Overview
- U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services says it has restarted reviewing some asylum cases for applicants who pass intensive screening or who were cleared through Operation PARRIS.
- Nationals from 39 countries under the administration’s travel restrictions remain blocked from asylum decisions and from other benefits like work permits, green cards, and naturalization.
- Officials have not published which nations count as non‑high‑risk, leaving many applicants unsure of eligibility and a large backlog still waiting to be decided.
- The adjudication pause began in late November after a shooting in Washington, D.C., linked to an Afghan national who had previously received asylum, which the administration cited as a vetting failure.
- USCIS says it tightened checks by shortening some work‑permit validity to force more frequent security reviews, upgrading identity tools, expanding social‑media and financial vetting, adding community interviews, and opening a new vetting center in Atlanta.