The Trump administration is rolling back a sweeping asylum crackdown that had halted hundreds of thousands of immigration applications, two Department of Homeland Security officials told CBS News.
In late November, following the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C. — an attack allegedly carried out by an Afghan man who had been granted asylum in 2025 — the administration imposed an unprecedented pause on asylum cases handled by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). One of the injured Guard members later died.
The pause amounted to an indefinite suspension of asylum requests filed outside immigration court, regardless of applicants’ nationalities. Now, DHS officials said, the administration will lift the adjudicative hold for most cases, while keeping the suspension for applicants from countries subject to a travel ban or steep immigration restrictions under a prior presidential proclamation.
The asylum freeze will remain in effect for nationals of 39 countries that currently face full or partial entry restrictions under the expanded travel ban issued in December. That list includes African countries such as Senegal, Somalia and Nigeria; Asian nations including Afghanistan, Iran and Laos; and Latin American countries such as Cuba, Haiti and Venezuela.
In a statement to CBS News, DHS confirmed that “USCIS has lifted the adjudicative hold for thoroughly screened asylum seekers from non high-risk countries.” The department said the change “allows resources to focus on continued rigorous national security and public safety vetting for higher-risk cases,” and emphasized that “maximum screening and vetting for ALL aliens continues unabated.”
The administration also continues to freeze other legal immigration applications filed by nationals of the 39 listed countries — including requests for work permits, green cards and citizenship — a suspension put in place after the D.C. shooting that remains active.
This adjustment is part of a broader set of policies the second Trump administration has pursued to tighten legal immigration, including limits on work permits for asylum seekers and reviews of refugees admitted during the previous administration. Officials argue these measures address fraud and national security vulnerabilities and restore stricter vetting they say was relaxed under the Biden administration. Pro-immigration advocates counter that the policies unfairly punish legal immigrants who are following rules.