Week of October 8–14, 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.
Rural schools and hospitals say the H-1B fee will deepen staffing shortages
Rural employers that rely on H-1B workers to fill teaching and medical vacancies say the $100,000 fee will make those hires impossible. Rob Coverdale, superintendent of the K-12 Crow Creek Tribal School in South Dakota, filled 15 open teaching positions within nine months of starting in 2023, mostly with Filipino teachers on H-1B visas.
"They're certainly not taking jobs from Americans," Coverdale said. "They're filling jobs that otherwise just simply we would not get filled."
One in eight public school positions nationally is vacant or filled by an uncertified teacher, and the American Medical Association projects a shortage of 87,000 physicians over the next decade. Large technology firms remain the biggest users of the visa, and nearly three quarters of approved workers are from India. The White House has said the fee does not apply to existing holders and has offered an exemption request form.
Source: AP News
Judge finds ICE breached consent decree on warrantless arrests in Chicago
US District Judge Jeffrey Cummings ruled that ICE violated a federal consent decree when it arrested at least 22 people without warrants earlier this year. He extended the decree limiting warrantless arrests until February and ordered ICE to reissue guidance on probable cause to agents nationwide.
Cummings agreed with immigrant and civil rights groups that faulted the agency's practice of having officers carry blank warrant forms and fill them in at the scene. The ruling leaves open the possible release of people detained without warrants in recent weeks.
The decision came the same day Texas National Guard troops arrived in Illinois. A federal grand jury separately declined to indict two people charged with assaulting officers while protesting in Broadview, and a judge ordered the pretrial release of two others, including a woman shot by a Border Patrol agent.
Source: Capitol News Illinois
State Department tells Cuban entrants they were wrongly shown as visa lottery winners
The State Department said a review of the selection system for the DV-2026 diversity visa lottery found that a small number of participants from Cuba may have received incorrect information about their selection status. It has notified those who listed Cuba as their country of chargeability that they are ineligible for the 2026 program year.
Cuban nationals were excluded from DV-2026 because more than 50,000 Cubans emigrated to the United States in the preceding five years, a threshold that disqualifies a country from the lottery. Emigration rose partly under Biden-era measures such as humanitarian parole.
The lottery is free to enter and awards up to 55,000 green cards a year, subject to education and work experience requirements. Selection does not guarantee an interview or a visa.
Source: Miami Herald
Seattle mayor issues orders on federal troops and immigration agents
Mayor Bruce Harrell signed executive orders setting out how Seattle police would respond if federal troops were deployed to the city and seeking to limit the conduct of federal immigration agents. The first order states that the police department will maintain functional independence and will not act at the direction of the National Guard or federal authorities.
Officers are to report daily to the mayor on the known actions of any deployed troops. The order creates a city task force to prepare for a deployment and directs officials to ready a lawsuit challenging one.
"As we've seen in Portland and now Chicago, President Trump is unilaterally ramping up his military occupation of American cities," Harrell said at a press conference, adding that the city is ready to fight in court.
Source: Axios
Iowa orders state agencies to run E-Verify and SAVE checks
Governor Kim Reynolds signed Executive Order 15 requiring every Iowa state government department to verify employment eligibility before hiring, and to confirm immigration status or US citizenship before issuing state occupational and professional licenses.
The state will use two federal systems run by USCIS and available at no cost: E-Verify, which compares Form I-9 information against Department of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration records to confirm work eligibility, and SAVE, which verifies immigration status or citizenship.
Reynolds cited recent events involving the former superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools, saying the order puts safeguards in place for anyone seeking a state license before they are entrusted with the health, safety or education of Iowans. Some agencies already used E-Verify voluntarily; the order makes it mandatory.
Source: Office of the Governor of Iowa
Courts split on National Guard deployments in Chicago and Portland
Two federal courts took opposite views of the administration's plan to send National Guard troops into American cities. US District Judge April Perry in Chicago halted the deployment in Illinois, while a Ninth Circuit panel appeared ready to allow troops in Oregon.
Perry pressed a Justice Department lawyer on the claim that federal immigration agents and property faced grave danger, suggesting that agents had provoked confrontations by using tear gas and militarized tactics against demonstrations that never exceeded a few hundred people. She said Guard units are not trained for that role.
The divergent hearings illustrate how differently judges have treated the domestic use of the military over the objections of state and city officials, with some granting the president wide latitude and others questioning the factual basis for the deployments.
Source: Politico
Voluntary departures nearly double as detained immigrants abandon their cases
Immigration judges granted voluntary departure in 15,241 cases in the fiscal year that ended September 30, up from 8,663 the year before, according to the Justice Department's Executive Office for Immigration Review. Voluntary departure lets a person leave without a formal removal order or a bar on returning.
Ramon Rodriguez Vazquez, 62, had farmed in southeast Washington for 16 years and had no criminal record when officers looking for someone else detained him in February. He was denied bond, held in Tacoma where he was not consistently given his blood pressure medication, and eventually asked the judge to let him leave. He returned to Mexico alone.
Cases like his have multiplied since early July, when ICE began opposing bond for everyone in detention regardless of circumstances. Homeland Security said in August that 1.6 million people had left the country since January.
Source: AP News
Broadview, a village of 8,000, becomes the center of Chicago enforcement fight
Broadview, Illinois, a village of 8,000 people spread over just two miles, has been transformed by the ICE processing facility on 25th Avenue where arrested immigrants are taken. Residents describe daily confrontations outside their homes between demonstrators, local police and federal agents.
On one recent afternoon protesters broke through a barricade and Illinois State Police troopers moved in with batons to hold back the crowd. Television crews now broadcast live from the street, and officers in bulletproof vests block intersections and keep people on the sidewalks.
Before Operation Midway Blitz, the working- and middle-class suburb was largely unknown outside the area. "It's been a month," one resident told NBC News. "This isn't going to stop."
Source: NBC News
Los Angeles County declares an emergency over immigration raids
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 to declare a local state of emergency over federal immigration raids, giving the county power to help residents who have lost income because of the enforcement campaign. Supervisor Kathryn Barger voted against it.
The declaration allows the county to provide rent relief to tenants who have fallen behind and to direct state money toward legal aid and other services. Supervisor Lindsey Horvath's office said an online application portal for rent assistance would open within two months. The motion could lead to an eviction moratorium, but that would require a separate vote.
Federal agents have arrested immigrants at Home Depot lots, car washes, bus stops and farms since the summer, and some US citizens have been detained. Landlords objected, citing the earlier pandemic eviction ban.
Source: AP News
Chicago teachers report tear gas near playgrounds and frightened students
Chicago educators say immigration enforcement around their schools is disrupting classes and traumatizing students. One teacher described tear gas drifting toward a playground, forcing recess indoors. A video recorded near another school showed officers dragging a woman from her van onto the ground.
"Everyone's very anxious," said Sheena Shukla, a social worker with Chicago Public Schools. "Can you imagine telling a 12-year-old that people are out there who might want to take their family?"
Staff at some schools have formed teams that patrol the surrounding area, report ICE activity, keep parents informed and escort families to and from class. Chicago is nearly 30 percent Latino and more than 22 percent foreign-born.
Source: NBC News