Edited by Steve Volk ([email protected])
Oberlin Community Supporting Immigrants (OCSI) does not endorse or oppose candidates for elected office. We aim to provide information, education, and analysis regarding the U.S. immigration system.
CONTACT OCSI:
Email: [email protected]
Website: https://oberlincommunitysi.org/
Know Your Rights: You can’t protect your rights unless you know what they are. Here’s a 2-page handout prepared by OCSI. If you want a comprehensive resource library of KYR information, updated for 2026, Austin Kocher provides one here.
OCSI Corner
Do you need a speaker on immigration of “know your rights” for your local church, synagogue, or community group? Contact us at the email below. We can help!
Join Commit to Democracy and Dr. Steven Volk, Professor Emeritus of Oberlin College, for this important training to make sure you know your rights and are actively working to protect them. April 16, 7-8 PM (EDT); 4-5 PM (PDT). Sign up here.
ACTION ITEMS
Using a network called Nlets, ICE has already conducted hundreds of thousands of searches for driver’s license information this year. This is an invasion of privacy for everyone and Ohio governor DeWine has the power to stop it. Click here to write an email to your representatives to say, don’t share BMV information with ICE!
PICK THREE (No time for all the reporting? Here are three important stories from the past week that you might have overlooked):
The Next Phase of the Immigration Crackdown Is Quieter – And More Destabilizing (Jia Lynn Yang, New York Times, April 10, 2026): The Trump administration is also ramping up another strategy: to take apart immigrants’ lives, piece by piece, until they decide to leave the country altogether.
How Trump Purged Immigration Judges to Speed Up Deportations (New York Times, April 9, 2026): Judges are ordering an unprecedented number of people deported after coming under significant pressure from the administration to do so or risk losing their jobs.
ICE Acknowledges It Is Using Powerful Spyware (NPR, April 7, 2026): ICE is using spyware tools, Graphite, created by Paragon Solutions, that can intercept encrypted messages. Graphite uses what is known as “zero click” technology so that it can gain access to encrypted messages on a targeted device even if the user never clicks on a link.
PHOTO OF THE WEEK
Kalamazoo rejects $1.25M in police funding over federal immigration rules (story here).
LOCAL AND OHIO NEWS
Immigrant Kids Can Attend School Regardless of Citizenship. Some States Like Ohio Are Challenging It (William McCorkle, Ohio Capital Journal, April 10, 2026): Republican legislators in Ohio are trying to pass legislation that would make it harder, if not impossible, for immigrant children to attend public school.
ICE Says It Arrested ‘Worst of the Worst’ in Columbus. Data Shows Not So (Columbus Dispatch, April 6, 2026): Less than 7% of arrestees during the heightened enforcement surge in mid-December had a criminal record.
Northeast Ohio Groups Host Immigration, Wage Theft Clinics (Spectrum News, April 4, 2026): The Northeast Ohio Worker Center, which is partnering with the Young Latino Network and immigration law firm Bartell, Georgalas & Juarez to host monthly immigration and wage theft clinics in Cleveland.
RESISTING, PROTESTING, AND ORGANIZING FOR CHANGE
Thousands of Mathematicians Protest International Conference in US (Inside Higher Ed, April 8, 2026): The U.S. is not safe for international mathematicians given the risk of detainment and harassment by ICE, they argue.
Trump’s Mass Deportation Plan Has Broken the Quiet of Small US Towns: ‘We Have to Take Care of Each Other’ (Guardian, April 5, 2026): Immigration agents have spread into rural western Wisconsin, taking dozens of people from towns in more politically conservative areas.
THE COURTS AND LEGAL ACTIONS
Birthright Citizenship
Over 125 Years Ago, A Chinese American Won Birthright Citizenship for All. Why Is the Supreme Court Re-Litigating It? (Zack Budryk, Teen Vogue, April 6, 2026): The text of the 14th Amendment’s citizenship clause, which has long been interpreted as guaranteeing birthright citizenship, is fairly unambiguous.
Other Court News
Federal Judge Releases Man after 2 Immigration Judges Disobey Order (9News, April 10, 2026): A federal judge in Colorado released a man from immigration detention after two immigration judges defied orders in his case, amid a surge in habeas corpus petitions.
Immigration Board Denies Mahmoud Khalil’s Appeal, Bringing Activist One Step Closer to Deportation (AP, April 9, 2026): “The only thing I am guilty of is speaking out against the genocide in Palestine — and this administration has weaponized the immigration system to punish me for it,” Khalil said in a statement.
One of Minnesota’s Most Unhinged Right-Wing Posters Is the State’s Newest Immigration Judge (Minnesota Reformer, April 9, 2026): Attorney Nathan Hansen has endorsed fringe conspiracies and legal theories.
Judge Postpones Termination for Temporary Protected Status for Ethiopians in US (CBS News, April 8, 2026): A federal judge in Massachusetts on Wednesday postponed the termination of temporary protected status for Ethiopians living in the U.S., finding the Trump administration unlawfully attempted to end it.
Federal Judge Orders Trump Administration to Stop Coercing Immigrant Children to Self-Deport (LAist, April 8, 2026): The judge said that by using threats of prosecution and coercive language, the U.S. government violated a 40-year-old court order that bans immigration agents from attempting to coerce unaccompanied children to voluntarily leave the country after being detained.
Amid National Surge in Constitutional Challenges to ICE Detention, Mississippi Cases Remain Undecided (Ohio Capital Journal, April 7, 2026): Hundreds of people being held by federal immigration officials in a rural Mississippi county have been waiting months for a judge to consider their arguments to be set free while they await the outcome of their immigration cases.
Sotomayor Faults Kavanaugh Over Immigration Stops Concurrence (Bloomberg Law, April 7, 2026): “I had a colleague in that case who wrote, you know, these are only temporary stops,” Sotomayor said, referencing a concurrence written by Justice Brett Kavanaugh. “This is from a man whose parents were professionals. And probably doesn’t really know any person who works by the hour.”
A Nevada Judge Ruled ICE Can’t Lock Up Everyone Facing Deportation. Here’s What It Means (Chicago Tribune, April 6, 2026): A federal court in Nevada said the administration’s policy violates federal law and causes “irreparable harm” to those who are arrested.
CONCENTRATION CAMPS – WAREHOUSE DETENTION CENTERS
In a Deep Red Town, Locals Vent Over a Planned ICE Detention Center (New York Times, April 9, 2026): The Tremont, Pa., area has roughly 2,000 residents and limited resources. The Trump administration plans to convert a warehouse there to hold nearly four times as many people.
Protesters Rally Against Planned Maryland Immigration Detention Facility (ABC News, April 9, 2026): Protesters are rallying against a planned immigration detention facility in Maryland.
How US Communities Have Responded to Plans to Convert Warehouses into Immigration Detention Centers (AP, April 9, 2026): So far immigration officials have spent a total of $1.074 billion for 11 warehouses. They’ve mostly faced fierce opposition.
NJ Heads to Court to Block Construction of an ICE Immigration Detention Facility (NJ.com, April 8, 2026): New Jersey and Roxbury Township are seeking to have the U.S. District Court of New Jersey issue a preliminary injunction to prevent construction beginning on a plan to convert warehouse into an ICE detention facility.
The $97 Million Utah Warehouse ICE Bought for $145 Million (Nick Miroff, The Atlantic, April 7, 2026): Trump wants industrial-size immigration jails, and money is no obstacle.
DHS to Pause Development of ICE Facilities in Georgia. What We Know (USA Today, April 7, 2026): With Kristi Noem out, ICE detention megacenters, including one in Social Circle, Georgia, as well as a second smaller one in Oakwood, Georgia, are on hold.
Republicans Applaud Immigration Detention – Until It’s in Their Back Yards (Ohio Capital Journal, April 3, 2026): Republican governors and senators now oppose locating large-scale detention centers in New Hampshire, Mississippi, and Tennessee.
ICE BUCKET
Video of an ICE Shooting Shattered the Agency’s Story. Will It Usher in Accountability? (Guardian, April 11, 2026): The case against two Venezuelan men in Minneapolis is the latest to fall apart. Now agents could face repercussions, but questions linger over whether it signals a real shift.
ICE Launches New Effort to Uncover US ‘Birth Tourism Schemes’ (Reuters, April 10, 2026): “While the act of giving birth in the United States is not unlawful,” a DHS statement said, the agency “remains focused on identifying and addressing potential violations of federal law associated with these activities.”
As ICE Ramped Up in D.C., Immigrant Crime Victims Faced Visa Roadblocks (Washington Post, April 10, 2026): The U.S. attorney’s office in D.C. last year stopped issuing visas to crime victims who cooperated with police or prosecutors, complicating investigations.
ICE Arrested More than 800 People After Tips from US Airport Security Agency (Reuters, April 7, 2026): TSA shared over 31,000 traveler records with ICE for immigration enforcement.
We Teach at a Florida University that Agreed to Cooperate with ICE – and We Worry that It Is Making Our Students Feel Less Safe (The Conversation, April 7, 2026): Since March 2025, at least 15 Florida public universities and colleges, including the University of Florida and Florida State College at Jacksonville, have signed memorandums of agreement for their campus police departments to collaborate with ICE.
Why Latinos Join ICE (Geraldo L. Cadava, The Atlantic, April 7, 2026): One reason: They’re aiming to protect, not betray, their communities.
Democrats Accuse ICE of Creating ‘Disappearances’ on US Soil (Guardian, April 7, 2026): Lawmakers led by Elizabeth Warren in scathing letter say system used to track detainees ‘increasingly unreliable.’
ICE Arrests in DC Region Reach Nearly 20,000 during Trump’s Second Term (Washington Post, April 6, 2026): Nearly 60 percent of the more than 19,500 people arrested had no prior criminal record, federal data shows.
ICE’s Private Bounty Hunters Use AI to Track Immigrants (Steven Hubbard, American Immigration Council, April 2, 2026): Each month, private contractors receive tens of thousands of names from ICE and are asked to locate those individuals as quickly as possible so that ICE can conduct targeted enforcement operations to arrest and detain those individuals.
EMERGING POLICY AND THREATS TO IMMIGRANTS
Targeting Toddlers and Minors
Canadian Mother Held by ICE with Daughter, 7, Speaks Out on Families ‘Suffering Greatly’ in Detention (Guardian, April 10, 2026): Tania Warner and her daughter were detained in Texas facilities deemed ‘unsafe and degrading.’
3-Year-Old Immigrant Suffered Alleged Sexual Abuse during Months in Federal Custody, Family Says (AP, April 5, 2026): A young father learned that his daughter had suffered alleged sexual abuse at the foster home where she’d been placed after immigration officials separated her from her mother.
Their Parents Were Taken by ICE. The Children Had to Raise One Another (New York Times, April 4, 2026): Andrea García and her siblings are carrying on in a home reshaped by fear, loss and new responsibility.
Detention and Deportation and Death
Surprise Inspection Finds ICE Stuffing Migrants ‘Like Sardines’ into a Facility with No Bed, Showers (AZ Mirror, April 10, 2026): The unannounced oversight visit came hours after the Arizona Mirror’s report found 250 people in a space built for 157.
Immigrants ‘Wasting Away’ At For-Profit Michigan Detention Center Months after ICE Arrests (Block Club Chicago, April 10, 2026): In a Michigan detention center, Chicago-area immigrants face difficult conditions amid mounting challenges to defend their immigration cases, they said.
ICE Labeled 1,300 Arrests during Operation Metro Surge as ‘Collateral’ (Ohio Capital Journal, April 10, 2026): During the ICE “Operation Metro Surge” in Minnesota, 35% of the arrests recorded, were labeled as “collateral,” meaning the person arrested was not an intended target, with no legal basis for arrest.
ICE Detention Numbers Drop Significantly in Past Two Months, But There’s More to the Story (Austin Kocher Substack, April 9, 2026): Currently, there are 60,311 in ICE detention as of April 4.
A Day in the Life of a 19-Year-Old in ICE Detention: ‘I Feel that This Nightmare Is Not Going to End’ (Guardian, April 9, 2026): Olivia has been detained for months at the sprawling Dilley center in Texas. She has lost 20lb, and wakes up every day with a headache.
ICE Reports 15th Detained Death of 2026 at Miami Correctional Center in Indiana (Austin Kocher Substack, April 8, 2026): Tuan Van Bui, the son of a U.S. soldier in Vietnam, died in detention on April 1. He is the second person to die at Miami CC this year and continues the morbid pattern of one ICE death every 6.0 days.
ICE Agents Shoot Man in Car in Northern California (Guardian, April 7, 2026): Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez hospitalized after shooting in rural Patterson as officials say investigation under way.
US Seeks to Deport Kilmar Ábrego García to Liberia Despite New Costa Rica Deal (Guardian, April 7, 2026): Man born in El Salvador has been fighting removal to series of ‘third’ countries after mistaken deportation last year.
She Helped the Authorities Deport Her Abuser. Then They Deported Her Back to Him (Samantha Michaels, Mother Jones, April 6, 2026): Immigrants in her situation “were given a promise that they would be protected as long as they were vulnerable.”
ICE Agents Detain Newlywed Spouse of Soldier Training to Deploy (New York Times, April 5, 2026): The 22-year-old wife of an Army staff sergeant came to the U.S. as a toddler. She was taken from a military base where the couple planned to live. [UPDATE: Newlywed Wife of US Soldier Freed by ICE after Detention at Military Base, BBC, April 7, 2026]
Authoritarianism, Lawlessness, Racism, and Cruelty
Mother of 2 Testified About Being Raped. When She Stepped Out of Court, ICE Put Her in an Unmarked Van (People, April 8, 2026): A 35-year-old woman was detained and ultimately forced to self-deport after ICE agents arrested her outside a New Jersey courthouse.
Newly Obtained Video of Minneapolis Shooting Undermines ICE Account (New York Times, April 6, 2026): Prosecutors did not watch video of the nonfatal shooting until weeks after charging the wounded man, an official said.
Lawyers Alarmed by Immigration Judge’s ‘Atrocious’ Questions for Gay Asylum Seekers (Advocate, April 3, 2026): Audio obtained by The Advocate reveals a New Mexico immigration judge pressing an Iranian man about his same-sex relationship.
Attacks on All Immigrants
Trump Restrictions on Legal Immigration Could Sharply Reduce U.S. Population Growth (Julia Gelatt, Migration Policy Institute, April 2026): Taken together, the administration’s broad moves suggest a comprehensive strategy to reduce legal immigration across much of the spectrum.
IMMIGRATION AND THE ECONOMY
PA County Jails Earn Millions of Dollars Detaining Immigrants for ICE (SpotlightPA, April 6, 2026): A group of Pennsylvania counties has billed the federal government more than $21 million in recent years to detain immigrants in their jails.
She Paid into Medicare for Years. Trump’s Immigration Policy Will End Her Coverage (NPR, April 6, 2026): Rosa Maria Carranza, a child development professional from El Salvador here with TPS status, contributed to Medicare and Social Security for 24 years but she, and an estimated 100,000 others, will soon be cut out of Medicare.
BY THE NUMBERS
This New Data Point Shows Trump Isn’t Deporting the ‘Worst of the Worst’ (Boston Globe, April 10, 2026): Just 2% of the people the government wanted to deport in February 2026 faced any criminal allegations.
BACKGROUND AND ANALYSIS
Inside the Unbuilding of Trump’s Border Wall (Brittany Gibson, Axios, April 9, 2026): A West Texas revolt is erasing hundreds of miles of President Trump’s planned border wall. “I wish the president would be more informed as to what’s going on,” said Presidio County Sheriff Danny Dominguez.
Immigrants Who Sought Asylum During Border Surge Under Increasing Pressure (Tim Henderson, Ohio Capital Journal, April 9, 2026): The millions of migrants who were released into the country during the immigration surge that began in 2021 and peaked in 2023 caused a political firestorm when Republican states transported them to Democratic cities. Now, according to a new analysis, many of them are back working in the states that expelled them.
Immigration Arrests of People without Criminal Convictions Have Increased Eightfold Under Trump, Report Says (NBC News, April 8, 2026): The rise is related to the steep increase in the number of immigration-related street arrests, according to an analysis using ICE data by UC Berkeley.
Stephen Miller Is Still Pursuing His Immigration Agenda, but More Quietly (New York Times, April 5, 2026): The architect of President Trump’s mass deportation campaign wants “a moratorium on immigration from third world countries until we can heal ourselves as a nation.” The chaos in Minneapolis has not pushed him off that course.