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Timeline › 2025 › November › 18

November 18, 2025

5 entries on this date.

United States deported 50 Ukrainians to Poland, transferred them into war zone

ICE deported 50 Ukrainian nationals to Poland on November 18, 2025, the largest single deportation of Ukrainians since Russia's invasion; U.S. officials flew them to Jasionka and transferred them to Polish officials, who escorted them across the border into Ukraine. Some had entered the U.S. under the Uniting for Ukraine humanitarian parole program with pending re-parole applications; Amnesty International and Human Rights First later called the practice a likely violation of international law.

ICE arrested Beaverton handyman Paulino Martin San Pedro, deported him within days without a court order or family notice

On November 18, 2025, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Paulino Martin San Pedro, a 53-year-old Beaverton, Oregon handyman who had lived in the United States for more than 30 years, as he left a job site. Within three days, ICE transferred him from Tacoma, Washington to Arizona and deported him to Mexico without a court order, leaving his family without word of his whereabouts for two days. Martin San Pedro, who has three adult children and grandchildren in Oregon, reported witnessing dialysis and cancer patients handcuffed to their wheelchairs while in ICE custody.

EEOC filed court action demanding University of Pennsylvania produce names and contact information of Jewish employees

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued an administrative subpoena to the University of Pennsylvania in July 2025 demanding the personal contact information and identifying details of Jewish employees as part of an antisemitism investigation; Penn refused full compliance. On November 18, 2025, the EEOC filed a federal enforcement action seeking a court order compelling disclosure. A district court ordered enforcement in March 2026, but the EEOC withdrew the subpoena in July 2026 after Penn appealed to the Third Circuit, ending the legal battle without any of the demanded identifying information being disclosed.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection wrongfully detained U.S. citizen Fernando Vazquez during a Cary, North Carolina immigration sweep

On the morning of November 18, 2025, U.S. Border Patrol agents in unmarked vehicles detained Fernando Vazquez, an 18-year-old U.S. citizen and commercial landscaper, near a construction jobsite in Cary, North Carolina, as part of a broader immigration sweep moving from Charlotte into the Raleigh/Triangle area. Agents asked where he was from, confiscated his wallet, and drove him roughly two miles before determining he was a U.S. citizen and releasing him, discarding his belongings — including his IDs and AirPods — on the ground rather than returning them.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott designated CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood foreign terrorist organizations, a power reserved to the U.S. Secretary of State

On November 18, 2025, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a proclamation designating the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Muslim Brotherhood "foreign terrorist and transnational criminal organizations," citing unproven claims that CAIR is a "front group" for Hamas. The proclamation bars both organizations from purchasing or acquiring property in Texas and authorizes "increased enforcement," including the attorney general suing to shut them down, even though designating a foreign terrorist organization is a power held exclusively by the U.S. Secretary of State and neither organization is on any federal terrorism list. CAIR called the proclamation a "publicity stunt masquerading as a proclamation" and said it would sue.