The Trump administration this year began revamping immigration processes administered by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), including what it says is the rooting out of waste, fraud and abuse in a range of programs and strengthening the citizenship process.
The goal is to “restore integrity” to the immigration system, ensuring “only individuals who love America, align with our culture, and share our values, are welcomed into the country,” the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.
Enforcing immigration law
The administration reversed a Biden-era policy enabling USCIS officers to enforce immigration law. This includes identifying those in violation of federal laws and issuing Notices to Appear before a federal immigration judge. Since Jan. 20, USCIS has issued 196,600 NTAs, DHS says.
Also since Jan. 20, USCIS officers made more than 29,000 immigration fraud referrals nationwide to its Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate. The FDNSD investigated more than 19,300 of them, identifying fraud in 65% of the cases.
USCIS also launched targeted operations, including the largest enforcement operation in agency history in the Minneapolis-St. Paul region. Through Operation Twin Shield, USCIS uncovered what it says was “blatant marriage fraud, visa overstays, people claiming to work in businesses that can’t be found, forged documents, abuse of the H1B visa system, abuse of the F1 visas, and many other discrepancies.” In more than 50% of the cases, investigators found “non-compliance or public safety and national security concerns.”
USCIS helped arrest more than 2,400 illegal foreign nationals and referred more than 14,400 to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement since President Donald Trump’s first day in office. They were flagged “for public safety, national security, and fraud concerns, including 182 aliens who were confirmed or suspected to be national security risks,” DHS said.
Terminating parole, TPS and asylum
USCIS terminated the Biden administration’s “broad abuse of humanitarian parole authority,” including ending nearly all parole programs identified as illegal by Congress when impeaching the former Secretary of Homeland Security, The Center Square exclusively reported. This included terminating a so-called family reunification program – Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan (CHNV) – and other country-specific programs.
The CHNV parole program ushered in more than three million people in three years deemed inadmissible under federal immigration law, The Center Square reported. They totaled more than the individual populations of 17 states.
That was in addition to another 2.5 million paroled through a similar program for citizens of Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, The Center Square reported. They totaled more than the individual populations of 15 states.
The Trump administration also ended Temporary Protected Status for citizens of Afghanistan, Burma, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, South Sudan, Syria and Venezuela. It issued notices for them to self-deport and warned that those who didn’t would be apprehended and deported.
USCIS also terminated all asylum processing for all foreign nationals after an Afghan national released into the country by the Biden administration shot two National Guard soldiers, killing one, before Thanksgiving. It is also holding all immigration applications, including “a full-scale reexamination” of every Green Card holder, made by citizens from 19 high-risk countries, The Center Square reported.
Imcreased vetting, verification, worker permits, citizenship requirements
USCIS also changed processes to better identify waste, fraud and abuse in immigration and other federal programs this year.
USCIS issued new guidance closing loopholes and permanently barring those who make false claims on their citizenship application. It also issued a new directive prohibiting applicants from entry and/or receiving federal benefits who’ve been involved “in anti-American or terrorist organizations … including those who support or promote antisemitic terrorism, antisemitic terrorist organizations, and antisemitic ideologies.”
USCIS also issued a new 2025 Naturalization Civics Test, expanding the number of questions and increasing the passing score.
USCIS overhauled its Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database and began sharing information with states to verify citizenship information for benefits programs and voter registration. The previous administration didn’t do so, prompting lawsuits by Texas and other states, The Center Square reported.
A new rule was proposed to amend the Public Charge rule to prohibit illegal foreign nationals from receiving federal benefits. Texas first sued over the policy in 2021 and Texas’ U.S. senators proposed a law to make federal benefit fraud a deportable offense.
USCIS halted automatic extensions of employment authorizations and reduced the maximum validity period for certain employment authorization documents from 5 years to 18 months “to ensure more frequent vetting and screening of aliens.”
USCIS is also working with ICE to uncover labor law violations. Recent cases in Nebraska and North Carolina involved American companies hiring illegal foreign nationals using fraudulent documentation, committing identity theft against Americans nationwide.
