While getting less attention that ICE's actions, the Trump administration's growing barricade of restrictions on legal immigration could drastically lower immigration levels this year, & potentially tip the country into population decline. My new short-read details the accumulating barriers:
Big news that USCIS is resuming affirmative asylum processing for applicants EXCEPT those from the 39 travel ban countries. www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-a...
It has been one year since the Trump admin invoked the Alien Enemies Act and began targeting international students with a novel provision of the INA but thus far faced resistance in the courts with these and other policies.
Read more here:
www.migrationpolicy.org/article/trum...
USCIS is truly NOT keeping up with new immigration applications being filed. As of September 2025, even before USCIS committed itself to revisiting likely millions of past decisions, their pile of unopened applications - the frontlog - was 248,000(!) That's up from ZERO in December 2024.
Actions by state & local governments in the wake of high-profile operations in Minneapolis typify a recent wave of opposition to aspects of federal immigration enforcement
Muzaffar Chishti & @kathleenbush.bsky.social explain how ⤵️
https://bit.ly/4aUjcZo
an immigration court has dropped the deportation case against grad student Rümeysa Öztürk, after trying to revoke her student visa over an op-ed she’d co-written in a Tufts University student paper.
www.wsj.com/us-news/law/...
A sharp decline in border arrivals, the end of Biden-era parole programs, increased deportations of noncitizens from inside the U.S., and more-recent restrictions to legal immigration have likely led to a sharp decrease in net international migration. Decreases in job growth will naturally follow.
This is why many argue for graduated penalties for immigration violations, with the penalty tailored to the severity of the violation. Under current U.S. law, it's often deportation or nothing.
In a @kff.org survey from fall '25, nearly half of likely undocumented immigrant adults, and one in seven who are lawfully present, said they had avoided medical care since January '25 due to immigration-related concerns -- recent increases in ICE presence could further exacerbate these challenges
Haitian TPS holders had to wait all day to learn if they would still have protections and work authorization as of tomorrow. This decision keeps their TPS in place for now. Almost guaranteed that the administration will appeal.
BREAKING: We're challenging the Trump administration’s sweeping suspension of immigrant visa processing for people from 75 countries.
This discriminatory, nationality-based ban on legal immigration strips families and working people of the process guaranteed by law.
Essential context for discussions about the future of immigration: If the country loses immigrants, on net, this year or next, the U.S. population will begin to shrink for the first time in the nation's history. (1918 may have been an exception.) Gift link below
2017 research showed high-profile immigration enforcement actions can increase low-birthweight births. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28115577/ Just one of the ways that indiscriminate enforcement tactics leave indelible effects on children's well-being. For more, see my colleague Valerie Lacarte's piece
FWIW, immigrants who are not "lawfully present" are already barred from purchasing insurance through ACA exchanges, even at full cost, as well as being barred from subsidies for ACA insurance premiums.
Do any taxpayers think this is a good use of their money? Arresting vetted refugees with no criminal record who have applied for green cards, flying them to TX, putting them in ICE detention, interviewing them, and releasing them with an approved green card?? Why? www.nytimes.com/2026/01/26/u...
An emerging patchwork of Trump visa policies is blocking entry for students, immigrant talent, and family of American citizens. It's the flipside of a mass deportation campaign in the US interior that's using any available tool to restrict new immigrants or foreign visitors.
With news of ICE's focus on Maine, recommending my colleagues @colleenputzelkav.bsky.social & Valerie Lacarte's profile of ME's small immigrant population. ME's immigrants are a mix of long-settled, well-integrated folks, and newcomers from diverse origins, bolstering the workforce of an aging state
If you missed our @migrationpolicy.bsky.social webinar yesterday on Trump's immigration policies, check out the recording here:
@nickmiroff.bsky.social talked about the administration challenging the value of immigration & the role of immigrants in our society
TOMORROW: Beyond Shock & Awe: Immigration Actions in the 1st year under Trump 2.0
Join @kathleenbush.bsky.social & @migrationpolicy.bsky.social colleagues Muz Chisti and Doris Meissner as we unravel the sweeping changes to immigration policy this last year
www.migrationpolicy.org/events/immig...
As the US government expands it's travel ban, USCIS is also expanding its pause on immigration applications and its re-review of green cards, asylum, citizenship, and other benefits it granted since 2021. Applications from all 39 countries are now subject to the pause and re-review.
Likewise! Happy new year!
The Trump admin says it aims to file 100-200 denaturalization cases per month, a huge increase. But these cases are hard to file and win, and require a lot of DOJ resources, and the DOJ is incredibly stretched thin already. So we’ll see; I have serious doubts about their ability to do this.
USCIS said yesterday they're shortening the validity period for work permits for asylum & green card applicants + others from 5 yrs to 18 months. Combined with USCIS' slowing processing, & the end of auto-extensions while people renew, this will cause MANY people to churn in & out of the workforce.
Specifically, OMB finished its review of a proposed rule on "Employment Authorization Reform for Asylum Applicants." The only detail we have is the short description in the government's list of planned regulatory changes -- the "Unified Agenda": www.reginfo.gov/public/do/eA... (2/2)
Heads up: Right before Thanksgiving, a proposed regulation to restrict asylum applicants' access to work authorization cleared a key government review step. That means we could see a proposed regulatory change soon. But no details yet on what it might do. (1/2)
Raises serious questions about how they will staff this re-review, and how that will affect all other application process at the agency.
USCIS published a policy memo declaring (1) a pause on all affirmative asylum decisions, (2) a pause on all applications (green card, citizenship, change of visa, etc) for the 19 travel ban countries, and (3) a re-review of all benefits granted to people from the 19 countries who came since 1/20/21
The Trump admin has paused all immigration and naturalization processes for people from one of the 19 travel ban countries; including Cuba and Venezuela.
Even people who fully passed the citizenship exam are having their cases put on hold, just inches from the finish line.
Belatedly noticing that the State Dept. updated its refugee resettlement data through October. In February-October 2025, the US resettled just 506 refugees(!) 342 of those (2/3) were South Africans. www.rpc.state.gov/admissions-a...
