The approval of new legal residency cards in the United States, known as “green cards,” has fallen almost in half since the beginning of Donald Trump’s second presidency, while immigration arrests have tripled, conservative research revealed. Cato Institute.
“The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) suspended processing of many green card applications, allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to arrest legal immigrants, including refugees, parolees, and spouses of U.S. citizens,” wrote the report’s author, David J. Bier.
The US Government approved 34,000 green cards in January 2026 compared to 65,000 in the same month of 2025, when Trump returned to the White House, according to the report, available online and based on data from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
In contrast, ICE detained more than 38,000 migrants during the first month of 2026 compared to 12,348 in January 2025, the study added.
The suspension of green card applications “is a deliberate effort to boost ICE arrests by frustrating people’s efforts to stay on the right side of the law,” according to Bier, director of Immigration Studies at the institute.
The researcher attributed the drop in new “green cards” to the fact that the United States prevented immigrants who already reside in the country, such as refugees and beneficiaries of parole humanitarian, change their status to long-term legal residents.
“Green cards” sponsored by family members in the US.
Also, he noted a 20% decrease since the beginning of the Trump Administration in the approval of resident cards sponsored by family members already living in the United States.
Likewise, he pointed to Trump’s order of December 2025 that suspended immigration procedures for 19 countries, such as Cuba and Venezuela, and that in 2026 It expanded to 40 nations, including Nicaragua.
The report attributed the lower approval of green cards to the fact that the president’s mass deportation campaign “crucially depends on preventing immigrants from receiving or extending their legal status.”
“The suspension of various avenues for the ‘green card’ has allowed ICE to increase arrests of people who otherwise would have had legal status or would have been protected from arrest. Removing their legal status is a necessary precondition to removing people from the country,” Bier concluded.
