Five ways Trump's second term has reshaped US immigration, from a near-closed border to a $1m golden card

In November 2025, a BBC team walked the streets of El Paso, Texas, and found them quiet. Not long before, the same streets had been lined with makeshift camps holding thousands of migrants who had been paroled into the US to wait for their immigration proceedings. That emptiness is one measure of what Donald Trump's second term has done to American immigration, a subject he has made central since he rode the golden escalator at Trump Tower in 2015 and accused Mexico of sending drugs and crime north.

The border is the clearest case. Under Joe Biden, more than 4.5 million migrant encounters were recorded at the southern border in 2023 and 2024 alone. Biden's administration eventually pushed monthly numbers down by restricting asylum claims and removing people who entered illegally without processing them. When Trump returned, the stream became a trickle. His administration effectively froze asylum applications at the border, ended catch and release, deployed troops, and pressed Mexico to clamp down. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said on 16 October that the data proves Trump delivered a secure border, adding that strong enforcement works.

The wall is moving faster too, helped by $46.5bn from Trump's One Big Beautiful spending bill. According to government figures, about 644 miles of primary wall and 75 miles of secondary wall stood before he returned. Since then 250 more miles have been completed, including primary, secondary and waterborne barriers plus detection technology, and another 1,443 miles are under construction. Experts say it is a complicated picture of what is newly built versus upgraded. Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the American Immigration Council says there has been no significant change in crossings since construction began in earnest, and credits Trump's policies and messaging instead. Trump, at a Kentucky rally on 17 October, called himself the King of the Wall and again claimed Mexico paid for it through tariffs and costs.

Inside the country, the changes have been louder. ICE operations have rocked cities. Data from the Deportation Data Project, run out of UC Berkeley and UCLA, shows a record of nearly 50,000 arrests and detentions in July this year alone. But the share of those detained who had criminal histories fell to an all-time low of 27% that month. By mid-July ICE was removing an average of 1,255 people a day, against about 770 in Biden's final months, though Biden's removals had themselves climbed sharply in his last year.

The tactics have unsettled many Americans, including some who wanted stricter rules. That became clearer after Operation Metro Surge, a two-month enforcement action in Minneapolis in early 2026 that left two US citizens dead. A New York Times and Siena poll released on 21 October found 50% of voters trust Democrats on immigration and 46% trust Republicans, reversing a traditional Republican advantage. A Politico and Public First poll in late September found 31% of non-MAGA Republicans think the campaign has become too aggressive.

Refugee admissions have collapsed. Trump suspended them almost immediately, and in February an executive order narrowly reopened the process for Afrikaners from South Africa, whom the White House says are persecuted; Pretoria denies it. The fiscal 2026 cap was set at 7,500 and raised to 17,500 in May. State Department data shows 16,292 refugees admitted, of whom 16,287 were South African. In fiscal 2023 and 2024 the figures were 60,000 and 100,000. Temporary Protected Status has also been ended, stripping protection from hundreds of thousands, and in June the Supreme Court upheld ending it for some 350,000 Haitians.

Legal routes have narrowed as well. Dozens of countries face full or partial visa and travel freezes, and enhanced vetting and new green card rules have slowed processing. A $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas, introduced in September 2025, stunned the tech industry; in May, USCIS said registrations for 2027 were down 40%. A court has blocked the fee for now, yet the threat seems to have deterred employers. A Wharton study found the changes would have no significant impact on the wages of US-born workers.

One door is open for those with money: the Trump Gold Card, launched in 2025, asks for a $1m gift to the government plus a non-refundable $15,000 fee. By April, only one applicant had been accepted. With midterms approaching and the courts still weighing key pieces, the next phase will turn on whether voters, judges or both decide the crackdown has gone far enough.