Ximena Bustillo

from 19 countries to 39.

Those restrictions became effective on January 1st.

Then the Homeland Security Department announced in a memo this week that it would pause reviewing all pending applications for things like green card citizenship and asylum from immigrants of those countries.

The agency also plans to re-review approved applications from immigrants of these countries, potentially going as far back as 2021.

Ximena Bustillo, NPR News, Washington.

85,000 visas of all categories were revoked last year.

That's according to the State Department, one of the agencies that oversees visa permissions.

This includes more than 8,000 student visas, and the number is more than double what it was in 2024.

In a statement to NPR, a spokesperson for the department said DUIs, assaults, and theft were among some of the top reasons why visas were revoked, accounting for almost half of the revocations.

Last year, the State Department also moved forward with revoking the visas of students and others whose speech they say does not align with American values.

Ximena Bustillo, NPR News, Washington.

The largest group affected includes those under a program called temporary protected status.

It provides deportation protection and grants work permits to people from specific countries affected by war, natural disaster, political instability, or any other condition that makes the country unsafe for its nationals to return to.

The administration has ended TPS for 10 countries, impacting an estimated 1 million people.

The Trump administration argues that parole programs like TPS are meant to only be temporary.

TPS for six more countries expire next year, and if they're not extended, the U.S.

may have no one under the program for the first time since it was created in 1990.

Ximena Bustillo, NPR News, Washington.

Earlier this year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers began making arrests in immigration court.

That coincided with an increase in what is called a removal order in absentia.