The memo obtained by the AP says the Trump administration plans to review refugees admitted under Biden

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration plans to review all refugees admitted to the United States during the Biden administration, according to a memo obtained by The Associated Press on Monday, in the latest blow to a program that has welcomed for decades people fleeing war and persecution in the country.

Read more: Trump limits the annual number of American refugees to 7,500 people. Most of them will be white South Africans

The review is likely to spark confusion and fear among the nearly 200,000 refugees who came to the United States during that period. It is likely to face legal challenges from advocates, some of whom said the move was part of the administration’s “callous treatment” of people trying to build new lives in the United States.

The memo, signed by USCIS Director Joseph Edlow and dated Friday, said that during the Biden years, “expediency” and “quantitativeness” were prioritized over “detailed examination and scrutiny.” This calls for a comprehensive review and “re-interview of all refugees admitted between January 20, 2021 and February 20, 2025,” the memo said.

The memo indicated that there would be a list of names of people who would be re-interviewed within three months.

Refugee program advocates say that refugees in general are some of the most vetted people who come to the United States, and that they often wait years to be able to come.

The memo also immediately suspended green card approvals for refugees who came to the United States during the aforementioned time period.

If the agency determines that a person should not be eligible for admission as a refugee, the person “has no right to appeal,” according to the memo, although if they are placed in removal proceedings and sent to immigration court, they can then plead their case there. The memo also stated that even those who have already obtained their green cards will be reviewed.

“USCIS stands ready to uphold the law and ensure that the refugee program is not abused,” Edlow wrote.

People admitted to the United States as refugees are required to apply for a green card one year after arriving in the country, and usually after five years they can apply for citizenship.

USCIS, the Department of Homeland Security and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The moves described in the memo are the latest to take aim at the refugee program, which the administration suspended earlier this year and later capped admission at 7,500 mostly white South Africans — a historic low in the number of refugees admitted to the United States since the program’s inception in 1980. The Trump administration has more broadly strengthened immigration enforcement as part of its promise to increase deportations of illegal immigrants.

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The Biden administration received 185,640 refugees from October 2021 to September 2024. The number of refugees accepted exceeded 100,000 last year, with the largest numbers coming from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Afghanistan, Venezuela, and Syria.

Refugee advocates criticized news of the review, saying it would traumatize people who already underwent extensive vetting to get to the United States in the first place.

“This plan is shockingly ill-considered,” said Naomi Steinberg, vice president of U.S. policy and advocacy at HIAS, a refugee resettlement agency. “This is a new low in the administration’s consistently harsh treatment of people who are already building new lives and enriching the communities in which they have made their homes.”

USCIS expects to have a priority list for reinterviews within 90 days, Edlow wrote. His language suggests a strict reconsideration of why refugee status was granted in the first place.

“Certification will include, but is not limited to, circumstances demonstrating prior persecution or well-founded fear of the principal refugee, prohibition of persecution, and any other inadmissible circumstances,” he wrote.

Sherif Ali, president of the International Refugee Assistance Project, an advocacy group, criticized the administration’s actions in a statement late Monday, saying refugees “are already the most heavily vetted immigrants in the United States.”

“Besides the enormous cruelty of this project, it would also be a huge waste of government resources to review and re-interview 200,000 people who have been living peacefully in our communities for years,” Ali said.

IRAP is currently part of a lawsuit seeking to overturn the administration’s suspension of refugee admissions.

Spagat reported from San Diego.