- The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a record 196,600 Notices to Appear for deportation in 2025.
- The agency referred over 14,400 cases to ICE, identifying 182 individuals as confirmed or suspected national security risks.
- Aggressive anti-fraud operations led to over 29,000 referrals, with fraud confirmed in 65% of investigated cases.
- Policy changes tightened vetting, ended temporary protections for several nations, and strengthened the citizenship test.
- Officials frame the actions as restoring integrity to an immigration system they say was dismantled under the prior administration.
In a sweeping end-of-year review, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has detailed what it calls “historic levels of enforcement” for 2025, highlighting a dramatic shift in policy and practice under the Trump administration. The agency, tasked with lawful immigration processing, reported issuing approximately 196,600 Notices to Appear—the charging documents that begin deportation proceedings—and referring over 14,400 individuals to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for fraud, public safety, or national security concerns. These figures, released just before the close of the year, underscore a systemic pivot toward stringent vetting and aggressive enforcement, reversing policies from the Biden era that officials argue compromised border security and system integrity.
Unprecedented enforcement and national security vetting
The 2025 data marks a stark numerical increase in enforcement actions initiated by USCIS, an agency whose primary function had been adjudicating benefits like green cards and citizenship. Under Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, USCIS has explicitly embraced a law enforcement role. Beyond the nearly 200,000 deportation initiations, the agency identified 182 individuals as “confirmed or suspected to be national security risks.” This enhanced focus follows a directive from Noem to re-examine every green card from high-risk countries and pause asylum processing after a November attack in Washington, D.C., involving an Afghan national. The administration has also established a new vetting center, leveraging technology and intelligence partnerships to identify threats.
A declared “war on fraud”
Central to the agency’s annual report is its declared “war on immigration fraud.” USCIS officers made more than 29,000 fraud referrals to its Fraud Detection and National Security (FDNS) Directorate in 2025—a number the agency claims surpasses the total during the entire prior Biden administration. Investigations completed on over 19,300 of those cases found fraud in 65 percent. To uncover deception, FDNS conducted more than 6,500 site visits and over 19,500 social media checks on applicants’ online posts. The agency highlighted “Operation Twin Shield,” its largest-ever enforcement operation based in Minneapolis-St. Paul, which uncovered schemes ranging from marriage fraud to visa misuse and led to arrests, benefit denials and the discovery of an individual with terrorism ties.
Policy shifts: Closing loopholes and prioritizing Americans
The enforcement statistics are bolstered by a series of policy reversals and regulatory changes. USCIS, with DHS, terminated Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for several countries, including Haiti, Venezuela and Nicaragua, asserting the humanitarian program was being exploited and was always meant to be temporary. It also ended expansive “parole” programs for certain nationalities, returning to a case-by-case basis. Domestically, the agency strengthened rules to verify the authenticity of family and marriage relationships for immigration purposes and shortened the validity period of work permits to allow for more frequent vetting. A revised naturalization test, made longer and more difficult, alongside the reinstatement of “neighborhood investigations” for citizenship applicants, aims to raise the bar for becoming an American.
Historical context and political divide
The current crackdown revives historical debates over immigration enforcement intensity. The approach echoes earlier periods of stringent oversight and carries echoes of the “attrition through enforcement” strategies that gained prominence in the 2000s. It stands in direct opposition to the philosophy of the immediate past administration, which focused on creating pathways for long-term residents and “Dreamers.” Legislative efforts like the Dream Act of 2025, introduced by Democratic senators to provide legal status to undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children, illustrate the deep political chasm. The Trump administration’s actions are framed explicitly as a corrective to what officials label the “dismantling” of the immigration system, prioritizing national security and American workers—a principle encapsulated in the “America First” mantra repeatedly cited by agency leadership.
A restored system or a radical shift?
The 2025 review from USCIS presents a narrative of restored order and rigor. With over 2,400 arrests at its own field offices, a massive hiring push for “Homeland Defenders,” and billions of eligibility checks to prevent benefit abuse, the agency portrays itself as a newly muscular arm of homeland security. For supporters, these measures represent a necessary reclaiming of sovereignty and the rule of law. For critics, they signify a harsh departure from American traditions of refuge and a potentially unsustainable focus on enforcement over broader reform. As the administration looks ahead, the data from this first year sets a formidable benchmark for its immigration agenda, ensuring that the balance between security and compassion will remain a defining and deeply contentious issue for the nation.
Sources for this article include:
TheEpochTimes.com
USCIS.gov
FoxNews.com
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