for their illegal presence, which was not the case before,” Vaughan continued. “The government will no longer be incentivizing people to come illegally to find a fast track to a green card,” she added. “Equally important, those who ultimately do not qualify for the green card, such as because of a criminal record, public charge findings, or other disqualification will have left the country for processing, and the government will not have to expend effort to find, arrest, and remove them.”

Ira Mehlman, media director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), told TWS that the shift in USCIS policy is part of “an effort to send the message that a temporary visa to come to the United States to study or work is just that: temporary. We expect that once you have completed the purpose for which you were granted a temporary visa, you will return home.” He noted that temporary visas, like the F-1 student visa or the H-1B work visa, have become popular among foreigners as a stepping stone to gaining entry to the U.S. and quickly shifting from temporary status to obtaining a green card, without ever having to leave America.

“Ending the wholesale adjustment of status without having to leave the country would also benefit American workers, particularly at this time,” Mehlman emphasized. “Given the massive layoffs in the tech industry — a prime employer of H-1B workers, or recent foreign graduates of U.S. universities — there is no justification for adjusting their status to green card holders so that they can remain here to compete with the thousands of similarly skilled American workers who have been handed pink slips.”

“Returning to one’s home country also makes it easier to ensure that the vetting process works effectively. Embassy and consular officers on the ground in the home countries of applicants are better equipped to carry out background checks and screen out those whose presence here is not in the national interest,” Mehlman added. “As the Mahmoud Khalil case illustrates, it is far easier to prevent someone from entering the country in the first place than to remove them once they are here.”

Simon Hankinson, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center and a veteran U.S. consular officer, told TWS that mainstream media “is spinning this as a massive change, a new and unfair burden on foreigners who want to become Americans. When you read the actual memo, it is more about the Trump administration trying to regain control of an immigration system that has strayed far from its intended purpose.” Noting that the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) only allows for adjustment of status in limited circumstances, he added that recent decades have seen the provision “stretched way beyond its original purpose and scope.”

“What this does is cut out the step of an interview at a U.S. consulate in their home country, where their case can be considered in their local context by experts in that area,” said Hankinson, who has himself served as a Foreign Service Officer in India, Fiji, Ghana, Slovakia, Togo, Washington, D.C., Marseille, and Nairobi. “If for any reason the applicant is not approved for a visa, such as fraud, criminal record, or lack of qualifications, then they are safely outside the U.S. If they are denied adjustment of status while in the U.S. then it becomes the job of DHS/ICE to remove them, and we all know how expensive and difficult that can be,” he continued. “Across the board, from better vetting of applicants overseas, to application of the Public Charge rule, the State Department and DHS are trying to put rigor back into a limp and easily exploited or defrauded visa and citizenship system.”

While much emphasis is often laid on crimes committed by migrants who entered the U.S. illegally, the Trump administration has also highlighted the threat posed to Americans by those who entered legally but refused to return to their home countries. Chinese national Yunhua Rong, for example, came to the U.S. on a tourism visa, overstayed, and was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for stabbing a victim in the head with a kitchen knife in California. Jamaican national Christopher Leon Bailey was arrested earlier this year after overstaying a tourism visa in 2009 and attempting to stab another man to death in Pennsylvania. Mexican national Humberto Munoz-Gatica, who entered the U.S. on a tourism visa, killed California man Barry William Tutt in a hit-and-run incident while driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol. After overstaying his tourism visa, Angolan national Lionel Francisco jumped a curb and killed a woman in Maine. The 2023 Operation Cross Country XIII FBI sting netted 19 arrests, including a tourism visa overstayer and a cultural exchange visitor visa overstayer, for child sexual exploitation and human trafficking. Several organizations, such as FAIR, have documented and tracked numerous cases of serious crimes — including rape and murder — committed by illegal immigrants who entered the U.S. legally on temporary visas but overstayed those visas illegally.

In another Trump administration move to try to curtail the abuse of American generosity, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is reportedly weighing requiring taxpayers to document their citizenship status when filing taxes in 2027. According to Reuters, the IRS is updating its forms for filing federal income taxes to reflect changes in tax law, but senior agency officials are considering including a checkbox reading, “Check this box if you are a non-U.S. citizen or have dual citizenship.”

“The IRS absolutely should know whether a filer is working legally or not. There are many categories of ‘non-citizen, ranging from legal aliens on work visas like H, L, O, and so on, to illegal aliens who should not be here at all — let alone working,” Hankinson observed. “The 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act promised that in exchange for amnesty for several million illegal aliens, the government would check every worker to make sure they were legally authorized to work. That never happened,” he continued. “For decades, there was an unwritten agreement that the government should accept de facto illegal workers for some purposes, while theoretically attempting to enforce immigration law — which in many cases would mean deporting them — at the same time.” Hankinson added, “This split personality is illogical. One part of the government shouldn’t have to hide information from other parts that need it to do their jobs.”

The Treasury Department, which operates the IRS, has previously collaborated with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in an effort to push a “whole of government” approach to immigration enforcement. Last year, for example, the IRS detailed approximately 1,700 agents, including more than 250 criminal investigators, to assist with ICE operations. The Treasury Department and DHS also signed a “memorandum of understanding” last year, agreeing that the Treasury Department and its components would share information with DHS to assist in identifying and tracking illegal immigrants.