How the Trump administration stripped legal status from 1.6 million immigrants

0:00Hey, it's Juana Summers. Before we start the show today, a quick word about public media. It's a phrase that defines what we do at NPR and one that's been in the news a lot this year. It's also what makes Consider This and all the podcasts you love from NPR unique. Public media is made for you. We're not thinking about shareholders or advertisers. We're thinking about what you're curious about and what you need to better understand how to navigate the world. NPR is committed to the promises of public media, but we're now operating without federal funding for the first time in our history. Thankfully, so many listeners are stepping up to help support us as we navigate this new landscape.

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1:17The Trump administration is waging its anti-immigration campaign on all fronts. It's aggressively removing people without legal status from the U.S., more than 600 ,000 deportations, according to the Department of Homeland Security. That campaign has affected communities across the country. On Sunday, NPR's Aisha Roscoe spoke with Seth Lavin, a Chicago school principal. Yes, there have been impacts at my school. And at every school that I know, there are kids who are living in this fear. And at many, many, many schools, this is a reality. Kids crying in a classroom, kids crying in a cafeteria and saying, what's wrong?

1:54What's wrong is that they took my dad. What's wrong is that they took my mom. The administration is also limiting people from legally entering the country by severely capping refugee admissions, banning travel for people from certain countries, imposing a$100 ,000 fee for new visas for workers and specialty occupations, or just last week, pausing the green card lottery program, also known as the diversity visa. And the Trump administration is working to scrap multiple programs or protections for many people who previously entered the country illegally. The last administration let in 20 million unknown and unvetted foreigners from all over the world, from places that you don't want to even know about.

2:38No country can tolerate such a risk to our very survival. These moves throw the lives of immigrants into uncertainty and potentially subject them to deportation. Consider this. In under a year, the Trump administration has stripped 1.6 million immigrants of their legal status protections. It's the biggest effort of its kind in U.S. history.

3:05From NPR, I'm Juana Summers.

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3:50It's Consider This from NPR. President Trump's unprecedented crackdown on undocumented migrants is very much tied to the multiple ways his administration has revoked the legal status of documented migrants. My co-host Scott Datro recently spoke with NPR's immigration correspondents Jimena Bustio and Sergio Martinez Beltran to understand how this is happening. Jimena, I want to start with you. Tell us more about this number. It's a big number, 1.6 million immigrants. Who's all included in that? That number includes people who applied for and were allowed to enter the country through various immigration programs, particularly under President Biden.

4:28Parole programs, visas, asylum, refugees. And it's important to note that this figure is an estimate. In fact, immigration advocates say it's likely an undercount. Regardless, it is the largest effort to de-legalize immigrants who have used legal means and steps to be in this country. That's what Todd Schulte, the president of the immigration advocacy organization Forward.us says. These were like legal pathways. People like did the thing the government asked them to do. And this government went and is kind of preemptively trying to revoke that. Schulte says the Trump administration is taking away status and work authorization from as many people as possible to make their lives harder.

5:06When asked about these concerns, DHS told NPR that, quote, the American taxpayer will no longer bear the financial burden of unlawfully present aliens, end quote. And some of these people may have already left. Others are pursuing other forms of legal status. Some have been detained and deported. Sergio, can you tell me more about what these programs are that were canceled this year? Yeah, I think it's important to emphasize something that Jimena said and you mentioned to Scott, which is that these have been legal pathways to be in the country. There's three programs that I think of often when talking about this issue.

5:44There's one called CBP-1. This was a Biden-era parole program that allowed migrants to apply for appointments at a port of entry while waiting in Mexico. Eventually, they'd be allowed into the country to pursue asylum. Now, from 2023 to January 2025, more than 936 ,000 people were allowed in the country, according to government figures. One of them was Grevy Suarez. He is a Venezuelan barber I met last year in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, while he was waiting for his appointment. He got in in January, right before Trump took office and is now living in California. And last week was a big one for Suarez because he finally got his social security number and work permit.

6:27He says even though he has a work permit, he's anxious because his friends who came through CBP-1 like him have gotten emails from the government telling them to leave the country or they could face deportation. OK, so that's CBP-1, but there are also humanitarian parole programs that have been affected, right? Right. There's also humanitarian parole for half a million people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. In order to qualify for that program, migrants needed a sponsor, a family member, a friend or a loved one. But that program was canceled, too. Earlier this year, I talked to Anne-Valerie Lavius.

7:01She's the sponsor of her brother, Reginald, and her nephew, Tristan. They all come from Haiti. And she told me it's a false narrative. People with humanitarian power are abusing the system. I'm sponsoring them. So it's out of my pocket. Whatever I set up that I said I was going to do is what I did. They live under my roof. They have everything within my house. There's no government aid. There's nothing that comes for us, for my family. Another program is Temporary Protected Status, or TPS. This is a designation historically given to nationals of countries ravaged by civil wars, natural disasters, or political instability.

7:36As of March of this year, nearly 700 ,000 people that had TPS no longer have it. The vast majority of them are Venezuelans. Jimena, President Trump has spoken so much this year about his opposition to all forms of immigration, legal and illegal. But these are legal pathways. They've long existed. Why target those? They say they're doing it in the name of national security. For instance, the State Department has revoked 85 ,000 visas of all categories, including more than 8 ,000 student visas. That's more than double the numbers of the year prior. and the reasons the agency is giving for some of these revocations range from DUIs to assaults and thefts.

8:17A State Department official in a statement said, quote, people who pose a direct threat are not wanted in the country. And, you know, as NPR has been covering this year, the State Department has also moved forward with revoking the visas of students and others whose speech, they say, does not align with American values. And the administration is applauding these efforts across the board. Here is White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt. Having a visa in the United States is not a right, it is a privilege. And the Secretary of State, if you are deemed contrary to our country's foreign national interests, has the right to revoke that privilege.

8:52Meanwhile, there has been no enthusiasm from Congress to reform any legal pathways. Decades of inaction in Congress means that the administration has free reign to scrap programs it doesn't believe serve the country. I just want to take a moment to underscore all of this. These are all existing programs. You know, has anything like this happened before? You know, the complete cancellation of all these programs is unprecedented. And it seems like this might just be the beginning, Scott. In fact, immigration rights advocates are bracing for more deportations and status cancellations in 2026. There are also thousands of Ukrainians who fled Russia's invasion and came to the U.S.

9:29under the Uniting for Ukraine program. and they have expressed concerns, especially because the Trump administration passed it this year and resumed it a few months later. But that scared them big time. Also, TPS, Temporary Protected Status for half a dozen countries, is expiring next year. And without a redesignation from the Trump administration, thousands more will lose their legal status in 2026. And all of this is on top of hundreds of thousands of people deported for being in the country illegally. That is Sergio Martinez Beltran, as well as Ximena Bustillo, Both of them cover immigration for NPR in a year where there is a lot to cover.

10:05Thanks to both of you. You're welcome. Thank you, Scott. This episode was produced by Vincent Acovino with audio engineering by Ted Meebane. It was edited by Patrick Jaron Watanon, Eric Westervelt, and Anna Yukononov. Our executive producer is Sammy Yenigan.

10:25It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Juana Summers. Thank you.