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State of U.S. Immigration
Part 2

Who is allowed into the United States?

For part 1, click HERE ([link removed]).

Asylum Ban
The administration has taken an aggressive approach to legal immigration and existing humanitarian pathways to the United States. The initial Executive Orders (EO) on "Protecting the American People Against Invasion," ([link removed]) and "Securing our Border" ([link removed]) ended access to the U.S. asylum process at ports of entry on the U.S.-Mexico border. This is consistent with a decades-long practice of U.S. administrations enacting what is referred to as "prevention through deterrence:" enacting hostile policies towards those seeking asylum at the Southern border as an effort to deter or discourage people from coming to the United States.

The EO also violates U.S. law([link removed])which requires that any noncitizen "who is physically present in the United States or who arrives in the United States (whether or not at a designated port of arrival . . . ), irrespective of such [noncitizen]'s status, may apply for asylum." 11 people and 2 organizations filed suit ([link removed]) challenging the EO, and litigation is ongoing.

People are still crossing the U.S. southern border, albeit in much smaller numbers. The EO mentioned above allows the administration to deport anyone apprehended while crossing the border. According to the American Immigration Council ([link removed]), "the DHS statistics show that southwest border 'encounters' have remained under 15,000 a month since February 2025--down from a December 2023 peak of over 300,000." These new policies also had a direct impact on people who were already at the Southern border waiting to seek asylum, including:

30,000 canceled appointments for asylum claims; and
270,000 people stranded in Mexico waiting for asylum.
(Source: American Immigration Council ([link removed]))

Refugee Ban
The U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, a program that facilitates a legal pathway to resettlement for those fleeing violence and persecution, is a separate legal mechanism, different from the asylum process. (Remember: A person is granted refugee status overseas, whereas a person applies for asylum upon arrival in the U.S. Here's a brief overview of the difference ([link removed])). The United States has historically been a leader in refugee resettlement, with the President setting the annual determination number each year.

As of January 20, 2025 there were approximately 100,000 refugees in the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) pipeline, most of them referred by the office of the UN High Commissioner on Refugees, including 12,000 who had made it through years-long vetting process and already booked travel to the United States (source: American Immigration Council ([link removed])).

The administration has allowed one notable exception to the refugee ban. On February 7, 2025, the president signed an Executive Order entitled "Addressing Egregious Actions of The Republic of South Africa ([link removed])" directing the administration to resettle white South Africans who claimed they were victims of racial persecution from the country's Black majority. Quixote Center is aligned with the National Immigration Council's ([link removed]) analysis of this: "The one exception to the refugee ban...shows how flimsy the administration's pretext for gutting the refugee program really is. While two years of vetting is apparently insufficient for most refugees, a group of white farmers claiming persecution at the hands of a majority-Black country is presumed by this administration to "be assimilated easily" into the U.S. after scarcely any vetting at all."

Travel Ban
The administration has also forged ahead with new barriers to legal immigration, including a new system of country-wide "travel bans" that bars entry for anyone from the following 12 countries ([link removed]): Afghanistan, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Myanmar, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen. There are also 7 countries under a partial travel ban, and additional countries under consideration.

Tightened Scrutiny & Revocation of Legal Pathways
All visa applications for studying, working, and traveling to the United States (legal pathways) will now undergo higher levels of scrutiny. The U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (the two federal agencies who issue and adjudicate visas) have issued new policies for "aggressive ideological screening of applicants ([link removed])." Students and other visa applicants are required to now have their social media profiles set to "public" so their posts can be reviewed by administration officials - a clear threat to free speech and first amendment rights.

The administration has attempted to revoke legal, protective, and humanitarian statuses from various populations. As Quixote Center has highlighted in the past ([link removed]), these types of temporary and protective immigration statuses can be granted or revoked based on the ebb and flow of political administrations. The Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan (CHNV), Temporary Protective Status (TPS), as well as the parole programs for Afghanistan and Ukraine are all temporary protections that leave migrants without a permanent status to fall back on, and we are now seeing the human implications when those statuses are revoked or challenged.

With the passage of the budget reconciliation, or the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBA), the administration has also implemented major fee increases on legal immigration pathways. The chart below from the American Immigration Council highlights the major fee increases in the bill. For a full accounting of the fee increases, please navigate to USCIS's website ([link removed]).

Source: American Immigration Council ([link removed])

The global and U.S. higher education community is also concerned about the administration's attack on free speech for international students, including the arrest and detention of Mahmoud Kalil ([link removed]), and the proposed $100,000 fee on H1B visas. The widespread ICE raids undoubtedly have had an impact on university and college campuses. Students at four universities in Washington, DC ([link removed]) had hundreds turnout for their organized campus-wide protest of the presence of ICE agents throughout Washington, DC.

Further Immigration Actions since OBBA (so-called One Big Beautiful Bill)
It is going to get worse before it gets better. The Washington Post([link removed])recently provided a detailed analysis of active detention facilities in the U.S. and those expected to open by year-end. The map below shows what ICE detention facilities are currently active and what are set to open. ICE's aim is to hold 100,000 people in detention ([link removed]) as an average daily population by the end of the year. According to the National Immigration Council ([link removed]), it's not clear if they will be able to meet it, but they do have the money to accomplish this goal.

The so-called One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBA) ([link removed]) gave ICE an unprecedented $45 billion (yes, billion) to be spent through the end of fiscal year 2029. That averages out to over $10 billion a year on average ([link removed]), and that's on top of the $3.4 billion that ICE currently gets in funding every year for detention (a sum that may even increase). All told, this would be an ICE annual detention budget of upwards of $13-14 billion per year.

This planned expansion of detention centers is taking place all over the United States, including via contracts with pre-existing jails (including facilities operated by state governments via 287(g) agreements ([link removed])), brand new facilities set to be constructed, as well as "softsided facilities" like the Everglades detention camp (also known as "Alligator Alcatraz" ([link removed])) that Governor DeSantis built. According to Aaron Reichlin-Melnick ([link removed]) at the American Immigration Council, ICE will soon max out the number of available facilities that can be used for permanent infrastructure and will move towards creating custom-built facilities, including tent camps, which is the future of detention in the United States. This is already happening in El Paso, Texas, where ICE plans to open the largest immigration detention center([link removed])in the country, potentially holding anywhere from 3-5,000 people at any given time, all in tents.

The Washington Post([link removed]) has a handy chart illustrating the trend.

Altogether, the OBBA provides more than $170 billion over four years for immigration enforcement, more than the yearly budget for all local and state law enforcement agencies combines across the entire United States ([link removed]). ICE is already on a hiring surge, seeking to hire for 10,000 openings([link removed])through the Department of Homeland Security. The American Immigration Council and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) are arguing that these new agents will face significantly lower hiring standards than those at the FBI and other federal agencies. This, they warn, is likely to lead to a surge in rights violations. It appears to us that the administration is creating its own domestic militia.

A recent ICE kidnapping in Prince George's County, Maryland was captured on video (trigger warning) ([link removed]) by local photographer, Raphi Talisman, and illustrates what this type of careless recruitment surge will likely lead to: agents deployed to our communities who lack the proper training, with the potential for violence to continue to escalate. The ICE agent is seen in the video dropping his gun in the attempted arrest, scrambles for it, and then proceeds to point the gun at onlookers. The detainee is heard saying "I love America" while being violently pressed to the ground. The agents placed the man in handcuffs and placed him in a van. It is unknown why the officers arrested him or if he is facing charges. The government amassing an army of untrained, armed federal agents does not make our communities safer.

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To comment on this piece, please visit our blog HERE ([link removed]).
Did you miss part 1 of the series? You can read it HERE ([link removed]).
Keep an eye out for Part 3 tomorrow.

 

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