Week of April 30 – May 6, 2025
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 broadens the grounds for stripping international students of status
Immigration and Customs Enforcement is expanding the reasons a student can lose permission to study in the United States, according to a policy document filed in court.
Under the new guidance, revocation of the visa a student used to enter the country now counts as grounds to terminate their record. Previously, a student whose visa was revoked could generally finish their program and would only be barred from reentering after traveling abroad.
The change follows a wave of abrupt terminations this spring that prompted lawsuits nationwide, with judges repeatedly finding the government had acted without due process. Attorneys said the new rules let the State Department revoke a visa and ICE then move to deport the student, including students whose only record was a minor traffic charge.
Source: AP News
Judge lets Mahmoud Khalil press free speech claims in federal court
A federal judge in New Jersey ruled that Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil may argue in federal court that he was detained and targeted for deportation because of his political views.
In a 108-page opinion, Judge Michael Farbiarz kept jurisdiction over the case, rejecting the government's argument that the Immigration and Nationality Act barred federal court review. Immigration courts, he wrote, cannot grant the relief Khalil seeks in a case built on freedom of speech.
Khalil, a lawful permanent resident, has been held in Louisiana since his March 8 arrest. An immigration judge there had already found him removable based on a memo from Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Farbiarz has not yet ruled on Khalil's request for bail.
Source: NBC News
California finds mental health care failures at all six ICE detention sites
California Attorney General Rob Bonta told immigration detention operators in the state that they need to make "significant improvements" to meet ICE detention standards.
A 165-page report from the California Department of Justice found that all six privately operated immigration detention facilities in the state fall short on mental health care for detainees. Investigators documented problems with medical recordkeeping, suicide prevention and the use of force against people with mental health conditions.
Bonta said state reviews matter more as federal oversight of detention conditions is cut back and facility populations grow. GEO Group, which runs four of the six sites, called the findings baseless and said the report was politically motivated.
Source: Los Angeles Times
ICE searched an Oklahoma City home whose targets had already moved out
Federal agents executed a search warrant at an Oklahoma City home occupied by a U.S. citizen mother and her three daughters, seizing belongings even though the people named in the warrant no longer lived there.
The family, who had moved from Maryland weeks earlier, told local station KFOR that about 20 armed agents entered in the middle of the night. "We're citizens. That's what I kept saying," the mother said, describing the agents as dismissive and rough.
A senior Department of Homeland Security official said ICE carried out a court-authorized search in a human smuggling investigation involving eight Guatemalan nationals indicted in the Northern District of Oklahoma, and that the previous residents were the intended targets.
Source: NBC News
Courthouse immigration arrests spread, raising access to justice concerns
Immigration agents have made arrests at courthouses in at least a dozen locations in recent weeks, according to the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, reviving a fight from President Trump's first term over enforcement inside courts.
In Virginia, plainclothes agents detained a man who had just had misdemeanor assault charges dismissed, declining to show identification or a warrant. ICE confirmed four arrests at a North Carolina county courthouse. Agents tackled a Venezuelan man in a New Hampshire courthouse, and in Boston an agent detained a defendant who was on trial.
Judges and lawyers say the arrests deter victims and witnesses from appearing. The practice drew wider attention after the FBI arrested Milwaukee Judge Hannah Dugan on April 25.
Source: AP News
ICE awards Palantir $30 million for a deportation tracking platform
Federal records show Immigration and Customs Enforcement awarded Palantir a $30 million contract in mid-April to build the Immigration Lifecycle Operating System, or ImmigrationOS, with a prototype due September 25.
The system is meant to give ICE near real-time visibility on people who self-deport, help the agency manage removals, monitor visa overstays and target transnational criminal groups. In a contract justification document, ICE said it had an "urgent and compelling" need for the platform and that Palantir was the only source able to deliver it in time.
Palantir has held ICE contracts for more than a decade. The company declined to answer questions about the expanded work.
Source: Axios
Florida operation produces 1,120 immigration arrests in under a week
Federal, state and local officers arrested 1,120 people accused of being in the country illegally during an operation in Florida lasting less than a week, officials said at a press conference in Miramar.
Governor Ron DeSantis appeared alongside Department of Homeland Security officials and said the state would "continue to engage in broad interior enforcement efforts."
The operation relied on agreements that let local police make immigration arrests. ICE had 135 such agreements across 21 states in December; the number has since risen to 517 deals in 39 states, with 74 more agencies pending. Immigration attorneys said local officers are not trained to handle immigration enforcement fairly.
Source: AP News
State Department announces one-strike visa revocation policy
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced a "catch and revoke" policy under which foreign nationals in the United States legally can lose their visa status if they break the law.
"There is now a one-strike policy: Catch-And-Revoke," Rubio wrote, saying the department would act "whenever the government catches non-U.S. citizens breaking our laws." The policy was first set out in an April 30 State Department newsletter marking the administration's first 100 days.
The announcement did not specify which offenses would trigger revocation. It applies to tourists, students, workers and other nonimmigrant visa holders. Critics said the standard is vague enough to reach minor infractions such as traffic tickets.
Source: USA Today
DHS offers $1,000 and travel help to immigrants who self-deport
The Department of Homeland Security said it will pay $1,000 and provide travel assistance to people without legal status who use the CBP Home app to leave the United States voluntarily.
The payment is made after the person's return home is confirmed through the app, which uses biographical data, documents, facial images and location to verify departure. DHS says a person must be at least three miles outside the country for the verification to work.
Secretary Kristi Noem called self-deportation "the best, safest and most cost-effective way" to leave. DHS puts the cost of a single deportation at $17,121 and expects the program to cut that by about 70%. At least 5,000 people had used the app to report leaving, according to the Migration Policy Institute.
Source: NBC News
Rubio's one-strike policy extends to H-1B workers and visitors
The State Department's new zero-tolerance policy for temporary visa holders covers not only international students but also visitors and foreign professionals in H-1B status.
In a document published April 30, Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote that "a visa is a privilege, not a right" and that the department will move to revoke status whenever a noncitizen is caught breaking the law. The statement singles out foreign students who "abuse our hospitality."
The approach departs from past practice, which concentrated removal efforts on people with serious criminal convictions. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has begun issuing requests for evidence on H-1B and employment-based petitions where it says it holds adverse information about the beneficiary.
Source: Forbes
Appeals court refuses to let DHS end parole for half a million migrants
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit denied the administration's request to lift a district court order blocking the termination of humanitarian parole for more than half a million Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans.
In a three-page order, the appeals court said the categorical end of parole is subject to judicial review and that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had not made a strong showing that her decision would be upheld on appeal.
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani had ruled in mid-April that people admitted under the CHNV parole program may remain while they pursue other immigration benefits, blocking the department's plan to end the program on April 24.
Source: Miami Herald
USCIS extends Temporary Protected Status for South Sudan
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services published a notice extending the Temporary Protected Status designation for South Sudan by six months.
The extension is effective May 4, 2025 and runs through November 3, 2025. Existing South Sudanese TPS holders keep their protection from removal and their work authorization for that period, and the notice automatically extends TPS-related employment authorization documents through November 3.
The notice sets out how workers can show continued employment authorization on Form I-9 and how employers, including those enrolled in E-Verify, should handle the automatic extension.
Source: Federal Register