Week of June 18–24, 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.
Student visa interviews resume with a public social media requirement
The State Department lifted its May suspension of student visa processing and said all applicants must now set their social media accounts to public so consular officers can review them.
Officers are told to look for posts or messages considered hostile to the United States, its government, culture, institutions or founding principles. Applicants who refuse to make accounts visible may be rejected, the department said, because refusal can suggest an attempt to hide online activity.
Consulates were also told to give priority to applicants headed for colleges where international students make up a smaller share of enrollment. Students had been waiting weeks for appointments as the start of the academic year approached.
Source: AP News
Long-term care providers lose foreign-born staff as programs are cut
Nursing homes and home care providers are losing foreign-born employees and struggling to replace them as refugee admissions stay suspended and enforcement expands.
Foreign-born workers make up 30% of the nursing home housekeeping and maintenance workforce, compared with 19% of the workforce overall, according to LeadingAge. Labor Department figures show more than 41% of home health aides last year were foreign-born, along with 22% of nursing assistants and 28% of personal care aides.
"We have facilities with empty wings and it's not for lack of residents, it's just for lack of staff," said Robin Wolzenburg of LeadingAge Wisconsin, who had previously placed refugees in support roles.
Source: Axios
Reversals on worksite raids leave employers guessing
Farms, ranches, hotels and restaurants briefly welcomed the pause on immigration raids ordered last week, only to see it reversed days later.
Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said there would be "no safe spaces for industries who harbor violent criminals" and that worksite enforcement remains a cornerstone of the department's work. Rebecca Shi of the American Business Immigration Coalition, which represents 1,700 employers, said the reversal brought "fear and worry once more."
One raid left a New Mexico dairy with 20 workers, down from 55. A Los Angeles chef said staff, including those with legal status, have been calling out of shifts. The enforcement push followed a quota of 3,000 arrests a day, up from 650.
Source: AP News
Ohio teenager deported to Honduras days after graduating high school
Emerson Colindres, 19, was detained by ICE on June 4 at what he expected to be a routine check-in in Cincinnati, days after graduating from high school, and was deported to Honduras.
Colindres came to the United States with his family more than a decade ago, at age 8, and had no criminal record according to the Butler County Sheriff's Office. He played club soccer and hoped to attend university.
"Sadly, he's not the only one," said Bryan Williams, his coach at Cincy Galaxy. Students have also been detained in New York City and Milford, Massachusetts. The administration had said enforcement would focus on people with criminal records.
Source: NBC News
Ending temporary programs enlarges the population without legal status
Revoking Biden-era programs has moved more than a million people from lawful status into the population subject to removal, immigration lawyers and former officials say.
On May 30 the Supreme Court let the administration strip parole from more than 500,000 people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. Similar terminations have covered Temporary Protected Status designations. People who entered legally with sponsors and work permits lost both.
"The Trump administration is creating a larger class of undocumented people by literally de-legalizing them and taking away their work authorization early," said Karen Tumlin of the Justice Action Center. Because many of those affected entered recently, they can also be placed in expedited removal.
Source: NBC News
ICE detains a Marine veteran's wife at a green card appointment
Paola Clouatre, a 25-year-old Mexican national married to Marine Corps veteran Adrian Clouatre, was detained by ICE officers during a routine immigration appointment in New Orleans and is being held at a detention center in Monroe, Louisiana.
She was still breastfeeding the couple's 3-month-old daughter. Her husband, a service-disabled veteran, drives eight hours round trip from Baton Rouge to visit. She was brought to the United States by her mother more than a decade ago as an asylum seeker and applied for a green card after the couple married in 2024.
Immigration lawyers say the deference once shown to military families has fallen away under the push for 3,000 arrests a day.
Source: AP News
Supreme Court allows fast removals to countries with no prior ties
The Supreme Court put on hold a district court ruling that required people facing removal to third countries to get a meaningful chance to argue they would face torture, persecution or death there.
The unsigned order gives no reasoning. It allows the administration to resume rapid removals to countries it has arranged to receive deportees, including South Sudan. Individuals can still bring their own claims.
The three liberal justices dissented. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that the court was "rewarding lawlessness" by granting emergency relief from an order the government had repeatedly defied. A Homeland Security spokesperson called the ruling a victory and said the department could "fire up the deportation planes."
Source: NBC News
Florida asks the Supreme Court to revive its state illegal entry law
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier filed an emergency application asking the Supreme Court to lift U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams's order blocking a state law that makes it a crime for a person without legal status to enter Florida.
Uthmeier argued that states may "regulate the migration of criminals" and that the block "inflicts irreparable harm on Florida." He said the case could otherwise take two years or more to resolve.
The Eleventh Circuit had already declined to stay the order. The application went to Justice Clarence Thomas, who handles that circuit. Williams held Uthmeier in civil contempt the previous week; he responded on social media that "if being held in contempt is what it costs," so be it.
Source: Politico
Government appeals order releasing Kilmar Abrego Garcia before trial
The Justice Department appealed a magistrate judge's order releasing Kilmar Abrego Garcia while he awaits trial on human smuggling charges, and asked for a stay to keep him in custody.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes of the Middle District of Tennessee wrote that Abrego Garcia "is entitled to a full and fair determination of whether he must remain in federal custody pending trial." She faulted prosecutors for using the terms human smuggling and human trafficking interchangeably.
The administration acknowledged deporting him to El Salvador in error in March, and the Supreme Court ordered it to facilitate his return. He was charged on his return and pleaded not guilty. Government lawyers said he would stay in custody pending deportation proceedings regardless.
Source: NBC News
Foreign doctors stuck without visas days before residencies begin
Hundreds of international medical graduates were still waiting for visas a week before their U.S. hospital residencies were due to start.
Many have been in limbo since late May, when the State Department suspended new J-1 exchange visitor appointments, the route most international doctors use for residency. Interviews resumed the previous week under the new social media requirement, but many embassies have not reopened slots, some applicants have been told they need additional vetting, and others were denied because they come from countries covered by the travel ban.
Doctors described refreshing embassy websites and looking for appointments in nearby countries. Many of the residency programs affected serve areas with physician shortages.
Source: NBC News