An NPR analysis finds millions of immigrants caught in legal limbo as U.S. immigration application processing has slowed sharply under the second Trump administration, increasing many people’s exposure to deportation.
USCIS data reviewed by NPR show roughly 11.6 million pending immigration applications — requests for citizenship, green cards, work permits and other benefits that have not yet been approved or denied. Separately, the agency reports 247,974 cases in a “frontlog” of applications that were submitted but not yet opened or assigned.
Advocates and researchers say the growing backlog reflects policy choices that prioritize enforcement and tougher vetting over timely adjudications. David Bier of the Cato Institute describes the shift as an emphasis on arrests and removals while slowing the processes that could provide legal protections. Some observers also point to the elimination of alternative pathways, like certain humanitarian parole programs, which once offered routes outside USCIS processing.
USCIS officials say the slowdown is driven by reinstated or new screening measures. A spokesman, Matthew Tragesser, said the agency has added social-media checks, stricter naturalization testing and neighborhood visits to verify applicants’ character and attachment to the Constitution, and that USCIS will not shortcut adjudications.
The backlogs have been growing for years but expanded sharply after the change in administration. Pending cases more than doubled since 2016; roughly 2 million additional pending cases appeared in the first year after the president’s return — a jump larger than during his previous four-year term. The impact varies by case type: some applications still move quickly, while others stall long enough to expose people to removal proceedings.
Legal advocates describe the practical consequences: applicants waiting months without confirmation that USCIS received their filings, canceled interviews because files were never opened, and clients unable to produce receipts that immigration judges rely on to delay deportation orders. Seattle attorney Luis Cortes Romero recounted clients whose green-card interviews were canceled after a year because USCIS had not processed their paperwork; other lawyers say some people wait up to eight months just for acknowledgement of receipt.
Those delays can be decisive in courts. Immigration judges sometimes defer final orders if an immigrant can show a receipt or evidence of a pending benefit application; when the government cannot produce such a receipt because a case is unopened, judges may press for faster resolution — sometimes by moving toward deportation.
Policy changes last year paused reviews for several categories, including asylum for months and applications from people born in 39 countries on a travel-ban list, which contributed to the mounting backlog. USCIS began publicly tracking the frontlog in 2023; it was effectively zero early that year, rose as people filed ahead of fee increases, fell again, and then climbed after the administration change — rising to 34,028 in the first three months and 247,974 by the end of September 2025.
Lawyers also point to outdated filing systems and slow adoption of robust electronic submission and acknowledgement tools as technical reasons the frontlog and backlogs persist. The pandemic prompted some digital shifts, but many filings remain mailed in, including sensitive categories such as trafficking and domestic-violence cases, juvenile petitions, and several work-authorized classifications.
Advocates say the numbers show an administration strategy of “slow-walking” adjustments to legal status, blocking paths that would shield people from removal. Nicole Melaku of the National Partnership for New Americans says the effect is to deny people the opportunity to adjust status. Critics warn that prolonged pending status can trigger unlawful-presence consequences and other harms.
Supporters of more stringent review argue the backlog demonstrates the need for greater scrutiny, fraud prevention and possibly pausing new intake until the caseload is manageable. Brandy Perez Carbaugh, previously with the Heritage Foundation’s immigration center, framed stricter measures as protecting American interests.
Former and current immigration officials note that frontlogs can fluctuate with surges in filings and administrative changes. Felicia Escobar Carrillo, who served as USCIS chief of staff under the Biden administration, pointed out that earlier frontlogs were reduced through deliberate efforts and that case counts shift as policies change.
For now, attorneys describe widespread anxiety among clients: people exhausted by months of uncertainty and exposed to deportation risk because their applications sit unopened. USCIS maintains the steps are needed to ensure national-security protections and system integrity; critics argue the mix of pauses, extra vetting and slow processing has left millions in precarious legal limbo.