EXCLUSIVE: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Will Only Recognize Two Genders

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has updated its policy guidance to clarify that it only recognizes two sexes: male and female, The Daily Wire can first report.

USCIS has historically required that requesters choose between male or female for its forms, documents obtained by The Daily Wire show. But in April 2024 under President Joe Biden’s administration, USCIS added another option, a gender identity marker of “X.”

That is no longer the case, USCIS shared Wednesday, consistent with President Donald Trump’s executive order on “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.”

“Effective immediately,” USCIS is revoking the policy and “now returning to its historical policy of recognizing two sexes to ensure that the information USCIS collects in this category provides a meaningful and useful basis for identification,” a document shared with The Daily Wire reads.

“An applicant’s sex, like their date of birth, is part of their identity and USCIS uses identity to create secure documents, as well as for screening and vetting. USCIS also shares identity-based data with other agencies of the U.S. government, and data fields such as sex must follow standards for such data sharing to function properly,” the document explains.

The decision will impact a variety of key documents that the USCIS handles, including green cards, employment authorization documents, certificates of naturalization, and more, a DHS official shared.

“There are only two sexes — male and female,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told The Daily Wire on Wednesday morning.

“President Trump promised the American people a revolution of common sense, and that includes making sure that the policy of the U.S. government agrees with simple biological reality,” she said. “Proper management of our immigration system is a matter of national security, not a place to promote and coddle an ideology that permanently harms children and robs real women of their dignity, safety, and well-being.”

Under the new guidance, USCIS considers a person’s sex to be the sex listed on their birth certificate issued at the time of their birth or near the time of their birth. If a requestor’s stated sex conflicts with the sex on their birth certificate, USCIS will consider the birth certificate to be the deciding factor.

The new guidance also replaces the term “gender” with “sex” throughout the USCIS Policy Manual and removes language from the appendix about gender identity.