Week of July 23–29, 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.
USCIS begins collecting new statutory fees that cannot be waived
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services began collecting new mandatory fees required by the HR-1 reconciliation act passed earlier in July. The charges, published in the Federal Register, apply to filings for asylum, employment authorization, Temporary Protected Status, parole and Special Immigrant Juvenile status.
The amounts sit on top of existing USCIS filing fees. Because Congress imposed them by statute rather than by regulation, they cannot be waived or reduced even where the underlying form qualifies for a fee waiver under Department of Homeland Security rules, and they are not subject to agency discretion or appeal.
USCIS said it will issue annual notices to collect the fee from people with pending asylum cases. The forms affected are among the most commonly filed by immigrants from Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Haiti and other Latin American countries.
Source: Miami Herald
Government awards contract for a 5,000-bed detention camp at Fort Bliss
The federal government plans to spend $1.26 billion to build the country's largest immigration detention center at Fort Bliss, an Army base in El Paso. The Department of Defense awarded Virginia-based Acquisition Logistics LLC nearly $232 million up front to construct and operate the 5,000-bed tent camp, with work expected to finish by September 2027.
The company does not appear to have prior experience running detention facilities. Immigrant rights groups have long objected to tent housing in West Texas because of summer heat.
The contract responds to a shortage of detention space as the administration pursues a target of 3,000 immigration arrests a day and says it aims to arrest more than a million people a year. Watchdog groups have already raised allegations about conditions at expanded facilities.
Source: The Texas Tribune
Human Rights Watch documents conditions at three Florida detention centers
A 92-page Human Rights Watch report describes conditions at the Krome North Service Processing Center, the Broward Transitional Center and the Federal Detention Center in Florida as flagrant violations of international human rights standards, saying guards treated detainees in a degrading and dehumanizing manner.
The organization interviewed 11 current and recent detainees, family members of seven others and 14 immigration lawyers. One woman at Krome described being held in an overcrowded cell with a single toilet covered in feces and no proper sleeping arrangements. Others said they were shackled on buses for hours without food or water.
Human Rights Watch said the practices it documented violate international standards on the treatment of people in custody. The report was released on July 21.
Source: Los Angeles Times
Judges order Kilmar Abrego Garcia released and bar immediate re-detention
U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw Jr. in Tennessee and U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland ruled in tandem that Kilmar Abrego Garcia must be released from criminal custody, returned to Maryland and not immediately re-detained by immigration authorities.
Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man who had lived in Maryland for about a decade, was deported to El Salvador in March despite an immigration court order barring his removal there. After months of litigation, including a Supreme Court order confirming the removal was unlawful, the administration returned him to face immigrant smuggling charges in Tennessee.
DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said he would never walk America's streets again, and officials signaled he is likely to be detained again on arrival in Maryland, where he faces a fresh round of removal proceedings.
Source: Politico
DACA recipients detained despite holding deferred action status
Erick Hernandez, 34, a DACA recipient working as a rideshare driver, missed a freeway exit on June 1 and crossed into Tijuana. Because DACA holders cannot leave the country without advance permission, immigration authorities took him into custody when he tried to return, and he now faces removal to El Salvador, which he left 20 years ago.
His attorney, Valerie Sigamani, said his explanation that the crossing was accidental was disregarded. Other recent cases include Javier Diaz Santana, a deaf DACA recipient detained in June during a raid at the car wash where he worked, and a 36-year-old Florida recipient among the first held at the state's new Everglades facility.
Anabel Mendoza of United We Dream said the cases point to a growing pattern of exposure for people with deferred action.
Source: NBC News
USCIS director says citizenship test will be made harder and H-1B reworked
Joseph Edlow, who became director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in mid-July, told the New York Times that the naturalization civics test will be revised because the current version is too easy to pass by memorizing answers and does not comport with the spirit of the law.
The first Trump administration introduced a version with a larger question pool, which was rolled back under President Biden. Edlow said the government intends to return to that earlier format.
He also said the administration will seek to change the H-1B program for skilled workers by giving priority to petitions offering higher wages, rather than allocating visas by random selection when registrations exceed the annual cap.
Source: The Hill
Third court since the Supreme Court ruling blocks the birthright citizenship order
U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin in Boston blocked the administration from ending birthright citizenship for children of parents in the country illegally, the third ruling to halt the order nationwide since the Supreme Court's June decision limiting universal injunctions.
Sorokin found that the nationwide injunction granted to more than a dozen states remains in force under an exception to that decision. The states argue the order is unconstitutional and would jeopardize federal funding for health services tied to citizenship status.
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said the administration expects to be vindicated on appeal. New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin, who helped lead the suit, said American-born babies are American. The question is expected to return to the Supreme Court.
Source: AP News
Judge dismisses federal suit against Illinois over sanctuary policies
U.S. District Judge Lindsay Jenkins threw out the Justice Department's lawsuit seeking to force Illinois and Chicago to assist federal immigration enforcement, calling it an end-run around the Tenth Amendment. In a 64-page ruling she held that federal law permits states to cooperate but does not require it, citing Supreme Court decisions barring the federal government from commandeering state and local officials.
It is the first defeat in a series of suits the department has filed this year against states and cities with sanctuary policies, including cases in California, New Jersey and New York.
An Illinois law passed in 2021 bars state and local officials from sharing a person's custody status, release date or contact information with federal immigration authorities.
Source: Politico
Fired immigration judges challenge their removals publicly and in court
More than 50 immigration judges, ranging from senior supervisors to recent appointees, have been dismissed since January. A number are now filing appeals, pursuing legal action and speaking publicly about terminations they consider unlawful.
The judges suspect they were targeted for reasons including gender discrimination, rulings in cases the administration publicized, and in one instance a courthouse tour given to the Senate's second-ranking Democrat. Jennifer Peyton, a former supervising judge in Chicago, said the letter she received consisted of three sentences and gave no reason for her firing.
The dismissals span senior leadership and judges appointed within the past year, and several of those affected said their termination letters gave no explanation at all.
Source: AP News
US and Argentina begin work toward visa-free travel for Argentine citizens
The United States and Argentina announced a plan to allow Argentine tourists to travel to the United States without a visa. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem signed a statement of intent with Security Minister Patricia Bullrich in President Javier Milei's office in Buenos Aires.
Noem said Argentina would be placed on an expedited path to enrollment in the Visa Waiver Program, but cautioned that approval within the next year would be very difficult. Officials expect the process to take two to three years.
The Department of Homeland Security praised Milei for reshaping Argentine foreign policy in line with Washington. The announcement coincided with Noem's closed-door meetings with Milei and his officials in Buenos Aires.
Source: AP News
Ninth Circuit panel questions Justice Department over deportation quotas
A Ninth Circuit panel hearing argument on a district court order restricting roving immigration arrests pressed a Justice Department lawyer to say whether officials have been directed to carry out 3,000 deportations or arrests a day.
Judge Ronald Gould asked directly whether that was administration policy. Yaakov Roth, arguing for the department, said not to his knowledge and urged the panel to lift the order, which covers unannounced enforcement at locations such as home improvement store parking lots and car washes.
Gould suggested that pressure to meet numerical targets could explain why officers detained large numbers of people quickly without establishing reasonable suspicion for each stop.
Source: Politico
Marine veteran's wife released from ICE custody after senator's intervention
Paola Clouatre, a Mexican national married to Marine Corps veteran Adrian Clouatre, was released from a remote ICE detention center in north Louisiana and returned home to Baton Rouge with her husband and their two young children.
Emails reviewed by the Associated Press show that the office of Senator John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican who supports the administration's enforcement campaign, asked the Department of Homeland Security to release her after a judge halted her deportation order earlier in the week. She was out of custody by Monday.
Carey Holliday, the family's attorney, said the senator's office was instrumental in dealing with DHS. Kennedy's office declined further comment. Her detention came as ICE presses officers toward 3,000 arrests a day.
Source: AP News