The American Immigration Council is a non-profit, non-partisan organization. After the tragic shooting of two members of the West Virginia National Guard in DC last week, the Trump administration has taken this opportunity to further escalate its rhetoric against immigrants from countries it deems undesirable. Trump himself blustered that he was going to halt all migration from the “Third World” (a Cold War term generally used to refer to the developing world or Global South), while Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called on Trump to issue travel bans on “every damn country that’s been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies.”
But as is so often the case with this administration, the disgusting and dehumanizing rhetoric both reflects and obscures a radical policy agenda. Since early last week – even before the National Guard shooting – the administration has rolled out a series of policies that call into question the futures of hundreds of thousands of people who have been living legally in the United States for years.
Not only has the Trump administration put processing on hold for several groups of people and categories of immigration applications and petitions – including a hold on all asylum approvals, and a hold on all application approvals for anyone from one of the 19 countries covered in the travel ban the administration issued this spring – but it has opened the door to potentially reopen cases the government has already approved over the last four-and-a-half years; or even further in the past.
While some details about how these policies will be implemented are still unknown, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has issued policy memos that offer some clarity as to what the administration is actually doing.
Since the administration’s changes affect different populations for different phases of the immigration process, we’re breaking it down step-by-step.
A freeze on all processing – even for citizenship – for anyone who comes from a travel-ban country
Who’s affected: All citizens and/or nationals of one of the 19 countries covered in the most recent “travel ban” proclamation issued by the Trump administration this summer.
What is happening: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officials have been instructed to freeze processing of all immigration benefits (which includes permanent and temporary status within the U.S.) for these individuals. The suspended benefits processing appears to include everything from applications for green cards and citizenship to applications for work permits and even to applications filed to change or extend a nonimmigrant status — potentially causing some people to fall out of valid nonimmigrant status if the government refuses to process their request for an extension before it expires.
This means that the government will not adjudicate their applications, and in some cases the government has canceled interviews that are a part of the process. Across the country, immigrants from covered countries have reported that their citizenship interviews have been canceled – and even, in some cases, the ceremonies at which they were set to formally become U.S. citizens.
How long it will last: The length of this freeze is unknown. The memo claims that the freeze is needed to conduct a “comprehensive review” both of their individual cases, and of the agency’s security and vetting policies. It directs USCIS to issue operational guidance within 90 days – however, it is not clear whether the application freeze will expire at the end of that time, or whether it will be modified or extended.
It is worth noting, though, that even once USCIS adjudicators resume reviews of applications and petitions from travel-ban-covered countries, they will be using much more restrictive criteria for some of them given changes announced to the USCIS policy manual on Thanksgiving. These instruct USCIS employees to consider nationality from a country on the travel ban list as a “significant negative factor” in determining whether to approve someone’s application or petition. Specifically, manual states that countries such as Afghanistan, Eritrea, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen and Venezuela are countries where the U.S. cannot trust the government to accurately identify people or security risks, and therefore nationality from those countries may be a “significant negative factor” in deciding whether to grant a benefit.
(This is one of a few shifting rationales for the travel ban, even though it has been widely reported that the administration is using the ban as a threat to try to coerce countries into going along with other parts of Trump’s agenda.) That change is only allowed to apply to forms received on or after the effective date (November 27).
A pause on decisions – but not interviews – for all asylum applications filed with USCIS
Who’s affected: all asylum-seekers who have filed an application with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for “affirmative” asylum (in other words, those who applied proactively, instead of applying for asylum as part of proceedings before an immigration judge) who arent’t already affected by the travel-ban application freeze.
What is happening: Last week, USCIS ordered adjudicators to stop issuing final decisions on asylum applications (approvals, denials, or closures). However, asylum interviews at USCIS are still being scheduled, indicating that processing of applications for people who do not come from one of the 19 travel-ban countries is continuing up to a point.
How long it will last: Unclear; the asylum decision pause was addressed in the same USCIS memo that directed operational guidance “within 90 days.”
How big is the impact? The Trump administration hadn’t exactly been tearing through asylum decisions before this announcement. As of June of this year, there were over 1.5 million pending asylum applications before USCIS. And while the Trump administration issued about 135,000 decisions between April and June, the overwhelming majority of those were “administrative closures” — barely 10,000 people had applications denied or approved during that time.
A blanket refusal to issue visas to Afghans – and destruction of those that have been printed
Who is affected: Afghan nationals seeking to enter the United States legally on a permanent or temporary visa.
What is happening: Last week, consular officials were instructed to refuse all visas to Afghan nationals under section 221(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (a different provision from the travel ban). Furthermore, they were told to destroy visas that had been printed, but had not yet been given to the applicant.
How long it will last: Unclear.
How big is the impact? Because Afghanistan was already included in the travel ban, very few visas were being issued to Afghan nationals even before the new guidance. Even before the travel ban took effect, the State Department issued fewer than 1,300 visas to Afghans in the month of May (the last month for which monthly information is available). The overwhelming majority of those were Special Immigrant Visas for Afghans who worked with coalition forces, and who were already subject to extensive vetting and years of security screening.
A review – including a potential re-interview – of applications that have already been approved
Who’s affected: There are two different policy changes covering two overlapping groups. The first group is all people admitted to the U.S. as refugees under the Biden administration – about 200,000 in all. The second group includes citizens and nationals of the travel-ban countries who arrived in the U.S. after January 21, 2021 and were granted any immigration benefit – everything from temporary work authorization to green cards.
What is happening: The scale of the review appears to be different for each group.
For people from travel ban-covered countries, USCIS identified a few specific security indicators that need to be included in “case-by-case review,” such as association with suspicious individuals or groups. However, the memo instructs officials to submit a list of cases it wishes to prioritize for “review and potential re-interview” within 90 days, implying that not all cases will be reopened. The memo does not spell out what will happen to people who fail the review.
For refugees admitted under the Biden administration, however, the review is much broader. The Trump administration claims that its predecessor was too hasty in approving applications that did not meet the substantive criteria for refugee status – including whether someone has been persecuted on account of specific aspects of their identity –and is directing review of all applications to determine whether they meet the standard. (Officials have also been instructed to submit a list of priority cases for re-interview within 90 days.)
How long will it last?: Unclear; operational guidance to USCIS within 90 days may offer more clarity here.
What is the impact? Potentially massive.
Refugee resettlements alone accounted for over 200,000 admissions to the U.S. under the four years of the Biden administration. These cases are now set to be reopened by an administration whose own attitude toward refugees is radically different from its predecessor’s — or from any other U.S. president. The current resettlement agenda favors white South Africans and European immigration hawks. The administration has made it clear that if it decides someone should not have qualified for refugee status, it will terminate that status – rendering the person undocumented unless they have already applied for (and been approved for) another immigration status, and aren’t covered by another of these overlapping review policies.
There are even more people who could be affected by a review of all benefits for people who entered the U.S. from travel-banned countries after January 2021. From 2021 to 2023, the U.S. issued over 300,000 green cards to people from those countries; while many of those were issued to people who were already living in the United States, that total also includes many new arrivals. (We do not have country-specific data for 2024.) And that barely scratches the surface: the review could also encompass people granted asylum during that period, issued student or work visas, and, of course, people admitted to the U.S. from Afghanistan on Special Immigrant Visas for people who had supported the U.S. war effort in those countries. Beyond that, hundreds of thousands of people from those countries were granted work permits, and an unknown applied for other benefits such as extensions of status or changes of status.
