Week of August 20–26, 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.
State Department says all 55 million visa holders face continuous vetting
The State Department said it is reviewing more than 55 million people who hold valid U.S. visas for any violation that could make them removable. In a written answer to the Associated Press, the department said all visa holders, including tourists from many countries, are subject to continuous vetting for indications that they may be ineligible to enter or remain.
Where such information is found the visa is revoked, and a holder already in the United States becomes subject to deportation.
Enforcement to date has concentrated on people in the country illegally and on student and exchange visitor visa holders. The department's description indicates that the review extends across every nonimmigrant category, and that people already approved to be in the country can have that permission withdrawn without warning.
Source: AP News
Judge rules the travel ban cannot be used to refuse visas
U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan ruled that the State Department cannot rely on the June proclamation limiting entry from 19 countries as a basis for refusing visas. The statute the president invoked governs entry, she held, and does not give the department authority to deny a visa application.
The case was brought in July on behalf of people from Afghanistan, Burma, Togo, Somalia and Iran who had won the right to apply under the diversity visa program. The ruling covers 82 applicants.
It carries a significant limit: immigration authorities may still turn the same people away at a port of entry or instruct airlines not to board them. Sooknanan rejected the government's argument that the department's longstanding practice deserved deference, citing last year's Supreme Court decision curtailing agency interpretations of law.
Source: Politico
State Department pauses new work visas for commercial truck drivers
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the federal government will stop issuing new work visas for commercial truck drivers. The pause applies to new applications in the categories foreign nationals use to drive commercially in the United States.
The trucking industry is already short by tens of thousands of drivers according to some estimates, and carriers have relied on foreign-born drivers to fill long-haul routes.
Rubio announced the pause on Thursday night and did not say how long it would last or whether applications already filed would be processed. The change affects new issuance only and does not revoke visas already granted.
Source: Axios
DeSantis appeals order to dismantle the Everglades detention center
Florida appealed a ruling by U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams that requires the state to remove fencing, lighting and generators from the Everglades detention facility known as Alligator Alcatraz, an order that would make the site impossible to operate. The state filed its appeal the morning after the Thursday night decision.
Governor Ron DeSantis said the judge was an activist making policy from the bench and that the ruling would not deter the state from continuing to support federal deportation efforts.
Florida has authorized state agencies to sign 287(g) agreements with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and is preparing to open a second immigration detention site in a vacant prison outside Jacksonville.
Source: Politico
Judge bars funding cuts to Los Angeles and 30 other sanctuary jurisdictions
U.S. District Judge William Orrick in San Francisco issued a preliminary injunction barring the administration from cutting federal funding to Los Angeles and 30 other cities and counties over policies that limit local cooperation with immigration enforcement.
The order expands an April injunction covering 16 jurisdictions, including San Francisco and Santa Clara County, in which Orrick found that the executive order directing the cuts was probably unconstitutional and violated the separation of powers.
The jurisdictions added include Alameda County, Berkeley, Baltimore, Boston and Chicago. The ruling leaves the funding in place while the litigation continues.
Source: Los Angeles Times
Home Depot parking lots become regular sites for immigration arrests
Day laborers who gather in Home Depot parking lots across Southern California are weighing the need for work against the risk of arrest as federal agents in tactical gear appear at the stores. Workers were detained at lots in North Hollywood and Alhambra, where organizers demanded to see warrants and tried to record the names of those handcuffed.
The lots function as informal hiring halls where laborers wait each morning for a day's wage or a longer job. The local construction economy is still recovering from the January wildfires, and material costs have risen with tariffs.
Workers described difficulty sleeping and lasting fear after watching friends and family members arrested and taken to jail. At least two Los Angeles-area lots were targeted on a single Friday.
Source: NBC News
T visa applications rise as trafficking survivors face longer waits
Applications for the T visa, available to survivors of severe forms of human trafficking, have risen sharply. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services received almost twice as many in 2024 as in 2023, and filings in the current fiscal year have already passed the 2023 total.
The status allows a survivor who assists law enforcement with the investigation or prosecution of a trafficker to remain for up to four years, work lawfully, access certain state and federal benefits, and apply for a green card after three years or sooner if the criminal case closes.
Julie Dahlstrom, who directs the Human Trafficking Clinic at Boston University, attributed the rise to greater awareness, broader court definitions of trafficking and fewer alternative routes to relief. Processing times have lengthened, leaving applicants exposed to removal while they wait.
Source: Los Angeles Times
Ninth Circuit lets TPS terminations proceed for Honduras, Nicaragua and Nepal
A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit granted the administration's request to pause a district court order that had blocked the termination of Temporary Protected Status for nationals of Nicaragua, Honduras and Nepal. The unanimous decision came without an opinion.
About 61,000 people are affected: 51,000 Hondurans, 7,200 Nepalis and 2,900 Nicaraguans. The Nepali designation expired on August 5, so those holders lose status and work authorization immediately. The Honduran and Nicaraguan designations expire on September 8. The district judge had postponed the terminations until a hearing set for November 18.
Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of homeland security, said the status was always meant to be temporary. About 40 percent of Nicaraguans covered by the program live in Florida.
Source: Miami Herald
ICE details plans to train and hire 10,000 new deportation officers
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has about 6,500 deportation officers and Acting Director Todd Lyons says he wants to hire another 10,000 by the end of the year. The Associated Press visited the training base in southern Georgia where new recruits are prepared and spoke with the agency's leadership.
Congress gave ICE $76.5 billion this summer, close to ten times its current annual budget, with nearly $30 billion allocated to new staff.
Officers in the Enforcement and Removal Operations unit locate and remove people who have final orders from an immigration judge, have certain criminal arrests or convictions, have repeatedly entered unlawfully or have overstayed a visa. The agency also runs a growing network of detention facilities.
Source: AP News
Abrego Garcia detained by ICE as government moves to deport him to Uganda
Kilmar Abrego Garcia was taken into ICE custody in Baltimore after a required check-in, days after his release from federal criminal custody and a reunion with his family following 160 days apart. A judge later ruled that he cannot be deported for the time being.
The check-in was a condition of his release on Friday. His lawyers expected the detention after the administration announced over the weekend that it intended to remove him to Uganda rather than El Salvador, where an immigration order bars his return.
Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, one of his attorneys, said there was no need to detain him and that the purpose was to punish him for contesting the proceedings.
Source: NBC News
USCIS restores neighborhood investigations for naturalization applicants
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will begin interviewing neighbors and colleagues of some applicants for naturalization, restoring a practice last used in the George H.W. Bush administration. A policy memorandum dated August 22 and released on Tuesday ends the longstanding waiver of the requirement.
The 1965 immigration act provides for such personal investigations, but the government stopped conducting them in the 1990s and has relied on FBI background checks instead.
The change follows other added steps in the legal immigration process, including a reduction in how long foreign nationals may remain on student visas and a requirement that diversity visa lottery entrants hold a valid passport when they apply. The administration says the aim is to limit overstays and improve screening.
Source: Politico
Immigration agents appear more often at California hospitals and clinics
Federal immigration agents are appearing more frequently at California medical facilities as removals accelerate. They arrive at emergency rooms with people who fall ill in custody, wait in lobbies, and in one case at a Southern California surgical center followed people inside.
At a Los Angeles-area hospital agents waited two weeks for a woman to be discharged. Health workers say the presence of armed and often masked officers unsettles patients and staff, and may deter people from seeking care at all.
Hospital employees are seeking clearer rules on what they may do to protect patients and on their own exposure, including which areas of a facility count as private and what staff may ask agents who enter.
Source: CalMatters