Trump administration slashes time refugees have to challenge loss of legal status

The Trump administration is adopting a new rule that would shorten the time refugees have to challenge the termination of their legal status, marking another restriction on legal immigration pathways as the White House continues its immigration enforcement crackdown.

The new policy, which takes effect Wednesday without undergoing the usual advance public notice-and-comment process, reduces the time refugees have to respond to a notice of intent to terminate their status from 30 days to 10.

According to the new rule, the administration is aiming to "mitigate potential risks" linked to people who were admitted as refugees but were not eligible for refugee status.

The documents pointed to refugees admitted during the Biden administration, claiming there was an "alarming erosion of the integrity" of the refugee program during those years, although refugee advocates dispute that allegation.

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"A review of refugee processing policies and procedures implemented under the Biden administration indicates an alarming erosion of integrity leading to aliens being admitted to the United States as refugees when their identities, eligibility for refugee classification, and admissibility were determined based on incomplete records," DHS' document reads.

"The priority of expediency over quality encouraged a lack of robust interviews," it added. "Certain questions to ensure that aliens were eligible for refugee status prior to admission to the United States were omitted and this increased the risk of ineligible aliens being approved for refugee classification and subsequently admitted to the United States."

A spokesman for Citizenship and Immigration Services, Zach Kahler, similarly said the agency has found "an alarming erosion of screening and vetting measures" during the Biden administration to "rush processing and maximize the number of refugees admitted."

The Trump administration is "ensuring that refugee status is reserved only for those who were eligible under the law," he said in a statement to The Associated Press.

This comes after the Trump administration ordered the review of at least 185,000 refugees admitted during the Biden administration who still have pending green card applications.

The U.S. refugee admissions program has historically enjoyed bipartisan support since Congress passed the Refugee Act of 1980. Refugees undergo extensive security screenings and background checks before being approved for resettlement. Many spend years waiting in refugee camps before they can be admitted after undergoing multiple rounds of interviews and screenings.

With the Trump administration's new rule, critics argue tens of thousands of people who fled persecution and wars in their home countries could be forced into deportation.

"These families did everything asked of them," Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president of Global Refuge, said in a statement. "They submitted to interviews, background checks and years of waiting abroad, only setting foot on U.S. soil once government officials approved their applications."

She said the Department of Homeland Security now wants to "revisit those decisions on a 10-day clock, a notice period wholly insufficient to find a lawyer, translate documents or get records out of a country they were forced to flee due to conflict or persecution."

"In some cases, refugees may not even receive the notice before their ten days are up, effectively eliminating their only chance to respond," she added. "If the government’s case for termination is truly strong, it can afford to give people a meaningful chance to challenge it."

HIAS, a major refugee aid group, also warned that refugees who have fled violence, persecution and displacement will be at risk of being deported to countries where they could be subject to persecution and torture.

"They are trying to upend the core principle that refugee resettlement represents permanent protection," HIAS Vice President Naomi Steinberg said in a statement.

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The Trump administration has significantly overhauled the U.S. refugee admissions program, sharply restricting overall admissions while prioritizing the resettlement of white South Africans.

Last month, the Trump administration established a ceiling of 17,500 refugee admissions for fiscal year 2027, with most slots allocated to Afrikaners, a predominantly white ethnic group in South Africa.

During his first term, President Donald Trump reduced the number of refugees approved every year. The Biden administration reversed that trend, setting a refugee admissions ceiling of 125,000 for fiscal year 2025.

When Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, he immediately suspended the refugee program, stranding people around the world who had been set to come to the U.S. The administration later reopened the program but limited it mostly to white South Africans.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.