MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
It's been more than two weeks since a gunman killed two national guardsmen here in Washington, D.C. Since then, the Trump administration has doubled down on efforts to limit legal migration. Millions of asylum-seekers across the U.S. are now stuck in limbo after President Trump hit pause on all asylum case decisions last month. NPR's Sergio Martínez-Beltrán covers immigration and joins me now to talk through what this means for people caught in the freeze. Hey there, Sergio.
SERGIO MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN, BYLINE: Hey, Mary Louise.
KELLY: So the basic question, how did we get here, that we have the president going after not only undocumented immigrants, but also cracking down on legal migration as well?
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Yeah, that's right. And last month, President Trump paused immigration applications for migrants living in the U.S. from 19 countries the government deemed high-risk. They include Afghanistan, Haiti, Sudan and Venezuela. Citizens of those 19 countries had already been restricted from entering the country under a previous Trump order. He has now also paused all asylum decisions - all of them. And just today, Mary Louise, by proclamation, Trump added (ph) 20 additional nations where he's limiting entry into the United States, all of this after the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., last month. The alleged shooter is an Afghan national who was in the country legally. Now, the president has repeatedly accused the Biden administration of letting too many immigrants in without adequate vetting. But again, the alleged shooter was here legally. That is because he was granted asylum earlier this year by the Trump administration, and he was vetted.
KELLY: Well, so how is this pause on asylum applications - how are - all these decisions, how are these affecting people who are following the law, who want to be here legally?
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: The impact is huge. For context, right now, there are around 2.3 million immigrants awaiting their asylum hearings or decisions, according to Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse - or TRAC. Some of these folks have been waiting five, six, 10 years for a decision depending on their situation. I talked to Lily Axelrod. She's an immigration attorney in Memphis and has clients facing this uncertainty.
LILY AXELROD: Being told the whole system is on hold is really demoralizing and destabilizing for folks who are doing their best to apply for status that they're eligible for.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: President Trump has also ordered DHS to review, again, the cases of around 200,000 refugees admitted under the Biden administration, and Axelrod notes an irony in all of this. By pausing asylum decisions, the people who may not qualify for asylum are waiting around in limbo, and the people who may qualify for asylum are not getting their cases adjudicated either.
KELLY: Sergio, is reaction to all of this falling along partisan lines?
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Yeah. Mostly partisan lines, but there are some Republicans expressing concerns, like Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar from Florida. She agrees with many aspects of Trump's crackdown, but Salazar has issues with the president freezing asylum claims and green card applications for some groups.
MARIA ELVIRA SALAZAR: I don't agree with the fact that those who have done everything right and they're up to the moment when they can just swear to be an American and swear allegiance to the American flag - why are those processes being stopped?
KELLY: OK. So you've caught us up on the news - new countries added today. Where does this go next?
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: You know, some immigration lawyers don't believe the president has the authority to put the whole system on hold. So they are challenging the freeze in court as part of a travel ban lawsuit. But a USCIS spokesperson in a statement said, citizenship is a privilege not a right and that the administration, quote, "will take no chances when the future of our nation is at stake."
This issue, Mary Louise, has also revived discussions around immigration reform. In fact, Congresswoman Salazar has sponsored a bipartisan bill that would push the government to decide asylum cases within 60 days. It will also protect people from deportation who have been in the country for five years or more after they pay restitution for being in the country illegally and remain in good standing with the law. However, passing the legislation called The Dignity Act is a long shot. A similar version of the bill was introduced in 2023, but it didn't go anywhere in Congress.
KELLY: NPR's Sergio Martínez-Beltrán. Thank you.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: You're welcome.
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