US Citizenship and Immigration Services announced what they found after the Donald Trump administration halted all immigration from certain countries, while the agency was tasked with checking whether all checks were in place and whether they were adequate. The administration is known for its anti-immigration sentiment, but the DC shooting in November 2025, where the shooter was an Afghan refugee, prompted unprecedented restrictions on multiple countries. The administration announced that it would not allow any immigration requests for high-risk countries. The agency provided an update on what it found on March 30. The update came after several organizations reported that the US administration has committed a major immigration fraud by stopping immigration to more than 50 countries because they charged application fees but there was no update on the decision of the cases. USCIS said it found that the screening and testing measures that were in place were grossly inadequate. Many applications for naturalization and lawful permanent residence were not adequately investigated. Applications were approved and individuals were naturalized who should not have been.
Asylum > Green Card > Naturalization
The target of this review process was asylum seekers in the US who eventually become US citizens eligible for all federal benefits. Asylum seekers may be from any country where they fear persecution or their country is facing some crisis, disaster etc. Once granted asylum, they can live and work in the US. After living as a refugee for a year, they can apply for a green card. Once they have a green card, they can apply for citizenship through naturalization.
What did USCIS review?
- USCIS has reviewed and updated screening and investigation practices, including: Shortening the validity period of certain employment authorization documents to require more frequent security checks.
- Updating photograph reuse policies to strengthen identity verification, including biometric identity verification, when reusing fingerprints.
- Increase in social media and financial investigations and community interviews.
- Launching Operation Paris to conduct additional background checks, re-interviews, and eligibility reviews of refugee claims led by the USCIS Vetting Center.
- Developing system connectivity for biometric matching and automatic notifications of new criminal information.
- A final arrest encounter review and State Department consular consolidated database check is required before a final decision is made.
USCIS said it has established an internal process for lifting holds on individual or group cases, which requires extensive review by multiple offices. The ban on aliens vetted through Operation Paris, certain petitions filed by U.S. citizens, intercountry adoption forms, certain rescheduled swearing-in ceremonies, issuance of statutory and regulatory adjudications, refugee registrations for South African nationals/nationals, certain special immigrant visa petitions, certain employment authorization documents, and asylum applications from non-high-risk countries has been lifted. USCIS has compiled information about each country listed in the travel ban proclamations and is working with the State Department to identify risk factors, including indicators of fraud, public safety or national security risks. The agency is also developing a layered vetting plan, which includes access to classified and unclassified information, as well as expanded criminal history checks, identity verification and ad-hoc security checks to close security gaps.
