Stand by Immigrants: News, Resources, and Actions – Week Ending October 11, 2025
PICK THREE (No time for all the reporting? Here are three important stories from the past week that you might have overlooked):
ICE Violated Consent Decree with Warrantless Arrests, Federal Judge in Chicago Says (Block Club Chicago, October 7, 2025): Attorneys argued that the recent arrest of an Albany Park family at Millennium Park violated a consent decree that limits the conditions under which federal agents can make warrantless arrests.
Inside the Trump Administration’s Unprecedented Purge of Immigration Judges (CNN, October 6, 2025): Since Trump took office, 139 immigration judges (nearly a quarter of all IJ’s) have been fired, taken an early-out offer, or been involuntarily transferred, according to data provided by the National Association of Immigration Judges.
ICEBlock app creators respond to Apple’s decision, following pressure from the administration, to remove the app from its store. NOTE: ICEBlock is NOT currently available (as of Oct. 11) for download. Beware of malicious entities trying to harm people by posting fake downloads and source code.
PHOTO OF THE WEEK
Neighbors warn neighbors as fear of ICE ripples across Chicago (Story here)
LOCAL AND OHIO NEWS
FUNDRAISING OPPORTUNITY AND ALERT: OCSILiO (The Ohio Center for Strategic Immigration Litigation & Outreach) is holding a fundraiser featuring its Executive Director and attorney, Brian Hoffman, at Mackey Hall@Westminster Presbyterian Church, 353 E. Pine Street, in Wooster, OH 44691 on Friday, October 24 at 6:30 beginning with snacks and conversation (see attached flyer). To learn more about OCSILiO and donate online: www.ocsilio.org; to RSVP for the event: wpcwoo.org/litigating.
Sheriff Shared New Details on Mount Vernon [Columbus, OH] Immigration Raid, Says Office Was Alerted by Feds (Columbus Dispatch, October 10, 2025): After 3 or 4 workers were detained at a Mexican restaurant, local residents responded: “I’m an American citizen and I’m tired of this crap,” one frequent customer said of the raid. “I love my country, but I hate my government. People want to work, but (President) Trump and the country want to throw them out.”
EMERGING POLICY AND THREATS TO IMMIGRANTS
Detention and Deportation
‘They Treated Us Like Animals’ – Inside the Epicenter of Deportations in New York City (BBC, October 10, 2025): Last week, immigration officers were captured on video shoving two journalists to the ground as they tried to document a possible detention. One of the journalists could not get up, and was transported to the hospital.
Is ICE Really Targeting the ‘Worst of the Worst?’ New Data Suggests Otherwise (Yahoo News, October 7, 2025): Detainees with no criminal record now outnumber those with prior convictions.
10 More Deportees from the US Arrive in the African Nation of Eswatini (AP, October 6, 2025): They are the latest of more than 40 deportees sent to Africa since July after the Trump administration struck largely secretive agreements with at least five African nations to take migrants under the new third-country deportation program that rights groups and others have protested.
Profiles in Authoritarianism and Cruelty
Nearly Half of FBI Agents in Major Offices Reassigned to Immigration Enforcement (Guardian, October 9, 2025): Data shows stunning shift in law enforcement priorities that has raised public safety concerns.
Video Shows Federal Agent Shoot Chicago Pastor in Head with Pepper Ball during Broadview [Chicago] ICE Protest (Fox32, October 9, 2025): A federal agent fired pepper balls on a peaceful protest at an ICE facility.
Chicago Journalists Sue Trump over “Extreme Brutality” at ICE Protests (Axios, October 6, 2025): The lawsuit alleges the Trump administration has repeatedly violated journalists’ First Amendment rights across the country to prevent coverage of the president’s escalating immigration raids.
Civil Rights Jobs Have Been Cut. Those Ex-Workers Warn of ICE Detention Violations (NPR, October 6, 2025): Among those cut by the Trump administration are federal employees who conducted regular visits to detention centers, reviewed and investigated complaints about detention conditions, and prepared reports due to Congress.
Using Helicopters and Chemical Agents, Immigration Agents Become Increasingly Aggressive in Chicago (AP, October 6, 2025): U.S. citizens, immigrants with legal status and children have been among those detained in increasingly brazen and aggressive encounters which pop up daily across neighborhoods in the city of 2.7 million and its many suburbs.
The Price of Cruelty: How Trump’s Mass Deportation Agenda Endangers Us All (Sarah Krieger, National Immigration Law Center, October 3, 2025): The only coherent policy goal of this administration when it comes to immigration is its relentless pursuit of cruelty—no matter what the cost and no matter what else is impacted.
THE COURTS
Judge Blocks Trump from Deploying Troops in Illinois for Now (Washington Post, October 9, 2025): Officials in Oregon and Illinois had challenged the Trump administration’s push to dispatch the National Guard in both states.
Trump Appoints New Head of Immigration Courts (New York Times, October 7, 2025): Col. Daren K. Margolin, who retired from the Marine Corps, was fired from a command position as head of security at Marine Base Quantico in 2013 for negligently firing a gun into the floor of his office.
Judge Halts Trump Administration from Detaining Immigrant Children After They Turn 18 (Guardian, October 4, 2025): Ruling temporarily prevents transfer to adult detention centers that advocates said were planned for this weekend.
IMMIGRANTS AND THE ECONOMY
Nation’s Reliance on Undocumented Workers Demonstrates Folly of Mass Deportation (J. Kevin Appleby, National Catholic Reporter, October 9, 2025): Instead of recognizing the importance of undocumented workers and providing them legal status, the administration is seeking to deport them, regardless of how it may impact the nation’s economy, much less human dignity and family unity.
Tariffs and Trump’s Immigration Crackdown Take a Toll on Wisconsin Farmers (Wisconsin Examiner, October 9, 2025): “Taking hard-working employees off farms does not make communities safer,” said Brain Rexing, a dairy farmer from Indiana. He described the Hispanic workers on his farm as “way more than employees. — they work together with me and my family side to side.”
Trump Labor Department Says His Immigration Raids Are Causing a Food Crisis (David Dayen, American Prospect, October 8, 2025): In a filing in the Federal Register, the Labor Department argues there are “immediate dangers to the American food supply” due to a lack of migrant agricultural workers.
ATTACKS ON AUTHORIZED IMMIGRATION, US CITIZENS
Her Kids Are U.S. Citizens. Trump’s Admin Disappeared Them Anyway (Tim Dickinson, Rolling Stone, October10, 2025) : When Customs and Border Protection apprehended Jackie Merlos and her children, a lawmaker and a friend mobilized to find them.
UN Refugee Agency Chief Suggests that US Deportation Practices Violate the Law (AP, October 6, 2025): Filippo Grandi, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees, decried an erosion of respect for international law in certain developed countries and noted that most refugees are taken in by poorer ones.
Changing Asylum Principles Would be ‘Catastrophic’, Says UN Refugee Agency Head (Reuters, October 6, 2025): The comments by UNHCR head Filippo Grandi form a response to U.S. moves to sharply narrow the right to asylum and reshape the post-World War Two framework around humanitarian migration.
I’m a US Citizen and a Veteran. ICE Arrested Me for No Reason (George Retes, Home of the Brave, September 30, 2025): Jailed for three days without an explanation or ability to notify anyone, George Retes argues the only path to healing starts with the government taking accountability for its actions.
BY THE NUMBERS
Emergency Medicaid for Undocumented Immigrants Accounts for Less than 1% of State Spending (ABC News, October 9, 2025): Emergency spending amounted to about $9.63 per resident in a study of 38 states that had data.
A recent survey of 3,000 voters in the “Rust Belt” states of Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin found that 63% supported ““granting legal status to all illegal immigrants who have held jobs and paid taxes for three years and not been convicted of any felony crimes” (with the descriptor “illegal” used because that’s the term typically used in this polling).
BACKGROUND ANALYSIS
History Shows War Against Immigrants Will Backfire on All Americans (Eduardo Porter, Guardian, October 10, 2025): Deportations are likely to cause employers to let go of US workers, and reduce the labor force.
As Money Rushed In, ICE’s Rapid Expansion Stalled Out (Nick Miroff, The Atlantic, October 6, 2025): Immigration arrests have declined and jail overcrowding is worse despite billions in new funds.
PUSHING BACK
“Fired for No Reason”: Former Immigration Judges Speak Out Against Trump’s Assault on the Courts (Isabela Dias, Mother Jones, October 9, 2025): The Trump administration’s push for more deportations is upending immigration courts. Recently terminated judges fear the changes imperil due process.
Pope Leo Urges U.S. Bishops to Speak About Trump’s Immigration Crackdown after Being Shown Migrants’ Letters (CBS News, October 8, 2025): Catholic leaders in the U.S. have denounced the Trump administration’s crackdown, which has split up families, incited fears and upended life in American churches and schools that serve migrant communities.
Immigration Authorities Ordered a Panton [VT] Man to an ICE Check-in. 200 Friends Decided to Join Him (Vermont Public, October 7, 2025): By the time Juan De La Cruz and his family arrived for the check-in, about 200 friends and well-wishers had gathered on the lawn in front of the ICE office. He was given leave to pursue his asylum case.
The Volunteers Tracking ICE in Los Angeles (Oren Peleg, New Yorker, October 7, 2025): How a small group of activists dubbed the Peace Patrol stymie the deployment of federal agents in California.
Walking with Migrants in the US: Pilgrims See, Want to Be Signs of Hope (The Good News Room, October 5, 2025): Ministry leaders find resilience and faith amid immigration challenges.
ACTION ITEMS
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is implementing a plan to offer unaccompanied immigrant minors $2500 if they waive their legal rights and “voluntarily” self-deport. The plan exploits an already vulnerable population and places them at greater risk of trafficking and other forms of abuse. Church World Service is asking that people join them in taking action to urge elected officials to protect unaccompanied children.
Sign on to the National Immigration Law Center’s Demand to End Mass ICE Raids and Arrests.
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]