President Donald Trump's latest immigration crackdown is triggering alarm, confusion, and fierce debate among lawyers, advocates, and many in the business world who rely on visa holders for skilled labor.
On Friday, US Citizenship and Immigration Services announced it would grant "adjustment of status" — the process that allows some immigrants already in the US to apply for a green card without leaving the country — "only in extraordinary circumstances," potentially forcing many applicants to return to their home countries and wait abroad while their cases are processed.
While a USCIS spokesperson told Business Insider that applicants who "provide an economic benefit or otherwise are in the national interest" may still qualify for exemptions, it remains unclear how broadly the administration plans to enforce the new restrictions or how many immigrants could ultimately be affected.
The administration has framed the move as a return to the original intent of immigration law, while critics warn it could upend the lives of foreign workers, mixed-status families, and long-term visa holders who have relied on the process for decades.
Here's what smart people are saying about the sweeping policy shift.
Blake Scholl
Blake Scholl, founder and CEO at Boom Supersonic, a company developing a supersonic airliner, said on X that he understands why "we don't want people to come to the US to be criminals" and "mooch on welfare."
"But I don't understand why we make it harder for motivated, ambitious, hardworking people to come to the land of opportunity," Scholl added.
Nick Davidov
Nick Davidov, the founder of Davidovs Venture Collective, a VC that supports repeat AI founders at the seed level, called the changes in the green card application rules "the biggest bullshit move by DHS in its history" and the "worst imaginable way to disrupt important work for the country."
"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 on Friday. "This includes top scientists in our universities, founders of billion dollar companies."
Davidov added in subsequent tweets that Iranians and Ukrainians can't really return to their home countries for safety reasons, and that immigrants such as Elon Musk, Jensen Huang, and Sergey Brin have created some of the country's most valuable companies.
Andrew Ng
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.
Reid Hoffman
Reid Hoffman, cofounder of LinkedIn and a prominent Trump critic in Silicon Valley, wrote on X that the DHS's new policies are a "harmful move for tech, business, and America broadly."
"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?" Hoffman wrote.
Yvette Clarke
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."
David J. Bier
David J. Bier, the director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, called for new leadership of USCIS, in a series of posts on X on Friday, where he said that the new policies show "total malice against the applicants."
"The policy is a radical expansion of DHS's 'quiet quitting' on legal immigration that has been going on for months," Bier also wrote in a blog post. "Now USCIS's new memorandum details a plan for mass denials. USCIS has gone from the 'quiet-quit' to walking out on 1.2 million green card applicants."
"Forcing green card applicants to leave will render many green card applicants ineligible because, when they leave the United States, they will trigger the 3- or 10-year bars on receiving an immigrant visa based on accrual of unlawful presence," Bier added.
Yann LeCun
Yann LeCun, a pioneer in AI research and the former Chief AI Scientist at Meta, had a very curt and perplexed response to the change in green card policy.
"Why?" wrote the ACM Turing Award Laureate on X, who reposted an article detailing the DHS's announcement.
LeCun was born in France and immigrated to the US in the late 1980s.
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Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert is a senior reporter on Business Insider's West Coast team. When she's not writing about trending business and tech news, from the latest supply chain snarls or advancements in AI, she covers the food and restaurant industries, specifically companies such as Starbucks and McDonald's.Some of her prior areas of focus have included coverage of the Supreme Court and emerging technologies such as quantum computing.Katherine has worked on award-nominated projects and has appeared on Good Morning America, NBC, CNN, and other outlets to discuss her reporting.Prior to joining Business Insider, she covered retail, hospitality, and nonprofits at the San Fernando Valley Business Journal and received a master's degree in investigative reporting from the University of Southern California.Reach outDo you have feedback or a story tip? Contact Katherine on Signal at byktl.50, or email her at [email protected].Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @scrawlgirl.Some of her recent scoops, exclusives, and original stories include: Starbucks set up a new office. It's a 5-minute drive from the CEO's California home.Inside Starbucks' crackdown on cup notesEndless Shrimp was Red Lobster's rock bottom. Now it's clawing back.Chipotle's new PAC signals a change in how the company engages in politicsKFC lost its footing in the Chicken Wars. Now it's gunning for a 'Kentucky Fried Comeback.'A few other highlights include: Clarence Thomas raised him 'as a son.' Now he's facing 25-plus years on weapons and drug charges.Call her Ivanka Kushner'Maybe I'll just resign:' Federal workers react to DOGE productivity emailSpaceX launches cause late-night booms that rattle windows, set off car alarms, and may damage property. Locals are pushing back.The US-China tech race is moving from chips to the raw materials they're made of
Katherine Li is a junior reporter on Business Insider's West Coast business news team. She covers trade policies, tariffs, and business practices, with a particular interest in Tesla and how larger economic sentiments impact individuals. Previously, she was a newsroom fellow who wrote international breaking news and produced newsletters Semafor. Before that, she wrote about climate policies for The Lever, covered the AAPI community for the SF Chronicle as a freelancer, and wrote about the 2019 Hong Kong protests as an intern for The New York Times.She is an alumna of the Graduate School of Journalism at UC Berkeley, and a graduate of the international journalism program at Hong Kong Baptist University with minors in French and English literature. Email Katherine at [email protected] and follow her on Bluesky @katherineli.bsky.social. Expertise
- Trade policies & tariffs
- Economic & social policies in East Asia
- Business & innovative tech
- West Coast AAPI communities
Some of her best work include:Companies are struggling to fill manufacturing positions, let alone plan for what Trump's administration has in mindNightmare on Main Street: Trump's trade war is hurting American small businessesDOGE and economic uncertainty are coming for your work-life balanceCanadian grocery stores are sidelining US products — and American businesses are feeling the pinchPressure ratchets up from Trump administration, Musk, and allies ahead of planned Tesla Takedown mass protests
