As 2025 concludes, USCIS highlights a year defined by intensified enforcement, stricter vetting, and broad policy changes aimed at restoring what agency leadership describes as integrity and national security to the U.S. immigration system. Under Secretary Kristi Noem, USCIS expanded screening of applicants from high-risk countries, paused and reexamined certain asylum and green card cases following a national security incident, launched a new centralized vetting center, and significantly increased referrals to ICE, arrests at field offices, and issuance of Notices to Appear. The agency also revived its enforcement posture by hiring new “Homeland Defenders,” exercising expanded law-enforcement authorities, emphasizing exclusion of applicants with anti-American or terrorist ties, and implementing long-standing alien registration requirements. USCIS also declared an aggressive campaign against fraud and program abuse, reporting tens of thousands of fraud referrals, large-scale investigations such as Operation Twin Shield, tighter scrutiny of marriage- and family-based petitions, shorter validity periods for work authorization, and the closure of perceived policy loopholes. The agency moved to end or scale back humanitarian parole and TPS designations it views as overused, revised the naturalization test to raise standards, reinstated neighborhood investigations, and strengthened penalties for false citizenship claims. Additional initiatives focused on election integrity, public-benefits enforcement, fee increases to fund enforcement, and employment-based reforms prioritizing higher-skilled, higher-paid workers. Collectively, USCIS frames these actions as delivering measurable enforcement results while prioritizing public safety, American workers, and national interests.