Washington, D.C. – November 30, 2025President Donald Trump indicated that his administration’s nationwide pause on asylum decisions could last for an extended period, telling a reporter, “A long time. We don’t want those people. We have enough problems… You know why we don’t want them? Because many of them are NO GOOD and they should NOT be in our country.”The remark, echoing earlier comments in which Trump described many migrants as gang members, mentally ill or previously incarcerated, comes as his administration has already ordered an across-the-board halt to asylum decisions in the wake of the National Guard shooting near the White House.—What the asylum “pause” actually doesOn Friday, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) instructed asylum officers to stop approving, denying, or otherwise closing asylum applications — effectively freezing decisions for hundreds of thousands of people.In parallel, the administration has:Suspended asylum and visa decisions for Afghan nationals, after an Afghan asylum seeker, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, was charged with killing one National Guard soldier and critically wounding another steps from the White House.Tied any resumption of asylum decisions to a sweeping “re-vetting” effort, with officials saying the pause will last “until we can ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible.”Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has publicly linked the freeze to the Lakanwal case, arguing that the suspect was radicalized after arriving in the U.S. and using the incident to justify broader crackdowns, including deportation flights and a review of green cards from “countries of concern.”—A backlog already measured in millionsThe asylum pause comes on top of an unprecedented case backlog:Roughly 2.3 million asylum seekers are currently waiting for hearings or decisions in immigration courts alone.Affirmative asylum cases at USCIS — filed directly with the agency rather than in court — exceeded 1.4 million pending applications by the end of 2024 and have continued to rise in 2025.Overall, immigration courts have been handling around 3.4–3.8 million cases, with asylum grants falling and denial rates climbing sharply in 2025.Noem and other officials have argued that asylum should remain frozen until what they describe as a 1.5+ million-case asylum backlog is “cleared,” a condition that could take years under current capacity.Advocates say the pause effectively weaponizes that backlog against people seeking protection. Immigration lawyers warn that indefinite inaction may violate U.S. asylum law, which guarantees the right to apply for asylum regardless of how a person entered the country, and could run afoul of international non-refoulement obligations that prohibit sending people back to persecution.—Part of a broader push to “permanently pause” migrationTrump’s new comments on asylum are consistent with a broader, hard-line immigration posture he has outlined since returning to office in January:In recent speeches, Trump has vowed to “permanently pause migration” from poorer nations and pursue “reverse migration,” describing immigrants from “third world countries” as a source of crime and “social dysfunction.”An internal memo revealed that the administration is reviewing some 233,000 refugees admitted under President Biden, freezing many of their paths to permanent residency and threatening to strip refugee status from those deemed ineligible.The administration has set refugee admissions at historic lows and signaled a preference for certain groups, such as white South Africans, drawing criticism from refugee advocates and foreign governments.For Afghans in particular, the asylum and visa freeze has thrown thousands of evacuees — many of whom worked alongside U.S. forces — into limbo. Communities in places like Orange County, California, home to one of the country’s largest Afghan diasporas, are bracing for stalled cases, expiring work permits and deepening uncertainty.—A long pattern of restricting asylumImmigration experts say the current asylum halt is the most sweeping step yet, but not an isolated move. It builds on a years-long pattern of policies aimed at narrowing access to protection:During Trump’s first term, the administration created the “Remain in Mexico” program, forcing asylum seekers to wait in often dangerous conditions south of the border while their U.S. cases were processed.A series of travel bans and refugee suspensions — including Executive Orders 13769 and 13780 — sharply curtailed arrivals from several Muslim-majority countries and halted the U.S. refugee program for extended periods.In 2025, Trump signed Executive Order 14163, temporarily suspending refugee admissions again while declaring that new entries were “detrimental” to the United States, with only narrow case-by-case exceptions.Separate DHS decisions have terminated Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for nationals of multiple crisis-hit countries, including Myanmar, Afghanistan, Cameroon and Venezuela, exposing tens of thousands to possible deportation despite ongoing instability in their homelands.Collectively, rights groups argue, these steps amount to a deliberate dismantling of the asylum and refugee system. Organizations like HIAS, AILA and other legal advocacy groups have documented how changes to immigration courts and asylum rules under “Trump 2.0” have made it harder both to win asylum and to get a timely hearing at all.—Legal and political battles aheadCivil rights and refugee organizations are already preparing court challenges to the new asylum freeze, arguing that:Federal law requires the government to process asylum applications rather than freeze them indefinitely.Singling out certain nationalities or “third world countries” risks violating anti-discrimination provisions and treaty commitments.Republican allies, however, have praised the move and Trump’s rhetoric, saying the administration is responding to public concerns after the National Guard shooting and decades of perceived failure to control the border and vet arrivals.With Trump now openly signaling that the asylum pause will last “a long time,” and framing many asylum seekers as “no good,” the immediate question is not just how long the freeze will last — but whether the U.S. is entering a fundamentally new era in which asylum, long a central pillar of American immigration policy, is effectively suspended in practice.
