Trump intensifies focus on chain immigration visas with 70% lesser approval in 2017

US President Donald Trump has intensified his focus on chain immigration visas as 70% lesser visas were approved in 2017. It has been accompanied by an overall delay in adjudications of I-130s known as family-based visas. This has been revealed by the Reuters.

The intense clampdown on chain immigration visas is evident by the fact that there was a steep decline in the approval for I-130s for extended family members. It was reduced to 32, 500 by 70% in first 3 quarters of 2017. This was in comparison with the same period in 2016 wherein 108,000 applications were approved, as quoted by the Indian Express.

The fiscal year 2017 has witnessed the least number of approvals for chain immigration visas or extended family visas after 2000. Though there is yet any legislative measure to curb these visas, approvals for them have reached lowest levels for last 10 years. It has been revealed by the data of US Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Trump has been increasingly targeting chain immigration now. He has said that it permits one immigrant to bring in dozens of extended family members. It is devoid of any actual criterion for selection, added Trump.

Donald Trump went publicly offensive against the visas for extended family members recently. He said that this category of visas has harmed the system. The recent terrorist attack in a crowded commuter hub in New York by using pipe bomb that was self-made was by a national of Bangladesh. He had arrived through the extended family visas.

At the core of long-term policy objectives of the US administration is the principle that immigration must be based on merit, said USCIS. L Francis Cissna the new USCIS Director said that immigrants arriving through the chain immigration are arriving merely based on ties to family members. This absence of selectivity derails the US from the pathway it intends to proceed to progress as a nation, added Cissna.

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