Washington, D.C. — On Friday, January 6, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced it will begin a new process this year that will allow U.S. citizens’ spouses and children who are eligible for a green card to file their applications for family unity within the U.S. The following is a statement by Ali Noorani, Executive Director of the National Immigration Forum.
“All Americans believe families are fundamental to our nation’s wellbeing and should be together. The Obama Administration demonstrated today that it understands the value of family unity by proposing a fix to an excessively harsh, bureaucratic barrier that separates U.S. citizens from their loved ones.
Many U.S. families currently face the heart-wrenching decision of choosing between long-term separation from their spouses or children or staying together in the United States but remaining in the shadows.
The rulemaking process announced today will provide limited but practical relief for U.S. families who are unfairly forced to travel abroad for visa processing—including dangerous places like “Murder Capital” Ciudad Juarez—and unnecessarily risk up to ten years of family separation to finalize their visa adjudication.
We anticipate that restrictionist politicians will decry this prudent effort as another “amnesty” by the Obama Administration. The reality is that these processing changes are common-sense, administrative fixes that maximize the government’s resources, minimize safety risks for applicants, and keep families together.
This is a tremendous victory for U.S. families who suffer at the hands of a harsh immigration bureaucracy. We will continue pressuring the Administration to protect all immigrant families through the rulemaking process, so that families of legal permanent residents can also remain intact.”
