Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem says the Trump administration is making real progress in improving the immigration system — even as federal data shows a historic backlog of pending applications.
Noem Is Hyped On Current Green Card Processing Speed
Speaking on Fox News on November 12, Noem praised what she described as new efficiency and integrity in how the U.S. processes green cards and visas. “Under the Trump administration, we’ve sped up our process and added integrity to the visa programs, to green cards, to all of that,” she said. “But also more people are becoming naturalized under this administration than ever before. More people are becoming citizens.”
There Are Currently 11 Million Pending Applications
A stack of citizenship flash cards is ready for the next student at La Casa de Amistad in South Bend. The cards are used to prepare resident aliens for the U.S. citizenship test. La Casa offers three, 10-week courses a year to help people prepare for it.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) currently faces an unprecedented 11.3 million pending applications, the largest backlog in the agency’s history. In the second quarter of 2024 alone, 1.73 million such filings were submitted. USCIS, a component of the Department of Homeland Security, handles nearly every legal immigration process in the country — from citizenship and asylum to work permits and family sponsorships. Funded mostly by applicant fees rather than taxpayer dollars, the agency has long struggled to balance demand with resources.
The Administration Is Being Tricky With Their Math
While Noem and the White House have pointed to record naturalization numbers as proof of success, immigration experts note that this figure can be misleading. Citizenship approvals often reflect cases that began years earlier — the result of long-delayed applications finally being processed. President Trump has recently defended the H-1B visa program, a key pathway for employers hiring foreign specialists in engineering, tech, and health care. His comments, along with Noem’s, suggest a coordinated push to reframe the administration’s approach to legal immigration as pragmatic rather than purely restrictive.
A Green Card Can Take Years To Secure
A map of clients is pictured at the Immigration Center at Western Oaks in Oklahoma City, on Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025.
For many immigrants, the system remains clogged and unpredictable. According to the Cato Institute, workers seeking a green card now face an average wait time of about three and a half years. Paying an additional $2,805 “premium processing” fee can shorten that wait by less than a year. “America will lose the global talent competition when other countries grant green cards in weeks or months, not years,” said David Bier, Cato’s director of immigration studies. “It’s time for the U.S. government to radically streamline its legal immigration system.”
DHS Isn’t Making Immigration Any Easier
The Trump administration’s enforcement priorities — from mass deportation efforts to stepped-up workplace raids — have also cast a shadow over the legal immigration process. There have been documented cases of green card holders and visa applicants being detained in broader immigration sweeps, blurring the line between legal and illegal presence in the public imagination. According to Homeland Security data, 12.8 million lawful permanent residents currently live in the U.S., a number that has grown even as processing times lag. For now, USCIS continues to juggle a surging caseload with limited resources, promising reforms that have yet to make a visible difference for most applicants.
