Week of June 11–17, 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.
Asylum seekers arrested outside courtrooms and placed in expedited removal
Asylum seekers who attended routine immigration hearings are being arrested in courthouse hallways minutes later, a practice that began in May and has spread across the country.
The sequence is consistent: a judge grants a government lawyer's request to dismiss the deportation case, and ICE officers, often masked, then arrest the person and place them in expedited removal, which allows deportation without seeing a judge. President Trump sharply expanded that authority in January.
Those arrested include a transgender woman from Mexico who says cartel members raped her, a Venezuelan man who told a Seattle judge he would be killed if returned, and two Haitian cousins. Immigration courts carry a backlog of 3.6 million cases, and people must now weigh whether attending a hearing risks detention.
Source: AP News
DHS emails 532,000 parolees that their status is revoked
The Department of Homeland Security began emailing termination notices to Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans admitted under the humanitarian parole program, telling them their legal status and work permits are revoked "effective immediately" and that they should leave the country.
About 532,000 people entered under the program from October 2022, arriving with financial sponsors and two-year permits. The notices point them to the CBP Home app and repeat the offer of travel help and $1,000 on arrival in their home country.
The department did not explain how it will confirm departures or deliver the payments. The Supreme Court cleared the way for the terminations in late May.
Source: AP News
Senator Padilla forced to the ground and handcuffed at Noem news conference
Senator Alex Padilla of California was removed from a Los Angeles news conference held by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem after he tried to ask a question.
"I am Sen. Alex Padilla. I have questions for the secretary," he said, before plainclothes officers pushed him into a hallway, forced him face down and handcuffed him. A senior FBI official said bureau personnel and Secret Service agents took part. Padilla said he had been in the building for a scheduled military briefing and joined the event peacefully.
Noem said afterward on Fox News that Padilla had burst into the room and did not identify himself, which video of the incident contradicts. He was not detained.
Source: NBC News
Protests over immigration raids spread beyond Los Angeles
Demonstrations against immigration raids and the deployment of the National Guard and Marines in Los Angeles spread to cities including Spokane, Seattle, Las Vegas and Chicago, where hundreds marched down Michigan Avenue.
In Los Angeles, police arrested several demonstrators downtown on the third night of an 8 p.m. curfew after they refused orders to disperse. Earlier in the evening, Department of Homeland Security officers used flash bangs to clear a crowd near the jail.
Officials in cities of all sizes were preparing for larger demonstrations over the weekend.
Source: AP News
Judge declines to release Mahmoud Khalil on second detention rationale
U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz declined to order Mahmoud Khalil released from immigration detention, finding his lawyers had not shown that his continued confinement is unlawful.
Farbiarz had ruled earlier that the government's original basis for removing Khalil, a foreign policy determination by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, was likely unconstitutional. The government then said it could keep holding him on a second ground: an allegation that he omitted information from his green card application.
Khalil disputes the allegation, saying his work with a United Nations agency was a university-approved internship and that he left a British Embassy post in 2022. The judge suggested he seek bail from an immigration judge in Louisiana.
Source: AP News
Federal health agency shares Medicaid enrollee data with DHS
Governor Gavin Newsom criticized the sharing of Medicaid enrollee information, including immigration status, with the Department of Homeland Security, calling the practice "legally dubious" and an abuse.
The Associated Press reported that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. directed the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to hand over immigration and medical data for millions of noncitizens, covering California and other states that let immigrants without legal status enroll in health coverage. The step reverses longstanding policy against sharing enrollee data with other federal agencies.
CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz had written to states last month saying federal dollars would not be "diverted" to immigrant health care. Newsom's office said California had already shown it was not misusing federal funds.
Source: CalMatters
ICE told to pause raids on farms, meatpacking, hotels and restaurants
Immigration officers were directed to stop making arrests at farms, meatpacking plants, restaurants and hotels, according to a message from Tatum King of ICE's Homeland Security Investigations to regional leaders, confirmed to the Associated Press by a U.S. official.
The change followed a Truth Social post in which President Trump said aggressive enforcement was taking "very good, long time workers" from farms and hotel businesses and that those jobs are almost impossible to fill.
It came weeks after Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller set a target of 3,000 arrests a day, up from about 650 a day over the first five months of the term. A DHS spokesperson said the agency would follow the president's direction.
Source: AP News
Trump directs ICE to expand operations in large Democratic-run cities
President Trump wrote on Truth Social that ICE officers should "do all in their power" to deliver "the single largest Mass Deportation Program in History" and must "expand efforts to detain and deport Illegal Aliens in America's largest Cities, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York."
He described those cities as the core of Democratic political power and repeated unsupported claims about noncitizen voting. The order builds on his April directive for agencies to identify sanctuary jurisdictions that could lose federal funding, which 20 Democratic attorneys general have challenged in court.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson called deportations driven by "arbitrary quotas" unconscionable and said the city will keep its Welcoming City ordinance.
Source: Axios
ICE reverses the pause on raids at farms, hotels and restaurants
ICE leadership told field office heads on a Monday call that it was rolling back the directive issued days earlier that had largely paused enforcement at farms, restaurants, hotels and food processing plants, according to two former officials.
Officials were told the target of 3,000 arrests a day remains in place. Field office heads had said they could not reach it without operations at the exempted businesses. Some left the call unclear about how carefully they should proceed.
A DHS spokesperson said ICE will continue worksite arrests and that there will be "no safe spaces for industries who harbor violent criminals," without addressing the guidance directly.
Source: Reuters
Florida attorney general held in civil contempt over immigration ruling
U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams found Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier in civil contempt for disregarding her order barring enforcement of a state law that makes it a misdemeanor for a person without legal status to enter or reenter Florida.
Williams issued a restraining order in April. Uthmeier notified state agencies of it but said he disagreed, and five days later wrote to law enforcement that "no lawful, legitimate order currently impedes your agencies from continuing to enforce" the laws.
The judge wrote that litigants "cannot change the plain meaning of words as it suits them" and ordered Uthmeier to file reports every two weeks showing compliance.
Source: NBC News