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Newsweek: Economic Warning as More Than Half-Million People Could Leave US This Year
The U.S. could see hundreds of thousands leave the country this year thanks to President Donald Trump‘s immigration agenda, but experts believe his aggressive campaign of deportations and entry limitations could shrink the foreign-born labor force to the detriment of the economy.
In a paper recently published by the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute (AEI), researchers estimated that U.S. net migration could end up between a negative 525,000 and 115,000 this year, which they said reflects “a dramatic decrease in inflows and somewhat higher outflows.” This compares to nearly 1.3 million in 2024, according to Macrotrends, and 330,000 in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic brought global travel to an abrupt standstill.
If their lower-end forecasts prove correct, it would represent the first time the U.S. has seen negative net migration in decades.
Given much of the American labor force consists of foreign-born workers—19.2 percent, per the Department of Labor—and immigrants also make up a significant share of the spending market, such a decline could put downward pressure on the labor force and consumer spending and reduce GDP this year by up to 0.4 percent.
This echoes the findings of another paper, published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas last week that estimates the decline in immigration could mean a 0.75 percent to 1.0 percent hit to GDP growth this year.
“The drop in migrant inflows, and the drop in the foreign-born population more broadly, will have adverse effects on growth in the U.S. labor force, which will spill over into almost every sector of the economy,” Madeline Zavodny, one of the authors of Dallas Fed paper, told Newsweek.
This is exacerbated by the country’s low birth rate—already a source of economic unease—which is leading to a shrinking share of the population in the “working-age” bracket.
“The U.S. population is aging,” Zavodny said, “and we rely on new immigrants to help fuel growth in the labor force and key sectors, from agriculture to construction to health care.”
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson, in response to some of these fears, told Newsweek: “President Trump’s agenda to deport criminal illegal aliens will improve Americans’ quality of life across the board. American resources, funded by American taxpayers, will no longer be stretched thin and abused by illegals.”
“President Trump is ushering in America’s golden age and growing our economy with American workers,” she added.
Bullshit!!!
Giovanni Peri, a labor economist and professor at the University of California, Davis, said that the jobs impact of a sustained decline in net inflows will be felt the strongest in lower-skilled areas such as construction, agriculture, hospitality and personal services, and roles where American-born workers are unlikely to offset declining migrant inflows. As a consequence, he told Newsweek, prices in these sectors will likely increase.
Stan Veuger, senior fellow in economic policy studies at AEI and one of the authors of the working paper, similarly said that the agriculture, leisure and construction sectors will be hit hardest by the drop in labor supply. He added that, on the demand side, a drop in foreign-born workers will impact real estate, as well as the retail and utilities sectors, the most.
“Large firms may be able to attract some more workers to replace them, usually paying higher wages,” Peri said, “while smaller firms will be more at risk of staying in business as they have smaller productivity and margins.”
Zavodny also said that small businesses will suffer the most—given these traditionally struggle to access temporary worker programs such as H-2A and H-2B visas—but that large employers will be affected too, and that “everyone will lose part of their customer base.”
The American Immigration Council estimates that the country’s foreign-born population possesses about $1.7 trillion in spending power—of which $299 billion comes from undocumented immigrants—and paid $167 billion in rent in 2023.
As outlined in AEI’s paper, lower spending will reduce business revenues, prompting layoffs and putting another form of pressure on the labor market besides the declining workforce.
Despite the potential economic fallout, Trump shows no signs of relenting on his campaign promises regarding immigration, with deportations in full swing and the president having recently signed the GOP reconciliation bill that frees up about $150 billion to help enforce that part of his agenda.
“I would hope so, though I am not optimistic,” said AEI’s Stan Veuger, when asked whether the impact on economic growth could prompt a reconsideration of the administration’s stance.
“I think the people driving immigration policy in the White House do not care about the economic [or humanitarian] impact of their immigration policies.”
Giovanni Peri, a labor economist and professor at the University of California, Davis, said that the jobs impact of a sustained decline in net inflows will be felt the strongest in lower-skilled areas such as construction, agriculture, hospitality and personal services, and roles where American-born workers are unlikely to offset declining migrant inflows. As a consequence, he told Newsweek, prices in these sectors will likely increase.
Stan Veuger, senior fellow in economic policy studies at AEI and one of the authors of the working paper, similarly said that the agriculture, leisure and construction sectors will be hit hardest by the drop in labor supply. He added that, on the demand side, a drop in foreign-born workers will impact real estate, as well as the retail and utilities sectors, the most.
“Large firms may be able to attract some more workers to replace them, usually paying higher wages,” Peri said, “while smaller firms will be more at risk of staying in business as they have smaller productivity and margins.”
Zavodny also said that small businesses will suffer the most—given these traditionally struggle to access temporary worker programs such as H-2A and H-2B visas—but that large employers will be affected too, and that “everyone will lose part of their customer base.”
The American Immigration Council estimates that the country’s foreign-born population possesses about $1.7 trillion in spending power—of which $299 billion comes from undocumented immigrants—and paid $167 billion in rent in 2023.
As outlined in AEI’s paper, lower spending will reduce business revenues, prompting layoffs and putting another form of pressure on the labor market besides the declining workforce.
Despite the potential economic fallout, Trump shows no signs of relenting on his campaign promises regarding immigration, with deportations in full swing and the president having recently signed the GOP reconciliation bill that frees up about $150 billion to help enforce that part of his agenda.
“I would hope so, though I am not optimistic,” said AEI’s Stan Veuger, when asked whether the impact on economic growth could prompt a reconsideration of the administration’s stance.
“I think the people driving immigration policy in the White House do not care about the economic [or humanitarian] impact of their immigration policies.”
Economic warning as more than half-million people could leave US this year
Predicted decline in net migration will have impact that one economist said could “spill over into almost every sector of the economy.”
https://www.newsweek.com/economic-warning-half-million-leave-us-2100225
Latin Times: ICE Pushes Landlords for Tenant Records as Trump Admin Ramps Up Deportation Efforts
Homeland Security’s Tricia McLaughlin defended the practice, stating that ICE has authority to issue administrative subpoenas and warned of potential legal penalties for noncompliance
Federal immigration authorities are requesting tenant information from landlords as part of a broader enforcement strategy under President Donald Trump‘s immigration crackdown.
Real estate attorney Eric Teusink, based in Atlanta and consulted by The Associated Press, said several of his clients have recently received administrative subpoenas seeking complete rental files for specific tenants.
The two-page forms, reviewed by the outlet and issued by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ (USCIS) fraud detection unit, request lease agreements, rental applications, identification documents, forwarding addresses, and information on cohabitants. These subpoenas are not signed by a judge, raising legal concerns among landlords and attorneys.
“It seemed like they were on a fishing expedition,” Teusink told the Associated Press. After consulting with immigration attorneys, he concluded that without judicial authorization, compliance is voluntary.
Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin defended the practice, saying that ICE and other immigration agencies have authority to issue administrative subpoenas and warned of potential legal penalties for noncompliance:
“We are not going to comment on law enforcement’s tactics surrounding ongoing investigations. However, it is false to say that subpoenas from ICE can simply be ignored. ICE is authorized to obtain records or testimony through specific administrative subpoena authorities. Failure to comply with an ICE-issued administrative subpoena may result in serious legal penalties. The media needs to stop spreading these lies”
Legal experts warn that landlords who respond to such requests may be violating federal housing laws. Stacy Seicshnaydre, a housing law professor at Tulane University, cautioned against what she called “overcompliance,” especially since many tenants are unaware their information may be turned over to federal authorities. “Just because a landlord gets a subpoena, doesn’t mean it’s a legitimate request,” she added.
This development comes as the Trump administration accelerates immigration enforcement efforts across multiple fronts. Earlier this week, acting ICE Director Todd M. Lyons issued a directive requiring the detention of undocumented immigrants for the entirety of their removal proceedings, eliminating bond hearings in most cases. Release will be allowed only under exceptional circumstances at the discretion of ICE officers.
ICE is under internal pressure to dramatically increase arrest numbers. Trump’s border czar Tom Homan last week called for 7,000 arrests per day — more than double the already elevated goal set by top White House officials:
“We have to arrest 7,000 every single day for the remainder of this administration just to catch the ones Biden released into the nation. And for those that say 3,000 a day is too much, I want to remind them: do the math.”
No landlord in his right mind would honor such request. If it’s not signed by a judge, chuck it in the trash!!!
Compliance may result in your tenants being snatched, detained, and deported, causing not only loss of rents but perhaps also resulting in evictions of remaining family members and roommates who can’t afford the rent on their own.
There is no “win” for the landlords here.
Alternet: ‘Really corrupt’: Church accuses Trump administration of committing ‘domestic terrorism’
Delegates at the United Church of Christ’s (UCC) 35th General Synod overwhelmingly passed an emergency resolution this week, condemning the ongoing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids as “domestic terrorism” and accusing President Donald Trump’s administration of “weaponizing the Constitution.”
Religious News Service reported Tuesday that the resolution targets immigration enforcement operations “carried out by ICE agents working without uniforms, wearing masks or refusing to identify themselves,” condemning these tactics as threatening and abusive.
Titled “Responding to the federal government’s attack on immigrants, migrants, and refugees,” the resolution urges the church to divest from for-profit private detention firms, specifically naming CoreCivic, GEO Group, and Management and Training Corp.— while allowing congregations to go further if they choose, according to the report.
Presented as an emergency motion by the Rev. Clara Sims of First Congregational UCC in Albuquerque on behalf of the Southwest Conference, the move reflects the church’s urgent response to escalated immigration enforcement under the Trump administration.
Meanwhile, First Congregational UCC has opened housing and provided food and aid to immigrants arriving from the border, actions its minister says stem from the denomination’s theological commitment to protect the vulnerable.
“Our faith has always called us into spaces of risk on behalf of the vulnerable,” said Sims, “especially when people are being made vulnerable by really corrupt systems of power.”
The Southwest Conference fast-tracked the resolution after national church leaders and regional partners voiced deep concerns about human rights violations in detention facilities, per the report.
Last month, Bishop Alberto Rojas of the Diocese of San Bernardino, California, released a letter addressing recent reports that ICE agents had entered Catholic churches.
As head of the sixth-largest Catholic diocese in the U.S., Bishop Rojas strongly criticized the escalation of ICE operations.
In his communication to Catholics, he highlighted that “authorities are now seizing brothers and sisters indiscriminately, without respect for their right to due process and their dignity as children of God.”
He conveyed his solidarity with immigrants “who are bearing the trauma and injustice of these tactics,” and assured them that “we join you in carrying this very difficult cross.”
Associated Press: Army veteran and US citizen arrested in California immigration raid warns it could happen to anyone
George Retes, 25, … said he was arriving at work on July 10 when several federal agents surrounded his car and — despite him identifying himself as a U.S. citizen — broke his window, peppered sprayed him and dragged him out…. Retes was taken to the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles, where he said he was put in a special cell on suicide watch…. He said federal agents never told him why he was arrested or allowed him to contact a lawyer or his family during his three-day detention. Authorities never let him shower or change clothes despite being covered in tear gas and pepper spray, Retes said, adding that his hands burned throughout the first night he spent in custody. On Sunday, an officer had him sign a paper and walked him out of the detention center. He said he was told he faced no charges. “They gave me nothing I could wrap my head around,” Retes said, explaining that he was met with silence on his way out when he asked about being “locked up for three days with no reason and no charges.”
A U.S. Army veteran who was arrested during an immigration raid at a Southern California marijuana farm last week said Wednesday he was sprayed with tear gas and pepper spray before being dragged from his vehicle and pinned down by federal agents who arrested him.
George Retes, 25, who works as a security guard at Glass House Farms in Camarillo, said he was arriving at work on July 10 when several federal agents surrounded his car and — despite him identifying himself as a U.S. citizen — broke his window, peppered sprayed him and dragged him out.
“It took two officers to nail my back and then one on my neck to arrest me even though my hands were already behind my back,” Retes said.
The Ventura City native was detained during chaotic raids at two Southern California farms where federal authorities arrested more than 360 people, one of the largest operations since President Donald Trump took office in January. Protesters faced off against federal agents in military-style gear, and one farmworker died after falling from a greenhouse roof.
The raids came more than a month into an extended immigration crackdown by the Trump administration across Southern California that was originally centered in Los Angeles, where local officials say the federal actions are spreading fear in immigrant communities.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom spoke on the raids at a news conference Wednesday, calling Trump a “chaos agent” who has incited violence and spread fear in communities.
“You got someone who dropped 30 feet because they were scared to death and lost their life,” he said, referring to the farmworker who died in the raids. “People are quite literally disappearing with no due process, no rights.”
Retes was taken to the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles, where he said he was put in a special cell on suicide watch and checked on each day after he became emotionally distraught over his ordeal and missing his 3-year-old daughter’s birthday party Saturday.
He said federal agents never told him why he was arrested or allowed him to contact a lawyer or his family during his three-day detention. Authorities never let him shower or change clothes despite being covered in tear gas and pepper spray, Retes said, adding that his hands burned throughout the first night he spent in custody.
On Sunday, an officer had him sign a paper and walked him out of the detention center. He said he was told he faced no charges.
“They gave me nothing I could wrap my head around,” Retes said, explaining that he was met with silence on his way out when he asked about being “locked up for three days with no reason and no charges.”
Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, confirmed Retes’ arrest but didn’t say on what charges.
“George Retes was arrested and has been released,” she said. “He has not been charged. The U.S. Attorney’s Office is reviewing his case, along with dozens of others, for potential federal charges related to the execution of the federal search warrant in Camarillo.”
A federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to halt indiscriminate immigration stops and arrests without warrants in seven California counties, including Los Angeles. Immigrant advocates accused federal agents of detaining people because they looked Latino. The Justice Department appealed on Monday and asked for the order to be stayed.
The Pentagon also said Tuesday it was ending the deployment of 2,000 National Guard troops in Los Angeles. That’s roughly half the number the administration sent to the city following protests over the immigration actions. Some of those troops have been accompanying federal agents during their immigration enforcement operations.
Retes said he joined the Army at 18 and served four years, including deploying to Iraq in 2019.
“I joined the service to help better myself,” he said. “I did it because I love this (expletive) country. We are one nation and no matter what, we should be together. All this separation and stuff between everyone is just the way it shouldn’t be.”
Retes said he plans to sue for wrongful detention.
“The way they’re going about this entire deportation process is completely wrong, chasing people who are just working, especially trying to feed everyone here in the U.S.,” he said. “No one deserves to be treated the way they treat people.”
Retes was detained along with California State University Channel Islands professor Jonathan Caravello, also a U.S. citizen, who was arrested for throwing a tear gas canister at law enforcement, U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli posted on X.
The California Faculty Association said Caravello was taken away by agents who did not identify themselves nor inform him of why he was being taken into custody. Like Retes, the association said the professor was then held without being allowed to contact his family or an attorney.
Caravello was attempting to dislodge a tear gas canister that was stuck underneath someone’s wheelchair, witnesses told KABC-TV, the ABC affiliate in Los Angeles.
A federal judge on Monday ordered Caravello to be released on $15,000 bond. He’s scheduled to be arraigned Aug. 1.
“I want everyone to know what happened. This doesn’t just affect one person,” Retes said. “It doesn’t matter if your skin is brown. It doesn’t matter if you’re white. It doesn’t matter if you’re a veteran or you serve this country. They don’t care. They’re just there to fill a quota.”
Army veteran and US citizen arrested in California immigration raid warns it could happen to anyone
A U.S. Army veteran arrested during an immigration raid at a California marijuana farm says he was sprayed with tear gas and pepper spray before being dragged from his vehicle on his way to work.
https://apnews.com/article/us-army-veteran-immigration-raid-53cb22251a01599a0c4d1a8d5650d050
San Fernando Valley Sun: After Multiple ICE Raids, Uncertainty Looms at the Van Nuys Home Depot
At the Van Nuys Home Depot parking lot, where hundreds of day laborers gathered daily to find work, only a fraction of them are there now. Only a few food vendors remain on the street, once lined with stands.
Since President Donald Trump took office in January, his administration has unleashed his campaign promise to carry out mass deportations. Targeting Los Angeles, masked and armed federal agents without required warrants have apprehended Latinos from job sites, outside immigration courts, schools, streets, parks and places of worship.
The Van Nuys Home Depot on Balboa Boulevard has been hit more than once with federal agents rushing in, wrestling people to the ground, and arresting what laborers estimate to be about 50 people.
Despite the risk, a handful of laborers are still searching for jobs outside the home improvement store with the fear that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) could return.
“We’re scared because of the raids and what happened,” said a day laborer who emigrated from Honduras. “But, a lot of people are still out here looking for work because they don’t have any other options.”
In the past, they’ve felt safe as the Van Nuys Day Laborers Job Center is located in the Home Depot parking lot, which has helped to facilitate temporary work for them.
When a car pulled up, he ran over to the rolled-down window and hopped in the back seat after a quick negotiation. Several cars followed, loaded with construction tools.
During one operation, on July 8, masked Border Patrol agents arrested around a dozen laborers, as well as four United States citizens accused of impeding the federal agents.
The citizens spent two days in the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown LA, the area’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) headquarters, before being released from custody.
U.S. Border Patrol Chief Patrol Agent Gregory Bovino told media outlets the four were arrested for impeding and obstructing their efforts by “using improvised spike strip devices aimed at disabling our vehicles.” The charges have yet to be confirmed.
One of the detained citizens, Northeast Valley activist Ernersto Ayala, was working as an outreach coordinator at the Van Nuys Day Laborers Center, while another of those detained, Jude Allard, was working as a volunteer. They have not yet returned to work, an employee at the center told the San Fernando Valley Sun/el Sol on Tuesday morning.
The Instituto de Educación Popular del Sur de California (IDEPSCA) oversees several Day Laborers Community Job Centers, including the one located in Van Nuys. Established to help workers safely find jobs, the job centers provide legal and educational resources, as well as functioning as a public safety alternative for workers by providing shade, shelter, water and snacks to those often soliciting employment for hours in the heat.
“It’s like a community here,” said a day laborer from Mexico, who is currently experiencing homelessness. “There is a lot of work here, and resources with the center.”
He added that if ICE comes, he can run to the center for protection. Around his neck hung a whistle, provided by Immigo immigration services, which the laborers can use to quickly alert one another of ICE activity.
Immigo works with the job center to provide legal resources and education to the laborers and street vendors in the area.
“Immigo supports individuals here to become citizens so that they can legally work in this country and become new voters and new representatives of our nation,” said Julian Alexander Makara, a volunteer with the nonprofit. “The unfortunate reality is that the process that we have to become legal in this country is filled with a lot of bureaucratic jargon, and it’s very expensive.”
Several organizations, including Valley Defense, the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), the People’s Struggle San Fernando Valley and Immigo, have started patrolling the Van Nuys location due to the increase in federal immigration enforcement activity.
“There have been hundreds of people here receiving work and passing through the labor center as of now, it’s not a tenth of the volume that you [normally] see,” said Makara. “You can see the fear in the individual’s eyes … their due process is being taken away. There’s no habeas corpus.”
He noted that many people are staying home out of fear, but are still facing the financial burdens of rent, bills and groceries. As agents continue to operate without providing warrants, without following protocols, then, Makara said he and others will be doing what they can to be responsible citizens for their immigrant neighbors.
“We as a community really need to ensure that they have a sense of safety,” said Makara. “This isn’t a color thing. It’s not red or blue. It’s not a legal thing. It’s a human thing.”
After Multiple ICE Raids, Uncertainty Looms at the Van Nuys Home Depot – The San Fernando Valley Sun
At the Van Nuys Home Depot parking lot, where hundreds of day laborers gathered daily to find work, only a fraction of them are there now. Only a few food […]
Independent: Mom and her four American-born children detained after visiting Canadian border: ‘What authoritarianism looks like’
Jackie Merlos, her 9-year-old triplets and 7-year-old son held by border patrol for more than two weeks, family says
Merlos’ sister, a legal resident of Canada, had stepped across the boundary while saying goodbye, “which triggered this unfounded accusation,” they said.
So hugging your sister goodbye at an international border gets you 2+ weeks in detention with no charges, no attorney, and no visitors?
Four American-born siblings and their mother have been held inside a border patrol facility for more than two weeks after her arrest by federal law enforcement agents near the U.S.-Canada border.
Kenia Jackeline Merlos, her nine-year-old triplets and seven-year-old son, were visiting her sister at Peace Arch State Park in Washington state on June 28 when U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents took them into custody.
Merlos’ mother, who joined the family on the trip, was also detained, but it remains unclear where she is being held.
The Department of Homeland Security accused Merlos of “attempting to smuggle illegal aliens” into the country, according to a statement. Merlos had requested that her children stay with her during her detention, the agency said.
Merlos’ husband Carlos was detained several days later outside the family’s home in Portland, Oregon. He is currently being held inside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center in Tacoma, Washington. The couple’s immigration status is unclear.
“What began as a simple family trip to Peace Arch Park — a place Jackie had safely visited in the past to visit family in Canada — has turned into a devastating immigration nightmare,” according to a statement from family friends helping raise money for the family’s legal defense.
Merlos’ sister, a legal resident of Canada, had stepped across the boundary while saying goodbye, “which triggered this unfounded accusation,” they said.
The family’s arrest and detention has alarmed legal advocates and members of Congress who are pressing Donald Trump’s administration for their swift release from custody. Customs and Border Protection policy largely prohibits holding people in custody for more than 72 hours.
“Every effort must be made to hold detainees for the least amount of time required for their processing, transfer, release, or repatriation as appropriate and as operationally feasible,” according to CPB guidelines.
“Trump said he would go after ‘the worst of the worst.’ Instead, his immigration machine is abducting Oregonians without cause — including four U.S. citizen children in my district,” said Democratic Rep. Maxine Dexter, who accused CBP of misleading her office about the family’s location.
The congresswoman confirmed that Merlos, who is originally from Honduras, and her children were being held inside a detention center near Ferndale, Washington, during a visit to the facility last week. She was not able to speak with the family but did enter the facility and see them.
“It is wholly unprecedented for CBP to detain any individual for weeks without cause — let alone four U.S. citizens,” Dexter said in a statement. “This is what authoritarianism looks like. Citizen children abducted. Community members disappeared. If we allow this to become normal, we surrender who we are. We cannot look away. We cannot back down.”
Merlos has not been charged with a crime. Federal immigration authorities have not provided any documents to support allegations against her, according to attorney Jill Nedved.
Family friend Mimi Lettunich, who is also a godparent to her youngest child, said Merlos sent her a text message after she was brought into custody. “Mimi, I’ve been detained,” the message said, Lettunich told Oregon Public Broadcasting.
“I’ve known them about 20 years,” Lettunich said. “They’re wonderful people.”
The Merlos family is “the kind of people we want in our community,” Dexter said in a statement on social media. “Kind, hardworking, small business owners, and devoted to their neighbors. The kind of people we are proud to call ours.”
Over the last two weeks, the family has been held “in a windowless cell, without access to legal counsel,” according to Dexter. “Treated not as citizens, not as children, but as threats.”
The Trump administration’s aggressive anti-immigration agenda has deployed virtually every federal law enforcement agency to support immigration enforcement operations across the country. Nearly 60,000 people are currently in immigration detention centers, and the president has approved legislation that earmarks tens of billions of dollars over the next decade to expand detention center capacity and hire more immigration officers.
The Independent has requested additional comment from Homeland Security.
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USA Today: Trump administration rolls out a strict new ICE policy
“A new policy rolling out nationally prevents judges from granting a bond to most detained migrants.”
The man walked around the corner of the coral pink detention center building, shuffling a little to keep his shoes on his feet. They’d taken his shoelaces. And his belt.
The 93-degree temperature bounced off the black asphalt as he walked free for the first time in six weeks, after federal immigration agents in California arrested him at a routine court check-in with his American citizen wife.
A year ago, he might have been one of a dozen men released on a day like this.
But a few months ago, the releases from the privately run Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center here slowed to maybe five a day.
Now, releases from the approximately 1,200-bed GEO ICE facility have slowed even further as the Trump administration clamps down on people accused of living illegally in the United States.
A new policy rolling out nationally prevents judges from granting a bond to most detained migrants. Those hearings often end with a judge releasing the detainee if they agree to post a cash bond, and in some cases, be tracked by a GPS device.
The White House argues that mass migration under former President Joe Biden was legally an “invasion,” and it has invoked both the language and tools of war to close the borders and remove people who thought they entered the country illegally.
“The Biden administration allowed violent gang members, rapists, and murderers into our country, under the guise of asylum, where they unleashed terror on Americans,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said at a July 12 press briefing. “Under President Trump, we are putting American citizens first.”
Statistics show that migrants are far less likely to commit crimes than American citizens. And federal statistics show that fewer than half of detained migrants have criminal records.
But because immigration court is run by the Department of Justice and is not an independent judiciary, people within that system aren’t entitled to the same protections ‒ including the right to a speedy trial, a public defender if they can’t afford their own attorney, or now, a bond hearing, according to the administration. For detainees, bond often ranges from $5,000-$20,000, immigration attorneys said.
Migrant rights advocates say the loss of bond hearings means detainees will increasingly have to fight their deportation cases without legal representation or support and advice from community members. In many cases, detainees are being shipped to holding facilities thousands of miles from home, advocates say.
Contesting deportation can take months, and migrant rights groups said they suspect the policy change is intended to pressure migrants into agreeing to be deported even if they have a solid legal case for remaining in the United States.
The Trump administration has not publicly released the policy change; advocates said they first read about it in The Washington Post on July 14. Others said they learned of the policy change when DOJ attorneys read portions of it to judges during bond hearings.
“The Trump administration’s decision to deny bond hearings to detained immigrants is a cruel and calculated escalation of its mass detention agenda, one that prioritizes incarceration over due process and funnels human beings into for-profit prison corporations,” said Karen Orona, the communications manager at the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition. “This move eliminates a lifeline for thousands of immigrants, stripping away their right to reunite with families, gather evidence, and fairly fight their cases.”
Out of all of the people detained at the facility, only one man was released on July 15. And like every person released, a volunteer team from the nonprofit Casa de Paz met him on the street outside. They offered him a ride, a cell phone call, and food.
Andrea Loya, the nonprofit’s executive director, said Casa volunteers have seen the Trump administration’s get-tough approach playing out as they speak with those who are released. Like other migrant rights advocates, Loya said she’s frustrated that private prison companies with close ties to the White House benefit financially from the new policy.
“It does not surprise me that this is the route we’re headed down,” she said. “Now, what we can expect is to see almost no releases.”
ICE previously lacked the detention space to hold every person accused of crossing the border outside of official ports of entry, which in 2024 totaled 2.1 million “encounters.” The new July 4 federal spending bill provides ICE with funding for 80,000 new detention beds, allowing it to detain up to 100,000 people at any given time, in addition to funding an extra 10,000 ICE agents to make arrests.
Because there historically hasn’t been enough detention space to hold every person accused of immigration violations, millions of people over the years have been released into the community following a bond hearing in which an immigration judge weighed the likelihood of them showing back up for their next court date. They are then free to live their lives and work ‒ legally or not‒ while their deportation cases remain pending, which can take years.
According to ICE’s 2024 annual report, there were more than 7.6 million people on what it calls the “non-detained” docket ‒ people accused of violating immigration law but considered not enough of a threat to keep locked up. The agency had been attaching GPS monitors to detainees who judges considered a low risk of violence but a higher risk of failing to return to court.
Each detention costs taxpayers $152 per person, every day, compared to $4.20 a day for GPS tracking, ICE data shows.
According to the incarceration-rights group Vera Institute of Justice, 92% of people ordered to show up for immigration court hearings do so.
“We know that detention is not just cruel but is unnecessary,” said Elizabeth Kenney, Vera’s associate director. “The government’s justification of detention is just not supported by research or even their own data.”
Like many migrant rights advocates, Kenney said she has not yet seen the specific policy.
In Seattle, attorney Tahmina Watson of Watson Immigration Law, said the policy ‒ the specifics of which she had also not seen ‒ appeared to be part of ongoing administration efforts to limit due process for anyone accused of immigration violations.
“They have created a system in which they can detain people longer and longer,” said Watson. “Effectively, this means that people who have potential pathways to legality are being held indefinitely. The whole notion is to put people into detention. And I don’t know where that’s going to end.”
LA Times: ICE seizes 6-year-old with cancer outside L.A. court. His mom is fighting for his release
A Central American asylum applicant arrested outside an L.A. immigration court is suing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security and the Trump administration for her immediate release and that of her two children, including her 6-year-old son stricken with cancer.
The Honduran woman, not named in court documents, filed a petition for writs of habeas corpus, challenging the legality of her and her family’s detention at a Texas facility. She is also asking for a preliminary injunction that would prevent her family’s immediate deportation to Honduras, as her children cry and pray nightly to be released from a Texas holding facility, according to court documents.
She and her two children, including a 9-year-old daughter, are facing two removal proceedings concurrently: a previous removal proceeding involving their asylum request and this recent expedited removal process.
The woman claims the government violated many of their rights, including the due process clause of the 5th Amendment.
Her attorneys noted that DHS determined she was not a flight risk when she was paroled and that her detention was unjustified.
The woman’s lawyers also argued that she was not given an opportunity to contest her family’s detention in front of a neutral adjudicator, and that the family’s 4th Amendment right to not be unlawfully arrested was violated.
The Honduran mother is being represented by several groups, including attorney Kate Gibson Kumar of the Texas Civil Rights Project”So often, you’ll hear all the rhetoric in this country that immigrants should be doing it ‘the right way,’ and it’s ironic in this case because we’re in a situation where this family did it ‘the right way’ and they’re being punished for it,” Kumar told The Times on Friday morning. “They followed the process, went where they were supposed to go and did everything that was asked of them.”
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in San Antonio on Tuesday. Kumar said a Texas judge issued an order late Thursday evening that compelled the government to respond to the habeas corpus petition by July 1.
Tricia McLaughlin, DHS assistant secretary for public affairs, countered in an email to The Times on Friday morning that the legal process was playing out fairly.
“This family had chosen to appeal their case — which had already been thrown out by an immigration judge — and will remain in ICE custody until it is resolved.”
One of the focal points of the lawsuit is the fate of the woman’s son.
The youth was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia at the age of 3 and has undergone chemotherapy treatments, including injecting chemotherapeutic agents into his cerebrospinal fluid, according to court documents.
He began treatment in Honduras and completed two years of chemotherapy, at which point the mother believes he no longer has leukemia cells in his blood, according to court documents.
The son, however, needs regular monitoring and medical care for his condition, according to court documents.
Last year, the family fled to the United States to “seek safety” after they were subject to “imminent, menacing death threats” in Honduras, according to court documents.
They applied for entrance while waiting in Mexico and received a CBP One app appointment in October to apply for asylum. They presented themselves at an undisclosed border entry, were processed and were paroled in the U.S., according to court documents.
They were scheduled to appear before a Los Angeles immigration court and moved to the area to live with family.
Both children enrolled in local public schools, attended Sunday church and were learning English, according to court documents.
“They’re asylum seekers fleeing from violence, who had an appointment at the border, were paroled into the country and the government made an assessment that they didn’t have to be detained,” Kumar said. “There should be some sort of protection for this family, which is doing everything right.”
The trio arrived at court May 29 for a hearing for their asylum request and were caught off guard when a Homeland Security lawyer asked for their case to be dismissed, according to court documents.
The woman told an immigration judge “we wish to continue [with our cases],” according to court documents.
The judge granted the dismissal and the Honduran mother and two children were immediately arrested by plainclothes ICE agents upon leaving the courtroom in the hallway, according to court documents. The woman had a June 5 medical appointment scheduled for her son’s cancer diagnosis, which he couldn’t attend because of the arrest.
The family was detained for hours on the first floor before being taken to an undisclosed immigration center in the city, according to court documents.
All three “cried in fear” and the young boy urinated on himself and remained in wet clothing “for hours,” according to court documents.
The trio were placed on a flight to San Antonio along with several other families. The date of the flight was not available.
After landing, the family was transported to a detention center in Dilley, Texas, where they remain.
“Fortunately, the minor child in question has not undergone chemotherapy in over a year, and has been seen regularly by medical personnel since arriving at the Dilley facility,” McLaughlin said.
McLaughlin added that no family member had been denied emergency care.
“The implication that ICE would deny a child the medical care they need is flatly FALSE, and it is an insult to the men and women of federal law enforcement,” she said. “ICE ALWAYS prioritizes the health, safety, and well-being of all detainees in its care.”
The children have cried each night and prayed “for God to take them out of the detention center,” according to court documents.
The mother claims that the federal government did nothing to monitor her son’s leukemia for days.
Her lawyers have also sought the boy’s release for medical treatment, a request that was not fulfilled.
Western Journal: Dem Gov Who Bragged About Hiding Illegal Alien in Home Gets More Bad News: A Subpoena
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy is term-limited and will be replaced next January; considering he has an approval rating somewhere between George Santos and Norovirus, my assumption is that he won’t be seeking higher office for at least a little while.
That being said, he might not be out of the news when his successor gets elected this November — all thanks to a stupid admission he made during what The New York Times charitably described as “a freewheeling discussion at a New Jersey college” back in February.
According to a Friday report in the Times, Murphy is being subpoenaed by interim U.S. attorney Alina [Bimbo #4] Habba, the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey, regarding comments he made about hiding a woman who he intimated might have been an illegal immigrant in his attic.
“FBI agents have since sought to interview at least four witnesses in connection with the comments, two of the people said, with one adding that the governor had been subpoenaed but not questioned,” the paper reported.
“Two of the people with knowledge of the investigation involving Mr. Murphy’s comments indicated that it was separate from any Justice Department inquiry related to New Jersey’s so-called sanctuary policy, which has been upheld by a federal appeals court. There has been no public sign of that inquiry moving forward.”
The investigation began after remarks Murphy made at an event hosted by progressive group Blue Wave New Jersey.
“There is someone in our broader universe whose immigration status is not yet at the point that they are trying to get it to,” Murphy said.
“And we said, ‘You know what? Let’s have her live at our house above our garage.’
“And good luck to the feds coming in to try to get her,” he added, defiantly.
At the time, border czar Tom Homan said that Murphy’s remarks were definitely on his radar.
“I think the governor is pretty foolish,” Homan said. “I got note of it, won’t let it go. We’ll look into it.”
“And if he’s knowingly — knowingly — harboring, concealing an illegal alien, that’s a violation of Title 8, United States Code 1324. I would seek prosecution, or the secretary would seek prosecution.”
Meanwhile a representative for the governor told the New York Post that Murphy had been “misinterpreted” and that no undocumented garage-dwellers were at the governor’s house.
“No one’s ever lived in the home” in the way Murphy described, the spokesperson said, adding that the individual he was referring to was legally in the country, as well.
Well, now that he’s potentially under subpoena, we’ll see how much of that is true — although both sides are keeping tight-lipped about where this is going.
“The governor’s office declined to comment on the federal inquiry on Friday. A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office also declined to comment,” the Times reported.
“A person close to Mr. Murphy said the governor was not aware of any pending investigation against him.”
That being said, it could inject Murphy into a gubernatorial race that the Democrats definitely don’t want him involved in. Murphy won a second term by a slimmer-than-expected margin to MAGA favorite Jack Ciattarelli, a former member of the New Jersey General Assembly who’s running for the GOP again.
The Democrats, meanwhile, went safe with moderate-ish U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill, a veteran and watered-down wannabe Hillary type. (No bathroom servers, though — yet.)
The poll numbers, however, have already been closer than Dems would like when you consider that they’ve been running away from Murphy and wokeness.
If both of those were to rear their ugly heads in the heat of the campaign season, it’d be a heck of a shame — one Republicans and immigration hawks would welcome, both as an opportunity and as an example of where thoughtless progressive allyship will get you.
Dem Gov Who Bragged About Hiding Illegal Alien in Home Gets More Bad News: A Subpoena
Gov. Phil Murphy is being subpoenaed by interim U.S. attorney Alina Habba for comments he made about hiding an illegal alien in his home.