Immigrants seeking green cards through marriage could be vulnerable to deportation, according to a new Trump administration policy.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has issued new guidelines that could initiate deportation proceedings for immigrants lacking legal status, who are applying for residency through a spouse. This policy, now effective, extends to those who seek permanent residency through other family relationships as well.

According to the USCIS policy manual, a family-based petition doesn’t confer immigration status nor does it protect against deportation. USCIS mentioned to NBC News that this change affects both existing applications and those submitted on or after August 1.

The policy broadly targets a major pathway for some immigrants seeking green cards, immigration policy and legal experts told NBC News.

Elora Mukherjee, who leads the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School, emphasized that family petitions are a key method for individuals to obtain lawful permanent status in the country.

Mukherjee also noted that the policy’s reach is extensive, allowing USCIS to commence deportation proceedings at any point during a green card application. Green card processing times may differ significantly depending on factors such as the application location and the nature of the applicant’s family relationship.

An analysis by NBC News of USCIS data shows that in the first half of 2025, nearly 520,000 I-130 petitions were filed by family members on behalf of immigrants, marking the initial step towards U.S. residency through family sponsorship.

By June, over 2.4 million I-130 petitions were pending according to USCIS data, with more than 1.9 million having been delayed for over six months. There is uncertainty about how many of these applicants are immigrants without lawful status or who lost their status during the process.

Mukherjee said that previously “no one expected to be put into immigration court” during this process, unless there was a serious issue like violating criminal law, adding that the change could “instill fear in immigrant families, even those who are doing everything right.”

USCIS said in its statement that the new policy “is dedicated to ensuring integrity in the U.S. immigration system through enhanced screening and vetting to deter, detect, and disrupt immigration fraud and threats to our national security and public safety.”

The agency said in its statement that the policy manual updates “increased benefit integrity and introduced screening and vetting opportunities by providing direction on adjudication and decision issues, including when USCIS requires an in-person interview.”

“Fraudulent, frivolous, or otherwise non-meritorious family-based immigrant visa petitions erode confidence in family-based pathways to lawful permanent resident (LPR) status and undermine the immigration system in the United States. USCIS must ensure that qualifying marriages and family relationships are genuine, verifiable, and compliant with all applicable laws,” the agency said in an alert announcing the new policy and guidance on Monday.

Julia Gelatt, associate director of the U.S. Immigration Policy Program at the Migration Policy Institute, said the policy change was in line with the administration’s mass deportation agenda.

“We’re seeing the Trump administration send a message in every way that it can to unauthorized immigrants that they should consider giving up their lives in the U.S. and returning to their home countries,” she said.

The policy will not only affect immigrants who entered the country illegally and are now seeking green-card status as a means to remain, she said. In addition, people whose legal visas expire while they wait for a decision on green cards, Dreamers and hundreds of thousands of immigrants whose legal status is in jeopardy after the Trump administration moved to cancel temporary legal pathways under the Biden administration could also be affected.

“There are a lot of people who are losing status, and this is taking away one of the avenues that they might have had to be able to stay in the U.S.,” Gelatt said.

Mukherjee said that, while it remains to be seen how aggressively the Trump administration will use this policy, if it were to be applied aggressively it will be “a sea change in immigration enforcement and it will dissuade people who should be eligible to adjust to lawful permanent status from doing so.”