Week of May 7–13, 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.
New 1,000-bed ICE detention center opens in Newark amid permit fight
Delaney Hall, a 1,000-bed immigration detention facility on an industrial stretch of Newark Bay, opened on May 1, according to GEO Group, the private prison company that runs it.
The building, formerly a halfway house, is covered by a $1 billion, 15-year contract between GEO Group and Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced in February. It expands federal detention capacity in New Jersey's largest city.
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka sued GEO Group, arguing the facility lacks a certificate of occupancy and other city permits and should not be operating. The case moved from state to federal court, where a judge is weighing the city's request to block the opening. Neither GEO Group nor ICE would say whether anyone is being held there.
Source: WHYY
Administration asks Supreme Court to allow revocation of CHNV parole
The Justice Department asked the Supreme Court on May 8 to lift a district court order that is blocking the termination of humanitarian parole for hundreds of thousands of Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan migrants.
Government lawyers argued that U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani's order in Boston had upended immigration policies "carefully calibrated to deter illegal entry." The Department of Homeland Security moved in March to cut short two-year parole grants held by about 400,000 people.
Parole allows recipients to live and work in the United States for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit. The justices told the challengers to respond by May 15.
Source: Reuters
Trump signs order creating a paid self-deportation program
President Trump said he signed an executive order on May 9 formally launching a self-deportation program for people living in the country illegally.
In a video posted to social media, Trump said any person without legal status can go to an airport and receive a free flight to any country other than the United States, along with an "exit bonus." He warned that those who stay face jail time, financial penalties, confiscation of property and wage garnishment.
The order follows the Department of Homeland Security's announcement days earlier of a $1,000 payment for people who depart using the CBP Home app. The American Immigration Lawyers Association urged people to consult a lawyer first, warning the offer obscures consequences such as bars on returning.
Source: The Hill
Newark mayor arrested at ICE detention center he had been protesting
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested on May 9 at Delaney Hall, the new federal immigration detention center he has been protesting, and was held for several hours before being released around 8 p.m.
He was accused of trespassing and of ignoring warnings to leave the property. Baraka had tried to join a scheduled tour of the facility with three members of New Jersey's congressional delegation.
"The reality is this: I didn't do anything wrong," Baraka told supporters after his release. He declined to discuss the case further, citing instructions from his lawyers and the judge. Baraka, a Democrat, is running to succeed term-limited Governor Phil Murphy.
Source: AP News
White House adviser says suspending habeas corpus is under consideration
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller told reporters that the administration is "actively looking at" suspending the writ of habeas corpus for immigrants challenging their detention.
Miller said the Constitution allows the privilege to be suspended "in a time of invasion" and that whether the administration acts "depends on whether the courts do the right thing or not." Habeas petitions are the standard route for contesting unlawful detention, and courts have used them to order the release of immigrants detained in recent enforcement actions.
Constitutional scholars said the overwhelming consensus is that only Congress can suspend habeas corpus. The only comparable episode came when President Lincoln acted while Congress was out of session and Congress later ratified the step.
Source: PBS NewsHour
State Department charters flight to bring Afrikaner refugees to the U.S.
A group of white South Africans was due to arrive in Washington on a State Department-chartered plane to be resettled as refugees, the first admitted under a carve-out from the administration's suspension of refugee admissions.
Trump suspended the refugee program by executive order on January 20, then issued a second order cutting aid to South Africa while creating an exception for "Afrikaner refugees escaping government-sponsored race-based discrimination, including racially discriminatory property confiscation."
South Africa's government objected in a call between Deputy Minister Alvin Botes and Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau, saying the discrimination allegations are unfounded and disputing that the group meets the refugee definition set out in the 1951 Refugee Convention.
Source: NBC News
Tennessee Highway Patrol and ICE detain 103 people in Nashville sweeps
The Tennessee Highway Patrol said it made 588 traffic stops in a joint operation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement that began May 3, and that ICE took 103 people into custody over suspected immigration violations.
The Highway Patrol said the stops also produced drugs and firearms and that one person was wanted in a killing in El Salvador. It said stops were based solely on driver behavior.
Nashville city officials said they were not told about the operation. Law Director Wally Dietz said it caught city government by surprise and that the Highway Patrol told him to file a public records request for details. Governor Bill Lee recently signed a law creating a state immigration enforcement division.
Source: AP News
Federal judges warn that deportation shortcuts could reach citizens
Federal judges appointed by presidents of both parties are issuing increasingly pointed warnings that the administration's removal practices erode due process protections that also cover U.S. citizens.
The Fifth Amendment bars depriving any "person" of liberty without due process, a term the Supreme Court has long read to include noncitizens in deportation proceedings. Judges say the practices now applied to people labeled gang members or terrorists could be extended to others.
"If today the Executive claims the right to deport without due process and in disregard of court orders, what assurance will there be tomorrow that it will not deport American citizens?" wrote Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson of the Fourth Circuit, a Reagan appointee, describing an "incipient crisis."
Source: Politico
Episcopal Church ends federal resettlement partnership over Afrikaner referrals
Episcopal Migration Ministries refused a federal directive to resettle white South Africans admitted as refugees and said it will wind down its refugee resettlement grant agreements with the government by the end of the federal fiscal year.
Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe announced the decision on May 12, shortly before 59 South Africans landed at Dulles International Airport on a charter flight and were met by a government delegation. He cited the church's "steadfast commitment to racial justice and reconciliation" and its ties to the Anglican Church of Southern Africa.
The arrivals moved ahead of thousands of refugees abroad who had spent years in vetting before the administration shut down the wider refugee program.
Source: NBC News
DHS ends Temporary Protected Status for Afghanistan
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced the termination of Temporary Protected Status for Afghanistan, a decision affecting more than 9,000 Afghans in the United States.
Noem said conditions in Afghanistan no longer meet the statutory requirements for a designation and that the step returns TPS "to its original temporary intent." She also cited fraud and public safety investigations involving some recipients. Protection expires on May 20, with the termination taking effect on July 12.
President Biden designated Afghanistan for TPS after the Taliban takeover and the U.S. withdrawal in 2021, when tens of thousands of Afghans were evacuated to the United States. The group #AfghanEvac called the decision "unconscionable."
Source: Politico
Grand jury indicts Milwaukee judge over courthouse immigration arrest
A federal grand jury indicted Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan on charges of concealing a person from arrest and obstructing a proceeding before a federal agency, the same counts brought by criminal complaint after her April 25 arrest.
The case stems from the April 18 arrest of Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, who was due before Dugan for a pretrial conference on three misdemeanor domestic abuse battery counts when ICE officers came to the courthouse.
Dugan was released on her own recognizance after her arrest and was suspended by the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which said it was in the public interest to relieve her of her duties. She faces up to six years in prison if convicted, and says she expects to be vindicated.
Source: ABC News
ICE reports 422 arrests and 528 deportations in a week in Houston
Immigration and Customs Enforcement said its Houston field office arrested 422 people, 296 of them with criminal convictions, and deported 528 during a seven-day operation running from May 4 to May 10.
The agency said the operation prioritized people who had exhausted their appeals and already had removal orders. To speed those cases, ICE Houston used an initiative that routes people to designated hubs on the southern border, where the agency says they are processed and removed within 24 to 72 hours of arrival.
ICE listed examples of those arrested, including people with prior convictions for homicide, sexual exploitation of a minor and repeated illegal reentry.