US ends asylum processing hold as backlog clouds impact

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has lifted an adjudicative hold on asylum-related applications for nationals of countries not subject to the travel ban, allowing thousands of delayed cases to proceed.

The hold was imposed after a security incident on December 26, 2025, when an Afghan national shot two National Guard members. The President Donald Trump administration then paused processing to vet all asylum applications.

Affected cases included I-485 permanent residency applications, N-400 naturalisation, I-130 and I-140 immigrant visas, I-129 and I-539 non-immigrant petitions, and I-765 employment authorisation.

Immigration attorney Natalia Lucak said lifting the hold “is welcome news”, though a backlog remains.

“It is unclear what kind of impact this lift will have in the near future,” she told The EastAfrican.

Policy shift

The Trump administration said under Proclamation 10998 that the hold was intended to “protect the security of the United States and address high overstay or fraud rates”.

However, the measure created a backlog, with some cases pending for years. Ms Lucak said USCIS processes applications on a “last in, first out” basis.

A separate travel ban remains in force, blocking final decisions for citizens of 39 countries, including several in Africa such as Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Eritrea, Gabon, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Detention pressure

Many asylum seekers remain in immigration detention while awaiting decisions or deportation.

Critics say the system creates incentives for detention, as local and state facilities lease space to the federal government, making immigration detention a source of revenue in poorer states such as Louisiana and Georgia.

Backlogs linked to the adjudicative hold have prolonged detention, particularly for applicants without legal representation, keeping them separated from families and support networks.

Bowling Green State University professor Kefa Otiso said Trump’s broader immigration policies have also made conditions more difficult for asylum seekers from countries previously covered by Temporary Protected Status (TPS), including Ethiopia, South Sudan, Haiti, Myanmar, and Somalia.

TPS allows nationals from designated countries to live and work temporarily in the US when conditions at home make return unsafe.