SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Let's walk through a few numbers from President Trump's unprecedented crackdown on undocumented migrants. This year, it has led to more than 600,000 deportations. That's according to the Department of Homeland Security's records. At the same time, the Trump administration has also stripped permission from people who had the right to be in the U.S. In fact, more than 1.6 million immigrants who entered the country through legal means are now facing a loss of status. That legal limbo means they now, too, fear the constant threat of deportation. We're going to hear more about this from NPR immigration correspondents Ximena Bustillo and Sergio Martínez-Beltrán. Hi to both of you.
XIMENA BUSTILLO, BYLINE: Hey, Scott.
SERGIO MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN, BYLINE: Hey.
DETROW: And, Ximena, I want to start with you. Tell us more about this number. It's a big number, 1.6 million immigrants. Who's all included in that?
BUSTILLO: That number includes people who applied for and were allowed to enter the country through various immigration programs, particularly under President Biden - parole programs, visas, asylum, refugees. And it's important to note that this figure is an estimate. In fact, immigration advocates say it's likely an undercount. Regardless, it is the largest effort to delegalize immigrants who have used legal means and steps to be in this country. That's what Todd Schulte, the president of the immigration advocacy organization FWD.us, says.
TODD SCHULTE: These were, like, legal pathways. People, like, did the thing the government asked them to do, and this government went and is kind of preemptively trying to revoke that.
BUSTILLO: Schulte says the Trump administration is taking away status and work authorization from as many people as possible to make their lives harder. When asked about these concerns, DHS told NPR that, quote, "the American taxpayer will no longer bear the financial burden of unlawfully present aliens," end quote. And some of these people may have already left. Others are pursuing other forms of legal status. Some have been detained and deported.
DETROW: Sergio, can you tell me more about what these programs are that were canceled this year?
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Yeah. I think it's important to emphasize something that Ximena said - and you mentioned, too, Scott - which is that these have been legal pathways to be in the country. There's three programs that I think of often when talking about this issue. There's one called CBP One. This was a Biden-era parole program that allowed migrants to apply for appointments at a port of entry while waiting in Mexico. Eventually, they'd be allowed into the country to pursue asylum.
Now, from 2023 to January 2025, more than 936,000 people were allowed in the country, according to government figures. One of them was Grebi Suarez. He is a Venezuelan barber I met last year in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, while he was waiting for his appointment. He got it in January, right before Trump took office, and is now living in California. And last week was a big one for Suarez because he finally got his Social Security number and work permit.
GREBI SUAREZ: (Speaking Spanish).
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: He says, even though he has a work permit, he's anxious because his friends who came through CBP One, like him, have gotten emails from the government telling them to leave the country or they could face deportation.
DETROW: OK, so that's CBP One, but there are also humanitarian parole programs that have been affected, right?
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Right, there's also humanitarian parole for half a million people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. In order to qualify for that program, migrants needed a sponsor - a family member, a friend or a loved one. But that program was canceled, too. Earlier this year, I talked to Anne-Valerie Laveus. She's the sponsor of her brother Reginald and her nephew Tristan. They all come from Haiti, and she told me it's a false narrative. People with humanitarian parole are abusing the system.
ANNE-VALERIE LAVEUS: I'm sponsoring them, so it's out of my pocket. Whatever I set out - that I said I was going to do is what I did. They live under my roof. They have everything within my house. There's no government aid. There's nothing that comes for us, for my family.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Another program is temporary protected status, or TPS. This is a designation historically given to nationals of countries ravaged by civil wars, natural disasters or political instability. As of March of this year, nearly 700,000 people that had TPS no longer have it. The vast majority of them are Venezuelans.
DETROW: Ximena, President Trump has spoken so much this year about his opposition to all forms of immigration - legal and illegal. But these are legal pathways. They've long existed. Why target those?
BUSTILLO: They say they're doing it in the name of national security. For instance, the State Department has revoked 85,000 visas of all categories, including more than 8,000 student visas. That's more than double the numbers of the year prior. And the reasons the agency is giving for some of these revocations range from DUIs to assaults and thefts. A State Department official in a statement said, quote, "people who pose a direct threat are not wanted in the country." And, you know, as NPR has been covering this year, the State Department has also moved forward with revoking the visas of students and others whose speech, they say, does not align with American values. And the administration is applauding these efforts across the board. Here is White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
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KAROLINE LEAVITT: Having a visa in the United States is not a right. It is a privilege. And the secretary of state, if you are deemed contrary to our country's foreign - national interest, has the right to revoke that privilege.
BUSTILLO: Meanwhile, there has been no enthusiasm from Congress to reform any legal pathways. Decades of inaction in Congress means that the administration has free rein to scrap programs it doesn't believe serve the country.
DETROW: I just want to take a moment to underscore all of this. These are all existing programs. You know, has anything like this happened before?
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: You know, the complete cancellation of all these programs is unprecedented, and it seems like this might just be the beginning, Scott. In fact, immigration rights advocates are bracing for more deportations and status cancellations in 2026. There are also thousands of Ukrainians who fled Russia's invasion and came to the U.S. under the Uniting for Ukraine program, and they have expressed concerns, especially because the Trump administration paused it this year and resumed it a few months later. But that scared them big time. Also, TPS, temporary protected status, for half a dozen countries is expiring next year. And without a redesignation from the Trump administration, thousands more will lose their legal status in 2026. And all of this is on top of hundreds of thousands of people deported for being in the country illegally.
DETROW: That is Sergio Martínez-Beltrán as well as Ximena Bustillo. Both of them cover immigration for NPR in a year where there is a lot to cover. Thanks to both of you.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: You're welcome.
BUSTILLO: Thank you, Scott. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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