President Trump is shaking up the immigration space again.
The current director of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, Francis Cissna, has put in his resignation at the request of President Trump. This resignation is effective starting June 1, 2019, according to an email he sent to USCIS staff.
Cissna had been the director of USCIS since October 8, 2017. His resignation is likely to affect USCIS in ways that could have a direct impact on immigration policies. Here’s what we know so far:
What will the impact on immigrants be?
The resignation itself is unlikely to have a direct impact on immigrants. But whoever Trump chooses to succeed Cissna will be in a position to shape immigration policy and change the way legal immigration to the United States is handled. There has not been an official announcement yet, but it is rumored that President Trump wants Ken Cuccinelli to lead USCIS.
Many argue that Cuccinelli is not an immigration expert. According to Vox, “Cuccinelli is an outspoken immigration hawk — but he’s not an immigration policy expert. His experience as a state attorney general involved litigating over Obama policies he felt were illegal, which is very different from running the US’ biggest immigration agency and implementing notoriously complex immigration law and regulation.”
Experts speculate that if Cuccinelli is made the director of USCIS, a lot of changes will probably take place, many of which are likely to favor merit-based immigration over the current family-based system. If this turns out to be the case, legal immigration to the United States will become more difficult.