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!
ACTION ITEMS
A Blueprint for Resistance: How Residents and Local Governments Are Shutting Down ICE Detention in Warehouses (Vera, March 2, 2026): Through zoning ordinances and public pressure, localities fight plans to treat immigrants like packages. Their successes can offer a blueprint for broader resistance.
No Warehouses for ICE Detention Centers! Sign the MoveOn petition here.
PICK THREE (No time for all the reporting? Here are three important stories from the past week that you might have overlooked):
When ICE Came, Minneapolis Created Underground Health Networks. Should Other Cities? (NPR, March 5, 2026): Health care workers say immigration agents are still camping out in hospital parking lots. And drones fly overhead in agricultural areas beyond Minneapolis, where Somali and Latino immigrants have settled in recent years.
Inside the Underground Safe Houses Sheltering Immigrants from ICE (New York Times, March 3, 2026): In Springfield, Ohio, some Americans have converted their basements and spare bedrooms into shelters for immigrant families who could be targeted in raids.
Trump Administration Will Collect Social Media Handles from Legal Immigrants and U.S. Citizens (Emile Ayoub, Brennan Center, February 18, 2026): The new requirement poses serious threats to free speech and privacy rights.
PHOTO OF THE WEEK
A demonstration and vigil outside the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas (story here).
LOCAL AND OHIO NEWS
Early College Students Walk (Chronicle Telegram, March 7, 2026): More than 80 students walked out of the Lorain County Early College High School on Friday in protest of the federal crackdown on immigration.
Despite Little ICE Action, Northeast Ohio Continues to Organize (Eliana Bronell, Oberlin Review, March 6, 2026): Oberlin community members continue to organize in preparation of possible immigration enforcement in the area.
Ohio Has 12 Times More Beds for ICE Detainees under Trump. Here’s Where (Columbus Dispatch, March 6, 2026): ICE has six facilities in Ohio (Hamilton, Stryker, Chardon, Youngstown, and Tiffin).
Ohio Cities Respond to Federal Immigration Enforcement (Toledo Blade, March 4, 2026): City councils across Ohio and Michigan are bringing forth resolutions, ordinances, and motions to strengthen city policies when interacting with federal immigration agencies, such as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
More than 550 Elyria High Students Walk Out to Protest Immigration Policies, School Funding Cuts (Cleveland.com, March 4, 2026): School administrators opted to collaborate with student organizers rather than prevent the protest or discipline those involved.
Columbus Keeps Flock Cameras as Some Cities Pull Back over ICE Fears (Columbus Dispatch, March 2, 2026): City officials say the cameras help solve crimes, but immigrant advocates say they are also used by ICE and Customs and Border Protection.
RESISTING, PROTESTING, AND ORGANIZING FOR CHANGE
24,403 Lawsuits and Counting: How Habeas Corpus Became the Front Line of Immigration Defense (Isabela Dias, Mother Jones, March 2, 2026): “We have to kick the door down.”
Catholic Bishops Push for End to ‘Immoral’ Birthright Citizenship Order at Supreme Court (Courthouse News Service, March 2, 2026): The Catholic-majority Supreme Court gets spiritual and legal advice from bishops ahead of showdown on birthright citizenship.
Minnesota Launches Investigation that Could Bring Charges Against Federal Immigration Officers (AP, March 2, 2026): Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said in a news conference that her office is already looking into 17 cases, including one against Border Patrol official Greg Bovino.
‘Liberty Vans’ Appear Across US to Help Immigrants – and Document ICE Raids (Guardian, February 28, 2026): Volunteers offer moral and legal support, and document ICE actions with the aim of holding people accountable.
THE COURTS AND LEGAL ACTIONS
Appeals Court Upholds Protected Status for 350,000 Haitians (New York Times, March 6, 2026): The D.C. Circuit ruled against the Trump administration, ensuring Haitians can remain in the United States and keep working while the underlying lawsuit proceeds.
Judges Keep Ordering Immigration Hearings – but Say the Results Are Often a Sham (Politico, March 6, 2026): The courts say the Trump administration isn’t complying in good faith with demands to give ICE detainees a measure of due process.
S.F. Immigration Courts Gutted: 21 Judges Down to 2 after Planned Departures (Mission Local, March 6, 2026): Two more judges will be gone by next week, shrinking the court’s bench by 90% in a year.
Trump’s Indefinite Refugee Ban and Funding Halt (Church World Service, March 6, 2026): On March 5 a Ninth Circuit panel largely maintained the status quo and allowed the administration’s indefinite refugee ban to continue unchecked.
Judge Restores Lawmakers’ Unfettered Access to ICE Detention Facilities (Politico, March 2, 2026): It was U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb’s third time blocking or limiting DHS’s efforts to prevent unannounced lawmaker visits.
Judges in a Trump Stronghold Condemn ICE Tactics (Politico, March 1, 2026): District court judges in West Virginia describe rampant lawlessness by masked ICE agents, defiance of court orders and a wanton infliction of fear and intimidation by the federal government after the Trump administration deployed a targeted immigration enforcement operation in the state last month.
CONCENTRATION CAMPS AND MASSIVE WAREHOUSES
ICE Taking Steps to Close Detention Center at Fort Bliss, Document Shows (Washington Post, March 4, 2026): Preparations to shutter Camp East Montana in El Paso come less than eight months after facility’s opening, according to an internal ICE document — ending a tumultuous experiment in large-scale detention where three detainees died.
ICE’s Warehouse Purchases Herald New Model for Immigration Detention (Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, American Immigration Council February 24, 2026): Congress gave ICE a total of $45 billion dollars to be spent on immigration detention, more than a decade of normal funding in one big pot of cash. Now ICE’s ultimate plan for that funding has become clear — a “reengineered” detention system consisting primarily of commercial warehouses owned by ICE and retrofitted into a national network of detention centers.
ICE BUCKET
Blue States Push to Ban ICE at the Polls Amid Federal Voter Intimidation Fears (Ohio Capital Journal, March 6, 2026): A federal law dating to the end of the Civil War already bans sending the military or other “armed men” to polling places, except to repel armed enemies of the United States.
ICE Has Spun a Massive Surveillance Web. We Talked to People Caught in It (NPR, March 4, 2026): Activists and journalists spoke of tactics they felt were intimidating: agents photographing their faces or license plates; calling them by name; or leading them to their homes. Immigration lawyers told NPR their clients had been subjected to facial recognition technology.
ICE Training Was Slashed, Records Show, Corroborating Whistleblower Claims (Washington Post, March 3, 2026): Previously unreported records also offer new details about what was cut from ICE’s basic training program. Concerns about the quality of ICE agents’ training have mounted for months.
As Federal Immigration Enforcement Expands, Local Police Struggle with Cooperation (Ohio Capital Journal, March 4, 2026): The expansion of immigration enforcement hasn’t happened primarily through high-profile raids: It has unfolded through formal partnerships between sheriffs’ offices or local police departments and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, under what’s known as the 287(g) program.
Immigration Agents Bolster Action at Utah Courthouses, Prompting Criticism from Some (KSL.com, March 2, 2026): The presence of federal immigration agents tracking immigrants has increased in Salt Lake County-area courtrooms since mid-February as have complaints about how they’re carrying out their duties.
EMERGING POLICY AND THREATS TO IMMIGRANTS
Targeting Toddlers and Minors
California Officials Demand ICE Return Family to US after Arrest and Deportation (KQED, March 6, 2026): Lesly Rodriguez Gutierrez, 28, and her two sons, who are 4 and 6 years old who is deaf, were arrested on Tuesday as she attended a routine asylum check-in appointment in the city.
How Immigration Enforcement Is Affecting a Framingham [MA] Kindergarten Classroom (WBUR, March 4, 2026): Among 42 total enrolled students in two classes, seven students have stopped showing up since September. The empty seats are a stark reminder of the Trump administration’s intensive immigration deportation campaign.
US Moving Pregnant Immigrant Girls to Texas to Avoid Providing Abortions, Critics Say (Guardian, March 1, 2026): Ex-official calls transfer of unaccompanied girls as young as 13, many pregnant due to rape, a human rights violation.
Detention and Deportation and Death
Third ICE Custody Death This Week, 11th Since January 1 (Austin Kocher Substack, March 7, 2026): Pejman Karshenas Najafabadi, a 59-year-old Iranian national, was pronounced dead on Sunday, March 1, 2026 at Merit Health Hospital in Natchez, Mississippi, becoming the eleventh person to die in ICE custody since the start of the 2026 calendar year, at a rate that now averages one detained death approximately every six days.
ICE Arrests US Spanish-Language News Outlet Reporter without Warrant (Guardian, March 6, 2026): Estefany Rodriguez Florez of Nashville Noticias, who had produced reports that were unflattering to ICE, was arrested during traffic stop.
Family of Detainee Who Died under ICE Custody Says He Was Denied Medical Care (Guardian, March 6, 2026): Alberto Gutiérrez Reyes died in a California hospital in February after suffering chest pain and shortness of breath.
ICE Arrested an Oregon Shop Owner who Had Her Green Card in Her Pocket: “They Didn’t Care” (Guardian, March 6, 2026): Juanita Avila later helped expose ICE’s ‘arrest first, justify later’ tactics in a lawsuit that won a major victory for immigrants’ rights
Haitian Asylum Seeker Dies of Toothache in What ICE Calls “The Best Healthcare of Their Lives” (Austin Kocher, Substack, March 4, 2026): Detention deaths are a foreseeable outcome of specific policy choices made by people in position of power.
ICE Confirms a Measles Outbreak in the Nation’s Largest Detention Facility in Texas (NBC News, March 4, 2026): The agency said it’s closely monitoring the situation and coordinating with public health authorities while the facility has been closed to visitors and attorneys.
Asylum Approvals Plummet as Fearful Immigrants Skip Hearings (Los Angeles Times, March 3, 2026): Fewer than 3% of asylum cases decided in January were approved, compared to 18% in January 2025.
Venezuelan Man Says His Rose Tattoos Got Him Deported to El Salvador’s Brutal Prison: “I Thought My Life Had Ended” (Guardian, March 2, 2026): Trump administration accused Luis Muñoz Pinto of being part of the Tren de Aragua gang. Now living in Colombia, he hopes to clear his name and study engineering in the US.
Ron DeSantis Spent $1.2m per Day to Open and Operate ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ (Guardian, March 2, 2026): After spending taxpayers’ money, Florida governor will likely be left holding bill for $608m promised by Trump administration.
Authoritarianism, Lawlessness, Racism, and Cruelty
Lawmakers Debate Bill to Blackmail Sanctuary Cities (The American Prospect, March 6, 2026): H.R. 7640 would require state and local police departments to help federal agents carry out their mass deportation drive. Democrats used a states’ rights argument to say why that’s bogus.
How a DHS Shooting of a Third U.S. Citizen Went Unnoticed for Months (Washington Post, March 5, 2026): No state or federal agency disclosed that a Homeland Security Investigations agent had killed Ruben Ray Martinez until it was revealed in a public records request.
Tennessee Wants to Let Schools Ban Immigrant Kids, Threatening to “End Public Education as We Know It” (The Intercept, March 4, 2026): A Tennessee bill, which on its face is unconstitutional, would take the right to education away from undocumented children. The Heritage Foundation is pushing it in other states.
CBP Tapped into the Online Advertising Ecosystem to Track Peoples’ Movements (404Media, March 3, 2026): An internal DHS document obtained by 404 Media shows for the first time CBP used location data sourced from the online advertising industry to track phone locations. ICE has bought access to similar tools.
Border Czar Homan Offers to ‘Explain’ Trump Policy to Pope Leo XIV (Crux, February 27, 2026): Homan said he believes the pope should stand firmly behind border enforcement, arguing that “Catholic faith is always in support of law enforcement, always has been, and he should be, too.”
If ICE Won’t Show a Warrant, What Can Campuses Do? (Inside Higher Ed, February 27, 2026): Federal agents detained a student at a Columbia University residential building without ever showing a warrant, according to the university. The incident shows the limits for institutions in resisting ICE.
Attacks on All Immigrants
Trump Said He’s Pro Legal Immigration, His Policies Say Otherwise (PBS, March 1, 2026): During the first year of his second term, Trump has terminated programs that let people legally live in the U.S., limited legal ways to get here, barred people from certain countries from entering the U.S. and paused processing of certain applications for visas and immigration statuses for legal permanent residency.
IMMIGRATION AND THE ECONOMY
Trump’s Immigration Policies Are Making Us Poorer – and Sicker (Grace Segers, The New Republic, March 5, 2026): Despite what the president says, evidence shows that immigrants do far more to aid the American labor force than to hinder it.
BY THE NUMBERS
Support for Abolishing ICE Reaches 50% (YouGov, March 3, 2026): The highest number now includes 23% of Republicans and 52% of independents.
BACKGROUND AND ANALYSIS
Immigrants Make the Labor Market Great (Sara Estep and Kennedy Andara, Center for American Progress, March 6, 2026): President Trump’s promises to native-born workers have yet to materialize while reduced immigration is poised to have a negative effect overall on employment and wages in the long run.
America Is a Nation of Immigrants with a History of Exclusion (Mae Ngai, Economist, March 4, 2026): Its immigration policy has always been shaped by a conditional, shifting definition of desirability.
How 250 Years of Immigration Shaped America (Economist, March 4, 2026): Cycles of openness and restriction are as old as the country itself.
Trump’s War on Immigrants Repeats Shameful Chapter in America’s Past (Evelyn Iritani, CalMatters, March 2, 2026): In the 1940s, opportunistic U.S. politicians and military leaders relied on racial prejudice and wartime fears to justify the inhumane and illegal treatment of the Japanese community, including U.S. citizens.
The Latest Columbia Student Detained by ICE (Jane Bua, New Yorker, February 28, 2026): Elmina (Ellie) Aghayeva was taken from her university apartment on Thursday, almost one year after Mahmoud Khalil. How is the community coping?How to Build a Future Without Family Detention (Andrea R. Flores, Claire Trickler-McNulty, and Deborah Fleischaker, Securing America’s Promise, February 24, 2026): If lawmakers and midterm candidates begin normalizing more effective and humane alternatives to family detention, a future administration could have the political support and resources needed to phase out long-term family detention for good.