Announcement
By Alexandra Weidt, immigration legal assistant
Alex takes a selfie in front of a mural at the IRC in Baltimore.
Photo: Alex Weidt
In September 2019, the IRC in Baltimore immigration legal services team took on an unexpectedly urgent case. Isatou came to the U.S. in 1997 from Gambia (western Africa) on a visitor visa and had been living and working in the United States ever since. But after more than 20 years in the U.S., Isatau was at risk of deportation under impending policy changes by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Isatau had a daughter, Saina—a native-born U.S. citizen—who had turned twenty-one over the course of the summer and Isatau requested the IRC to help her apply for permanent residency (also known as “green card”) through a type of immigration application available to parents of adult U.S. citizens who meet certain criteria to qualify. This application process is commonly referred to as “one step adjustment” and the IRC in Baltimore prepares a few dozen one-step adjustment applications a year. But 2019 was different.
Only a few weeks prior to Isatou and Saina’s appointment, DHS announced plans to expand the definition of “public charge” potentially impacting thousands of immigrants, including Isatou. A “public charge” is anyone the government deems unable to support themselves financially in the U.S. While a “public charge” rule has been an element of immigration law for a long time, previously, people trying to obtain permanent residency only had to submit evidence of their income. However, a revised interpretation of the rule meant that immigration officials would now weigh an applicant’s education, skills, English proficiency, age and medical history when deciding whether or not the applicant could become a permanent resident. The rules were set to take effect in October 2019.
Even before the new public charge rule took effect, the preparation of a one-step adjustment application required completion of multiple forms and preparation of extensive evidence of the applicant’s eligibility for a green card. One step adjustment applications were frequently 300-400 pages long, and took weeks to prepare, assemble and submit. The new public charge rule would require the completion of even more forms and extensive additional evidence.
Isatou, however, had less than a month to submit the application or she would be subject to the public charge rule. The immigration legal services team worked tirelessly over the next few weeks to prepare Isatou’s extensive application. Thanks to a last-minute preliminary court injunction, the submission deadline was moved back, allowing the team to submit Isatou’s application, and the applications of over a dozen other clients, prior to the implementation of the rule.
Isatou’s application was processed without issue and in the summer of 2020, she received her green card. After twenty-three years of living in the U.S. as an undocumented immigrant, Isatou finally has legal status. As a single mother of three children and the breadwinner of the family, Isatou can breathe a little easier knowing that she is no longer at risk of deportation. She can finally feel safe in a country that she’s considered home for over two decades.