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Timeline › 2025 › March › 25

March 25, 2025

7 entries on this date.

Trump pardoned Devon Archer, a Hunter Biden associate, remitting $43M restitution for his tribal-bond fraud conviction

On March 25, 2025, President Trump granted a full and unconditional pardon to Devon Archer, a former business associate of Hunter Biden, remitting $43 million in restitution and $15 million in asset forfeiture ordered after Archer's conviction for diverting roughly $60 million raised through bonds issued by the Oglala Sioux Nation's Wakpamni Lake Community Corporation. Archer, sentenced to one year and one day, never served time before the pardon. Trump tied the clemency to Archer's 2023 congressional testimony about Hunter Biden.

Trump signed EO 14246 suspending Jenner & Block security clearances, pressuring contractors to cut ties with firm

On March 25, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14246, "Addressing Risks From Jenner & Block," directing the immediate suspension of security clearances for all firm employees and requiring federal contractors to certify no business relationships with the firm under threat of contract termination. The order cited the firm's prior employment of Andrew Weissmann—who participated in the Mueller investigation—and its representation of transgender and immigrant clients as justification. A federal court permanently enjoined the order in May 2025, finding it violated the First Amendment through viewpoint discrimination.

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 Reg. 13554) that rescinded a Biden-era prohibition on sharing the immigration status of unaccompanied children's sponsors with ICE and CBP for enforcement purposes.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 signed EO 14248 requiring documentary proof of citizenship on the federal voter registration form

On March 25, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14248, directing the Election Assistance Commission to add documentary proof of U.S. citizenship — including a passport or REAL ID — as a mandatory requirement on the national mail voter registration form. The order also directed DOGE and the Department of Homeland Security to cross-check all state voter rolls against federal immigration databases and instructed the Attorney General to enforce post-Election Day ballot prohibitions. Federal courts subsequently permanently enjoined the citizenship-proof mandate, finding that Trump lacked statutory authority to unilaterally alter the EAC's congressionally established voter registration form.

Kansas Legislature overrode Gov. Kelly's veto to enact SB4, ending the three-day mail-ballot grace period

On March 25, 2025, the Republican-controlled Kansas Legislature overrode Gov. Laura Kelly's veto to enact Senate Bill 4, eliminating the state's three-day grace period for advance mail ballots. The law requires rejection of any mail ballot not received by county election officers by 7 p.m. on Election Day, replacing a rule that had counted ballots postmarked by Election Day and received within three days.

Utah enacted S.B. 74 barring people in state custody from legal name and birth-certificate sex-designation changes

On March 25, 2025, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox signed S.B. 74, "Corrections Modifications," which prohibits an individual in the custody of the Department of Corrections from filing a district-court petition to legally change their name and broadens the class barred from a court-ordered birth-certificate sex-designation change from those on probation or parole to any "offender" as defined in state law. The practical effect is to deny incarcerated and supervised transgender people the ability to change their legal name or correct the gender marker on their birth certificate.