Why is it so hard for asylees to get their green card? I am Jim Hacking, immigration lawyer practicing law throughout the United States at our office here in St. Louis, Missouri. I'm still home on quarantine a couple of more days, and then I'll be back in the studio to shoot our regular videos. In this episode of Jim's videos, hi from home. We're going to talk about why it's so hard for asylum seekers, or people who've been granted asylum, to get their damn green card.
Up until a few years ago, the asylum office was kept completely separate from the rest of USCIS. They were on a separate computer system, separate docketing system. All the information was kept confidential. Even so far as... I don't know if you remember, but for asylum cases in the old days, and even now to a certain extent, they use these really old printers to print out receipt notices and interview notices. That's because they were on this old antiquated system. The Trump administration views the asylum system as broken, as a fraud, as a sham, and they're doing everything they can to dismantle asylum in the United States. One of the ways that they've done that is by folding asylum back into the regular USCIS office. So the records are now shared back and forth.
Why are you bringing this up, Jim? Well, the reason I bring it up is because in the green card context, people are having a hard time getting their green cards approved when they've been granted asylum. I know that sounds strange, and I know that you're still dealing with USCIS, but I believe that the reason is because the Trump administration is using the filing of a green card application as an opportunity to go back and undo asylum. They're trying to quote, unquote, catch people in quote, unquote, lies about their asylum application, and then denying their asylum cases because... Denying the green card case, and then trying to go back and undo the asylum case. This is a real thing.
We've been having to sue a lot lately over delayed green cards filed by people who've been granted asylum. This is not how the system is supposed to work. There's not been any change in the law. This is just the evil people running immigration at USCIS. The Ken Coccinellin and the Chad Wolfs of the world trying to keep their boss, Donald Trump, happy.
If you find yourself in one of these scenarios, you're probably going to need to sue them. And suing them is a good idea for a couple reasons. Number one is it's going to get the case moving, but also, and perhaps more importantly, they're going to know that there's a federal judge watching what they're doing, so I think they'll try less tricks, because they know they're going to get their butts hauled in front of a judge if the denial is without basis.
If you have a asylum based green card case that's been pending for a long time, and you have questions about that, or you want to talk about the delay, you should give us a call at (314) 961-8200. You can also email us at [email protected]. Be sure to join us in our Facebook group which is called Immigrant Home. If you like this video, we ask that you please share it out on social and that you subscribe to our YouTube channel so that you get updates whenever I'm back in the studio, making videos with my green screen once again. Thanks a lot. Have a great day.
