Week of April 15–21, 2026
Reconstructed. This week was compiled in September 2026 from the reporting published at the time, each item linked to its source. Rules and figures reflect that week; several have changed since.
ICE cuts back what it discloses about deaths in immigration detention
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has shortened the reports it publishes when someone dies in its custody. Until late last year the agency released a detailed three-page account, including timestamps for medical observations, medications administered and the time and cause of death. Since mid-December those reports have been reduced to roughly four paragraphs.
Agency policy has been to notify the public and Congress within two days of a death and to post a full report within 90 days. ICE reported its 16th detainee death of the year this week. It announced 33 deaths last year, the most in more than two decades, compared with 11 in 2024.
The Department of Homeland Security did not address the change but said deaths are a small share of the detained population and that detainees receive meals, water and medical care. More than 60,000 people remain in ICE custody.
Source: NBC News
Sotomayor apologizes to Kavanaugh for remarks on immigration stops opinion
Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued a written apology through the Supreme Court for comments she made about Justice Brett Kavanaugh at the University of Kansas School of Law on April 7.
“I referred to a disagreement with one of my colleagues in a prior case, but I made remarks that were inappropriate,” she said. “I regret my hurtful comments. I have apologized to my colleague.”
Sotomayor had criticized Kavanaugh's opinion explaining his vote in the decision that allowed the Trump administration to resume broad immigration sweeps in the Los Angeles area, saying he “probably doesn't really know any person who works by the hour.” Kavanaugh had written that constitutional concerns about stops made without reasonable suspicion were overstated. Sotomayor dissented in that case.
Source: NBC News
Vance says new H-1B visa issuance is down about 90% through administrative action
Vice President JD Vance said the number of new H-1B visas issued has fallen “about 90 percent” since President Trump returned to office, and that the decline was achieved “purely through administrative action.” He spoke at a Turning Point USA event in Georgia.
Vance added that too few members of Congress have sponsored legislation to eliminate the program outright. H-1B visas allow U.S. employers to hire foreign workers in specialty occupations. Representative Greg Steube of Florida introduced a bill in February to restrict the program.
The administrative changes include a $100,000 fee on certain H-1B petitions introduced in September 2025 and a new rule limiting who may apply. Supporters of the program say it fills shortages in technology, health care and engineering.
Source: Newsweek
Afghan high school senior detained by ICE weeks before graduation
An 18-year-old senior at Cheshire High School in Connecticut was taken into immigration custody on the first day of his spring break and is being held at a detention facility in Massachusetts, about 170 miles from home.
The student, identified by his attorneys as Rihan, entered the United States legally with his family in October 2024 on humanitarian parole that runs until October. His attorney Lauren Petersen said the parole was granted because of direct threats to the family after his father, Zia, worked as an interpreter for the U.S. military in Afghanistan. Zia was detained by ICE last summer at an immigration appointment.
His school is sending coursework to him through his lawyers so he can graduate on time. More than 190,000 Afghans have resettled in the United States since 2021.
Source: NBC News
House passes bill restoring TPS for Haitians, 224-204
The House passed legislation that would require the homeland security secretary to designate Haiti for Temporary Protected Status for three years. The vote was 224-204, with 10 Republicans joining every Democrat, along with Representative Kevin Kiley, a California independent who caucuses with Republicans.
A group of Republicans defied their own leadership and signed a discharge petition to force the vote, the fourth time this Congress that moderates have used the maneuver to bypass Speaker Mike Johnson. Republicans hold a 218-213 majority.
The White House said Trump would veto the bill. It now goes to the Senate, where its prospects are unclear. The administration has moved to terminate TPS for Haitians, a step a federal court blocked, and its terminations for Haiti and Syria are now before the Supreme Court.
Source: NBC News
Venezuelan doctor held by ICE misses the asylum interview she waited a decade for
Dr. Rubeliz Bolivar, 33, spent her sixth day in immigration custody in Texas while her husband, Milenko Faria, attended their asylum interview alone at a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Tustin, California. The couple had waited more than 10 years for the appointment.
Bolivar, who practiced in an area federally designated as medically underserved, was arrested by Border Patrol agents at McAllen International Airport on April 11 as she prepared to board a flight with the couple's American-born five-year-old daughter.
She was the second Venezuelan physician arrested in the area within a week. Dr. Ezequiel Veliz was detained on April 6 at a South Texas checkpoint and released after about ten days on an $8,000 bond following a bond hearing, his attorney said.
Source: AP News
AP finds background problems among ICE officers hired in the agency's rapid expansion
Some newly hired ICE officers began work before passing background checks and had financial, legal or employment problems in their histories, according to an Associated Press investigation.
ICE said in January that it had added 12,000 officers and special agents, doubling its force to carry out the administration's deportation campaign, paid for with a $75 billion appropriation from Congress. Because the agency withholds employee identities, the AP examined more than 40 officers who listed their new ICE jobs on LinkedIn and checked their backgrounds through public records.
One example is Carmine Gurliacci, 46, who resigned as a police officer in Richmond Hill, Georgia, to join ICE in Atlanta in December. Court filings show he filed for bankruptcy in 2022, reporting no income after two years of unemployment. The speed of the hiring has drawn concern inside and outside the agency.
Source: AP News
Federal judges have ordered more than 400 detainees with removal orders released
Federal judges have ordered bond hearings or outright release for more than 400 immigrants who were arrested by ICE despite already having final orders of removal, according to a Politico analysis of detention cases.
The rulings have come from judges appointed by every president since Ronald Reagan, including several appointed by President Trump, who found the detentions exceeded constitutional limits. Those released include a Cambodian man convicted of robbery in 1993, a stateless Palestinian man with 2018 drug and driving convictions, a Ukrainian man who lost lawful status after accidentally driving a food delivery across the Mexican border, and a Cuban man convicted of child abuse in 2020.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said “activist judges” had ordered dangerous people released into American communities.
Source: Politico
Green card applicants face slower processing and more administrative denials
Green card applications are being rejected more often for administrative reasons such as incorrect fees, missing signatures or outdated form editions, and adjudications have slowed, immigration practitioners told Newsweek.
Ricky Murray, a former senior official who left U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in late 2025, said there have been no major statutory or regulatory changes to the adjustment-of-status process, but that enforcement practice has made filing “more tedious than ever.” He attributed much of the delay to staff departures that left the agency short of officers to conduct the required vetting and interviews.
The Department of Homeland Security said stricter identity and history checks are necessary and blamed the previous administration for weak screening. Tighter visa policy abroad has also slowed immigrant visa applicants.
Source: Newsweek
Seattle and King County bar ICE from staging on public property
Seattle and King County have adopted rules limiting where federal immigration agents can operate and what local government will share with them.
In March the Seattle City Council passed a measure banning “civil immigration enforcement staging” on city property, including parks, plazas, offices and public housing. Agents may not convene, set up equipment or conduct surveillance in those places without an order or warrant signed by a judge. A separate ordinance bars city employees from sharing private information to assist civil immigration enforcement absent a judicial order.
Both the city and the county have also passed temporary bans on new detention centers within their boundaries, aimed at blocking facilities that ICE could use as it looks to add detention space in the region.
Source: Axios