Week of September 30 – October 6, 2026
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.
Justice Department files misconduct complaint against Minnesota federal judges
The Justice Department filed a judicial misconduct complaint against nearly all of the federal district judges in Minnesota, accusing them of breaching the code of judicial conduct by describing to The New York Times how last winter's Operation Metro Surge immigration crackdown overwhelmed their courthouse. The complaint names former Chief Judge Patrick Schiltz, Judge John Tunheim and other judges who spoke to the newspaper.
Attorney General Todd Blanche said the remarks amounted to commenting on pending cases, one of which is before the Supreme Court, and told reporters the judges should recuse themselves from all criminal and civil matters involving the Department of Homeland Security. The complaint was filed with Eighth Circuit Chief Judge Steven Colloton and asks him to appoint a special committee to investigate.
Schiltz said legal ethics experts had confirmed he acted within the rules, citing a February advisory opinion permitting judges to speak on judicial independence. A similar 2025 complaint against Judge James Boasberg was dismissed.
Source: Politico
Immigration judge finds Wisconsin mosque president deportable on foreign policy grounds
Chicago Immigration Court Judge Jayme Salinardi ruled that the government may deport Salah Sarsour, a lawful permanent resident and president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, Wisconsin's largest mosque. The judge accepted the government's argument that Sarsour is removable under Immigration and Nationality Act provisions covering security and foreign policy concerns, while rejecting its claim that he lied on his green card application.
Sarsour, who is Palestinian American and has lived in the United States for more than three decades, was detained by ICE in late March and released in mid-June after a federal judge found he had raised a substantial claim of retaliation for protected speech. He has no US criminal record.
Homeland Security said the judge sustained multiple grounds of removability. Sarsour called the decision deeply disappointing and said his lawyers will appeal; he cannot be removed until his appeals are exhausted.
Source: Reuters
Second judge blocks the $100,000 H-1B entry fee
US District Judge Haywood Gilliam in Oakland blocked the $100,000 payment required for new H-1B petitions, ruling that US Citizenship and Immigration Services and the State Department failed to follow required rulemaking procedures before putting it in place. The order bars the agencies from applying the fee while a lawsuit by unions, employers and nonprofits proceeds.
It is the second such ruling. A Boston judge blocked the fee in June in a case brought by 20 states, and an appeals court declined to pause that decision in July. The US Chamber of Commerce has a third suit pending on appeal.
H-1B filings have typically carried about $2,000 to $5,000 in fees. The program offers 65,000 visas a year plus 20,000 for holders of US advanced degrees. Homeland Security moved in August to adopt a permanent fee of about $103,000 through regulation.
Source: Reuters
USCIS finalizes EB-5 fee rule, more than doubling the investor petition fee
USCIS published a final rule raising fees across the EB-5 immigrant investor program, which is effective November 30, 2026. The fee for the main investor petition rises to $7,615 from $3,675. The agency had proposed $9,625 but lowered the figure after reviewing workload assumptions and public comments.
The rule also creates Form I-527, with a $10,330 fee, for investors who filed before the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 and who need to preserve their eligibility if a regional center is terminated or a project fails. Commenters called the charge punitive; USCIS said it expects few filings and must cover adjudication costs.
Homeland Security says fees will rise by an average of about 70 percent, affecting roughly 16,600 applicants a year. EB-5 requires an investment of $1.05 million, or $800,000 in a targeted employment area, creating at least 10 full-time jobs.
Source: Newsweek
Texas public schools report 14,200 fewer immigrant students
Texas Education Agency data shows public schools enrolled 179,423 immigrant students in 2025-26, more than 14,200 fewer than the previous year. The 7 percent decline is the first drop since the pandemic, and immigration experts told the Texas Tribune the real decrease is probably larger because the state counts only children born abroad who have attended US schools for less than three full academic years.
Losses were concentrated in large urban districts. Houston ISD reported a 22.2 percent decline, Katy 13.9 percent, Conroe 13.1 percent and Austin 12.1 percent. Because Texas funds schools largely by attendance, districts lost tens of millions of dollars.
Administrators attribute much of the decline to deportations and fear of enforcement after the administration rescinded limits on immigration arrests at schools. Homeland Security said ICE does not target schools and called the account a false narrative.
Source: The Texas Tribune
Supreme Court agrees to rule on mandatory detention without bond hearings
The Supreme Court agreed to decide whether people who entered the United States illegally and have lived here for years may be held without a bond hearing for the length of their removal proceedings. The case comes from the Second Circuit, which ruled for Ricardo Aparecido Barbosa da Cunha, a Brazilian national arrested in Massachusetts in September 2025 and later released on bond.
Homeland Security guidance issued in July 2025 treats noncitizens already living in the country as applicants for admission subject to mandatory detention, departing from a nearly three-decade-old reading of the law. Most appeals courts to consider it have ruled against the policy.
Immigrants have filed more than 73,000 federal challenges to their detention this year, about a quarter of all civil cases, and judges have found detention unlawful more than 4,400 times. Argument will come in the term beginning October 5.
Source: Reuters
ICE memo bars vehicle pursuits and limits who may make traffic stops
A memo to ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations officers, signed by executive associate director Marcos D. Charles and obtained by the Associated Press, tells officers they are not authorized to chase vehicles that fail to pull over under any circumstances and should instead record vehicle information for later investigation.
Under the guidance, only officers who have completed one of five agency training courses may conduct vehicle stops; untrained officers may assist only as passengers. Field office directors must ensure stop vehicles have working lights and sirens, and all officers present must wear and activate body cameras. Pinning and spike strips remain permitted for specially trained officers.
ICE officers have fired weapons in more than a dozen vehicle encounters since last year, killing at least four people. ICE said the memo was a routine guidance reminder and that vehicle stops and arrests continue.
Source: Associated Press
Renee Good's family sues ICE officer and senior Trump officials
The wife and brother of Renee Good, the 37-year-old US citizen shot and killed by an immigration officer in Minneapolis on January 7, filed two federal lawsuits alleging wrongful death and other violations of federal law.
One suit seeks damages for Good's suffering and for her partner, Becca Good, who was standing feet away when officer Jonathan Ross fired three rounds into the couple's vehicle. The second alleges a conspiracy to interfere with civil rights and names Ross, former Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller and former Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino, among others.
Good was killed during protests against the deployment of thousands of agents to the city. Homeland Security described her conduct as an act of domestic terrorism, though video shows her car moving away from the officer. The filings are among the first major civil cases over the Minnesota operation.
Source: The Guardian
Judge gives diversity visa selectees 10 extra days after State Department delays
US District Judge Edward Davila ordered the State Department to keep processing diversity visa cases for 10 days past the September 30 end of the fiscal year, finding the department's compliance with his August order was less than substantial. Officials waited 10 days to tell posts to resume processing and then moved at what he called an unprecedented glacial pace.
Diversity visa eligibility normally expires when the fiscal year ends. Issuance was halted in December 2025 for a vetting review, and a separate policy paused immigrant visa processing for nationals of 75 countries. Through September 21 the department was adjudicating about 83 diversity visas a day, roughly a third of its September 2025 average.
Davila declined a broader request to reserve about 40,000 unused visas. The department must keep reporting progress three times a week, with a hearing set for October 15.
Source: USA TODAY
Newsom vetoes California bill barring immigration agents from public jobs
Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed two bills from Los Angeles lawmakers that would have restricted public employment for federal immigration agents, days after signing a broader package pushing back on federal enforcement tactics in California.
Assembly Bill 1896, by Assemblymember Mark Gonzalez and backed by Speaker Robert Rivas and known as the Get the Feds Out Act, would have barred agents and contractors who enforced federal immigration law from state and local jobs, including in law enforcement. Newsom wrote that the bill went a step too far and that it is a mistake to discourage qualified Americans from federal service or from leaving it, adding that public hiring already includes personal conduct reviews and that accountability is Congress's responsibility.
He did sign a related measure barring federal agents whose badges were revoked for misconduct from becoming police officers in California. Gonzalez said the fight is not over.
Source: Los Angeles Times
USCIS raises One Big Beautiful Bill Act fees for inflation from October 16
USCIS announced the fiscal 2027 inflation adjustment to the immigration fees created by H.R. 1, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The law requires an annual adjustment based on the change in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, which rose about 3.36 percent between July 2025 and July 2026, with most results rounded down to the next lowest $10.
The new amounts apply to benefit requests postmarked on or after October 16, 2026. Filings postmarked on or after that date without the correct fee will be rejected. Under the published schedule the annual asylum fee rises from $102 to $105, the parole fee from $1,020 to $1,050, the Temporary Protected Status application fee from $510 to $520, and the affected initial work permit fee from $560 to $570.
Companion Homeland Security notices set fiscal 2027 amounts for enforcement-related fees, including $5,300 charges tied to in absentia removal arrests and apprehensions between ports of entry.
Source: Federal Register
Refugee ceiling set at 17,500 for 2027, mainly for South African Afrikaners
Presidential Determination 2026-24, signed September 25 and published October 2, authorizes the admission of up to 17,500 refugees during fiscal year 2027. The memorandum states that admissions shall primarily be allocated among Afrikaners from South Africa under Executive Order 14204, which covers people the administration describes as victims of unjust racial discrimination.
Admissions remain subject to other standing orders, including Executive Order 14161 requiring the most stringent identity verification of any class of arriving noncitizen, Executive Order 14163 suspending refugee entry except where the secretaries of State and Homeland Security jointly find admission is in the national interest, and Proclamation 10998 restricting entry of certain foreign nationals.
The determination also specifies that people processed under Executive Order 14204 may be considered refugees while still inside their country of nationality or habitual residence, an exception to the usual rule that refugees apply from outside their home country.
Source: Federal Register