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Experts feel green card holders should think twice now before traveling outside the US if they have criticized Trump on social media.
Green card holders and visa holders in the country need to think twice before traveling outside the country, lawyers warn amid the massive crackdown on international students and migrants. "Anyone who isn't a U.S. citizen should think hard about the need to leave the United States, especially if they have made statements on social media that are critical of political positions that the Trump administration supports or have had even minimal contact with police," César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, the Gregory Williams Chair in civil rights & civil liberties at Ohio State University College of Law, told Newsweek.
"The Trump administration has given permanent residents and visa holders plenty of reason to worry about running into problems trying to get back into the United States from a trip abroad," the immigration law expert said, though the administration asserted that those who have not broken any laws have nothing to fear about anything.
Shannon Shepherd, chair of the media committee for the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) told Newsweek that overall there's no guarantee that a person coming back to the US will be granted entry and that's been the case always. "But what we're seeing lately is more negative exercise of discretion, I guess is the way to put it, where people are being denied entry that we wouldn't necessarily have been denied before or people being detained instead of just allowed to withdraw their request for entry."
Having correct documents is most important
According to these experts, having the correct documentation is of utmost importance. For green card holders, the documents are a valid passport and the green card. If the green card is up for renewal, then one must vatty the receipt from the US Citizenship and Immigration Service.
Past criminal convictions, even minor infractions, could now be taken into account at the discretion of CBP officers at the border, along with social media comments or text messages, in order to deny entry even if the traveler has all the correct paperwork, Shepherd said.
If an individual is in the process of applying for a green card, known as Adjustment of Status (AoS), then they generally can't leave the country without Advance Parole. This is a travel document that has to be granted by USCIS before travel. CBP website mentions that those with valid H-1B or L-1 visas going through AoS are allowed to travel without Advance Parole, as are V- and K-3/4 nonimmigrant visa holders.
