The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has paused several programmes permitting temporary immigrant settlement, according to a Friday report by The New York Times.
The directive demands an immediate end to “final decisions” on certain visa applications pending a review by the Trump administration about whether to cancel the immigrant settlement programmes permanently, the Times reported, citing an email sent by the top official at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
The programmes offer possible entry for a large number of immigrants from an array of countries, including war-torn Ukraine and others dealing with political upheaval or extreme poverty.
Trump’s Executive Orders
President Donald Trump, on his first day in office on Monday, issued a series of executive orders intended to deter illegal immigration and position the U.S. to deport millions of immigrants without legal status.
The Trump administration is pushing ahead with efforts to ramp up immigration enforcement, opening up the possibility of targeting migrants who entered through Biden-era programmes and invoking an obscure immigration statute to make it easier to deputise state and local law enforcement to arrest and detain immigrants in the U.S. illegally.
One terminated programme had allowed migrants waiting in Mexico to schedule an appointment to request asylum at a legal border crossing.
Another allowed Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans outside the U.S. to enter by air if they had U.S. sponsors and undergone vetting.
Ban On Asylum
Trump has issued a broad ban on asylum and taken steps to restrict citizenship for children born on American soil.
A U.S. official said on Wednesday the military would dispatch 1,000 additional active-duty troops to the Mexico-U.S. border on Trump’s orders.
The administration has rescinded guidance from his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden that had limited immigration arrests near schools, churches and other sensitive places.
More Power To Officers
Trump has also expanded immigration officers’ power to deport migrants who cannot prove they have been in the U.S. for longer than two years.
His move to expand fast-track deportations faced a legal challenge on Wednesday.
(With inputs from Reuters)
