OMAHA, Neb. —

The landscape around immigration is shifting again under the Trump administration.

Last week, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services released a memo bringing back “neighborhood investigations,” a method once used to evaluate an immigrant’s moral character. The practice dates back to the 1980s and was discontinued in 1991.

Now, immigration attorneys are working to understand what its return could mean for their clients.

“It’s not well-defined, like, what the discretion is,” Omaha immigration attorney Brian Blackford said. “Even with this policy memo, we don’t exactly know all the considerations.”

According to the USCIS memo, investigators are permitted to talk with people living near an applicant’s residence and place of employment. Blackford said that raises concerns.

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