Trump forces Green Card applicants to leave US: Tech leaders say they 'Don't understand why'

From AI researchers to startup founders, prominent voices across American industry are raising alarm after the Trump administration ordered most foreigners seeking permanent residency to leave the country and apply from abroad, in a move critics are calling legally questionable and economically damaging.

A sweeping change to the American green card system announced on Friday has drawn swift and pointed criticism from technology executives, immigration lawyers, lawmakers and policy experts, who warn the new rule could separate families, hollow out the country's scientific and academic workforce, and expose hundreds of thousands of legal immigrants to years trapped in backlogged overseas appointment systems.

What the New Green Card Rule Requires

US Citizenship and Immigration Services announced on Friday that foreigners seeking permanent residency in the US will now be required to leave the country and apply at a US consulate in their home nation, rather than adjusting their status from within the United States.

"From now on, an alien who is in the US temporarily and wants a green card must return to their home country to apply, except in extraordinary circumstances," said Zach Kahler, a spokesman for US Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The new rule applies broadly to any foreigner who entered the US on a temporary non-immigrant visa, including students, employees on H-1B or L visas and visitors.

The US issues approximately one million green cards per year, though roughly half of those cover foreign relatives sponsored by American citizens, applications that are generally already processed outside the country.

The agency said the change would allow "our immigration system to function as the law intended instead of incentivising loopholes."

Zach Kahler also noted, "After years of ignoring the intent of Congress in the adjustment of status application, USCIS is merely restating and reasserting that intent. While we work to operationalize this, people who present applications that provide an economic benefit or otherwise are in the national interest will likely be able to continue on their current path while others may be asked to apply abroad depending on individualized circumstances."

Why Tech Leaders Are Alarmed

The reaction from the technology and entrepreneurship community was swift and largely hostile, with several prominent figures questioning what the policy would mean for the country's position in the global race for scientific and technological talent.

Reid Hoffman, co-founder and former executive chairman of LinkedIn, raised the implications for the country's artificial intelligence sector directly.

"Does this mean AI researchers, employees, and students will now have to leave the country and wait through a backlog process to continue their work? Harmful move for tech, business, and America broadly."

AI entrepreneur and Coursera co-founder Andrew Ng was equally blunt in his assessment.

"The new White House policy requiring green card applicants to apply from outside the US is a capricious attack on legal immigration. It will hurt families, leave us with fewer doctors, teachers and scientists, and hurt American competitiveness in AI."

Rep. Yvette Clarke, a Democrat from New York, called the new green card policies "a disgrace."

"It will rip talented, hardworking immigrants out from America and our economy, congest an already overburdened backlog, and further break an already broken immigration system," said Clarke on X.

"And that's by design," Clarke added. "This administration has made the pain of immigrants a priority, and that won't change until there's no one left to hurt."

Startup Founders Question the Logic

Blake Scholl, founder and chief executive of Boom Supersonic, said he supported efforts to address illegal immigration but drew a sharp distinction when it came to skilled workers seeking to build lives in the country.

"But I don't understand why we make it harder for motivated, ambitious, hardworking people to come to the land of opportunity," Scholl wrote on X.

Garry Tan, the CEO of the startup accelerator Y Combinator, called the new guidance "bad and misguided."

"We need to keep smart people in the country to build the future and build tomorrow's businesses that employ millions of people," he wrote on X.

Ash Jogalekar, a Microsoft senior project manager working on agentic AI, described the memorandum as "self-sabotage" in an X post on Friday.

Nick Davidov, founder of Davidovs Venture Collective, went further, questioning how the rule would affect highly skilled workers and entrepreneurs already embedded in the US economy.

"So everyone on a O1 or H1B visa would have to stop working legally in the US, go back to their country and wait for years of backlog?" Davidov wrote on X. "This includes top scientists in our universities, founders of billion dollar companies."

Davidov also raised the particular difficulty faced by immigrants from conflict-affected regions, arguing that returning to a home country may not be a viable option in every case.

Jason Calacanis, investor and co-host of the All-In podcast, said in an X post on Saturday that the US should encourage more immigration in response to the administration's new green card policy.

"America's goal should be to expand our Empire," he wrote. "Be it immigration, acquisition or invitation, if you believe we have the best system then you should embrace expansion."

The investor also posted a clip of an interview All-In did with Trump in 2024, during which the president said college graduates should "automatically" get a green card.

"More green cards for extremely talented immigrants!" Calacanis wrote in the post. "Strong agree President Trump."

What Immigration Lawyers Are Saying

Legal professionals were no less critical, with several describing the policy as an overreach that could face significant challenges in the courts.

Elizabeth Goss, an immigration lawyer in Boston whose office fielded a high volume of enquiries on Friday, described the new rule in stark terms.

"It's another way to try to deport people I believe are not deportable," Goss said. "It's another way to force people out."

The American Immigration Lawyers Association noted that successive Republican and Democratic administrations have permitted green card applicants to remain in the US during the process, a practice upheld in repeated court rulings.

"Reversing settled law by memo is legally questionable and needlessly chaotic," the association said on X.

David Leopold, a Cleveland-based immigration attorney and partner at Thompson Hine, placed the announcement in the broader context of the administration's approach to legal immigration.

"This administration does not have the votes in Congress to pass a restrictionist law so by decree, by guidance, they are narrowing the ability of the agencies to function," Leopold said. "It's one more thing; they're really going after the internal immigration systems."

The Human Cost: Families and Backlogs

Beyond the legal arguments, immigration attorneys and policy experts pointed to the practical consequences for real people caught in an already strained system. Requiring applicants to travel abroad to a US consulate could leave many waiting for weeks, months or even years in backlogged appointment queues, with no guarantee of re-entry once they leave.

Andrew Ng, AI entrepreneur and cofounder of Coursera, called asking green card applicants to apply outside the US only "a capricious attack on legal immigration."

"It will hurt families, leave us with fewer doctors, teachers and scientists, and hurt American competitiveness in AI," Ng wrote on X on Friday.

For immigrants who entered the US without authorisation and later married American citizens, the stakes are particularly high. Once their immigration history is reviewed during consular processing abroad, they could be barred from returning to the country altogether, with little recourse to appeal or challenge the decision.

Lawmakers Condemn New Green Card Policy

On Capitol Hill, the response was equally critical. Representative Yvette Clarke condemned the rule and warned of its consequences for the broader immigration infrastructure.

"It will rip talented, hardworking immigrants out from America and our economy, congest an already overburdened backlog, and further break an already broken immigration system," Clarke said.

Where This Fits in Trump's Immigration Crackdown

The new green card restriction is the latest in a series of aggressive moves by the Trump administration to curtail both illegal and legal immigration since January 2025. Hundreds of thousands of immigrants, including asylum seekers with pending cases in the immigration court system, have been arrested and deported. The administration has also moved to end humanitarian protections for more than one million foreigners and has tightened rules governing the H-1B programme.

Immigration policy analyst David Bier of the Cato Institute described the latest move as a continuation of a deliberate strategy.

"The policy is a radical expansion of DHS's 'quiet quitting' on legal immigration that has been going on for months," Bier said, adding that requiring applicants to leave the country would create additional legal hurdles for some immigrants in the process.

Litigation over the new rule is widely expected, though whether the courts will ultimately push back remains to be seen.