Asylum seekers being increasingly detained

Asylum-seekers with no criminal records are being detained around the country as the Trump administration seeks to remove immigrants looking for legal pathways to remain in the United States. The move is a major departure from previous years, during which asylum applicants were allowed to work and build lives in U.S. communities while their cases were processed. The arrests follow a pattern. One day, the asylum-seekers are with their families, often after having lived in the U.S. for years. Then an errand or a drive to work ends with their being swept into ICE’s vast detention system. There, they face difficult conditions and a more adversarial immigration process, along with pressure to self-deport.

People from around the world come to the U.S. to claim asylum, some fleeing war, violence, or religious and political persecution. As of December, more than 2.3 million immigrants were awaiting asylum hearings, a number that has been growing in recent years. The number of people who obtain asylum fluctuates year to year. From Oct. 1, 2024 to Sept. 30, 2025, more than 28,000 out of more than 118,000 applicants were granted asylum, and nearly 5,000 received some other form of immigration relief. The administration says the backlog of cases includes many “meritless applications.”

DHS proposed a rule last month that would deny asylum-seekers work authorization while their applications are being processed, in another major overhaul of the asylum system.

The rising cost of H1B $100,000 fee

This administration’s new $100,000 H-1B visa fee has cost the federal government nearly $20 million thus far, following a drop-off in new applicants. That fee, announced in September, would affect all cases filed  in this upcoming H1 cycle, resulting in the exorbitant fee for any H1 recipient who has to do consular processing for the H1 visa. A March 2026 court filing from a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official explained that while the government had received $8.5 million in new fee payments in recent months, that figure was outweighed by the loss of new applications.

When he announced the new fee, Trump promised it would boost the U.S. economy by bringing in more high-earning, high-skilled workers, and that employers were keen to pay the fee if it meant securing those employees. Critics argued the fee, which applies to new immigrants living outside the U.S., would stifle that growth because small and medium-sized companies would be unable to pay. Between September 2024 and February 2025, USCIS received 123,924 applications outside the regular H-1B visa cap, bringing in roughly $524.9 million through fee payments. In comparison, between the same dates in September 2025 and February 2026, a period straddling the old and new fees, 105,611 cap-exempt applications were received, bringing in $443.4 million, including the $8.5 million in new fees, a visible drop off.

New, external applications dropped 87 percent, leading to the loss in revenue which USCIS relies on to function. USCIS is fee-funded, meaning that even in times of government shutdown its operations keep going, since its costs are covered by the application fees. The loss of $20 million will certainly have an impact on operational abilities.

APPLICATION FINAL ACTION DATES—APRIL 2026

DATES FOR FILING VISA APPLICATIONS—APRIL 2026

Visa Bulletin for April 2026 is available on our website. Please go to http://www.khabar.com/magazine/ immigration/