Week of July 2–8, 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.
Judge strikes down Trump proclamation barring asylum at the southern border
U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss blocked President Trump's January 20 proclamation, which declared illegal immigration at the southern border an invasion and barred migrants who crossed from claiming asylum or other humanitarian protections. In a 128-page opinion, Moss held that the president exceeded his authority by setting aside processes Congress wrote into law.
The American Civil Liberties Union brought the challenge in February, arguing the proclamation violated U.S. law and international treaties. The restrictions went further than a 2024 asylum ban issued by President Biden, key parts of which a separate judge blocked in May.
Moss stayed his order for 14 days to allow the administration to appeal. The number of migrants caught crossing illegally has fallen to record lows since Trump returned to office.
Source: NBC News
Judge blocks early end of Temporary Protected Status for Haitians
Judge Brian M. Cogan of the federal district court in New York ruled that the Department of Homeland Security acted unlawfully when it moved up the expiration of Temporary Protected Status for Haitians by at least five months. More than 500,000 Haitians in the United States hold the status.
The Biden administration had extended Haiti's designation through at least February 3, 2026. DHS announced the previous week that protections would end as soon as September 2, saying conditions in Haiti had improved. Cogan's 23-page opinion found the early termination violated the notice requirements in the TPS statute, and noted that holders had taken jobs, enrolled in school and begun medical treatment expecting the designation to run its full term.
Haiti was first designated in 2010 after a catastrophic earthquake. The International Organization for Migration reports that gang violence has displaced 1.3 million people there.
Source: NBC News
Civil rights groups sue over immigration sweeps in Southern California
The American Civil Liberties Union, Public Counsel and the Immigrant Defenders Law Center filed a federal class action accusing immigration agents of stopping people in Southern California because they appeared Latino, then holding them without access to lawyers. The suit names Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and senior officials at ICE, Border Patrol and the FBI.
The complaint describes raids since early June at more than 15 Home Depot parking lots, nine car washes, a Santa Ana park, a swap meet and several churches across Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. It cites a late-May directive from White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller setting a target of 3,000 immigration arrests a day.
DHS called the claim that people were targeted by skin color false. A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction over comparable raids in Kern County earlier in the year.
Source: CalMatters
Supreme Court clears way for removal of eight men held in Djibouti to South Sudan
The Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to send eight men held at a U.S. military base in Djibouti on to South Sudan. In a brief opinion, the justices said their June 23 order pausing a district court ruling on third-country removals applied fully to the men.
U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy had required the government to follow procedures meant to ensure deportees would not face torture before removing them to countries not named in their removal orders. The State Department advises against travel to South Sudan because of crime, kidnapping and armed conflict.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented, joined by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, writing that the order clarified only that other litigants must follow the rules while the administration has the court on speed dial.
Source: SCOTUSblog
Visa delays leave foreign medical residents unable to start US training
International doctors due to begin residencies this week were delayed by travel and visa restrictions, leaving some U.S. hospitals without essential staff. A pause on interviews for J-1 exchange visitor visas was lifted in mid-June, but four medical residents told the Associated Press that U.S. embassies have been slow to open interview slots and some have opened none.
More than 6,600 foreign-born international medical graduates matched into U.S. programs in 2025, the highest number on record, with another 300 filling positions that remained vacant after the match. Many of those posts are in low-income and rural hospitals.
One Canadian permanent resident who matched to UPMC Harrisburg had her visa denied because she is a citizen of Afghanistan, one of 12 countries covered by the administration's travel ban. The Association of American Medical Colleges projects a physician shortage within 11 years.
Source: AP News
Spending law narrows health coverage for lawfully present immigrants
The tax and spending package Congress passed on July 3 restricts access to federally subsidized health coverage for immigrants who are in the country lawfully. Under current rules green card holders, refugees, survivors of domestic violence and people on work and student visas can buy Affordable Care Act plans with tax credits, and some qualify for Medicaid or Medicare.
The new provisions limit federally funded coverage to lawful permanent residents, Cuban and Haitian entrants and migrants from certain Pacific Island countries. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that similar provisions would leave 1.3 million lawfully present immigrants uninsured in 2034.
Low-income green card holders serving the five-year Medicaid waiting period, who currently qualify for subsidized marketplace coverage, are expected to be the largest group affected. Health systems in Florida and New York have warned of higher uncompensated care costs.
Source: Politico
ICE releases Honduran family detained after a Los Angeles immigration hearing
A 6-year-old Honduran boy being treated for leukemia, his mother and his sister returned to Los Angeles after a month in the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas. Immigration and Customs Enforcement released them on July 2 without a court order, according to Elora Mukherjee, director of the Immigrants' Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School.
The family was arrested in a courthouse hallway after an asylum hearing in Los Angeles on May 29. The mother had been told to bring her children to the hearing. The Texas Civil Rights Project and the Columbia clinic sued ICE in San Antonio federal court seeking their release.
Lawyers said public attention contributed to the outcome. The Department of Homeland Security did not say whether it would continue seeking the family's removal to Honduras.
Source: NBC News
Green card replacement processing time rises to more than eight months
The median time for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to process Form I-90, used to renew or replace a permanent resident card, rose to 8.3 months in the second quarter of fiscal 2025 from 0.8 months in the previous quarter, an increase of about 938 percent.
USCIS received more than 285,000 I-90 filings between January and March, compared with roughly 189,000 from October through December. Pending applications rose from 265,000 to more than 356,000 over the same period.
The agency states that 80 percent of initial issuance and replacement cases are completed within 21.5 months and 80 percent of 10-year renewals within 12.5 months. In September 2024 USCIS extended the validity granted on I-90 receipt notices to 36 months, which holders can present with an expired card as evidence of status and work authorization.
Source: Newsweek
Troops and federal agents stage brief operation at a Los Angeles park
About 90 National Guard troops and dozens of federal immigration officers entered MacArthur Park in Los Angeles on the morning of July 7. The park was nearly empty because word of a possible raid had spread. Mayor Karen Bass said she saw officers on horseback and soldiers in tactical gear walk past a playground as children at a summer day camp were moved indoors.
The Department of Homeland Security declined to say whether anyone was arrested, stating that it does not comment on ongoing enforcement operations. Associated Press journalists who arrived as the troops and agents entered did not see anyone detained. The Defense Department referred questions to DHS.
Bass and Governor Gavin Newsom described the operation as a political stunt intended to intimidate the city's immigrant communities.
Source: AP News
DHS ends Temporary Protected Status for Hondurans and Nicaraguans
The Department of Homeland Security published Federal Register notices ending Temporary Protected Status for Hondurans and Nicaraguans, protections first granted in 1999 after Hurricane Mitch. Secretary Kristi Noem concluded that conditions in both countries had improved enough since that decision for people to return home.
DHS estimated that roughly 72,000 Hondurans and 4,000 Nicaraguans hold the status. The TPS Alliance, which advocates for holders, put the Honduran figure nearer 40,000 because many have since obtained lawful residence through other channels.
The designations expired on July 5, and the terminations take effect 60 days after the notices are officially published. Holders lose protection from deportation and their work authorization at that point. The TPS Alliance said it had filed suit against Noem and DHS in the Northern District of California.
Source: AP News
Ten charged over shooting outside a Texas immigration detention center
Ten people were arrested on attempted murder charges after a shooting outside the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, on the night of July 4. An Alvarado police officer who responded to the facility was shot in the neck, treated at a hospital and released.
Nancy Larson, acting U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas, said the attack was a planned ambush. According to a criminal complaint, attackers in black military-style clothing set off fireworks and spray-painted vehicles and a guard structure, drawing staff outside, after which someone in nearby woods opened fire. A jammed AR-style rifle, a flag reading "Resist fascism, fight oligarchy" and flyers were recovered at the scene.
Two unarmed corrections officers were in the parking lot when 20 to 30 rounds were fired in their direction.
Source: AP News
TPS holders sue over terminations for Honduras, Nicaragua and Nepal
Seven Temporary Protected Status holders and the National TPS Alliance sued the Department of Homeland Security and Secretary Kristi Noem over the termination of the program for roughly 60,000 people from Nicaragua, Honduras and Nepal. DHS ended Nepal's designation in June and the Nicaraguan and Honduran designations this week.
The complaint alleges the terminations were motivated at least in part by racial animus and violated the Constitution, citing official statements describing holders as criminals. It argues that TPS is available only to people already in the United States and that anyone with more than one misdemeanor conviction is ineligible.
DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said the suit ignores the president's constitutionally vested powers and that TPS was never intended to operate as a de facto asylum program.
Source: NBC News