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The nearly 12 million applications accumulated at the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) are being double-checked following the new immigration controls mandated by Trump, through an executive order signed on February 6, 2026, according to a report from Telemundo Atlanta.
The measure instructs the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to expand access to FBI criminal background records, including the new generation identification system. On April 27, USCIS issued internal guidelines ordering the resubmission of fingerprints for all pending cases and required its officials to "refrain from approving any pending case that has not undergone these expanded background checks."
The agency acknowledged that additional controls impact response times and interview scheduling. USCIS Director Joseph Edlow defended the restrictions, arguing that they aim to ensure each case meets stricter standards, while spokesperson Zach Kahler described the delays as "temporary."
Delays hit especially hard the most common categories within the Latino community. The renewal of the permanent resident card takes a minimum of 10.5 months. An I-130 petition for a spouse of a U.S. citizen has a waiting time of 62 months. For work permits for DACA beneficiaries, the system no longer indicates any waiting time at all.
Among the most affected categories are asylum applications, permanent residency, citizenship, work permits, status adjustments, and humanitarian visas. The system was already facing a crisis before these measures. The collapse of procedures in USCIS registered 11.6 million pending cases at the close of fiscal year 2025, more than triple the number from ten years ago.
In the fourth quarter of 2025, case resolutions fell by 22% compared to the previous year, and the volume of applications received but not opened tripled in just one quarter, rising from 60,000 to 248,000 cases.
This situation is compounded by the existence of a list of 39 countries whose immigration benefit allocations have been frozen since November 2025. Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua are among the countries facing restrictions, a measure that directly affects Cubans with pending applications in the United States.
This is not the first restriction to impact the Cuban community. In February 2025, the Trump administration paused the processing for humanitarian parole beneficiaries from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, affecting over 530,000 migrants, including approximately 111,000 Cubans.
Immigration attorney Vanessa Manzi, based in Los Angeles, warned about the long-term consequences: "USCIS is referring many cases to court. What we're going to see is a very large volume of people in legal proceedings. This will bring new delays in court that could last for years."
Manzi recommends that immigrants consult with a lawyer if they receive an interview appointment, especially those who submitted their application without legal representation. He also warns that failing to attend an interview may lead to the definitive denial of the case and the initiation of a deportation process for Cuban immigrants.
Requests that have already been dismissed will not be re-evaluated and will remain denied permanently. Immigrants can check the status of their application and updated processing times on the official USCIS website in Spanish.
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