"Entrapment": Trump's immigration delays fuel jump in ICE arrest targets

A work slowdown by the Trump administration's immigration offices has exploded the backlog of applications for citizenship, green cards and work permits to an unprecedented 7.5 million people, according to the latest agency data.

• Add the millions of immigrants waiting on decisions for asylum, work visas and permission to stay in the U.S. for humanitarian reasons, and the total backlog soars to more than 12.1 million.

Why it matters: The delays have put potentially millions of people in legal immigration limbo — vulnerable to being arrested by ICE agents and deported, even if they've followed the rules to try to stay in the U.S.

• Officials say the delays are being driven by the administration's new focus on stricter vetting. A wave of DOGE-induced retirements also reduced the workforce at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
• Critics, however, see a calculated plan to boost arrests and deportations by slowing approvals to put more immigrants in legal jeopardy.

It's "like a form of entrapment," said Sarah Pierce, a former policy analyst at USCIS and now director of social policy at Third Way.

• "This administration is using all of the tools at their disposal to make more individuals vulnerable to deportation."

Zoom in: People with pending applications — including those who entered the U.S. legally — are being arrested while traveling domestically through airports such as those in Philadelphia and Denver.

• Unauthorized immigrants who've married U.S. citizens and apply to adjust their immigration status are being arrested at their application interviews.
• Even refugees, who are eligible to apply for permanent residency after one year of living in the U.S., are being targeted for ICE detention while their cases are processed — a reversal from previous practice.

What they're saying: The delays ensure that "these individuals are vulnerable to detention and deportation for longer, giving [ICE] a larger pool of individuals to pull from to increase this administration's deportation numbers," Pierce said.

• USCIS spokesperson Zach Kahler said in a statement that the agency "remains committed to reducing case backlogs through a deliberate, data-driven, and risk-informed approach that strengthens both efficiency and the integrity of the nation's legal immigration system." 
• "By using new technology and smarter processes, we can focus on stopping criminals, fraud and abuse, and make sure we apply the law as Congress intended," he added.

The big picture: The administration has consistently said it planned to increase vetting and scrutiny on all types of applications at USCIS.

• But the consequence of such a large backlog and pauses on some cases — a practice that's being challenged in court — has put millions of immigrants who normally wouldn't be priorities onto ICE's radar.
• "I think they've kind of ran out of easy (deportation) targets, and so that's why cases are piling up," said Mike Watkins, a former USCIS supervisor who left the agency last year.

Zoom out: There were about 2 million more people waiting on case decisions this June compared to June 2024, according to the agency's monthly data report on six application types, including citizenship, permanent residency and work authorization.

• More than 5.6 million people have been waiting for more than six months for a decision in those categories.
• There's also a "frontlog" of 38,500 unopened immigration applications of all types, as of March 31. And there's about 7 million active cases that have been designated as taking longer than USCIS's standard to resolve.

By the numbers: Processing times for citizenship applications (called naturalization) doubled from five months to about 10 months between June 2024 and June 2026.

• Cubans seeking permanent residency are having to wait more than 21 months for a decision, up from about six months two years ago.
• USCIS stopped sharing wait times for DACA work authorization applications last year.
• But "Dreamers" — who were brought to the U.S. as unauthorized children and now are trying to renew their work authorization — are in an immigration category in which 1.3 million people have been waiting more than six months for a decision on whether they can stay.
• Two years ago, the number was 556,000.

"People that have done nothing wrong — they followed the rules, they've done everything that's asked of them — (but) because of processing delays, they're being made to suffer," said Watkins, who now runs his own immigration law practice.