PICK THREE (No time for all the reporting? Here are three important stories from the past week that you might have overlooked):
Inside Trump’s New Tactic to Separate Immigrant Families (New York Times, August 5, 2025): The practice appears to be a more targeted version of the mass separation of migrant children from their parents from President Trump’s first term, which caused a global outcry.
A Decisive Moment for Trump’s Immigration Crackdown (Benjamin Wallace-Wells, New Yorker, August 5, 2025): Public opinion is turning on the President’s policies, but it might not be enough to keep the country from entering a much darker phase.
A Six-Pillar Blueprint: The Catholic Church’s Plan for Humane Immigration Reform (Milwaukee Independent, August 6, 2025): For decades, the Catholic Church in the United States has maintained a consistent stance on immigration: that reform must be guided not by political expediency, but by moral clarity.
PHOTO OF THE WEEK
A federal agent takes a man into custody at NY immigration court. Photo: Mark Peterson, The New Yorker.
EMERGING POLICY AND THREATS TO IMMIGRANTS
Detention and Deportation
As Louisiana Considers ICE Detentions at Angola [Prison], Parish President Says ‘Ready to Do Our Part’ (The Advocate, August 7, 2025): Louisiana officials were found to be in talks with the Trump administration about housing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees at Angola as part of a push to meet the demands of the president’s widening immigration crackdown.
Border Patrol Agents Jump Out of Rental Truck and Ambush People at LA Home Depot (Guardian, August 6, 2025): In ‘Operation Trojan Horse’, masked officers in unmarked vehicle arrest 16 people, despite court order halting raids.
A New Immigration Detention Partnership Nicknamed after Indiana’s Iconic Racetrack Inspires Backlash (AP, August 6, 2025): “If you are in America illegally, you could find yourself in Indiana’s Speedway Slammer,” Noem said, likening it to the controversial facility built in the Florida Everglades. She added the new partnership will “help remove the worst of the worst out of our country.”
Trump Administration Eases Age Restrictions to Join ICE to Boost Recruitment (Politico, August 6, 2025): ICE needs more agents for nationwide sweeps.
ICE Offers, Then Quickly Withdraws, Cash Bonuses for Swiftly Deporting Immigrants (New York Times, August 5, 2025): The short-lived effort underscored the mounting pressure on ICE to meet President Trump’s aggressive deportation targets.
Rwanda Agrees to Accept 250 Migrants as Part of Trump Deportation Plan (New York Times, August 5, 2025): The African nation is the latest country to strike a deal to take in deportees from the United States.
Trump and DOJ Reshape Immigration Court, Sparking ‘Widespread Fear and Panic’ (Borderless, August 5, 2025): From stricter federal policies to judicial firings, how Donald Trump and the Department of Justice are using immigration courts to carry out his deportation efforts.
New Immigration Service Director May Pursue an Anti-Immigration Agenda (Forbes, August 4, 2025): In an opening statement before the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation, Joseph Edlow said, “USCIS must be an immigration enforcement agency,” despite the fact that the Homeland Security Act does not establish USCIS as an immigration enforcement agency.
Can the U.S. Deport Someone Who’s Lived Here for 30 Years Without an Immigration Hearing? (Los Angeles Times, August 4, 2025): The case could test the limits of expedited removal laws.
Trump’s Immigrant Crackdown in New York: More Arrests, Longer Detention (New York Times, August 4, 2025): More than half of the immigrants arrested in the New York City area since Jan. 20 do not have criminal convictions or charges, new data shows.
Kristi Noem Says “Alligator Alcatraz” to Be Model for ICE State-Run Detention Centers (CBS News, August 4, 2025): She hopes to launch a handful of similar detention centers in multiple airports and jails across the country, in the coming months.
U.S. to Require Some Foreign Visitors to Pay bonds of Up to $15,000 for Entry (New York Times, August 4, 2025): A State Department pilot program will tie the cash deposits to tourist and business visas for people from countries with high visa overstay rates.
How ICE Cancelled Summer: Hundreds of Latino Festivals Face Impossible Decision Over Fear of Raids (Guardian, August 4, 2025): Some organisers say they’re ‘trying to be safe’ in the face of immigration raid fears. But some have found inventive ways to fight back.
Anatomy of an ICE Arrest (New York Times, August 3, 2025): A Times story based on a single photograph taken by the Times photographer that captures the recent arrest of a Paraguayan asylum seeker at a New York City immigration court. Masked agents regularly patrol hallways at immigration courthouses. Relatives wail in anguish as loved ones are whisked away.
DOJ Is Walking Back the White House’s Goal to Arrest 3,000 Immigrants Per Day (Politico, August 3, 2025): It’s another discrepancy between what White House advisers say and the administration’s legal posture.
Profiles in Authoritarianism
ICE’s Spectacle of Intimidation (New Yorker, August 4, 2025): Immigrants showing up for court dates in Manhattan must now navigate past rows of masked federal agents.
DOJ Rolls Out List of Sanctuary Jurisdictions (FAIR, August 6, 2025): 35 jurisdictions including 13 states, 4 counties and 18 cities, far smaller than FAIR’s list of 1,003 jurisdictions.
Trump Administration Is Deploying Soldiers to Immigration Jails in 20 States (Truthout, August 4, 2025): The move called “another marker of an authoritarian regime.”
Trump Tightens Reins on Foreign Students in Multifront Immigration Crackdown on Universities (Lexi Lonas Cochran, The Hill, July 29, 2025): President Trump is making it harder and harder for international students and immigrants to pursue higher education in the U.S.
THE COURTS RESPOND
Judge Orders Florida, Federal Officials to Produce ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Agreements (AP, August 4, 2025): Florida must produce agreements showing which government agency or private contractor has legal authority to detain people or perform immigration officer roles at “Alligator Alcatraz.”
Judge Keeps Restrictions on L.A. Immigration Arrests, in Setback for Trump Agenda (New York Times, August 2, 2025): An appellate panel upheld a finding that federal agents appeared to rely exclusively on race and other factors, such as speaking Spanish, in making arrests.
RESISTANCE
Stanford’s Student Newspaper Sues Trump Administration over Use of Immigration Law to Target pro-Palestinian Students (CNN, August 6, 2025): The lawsuit, filed at a federal court in California, represents the latest legal challenge to two provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act that have been key to the State and Homeland Security Departments’ so-called ideological deportation policy.
West Virginia Bishop Warns on Immigration: ‘The Final Judge of Our Actions Is God’ (OSV News, August 5, 2025): Bishop Mark E. Brennan of Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia, is urging the people of his state to “affirm the humanity of all immigrants, regardless of legal status,” calling on all to “pray for the courage to do the right thing,” including those tasked with carrying out the nation’s laws, warning that God will judge each person by their actions.
The Billionaire Behind Mysterious Immigration Ads Targeting Miami Republicans (New York Times, August 3, 2025): “Deporting immigrants is cruel,” some of the ads against Cuban Americans in Congress read. Michael B. Fernández wanted to “wake up” Miami’s conscience.
Is Immigration Turning from Boom to Bust for Trump? (Michael Sean Winters, National Catholic Reporter, August 1, 2025): In recent weeks, you can sense the tide has begun to turn on one of President Donald Trump’s signature issues: immigration. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence to suggest the ground is shifting, from conversations with Trump supporters to the White House’s own behavior.
Oklahoma Schools Have Been at the Forefront of Immigration Fights Before. This Time Feels Different (Oklahoma Voice, August 1, 2025): They face so many more challenges ranging from the threat of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids to decreasing attendance rates as families choose to keep their children home to avoid the trauma associated with them.
BY THE NUMBERS
Trump Seeks to Change How Census Collects Data and Wants to Exclude Immigrants in the US Illegally (AP, August 7, 2025): The census’ data collections will be based on “modern day facts and figures and, importantly, using the results and information gained from the Presidential Election of 2024,” Trump wrote, an indication he might try to inject his politics into a head count that determines political power and how federal funding is distributed.
ICE Arrests Decline Amid Backlash to June Immigration Raids (Axios, August 5, 2025): Arrests by U.S. immigration agents dropped by nearly 20% in July, amid the backlash to President Trump’s push to dramatically boost the number of detentions, according to new data that the Trump administration disputes.
Survey: DACA Allows Recipients to Pursue Education, Better Jobs (Johanna Alonso, Inside Higher Ed, August 5, 2025): Nearly all Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients who responded to a recent survey say DACA allowed them to pursue educational opportunities they wouldn’t have been able to without it or opened the doors for them to pursue education in the future.
Detention Reports Updated: New Data, Improved Search, and Growing Media Adoption (Austin Kocher and Adam Sawyer, Substack, August 2, 2025): Detention Reports now updated with latest ICE data covering 184 facilities. New features include state filtering and data quality notes based on user feedback.
ACTION ITEMS
Virtual Prayer Gathering – sponsored by CLINIC (Catholic Legal Immigration Network): August 18, 12:00 noon ET. This virtual prayer gathering is being held as part of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious’ (LCWR) 100 days of prayer, fasting, and advocacy for justice and peace in our world. Register here.
Join the National Immigration Law Center in demanding that Congress push for full transparency and accountability regarding the US Government’s dealing with the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador.
Resources: New Tool – DetentionReports.com Provides Valuable Updated Data about ICE Facilities (Austin Kocher, Adam Sawyer, and Sunita Kunwar, Substack, July 28, 2025): Relevant Research launches Deportation Reports, a new tool providing real-time data on ICE detention centers using our Interval ADP method for more accurate population estimates.
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]