PICK THREE (No time for all the reporting? Here are three important stories from the past week that you might have overlooked):
ICE’s Family Separations Are Forcing Children to Parent Themselves (The Hill, August 8, 2025): Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids homes, workplaces and even community spaces, leaving children in the wake of their parents’ abrupt and often unexplained detention.
How These Detainees Beat ICE and Got Their Freedom Back (Erick Galindo, LA Taco, August 7, 2025): Here is an immigration lawyer-approved playbook to help your odds if a loved one or family member gets detained by a federal agent.
26 Non-Profit Organizations Supporting Immigrant Right Now (Hadley Tomicki, LA Taco, August 7, 2025): Working hard to defend the rights, dignity, and well-being of immigrants, refugees, and the undocumented, they need our help more than ever right now.
PHOTO OF THE WEEK
Members of the “San Fernando Valley (CA) Brigade” have been sending a daily message to commuters on the 101 Freeway, one of LA’s busiest. So far, over 2,000 community members have been detained.
LOCAL AND OHIO NEWS
One of Northeast Ohio’s AMIS’ [Americans Making Immigrants Safe] immigrant friends was detained when he went to his regular ICE check-up on Tuesday, August 12. His attorney and other supporters were with him. He’s now in the Youngstown Prison, formally known as the Northeast Ohio Correction Center, run by CoreCivic. Efforts are currently underway to visit him and make sure our other immigrant friends are aware of this detention. His attorney is filing a Stay of Deportation.
EMERGING POLICY AND THREATS TO IMMIGRANTS
Detention and Deportation
ICE Documents Reveal Plan to Double Immigration Detention Space This Year (Washington Post, August 15, 2025): Billions will be spent to reach more than 107,000 beds, including in mega-facilities, tents and at least two new family detention centers, according to an internal agency roadmap.
How an Asylum Seeker in U.S. Custody Ended Up in a Russian Prison (Joshua Yaffa, New Yorker, August 15, 2025): Eighteen months after an activist fled Russia to avoid persecution, an appeals court found that he lacked a “well-founded fear or clear probability of future persecution.”
In L.A., Fear of ICE Raids Created a Tense First Day of School (New York Times, August 14, 2025): Officials and volunteers patrolled areas around schools, part of an effort to warn families about potential raids and reassure them that their children were safe at school.
ICE Arrests Decline in July, Immigrants with No Criminal History Still Largest Group (Austin Kocher Substack, August 12, 2025): Arrests of immigrants with no criminal history continues to exceed the number of arrests involving immigrants with criminal convictions—a pattern that raises important questions about enforcement priorities and resource allocation.
Keep Immigration Raids Out of Schools (Sonia Baker, Nevada Current, August 12, 2025): The author reports on serious long-term implications of ICE raids on learning outcomes, mental health, and public school funding.
Profiles in Authoritarianism
Florida Governor Says State Will Open ‘Deportation Depot’ Immigration Jail (Guardian, August 14, 2025): Ron DeSantis announced move as judge to decide whether to close ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ facility in Everglades.
Trump Administration ‘Chipping Away’ at Undocumented Student Protections (Inside Higher Ed, August 14, 2025): Dreamers and their advocates say the Trump administration has launched a multifront attack on DACA and benefits historically extended to noncitizens.
Democrats Say Trump Is Illegally Blocking Them from Visiting ICE Detention: “The Goal Is to Bully Us” (Guardian, August 13, 2025): Confrontations are playing out nationwide as lawmakers conduct checks of facilities where thousands are being held.
Those Who Profit
Companies Aiding Trump’s Immigration Crackdown See ‘Extraordinary’ Revenues (Guardian, August 10, 2025): Palantir, Geo Group and CoreCivic, cogs in president’s enormous detention and deportation machinery, report ‘unprecedented growth.’
Attacks on Citizenship
Trump Administration to More Heavily Scrutinize “Good Moral Character” Requirements for U.S. Citizenship (CBS News, August 16, 2025): A policy issued Friday by USCIS expands the “good moral character” assessment, saying that determination must involve “more than a cursory mechanical review focused on the absence of wrongdoing.” Instead, the review, the agency told its officers, should be “a holistic assessment of an alien’s behavior, adherence to societal norms, and positive contributions that affirmatively demonstrate good moral character.”
THE COURTS RESPOND
Judge Orders RFK Jr.’s Health Department to Stop Sharing Medicaid Data with Deportation Officials (AP, August 14, 2025): The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services first handed over the personal data on millions of Medicaid enrollees in a handful of states in June.
IMMIGRANTS AND THE ECONOMY
Trump Is Deporting So Many Immigrants that It Could Cause Inflation to Hit 4% Next Year, Top Economist Says (Eva Roytburg, Fortune, August 16, 2025): If Trump continues deporting immigrants at the current rate, inflation will go from 2.5% to somewhere close to 4% “by the time it hits its peak early next year.”
How Trump’s Immigration Policies Are Affecting Caregivers and Nursing Homes (PBS, August 11, 2025): More than one million immigrants work in healthcare and make up an increasing share of caregivers for elderly and disabled Americans. That includes not only medical professionals, but also workers who keep facilities running. The industry already faces labor shortages, and the Trump administration’s immigration policies could make it more difficult to find workers.
Factories Are Losing Immigrant Workers, Stressing Those Who Remain (NPR, August 11, 2025): In recent months, immigrants working in manufacturing, food production and other industries have lost their jobs as President Trump’s ended Biden-era programs that had provided them temporary permission to remain in the U.S. and get jobs.
RESISTANCE
Governor Hochul Pardons Laotian Immigrant to Stop His Deportation (New York Times, August 15, 2025): The man had been convicted of manslaughter as a teenager after he admitted to fatally shooting a man during a pool hall confrontation in Brooklyn, arguing it was self-defense.
How Public Opinion Can Influence Migration Policies (Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, Catholic Review, August 13, 2025): Public officials are very sensitive to the public’s perception of how they implement the laws and regulations regarding migration.
COMMUNITIES FIGHTING DEPORTATIONS
Dem, Republican Put Differences Aside to Help Peoria Restaurant Owner Facing Deportation (Arizona Republic, August 12, 2025): Lisa Everett and Brent Peak met on the opposite sides of a protest. But they’ve found rare common ground in their effort to stop a Peoria restaurant owner from being deported. It’s an unlikely pair, especially in this ultra-polarized political era. Everett is the pro-Trump Republican chair of her legislative district. Peak leads a local progressive activist group. They’ve put their differences aside in an effort to stop Kelly Yu from being deported to China in the coming weeks, saying her case transcends politics.
He Fled Haiti and Became Integral to a Conservative Community. Now They’re Fighting His Deportation (NBC News, August 6, 2025): Students, churchgoers and community members across a Republican county are dreading — and fighting — the deportation of a beloved immigrant teacher.
Building Community Outside an ICE Facility (Jacob Flowers, AFSC, June 6, 2025): Every week, AFSC staff and volunteers in Florida offer dignity, support, and compassion to immigrants navigating detention and deportation.
BY THE NUMBERS
ICE Detention Numbers Hit New High (Austin Kocher Substack, August 14, 2025): 59,380 people behind bars.
Overall Foreign-Born Population Down 2.2 Million January to July (Center for Immigration Studies, August 12, 2025): Non-citizens accounted for all of the falloff in the total foreign-born.
ACTION ITEMS
AMIS (see above) is asking folks who are available to come to Ayman Soliman’s court hearing on Tuesday, August 26 at 7:45 a.m. at the Immigration Court in the federal courthouse at 801 W. Superior Avenue, downtown Cleveland. Soliman was the Muslim chaplain at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital detained by ICE after having been granted asylum in 2018. His legal team and Soliman have requested this support. He’s from Cincinnati and we don’t know if he will be there in person or virtually, but whichever it is, community support in Judge Jennifer Redithaler’s courtroom would be very helpful. If you can attend this hearing, which is expect to last until 8:30 or 9:00 am at the latest, please email Anne at [email protected] so we can let Soliman know we’ll have a good crowd for him.
In connection with their litigation in PCUN v. Noem, Justice Action Center (JAC) would greatly appreciate hearing about recent reports of immigration enforcement at or near sensitive locations. If you have confirmed reports of immigration enforcement at or near sensitive locations in the last few months, or if you have generally seen an uptick in enforcement at/near these locations, please contact Hillary Li at [email protected] to provide additional information. Thank you very much!
As a reminder, in the memo that former DHS Secretary Mayorkas issued in 2021 limiting enforcement at sensitive locations, these locations (also called “protected areas”) include the following:
· Schools, pre-schools, daycares, learning programs
· Medical treatment and healthcare facilities
· Places of worship
· Places were children gather such as playgrounds, rec centers, school bus stops
· Social services establishments (shelters, community-based orgs, food pantries)
· Disaster or emergency response and relief centers
· Religious or civil ceremonies or observances
· Public demonstrations, such as parades, demonstrations, or rallies
More about PCUN v. Noem
Earlier this year, community organizations and faith leaders across the country joined together to sue the Trump administration to keep immigration enforcement out of “sensitive locations” such as community centers, schools, medical clinics, and places of worship. The plaintiffs (a labor union and community-based organization, interfaith council, and individual places of worship), represented by JAC and Innovation Law Lab, are challenging the Trump administration’s revocation of decades-old protections that limited ICE’s access these sacred spaces.
VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITY
Americans Making Immigrants Safe (AMIS) and the Northeast Ohio Friends of Immigrants (NEOFI), our good friends from the Cleveland-Akron area, are looking for a reliable volunteer to assist with updating our website on an ongoing basis – posting new information and removing old stories on a timely basis. All content will be provided. Our website platform is Word Press. If you have the time and experience with Word Press, and would like to be an AMIS volunteer, please contact Anne Hill at [email protected].
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!
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]