In just one year, President Trump has blocked millions of immigrants from entry, tightened rules that penalize people who might need government assistance, and revoked protections for immigrants already here.

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The big picture: Trump has regularly been publicly supportive of legal immigration. But a steady stream of policy changes from his administration has made legal immigration much harder just a year into his second term, with more to come.

1. The vetting is getting tougher, with a bigger enforcement budget

Edlow plans to make the citizenship test harder, and USCIS has raised the bar for good moral character in the screening process. Applicants are being asked to show their community ties and “positive attributes and contributions.”

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In addition to partnering more closely with ICE to make arrests, USCIS has sent almost 200,000 court appearance notices to people who are potentially eligible to be deported.

2) Travel bans are freezing out applicants

The pauses on application processing for asylum and immigration cases for nationals on the expanded travel ban list are shutting out as much as 20% of the people in the process for legal immigration, according to a review by the CATO Institute.

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3) Work visas have shorter shelf lives

Foreigners legally working in the country will also see increased vetting with a new rule that shortens the length of employment authorization documents from 5 years of valid status to 18 months.

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4) Needing government help will count against you

When reviewing immigration cases, a new public charge rule will weigh whether an applicant would ever need to use social safety net programs. It uses that determination as a negative factor on an application.

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5) Big humanitarian programs are ending, and roughly a million people have lost legal status

Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem terminated temporary protected status (TPS) for immigrants from 11 countries as each renewal deadline came up for consideration.

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“If these standards are actually enforced, we’ll know in the years to come, because there should be a significant drop off in naturalizations. I’m talking at least like 50%” Howell said.

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