Week of December 3–9, 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.
Federal agents open a 60-day immigration operation in New Orleans
More than 200 Customs and Border Protection and ICE officers began an immigration operation in and around New Orleans, according to a U.S. official not authorized to discuss it publicly. The stated objective is to make as many arrests as possible over at least 60 days.
Masked agents patrolled Kenner, the Louisiana city with the highest concentration of Hispanic residents, in marked and unmarked vehicles. A witness described agents chasing and arresting people in a Lowe's parking lot in New Orleans, and residents reported arrests outside a home improvement store.
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the operation targets immigrants released after arrests for crimes including home invasion, armed robbery and rape. The agency did not release arrest figures or details on those detained.
Source: AP News
Judge bars warrantless immigration arrests in Washington, DC
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell barred federal agents from making warrantless civil immigration arrests in the District of Columbia without first establishing probable cause that the person is a flight risk. Her 88-page order found agents had systematically ignored the statutory standard.
The suit was brought by the advocacy group CASA along with Temporary Protected Status holders and asylum seekers, who documented about 40 warrantless arrests. Howell cited an analysis finding 943 immigration arrests in the District between August 7 and September 9, and noted the White House goal of 3,000 ICE arrests a day.
DHS had argued that a recent Supreme Court order permitting stops on reasonable suspicion also applied to arrests. A White House spokesperson said the ruling defies established law and will not be the last word.
Source: Axios
USCIS cuts work permit validity from five years to 18 months
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services updated its policy manual to shorten the validity period of employment authorization documents from five years to 18 months.
The change affects admitted refugees, people granted asylum, people granted withholding of deportation or removal, and asylum applicants with pending cases. Shorter documents mean more frequent renewals, more filing fees and a higher risk that a work permit lapses while a renewal sits in the agency's queue, which can cost holders their jobs.
The five-year term had been adopted to reduce gaps in work authorization caused by processing backlogs.
Source: The Hill
ICE arrests average 821 a day, with more people who have no charges
Data released through a Freedom of Information Act request by the Deportation Data Project shows ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations averaged 821 arrests a day between January 20 and October 15, and roughly 1,100 a day in recent weeks. That is well short of the administration's target of 3,000 a day, but far above the roughly 300 a day recorded in 2024.
The share of arrests involving people with no criminal charges or convictions rose from about 22% before the daily quota was tripled on May 21 to about 40% after.
DHS says it has arrested nearly 579,000 people since January 20 and puts its own daily average near 1,800, but has stopped publishing enforcement data and did not say which agencies that total covers.
Source: Axios
Supreme Court agrees to hear the birthright citizenship case
The justices agreed to hear arguments on the executive order declaring that children born in the United States to parents here illegally or temporarily are not citizens. Judges across the country had found the order unconstitutional and blocked it from taking effect.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued in his appeal that "the Citizenship Clause was adopted to grant citizenship to freed slaves and their children, not to the children of illegal aliens, birth tourists, and temporary visitors," and that automatic citizenship encourages illegal migration.
The Fourteenth Amendment provides that all persons born or naturalized in the United States "and subject to the jurisdiction thereof" are citizens. Arguments are expected in March, with a decision by late June.
Source: Los Angeles Times
Roberts pauses ruling in immigration judges' free speech case
Solicitor General D. John Sauer asked the Supreme Court to block a Fourth Circuit ruling that revived a challenge by the National Association of Immigration Judges to a policy requiring immigration judges to get permission before giving official speeches, such as at conferences or pro bono trainings.
The judges' association argues the policy violates the First Amendment by barring them from sharing views on immigration law or about the agency that employs them. District Judge Leonie Brinkema had dismissed the suit, holding that the Civil Service Reform Act channels such claims away from district courts; the appeals court sent the case back for fact-finding.
Chief Justice John Roberts issued an administrative stay Friday blocking that ruling while the justices consider the request.
Source: SCOTUSblog
Refugees approved for resettlement remain stranded abroad
About 600,000 people were being processed for refugee resettlement when the program was suspended on the administration's first day, according to the government's own figures. Many had already sold possessions, ended leases, completed interviews and in some cases held plane tickets.
The program resumed in October with an admissions ceiling of 7,500, a historic low, and admissions have gone mostly to white South Africans. Only about 100 other refugees have been admitted, and those through a lawsuit seeking to restart the program, said Mevlude Akay Alp, a lawyer arguing the case.
Families in Thailand and Iraq described waiting indefinitely with no way to move forward and no route back.
Source: AP News
One Arkansas county jail produced more than 450 ICE arrests
More than 450 people were arrested by ICE at the Benton County Jail in northwest Arkansas between January 1 and October 15, according to data from the Deportation Data Project analyzed by the Associated Press. That is more than 1.5 arrests a day in a county of about 300,000 people.
Most came through the county's 287(g) agreement, which lets deputies question people booked into the jail about immigration status and alert ICE. The county alone accounted for more than 4% of roughly 7,000 arrests nationwide attributed to such programs in the first nine and a half months of the year.
Those flagged are usually held without bond, transferred to a detention center in Fayetteville and then to facilities in Louisiana. About half had criminal convictions.
Source: AP News
Nearly 100 immigration judges removed as courts fall into disarray
At least 98 of roughly 700 immigration judges have been dismissed this year, according to the National Association of Immigration Judges, with dozens more retiring or resigning. Those removed include judges with higher than average asylum grant rates, judges with dual citizenship and former immigration defense lawyers.
The process is uniform: an email says Attorney General Pam Bondi has removed the judge under Article II of the Constitution, and the name disappears from the Justice Department website the same day.
"It's about destroying a system where cases are carefully considered by people with knowledge of the subject matter," said Olivia Cassin, a former New York immigration judge removed last month. The shrinking bench is adding to a backlog already strained by courthouse arrests.
Source: Politico
ICE arrested nearly 75,000 people with no criminal record
ICE arrest data covering January 20 through October 15 shows nearly 75,000 people with no criminal records were taken into custody, contradicting the administration's description of operations aimed at murderers, rapists and gang members.
"It contradicts what the administration has been saying about people who are convicted criminals and that they are going after the worst of the worst," said Ariel Ruiz Soto of the Migration Policy Institute.
The figures came from the University of California, Berkeley's Deportation Data Project, which obtained them through a lawsuit against ICE after the agency stopped publishing detailed arrest information in January. The totals exclude arrests by Border Patrol, which has run operations in Chicago, Los Angeles, Charlotte and New Orleans.
Source: NBC News
Citizenship ceremonies canceled for people from 19 countries
Immigrants due to take the oath of citizenship at Faneuil Hall in Boston were told they could not proceed because of their countries of origin. USCIS has instructed staff to halt immigration processes for nationals of 19 countries designated high risk, among them Afghanistan, Cuba, Venezuela, Haiti and Somalia.
Those affected had already been approved for naturalization and had passed the interview and civics test. Their cases now sit indefinitely, with no stated criteria for resuming.
USCIS Director Joseph Edlow, announcing a new screening center headquartered in Atlanta, wrote that the agency is "building more protective measures that ensure fraud, deception, and threats do not breach the integrity of our immigration system."
Source: NBC News
ICE says about 400 children were held past the 20-day limit
A December 1 report from Immigration and Customs Enforcement told a federal court that about 400 immigrant children were held in custody beyond the court-ordered 20-day limit between August and September, and said the problem was not confined to any region or facility. The agency attributed the delays to transportation, medical needs and legal processing.
Advocates who interviewed detained families identified five children held for 168 days. Their filings also described contaminated food, inadequate medical care and limited access to lawyers, along with renewed use of hotels for detention.
The reports were filed in the 1985 Flores litigation, which produced the 1997 settlement setting custody standards and the 20-day limit. The administration is seeking to end that agreement.
Source: AP News