Senate Judiciary Democrats Formally Request Independent Investigation Into Trump Attacks On Legal Immigration

Senate Judiciary Democrats Formally Request Independent Investigation Into Trump Attacks On Legal Immigration

In letters to the Government Accountability Office, the Senators request probes into the Trump Administration's indefinite holds in immigration processing and re-reviews of previously approved green card and naturalization applicants

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and U.S. Senators Chris Coons (D-DE) and Alex Padilla (D-CA) led all Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats in formally requesting the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to investigate the Trump Administration's attacks on the legal immigration system.

The Trump Administration has summarily halted most immigrant benefits processing for immigration applicants from 39 countries, stopped visa processing for immigrant visa applicants from 75 countries, and ended most refugee and asylum processing. At the same time, the Administration has threatened to conduct a so-called "re-review" of individuals from 39 countries approved for any immigration benefit under the Biden Administration-including those who have since become U.S. citizens-and refugees and asylum seekers.

The Administration has provided little explanation for the basis for these sweeping changes, leaving immigrants and their families, employers, and communities completely lost as to how to comply with immigration laws, maintain status, and avoid arbitrary immigration enforcement.

In letters to the GAO Acting Comptroller General, the Senators requested GAO start an inquiry into both the pauses in immigration processing and into the re-reviews of approved applicants, including those approved for a green card or U.S. citizenship. To date, the Department of Homeland Security has failed to provide information to Congress on these sweeping changes to halt most legal immigration.

On the pauses in immigration processing, the Senators wrote: "We are deeply concerned that these changes-which have left immigrants, their families, and employers at a loss for how to obtain or maintain lawful status or presence-are an attempt to circumvent the statutory scheme for lawful immigration to the United States, rather than a legitimate exercise in improving the integrity of our immigration system."

The Senators concluded, before formally requesting a GAO investigation and making series of information requests: "Members of the public, including immigrants and their families, continue to lack clarity on what steps USCIS and the State Department are taking to resume their normal adjudicative missions."

For a PDF of the letter to GAO requesting an independent investigation into pauses in immigration processing, click here.

On the re-reviews of those approved for a green card or U.S. citizenship, the Senators wrote: "We are concerned that these re-reviews are a pretext for targeting immigrants and naturalized U.S. citizens for unwarranted scrutiny and selective enforcement, rather than a legitimate exercise in reducing fraud or improving vetting in our immigration system that is based on articulable, specific indicia that merits re-review. "

The Senators then formally requested a GAO investigation and made a series of information requests to "to provide clarity to immigrants, American families, and the American public regarding these re-reviews."

For a PDF of the letter to GAO requesting an independent investigation into re-reviews of previously approved applicants for green cards and naturalization, click here.

In addition to Durbin, Coons, and Padilla, the letters are signed by U.S. Senators U.S. Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Peter Welch (D-VT), and Adam Schiff (D-CA).

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