The Donald Trump Administration has paused decisions on asylum applications, the director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced in X.
“USCIS has paused all asylum decisions until we can ensure that each alien is investigated and examined to the fullest extent possible,” USCIS Director Joe Edlow said Thursday.
“The safety of the American people always comes first.”
USCIS has halted all asylum until decisions we can ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible. The safety of the American people always comes first.
— USCIS Director Joseph B. Edlow (@USCISJoe) November 28, 2025
According to the Transactional Records Access Center at Syracuse University, cited by cnnat the end of August 2025 there were more than 2.2 million immigrants waiting for asylum decisions or hearings.
The USCIS order comes hours after Trump’s announcement to “permanently” halt migration “from all third world countries” following Wednesday’s shooting in which an Afghan national allegedly fired on the National Guard in Washington, DC, leaving one agent dead and another in critical condition.
The same dependency, precise EFEhad announced on Thursday a “rigorous review” of the resident cards, or ‘green cards’, of migrants from 19 countries of “concern”, including Afghanistan, Cuba, Venezuela and Haiti.
He also reported the suspension of migration applications for Afghans on Wednesday, minutes after a message to the nation from Trump, who blamed the immigration policies of his predecessor, Joe Biden, for the entry of the alleged perpetrator, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, and the subsequent attack.
According to the Spanish agency, the United States admitted, during the Biden Administration, more than 100,000 refugees in 2024, a record in 30 years, but one of the first measures of the Trump Government was to stop the Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP).
The DHS also said that it will review all asylum cases that were approved under Biden’s mandate.
