The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is suing all 15 judges on the Maryland federal bench, arguing the court’s policy of automatically pausing certain immigration cases that come before it is unlawful.
Attorneys for the Trump administration argued to the very court they are suing that the policy, imposed through an order the court issued in May, is an “egregious example of judicial overreach.”
Illegal immigrants who sought to stave off deportation by filing asylum claims may find themselves in line for deportation according to a new report.
According to CNN, federal officials are considering a plan in which they would dismiss asylum claims for illegal immigrants, which would make them what CNN called “immediately deportable.”
CNN cited sources it did not name for the report.
The report said that illegal immigrants whose asylum claims are terminated would be subject to expedited removal.
Closing the cases of illegal immigrants who sought asylum with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will impact thousands of illegal immigrants, which the CNN report estimating there were about 250,000 cases in 2023 alone, during the height of the Biden-era spike in illegal immigrants entering the U.S.
The report said about 1.45 million people have asylum applications pending.
An ICE spokesperson said, “This criminal alien should never have been roaming the streets of Los Angeles. Not only is he a member of the ruthless Surenos gang, but he also has multiple convictions for murder, assault, and rape or sexual abuse of a minor.”
Roberto Carlos Munoz-Guatemala, with a history of sex crimes and assault, was arrested after dragging an ICE officer while fleeing in his vehicle.
After six months of aggressive immigration enforcement and promises to focus on deporting violent criminals, the Trump administration has arrested and detained a small fraction of the undocumented immigrants already known to Immigration and Customs Enforcement as having been convicted of sexual assault and homicide, internal ICE data obtained by NBC News shows.
The data is a tally of every person booked by ICE from Oct. 1 through May 31, part of which was during the Biden administration. It shows a total of 185,042 people arrested and booked into ICE facilities during that time; 65,041 of them have been convicted of crimes. The most common categories of crimes they committed were immigration and traffic offenses.
Almost half of the people currently in ICE custody have neither been convicted of nor charged with any crime, other ICE data shows.
The new data obtained by NBC News shows that from Oct. 1 to May 31, ICE arrested 752 people convicted of homicide and 1,693 people convicted of sexual assault, meaning that at the absolute most, the Trump administration has detained only 6% of the undocumented immigrants known to ICE to have been convicted of homicide and 11% of those known to ICE to have been convicted of sexual assault.
A court on Tuesday ordered Costa Rican authorities to release foreign migrants locked up in a shelter after being deported by the United States, according to a resolution issued on the eve of a visit by the US secretary of homeland security.
Some 200 migrants from Afghanistan, Iran, Russia as well as from Africa and some other Asian countries, including 80 children, were brought to the Central American nation in February under an agreement with the US administration of President Donald Trump, a move criticized by human rights organizations.
By partially accepting an appeal filed in March on behalf of the migrants, the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice gave immigration 15 days to process the “determination of the immigration status of the deportees” and their release, according to the resolution seen by AFP.
The migrants were detained in February at the Temporary Migrant Care Center (CATEM), 360 kilometers (220 miles) south of San Jose, on the border with Panama.
However, in the face of criticism, the government allowed them to move freely outside the center in April.
Some accepted voluntary repatriation but about 28 of them remain at CATEM, 13 of them minors, according to official data.
The habeas corpus petition continued until it was resolved Tuesday, and would serve as a precedent to prevent a similar agreement.
The court also ordered Costa Rican authorities to “determine what type of health, education, housing, and general social assistance they require from the State.”
An Alabama woman who married an Iranian man she met online is asking for financial help after he was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) even though he had a visa, she said.
She said Monday that they “are devastated, confused and overwhelmed” and that she’s “trying to do everything I can to get him home.”
Morgan Karimi (Gardner) of Locust Fork, Alabama, about 45 minutes outside Birmingham, said in a Facebook post that her husband, Ribvar Karimi, was detained by ICE on Sunday morning.
She said Monday that they “are devastated, confused and overwhelmed” and that she’s “trying to do everything I can to get him home.”
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ICE agents reportedly told Gardner that her husband was arrested because they did not file for an adjustment of status. The couple was unaware that further action was required after the K1 visa was approved, notably as they were married within the designated 90-day window required by law.
After being admitted to the United States as a K-1 nonimmigrant and marrying the U.S. citizen petitioner—Gardner in this case—within 90 days, Karimi could have applied for lawful permanent resident status and gotten a green card, according to U.S. Customs and Immigration Services (USCIS).
https://www.newsweek.com/iran-ice-detained-visa-immigration-2090079
President Donald Trump‘s administration has been ordered to return a Salvadoran man who was deported minutes after a federal appeals court blocked his removal.
Jordin Melgar-Salmeron was deported to El Salvador on May 7 despite an order from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, New York, blocking it.
On Tuesday, the appeals court ordered the administration to “facilitate the return” of Melgar-Salmeron as soon as possible to “ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador.”
It also directed the government to return to court within one week to provide details on the current location of Melgar-Salmeron and how it planned to return him to the United States.
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-admin-ordered-return-man-deported-el-salvador-2090058
The mayor of Central — a community of about 30,000 outside of Baton Rouge — Evans and his family were forced to evacuate their home by boat in 2016 when flooding from torrential rains destroyed 60% of the structures in town.
“Flood water doesn’t discriminate,” said Evans, a Republican and supporter of President Trump. ‘”Any person that flooded is shocked that it would be considered politics to do flood mitigation.”
So when he received word in April that FEMA was canceling a grant program that would provide nearly $40 million for a new flood control system in Central, he was angry. In a press release, FEMA said the program, which provided funding for infrastructure projects in storm-prone communities, was “wasteful” and had become “more concerned with political agendas than helping Americans recover from natural disasters.”
“To me, it’s a brilliant business decision,” said Evans, who said the drainage project in Central would have saved money in the long run by protecting houses that routinely sustain flood damage FEMA ultimately ends up covering. “And then they pulled the rug out from under us.”
Evans and Central aren’t alone. Amid the avalanche of cuts made in the first five months of the Trump administration, none may have red state politicians more up in arms than the cancellation of the infrastructure program, which is formally known as Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities, or BRIC for short.
The $4.6 billion initiative was launched under the first Trump administration, and a CBS News analysis of FEMA data revealed that two-thirds of the counties awarded grants voted for President Trump over former Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2024 election.
The New Republic reports Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem intends to use FEMA funds to build a new detention center in Florida.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier revealed his approval of plans for funding the facility, called “Alligator Alcatraz” with federal money last week. He said on Fox News that the hostile Florida Everglades would act to deter escape from the 39-square-mile site.
“You don’t need to invest that much in the perimeter. People get out, there’s not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons. Nowhere to go, nowhere to hide,” said Uthmeier.
Despite proposed saving from the facility’s isolation, The New York Times reports it will cost $450 million every year to operate the center, and Noem posted on X that this will be funded “in large part … by FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program.”
In other words the money is being stolen from the people for who it was appropriated by Congress — the victims of floods and other natural disasters.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, we are working at turbo speed to deliver cost-effective and innovative ways to deliver on the American people’s mandate for mass deportations of criminal illegal aliens,” [Bimbo #2] Noem’s claimed. “We will expand facilities and bed space in just days, thanks to our partnership with Florida.”
Repeating a lie ad nauseum doesn’t make it true. Only a small percentage of the deportees have criminal records.
The Trump administration’s draconian immigration enforcement actions are raising the specter of American autocracy, prompting many to ask — perhaps for the first time — how the U.S. could possibly have gotten here. Videos of masked ICE agents in street clothes accosting unsuspecting people in public places, or smashing car windows and dragging people into unmarked vehicles, are all over the internet and social media.
The behavior of ICE agents is also revealing glaring blind spots in the law, which has long been premised on the assumption that government officials mostly act in good faith, prompting the widespread question: Can they legally do that?
Rather astonishingly, the answer is — for the most part — yes, they can.
ICE’s heavy-handed tactics are even being used against people once presumed to be immune from raw police brutality: elected officials.
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https://thehill.com/opinion/immigration/5364547-what-ice-agents-are-doing-is-outrageous-and-legal
