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    April 07, 2025 Immigration

    Executive orders cause delays to immigration programs

    President Donald Trump’s immigration proclamations and executive orders in his first 60 days in office have resulted in longer wait times at swamped embassies and consulate offices, increased processing times for green card holders and foreign nationals, and more uncertainty about long-standing programs, immigration attorneys said at the webinar, “First 60 Days of the New Administration: Immigration Law Key Changes and Impacts.”

    Sponsored by the ABA Young Lawyers Division and the Commission on Immigration, the webinar is part of the ABACLE Rule of Law in America CLE series on promoting justice and protecting democracy in the legal profession.

    The panelists discussed the new administration’s implemented and anticipated policies surrounding employment-based, family-based and humanitarian immigration and the evolving immigration landscape in general.

    Ewelina Sawicka, senior immigration attorney with Clark Hill, said expected travel-related changes include:

    • Approximately 10% reduction of staff at embassies and consulates globally.
    • Planned consular closures in Brazil and Western Europe (including Germany, Italy, France and Portugal).
    • Changes in recruiting, performance, evaluation and retention standards and the programs of the Foreign Service Institute, which provides training and resources to foreign affairs professionals serving abroad.
    • Limitations on interview waivers, which require more interviews being scheduled. (Applicants are eligible if seeking renewal in the same visa category and if their most recent visa expired within 12 months. The previous rule was for any visa category that expired within 48 months.)

    “In these first 60 days, there have been so many changes, so many things discussed, so many things planned for the future in immigration … everything that we say is very much subject to change,” Sawicka said. “The most important thing right now is to check the news daily to see if any of these things have changed.”

    Another executive order, “Protecting the United States from Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats,” calls for increased vetting and screening of foreign nationals “to the maximum degree possible [for those] who intend to be admitted, enter and are already inside the U.S, particularly those … coming from regions or nations with identified security risk,” Sawicka said. Under this order, officials must identify all resources that can be used to strengthen vetting and screening, she said.

    Denials at ports of entry also are expected to increase for legal permanent residents, Sawicka said. Entry by legal permanent residents (green card holders) can be delayed or denied if their travel was for more than 180 days, they committed a crime or they are found inadmissible. Travel of more than 180 days may trigger additional questioning. A green card cannot be revoked without a court proceeding and the government must initiate removal proceedings in Immigration Court.

    U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents are not allowed to search a foreign national based on religion, race, national origin, gender, ethnicity or political belief, she said.

    On employee-based immigration, Maria Virginia Ivañez of LOVI Law, said H-1B visa changes are likely to come soon. “What this administration is likely wanting to do with the H-1B program … is further tightening the eligibility criteria, requiring higher salary wages and making sure that it shifts to more of a merit-based system, based on more skills, something that Trump had already proposed in his past administration.”

    Ivañez said the proposed changes would increase the salaries that employers would have to pay. “So that would more likely incentivize someone not to proceed with petitioning for someone if they have to pay so much more to bring that foreign talent here.”

    The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows U.S. employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in specialty occupations, typically requiring a bachelor’s degree or equivalent, for a maximum of six years.

    Brandon Riches of Riches Law Firm noted that Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order reversed some of former President Joe Biden’s orders affecting immigrants, including the Task Force to Reunify Formerly Separated Families. Funding for more than 100 service providers assisting unaccompanied minors with their immigration cases also was terminated, he said.

    Riches said other potentially harmful actions taken by the Trump administration include:

    • Enforcement actions are now taking place at sensitive locations, including at schools, churches, hospitals and courts.
    • Birthright citizenship has been called into question. No concrete actions have been taken, and a court has issued an injunction citing violations of the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment.
    • Gender has been defined by executive order, removing protections for certain immigrant detainees who were previously being detained based on their gender identity. Gender markers on IDs are also being switched to (perceived) biological sex rather than gender identity.
    • The death penalty is now required where someone without documentation is charged with the murder of a law enforcement officer or other capital crimes.

    Joaquin Antonio, senior paralegal with LOVI Law, moderated the session.

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