USCIS updates its ‘policy manual’ to more effectively detect alleged fraud, terrorist threats and public security risks.
Miami, United States. – The United States citizenship and immigration service (USCIS) advertisement last Friday an update of your Policies Manual which reinforces the interview criteria for status adjustment applicants under the category of asylum and refugees.
The measure, which immediately enters into force, seeks to “restore a uniform standard of background security and verification” for those who present the FORM I-485 (Application for Permanent Residence or Status Adjustment).
The update is aligned with the Executive Order 14161entitled “Protecting the United States against foreign terrorists and other threats to national security and public security”, and has as its central purpose “to guarantee the integrity of the program by detecting fraud, false representations, threats to national security and risks to public safety,” according to USCIS in its official statement.
“We owe all Americans the right to feel safe and protected,” said USCIS spokesman Matthew Tragesser. “We strive to ensure that all foreigners requesting admission to the United States, or those who are already in the country, maintain the highest sense of integrity and morals and comply with our norms and regulations. We are returning to the strictest and safest policies of security research and background verification in our asylum and refuge processes.”
New criteria for interviews
The new political approach clarifies the factors that will lead Uscis to convene interviews with asylum or refugees applicants. Among the main criteria that could activate a mandatory interview are:
- Identities not verified or conflictive: when an officer cannot verify the identity of the foreigner through file A (A-FILE) and other systems, or if the applicant claims a new identity, or has multiple unresolved identities, except for legal changes of the documented name.
- Doubts about refugee or asylum status: if immigration records are not enough to confirm the status or if there are indications that it could have been obtained by “fraud or false representation”.
- Criminal history verification: when the results of the verification of fingerprints carried out by the FBI They indicate a history that could make the inadmissible applicant, or if there have been two results of “unclassifiable” fingerprints.
- Need to interview to clarify admissibility: if the officer cannot determine the admissibility without an interview or if this can help clarify uncooling answers.
- Bonds with sponsoring countries of terrorism: if the applicant is a citizen or usually resided in a nation considered sponsor of terrorism at the time of his last residence.
- National Security concerns: when there is a “articulable” concern that the applicant represents a risk to national security or can be inadmissible by links with terrorist activities.
Objective: Standardize procedures
With the measure, USCIS seeks to establish a uniform and more rigorous procedure in the background evaluations of foreigners under humanitarian protection. The policy is based on a context of greater scrutiny about immigration processes, especially in relation to asylum and shelter, areas in which the agency considers essential to reinforce barriers against possible threats.
The agency did not announce new procedures for other types of permanent residence applicants. The approach to this review is limited to asylums, refugees and their derived relatives who request status adjustment through the FORM I-485.
The policy update has already been incorporated into the USCIS policy manual And it has immediate validity. The USCIS statement does not specify how many applicants could be affected by this measure, but emphasizes that it is an effort to “detect more effectively” any possible threat before granting permanent migratory benefits.
