USCIS Forms Update Notice

Good afternoon, We recently updated the following USCIS form(s): Form G-1055, Fee Schedule 05/06/2026 10:11 AM EDT https://www.uscis.gov/g-1055 Edition Date: 05/06/26. You can find the edition date at the bottom of the page of Form G-1055, Fee Schedule. For more information, please visit our Forms Updates page.

Judge protects Yemeni refugees, slams Trump administration’s push to end special status

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration from forcing about 3,000 Yemeni refugees to leave the U.S., ruling that Temporary Protected Status repeatedly granted to them and due to expire Monday should be extended again. Judge Dale E. Ho in Manhattan extended the status temporarily while a lawsuit seeking to preserve the protections plays out. In an emergency order, he wrote that people granted the status are ordinary, law-abiding people who the U.S. government had determined could face threats to their safety if they were returned to a country facing an ongoing armed conflict. Amid its immigration crackdown, the Trump administration has terminated Temporary Protected Status for people from nine countries, including Haiti, Venezuela and Ethiopia. Before Ho’s ruling, protections for Yemeni refugees were set to end on Monday, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. People with Temporary Protected Status are eligible to remain in the U.S., may not be removed from the country, and are able to receive work and travel authorization. In his ruling, Ho criticized former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, saying Congress had established a process for Temporary Protected Status to be altered or rescinded, but she had not followed it. Related Stories US judge pauses termination of deportation protections for some Somali immigrants US judge pauses termination of deportation protections for some Somali immigrants Appeals court rules against Trump administration's efforts to end protected status for Haitians Appeals court rules against Trump administration's efforts to end protected status for Haitians Trump administration asks the Supreme Court to allow an end to legal protections for Syrian migrants Trump administration asks the Supreme Court to allow an end to legal protections for Syrian migrants He was particularly critical of a social media message she sent out in early December in which she said she had just met with President Donald Trump and was recommending a full travel ban “on every damn country that’s been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies.” On Feb. 13, he noted, Noem announced in a news release that Temporary Protected Status would be terminated for Yemen, finding that letting them stay in the U.S. was “contrary to our national interest.” “TPS holders from Yemen are not ‘killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies,’ ” Ho wrote at the start of his conclusion in his 36-page decision. He noted that among 2,810 Yemenis who hold TPS status and another 425 who have applied were a pregnant 33-year-old Detroit woman due to give birth this month whose unborn child has a congenital heart condition that is not treatable in Yemen and a 50-year-old former human rights worker in Brooklyn who is a target of Houthi-aligned militias in Yemen. “Temporary means temporary and the final word will not be from activist judges legislating from the bench,” the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in a statement. “Allowing TPS Yemen beneficiaries to remain temporarily in the United States is contrary to our national interest,” the department’s statement said, emphasizing that the Trump administration is “returning TPS to its original temporary intent.” Razeen Zaman, director of immigrant rights at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, applauded Ho’s ruling, saying that “the court has made clear that humanitarian statutes like TPS cannot be used as a deportation pipeline.” Zaman said in a release that Homeland Security had determined that it was unsafe for Yemeni refugees to return to their country “but terminated their protection anyway.” Zaman said Ho’s ruling “affirms that protection must be based on facts and conditions on the ground, not on the political appetite to end it.” Noem announced her decision to end Temporary Protected Status for Yemen in February. The Department of Homeland Security on Friday said she had reviewed conditions in the country and consulted with government agencies before determining that Yemen no longer met the legal requirements for temporary status. Yemenis praise ruling The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund included comments from several lawsuit plaintiffs in its press release heralding Ho’s ruling. One plaintiff identified by a pseudonym to protect his safety wrote that the people fighting to preserve protections for Yemenis were “doctors, engineers, and pilots like myself, and also drivers, deli workers, and countless other people who contribute meaningfully every day, supporting not just our own families but the broader fabric of society.” He added that their presence “represents resilience, skill, and dedication — values that strengthen the nation as a whole.” A woman also identified by a pseudonym called Ho’s decision “a lifeline for my family.” She added: “It is the moment we finally breathed a sigh of relief after months of existential anxiety,” Yemen was initially designated for Temporary Protected Status in 2015, about a year after the country’s civil war began. As the war persisted, the Obama and Biden administrations extended the designation multiple times, most recently in 2024, when officials estimated that 2,300 Yemenis were eligible to reregister for protected status and that 1,700 Yemenis were newly eligible. Ho cited other instances in which courts have recently permitted those who have fled other countries under various circumstances to stay in the U.S. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Delays in Visa Program Threaten Placement of Hundreds of Doctors in Underserved Areas

Hundreds of foreign doctors about to complete training in the U.S. will have to leave the country if the federal government doesn’t rapidly process their visa waiver applications, which have been languishing since the fall and winter, immigration attorneys say. Partner logo This story also ran on CBS News. It can be republished for free. The waiver program, run by the Department of Health and Human Services, allows physicians who aren’t U.S. citizens to stay in the country while transitioning from the visa they used during their training to temporary worker status. In exchange, the doctors agree to work in underserved areas for at least three years. “It will be the patients that suffer the most because in about three months, there’s going to be hundreds of places that are not going to have a physician that should have,” said a psychiatrist caught in the delay. The doctor — whom KFF Health News agreed not to identify because they fear government reprisal — was among hundreds who applied this year for a J-1 visa waiver through the HHS Exchange Visitor Program. If they receive one, the psychiatrist — who attended medical school in their home country in Europe before coming to the U.S. for their residency and fellowship — would work with vulnerable and disadvantaged patients in New York. In recent years, the HHS program reviewed waiver applications in one to three weeks, according to two immigration attorneys. But it currently has a backlog of hundreds of applications, which still need to be reviewed by the State Department and approved by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, according to four attorneys interviewed by KFF Health News. They said the foreign physicians will likely have to return to their home countries if their applications don’t advance to USCIS by July 30. For them to reenter the U.S., their employers would have to pay a new $100,000 fee associated with the H-1B work visa. It’s a cost that many hospitals and clinics in rural and underserved areas say they can’t afford. “That’s the cliff that this train is headed for,” said Charles Wintersteen, a Chicago-based attorney who specializes in health workforce-related immigration. HHS spokesperson Emily Hilliard didn’t answer questions about the number of pending applications or explain what caused the delays. But she said the Exchange Visitor Program has reviewed all fiscal year 2025 clinical J-1 waiver applications, as well as some from fiscal 2026. The department is “implementing key process improvements to prevent future delays” and “working diligently” to evaluate remaining applications ahead of the July 30 deadline, she said. The psychiatrist in limbo said employers hiring J-1 waiver physicians have to show they were unable to fill positions with American workers. If the doctors they planned to hire can’t arrive on time — or at all — patients will have to wait even longer for those vacancies to be filled, they said. Wintersteen said postgraduate medical education positions are largely funded through Medicare and that “the taxpayers who pay for that training will not get the benefit of it.” Physicians and immigration attorneys said HHS hasn’t explained the delays or let them know what to expect from their applications. “Why would HHS want to take a program that is working — a program that places hundreds of U.S. trained international physicians in highly underserved parts of the country every year — and slow-walk it into non-existence,” Jennifer Minear, a Virginia-based health workforce immigration lawyer, said in an email. “How does that serve the public health? It is baffling.” Newsletter Icon Email Sign-Up Subscribe to KFF Health News' free Morning Briefing. Your Email Address Your email address Sign Up Waylaid Waivers The U.S. healthcare system depends on foreign-born professionals to fill its ranks of doctors, nurses, technicians, and other health providers, particularly in chronically understaffed facilities in rural and low-income urban communities. Nearly a quarter of physicians in the U.S. went to medical school outside the U.S. or Canada, according to 2025 licensing data. Once noncitizens complete postgraduate education in the U.S., which typically ends on June 30, they must return to their home country and wait two years before applying for an H-1B work visa. Or, they can seek a J-1 waiver, which lets them remain in the U.S. on H-1B status in exchange for working for three years in a provider shortage area. The attorneys said they’re seeing delays only in the Exchange Visitor Program, not in the other federal or state J-1 waiver programs. The HHS clinical care program received 750 waiver applications last year, Minear and Wintersteen said, and is reserved for doctors working in pediatrics, psychiatry, family and internal medicine, or obstetrics and gynecology. The program typically needs to forward recommendations to the State Department by mid-March, according to a letter from John Whyte, CEO of the American Medical Association. Minear said HHS stopped processing applications in late September or early October before it started forwarding them again a few months ago. “But the pace is dramatically slower” than usual, she said. Minear said the State Department usually takes two or three months to review HHS recommendations and must send them to USCIS before July 30 for most of the doctors to stay in the country. If they don’t make that deadline, Wintersteen said, doctors will have to leave the country unless they obtain another kind of visa, get a J-1 waiver through another program, or extend their current visa by taking board exams or doing additional training. The psychiatrist, who is supposed to start work on July 1, said they applied for a waiver in order to stay in the U.S with their partner, and because it would let them help the most vulnerable mental health patients. They said their future clients would likely include trafficking survivors, homeless people, and prison or jail inmates. “That’s the population I want to work with,” they said. Waiver Delay Meets H-1B Dilemma President Donald Trump issued a September proclamation that railed against the tech industry’s use of H-1B work visas. The order created the $100,000 fee that applies to workers in all fields — not only tech — living outside the U.S. The payment doesn’t apply to those already in the country. As of Feb. 15, employers had paid the fee for 85 workers, according to a court filing from USCIS. It’s unclear if any of those payments were for physicians or other medical providers. The psychiatrist said officials at the hospital that plans to hire them said they can’t afford to pay to bring them back to the U.S. if they must go home. “A lot of hospitals who hire J-1 waiver physicians are in underserved areas, and so they treat Medicare and Medicaid patients,” they said. “By definition, for the most part, they’re not rich hospitals.” Barry Walker, an attorney in Tupelo, Mississippi, focused on health workforce-related immigration, said employers have already spent money on recruiters and attorneys like him to help with the waiver process. Adding the H-1B fee is “just a deal killer, especially for the small, rural hospitals,” he said. Attorneys said most employers will sponsor physicians in need of an H-1B visa only if they’re in lucrative specialties, such as cardiology or orthopedics, in which they can recover the cost of the fee. They said healthcare facilities are much less likely to pay the fee to hire foreign nurses, lab technicians, and other healthcare professionals who are more likely than physicians to complete their training outside the U.S. Employers can request fee exemptions, but attorneys said they haven’t heard of a hospital or clinic being granted one. Fighting on Two Fronts Physicians, hospital leaders, lawmakers, and immigration experts are trying to draw attention to the J-1 waiver delays at HHS while hoping to overturn or limit the new H-1B fee. The Trump administration hasn’t acted on letters from hospitals, medical societies, and rural health organizations that requested an exception to the $100,000 fee for physicians or all healthcare workers. In March, a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced a bill that would create a healthcare exemption. It has not yet had a hearing. At least three lawsuits — from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a group of 20 states, and a coalition of plaintiffs that includes a company that recruits foreign nurses and a union that represents medical graduates — are seeking to end the fee entirely. As for the J-1 waiver delays, the American Medical Association CEO asked the Exchange Visitor Program to use “emergency batch processing” for physicians with contracts to start work this summer. Efrén Manjarrez, president of the Society of Hospital Medicine, which represents doctors who work in inpatient units, also called for emergency measures. “Every day this backlog persists is a day that hospitalized patients in these communities face greater risk,” he wrote in a letter to the program. Meanwhile, Canadian hospitals have been recruiting foreign physicians completing their training in the U.S, the psychiatrist said. They said one of their friends accepted an offer, withdrawing their HHS waiver application to head north. The psychiatrist said if they must leave the U.S., they’ll be separated from their partner and out of a job for months as they work to get licensed in their home country. Even if their employer were able to afford the H-1B fee, they’re not sure they’d want to return. “This entire process has been so incredibly painful and just soul-crushing,” they said. “I would rather go to a country that would appreciate my motivation to work with patients.” For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

'America is my home': TPS holders face high stakes Supreme Court battle

Marlene Noble, 35, has lived more than 30 years of her life in the United States. After being abandoned by her biological family after a hurricane hit her home country of Haiti, she was brought by Catholic Charities to the United States, where she was later adopted. But when she turned 18, she learned that her adoptive family had not properly submitted the adoption and immigration paperwork, leaving her in legal limbo. Judge blocks administration from ending TPS protections for more than 350,000 Haitian immigrants She spent years trying to fix her status -- including filing for citizenship on her own in her mid‑20s and consulting multiple lawyers -- before eventually applying in 2020 for Temporary Protected Status, which she was granted in 2023. But now, Noble finds herself again facing uncertainty as the Trump administration's move to end TPS -- which provides work authorization and protection from deportation to people whose home countries are deemed unsafe -- faces a high‑stakes test at the Supreme Court amid the administration's immigration crackdown. "America is my home, and it has been for 31 years," Noble told ABC News. "It took three years for me to get granted TPS. So a lot of hard work went into this, just to have it potentially ripped away from me ... It's kind of cruel and inhumane to rip that away from us." Noble says she is "scared" about Wednesday's Supreme Court hearing, where the justices will consider whether the administration acted unlawfully in seeking to terminate TPS for Haitians and other groups. Courtesy of Marlene Noble Marlene Noble was approved for TPS in 2023. Courtesy of Marlene Noble The outcome could directly affect the futures of tens of thousands of TPS holders from Haiti and Syria. In a statement to ABC News, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said TPS was "never intended to be a de facto asylum program, yet that's how previous administrations have used it for decades." "The Trump administration is restoring integrity to our immigration system to keep our homeland and its people safe, and we expect a higher court to vindicate us in this," the spokesperson said. "We have the law, the facts, and common sense on our side." In previous statements, DHS has also argued that, after reviewing country conditions and consulting with other U.S. government agencies, the DHS secretary determined that Haiti no longer meets the conditions for TPS designation. But immigrant advocates and plaintiffs in the case argue that Haiti is not safe. They point to the State Department's "do not travel" advisory that warns Americans not to go to Haiti because of gang violence, kidnapping and political instability. And just last week, the Federal Aviation Administration extended its ban on U.S. aircraft operating in and near Haiti due to safety concerns. "T​​he State Department advises people to do not go there," said Vilbrun Dorsainvil, the lead plaintiff in the Supreme Court case. "They know for sure that if we get back we will get killed, kidnapped." Vilbrun Dorsainvil told ABC News he is "scared" of going back to Haiti. Courtesy of Vilbrun Dorsainvil Dorsainvil, a former doctor in Haiti and currently a registered nurse in Springfield, Ohio, told ABC News that when he found out the Trump administration canceled TPS, he "stayed home for, like, for more than two weeks without going outside." "I was very scared of what might happen to me," he said. "I didn't go to work, I didn't go to church, you know, visit any friends. I just stayed home because I was very scared that they would take me." Dorsainvil said he arrived in the U.S. in March 2021 on a tourist visa and then later was approved for TPS status. "I bought a house. I have a mortgage," he said. "I help a lot of people getting better in the hospital. I love the job I'm doing. I am useful here." "The idea of going back there right now is scaring me, it's killing me inside," Dorsainvil said. "I hope they will see the good we are bringing to the community. I hope they will see the situation in Haiti right now ... it's not safe for anyone ... and I pray they would let us stay here." Supreme Court allows White House to end protections for 350K Venezuelans for now While Wednesday's arguments will focus on the TPS status of Haitians and Syrians, the high-profile case has cast a ripple across other communities who fear they might be the next population to lose their status. Anil Shahi, a TPS holder from Nepal, said he plans to protest outside the Supreme Court on Wednesday on behalf of the 1.3 million people who rely on TPS. A founding coordinator for United for TPS Nepal -- an organization that represents more than 1,400 TPS holders from that country -- Shahi said that the Trump administration's revocation of TPS status has forced TPS holders to live in a state of uncertainty about their legal status. "The uncertainty is a huge killer. It's very painful. You don't know what's going to happen ... you're scared," he told ABC News. "You cannot just pick up and leave." DHS designated Nepal for TPS in 2015 following a devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake in the country that resulted in more than 8,800 deaths. The Trump administration sought to terminate the country's TPS status in June 2025, though the change is the subject of an ongoing legal challenge. According to Shahi, many Nepali TPS holders fear what might come next, in part because their personal information is readily available to authorities. With TPS recipients being vetted every 18 months, their addresses and personal data are known to the federal government. ABC News Anil Shahi advocates for other TPS holders from Nepal and other countries ABC News "The government knows where we live. They know where we work. They have everything documented, right?" Shahi said. "So we are like a low-hanging fruit for them. It's really easy for them to come after us if they really wanted to. And that's what makes people really scared." Shahi said that Nepali TPS holders will be anxiously awaiting news from the Supreme Court, believing the outcome of Wednesday's oral argument could indicate how their own legal fight will end. At 56 years old, Shahi has lived the majority of his life in the United States and said he can't imagine relocating to Nepal. He said that many Nepali TPS holders have U.S.-born children, and more than a hundred members of United for TPS Nepal own small businesses like restaurants, convenient stores, and beauty salons. "I felt like I was a foreigner in my own country," Shahi said about the last time he visited Nepal. "That was the point I realized I'm like really American, more than Nepali."

Deportation fears make immigrants easy targets for scams

In the 30 years she’s lived in New York, Odalys González Silvera said she’d seen everything. But she wasn’t prepared for what happened to her recently. NBC News Icon Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content. arrow “Although I sought advice and researched a number of things, unfortunately I fell victim to immigration fraud. I think this internet thing doesn’t help,” she said. González Silvera, 61, a Venezuelan immigrant and a legal resident of the U.S., runs a small grocery store distribution business in the Bronx. She said her life changed dramatically after she sought legal help for a family member in immigration detention in Arizona. After seeking a lawyer there who was unable to make progress on the case, González Silvera said she contacted a Facebook account that appeared to belong to a law firm called “Berman & Associates,” where a person who identified himself as attorney Enrique De Jesus Duarte promised her that he could secure the family member’s release “within a maximum of 15 days.” In several WhatsApp video calls, González Silvera said, that person explained the case’s progress to her and then sent her documents via chat and email similar to those used by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) that seemed to show that the case was progressing well. Odalys González Silvera, inmigrante venezolana, que buscó asesoría legal para su hermano en redes sociales y fue estafada. Odalys González Silvera says she sought legal immigration help through social media and was scammed.Albinson Linares / Noticias Telemundo “They show you an office with all their things, their diplomas and the American flag. It’s a really good show, with scenery and everything. I, who was careful about so many things, ended up in a trap,” González Silvera said. Legal and immigration experts told Noticias Telemundo that fraud schemes through social networks have become more common in recent months amid the surge in immigration arrests and detentions under President Donald Trump’s administration. Recommended news Live updates: Correspondents' dinner shooting suspect charged with attempted assassination of Trump news How did the WHCA attack happen? A review of the Facebook account González Silvera responded to found it is no longer active. There was no response after an attempt to reach the alleged law firm through contact information provided on a website. Additionally, Noticias Telemundo requested comment from two law firms called Berman & Associates, but neither responded. There was also no evidence that these firms or any of their lawyers are connected to the González Silvera case. Noticias Telemundo also contacted an attorney named Enrique De Jesús Duarte, who responded in an email that he had to create a website “aimed at alerting the public about the possibility that one or more people are trying to impersonate me.” Duarte added that he could not help González Silvera’s family member because he has never handled immigration cases. “I am sorry to hear that someone has been the victim of identity theft,” he said. Noticias Telemundo searched public records of U.S. lawyers — including state databases and professional directories — for the names used by the people who contacted the victims interviewed in this story. In several cases, no verifiable matches were found. In others, the names belonged to real lawyers who indicated they had no connection to the events described in this report. As part of this report, there were attempts to contact the accounts, phone numbers and email addresses used in the alleged schemes, as well as the firms and individuals mentioned by the victims. However, at the time of this story’s publication, we had not received any response, nor did we find any evidence that those firms or any lawyer were related to the González Silvera case. The rise of scams From the very beginning, González Silvera began paying the scammers via Zelle electronic transfers. She first transferred $870 for them to take the case, then $1,230 for filling out a form, then $2,427 for a supposed bond, and she also had to send $961 for the lawyer’s supposed “travel expenses,” even though the lawyer never visited her family member. In total, she spent $5,488. “I’m not going to get the money back, but this is a learning experience,” she said, adding that the worst part was getting her detained family member’s hopes up. González Silvera realized she was being scammed when they started asking her for an additional $1,241 to buy tax stamps related to the Venezuelan regime. “That’s when I said, ‘But what tax stamps if Venezuela has no diplomatic representation in the United States?’ But it was already too late,” she said. González Silvera’s case is not unique. Noticias Telemundo recently published the story of Evelyn Molina, a Peruvian immigrant and asylum-seeker who was scammed by a purported law firm on Facebook that promised her residency through a fictitious virtual hearing. This revealed a pattern of scams involving fake law firms and lawyer identity theft targeting desperate immigrants. “With recent changes in ICE practices, these scammers are increasingly using sophisticated artificial intelligence tools through social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and especially WhatsApp,” said Pedro Alemán-Perfecto, an immigration policy advocate at CLINIC, the Catholic Legal Immigration Network. “We’ve seen approximately 30 or 40 cases of fraud in the last year, and that’s a lot.” The Federal Trade Commission warns that digital fraud is on the rise: In 2024 alone, 2.6 million reports of this crime were registered. 'People don't report it out of fear' Following the report on Evelyn Molina’s case, Noticias Telemundo received more than a dozen complaints from Hispanic people who claim to have been victims of similar immigration-related scams. Six immigrants in five states — New York, Michigan, Florida, Iowa and Washington — lost between $1,300 and $11,000 to criminal networks operating on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. All the accounts shared the same pattern: Social media ads, promises of quick solutions, fake video call hearings or consultations, and wire transfers made to individuals. “Systems like Zelle, Venmo and PayPal don’t have the protections of a regular bank. If someone claiming to be a lawyer asks you for money that way, it’s a red flag,” said Jacqueline Watson, an immigration attorney and the first vice president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. A national poll by KFF and The New York Times released in November found that 41% of U.S. immigrants — including people who had become citizens or obtained legal residency — feared that they or a family member could be detained or deported, a significant increase from 2023, when 26% of immigrants felt the same. One in five (22%) said they personally knew someone who had been arrested, detained or deported since Trump took office, nearly three times the 8% who said so just in April of the same year. Three out of 10 immigrants (30%) reported being afraid and said they limited their participation in activities outside the home since Trump became president — including avoiding travel, seeking medical care or going to work. According to some experts, this paralyzing fear and desperation are factors that scammers exploit to put their criminal schemes into action. In most of the cases analyzed by Noticias Telemundo, the affected individuals decided not to report the scams for fear that it could affect their immigration status or processes. “Why should we complain? Now immigrants have no rights here, we are worthless,” González Silvera said. Brayan López, inmigrante mexicano de 26 años que trabaja en labores de mantenimiento en Detroit, Michigan. Brayan López, who lives in Michigan, says he was scammed by a fake attorney. Albinson Linares / Noticias Telemundo Brayan López, a 26-year-old Mexican immigrant who works in maintenance in Detroit, experienced a similar scam to González Silvera’s. He found a fake lawyer on a Facebook page, identified as Tomás Huerta, who subjected him to a supposed official hearing via WhatsApp. “The video call seemed fake to me because the guy was even wearing a wig. It was like a court hearing, and they had the American flag in the background,” said López, who added he lost $1,300 in the scam. “People don’t report it for fear of being deported. That’s why they don’t talk about what happens to them.” Julián Jiménez, a 40-year-old Colombian former police officer living in Kissimmee, Florida, has been waiting for asylum for six years. He said he trusted a group of scammers that used the name of Catholic Charities, one of the most respected immigrant aid organizations in the country. On Facebook, Jiménez clicked on ads for a supposed branch of Catholic Charities in Washington, D.C. There, according to Jiménez, he was contacted by a man who identified himself as attorney Óscar García. García called him, reviewed his case, and promised him a path to residency, charging him a total of $4,500 in several installments. His case, of course, went nowhere. “They’re using our religion to scam us. It’s very sad that they’re playing with the feelings of people who want to be in this beautiful country,” said Jiménez, who hasn’t reported his case to the authorities. “We’re afraid to approach the appropriate authorities because of all the arrests that are happening right now.” Julián Jiménez con su esposa, Sandra Henao, en la ciudad de Nueva York. Julián Jiménez, seen here with his wife, said he was scammed by people impersonating Catholic Charities.Julián Jiménez Catholic Charities has publicly warned that its representatives are being impersonated to scam immigrants. “Scammers are using the name, images, and likeness of Catholic Charities USA — or just the name Catholic Charities in general — to scam immigrants by promising them services and then not following through” Cecilia Baxter, an attorney with Catholic Charities, said in a recent interview with the Catholic Worldwide Network. Nelson Torres Sifontes, a 40-year-old Venezuelan living in Tampa, Florida, said that following Trump administration restrictions on temporary protected status and asylum, he turned to Facebook to try to improve his immigration status. He contacted someone who identified herself on Facebook as “Attorney Luciana Miller,” who promised to obtain his green card quickly. Noticias Telemundo found no evidence of a lawyer named Luciana Miller in the directories of the American Bar Association, in other U.S. professional directories, or in web searches within the United States. Torres said that they first charged him $370, and then $2,000. Although Torres says they sent him supposed USCIS documents about his case, he became alarmed when they demanded an additional $5,000, which he had to pay within a month. He told Noticias Telemundo that what impressed him most was the sophistication of the scam, because the fraudsters replicated a virtual immigration hearing down to the last detail. “It was so perfect. It’s like when you go to a judge, everything was identical, but it was virtual. A person was dressed as if they were an official, with the United States flag. And that’s where I let myself get caught up,” said Torres, who has not filed any complaint with the authorities. “I would like to hire a lawyer, but I’m afraid because an acquaintance of mine was already taken away and he also had TPS,” he said. Rogelio Martín Morales, a 43-year-old Guatemalan immigrant living in Fort Dodge, Iowa, was facing delays in his asylum case when he decided to contact an immigration law firm through Facebook, which he began making small payments to over the course of a year. However, the law firm turned out to be fake. He said he ended up losing about $11,000 through Zelle, bank transfers and remittances to individuals. “Sometimes it makes me sad. One day I even started crying. ... It’s been very hard,” Morales said. Rogelio Martín Morales, inmigrante guatemalteco de 43 años. Rogelio Martín Morales said he lost $11,000 to scammers who staged fake hearings and sent him what he thought were official documents.Rogelio Martín Morales Morales said the scammers set up fake hearings via video call and sent him purported official documents. According to Morales, he realized it was a scam when the supposed lawyers told him that USCIS had sent some documents to his home, but because he was at work, the mail carrier returned them, and to get them back he would have to pay even more money. “I didn’t report that because right now I’m afraid, mostly that they’ll catch me or take me out of this country,” he said. Of the people who contacted Noticias Telemundo to share their cases, only one family filed a complaint with their local sheriff’s office, but not with immigration authorities or the FBI. This was the case of Miguel Melillo, a 51-year-old Venezuelan resident of Vancouver, Washington, who spent two months negotiating with a purported law firm called “Sánches & Asociados,” which he found through an Instagram ad. Noticias Telemundo found no evidence of a firm named “Sánches & Asociados” in U.S. attorney directories, professional registries or web searches. Melillo says his first contact was with a woman who identified herself as attorney Victoria Hernández, who supposedly reviewed his case. He then had a video call with someone who presented himself as a USCIS official in a space resembling a government office, complete with the American flag and diplomas on the walls. Then they explained the steps for the citizenship interview. When that day arrived, Melillo and his wife woke up at 5 a.m. waiting for the call. When they were finally contacted at 9 a.m., something caught their attention. The USCIS officer, Melillo said, was the same director of the law firm, only he had grown a mustache and the office was different. “The scene behind it was something else entirely — he had American flags and things like that,” Melillo recalled. “Everything was well prepared.” Melillo said the law firm asked for $3,687 to “process” his green card. However, Melillo says he only lost $2,500 in total because he stopped paying when he realized the emails he was receiving from USCIS didn’t have the “.gov” domain, typical of U.S. government agencies, but instead ended in “.net” or “.com.” Noticias Telemundo requested official comments and data on these types of scams from the Department of Justice, the FBI and USCIS. Only USCIS responded, through spokesperson Matthew J. Tragesser, who said in an email that the agency has declared “all-out war on immigration fraud in all its forms.” “Immigration scammers contribute to an environment of disorder, undermining our immigration system and posing risks to national and public safety,” Tragesser said. USCIS pointed to a recent federal case in the Eastern District of New York in which five people were charged in February 2026 for allegedly impersonating immigration judges, agents and lawyers through a network that operated on Facebook, with more than $100,000 in fraudulent transactions identified. Noticias Telemundo also contacted Meta, the company that owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, the three platforms where the frauds analyzed in this reporting originated. The company launched an investigation into the accounts on its platforms linked to these cases and proceeded to delete them. Daniel Roberts, a spokesperson for Meta, responded in a statement saying the company does not want “this type of content on our platforms. It violates our policies, and we remove it as soon as we detect it.” Roberts said that Meta’s work regarding these scams “never ends” because criminals “constantly adapt and develop new methods to circumvent our systems.” Meta recently revealed that in 2025 it removed more than 159 million fraudulent ads, 92% before anyone reported them, and dismantled 10.9 million accounts on Facebook and Instagram linked to criminal scam hubs. The FTC, for its part, reported that in 2024, U.S. consumers lost $12.5 billion to fraud, a 25% increase over the previous year, with identity theft scams being the most frequent category, with losses of $2.95 billion. How to avoid immigration-related scams Experts agree on some basic recommendations for people seeking legal advice related to their immigration status or cases. First, verify the attorney’s license. All states have a website where you can confirm whether an attorney or accredited representative has an active practice license. Don’t pay via Zelle or instant transfer systems. Legitimate legal organizations and private lawyers always present a formal contract and collect payment in a planned manner, not instantly. Go to offices in person: Reliable organizations always try to meet with the client in person before starting any procedures. Be wary of people who say they can resolve immigration cases quickly. “If they are promising to complete your case in a month, that is not going to happen,” said Alemán-Perfecto, the CLINIC immigration policy advocate. Don’t sign blank forms. Scammers often send forms similar to official documents via social media, but they are blank so that people sign them quickly without having the opportunity to review them carefully. Consult with two or three other legal representatives before deciding whom to use. Experts insist that it’s always important to compare opinions. Use reliable free resources. Websites such as cliniclegal.org, USCIS and other immigration organizations offer free resources and guidance. González Silvera agreed with the experts’ advice and said she decided to share her story because “people need to understand that they must be very careful with these scams.” In the meantime, she has hired a pro bono attorney to help with her family member’s case. González Silvera has a recommendation for those seeking legal advice on immigration cases. “I think immigration matters should all be done in person, going to the office, meeting the people. I thought something could be done well online,” she said. “But that didn’t work out at all.” FOr more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

The DHS shutdown and U.S. immigration policies could hinder the World Cup

New Jersey Transit Police Department's Office of Emergency Management (OEM), along with federal, state, county and local partners, conduct emergency response drills near MetLife Stadium ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on April 18, 2026. Leonardo Munoz/AFP via Getty Images The FIFA 2026 World Cup kicks off in June and 11 American host cities are getting ready for an influx of fans. Juliette Kayyem, a national security expert and former DHS official, examines how the partial government shutdown has impacted preparedness for the mega event. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at considerthis@npr.org. This episode was produced by Henry Larson and Jeffrey Pierre. It was edited by Sarah Robbins. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Former judges speak out on Trump admin's immigration court purges

At an Oct. 27, 2024 campaign rally during his run for president, Donald Trump told his audience, "On Day One, I will launch the largest deportation program in American history." And he did. President Trump began his second term by dispatching troops and armed ICE agents to carry out aggressive arrests and mass detentions, mainly in blue states. The president appointed as his Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, whose appetite for deportation, and publicity, appeared to match (and at times eclipse) his own. That, and pinning her promotional campaign's $220 million price tag on the boss, may have ruffled a few important feathers at the White House. Secretary Noem was fired – signaling a change in tone for the administration, but no change in mission. You have only to check out what's happening in our immigration courts. Former immigration judge Ryan Wood told us there is no doubt among immigration judges these days as to what the administration wants: "Zero doubt, they want numbers, they want deportations. They want to keep as many people detained as possible, and stress the system," he said. When Wood retired a little more than a year ago, he was an assistant chief immigration judge in the Midwest. He probably could've stayed on. He was appointed during President Trump's first term, and denied many more asylum applications than he granted. But even so, he didn't like what he was seeing: "I have seen judges that have not made it very long in this new regime, where they've been walked off the bench for whatever reasons … They're in the middle of dictating an oral decision and they get an email, or they get a tap on the shoulder, literally on the bench, saying, 'Please come with me.'" Asked if that had happened in years past, Wood replied, "No, never. We've never seen anything like this." where-law-ends-tyranny-begins.jpg The nation's immigration courts fall under the Department of Justice, rather than the Judicial Branch. CBS News "We're not 'deportation judges'" The immigration court is not part of the judiciary; it is overseen by the Department of Justice, which is in the executive branch. And over the past 14 months, the Trump administration has fired, retired, or forced out more than 200 immigration judges. Anam Petit was fired last September. "It was crushing," she said. She'd given up a well-paid job as a law partner to take on a job as an immigration judge in Annandale, Virginia. "It was a dream job for me in a lot of ways. I made personal and professional sacrifices to take that job, because I believed I could be a good and fair judge. "In my two years of being a judge, I never received any negative feedback from colleagues [or] superiors," she said. "All my probationary reviews were positive, and no reason was given [for my dismissal]." Asked what her gut tells her about why she was fired, Petit said, "I came from a background where I represented immigrants previously. I was a law professor at Georgetown Law, where I taught on gender-based immigration issues. I am a woman, a person of color." Jeremiah Johnson was an immigration judge in San Francisco for eight years. "My last words on the bench were to a family of four: 'You've been granted asylum in the United States. Welcome to the United States,'" he said. Johnson was appointed during the last Trump administration. He was caught off-guard last November when he was terminated: "I logged onto the computer and I saw the email notification with attached letter indicating that I had been fired," he said. "Within 30 seconds, I was locked out of the computer system, unable to print that letter. And then, I was escorted out of the building." He said no reason was ever given for why he was fired. A recruitment ad from the Department of Homeland Security, posted online last December, offers a pretty broad hint: It features the fictional character Judge Dredd, a futuristic hanging judge, and reads: "Deliver justice to criminal illegal aliens. Become a deportation judge. Save your country." A page on the Justice Department website, headlined "You be the judge," promises a salary up to a little more than $200,000 a year to be a "deportation judge" – and even a 25% bonus for taking a job in a "sanctuary city." you-be-the-judge-ad.jpg Justice Department Johnson said he found the ad offensive: "When I first saw the ad, I thought it was a little bit fake. It was not real. It might be spam. We're not 'deportation judges'; we're immigration judges." So far, the administration has recruited more than 70 "deportation judges," most from enforcement backgrounds with little or no immigration experience. Also, to fill the gap created by the administration's own firings, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth authorized sending military lawyers (known as JAGs) to serve as temporary immigration judges for six-month rotations. Wood says that's a problem: "I'm a former Army judge advocate. So, I have a lot of affinity and respect for those judge advocates. This is not a temporary detail. Immigration law is extremely complex. It's only rivaled by the tax code in complexity. It takes a year or two to really get up to speed and to understand the law and how to make good, fair decisions. But we're pulling these people out of private practice for six-month details, and truncating the training, and there's clearly been messages out there of, 'Read the room. If you're not gonna make "appropriate" decisions, you won't be here for long.'" The Department of Justice declined our request for an interview; but in May of last year, the president succinctly summed up his approach aboard Air Force One: "We need judges that are not going to be demanding trials for every single illegal immigrant. We have millions of people that have come in here illegally, and we can't have a trial for every single person. That would be millions of trials." There are more than 60 immigration courts, for an estimated 3.5 million cases. "We had around 600 immigration judges," said Petit. "And there are about 100, 125 fewer judges now." Asked if she sees any legitimacy to the administration's argument that an overwhelming number of undocumented immigrants requires mass deportation rather than trials, Petit replied, "The issue is that we also have a statute. Congress has set laws, and it has established what removal proceedings are. It has established what a right to asylum is. And an administration can't procedurally get around that rule of law." Unless they ignore the law. "I think you're seeing chaos in the courts" Johnson, who continues to serve as executive vice president of the National Association of Immigration Judges, said, "You're seeing chaos in the streets; I think you're seeing chaos in the courts. You shouldn't have police or ICE agents arresting people who are coming into court, tasers being outside the courtroom." And what are the consequences of that happening? "If they're there to send a chilling effect to the people coming to courtroom, then that person is prevented from having their day in court," Johnson said. "If they're arrested before they even get to the courtroom, then they have to defend their case miles away in a detention facility, perhaps away from their family, resources, lawyers." ICE Detains Immigrants Inside New York City Courthouses A man is detained by masked federal agents after leaving a court hearing in immigration court, at the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building, August 26, 2025 in New York City. The New York Attorney General's Office asked the U.S District Court for the Southern District of New York to block ICE from detaining immigrants inside of courthouses as they attend their court hearings at immigration court. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images There are about 60,000 such people currently being held in U.S. detention. More than 70 percent of them have no criminal record. According to a count by the Associated Press, 30,000 immigrants have filed what's known as a habeas corpus petition, claiming illegal detention because they haven't been granted a bond hearing. "These are basic due process issues," said Wood. "American citizens are taken into custody. They're flown across the country and held without bond. That's extremely concerning. Even if you are wanting to deport more people, that's fine, but we should follow the laws that are in place. And if we don't like the laws, Congress should change them." Wood said it is not clear how many American citizens have been detained. "The real answer is that I don't think we know on some of these cases. There's such strong incentives to self-deport and to give up and to sign papers without talking to counsel or even talking to a judge. And I think we're gonna learn, years from now, about some really egregious examples of where we didn't do what we were supposed to be doing." A year ago, 31 percent of those seeking asylum in this country were successful. According to data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) for this past February, that number hit an all-time low of 5 percent. The legal pathway for asylum seekers to the United States is approaching zero. asylum-granted-graphic.jpg CBS News "I'm very concerned that we're doing a lot of things right now without any changes to the law," said Wood. "We're doing it by executive order and executive power alone, whether it's firing of immigration judges, or deportation orders. That's not the way a democracy is supposed to be run." For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Sotomayor apologizes to Kavanaugh over remarks on his immigration stop opinion

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor publicly apologized to Justice Brett Kavanaugh on Wednesday for her comments at a recent talk criticizing his opinion concerning the Trump administration’s immigration stops. “At a recent appearance at the University of Kansas School of Law, I referred to a disagreement with one of my colleagues in a prior case, but I made remarks that were inappropriate,” Sotomayor said in a statement. “I regret my hurtful comments. I have apologized to my colleague.” During last week’s appearance, Sotomayor had reportedly criticized Kavanaugh for his defense of his vote last September to lift limits on the Trump administration’s immigration stops in the Los Angeles area. The limits blocked stops based on a person speaking Spanish or working in a certain profession. In a solo opinion, Kavanaugh emphasized the stops are “brief” and immigration officers “promptly” let go anyone found to have legal status. It sparked an uproar from Trump’s critics, who’ve accused the Supreme Court of effectively greenlighting racial profiling. Many began dubbing them “Kavanaugh stops.” “I had a colleague in that case who wrote, you know, these are only temporary stops,” Sotomayor said at her talk last week in Kansas, according to Bloomberg Law. “This is from a man whose parents were professionals. And probably doesn’t really know any person who works by the hour.” Sotomayor’s comments come amid a blitz of public appearances by the justices in between their March and April argument sessions. Speaking to law students at the University of Alabama later in the week, Sotomayor insisted most of the justices “actually like each other” when asked how she builds bridges with her colleagues. “They may care about different issues than I do a bit more, but in terms of human values, we share the same ones,” Sotomayor said. “And I don’t define them by their worst ideas,” she added with a laugh. “As human beings, I look to them as people to have a relationship with them. And I dare say that with virtually all of them, I certainly have a civil relationship. And with many of them, I think I dare say that I have friendship.” The Supreme Court returns for its April session on Friday, when the justices are expected to hand down at least one opinion in a pending case. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

House advances bill to shield Haitian immigrants in defiance of Trump

The House voted Wednesday to advance a measure that would reinstate temporary protections for Haitians living in the U.S., with six Republicans voting alongside Democrats to oppose a key component of President Donald Trump's immigration policy. NBC News Icon Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content. arrow The measure, brought forward through a parliamentary move known as a discharge petition by Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., co-chair of the House Haiti Caucus, won a key procedural vote to advance to a final vote set for Thursday. The legislation seeks to grant Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to eligible Haitian immigrants for three years. Rep. Ayanna Pressley Speaks Out Against Government Layoffs And Impacts On Black Women Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., at a news conference near the U.S. Capitol on Sept. 25.Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images file “This is a critical step forward in our fight for immigrant justice and delivering our Haitian neighbors the protections they deserve—and it’s a testament to the strength of our broad, diverse, and bipartisan coalition,” Pressley said in a statement, adding that she was "grateful" to her Republican colleagues who voted for the measure. Recommended politics The influencer who helped bring down Swalwell Elections Democrats want the full 2024 election autopsy released — no matter the findings ADVERTISING The legislation was first introduced in the Republican-controlled House by Reps. Laura Gillen, D-N.Y., and Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., last year. "The State Department claims it is too dangerous for American citizens to go to Haiti because of kidnapping, gang violence and widespread chaos, but yet, the administration has said it's safe for Haitians to return there," Gillen said Wednesday on the House floor. She said that "removing our neighbors would not just be a humanitarian catastrophe; it would hurt our economy," adding that Haitian immigrants "work in critical sectors like health care, education, caregiving, supporting our elderly and working in local hospitals." Temporary Protected Status allows foreign nationals from countries facing war, environmental disasters or other unsafe conditions to live and word in the U.S. for a certain time. The Trump administration tried to terminate the Temporary Protected Status of about 350,000 Haitian immigrants last summer, but a federal judge halted the move. The administration appealed the decision shortly after the judge indefinitely postponed the terminations in an order in February. It is expected to be heard by the Supreme Court this month. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday's vote. The House voted 219-209 on the discharge petition to force a vote on Lawler and Gillen's bill, with Republican Reps. María Elvira Salazar and Carlos A. Gimenez of Florida, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Don Bacon of Nebraska and Lawler and Nicole Malliotakis of New York voting in favor alongside 212 Democrats and one independent. Members can use discharge petitions to get around leadership that is opposed to holding votes on legislation. US-HAITI-IMMIGRATION-TPS People at a candlelight vigil in Miami for Haitians living in the U.S. under the Temporary Protected Status immigration program.Giorgio Viera / AFP via Getty Images file "Removing TPS status for Haitians living in the United States would cost 350,000 workers their ability to work at a time when we’re already facing serious workforce shortages," Bacon said on X. "I don’t see the goodness of deporting people who are here legally, working, and contributing to our country." He added that he has heard from health care providers and business leaders across Nebraska who are raising the alarm over the impact deporting Haitian immigrants could have on patient care and the economy. Malliotakis said in her own post that her office has heard from nursing homes in her New York district "that will lose skilled and dedicated nursing staff if TPS is not renewed." "These are Haitian immigrants who are working, paying taxes and contributing to our economy and fulfilling a healthcare need. To strip them of their status and deport them to a country in peril would be uncompassionate and misguided," she wrote. The vote comes less than a week after Trump posted a graphic video in which a man smashes an SUV parked outside a gas station in Florida with a hammer before he uses the hammer to attack a woman who left the store to confront him. The man beat the woman and then fled, according to the Fort Myers Police Department arrest report. First responders pronounced the woman dead. A suspect, identified as Rolbert Joachin, was later arrested and charged with homicide. Following the attack, the Department of Homeland Security said Joachin is an undocumented immigrant from Haiti. Trump blamed Democrats in Congress, "Deranged Liberal District Court Judges" and the Biden administration on Truth Social for supporting policies that he claims allowed Joachin to receive Temporary Protected Status. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Judges fired after blocking deportation of pro-Palestinian students

Two immigration judges who ruled against the Trump administration in the deportation cases of pro-Palestinian university students have been fired by the Department of Justice. The New York Times reported over the weekend that the justice department had terminated six judges, including Roopal Patel and Nina Froes, who oversaw deportation proceedings against Rümeysa Öztürk and Mohsen Mahdawi, two students who were arrested last year as part of Trump’s campaign against the Gaza protest movement. In an interview with the Guardian, Patel said she did not view her dismissal as “directly retaliatory” for any one case. She said it fit within a broader pattern of the administration dismissing judges near the end of their probationary term, particularly those who have experience representing immigrants in court. “I think there’s a broader agenda of trying to reshape the immigration bench to be more reflective of the political agenda of the administration,” Patel said. A collage of a lawyer in shadows and an asylum application The secretive, destructive work of an ICE attorney: ‘My job is to do what I’m told’ Read more The Biden administration appointed both Patel and Froes to the bench in May 2024, and both had previously worked in immigration defense. A recent NPR analysis found that the Trump administration appears to be targeting immigration judges who previously represented immigrants. Earlier this year Patel rejected the administration’s efforts to deport Öztürk, then a Tufts University PhD student who had co-written an op-ed for the student newspaper critical of the university’s response to Israel’s attacks on Palestinians. Her attorneys said that Patel terminated the proceedings against her after finding the government did not have grounds to deport her. In February, Froes blocked the Trump administration from removing Mahdawi, a Columbia student and pro-Palestinian activist who was arrested during a US citizenship interview last year. Patel said she had enjoyed serving as an immigration judge, although it was difficult given the “extraordinary consequences” her decisions had on people’s lives, and that pressures had increased as the administration ramped up its deportation agenda. She was conducting a hearing on Friday afternoon and had just taken a break when she received an email notifying her that it would be her last day as the department would not be converting her to permanent status and she was terminated. Knowing that other government workers who have been terminated were quickly escorted out, Patel grabbed her things, notified a supervisor that there were people in her courtroom who would need to be dismissed, and left. An illustration of numerous gentle, overlapping hands forming the shape of a protective flower enclosing a small, curled up child. After my ICE arrest, I learned one crucial way to respond to trauma. We can all take part Read more In response to a query regarding the recent terminations, the justice department said in a statement that the Executive Office for Immigration Review “continually evaluates all immigration judges, regardless of background, on factors such as conduct, impartiality/bias, adherence to the law, productivity/performance, and professionalism”. “All judges have a legal, ethical, and professional obligation to be impartial and neutral in adjudicating cases,” the statement read. “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.” Patel expressed concern about the direction of the courts and the impact of having fewer people with experience representing immigrants. “It increases the likelihood of people making mistakes when you lose people with experience and training, and then you combine that with increased pressures to resolve more cases faster and faster, and it just creates less room for due process and more room for errors,” she said. “It’s important for us to have an immigration bench that is responsive to the law, to the constitution, to due process, and it is concerning to see that is being eroded actively.”

ICE arrested more than 800 people after tips from US airport security agency

TSA shared over 31,000 traveler records with ICE for immigration enforcement Democrats criticize ICE airport deployments, citing confusion and fear for travelers Immigration attorneys report airport arrests, including of parents traveling with children WASHINGTON, April 7 (Reuters) - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested more than 800 people following tips ​shared by federal airport security officials from the start of Donald Trump's presidency through February 2026, internal ICE data reviewed by ‌Reuters show, a figure far above what was previously publicly known. The leads came from the Transportation Security Administration, which supplied ICE with records on more than 31,000 travelers for possible immigration enforcement, the data showed. The Reuters Iran Briefing newsletter keeps you informed with the latest developments and analysis of the Iran war. Sign up here. Advertisement · Scroll to continue Reuters could not determine how many arrests took place inside airports, although the TSA tips would mainly be useful in determining when a person would ​be traveling. ICE and TSA are part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The agencies have historically shared information related to national security ​threats, but they began focusing on routine immigration arrests last year as part of Trump’s mass deportation effort. TSA PROGRAM ⁠WAS DESIGNED TO COUNTER TERRORISM The 31,000 traveler records were gathered by TSA's Secure Flight Program, which was created in 2007 to allow the agency to ​review passenger information for people who may be on U.S. government watchlists. The program was intended as a counter-terrorism measure, not to track down immigration offenders, ​according to the regulation outlining, opens new tab its purpose. Advertisement · Scroll to continue DHS did not respond to questions about TSA providing passenger information to ICE, but said that under Trump, TSA "is pursuing solutions that improve resiliency, security, and efficiency across our entire system." Figures for arrests and traveler records that TSA shared with ICE before Trump's current term were unavailable. U.S. airports and immigration enforcement have been ​at the center of a partisan funding fight since mid-February, when Democrats refused to support additional money for the Republican president’s immigration crackdown without reforms to ​scale back aggressive tactics. The standoff blocked the passage of a bill to fund DHS, which caused TSA security officers to miss at least two full paychecks. After some unpaid ‌TSA officers ⁠began calling in sick, Trump deployed ICE officers to more than a dozen airports in March to aid security efforts. 00:26 The video player is currently playing an ad. You can skip the ad in 5 sec with a mouse or keyboard Democrats have criticized the deployment and called on the Trump administration to remove them. A group of more than 40 Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives wrote in a letter to recently installed Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin last week that ICE officers “will cause confusion and fear" if allowed to remain in airports. REPORTS OF UNEXPECTED AIRPORT ARRESTS Several cases ​of ICE officers arresting travelers in U.S. ​airports have sparked backlash. ICE officers detained ⁠a college student traveling from Boston to Texas to celebrate Thanksgiving in November and arrested a sobbing mother at San Francisco International Airport the day before Trump’s airport deployment began. DHS defended both arrests and said they were subject to final ​orders of removal. Reuters spoke with three immigration attorneys who said they were familiar with cases of people without ​legal immigration status ⁠being arrested in airports. The cases included an Irish couple who had lived in the U.S. for more than two decades and were detained last summer by immigration authorities in front of their children when trying to fly from Florida to New York after a vacation, Christina Canty, one of the lawyers, said. The parents - who ⁠had pending ​applications for permanent residency - were deported and left their two young children, ages 7 and 10, with ​adult siblings in the U.S., Canty said. In another case, a Chinese woman with a final order of removal who was seeking permanent residence was detained by ICE last year at the ​Atlanta airport en route to Philadelphia, one of the attorneys said. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

ICE Agents Detain Newlywed Spouse of Soldier Training to Deploy

A U.S. Army staff sergeant and his wife arrived at his base in Louisiana last week, expecting to begin their life together as newlyweds. The couple checked in at the visitor center, identification in hand, ready to complete the steps that would allow her to move into his home on the base. Within hours, that plan had unraveled. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents entered the base and detained his wife, an undocumented Honduran immigrant who was brought to the U.S. as a toddler. By nightfall, she was in a detention facility with hundreds of women facing deportation as part of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. The detention came just days after Annie Ramos, 22, a college student with no criminal record, and Matthew Blank, 23, celebrated their marriage with family and friends. Sergeant Blank, who enlisted more than five years ago, is assigned to a brigade at Fort Polk, La. that is set to begin training at the end of the month for deployment. “Our plan was to drive over, bring her to the office to get her military ID and activate her military spouse benefits,” such as health and life insurance, he said. “She was going to move in after the Easter weekend. Instead, she got ripped away from me.” Image The couple stand in front of white balloons. Annie Ramos and Sergeant Blank were engaged on New Year’s Day and married in March. Credit...Courtesy of Matthew Blank When U.S. citizens marry undocumented immigrants, their spouses become eligible for legal permanent residency through marriage, and they can apply for citizenship three years after receiving their green card. Even those with a prior deportation order, often issued when they were children, are not typically detained and are able to adjust their immigration status, experts said. Before they were married, Ms. Ramos and Sergeant Blank had hired a lawyer to begin that process. “I knew she didn’t have status,” he said. “We were doing everything the right way.” Editors’ Picks 9 Songs We’re Talking About This Week My Husband Can’t Get a Job. Should I Divorce Him? ‘Summer House’ Mansion on the Market for $5.65 Million SKIP ADVERTISEMENT Or so they thought. Ms. Ramos had been ordered deported in absentia in 2005, when she was 22 months old, after her family failed to appear at a hearing in immigration court, a circumstance that was “very common, “ according to Margaret Stock, who wrote a book called “Immigration Law and the Military.” “Prior to the Trump administration creating a mass deportation policy, somebody like her would not have been detained,’’ said Ms. Stock, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve who practices immigration law and who has handled many similar cases. She said the military would typically have allowed Ms. Ramos to get her military ID and told the couple to file their immigration papers. In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security said that Ms. Ramos had been arrested “after she attempted to enter a military base.” “She has no legal status to be in this country and was issued a final order of removal by a judge,” the statement read. “This administration is not going to ignore the rule of law.” Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT The U.S. Army did not immediately comment. Ms. Ramos and Sergeant Blank’s story began early last year. The couple connected through a dating app, then met in person and their romance blossomed. They were engaged on New Year’s Day. In late March, about 60 guests gathered to celebrate their wedding in Houston, where Ms. Ramos was raised. A mariachi band played as the guests shared a meal of fried chicken, Spanish rice and mashed potatoes. Sergeant Blank’s mother Jen Rickling, said in an interview that her daughter-in-law was “absolutely a darling, and we adore her” and listed her qualities. Ms. Ramos is a devout Christian who teaches Sunday school to children at her church, Ms. Rickling said. She was in her high school’s marching band. And she was a few months from finishing a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry. On April 2, the couple and Sergeant Blank’s parents drove from Houston to the base, arriving early for a 2 p.m. appointment. As instructed, the couple checked in at the visitor center, where they presented Ms. Ramos’s birth certificate, Honduran passport, their marriage license and Sergeant Blank’s military ID. They never made it to the benefits office. According to Sergeant Blank and his mother, an attendant scrutinized the documents and asked if Ms. Ramos had a visa or a green card. She did not, they explained, noting that their lawyer had prepared a green card application that would be filed any day. The attendant made a flurry of calls. “They told us, ‘We’ll figure it out,’ ’’ recalled Sergeant Blank. He said that he and his wife were respectful and he kept his composure despite thinking that the officials were “dragging it out.” Tears began to stream down his wife’s face. A supervisor was called, followed by an officer from the base’s criminal investigation division, who said he would contact Homeland Security and ICE. After the call, Sergeant Blank said, the officer told them Ms. Ramos would be detained. The family broke down in tears. Image Sergeant Blank in front of a tall wire fence. Sergeant Blank after visiting his wife, Annie Ramos, at the detention facility over the weekend. Credit...Lily Brooks for The New York Times Ms. Ramos was separated from them, placed in handcuffs and driven away in a military police vehicle. Sergeant Blank said he and his parents followed in their truck to another building, where she was unshackled and placed in what “looked like an interrogation room.” Three ICE agents arrived. They first encountered Ms. Rickling and her husband in the lobby. “They told us that they didn’t have a choice, they said they had to take Annie,” recalled Ms. Rickling. She said they apologized. “I begged them not to take her,” Ms. Rickling said. “They said the higher-ups made them do it.” The agents entered the room, offered the couple the same explanation, again shackled Ms. Ramos and took her away. Their lawyer has asked ICE to release Ms. Ramos on her own recognizance while a motion is prepared to reopen the old deportation order, which would block her removal. Ms. Stock, the expert on immigration and the military, said ICE could deport Ms. Ramos at any moment. “It’s fundamentally harmful to national security to be doing this to members of the military, particularly while there is a war going on,” Ms. Stock said. “This is a major crisis for this soldier. His mind can’t be on the job.” Gaby Pacheco, president of TheDream.US, submitted a letter of support for Ms. Ramos, whose education is being funded by the organization, which provides scholarships to undocumented immigrant youth. Ms. Ramos had applied in 2020 for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or DACA, a program that shields from deportation undocumented people brought to the U.S. as children. Her application was never processed by the Trump administration because the program was halted for new applicants. “I grew up here like any American,” Ms. Ramos said during a call from the detention center in Basile, La. “This is all I know,” she said. “My husband and family are here.” Sergeant Blank said: “We are going to fight with everything I have. She is going to move in with me. We will start a family.” Sergeant Blank, who has been previously deployed to the Middle East and Europe, said that his chain of command has been supportive as he works to resolve the situation. “I am going to be with her and serve my country,” he said On Saturday, he and his mother traveled to the detention center in Basile, La. with the completed form to apply for Ms. Ramos’s green card. It only needed her signature. Guards barred them from bringing anything inside. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Lawyers alarmed by immigration judge's 'atrocious' questions for gay asylum seekers

A federal immigration judge in southern New Mexico spent nearly three hours pressing a gay Iranian asylum seeker about his same-sex relationship, a recording obtained by The Advocate shows, alarming his attorney and raising concerns about how LGBTQ+ asylum claims are judged in the Trump administration. Keep up with the latest in LGBTQ+ news and politics. Sign up for The Advocate's email newsletter. Stay up to date with the latest in LGBTQ+ news with The Advocate’s email newsletter, in your inbox five days a week. Enter your email Enter your emailI’m in! The man is one of two Iranian asylum seekers in a same-sex relationship who fled their country fearing execution for “homosexual conduct,” which is criminalized in Iran and can be punishable by death. Their attorney, Rebekah Wolf of the American Immigration Council, described their case as a “textbook” asylum claim. Support Independent Journalism LGBTQ+ stories deserve to betold. Your membership powers The Advocate's original reporting—stories that inform, protect, and celebrate our community. Become a Member FOR AS LITTLE AS $5. CANCEL ANYTIME. At issue is Immigration Judge Samuel Williams, who presides over cases at the Otero detention court. A late-2024 appointee to the bench, Williams came to immigration court after a career as a prosecutor and military attorney, with no publicly documented prior experience in immigration law. Both men remain in immigration detention while their cases move forward, protected from immediate deportation after securing stays of removal that allow their appeals to proceed. One obtained a stay from the Board of Immigration Appeals; the other received protection through federal court intervention. Related: Trump administration is potentially sending two gay men to their death by preparing to deport them to Iran Related: Canada pauses nonbinary American's deportation to U.S., citing Trump's hostile policies At a spring 2025 hearing, in which the man represented himself before securing legal representation, Williams repeatedly pressed the applicant about details of his personal life. “And you are currently married. Is that your spouse’s name?" Williams asked about the woman the Iranian married 14 years ago, before turning to his relationship with another man. “Y’all all sleep in the same room?” he later asked after the applicant described living with both his wife and male partner in Iran. Williams also pressed the applicant on who, if anyone, knew about his sexual orientation in a line of questioning that advocates say can misunderstand how LGBTQ+ people survive in countries where disclosure can be deadly. “You never told anybody else that you were gay?” Williams pressed. Through an interpreter, the man said secrecy was not a choice but a necessity for survival. He testified that only his wife knew about his relationship with another man and that disclosing his sexual orientation more broadly in Iran could have placed him in immediate danger. He described living under constant fear, maintaining a heterosexual marriage as cover while privately navigating a same-sex relationship in a country where discovery could lead to arrest or death. He also told the court he had been detained by Iranian authorities after being discovered with his partner, and described physical abuse and fear of further punishment if he were returned. Related: Your rights, explained: What to do if you encounter ICE or DHS agents Related: Massachusetts federal judge orders gay asylum-seeker deported under Trump returned to U.S. Still, the judge’s questions returned to what could be demonstrated and how clearly it could be articulated. “These are almost yes or no questions… I just want to know… so I can check the box to say that your case at least smells like it meets the elements for asylum,” Williams said, according to the recording. After the applicant described detention and abuse, Williams asked, "So, you had no physical injuries?" Advocates say an emphasis on visible injury can narrow how persecution is understood in asylum proceedings, particularly in cases involving psychological harm, coercion, or credible threats of future violence. Wolf told The Advocate that the exchange reflects what she described as an implicit expectation that applicants prove their sexual orientation in ways that may not account for the risks of disclosure in countries where same-sex relationships are criminalized. She said concerns about credibility have extended beyond this case, with LGBTQ+ asylum seekers at times facing detailed questioning about their identity and experiences that differ in tone or scope from other types of claims. Wolf pointed to another case involving a South American asylum seeker, in which she said similar dynamics played out. In that case, she said the judge repeatedly questioned the applicant’s account of sexual violence, focusing on perceived inconsistencies and pressing the applicant in ways she described as dismissive, including questioning whether repeated sexual assaults her client described were in fact consensual. “The language is so atrocious,” Wolf said. “Asking, ‘Every time they hold you down and rape you, are you sure that these aren’t consensual relationships?’" The scrutiny comes as the administration has increasingly relied on so-called third-country deportations, sending some migrants to countries like Uganda, where they are not citizens and may have no prior ties. The practice has drawn criticism from legal experts and human rights groups, who warn it can place asylum seekers, including LGBTQ+ people, at risk if they are transferred to countries where they could face persecution. Legal experts say credibility is central to asylum cases but caution that it must be applied carefully, particularly in claims involving sexual orientation. “It does seem like [judges] are exhibiting some type of bias in these cases," Vanessa Dojaquez-Torres, of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, told The Advocate. She emphasized that such concerns are based on patterns observed by practitioners. She noted that judges are expected to evaluate demeanor, responsiveness, and plausibility, but said misunderstandings about how LGBTQ+ people navigate identity in hostile environments can affect those assessments. Wolf also pointed to a Moroccan client who speaks a rare regional language and has been detained for more than a year without having his asylum hearing, because the government has been unable to secure a qualified interpreter. She said the court has at times suggested proceeding with an interpreter in another language, while also accusing the client of “pretending” not to understand. Related: Trump and El Salvador's president attack transgender people during White House meeting Related: Gay man says ICE is keeping his husband jailed even though they’ve agreed to leave the U.S. Dojaquez-Torres said such challenges are common in immigration court, including among clients from Mexico who speak Indigenous languages rather than Spanish. In those cases, she said, courts sometimes push applicants to proceed in Spanish even though it is not their primary language. “The judge might say, ‘We again can’t find the Indigenous interpreter for you, but we have a Spanish interpreter. Do you want to go back to detention for another month or do you want to do your case today in Spanish, a language that might not be your most comfortable language?’” she said. “We find people making a lot of hard decisions like that.” Immigration judges are employees of the Justice Department, not members of the independent federal judiciary, and avenues for addressing alleged bias are limited, advocates say. Even when decisions are overturned on appeal, cases are often remanded to the same judge for further proceedings. Those structural limitations are compounded by the broader conditions facing LGBTQ+ migrants in detention. A 2024 report from the advocacy organizations National Immigrant Justice Center, Immigration Equality, and Human Rights First found that LGBTQ+ people in U.S. immigration detention reported high rates of physical and sexual violence, frequent use of solitary confinement, and systemic barriers to medical care. "Discrimination and abuse against LGBTQIA+ individuals is a frequent occurrence inside detention,” Jeff Migliozzi, of Freedom for Immigrants, told The Advocate. Oversight, he added, has become "virtually nonexistent." Dojaquez-Torres said incidents of in-detention assault rarely affect asylum outcomes. "An immigration judge will go, 'That’s very sad. Now let’s get back to your asylum case,'” she said. "And so, unless you are lucky enough to get it reported on by a sheriff who will actually continue to press charges in that case, getting assaulted in the detention center will likely have very little impact on your immigration case." "It will be of almost no consequence on their immigration case," she added. The Executive Office for Immigration Review, which oversees immigration courts, declined to comment on the specific allegations. "EOIR does not comment on immigration judge decision-making," spokesperson Kathryn Mattingly told The Advocate, adding that the agency investigates credible complaints but does not publicly disclose outcomes. The Justice Department did not respond to The Advocate's request for comment. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

House Republicans kvetch anew about DHS funding plan

House Republicans are balking, once again, at a GOP plan to fund the Department of Homeland Security. Dozens of members aired objections to a proposed two-step process backed by President Donald Trump in a lengthy private call Thursday afternoon, according to three people granted anonymity to discuss the conversation. 00:39 Top Stories from POLITICO Skip Ad Speaker Mike Johnson and other GOP leaders made a case for a bill funding most of the department — one they bitterly opposed as recently as this past weekend — leaving key immigration enforcement agencies for the party-line budget reconciliation process. But several members on the call said they would oppose a bill that Johnson had publicly called a “joke” after it initially passed the Senate last week, with some reiterating they did not want to vote for a package that omits Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol funding. Many pushed for the enforcement funding bill to at least start moving through the House before passing the larger DHS bill. One member on the call told POLITICO the House should not fund the bulk of the department until the Senate passes the enforcement spending. “This is pretty pathetic,” the member said. “It’s taking a step back.” The call came hours after the Senate acted to put the two-track plan into motion, sending the bill funding most of the DHS back to the House early Thursday morning. Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s maneuver, undertaken without objection in a mostly empty chamber just after 7 a.m., came less than a day after Trump effectively endorsed what had been Thune’s strategy all along for DHS: funding most of it through a bipartisan deal with Democrats then using reconciliation to plow cash into immigration enforcement. Now the bipartisan funding measure is back in the House for a redo less than a week after conservatives balked the first time at separating out enforcement funding. And it could be nearly two more weeks before they take a vote on it. GOP leaders currently have no plans to bring members back to Washington earlier than their scheduled April 14 return from a two-week spring recess. With some of his members resisting the deal, Johnson will likely have to rely on the votes of House Democrats to get the DHS funding bill to Trump’s desk. While members have been under pressure to deliver paychecks to DHS workers who have been furloughed or working without pay since Feb. 14, the pressure to act has been eased by Trump, who moved last week to pay airport security officers and announced Thursday he would pay other DHS employees as the legislation moves across Capitol Hill. “Republicans are UNIFIED, and moving forward on a plan that will reload funding for our FANTASTIC Border Patrol and Immigration Enforcement Officers,” the president wrote Thursday. “I will soon sign an order to pay ALL of the incredible employees at the Department of Homeland Security.” The separate party-line track for ICE and Border Patrol funding emerged after Republicans and Senate Democrats could not agree, despite weeks of negotiations, on any new immigration enforcement restrictions in the wake of federal agents killing two people in Minneapolis in January. Senate Majority Leader John Thune landed on the two-step approach as the best possible option last week, then watched it implode in the House after the Senate initially passed the bigger bill on a voice vote early Friday morning. Asked Thursday how he revived the deal, Thune said, “You … have to just continue to define reality for people, what’s achievable in the Senate, what we can get done.” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement Thursday that House Republicans needed to act immediately to approve the bipartisan deal. “The deep division and dysfunction among House Republicans is needlessly extending the DHS shutdown and hurting federal workers who are missing another paycheck,” he said, calling on them to “get to work and end the longest Republican shutdown in history.” Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), who attended a brief House session Thursday, told reporters he is pleased to see Republicans coalescing around the Senate-approved plan. Asked if House Republicans “caved,” Beyer said, “I’d rather say that they saw the wisdom of what was sent to them.” House Democrats are slated to meet Monday evening to discuss DHS funding and other matters. Even once both chambers clear the Senate bill, they will face a tight timeline for the second part of the Trump-blessed plan, delivering an immigration enforcement bill to his desk by June 1. The Senate is expected to move first to approve a budget resolution that will unlock the GOP-only immigration bill, according to three people granted anonymity to disclose private strategy, and could adopt the fiscal blueprint for the final bill by the end of the month. Thune said Thursday he has already had conversations with Senate Budget Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) about how to move as quickly as possible. “Our theory of the case behind all this was to keep that thing as narrow and focused as possible, and that maximizes, I think, the speed at which we can do it and the support for it,” he said. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Law enforcement leaders propose guidelines to restore trust amid immigration operations

One day after Alex Pretti was shot and killed by federal agents in Minneapolis, the world’s largest group of police chiefs urged the White House to organize a sit-down with federal, state and local law enforcement leaders to better coordinate immigration enforcement and ensure community safety. While the White House was responsive, a swarm of other law enforcement agencies, officers’ unions and government organizations reached out to the International Association of Chiefs of Police and said they wanted to participate, IACP president David Rausch told CNN. Leaders from nearly 20 groups – including the National League of Cities, the National District Attorneys Association and the Small and Rural Law Enforcement Executives’ Associations – met in early March to align on how to address what was happening in their jurisdictions. “We all agreed immigration is a legit issue, and its enforcement is legit,” Rausch said. “However, the approach needed to be better coordinated and organized.” The IACP-led gathering produced a set of “shared principles” calling for clear communication between federal and local agencies, a focused targeting of violent criminals and broader safety measures. Related article Federal agents walk down a street while conducting immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis, on Thursday, February 5. Cooperation with ICE is the latest red vs. blue state divide 10 min read Those guidelines, outlined in a document released Tuesday, aim to rebuild the relationships between agencies and local communities left frayed after police departments were pulled into the vortex of public backlash in response to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations, like those seen in Minneapolis. The publication, which highlights the growing friction between federal, state and local law enforcement officials, is polite but direct in stating concerns over how immigration enforcement operations “can affect officer safety, public trust, and the effectiveness of joint operations” in the cities where those operations are conducted. “When we’re not working together, things can be unsafe for communities and for officers. Expectations and protocols need to be aligned, tactics need to be consistent,” Rausch said. It’s a carefully worded statement, but also highly unusual and significant, said CNN Chief Law Enforcement and Intelligence Analyst John Miller. “I can’t remember a time when the organization representing the nation’s police chiefs turned a critical eye on other law enforcement agencies in such a public way,” Miller said. “It’s a real sign that police chiefs feel the administration’s no-holds-barred approach to immigration enforcement has put police departments in a difficult position in maintaining community relations that took a long time to build and have been damaged by this process.” Federal agents are seen during an immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis on February 3, 2026. Federal agents are seen during an immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis on February 3, 2026. Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty Images ‘Constitutional policing and community trust’ The White House was supportive of the IACP’s new efforts, Rausch said. Asked for a response to the IACP publication, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in part, “Partnerships with law enforcement are critical to having the resources we need to arrest criminal illegal aliens across the country.” “ICE has supercharged efforts with state and local law enforcement to assist federal immigration officers in our efforts to make America safe again,” the spokesperson said, adding those agreements have increased more than 1,000%. However, assisting with ICE operations is exactly what some agencies are trying to avoid. Local departments have no authority in civil immigration enforcement, and in many cities, police are prohibited by local law from participating in it. The public safety organizations behind the IACP’s publication said they’re committed to an ongoing effort to “restore reliable operational communication; clarify and respect roles, authorities and limitations; and ensure that enforcement tactics align with constitutional policing and community trust.” A woman carries flowers at a memorial for Renee Good who was shot and killed by an ICE agent last month on February 12, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. White House "Border Czar" Tom Homan announced today that the federal immigration enforcement surge in the state would conclude. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images) Minnesota's grief is emerging after 'unnatural' ICE disaster, local pastor says 3:01 To accomplish that, their “shared principles” focus on communication and collaboration between local and federal agencies, and officer and community safety. Police chiefs in multiple cities have criticized DHS conducting operations on their streets without prior communication with local officials, putting cops at risk. The working group also calls for enforcement efforts to focus on violent criminals rather than civil enforcement of people simply out of status: “Broad statistic-driven operations are counterproductive and divert resources, undermine trust, and can result in the apprehension of individuals who pose no threat to public safety.” And while no specific officials were named, the publication also called for the federal government to tone down “harmful and overly political rhetoric,” which “erodes legitimacy and reinforces perceptions that policing lacks transparency and accountability.” New DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said during his confirmation hearing he would be a different kind of leader than his embattled predecessor Kristi Noem and aim to keep the agency out of the headlines. Rausch is optimistic about Mullin, he told CNN, saying the IACP and its partners see him “as a fresh start and opportunity to be able to sit down to begin these conversations that, frankly, should have happened previously.” For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

House GOP relents on DHS funding plan after Trump weighs in

Congressional GOP leaders said Wednesday they will quickly move to end the Department of Homeland Security shutdown after President Donald Trump set a hard deadline for Republicans to fund immigration enforcement. The statement from Senate Majority Leader John Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson comes after Trump set a June 1 deadline for Republicans to fund ICE and Border Patrol through the party-line budget process called reconciliation — giving them an off-ramp from the weeks-long fight over the administration’s immigration enforcement strategy that has been at the heart of the DHS shutdown. 00:02 02:00 Read More “In the coming days, Republicans in the Senate and House will be following through on the President’s directive by fully funding the entire Department of Homeland Security on two parallel tracks: through the appropriations process and through the reconciliation process,” Thune and Johnson said in a joint statement. A White House official, granted anonymity to discuss internal thinking, said the administration supports the GOP leaders’ plan. The White House and congressional Republican leadership have been working since late last week to mutually agree on a reconciliation plan before Congress returns on April 13, according to two people with knowledge of the conversations and granted anonymity to describe them. Trump’s Wednesday demand for Republicans to use the procedural tool that circumvents a Democratic Senate filibuster comes as the DHS shutdown moves further into record-breaking territory. “We are going to work as fast, and as focused, as possible to replenish funding for our Border and ICE Agents, and the Radical Left Democrats won’t be able to stop us,” the president posted on Truth Social. The president’s post essentially endorsed the approach favored by Thune. And the plan he subsequently detailed with Johnson mirrors the strategy the Senate had already been pitching — funding most of DHS through a bipartisan deal with Democrats and then using the reconciliation process to enact funding for ICE and Border Patrol. It’s also a U-turn for Johnson and House Republicans who rejected the Senate deal Friday, saying they could not support a bill that did not include funding for immigration enforcement agencies. “They sent us a bill that literally put the number zero in the bill for the funding of border security and customs and immigration enforcement,” Johnson said Tuesday during an interview with Fox and Friends. “We can’t do that. That was the biggest issue in the 2024 election.” The soonest Senate Republicans could attempt to pass their bill to fund most of DHS again is Thursday morning, when the Senate convenes for a brief pro forma session. In order to move the bill forward, the Senate would need unanimous approval from all 100 senators — and a few GOP senators have publicly bashed the deal since it was struck on Friday. Both the House and Senate have adjourned for two weeks, leaving Washington with lawmakers pointing fingers at each other. Democrats have dug in and refused to fund immigration enforcement agencies without constraints on how agents can operate. The president’s post on Truth Social didn’t specify whether he wants the reconciliation bill to be confined solely to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol funding. Previously, Trump had indicated that he wanted pieces of the GOP voting bill, known as the SAVE America Act, included. Congressional Republicans are also mulling trying to include Iran war funding in their reconciliation push. Thune and Johnson said Wednesday the bill will include border security and immigration enforcement funding through the rest of the Trump administration. Some GOP lawmakers have suggested going further and funding ICE and CBP for 10 years — the maximum allowed under reconciliation rules. Reconciliation is an intensive multistep process, requiring the House and Senate to first agree on a consensus fiscal blueprint known as a budget resolution. Neither GOP leaders nor Senate Budget Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who made a separate statement, specified when either the chamber would move to take up a budget resolution. But the Senate is expected to move first, according to two people granted anonymity to disclose internal strategy. House Majority Whip Tom Emmer told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Wednesday that if there isn’t a deal to reopen DHS by the time Congress comes back “you’ll see a skinny reconciliation bill move very quickly through the Senate and the House.” But many House Republicans have been wary of moving nonenforcement DHS funding first because of their skepticism that the Senate will actually pass more ICE and Border Patrol funding through reconciliation. Some signaled Wednesday they are not on board with the new plan. “Funding for ICE and CBP must never be separated from DHS funding,” Rep. Keith Self (R-Texas) wrote on X. “If Republicans isolate it, they’re handing our border and ICE agents straight to the radicals who will defund and dismantle them every chance they get. Fund DHS fully, or the open borders globalists win.” For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.