November 20, 2025
Washington, D.C. — Representative Chip Roy (TX-21) introduced the Pausing All Admissions Until Security Ensured (PAUSE) Act today. This legislation would freeze all immigration to the U.S., except for temporary tourist visas, until certain conditions are met to ensure our immigration system is working on behalf of the American people.
Our nation’s foreign-born population has reached 51.9 million, comprising over 15% of our total population, a near record high. The U.S. admits more immigrants than all other countries combined. This raises questions about how, and which, legal immigrants are assimilating into our culture and what so many foreign-born individuals mean for our economic, cultural, and security interests.
Rep. Roy on the PAUSE Act:“The problem isn’t just illegal immigration; it’s also legal immigration. While the Biden administration opened our borders and allowed millions to flood into our country, they also rubber-stamped millions more arriving through convoluted legal schemes, completely overwhelming the system.
Young Americas are struggling to find jobs after college, while a lion’s share of H-1B visas are being awarded for entry-level positions. American families are being gouged by insurance companies, while aliens are receiving taxpayer-funded healthcare. The prospects of marriage, parenthood, and homeownership are becoming increasingly distant for Americans, all while foreign nationals are bringing multiple generations of families through chain migration. Everyday Americans are working to advance their careers through merit, while our immigration system uses a lottery that doesn’t bring the best, but the luckiest. Many Americans strive to live their life practicing their faith, while our immigration system is actively importing radical Islamic Sharia adherents and communists.
The American people are done being taken advantage of by the rest of the world. Our immigration system is supposed to benefit Americans. We must put a pause on immigration until we fundamentally fix our broken system.”
The “PAUSE Act” would freeze nearly all legal immigration admissions until the following conditions are codified into law:
- There is an end to Plyler v. Doe, allowing states and localities the ability to only allow U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents to access their public schools.
- Birthright Citizenship: U.S. citizenship is bestowed upon minors only if one parent is a U.S. citizen or a green card holder, ending the practice of automatic citizenship.
- Ending chain migration and the Diversity Visa Program, limiting entries to spouses and unmarried minor children, and ending the practice of admitting extended family members instead of nuclear family members or being picked based on mere luck.
- Prohibiting the entry of Sharia Law adherents, Chinese Communist Party members, known or suspected terrorists, and members of Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
- Baring noncitizens from accessing means-tested federal programs like SNAP, SSI, TANF, Medicaid, Medicare, WIC, federal student loans, and public housing.
- Ending adjustment of status of the H-1B visa and scrapping the unconstitutional OPT program that displaces tech workers by allowing foreign graduates to work instead of returning home.
Original co-sponsors include Reps: Keith Self (TX-3), Brandon Gill (TX-26), Andy Biggs (AZ-05), Lauren Boebert (CO-04), Eli Crane (AZ-02), and Andy Ogles (TN-05).
The PAUSE Act is also supported by Immigration Accountability Project, Citizens for Renewing America, and the National Immigration Center for Enforcement.
Rosemary Jenks, Cofounder, Immigration Accountability Project (IAP) said:“U.S. immigration policy has been on auto-pilot for decades. The result has been ever-increasing legal immigration that harms American workers, promotes social and cultural division, threatens national security, and costs taxpayers billions of dollars. Rep. Roy’s Pause on Admissions Until Security Ensured (PAUSE) Act provides exactly the ‘PAUSE’ in immigration that is necessary for America to get our house in order. A national conversation about an immigration policy that actually serves Americans’ interests is long overdue, and the PAUSE Act’s immigration moratorium will give us the space to have it.”
Wade Miller, Executive Director with Citizens for Renewing America (CRA) said: “For decades, our immigration system has largely benefitted foreign nationals instead of taking into account the interests of Americans first and foremost. Meanwhile, longstanding illegal immigration policy gaps remain unfixed, including ending magnets that incentivize illegal immigration. Additionally, when crafting a nation’s immigration policy, lawmakers must consider under what criteria and circumstances we should admit foreign nationals, ensuring they won’t be a public charge and will not adversely affect the nation’s cultural, security, and economic interests. Congressman Roy’s PAUSE Act aims to fix longstanding immigration issues – legal and illegal – putting Americans back in charge of who they choose to admit into the U.S.”
RJ Hauman, president of the National Immigration Center for Enforcement (NICE) said: “The National Immigration Center for Enforcement supports the PAUSE Act as a practical enforcement measure that pauses new admissions until security and standards are established, then resumes flows only when law and capacity can safely handle them; the bill freezes legal admissions until Congress codifies key conditions that close pull factors and restore order, such as tighter eligibility, clear citizenship rules, a narrower family-based system, and firm bars on entrants linked to hostile or extremist movements; as grievances from overseas conflicts increasingly surface at home, Congress should pass the PAUSE Act to protect the public, uphold ordered liberty, and reaffirm that entry is a privilege linked to allegiance to our constitutional order; once again, Rep. Chip Roy sets the standard, and now it is time for House Republicans to apply the same resolve to the nonimmigrant visa system so H-1B, OPT, L-1, F-1, and J-1 programs serve American workers and security rather than undermine them. All of this should be done after they reintroduce and pass H.R.2, that is.”
The PAUSE Act can be read here.
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