10 Sep 2025 Trump Adds New Grounds For Denials
There are some immigration benefits where the applicant must not only demonstrate eligibility or compliance with the listed requirements but also that they are deserving of approval or otherwise warrant a “favorable exercise of discretion.”
Benefits requiring an officer’s favorable exercise of discretion include adjustment of status, waivers of inadmissibility (such as fraud waiver or provisional waiver), etc. Even if a person meets all the statutory requirements for eligibility, an officer could still deny the case in the exercise of discretion “after weighing the positive and negative factors and considering the totality of the circumstances in each case.“ The various factors an officer may consider (when conducting a discretionary analysis) include the alien’s conduct, character, family ties, immigration history, and any humanitarian concerns.”
Recently, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released a “Policy Alert” entitled “Clarifying Discretionary Factors in Certain Immigration Benefit Requests,” emphasizing that those who “support or promote anti-American ideologies or activities, antisemitic terrorism, antisemitic terrorist organizations, and antisemitic ideologies” may not be deserving of a favorable exercise of discretion. In other words, anti-American and anti-Semitic viewpoints could result in the denial of a person’s adjustment or waiver in an officer’s exercise of discretion.
According to USCIS, “America’s benefits should not be given to those who despise the country and promote anti-American ideologies. “This policy is likely targeting the pro-Hamas protesters we have seen in the streets and on college campuses, cheering their support for the murderous terrorist organization and calling for the complete annihilation of Israel and Jews. After all, the slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” references the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, which is where Israel is located. That slogan means the conquest or destruction of Israel and eradication of Jews. Supporting genocide of any people, race, or religion should never warrant a favorable exercise of discretion.
USCIS will also be rigorously screening and vetting people’s social media postings in evaluating a person‘s eligibility and if they have been supporting anti-American ideology.
I agree with USCIS’s position in that if a person comes to the U.S. for a better life, they should not be anti-American or support terrorist organizations. After all, we have long evaluated whether a person was a communist, as that was anti- American, so now Trump is expanding the evaluation to whether a person is pro-terrorists.
But for those readers applying for immigration benefits who are not pro terrorist, this policy memorandum reminds you that there are still many factors and evidence you must show, demonstrating not only that you meet the statutory requirements, but also are deserving of a favorable exercise of discretion when applying for adjustment of status or waivers.
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