Trump administration scaling back asylum crackdown enacted after D.C. National Guard shooting, sources say

The Trump administration is scaling back a crackdown on asylum that brought hundreds of thousands of immigration applications to a halt, two Department of Homeland Security officials told CBS News.

In late November, after the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., allegedly at the hands of an Afghan man who had been granted asylum in 2025, the Trump administration enacted a pause on asylum cases overseen by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. One of those National Guard members died from her injuries.

The unprecedented move, which the Trump administration argued was necessary to address national security concerns, amounted to an indefinite suspension of all asylum requests filed outside of immigration court, regardless of the applicant’s nationality.

But the administration has decided to lift the asylum adjudication pause for most cases, except for those filed by nationals from countries affected by a travel ban or steep immigration restrictions stemming from a previous proclamation by President Trump, the DHS sources said, requesting anonymity to describe an internal plan that had not been formally announced.

The asylum freeze will remain in place for immigrants from 39 nations whose citizens currently face full or partial entry restrictions under the “travel ban” proclamation, which Mr. Trump expanded in December. That list includes African countries like Senegal, Somalia and Nigeria; Asian nations like Afghanistan, Iran and Laos; and Latin American countries like Cuba, Haiti and Venezuela. 

In a statement to CBS News on Sunday, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed “USCIS has lifted the adjudicative hold for thoroughly screened asylum seekers from non high-risk countries.”

“This move allows resources to focus on continued rigorous national security and public safety vetting for higher-risk cases,” DHS said, adding that the administration’s “maximum screening and vetting for ALL aliens continues unabated.” 

The Trump administration has also frozen all other legal immigration applications filed by nationals of the 39 nations listed on the “travel ban,” including requests for work permits, green cards and even American citizenship. That suspension, which was also enacted after the shooting of the National Guard soldiers in Washington, remains in place.

The pause in asylum and other immigration cases is one of several policies the second Trump administration has rolled out to tighten the legal U.S. immigration system. The administration has also sought to restrict work permits for asylum-seekers and to reexamine the cases of legal refugees admitted under the Biden administration.

Trump administration officials have said their policies are designed to combat immigration fraud and national security concerns, and bolster vetting procedures they believe became too lax under the Biden administration. Pro-immigration advocates, meanwhile, have accused the administration of punishing legal immigrants who are complying with immigration rules.