Donald Trump’s team readying regressive legal immigration overhaul: Report

Trump has once again placed immigration at the center of his campaign, proposing a range of aggressive policies to curb both illegal and legal immigration if elected for a second term. His campaign rhetoric includes promises of mass deportations, stricter asylum protocols at the U.S.-Mexico border, and even a ban on mortgage access for undocumented immigrants.

Think tanks and advisory groups close to Trump, including the America First Policy Institute, are said to be drafting a series of executive orders, regulations, and policy memos designed to limit legal immigration, per a Wall Street Journal report.

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Trump’s plan to limit legal immigration in the name of merit

Trump always pushed for policies that fundamentally reshape who can enter and remain in the United States, prioritizing a “merit-based” system over family or humanitarian entry.

Trump administration officials revived such policies from Trump’s first term, such as travel bans on certain Muslim-majority countries. More recent plans include a total cessation of refugee resettlement and a halt on processing certain immigration applications with significant backlogs, particularly affecting employment-based green cards for Indian tech workers.

During Trump’s previous administration, legal migration had already significantly decreased. He set historic lows for refugee admission caps and expanded the “public charge” rule, enabling officials to deny green cards to those deemed likely to rely on public assistance

But if Trump were to enact these new proposals, experts suggest they would represent a more sweeping reduction in legal immigration, especially when combined with the increasingly nationalist stance Trump has adopted alongside his running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance.

Vance has argued that immigrants drive up housing costs and has publicly criticized the Biden administration’s parole policy, which allows migrants from countries like Cuba, Haiti, and Venezuela to live and work in the US. temporarily.

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“President Joe Biden’s parole policy,” he claimed, “is illegal.” Stephen Miller, a former Trump adviser and architect of the family separation policy, has also voiced his opposition to legal immigration, particularly through family and diversity-based pathways. “Refugee resettlement is ‘legal.’ Chain migration is ‘legal.’ Diversity lottery is ‘legal.’ Islamist green card migration is ‘legal.’ And it’s why we need the Trump Travel Ban back now,” Miller wrote on X (formerly Twitter) earlier this year.

Another key proposal includes ending family-based immigration — or “chain migration” — and replacing it with a merit-based system, an idea advocated in the Project 2025 Mandate for Leadership, a policy guide from the Heritage Foundation.