Stuck in limbo: millions of professionals risk losing legal status under Trump pause

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Source: NPR

April 28, 2026 5:00 AM ET


The lives of hundreds of thousands of people were thrown into limbo after the Trump administration hit pause on reviewing their visa, green card, work permit and citizenship applications. The pause is targeted at those born in one of 39 countries, including Nigeria, Myanmar and Venezuela. The U.S. imposed travel restrictions on most of those countries after an Afghan national shot two National Guardsmen on a Washington, D.C. street in late November.

Five months in, and the impact has been catastrophic for many people from those countries already living in the U.S., whether they're going to school or working in lucrative labor sectors like oil and gas, technology and medicine. NPR spoke with more than a dozen people on condition of anonymity, because they all fear adverse consequences for their immigration applications if they speak publicly. They asked NPR to not use their full names and name them only by their first initials.

Their experiences mirror each other: sudden financial insecurity, months of unemployment, academic and professional opportunities lost — and a crippling anxiety over the abrupt inability to live or work legally in the U.S. The pause is just one part of a larger effort by the administration to restrict legal forms of migration and boost mass deportation of immigrants.

"It hit really hard because I was actually in line for a promotion in July," said A, who leads a cancer clinical research team in Ohio and is from Myanmar. She has been in the U.S. since 2016. Her work authorization, which has been renewed before, is now paused by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). "It's very disappointing to know that something I've been working really hard towards for the last few years is now going to be out of reach just because of where I was born."

Read more: https://www.npr.org/2026/04/28/nx-s1-5775869/trump-travel-ban-pause-limbo-professionals