Week of February 5–11, 2025

The Department of Homeland Security published a notice terminating the October 3, 2023 designation of Venezuela for Temporary Protected Status. The termination takes effect at 11:59 p.m. local time on April 7, 2025, after which Venezuelan nationals covered by that designation lose TPS and the work authorization that comes with it.

DHS estimates that about 348,202 people are registered under the 2023 designation. Secretary Kristi Noem had vacated a January 10 decision by her predecessor, Alejandro Mayorkas, that would have extended the designation for 18 months, which left a fresh determination due by February 1.

The notice does not affect the separate 2021 designation of Venezuela for TPS, which remains in effect until September 10, 2025. People registered under the 2021 designation keep their status. Those who lose TPS revert to whatever immigration status they held before, if any.

Source: Federal Register

U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman issued a nationwide preliminary injunction in Greenbelt, Maryland, blocking President Trump's executive order limiting birthright citizenship while the case is litigated. The order had been set to take effect on February 19.

The case was brought by the immigrant rights groups CASA and the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project along with five pregnant women. Boardman said that virtually every baby born on U.S. soil is a citizen at birth, and that no court in the country has ever endorsed the president's reading of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The executive order, signed January 20, directed federal agencies to refuse to recognize the citizenship of children born in the United States when neither parent is a citizen or lawful permanent resident. Democratic attorneys general from 22 states estimate the policy would deny citizenship to more than 150,000 newborns each year. At least eight lawsuits have challenged it.

Source: Reuters

The Justice Department filed suit in federal court in Illinois against the state, the city of Chicago and Cook County over laws that limit local cooperation with federal immigration authorities. The complaint accuses the jurisdictions of making it more difficult for, and deliberately impeding, federal immigration officers' ability to carry out their responsibilities.

Governor JB Pritzker's office said the Illinois TRUST Act, signed into law by a Republican governor, has always complied with federal law, and said the state looked forward to seeing the administration in court.

Chicago has been a focus of ICE operations since the president returned to office. Mayor Brandon Johnson has said the city's police department will not take part in immigration enforcement. During Trump's first term the Justice Department tried to withhold funding from sanctuary jurisdictions and lost many of those cases in court.

Source: NPR

Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo said his country will accept migrants of other nationalities deported from the United States and return them to their home countries at U.S. expense. He announced the agreement at a news conference with Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Guatemala City.

Arévalo said the two governments had agreed to increase the number of deportation flights by 40 percent, covering both Guatemalans and nationals of other countries. Guatemala had been accepting an average of seven to eight flights of its own citizens a week, including under the Biden administration.

It was the second such deal of Rubio's five country trip, after El Salvador announced a broader arrangement two days earlier. The agreements address a long standing obstacle to removals, since countries such as Venezuela rarely accept deportation flights from the United States.

Source: NPR

The administration has released 461 immigrants from custody since the president took office, in part because of limited space in immigration detention facilities. People freed under the practice known as catch and release agree to return for immigration court hearings and are usually given ankle monitors or wristbands, or told to check in by telephone.

Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, said the releases amounted to less than 6 percent of the roughly 8,000 people arrested since January 21, and that those released do not have final deportation orders. She cited a lack of detention space for women, the likelihood of near term removal and humanitarian considerations among the factors.

Immigration detention facilities hold about 41,500 people a day on average. Trump criticized catch and release during his campaign and said last month that he planned to end it.

Source: Axios

The federal Bureau of Prisons said it is housing immigration detainees for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, returning to a practice used during the president's first term. The agency declined to say how many people it is holding or which facilities are involved, citing privacy, safety and security.

Three people familiar with the matter said federal jails in Los Angeles and Miami and a federal prison in Atlanta are being used. The bureau runs 122 facilities holding about 155,000 inmates and said in December that it faced a critical staffing shortage and crumbling infrastructure.

ICE has the budget to detain about 41,000 people. The White House said more than 8,000 people had been arrested in immigration enforcement since January 20, of whom 461 were released for reasons including medical conditions and a lack of detention capacity. A similar arrangement in 2018 drew a lawsuit alleging punitive and inhumane treatment.

Source: Los Angeles Times

Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation setting aside $50 million to defend California's policies against the Trump administration and to help immigrants facing deportation. One law directs $25 million to the state Department of Justice for litigation against the federal government. The other sets aside $25 million in part for legal groups representing immigrants.

Newsom convened a special session of the Legislature to pass the bills after the November election. California filed or joined more than 100 legal actions against the first Trump administration and spent about $42 million on those fights over four years.

Republican legislators objected. Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones called the money a political stunt that would not help wildfire victims. Critics also said the bills do not bar the funding from defending immigrants convicted of serious felonies. Newsom said the money was not intended for that and invited lawmakers to clarify the language.

Source: AP News

Senate Republicans released a $340 billion budget blueprint focused on the president's deportation agenda and defense spending, moving ahead after House Republicans missed another deadline to produce their own package. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said help was on the way.

The House plan is far larger, with roughly $4 trillion in tax breaks, deep program cuts and a possible extension of the debt limit. Speaker Mike Johnson said his chamber had a few final details to iron out and that work would run into the weekend.

At stake is money to launch the deportation operation and to finish the wall along the border with Mexico. Republicans control the House, the Senate and the White House, but have argued among themselves over how to package the measures.

Source: PBS News

President Trump signed an executive order instructing Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to prioritize admission and resettlement of Afrikaners in South Africa through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. The order accuses the South African government of racial discrimination and cites a land reform law.

Trump suspended refugee admissions on January 20, saying the program would restart only if he concluded that doing so served U.S. interests. That order allows case by case exemptions, so it is unclear how or when Afrikaner arrivals would proceed.

South Africa's government has denied any land confiscations or racially motivated discrimination, saying the law applies to land that is unused or not serving the public interest. The order also cuts off U.S. aid to South Africa while the law stands. Most people admitted through the refugee program have historically come from countries in Africa and Asia affected by war or repression.

Source: CBS News

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is reviving and expanding the 287(g) program, which trains local police and sheriff's deputies to question immigrants already in their custody and hold them for deportation. As of December, ICE had 135 agreements with law enforcement agencies in 21 states and requests pending from 35 more. No new agreements were signed during the Biden administration.

Border czar Tom Homan told sheriffs the administration wants to add local task forces that can make arrests on the street, a model discontinued under President Obama after racial profiling complaints. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced that the Florida Highway Patrol had signed an agreement to interrogate, arrest and detain immigrants for federal authorities.

Republican lawmakers in about a dozen states are advancing bills to require or fund local participation. Nayna Gupta of the American Immigration Council said the agreements have a record of racial profiling and of sweeping in citizens and people with lawful status.

Source: AP News

A coalition of refugees and resettlement organizations filed suit in U.S. District Court in Washington state challenging the indefinite suspension of the U.S. refugee admissions program. The complaint argues that the president exceeded his executive authority by shutting the program down and freezing funding for groups that assist refugees already in the country.

Nine refugees and U.S. based family members brought the case along with HIAS, Church World Service and Lutheran Community Services Northwest. One plaintiff family from the Democratic Republic of the Congo had been cleared to travel on January 22 and had sold their belongings and given up their lease in Nairobi before the trip was canceled.

Trump paused resettlement on January 20 and asked the secretaries of Homeland Security and State to report within 90 days on whether it should resume. The shutdown canceled travel for about 1,660 Afghans already approved to come.

Source: Reuters

More than two dozen religious organizations sued the federal government over the decision to lift limits on immigration enforcement at sensitive locations, including houses of worship. The plaintiffs include the Mennonite Church, the Episcopal Church, the Union for Reform Judaism and the Unitarian Universalist Association.

The suit argues that the change infringes on religious freedom. The groups say attendance has fallen because of fear among congregants, and several say they face an imminent risk of enforcement action. They asked the court for a permanent injunction barring immigration enforcement at houses of worship or during religious ceremonies, except under a judicial warrant or in pressing circumstances.

It was the second case of its kind. In January several Quaker groups in Maryland sued to keep ICE agents out of their meeting houses. The administration had not responded to the filing.

Source: NPR