USCIS Moves to Strip Status of 2.2M Illegal Immigrants, DHS Says

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has taken roughly 2.2 million enforcement actions to revoke or terminate the immigration status of people in the country illegally since President Trump’s second inauguration, the Department of Homeland Security announced Thursday.

According to a DHS news release dated October 29, the total covers actions taken since January 20, 2025, and is nearly seven times the number of enforcement actions the agency took during the Biden administration’s final two years combined. The release credits the push to President Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.

America is for Americans.

“Since President Donald Trump’s second inauguration, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has worked to revoke or terminate the status of roughly 2.2 million illegal immigrants, the Department of Homeland Security told The Daily…

— Vice President JD Vance (@VP) October 29, 2026

Vice President JD Vance highlighted the figure in a post on X on Thursday, writing, “America is for Americans,” and sharing the Daily Wire’s report on the milestone.

What the 2.2 million actions include

DHS said the agency’s enforcement actions fall into several categories. According to the release, USCIS has moved to end what it called the misuse of Temporary Protected Status “so that TPS is once again truly temporary,” denied requests to extend or change nonimmigrant status “when no legal basis exists,” and issued Notices to Appear that place removable immigrants into proceedings before an immigration judge.

The release also says USCIS ended the automatic extension of work permits, so that every applicant is screened and vetted before a work authorization is renewed, and terminated categorical parole programs, returning parole to case-by-case review “as Congress intended.”

The Daily Wire, which first reported the figure, said the TPS moves target more than one million foreign nationals from 13 countries. The outlet also reported that the administration ended a Biden-era parole program that allowed roughly 500,000 Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan migrants to fly directly into the United States instead of arriving at the border.

On top of ICE and State Department actions

DHS stressed that the USCIS numbers are separate from enforcement by other agencies. According to the release, the 2.2 million actions are “in addition to the millions of visa revocations and denials” issued by the State Department and the removals carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

American Resolve, citing an ICE report, said the agency deported roughly 421,182 people between October 2025 and August 24, 2026.

“These actions have real consequences,” DHS said in the release. “Every fraudulent application identified, every ineligible benefit denied, and every national security threat flagged represents an immigration system working to uphold the law and protect the American people.”

The department said USCIS is using “its full legal authorities to deny meritless applications, terminate unlawfully granted immigration benefits, initiate removal proceedings, and revoke improper approvals.”

What the number does and doesn’t mean

The 2.2 million figure counts enforcement actions, not necessarily people who have already lost legal status. The Daily Wire noted that it is not clear whether all 2.2 million immigrants lost their status, and reported that some TPS terminations are being held up by ongoing litigation. American Resolve likewise reported that lawsuits have delayed some efforts to end TPS.

Even so, the scale marks a sharp break from the prior administration. Under Biden, according to the DHS comparison, USCIS took only a fraction of these actions over two full years.

The announcement lands five days before the November 3 midterm elections, as immigration enforcement remains one of the administration’s central priorities. DHS separately announced Thursday that it is suspending visa-free travel for Chinese nationals to the Northern Mariana Islands, a move the department said closes a birth tourism loophole.

Sources

• DHS news release, October 29, 2026
• USCIS news release, October 29, 2026
• The Daily Wire
• American Resolve
• Vice President JD Vance on X

Reporting by Daily Beltway.