Trump Admin 100 Day Wish List

The first few weeks of the Trump Administration have been a whirlwind of activity, but I am not even close to tired of all the winning. Just because much has already been accomplished does not mean our to-do list is in danger of running dry. There are some things—like the elimination of loopholes in the law—only Congress can achieve. While we are waiting for Speaker Godot, President Trump can still make some dramatic changes to restore integrity to the immigration system in service of protecting American job opportunities and raising American wages. 

We can’t let CBP and ICE have all the fun! Below are the Top 10 easiest regulatory and policy changes President Trump could enact within the next few months to make significant improvements to restore integrity to our immigration system. Note, this list is for easy and quick changes on a short “100 Days” timeline. 

1. USCIS: Eliminate Policy Deferring to Previous Decisions

• This bizarre policy says that application adjudicators should provide deference to prior grants of immigration benefits to an applicant. This only makes sense when you realize USCIS has hundreds of millions of applications and petitions to review and looks for any excuse to rubber stamp. The impact of deferring to previous decisions is that it eliminates the burden of proof for applicants AND it enshrines fraud when mistakes are made in the initial approval. There are tons of fraud schemes that thrive due to this policy.

2. USCIS and State Department: End B-in-lieu-of-H and Birth Tourism

• For the uninitiated, the “B” visa is the tourist visa that allows temporary visits to the United States solely for short-term business or pleasure. It is, by far, the largest single category of nonimmigrant visa admissions to the United States annually. Not surprisingly it is an abyss of fraud. “B in-lieu-of-H” is a method by which foreign workers enter on a tourist visa to work as H-1B workers, bypassing the statutory cap (and all other labor protections and considerations) for H-1B. This massive visa category is rife with examples of employers exploiting it for illegal cheap labor. The tourist visa is also the source of aliens seeking to exploit the Birthright Citizenship loophole. In fact, it has generated an entire industry, “birth tourism,” where pregnant aliens pay a fee to a handler to come to the United States on a tourist visa, stay long enough to give birth here, then take their U.S. citizen child home with them. Unless President Trump drains the B visa swamp, his America First immigration agenda will be stymied. 

3. USCIS: Reform H-1B Lottery and Eligibility 

• We all are well aware of the waste, fraud, and abuse in the H-1B system. Americans are shut out of jobs, foreign workers are exploited and abused, and employers make out like bandits. Luckily, much of the work to end this fraud has already been done in Trump 1.0. USCIS needs to allocate H-1B visas by the highest wage offered (rather than the current lottery system), revise the definition of “specialty occupation” to ensure only actual high-skilled workers are eligible, and eliminate third-party employer staffing agencies from participating at all. Since much of this work has already been done, it makes sense to quickly build off the good work for quick turnaround.

4. State Department: Revise Foreign Affairs Manual (FAM) Public Charge Section

• The FAM is full of fraud-enabling language, and Secretary of State Rubio would be wise to freeze reliance on it altogether until sections can be reviewed and revised to conform to the actual law. I referenced the “B” visa above, but the FAM on Public Charge would be an easy method of adding teeth to the public charge ground of inadmissibility. Under the FAM, most government assistance for aliens is NOT counted towards making a public charge determination. I raise this section because the FAM can be changed quickly without long rule-making processes and because State Department denials based on Public Charge grounds are not reviewable by courts. Empowering State to reject visa applications based on Congressional inadmissibilities is our first and most powerful line of defense against fraud. I sincerely hope Secretary Rubio lives up to his America First rhetoric on this front. 

5. USCIS: Reverse Policy Manual Change Encouraging Illegal Presence

• For a brief summary, U.S. law says aliens found to be in the U.S. illegally and subsequently removed, are barred from eligibility to enter the country again for 3 or 10 years depending on their length of illegal presence. The Biden Administration decided that, for the purpose of the statutory bars, it was irrelevant if the alien actually lived illegally in the United States for the pendency of the time they were barred from entering the United States. This effectively repealed the effect of the statutory bars through the policy manual. Clearly, if President Trump wants to increase consequences for illegal immigration, this policy manual update must be reversed quickly. 

6. USCIS: End Discretionary Employment Authorization Document (EAD) Issuance

• The Department of Homeland Security, across multiple administrations, has complained about having too much work and not enough staff or resources. President Trump can easily reduce the workload that burdens staff and reduces DHS effectiveness by simply ending the discretionary workload DHS creates for itself. USCIS released data in 2018 showing annually over one million discretionary employment authorizations were approved. Of course, that number was far higher under the Biden Administration. That bolsters the argument for the elimination of all discretionary EAD options. This is a self-inflicted workflow burden on USCIS which claims to be overburdened with work. Step one, stop digging the hole, USCIS. 

7. USCIS: Eliminate Premium Processing 

• USCIS, and DHS broadly, are not UPS or Amazon. They are not here to serve aliens, but rather American interests. Certainly, the alien applicants are not always right. Premium processing is the DHS attempt to treat their solemn duties under the law like an express lane for valued customers. Premium processing pledges quick turnarounds on decisions for applicants/petitioners willing to pay extra fees. Obviously, when overworked staff are given abbreviated timelines for review, applications will get a rubber stamp approval without adequate scrutiny. DHS is a law enforcement agency. It is entrusted to protect our country from threats. It is not here to produce quick-turnaround approvals for applications. 

8. USCIS: Restore Blank Space Policy

• It is always and forever the alien that determines the time, place, and manner of their application or petition seeking an immigration benefit. The government is receiving hundreds of millions of such applications and petitions every year. With limited resources and time, the government must make clear, bright-line rules to assist in processing. A very simple and logical rule is that if aliens do not even bother to fill out necessary forms completely, then we will automatically deny the application. Aliens are free to try to follow directions again, but the burden is not on the government to fill out forms for aliens. This is just workflow management that makes perfect sense for a government that repeatedly claims to have more work than staff. 

9. USCIS: Require Asylum Officers to Make Independent UAC Determinations

• Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) were victims of massive slavery under the Biden Administration, and Secretary of HHS Xavier Becerra should never escape the shame. In order to qualify as a UAC (and the special treatment they receive under the law), a minor must have been a victim of trafficking, not just a client of a smuggler, most often paid by the child’s parents. Most UACs are designated by Border Patrol when encountered at the border. USCIS Asylum Officers (AOs) have jurisdiction over asylum claims by UACs. For some reason, USCIS created a policy where AOs do not review the UAC legal designation made by Border Patrol. This makes no sense, especially since many designated UACs do not actually qualify as UACs under the law. Why would USCIS bar an objective review of UAC status as part of their adjudication process? They do not want to find fraud it seems.

10. USCIS: Eliminate Discretionary Fee Waivers for all categories 

• If there is one thing President Trump and his DOGE enforcers care about it is finding savings in the bureaucracy. They should look no further than the massive number of fee waivers granted by the government for immigration services rendered. USCIS is a fee-funded agency that waives fees for preferred alien categories, even when the agency is in perpetual budgetary crisis. USCIS should freeze acceptance of all discretionary fee waiver/exemption requests and prospectively bar applications except where the law requires.

Now these are not even close to all that is required of the Trump Administration if it wants to Make America Great Again. However, in the short term, these are crucial steps to lay the foundation for an immigration system that works for Americans and removes the waste, fraud, and abuse currently rampant throughout. 

These actions largely remove self-inflicted wounds by the government that inexplicably advantage fraudulent and frivolous actors in our immigration system. For decades, the government has prioritized quick decisions over integrity and fraud detection. Just in the policies highlighted above you see the government seeing no evil and hearing no evil as a matter of policy. The good news to take from this is that some of our problems stem from simple denial of reality. That means simple acknowledgment of reality and common sense changes in policy can quickly provide results for those bold enough to pave a new path.