President Donald Trump has a secret legal weapon at his disposal that could transform America’s immigration enforcement overnight—and activist judges won’t be able to stop it. According to legal analyst Dan Huff, the key lies in a bold but entirely lawful move: using the president’s power under 8 U.S.C. 1182(f) to suspend the entry of all new immigrants until existing deportation orders are fully carried out.
This little-known statute gives the president sweeping authority to block immigration if he finds that admitting foreigners would be “detrimental to the interests of the United States.” Trump already used this tool successfully in 2017 when the Supreme Court upheld his travel ban. Now, with deportations gridlocked by activist lawsuits, bureaucratic obstruction, and rampant asylum fraud, Huff argues the time has come to wield that power again—on a much larger scale.
“The only solution is to shut the border until the people we want out are gone,” Huff writes in his op-ed for Fox News. “This will force activists to choose between helping criminals stay in the country and reopening the gates.”
The proposal comes as Biden-era policies and judicial activism have left America’s immigration system in chaos. Courts routinely block enforcement efforts, and bureaucrats water down or ignore clear laws. For example, Congress explicitly bars public charge immigrants from green cards, yet over 54% of immigrant households are on welfare. Agencies simply reinterpreted the rule to ignore non-cash benefits like Medicaid or food stamps. Even the 1996 reform requiring sponsors to repay the government for immigrant welfare use is barely enforced.
More alarming, a DHS study found that 70% of asylum claims are fraudulent or suspicious—data that was hidden under Obama and only released after whistleblower testimony. But asylum abuse continues unchecked, with over 1 million claims filed in 2023 alone. The backlog paralyzes deportations and makes a mockery of immigration law.
Even rock-solid laws like Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which explicitly block judicial review of terminations, are being ignored. A federal judge recently overruled Trump’s effort to cancel TPS for 350,000 Venezuelans—even though the statute says courts can’t touch it.
That’s why Huff says it’s time for Trump to take the gloves off. Under 1182(f), Trump could lawfully declare that no new immigrants will be admitted until the U.S. removes everyone already ordered deported. Courts have already ruled that visa denials cannot be challenged by foreigners abroad. Even if liberal groups sue, Trump’s legal team could demand an injunction bond to cover the billions in taxpayer costs from asylum abuse and welfare fraud.
This strategy wouldn’t just choke off new immigration—it would also slam the brakes on internal approvals. Huff suggests Trump’s DHS Secretary Kristi Noem should immediately rescind all internal delegations of authority and personally approve every visa or green card application herself. That would grind the approval process to a crawl without breaking a single law.
“This is strong medicine,” Huff admits. “But after decades of activist sabotage, it’s the only cure.”
In other words, Trump may have found a lawful, surgical way to reclaim control over America’s borders—and the left won’t like what happens when the system finally enforces the law.
