US halts all asylum cases, reopens thousands under sweeping security review – World
The Trump administration has imposed the most sweeping internal freeze on immigration benefits in decades, ordering United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to halt all asylum adjudications and suspend a broad range of applications from nationals of 19 “high-risk” countries, while reopening thousands of previously approved cases for fresh security screening.
The directive, issued this week to USCIS field offices, follows a series of violent incidents involving Afghan nationals admitted under earlier programmes. Those cases prompted the White House to conclude that vetting procedures between 2021 and 2024 were “dangerously insufficient”, triggering a system-wide overhaul of immigration screening.
The freeze is the domestic counterpart to Presidential Proclamation 10949, which in June barred the entry of nationals from 19 countries. Now the same nationalities face extensive restrictions inside the US. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has already recommended that the travel-ban list be expanded to more than 30 countries.
“Our forefathers built this nation on blood, sweat, and the unyielding love of freedom — not for foreign invaders to slaughter our heroes, suck dry our hard-earned tax dollars, or snatch the benefits owed to Americans. We don’t want them. Not one,” Noem said in a statement posted on her X account.
Secretary Noem issued the statement after a Monday meeting with President Donald Trump, who has also signed a series of executive orders tightening immigration controls.
The USCIS memorandum directs officers to place an immediate hold on all asylum applications, regardless of nationality. This includes applicants from countries rarely associated with security concerns. Immigration attorneys say they are not aware of any previous instance in which asylum adjudications were frozen across the board.
The order also suspends all immigration benefit applications filed by nationals of the 19 restricted countries. These include green card petitions, replacement green cards, travel documents, parole extensions and applications to preserve continuous residence for naturalisation. Even routine services — such as replacing a lost green card — are now paused.
But the most far-reaching element may be the retroactive review. USCIS officers have been instructed to reopen and re-examine all approved immigration benefits granted to nationals of the listed countries who entered the US on or after Jan 20, 2021. Mandatory interviews — with no possibility of a waiver — will be required in many cases, and cases may be referred to law enforcement if concerns arise during the review.
The memo mentions that the shift began after two recent incidents: the guilty plea of Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, accused of plotting an Islamic State-inspired attack on Election Day 2024, and the arrest of Rahmanullah Lakanwal, charged with killing a National Guard member in Washington. Both men entered the US after 2021. The administration says these cases exposed “critical failures” in identity verification and cross-agency vetting systems.
The memo cites President Trump’s Executive Order 14161, issued on his first day in office, which directed the Department of Homeland Security to reassess security vulnerabilities across the immigration system. Under the new policy, even individuals who have already passed background checks, including some who obtained green cards or asylum protections, may now be required to undergo additional interviews and updated screening.
The agency acknowledges the delays this will cause but says national security concerns outweigh processing timelines. USCIS has offered no indication of when asylum adjudications or the suspended benefit categories may resume.
In an earlier post, Noem wrote: “If you are a legal professional, the Trump administration is calling on you to join the Justice Department as a deportation judge and help restore integrity and honour to the nation’s immigration court system.”
The call included an offer of an annual salary ranging from $159,951 to $207,500.
Immigration advocates predict legal challenges, noting that the memo effectively shuts down asylum processing nationwide and reverses years of completed cases. Administration officials counter that the steps are necessary to “protect the American people” at a moment when, they say, security gaps remain too wide.
For now, hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers and applicants from the restricted countries are left in limbo as the administration undertakes what officials describe as a “top-to-bottom” review of US immigration vetting.
