USCIS Appointments Are Canceled Following Los Angeles Office Closure Amid Protests in an Already Struggling Immigration System

USCIS Appointments Are Canceled Following Los Angeles Office Closure Amid Protests in an Already Struggling Immigration System

Metal barricades glint under the late morning sun outside the federal complex in Los Angeles, where National Guard soldiers patrol in silence beside locked doors and shuttered windows. Inside those sealed walls remain the suspended hopes of hundreds who followed the government’s script, waited their turn, and tried — against all odds — to do things “the right way.”

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) office, along with the immigration court and ICE headquarters housed within the same building, ceased operations Monday following protests sparked by recent immigration raids, according to EFE. The freeze, though temporary, quietly disrupts lives in lasting ways. Many who had waited months or even years for their appointments now face an indefinite pause. The process they believed would lead to stability has once again placed them in limbo.

Their frustration sits atop a system constructed not to support but to discourage. The doors may be closed today due to protest. But they were never truly open.

An Immigration System That Does Not Work

“Do it the right way.” “Come to the United States legally.” “No more illegals.” These refrains echo through media soundbites, family dinner tables, and campaign speeches. Yet these declarations do not hold under scrutiny.

Fewer than 1 percent of people who wish to permanently immigrate to the United States are able to do so legally. The process is more like a lottery. Of the 158 million people who expressed interest in immigrating to the United States, only about 32 million have been able to begin the process. Fewer than one million succeed each year. This is pretty much like Powerball odds masquerading as policy.

Immigration policy once presumed eligibility unless the government proved otherwise. That changed in 1924. Today, all applicants are presumed ineligible and must claw through layers of quotas, delays, discretionary denials, and bureaucratic traps.

Inside the very buildings now closed to the public, immigrants have faced punishment for trying to follow the law. Long before the protests, ICE agents were posted near USCIS entrances, prepared to arrest those attempting to update their status. What were once mandatory appointments are quickly becoming traps. Though recent, this pattern has appeared across the country. It is no longer an anomaly.

A System Designed to Disqualify

Those pursuing permanent residency through employment face near-impossible odds. For jobs that do not require a college degree, legal entry through employer sponsorship is nearly blocked. Self-sponsorship remains an option only for the wealthy or those legally defined as “extraordinary.”

Family-based immigration offers limited relief. Immediate relatives of U.S. citizens may encounter shorter waits, but others face delays so long that many die before receiving a green card. Even for those who qualify, the system imposes additional layers: procedural hurdles, health screenings, security clearances, and criminal background checks that are often arbitrary, inconsistent, and impenetrable.

Congress could change this. Instead, legislation passed in the 1990s — such as the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) — deepened the maze and further embedded the idea that any legal path must feel punitive.

So, the USCIS Is Closed. Now What?

There is no orderly line. There is no straightforward path. There is no gateway of fairness waiting for those who “do it the right way.”

What remains are closed doors and far-off appointments, some shadowed by agents ready to detain. The contradiction is brutal: immigrants are told to follow the rules, and when they do, they are punished for it.

The federal complex in Los Angeles may reopen. The protestors may disperse. But the system will remain untouched until the myths are dismantled and the laws rewritten to reflect something more honest, and more humane.

For Image credit or remove please email for immediate removal - info@belatina.com