US Took Enforcement Action Against 2.2 Million Illegal Immigrants, Officials Say

U.S. immigration officials say that the second Trump administration has moved to terminate or revoke the status of more than 2.2 million illegal immigrants.

In an Oct. 29 news release, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said that the actions that it and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) took do not include “the millions of visa revocations and denials issued by the U.S. Department of State and removals carried out by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.”

An arm of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the USCIS reviews requests for visas, U.S. work permits, green cards, and more.

According to the release, the immigration agency said that it has moved to end the “misuse” of a program called Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which provides protection from deportations as well as providing work authorizations to foreign nationals who are from countries where the status is applicable.

It also moved to deny applications that were meant to “extend or change nonimmigrant status when no legal basis exists,” issuing notices to appear in U.S. immigration court to put removable foreign nationals before a judge, ending the automatic extension of employment authorization documents, making sure foreign nationals are vetted and screened before work authorizations are issued, and terminating certain parole programs to return them on a case-by-case basis for review.

The USCIS press release, which did not provide more details about the removals, said that its actions would close any loopholes that may undermine national or public safety.

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Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin hailed the the agency’s success so far.

“President Trump promised the American people that our immigration laws would be enforced, and these numbers reflect the scale of that commitment,” he said in a statement. “Those who abuse or flagrantly disregard our immigration system are now on notice that these violations of law will not be tolerated or overlooked. Securing our border was only the beginning. We are restoring integrity to the entire immigration system and putting the safety of our American citizens first.”

During President Donald Trump’s second term, DHS has ended TPS for more than a million people from 13 countries, including Venezuela, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Afghanistan, and Syria.

The Trump administration obtained a major victory when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that Homeland Security acted within its authority when it ended TPS for about 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians. But the impact of the decision extends far beyond Haitians and Syrians, potentially affecting nearly 1.3 million people from 17 countries on TPS.

Before the Supreme Court ruling, the Trump administration’s actions targeting TPS had prompted a number of court challenges.

TPS was created by Congress in 1990 to prevent deportations to countries suffering from natural disasters or civil strife. DHS officials have previously pointed out that the program was designed to be temporary and that it has been misused.

President Joe Biden’s administration broadly expanded the number of people covered by TPS. In the USCIS statement last week, it said that actions it and other immigration agencies took were a response to what it called the “Biden border crisis,” during which millions of illegal immigrants were allowed into the country.

Since taking office a second time, Trump has issued a number of directives on illegal immigration and border security, including declaring an emergency at the U.S.–Mexico border in January 2025, restricting the issuance of H-1B visas, declaring certain gangs and cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, and others.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.