Trump administration is deporting parents without their children in violation of its own policies, report finds

The Trump administration is deporting a significant number of parents without asking them if they have children or allowing them to decide whether to bring their children with them, in apparent violation of its own policies, a major report has found. In interviews with dozens of parents deported to Honduras, as well as physicians and psychologists, government officials and staff at reception centers for deportees, researchers found that many parents were deported quickly after they were detained, without a chance to arrange for the care of their children. According to the report by the Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC) and Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), parents were forced to leave their children under the informal care of friends or family members who were also vulnerable to deportation. Others were separated from young children and toddlers – including a mother who was deported without her two-month-old baby. Immigration officials “didn’t ask me anything”, one 22-year-old mother told researchers in Honduras, where she was sent without her two-year-old child. “They never said: ‘You have a daughter, you can bring her,’ because I would have brought [my daughter], she is very attached to me.” Some pregnant and postpartum women, meanwhile, had arrived at reception centers in Honduras displaying “extremely high levels of emotional distress” including symptoms of anxiety and panic, according to staff at the centers. “What we’ve found is fairly significant evidence that [Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers] are not asking about people’s children at the time of arrest. They are not ensuring that those children have safe care, and they are not allowing parents an opportunity to decide what happens to their children if they are deported,” said Zain Lakhani, director of migrant rights and justice at WRC. people hold up signs in protest View image in fullscreen Protesters gather outside an ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois, on 28 February. Photograph: Matthew Rodier/NurPhoto/Shutterstock The researchers said they chose to interview parents in Honduras, after they were deported, because the administration has made it increasingly difficult for lawmakers and lawyers to visit immigrants in US detention centers. The researchers stationed at three reception centers for deportees in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, over the course of five days. They encountered 163 women – three of whom were visibly pregnant – and 1,094 men. Michele Heisler, a physician with PHR who interviewed parents in Honduras, said that several reported trying to explain to immigration officers that they had children, but were ignored. “We talked to parents who were detained one day, and they were literally deported a couple of days later,” said Heisler. Some had no opportunity to speak to a lawyer or coordinate with co-parents or other family members to reunite with their children before their deportations. “This type of sudden, traumatic separation for both parents and the children – I think it’s fair to say that this is going to create a really high burden of mental health distress,” Heisler said. The impact can be especially acute for tender-aged children and babies who are too young to understand why their parent is gone. “For a toddler, they are left with a sense of abandonment that’s kind of imprinted,” she said. Studies show that early traumas can have lasting psychological and physiological consequences. “It’s hard for all of us to understand why there is this gratuitous level of cruelty happening,” she added. Some of the parents interviewed were separated from children with disabilities and neurodivergence. One mother who was interviewed by researchers said she was detained while dropping off her son, who has autism, at school. “I left him and when I came back, I saw that some men were coming. They didn’t ask me anything, they just put me in handcuffs, and I couldn’t say even a word.” The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) denied separating families. “Parents are given a choice: they can be removed with their children or place them with a safe person they designate,” a spokesperson said in a statement to the Guardian. Previous reporting from the Guardian, as well as findings in the report, suggests that is not always the case. Although the report was conducted in Honduras, Lakhani noted, she suspects that deportees to other countries likely face similar obstacles to reunification. In July 2025, the administration changed its “Detained Parents Directive”, weakening protections for noncitizen parents and stepped back its commitments to keep families unified. For example, the 2022 version of the directive stipulated that ICE had to take into consideration whether or not an individual was a parent or legal guardian of a child in its decisions on whether to detain or deport them. The 2025 version of the directive no longer includes that guidance. But interviews with deportees arriving in Honduras show that the administration is not even abiding by its current policies on family separation. “We’ve found fairly significant evidence that ICE [officials] are not asking about people’s children at the time of arrest. They are not ensuring that those children have safe care, and they are not allowing parents an opportunity to decide what happens to their children if they are deported,” Lakhani said. A collage shows two airplanes facing opposite directions, with boarding stairs extending downward from each plane into stripes on the United States flag. Behind the stripes the hands of a mother and child reach toward each other. Trump revives family separations amid drive to deport millions: ‘A tactic to punish’ Read more Once parents are deported away from their children, it can be incredibly difficult, expensive and logistically complicated to reunite with their children. Although the Honduran government has some capacity to assist parents in reunifications, it lacks a formal process to receive and process parents’ claims. If deportees’ children are US citizens, the process of acquiring proper paperwork for the children to live in Honduras can also be complicated, because it requires the consent of both parents. “What if the child’s father isn’t known to a mother or is not in contact with her? What if the child’s other parent is in detention in the US and cannot be contacted? What if they are a Mexican national, and they’ve been deported to Mexico?” Lakhani said. Often, parents who are deported are forced to leave their children with co-parents, family or friends who may also be undocumented, and vulnerable to arrest and deportation. Those adults may also be fearful of contacting the US government to coordinate the reunification of a child with parents, or lack the funds or travel documents required to chaperone the child to Honduras. The report makes recommendations including that the Honduran government invest more in helping deportees reintegrate, and prioritize assisting deported parents. It also calls on international organizations including the United Nations to coordinate and consult the Honduran government to provide sexual and reproductive healthcare, and mental healthcare for deportees. The report also calls on the US congress to codify policies to protect families and pregnant women in the immigration system, and asks DHS to “identify, document and protect medically vulnerable individuals in ICE custody” and create a “national coordinator” of child welfare to family reunification. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

ICE's detention expansion meets resistance in communities across the political spectrum

With its civil war memorials, rolling hills and quaint houses, Williamsport, Md. looks straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting. In the middle of it all, there's an enormous warehouse, scheduled to become one of the largest Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers in the country. It's part of ICE's plan to massively expand its detention system using the historic $45 billion Congress allocated the agency to do so. But in many cities and towns, detention expansion is being met with resistance from Democrats and Republicans. "Did you see the building?" A man named Donnie Dagenhart asks at the parking lot of the local Walmart, which is just a few minutes away from the new detention site. "It's huge." It is massive: if it gets built, the 825,000 square foot warehouse that ICE bought is projected to hold at least 1,500 people. Williamsport has a population of around 2,000. MARCH 9: Charles “Donnie” Dagenhart sits in his work truck outside of Walmart in outer Hagerstown, MD on Monday, March 9, 2026. Charles "Donnie" Dagenhart sits in his work truck outside of Walmart in outer Hagerstown, MD on Monday, March 9, 2026. Wesley Lapointe/for NPR Washington County is conservative: it voted for President Trump in the last election. In February the county board unanimously approved a resolution welcoming ICE, which was immediately met with angry local protests. Dagenhart, who owns a local construction company, says he supported Trump for years, but he's recently changed his tune. Among other things, he disagrees with how immigration is being enforced. "I just think we're living in a police state and it's getting worse," says Daggengart. "They're getting the wrong people. Let's get the bad ones out. That's what we should be doing, but we're not." Sponsor Message A similar tug of war is playing out in many towns across America as ICE expands its detention system. Some of the concerns are ethical: Aaron Peteranecz lives near the site. He says he has a moral problem with converting a giant warehouse into a place to hold human beings. "I went to Germany in grad school. I went to a few concentration camps, and the one thing that struck me the most about that, was you're standing at the gate to these camps, and it's just the town around you. And so people were just living their lives right next to these things, and this feels that same way." Peteranecz says he's specifically worried about conditions in ICE detention. ICE is on track for one of its deadliest years on record for detention, with 24 fatalities since October. A warehouse at 1879 Route 46 that was recently purchased by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement peaks through the backyards of homes in Stanhope, New Jersey, U.S., on Tuesday, March 10, 2026. CREDIT: José A. Alvarado Jr. for NPR, @josealvarado A warehouse at 1879 Route 46, recently purchased by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is seen in the distance beyond the backyards of homes in Stanhope, New Jersey, on Tuesday, March 10, 2026. José A. Alvarado Jr. for NPR William Angus, 55, a Warren County resident, center, participates in protesting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s purchase of a warehouse at 1879 Route 46 that is to be used as an immigrant processing facility at Ledgewood Avenue and Route 183 in Netcong, Roxbury Township, New Jersey, U.S., on Tuesday, March 10, 2026. CREDIT: José A. Alvarado Jr. for NPR, @josealvarado William Angus, 55, a Warren County resident, center, participates in protesting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's purchase of a warehouse at 1879 Route 46 that is to be used as an immigrant processing facility at Ledgewood Avenue and Route 183 in Netcong, Roxbury Township, New Jersey, U.S., on Tuesday, March 10, 2026. José A. Alvarado Jr. for NPR In the last few months, activists and local governments across the country have successfully pushed back against ICE's efforts to expand. In Kansas City, Missouri, in Oklahoma City, and smaller towns like Merrimack New Hampshire, widespread protests have blocked new ICE facilities. In other locations, residents say they are frustrated with what they see as a lack of pushback from local leadership. In the town of Roxbury, New Jersey, where a similar 500,000 square foot facility is being built, many neighbors told NPR they are outraged. While the town council has said they oppose the project, locals say they suspect the town leadership is quietly opening the door to ICE. At one of several very heated town meetings, local resident Susana Oliveri accused the town council of "rolling out the red carpet at the ICE detention center." Susannah Ollivierre, 52, sits for a portrait after a Roxbury Town Council Meeting at 1715 US-46, Ledgewood, New Jersey, U.S., on Tuesday, March 10, 2026. CREDIT: José A. Alvarado Jr. for NPR, @josealvarado Susannah Ollivierre, 52, sits for a portrait after a Roxbury Town Council Meeting at 1715 US-46, Ledgewood, New Jersey, U.S., on Tuesday, March 10, 2026. José A. Alvarado Jr. for NPR In Maryland, reactions from local and state governments have varied. The attorney general of Maryland is suing Department of Homeland Security to stop the facility being built in Williamsport, citing ethical and environmental concerns. Mayor Bill Green of Williamsport has been quiet on the matter. Green did not respond to NPR's multiple interview requests. Sponsor Message Meanwhile, for the private companies who run these centers, ICE's expansion has been a huge economic boom. During its February quarterly earnings call, CoreCivic, one of two main companies that operate many of ICE's detention and processing facilities, celebrated a more than 100% rise in ICE revenue, year over year. "With historic funding levels for border security, and an expectation of a continued increase in detention bed demand nationwide," CFO David Garfinkle announced, "we believe there are numerous opportunities to activate additional idle facilities we own" Not all are against the ICE detention centers coming to town. In nearby Hagerstown, where the poverty rate is nearly 22%, twice the national average, resident Tracy Landis says she's excited for the prospective detention center. She says this town desperately needs jobs. "Us American people need to take back our country. That's what needs to happen," says Landis. "Let ICE do their job, and give the Americans a chance to work and have a place to live." Many economists dispute the idea that deporting immigrants opens up jobs for native-born workers. In a statement to NPR, ICE said the Williamsport facility is expected to bring 1,125 jobs to the area, and said these retrofitted warehouses would meet ICE's standards. MARCH 9: The sun sets over downtown Williamsport, MD on Monday, March 9, 2026. The sun sets over downtown Williamsport, MD on Monday, March 9, 2026. Wesley Lapointe/for NPR MARCH 9: Bonnie and Robert Myers watch the sun set from their porch in Williamsport, MD on Monday, March 9, 2026. Bonnie and Robert Myers watch the sun set from their porch in Williamsport, MD on Monday, March 9, 2026. Wesley Lapointe/for NPR Bonnie Myers, who is sitting on her porch taking in the evening breeze, is skeptical. "I don't know," she says, shaking her head. "The way they've been treating people, I just rather they not be around here. But there's nothing we can do." This is a sentiment heard a lot out here: these are the Feds. There's nothing that can be done. Patrick Dattilio, with the activist group Hagerstown Rapid Response, which has fought against the detention center, says there are ways to push back. "All the protesting, all the fighting delays and makes this more expensive and makes it harder for the feds," says Dattilio. "Their power still comes from the people. And we are the people. We are the people here." MARCH 9: Patrick Dattilio, candidate for Washington County Democratic Central Committee, stands at Hagerstown City Park, in Hagerstown, MD, on Monday, March 9, 2026. Patrick Dattilio, candidate for Washington County Democratic Central Committee, stands at Hagerstown City Park, in Hagerstown, MD, on Monday, March 9, 2026. Wesley Lapointe/for NPR Last week, a judge granted a temporary restraining order against the Williamsport ICE facility while this whole thing plays out in court. That means for the next few days, anyway, that massive structure will be empty. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

200K truck drivers could lose their licenses in Trump’s immigration push

(NewsNation) — A new rule effective this week could strip up to 200,000 immigrant truck drivers of their commercial driver’s licenses, or CDLs. The regulations bar most immigrants from holding the licenses, with the only exceptions being people in the U.S. on H–2A (temporary agricultural workers), H–2B (temporary nonagricultural workers) or E–2 (treaty investors) visas. The newest rule includes barring asylum-seekers, as well as immigrants with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or Temporary Protected Status. There is ongoing litigation to try to block the policy. Drivers will lose their licenses as they expire, not immediately, though the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration “strongly recommends” that states audit their drivers’ qualifications soon. Border Patrol’s Gregory Bovino to retire after nearly 30 years It’s a win for the Trump administration, which has in recent months taken aim at immigrants holding CDLs after several fatal accidents and reports of states illegally issuing the licenses. A truck driver, who authorities have said wasn’t authorized to be in the U.S., is accused of making an illegal U-turn and causing a crash in Florida that killed three people last summer. Administration officials have attributed two additional fatal crashes — both in Indiana — to people unlawfully in the country. Play VideoDeadly Indiana crash renews debate over immigration, CDL standards | Morning in America Appeals court allows Trump to swiftly deport migrants to third countries “For far too long, America has allowed dangerous foreign drivers to abuse our truck licensing systems – wreaking havoc on our roadways. This safety loophole ends today,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in February while announcing the new CDL rules. Last month, the department also mandated that truckers take their licensing tests in English. While commercial drivers are required to demonstrate proficiency in English, many states previously allowed them to take the CDL test in other languages. More leadership changes coming to Trump’s immigration team Top border official Gregory Bovino, who became the face of Trump’s recent immigration crackdown, is set to retire at the end of the month. Bovino was removed from Border Patrol months ago as “commander at large” following tense immigration operations across the country and two fatal shootings by federal officers in Minnesota. MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA – FEBRUARY 7: People attend a public memorial service for Renee Good in Powderhorn Park on February 7, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Today marks one month since Good, a mother of three, was shot and killed by federal agents. Protests continue calling for an end to immigration raids in the Twin cities which have already resulted in the fatal shooting deaths of Good and Alex Pretti, a VA nurse.(Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)Read More » UNITED STATES – MARCH 4: Ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., references a DHS advertising campaign while questioning DHS Secretary Kristi Noem during the House Judiciary Committee hearing titled “Oversight of the Department of Homeland Security,” in Rayburn building on Wednesday, March 4, 2026. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)Read More » FILE – U.S. Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino stands with Federal agents outside a convenience store, Jan. 21, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis, File)Read More » High school students gather for anti-ICE protest outside the State Capitol in St. Paul, Minnesota, to call for an end to federal immigration detentions and enforcement actions, days after 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good was shot and killed by a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent, on January 14, 2026. Hundreds more federal agents were heading to Minneapolis, the US homeland security chief said on January 11, brushing aside demands by the Midwestern city’s Democratic leaders to leave after an immigration officer fatally shot a woman protester. In multiple TV interviews, US Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem defended the actions of the officer who shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, whose death has sparked renewed protests nationwide against President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. (Photo by Octavio JONES / AFP via Getty Images)Read More » MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA – FEBRUARY 7: People attend a public memorial service for Renee Good in Powderhorn Park on February 7, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Today marks one month since Good, a mother of three, was shot and killed by federal agents. Protests continue calling for an end to immigration raids in the Twin cities which have already resulted in the fatal shooting deaths of Good and Alex Pretti, a VA nurse.(Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)Read More » UNITED STATES – MARCH 4: Ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., references a DHS advertising campaign while questioning DHS Secretary Kristi Noem during the House Judiciary Committee hearing titled “Oversight of the Department of Homeland Security,” in Rayburn building on Wednesday, March 4, 2026. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)Read More » UNITED STATES – MARCH 4: Ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., references a DHS advertising campaign while questioning DHS Secretary Kristi Noem during the House Judiciary Committee hearing titled “Oversight of the Department of Homeland Security,” in Rayburn building on Wednesday, March 4, 2026. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)Read More » Inside Noem’s tense relationship with controversial DHS inspector general That same operation led to criticism of Kristi Noem from both Democrats and Republicans about her handling of the shootings, the messaging she pushed about those killed and pricey ad campaigns for her department. Noem was pushed out of her job as Department of Homeland Security secretary earlier this month. Trump’s nominee to replace her, Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., is set for his confirmation hearing with lawmakers Wednesday. Supreme Court considering protections for Haitian, Somali migrants The U.S. Supreme Court is taking up a major immigration case — one that could determine whether the Trump administration can end protections for some migrants from countries like Haiti and Somalia. Right now, Temporary Protected Status allows people to stay and work in the U.S. if their home countries are deemed too dangerous due to war, disaster or instability. Now, justices are being asked to decide not just the future of those protections but also who has the final say: the White House or the courts. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Unconventional Judge Is Managing Trump’s Court Deportation Blitz

The Trump administration’s deportation agenda is getting pivotal support from a lesser-known official managing the more than 600 immigration judges deciding migrants’ fates. As chief immigration judge, Teresa Riley oversees the Justice Department’s immigration courts as they hear cases of migrants swept up in President Donald Trump’s crackdown. In her role, Riley has issued directives that advance the agenda set above by Trump, Stephen Miller, and other administration leaders, according to former officials and analysts. The changes make it increasingly difficult for immigrants to obtain asylum and avoid deportation, observers said. Riley, a former federal prosecutor appointed chief judge in December after roughly two months in an acting capacity, has less managerial experience than many of her predecessors. She’s also carrying out the role in an unconventional way. Riley is encouraging judges to refrain from granting asylum in most cases and telling them they’re not required to hold bond hearings despite federal judges’ declarations that noncitizens are entitled to argue for their release. Immigration judges, dubbed “deportation” judges in recent DOJ recruitment ads, are department employees with limited discretion and little of the autonomy of life-tenured judges. “When you take a step back and look at how all of this works together, the more people are detained, the harder it is for them to access counsel, the harder it is for them to be able to apply for and win relief,” said Kathleen Bush-Joseph, a US immigration policy analyst with the Migration Policy Institute. Riley, who joined the Cleveland Immigration Court in 2019, was sent for additional training after a 2021 complaint submitted by the American Immigration Lawyers Association’s Ohio chapter alleged she engaged in “bullying” and “hostile questioning” of migrants. She’s now part of leadership at DOJ’s Executive Office for Immigration Review advising judges to deny most asylum claims and issue deportation orders, according to former officials and policy analysts. EOIR leaders have fired more than 100 immigration judges, fast-tracked cases, and moved to cut off a key avenue for migrants challenging deportation orders. EOIR Director Daren Margolin called Riley “a highly qualified adjudicator and senior leader, who is effectively implementing the administration’s plan to enforce the immigration laws of the United States, as passed by Congress.” “After four years of the Biden Administration forcing immigration courts to implement a de facto amnesty for hundreds of thousands of aliens, this Department of Justice is restoring integrity to our immigration system,” Margolin said in an emailed statement. EOIR declined to make Riley available for an interview. Chief Judge As chief judge, Riley’s directives go beyond her job description, former EOIR officials said. Under federal regulations, the chief immigration judge may issue operational instructions and policy, including time frames for judges to resolve cases and managing judges’ dockets. The chief judge doesn’t have authority to “direct the result of an adjudication assigned to another immigration judge,” according to the regulations. Riley’s January guidance directing immigration judges they weren’t bound by a federal district judge’s ruling that noncitizens should be given bond hearings improperly interferes with “the impartiality that immigration judges should have,” said Margy O’Herron, an immigration adviser during the Biden administration and former Board of Immigration Appeals attorney. “The chief immigration judge is supposed to oversee the management functions of the immigration courts, not put a thumb on the scale that affects the outcome of adjudications,” O’Herron said. WATCH: When Can Noncitizens Be Deported? Immigration Law’s ‘Odd Anomaly’ Riley stood by the Trump administration’s stance on mandatory detention after a California federal judge on Feb. 18 overturned a BIA precedent that Riley relied on in her January guidance. Riley wrote in new guidance to immigration judges that the Feb. 18 ruling doesn’t vacate or overrule the Fifth Circuit’s recent decision upholding the administration’s interpretation of mandatory detention. The Ninth Circuit has since paused the California judge’s order. Prior chief judges didn’t issue this type of guidance, and it wouldn’t have made it past the EOIR director or general counsel’s office in earlier administrations, according to one former immigration judge who requested anonymity to speak openly about previous decision-making. O’Herron described the guidance similarly, noting it’s “very inconsistent with the way past leaders at EOIR across the six administrations that I worked in operated.” But Matt O’Brien, deputy executive director of the conservative Federation for American Immigration Reform, said in an email that Riley’s guidance was “both appropriate and necessary.” Federal district court judges don’t have authority to order immigration judges to hold bond hearings, he said. “The mere fact that the guidance given by Chief Immigration Judge Riley may be different than that issued by her predecessors is in no way an indication that her guidance is wrong,” said O’Brien, a former assistant chief immigration judge overseeing the court in Annandale, Va. An EOIR spokesperson said in an email that the Trump administration “is complying with court orders and fully enforcing federal immigration law.” “The level of illegal aliens currently detained is a direct result of this Administration’s strong border security policies to keep the American people safe,” the spokesperson said. Interactive graphic: Teresa Riley has less immigration experience than prior chief judges Courtroom Demeanor Before she quickly ascended to the chief judge role, Riley stood out from other judges early on in her time at the Cleveland Immigration Court for comments to immigrants that attorneys characterized as inappropriate from someone required by law to be an impartial adjudicator. AILA said in its 2021 complaint that, in at least one case in 2020, Riley referred to undocumented immigrants as “illegals.” AILA alleged that in another hearing, Riley questioned whether a migrant was being truthful about sexual abuse his daughter experienced because the man displayed “no emotion whatsoever.” “Can you explain to me why you’re rattling this off like you’re reading the newspaper?” Riley asked the father, according to a copy of the complaint obtained by Bloomberg Law. Maureen DeVito, who worked as an immigration attorney in Cleveland from 2019 to 2025, said the AILA complaint shows “very cruel statements” that align with her own experience. At a 2019 hearing, DeVito represented a 9-year-old Guatemalan migrant who started crying after Riley “made callous comments” telling the girl she could be deported even though, DeVito said, “this child had no agency or authority over the actions of her parent.” Riley had no visible reaction to the child’s emotion, said DeVito, who noted that others in the room “had astonished looks on their faces.” “She just continued on, traumatizing the child even further,” DeVito said of Riley. “I’d never seen a judge terrify a child like this before.” EOIR, which oversees immigration courts, closed AILA’s complaint after sending Riley for two weeks of training in 2021 on her tone and interactions with migrants who appear without an attorney, according to two people familiar with Riley’s time as a Cleveland judge. Riley remained in the role through Joe Biden’s administration. The immigration review office said in an August 2021 email to Neil Fleischer, then president of AILA’s Ohio chapter, that the complaint was “reviewed fully and handled appropriately,” and that “this matter is now considered closed,” according to text of the email shared by an Ohio AILA member. Some Ohio immigration attorneys noticed improvement in Riley’s tone with migrants following her additional training. But at least four lawyers and two additional people familiar with her time in Cleveland said Riley’s targeted questions doubting details in migrants’ stories persisted throughout her time as a judge, leading attorneys to question her impartiality. Riley continues to hear cases at the Cleveland court while serving as chief judge. Most of the people who spoke to Bloomberg Law about Riley requested anonymity because they continue to represent immigrants at the Cleveland court or because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly. Riley’s demeanor and behavior have been a repeated concern for attorneys and court staff, two of the people said. Some immigration lawyers refuse to take on cases that go before Riley because of her reputation, according to one Ohio attorney. In a 2022 hearing, Riley extensively questioned one of DeVito’s African clients when he described a family friend as an “uncle.” “When she couldn’t herself discern that this person is not a blood relative, she used it as grounds to say that the client was not credible, when in fact, it just represented her lack of cross-cultural understanding of different customs and cultures,” DeVito said. Margolin said in his statement that the allegations from AILA and other Ohio attorneys “are patently false, and part of a pattern of anonymously mischaracterizing events to defame EOIR leadership as they continue to effectively implement the administration’s plan to enforce the immigration laws of the United States.” An EOIR spokesperson said in an email that the office seriously investigates any credible complaints submitted against immigration judges and takes corrective action as needed, but that it doesn’t tolerate unsupported claims levied against judges. The spokesperson declined to comment on any specific allegations against Riley. Riley’s Background Riley, who is still primarily based in Cleveland, is among judges at a court that attorneys said is known for siding with the government most of the time. “There’s still good judges there who want to do the right thing, but there is a culture of judges becoming prosecutors and referees aligning with the other team,” said Julie Nemecek, an immigration attorney based in Columbus. Another immigration attorney who spoke anonymously said Riley gave the impression with intense questioning of migrants that she was acting like a federal prosecutor, including by raising problems she found with migrants’ claims that government attorneys hadn’t raised. Judges’ backgrounds and court culture can influence how they approach the job, said Emmett Soper, a former immigration judge and counsel to the EOIR director in the Biden administration. Riley, who graduated from the University of Akron School of Law in 2002, clerked for a Northern District of Ohio judge and worked briefly as a local prosecutor in Cuyahoga County before joining the US attorney’s office in 2009. ‘Rule of Law’ Commitment As a federal prosecutor, Riley had the reputation of being a strong litigator with a diligent work ethic, said David Sierleja, a former criminal chief in the office who hired her in 2009. Riley spent late hours in the office and had no problem telling law enforcement agents if she didn’t think there was enough evidence to bring a case, according to another former federal prosecutor who requested anonymity to speak openly about working with Riley. Riley’s background differs from several of her predecessors who held long careers at the immigration courts or in the administration counseling on immigration law before taking on the role, Soper said. Former Chief Judge Sheila McNulty, who was fired by the Trump administration in 2025, spent 15 years at EOIR in various roles, including as assistant chief judge and regional deputy judge. MaryBeth Keller held several leadership roles at EOIR since 1988 before her chief judge appointment in 2016, according to online bios. As an immigration judge, Riley denied asylum in 81% of cases from 2019 to 2025 in Cleveland, where judges had an average denial rate of roughly 75%, according to government data compiled by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. That’s substantially higher than the national average denial rate for the same period, which was approximately 59%. As chief judge, Riley isn’t the ultimate decision-maker shaping the courts. She serves under the direction of top DOJ officials, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, who are making decisions that advance the administration’s deportation agenda, former judges and immigration policy analysts said. That includes the unusual mass firings of more than 100 immigration judges since the start of Trump’s second term, according to estimates from Justice Connection, an organization supporting former and current DOJ employees. Many of those fired were known for having high asylum grant rates or a previous career defending migrants in court. In O’Brien’s view, the immigration courts needed to change after past administrations gave judges “too much free rein” over migrants’ cases. “The Trump administration has made a clear effort to ensure that the immigration courts perform their intended functions in accordance with the laws they are charged with applying,” O’Brien said. Riley’s directives thus far show a “clear commitment” to “ensuring that the immigration court hews closely to the rule of law,” O’Brien said. For Soper, the former counsel to the EOIR director, Riley’s guidance suggests that the Trump administration sees her as useful to advancing its goals of limiting asylum hearings and increasing deportations. “She would not have been appointed to this position were she not, broadly speaking, supportive of what this administration is doing when it comes to the immigration courts and immigration law,” Soper said. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Supreme Court to consider Trump administration's efforts to end deportation protections for Syrians, Haitians

Washington — The Supreme Court on Monday said it will consider the Trump administration's efforts to roll back temporary deportation protections for hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Syria and Haiti. While agreeing to take up the legal battle over Temporary Protected Status for the two countries, the Supreme Court did not allow the Trump administration to end the programs while it considers the case. The Justice Department had asked the high court to grant it emergency relief and freeze lower court orders blocking Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's decisions to terminate TPS for more than 6,000 immigrants from Syria and 350,000 immigrants from Haiti. The Supreme Court instead said in a brief unsigned order that it is deferring consideration of the requests, leaving those lower court rulings in place for now. It set oral arguments in the cases for late April. The disputes over legal protections for immigrants from Haiti and Syria are the latest involving President Trump's immigration agenda to land before the Supreme Court in its current term. The high court also will hear arguments April 1 on the legality of the president's plan to end birthright citizenship. Decisions in each of the cases will likely come by the end of June or early July. The Supreme Court has already allowed the administration to lift deportation protections for more than 300,000 Venezuelans in the U.S. while legal proceedings continued. The Department of Homeland Security has also moved to terminate TPS designations for at least a dozen other countries, including Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Somalia and Yemen. The Trump administration has argued that courts cannot review the secretary's TPS determinations. Congress created TPS in 1990, and the program provides temporary immigration protections for people from countries beset by armed conflicts, natural disasters or other "extraordinary and temporary" conditions that make it unsafe for deportees to return. Migrants from a country designated for TPS generally cannot be removed from the U.S. and are authorized to work for the length of the designation, which is typically 18 months but can be extended. The dispute over TPS for Haiti Haiti was first designated for TPS in 2010 after the catastrophic earthquake that left more than 300,000 people dead and devastated the country. The program has since been extended for Haitian immigrants several times, including during the Biden administration in 2021 following the assassination of then-President Jovenel Moïse and again in 2024 because of economic, political, security and health crises. Skip Ad The video player is currently playing an ad. But after Mr. Trump returned to the White House last year, Noem took steps to rescind TPS for Haiti, effective Feb. 3. Noem determined the decision to end the protections "reflects a necessary and strategic vote of confidence in the new chapter Haiti is turning" and the "foreign policy vision of a secure, sovereign and self-reliant Haiti." While the secretary acknowledged that certain conditions in Haiti remained "concerning," Noem said parts of the country were "suitable" to return to. The State Department has warned U.S. citizens not to travel to Haiti because of "kidnapping, crime, terrorist activity, civil unrest and limited health care." In December, a group of five Haitian nationals challenged Noem's termination of TPS and sought to block the move. A federal district court granted their request, finding in part that Noem's decision to unwind the protections was likely motivated by racial animus. "Kristi Noem has a First Amendment right to call immigrants killers, leeches, entitlement junkies, and any other inapt name she wants," U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes wrote. "Secretary Noem, however, is constrained by both our Constitution and the [Administrative Procedure Act] to apply faithfully the facts to the law in implementing the TPS program. The record to-date shows she has yet to do that." Reyes also pointed to derogatory statements Mr. Trump has made about Haitians, including referring to Haiti as a "s***hole" country and, while on the campaign trail in 2024, promoting the conspiracy theory that Haitian immigrants living in Springfield, Ohio, were eating people's pets. City officials said there were no credible reports of Haitian immigrants abducting and eating pets. The Justice Department appealed Reyes' decision, and a divided three-judge panel on the U.S. appeals court in Washington, D.C., declined to freeze the lower court's decision. Justice Department lawyers asked the Supreme Court last week to step in and allow the Trump administration to rescind the deportation protections for Haitian nationals. The dispute over TPS for Syria Syria was designated for TPS by the Obama administration in 2012 after the brutal crackdown by former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Protections for Syrian immigrants were extended several times, including during Mr. Trump's first term. The Trump administration estimates there are more than 6,000 Syrian nationals covered by the program. But last September, Noem moved to end the program for Syrians, citing in part the collapse of the Assad regime at the end of 2024 and the lifting of sanctions against the country last year. The secretary determined that Syria no longer met the criteria for an armed conflict that jeopardized Syrian nationals returning to the country, and found there are "sporadic, isolated episodes of violence." The State Department has warned Americans not to travel to the area, citing "terrorism, civil unrest, kidnapping, hostage taking, and armed conflict." The deportation protections for Syrian nationals in the U.S. were set to end Nov. 21. But after a group of seven Syrians filed a lawsuit last October challenging Noem's decision to unwind TPS protections, a federal district court delayed the termination. U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla found, in part, that Noem's move to rescind the protections for Syria was based on a political decision to end TPS altogether, citing comments by Mr. Trump and the secretary. "The president made sweeping and erroneous statements concerning his belief in the legality of the TPS program and its inutility to what can only be fairly described as an anti-immigrant agenda," she said. Of Noem, the judge said she "endeavored to terminate TPS status whenever presented with an opportunity to do so, resulting in termination decisions that are ground not in law and not in fact, but that are in political considerations simply not relevant under the TPS statute." The Trump administration filed an emergency appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, and it declined to halt the lower court's decision in February. While the 2nd Circuit acknowledged that the Supreme Court had twice allowed the Trump administration to end temporary protections for Venezuelans, it said those cases involved a designation for a different country with different circumstances. The Trump administration sought emergency relief from the Supreme Court at the end of February and argued that the district court's order interfered with the government's foreign policy determinations and its interest in enforcing immigration laws. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

DHS Seeks Access to Massive Employment, Salary and Family Database Legally Restricted to Use in Child Support Cases

The Trump administration’s immigration enforcement arm is requesting unfettered access to what is considered to be the most comprehensive government database of people in the United States and their most private information, including sensitive details about individual children, according to six current and former federal officials. It is called the Federal Parent Locator Service, and it’s meant for finding people who owe child support. Granting access to the Department of Homeland Security, the officials said, would violate a federal law that explicitly limits its use to determining and collecting child support payments and a handful of other narrow purposes. But DHS’ ask is being seriously considered within the Department of Health and Human Services, which maintains the database. The database contains the name, address, Social Security number, employer, and salary or wages of every employed person in the country, as well as the equivalent details for anyone listed in state unemployment systems. It exists so that if someone owes child support, the government can pursue them for it even if they’ve changed jobs or moved to another state. The repository includes these personal details and employment records, updated throughout the year, for all types of people — even those who don’t have any children. Only some who work exclusively in the gig or cash economy, or who are entirely self-employed, might not be listed. The database also names every child in the U.S. who is the subject of a state child support case, including each child’s sex, birthday and Social Security number, as well as family members’ names and relationships. And it identifies when single mothers and kids who receive child support are domestic violence victims — alongside their address. “This is the most powerful people-finder system that the U.S. government has, and possibly that exists,” said Bethanne Barnes, who from 2019 through October of last year was a data director for the Administration for Children and Families, the subdivision of HHS that oversees the database. Turning the child support data over to Homeland Security “would be disastrous for child support enforcement” and “would ruin the foundation of the child support program,” said Vicki Turetsky, who was commissioner of HHS’ office of child support enforcement from 2009 to 2016. Turetsky said that if this were to happen, many employers, fearful of ICE arrests of their employees or workplace raids, would consider no longer reporting new hires to the government. This in turn would degrade the ability of the system to find parents who owe payments to their kids, she said. State child support agency leaders have been nervously messaging one another about this prospect recently, said Kate Cooper Richardson, the longtime head of Oregon’s child support program who retired in January. State officials have spent decades building trust with employers, Cooper Richardson said, reminding them that submitting their new-hire data to child support authorities is required and that sensitive information about their workers will be used only for child support enforcement and otherwise kept confidential. Some business leaders have already reached out to state administrators, she said, concerned about rumors of President Donald Trump’s administration seeking to use this data for immigration enforcement. “And if we’re not learning from employers when a parent who owes child support gets a new job, who loses in that situation?” Cooper Richardson said. “The 1 in 5 U.S. children who rely on consistent and regular child support.” A White House spokesperson said in a statement that “the entire Trump administration is working to lawfully implement the President’s agenda to put Americans first. Any sensitive information required to do so will be obtained and handled properly.” A DHS representative requested additional time to respond to detailed questions sent by email, which ProPublica agreed to, but DHS did not provide any responses. Last year, Department of Government Efficiency appointees sought and for a brief period gained access to the National Directory of New Hires, the part of the child support database that contains people’s employment information. It is unclear what, if anything, the DOGE team did with this data; the federal courts temporarily blocked it from continuing to access Social Security, IRS and other sensitive records, and then DOGE disbanded last summer before final rulings on the legality of its efforts had been made. Over the past month, though, three officials said, DHS has separately and expressly requested both the new-hire data and also the Federal Case Registry, the other half of the database where the catalog of all child support cases is housed. This has the much more sensitive specifics on families and children, including information on paternity, domestic violence and more. It is unclear why DHS would want this, given that locating undocumented immigrants at their places of work or targeting those businesses for raids would be possible using just the employment data, without all of the case registry’s additional personal details. Whatever DHS’ intentions might be, multiple officials and privacy experts interviewed for this story expressed concern that abusers in the ranks of law enforcement would soon be able to see their victims’ case information and addresses, and that a manifest of vulnerable children would become widely available in the government. Read More The Untold Saga of What Happened When DOGE Stormed Social Security The Department of Health and Human Services general counsel’s office, which is run by a Trump political official, must now decide whether it believes federal law allows the agency to provide DHS with the full child support database. Child support staff strongly oppose doing this, but the request is now with the lawyers, people familiar with the situation said. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. may also have to approve the data sharing. If it’s approved, the department is likely to be sued by legal advocacy groups almost immediately, lawyers and experts said. HHS did not respond to a request for comment. Internal emails show that HHS’ Administration for Children and Families last year was also directed to cross-check all of its other datasets — on families who interact with child care, foster care, Head Start and other systems — against DHS immigration records. The Trump administration has expanded a DHS tool called SAVE to allow federal and state agencies to check the citizenship of millions of people at once, including those who rely on public assistance programs like these. (Also using this tool, the administration has consistently inaccurately flagged citizens as noncitizens on state voter rolls, ProPublica has reported.) In DHS’ efforts to gather data from other agencies, the department has argued that several U.S. statutes allow federal law enforcement to obtain information without a warrant from any government agency pertaining to the identity and location of people living in the country illegally, especially if national security is at stake. In DHS’ view, these statutes should overrule all others, even a law that would seem to bar the department from obtaining an entire database of sensitive information about children unrelated to immigration. Congress has previously permitted a handful of exceptions that allow certain agencies to access parts of the child support data archive. That includes using it in limited ways to help manage custody and visitation cases, to pursue people who have federal student loan debt and to check the incomes of those who apply for means-tested government programs, like housing assistance. Maya Bernstein has overseen federal data privacy policies for over three decades, starting during the first Bush administration. In the 1990s, she helped lead the work on the creation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, the medical records privacy law, before serving 20 years as the senior adviser for privacy policy at HHS. “I know a lot about a lot of different databases,” she said, and the child support database is “the one that I’m most worried about.” “It is very unusual for them to want the Federal Case Registry,” Bernstein added, referring to the part of the database with children’s case information. “In my career, no one has asked for access to that. Most people have never even heard of it.” For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Trump’s immigration crackdown is backfiring by hurting the U.S.-born workers it was meant to help, data shows

More than one year into the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, there’s little to suggest White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller has achieved his goal of boosting the U.S.-born workforce by closing borders. Recommended Video Land O'Lakes CEO: "We need more legal immigration" to help American farmers A National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) policy brief published this month noted from February 2025 to February 2026, labor force participation for U.S.-born workers age 16 and older actually fell from 61.4% to 61%, citing jobs data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That dip in the U.S.-born labor force—part of a larger labor market slowdown that saw just 181,000 jobs added to the U.S. economy in 2025—coincided with a swath of actions meant to curb immigration. This included roughly $170 billion in immigration enforcement funding, counting $75 billion to Immigration and Customs Enforcement through 2029, outlined in President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB). The crackdown appears to have had its intended effect in driving out immigrants and those considering coming to the U.S. The Brookings Institution estimated the U.S. saw between 10,000 and 295,000 people leave the country in 2025, reaching negative net migration for the first time in about half a century. NFAP’s analysis found a decline of 596,000 foreign-born workers in the U.S. since January 2026 and a total of 1.01 million workers since the number of foreign-born workers in the U.S. peaked in March 2025. While efforts to slash the foreign-born workforce were efficacious, they did not succeed in bolstering jobs for U.S.-born workers, according to labor economist and NFAP senior fellow Mark Regets. “Most economic research shows that immigration increases employment opportunities for the U.S.-born, so it would not be surprising if reducing immigration harms American workers,” Regets said in the report. Regets previously told Fortune an immigrant workforce can help boost productivity and justify hiring more workers, as well as encourage U.S. firms to take advantage of a domestic workforce instead of offshoring jobs. Greater immigration can also encourage consumer spending to stimulate economic activity. “A company unable to find the workers it needs for some roles could shut down operations rather than continuing,” Regets said. He suggested efforts to stifle immigration for the sake of boosting opportunities for workers in the name of growing the U.S. economy has, instead, backfired completely. “The data is raising huge red flags that we are losing immigrants of all types that otherwise would be advancing America’s economy,” he added. Paid Content Telematics emerges as a lifeline for struggling commercial auto insurers From Business Reporter How closed borders will impact the U.S. economy Economists have warned the writing has been on the wall on how negative net migration—which the Trump administration has touted as a win—could shrink the U.S. economy. A working paper published last year from the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a conservative economics policy center, found negative net migration could shrink the U.S. GDP growth by between 0.3% and 0.4%. With U.S. real GDP at about $23.5 trillion, the tradeoff of fewer immigrants could be between $70.5 billion to $94 billion in lost economic output annually, a result of not only fewer workers, but also a decrease in consumer spending. NFAP previously projected Trump’s immigration policies would slash the number of U.S. workers by 6.8 million by 2028 and 15.7 million by 2035. “Our workforce is disproportionately made up of immigrants relative to their share of the population, and because of that we…really can’t sustain a high level of job growth with the U.S.-born population alone, because there just aren’t enough bodies, essentially, to do that,” report coauthor Tara Watson, a Brookings economist and professor of economics at Williams College, told Fortune in July 2025. Research published last month by the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, indicates U.S. immigration has helped keep the U.S. from a debt crisis as its charges balloon to $39 trillion. From 1994 to 2023, immigrants (both documented and undocumented) contributed more in taxes than they received in local, state, or federal benefits, totaling a fiscal surplus of $14.5 trillion over the 30-year period. Without the economic contribution, the analysis indicated, public debt would be above 200% of the U.S. GDP, the threshold some economists could consider a crisis. Immigrants made up 14.7% of the U.S. population in 2023, but paid 17.3% of the share of taxes and made up 17.4% of the share of income, making higher income and paying more in taxes per capita than their U.S.-born counterparts, according to the report. Many immigrants come to the U.S. in their twenties, requiring less schooling and therefore education costs than those born in the U.S. Similarly, many temporary or undocumented immigrants do not qualify for Social Security, and cost the government about $74,000 less per capita in old-age benefits. “For years, nativists in Congress and the administration have wrongly claimed that immigrants are behind the growth in debt and that the U.S. immigration system allowed foreigners to take advantage of Americans’ generosity,” David Bier, report coauthor and Cato Institute director of immigration studies, wrote in a Substack post in February about the report. “Our data completely repudiates this view. Immigrants are subsidizing the U.S. government.” For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Immigration detention on track for deadliest fiscal year since 2004

It's the deadliest year for those in immigration detention in more than two decades. More people have died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody since October — 23 — than died in the whole prior fiscal year. The most recent death was of a 56-year-old Haitian man held at an immigration detention center in Arizona. He died in a hospital after going into septic shock. The increase in deaths comes as nearly 70,000 people are in ICE detention, the highest number in several years. Former agency officials and immigration advocates have warned that detaining more people — coupled with reduced oversight — will increase the likelihood of more fatalities. Sponsor Message People detained by federal agents walk into a suburban Chicago ICE detention center in Broadview, Ill., on Sept. 19. Immigration It's the deadliest year for people in ICE custody in decades; next year could be worse "The abhorrent and worsening conditions in detention centers, gross negligence, and a complete lack of oversight have contributed to yet another grim record for deaths in ICE custody," said Jennifer Ibañez Whitlock, senior policy counsel at the National Immigration Law Center, an immigrant rights defense organization. "As a country, we cannot accept that death in federal custody is an acceptable or inevitable outcome of American immigration policy." The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not respond to a request for comment on the death count. Democratic lawmakers have also raised questions about the increasing numbers of deaths in detention and detainees' access to health care, as well as the lag in reporting deaths to the public. "At no time during detention is a detained alien denied emergency care," ICE stated in a press release announcing the death of the man in Arizona. Last summer, Congress gave DHS about $70 billion to hire more staff, including deportation and detention officers, and increase its detention space, as part of Republicans' One Big Beautiful Bill Act spending and tax package. But rapidly scaling up immigration arrests has contributed to overcrowding, unsanitary conditions and issues with food and health care access in detention centers, according to media reports and immigration advocates. In January, detainees had confirmed cases of measles at the Florence Detention Center in Arizona and at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas, which houses families. Another outbreak was reported this month at Camp East Montana, a facility in Texas that has also separately had three deaths. Sponsor Message Public health officials in South Carolina are seen an increase in people getting the measles vaccine. Health Measles continues to spread in the US, but with some letup The department at the time defended the steps it took after the outbreak in Florence and Dilley, including quarantining people and controlling the spread of infection. Steps to keep detainees healthy Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whom President Trump is replacing, detailed the steps the agency takes to prevent fatalities. "Medical treatment is provided to individuals in our processing and detention centers," she told senators. "Within 12 hours, they have a medical examination, we get them the prescriptions and medication that they need. They also have a full evaluation." In general, the agency says detainees receive a full health assessment within 14 days of entering ICE custody or arriving at a facility, as well as getting access to medical appointments and 24-hour emergency care. "ICE is actively recruiting healthcare professionals, including doctors, nurses, psychiatrists, pharmacists, and health administrators, to support the expanded detention capacity enabled by the historic funding provided under President Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill," a DHS spokesperson said in a statement, but declined to provide an update on the recruitment efforts. Still, medical professionals who were assigned to work in immigration detention centers told NPR they witnessed chaotic screenings – and life-threatening delays in getting medicine and care to detainees. Overcrowded and understaffed conditions have pushed some to quit. The Department of Homeland Security’s ICE detention facility is shown in Jena, La., on Friday, March 21, 2025. Health Some Public Health Service officers deployed in detention centers suffer 'moral distress' Austin Kocher, an assistant research professor at Syracuse University studying the immigration enforcement system, said the skyrocketing detention population alone may not explain the increase in deaths. "This is a captive population with documented concerns about care, and it's a system that's grown incredibly quickly," Kocher said. "My concern is that these deaths are preventable, not just a function of simple demographics." He pointed to a 2024 study from the American Civil Liberties Union and other advocacy groups that found the vast majority of the 52 deaths in immigration detention from 2017-2021 would have been prevented if people had received "clinically appropriate" medical care, such as providing access to needed medications or timely treatment. Sponsor Message In recorded calls, reports of overcrowding and lack of food at ICE detention centers Immigration In recorded calls, reports of overcrowding and lack of food at ICE detention centers Investigating deaths in custody The Civil Rights and Civil Liberties office at DHS, the ICE Health Services Corps and the Immigration Office of Detention Oversight typically investigate any death in ICE custody. But the civil rights office was among the oversight offices that experienced hundreds of staff cuts over the past year. Other employees have told NPR that the gutting of their office could result in more deaths in custody. DHS oversight has also been affected by recent government shutdowns. During the 43-day full government shutdown last fall, DHS said its Office of Detention Oversight was shut. Five people died in custody during this time. A corrections officer walks beside people holding candles, signs, and flowers during a vigil outside the Krome Detention Center in Miami in May 2025, protesting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody and mass deportations. Immigration Civil rights jobs have been cut. Those ex-workers warn of ICE detention violations DHS did not respond to questions from NPR about whether the office is working during the current shutdown of the agency, which is now in its fourth week. It instead referred questions on shutdown impacts to the Office of Management and Budget. OMB did not respond. Recent incidents include "medical distress," struggles with officers Medical conditions surrounding deaths over the last few months have included heart-related issues and drug withdrawals, while others had unknown causes. Each preliminary death report from DHS includes a synopsis of the detainees' immigration and criminal histories, as well as the events leading up to the time of death. One man, Fouad Saeed Abdulkadir, had been in immigration custody for 215 days and was awaiting an immigration court hearing when he suffered "medical distress." Another, 25-year-old Jose Castro-Rivera, was killed by a truck during an arrest. A Krome Detention Center officer patrols as people hold a vigil to recognize those who have died in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody as well as those affected by mass deportations on May 24 outside Krome Detention Center in Miami. Immigration Private prisons and local jails are ramping up as ICE detention exceeds capacity Another man, Geraldo Lunas Campos, died after a "struggle" with security staff at a detention center in Texas, according to DHS. Lunas Campos' death was classified as a homicide. "ICE takes seriously the health and safety of all those detained in our custody. This is still an active investigation, and more details are forthcoming," the agency said in a January post on social media about Lunas Campos' case. Democrats criticize the death count and reporting lag Democratic senators wrote to Noem in February, asking for more information on detainee healthcare, oversight, and standards. Sponsor Message "It is unacceptable that record numbers of people are dying in ICE custody," Judiciary Committee members wrote in February. "Each death in ICE custody is a tragedy and, based on the evidence available from agency records, 911 calls, and medical experts, many could have been prevented if not for this Administration's decisions." Democrats have also raised concerns about reporting delays. ICE promises to post a news release with initial relevant details on the public website within two business days. At times, there are delays while the agency notifies the next of kin. Congress requires that ICE publicize all reports regarding in-custody deaths within 90 days. An NPR review of webpages and announcements shows that ICE's detainee death reporting site had a lag in updating fiscal year 2026 numbers. Some deaths, such as Lunas Campos', were notified after the two-day period. The page is currently updated through early January. An aerial view of activists rallying at the North Lake Processing Center. News ICE is reopening shuttered prisons as detention centers. Many have a troubled past Georgia senators previously wrote to DHS requesting more information on the increase in deaths last year, including the death of one man while was being transferred from a county jail to the Stewart Detention Center, and another of an apparent suicide. In a response from ICE in February, the agency declined to answer several questions about the specific incidents, citing pending investigations. In response to the death during a transfer, the agency did say that transportation contractors are not medical providers and that CoreCivic, a private prison company, is actively recruiting to fill mental health staff vacancies. DHS also said it seeks to make sure staff are trained properly in identifying mental health concerns and preventing suicides. It said the DHS division responsible for the bulk of detentions and deportations, known as Enforcement and Removal Operations, or ERO, "holds regular town hall and recall meetings where ERO discusses the importance of mental health awareness and equips the team with the tools to recognize and respond appropriately," according to the response sent to Georgia's Democratic Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Judges keep ordering immigration hearings — but say the results are often a sham

For months, the Trump administration has been engaged in an unprecedented campaign to lock up thousands of immigrants with longstanding roots in the United States. And for months, aghast federal judges have ordered ICE to give them a chance to prove they can safely remain free while their deportation proceedings are pending. Increasingly, however, judges are finding that the hearings they’re ordering — conducted by immigration judges who work for the Trump administration — have been fundamentally flawed or even pre-cooked, designed to result in findings of “danger to the community” or “flight risk” without a fair consideration of the evidence. 00:17 Top Stories from POLITICO Skip Ad The video player is currently playing an ad. Some federal judges have required do-overs, and others have grown so skeptical of the administration’s intentions that they’ve ordered detainees released outright. It happened last month in Rhode Island, where U.S. District Judge John McConnell, an Obama appointee, ordered the release of a man who was denied bond even though the administration presented no evidence against him. Instead, the immigration judge in his bond hearing relied on an “uncorroborated police report” — supplied by the detainee — in which he was accused of driving 90 mph in a 55 mph zone. It happened in Missouri, where U.S. District Judge Douglas Harpool found that an immigration judge had labeled an ICE detainee a “risk of flight” without sufficient evidence — a ruling he said appeared to be the result of frustration about being ordered to conduct the hearing in the first place. “The bond hearing has indications of predetermined outcome,” Harpool, an Obama appointee, wrote. “The [immigration judge’s] order enumerates that Petitioner: has been in the U.S. for 9 years, has not missed a court hearing, has family in the U.S. (husband and 3 children), and owns a home and operates a business in the U.S. The IJ’s determination regarding flight risk is clearly untethered by the facts and any logical conclusion to be determined from the facts.” And it happened in Pennsylvania, where U.S. District Judge Stephanie Haines, a Trump appointee, concluded that a detainee’s interpreter was not fluent in the correct dialect, creating communication challenges with the immigration judge, who nevertheless ordered the man to remain detained. “These federal judges simply disagree with the outcomes of the immigration judge bond decisions,” a Justice Department spokesperson said. “They are impugning the integrity or competence of our immigration judges solely to give them a hook to review the IJ decisions they disagree with but would otherwise be unable to directly review.” Representatives for the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment. Similar cases have emerged in New York, Virginia, North Carolina, Michigan, Virginia, Massachusetts and a slew of other states. It’s the latest rupture between the Trump administration and federal judges, who have described rampant abuses, violations of court orders and unconstitutional efforts to deprive ICE detainees of due process in a byzantine immigration court system. But unlike the broad judicial consensus that the administration’s mass detention strategy is illegal, questions about the adequacy of bond hearings have split the judiciary. Federal law forbids the courts from second-guessing “discretionary” bond decisions made by executive branch immigration judges. As a result, some judges have concluded that once they’ve ordered bond hearings, their part in the process has ended. U.S. District Judge David Bunning, a George W. Bush appointee, said he was precluded from intervening in the case of a woman who claimed her immigration judge failed to “give meaningful weight” to her two decades of residence in the U.S., three U.S. citizen children, steady work and taxpaying history and community ties. “She does not claim that her bond hearing lacked necessary procedural safeguards or that the IJ did not have statutory authority to deny bond,” Bunning, a George W. Bush appointee, wrote on March 2. “Instead, she merely argues that the IJ came to the wrong conclusion after reviewing the evidence.” Increasingly, though, judges are bypassing bond hearings and ordering the release of detainees outright, concluding that they’re unlikely to get a fair shake in immigration courts. That dynamic flared most dramatically in West Virginia, where judges have banded together to reject the Trump administration detention practices and order the release of dozens of detainees. “The Court … finds that a bond hearing before an immigration judge would not comport with due process,” U.S. District Judge Irene Berger, an Obama appointee, ruled on Feb. 26. Berger’s West Virginia colleague, George W. Bush-appointed Judge Thomas Johnston, agreed that ordering a bond hearing “would be futile” — even when courts were ordering them to be conducted according to constitutional standards. He cited testimony provided to the court by Jorge Artieda, ICE’s former chief counsel in Virginia and a onetime adviser to the agency’s headquarters. Artieda, in a sworn affidavit, said that since January, detainees “are now being systematically denied bond based on rationales that would not have been deemed sufficient weeks earlier” in what “appears to be a systematic effort to nullify the constitutional protections that federal courts have recognized and enforced.” For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Court records reveal gutting of DHS oversight: ‘Incredibly dangerous’

The Trump administration has so radically transformed the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) independent watchdog teams that thousands of cases related to conditions in immigration detention, deaths in custody and officers’ use of force are not being investigated, according to court records reviewed by the Guardian. Hundreds of pages of court filings in a key legal battle in federal court serve to contradict the Trump administration’s repeated claims that the DHS watchdogs are performing “all required functions”. The allegations of failings within the shrunken oversight offices at the DHS, tasked by Congress with investigating civil rights and related concerns, come as the department grapples with public criticism of killings by immigration agents, escalating arrest tactics and plans to increase immigrant detention. The latest documents in the case were submitted in February this year as part of a lawsuit in federal court in Washington DC brought last year by the Robert and Ethel Kennedy Human Rights Center and immigration advocate organizations the Southern Border Communities Coalition and the Urban Justice Center, against the DHS and the newly ousted homeland security secretary, Krisi Noem. The action came after the DHS dismantled the independent watchdog teams last March. At the time, the DHS said the offices “obstructed immigration enforcement” and were being closed. After the lawsuit was filed last April, the department backtracked and allocated a very small number of people to run them, court filings from last August and last month show. The plaintiffs accuse the DHS and Noem of having exceeded their powers “to eliminate” the watchdog offices and say such actions “violate the constitutional separation of powers” and are illegally “arbitrary and capricious”. a woman speaks View image in fullscreen Kristi Noem speaks during a press conference in New York on 8 January 2026. Photograph: Olga Fedorova/EPA Now filings reviewed by the Guardian give the first glimpse inside the Trump administration’s transformation of three watchdogs and the fallout that followed. The records show that: From late March to 12 December 2025, the civil rights watchdog office within the DHS received nearly 6,000 complaints, including many from detained immigrants, their families and advocacy groups, ranging from complaints about detention conditions to agents’ use of force. Trump officials disclosed that office investigated a total of 554 complaints, but said it only “directly” investigated 183 of them, or 3%, according to a legal memo filed by the defense in the civil suit on 13 February this year. This compares with a 20% investigation rate by the DHS office of civil rights and civil liberties (CRCL) in years past, according to a February filing. The administration did not elaborate on the difference between a “direct” investigation by the CRCL versus an investigation in which a complaint is referred to another office or agency within the DHS, when asked by the Guardian for clarification and comment. There are now fewer than 40 people working at the DHS CRCL , including between 25 and 30 outside contractors, according to an early February declaration by a DHS official. Watchdog office staff numbers have fluctuated over the years, but just before Donald Trump returned to the White House last January there were 147 full-time employees at the CRCL. They were all ousted by the new administration. One of the other watchdog offices, the office of the immigration detention ombudsman (OIDO), which reviews immediate detention-related problems, currently only employs five people, down from 118 at the start of 2025, according to a declaration filed on 6 February of this year by Ronald Sartini. Sartini is the ombudsman at Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS), acting deputy officer for the CRCL and the acting deputy ombudsman at the OIDO, the three watchdog offices within the DHS. All the new officials at the offices began working in August 2025, meaning there was little to no independent oversight within the DHS from late March, when the offices were gutted, to August, a court record filed in the case on 17 January of this year showed. The CRCL reviewed “about 10” reports of people who died in immigration jails in 2025 but decided to investigate only one death, according to two separate filings by the DHS – one marked “defendants’ counter-statement of disputed facts” and a separate memorandum, both filed on 6 February this year. A total of 32 people died in immigration custody in 2025, the agency’s deadliest year in more than two decades, with the toll continuing to rise. The Trump administration radically limited the methods people can use to submit civil rights complaints, including, for example, that complaints to the watchdog teams are now only accepted in English. A top DHS official in charge of the detention oversight office had not heard of the office before he became its acting ombudsman. He also had never seen the 15-year-old manual that outlines the standards used to manage conditions in immigration detention centers, according to a transcript of a deposition given on 3 December by the official, Joseph Guy, deputy chief of staff to Noem and acting ombudsman for the OIDO. An immigrant rights group submitted a formal complaint last year about immigration agents’ alleged use of force in San Diego that injured a pregnant woman and at least two children among those protesting a raid on a business in California by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). According to a filing from 6 February this year by the plaintiffs in the case, the group said it had not received an acknowledgment by the civil rights office that it had received and was reviewing the complaint. In the court records of the ongoing lawsuit, the Trump administration has repeatedly argued that the DHS civil rights-related offices are functioning appropriately, despite data they themselves submitted suggesting otherwise. The administration also claims the reduced number of staff members is sufficient to investigate civil rights complaints. Sartini, the DHS official overseeing the watchdog offices’ transformation, said in his court declaration: “I am confident that the current staffing level is appropriate for CRCL to protect our homeland while preserving individual liberties, fairness and equality under the law,” adding: “The offices are actively working to perform their statutory functions with the above-referenced staff.” Last March, when hundreds of watchdog officials were ousted from the department, the Trump administration called them “internal adversaries”. An internal DHS memo showed the agency requested that the watchdog offices be “eliminated”, but a recent filing argues the offices were never being shut down, only restructured for efficiency. In stories published by the Guardian, former watchdogs and experts expressed alarm that gutting independent internal oversight, paired with its escalation of immigration enforcement, paves the way for grave abuses. a man in tactical gear chases another man in a parking lot View image in fullscreen A federal agent chases a man in a Home Depot parking, after Trump ordered an increased federal law enforcement presence in Chicago, Illinois, on 11 October 2025. Photograph: Jim Vondruska/Reuters “The gutting of watchdog offices is incredibly dangerous,” said Eric Welsh, an immigration specialist and partner at Reeves Immigration Law Group. Welsh previously worked as an attorney at the Department of Justice, providing legal advice to a California immigration court. “When the executive removes themselves from oversight, there is an extremely large risk of misbehavior.” Welsh added that the DHS “is an agency that has demonstrated a willingness to exceed the boundaries of law – almost gleefully, almost gladly, willing to flout the law. By removing those guardrails, there is a real danger that this could be an incredibly corrupt government that is capable of doing anything it wants to.” The DHS was sent a detailed list of questions and requests for comment. In response, an unnamed spokesperson at the department sent the following statement: “DHS remains committed to civil rights protections and is streamlining oversight. In the past, these offices had obstructed immigration enforcement by adding bureaucratic hurdles and undermining DHS’s mission by going beyond their statutory missions. Rather than supporting law enforcement efforts, they often functioned as internal adversaries as opposed to neutral oversight bodies.” The watchdogs include the CRCL, which investigates civil rights concerns; the OIDO, which investigates conditions inside immigration jails; and the office of the ombudsman of CIS, which resolves problems within the naturalization and immigration system. For years, immigration advocates had already complained that those offices’ work was inadequate when investigating rights abuses in immigration enforcement. Now the work is further limited, submissions in the lawsuit show. The watchdog offices “weren’t perfect, they never were perfect”, said Anthony Enriquez, vice-president of US advocacy and litigation at the Robert and Ethel Kennedy Human Rights Center. “But they had value and they were doing something to constrain unlawful abuses of civil rights and civil liberties.” The newest court records from this February, Enriquez said, confirmed what he already believed: that the watchdogs “were not being reorganized but shut down and disassembled because they stood in the way of immigration enforcement”. The nearly 6,000 civil rights complaints received by the CRCL in less than nine months is almost double the number submitted under previous administrations, according to testimony provided by Sartini, who did not specify which administrations. people hold signs against the agency ICE View image in fullscreen Hundreds rallied at the city hall in Romulus, Michigan, on 23 February 2026 to oppose the opening of an ICE detention center. Photograph: Jim West/Zuma Press Wire/Shutterstock Enriquez, however, is doubtful of the quality of even the small number of investigations the CRCL says it has completed, arguing that the administration’s claims are a “litigation strategy” and “a ploy”. “There comes a time where enough is enough, where you look at the evidence before you and the only reasonable conclusion is: they’re not complying with the laws that mandate that these organizations actually protect civil rights and civil liberties,” Enriquez said. In the case of the protesters in California last summer, the court document relating to that element of the case said that the Southern Border Communities Coalition, an immigrant rights organization based in San Diego, filed a civil rights complaint with the watchdogs in June of last year regarding an alleged “excessive use of force” by ICE and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) federal personnel there. According to the document, officials deployed flash-bang grenades against a small group of what the plaintiffs called “peaceful protesters”, injuring a pregnant woman and knocking down at least two children in the process. According to a filing from 6 February this year, the group said they never even received an acknowledgment by the civil rights office that it had received and was reviewing the complaint. Meanwhile, the 6 February court records reveal that as of that time the CRCL was investigating only one of the deaths in custody in 2025, one of the deadliest years in US immigration detention history, without specifying which one. Additionally, in an early December deposition by Sartini, he admitted the CRCL “had not been consulted about policies for care of pregnant or transgender detainees”, even as federal judges are increasingly sounding the alarm about the treatment of pregnant detainees in ICE detention. The records also show that the mechanisms for people to submit complaints have dramatically changed. Historically, people could submit civil rights complaints through an online portal, via email or by calling a telephone hotline. Now all must go through the online portal, despite limited internet access inside ICE detention centers. Officials are also now only accepting complaints in English, with DHS officials saying that non-English speakers can use “a number of free online tools” to translate their complaints. Previously, 10 languages were accommodated through the online portal. For years, staff at ICE detention centers have been instructed to follow certain standards for safety, health, security, general care and management, among others, which have been outlined in the ICE’s “performance-based national detention standards” (PBNDS). Attorneys and DHS watchdogs, including the OIDO, have relied on the manual for years to highlight problematic conditions inside ICE detention. During the December deposition hearing, Joseph Guy, the OIDO director appointed by Trump last year, revealed how limited his knowledge was about the required standards for ICE detention centers, where record numbers of people rounded up in the anti-immigration crackdown are being held, the largest group having no criminal history. An attorney during the deposition gave Guy a copy of the PBNDS manual. “Have you seen this document before?” the attorney asked. “I have not,” Guy responded. “OK. So I will represent to you that this is a complete copy of the 2011 performance-based national detention standards. Are you familiar with the PBNDS?” the attorney asked. “I am not,” Guy replied, instead saying his “dedicated and knowledgable staff” working under him knew what the exact detention standards were and how they applied. When asked who those were, he cited only Sartini. Guy also told the court, according to the transcript, that he was working “roughly 50” hours a week as Noem’s deputy chief of staff and “roughly five” hours a week as acting immigration detention ombudsman. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Pacito v. Trump - filed March 5, 2026

Immigration Law Plaintiffs failed to make a strong showing that they are likely to succeed on the merits of their challenges to Executive Order No. 14163 as beyond the president’s statutory authority; nothing in the Refugee Act directs the president to continue to process applications while admissions have been suspended; it was not arbitrary and capricious or otherwise not in accordance with the Refugee Act for the State Department to defund overseas operations. The district court did not abuse its discretion in concluding that the government likely acted contrary to law by failing to provide statutorily mandated services to refugees already admitted to the United States; the termination of cooperative agreements with resettlement support centers was likely arbitrary and capricious where the government failed to provide reasoned explanations, factual findings, or bases for the termination, and also terminated the cooperative agreements without first considering the reliance interests of individual refugees. Pacito v. Trump - filed March 5, 2026 Cite as 25-1939 Full text click here >http://sos.metnews.com/sos.cgi?0226//25-1939

Urias-Orellana v. Bondi - filed March 4, 2026

Immigration Law The Immigration and Nationality Act requires application of the substantial-evidence standard of review to a Board of Immigration Appeals determination whether a given set of undisputed facts constitutes persecution under 8 U.S.C 1101(a)(42). Urias-Orellana v. Bondi - filed March 4, 2026 Cite as 24-777 Full text click here > http://sos.metnews.com/sos.cgi?0226//24-777_9ol1

ICE has detained this high schooler for 10 months. Here’s what he and his classmates want you to know

The students at Ellis Prep academy – like most high schoolers – have a lot on their mind right now. Essay deadlines, college applications, younger siblings and dance rehearsals. But also, the immigration operations across the US and the president’s goal of “mass deportations”. This small high school in the Bronx is one of the few in New York City that is dedicated exclusively to students who recently arrived in the US. In May last year, 20-year-old Dylan Lopez Contreras – a freshman at Ellis – was detained at a routine immigration court hearing. He was completing his education, which had been disrupted by the arduous journey he had made from Venezuela to the US border. Then suddenly, he disappeared from class. And his name was all over the local and national news. According to his lawyers, he was the first New York public school student detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He has been detained at the Moshannon Valley ICE processing center in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania, ever since. “It was a shock,” said Roger, one of his friends at Ellis. In the months since Dylan’s arrest, Roger and other students have tried to process their anger and their grief about what happened while rallying support for their friend. They have also tried to imagine the lives they want to live, and a world they want to live in, after they graduate high school. This winter, Dylan and five of his classmates at Ellis documented their worlds – using disposable cameras, illustrations and words to capture everything they were seeing, feeling and thinking in this moment. These are their stories. Dylan, 20, freshman Writing from inside the Moshannon Valley ICE processing center in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania. Life in here tends to be quite uncomfortable, stressful and monotonous, among other things. There are often many conflicts over things as simple and trivial as snoring or leaving a small piece of trash. Here we are living together with people from different cultures, and on top of that we also have to tolerate the guards, who are often racist and mistreat us. There is a lot of noise in here for multiple reasons, so it is quite difficult to sleep. Seeing what one has to endure and how extremely difficult it is to get out of this “prison” in the US without being deported (the most common situation is spending several months waiting for a court date and still being denied everything), many people end up immediately requesting “self-deportation” just to avoid having to endure the psychological torture we are being put through. If you want stress and depression not to take over, you have to find ways to occupy and distract your mind. An illustration drawn by Dylan on a letter he wrote in detention. View image in fullscreen An illustration drawn by Dylan on a letter he wrote in detention. Photograph: Dylan Lopez Contreras For example, I have seen people coloring, painting and drawing, and others who even manage to create their designs and drawings on clothing and hats – like a guy from “C1” who paints animé characters like Goku and makes drawings on request. There is also an elderly man who made a needle from a battery and threads from towels. He dyes them different colors and does embroidery on clothing. I distract myself by doing Sudoku, word searches and playing board games such as Ludo, Uno, and Monopoly. In addition, I read books; right now, I am reading one titled María, of Colombian origin. We have access all day to make phone calls, so I can communicate with my family whenever I want, although all calls are charged. I have not spoken with friends because I do not have their numbers. I would not know what to say is the hardest thing, but if I had to lean toward something, it would be the confiscation of my cellphone, which has left me cut off from my relationships. And the food, which is terrible. I miss my mother’s food. To my friends, I ask them to take good care of themselves, because I do not want them to go through something as terrible as this. I hope this comes to an end soon so I can be with you, and if it does not, I will carry you in my heart. Roger, 17, sophomore When I found out that Dylan was arrested it was early in the morning, around 9.15am – more or less. We had been doing a history assignment. My reaction was shock. I didn’t know what to say or do, I couldn’t process it yet. An image of a landscape with grass and a building in the background. View image in fullscreen A scene from Roger’s daily walk home. My friendship with Dylan was close, we always played together and used to sit together in classes. He was charismatic. We quickly became really good friends. We used to talk about anything and everything – it wasn’t anything specific – classes, assignments, family, life soccer. Something I liked about him is that always helped or tried to help when someone needed it. He was very kind. I couldn’t believe he had been taken. I texted him, just in case: “Hola milaneso” (“Hey cutlet” – it was just a way we greeted each other). He didn’t respond. I tried again: “Dude, are you OK? Why aren’t you responding?”. An image of a boy wearing a grey hoodie making a peace sign with his fingers. View image in fullscreen Roger in his global studies class. We don’t talk about Dylan now or not much. We wonder: “Why did they arrest Dylan? He is a good kid.” There are so many criminals and they took someone who wasn’t doing anything wrong who was just trying to get ahead. I worry that my other friends could be arrested, too. It’s a constant fear I have and I’m always worried when they go out and I’m not there because I don’t want anything bad to happen to them. I fear and worry about what could happen to them. When I am at home, I tend to think about all the worst case scenarios, and it depresses me quite a bit. An image of a street of New York City. View image in fullscreen An image made by Roger while classmates were getting food. Something that helps me feel better is listening to music or entertaining myself, playing badminton. That way I clear my mind a bit and it helps me think better, so I’m not so overwhelmed thinking about the immigration raids. If I could talk to Dylan now I would tell him: “Hey dude, it’s been a while, I hope everything gets better soon, you’ll get through this, bro.” I would like to talk about how he’s feeling. I really don’t know what Dylan would tell me, but surely it would be something reassuring, to calm me down a bit. Shannel, 19, senior Immigration is not just a topic for me; it is my reality. As a student at an international school in New York, I am surrounded by stories of migration every single day filled with hope, fear, courage and a deep desire for something better. I’m an immigrant, my classmates are immigrants and my teachers are children of immigrants. Even though we come from different places, we all share the same dream of safety, opportunity and freedom. However, the paths we take to reach those dreams are often very different, and some are filled with far more obstacles than others. Some of my friends live with a constant fear that shapes their daily lives. Their parents could be taken away at any moment simply for not being “legal”, even while going to work or doing ordinary things that most people do not think twice about. I see the worry in my friends’ eyes, the silence in their voices, and the stress they carry from home. Sometimes, as I sit in class, I wonder whether my friend will still be there the next day or if something unfair will separate them from the people they love most. Living with that uncertainty is unimaginable for many, yet it is a daily reality for countless families around me. Image of a bookshelf lined with books. View image in fullscreen A library in Shannel’s classroom. My own journey as an immigrant has taught me about adaptation, resilience and sacrifice. Moving to a new country means learning a new language, adjusting to unfamiliar customs and missing home in ways that cannot always be put into words. Watching my classmates face even greater struggles has opened my eyes to the fact that immigration is not just a political debate or a legal issue. An immigration arrest doesn’t only affect the person detained; its consequences can tear entire lives apart. Those being arrested are not simply “cases” or “numbers.” They are sons and daughters, parents and caregivers, people who are deeply loved and who came seeking a chance at a better future. When one of them is taken away, it is not only their life that is shattered, but also the lives of the families who depend on them and carry a pain that most will never truly see. A photo of a classroom. View image in fullscreen A graduation display in Ellis academy’s hallway. Shannel sees this as a demonstration of how successful immigrants can be. Oumar, 21, senior Does anyone truly “belong” to the United States? Even if you were born here, your family’s story started somewhere else. America is not a place of one origin, but a place of many journeys. America says it welcomes immigrants, but it does not always feel true. I saw it myself the moment I heard ICE arrested one of my schoolmates. The first question I had was: “Since when are they arresting someone who was in school ?” Every time I was coming to school or work, the fear of losing someone I cared about terrified me and made me constantly worried. A poster of John F Kennedy in the school hallway. View image in fullscreen A poster of John F Kennedy in the school hallway. Over time, I began to notice law enforcement officers more often, especially in places where people usually felt comfortable, like near the train or in front of stores. I heard even citizens were being arrested, which felt like the ground cracked open, a system swallowing people who would have been safe. Living in New York during that time changed the way I moved around the city. People didn’t always talk about it out loud, but we all knew which areas ICE had been in recently. New York calls itself a sanctuary city, which gave me a little comfort, but it didn’t erase the fear I saw around me. Sometimes I caught myself looking around more than I used to, just to see who was standing nearby. I didn’t wake up every morning afraid, but I did start being more careful without even realizing it. It became something I carried with me every time I left home, almost like a habit I never asked for. A young girl in a pink hijab. View image in fullscreen Oumar at home with his younger sister. I’m still trying to understand how a country that calls itself “United” has turned into a nation divided between those who are welcomed, and those who are watched. A country that forgets its own promises – because if America is supposed to protect people, then why do so many feel like they’re being targeted? And before we create new laws about who belongs here, shouldn’t we rethink who lived here first, and who was pushed away? A view from Oumar’s kitchen window. View image in fullscreen A view from Oumar’s kitchen window. Abigail, 18, senior I moved to New York City from the Dominican Republic in 2022. And slowly, I started to open up. I started to find people I connected with. I grew up knowing I was distinct and for the first time, I had found a home where I could be myself with friends that are also Dominican or Latinx, and most are, like me, members of LGBTQ+ community. Seeing their smiles with every joke, or looking back at the pictures we took makes me feel grateful. Last year, I went to my first pride parade. I went with a group of my friends – we all took the subway from the Bronx to Manhattan. My friend brought me a huge rainbow flag that I tied around my neck and a smaller pansexual flag I put in my afro. I felt powerful – I thought about all the people who fought for me and us to be right there in that moment. A view of of a desk with a laptop and various other stationery items. View image in fullscreen Image of Abigail’s desk while working for an assignment. However, soon I realized life in the US is like a rose with thorns. I see how the rights of trans people, LBGTQ+ people, immigrants are being taken away, and I get scared. When I go on my Instagram “Explore” page, or on Google, and I see the news, I share it for anybody who needs to know it. A classmate told me about how the government wanted to put trans people’s biological sex on their documents. I let them know I’ll always be there for them. In the spring, I remember a counselor told us to be careful, because ICE was present in our neighborhoods. Immediately, panic hit me. A box with a slice of pizza missing from the entire pie. View image in fullscreen Pizza for dinner. Abigail prefers Dominican pizza over New York-style pizza but has been able to adapt to the taste. Whenever anyone knocks at my apartment door, I am frightened it’s the people who hate the communities I belong to. I wish I could have done more, I wish I was able to speak aloud in protests; but I was too scared because I’m an immigrant myself. I was afraid of going out and not being able to get back home. I was afraid to affect others in my household. I was afraid that my words would turn into a weapon aiming at me. ICE is not only taking immigrants, it is also taking their ambitions. During these times, we are pushed to give up on our peace, safety and equality. Dancing and journaling helps me get through these scary moments. I flow my body around to the beat of a great variety of melodies to keep away the demons. It helps me because I’m able to create a different persona within myself, someone who is able to defend themself. Friends and family photos adorn the wall in Abigail’s bedroom. View image in fullscreen Friends and family photos adorn the wall in Abigail’s bedroom. Identifying features have been digitally obscured for privacy. Yesiel, 18, sophomore I first came to the Bronx from San Francisco de Macorís in the Dominican Republic, in 2018. In many ways, New York was very completely different from the Dominican Republic – but in other ways, it felt familiar. The Bronx was loud and busy. It was full of music and movement, just like my hometown. My neighborhood was full of other immigrants, just like me – my neighbors and classmates were also from the Dominican Republic, or from Colombia, or Ecuador. Many of them spoke Spanish, so I felt like I could connect with them more easily. But within a year, my family had to move again, for economic reasons, to Pennsylvania. That was a big change. In Pennsylvania, things are very quiet. You don’t hear trains or music like in the Bronx, meaning you don’t hear the movement of the place. I found it boring and difficult to get used to. I also lived with the nerves – wondering whether the new people I’d meet would like me, how they would treat me. An image of a side-profile of a boy. View image in fullscreen Yesiel enjoys listening to music. Four years later, we moved back to the Bronx. I had to once again get used to a loud, bustling environment. And once again, I had to start at a new school. Finding a new one was complicated, because the move was sudden. But by the grace of God, Ellis international preparatory opened its doors to me. The first weeks were hard. As soon as I enrolled, the administrators told me that my English level wasn’t where it should be and that I had to repeat the 9th grade. I thought “Why? They can’t do this to me!” I have to go through everything again, the same homework, classes, re-learning what I already know. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.