Week of February 4–10, 2026

Guan Heng, a 38-year-old Chinese national who publicized human rights abuses in China, was released from federal detention after more than five months, a week after an immigration judge granted him asylum on January 28.

The judge found he had a well-founded fear of persecution if returned to China. Guan was detained during the administration's enforcement operation and at one point faced deportation to Uganda, a plan the Department of Homeland Security dropped in December after members of Congress raised his case. DHS has 30 days to appeal the ruling and did not say whether it would.

Guan is staying in Binghamton, New York, where he was reunited with his mother, who had traveled from Taiwan. Grants of asylum have been rare during the current enforcement campaign.

Source: AP News

White House border czar Tom Homan said the administration would immediately withdraw 700 of the roughly 3,000 federal officers deployed in Minnesota under Operation Metro Surge, after state and local officials agreed to transfer arrested immigrants to federal custody.

Homan said the drawdown does not end the operation and that mass deportation efforts continue. The announcement followed weeks of protest and litigation in the Twin Cities, and the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens by federal officers.

Minnesota Democrats said the reduction changed little in practice, since roughly 2,300 officers remain and enforcement in the metro area continued the same week. Homan took over management of the operation in late January.

Source: AP News

The American Association of University Professors and a group of immigrant professionals sued the administration in federal district court in Washington over the Gold Card visa program, which grants expedited permanent residency in exchange for payments of at least $1 million.

The program, created by executive order in September 2025, lets individuals qualify for EB-1 and EB-2 employment-based visas by paying $1 million, or $2 million for a corporate sponsor. The plaintiffs argue that it converts categories Congress reserved for people of extraordinary ability or advanced qualifications into a payment-based queue, diverting limited visa numbers from scientists, researchers and engineers already waiting.

The suit is one of several challenges to recent changes in legal immigration, including the State Department's suspension of immigrant visas for nationals of 75 countries.

Source: Newsweek

Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed an executive order barring Virginia state agencies from entering cooperation agreements with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She had already repealed a requirement that state law enforcement enter 287(g) agreements, which allow ICE to deputize state officers to perform immigration functions.

Spanberger, a former federal law enforcement officer, said the order was about maintaining public trust and that Virginia law enforcement should not engage in fear-based policing or create barriers for people seeking help.

According to an ICE report, agencies in 39 other states hold 287(g) agreements. Maryland's General Assembly passed a ban on them the same week, and legislatures in Hawaii, New Mexico and New York are considering similar measures.

Source: The Hill

A divided panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the administration's policy of detaining without bond most people it seeks to deport, including those with no criminal record and decades of residence in the United States.

Judge Edith Jones, writing for the 2-1 majority, said earlier administrations' narrower practice did not mean they lacked the authority to detain more broadly. Immigration and Customs Enforcement adopted the new reading of the statute in July, and it has produced a flood of detainee lawsuits.

Most judges have rejected that reading. A Politico review of thousands of detention cases found at least 360 judges ruled against the policy in more than 3,000 cases, while 27 upheld it in about 130. In dissent, Judge Dana Douglas said the majority's view would require detaining as many as 2 million people without bond.

Source: Politico

Following Judge Ana Reyes's order pausing the termination of temporary protected status for Haiti, the Miami Herald set out what the ruling does and does not do for the more than 300,000 Haitians covered.

All current TPS holders and people with pending applications keep protection from deportation and valid work authorization while the case proceeds. Lawyers advise holders to tell employers their work permits remain valid and to state their TPS status if stopped by immigration agents.

The order is not an extension or a redesignation. It preserves the status quo only until the litigation ends or a higher court intervenes, and it does not allow new applicants to file. The Department of Homeland Security said it vehemently disagrees with the ruling and was consulting the Justice Department on next steps.

Source: Miami Herald

The Justice Department issued an interim final rule changing how the Board of Immigration Appeals handles appeals from immigration judges. Under the rule, review of an immigration judge's decision on the merits becomes discretionary rather than a matter of right.

The rule also sets briefing schedules for the cases the Board does take on the merits and makes other changes the department says are intended to speed adjudication and avoid adding to the Board's existing backlog.

The rule takes effect March 9, 2026, and the department is accepting public comments until the same date. Because it was issued as an interim final rule, the changes apply before the comment period closes.

Source: Federal Register

The Department of Homeland Security criticized New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani after he signed an executive order directing city agencies to comply with the city's existing sanctuary laws, which bar municipal employees from assisting most federal immigration enforcement.

The order requires public-facing agencies, including the police department, to retrain staff on those restrictions. It does not add new limits. DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said the move would make New Yorkers less safe and demanded the city hand people in its custody to ICE before release.

The exchange follows the president's threat to cut federal funding to sanctuary jurisdictions, with a February 1 deadline to roll back protections. That deadline passed without cuts to New York City.

Source: Politico

Federal judges across the country say the volume of habeas corpus petitions filed by detained immigrants is straining their courts. The petitions follow the administration's decision to replace bond hearings with mandatory detention for most people in removal proceedings.

U.S. District Judge Clay Land in Columbus, Georgia, described an administrative judicial emergency on January 29, writing that the government was refusing to grant bond hearings at the Stewart Detention Center despite his rulings, forcing the court to order a hearing case by case. Minnesota's federal court received more than 400 habeas petitions in January alone, according to a government filing.

The Department of Homeland Security said it is prepared to handle the caseload, and the Justice Department said the backlog is the fault of judges. The Fifth Circuit upheld the detention policy days earlier.

Source: AP News

The Department of Homeland Security denied that it was trying to accelerate the end of asylum claims filed by the family of Liam Conejo Ramos, a 5-year-old detained with his father outside their Minneapolis-area home in January. Photographs of the boy surrounded by officers drew national attention.

Danielle Molliver, the family's lawyer, told The New York Times the government was moving to speed up proceedings, calling the step extraordinary and possibly retaliatory. DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said the family is in regular removal proceedings, not expedited removal, and that there is nothing retaliatory about enforcing immigration law.

An immigration judge gave the lawyer additional time at a closed hearing. The family, released from the Dilley detention center in Texas, remains sequestered pending its next hearing.

Source: AP News

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals set aside an August district court ruling that had blocked the termination of temporary protected status for nationals of Honduras, Nepal and Nicaragua, allowing the administration to proceed.

The lower court had found racial animus behind the decision. The appeals panel said the government is likely to succeed either by showing the district court lacked jurisdiction or by defeating the plaintiffs' claim that the terminations were arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act.

The National Immigration Forum estimates the ruling affects roughly 50,000 Hondurans, 7,000 Nepalis and 3,000 Nicaraguans, most of whom have held the status for years. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called the decision a win for the rule of law.

Source: The Hill

Todd Lyons, the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, appeared with Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Joseph Edlow before the House Homeland Security Committee for an oversight hearing lasting more than three hours.

It was the officials' first appearance before Congress since federal officers shot and killed two U.S. citizens in the Minneapolis area. Lyons defended his officers' tactics and said they would not be intimidated as they carry out the administration's deportation plans.

Lyons drew the sharpest questioning of the three, as lawmakers pressed the agencies on arrest methods, detention conditions and compliance with court orders.

Source: AP News