Detailing the Trump Administration’s Restrictions on Legal Immigration Pathways

Written by Tanner Drant

Edited by Saneya Mohamed and Francesca Howard

Image under Public Domain

On May 22nd, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced a new policy requiring green card applicants to return to their country of origin while they wait for approval. This policy is enacted as the Trump administration continues to carry out its immigration agenda that has attacked legal immigration to the U.S. since the start of his second term. Meanwhile, the announcement leaves millions of green card applicants scrambling for answers.

During his 2024 Presidential campaign, Trump focused his immigration agenda on illegal immigration by highlighting the group of illegal immigrants who have committed violent crimes in the U.S. On the legal side of immigration, Trump had a different approach, selectively supporting legal immigration by promoting the distribution of green cards to recent college and junior college graduates, among other policy decisions. Trump’s attempts to restrict and enforce illegal immigration have continued during his second term, as seen through his administration sending ICE agents to cities such as Minneapolis, L.A., and Chicago. However, after ICE agents shot and killed American citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti in January—causing widespread protest and backlash—the Trump administration pulled ICE from many major U.S. cities. Consequently, since then, Trump’s attempts to curb legal immigration pathways have begun to gain national attention after being hidden behind ICE’s media coverage for months.

Along with restrictions to green card access, Trump has made it harder to be granted asylum. His administration ended the temporary protected status for immigrants from several countries, which has caused many who are fleeing wars and natural disasters to be turned away from the U.S. This policy has significantly reduced asylum claims during the Trump administration despite ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. 

Trump is also attempting to get rid of Birthright Citizenship. He appealed the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment to the Supreme Court, which grants citizenship to all people born in the U.S., and even became the first sitting president to attend a Supreme Court oral argument. The case will be decided in the coming months. 

Lastly, the Trump administration has deported Dreamers who were protected under President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), stating that the program does not give indefinite protection to immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. These deportations have split up families and sent people to foreign countries despite living in the U.S. for nearly their entire lives.

Thus, the Trump administration's recent green card announcement comes amid a multifaceted attack on the American immigration system. Following the announcement of the policy, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services cited the number of people denied green cards who remain in the U.S. illegally as the main reason for the new policy. However, this reason pales in comparison to the millions of green card seekers who are now expected to immediately return to their country of origin or risk being deported. 

As the Trump administration has worked tirelessly to restrict legal immigration pathways, modern trends imply that legal immigration is generally supported by American citizens and boosts the American economy. A 2025 Gallup poll shows that only 30% of Americans believe legal immigration should be reduced—down from 55% in 2024. This trend shows not only that the majority of Americans favor legal immigration, but also that the country is actively becoming increasingly open to the process. Additionally, it has been the common belief among Americans for decades that immigration aids the economy. In 2022, undocumented immigrants paid $100 billion in taxes—despite not receiving many of the same tax benefits given to U.S. citizens. In the same year, immigrants also made up 18.1% of the U.S. labor force. 

More importantly, however, the Trump administration has failed to recognize that by restricting legal immigration pathways, they are not only contradicting the views of Americans and economic trends, but they are failing to support people who rely on the immigration system. Immigrants, in many cases, are fleeing violence, trying to reunite with their family, or attempting to create a better life for themselves in the U.S. For centuries, the U.S. has been known as a place where people from across the globe could come to seek refuge and build a new life for themselves; however, the Trump administration has severely tarnished that legacy.

Given all of these reasons for supporting legal immigration, one might ask why the President is continuing to do just the opposite. The answer is simple: politics. Despite the lack of support of ICE, immigration continues to be one of President Trump’s more popular issues. According to The Economist, the President maintains a -11 approval rating on immigration, which, although not impressive on its own, ranks second in the President’s issue-based approval ratings—only behind crime. Additionally, immigration was a central part of Trump’s 2024 campaign, as he fed off the American public’s disapproval of Joe Biden’s open border policies to gain political ground by promising to restrict illegal immigration. 

Trump even went as far as to shut down the bipartisan 2024 Emergency National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act (ENSSAA), which would have enhanced border security while reforming the asylum process. Although the bill was created and supported by many members of both parties, Trump convinced GOP congressmen to shut it down since he felt that it would reflect positively on Biden’s immigration agenda, which in turn would hurt his campaign’s immigration platform.

This example signals why immigration continues to be a political issue despite an obvious need for the system to be reformed. A comprehensive immigration reform has not been passed since the Reagan administration. In the time since, the means and extent of immigration have changed drastically, while the system has stayed—for the most part—the same. However, over that 40-year span, politicians have chosen to manipulate immigration trends for their political benefit instead of trying to fix the system. Thus, politicians such as President Trump need to stop playing politics and work on further bipartisan, comprehensive immigration bills that improve immigration for both our country and for the people who rely on it.

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Sources:

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/23/us/politics/trump-legal-immigration.html

https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/22/politics/green-card-seekers-leave-us-apply

https://forumtogether.org/article/border-security-and-asylum-reform-in-the-emergency-national-security-supplemental-appropriations-act-2024-bill-explainer/

https://news.gallup.com/poll/692522/surge-concern-immigration-abated.aspx

https://www.economist.com/interactive/trump-approval-tracker

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/15/us/trump-deportations-daca.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2026/05/22/new-rule-requires-most-green-card-applicants-apply-outside-us/

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-collapse-of-bipartisan-immigration-reform-a-guide-for-the-perplexed/

https://taxpolicycenter.org/fiscal-facts/yes-undocumented-immigrants-pay-taxes-and-receive-few-tax-benefits

https://cmsny.org/importance-of-immigrant-labor-to-us-economy/