(UNITED STATES) – The Trump administration has imposed immigration restrictions and humanitarian cutoffs that fall heavily on people from countries facing some of the world’s harshest climate shocks, pairing new entry limits, work permit curbs and status terminations with an internal push to remove climate language from Department of Homeland Security policy.

An external analysis published on June 10, 2026 found that of the 39 countries now subject to full or partial U.S. entry restrictions, 22 rank in the most vulnerable quarter of nations to climate impacts under the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative. The overlap links a hardline immigration agenda to countries already exposed to drought, floods and environmental disruption.

Officials have cast the measures as enforcement and national security policy. During a Senate hearing on June 2, 2026, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said, “The mission of the Department of Homeland Security is to protect the homeland. We don’t get to choose which laws we enforce.”

One of the clearest steps came on January 13, 2026, when DHS ended Temporary Protected Status for Somalia, with the termination taking effect on March 17, 2026. Former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said, “Allowing Somali nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is contrary to our national interests. We are putting Americans first.”

TPS terminations or non-renewals have also hit Yemen, Haiti, Burma and South Sudan. Yemen’s designation ended on March 3, 2026 and took effect on May 4, 2026; Haiti’s ended on February 3, 2026 and is now under a court-ordered stay; Burma and South Sudan lost TPS in January 2026.

USCIS widened the impact on May 22, 2026, issuing an adjustment of status policy memorandum that requires most immigrants seeking green cards to apply from abroad rather than inside the United States. USCIS said, “We’re returning to the original intent of the law to ensure aliens navigate our nation’s immigration system properly. From now on, an alien who is in the U.S. temporarily and wants a Green Card must return to their home country to apply, except in extraordinary circumstances.”

That change reaches beyond procedure. Families already in the country now face a choice between staying without status or returning to home countries under environmental and political strain while they wait at consulates with backlogs stretching into 2027 and 2028.

Another layer arrived on June 5, 2026, when DHS proposed a rule to limit discretionary employment authorization for people on parole or deferred action. The proposal would narrow access to work permits for many migrants who entered on humanitarian grounds and have relied on those permits to keep jobs while their cases remain pending.

Entry restrictions sit alongside those domestic changes. Proclamations 10949 and 10998 impose what the government describes as permanent pauses or extreme vetting on nationals from 39 countries, including Chad, Niger and Sierra Leone, all identified as among the world’s most climate-exposed countries.

The administration also moved to strip climate terms from agency policy. An internal directive dated February 14, 2025 and reported on February 19, 2026 instructed officials to “Eliminate all climate change activities and the use of climate change terminology in DHS policies and programs, to the extent permitted by law.”

That directive and the immigration measures form a two-track policy. One track tightens entry, status and work rules; the other removes climate displacement from the language officials use when weighing humanitarian cases.

Countries cited in the restrictions, including Chad and Somalia, are also described as places enduring severe droughts and floods. The result is a narrower path into the United States for people from nations where environmental disruption has become part of daily life, even as the federal government stops using climate terminology in the policies that govern protection.

People caught by the May 22, 2026 memo can be pushed into forced departures in all but name. A green card applicant who would once have adjusted status inside the United States must now leave and apply through a consulate abroad, even if that post faces heavy delays and the applicant’s home country is dealing with conflict, disaster or both.

Work rules add another pressure point. If DHS finalizes the June 5, 2026 proposal, parolees and migrants on deferred action would lose access to discretionary employment authorization that many depend on to support families and remain housed while waiting for decisions.

TPS termination carries the same effect in a sharper form. Haitians, identified as an important part of healthcare labor in some states, could lose authorization to work, with staffing gaps expected in fields such as elder care if protections lapse.

Others face legal limbo tied to nationality. People from restricted countries can end up in perpetual pauses, with asylum or green card cases stalled indefinitely because their country of origin appears on the restricted list.

The government records cited for these policies span multiple agencies and dates. USCIS posted the of status policy memo on May 22, 2026, DHS announced the TPS termination on January 13, 2026, the Federal Register published the TPS termination on March 3, 2026, and the government docketed the work permit rule on June 5, 2026.

Taken together, the measures show how the Trump administration has aligned immigration enforcement with a narrower definition of humanitarian protection. Nationals from countries hit hardest by climate shocks now face a system that limits entry, ends TPS, constrains work and, inside DHS itself, orders officials to stop using the language that describes the pressures many of those migrants are fleeing.