White House Openly Brags About Islamophobic Efforts to Cut Legal Immigration

The Trump administration bragged about reductions in legal immigration from majority-Muslim countries in a post on social media on Tuesday, touting its discriminatory and white supremacist policies as it moves to increase immigration from white populations.

Sharing information from an analysis by libertarian think tank Cato Institute, the White House posted a graph showing that legal immigration and refugee admissions from majority-Muslim countries have been cut nearly entirely – by 96 percent – since December 2024 until February 2026.

The Trump administration has implemented sweeping travel and immigration bans against many countries with large Muslim populations. The State Department has slashed legal immigration by refusing most visas and all refugees from nearly every majority-Muslim country in the world, the Cato Institute’s analysis noted, while annual immigration levels from such nations are projected to reach their lowest point in 30 years.

These policies are openly Islamophobic, coming from a president whose first major action in office during his first term was to implement a “Muslim Ban” that was later overturned in court. This term, his administration has deepened its embrace of racism and Islamophobia both in policy and in rhetoric, with Trump repeatedly calling Somalis “garbage” and attempting to outright ban visa issuances to immigrants from 75 Muslim-majority countries.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin shared the White House’s post, saying that the decline is a result of “tougher vetting” from “high-risk countries,” without specifying what “risk” the immigrants would pose.

The White House’s post was celebrated by Republican lawmakers and influencers, including many of the most bigoted figures on the right.

“Absolutely incredible victory for the American people, thanks to @POTUS,” said Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas).

“4 percent to go! Thank you, President Trump,” said Rep. Randy Fine (R-Florida).

Noah Pollak, who serves as a senior adviser in the Treasury Department’s Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, said that the Trump administration’s efforts to slash immigration from majority-Muslim countries is critical to fighting antisemitism — parroting a false, hateful trope that Muslim people drive hatred against Jewish people.

“This is the single most consequential policy to combat antisemitism in the U.S. in the last decade and it’s not even close. And the Trump admin — and especially those like [White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller] who implemented it — will get no thanks or credit from legacy Jewish organizations, which is shameful,” said Pollak.

The author of the Cato Institute post whose data was shared by the White House, libertarian David J. Bier, condemned the anti-immigration policies. He noted that immigrants from majority-Muslim countries have been shown to be a boon for the local, state, and federal economies, being on average more highly educated than U.S.-born Americans.

“Thanks for citing my work. You are violating the law and harming Americans while making the country less safe, less free, and less prosperous,” said Bier.