On Point with Meghna Chakrabarti The Trump administration's war against legal immigration
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Mar 3, 2026 David Beer, director of Immigration Studies at the Cato Institute and immigration policy analyst, breaks down how the Trump White House has sharply restricted legal pathways. He covers massive backlogs across visas, freezes on adjudications for dozens of countries, bans on employment and family entries, and policy moves that prioritize removals over due process.
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Legal Immigration System Grinding To A Halt
- The legal immigration system is effectively grinding to a halt under the current administration's policies.
- David Beer estimates a pre-policy backlog of ~12 million applications and about 2 million approvals blocked over the next year.
Legal Cuts Exceed Border Reductions
- The administration has cut legal immigration more aggressively than illegal entries by design.
- Actions include eliminating much of the refugee program, shutting asylum entry, and cutting parole entries by ~40,000 in a month.
USCIS Country Based Adjudication Freeze
- USCIS instituted a country-based freeze halting adjudication for ~40 countries' applicants.
- People who completed naturalization steps and paid fees were blocked from oath ceremonies with no individualized denials.