Trump fires at least 12 independent inspectors general

US President Donald Trump's administration fired the independent inspectors general of more than a dozen major government agencies, US media reported.

The agencies include the departments of defence, state, transportation, veterans affairs, housing and urban development, interior, and energy, Washington Post said, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter.

The New York Times said the purge affected 17 agencies but spared the Department of Justice inspector general, Michael Horowitz.

The Post said the firings "appeared to violate federal law, which requires Congress to receive 30 days' notice of any intent to fire the inspectors general."

The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the reports.

An inspector general is an independent position that conducts audits, investigations and inspectors into allegations of waste, fraud and abuse. They can be removed by the president or the agency head, depending on who nominated or appointed them.

Most of those dismissed were appointees from Trump's 2017-2021 first term, the Post reporting, saying those affected had been notified by emails from the White House personnel director that they had been terminated effective immediately.

Separately, the New York Times reported US Department of Homeland Security officials have ordered what amounts to a pause in several programs that allow immigrants to settle temporarily in the US.

The directive demands an immediate end to "final decisions" on certain visa applications pending a review by the Trump administration about whether to cancel the programs permanently, the Times reported, citing an email sent by the top official at US Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The programs offer possible entry for a large number of immigrants from an array of countries, including war-torn Ukraine and others dealing with political upheaval or extreme poverty.

Trump, on his first day in office on Monday, issued a series of executive orders intended to deter illegal immigration and position the US to deport millions of immigrants without legal status.

The Trump administration is pushing ahead with efforts to ramp up immigration enforcement, opening up the possibility of targeting migrants who entered through Biden-era programs and invoking an obscure immigration statute to make it easier to deputise state and local law enforcement to arrest and detain immigrants in the US illegally.

One terminated program had allowed migrants waiting in Mexico to schedule an appointment to request asylum at a legal border crossing. Another allowed Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans outside the US to enter by air if they had US sponsors and undergone vetting.