Denial of due process in immigration enforcement
Denial of due process in immigration enforcement is the conduct of removal, detention, asylum, and related proceedings in ways that bypass the procedural protections required by statute, regulation, and constitutional minima. Concrete forms include summary removals where individualized adjudication is required, the holding of people incommunicado, the conduct of hearings without language access or counsel access, and the denial of access to evidence the government will use against the respondent.
Documented entries (42)
2026
HHS/ORR compiled expedited removal list for 500+ unaccompanied migrant children, bypassing TVPRA individual case process
On June 25, 2026, the Trump administration's Department of Health and Human Services, through its Office of Refugee Resettlement, identified more than 500 unaccompanied migrant children in federal custody for expedited mass removal. Senator Ron Wyden publicly warned that the planned removal would bypass the individualized case management, legal referral, and sponsor-placement process that the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act requires for each child. Multiple major outlets confirmed the list had been compiled and removal was imminent.
Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that CBP metering policy does not violate asylum law, eliminating asylum seekers' principal legal challenge avenue
On June 25, 2026, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Mullin v. Al Otro Lado that U.S. Customs and Border Protection's "metering" policy — systematically turning asylum seekers away at ports of entry before they physically cross the border line — does not violate federal asylum law. Writing for the majority, Justice Samuel Alito held that noncitizens physically blocked at a port of entry have not "arrived in the United States" within the meaning of 8 U.S.C. § 1158 and therefore have no statutory right to apply for asylum. The decision forecloses the primary legal avenue that had permitted asylum seekers to challenge their systematic exclusion at the border.
Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that criminal suspicion alone justifies immigration parole of lawful permanent residents
On June 23, 2026, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in favor of the Trump administration, holding that an immigration officer's unverified allegation of criminal wrongdoing is sufficient to place a lawful permanent resident on immigration parole at a border crossing. The majority opinion, written by Justice Clarence Thomas, found that border officers need not establish criminal activity by clear and convincing evidence before restricting a green card holder's rights. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson's dissent, joined by both other liberal justices, warned the ruling handed the government a "massive blank check" to weaken due-process protections for the approximately 13.5 million lawful permanent residents in the United States.
ICE deports Adelanto hunger-strike organizer Kyon Swaso to Belize after no-notice out-of-state transfers
On June 12, 2026, ICE deported Kyon Shakeel Swaso — a Belizean national and lead organizer of the hunger strike at California's GEO Group-run Adelanto ICE Processing Center — to Belize, following a series of no-notice transfers to facilities in Texas and Louisiana that his attorneys say violated Central District of California General Order 26-05's advance-notice requirement. The deportation proceeded despite a pending Stay of Removal and Motion to Reopen. The removal came eleven days after Swaso met with members of Congress to report inhumane conditions at Adelanto; DHS disputes that a hunger strike is occurring and characterizes the removal as routine.
Trump administration defies court order to resume immigration processing for 39 countries
Six days after U.S. District Chief Judge John J. McConnell Jr. vacated the administration's freeze on asylum decisions, green cards, work permits, and other immigration adjudications for nationals of 39 countries, the government had still not resumed processing. On June 11, 2026, after a coalition of unions and nonprofits filed an emergency motion to enforce, McConnell ordered the administration to file a status report within 24 hours detailing its compliance and wrote that "there is no excuse this time."
CBP deports more than 200 Filipino sailors on unproven child sexual abuse material accusations
An NPR investigation published June 6, 2026 documented that U.S. Customs and Border Protection has deported more than 200 Filipino professional mariners since 2025 after accusing them — without charges, prosecutions, or presented evidence — of possessing child sexual abuse material. Agents board cruise and commercial ships in port, search crew members' phones, revoke their crew visas, and remove them to Manila within roughly 24 hours, with 10-year entry bans in at least some cases. The Pilipino Workers Center has tracked at least 212 such cases, all visa revocations with no criminal charges.
HRW: 4,353 Cubans deported to Mexico under undisclosed US deal, denied due process
In a report released May 27, 2026, Human Rights Watch documented that between January 20, 2025 and March 9, 2026 the Trump administration deported more than 18,000 third-country nationals, nearly 13,000 of them to Mexico under an undisclosed US-Mexico agreement; Cubans were the largest group, with 4,353 sent to Mexico. HRW found that none of the 53 deportees it interviewed were given any opportunity to contest their country of removal, a violation of due-process requirements under the Immigration and Nationality Act and international law, and that detainees faced overcrowding, denial of medical care, and guard violence in US custody before being left stranded in southern Mexico.
DOJ swore in active-duty military JAG officers as temporary immigration judges
On May 20, 2026, the Justice Department's Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) held an investiture at the DOJ Great Hall swearing in 77 permanent and 5 temporary immigration judges — the largest single class in the agency's history. The 5 temporary judges are active-duty military Judge Advocate General (JAG) attorneys, the first cohort detailed under an August 2025 Pentagon authorization to assign up to 600 military lawyers to the immigration courts. The buildout follows the removal of more than 100 sitting immigration judges and the hiring of enforcement-aligned replacements, and is explicitly aimed at accelerating deportation cases.
US State Department adds Central African Republic to its third-country deportation program
The U.S. State Department has negotiated an agreement for the Central African Republic to receive migrants of other nationalities deported by the United States — the latest expansion of the Trump administration's third-country deportation program. Rights groups and Senate Democrats say the program removes migrants who had secured immigration-court protections against repatriation, routing them to unrelated countries to circumvent those protections. The deal was struck at a May 18, 2026 meeting in Bangui led by State Department deputy assistant secretary Christian Jové Ehrhardt and reported by Reuters on June 7; a federal judge's May 22 restraining order shows US officials had already planned to remove a Turkish national to the country on May 26.
ICE agents enter Tucson home without judicial warrant and arrest DACA recipient Karla Toledo
On the morning of May 18, 2026, federal immigration agents arrested Karla Toledo, a 31-year-old longtime Tucson, Arizona resident and DACA recipient, at her home. Video shared by her family shows occupants repeatedly asking agents to produce a warrant, and her family and attorney say no judicial warrant was presented before agents entered. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed Toledo was taken in a "targeted immigration enforcement operation" and, with the Department of Homeland Security, asserted that DACA confers no legal status, that she entered the country unlawfully in October 2024, and that she assaulted an agent — claims her attorney disputes, citing surveillance footage. Toledo was moved to ICE detention in Eloy, Arizona, where her bond was set at $1,500 and her attorney expected her release within days.
Federal court bars ICE from arresting immigrants at three Manhattan federal courthouses after finding the agency lacked internal legal authority for the year-plus practice
On May 18, 2026, U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel (Southern District of New York) issued a 15-page stay barring U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from arresting most immigrants inside or around three federal courthouses in lower Manhattan — 26 Federal Plaza, 201 Varick Street, and 290 Broadway — except in narrow circumstances involving imminent national-security or public-safety threats. The court's findings document the underlying abuse this entry records: ICE had conducted courthouse arrests at substantial scale for over a year despite, as federal prosecutors admitted in March 2026, having no internal agency rules establishing the legal authority for the practice, and the agency had continued the arrests after conceding this to prosecutors. A masked-agent arrest was witnessed at 26 Federal Plaza on the morning of May 18, hours before the stay took effect.
BIA fast-tracked Mahmoud Khalil's deportation case in 9-day 'unprecedented' turnaround
Internal Department of Justice case-tracking documents obtained by The New York Times and reported publicly on May 11, 2026 reveal that the Board of Immigration Appeals — an appellate body housed within the DOJ — fast-tracked the deportation case of Palestinian Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil along a procedural track that a former BIA member called "unprecedented." Per the internal documents, the case was flagged high-priority before the board officially received it; a staff note instructed handling Khalil's case as if he were still in detention even though he had been released several days earlier; the BIA's April 9, 2026 decision authorizing Khalil's deportation came just nine days after paperwork was submitted; and at least three judges recused themselves from the proceedings.
BIA reinstates deportation proceedings against Columbia activist Mohsen Mahdawi
The Board of Immigration Appeals reinstated removal proceedings against Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian lawful permanent resident and Columbia University student activist, overturning an immigration judge's February dismissal of the case. The government had pursued Mahdawi's deportation under a rarely used foreign-policy provision invoked by the Secretary of State, after he was detained in 2025 over his pro-Palestinian advocacy and released by a federal court without being charged with any crime.
ICE re-arrests El Gamal family at first check-in, attempts deportation in defiance of federal release order
On April 25, 2026, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents re-arrested Hayam El Gamal and her five children at the family's first required post-release check-in in Colorado Springs, two days after U.S. District Judge Fred Biery of the Western District of Texas ordered them freed pending their asylum proceedings. ICE routed the family onto a flight bound for Michigan and told them they would be deported to Egypt; the plane reversed course mid-air only after Judge Biery and U.S. District Judge Nina Wang of Colorado issued emergency orders Saturday evening directing that the family not be removed. The mother and her five children — held at the Dilley, Texas family detention center for more than ten months and never charged with any crime — were released again just after midnight on April 26.
ICE deported Colombian woman to DR Congo after Congolese officials refused her on medical grounds
On April 16, 2026, ICE placed Adriana Maria Quiroz Zapata — a 55-year-old Colombian woman with diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and hypothyroidism — on a removal flight to the Democratic Republic of the Congo two days after Congolese officials had formally refused to accept her because they could not guarantee the medical care her conditions required. On May 14, 2026, U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon (D.D.C.) ruled the deportation was likely unlawful under the Immigration and Nationality Act and ordered the Trump administration to return her to the United States, finding that she faced a "daily risk of medical complications, up to and including death." As of the ruling she remained in the DRC.
ICE detains Iranian Ph.D. student Yousof Azizi and moves to deport him after BBC Persian commentary on U.S.–Iran war
Federal immigration agents detained Yousof Azizi, a 40-year-old Iranian Ph.D. candidate at Virginia Tech, outside his Germantown, Maryland home on April 13, 2026, and the Trump administration is moving to deport him. ICE has transferred him through facilities in Louisiana, Texas, and Arizona; his wife, his lawyers, and CAIR say the action is retaliation for his Persian-language media commentary on the U.S. war on Iran, while DHS says he misstated prior involvement with Iran's Student Basij Organization on his visa application and that his student visa was terminated after he failed to re-enroll at Virginia Tech for Fall 2025.
State Dept revokes Iranian asylees' green cards on debunked Soleimani-relation claim
On April 3, 2026, ICE arrested Iranian asylees Hamideh Soleimani Afshar and her adult daughter Sarina Hosseiny outside Los Angeles after Secretary of State Marco Rubio revoked their green cards in a public statement identifying them as the niece and grandniece of slain Iranian general Qasem Soleimani. A subsequent Drop Site News investigation reviewing Iranian birth records, identification papers, and family wills found no familial connection to the late general — a finding corroborated by Soleimani's own surviving daughters in Iran. The women remain held at the South Texas ICE Processing Center in San Antonio pending removal to Iran, where Hamideh, who has autoimmune hemolytic anemia, is reportedly being denied the transfusion treatment her condition requires.
ICE detains Army sergeant's newlywed wife inside Fort Polk during benefits registration
On April 2, 2026, federal immigration agents detained Annie Ramos, the 22-year-old newlywed wife of U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Matthew Blank, inside Fort Polk, Louisiana, where the couple had gone to register her for a military ID and spouse benefits. Ramos, born in Honduras and brought to the U.S. before age 2, was held on a final removal order issued in absentia in 2005, when she was a toddler, despite a DACA application pending since 2020. After five days in detention she was released April 7 on an order of supervision with a GPS monitor, with removal proceedings continuing.
Judge found Border Patrol defied her injunction with boilerplate forms in Sacramento arrests
U.S. District Judge Jennifer Thurston ruled in an order unsealed April 1, 2026, that U.S. Border Patrol agents defied her April 2025 preliminary injunction barring detentions without documented reasonable suspicion and warrantless arrests without a flight-risk finding. In a July 2025 sweep at a Sacramento Home Depot, agents arrested 12 people — 11 noncitizens and one U.S. citizen — using essentially identical, boilerplate I-213 forms that failed to document the required articulable facts. She ordered agents to write signed, individualized narrative reports supporting each stop.
ICE detains Milwaukee Islamic Society president Salah Sarsour over decades-old West Bank record
Roughly a dozen ICE vehicles surrounded Salah Sarsour — a lawful permanent resident of more than 30 years and five-year board president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, Wisconsin's largest Islamic organization — on Milwaukee's south side, where by his family's account a plainclothes officer pointed a gun at him before identifying the arrest as immigration custody. He was moved to the Broadview Detention Center in Illinois and then to a county jail in Indiana, and DHS publicly branded him a "terrorist" and an "illegal alien from Jordan," resting on an Israeli military-court conviction from his teenage years that his counsel says the government knew about when it admitted him in 1993. His attorneys say the government is also invoking the foreign-policy-threat ground used against Mahmoud Khalil and that the case is retaliation for his Palestinian-rights advocacy.
ICE conducts targeted, warrantless arrest of Nashville journalist Estefany Rodríguez
On March 4, 2026, ICE agents carried out a targeted, warrantless arrest of Estefany Rodríguez, the lead immigration reporter for Nashville's Spanish-language outlet Nashville Noticias, one day after she published a widely viewed video showing the identifiable faces of agents conducting a Middle Tennessee operation. Officers were found to have a photo of her logo-marked car and repeatedly identified her in custody as "the journalist"; she was held in isolation, transferred out of state to Alabama and Louisiana, and kept from her attorney from March 4 to March 14 before her release on $10,000 bond on March 19. A federal court ordered ICE to justify the arrest, and government attorneys argued that First Amendment protections "may not even be applicable to an illegal alien."
ICE used a false missing-child pretext to detain Columbia senior Ellie Aghayeva without a warrant
Around 6 a.m. on February 26, 2026, five federal ICE agents entered an off-campus Columbia University residential building without a judicial warrant by telling building staff they were police searching for a missing child, then arrested Elmina "Ellie" Aghayeva, a 29-year-old Columbia senior from Azerbaijan. Columbia said security-camera footage captured the agents using the missing-child story to gain entry; the Department of Homeland Security said her student visa had been revoked in 2016 and disputed assertions that agents impersonated NYPD officers. Aghayeva was released the same afternoon after New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani appealed directly to President Trump, and was placed in removal proceedings.
ICE flew a 2-year-old and her father to Texas despite a court order to release the toddler
On January 22, 2026, ICE agents detained Elvis Joel Tipan Echeverria and his 2-year-old daughter in south Minneapolis as they returned home from grocery shopping. After a federal judge ordered that the toddler not be moved out of state and be released, the government placed both on a commercial flight to Texas roughly twenty minutes later, in contravention of the order. The child was returned to her mother in Minnesota the next day; her father, who has an active asylum case, remained in federal custody.
ICE secretly deported eight shackled Palestinians from Phoenix to the occupied West Bank
On January 20, 2026, ICE flew eight Palestinian men - shackled at the wrists and ankles for the entire journey - out of a Phoenix deportation hub on a private jet bearing the emblem of Dezer Development, the company run by Trump donor Gil Dezer, with refueling stops in New Jersey, Ireland, and Bulgaria. The men landed at Ben Gurion Airport and were released by Israeli authorities at a military checkpoint near Ni'lin in the occupied West Bank, in an operation coordinated with Israel and approved by the Shin Bet. A joint +972 Magazine and Guardian investigation found the flight was one of at least two such secret removals in early 2026, carried out with little or no due process.
DHS denies Minneapolis immigration detainees, including a U.S. citizen, access to lawyers
During Operation Metro Surge, federal agents held people swept up in Minneapolis-area immigration raids — including at least one U.S. citizen — inside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building and systematically denied them access to attorneys. Lawyers reported being turned away for days with shifting, legally invalid excuses, while detainees were allowed an outgoing call only after being booked and transferred to out-of-state facilities. DHS denied any violation, but the pattern was corroborated by four named attorneys, two U.S. senators, and a class-action suit that produced a March 2026 court order requiring prompt attorney access before any transfer.
ICE breaks into St. Paul home at gunpoint and detains Hmong American U.S. citizen ChongLy Thao in his underwear; county probes it as kidnapping
On January 18, 2026, masked federal immigration agents broke down the door of ChongLy "Scott" Thao, a 56-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen of Hmong descent, in St. Paul, pointed guns at his family, and led him into subzero cold wearing only his underwear, Crocs, and a blanket. Agents handcuffed Thao in front of his young grandson and drove him around questioning him before fingerprinting confirmed he is a longtime citizen with no record, then returned him home without explanation. Ramsey County's attorney and sheriff opened an investigation into the federal agents' conduct as a possible kidnapping.
ICE breaks into St. Paul home in armed warrantless raid, detains six including a 12-year-old flown to Texas
On January 15, 2026, federal immigration agents broke through the door of a home on Nevada Avenue East in St. Paul, Minnesota, entered with assault rifles, and detained six members of a Venezuelan family — including a 12-year-old boy who was transported to an immigration center in San Antonio, Texas. Agents claimed a search warrant but never presented one; a document left on the doorstep the next day was an unfiled Ramsey County (state) court paper with no case number. On January 19, U.S. District Judge John Tunheim granted the family's habeas petition after DHS failed to produce a judicial warrant by his deadline, ordering the detainees returned to Minnesota and released within 72 hours.
2025
USCIS froze asylum applications and immigration benefits for 19 travel-ban countries, ordered green-card review
On December 2, 2025, USCIS Director Joseph Edlow issued Policy Memorandum PM-602-0192 placing an indefinite hold on all pending affirmative asylum applications and freezing adjudication of immigration benefits—including green cards, work permits, and naturalization—for nationals of 19 countries subject to the June 2025 travel ban, while also ordering a review of every green card already issued to people from those countries. The memo cited Executive Order 14161 and a November 26 shooting near the White House as justification and stated the freeze would remain until lifted by a future directive. On June 5, 2026, a federal court vacated the policies as contrary to law and pretextual.
State Department cable halted all Afghan visa processing worldwide, including SIVs for wartime allies
On November 29, 2025, the State Department sent a cable to every U.S. diplomatic post ordering consular officers to stop processing and refuse all visa applications from Afghan nationals — immigrant, non-immigrant, and Special Immigrant Visas — effective immediately. The cable also instructed officers to cancel any authorized-but-unprinted visas and to destroy already-printed ones, while Secretary of State Rubio publicly confirmed the halt. The directive was triggered by the November 26 shooting of two National Guard members near the White House by an Afghan national, and applied collectively to all Afghans regardless of individual circumstances or prior approval status.
USCIS halted all asylum decisions nationwide after National Guard shooting
On November 28, 2025, USCIS Director Joseph Edlow ordered asylum officers to immediately stop approving, denying, or closing any asylum application nationwide, regardless of the applicant's nationality, following the shooting of two National Guard members near the White House by an Afghan national. The indefinite halt suspended the statutory asylum adjudication process under INA §208 for all pending applicants, freezing them in limbo with no path to a decision or hearing, and served as the originating operational directive later formalized by the December 2, 2025 USCIS Policy Memorandum PM-602-0192.
USCIS halted all asylum decisions for applicants of every nationality after D.C. National Guard shooting
On November 28, 2025, USCIS Director Joseph Edlow announced that the agency had "halted all asylum decisions" pending completion of enhanced vetting for "every alien," telling officers they could continue interviews up to the point of decision but could not approve, deny, or close any application regardless of the applicant's nationality. The operational directive—issued two days after an Afghan national shot two National Guard members near the White House—went beyond the concurrent Afghan-specific pause and froze affirmative asylum adjudication nationwide. CBS News reported the officer guidance on November 29. The pause was later formalized in USCIS Policy Memorandum PM-602-0192 (December 2, 2025) and declared unlawful by a federal court on June 5, 2026.
USCIS indefinitely halted all Afghan immigration requests—asylum, green cards, SIVs—hours after D.C. shooting
On November 26, 2025, USCIS announced it was immediately and indefinitely pausing processing of all immigration requests from Afghan nationals, covering asylum seekers, green-card applicants, work-permit renewals, family petitions, and Special Immigrant Visa applicants, many of whom aided U.S. forces during the war in Afghanistan. The agency imposed the halt by announcement with no rulemaking, no end date, and no individualized review, citing security-vetting concerns in the hours following an alleged shooting by an Afghan national near the White House.
Pentagon authorized up to 600 military JAG lawyers to serve as temporary immigration judges
On August 27, 2025, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signed a memo authorizing the Department of Defense to detail up to 600 Judge Advocate General lawyers to serve as temporary immigration judges under the Justice Department's Executive Office for Immigration Review on assignments of up to 179 days. The authorization followed the DOJ's removal of the prior-immigration-experience requirement for temporary judges. Military JAGs would receive approximately two weeks of training before serving; the first cohort of five was sworn in on May 20, 2026, in the largest investiture class in EOIR history.
Supreme Court 6-3 stayed order requiring torture screening before third-country deportations, enabling removals to South Sudan and Libya
The Supreme Court voted 6-3 on June 23, 2025, to stay a federal district court order that had required the Trump administration to provide immigrants a meaningful opportunity to contest removal to dangerous third countries before deportation. The stay immediately allowed the administration to resume removals to South Sudan, Libya, and El Salvador under bilateral agreements, without any screening for Convention Against Torture claims. Justice Sotomayor dissented sharply, writing that the administration had "repeatedly defied" the lower court order and calling the Supreme Court's intervention "so gross an abuse of the Court's equitable discretion."
Supreme Court 7-2 stayed injunction blocking CHNV parole termination, enabling DHS to revoke status for 532,000 noncitizens
On May 30, 2025, the Supreme Court granted the Trump administration's emergency application to stay a federal injunction, allowing DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to proceed with terminating humanitarian parole for more than 532,000 noncitizens from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela admitted under the Biden-era CHNV programs. The unsigned 7-2 order — with Justices Jackson and Sotomayor dissenting — cleared the way to revoke parole status without the individualized case-by-case review that the district court's injunction had required. Justice Jackson wrote that the majority had "plainly botched" the ruling and decried the "devastating consequences" of upending the lives of nearly half a million people while their legal claims remained pending.
DOJ filed motion to terminate Flores Settlement Agreement, eliminating court-ordered protections for immigrant children in custody
On May 22, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a motion in federal court to terminate the Flores Settlement Agreement, a 1997 court settlement that has set minimum care standards and a 20-day detention cap for immigrant children in federal custody for nearly three decades. Attorney General Pam Bondi's DOJ argued termination was warranted by post-settlement regulations and a 2022 Supreme Court ruling. Judge Dolly Gee denied the motion in August 2025, finding the government remained in substantial noncompliance with the settlement's terms.
ICE Acting Director Lyons issued classified memo authorizing warrantless home entry for immigration arrests
ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons issued an internal memo on May 12, 2025, directing agents to forcibly enter private homes using administrative warrants signed by ICE supervisors rather than judges, departing from longstanding Fourth Amendment practice and prior DHS policy requiring judicial warrants for home entry. The memo was classified for restricted internal distribution—agents were required to return it and take no notes—and was reportedly used to train new ICE agents. Whistleblowers disclosed the memo to Senator Blumenthal in January 2026; NBC News published the full account.
HHS issued interim final rule permitting ICE and CBP to access sponsors' immigration status, reinstating first-term enforcement arrangement
On March 25, 2025, the Department of Health and Human Services published an interim final rule (90 Fed. Reg. 13554) that rescinded a Biden-era prohibition on sharing the immigration status of unaccompanied children's sponsors with ICE and CBP for enforcement purposes. The rule, effective immediately, also removed the prohibition on disqualifying potential sponsors based solely on their immigration status. The IFR reinstated a memorandum of agreement from Trump's first term under which approximately 170 undocumented sponsors who came forward to claim children in federal custody had been arrested by ICE.
DHS Secretary Noem terminated CHNV parole programs, stripping lawful status from 532,000 noncitizens without individualized review
On March 25, 2025, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem published Federal Register Notice 2025-05128 (90 FR 13611) formally terminating the Biden-era categorical parole programs for inadmissible noncitizens from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. The termination took effect immediately; the approximately 532,000 current parolees were given until April 24, 2025 to depart the United States. Each had been individually vetted and admitted under 8 U.S.C. § 1182(d)(5), but their status was revoked through a single blanket notice with no individualized review of reliance interests or changed circumstances.
Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport 250+ Venezuelans to El Salvador's CECOT, defying federal court order
On March 15, 2025, President Trump signed a proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to designate members of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua as "alien enemies" subject to immediate removal without normal immigration proceedings. That same day, the administration flew more than 250 Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador's CECOT maximum-security prison without individualized hearings. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg issued a temporary restraining order blocking further AEA deportations that evening, which the administration defied — the planes had already landed.
ICE detains Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil over pro-Palestinian activism; no criminal charges filed
On March 8, 2025, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained Mahmoud Khalil — a lawful permanent resident and Columbia University graduate student who had been a prominent organizer of pro-Palestinian campus protests — with no criminal charges filed against him. Secretary of State Marco Rubio invoked 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(4)(C), a rarely-used statute permitting deportation on foreign-policy grounds, as the basis for removal. Khalil was transferred to an ICE detention facility in Jena, Louisiana, where he was held for approximately three months while his attorneys argued the government was retaliating against him for constitutionally protected political speech.
Trump signed EO 14159 expanding expedited removal to US interior, eliminating immigration court hearings for non-citizens
On January 20, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14159, directing DHS to expand expedited removal to the fullest extent authorized by statute. DHS implemented the order via a Federal Register designation effective January 21, 2025, extending expedited removal authority to any non-citizen anywhere in the United States who could not prove at least two years of continuous presence. Previously, the procedure had applied only to migrants apprehended at or near the border; the expansion allowed interior deportations without any hearing before an immigration judge.