The Trump administration is implementing stepped-up security screenings for immigrants applying for visas, asylum and citizenship, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services confirmed to NOTUS on Tuesday.

Officers with USCIS were ordered last week to utilize the agency’s greater access to FBI databases, including criminal history reports, to vet new immigration applicants.

News of the enhanced security checks was first reported by CBS News.

“USCIS has implemented new security checks to strengthen the vetting and screening of applicants through expanded access to federal criminal databases,” USCIS spokesperson Zach Kahler said. “Processing is ongoing as we apply these enhanced background check requirements. Any delay in decision issuance should be brief and resolved shortly. USCIS will always prioritize the safety of the American people.”

USCIS distributed internal guidance recently which told officers to resubmit any pending applications for immigration benefits for enhanced FBI background checks — and to pause any cases that had not gone through the new process, according to CBS News.

The use of FBI databases by USCIS to vet immigration applications is not new. But the new immigration screening process comes after President Donald Trump signed an executive order earlier this year to promote broader data sharing between USCIS and the FBI.

This order directs the Justice Department to provide USCIS with databases “to the maximum extent permitted by law” in order to identify possible criminals.

“Such criminal actors may include foreign nationals with criminal histories who have entered or remained in the United States in violation of the immigration laws of the United States or who otherwise seek to violate the criminal laws of the United States,” Trump wrote in the order.

The newly expanded security checks are a continuation of the Trump administration’s broad crackdown on both legal and illegal immigration.

Just last week, the Justice Department ramped up its efforts to strip the citizenship of hundreds of foreign-born Americans.

The department is targeting 384 foreign-born Americans in an unusual move by assigning denaturalization cases to prosecutors in many U.S. attorneys’ offices across the country rather than through attorneys specializing in immigration.

In comparison, the DOJ only pursued 305 cases between 1990 and 2017.