PICK THREE (No time for all the reporting? Here are three important stories from the past week that you might have overlooked):
Here’s How Trump Has Made It Harder for Migrants Seeking Asylum and Citizenship (New York Times, December 5, 2025): In the wake of the National Guard shooting, the Trump administration has temporarily frozen major pathways for many migrants to obtain legal status in the United States.
How Palantir Shifted Course to Play a Key Role in ICE Deportations (Washington Post, December 3, 2025): Palantir software, Immigration OS, plays a key role in supporting the administration’s mass deportation campaign.
Fired Worker Sues Government in a Case that Could Upend Civil Rights Laws (NPR, December 1, 2025): Tania Nemer, who served in the Cleveland immigration court, alleges that she was dismissed in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the First Amendment.
PHOTO OF THE WEEK
Most Immigrants Arrested in City Crackdowns Have No Criminal History (New York Times, December 4, 2025): Story here.
LOCAL AND OHIO NEWS
Local Somalis Say Trump Could Target Columbus Next After Minnesota Attack (Columbus Dispatch, December 4, 2025): Though Minnesota has the largest Somali population in America at 63,000, Ohio is a close second. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates 30,000, but local community leaders have gauged closer to 60,000 Somali people living in central Ohio alone.
A Taco Shop Raid Splits an Ohio Town in Red America (Wall Street Journal, November 16, 2025): Panchos Tacos sponsored local sports teams and hosted the Rotary Club. Then federal immigration agents showed up.
EMERGING POLICY AND THREATS TO IMMIGRANTS
Detention and Deportation
ICE Separates Boy, 6, from Father During Effort to Deport them to China (New York Times, December 4, 2025): The child and his father fled China earlier this year and the boy had just been enrolled in school. Federal officials have tried and failed to send them back.
Detainees at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Facing ‘Harrowing Human Rights Violations,’ New Report Alleges (Guardian, December 4, 2025): Amnesty International finds immigrants at Florida facility were shackled and left outside in metal cage for up to a day.
Immigration Officials Target Afghans for Deportation in Wake of D.C. Shooting (New York Times, December 2, 2025): The stepped-up enforcement comes as the Trump administration has also moved to reassess the vetting of Afghans who came to the country under the Biden administration.
The $7,500 Self-Deportation (Nick Miroff, The Atlantic, December 2, 2025): The Trump administration is spending millions to entice people to leave.
Seven-Year Old Vermont Boy and His Mother Detained by Immigration Authorities During Thanksgiving Trip (Boston Globe, December 1, 2025): They had been sent to a facility in Dilley, Texas without informing the boy’s father.
Immigration Agents Seized a Raleigh Business Owner (News & Observer, November 29, 2025): His Wife is 8 Months Pregnant.
Trump Bets on Local Cops for Help with ICE Raids (Axios, November 29, 2025): 287(g) agreements between ICE and law enforcement agencies, by state.
Targeted Cities
ICE Begins Surge in Minnesota as Trump Pushes for Crackdown on Somali Immigrants (CBS News, December 4, 2025): The crackdown comes as Mr. Trump castigates Minnesota’s large community of Somali immigrants, regularly pointing to the country — often in incendiary terms — as a justification for his administration’s sweeping mass deportation campaign.
DHS Launches New Immigration Sting in New Orleans (Washington Post, December 3, 2025): Across New Orleans, residents had anticipated the operation, particularly immigrants. Some businesses had closed while others posted signs saying, “ICE not welcome here.”
Profiles in Authoritarianism, Racism, and Cruelty
Noem, in a Defiant Court Filing, Offers Few Details on Migrant Flights to El Salvador (Washington Post, December 5, 2025): Judge James E. Boasberg of the District of Columbia is looking into whether a criminal contempt referral is warranted after the Trump administration in March continued to fly two planeloads of mostly Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador.
U.S. Tightens Immigration Work Permits in Latest Move to Expand Crackdown (CBS News, December 4, 2025): Under the new rules, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said it will issue work permits to refugees, asylees, and those with pending applications for asylum that last for a maximum of 18 months, instead of the current 5-year period. The new policy will apply to work permit applications filed after Friday, Dec. 5.
US Widens Travel Ban to More than 30 Countries, Noem Says (Reuters, December 4, 2025): Noem did not specify which countries would be included.
Trump Rails Against Somali Migrants: ‘I Don’t Want Them in Our Country’ (Washington Post, December 2, 2025): The president blasted Minnesota’s Somali community as “garbage” in a rant also attacking Gov. Tim Walz and Rep. Ilhan Omar.
D.H.S. Secretary Recommends New Travel Ban in Wake of Shooting (New York Times, December 1, 2025): Kristi Noem, recommended that Trump enact “a full travel ban on every damn country that’s been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies.”
Trump Administration Fires 8 Immigration Judges in NYC, Official Says (ABC7, December 1, 2025): The judges include Amiena A. Khan, who is the Assistant Chief Immigration judge at 26 Federal Plaza, the official said.
Gutting of Key US Watchdog Could Pave Way for Grave Immigration Abuses, Experts Warn (Guardian, November 30, 2025): Former oversight officials alarmed by dismantling of DHS system that oversees complaints about civil rights harms.
In Embrace of ‘Remigration,’ Trump Echoes Europe’s Far Right (Washington Post, November 30, 2025): The conspicuous term he deployed on Thanksgiving probably entered his orbit via the politics of ascendant far-right parties in Germany and Austria.
Noem Confirms She Approved Deportation Flights Despite Court Order (The Hill, November 30, 2025): “The decisions that are made on deportations, where flights go, and when they go are my decision at the Department of Homeland Security,” Noem told NBC’s Kristen Welker on “Meet the Press.”
Attacks on US Citizens, Authorized Non-Citizen Immigrants, and Immigrants in General
Democratic Congresswoman Says She Was Pepper-Sprayed During ICE Raid in Arizona (CNN, December 6, 2025): Rep. Adelita Grijalva said she “was sprayed in the face by a very aggressive agent” and “pushed around by others,” even though she said she had not been aggressive. “I was asking for clarification, which is my right as a member of Congress,” she said.
‘I’m a U.S. Citizen.’ Agents Pull Woman from Car in [Florida] Keys. Feds Said She Wouldn’t Show ID (Miami Herald, December 3, 2025): A woman in medical scrubs who was driving on U.S. 1 in the Florida Keys Wednesday morning was stopped by federal immigration agents and forcibly removed from her car, despite screaming she was an American citizen.
Trump’s Crackdown in Wake of Shooting Blocks Legal Pathways for Migrants (New York Times, December 1, 2025): The new measures represent some of the most significant changes to immigration policy since President Trump returned to the White House.
Trump Wants to Revoke the Citizenship of Some Naturalized Americans: What to Know (Axios, December 1, 2025): “We don’t want those people. Does that make sense? You know why we don’t want them? Because many have been no good and they shouldn’t be in our country.”
Trump Says Pause on Asylum Decisions Will Last ‘A Long Time’ (USA Today, November 30, 2025): “We don’t want those people. We have enough problems,” Trump told reporters on board Air Force One. “Many of them are no good and they shouldn’t be in our country.”
THE COURTS
US Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Case Challenging Birthright Citizenship (BBC, December 5, 2025): For nearly 160 years, the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution has established the principle that anyone born in the country is a US citizen, with exceptions for children born to diplomats and foreign military forces.
Judge Blocks Widespread Immigration Arrests in DC Made without Warrants or Probable Cause (Guardian, December 3, 2025): Injunction was sought by civil liberties groups in lawsuit against Department of Homeland Security.
Despite Court Wins, Immigrants Stay Detained as ICE Seeks to Deport Them (Los Angeles Times, December 1, 2025): Immigrants who win court protections remain detained for months as ICE pursues third-country removals.
RESISTING, PROTESTING, AND ORGANIZING FOR CHANGE
For Catholics, Mass Deportations Are Immoral (David Lantigua, National Catholic Reporter, December 4, 2025): A massive national pastoral plan is needed for the church to stand against mass deportation. Mass deportation is immoral, unjust, and a grave evil. It is a direct attack on the family, the principal organic unit of any society, regardless of citizenship status.
Deportation Flights Protest Held by Union Workers Outside of MSP [Minneapolis] Airport (Fox9, December 3, 2025): Workers from Minnesota 50501, SEIU and UNITE HERE to demand a “stop to deportation flights taking place from the Signature Airlines Terminal.”
Illinois Officials Warn Rental Car Companies That It Is Illegal for Immigration Agents to Swap License Plates (NBC News, December 2, 2025): The secretary of state sent a cease and desist letter to ICE head Todd Lyons, citing “multiple reports of federal ICE agents illegally swapping out the license plates displayed on vehicles.”
In Trump Country, Suburban Grandmas Push Back Against ICE (USA Today, December 1, 2025): A grassroots group of seniors protests Ohio county’s cooperation with ICE.
How 200 New Yorkers Foiled an ICE Raid Before It Even Began (Time, November 30, 2025): For the second time in just over a month, a large-scale raid by dozens of immigration agents in New York City was met with a similarly large-scale counter-protest. This time, however, the protesters thwarted the authorities’ plans before they began.
Hundreds around the Country Look for Training in How to Respond to Immigration Enforcement (NBC News, November 30, 2025): Concerned residents are creating their own versions of rapid response teams to safely monitor immigration enforcement in their communities.
Haunted by History, Japanese Americans Fight Trump’s Immigration Crackdown (New York Times, November 30, 2025): Japanese Americans are seeing parallels between the government’s incarceration of their families during World War II and the current detention of Latinos.
How One Conservative Christian Family Is Pushing Back Against ICE (Religion News Service, November 25, 2025): A coalition of activists, everyday citizens and people of faith — including theologically conservative Christians — who have pooled resources and learned new technologies to mount an effort they say is designed to protect immigrants in their neighborhoods and around Chicago.
BY THE NUMBERS
The Deportation Data Project today released ICE data updated through October 15, 2025. The data update includes every ICE arrest, detainer request, and book-in to detention between September 1, 2023 and October 15, 2025. This adds about two and a half months of data to the previous release, which ran through July 28, 2025.
BACKGROUND AND ANALYSIS
We Rejected This Practice 60 Years Ago. We Must Do So Again Today (Amanda Frost, New York Times, December 6, 2025): The Trump administration is reviving nationality-based discrimination. Mr. Miller and others in the Trump administration do not appear to know that those 1924 immigration restrictions are no longer on the books.
Immigration Isn’t an ‘Invasion’ – It’s the Answer to an Invitation (Irvin Ibarguen, Time, December 4, 2025): Long before ICE persecuted migrants on the streets of America’s most iconic cities, the United States openly pursued them as its laborers of choice.
I’m an Immigration Lawyer. Trump Is Shattering My Clients’ Lives (Elora Mukherjee, New York Times, December 4, 2025): Punishing law-abiding immigrants, children and adults alike, for the violent acts of one man is anathema to our justice system and betrays our nation’s highest ideals.
Condemning Millions for One Man’s Crime (George Packer, The Atlantic, December 3, 2025): The sanctity of the individual is an essential Western value.
She’s Torn Between Her Love for Trump and Her Work with Migrants (Washington Post, November 29, 2025): A conservative woman detects a lack of empathy — and a broken promise — in President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
ACTION ITEMS
Protect Ohio Kids – Oppose State HB 42: State House Bill 42 would force educators to report on the immigration status of their students and allow immigration officials to arrest children and their parents on school grounds – a place they go for community, safety, and education. Help protect our kids by opposing State HB 42. Write to your State House Representative today, and share this far and wide with your colleagues, friends, family, and acquaintances in Ohio!
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/DRNKgg2DuAJ/
Twitter: https://x.com/RefugeeAdvcyLab/status/1990829743936053376
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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7396595528119214081
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Operation Uplift: Gift Cards for Immigrant Families in the Akron Area, sponsored by the Akron Area Interfaith Council (AAIC) and Projecto Raices Supporting Immigrant Families Through Community Generosity. Support Akron area immigrant families by assisting their volunteer group in distributing grocery and essential goods gift cards. They have approximately 40-50 plus families that we accompany or know in some way.
How the Program Works: Purchase your gift cards (grocery stores good with 25.00 value) and mail them before Dec 18 to these designated locations:
1. Akron Area Interfaith Council, c/o Unitarian Universal Church, 3300
Morewood Rd, Fairlawn, Oh 44333-3459;
2. Projecto Raices, 915 N Main St. Akron, Oh 44310;
3. Church of Our Saviour Episcopal Church 471 Crosby St. Akron 44302-1518.
Twenty-five people have died in ICE custody under Trump this year, the deadliest year in at least two decades. The inhumane conditions in ICE prisons are shocking and widespread, from Alligator Alcatraz in Florida to detention centers in Illinois, Pennsylvania, California, and beyond. Join the Workers Circle in asking Congress to investigate and shut down violent ICE detention centers.
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT Oberlin Community Supporting Immigrants (OCSI): https://oberlincommunitysi.org/
IF YOU KNOW OF OTHERS WHO WOULD LIKE TO RECEIVE THIS WEEKLY BULLETIN: Send an email to: [email protected]