Migration and Refugees

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Following passage of the “One Big Beautiful Bill” law, which included $170 billion for immigration enforcement and border security, the Trump administration has intensified deportation enforcement actions that have shocked the public, including the use of masked agents in plainclothes picking up individuals off the streets.  

In December 2025, President Trump paused immigration applications for individuals from the 19 countries previously subject to the near total travel ban imposed in June 2025. Trump also suspended all asylum processing and initiated a review of asylum decisions made during the Biden administration, further deepening an already strained immigration system. In October, the administration set the 2026 refugee admissions ceiling at just 7,500—the lowest cap since the U.S. refugee program was established in 1980. Refugee slots will now “primarily be allocated among Afrikaners from South Africa” and “other victims of illegal or unjust discrimination in their respective homelands.”  

The administration has also terminated the Temporary Protected Status of nearly one million individuals legally authorized to work in the United States. Despite the administration’s rhetoric about going after dangerous criminals, the majority of immigrants being detained have no criminal record. This crackdown on nonviolent immigrants has led to labor shortages in industries dependent on migrant workers, like the agricultural, health care, and manufacturing sectors. Now, people who have lived and worked lawfully in their communities for decades are at risk of being sent to third countries they’ve never visited.  

A raid of a Hyundai factory in Georgia, part of the company’s $25 billion dollar investment into the United States, led to the arrest and removal of 300 South Korean workers – many of who claimed a legal right to work –  straining relations between America and South Korea, whose president warned that the incident would have “considerable impact on foreign direct investment in the U.S.”