Donald Trump is already taking steps to curb legal immigration — at least of people seeking safety in the U.S.
Flights have been canceled for refugees who followed a lengthy process to come to the U.S. legally, including for nearly 1,660 Afghans — some families of U.S. service members — already cleared for resettlement here. At the southern border, people seeking to follow the legal process to ask for asylum are being turned away.
Trump and Republicans typically frame the restrictions as meant to combat unauthorized immigration. But experts and immigration advocates said the new restrictions on legal pathways show that Trump’s efforts are less about securing the border and more about targeting immigration in general.
“It’s obvious that at this point they’ve completely moved on from the idea that ending illegal immigration is the top goal,” David Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, told NOTUS.
Through the executive orders, Trump is moving to end the admission of people into the country via the southern border, including those claiming asylum. He is freezing all refugee applications, perhaps indefinitely, and intends to terminate all categorical parole programs “contrary to the policies of the United States established in my Executive Orders.” Parole was used under Joe Biden to admit vetted migrants with sponsors in the U.S. from countries experiencing humanitarian crises, like Venezuela.
Some experts warned that cutting out legal processes for people to seek relief could simply lead more to try to enter the country without authorization.
“It’s pretty clear that there’s no legal option to come if you’re facing persecution in your home country,” said Bier, who predicted that Trump would cut legal migration much more than illegal migration during his term. “The fact that we’re basically telling anyone who’s fleeing persecution the only way to get here is to come illegally is a bad thing for border security.”
Some Democrats said these restrictions on people seeking relief through legal means were unproductive.
“We’ve always been a country that provides refuge and place for people that are just in horrible situations to resettle, and it’s historically been an incredibly positive thing for our country,” Sen. Mark Kelly said.
He said he supports border patrol and getting them more technology to do their jobs, but “some of this other stuff is just really shortsighted.”
Those who advocate for immigrant rights went further, saying the orders revealed that Trump and his allies oppose legal immigration of certain populations.
“If you’re culling the key legal pathway for recognized refugees to be resettled into this country, then that is pretty blatant that you’re just not for the migration of overwhelmingly brown and Black people who are fleeing persecution,” Robyn Barnard, the senior director of refugee advocacy at Human Rights First, said.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment on the restrictions.
The orders lack specifics about implementation and leave the door open for some migrants to face revoked status, such as those with parole or temporary protected status, while others may be allowed to stay. Many will be subject to lawsuits as they proceed forward, specifically the order that declares the border closed to asylum seekers, which lawyers told NOTUS violates existing law.
“Many of these orders are not sustainable. I think a federal court, obviously applying the law, is going to shut them down,” David Leopold, a lawyer and past president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, told NOTUS. “If that’s the case, then what’s the point? The point is to create chaos and panic.”
Other orders won’t initiate an immediate action but instead imply that one may come in the future. Trump’s order on visa applicants, for example, requires a report identifying countries where screening information is “deficient,” and applicants from that country could be barred from receiving visas at all.
These orders could be devastating to the refugees and asylum seekers who have waited years to come to the U.S.
“We fear that the impact will be massive on families who did everything right in terms of applying for refugee resettlement, who went through extreme vetting and health clearances in order to be approved to come to the U.S. and now languish in legal limbo,” Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Global Refuge, said of the frozen refugee program. “It’s not clear what comes next.”
Trump targeted refugee resettlement during his first term, arguing the vetting was insufficient. He and Republicans have been particularly critical of the asylum process at the border, which makes quick deportation more difficult.
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis told NOTUS that “there was no vetting” at the southern border for asylum seekers, which she said justified Trump’s actions.
“So now we have to pause everything, deport the individuals who have been conducting criminal activity, and then we can talk about how we can deal with the immigration issues, or the immigration system, and improve it,” she said.
While Biden sought to speed the asylum determination process, the asylum backlog is in the millions, which one analysis by Axios estimated could take four years to resolve before a potential “mass deportation.”
Immigration advocates don’t expect all of Trump’s orders to stand. But they do predict chaos to unfold as orders are rolled out, challenged in court, frozen or unfrozen, and a complicated patchwork of new regulations becomes more and more difficult to untangle.
“It creates a lot of confusion amongst the agencies about how to enforce it,” Austin Rose, managing attorney at the Amica Center Immigration Impact Lab, said. He said such confusion leads to incorrect decisions. “I think this is by design. This is about creating havoc and creating fear.”
Republicans said that they support legal immigration and so does Trump.
“I came to this country legally. That’s the way people should come here,” Sen. Bernie Moreno, who is an immigrant, said when asked about Trump’s executive orders. “President Trump wants to welcome immigrants here legally in the right way. I absolutely applaud him for doing that.”
When pushed about the legal programs that Trump targeted, he said, “Don’t worry. We’re gonna change the laws on that. Don’t you worry about that.”
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Casey Murray is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.