Week of June 25 – July 1, 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.
Budget bill would put about $150 billion into immigration enforcement
The House-passed spending and border security package would direct roughly $150 billion to immigration enforcement over four years, covering border barriers, detention capacity and thousands of additional officers.
The largest single item is $46.5 billion for what the House Homeland Security Committee calls an integrated border barrier system, enough by its estimate to complete 701 miles of primary wall and 900 miles of river barriers. Immigration and Customs Enforcement currently operates on an annual budget of about $10 billion.
The bill also raises fees for legal immigration applications. Adam Isacson of the Washington Office on Latin America said many multibillion-dollar provisions are described in only a few lines, with little detail on how the money would be spent. The Senate is drafting its own version.
Source: AP News
ICE data show most people booked have no criminal conviction
Internal ICE data covering October 1 through May 31 show 185,042 people booked into agency facilities, of whom 65,041 had criminal convictions. The most common offense categories were immigration and traffic violations.
Almost half of the people currently in ICE custody have neither been convicted of nor charged with a crime, according to other agency data.
Last fall ICE told Congress that 13,099 people convicted of homicide and 15,811 convicted of sexual assault were on its non-detained docket, meaning the agency knew of them but did not have them in custody. The figures were a staple of Trump's campaign speeches. Only a small share of that group has since been arrested.
Source: NBC News
Powell tells Congress deportations are slowing labor force growth
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell told the House Financial Services Committee on June 24 that reduced growth in the labor force is one reason economic growth has slowed.
Representative Maria Salazar, a Florida Republican, asked about the effect of removals on construction, hospitality and agriculture, which she put at 15% of the economy, citing what she called collateral arrests of workers. On May 30, ICE arrested more than 100 construction workers in Tallahassee.
"There are two things that affect growth," Powell said. "One is growth in the labor force, more people working, and the other thing is productivity. And when you significantly slow the growth of the labor force, you will slow the growth of the economy." He said immigration policy is not the Fed's remit.
Source: Forbes
Lawyers challenge courthouse arrest of a 6-year-old treated for cancer
Attorneys are seeking the release of a 6-year-old Honduran boy treated for leukemia who is being held at a Texas detention facility with his mother and 9-year-old sibling.
The family was arrested in a hallway after attending their May 29 immigration hearing in Los Angeles, part of a pattern of court arrests used to move people into expedited removal. They had entered legally during the Biden administration. Judges have been directed to dismiss cases of people in the country less than two years so ICE can remove them quickly.
Lawyers say this is the first challenge to the courthouse arrest policy as applied to children. A separate suit was filed last week over an arrest after a hearing in Buffalo, New York.
Source: NBC News
USCIS tightens proof requirements for refugee and asylee marriages
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services issued a policy alert updating its guidance on marriages between principal asylees or refugees and their claimed spouses.
Under the revised guidance, which took effect March 3 and applies to petitions pending or filed on or after that date, a marriage must be legally valid under the law of the place where it was celebrated to count for immigration purposes. Officers are directed to take testimony and weigh other evidence, with a civil marriage certificate treated as primary evidence, along with divorce decrees or death certificates ending earlier marriages.
A separate Form I-730 petition is still required for each eligible family member. The agency said the update aligns with two executive orders signed on January 20.
Source: Miami Herald
Guatemala's president disputes Noem's account of an asylum agreement
Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo said his government has not signed any agreement to take asylum seekers from other countries, contradicting Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
The two met in Guatemala City on June 26 and signed a joint security agreement allowing U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers to work at the capital's airport training local agents to screen for terrorism suspects. Noem said she had also received a signed safe third country document and had reached a similar deal in Honduras.
Arevalo said nothing new was signed on immigration and that Guatemala continues to operate under a February arrangement with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, under which it accepts its own citizens and serves as a transit point for other Central Americans.
Source: AP News
DHS ends Temporary Protected Status for about 500,000 Haitians
The Department of Homeland Security terminated Temporary Protected Status for roughly 500,000 Haitians in the United States, some of whom have lived here for more than a decade, saying conditions in Haiti have improved.
"The environmental situation in Haiti has improved enough that it is safe for Haitian citizens to return home," a department spokesperson said. The step follows the revocation three months earlier of humanitarian parole for Haitians who entered under that program, which the Supreme Court recently allowed to proceed.
Before January, nationals of 17 countries held TPS, including Haiti, Afghanistan, Sudan and Lebanon. Venezuelans and Afghans have already been told their designations are ending. Some Haitian holders have asylum claims or other applications pending.
Source: AP News
Supreme Court curbs nationwide injunctions in birthright citizenship case
By a vote of 6-3, the Supreme Court partially paused rulings by three federal judges that had blocked President Trump's executive order ending birthright citizenship, holding that courts generally may not issue universal injunctions.
The justices did not decide whether the order itself is constitutional. Writing for the majority, Justice Amy Coney Barrett said that when a court finds the executive branch has acted unlawfully, "the answer is not for the court to exceed its power, too." The order does not take effect for 30 days, and the individual plaintiffs remain protected.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor read her dissent from the bench, saying the ruling leaves constitutional guarantees "meaningful in name only" for people who are not parties to a lawsuit. Class action litigation remains available.
Source: SCOTUSblog
Trump floats a temporary work pass for farm and hotel employees
President Trump said in a Fox News interview that his administration is developing "some kind of a temporary pass where people pay taxes" for immigrant workers in farming and hospitality.
"What we're going to do is we're going to do something for farmers, where we can let the farmer sort of be in charge," he said, describing enforcement that removes workers who have been on a farm for 15 or 20 years. The interview was recorded on Friday and aired Sunday.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson repeated the statement issued after the reversal of the enforcement pause earlier in June, saying there will be "no safe spaces for industries who harbor violent criminals or purposely try to undermine ICE's efforts."
Source: NBC News
Trump tours Everglades detention site and calls it a model
President Trump toured a new immigration detention center built on a remote airstrip in the Florida Everglades, about 50 miles west of Miami, and said he would like similar facilities in "really, many states."
The site, a collection of tents and trailers that officials have nicknamed "Alligator Alcatraz," is meant to signal severity: the White House has emphasized its isolation and the surrounding swamp. Trump also raised the prospect of deporting U.S. citizens and endorsed using Florida National Guard members as immigration judges to speed removals.
Hundreds of protesters gathered outside, calling for humane treatment of detainees and for protection of the preserve, which is home to several Native American tribes and endangered species.
Source: AP News
Judge blocks the early end of Haitian Temporary Protected Status
U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan in New York blocked the administration's move to end Temporary Protected Status for up to 500,000 Haitians before the Biden administration's extension expires.
Secretary Kristi Noem had announced four days earlier that the designation would end on September 2; the extension had set it to run to February 3, 2026. Cogan, an appointee of President George W. Bush, held that the termination ignored statutory notice provisions barring an early end to a designation.
"Secretary Noem cannot reconsider Haiti's TPS designation in a way that takes effect before February 3, 2026," he wrote, noting that recipients had enrolled in school, taken jobs and begun medical treatment in reliance on the stated timeline.
Source: Politico