Webinar: "Trump 2.0: Tuesday Updates With Guest Jennifer Behm"

Transcript:

Hi, everyone. I’m Jennifer Behm, and I’m a partner with Berardi Immigration Law and Immigration Council with Barclay Damon. Thanks for joining us today. We are unpacking a very fast-moving situation that has reshaped immigration landscape in just a matter of days.

So the recent Afghan shooting and the immediate national security reaction that followed has triggered sweeping policy moves across Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and the State Department. My goal today is to give you a clear understanding of what happened, what the government has done in response, and what this means for clients and stakeholders, especially those from countries that are now under intensified scrutiny.

Let’s start with the context because understanding how we got here is essential to understanding where we’re heading and what we’re seeing coming out of the Trump administration.

So around Thanksgiving on November, there was an Afghan national who shot two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., killing one and critically injuring the other. Super tragic incident, and this incident immediately became a national security flashpoint. So the Afghan man had been resettled in the U.S. under the 2021 Operation Allies Welcome Program after he had assisted U.S. forces in Afghanistan before the U.S. withdrew from the country. So his cooperation has become a major point of political and policy debate now. The fact that he assisted US forces is being used as both a defense of original immigration vetting, because he was an ally, and it’s being used as an argument for why the vetting systems should be overhauled. Allies can still pose risk to US citizens.

So this tragic shooting has unfortunately created the perfect storm and conditions for the Trump administration to issue large sweeping immigration actions that extend far beyond Afghan nationals. And some of these actions are without regard to an individual’s actual immigration history, their pathway of entry to the United States, and without considering any actual vetting that had been done.

So let’s dive into that. Let’s talk first about the immediate Trump administration’s response following the shooting. First, they ordered an immediate blanket security pause directing Department of Homeland
Security and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which is an agency in the U.S., to slow down and halt any Afghan-related adjudications across the board. This includes special immigrant visas, humanitarian filings, and family-based cases, and even some employment-based matters.

The State Department then issued a worldwide suspension of Afghan visa processing, instructing consulates abroad to stop adjudicating nearly all Afghan visa categories, regardless of an applicant’s location or local security conditions. Afghan nationals who are already well into processes have been pushed into additional review, meaning even if they had previously cleared vetting and this close to obtaining entry to the United States or obtaining their green card, everything’s been paused and now they’re subject to even more intensified scrutiny.

DHS officials also signaled that this is nationality based. It’s a security driven approach. And they are also applying this more broadly, which I’ll dive into in a moment. So the overall tone is clear. The single shooting incident, which certainly is tragic, no one’s disputing that, this is being positioned as the basis for far reaching systematic shifts in US immigration policy and adjudication.

So all of this went down before Thanksgiving. After Thanksgiving, USCIS then followed up with operational changes that reach way further than just Afghan nationality specific implications.

So first USCIS has implemented a nationwide halt nationwide on all affirmative asylum adjudications, stopping decisions for all applicants, regardless of their nationality. Well, what is an affirmative asylum adjudication? You might ask. This refers to the process where individuals apply for asylum directly while they are in the United States with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, an immigration agency, rather than through the immigration court system through deportation proceedings. So if our national could come in, they can file an application for asylum and USCIS is halting all of those right now. So this pause applies not only to Afghan
nationals, but to every asylum case in the affirmative pipeline. And officers have been instructed not to resume decisions until updated security vetting protocols are finalized.

Why is this a concern for immigration practitioners and applicants and stakeholders? Well, these applicants rely on timely adjudications, which already take years, to stabilize their status in the United States. obtain work authorization extensions and reunite with family members. So a pause without any sort of guidance on what’s coming disrupts the core humanitarian humanitarian purpose of the asylum system. It’s going to continue to create major backlogs and it’s basically leaving tens of thousands of applicants in legal limbo until who knows when.

Okay. Additionally, Consular posts worldwide were also instructed to pause nearly all Afghan visa processing, including special immigrant visas, immigrant visas, and most non-immigrant categories. So it applies to consular posts with no direct security nexus. And again, we have no timeline on when this is going to be continued.

In early December, USCIS also issued a new policy memo that essentially hits it’s another big pause on large parts of the immigration system. And this was attached to the one pausing the affirmative asylum applications across every nationality. That same memo also halted the decisions on any immigration benefit application filed by individuals from nineteen high risk countries that were identified back in one of President Trump’s June 2025 travel bans. And so similarly, this has also created a freeze for a huge group of applicants, including anyone from Haiti, Cuba, Venezuela, and nineteen identified countries, Afghanistan as well. and so that policy memo has really cut a lot of it’s put a lot of employers and applicants and family members in a legal limb in a legal limbo. Does it mean that these applicants can’t file an application? No, but again, it means that a decision is not going to be issued.

And so for example, We have a lot of dual citizen clients who may be a citizen of Venezuela and Argentina. That memo specifically says even if you hold dual nationality, you cannot get an immigration benefit. We are also seeing this same memo being interpreted by northern border customs and border protection officers to not allow any dual Canadian applicant who also holds dual nationality from one of those nineteen countries from entering the United States, both as a visitor or applying for an immigration benefit. So, for example, if you have a Canadian who is a dual Iranian citizen, I have a couple of these clients, Iranian born, moved to Canada when they were kids. They have held TN status and they are cross-border commuters. Well, now all of a sudden those individuals cannot enter the United States under this policy memo or freeze because Customs and Border Protection officers are also interpreting it in the same way. So big problem, lots of questions, and this just really hit the ground last week. So we’re going to see a lot of implications on both employer and individual applications for immigration benefits.

Another USCIS memo also ordered a massive backwards looking review. And so officers have been instructed to re-examine every benefit approval issued to nationals of those same nineteen countries going back to the Biden administration, January of 2021. This includes green cards, waivers, parole approvals, TPS grants and other humanitarian and immigration benefits. Why is this a problem? Well, many of these individuals have been living, working and integrated into the US for years, and now their status could be questioned again without any misconduct on their part, including green card holders. That’s that’s a bit alarming. So, we don’t love seeing this again. We’re going to see more requests for evidence. And, these officers have a lot of discretion to contact applicants. Again, even those who don’t have any criminality or misconduct on their part, it’s really opening up a book for previous approvals to be questioned, which is leaving employers and foreign nationals who are in the U S invalid status have done everything the right way, feeling very unsettled.

We also have USCIS action on refugee approvals. So officers have been instructed to revisit all refugee approvals during the entire Biden administration. And that’s roughly two hundred thousand people. Again, this is going to involve new interviews, new security checks, potential status challenges. And even those refugees who are already vetted, admitted and living in U.S. communities, they’re going to be questioned. Refugees are individuals who were vetted while they were living outside of the United States and readmitted into the US. And so basically, the Trump administration is saying, hey, the Biden administration really didn’t do a good job vetting these refugees. And now they are looking at everything again. So a bit alarming. But again, this is all in the name of national security. And time will tell what kind of discretionary action government officers are going to take under these policy directives.

And then we also have new adjudication guidance that USCIS released telling their officers to actively weigh country-specific intelligence or risk factors when making decisions on immigration applications submitted by individuals of one of those nineteen countries. And this gives officers far broader discretion and shifts adjudications away from individualized assessments toward nationality based presumptions. So if you are a dual citizen or if you are a national of one of those nineteen countries, it means that an officers will automatically take that into account as a negative factor against the individual. And so this in practice, it means that two identical applications could receive different outcomes solely because of the applicant’s country of birth. We don’t have details on what sort of actual assessment factors DHS is instructed to give aside from their country of birth being one of those aspects that adds negativity in an adjudication. So a bit alarming and concerning from a practitioner side. Okay.

So that was a lot of humanitarian-based action following the Afghan shooting, but we also had a flurry of activity on the employment-based immigration side. This past week, the State Department started announcing that beginning December fifteenth, H-1B and H-4 applicants are going to be required to make their social media accounts publicly viewable so consular officers can verify and assess their visa eligibility.

What does this really mean? Well, when someone is applying for a visa stamp at a U.S. embassy or consulate abroad outside of the United States, so they could already hold their approval from USCIS, when they travel abroad, they need a valid visa stamp to re-enter the United States, or maybe it’ll be their initial entry to the United States. They need a valid visa stamp issued by the State Department. So H-B applicants and H-A applicants, in addition to F-1, J-1, and M-1 students from earlier Trump administration guidance and policies, those visa applicants are required to make their social media accounts public. And basically, Department of State is going to be reviewing that public information to ensure that an applicant is not posting anything that could be considered hostile towards US citizens, institutions, or American values. political activism these days is definitely going to be something that’s flagged for review.

On the H-I-B and H-IV front, what we’re starting to see and understand is that officers are going to be reviewing public records to make sure that an applicant’s prior reported work and employment are aligned with what’s publicly available. And that Trump policy is also flagging that individuals who work in content moderation trust and safety or tech with misinformation review or similar roles at social media and financial services companies that are involved in the suppression of protected expression, they’re going to be looking at whether that individual applicant’s activities raise inadmissibility concerns to the United States. So that’s the tie back to national security. officers are permitted to take screenshots and detailed notes as part of their adjudication record.

And so what will this look like? This is effectively supposedly starting December. But on the ground, we’re also hearing reports that visa appointments, particularly in India are being canceled. And this is concerning because you have Indians who are in the United States in particular, who travel maybe once a year or once every two to three years, if not more. They’ve planned their holiday travel. They have an appointment in December. I had a client whose longstanding December appointment is now canceled without any sort of notification and rescheduled for March. Very disruptive to both employment and US employment and the US employer and their personal affairs. So a bit of a concern and unfortunately their hands are probably going to be tied because The Department of State is able to do that.

So when you put all of this together, I know I spewed a ton of information out there. What is the takeaway?

We are witnessing one of the broadest national security driven tightening of the immigration system since the first Trump administration. And what began as a response to a single tragic event has rapidly expanded into a sweeping recalibration of policy and processes and adjudication across agencies.

There’s a lot happening. There’s a lot that we’re staying on top of. And our role is to keep our clients informed, levelheaded, prepared to explain what’s changing and to expect delays and a slowdown and to advise on how we’re navigating a system that continues to tighten by the day. Follow us along if you have questions about any of this or case-specific information or questions. There’s a QR code on your screen. Feel free to book a consultation with one of our attorneys. Reach out, follow us along, especially on LinkedIn. All of our attorneys are constantly posting daily.

Thanks for tuning in today. Enjoy the rest of your afternoon.