Washington DC - President Donald Trump and his administration recently implemented a new rule to make it more difficult for immigrants to receive green cards.

In an X post shared on Friday, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced they will now require "certain aliens with temporary visas" to "return to their home countries to apply for permanent visas," which will "ensure aliens navigate" the system properly.

"Nonimmigrants, like students, temporary workers, or people on tourist visas, come to the US for a short time and for a specific purpose," the statement said.

"Our system is designed for them to leave when their visit is over. Their visit should not function as the first step in the Green Card process."

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The rule comes as Trump has run an aggressive anti-immigrant agenda in his second term, sending federal agents to Democrat-run cities across the country to enact deportation sweeps.

Former USCIS official Doug Rand recently explained to NBC News that in a typical year, around 1 million people apply for green cards, half of which do so while living in the US in an effort to receive full citizenship.

Rand went on to slam the purpose of the policy as being about "exclusion."

"Remember that Trump has banned people from over 100 countries from returning to the US, so forcing them to go abroad for consular processing is no pathway at all," he added.