Behind Trump’s Latest Push to Limit Immigration

Trump has yet to publicly acknowledge that he lost the election to Biden, but his team quickly implemented changes on everything from troop withdrawals to repealing environmental regulations. The administration’s push on immigration is attributed to Stephen Miller, the senior aide who largely guided the president’s policy on the issue for four years, according to people on both sides of the debate.

“Since taking office, President Trump has never shied away from using his legal executive authority to push forward bold policies and keep the promises he made to the American people,” the House spokesperson said. Blanche, Judd Deere, who declined to comment on specific actions. The Homeland Security Department did not respond to requests for comment.

The wave of recent immigration changes – mostly rules, regulations, and tough administrative policy – is capping nearly four years of reduced legal and illegal immigration to the United States.

Trump has denied visas to citizens of several Muslim-majority countries. He erected over 400 miles of a 30-foot steel wall along the southern border, much of a more robust replacement for what was already there. It severely restricted the granting of asylum applications. And, this year it has used the coronavirus outbreak to reduce the number of foreign workers in the United States and essentially close the southern border to migrants.

But Trump failed to keep some promises on immigration. Perhaps most notably, he has yet to end an Obama-era program that provides work permits to hundreds of thousands of immigrants who arrived illegally in the United States as children. Trump tried to end the program in its first year, but the Supreme Court rejected his action.

However, a Houston federal judge who has suggested he shares Trump’s view that President Barack Obama has overstepped his authority by creating the Deferred Action Program for Childhood Arrivals is expected to rule on his decision soon. legality.

“Although we lost in court and DACA received overwhelming support, we are seeing a large-scale effort by the Trump administration to try and kill DACA out of the gate, subjecting 700,000 people to deportation and abandoning this program in the Senate. tour, ”said Todd Schulte, president of FWD.us, a group that works to protect the Dreamers.

Trump made immigration the centerpiece of his 2016 campaign, as well as the 2018 midterm election. But in 2020 he spoke less about the issue, largely because the election was passed. by the pandemic, which has killed more than 265,000 Americans and decimated the economy.

Biden has vowed to reverse Trump’s immigration policies and push Congress to strike an immigration deal. The task will not be easy. Over the past decades, Congress has repeatedly tried and failed to pass major revisions to the immigration system. And any executive action or new law would face legal challenges.

And the matter is further complicated by the latest push by the Trump administration to pass new immigration measures.

Part of the current work of the Trump team is the conclusion of initiatives that have been underway for months. Other efforts were recently launched after the elections. However, any attempt to enact significant new regulations at this point will be hampered by federal law imposing wait periods for many major regulatory changes.

Still, Trump aides are showing signs of long-term planning. Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf has just appointed two new members to an advisory board to help shape policy – Tom Jenkins, the fire chief of Rogers, Ark., And Catherine Lotrionte, senior researcher at Georgetown University.

And they initiate changes that can be implemented quickly.

On November 13, the administration announced that starting next month, the citizenship test will include more questions about US history and politics. The revised questionnaire, which received critical, will go from 100 to 128 questions.

Four days later, the administration said it would also give federal officials more discretion to approve an immigration application through updates to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services policy manual. . The changes will provide agents with an expanded list of positive and negative factors that they can use to accept or reject applicants. Administration officials said the new language would make decisions more consistent and fair, but immigrant advocates said new factors, such as strength of family ties, employment history and job status community, would lead to longer processing times and additional refusals.

On the same day, the administration released a draft rule that would limit work permits for immigrants awaiting deportation but not in detention.

USCIS Deputy Director of Policy Joseph Edlow said granting work permits to these immigrants “undermines the rule of law and weakens DHS enforcement and removal operations.”

The administration is also trying to pass even more restrictions on the H-1B highly skilled worker visa program, which U.S. employers abuse to replace U.S. workers with cheaper foreign labor.

The update would reduce the types of jobs foreign workers can apply for, while forcing employers to pay foreign workers more – the changes the administration predicted would affect at least a third of H-1B applications. He also wants to ditch the normal random visa lottery selection process, prioritizing visa slots for employers offering the highest paying positions.

Business groups have opposed such changes, but Trump’s hard base supports them.

Outside groups are pushing the administration to go even further in its last days.

Chris Chmielenski, deputy director of NumbersUSA, which supports immigration restrictions, said he hopes the administration will also limit a program that provides work permits to international students. The administration previously considered the move, but never acted.

“Regarding the promises made by the president before his election and even after his election, we would like to see him keep,” Chmielenski said. “Past administrations have done it. It’s something they do. “

Rebecca Rainey contributed to this report.