When President Donald Trump returned to power earlier this year, he inherited an immigration system stretched beyond its limits in every conceivable way. At the heart of this crisis lies a glaring double standard. When migrants enter the country, it’s all about the quantity of decisions — admitting more people, faster — rather than the quality. Many newcomers can legally remain, sometimes permanently. Yet millions are expected to leave once their visas expire or their claims are denied.
At that point, the state suddenly shifts its focus to the quality of each decision, weighing due process and individual circumstances, rather than the quantity. This tension fuels our broken removal system, paralyzes immigration courts, and contributes to a foreign-born population that has now reached at least 50 million people, more than 16% of the United States.
In 2024 alone, nearly 11 million nonimmigrant visas were issued, driven by policies that prioritized speed over scrutiny. Short-term visitor visas, especially B-1 and B-2, soared to roughly 9 million approvals despite being the most frequent source of overstays. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of new student and exchange visas were granted. Although refusal rates rose in some categories under the Biden administration, the sheer volume of applications exploded, overwhelming consulates and signaling widespread attempts to exploit weak standards.
Under President Joe Biden, critical security measures such as mandatory interviews were waived on a massive scale, allowing millions to enter with minimal vetting. The consequences have not been theoretical. Violent incidents, transnational crime, and economic disruption have followed in their wake. Now, with Trump back in office, there’s not only an opportunity but an absolute necessity to reverse these trends, reduce overall visa numbers, and restore integrity to a system drowning in volume.
Issuing millions of visas each year sets off a cascade of new filings and claims. In 2024 alone, over 1.63 million family-based immigration applications were filed, up from 1.37 million in 2019, proving how seemingly temporary admissions often fuel permanent migration. Even supposedly niche categories have exploded: Petitions for special immigrant statuses rose from roughly 40,000 in 2019 to over 143,000 in 2024. Each visa issued becomes the gateway to more filings, more claims, and more strain on overloaded courts.
The solution is not simply to manage this chaos more efficiently. It’s to reduce it decisively.
The Trump administration should cut total nonimmigrant visa issuances by at least half, targeting entire visa categories that serve foreign interests far more than American ones. Temporary work visas, which benefit multinational corporations while suppressing American wages, should be massively reduced or eliminated.
In addition, boldly raising remittance taxes on migrant workers can help offset the economic distortions created when wages are siphoned overseas rather than spent in the U.S. economy, as well as generally deter migration. Programs such as the J-1 “cultural exchange” visa, which are routinely exploited and rarely fulfill their true purposes, should likewise be eliminated.
Restoring integrity means prioritizing quality over quantity at every stage of the process. Interviews should be mandatory for all first-time applicants, and site visits required for employment-based petitions. Officers must have modern tools, commercial database access, and training to detect fraud and security threats. Visa fees should be set high to fund robust vetting and deter frivolous filings. Recent legislation signed by the president has thankfully begun to address these monetary needs.
Congress should also mandate that USCIS officers issue a Notice to Appear (Form I-862) in all cases where a denied benefits applicant is illegally present, ensuring that failures in the benefits system lead directly to removal proceedings. Fraud must be rooted out through audits of affidavits of support, stronger oversight of marriage-based petitions, and meaningful reforms to programs such as the Special Immigrant Juvenile category, which has exploded in filings and become a backdoor pathway for many inadmissible immigrants. Programs such as the visa lottery should be ended outright, as they serve no legitimate national interest and are magnets for fraud.
Above all, the entire system must shrink: fewer visas issued, fewer pathways to permanent residency, and fewer incentives for people to exploit our laws. America’s visa policy should serve one purpose: protecting national security and ensuring that any immigration that does occur benefits the public.
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At the very least, if the government insists on prioritizing quantity over quality at the beginning of the visa process, it must be equally prepared to do so at the end. The same speed and volume used to issue visas should apply to removals and denials. Anything less guarantees exploitation of America’s overwhelming generosity and further strain on our institutions.
America deserves a system that protects the homeland first, not one that serves as a gateway to permanent settlement for those determined to game the process. America’s future depends on restoring visa integrity, securing our borders, and reversing mass migration.
Jack Docherty is a student at the University of Notre Dame and an intern at the Center for Immigration Studies.