The Trump administration on Wednesday waived a government policy requiring people legally immigrating to the U.S. to prove they were vaccinated for COVID-19 as a condition of being approved for a green card.
In a statement, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said it will no longer “deny any adjustment of status application based on the applicant’s failure to present documentation that they received the COVID-19 vaccination.” The new policy took effect immediately.
The Biden administration announced the vaccine requirement for legal immigrants and air travelers in October 2021 — soon after it enacted vaccine mandates for federal employees, large employers and healthcare workers.
Biden ended most of these mandates in May 2023 after federal court rulings struck down some of the policies.
The new policy applies to immigrants who are in the U.S. legally and who applied to change their immigration status, the Daily Wire reported.
According to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, people seeking to immigrate legally to the U.S. are still required to get several other vaccines, including polio, hepatitis B, measles and tetanus.
Catherine Austin Fitts, founder and publisher of the Solari Report and former U.S. assistant secretary of Housing and Urban Development, told The Defender the mandate for legal immigrants was the last vestige of the Biden administration’s efforts to promote the COVID-19 vaccines.
“A good offense is the best defense. In the face of growing evidence that the COVID shots have disabled and killed millions, it worked to keep the pretense going that the shots were ‘safe and effective,’” Fitts said.
Epidemiologist Nicolas Hulscher said the vaccine requirement for legal immigrants was an effort to boost demand for COVID-19 vaccines. He said:
“The removal of these nonsensical mandates represents an important milestone — it was one of the last remaining tools for the Biopharmaceutical Complex to increase mRNA injection uptake.
“Since the majority of Americans were refusing COVID-19 ‘vaccines,’ our compromised federal agencies sought to prevent vaccine wastage by maintaining a mandate for legal immigrants. It’s now expected that COVID-19 mRNA injection uptake will further decrease to a very small minority of the American population.”
Congress may codify new policy into law
In 2023, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) introduced a bill that would have ended the COVID-19 vaccination requirement for legal immigrants. The bill, H.R.4726, languished in the U.S. House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on Health.
“I have a bill to end the COVID vax mandate for legal immigrants seeking citizenship or permanent status. But the reality is this: President Biden invented this cruel and unscientific mandate without congressional approval, so President Trump could end it today with his pen,” Massie wrote on X Jan. 21.
Some Republican members of Congress have called for President Donald Trump’s recent executive orders to be codified into law.
In a post on X, former collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines welcomed the new policy, citing the difficulties her husband — a legal immigrant from the U.K. — faced in changing his immigration status because he was unvaccinated.
HUGE NEWS. Following the below tweet, USCIS has rescinded their Covid vax mandate for legal immigrants.
I can’t even tell you the thousands of people in the same situation who have reached out over the past few years.
Promises made, promises kept. Thank you, @realDonaldTrump. https://t.co/WBn47PgTQS pic.twitter.com/k5cBNnKrOt
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) January 22, 2025
Axios reported in January 2022 that the Biden administration considered requiring migrants ages 5 and older crossing the U.S.-Mexico border to receive a COVID-19 vaccine as a condition of passage. The policy wasn’t adopted.
According to a December 2021 Reuters report that cited internal documents from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, Gavi often denied COVID-19 vaccines to refugees and asylum seekers who were “out of reach of government help” because vaccine manufacturers were “worried about legal risks from harmful side effects.”
Gavi is an international public-private partnership promoting vaccination, established in 1999 by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Gates Foundation holds one of the four permanent seats on Gavi’s board and continues to provide significant funding to the organization.


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While expressing concern for Trump’s support of the Stargate Initiative, which is focused in part on mRNA-based health solutions powered by artificial intelligence, Fitts recommended that the new administration oppose vaccine mandates.
“I recommend we do everything we can to support the President in maintaining his commitment to informed consent, religious exemptions and rejection of mandates,” Fitts said.
Related articles in The Defender:
- ‘Huge Win’: West Virginia Governor Issues Executive Order Allowing Religious Exemptions
- In Majority Ruling, Federal Appeals Court Again Blocks Biden’s COVID Vaccine Mandate for Federal Workers
- Senate Votes to Repeal Biden Vaccine Mandates for Employers
- Supreme Court to Hold Special Session on Legal Challenges to Biden Vaccine Mandates
- Court Deals New Blow to ‘Fatally Flawed’ Biden Vaccine Mandates, But What Does That Mean?