By TIFFANY STANLEY and GIOVANNA DELL’ORTO
WASHINGTON (AP) — At a time of tightening immigration restrictions, the Division of Homeland Safety is making an attempt to make it simpler for visa-holding non secular staff to serve their U.S. congregations with much less disruption.
DHS introduced on Wednesday a regulatory change geared toward decreasing visa wait occasions overseas for the international nationals many U.S. non secular communities rely upon to function pastors, monks, nuns, imams and rabbis. These non secular staff face a yearslong backlog to acquire authorized everlasting U.S. residency, however congregations can carry them into the nation on momentary visas referred to as R-1.
DHS launched a repair to at least one challenge affecting clergy that advocates had requested — eradicating the requirement for R-1 non secular staff to go away the U.S. for one yr after reaching their five-year visa most. That visa time was a lot to get a inexperienced card, however in 2023 the federal government made a change in processing that lengthened it a lot most needed to depart the nation. Now, they’ll nonetheless must depart the U.S. however can apply to re-enter instantly.
“We’re taking the required steps to make sure non secular organizations can proceed delivering the providers that People rely upon,” the DHS assertion stated. “Pastors, monks, nuns, and rabbis are important to the social and ethical cloth of this nation. We stay dedicated to discovering methods to assist and empower these organizations of their vital work.”
Immigration attorneys and religion leaders welcome new rule
The DHS rule loosens an immigration restriction at a time when the Trump administration has tightened many different immigration pathways. The DHS assertion emphasised a dedication to defending non secular freedom and minimizing disruptions to faith-based communities.
“It’s an enormous deal,” stated Lance Conklin, a Maryland immigration lawyer who represents evangelical church buildings with R1 visa holders. “It could doubtlessly permit individuals to not disrupt the group by having somebody have to go away for a yr, as a result of that’s a significant imposition now.”
The U.S. Convention of Catholic Bishops referred to as it a “actually important step to assist important non secular providers in the US.”
In a joint assertion, Archbishop Paul Coakley, the USCCB president, and Bishop Brendan Cahill, chair of the USCCB committee on migration, expressed their gratitude for the administration’s work on the problem. “The worth of the Non secular Employee Visa Program and our appreciation for the efforts undertaken to assist it can’t be overstated.”
“Hallelujah!” stated Olga Rojas, immigration counsel for the Archdiocese of Chicago. “We’re pleased the administration made this transformation. It’s useful to us so we don’t need to lose valued non secular staff which are contributing a lot to our parishes and colleges.”
The U.S. Catholic Church has lengthy relied on foreign-born clergy amid a priest scarcity. Different traditions, starting from Buddhism to Pentecostal Christianity, additionally recruit foreign-born clergy to serve rising non-English-speaking congregations or as a result of they’ve specialised coaching from worldwide establishments steeped within the faith’s historical past.
A 2023 change prolonged wait occasions
The five-year R1 visa used to offer sufficient time for congregations to petition for inexperienced playing cards below a particular class referred to as EB-4, which might permit the clergy to grow to be everlasting residents.
Congress units a quota of inexperienced playing cards out there per yr divided into classes, nearly all primarily based on sorts of employment or household relationships to U.S. residents. In most classes, the demand exceeds the annual quota.
Residents of nations with particularly excessive demand get put in separate, typically longer “traces,” the place it will probably take a long time to course of purposes.
Additionally in a separate line have been migrant kids with “Particular Immigrant Juvenile Standing” — uncared for or abused minors — from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. A whole lot of 1000’s sought humanitarian inexperienced playing cards or asylum after illegally crossing into the U.S. because the mid-2010s, although the Trump administration just lately cracked down on this system.
In March 2023, the State Division below President Joe Biden out of the blue began including the minors to the overall inexperienced card queue with the clergy.
It created new backlogs that threatened the flexibility of spiritual staff to stay in the US. No actual numbers exist, however it’s estimated that 1000’s of spiritual staff are backlogged within the inexperienced card system or haven’t been capable of apply but.
In summer time 2024, the Catholic Diocese of Paterson, New Jersey, and 5 of its affected monks sued DHS, the Division of State and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Companies. The lawsuit argued that the 2023 change “will trigger extreme and substantial disruption to the lives and spiritual freedoms” of the monks and the devoted they serve. The lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed in fall 2025 “to permit for Company motion and/or rulemaking that may render moot the reduction Plaintiffs sought from the Courtroom,” based on courtroom paperwork.
“We’re getting the decision we wished, which is in the end protecting the monks in the US,” Raymond Lahoud, the diocese’s lawyer within the lawsuit, stated Wednesday. “However the underlying challenge is that they nonetheless have to attend a decade for a inexperienced card. So the uncertainty continues till Congress will work collectively on complete immigration reform.”
In spring 2025, a bipartisan invoice was launched within the U.S. Senate and Home calling for a small repair much like Wednesday’s DHS rule, permitting for an extension of spiritual staff’ visas so long as their inexperienced card utility is pending.
Dell’Orto reported from Minneapolis.
Related Press faith protection receives assist via the AP’s collaboration with The Dialog US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely answerable for this content material.
