Week of August 26 – September 1, 2026

Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 49,571 people in July, the highest monthly total of President Trump's second term and the most since October 2022, according to government data obtained by the Deportation Data Project. Arrests averaged about 1,500 a day, a 15 percent rise over the June record. Removals also set a record, with nearly 34,000 people deported during the month.

For the first time under this administration, a majority of those arrested, 51 percent, had no criminal convictions or pending charges. Attorneys said the pattern reflects a shift away from large militarized raids toward traffic stops, check-in appointments and airport arrests.

The Department of Homeland Security is working toward a White House target of 2,000 arrests a day, aided by a $70 billion funding increase and the expanding 287(g) program that deputizes local police.

Source: The Guardian

The State Department has paused immigrant visa appointments at U.S. embassies and consulates worldwide, telling Reuters it launched a global training initiative and that appointment schedules are being adjusted to accommodate it. Applicants with scheduled interviews received emails saying their appointments would be rescheduled, with new dates to follow.

The department said the training is meant to help consular officers screen out applicants considered likely to become dependent on public benefits and to evaluate cases "comprehensively and consistently." It gave no timeline and did not describe the curriculum.

The pause came days after a federal judge struck down the policy suspending immigrant visa issuance for nationals of 75 countries, finding it exceeded Secretary of State Marco Rubio's statutory authority. Family-based green card applicants processing abroad are the group most affected.

Source: Reuters

The State Department is preparing to revoke B1 and B2 business and tourism visas issued between 2016 and 2026 to as many as 200,000 people who have applied for asylum in the United States, according to department documents obtained by the Associated Press and two officials. The action, coordinated with DHS, would be the largest single mass visa revocation in U.S. history.

Officials said an announcement is expected in coming weeks unless the plan is challenged or revised. Analysts said the revocations would have little practical effect on people already in the country with pending asylum claims, whose ability to remain depends on the case rather than the visa.

A State Department official said the separate pause on immigrant visa interviews began in early August and is not expected to last past early to mid-September, with interviews rescheduled into the fall.

Source: AP News

U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr. in Brownsville refused to order Texas to extradite ICE officer Christian Castro to Minnesota, writing that the case is not ripe because Governor Greg Abbott has not denied the extradition request. The judge said federal law sets no deadline for a governor's decision.

Castro is charged in Minnesota with assault and falsely reporting a crime over the January 14 shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, who was struck in the leg when Castro fired through the front door of a Minneapolis home. He was arrested in Cameron County on May 29 under a nationwide warrant.

Under Texas law he had to be released after 90 days absent extradition, and the sheriff freed him the next morning. Attorney General Keith Ellison said Minnesota would continue litigating.

Source: AP News

An immigration judge in Chicago ordered six children, ages 12 to 17, removed from the United States after they appeared in court without parents. Ten children deemed abandoned by an Illinois state family court had hearings that day before Judge Shawn Abraham, who presided remotely while requiring the children to attend in person.

Each child had a pending application for special immigrant juvenile status, a classification for minors who have been abused, neglected or abandoned. Attorneys said that until June 2026 a pending application generally led to termination of removal proceedings. The judge ordered removal anyway, citing the wait for visas to become available.

The four children not ordered removed were given new hearing dates in as little as two weeks. Roughly 1,000 unaccompanied children in the Chicago area are in proceedings without a parent or guardian.

Source: CBS News

U.S. District Judge Kirk Sherriff in Fresno ruled that the Labor Department broke federal law when it lowered required wages for H-2A farmworkers, and ordered the agency to promptly revisit the October 2025 regulation and adopt a new wage methodology. The rule tied minimum pay to the 17th percentile of wages for comparable jobs instead of the regional mean.

The judge said the department improperly used emergency procedures to bypass normal rulemaking, and that letting employers deduct the value of housing from wages also violated the law. He declined to vacate the rule, saying that would disrupt agriculture, but said employers must be told they may owe back pay from the date of his decision.

Court filings said the rule cut farmworker pay by up to $7 an hour, about $2.5 billion a year. The case was brought by the United Farm Workers and 18 workers.

Source: Reuters

An ICE charter flight carrying 57 deportees landed in Cap-Haitien on Thursday, the second removal flight to Haiti in a week. Several children born in the United States and Brazil were aboard as part of two families, the youngest a three-year-old U.S.-born child. The previous flight, a week earlier, carried 161 people.

Flights to Haiti had averaged about one a month. After the Supreme Court allowed the administration to end Temporary Protected Status for Haiti while litigation continues, U.S. officials told Haitian authorities to expect up to 250 returns a week on two flights. Haitian officials said they have received no formal notice of the increase.

More than 300,000 Haitians had been enrolled in TPS. DHS declined to discuss flight operations, saying the program was never meant to be permanent.

Source: Miami Herald

Immigration and Customs Enforcement granted a $16.7 million no-bid contract to buy 6,000 pairs of electric shock gloves for officers in the field, according to a notice on a federal contracting database. The devices, made by Kentucky-based Compliant Technologies, deliver painful shocks intended to disrupt a person's ability to respond, and will be delivered with support equipment over six months.

DHS described the CTG-5 units as a "Conductive Distraction and De-escalation Device" to be issued to Homeland Security Investigations and Enforcement and Removal Operations personnel. The purchase plans were first disclosed earlier in August.

The American Civil Liberties Union said giving immigration agents a concealed means of inflicting pain invites more harm and less accountability. More than 50 people have died in ICE custody since the start of the administration.

Source: Reuters

A divided panel of the Philadelphia-based 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that ICE misread federal law when it began treating immigrants who have lived in the United States for years as "applicants for admission" subject to detention without bond. The panel also held that detainees with extensive ties to the country have a due process right to a bond hearing.

It is the eighth federal appeals court to reject the policy, which ICE adopted in July 2025. Two circuits, the 5th and 8th, have sided with the administration, and only the 4th Circuit has yet to rule. The Justice Department and the ACLU have both asked the Supreme Court to take up the question in the term beginning in October.

A Politico analysis found judges have rejected the government's position in more than 90 percent of over 13,000 challenges.

Source: Politico

An internal Department of Homeland Security memo obtained by Politico argues that National Guard members become federal employees when ordered to serve in another state, and that the Homeland Security secretary may then designate any federal employee as an immigration officer under section 1103(a)(6) of immigration law.

The document, sent to state attorneys general and released to the watchdog group American Oversight through a Freedom of Information Act request, has not yet been tested in court. Guard units from Texas, Tennessee and other states have already supported ICE with logistical and processing tasks and security for agents making arrests.

Legal scholars who reviewed the memo said the theory stretches limits on domestic military activity. DHS declined to comment beyond saying it would let the document speak for itself.

Source: Politico

Seventy-two House members, 71 Democrats and one Republican, wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and USCIS Director Joseph Edlow describing an "alarming pattern" of inaccurate and unresponsive agency replies to congressional casework inquiries on behalf of constituents.

The letter, led by Representative Bill Foster of Illinois, says offices have received responses addressed to the wrong staff, naming the wrong constituents, or containing factual inconsistencies, including a timeline error in a reply about an employment authorization document. Replies are now often signed simply "Congressional Liaison," leaving no named contact for follow-up.

Congressional casework is a common route for immigrants facing long delays on pending applications. Lawmakers said that if the concerns are not addressed they could seek briefings, more detailed responses and records on the agency's liaison operations.

Source: Newsweek

British commentator Milo Yiannopoulos was deported to the United Kingdom days after immigration officers arrested him at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, U.S. officials said. He was taken into ICE custody on Thursday and removed by Saturday.

A Homeland Security spokesperson said Yiannopoulos entered the United States legally through New York City in May 2019 and overstayed. An immigration judge issued a final order of removal on July 22 after he failed to appear for a hearing. "He chose to overstay his welcome in violation of our nation's laws," the spokesperson said.

DHS publicized the arrest on social media, posting his booking photo. Yiannopoulos, a vocal supporter of the administration's immigration crackdown, had most recently worked for the rapper Ye.

Source: PBS NewsHour