How Trump is intensifying his crackdown on every form of immigration to the US

President Donald Trump’s latest immigration crackdown, prompted by the shooting of two National Guard members, means he has now halted or significantly tightened every legal and illegal form of foreign entry into the US, prompting widespread fear and confusion among immigrants who are unsure what will happen to their pending cases. Trump’s mass deportation campaign has garnered attention for its heavy-handed arrest tactics of undocumented immigrants nationwide. But the administration’s steady drumbeat of incremental changes to the US immigration system has also been disruptive — gumming up an already-arduous process for millions of people. In the days since two National Guard members were shot in DC, allegedly by an Afghan migrant, the administration has announced a handful of policy shifts, including a pause on asylum decisions, a review of cases under the Biden administration and a “reexamination” of certain green-card holders, that have wide ramifications for immigrants residing in the US. ADVERTISING “We’re going back on all of these folks that have applied for asylum, people that would be traveling to this country, and looking at more information, what their social media platforms, they may have visited, the communications that they have, biometric information and data that we can collect from them, but also from their government too,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Monday. As part of that push, Noem is recommending that Trump’s travel ban list expand to include between 30 to 32 countries, an increase from the current list of 19 countries, according to a source familiar with the matter. Adding to the confusion for future travelers, it’s unclear which countries are being added to the list — and when they’ll be announced. US Citizenship and Immigration Services on Tuesday also paused, effective immediately, immigration applications for individuals from the current 19 countries, according to a policy memo. The administration has frequently cited national security concerns to push forward its immigration agenda and roll out restrictions. Trump administration officials and immigration hardliners have argued that doing so is necessary to fix parts of the system that, they say, have been exploited by immigrants coming into the country, or those already residing in the US. But immigration attorneys and advocates say the fits and starts and tightening of rules has slowed down an already-cumbersome system. “It’s hard to predict and advise our clients on how to navigate this system,” said Jeff Joseph, president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “Imagine walking in a house of mirrors blindfolded. You never know, ‘Is this a wall that I’m walking into, is there a corner, is there a way to pivot?’ It’s hard to give advice when every Friday there’s a new announcement from the executive or a tweet with policy changes that are unpredictable,” he added. Related article 20251113-immigration-courts-story-top-label_16x9.jpg Four immigration courts. One day. And a window into a world the public rarely sees Those changes have often been challenged in court, creating more chaos and confusion for the people navigating the system. Some immigration attorneys have advised clients to sit and wait amid the frequent whiplash and fears of being detained at routine check ins or immigration hearings. Other immigrants, meanwhile, have chosen to voluntarily depart. At times, those legal challenges have been indicative of the limitations the executive has in overhauling the US immigration system. “You have lots of control over specific levers of what happens, and you can make drastic changes in policy, but you can’t wholesale change the system itself without Congress enacting legislation. I think that still holds true,” said Andrew Selee, president of the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan thinktank, referring to the executive branch. Border essentially closed For much of the first three years of President Joe Biden’s administration, the southern border was overwhelmed by the number of migrants seeking to cross into the United States, driven by a combination of the COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters and worsening economic conditions in Latin America. In the final year of Biden’s presidency, his administration implemented restrictions along the US-Mexico border that, Homeland Security officials said, drove down border crossings. But stopping the flow of people, which Trump has repeatedly referred to as an “invasion,” remained a central tenet of his successful presidential campaign, and within hours of being sworn in for his second term, his administration took steps that effectively sought to shutter asylum at the southern border. Last month, the Supreme Court announced it would review Trump’s policy of turning away asylum seekers at the border. Trump signed an executive action that declared an emergency at the border, prompting the deployment of additional military personnel to assist with logistical and bureaucratic tasks and finish Trump’s long-promised border wall. In March, US Customs and Border Protection awarded the first border wall contract during Trump’s second term, giving a construction company more than $70 million to construct about seven miles of barrier in southern Texas. The Trump administration has said these actions have contributed to a significant drop in crossings, claiming a significant drop in migrant border crossings in the first 100 days of his second term. Asylum cases stopped Following the shooting of members of the National Guard in Washington last week, USCIS announced it was halting all asylum decisions until “we can ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible.” There were more than 2.2 million immigrants waiting for asylum decisions or hearings as at end August 2025, according to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. DHS also said it was reviewing all asylum decisions made during Biden’s term following the shooting. The halt means that asylum seekers who might already have waited years for their cases to be resolved now face an even more uncertain future. TPS terminated for multiple countries In 1990, Congress created a temporary protected status program for people fleeing countries enduring natural disasters, wars or other conditions that would make it dangerous for people to return. The program granted these people the right to live and work in the United States for a temporary period of time that could be extended. Seventeen countries were covered by TPS designations as of late March, accounting for about 1.3 million foreign nationals living in the United States who were covered. But the Trump administration has sought to winnow back protections for citizens from several countries. In February, the Department of Homeland Security announced it was seeking to end TPS protections for citizens of Haiti, which had been covered under the program since the country experienced a devastating earthquake in 2010. A federal judge later blocked that move after accusing DHS of failing to follow procedures mandated by Congress. The administration has also moved to end TPS status or reverse extensions for Venezuela, Afghanistan, Cameroon, Nepal, Honduras, Nicaragua and Syria. In November, DHS moved to also end TPS for South Sudan and Burma, both of which have been mired by years of civil war. As of December, 12 countries are covered under TPS, though several of their designations are set to expire next year. That timeline could change pending legal action. Refugee admissions stopped except White South Africans The Trump administration in October announced it was restricting the number of refugees the United States would admit to 7,500 each year — a miniscule amount for a country that had long been a beacon to millions of people fleeing war, poverty and persecution in their home countries and had allowed refugees under programs that enjoyed bipartisan support. In 2024, the US admitted just over 100,000 refugees, primarily from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Afghanistan, Venezuela and Syria. The main group being welcomed under Trump is White South Africans. The president and officials within his administration, including his sometime adviser, billionaire South African-born Elon Musk, claim that group is facing persecution, racism, threats and murder in their home country. Both Trump and Musk alleged that White South Africans were being discriminated against due to land reform policies implemented by that country’s government which sought to redress the legacy of apartheid, the system under which non-White South Africans were forcibly displaced from their lands in favor of Whites. Black South Africans, who comprise over 80% of the population of 63 million, own only around 4% of private land. The government of South Africa has strongly refuted the administration’s claims that it is discriminating against its White citizens. CNN previously reported the Trump administration is also moving to reinterview certain refugees who were admitted to the United States under Biden as part of a comprehensive review of their cases. Green cards under scrutiny The shooting of guard members in Washington last week also prompted USCIS to announce “a full scale, rigorous reexamination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern.” Green card holders have the ability to live and work permanently in the US but do not enjoy the full benefits of citizenship, including the right to vote or hold an American passport. Asked to clarify which countries were of concern, USCIS pointed CNN toward a presidential proclamation in June that named 19 countries including Cuba, Laos, Venezuela, Haiti and Afghanistan. Reviewing individual green card holders from each of those countries could be a monumental task requiring the administration to review the statuses of tens of thousands of people. It’s unclear when the review will end. Work visas restricted In September, the administration sought to place restrictions on certain work visas, claiming these visas were used to the detriment of American workers who were being replaced rather than supplanted by the foreign workers. Trump signed an executive action imposing a $100,000 application fee for H-1B visas, which are commonly used by tech companies who say the program is necessary to fill out workers who they cannot find in the United States. About 65,000 H-1B visas are granted annually, and the demand for the visas often exceeds their supply. In October, the administration announced several changes to the program, including narrowing the definition of “specialty occupation,” enhancing DHS’ “ability to enforce compliance through worksite inspections,” and reforming the wage methodology that officials argued previously put American workers at a disadvantage. One industry that the president seems hesitant to restrict is agriculture, which relies heavily on both legal and undocumented immigrant labor. While the president was taking a hardline stance against undocumented immigration this summer, behind the scenes members of his administration were working to assuage concerns in that industry about the effects of an immigration crackdown, and the president’s own tone toward undocumented farm workers has been noticeably softer compared to other sectors. Student visas reduced The administration has issued thousands of fewer visas for international students than had been typical during previous years. The administration this year has also targeted the existing visas of thousands of international students, with particular attention on those who were active in campus protests that opposed Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. The State Department has revoked about 6,000 student visas this year, and the administration’s restrictive stance toward what students studying on visas can post to social media has discouraged others from even applying to study in the United States. Reasons for the visa revocations have ranged from high-profile cases involving allegations of support for terrorist organizations to relatively minor incidents that include years-old misdemeanor crimes. Earlier this year, the administration paid particular attention to visas for Chinese students. The Trump administration moved to “aggressively revoke” Chinese student visas before later reversing course. In an interview with Fox News last month, the president said he thinks “it’s good” to have students from “outside countries” enrolled at American universities — and defended China while attacking France, a close American ally. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Revealed: US veterans affairs to share immigration data about non-citizen workers with ‘appropriate agencies’

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is in the process of creating an urgent and massive new internal database of non-US citizens who are “employed or affiliated” with the government department, a sensitive memo leaked to the Guardian has revealed – prompting alarm within the sprawling agency over a potential immigration crackdown. A VA spokesperson confirmed to the Guardian that the department would share some of the data it is now gathering with other federal agencies, including for immigration enforcement purposes. “VA will share any adverse findings with the appropriate agencies to ensure anyone who is not authorized to be in the US is dealt with accordingly,” the spokesperson said, when asked if the VA would share the data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The agency added: “No one who is not an illegal immigrant has anything to worry about.” However, likely thousands, including people legally in the US such as permanent residents with green cards and even military veterans themselves, now face being named in the forthcoming report about non-United States citizens, which seeks to further vet the VA workforce to varying degrees for “personnel suitability and national security standards”, according to the memo. Top department officials, including the veterans affairs secretary, Doug Collins, are requiring VA offices across the country to turn over data on non-citizen “full-time and part-time employees, contractors, health professional trainees” and volunteers with the VA, according to the memo. Then the office of operations, security and preparedness, an internal office overseeing security over VA operations, will compile the report for the VA secretary. “By December 30, 2025, the office of operations, security, and preparedness must provide the secretary of veterans affairs a report of all non-United States citizens who are employed by or affiliated with VA,” the memo shown to the Guardian reads. The memo was prepared by the VA chief of staff, Christopher Syrek, dated 15 November and sent to under-secretaries, assistant secretaries and “other key officials” in the department. When asked by email about the reason for the report on non-US citizens being compiled, Pete Kasperowicz, a VA spokesperson, said in a statement: “VA is required by federal law to continuously vet all employees and affiliates, such as unpaid researchers and others who may have access to VA data or systems, to ensure they meet the federal government’s trusted workforce standards.” He added: “The memo you reference is part of this process.” Kasperowicz also included a link to the government’s workforce standards website related to vetting. But the website does not say anything about immigration status during “continuous vetting” processes. The leaked memo makes no mention of any similar database or report being compiled on US citizens working with the VA, only focusing on non-citizens. Some current and former department officials are dismayed, the Guardian has learned, fearing the VA workforce is about to be targeted by Donald Trump’s aggressive anti-immigration agenda. More than 450,000 people are employed at the VA, providing healthcare, education, rehabilitation and other services to veterans. The VA also works with thousands of contractors nationwide for day-to-day operations. It is the second biggest federal department after the Pentagon and provides healthcare, financial and many other services to millions of US military veterans. The broad and vague nature of the memo implies the information dragnet may target a range of non-citizens, including doctors and nurses working in VA clinics, medical school students completing their clinical training at VA hospitals, scientists working in advancing medical research contracted by the department, volunteers working VA-related events, even contractors performing cleaning or maintenance jobs at facilities – and thousands more. “List-making by the state is an authoritarian tactic meant to stoke fear. At the direction of Secretary Collins, the VA is persecuting non-citizen employees who provide essential services and benefits to our veterans,” said Illinois Democratic congresswoman Delia Ramirez, ranking member of the oversight and investigations subcommittee on the House veterans affairs committee, in a statement to the Guardian. She added: “The reported memo could have far-reaching implications. Attacking immigrants authorized to work is just another way [US president] Trump and the [VA] secretary seek to deconstruct, decimate and demoralize the VA workforce.” The memo does not say whether the data compiled would be shared with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the federal department that houses ICE and is carrying out the Trump administration’s “mass deportations” program. But the VA confirmed information would be shared with other agencies. This follows the Trump administration’s increasing push to collect and share data between other agencies and the DHS for immigration enforcement purposes. “Once information is collected on who is a non-citizen, and the exact status and posture of their protections and rights to be in the United States, it becomes incredibly easy for the federal government to make an effort to get that information,” said Nayna Gupta, policy director at the American Immigration Council. “This data collection and reporting is a form of intimidation, in a context where a list of names of non-citizens can so obviously get into the hands of an agency pursuing this agenda.” The DHS referred all questions to the VA. The memo says that all people who provide services to veterans and with access to VA facilities and information systems must be “vetted and accounted for, in accordance with applicable laws and personnel suitability and national security policies and standards”. The memo outlines certain steps required by VA offices to pull data and compile it in a report. “Failure to meet this requirement may result in physical or logical [sic] access termination and separation of unaccounted or unvetted personnel,” the document reads. Syrek was also the department’s chief of staff under the first Trump administration. Collins, who now awaits the report, is a former US congressman and previously one of Trump’s personal attorneys. It is likely the list will include the personal information of some veterans themselves. Over a quarter of the VA’s workforce is made up of veterans, and it is not a requirement to be a US citizen to serve in the military. In July the VA said it was on track to reduce its staff by 30,000. “I think there have been a number of moves by the current administration that have had a chilling effect on folks’ desire to work at the Department of Veterans Affairs,” said Kayla Williams, a senior policy adviser at VoteVets and former assistant secretary of public and intergovernmental affairs at the VA. “The amount of chaos that has already happened has really challenged the existing workforce … Anything else that makes people think, ‘Maybe I wouldn’t be welcome,’ to me is a negative move that can really harm veterans.” Tracking non-citizen workers may place veteran healthcare in peril, one expert said. “This is just one more pile-on to the creation of a hostile work environment that jeopardizes patient safety,” said Suzanne Gordon, a senior policy analyst at the Veterans Healthcare Policy Institute. “It’s extremely significant – they’re just adding another element to the fear and trepidation people feel when people come to work. And that’s really bad for patients.” When asked if the VA was concerned that the non-citizen database would have an impact on workforce morale, Kasperowicz said: “Not at all. No one who is not an illegal immigrant has anything to worry about.” On patient safety, the VA previously said in a statement to the Guardian for an article in August on cuts at the agency: “Anyone who says VA is cutting healthcare and benefits is not being honest,” citing a “nationwide shortage of healthcare workers”. The Trump administration this year has pushed for further data-sharing between federal and local agencies – including with the DHS and its ICE arm. In April, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agreed to share sensitive taxpayer information with ICE, a move that a federal judge blocked last month. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced in March it was partnering with the DHS to share data for immigration enforcement purposes And the Trump administration just announced the health department would be providing sensitive information about some Medicaid recipients to ICE. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Trump ramps up immigration crackdown after shooting

President Trump’s threats to crack down on immigration are leaving migrants bracing as the administration said it will close the door on many legal pathways to the U.S. following a shooting that killed a National Guard member. Since the Wednesday shooting killed 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom, Trump and his Cabinet members have proposed a dizzying number of reforms as part of a Thanksgiving pledge to “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries.” The Trump administration has paused all pending asylum applications for those from across the globe seeking refuge in the U.S. And for those from the 19 countries already covered by the travel ban, Trump has said he would pause review of their immigration cases, threatening also to revoke their green cards. He also said the U.S. would not issue any visas to citizens of Afghanistan, the home country of shooter Rahmanullah Lakanwal. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem suggested the policies could stretch even further, threatening action “on every damn country that’s been flooding our nation with killers, leeches and entitlement junkies” in a remark that sparked concern the Trump administration could expand its existing travel ban. To immigration advocates, the shooting has become cover to carry out drastic immigration moves that were likely already eyed by the administration. “You have to take a broader view that this is a president that has a documented history of using tragedies, using external developments, using things like the pandemic as pretext to pursue specific ends when it comes to immigration,” said Jorge Loweree, managing director at the American Immigration Council. “What happened is an absolute tragedy, and we need to do everything we can to prevent that sort of thing from happening. But there’s very clearly a much broader goal here, which is to severely reduce legal immigration to the U.S. by whatever means possible.” Others lamented that the actions of one person have become the basis for a series of immigration actions that will have far-reaching consequences. “They are going after not only all Afghans, but also it’s expanded to all people applying for asylum, all individuals who are from countries that are on the travel ban list, and they’re even looking toward expanding the travel ban as well,” said Shev Dalal-Dheini, senior director of government relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Association, noting that the Trump administration initially considered 36 countries for the travel ban. “They’re just going taking this one very tragic incident and expanding it … just using it as an excuse to do what they’ve always intended to do and go after individuals from, as the president said, Third World countries.” Trump on Thanksgiving said the moves were needed to “allow the U.S. system to fully recover …and remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States.” “Only REVERSE MIGRATION can fully cure this situation. Other than that, HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL,” he wrote on Truth Social. All the measures proposed by Trump would target legal immigrants to the United States. The day before the shooting was carried out, the Trump administration announced it would review all refugee admissions that were issued under the Biden administration, some 200,000 people over four years. The directive was seen by some as specifically targeting the roughly 80,000 Afghan citizens who fled the country amid the fallout from the U.S. withdrawal in 2021 and were evaluated by the Biden administration. Lakanwal, who served in a CIA-backed counter-terrorism unit during the war, came to the U.S. under Biden but was approved for asylum under the Trump administration. He was vetted by counterterrorism authorities and had received what is known as chief-of-mission approval, verifying his work for U.S. forces as part of the process to gain a green card. “This guy was vetted by both the Biden and Trump administrations, and that’s not the issue here, the vetting. Nothing failed with the vetting,” said Shawn VanDiver, president of AfghanEvac, who said the resulting immigration moves amount to collective punishment. “[It’s a] colossal waste of resources. Refugees are already vetted to the fullest extent before they get here, and every person who’s a non-citizen or in a temporary status here is continually vetted when they’re here.” Dalal-Dheini said the result of putting so many immigration applications on pause actually jeopardizes safety. “They’re putting all these hundreds of thousands of people in limbo because of the action of one person, and that doesn’t do anything to improve our national security,” she said. “If they just stop vetting these people to stop adjudicating their cases, people who are a national security threat may not be discovered. If they’re delaying these cases, if they’re spending all this time to re-examine individuals who have already been vetted — so refugees or green card holders — you’re now taking away resources for the adjudicators to be able to actually adjudicate new cases of people who have not been vetted before,” she said. “This, in fact, is probably going to harm our national security more than improve it.” Trump at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday forecast some future immigration moves, saying officials were preparing for a wave of new enforcement efforts, including one targeting Somali immigrants in Minneapolis. “We’re going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country,” Trump said of Somalians. Somalia is already included on the existing travel ban list, as is Afghanistan, while Burundi, Chad, Cuba, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Laos, Libya, Myanmar, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, Venezuela and Yemen fill out the rest of the list. Trump’s comments about stopping migration from “all Third World countries” also raised questions about what countries might be included. “There are a number of countries, some very, very large countries, who, depending on how you define a developing nation, or, as the president says, a Third World country, could be on that list, including, potentially, a country like India,” Loweree said. But he sees a larger trend from Trump’s immigration moves, as further narrowing of immigration pathways to various countries inevitably stops people from coming to the U.S. “The president’s intent on targeting a broad sort of swath of the world when it comes to the narrowing of our immigration system,” Loweree said. “All of these different changes, some of them may be relatively small, but when you add them together, they create many different layers that prevent specific populations of people from being able to navigate the system, and therefore shut them out entirely,” he said. “That is the goal, targeting specific people that the administration deems to be undesirable and cutting them out of the system.” For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Jon Stewart Slams Trump’s Immigration Crackdown in Wake of National Guard Shooting: ‘He Does Not View You as Individuals’

Stewart then cut to a clip of Trump speaking to reporters about his decision to pause asylum requests. The president said the suspected shooter is part of a group of “people that shouldn’t be in our country,” a cluster that also includes “Somalians” and “plenty of others.” “Did you just ‘Somalia’ Afghanistan?” Stewart joked. “Because of this one Afghan, all Afghans are suspect, and also Somalians?” ADVERTISEMENT The late-night pundit then cut to another clip of Trump at Mar-a-Lago, where he was asked what the Solamians had to do with the National Guard shooting. The president replied, “Nothing, but Somalians have caused a lot of trouble.” “‘They had nothing to do with it, just reminded me of other groups I also don’t like. I don’t see color. I just hate all of it,'” Stewart said. “So our entire immigration system is now going to be based around the principle that if even one person from your ethnic or religious group fucked up, you all got to go.” Later in the monologue, Stewart asked who Trump would like to see come to America. Trump’s answer came in a sound bite: “I also like very competent people coming into our country. … Maître d’s, wine experts, even waiters, high-quality waiters. You got to get the best people.” “So Somalians aren’t welcome, unless they’re also ‘sommeliers,'” Stewart said. “But by the way, I want to make this clear. I don’t mind Trump having strict standards. The problem is, if you are from the so-called less desirable countries, he does not view you as individuals. You are just part of a larger amorphous blob of suspicion that deserves no grace, and if one of you fuck up, all are condemned.” Watch the entire monologue below. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Lawsuit accuses Trump administration of bias in immigration judge's firing

Former immigration judge claims firing violated Title VII and First Amendment rights Justice Department says president has constitutional right to fire immigration judges Over 100 immigration judges fired since Trump's return, lawyers group says Dec 1 (Reuters) - A former immigration judge filed a lawsuit on Monday claiming she was wrongfully fired by President Donald Trump's administration, which she says relied on an "unjust" belief that the president can legally discriminate against federal workers based on their sex, national origin and political affiliation. In her lawsuit, opens new tab filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., Tania Nemer said the U.S. Department of Justice fired her on February 5 shortly after the beginning of Trump's second term in office because she is a woman, a dual citizen of Lebanon who is the child of immigrant parents, and had earlier in her career run unsuccessfully for local office as a Democrat. Jumpstart your morning with the latest legal news delivered straight to your inbox from The Daily Docket newsletter. Sign up here. Advertisement · Scroll to continue She argues her firing violated the landmark Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and her right to engage in political activity under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment. According to her lawsuit, the Justice Department's Equal Employment Opportunity office had dismissed a discrimination complaint she filed, saying the termination was a "lawful exercise" of the authority the president and attorney general possess under Article II of the Constitution to remove inferior officers. OFFICE DECIDED JUDGES NOT PROTECTED The head of the Justice Department's equal employment opportunity office, in a September 25 decision, opens new tab, had said that no statute, including Title VII, provides immigration judges with protection from at-will removal by Trump. Nemer argues that is wrong and that a federal judge should force the Justice Department to reinstate her. Advertisement · Scroll to continue "Title VII is unquestionably constitutional," her attorneys, Nathaniel Zelinsky and James Eisenmann, said in a joint statement. "The government cannot discriminate against its employees. Full stop. We look forward to pursuing Tania’s case in court.” The Justice Department, whose Executive Office for Immigration Review houses the executive branch's immigration court system, declined to comment. Nemer, who joined the Justice Department as an immigration judge in 2023 during former Democratic President Joe Biden's administration, said she was on the bench when her immediate supervisor interrupted her and informed her she had been terminated, effective immediately. He did not give a reason, she said. More than 100 immigration judges out of about 700 have been fired or pushed out since the start of Trump's return to office in January, according to the American Immigration Lawyers Association, a move that the organization says has depleted the number of judges available to handle a surge in cases as the administration ramps up arrests and deportations. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

College student deported when flying home for Thanksgiving, despite court order

A college freshman trying to fly from Boston to Texas to surprise her family for Thanksgiving was instead deported to Honduras in violation of a court order, according to her attorney. Any Lucia Lopez Belloza, 19, had already passed through security at Boston Logan international airport on 20 November when she was told there was an issue with her boarding pass, said attorney Todd Pomerleau. The Babson College student was then detained by immigration officials and within two days sent to Texas and then Honduras, the country she left at age seven. “She’s absolutely heartbroken,” Pomerleau said. “Her college dream has just been shattered.” a woman in a brown coat speaks Mother of Karoline Leavitt’s nephew detained by US immigration agents Read more According to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), an immigration judge ordered Lopez Belloza deported in 2015. Pomerleau said she wasn’t aware of any removal order, however, and the only record he has found indicates her case was closed in 2017. “They’re holding her responsible for something they claim happened a decade ago that she’s completely unaware of and not showing any of the proof,” the lawyer said. The day after Lopez Belloza was arrested, a federal judge issued an emergency order prohibiting the government from moving her out of Massachusetts or the US for at least 72 hours. ICE did not respond to an email on Friday from the Associated Press seeking comment about violating that order. Babson College also did not respond to an email seeking comment. Lopez Belloza, who is staying with her grandparents in Honduras, told the Boston Globe she had been looking forward to telling her parents and younger sisters about her first semester studying business. “That was my dream,” she said. “I’m losing everything.” For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

US halts all asylum claim decisions after National Guard shooting

The Trump administration has halted all asylum decisions following the shooting of two National Guard soldiers in Washington DC, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) director has said. Joseph Edlow said the pause would be in place "until we can ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible". It came hours after US President Donald Trump pledged to "permanently pause migration" from all "third world countries". The flurry of immigration decisions come in the wake of Wednesday's shooting, which left one soldier dead and another in a critical condition, and which officials have accused an Afghan national for perpetrating. While the first of these specifically targeted Afghans seeking to enter the US, other decisions have been far more wide-reaching. The USCIS - a branch of the Department of Homeland Security - has been told not to approve, deny or close asylum applications it receives for all nationalities, according CBS News, the BBC's US partner. Its officers can continue to work on asylum applications and review cases up to the point of making a decision, CBS reported. But few details are known about Friday's directive. Trump did not name which countries might be affected by his migration pause, which could face legal challenges and has already prompted pushback from UN agencies. The US president's recent announcements represent a further toughening of his stance towards migrants during his second presidency. Trump has also sought to enact mass deportations of illegal migrants, cut the annual number of refugee admissions, and to end automatic citizenship rights currently applicable to many born on US territory. National Guard member dies after shooting in Washington DC Afghans in US issue plea to Trump after Washington DC shooting Following Wednesday's fatal attack, the Trump administration temporarily stopped issuing visas to Afghans through the same programme the shooting suspect had, before suspending all immigration requests from Afghans pending a review. Then on Thursday, the USCIS said it would re-examine green cards issued to individuals who had migrated to the US from 19 countries, without mentioning Wednesday's attack. The agency referred to a June proclamation that included Afghanistan, Cuba, Haiti, Iran, Somalia and Venezuela. Details on what re-examination would look like were not provided. Trump then pledged to "end all federal benefits and subsidies to non-citizens" on Thursday. 'Third-world countries' Trump blamed refugees for causing the "social dysfunction in America" and vowed to remove "anyone who is not a net asset" to the US. "Hundreds of thousands of refugees from Somalia were completely taking over the once great State of Minnesota," he said. "I will permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the U.S. system to fully recover." The phrase "third world" is one previously used to describe poorer, developing nations. Earlier this year, a travel ban was imposed on nationals primarily from 11 African and Asian nations, including Afghanistan. During Trump's first term, he enacted a travel ban targeting multiple Muslim-majority countries. The UN has urged the US to observe international agreements on asylum seekers, news agency Reuters reported. Trump's reaction to the shooting amounted to a "scapegoating" of migrants in the US, argued Jeremy McKinney, the former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. He told the BBC World Service's Newsday programme before Trump's latest remarks that the attacker's motive were unclear, and that radicalisation and mental illness could affect anyone. "These types of issues - they don't know skin colour, they don't know nationality." Suspect in DC shooting is Afghan Officials said the shooting suspect, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, came to the US in 2021. He travelled under a programme that offered special protections to Afghans who had worked with US forces in Afghanistan before their chaotic withdrawal and the return to power of the Taliban. Mr Lakanwal had been a member of a "Zero Unit" - an Afghan intelligence and paramilitary force that worked with the CIA - a former Afghan defence and security forces member told CBS. The US considered Zero Units to be among the most respected domestic forces in Afghanistan. The CIA's current director has confirmed that he previously worked with the US intelligence agency. He would have been vetted by the US both when he started working with the CIA and when he travelled to the US, a senior US official told CNN. A childhood friend told the New York Times that Mr Lakanwal had experienced mental health issues after his work with his unit. Mr Lakanwal was reportedly granted asylum after Trump returned to office, having applied in 2024. But his request for a green card - which shows a person has permanent residence in the US - is pending, an official told CBS. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Gutting of key US watchdog could pave way for grave immigration abuses, experts warn

The federal watchdog system at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that oversees complaints about civil rights violations, including in immigration detention, has been gutted so thoroughly that it could be laying the groundwork for the Trump administration to “abuse people with impunity”, experts warn. Former federal oversight officials have sounded the alarm at the rapid dismantling of guardrails against human rights failures – at the same time as the government pushes aggressive immigration enforcement operations. A group of fired watchdogs has filed a whistleblower complaint to Congress through the Government Accountability Project (GAP), and a coalition of human rights organizations sued the administration, demanding the employees be reinstated. There is deepening concern that a system of oversight that was already weak is now hanging by a thread, even as criticism surges over treatment of detainees in the ballooning immigration jail network. “They want to be able to abuse people with impunity,” said Anthony Enriquez, vice-president of US advocacy and litigation at the Robert F Kennedy Human Rights advocacy group based in Washington, which is representing the group suing the government. He added: “They want to be able to operate a system that doesn’t have any rules and that can be used to maximize brutality against people, in order to accomplish a mass deportation agenda.” The DHS has repeatedly, through assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin, insisted when asked about reports and complaints of abuses that there are “no sub-prime” conditions in immigration custody in the US. But Dana Gold, a senior director of the GAP, which is working with those behind the whistleblower complaint, echoed Enriquez’s warning. Without a robust oversight system “there’s just a blank check for impunity”, she said. The second Trump administration early on fired hundreds of officials in federal oversight offices, typically known as watchdogs. This included at the DHS. The main watchdog team there overseeing civil rights, the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) – one of three DHS oversight offices – has been cut from a staff of 150 to just nine. This despite there being about 550 investigations that were active and alleging serious civil rights violations by DHS officials and contractors, including inside immigration detention centers. Cases that were active when Trump returned to office include civil rights officials then in post investigating allegations of civil and human rights abuses, according to CRCL documents that were previously public, original complaint records submitted to the CRCL and the whistleblower disclosure, reviewed by the Guardian. Among the cases, were the following allegations: Border Patrol agents in Arizona forcibly removed a detained man from a cell, handcuffed him and then injected him with ketamine to sedate him in 2023, according to a CRCL document confirming the watchdog’s investigation into the allegation. A Guardian reporter had saved that document just weeks before it was scrubbed from the DHS’s website. Guards at a privately owned Louisiana detention center systematically mistreated detained immigrants, according to a CRCL document. This included an investigation into a 2024 incident during which correctional staff pepper sprayed around 200 detained immigrants who were staging a hunger strike in protest of detention conditions. Guards then allegedly locked the men in the unit and cut the power and water for hours. A majority of the men were allegedly denied medical care, the original complaint, submitted to the CRCL by RFK Human Rights, said. In a Florida jail, a 33-year-old immigrant woman with mental health problems was forcibly stripped naked, strapped to a restraint chair and mocked by male guards, according to a CRCL complaint submitted by the ACLU of Florida and RFK Human Rights. The woman was allegedly left with “contusions and marks on her body” after hours in the restraint chair. The whistleblower declaration said the CRCL had launched an investigation into the case. Agents violated due process during the arrest and detention of Palestinian student and Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil, according to the whistleblower complaint. This last one, into Khalil, who was arrested by ICE agents for his pro-Palestinian activism, was one of the final investigations launched before the mass firing of civil rights watchdog officials in March. The status of these investigations, and hundreds more, is unknown. Enquiries by the Guardian to the DHS last week about the above specific cases and the many others previously understood to be active elicited no response. However, in response to requests for comment by the Guardian, also submitted to DHS last week, McLaughlin issued a statement, saying: “These claims are ridiculous. All of legally required functions of the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) continue to be performed, but in an efficient and cost-effective manner and without hindering the department’s mission of securing the homeland.” It went on to say: “As it existed in the past, the CRCL obstructed immigration enforcement by adding bureaucratic hurdles and undermining DHS’s mission. Rather than supporting law enforcement efforts, they often function as internal adversaries that slow down operations. “CRCL and OIDO, the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman, regularly inspect detention facilities, document conditions in accord with facility standards, investigate detainee complaints, and issue recommendations to ICE and CBP [Customs and Border Protection] when appropriate.” An investigation by the Guardian based on interviews with five recently dismissed DHS civil rights officials, hundreds of pages of documents, and interviews with immigration attorneys, has found that the already limited oversight practiced within the DHS prior to January 2025 now appears almost nonexistent. Of the nine people now working at the CRCL, one is its acting officer, installed in May, Troup Hemenway, a former adviser to the rightwing Project 2025 blueprint for conservative government. Congress originally tasked the three offices, including CRCL, the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman (OIDO) and the Office of Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman (CIS), with oversight at DHS. The watchdog bodies process complaints, initiate investigations and provide guidance to DHS agencies in various areas of interest. Now, those operations have seemingly been halted, or at least significantly slowed. In recent months, the former DHS officials who have filed the whistleblower complaint have watched as the Trump administration has targeted political adversaries, expelled immigrants to a foreign prison, allowed officials to arrest immigrants at court appearances, encouraged officers to wear face coverings during arrests and targeted people who have lived in the US for years and have no criminal record. Few know much about what is happening behind closed doors inside Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers and at secretive holding facilities. Former DHS employees the Guardian spoke with, who were dismissed from their positions at CRCL, spoke with the Guardian on condition of anonymity to discuss matters more freely and avoid retaliation. “They don’t care about civil rights concerns,” one former watchdog said about the Trump administration. “That’s why they fired us all. They just don’t care about the civil rights of immigrants. Even when we were there, they didn’t want to hear what we had to say – they didn’t want to let us do our jobs.” One morning in late March, top DHS officials emailed employees at the three oversight offices, ordering them to stop working. Trump administration officials said the offices undermined DHS’s immigration enforcement operations, calling them “internal adversaries”. A coalition of immigrant rights organizations sued the administration in Washington, declaring the cuts illegal and demanding all oversight employees be reinstated.According to a declaration filed by a top DHS official, , nearly every single employee from the offices was fired, including 147 employees at the CRCL, 118 at the OIDO and 46 at CIS. The Trump administration wants “no oversight into what they are doing,” said Enriquez from RFK Human Rights. Following the lawsuit, the DHS walked back its claims that the offices were being abolished. Instead they told the federal judge they reduced the number of staff in order to “refocus” the offices and “create more efficient processes.” The internal oversight work was continuing, the DHS said, arguing the lawsuit should be tossed. Throughout litigation, the administration has put out various staffing figures, most recently that only nine people total, including Hemenway, now worked at CRCL. Five of them are “contract” investigators, meaning that as of August, there were only two full-time CRCL investigators. Fifteen additional contractors are also reportedly at CRCL, according to the DHS court declaration, exclusively focusing on internal Equal Employment Opportunity cases for DHS employees. “When there was a fully-staffed, robust CRCL, there were regular inspections of ICE facilities. There were contracted experts who went on those on-site oversight visits to the facilities, who provided detailed recommendations and corrective action that had to be taken when conditions were poor or when staff was mistreating the detained individuals,” the former official explained in a telephone interview with the Guardian. “By doing the regular oversight, I don’t think it’s an understatement to say that that really saved lives.” But now, “ I don’t think they’re happening – it certainly doesn’t seem CRCL has the staff to be doing those inspections”, the former official added. Gold, at the GAP, said of the whistleblowers she is working with: “The idea that getting rid of basically every employee with institutional knowledge and replacing them with just a few – in the wake of daily multiple examples of the kinds of things that CRCL would have dealt with – is just deeply disturbing to them.” Oversight at the DHS “is a guardrail that has been deliberately decimated to make sure that sand is not put in the gears of executive branch priorities”, Gold added. Many CRCL investigations focused on complaints inside ICE detention centers, including allegations of medical neglect, sexual abuse and deaths in custody, the whistleblower complaint said. Now, the Trump administration is further expanding its immigration detention network. “ I don’t think they care about the conditions of these facilities. I think they’re just trying to round up as many people as they can and get rid of them without any due process and without any regard for conditions,” said the former official, who worked on CRCL investigations into allegations of abuse at several facilities. A third former official, speaking to the Guardian, warned of dangers for immigrants targeted by ICE. “If there isn’t oversight that keeps pace, the potential for real danger is great,” that former official said, adding: “You are left to ICE policing itself.” In 2023, the CRCL’s compliance branch received 3,104 complaints and investigated 25% of them, according to a report to congress. “I don’t know if they’re actually reading and investigating those complaints or doing anything with the complaints,” said the former CRCL official quoted first in this report. Sophia Genovese, an immigration attorney and faculty member at Georgetown University Law Center, has submitted over 100 complaints to CRCL. “Nine people can’t cover a detention center, much less an entire country – especially with so many new detention centers popping up left and right,” she said. “It’s laughable that they think that they can do anything with so few staff.” As the Trump administration ramps up its enforcement operations, Genovese is seeing an increase of cases of ICE threatening physical violence on immigrants, pressuring them to self-deport – an allegation CRCL would have likely investigated. “I’m getting referrals every day from people who have family members who are picked up, detained and are being coerced into signing deportation orders,” said Genovese. Immigrant advocates for years were already frustrated with CRCL’s limited powers. Typically after an investigation, CRCL officials make recommendations to DHS agencies to improve their civil rights practices but can rarely mandate changes. “Structurally speaking, the way congress set up the agency, there were some real weaknesses,” said Enriquez from RFK. But he argues that any oversight, no matter how limited, is significantly better than no oversight. “A true solution to this problem is going to look like a massive reduction in the use of immigration detention,” he added. That appears highly unlikely in the current climate. Gold said of CRCL: “Even with its weaknesses at some level, it did investigations, it could mitigate problems and it provided a really important oversight function – also in terms of just getting information to Congress to do [additional] oversight. And without that, there’s just a blank check for impunity.” CRCL always used to publish memos about completed investigations and those they were initiating, which, Genovese said, journalists and attorneys found valuable in helping reveal conditions inside ICE detention centers and other problems within the DHS. But the Trump administration in February removed all of the CRCL’s public records from its website. (The Project on Government Oversight, an independent watchdog, later published the majority of the CRCL public records after they were scrubbed by the DHS). “It’s a real breakdown in the rule of law. It’s really concerning,” said one former CRCL official. “It’s very upsetting.” The main avenue of resort now is public protest and legal action, Genovese said. “We’re seeing really incredible acts of bravery by members of the public,” she said. “That’s been helpful at preventing detention in some ways, but also educating the public about the horrors of detention.” For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Trump says he wants to ‘permanently pause’ migration to the US from poorer countries

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump says he wants to “permanently pause migration” from poorer nations and is promising to seek to expel millions of immigrants from the United States by revoking their legal status. He is blaming immigrants for problems from crime to housing shortages as part of “social dysfunction” in America and demanding “REVERSE MIGRATION.” His most severe social media post against immigration since returning to the Oval Office in January came after the shooting Wednesday of two National Guard members who were patrolling the streets of the nation’s capital under his orders. One died and the other is in critical condition. A 29-year-old Afghan national who worked with the CIA during the Afghanistan War is facing charges. The suspect came to the U.S. as part of a program to resettle those who had helped American troops after U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Trump’s threat to stop immigration would be a serious blow to a nation that has long defined itself as welcoming immigrants. Since the shooting not far from the White House, administration officials have pledged to reexamine millions of legal immigrants, building on a 10-month campaign to reduce the immigrant population. In a lengthy social media post late Thursday, the Republican president asserted that millions of people born outside the U.S. and now living in the country bore a large share of the blame for America’s societal ills. Related Stories US halts all asylum decisions after shooting of National Guard members US halts all asylum decisions after shooting of National Guard members Suspect in shooting of National Guard members faces murder charge as US halts all asylum decisions Suspect in shooting of National Guard members faces murder charge as US halts all asylum decisions Trump says one of the two West Virginia National Guard members shot by Afghan national has died Trump says one of the two West Virginia National Guard members shot by Afghan national has died “Only REVERSE MIGRATION can fully cure this situation,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform. “Other than that, HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL, except those that hate, steal, murder, and destroy everything that America stands for — You won’t be here for long!” Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel. Follow on WhatsApp Trump was elected on a promise to crack down on illegal migration, and raids and deportations undertaken by his administration have disrupted communities across the country. Construction sites and schools have been frequent targets. The prospect of more deportations could be economically dangerous as America’s foreign-born workers account for nearly 31 million jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The president said on Truth Social that “most” foreign-born U.S. residents “are on welfare, from failed nations, or from prisons, mental institutions, gangs, or drug cartels” as he blamed them for crime across the country that is predominantly committed by U.S. citizens. There are roughly 50 million foreign-born residents in the U.S., and multiple studies have found that immigrants are generally less likely to commit crimes than are people who were born in the country. The perception that immigration breeds crime “continues to falter under the weight of the evidence,” according to a review of academic literature last year in the Annual Review of Criminology. “With few exceptions, studies conducted at both the aggregate and individual levels demonstrate that high concentrations of immigrants are not associated with increased levels of crime and delinquency across neighborhoods and cities in the United States,” it said. A study by economists initially released in 2023 found immigrants are 60% less likely to be incarcerated than people born in the U.S. Immigrants have been imprisoned at lower rates for 150 years, the study found, adding to past research undermining Trump’s claims. Trump seemed to have little interest in a policy debate in his post, which the White House, on its own rapid response social media account, called “one of the most important messages ever released by President Trump.” He pledged to “terminate” millions of admissions to the country made during the term of his predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden. He also wants to end federal benefits and subsidies for those who are not U.S. citizens, denaturalize people “who undermine domestic tranquility” and deport foreign nationals deemed “non-compatible with Western Civilization.” President Donald Trump speaks to reporters after speaking to troops via video from his Mar-a-Lago estate on Thanksgiving, Thursday, Nov. 27, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) President Donald Trump speaks to reporters after speaking to troops via video from his Mar-a-Lago estate on Thanksgiving, Thursday, Nov. 27, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) Trump claimed immigrants from Somalia were “completely taking over the once great State of Minnesota” as he used a dated slur for intellectually disabled people to demean that state’s governor, Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee last year. On Wednesday night, Trump called for the reinvestigation of all Afghan refugees who had entered under the Biden administration. On Thursday, the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Joseph Edlow, said the agency would take additional steps to screen people from 19 “high-risk” countries “to the maximum degree possible.” Edlow did not name the countries. But in June, the administration banned travel to the U.S. by citizens of 12 countries and restricted access from seven others, citing national security concerns. The shooting of the two National Guard members appeared to trigger Trump’s anger over immigrants, yet he did not specifically refer to the event in his social media post. The suspect, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, is accused of driving across the country to the District of Columbia and shooting two West Virginia National Guard members, Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24. Beckstrom died on Thursday; Wolfe is in critical condition. The suspect, currently in custody, was also shot and had wounds that were not believed to be life-threatening. Trump was asked by a reporter Thursday if he blamed the shootings on all Afghans who came to the U.S. “No, but we’ve had a lot of problems with Afghans,” the president said. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Tens of thousands of people were detained and deported during US government shutdown

US immigration officials arrested, detained and deported tens of thousands of people in operations nationwide during the federal government shutdown, new data reveals. The arrests have led to a marked increase in the number of people held in immigration jails, with more than 65,000 currently detained nationwide – the highest number of people in immigration detention ever. While other federal employees were furloughed and without pay and many public services were limited or unavailable, officials with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) kept up enforcement operations nationwide, in line with the Trump administration’s aggressive anti-immigration agenda. This included detaining thousands of people with no criminal record. In total, ICE arrested and detained approximately 54,000 people during the shutdown. The agency also deported approximately 56,000 people during this time. Customs and Border Protection additionally arrested and thousands more during the same period, and ICE arrest figures do not account for all people held in ICE detention. a man with a hat and glasses US veteran considers civil lawsuit after he was arrested and injured at anti-ICE protest Read more The latest data covers 1 October through 15 November, the entire period of the government shutdown, which ended on 12 November, plus an additional three days. Thursday evening’s release of the official statistics is the first time since September that ICE has published data on ongoing arrests and detentions. The Guardian, using ICE’s data, has continued to track the number of people arrested, detained and deported by the agency. During the shutdown, top officials at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the parent agency of ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), repeatedly claimed that immigration enforcement officers were arresting the “worst of the worst”. But ICE’s latest data shows that more than 21,000 people with no criminal record were arrested and detained by ICE, with the number again surpassing those who have been convicted of a crime or with pending criminal charges. Immigrants with no criminal record continue to be the largest group in US immigration detention. Being undocumented in the US is not a crime; it is a civil infraction. The 65,000 people detained by ICE in various facilities, including many run by private-sector contractors, is the “highest number of detainees, at least since the start of our modern era of immigration detention from the 1980s”, said Adam Sawyer, director of research at Relevant Research, a group of academics and researchers who work on immigration data. During the first week of Donald Trump’s second term, in January of this year, there were 950 people in immigration detention who were arrested by ICE with no criminal history, according to past ICE data collected by the Guardian. But the latest data shows a 2,131% jump, from 950 to nearly 22,000. ICE has arrested and detained more than 16,000 people with criminal backgrounds and nearly 15,300 people with pending charges, the latest data shows. skip past newsletter promotion Sign up to This Week in Trumpland Free newsletter A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration Enter your email address Marketing preferences Get updates about our journalism and ways to support and enjoy our work. Sign up Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. after newsletter promotion “This coincides with the Trump administration’s enforcement hysteria in Chicago, which Trump justified as needed to catch dangerous ‘illegal’ criminals,” wrote Austin Kocher, an assistant research professor at Syracuse University, about the latest data release. Kocher analyzes ICE numbers, tracking arrests and detention statistics. The latest data calls into question Trump’s “outrageous and inflammatory claims”, he added. Earlier this year, top DHS officials directed ICE to arrest at least 3,000 people each day, or a million per year. In leaked emails obtained by the Guardian, ICE officials were instructed to also arrest “collaterals”, the agency’s word for people who just happen to be present during an arrest operation, without arrest warrants. An Ice agent in Chicago in January. US immigration officers ordered to arrest more people even without warrants Read more The administration has significantly changed the way immigration enforcement is being conducted as well, as ICE works with a colossal surge in funding. Massive immigration enforcement operations have targeted major cities across the US, as other federal agencies are ordered to assist in immigration arrests. A growing number of local officials have also being deputized to conduct immigration enforcement work in collaboration with ICE. Previously, other agencies within the DHS played a bigger role in immigration-related arrests at the US-Mexico border. But with Trump’s return to the White House, further restrictions along the border have led to a decrease in the number of arrests by border officials. Now those same border officials, including border patrol agents, have been deployed to the interior of the US to assist ICE in its arrest efforts. With ICE’s outsized budget, and the increase of arrest operations nationwide, immigration officials have also arrested people with legal status, including citizens. The Trump administration has engaged in massive operations in major US cities, including Los Angeles, Chicago and Charlotte, North Carolina. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Migrants thought they were in court for a routine hearing. Instead, it was a deportation trap

The government lawyer knew what was coming as she stood inside a courtroom and texted an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent waiting in a corridor a few feet away. “I can’t do this,” the lawyer said in a text message as she looked at her docket of cases. “This is a new emotional load.” “I understand,” the agent responded. “Hopefully we meet again in a better situation.” Nearby, a Cuban man who had lived in the United States for years stepped from an elevator and into the courtroom where the government lawyer was waiting for what the man thought was a routine hearing. Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel. Follow on WhatsApp The man was doing what the law required, and brought along his wife, a legal resident, and their 7-month-old infant. Then the lawyer quickly moved to have the man’s asylum claim dismissed and a judge agreed, making the man eligible for “expedited removal.” As he left the courtroom, the man was swarmed by plainclothes immigration agents who had been surveilling him. A struggle ensued and the wife’s shouts could be heard from the hallway as the lawyer moved on to the next case. The agent replied four minutes later: “Got him.” Similar scenes of courthouse arrests, part of a makeover of the immigration courts under President Donald Trump, are playing out across the United States as his call for mass deportations of migrants is executed with unusually aggressive tactics. An asylum seeker from Ecuador hugs her father as he is detained by federal agents, Thursday, July 31, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Olga Fedorova) An asylum seeker from Ecuador hugs her father as he is detained by federal agents, Thursday, July 31, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Olga Fedorova) Trump’s pledge during his 2024 campaign to impose hard-line immigration policies was a major reason he won a second term. Now that Americans have seen how the plan is being implemented, there are signs that many think he has gone too far. About 57% of adults disapprove of Trump’s handling of immigration, according to a survey this month by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Over several months, reporters for The Associated Press observed immigration court proceedings in 21 cities. Hearings repeatedly ended with cases dismissed by the government, allowing plainclothes federal agents to carry out arrests in courthouse hallways in close coordination with attorneys from the Department of Homeland Security. Screenshots of the text messages were obtained by The Associated Press from a government official who feared reprisal and provided them on condition of anonymity. The messages offer a rare look at how the nation’s 75 immigration courts are churning out rulings in an assembly-line like fashion and how, for many people, the courtrooms have become deportation traps. Marlon Garcia, an asylum seeker from Ecuador, turns to look back at his wife and children as he is detained after the conclusion of his immigration hearing, Thursday, July 3, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Olga Fedorova) Marlon Garcia, an asylum seeker from Ecuador, turns to look back at his wife and children as he is detained after the conclusion of his immigration hearing, Thursday, July 3, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Olga Fedorova) Courthouse arrests coordinated days in advance In a court system with a backlog of about 3.8 million asylum cases, families have been torn apart and lives upended. Due process seemingly is an afterthought. “When Americans picture a courtroom, there are a few core expectations” of fairness, dignity and impartiality, said Ashley Tabaddor, a former immigration judge in Los Angeles and past president of the National Association of Immigration Judges. “That’s what makes a court — not a room with a bench or person with a robe,” she said. “But what we have here is a vision completely turned on its head.” Over the past nine months, the Trump administration has fired almost 90 immigration judges seen by Trump’s allies as too lenient, directed masked officers to handcuff migrants at closed asylum hearings and sent memos instructing judges to fall into line. Unlike federal courts, where there are strict rules of procedure and judges have lifetime tenure, the Justice Department runs immigration courts and the attorney general can fire the judges with fewer restraints. Nine current officials spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. Most expressed deep misgivings about punishing people who had followed the rules and showed up for court hearings. “As a government attorney, my duty is to uphold the law and protect the public interest — not to secure removal or detention outcomes by default,” a government lawyer wrote to the American Bar Association seeking professional guidance. But that is not how cases are often unfolding. Courthouse arrests are coordinated days in advance to meet quotas with little regard for the particulars of a case, according to several of the U.S. officials. According to one official, Homeland Security lawyers note on a spreadsheet which cases are “amenable” to dismissal, allowing an asylum-seeker to be immediately rearrested and placed in expedited removal proceedings. Most of those detained are men without lawyers who entered the U.S. alone and are expected to appear in court in person. Contrary to Trump’s claims that he is targeting the ‘worst of the worst,’ most don’t have a criminal conviction, according to a Cato Institute analysis of ICE data. ICE reviews the spreadsheet and selects which people it wants to pursue if cases are dismissed. On the hearing date, federal agents communicate directly with DHS lawyers, who act as prosecutors in immigration courts. The lawyer often provides near verbatim updates of the proceedings over text message to agents waiting outside the courtroom. “Black shirt? Let me know if the judge dismissed,” an ICE agent texted during one hearing. American Gateways attorney Erika Gonzalez talks with a woman before she attends her court hearing, Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2025, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay) American Gateways attorney Erika Gonzalez talks with a woman before she attends her court hearing, Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2025, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay) Lack of independence limits immigration court’s authority Almost from the outset, immigration courts were plagued by a lack of resources, authority and judicial independence. The courts were established in 1952, but it was not until 1973 that “special inquiry officers” were given the “judge” title and allowed to wear judicial robes. The Executive Office for Immigration Review, or EOIR, was created in 1983. But that agency remained a part of the Justice Department, giving the attorney general authority to override decisions. “We were a legal Cinderella,” said Dana Leigh Marks, who retired as an immigration judge in 2021 after a 34-year career. “No other court in the nation functions like this.” The first Trump administration undertook a series of changes to reduce the case backlog, including instructing judges to deny entire categories of asylum claims such as for victims of gang or domestic violence. It also set up a dashboard that would become the bane of many judges: Red, yellow and green gauges measure each judge’s performance on goals ranging from completed cases — a minimum of 700 annually, regardless of complexity — to how many custody cases were decided on their first hearings. To meet the metrics, judges must race through dockets, sometimes devoting mere minutes to evaluate asylum-seekers’ claims. “It’s like deciding death penalty cases in a traffic court setting,” Marks said. A federal agent waves as he departs from immigration court after making arrests on Thursday, June 26, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Olga Fedorova) A federal agent waves as he departs from immigration court after making arrests on Thursday, June 26, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Olga Fedorova) Administration refers to immigration judges as ‘inferior officers’ When Trump returned to the White House in January, his allies took direct aim at the court. Since then, the Justice Department has issued 52 policy memos — more than the previous six years combined — making it easier to hire and fire judges and warning against pro-migrant bias. The memos highlight the courts’ weakened status by referring to judges as “inferior officers” — a rarely used term taken from the Constitution. In early September, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he would lend 600 military lawyers to the immigration courts, about equal to the current number of judges. The goal, according to the administration, is to more effectively reduce caseloads by widening the pool of potential judges to include people already steeped in administrative law. But many migrant advocates are concerned the incoming judges lack the necessary experience to decide asylum cases. “It makes as much sense as having a cardiologist do a hip replacement,” said Ben Johnson, executive director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. The administration has pushed back against criticism it is co-opting the courts to accelerate its deportation goals. In a statement, Justice Department spokeswoman Natalie Baldassarre said DHS decides whether to arrest migrants and that most judges consider it an “honor rather than an insult” to be called an inferior officer empowered by the Constitution and serving at the will of the attorney general. Baldassarre likened a record surge of asylum seekers during the Biden administration to an “improper conspiracy between DHS and the Immigration Courts to effectuate an unlawful amnesty for hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens.” The Justice Department, she said, had “restored the integrity, impartiality, and independence of the Courts.” DHS did not respond to repeated email and phone requests for comment. FILE - Demonstrators hold signs and chant during a protest against deportations by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in New York, June 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File) FILE - Demonstrators hold signs and chant during a protest against deportations by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in New York, June 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File) Government attorneys fear harassment, haunted by arrests For some inside the courts, work has become a stressful, lonesome grind. Fear prevails. Resumes are being updated. One DHS lawyer described being haunted at night by the sound of jangling shackles of migrants the lawyer helped arrest. The lawyer joined the government after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, believing that protecting America’s borders was a patriotic duty. The lawyer still cherishes a signed copy of Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel’s memoir “Night,” which was handed out at a work seminar. “Think higher, feel deeper,” reads the author’s inscription of the book, which is marked DHS “Training Material.” Today, its message torments. “This isn’t what any of us signed up for,” the lawyer said. After a turbulent summer, the courthouses are starting to look lonely, too. With word spreading that a trap had been laid, many migrants, fearing arrest, are asking to appear online or are skipping hearings altogether. Meanwhile, ambitious managers are publicly upbraiding those who raise doubts about the legality of locking up migrants with no criminal record in packed facilities. In a recent town hall with DHS principal legal adviser Charles Wall, several lawyers complained about the pressure, confusing orders and lack of resources, according to notes from the meeting shared with AP. Wall said the pace is likely to continue for years, the notes say. When one federal employee asked about bringing firearms to work for fear of harassment by activists inside courthouses, Wall said that judges should not hesitate to kick out the public. Wall could not be reached for comment. Federal agents escort handcuffed detainees after arresting them during a regular check-in with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Wednesday, June 4, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Olga Fedorova) Federal agents escort handcuffed detainees after arresting them during a regular check-in with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Wednesday, June 4, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Olga Fedorova) ‘I want to go back to my country’ The harsh tactics have had one effect the administration wants: Voluntary migrant departures have soared, with more than 14,000 people seeking court permission to self-deport in the first eight months of 2025, according to federal data collected by Mobile Pathways, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that pushes for transparency in migration proceedings. That is more than the previous five years combined. The number is almost certainly an undercount because most migrants do not withdraw their asylum claim before self-deporting. At immigration court in Tacoma, Washington, the detainees came up one after the other with the same plea. “I want to go back to my country,” a Venezuelan man told Judge Theresa Scala. “I want to leave the country,” said a man from Mexico. Immigrants know what they face: detention centers with ominous names — “Alligator Alcatraz,” “Louisiana Lockup” and “Speedway Slammer” — as well as workplace raids and neighborhood dragnets. Tania Nemer, right, poses for a portrait with her father, Manuel Nemer, inside his business, Manny's Pub, Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025, in Akron, Ohio. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki) Tania Nemer, right, poses for a portrait with her father, Manuel Nemer, inside his business, Manny’s Pub, Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025, in Akron, Ohio. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki) Fired judges targeted as too liberal Tania Nemer believes she was cut out to be a judge. From the bench at immigration court in Cleveland, she prided herself on listening carefully to each person’s asylum claim. “There’s a simplicity about it that I just loved,” she told the AP. “If you can provide justice in an efficient manner, you can really help a lot of people.” The decision to apply to become an immigration judge in 2023 was deeply personal. Her father fled turmoil in Lebanon and arrived in Ohio at 16 with $6 in his pocket. He washed cars, learned English and eventually opened a namesake bar — Manny’s Pub — that allowed him to provide for his family. When Nemer married, her wedding gift was the unspent dollar bills, so she would never forget her roots. But Nemer’s fondness for the law came crashing down Feb. 5. In the middle of a hearing, her supervisor opened the door of her packed courtroom and told her she needed to come with him. “As soon as he said ‘Grab your ID,’ I knew I was being terminated,” she said. Still in shock, she was handed a two-paragraph letter, digitally signed by Sirce Owen, the acting director of the Executive Office for Immigration Review. It said she was being removed because the agency “has determined that retaining you is not appropriate, and we thank you for your service.” No justification was given. But she thinks she knows some of the reasons: her Arab-sounding name, a history of previously representing migrants and diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, course work from Cornell University. She filed a discrimination claim with the Justice Department to find out why she was fired; the complaint was dismissed. Nemer was the first judge fired after Trump returned to the White House. But 86 have been sacked since. Dozens more took the Department of Government Efficiency’s “Fork in the Road” resignation offer. The majority were hired under Democratic President Joe Biden and are still serving two-year probationary periods, according to a list of the fired judges obtained by the AP. It is unclear who ordered the firings or how they were selected. But those removed granted asylum at markedly higher rates than their peers — in about half of all cases since August 2023 compared with 34% nationwide, according to Mobile Pathways. Among those purged were all 10 that appeared on the DHS Bureaucrat Watch List, a website created last year with funding from The Heritage Foundation, whose Project 2025 was a blueprint for the Trump administration’s policies and personnel decisions. The list includes names, Facebook photos, salaries and campaign donations for what it calls “America’s most subversive immigration bureaucrats.” One target was Emmett Soper, a judge in northern Virginia who worked at EOIR headquarters during the Biden administration. “As soon as I saw that, I knew the rules were changing, that I was under some kind of microscope that didn’t exist before,” he said. Tom Jones, the conservative creator of the website, declined to be interviewed. Baldassarre, the Justice Department spokeswoman, said the department is not targeting specific individuals for firing but does continually evaluate all judges. “All judges have a legal, ethical, and professional obligation to be impartial and neutral in adjudicating cases,” Baldassarre said. “If a judge violates that obligation by demonstrating a systematic bias in favor of or against either party, EOIR is obligated to take action to preserve the integrity of its system.” The wave of firings and new directives from the Justice Department has had a chilling effect. Denial of motions to appear for hearings online tripled after a March memo repealing Biden-era guidelines instructing judges to generally grant such requests, according to Mobile Pathways data. Denial of continuances, which allow migrants extra time to seek legal counsel, have also spiked as have the number of cases classified as abandoned. Nemer returned to immigration court in October for the first time since being fired to represent a Mexican client she has known for 20 years and who was picked up by unidentified agents. While the man was jailed, his girlfriend, who was five months pregnant, miscarried. Word of the former judge’s return quickly spread and a stream of former colleagues came to the courtroom to hug her and express their dismay over her firing. “By the third hug I couldn’t hold it in and just started crying,” she said. Federal agents detain a woman in the waiting room of an immigration courtroom, Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Olga Fedorova) Federal agents detain a woman in the waiting room of an immigration courtroom, Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Olga Fedorova) Legal assistance for migrants dries up after Trump budget cuts Bug spray, sunscreen, fans and umbrellas compete with legal binders in the bed of a Toyota pickup across the street from immigration court in San Antonio. This is the new office of American Gateways. In April, the administration eliminated programs worth $30 million to provide free legal assistance to migrants, the vast majority of whom represent themselves in court. But lawyers for American Gateways keep coming, four times a week, setting up in a parking lot. The conference room they once occupied inside the courthouse is now used as a break room for ICE agents. Assistance ranges from helping immigrants file motions to rehearsing what they will say to judges. When they can, they sign people up for virtual appearances to minimize the risk of arrest. FILE - Marco Chipantiza, right, and Maria Chipantiza, left, an Ecuadorian immigrant couple, hold pictures of their daughter, Joselyn, 20, an Ecuadorian asylum seeker, with her 6-year-old son, during a press conference outside the Jacob K. Javits federal building on July 3, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File) FILE - Marco Chipantiza, right, and Maria Chipantiza, left, an Ecuadorian immigrant couple, hold pictures of their daughter, Joselyn, 20, an Ecuadorian asylum seeker, with her 6-year-old son, during a press conference outside the Jacob K. Javits federal building on July 3, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File) Migrants rush to federal court to seek release from detention The gutting of the immigration court has driven migrants to one place where standards of judicial independence are upheld: federal court. Since May 15, when courthouse sweeps began, migrants have filed more than 3,000 habeas corpus petitions — to determine if someone is lawfully held in custody — seeking release. The flood of claims threatens to clog the already crowded federal docket, which has little authority in immigration cases. “The administration is attempting to press the gas at such an unreasonable speed without considering due process,” said Annelise Araujo, a Boston-based immigration attorney. One petition, filed in Miami, was from a Cuban man detained the same day he and his American wife and 10-month-old daughter were moving into their first home. Several petitioners said they had survived torture at the hands of gangs in Mexico, Ecuador and Venezuela. Another legal challenge was introduced by an HIV-positive man from Brazil taken into custody four days after his husband died of a heart attack. With the body of Frederico Abreu’s husband still at the funeral home, ICE officials knocked on his door stating they had documents belonging to the deceased man. The wife and daughters of an asylum seeker from Ecuador cry after he was detained in immigration court, Thursday. July 31, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Olga Fedorova) The wife and daughters of an asylum seeker from Ecuador cry after he was detained in immigration court, Thursday. July 31, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Olga Fedorova) A father pulled away from his sobbing family Those unable to afford a lawyer so they can sue in federal court have little recourse. One was a man from Honduras who showed up at the northern Virginia immigration court with his wife and their infant baby. Another child, a son, unable to walk, pushed himself in a wheelchair studded with flashing, colorful lights. The family, fearful of further immigration problems, did not want to be identified. The judge denied a government request to deport the man. But seconds later, as the family stepped from the courtroom, they were stopped by four ICE agents. The wife sobbed, hanging on her husband’s arm as she pleaded: “Por favor, Por favor.” The husband clutched the sleeping infant’s carrier. Their son sat playing with a cell phone. “I need you to go ahead and say goodbye,” an agent told the man. Crying, the man knelt to hug his son, who clung to his father, yelling repeatedly: “Papa! Papa!” Finally, the father managed to pull himself away and started to leave with the ICE officers. The boy tried to chase them. But the ICE agent was holding the back of the wheelchair as the boy futilely pumped his arms. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Nearly 200,000 Ukrainians in US thrown into legal limbo by Trump immigration crackdown

WASHINGTON, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Kateryna Golizdra has survived six months in legal limbo - so far. She thinks she can hold out another six months, waiting for Donald Trump's administration to decide the fate of a humanitarian program that allowed some 260,000 people who fled the war in Ukraine to live and work in the United States. When her legal status lapsed in May, Golizdra, 35, automatically became vulnerable to deportation. She lost her work permit and was forced to leave a job earning over $50,000 a year as a manager at the Ritz-Carlton in Fort Lauderdale. Golizdra also lost the health insurance that she used to cover check-ups for a liver condition. And she can no longer send money to her mother, who was also displaced and lives in Germany, she said. The Reuters Daily Briefing newsletter provides all the news you need to start your day. Sign up here. Advertisement · Scroll to continue The Trump administration's processing delays on the humanitarian program for Ukrainians launched by former Democratic President Joe Biden left nearly 200,000 people at risk of losing their legal status as of March 31, according to internal U.S. government data reviewed by Reuters. The number of Ukrainians affected by the delays has not been previously reported. The humanitarian program, introduced in April 2022, allowed nearly 260,000 Ukrainians into the U.S. for an initial two-year period. That's a small share of the 5.9 million Ukrainian refugees worldwide, 5.3 million of whom are in Europe, according to United Nations refugee figures. Advertisement · Scroll to continue Golizdra said she has no idea when - or if - her permission to stay in the United States might be renewed, threatening her short-lived sense of security in America. While she waits for an update on her application, she could potentially be arrested by federal immigration authorities, three former immigration officials said. 'CONSTANT STRESS' The last six months have felt like she is on a “hamster wheel," Golizdra said. “It’s a constant stress, anxiety,” she said. “If I will need to leave the States, then I will have to build something again.” Reuters spoke with two dozen Ukrainians who lost their work permits - and their jobs - due to delays in processing renewals, including tech workers, a preschool teacher, a financial planner, an interior designer and a college student. They described digging into their savings, seeking out community support and taking on debt to support themselves while they wait for a decision on their status. Some of the people interviewed by Reuters said they were worried they could be arrested by U.S. immigration authorities. Others said they were staying indoors, or had left the U.S. for Canada, Europe and South America. Returning to Ukraine is not an option. Golizdra's home in Bucha, a Kyiv suburb, was set ablaze in March 2022 when Russian troops stormed the city. After Ukrainian forces retook the town, they found hundreds of bodies, including of civilians who were victims of extrajudicial killings. TRUMP'S SHIFTING UKRAINE POLICY The Trump administration paused processing applications and renewals of the Ukrainian humanitarian program in January, citing security reasons. After a contentious Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Trump said in March that he was weighing whether to revoke the Ukrainians' legal status entirely - a plan first reported by Reuters. Trump ultimately did not end the program and in May, a federal judge ordered officials to resume processing renewals. Item 1 of 5 Kateryna Golizdra holds her Ukrainian passport for a photograph outside her home in Margate, Florida, U.S., November 17, 2025. REUTERS/Maria Alejandra Cardona [1/5]Kateryna Golizdra holds her Ukrainian passport for a photograph outside her home in Margate, Florida, U.S., November 17, 2025. REUTERS/Maria Alejandra Cardona Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab But U.S. immigration officials have processed only 1,900 renewal applications for Ukrainians and other nationalities since then, a fraction of those with expiring status, according to U.S. government data released last week as part of a lawsuit. Meanwhile, a spending package Trump signed into law in July added a $1,000 fee to such humanitarian applications - on top of a fee of $1,325 per individual. The White House referred questions about the Ukrainian humanitarian program to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which did not respond to requests for comment. U.S. Representative Mike Quigley, a Democrat in the Chicago area, said his office has received requests for assistance from more than 200 Ukrainians in limbo. “There's a fear that if they haven't completed their application, if they haven't gone through the whole process, they're vulnerable for deportation,” Quigley said. Anne Smith, the executive director and regulatory counsel of the Ukraine Immigration Task Force, a legal coalition formed to aid those who fled the war to the U.S., said her attorney network was receiving multiple calls per week from Ukrainians saying they have family members detained by immigration authorities. She said Ukrainians have been arrested at construction sites, while doing food delivery or working as Uber or truck drivers, as well as in broader sweeps in Chicago and greater Cleveland. Brian Snyder, a product marketing manager in Raleigh, North Carolina , who has sponsored three Ukrainian families , said people who followed the rules are being treated unfairly. One Ukrainian woman recently asked if he would serve as her emergency contact if she was picked up by immigration officers, he said. He knew of another family where a teenage son's parole was renewed while the parents and two younger children were left waiting, he said. “All of this dysfunction and uncertainty is just introducing a tremendous amount of stress in these families’ lives,” he said. SOME UKRAINIANS 'SELF DEPORT' Six of 24 Ukrainians interviewed by Reuters have left the U.S. rather than risk ending up in immigration jail or being sent to Latin America or Africa, as the Trump administration has done with other hard-to-deport immigrants. Yevhenii Padafa, a 31-year-old software engineer who moved to Brooklyn in September 2023, applied to renew his status in March. His application sat pending until it expired in September. Worried that he could be barred from the U.S. in the future if he remained without legal status, he tried to "self deport" using a government app known as CBP One. The Trump administration in May promised a free outbound plane ticket and $1,000 “exit bonus” for those using the app. Padafa decided to go to Argentina, which has a lower cost of living than other countries and offers a humanitarian program for Ukrainians. But the app would not book him a ticket there. A U.S. border official told him the flight would need to be booked to Ukraine, he said. He was counting on the free flight and $1,000 bonus. Arriving in Buenos Aires in mid-November with little money, he planned to sell a laptop to cover initial rent for an apartment. “If I return to Ukraine, I’ll just go to the frontline," he said. “I’d rather be homeless somewhere than go to Ukraine.” Reporting by Ted Hesson and Disha Raychaudhuri in Washington, Kristina Cooke in San Francisco; Additional reporting by Maria Alejandra Cardona in Margate, Florida; Editing by Craig Timberg and Suzanne Goldenberg For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

An immigration court error 6 years ago could lead to release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia

GREENBELT, Maryland — The Trump administration’s highest-profile deportation case appears to be on the verge of unraveling due to an oversight by an immigration judge six years ago. Trump officials illegally deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an undocumented Salvadoran immigrant then living in Maryland who was sent in March to an anti-terrorism prison in his home country, before they reluctantly returned him to the U.S. under a court order. Before he returned, officials criminally charged him with immigrant smuggling. The legal saga has already made one trip to the Supreme Court. 00:02 02:00 Read More But a court hearing Thursday indicated that Abrego’s immediate prospects for release from custody hinge on a key step Baltimore Immigration Judge David Jones apparently failed to take in October 2019 when he ruled Abrego could not be deported to El Salvador based on his claim he was likely to be persecuted if returned there. In a detailed, 15-page order, Jones considered and credited Abrego’s assertion that he could be targeted in that country based on gang-related threats to his family’s pupusa business. The judge said it was too late for Abrego to get asylum, but granted him protection from being sent back to El Salvador. But Jones never explicitly ordered Abrego deported. “There is no order of removal in the docket, in the record,” U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis said Thursday near the beginning of the four-hour hearing. “You can’t fake it ‘til you make it. You got to have it. … You have to have the order. It’s got to be an order memorialized somewhere and I don’t have it.” The formal deportation order is potentially crucial to Abrego’s fate because immigration judges typically specify which country immigrants will be deported to. That is a key point of contention in Abrego’s current predicament. Trump administration officials are seeking to send him to Liberia — a country he has no ties to — and Abrego’s lawyers are urging that he be sent to Costa Rica or allowed to remain in the U.S. But Jones’ ruling doesn’t say where Abrego was to be sent, or even that he had to leave the U.S. “It’s critically important,” Abrego lawyer Andrew Rossman told Xinis. “It would be an obvious due process violation to remove someone without a final order of removal. … I think the entire structure the government has built crumbles if there is no final order of removal.” Deputy Assistant Attorney General Drew Ensign dismissed the missing order as a technicality and said the notion that Abrego was being ordered deported was implicit in Jones’ finding that he could not be sent to El Salvador. “I think this represents, necessarily, the final order of removal,” Ensign said. “But [Jones] made a mistake and there is no order of removal,” Xinis interjected. “I think that is requiring more formality than the law requires,” Ensign replied. A ruling that Abrego was never formally ordered deported could allow him to make a new asylum claim or take other steps to remain in the U.S. that aren’t open to someone under a deportation order. The hearing Thursday also focused on where Abrego could be sent if he is deported. After Abrego was returned to the U.S. earlier this year and put in criminal proceedings in Tennessee on charges he drove migrants from Texas to the East Coast as part of an immigrant smuggling ring, Abrego’s lawyers and the government neared an agreement that he would be deported to Costa Rica. However, that deal fell apart over Abrego’s unwillingness to plead guilty in the criminal case. The Trump administration now contends that Costa Rica is no longer a viable destination, proposing instead a series of African countries. Immigration officials’ current plan is to send Abrego to Liberia, a nation in West Africa founded in the 1800s by people formerly enslaved in the U.S. Xinis repeatedly prodded lawyers for the government Thursday to reconsider the possibility of sending Abrego to Costa Rica and made clear she understood why he was resisting the African nations. “He’s been to CECOT and back,” the judge observed, referring to the notorious anti-terrorism prison Abrego was held in after his deportation from the U.S. She added that Abrego has “no cultural ties, no ties whatsoever” to Liberia. “He will be completely removed from everything and everyone he knows.” Xinis heard from one witness Thursday about the state of Abrego’s deportation proceedings: John Cantu, Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s acting assistant director for removal operations. Cantu said a State Department attorney advised him that Costa Rica’s earlier willingness to take Abrego was “non-binding” and sending him there now would require “further negotiation and likely additional commitments by the United States.” However, Cantu said he was unable to provide additional details about the issues with Costa Rica or the promises by Liberia because the sum total of his knowledge on those matters came from a five-minute video conference where State Department lawyer Carl Anderson read Cantu a prepared statement. Cantu’s testimony irritated Xinis. She said she had no bone to pick with Cantu, but that his appearance continued a pattern of the administration failing to comply with her orders to produce witnesses knowledgeable about the efforts to find so-called third countries to take Abrego. “This witness said nothing today,” the judge said later in the hearing. “Mr. Cantu knew nothing about anything. … Today was a zero, in my view.” Watch: The Conversation Play Video34:26 Seth Moulton on his Senate bid, Venezuela and the Epstein files | The Conversation At least twice during the hearing, Xinis alluded to the fact that a request remains pending for contempt-of-court sanctions against the government for allegedly defying her orders earlier in the legal wrangling over what the courts concluded was his illegal deportation to El Salvador. Abrego’s lawyers have argued that the administration’s current insistence on sending their client to Africa is an act of retaliation for embarrassment he caused President Donald Trump and other officials in that fight and his current unwillingness to plead guilty in the criminal case. Xinis didn’t go that far, but said she found it strange the government was unwilling to give her a detailed explanation of why Costa Rica appeared to be off the table. “It’s so odd to me and that’s really being polite,” she said. For now, Abrego remains in immigration detention in Pennsylvania and an order Xinis issued earlier in the case blocks his deportation. Even if she orders his release, he faces a trial beginning in January in Nashville in the criminal case. Xinis warned both sides Thursday that it will take a while for her to rule and she made one more pitch to the administration to reach a deal with Abrego. “It’s not going to be a quick decision,” Xinis warned. “If the government wants to moot it, it sounds like Mr. Abrego is still open to going to Costa Rica.” For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.