USCIS MIND-NUMBINGLY TO REQUIRE IN PERSON INTERVIEWS FOR I-485s

The USCIS on Friday announced that all employment-based Adjustment of Status applicants (Form I-485) will now be subject to an in-person interview before the USCIS approves the green card.  Politico first reported the story.

This is a colossal waste of everyone’s time and money.  It shows this Presidential administration’s complete disregard for government efficiency when they have the option to pander to their base.  The USCIS is using “extreme vetting” as the rationale for this new in-person interview requirement.  In reality of course, his administration is anti-immigrant and uses any excuse it can muster to inconvenience and harass contributing immigrants.

How stupid is this policy change?  Employment-based I-485 applicants will have already been in the United States for years before this useless interview.  For instance, most Indian-born nationals average 10-15 years of US status before they are eligible to receive the green card.  Any damage that they wished upon the US would surely have happened in the 10-15 years before that interview.  Terrorists, as a class, are not the type of people who work at a gainful job for years, diligently file countless immigration papers, and have no criminal record, all of which is required before any such interview would happen.

The USCIS knows this, which is why they long-ago waived the interview requirement for employment-based immigrants.  Back then, USCIS recognized that in a government of scarce resources, its scarce resources could much better be used to find real threats to US.  This policy change reveals just how tone deaf the President is as to who actually contributes to the richness of American life and who are the actual threats.