Tag Archives: Immigration

Columbus Ledger Enquirer: Democratic Mayor Signs ICE Deal Amid GOP Threats

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Orange County, Florida, Democratic Mayor Jerry Demings has signed a cooperation agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) following threats from Gov. Ron DeSantis and Attorney General James Uthmeier. The agreement allows local law enforcement to detain and transfer immigration violators to federal custody. Demings noted that the decision aims to protect the County Commission from potential removal.

The Orange County Board of Commissioners approved the controversial immigration agreement 5-2, prompting internal tensions and public backlash. Activists had urged leaders to reject cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.

Demings raised concerns regarding staffing and resources, noting over 200 vacancies for correctional officers. He stated that the county has never received a request to transport ICE detainees.

Commissioners Nicole Wilson and Kelly Martinez Semrad opposed the agreement, citing concerns over government coercion. Activists have urged resistance as officials have grappled with legal ambiguities.

Semrad said, “By signing the agreement, we thwarted the calamity of the potential removal from office of our entire Commission.”

County Attorney Jeff Newton stated, “Legal requirements for local governments to support federal immigration law are vague.” He added, “I call that the sort of catch-all phrase — ‘best efforts.’ It is deliberately, I believe, ambiguous.”

So much for democracy at the local level, as Trump’s fascism spreads it tentacles downward.

Democratic Mayor Signs ICE Deal Amid GOP Threats

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/democratic-mayor-signs-ice-deal-amid-gop-threats/ss-AA1KgBnc

Another article on the subject:

Florida mayor shares startling explanation for his collaboration with ICE
Jerry Demings said an agreement to collaborate with Trump’s anti-immigrant crackdown was signed “under protest and in extreme duress.”

https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest/florida-ice-cooperation-orange-county-demings-rcna222984

The Intercept: ICE Contractor Locked a Mother and Her Baby in a Hotel Room for Five Days

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Valentina Galvis’s case raises questions about the types of facilities being turned into de facto detention centers as the Trump administration ramps up its deportation campaign.

From her room on the third floor of the Sonesta Chicago O’Hare Airport Rosemont hotel, Valentina Galvis could see flight crews and travelers coming and going. Families enjoyed summer dining on the outdoor patio. Friends snapped selfies commemorating their stays. Children fidgeted as they waited for shuttles to deliver them to the nearby airport.

But for Galvis and her seven-month-old son, the hotel was not a vacation — it was a jail. The phone had been removed from the room, and Galvis had no way to contact the outside world. Private guards contracted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement stood watch at all times. She had no idea when she and her son Naythan, who is a U.S. citizen, would ever get to leave.

Galvis and her son were detained at the Sonesta for five days in early June after they were apprehended at the Chicago Immigration Court by federal agents.

“I was sad, confused, and often terrified,” Galvis said. “I wanted to call my husband, my attorney, or anyone at all to let them know where I was.”

In screenshots taken by family members and reviewed by Injustice Watch and The Intercept, Galvis appeared on the ICE locator to be held over 700 miles away in Washington, D.C.

Galvis’s detention at the airport hotel came as federal immigration authorities have rounded up more than 100,000 immigrants nationwide in an effort to meet arrest targets set out by the Trump administration. The spike in immigration arrests has overwhelmed detention centers around the country: Immigrants have been packed into overcrowded holding cells, forced to sleep on floors, and subjected to “unlivable” conditions at a hastily built detention camp in the Florida Everglades.

Though a hotel may seem preferable to these conditions, advocates said Galvis’s detention raises concerns about what types of facilities are being turned into de facto detention centers and how many people are quietly held in Illinois.

Xanat Sobrevilla, who works with Organized Communities Against Deportations, says it’s not the first time she’s heard of an Illinois mother of an infant baby appearing to be in Washington, D.C. — which has no detention center.

“We know we can’t trust the ICE detainee locator,” she said. “People get lost in this system.” 

Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., called the false location listing “chilling” and likened the secretive hotel detention to a “kidnapping.”

Illinois and Chicago have some of the nation’s strongest laws aimed at protecting immigrants like Galvis by prohibiting state and local agencies from cooperating with ICE. But her and Naythan’s detention at the Sonesta shows the limits of the state’s efforts to block ICE detention. The federal government can still use commercial facilities like hotel rooms to hold individuals and families in its custody.

“Nothing that the states or local governments can do will stop ICE from carrying out its operations,” said Fred Tsao, senior policy counsel at Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who has backed legislation that defends immigrants in the state, declined to comment.

Ramirez said private companies are violating the spirit of sanctuary legislation — and she called for a state investigation into what happened with Galvis.

“This requires the [Illinois] attorney general to conduct an investigation and to consider what legal action must be taken in the state of Illinois” against the security company that detained Galvis and Naythan as well as the hotel they were confined in, Ramirez said.

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

In a statement to Injustice Watch, Sonesta, one of the world’s largest hotel chains, asserted it “has no knowledge of any illegal detentions at any hotels in the Sonesta portfolio.”

Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not respond to requests for comment.

ICE Detention by Another Name

Galvis doesn’t remember the name of the company the civilian guards said they worked for. But she recognized a photo of JoAnna Granado, an employee for MVM Inc., a longtime ICE contractor with active contracts to transport children and families and a track record of confining unaccompanied migrant children in office buildings as well as in hotels. Granado confirmed to Injustice Watch and The Intercept that she transported Galvis and her son from the Sonesta O’Hare. MVM did not respond to numerous requests for comment.

Since fiscal year 2020, MVM has entered into contracts worth more than $1.3 billion from ICE — the vast majority of it for the transportation of immigrant children and families.

In 2020, when an attorney for the Texas Civil Rights Project attempted to reach unaccompanied children being held in a McAllen hotel, he was physically turned away. ICE acknowledged MVM was at the hotel in question. The Texas Civil Rights Project and the American Civil Liberties Union sued the Trump administration, and the government ultimately transferred the children out of the hotel.

More recently, attorneys filed suit against MVM last year for enforced disappearance, torture, and child abduction — among other claims — for its role during the first Trump administration’s zero-tolerance policy that separated thousands of children from their parents near the border. The company’s effort to get the case dismissed failed.

Calls to the Sonesta O’Hare in June and July after Galvis’s release confirmed that MVM had rooms there.

ICE’s standards for temporary housing allow for the use of hotel suites to hold noncitizens “due to exigent circumstances including travel delays, lack of other bedspace, delay of receipt of travel documents, medical issues, or other unforeseen circumstances.” The standards require ICE or its contractors to explain to the detainee why they are at the hotel and how long they will be there, and to inform the detainee of the right to file a grievance, as well as “unlimited availability of unmonitored telephone calls to family, friends, and legal representatives” and various oversight agencies. Galvis said she wasn’t allowed to make any calls and was never told she was able to file a complaint. 

In its statement, Sonesta said that “all guest rooms at the property have a telephone and seating” at the O’Hare hotel. 

Two Sonesta O’Hare workers said they were familiar with MVM — one added that the company had a special rate there. (In a phone call with Injustice Watch, Sonesta O’Hare’s general manager, Sandra Wolf, said she was “unaware” of MVM or the confinement of detainees at her hotel.)

Calls to other airport Sonesta hotels suggest that MVM’s detention of immigrants may be more widespread.

When called in June, a front-desk worker at the Sonesta Atlanta Airport South in Georgia said that MVM usually has rooms at the hotel. On a call, an attendant at the Sonesta Select Los Angeles LAX El Segundo immediately recognized the company name and explained that MVM books rooms at a nearby property.

A front-desk agent at the nearby Sonesta Los Angeles Airport LAX acknowledged by phone that MVM regularly has rooms at the hotel. The hotel’s general manager Robert Routh later said he’d never heard of MVM and wasn’t familiar with the practice of holding ICE detainees in his hotel.

In a written statement, Sonesta wrote that it “does not condone illegal behavior of any kind at its hotels, and we endeavor to comply with the law and with law enforcement in the event of any suspected illegal behavior at any property within the Sonesta portfolio.” The company declined to answer questions about whether it has any contractual obligations to MVM or whether MVM received a special rate at its hotels.

Snatched From Immigration Court

Galvis knew before she went to Chicago’s immigration court on Thursday, June 5, from news and social media reports that ICE had been arresting people like her when they had shown up to court for their immigration cases.

But her husband, Camilo, a long-haul truck driver, had been granted asylum in the same court just two weeks earlier. The facts of their cases were almost identical. They had come to the U.S. together in 2022, fleeing far-right paramilitary violence in their native Colombia. Galvis had also survived a brutal assault from the paramilitary group.

So she came to the court at 55 E. Monroe Street with her infant son, Naythan, hoping to walk out without incident.

Instead, as with thousands of other immigrants in recent months, federal prosecutors asked the judge to dismiss her case, ending the asylum process. Plainclothes agents were waiting to detain her the moment she left the courtroom.

The agents shuttled Galvis and Naythan first to a nearby building, where she was fingerprinted and her phone and documents — including Naythan’s U.S. passport and birth certificate — were seized. Mother and son were then taken to an initial hotel where they spent several hours late into Thursday night. She was told that they would be flown to Texas before dawn on Friday — the sole detention center, ICE claimed, that could accommodate families. She was allowed one call to her husband; in a call that lasted a few seconds, she told him she was heading to Texas. 

The terror that Naythan might be torn away consumed her thoughts. She could endure detention and deportation alongside her son, Galvis said. Without him, she believed grief alone might kill her.

Around 2:30 a.m., two people dressed in civilian clothing arrived. They said their names were Alejandro and Lori and told Galvis in Spanish that they worked for a private company, though Galvis doesn’t remember which one. They encouraged her to ask any questions about her case to the ICE agents while she still had the chance, because the two of them wouldn’t be able to answer them.

Soon after, they brought Galvis and Naythan to the Sonesta, where they would spend the next five days cut off from the outside world.

They were held in a two-room suite and monitored at all times by one or two civilian guards, sometimes Alejandro and Lori and sometimes others. They were given fast food: Panera Bread, Subway, McDonald’s; Galvis picked out little pieces of vegetables to feed to her son, who was just beginning to eat solid foods.

On Friday, the day after she and Naythan were detained by ICE, Galvis’s attorney William G. McLean III filed a writ of habeas corpus, petitioning for her release. U.S. District Judge Franklin Valderrama soon ordered that the Trump administration “shall not remove Petitioners from the jurisdiction of the United States, nor shall they transfer petitioners to any judicial district outside the State of Illinois” before June 12. Judge Valderrama set an afternoon hearing for Tuesday, June 10, on the matter.

In emails reviewed by Injustice Watch and The Intercept, McLean pleaded with an ICE field officer for days to know his client’s whereabouts. “We do not know where they are located,” he wrote on Saturday. “I feel that it is very important to know that everything is OK,” he wrote the following Monday. ICE didn’t reveal his client’s location.

Galvis, meanwhile, had no idea about her lawyer’s efforts to release her. One day, she was told by one of the civilian guards that she would be deported with her son to Colombia. Other days, she said, she was told they’d be taken to Texas. She continued to fear that her son would be taken from her.

Finally, on the fifth day, Granado and another guard loaded Galvis and Naythan in a car but wouldn’t divulge where they were headed, Galvis said. While the airport was only minutes away, she noticed the navigation system indicated a 40-minute drive. Her heart sank, thinking they were taking her to a new location where her son could be taken from her.

Galvis kept quiet in the car, caressing Naythan and silently praying. As they approached their destination, Granado turned to her, Galvis said. 

“I think they’re going to let you go,” Galvis remembered her saying.

Galvis didn’t believe her. But moments later, she was at the Department of Homeland Security’s Intensive Supervision Appearance Program office in Chicago. Agents gave her paperwork, including some of Naythan’s documents, and placed an electronic bracelet monitor on her wrist. Relief overcame her, mixed with uncertainty about what could happen next.

“I was obviously very scared of being deported, but my principal fear was being deported without my baby,” Galvis said. “I don’t think I could have survived that.” 

The dismissal in Galvis’s original immigration case is on appeal, and she now has a new asylum case with a new immigration judge in the same court. Galvis has regular online and in-person check-ins. Her next immigration court date is scheduled for January.

ICE Contractor Locked a Mother and Her Baby in a Hotel Room for Five Days
The case raises questions about the types of facilities being turned into de facto detention centers as the Trump administration ramps up deportations

Washington Post: Patient seeking care at NIH hospital detained by ICE

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NIH officials called immigration authorities after scrutinizing the patient’s identification presented to security at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center.

Federal immigration authorities detained a woman seeking medical care at the National Institutes of Health’s flagship research hospital, according to an internal document and an NIH official briefed on the situation.

The woman, an existing patient, drew scrutiny at a security station to enter the campus of the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, when she handed over a state driver’s license that failed to meet new federal security ID standards.

That prompted NIH officials to check for warrants and discover she had an order for removal. They then called U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The woman was to receive care through the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, according to the official and the document. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

A spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees NIH, confirmed the detainment.

“We are grateful to NIH security for apprehending an illegal alien attempting to enter the NIH campus Thursday,” Andrew Nixon, the spokesman, said in a statement. “Like any taxpayer-funded service, NIH clinical trials are for people here legally, whether they be citizens or those with proper visas that allow them to participate in clinical trials and/or treatment at the NIH. We are grateful to our law enforcement partners for acting swiftly to protect patients and staff at NIH Clinical Center.”

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately return requests for comment.

The document and official did not have the woman’s name or the date of her detention. Details of the woman’s immigration history were not immediately available; immigration judges typically issue orders of removal after authorities present evidence that a noncitizen should be deported.

Maryland allows undocumented immigrants to receive driver’s licenses, although it’s unclear if the woman presented a Maryland license. Congress mandated that states implement Real ID, a set of security standards for driver’s licenses designed to limit forgeries. Real IDs, or other acceptable forms of identification such as passports, are needed to enter most federal buildings, according to DHS.

Hospitals have historically been considered sensitive locations off limits to immigration enforcement. When enforcement actions happen in these settings, they may deter people from seeking care, especially for people who are undocumented, immigrant advocates and health experts have said.

President Donald Trump has directed ICE to ramp up the detention and deportations of immigrants. In the early days of Trump’s second term, officials revoked a directive that had essentially prevented ICE from detaining immigrants around sensitive areas such as schools, hospitals and churches.

Matthew Lopas, director of state advocacy at the National Immigration Law Center, said incidents like the reported detention at NIH raise serious concerns about immigrant access to health care.

“Hospitals and clinics should be places of healing, not fear. This kind of enforcement does not just impact undocumented patients. It undermines public health for everyone,” said Lopas, whose organization published a guide for doctors and hospital administrators on how to protect patient rights when immigration authorities visit medical facilities.

Still, reports of ICE showing up at hospitals have been rare.

Last month, a nurses union and immigrant advocates raised concern about the presence of ICE agents who spent days at a Glendale, California, hospital seeking to detain a woman who had been hospitalized while in their custody. The woman had previously been ordered deported, DHS said.

Democratic members of Congress have introduced legislation that would largely limit immigration enforcement actions within 1,000 feet of places such as hospitals, schools and churches. But the measure is not likely to pass given Republican control of Congress.

“We need to ensure that everyone can access essential services without the threat of ICE enforcement looming over them,” the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García (D-Illinois), said in a statement Friday responding to the detainment at NIH.

Patient seeking care at NIH hospital detained by ICE
NIH officials called immigration authorities after scrutinizing the patient’s identification presented to security at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/08/08/nih-clinical-center-ice-arrest

San Francisco Chronicle: ICE is holding people in its S.F. office for days. Advocates say there are no beds, private toilets

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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials handcuffed Jorge Willy Valera Chuquillanqui as he walked out of his court hearing in San Francisco recently and placed him in an eighth-floor cell at a downtown field office with no bed. He spent the next four days there with six other detainees before being sent to Fresno and eventually to a larger facility in Arizona.

“It was hell,” the 47-year-old Peruvian man said. His meals were granola bars and bean-and-cheese burritos, and at one point had to be transferred to a hospital after he started feeling pain related to a stroke he suffered a year ago.

“I’ve never experienced something like this, not even in my own country,” Valera said.

As President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts ramp up and immigration authorities strive to meet an arrest quota of 3,000 people per day, detention centers continue to fill up, leading to overcrowding in some cases. As of July 27, just under 57,000 people were being held at detention centers compared to just under 40,000 people in January, according to TRAC Immigration, a data gathering nonprofit organization. 

Immigration attorneys say that as a result, they’ve seen an increase in ICE holding people at its 25 field offices across the country for extended periods of time – raising concerns that the facilities are ill-equipped for people to sleep in, and lack medical care for those who need it and privacy to use the bathroom. 

The situation has prompted legal action from immigration advocates across the country. In the Bay Area, lawyers have raised concerns about the conditions of the offices as holding centers and are looking into taking legal action. 

Until recently, ICE limited detentions in field offices such as that at 630 Sansome St. to 12 hours “absent exceptional circumstances,” but increased that to 72 hours earlier this year after Trump ordered mass deportations.  

ICE said in a statement to the Chronicle that there are occasions where detainees might need to stay at the San Francisco field office “longer than anticipated,” but that these instances are rare. 

“All detainees in ICE custody are provided ample food, regular access to phones, legal representation, as well as medical care,” the agency said. “The ICE field office in San Francisco is intended to hold aliens while they are going through the intake process. Afterwards, they are moved to a longer-term detention facility.” 

ICE did not respond to questions about what kind of medical staff the agency has at its San Francisco facility, its only field office in the Bay Area. The second nearest field office is in Sacramento. Other field offices in the state are located in Los Angeles, San Diego and other parts of Southern California.

In a memorandum filed in court in June, ICE said that the agency increased its detention limit at field offices to 72 hours to meet the demands of increased enforcement. ICE stated that increased enforcement efforts have strained the agency’s efforts to find and coordinate transfers to available beds, and that it is no longer permitted to release people. 

“To accommodate appropriately housing the increased number of detainees while ensuring their safety and security and avoid violation of holding facility standards and requirements, this waiver allows for aliens to be housed in a holding facility for up to, but not exceeding, 72 hours, absent exceptional circumstances,” the memorandum states. 

After the passage of Trump’s policy legislation, ICE’s annual budget increased from $8 billion to about $28 billion – allowing the agency to hire more enforcement officers and double its detention space. While there are no detention centers in the Bay Area, ICE is poised to convert a 2,560-bed facility in California City (Kern County) into a holding facility. Immigrant advocates are worried that FCI Dublin, a former women’s prison that closed after a sexual abuse scandal, could be used as a detention center, but a spokesperson for the Bureau of Prisons told the Chronicle there are no plans to reopen the prison. 

Meanwhile, some immigrant advocacy groups are starting to take action against ICE for using its field offices as holding facilities. 

In Baltimore, an immigrant advocacy group filed a federal class action lawsuit in May on behalf of two women who were held at ICE’s field offices in “cage-like” holding cells for multiple days. A judge denied the group’s request for a temporary restraining order, but attorneys said they intend to try again. 

“They have no beds, a lot of them have no showers, they are not equipped to provide medical care or really provide food because it’s not designed to be a long-term facility,” said Amelia Dagen, a senior attorney at Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit that filed the​​ lawsuit. 

“We have heard this is not exclusive to Baltimore and is happening quite a bit in other field offices. This is an ongoing issue unfortunately because with arrest quotas being what they are… everyone is a priority,” Dagen added. 

Jordan Wells, a senior staff attorney at Lawyer’s Committee For Civil Rights in San Francisco, said he and other attorneys are examining the Maryland case. Wells has filed habeas petitions on behalf of two people who were initially held at Sansome Street. A judge ordered the temporary release of one of his clients and a court hearing is scheduled for later this month for the second person, who has since been transported to a detention center in Bakersfield.

A separate class action lawsuit seeking a temporary restraining order against the Department of Homeland Security to stop raids in Los Angeles said that ICE is holding people in a short-term processing center in the city and a basement for days – describing the conditions of the “dungeon-like facilities” as “deplorable and unconstitutional.” A judge granted the temporary restraining order last week. 

Immigrant advocates have criticized ICE for detaining more people than they have room for, saying that their strategy is devastating communities. 

“If there is bed space ICE will fill it, and that means more terror for local communities,” said Jessica Yamane Moraga, an immigration attorney at Pangea Legal Services, which provides services to immigrants. 

It remains unclear exactly how many people have been held at ICE’s San Francisco field office. 

Moraga said she saw six people held at the San Francisco ICE field office for at least three days. She represented a 27-year-old Colombian woman from San Jose who was detained at the office for nearly four days. 

When ICE arrests people in the Bay Area, they typically are taken to the San Francisco field office for processing and then transferred to a detention center, usually in Southern California. However, as beds fill up, many people are starting to be transferred to centers out of state. 

Earlier this year, ICE started detaining people leaving their court hearings. Moraga said that when people are detained on Thursday or Friday by ICE at 630 Sansome St., which has three courtrooms and a processing center, authorities are sometimes unable to find a long-term detention facility to transport people to until after the weekend. 

“ICE is deciding to use the blunt instrument of detention to turn away people who have lawful claims,” Moraga said.

Lawyers, legal advocates and migrants reported substandard conditions at ICE’s field offices.

Three days after  Valera, the Peruvian migrant, was detained, Ujwala Murthy, a law student and summer intern at nonprofit Pangea Legal Services, visited him at the ICE field office.  

As she was preparing to leave, she heard a loud pounding. She said she saw multiple women, apparently in detention, banging on the glass window of a door behind the front desk. A security guard came. One of the women reported that somebody was overheating. That day, it was hotter inside the field office than outdoors, she said.

Security personnel unlocked the door and Murthy said she saw a woman in a white track suit step out flushed and sweating, looking distressed. The woman was given a bottle of water and led out of Murthy’s sight.

“It made me upset,” she said. “It was very dehumanizing.”

At Valera’s asylum hearing before he was unexpectedly detained on July 25, an ICE attorney had tried to dismiss his case, part of a new Trump tactic to speed up deportations. The judge declined and continued the case to October to give Valera time to respond. But minutes after exiting the courtroom, ICE officers seized him. 

In his cell at the ICE field office, he started feeling pain in the left half of his body that was paralyzed from a stroke a year ago, according to a habeas petition his attorney filed. He said he urged ICE to get him medical care and was eventually transported to San Francisco General Hospital, but returned to custody at the field office a day later. 

 Valera, who crossed the border in December 2022 after fleeing his home in Peru where he received death threats from an organized criminal group, was eventually transported to Fresno and then Arizona to be held in detention. He was released last month after a judge granted him a temporary restraining order.

“I’m going to ask my lawyer to help me go to therapy,” he said, “because I am traumatized.” 

ICE is holding people in its S.F. office for days. Advocates say there are no beds, private toilets
Immigration attorneys say they’ve seen an increase in ICE holding people at its 25 field offices for extended periods of time, raising concerns that the facilities are ill-equipped.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/ice-is-holding-people-in-its-s-f-office-for-days-advocates-say-there-are-no-beds-private-toilets/ar-AA1K9wQ1

Knewz: Immigration officials issue new warning to green card holders

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U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is reminding lawful permanent residents to carry proof of their immigration status at all times, warning that failure to do so could lead to legal consequences. “Always carry your alien registration documentation. Not having these when stopped by federal law enforcement can lead to a misdemeanor and fines,” CBP wrote on X.

The renewed warning comes as President Donald Trump directs his administration to remove millions of migrants without legal status, fulfilling a campaign pledge of mass deportations. The White House has stated that anyone living in the country unlawfully is considered a criminal. While the administration’s focus has been on those without legal status, reports show that immigrants with valid documentation, including green card holders and visa holders, have also been detained. Outlets have documented dozens of cases in which lawful permanent residents and applicants were caught up in Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids.

As of January 1, 2024, there were an estimated 12.8 million lawful permanent residents living in the United States, according to the Office of Homeland Security Statistics. The requirement for non-citizens to carry registration documents is not new. It stems from Section 264(e) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which makes it a federal misdemeanor to fail to carry such documents. According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), lawful permanent residents who fail to comply with this requirement risk losing their immigration status and could face removal from the country.

Green card holders have legal protections if detained. They have the right to remain silent and request legal representation. While carrying proof of status is mandatory, individuals are not required to answer questions without a lawyer present. Adding to the concerns of immigrants navigating the legal system, USCIS has introduced a new $1,050 fee for certain applications that were previously free when filed as part of a green card case being adjudicated by an immigration court. This applies to Form I-131, used for requesting travel documents such as advance parole, and Form I-765, the application for employment authorization. The agency’s change places a significant financial burden on those pursuing lawful permanent residency while involved in court proceedings.

CBP reinforced its message in another post on X, stating, “Every alien, eighteen years of age and over, shall at all times carry with him and have in his personal possession any certificate of alien registration or alien registration receipt card issued to him. Failing to do so can lead to a misdemeanor and fines if you are stopped by federal law enforcement. If you are a non-citizen, please follow the laws of the United States of America.”

Papers, please!

Immigration officials issue new warning to green card holders
U.S. Customs and Border Protection is reminding lawful permanent residents to carry proof of their immigration status at all times.

https://knewz.com/immigration-officials-issue-new-warning-green-card-holders

Newsweek: Green card applicants’ kids may lose legal status after Trump admin move

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Children of H-1B visa holders may now age out of their protected legal status while their parents apply for green cards, under a Trump administration policy change announced Friday.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that it was reversing a Biden administration policy that prevented young adults from losing their legal status if a parent’s application was still pending when their children reached age 21.

Why It Matters

Around 200,000 children and young adults could be affected by the change, which comes amid a flurry of alterations at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) to bring policies in line with President Donald Trump’s directives to tighten immigration controls.

What To Know

The USCIS policy change affects those who fall under the Child Status Protection Act (CSPA), which the administration of former President Joe Biden had allowed in February 2023 to apply to some children as soon as their parents became eligible to apply for a green card.

That meant that even if they “aged out” during the wait for a green card, they would not lose legal status.

On Friday, the Trump administration rolled those extensions back, saying that CSPA protections would once again only apply when a visa becomes available via the Department of State. USCIS said this would create a more consistent approach for those applying for adjustment of status and immigrant visas.

With long wait times for adjustment of status applications, particularly for H-1B and other temporary visa holders, this could now mean that when a dependent child turns 21, they lose their legal status and may have to leave the U.S., even if they have lived in the country for most or all of their lives.

Doug Rand, a DHS official during the Biden administration, said that many of those children would be American to their core, but would now be forced to the back of the line for a green card.

What People Are Saying

USCIS, in a news release: “The Feb. 14, 2023, policy resulted in inconsistent treatment of aliens who applied for adjustment of status in the United States versus aliens outside the United States who applied for an immigrant visa with the Department of State.”

Doug Rand, former DHS official, in a statement shared with Newsweek: “Back in 2023, the team I was part of at USCIS made a sensible policy change to make this situation a little less awful for a few more young people. Basically, the government has a choice about whether certain people who “age out” of their immigration status can still hang on to their parents’ place in line for a green card some day.

“We chose yes. Today, the Trump administration is choosing no.”

What’s Next

The new guidance will apply to requests filed after August 15, with those already in process not affected.

Green card applicants’ kids may lose legal status after Trump admin move
The Department of Homeland Security said it was reversing a Biden-era extension of protections.

https://www.newsweek.com/h1b-green-card-applicants-children-protections-change-trump-administration-2111075

Latin Times: Support for Deporting Noncriminal Immigrants Slips as Public Backs Legal Protections: Poll

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67% of respondents to the UMASS poll opposed separating undocumented immigrants from their children during enforcement proceedings

A growing share of Americans support legal protections for undocumented immigrants, while enthusiasm for broad deportations has declined, according to a new poll from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

The poll found that 63% of respondents favored a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Only 37% supported deporting those without criminal records beyond immigration violations, and just 30% supported deporting undocumented immigrants who work full time and pay taxes.

Support for deporting immigrants with criminal records remains high, though it has softened slightly, dropping from 74% in April to 69% in July, the poll reveals. At the same time, 67% of respondents opposed separating undocumented immigrants from their children during enforcement proceedings, and 54% opposed deporting undocumented immigrants to foreign prisons.

Tatishe Nteta, a political science professor and director of the poll, said the findings suggest the Trump administration “should emphasize the detention and removal of undocumented immigrants with criminal records” if it wants to align with public sentiment.

Despite this stated focus, deportation records published by CBS News on July 16 show that many individuals removed under Trump’s second term did not have violent criminal records.

Between January 1 and June 24, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported approximately 100,000 people, of whom 70,583 were labeled as having criminal convictions. However, the vast majority of these were for traffic or immigration-related offenses. In fact, convictions for violent crimes were relatively rare: 0.58% for homicide, 1.2% for sexual assault, and 0.42% for kidnapping.

The administration has also touted its crackdown on gang-affiliated individuals, but only 3,256 of the deported individuals were identified as known or suspected gang members or terrorists.

In response to questions about enforcement priorities by CBS News, Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said ICE has now deported about 140,000 undocumented immigrants since Mr. Trump took office. She also added that 70% of those arrested by ICE were of “illegal aliens with criminal convictions or have pending criminal charges,” but declined to detail the nature of the convictions or criminal charges, or offer further specifics.

Support for Deporting Noncriminal Immigrants Slips as Public Backs Legal Protections: Poll
67% of respondents to the UMASS poll opposed separating undocumented immigrants from their children during enforcement proceedings

https://www.latintimes.com/support-deporting-noncriminal-immigrants-slips-public-backs-legal-protections-poll-588106

Newsweek: Bill Maher confronts Dr. Phil on joining Trump admin’s ICE raids

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Comedian and television host Bill Maher pressed television personality and former clinical psychologist, Dr. Phil, on Friday about his inclusion in the Trump administration’s ongoing nationwide immigration raids.

Why It Matters

Phil McGraw or better known as Dr. Phil who is widely known for his television career, is a vocal supporter of the Trump administration. He has spoken at campaign rallies, interviewed the then-Republican candidate, and been present atImmigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids since Donald Trump took office in January, including operations in Chicago and Los Angeles.

The Trump administration has spearheaded a major immigration crackdown, vowing to carry out the largest mass deportation in U.S. history. The initiative has seen an intensification of ICE raids across the country, with thousands of people detained and many deported.

What To Know

Maher, host of the HBO talk show Real Time with Bill Maher, asked his guest, Dr. Phil, about his reasoning for joining the immigration raids.

“Why are you going on these ICE raids? I don’t understand that,” Maher said. “You’re a guy who we know for so many years who has been working to put families together; to bring families who are apart and heal them. And now you’re going on raids with people who are literally separating families. Explain that to me.”

Dr. Phil quickly countered, “Well, now that’s bull****.”

Maher then interjected, “That’s not bull****…They’re not separating families?”

Dr. Phil continued, “Look, if you arrest somebody that’s a citizen, that has committed a crime or is DUI’d with a child in the backseat, do you think they don’t separate that family right then, right there? Of course they do!”

“But that’s not what’s going on,” Maher argued.

Dr. Phil then referenced part of Maher’s earlier monologue, turning to talk about how ICE agents have to wear masks because of “doxxing” concerns.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reported in July that ICE agents “are facing an 830 increase in assaults from January 21st to July 14th compared with the same period in 2024.”

Dr. Phil defended the ICE agents, saying they are simply doing their jobs by carrying out the raids, saying, “They didn’t make the laws; they didn’t make that law. What are you expecting them to do, just not do their job? If you don’t like the law, change it. I don’t like that law, at all. Change the law!”

Maher then asked, “If you don’t like it then why are you going?” which drew applause from the live audience. Dr. Phil responded, “Because that is the law.”

Earlier this summer, large-scale clashes between protesters and immigration officials in Los Angeles prompted the deployment of the National Guard and U.S. Marines to the city. Dr. Phil was on the ground in Los Angeles with his TV channel, Merit TV, for the raids, while earlier in January he partook in a ride-along with border czar Tom Homan during the Chicago raids.

What People Are Saying

Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement previously shared with Newsweek: “Under Secretary Noem, we are delivering on President Trump’s and the American people’s mandate to arrest and deport criminal illegal aliens to make American safe. Secretary Noem unleashed ICE to target the worst of the worst and carry out the largest deportation operation of criminal aliens in American history.”

A Department of Justice spokesperson previously told Newsweek: “The entire Trump Administration is united in fully enforcing our nation’s immigration laws, and the DOJ continues to play an important role in vigorously defending the President’s deportation agenda in court.”

What Happens Next?

Democratic leaders and human rights advocates have criticized the Trump administration’s immigration policies, citing reports of inhumane conditions in detention centers and during detention procedures. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has repeatedly defended the department and its facilities, and has called for expanding ICE’s detention capacity.

Raids are expected to continue as the administration pledges to deport people without proper documentation.

Bill Maher confronts Dr. Phil on joining Trump admin’s ICE raids
Maher pressed Dr. Phil on “going on” some of the Trump administration’s immigration raids.

https://www.newsweek.com/bill-maher-confronts-dr-phil-joining-trump-admins-ice-raids-2111269

my San Antonio: ‘Really hard’: ICE raids are disrupting award-winning Texas restaurants

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‘Everybody was hoping that it would be more like 2017’

When Adam Orman opened his first restaurant in Central Texas in 2016, a few months before President Donald Trump was first elected to his first term, everything was normal. L’Oca d’Oro began hiring new employees above the minimum wage and its food/atmosphere made it one of the best Italian spots in Austin.

Things were going so well that Orman even opened a new pizza joint, Bambino, in 2024, which also received high acclaim. But earlier this year, when Trump returned to the White House for his second term, Orman told MySA he started to see Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) activity begin to impact his business. 

“Everybody was hoping that it would be more like 2017, that it wouldn’t be as bad,” Orman told MySA. “I never heard of any raids happening at restaurants back in 2017 obviously, there was a lot happening on the border. There was a lot happening with kids with the family separations, and so it was a big conversation in Texas, but it [raids] were not as big a conversation, specifically in the hospitality industry.”

Within Trump’s first week back in January, he vowed to continue his campaign promise to crack down on illegal immigration by signing dozens of executive orders, one of which called for the “immediate removal of those in the United States without legal status.” The order led to ICE conducting “enhanced targeted operations” in major U.S. cities like Austin, which prompted nationwide protests and arrests. 

“I think the big moment for the rest of the community was when they pledged to increase detentions.” Orman said. “It was from like 300 a day to 3,000 a day nationally, and we really saw what that felt like and all of a sudden now everybody was seeing detentions happening in their workplaces.”

Through social media and news coverage, Orman explained that people began to realize that detentions weren’t just happening at work, but also on the street, at traffic stops, court rooms and more. That’s when he noticed his own “employees behavior started to change.” 

“There were people who weren’t showing up for work, or if they were, they were afraid to show up for work, or they weren’t leaving the house to go food shopping, that all these normal things that just got worse,” Orman said. 

By mid-April, one of his Bambino employees who didn’t show up for work one day was detained by ICE. A few weeks later in late May, Orman posted a social media video on how mass deportations and arrests are impacting Austin’s restaurant industry. Within 24 hours of the post, another one of his L’Oca d’Oro employees was detained. 

In both cases, Orman said he was “very involved” in supporting his detained employees by writing letters as they waited weeks for court hearings and even helped raise money to pay their obligor or bond expenses. Although his L’Oca employee chose to self-deport to their home country due to their expensive $15,000 bond, Orman’s Bambino employee was released on bail but remains unable to work until their asylum application is approved. 

“It’s really hard. It’s hard for the staff that’s still here to know that this could happen to anybody on staff,” Orman said. “Both restaurants are not that big, so losing one person makes a huge difference, and then not knowing what the process is going to be once they’ve been detained, not knowing how long it’s going to take, even if they do get released, are they going to be able to come back to work?”

But Orman’s restaurants aren’t the only ones being impacted by ICE detentions. In early July, the National Restaurant Association sent a letter to Trump urging him to remove “individuals who pose a threat to national security and public safety,” partner with the association to implement workforce solutions, and consider deferred action options for “long-serving employees.”

“Today, there are more than 1 million unfilled jobs in the food service and hotel industries,” the letter reads. “Nearly one in three restaurant operators report they lack sufficient employees to meet customer demand, and 77% struggle to hire and retain staff. These shortages limit operating hours, reduce services, and strain restaurant operators and the communities they serve across the country.”

The association also wants the president to “advance long-term immigration reform with Congress to support individuals who contribute to our economy and aspire to build a better future through hard work.” In Texas, the state’s Restaurant Association Chief Public Affairs Officer Kelsey Erickson Streufert told MySA that the organization has seen several reports of immigration enforcement affecting restaurants and industries with large Hispanic populations. She added that this “fear of being caught up” with ICE is “impacting workers and consumers, many of whom are citizens or have legal work authorization.”

“For these reasons, the Texas Restaurant Association has joined the National Restaurant Association and our state restaurant association partners in echoing President Trump’s comments that we can and should do both—maintain a secure border and secure the workforce we need to protect our food supply and lower food prices for all Americans,” Streufert said in an emailed statement. “This remains a top priority for the TRA because we need commonsense worker pathways to prevent higher prices, empty tables and shelves, and more small business closures.”

Orman has been preparing for this moment even before Trump’s re-election by co-founding Good Work Austin in 2019, a coalition of bars and restaurants dedicated to providing healthy workspaces for their employees. The group has since partnered with the Texas Civil Rights Project to host virtual “Know Your Rights” seminars to help restaurant owners and employees fill out I-9 paperwork and manage recent immigration issues. 

Although the possibility of any hospitality work permit relief program for immigrants is still unclear, Orman maintained that he will continue to advocate for and protect his employees no matter what. 

“I think that that provides some sense of security, that we’re not we’re not pretending like everything’s aright and that we are as prepared as we as we can be, and that when something bad does happen to one of our employees, that we’re going to do everything we can to support them and get them out of detention, get them back to their families and get them back to work.”

‘Really hard’: ICE raids are disrupting award-winning Texas restaurants

https://www.mysanantonio.com/food/article/austin-restaurant-ice-raids-20789546.php

Sacremento Bee: Judge Delivers Blow to New Detention Center

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District Judge Rodolfo Ruiz has ordered Florida officials to submit all contracts and agreements regarding the “Alligator Alcatraz” detention center. The order followed a civil rights lawsuit alleging constitutional violations against detainees, and aims to clarify legal authority and oversight at the facility. Immigration attorneys claimed detainees at “Alligator Alcatraz” are held without charges, denied legal access, and have had bond hearings canceled.

Ruiz stated, “Federal and state officials in Florida must produce agreements showing which government agency or private contractor has legal authority to detain people or perform immigration officer roles at ‘Alligator Alcatraz,’ the immigration detention facility in the Everglades.”

Ruiz added, “Officials must provide by Thursday all written agreements and contracts showing who has legal custody of the hundreds of detainees at the facility that was hastily constructed more than a month ago on an isolated airstrip in South Florida’s Everglades wilderness.”

…

The facility’s oversight has been unclear since its July opening. The Archdiocese of Miami has confirmed it conducted the first Mass at the detention center following negotiations for pastoral care for the detainees.

Ruiz stated, “We need to get to the bottom of the interplay between the federal and state authorities on who’s running this thing.”

Judge Delivers Blow to New Detention Center
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https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/judge-delivers-blow-to-new-detention-center/ss-AA1Kdyyu