TRUMP’S ASSAULT ON LEGAL IMMIGRATION

Due to the actions of President Trump, 2025 has been a year of ICE raids, incarceration of immigrants and mass deportations.

What is less well known are the efforts of the Executive Branch of the Government to curtail legal immigration to the United States without the necessity of having Congress pass any laws to do so.

Below are a number of examples of President Trump’s efforts to reduce legal immigration to the US:

  1.  Pause on Diversity Lottery Green Cards
  2.  Denaturalization of US Citizens
  3.  Travel Ban Imposed on Nationals of 39 Countries
  4.  Pending Asylum Applications Placed on Hold
  5.  Imposition of $100,000 Filing Fee for H-1B Visas
  6.  End of Constitutional Right of Birthright Citizenship?
  7.  New Test and Good Moral Character Rule for Naturalization
  8.  Refugee Admissions Dramatically Decreased

Below are some information and links regarding these priorities of the current administration:.

This program, established in 1990, grants 55,000 green cards annually to persons from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States.  The majority of these persons are from Africa and Europe.

This program was paused in December 2025 when it was revealed that the suspect in the Brown University shooting had immigrated to the US in 2017 under the diversity lottery.

It seems totally irrational to suspend a program which benefits 55,000 persons annually based on the actions of a single individual.

For more information, please see https://www.shusterman.com/president-trump-on-immigration/

In December 2025, the USCIS asked its field offices to “supply Office of Immigration Litigation with 100-200 denaturalization cases per month.”

This is a huge increase from the number of denaturalization cases which stood at approximately 11 per year from 1990 to 2007.

When I served as an INS Naturalization Attorney in the 1970s, most denaturalization cases involved Nazi war criminals.

For more information, please see https://www.shusterman.com/denaturalization/

Disclaimer: This newsletter is not intended to establish an attorney-client relationship. All information contained in this newsletter is generalized. Any reliance on information contained herein is taken at your own risk.