President Donald Trump’s administration has now formally ended requirements that former President Joe Biden’s administration had that anyone applying for a green card would have to prove they have gotten the COVID vaccine, Breitbart News has learned exclusively.
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) agency, part of the Department of Homeland Security, on Wednesday declared that all “adjustment of status” applications will no longer need to have COVID vaccine proof attached to them.
“Effective January 22, 2025, USCIS is waiving any and all requirements that applicants for adjustment of status to that of a lawful permanent resident present documentation on their Form I-693, Report of Immigration Medical Examination and Vaccination Record, that they received the COVID-19 vaccination,” a USCIS announcement obtained exclusively by Breitbart News ahead of its public release reads. “USCIS will not issue any Request for Evidence (RFE) or Notice of Intent to Deny (NOID) related to proving a COVID-19 vaccination. USCIS will not deny any adjustment of status application based on the applicant’s failure to present documentation that they received the COVID-19 vaccination.”
The Biden administration’s obsession with using the now-over pandemic to create a bureaucratic morass was hugely unpopular with voters, so this move is surely welcome to legal immigrants and Americans alike. What’s more, vaccine mandates were extremely unpopular and a huge part of why Trump defeated Biden’s Vice President, Kamala Harris, in November’s election. Opposition to vaccine mandates fueled much of the anti-Biden sentiment in the early part of the former president’s administration and gave way to the rise of former Democrats like Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary-Designate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Another star of the anti-COVID mandate movement was South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, who’s been nominated by Trump to be his Secretary of Homeland Security. Noem, who did not shut down her state at all during the early days of COVID, resisted lockdowns and all COVID mandates, shooting her up to national prominence as one of the nation’s most prolific conservative governors. Now, she will oversee the Department of Homeland Security and will surely execute more moves just like this one once she’s confirmed.
This move in particular though comes even before the U.S. Senate has Noem as in the job, as Noem is one of the many nominees that radical Democrats in the U.S. Senate are holding up right now and refusing to allow swift final confirmation votes on at this time. Senate Republicans are girding for battle and preparing to jam through the nominees around Democrat obstructionists.
It also comes amid a slew of many other executive actions and administration moves, from the White House on down through many government departments in just the first few days of Trump’s new administration.