Week of March 25–31, 2026
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.
Justice Department says it wrongly cited an ICE memo for courthouse arrests
The Justice Department told a federal court that it had erroneously relied on an ICE memo to defend arrests of immigrants at immigration courthouses, in a case brought by groups seeking to stop the practice.
Prosecutors had cited a document called the 2025 ICE Guidance, which says officers may conduct civil immigration enforcement in or near courthouses when they have credible information that a target will be present at a specific location. In the new filing, the department said that guidance does not and never did apply to enforcement in or near immigration courts.
Arrests outside hearing rooms have led many people to skip their hearings, which can result in removal orders. The Department of Homeland Security did not comment.
Source: NBC News
Eighth Circuit becomes second appeals court to allow detention without bond
The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that immigrants arrested for lacking legal status need not be given a bond hearing before an immigration judge, siding with the administration.
It is the second appeals court to do so, after the Fifth Circuit reached the same conclusion in February. Both rulings run against a large number of district court decisions holding the practice unlawful, including a November decision in California that let detained immigrants without criminal records request bond hearings.
The case involved Joaquin Herrera Avila, a Mexican national detained in Minneapolis in August 2025 and held without bond. Under previous administrations, most people arrested away from the border and without criminal records could seek bond while their cases proceeded.
Source: AP News
Trump directs DHS to pay TSA officers as the department shutdown drags on
President Trump said he would sign an order directing Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to pay Transportation Security Administration officers who have gone without wages during the funding standoff with Congress.
Airport lines lengthened during the spring break travel period as TSA workers quit or called in sick, and the administration deployed ICE agents to some airports to help manage the queues. Officers were due to miss another full paycheck at the end of the week.
The standoff stems from Democratic demands for changes at the department following the killing of two U.S. citizens by federal agents during enforcement operations in Minnesota.
Source: Politico
Census data show county growth slowing as international migration falls
New Census Bureau estimates show population growth slowing across most U.S. counties as international migration drops. International migration fell in nine of ten counties between 2024 and 2025 compared with the prior period.
The effect is concentrated in large counties. Census demographer George Hayward said the nation's largest counties are often international migration hubs that gain migrants from abroad while losing residents to other parts of the country, so smaller gains from abroad turn growth into decline. Los Angeles County lost nearly 54,000 people.
The country grew 0.5 percent overall. The figures are the clearest measure so far of how tighter enforcement and reduced admissions are changing the population.
Source: Axios
Acting ICE director hospitalized twice for stress, officials say
Todd Lyons, the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has been hospitalized at least twice in the past seven months for stress-related problems, according to two current and two former administration officials.
In December his security detail took him to a hospital in Washington, where he was admitted overnight, and in September he was hospitalized for at least one night. During a separate episode in Los Angeles last summer, after agents could not locate a person on their target list during a ride-along with senior officials, a bodyguard fetched a portable defibrillator in case he needed it.
Officials attributed the strain to pressure from the White House and said it has affected his ability to make decisions for the agency.
Source: Politico
Labor Department proposes raising required wages for H-1B and green card jobs
The Department of Labor issued a proposed rule to change how it calculates prevailing wages for jobs filled through the permanent labor certification process and through H-1B, H-1B1 and E-3 visas.
The proposal revises the four-tier wage structure built on the Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational wage survey. The department says the change would better align required wages with what U.S. workers in the same occupation and area are paid, and reduce the incentive for employers to use the programs to replace rather than supplement American workers.
Higher required wages would raise employer costs for sponsoring workers on those visas and for permanent employment-based cases. Comments are due by May 26, 2026.
Source: Federal Register
House petition gathers 218 signatures to force a vote on Haitian TPS
A discharge petition to force a House floor vote on a resolution requiring the administration to extend temporary protected status for Haiti reached the 218 signatures needed, with Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington signing last.
Four Republicans signed: Reps. Maria Elvira Salazar of Florida, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Mike Lawler of New York and Don Bacon of Nebraska.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, the petition's sponsor, said the coalition behind it was essential to the roughly 350,000 Haitian nationals who live in the United States under the designation. The Supreme Court is separately scheduled to hear argument in April on whether the administration may end the Haiti and Syria designations.
Source: The Hill
Fourth death at Adelanto detention center prompts Mexican demand for inquiry
Jose Guadalupe Ramos-Solano, 52, died on March 25 at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in Southern California, the fourth death there since September. All four men were Mexican nationals.
Carlos Gonzalez Gutierrez, Mexico's consul general in Los Angeles, called for an investigation at a news conference, joined by consular official Vanessa Calva Ruiz.
The deaths come during what is becoming one of the deadliest years on record for people in ICE custody. Fourteen people have died in the agency's custody so far in 2026, compared with 33 in all of 2025 and 11 in 2024, as the detained population has risen above 68,000.
Source: Los Angeles Times
USCIS resumes asylum decisions for applicants from lower-risk countries
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said it has lifted the hold on adjudicating asylum applications from people who are not from countries it treats as high risk, a partial reversal of the freeze imposed after a November shooting by an Afghan man who had worked with U.S. forces.
The agency said screening and vetting continue and that the change lets it concentrate resources on higher-risk cases.
The effect is limited. The hold remains for applicants from the 39 countries covered by the expanded travel ban, who make up most of the roughly 1.5 million pending applicants, and the pause on immigrant visa processing for nationals of 75 countries stays in place.
Source: The Hill
Texas immigrants delay hospital care for fear of enforcement
Immigrants without legal status in Texas are putting off medical treatment because they fear that going to a hospital will expose them to immigration enforcement.
A 54-year-old Edinburg woman who fell at a child's birthday party in October begged not to be taken to a hospital despite head and back pain. She has lived in South Texas for 27 years and her four children are citizens. Two distant relatives have been detained and another deported to Mexico.
Gov. Greg Abbott ordered hospitals in November 2024 to ask patients about their citizenship status, a question patients may decline to answer, and facilities record the responses. The administration also lifted the federal policy limiting arrests at sensitive locations such as hospitals, churches and schools.
Source: The Texas Tribune
DHS halts new warehouse purchases for detention pending review
The Department of Homeland Security has paused plans to buy additional warehouses for immigration detention, according to two senior officials who said the decision may be temporary.
Work continues on the 11 warehouses already acquired. The overall purchasing plan had been estimated at more than $38 billion. The pause gives incoming Secretary Markwayne Mullin, sworn in last week, time to review the policies set under former Secretary Kristi Noem before deciding whether to continue them.
A department spokesperson said that as with any transition, agency policies and proposals are being reviewed. It is not yet clear whether Mullin will change the direction of detention policy.
Source: NBC News
Judge orders reversal of parole terminations for CBP One app users
U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs in Boston ruled that the Department of Homeland Security acted unlawfully in April 2025 when it sent mass emails telling people who had entered the country through the CBP One appointment app that it was time for them to leave.
More than 900,000 people entered using the app under the previous administration. The judge found the department failed to follow the procedures required to end their parole and ordered the terminations reversed.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs said the government tried to strip legal status through blanket emails rather than individual determinations. Restoring parole also restores the work authorization that depends on it.
Source: Reuters