Federal immigration policy tightened overnight as USCIS implemented new country-specific vetting, ordered a review of green card applications from 19 nations, and temporarily froze asylum decisions. Does this shift signal a new era of heightened scrutiny for legal immigration?
November ended with the tragic shooting of two National Guard soldiers in Washington, D.C. The incident underscored an important point — that the months ahead could bring additional immigration crackdowns, heightened scrutiny, and potential policy sweeps that may affect legal immigration as well.
The immediate aftermath included a halt to all visa and immigration processing for Afghan nationals. Another new policy announcement that has caused lawyers, consultants, applicants, and advocates across the immigration community to watch cautiously is the administration’s directive to review green card cases for immigrants from 19 countries, along with a freeze on all asylum decisions.
Discussing the additional national security measures to be implemented, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Joseph Edlow said, “My primary responsibility is to ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible.”
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He added, “This includes an assessment of where they are coming from and why. Yesterday’s horrific events make it abundantly clear the Biden administration spent the last four years dismantling basic vetting and screening standards, prioritizing the rapid resettlement of aliens from high-risk countries over the safety of American citizens. The Trump administration takes the opposite approach. Effective immediately, I am issuing new policy guidance that authorizes USCIS officers to consider country-specific factors as significant negative factors when reviewing immigration requests. American lives come first.”
Outlining how this policy will play out in real-world situations, immigration attorney Abhinav Tripathi of Protego Law Group LLP said, “Officers are now instructed to factor in country-based security indicators along with the existing discretionary framework. It may be noted that the existing framework already allows USCIS to weigh an applicant’s compliance history, past filings, conduct in the United States, and any public safety concerns.”
Speaking on the rapidly changing immigration landscape—and how both immigrants and immigration analysts should brace for this immediately effective policy shift—Tripathi says, “Policy shifts are not always announced through major reform. Sometimes they emerge suddenly in response to events. This is one of those moments. Applicants and attorneys need to read this as a signal that USCIS will apply closer scrutiny and expect a stronger showing of good faith and compliance.”
USCIS will be reviewing both pending and approved permanent residence applications for individuals from the 19 listed countries of concern: Afghanistan, Burma, Burundi, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Laos, Libya, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Togo, Turkmenistan, Venezuela, and Yemen. The move has sparked concerns about whether the administration’s plans to restrict immigration from certain countries could expand in the coming days.
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President Trump’s Truth Social post further heightened expectations that a more expansive bar may be forthcoming. Just ahead of Thanksgiving, Trump posted, “I will permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the U.S. system to fully recover, terminate all of the millions of Biden illegal admissions, including those signed by Sleepy Joe Biden’s Autopen, and remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States, or is incapable of loving our Country.”
The post underscored the president’s authority to suspend the entry of foreign nationals under Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. While the path forward remains unclear, experts say it is possible that the president could broaden existing proclamations or issue new directives.
For now, according to Tripathi, the individuals who should be paying closest attention are “Applicants from countries identified in ‘PP 10949’ as well as those applicants who have any gaps, delays, or compliance issues.” He also advises that applicants whose approvals depend on positive equities such as community ties or hardship “be also particularly careful.”