Trump administration orders sweeping re-review of Biden-era refugee admissions, freezes green-card processing
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has ordered a comprehensive review and re-interview of refugees admitted to the United States under former President Joe Biden, an unprecedented step that could reopen cases for roughly 233,000 people and halt their path to permanent residence, according to an internal government memo seen by Reuters.
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The memo, dated Nov. 21 and signed by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Joe Edlow, directs officers to reassess refugees who entered between Jan. 20, 2021, and Feb. 20, 2025, and to terminate refugee status for those found not to meet statutory criteria. It also pauses processing of adjustment-of-status applications — green cards — for refugees admitted during that period.
- Scope: About 233,000 refugees admitted between Jan. 20, 2021, and Feb. 20, 2025
- Action: Case-by-case re-review and re-interviews; potential terminations
- Freeze: Halt to green-card processing for the affected group
- Future: USCIS may also review admissions outside the stated window
USCIS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The directive marks a sharp escalation of President Donald Trump’s broader clampdown on immigration, legal and illegal, since taking office in January, and a reversal of Biden administration policies that rebuilt the refugee program after years of cuts. Biden’s team welcomed more than 100,000 refugees in fiscal 2024.
The USCIS memo alleges that the prior administration “potentially prioritized expediency, quantity, and admissions over quality interviews and detailed screening and vetting.” It continues: “Given these concerns, USCIS has determined that a comprehensive review and a re-interview of all refugees admitted from January 20, 2021, to February 20, 2025, is warranted. When appropriate, USCIS will also review and re-interview refugees admitted outside this timeframe.”
The order cites Trump’s Jan. 20 executive action halting U.S. refugee resettlement, which directs admissions to prioritize national security and to admit “only those refugees who can fully and appropriately assimilate into the United States.”
In late October, Trump set the refugee admissions cap for fiscal 2026 at a record-low 7,500 and said his administration would focus on bringing in white South Africans of Afrikaner ethnicity. Trump argued Afrikaners face persecution in majority-Black South Africa, a claim South Africa’s government has rejected.
Refugee advocates and Democrats condemned the downsizing and the new vetting dragnet, saying it punishes people already subject to the toughest screening in the U.S. immigration system and jeopardizes families who fled persecution and have begun rebuilding their lives.
“Unnecessary, cruel and wasteful,” is how Mark Hetfield, president of HIAS, formerly the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, described the program outlined in the memo. “Refugees have already been more vetted than any other group of immigrants,” he said.
The latest directive follows Trump’s immediate freeze on refugee admissions upon taking office and signals deeper scrutiny ahead for the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. By halting green-card processing for those admitted under Biden, the new policy injects prolonged uncertainty into cases that typically move from initial admission to permanent residence after a year, pending security checks.
What happens next will hinge on how quickly — and on what grounds — USCIS conducts the re-interviews and whether the agency moves to strip status from people who were lawfully admitted. For now, tens of thousands of refugees, their resettlement agencies and U.S.-based family members face renewed wait times and the prospect of reopening cases they thought were resolved.
By Ali Musa
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
