Week of November 4–10, 2026

More than 1.5 million green card applications were awaiting a decision at the end of June, according to US Citizenship and Immigration Services figures analyzed by Newsweek. The agency reported 1,560,290 pending Form I-485 applications as of June 30, 2026. The form is used by people already in the United States to apply for lawful permanent residence.

Humanitarian cases made up the largest share, with 618,097 pending, about 40 percent of the total. Family-based cases accounted for 611,067, and employment-based cases for 268,408. Among field offices, Florida held 265,495 pending cases, California 161,398 and Texas 140,743. The Vermont Service Center alone had 246,100.

USCIS spokesman Zach Kahler told Newsweek the agency "will never sacrifice quality and screening for speed." Across all case types, more than 12.8 million applications were pending at USCIS as of June 30, according to the Niskanen Center.

Source: Newsweek

President Donald Trump named Stephen Miller as White House chief of staff on Friday, replacing Susie Wiles. Miller, 41, has served as deputy chief of staff since January 2025 and is the principal architect of the administration's immigration enforcement program, including the goal of 3,000 arrests a day that pushed federal officers into communities nationwide and increasingly swept up people with no criminal records.

The change, effective Monday, follows Republican losses of both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections. A White House official told Reuters the appointment signals that Trump does not intend to change course on policy. Miller said his mission was to "fight with all of our soul" for the president.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll completed earlier in the week found 36 percent of respondents approve of the immigration crackdown and 54 percent disapprove. Representative Robert Garcia said House Democrats plan to investigate Miller's immigration policies.

Source: Reuters

Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained a Wisconsin state patrol trooper with a pending asylum application as he waited to board a domestic flight at Dane County Regional Airport in Madison, his attorneys said. Carel Aaron Van Der Merwe, 21, came to the United States from South Africa as a child and is included in his father's asylum application. He holds valid federal work authorization and has served as a trooper for nearly a year.

According to a statement from his lawyers, Van Der Merwe told officers he had a work permit and a pending asylum case, but they "said they did not care," placed him in handcuffs and shackles and took him to detention. He is being held in Juneau, Wisconsin.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said work authorization and pending applications "do not confer legal status," adding that he overstayed a 2019 admission and will remain in custody during removal proceedings.

Source: NBC News

Houston Mayor John Whitmire signed an executive order directing city police to contact Immigration and Customs Enforcement only when a person is arrested for a jailable offense and has an applicable ICE warrant. Officers will cite and release people in nonviolent cases, and will no longer call ICE over a civil immigration warrant alone during routine traffic stops.

"I do this to begin a healing process, reduce fear and anxiety across our community," Whitmire said at a Friday news conference, adding, "I also do this knowing that elections matter." Police Chief J. Noe Diaz said he supported the change.

The order reverses the city's direction from April, when the council scaled back limits on ICE cooperation after Governor Greg Abbott threatened to withhold state funding. It follows the midterm election of Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa and comes amid scrutiny of ICE conduct in Houston, including the indictment of an agent accused of striking a pedestrian with his vehicle.

Source: The Texas Tribune

Democratic lawmakers intend to use their new congressional majorities to investigate deaths caused by immigration agents, NPR reported. The killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti during last winter's ICE surge in Minneapolis drew national attention, and NPR reported that seven other people have been killed by immigration agents since January 2025 with little public sign of federal investigation.

Naureen Shah, who leads immigration policy work at the ACLU, said committees can now compel testimony and subpoena figures such as border czar Tom Homan and former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and can demand use-of-force reports and training records. Representative Jamie Raskin, expected to chair the House Judiciary Committee, said Congress will use "every tool at their disposal to investigate ICE."

DHS general counsel James Percival said Democrats are "more interested in political shenanigans than in governing" but that the agency is prepared.

Source: NPR

In his first major interview since Republicans lost control of the House and Senate, President Donald Trump said his administration's deportation push was a factor in the defeat. Asked on CBS's "60 Minutes," in an interview aired Sunday, whether the policy was too tough, he answered: "I think it might be too tough, yeah."

Trump said people he described as "killers" and "drug dealers" should still be removed, but suggested he was open to a deal allowing others to stay "if they're good people working in a landscaping company, or working in a hotel, or doing something, right? And in some cases, paying taxes." He said an immigration agreement with Democrats in the new Congress was "actually doable."

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer responded that putting Stephen Miller in charge of the White House was "not a course correction. That's a promotion."

Source: PBS NewsHour

The Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Trump administration to resume border wall construction in the Big Bend region of Texas while litigation continues. A federal district judge had halted all construction activity there, finding that Congress likely had not clearly authorized the sweeping environmental waivers the government used in an area with the lowest migrant apprehension rate on the southern border.

The justices agreed that federal law sharply limits judges' power to intervene when the government decides rapid barrier construction is necessary. The majority paused the lower court order; Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented.

Congress funded the wall with $46 billion last summer, and Customs and Border Protection has been building about 12 miles of barriers a week nationwide, with a goal of covering the 2,000-mile border with steel walls, vehicle barriers and surveillance technology. Landowners, business owners and environmental groups in Big Bend had opposed the project.

Source: AP News

A deportation flight carrying Iranian nationals was abruptly canceled Sunday morning, according to Ali Rahnama, an attorney with the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund. He said at least eight Iranians had been loaded onto a plane in Mesa, Arizona, for a flight routed through Georgia and Pakistan, and that no explanation was given.

Court documents unsealed days earlier showed that as of mid-October the administration planned to deport Iranians to Iran through an unnamed third country, despite the ongoing war. About a dozen detainees were recently notified of a scheduled flight. US District Judge Ana C. Reyes has ordered the government to give the court 24 hours' notice of any finalized plans and five days' written notice before carrying out such removals.

Three flights between September 2025 and January 2026 returned more than 100 Iranians. DHS declined to comment, saying it is using "all lawful options" to carry out removals.

Source: PBS NewsHour

Carlos Jimenez, a US citizen and father of three from Ontario, California, filed a federal lawsuit seeking more than $25 million over a shooting by an immigration officer in October 2025. According to the complaint, Jimenez approached agents to tell them children would soon gather at a nearby school bus stop, was threatened at gunpoint, and was shot in the back and shoulder as he tried to turn his car around.

The suit alleges excessive force, assault, false arrest and malicious prosecution. It says FBI agents followed him to the hospital, interfered with his care and drove him back to the scene for questioning with a bullet still lodged in him. Bullet fragments remain near his lung.

Federal assault charges against Jimenez were dismissed last week after a diversion agreement. DHS had said the officer fired "defensive" shots. The Justice Department and FBI declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Source: The Guardian

The US Attorney's Office for the Western District of Washington said Monday it no longer has the staffing to defend every habeas corpus petition filed by immigration detainees and will let judges rule without government opposition in many cases. Acting US Attorney Charles Floyd wrote to US District Judge David Estudillo that such cases bring "protracted litigation" that consumes prosecutors' resources.

Floyd said the backlog has "severely impacted the government's ability to respond" to petitions and has crowded out other civil litigation. He did not say how many cases would be affected. Judges have frequently ruled against the administration in petitions filed by detainees arguing they are held unlawfully.

Border czar Tom Homan said last week that courts are handling roughly 85,000 immigration habeas cases. The Supreme Court is separately weighing whether immigrants living in the United States are entitled to bond hearings while contesting deportation.

Source: AP News

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton dropped a lawsuit seeking to shut down FIEL Houston, an immigrant rights organization the state accused of violating nonprofit restrictions by criticizing the immigration policies of President Donald Trump and Governor Greg Abbott. The suit cited social media posts urging people to vote against Trump's immigration proposals. FIEL had opposed Senate Bill 4, the 2023 law allowing Texas police to arrest people suspected of entering the country illegally.

The move came as Paxton's office also ended its nearly three-year effort to close Annunciation House, the El Paso network of migrant shelters, filing a notice of nonsuit with prejudice that bars refiling similar claims. Paxton had alleged harboring and smuggling; founder Ruben Garcia said the shelters serve migrants already processed and released by federal authorities.

Paxton leaves office in mid-January. Attorney General-elect Nathan Johnson, a Democrat, has said he will review cases Paxton brought.

Source: The Texas Tribune

Higher education organizations have sued the Department of Homeland Security over its reinterpretation of Curricular Practical Training, the rule that lets international students take off-campus internships that are an integral part of their curriculum. In broadcast messages issued in August, ICE's Student and Exchange Visitor Program told schools that training qualifies only if it is required of every student pursuing the degree.

The plaintiffs, including the Association of American Universities, NAFSA and the Presidents' Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, argue DHS reversed three decades of practice without notice-and-comment rulemaking, in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act. The complaint says students had internships canceled and lost lab access midstream, and that schools complied immediately because of threats to their ability to enroll international students.

The case is before Judge Julia Kobick in federal district court in Massachusetts. The administration has separately proposed $100,000 fees tied to Optional Practical Training.

Source: Forbes