Week of May 14–20, 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.
FBI ordered to shift large numbers of agents to immigration enforcement
FBI field offices were told in memos and meetings this week to assign substantially more agents to immigration enforcement, current and former bureau officials said.
Under the shift, 45% of agents in the 25 largest field offices will work on immigration full time. The Atlanta office alone will put 67 agents on enforcement and removal operations seven days a week, about half its complement.
A senior FBI official wrote that "DOJ expects a significant increase in the number of agents participating in immigration enforcement operations." Officials said the change will draw resources from counterterrorism, counterintelligence and fraud work, and comes as the administration proposes cutting 5% of the FBI's budget. A bureau spokesman said the FBI remains committed to supporting immigration enforcement partners.
Source: NBC News
Twenty states sue over grant conditions tied to immigration cooperation
A coalition of 20 Democratic-led states filed two lawsuits in federal court in Rhode Island seeking to block the Departments of Transportation and Homeland Security from conditioning billions of dollars in grants on cooperation with immigration enforcement.
The money at issue funds transportation projects, counterterrorism work and emergency preparedness. The states argue the conditions unconstitutionally seize Congress's power over federal spending.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who is leading the litigation, called the threat "blatantly illegal" and said the administration is treating the funds as a bargaining chip. A DHS spokesperson said states that obstruct immigration arrests should not receive federal money.
Source: Reuters
House bill would tax money immigrants send abroad
House Republicans included a 5% excise tax on remittance transfers in the party's budget bill. The tax would apply to more than 40 million people, including green card holders and nonimmigrant visa holders such as those on H-1B, H-2A and H-2B visas. U.S. citizens would be exempt.
Trump has separately said he is finalizing a presidential memorandum to "shut down remittances" sent by people in the country illegally, a step he previewed in an April 25 social media post. The White House and Treasury have not explained how it would work.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum called the tax arbitrary and unjust, and said it would damage both economies.
Source: NBC News
Newsom proposes freezing Medi-Cal enrollment for undocumented adults
California Governor Gavin Newsom proposed closing Medi-Cal to new enrollees aged 19 and older who lack permanent legal status, beginning in 2026, a change his administration estimates would save more than $5 billion.
The 1.6 million immigrants already enrolled would keep coverage, and children could still sign up. Everyone would retain emergency and pregnancy coverage funded federally, but adults who do not enroll before January 2026 would lose coverage for prescriptions and doctor visits. Newsom also proposed a $100 monthly premium from 2027 for adults with what the state calls unsatisfactory immigration status.
The Legislature must approve the changes. Senate Majority Leader Lena Gonzalez said the Latino caucus would not support them.
Source: CalMatters
H-1B registrations fall 27% after fee increase; two-thirds go unselected
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services received 343,981 eligible H-1B registrations for fiscal year 2026, down 27% from 470,342 the year before.
The drop followed a fee increase that raised the cost of entering the lottery from $10 to $215 per registration. With the annual cap set at 65,000 visas plus 20,000 for holders of advanced degrees from U.S. universities, about two-thirds of registrations went unselected.
The number of employers taking part rose 9% to roughly 57,600, while average registrations per employer fell 33%, from 8.9 to 6.0. Practitioners said a second selection round is less likely this year because employers entered fewer speculative registrations.
Source: Forbes
DHS asks the Pentagon for 20,000 National Guard troops for interior arrests
The Department of Homeland Security has asked for 20,000 National Guard troops to help with immigration arrests around the country, and the Pentagon is reviewing the request, a U.S. official told the Associated Press.
Unlike troops already stationed at the southern border, these units would come from the states and support deportation operations in the interior. Whether they could take part in law enforcement work depends on whether they stay under governors' control: the Posse Comitatus Act bars federally ordered troops from domestic law enforcement.
The request would roughly triple the personnel available for enforcement. ICE employs about 20,000 people overall, and its Enforcement and Removal Operations division has about 7,700 staff, including just over 6,000 officers.
Source: AP News
Supreme Court extends block on Alien Enemies Act removals from north Texas
The Supreme Court granted a preliminary injunction extending its pause on the removal of Venezuelan detainees held in northern Texas under the Alien Enemies Act.
In an unsigned opinion, the court said the government had not given people at the Bluebonnet Detention Center enough time to contest their removal, and faulted the district court for taking 14 hours and 28 minutes to act on their request. It vacated a Fifth Circuit ruling that had found no jurisdiction.
The justices left it to lower courts to decide how much notice is required and did not rule on whether the 1798 law was lawfully invoked. Justice Samuel Alito, joined by Justice Clarence Thomas, dissented.
Source: NPR
Asylum seekers face an unclear process four months into the suspension
Four months after President Trump suspended the asylum system by executive order on January 20, lawyers and advocates describe a shifting process with few published rules for people who arrive at the border seeking protection.
Attorneys who work with asylum seekers say many are expelled without a screening, while others are held in ICE custody awaiting review under the Convention Against Torture, a standard harder to meet than asylum. A Russian election worker who said he was caught recording vote rigging was deported to Costa Rica with his wife and son on February 26 without an interview.
Litigation over the restrictions is pending, including whether courts may review the suspension at all.
Source: AP News
Students regain records but not visas as terminations are reversed
More than 4,700 international students had their permission to study in the United States canceled this spring with little notice or explanation, and the reversal of those terminations has not undone the damage for many of them.
In court, Department of Homeland Security officials said they had run student visa holders' names through an FBI database that includes people arrested but never charged. One student who left for South Asia after losing a laboratory job in Houston cannot return because his visa was revoked.
Government lawyers told a court in Oakland that ICE is mailing reactivation letters to affected students. Plaintiffs' attorneys said the letters mean little, because ICE has broadened the grounds for terminations and has not asked the State Department to restore revoked visas.
Source: AP News
Supreme Court lets DHS end TPS for 350,000 Venezuelans
The Supreme Court granted an emergency application allowing the administration to end Temporary Protected Status for about 350,000 Venezuelans, stripping their work permits and protection from deportation while litigation continues.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had terminated a 2023 designation and sought to undo extensions announced at the end of the Biden administration that would have run to October 2026. A federal judge in San Francisco blocked those steps in March, finding they were legally flawed.
The court's order gave no reasoning. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented. A lawyer for the challengers called it the largest single action stripping a group of noncitizens of status in modern U.S. history.
Source: Politico
ICE expands 287(g) agreements deputizing local police
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has sharply expanded the 287(g) program, which delegates federal immigration powers to state and local law enforcement agencies.
The agreements come in three forms. The jail services model lets officers screen people held in jails for immigration violations; the warrant service officer model authorizes them to serve ICE warrants in their own jails; the task force model allows officers to investigate immigration status during routine police work.
The program was authorized by a 1996 law, with the first agreement signed in 2002 with Florida's Department of Law Enforcement. ICE has about 6,000 deportation officers, and the agreements substantially widen the number of personnel available for enforcement.
Source: AP News
Transportation Department orders truck drivers off the road over English tests
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy signed a directive requiring commercial drivers who cannot demonstrate English proficiency in roadside checks to be taken out of service.
The directive implements an executive order President Trump signed on April 28. Federal law has long required commercial drivers to read and speak English well enough to converse with the public, understand traffic signs and respond to official inquiries, but the Obama administration reduced the penalty from removal from service to a citation.
"We are issuing guidance that ensures a driver who cannot understand English will not drive a vehicle in this country," Duffy said at a news conference in Austin. The change affects a workforce with a large share of immigrant drivers.
Source: NBC News