Week of May 28 – June 3, 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.
White House sets a target of 3,000 immigration arrests a day
Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told immigration officials to aim for 3,000 arrests a day, according to people familiar with a May 21 meeting at ICE headquarters in Washington.
The figure is roughly triple the daily pace of arrests earlier in the term. Miller pressed field office directors and special agents in charge to raise arrest and deportation numbers; Noem sought feedback from ICE leaders. Several attendees left believing their jobs were at risk if the targets were missed.
ICE held nearly 49,000 people in detention as of early May, more than Congress has funded the agency to hold. Border crossings have fallen sharply, shifting enforcement into interior communities.
Source: Axios
Immigration judges dismiss asylum cases of men deported to El Salvador
An immigration judge in San Diego dismissed the asylum claim of Andry Hernandez Romero, one of at least 14 such dismissals in recent weeks involving Venezuelan men sent to a Salvadoran prison under the Alien Enemies Act.
Hernandez, 32, a makeup artist who says he was persecuted in Venezuela for being gay and for opposing the government, had pursued his claim from the Otay Mesa detention center. His case was cut short on March 15, when 268 Venezuelan men were flown to El Salvador without hearings and without notice to their lawyers.
Attorneys say the dismissals remove the men from the U.S. legal system and make return harder. Hernandez is the lead plaintiff in an ACLU suit over the removals.
Source: NBC News
ICE deportations reach 17,200 in April, still short of the stated goal
Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported more than 17,200 people in April, agency data show, about 29% more than in April 2024 and the first month this year that removals exceeded the equivalent month under President Biden.
Removals rose more than 50% from February, when about 11,000 people were deported, and nearly 40% from March, when the figure was just over 12,300. Earlier in the year deportations lagged because fewer people were crossing the border, which had made removals easier to carry out.
The April pace remains less than half what would be needed to match the record 430,000 removals in a single year, set in 2013.
Source: NBC News
Rubio says the U.S. will aggressively revoke Chinese students' visas
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the State Department will work with the Department of Homeland Security to "aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students," including those with ties to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields.
He said visa criteria would also be revised to increase scrutiny of all future applications from mainland China and Hong Kong. The statement did not define "critical fields" or what counts as a party connection; the party had more than 99 million members at the end of 2023.
About 277,000 Chinese students were enrolled in the United States in 2023-24, down from a peak above 370,000 in 2019. China's foreign ministry called the move politically discriminatory.
Source: NBC News
Supreme Court clears the way to end parole for 500,000 migrants
The Supreme Court lifted a district court order that had preserved humanitarian parole for more than 500,000 people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, allowing the administration to revoke their status while litigation continues.
Coming days after the court permitted the termination of Temporary Protected Status for about 350,000 Venezuelans, the order brings the number of people newly exposed to deportation to close to one million.
The court gave no reasoning, as is usual on its emergency docket, and two justices noted dissents. The Justice Department argued the protections were always temporary and that the Department of Homeland Security may revoke them without court interference.
Source: AP News
State Department starts social media screening of Harvard visa applicants
A cable signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio directs consulates to immediately conduct "a complete screening of the online presence" of any nonimmigrant visa applicant traveling to Harvard University for any purpose, including faculty, researchers, staff and guest speakers.
The cable identifies antisemitism as the focus but does not define what would make an applicant inadmissible. It tells officers to weigh whether a private or absent social media presence suggests evasiveness, and to ask applicants to make accounts public while the Fraud Prevention Unit reviews their case.
The department describes the Harvard review as a pilot for expanded vetting of student visa applicants nationwide.
Source: Politico
Fourth improper deportation: man removed 28 minutes after a court order
The administration acknowledged deporting Jordin Melgar-Salmeron to El Salvador on May 7, shortly after a federal appeals court ordered that he be kept in the United States.
Melgar-Salmeron had been in immigration detention since 2022 while his case was pending. In court filings, officials blamed a "confluence of administrative errors," including missed emails and an inaccurate passenger roster for the removal flight. His lawyer said he would seek an order requiring the government to bring him back and hold officials in contempt.
It is the fourth case courts have found improper, after those of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, Daniel Lozano-Camargo and a Guatemalan man identified as O.C.G.
Source: Politico
State Department raises the Afrikaner refugee ceiling to 17,500
The State Department told Congress it will admit up to 17,500 Afrikaners as refugees through the fiscal year ending in September, up from an initial figure of 7,500, citing what it called "unforeseen developments in South Africa" that created an emergency refugee situation.
The notice pointed to statements by South African officials it said undermine the resettlement program, and to a December incident in which South African officials entered a U.S. refugee processing center.
The admissions continue while the wider refugee program remains suspended. South Africa's government has called the discrimination claims baseless. Congress must be consulted on annual refugee levels under federal law.
Source: AP News
Supreme Court takes GEO Group appeal over $1-a-day detainee work
The Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal by GEO Group in a 2014 lawsuit alleging that immigration detainees at its Aurora, Colorado facility were made to do unpaid janitorial work and were paid $1 a day for other jobs.
The company says its rates follow ICE regulations and that, because it runs the facility for the federal government, it shares the government's immunity from such suits. Lawyers for the detainees say the case is simply about people paid almost nothing for their labor.
A district judge let the case proceed and the Tenth Circuit declined to review the immunity question before trial. GEO Group operates or owns about 77,000 beds at 98 facilities.
Source: AP News
ICE acting director defends masked agents as arrests climb
ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons defended his agents' tactics at a Boston news conference announcing nearly 1,500 arrests in the region during a month-long surge operation.
Asked why officers wear masks, Lyons said some have received death threats and been harassed online. "I'm sorry if people are offended by them wearing masks, but I'm not going to let my officers and agents go out there and put their lives on the line," he said.
The remarks followed criticism of an operation at an Italian restaurant in San Diego just before the dinner rush on May 30, where agents in tactical gear used what appeared to be a flash bang to disperse a crowd. San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria said he was deeply upset by it.
Source: AP News
Mexican girl with short bowel syndrome granted one year of parole
The Department of Homeland Security granted humanitarian parole for one year to a 4-year-old Mexican girl and her mother so the child can continue treatment at a Southern California hospital, her lawyers said.
The girl has short bowel syndrome and receives intravenous nutrition through a portable backpack. Her attorneys at Public Counsel say the treatment is not available in Mexico and is necessary for her survival. The family arrived at the border in 2023 and was released after she was stabilized.
The family had been told in April and May that their parole was being revoked and that they could be deported. The lawyers said the case shows the need for clearer communication from immigration officials.
Source: AP News