Week of September 10–16, 2025

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that President Trump's deportation program will leave roughly 320,000 fewer people in the United States over ten years. The tax and spending law signed in July gave the administration about $150 billion over four years for border wall construction, detention capacity and thousands of additional enforcement staff.

The CBO calculated that those measures could remove about 290,000 immigrants, with a further 30,000 leaving voluntarily. Combined with a lower fertility rate, the office now projects the US population will be 4.5 million lower by 2035 than it forecast in January, reaching 367 million by 2055. It described the projections as highly uncertain.

The report noted the smaller projected population would include fewer people aged 25 to 54, the group most likely to work. It did not directly assess the effect on the economy or the federal budget.

Source: AP News

A federal judge in Rhode Island issued a preliminary injunction pausing a set of federal policies that would have barred many immigrants from federally funded public programs. Soup kitchens, homeless shelters, preschools and adult schools in the plaintiff states may continue serving people regardless of immigration status while the case proceeds.

In July the Departments of Education, Justice, Health and Human Services and Labor directed states to deny access to services including health care, education and job training. The restrictions covered people without legal status as well as some with it, including asylum seekers and student visa holders.

California joined 20 other states and the District of Columbia in suing over the directives. The injunction bars enforcement in those states until the litigation is resolved, which could take months or years.

Source: CalMatters

An internal ICE document obtained by The Guardian shows that at least one South Korean worker arrested in the September 4 raid on the Hyundai battery plant site in Georgia was in the country lawfully. The man entered the United States in June on a B1/B2 visa and worked as a contractor for SFA at HL-GA Battery Company.

The document, written by an ICE agent, states that agents in Atlanta determined he had not violated his visa. It says the Atlanta field office director nonetheless mandated that he be processed for voluntary departure, meaning he would agree to leave the country.

Immigration lawyers quoted in the report called the detention unlawful. The workers arrested in the raid remained in ICE custody pending removal flights to South Korea.

Source: The Guardian

US Citizenship and Immigration Services said election officials have used its SAVE system to check the records of more than 33 million voters. The database, originally built to verify immigration status for public benefits, was revamped for use in voter list maintenance.

An update that took effect on August 15 lets election officials search using only a voter's name, date of birth and the last four digits of a Social Security number, rather than an immigration file number. That change made the system usable for most registered voters.

Several states led by both parties have declined or hesitated to use the tool, citing unanswered questions about its accuracy and data security. The Department of Homeland Security has not responded to questions from members of Congress about how the system works.

Source: NPR

US District Judge Edward Chen denied the government's request to stay his order blocking the termination of Temporary Protected Status for more than a million Venezuelan and Haitian nationals. The ruling keeps the protections in place while the government appeals.

Chen wrote that a stay would irreparably harm holders who would face return to countries the State Department advises against traveling to, along with the loss of work authorization and driving privileges. He said the government offered no evidence or argument that it would suffer irreparable injury without a stay.

In his earlier decision Chen found that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's revocation of the protections was motivated in part by racial animus. TPS was created by the Immigration Act of 1990.

Source: Courthouse News Service

A South Korean charter plane that landed in Atlanta on September 10 departed the following day carrying workers detained in the September 4 raid on a battery plant under construction at Hyundai's site in Ellabell, Georgia. The flight had been scheduled for Wednesday but was delayed for reasons the Foreign Ministry attributed to the US side.

A total of 475 workers were arrested in the raid, more than 300 of them South Korean nationals. US authorities released video showing some of them shackled at the hands, ankles and waist, which caused widespread anger in South Korea.

Foreign Minister Cho Hyun met Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington and said the publicized footage had caused his country great pain. Seoul said it had reached an agreement with Washington for the workers' release.

Source: AP News

California lawmakers approved legislation barring most law enforcement officers, including federal immigration agents, from covering their faces during official business. It is the first such bill passed by a state legislature, though similar proposals have been introduced in Congress and in states including Tennessee, Michigan, Illinois, New York, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.

The bill prohibits neck gaiters, ski masks and similar coverings, with exceptions for undercover officers, medical masks such as N95 respirators and tactical gear. Governor Gavin Newsom has about a month to sign or veto it.

It is unclear whether the state could enforce the rule against federal agents. Newsom has criticized masked arrests but questioned in July whether California has authority over federal officers. Supporters cited the Supreme Court decision this week allowing sweeping immigration operations to resume in Los Angeles.

Source: ABC7 Los Angeles

US District Judge Edward Chen ordered the Department of Homeland Security to reopen its Temporary Protected Status enrollment portal for at least one extra day after Venezuelan beneficiaries were unable to re-register on the September 10 deadline. Venezuela had stopped appearing as a designated country in the online system.

DHS must reactivate the portal within two business days and give at least four hours of notice beforehand. Chen also ordered the agency to update its website, which still displayed a banner citing the Supreme Court's May decision rather than his ruling keeping the Biden-era extension in effect.

That extension preserves TPS for more than half a million Venezuelans until October 2026, provided they re-register. The government blamed a technical glitch for the portal failure.

Source: Miami Herald

US Citizenship and Immigration Services issued a policy memorandum on September 4 directing officers to apply the public charge ground of inadmissibility more strictly. An applicant can be found inadmissible if judged likely to depend primarily on government assistance for subsistence.

Officers are told to weigh age, health, family status, financial resources, education and work skills. The memo also directs closer scrutiny of the Affidavit of Support, the legally enforceable contract in which a sponsor promises to support the immigrant, requiring officers to assess whether the sponsor actually has the means to do so.

The public charge test is long established in the Immigration and Nationality Act, but the guidance changes how it is applied. Families with limited incomes or sponsors with modest resources may find green card applications harder to win.

Source: Miami Herald

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said visa revocations are under way for foreign nationals who celebrated the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, announcing the step in a post on X. Asked at a briefing in Tel Aviv how many visas had been pulled, he said the department had revoked visas and had been denying them, but did not give a figure.

Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau had said the department would review the legal status of immigrants who praised, rationalized or made light of the shooting.

The administration has already revoked hundreds of visas this year, including from students with pro-Palestinian views, and said in August that it was reviewing the records of all US visa holders. Civil liberties groups argue the practice penalizes protected speech.

Source: Axios

The White House moved to contain the diplomatic and economic damage from the September 4 raid at the Hyundai and LG Energy Solution battery plant in Georgia, where 475 workers were arrested on allegations they lacked work authorization. Hundreds of South Korean detainees were flown home on September 11.

In a post on Truth Social, President Trump said foreign workers are welcome and that companies building complex products should be able to bring skilled employees to train American workers, while stressing that those workers are expected to return home. He said he did not want to discourage foreign investment in the United States.

Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau expressed regret over the raid in a meeting with South Korean officials. Stephen Miller has pushed enforcement agencies toward 3,000 arrests a day.

Source: NBC News

US Citizenship and Immigration Services published a 30-day notice seeking approval from the Office of Management and Budget to collect social media identifiers on immigration forms. Comments are due by October 16, 2025.

The agency cites Executive Order 14161, which directs uniform vetting standards, and says the identifiers are needed for identity verification, national security screening and inspection. The collection would apply across many of the most common filings, including the naturalization application N-400, the green card application I-485, the asylum application I-589, the travel document application I-131 and the petition to remove conditions on residence I-751.

USCIS estimates the annual burden at about 3.2 million hours, with roughly 909,700 N-400 respondents and 1,060,585 I-485 respondents each year.

Source: Federal Register