WASHINGTON, Oct 19 (APP):The Trump administration has cut legal immigration to the United States in half through sweeping visa freezes, bans, and tighter entry rules, marking one of the steepest contractions in modern American history, according to The New York Times. The State Department issued just 26,000 immigrant visas, which grant a green card and legal permanent resident status, in February, compared with an average of 52,000 a month in …
Legal Immigration cut in half, marking historic contraction of entry to US: NYT
WASHINGTON, Oct 19 (APP):The Trump administration has cut legal immigration to the United States in half through sweeping visa freezes, bans, and tighter entry rules, marking one of the steepest contractions in modern American history, according to The New York Times.
The State Department issued just 26,000 immigrant visas, which grant a green card and legal permanent resident status, in February, compared with an average of 52,000 a month in the years before Trump took office, the Times said, citing he most recent available government data.
The policies, which took effect late last year and early this year, made it all but impossible to immigrate from 91 countries and reduced the number of immigrant visas available in another 61, it was pointed out. Africa and the Middle East were hit particularly hard, and immigration from Muslim-majority countries plunged by more than 90 percent.
The 91-country total stems from a combination of the administration’s 39 travel-ban/restricted countries, Palestinian authority/nationals, and the 75 countries subject to immigrant visa freezes .
In the first year after President Donald Trump returned to office, the report said, the number of visas declined only slightly, by about 10 percent. Then in January, an expanded travel ban blocked people from 39 countries from receiving visas or entering the country, and a pause on visa issuance barred immigrants from 52 more countries.
The immigrant diversity visa, a special visa for people from countries with few immigrants, was suspended a month earlier.
The administration said at the time that the policies were put in place to improve the screening of visa applicants for security risks and for potential future use of public benefits.
Immigrant visas have been most affected, the Times said, but non-immigrant visas for students and workers declined as well, falling by 30 percent compared with a year before. Visas for tourists and business visitors were down about 25 percent in February, according to the report.
The travel ban fully prevented people from 39 countries from obtaining student or work visas — and new rules and fees meant that fewer student and H1-B visas were issued to people from other countries, too. India and China, for example, were not subject to any bans, but still saw sharp declines in student and work visas, it said.
Also, legal asylum applications at southern ports of entry dropped by 99.9%, and refugee admissions were slashed by around 90%, the report said.
The new policies were imposed without congressional approval and have since been blocked in federal court, the Times pointed out. At the end of August, federal courts in two separate lawsuits ordered the government to begin issuing visas again. However, despite the court orders, a vast majority of the people whose visas had been blocked are still waiting, according to the Times.
