By Steven Sarabia | AZ Family
The U.S. State Department’s move to halt visa processing for people from 75 countries is raising new questions among immigrants, refugees and their attorneys.
“The order is so vague,” said Immigration Attorney Juliana Manzanarez.
“There’s a tons of concerns,” added Immigration Attorney Darius Amiri.
With the halt officially starting Jan. 21, Amiri said the main concern is what this could mean for clients currently going through the process, trying to escape dangerous home countries.
“Especially given some of the countries on this list and what’s going on in those countries. I’ll just give you one example, Iran. We have a client who’s filing for a green card for her mother and that case is scheduled for a couple of weeks from now and that will be implicated. So a big concern there,” said Amiri.
The state department claimed this is an effort to weed out immigrants who would depend on public assistance, someone who would be considered a “public charge.” Manzanarez said this is already reviewed in the green card process.
