Hundreds of thousands of American families are facing years-long separation — not because of any crime, but because of a policy change quietly announced on May 21, 2026.

The Trump administration's new directive instructs immigration officers to stop allowing most immigrants to complete their green card process while staying in the United States. Instead, spouses of American citizens would be forced to leave the country and apply from abroad. If they previously lived here without legal status, they could face three- or ten-year bars preventing them from returning.

That means a mother separated from her children for years. A husband unable to come home to his American wife. Kids growing up with one parent while the other waits in another country.

This is not hypothetical. Mike and Virginia Brown lived it. From 2007 to 2019, Virginia was barred from returning after entering without legal status. While Mike worked in Arizona, Virginia raised their children in Mexico. Their son Bryan was seven years old when he finally came home to a country he barely knew.

An estimated 403,000 immigrants received green cards through U.S. citizen relatives last fiscal year. Under this policy, most of them could be forced to leave, and many may not be able to come back for years.

The previous system worked. Under a waiver program established in 2013, immigrants could secure approval before leaving the country, avoiding multi-year separation in the vast majority of cases. This policy eliminates that protection in all but "extraordinary" circumstances.

We are calling on the Trump administration to reverse this policy immediately and restore the protections that keep American families together.

Sign this petition and demand this policy be reversed now.