The U.S. government, through agencies like U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), tightened nearly every pathway for legal immigration this year. Forbes reported that the administration’s combined policies will cut the U.S. immigration rate roughly in half by 2028. Employers took notice, too, and worry about a labor shortage in industries like construction and healthcare that lean heavily on foreign-born workers.
Immigration Restrictions Across Categories
The Diversity Visa lottery offers one example of just how expansive these restrictions have been. Officials have tried to gut the category not by ending it via legislation but simply by refusing to process it, currently freezing all of the roughly 55,000 Diversity Visas available for fiscal year 2026. Individuals selected for the lottery who do not receive a visa or adjust status by Sept. 30, 2026 will permanently lose their eligibility. That freeze dates back to Dec. 2025, when one DV1 lottery winner killed two students and injured nine others at Brown University in a shooting; the student also reportedly killed a professor at MIT several days later.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) placed the program on pause days after the attack and hasn’t reopened it since. Refugee admissions have been similarly restrictive. Though the administration set last fall’s refugee cap at a historic low of 7,500 for fiscal year 2026, it raised the cap to 17,500 this spring, setting aside the additional slots for white South Africans, or Afrikaners, exclusively under an executive order citing persecution on the basis of race. Refugees from that country now make up virtually all of the refugees admitted so far this year. Family- and employment-based categories have not been immune, either. A presidential proclamation issued in December 2025 put a freeze on applications from a broad swath of legal immigrants with ties to 39 countries, including Nigeria, Haiti, Afghanistan, and Venezuela.
Public Charge Changes
Finally, USCIS published new public charge guidance on Aug. 18, 2026 that will go into effect Sept. 18. The new rule largely undoes the July 20 rule’s changes by returning to the broader public charge standard USCIS implemented under the 2019 regulation. It replaces the narrower criteria used to make public charge determinations in 20II-20II by considering only cash benefits and long-term institutionalization at the expense of an individual’s health, age, financial resources and other factors. Separately, the State Department also issues public charge determinations for certain consular visa applicants, but a federal judge ruled in July that the agency’s public charge policy ran afoul of the INA, though the decision is currently only applicable to the plaintiff.
Impact On Immigration Rates
According to the National Foundation for American Policy, a nonpartisan research organization, these combined policies are projected to cut legal immigration by 33 to 50 percent by 2028. NFAP also estimates the restrictions could cost the U.S. economy the equivalent of 19 million worker-years and $1.9 trillion in lost output by 2028. Several lawsuits are already challenging pieces of this agenda, so some of these figures could still shift.
As always, ILBSG actively monitors ongoing U.S. immigration news. If you have questions about any U.S. immigration related issue, contact us. Working with an experienced attorney ensures you get the right advice based on the most recent laws. In an ever-evolving immigration policy landscape, it’s particularly critical you get the right advice.