PICK THREE (No time for all the reporting? Here are three important stories from the past week that you might have overlooked):
Plane to Purgatory: How Trump’s Deportation Program Shuttles Immigrants into Lawless Limbo (Maanvi Singh and Will Craft, Guardian, September 10, 2025): 44,000 immigrants, 1,700 flights, 100 days: a Guardian investigation of leaked flight data and government detention data reveals the inhumane journey of immigrants shuttled around and outside the U.S.
‘Material Support’ and an Ohio Chaplain: How 9/11-Era Terror Rules Could Empower Trump’s Immigration Crackdown (Hannah Allam, ProPublica, September 9, 2025): Legal observers are watching the Ayman Soliman’s case as a bellwether of the Trump administration’s ability to merge the vast federal powers of immigration and counterterrorism.
Home City, USA (Pooja Bhatia, The Baffler, September 2025): The economic and spiritual effects of mass deportation
PHOTO OF THE WEEK
Demonstration protest the opening of an immigration center in Baldwin, Michigan. (Photo by Alexa Durben/News21) (Story below)
LOCAL AND OHIO NEWS
ICE’s 287(g) Enforcement Program Reaches 1,000 Active Agreements Across 40 States (Austin Kocher Substack, September 11, 2025): New data reveals a 7.5x increase since January. Half are the most aggressive Task Force Model. Butler, Fayette, Lake, Portage, and Seneca County Sheriffs’ Offices participate in Ohio.
At Least Four Ohio Sheriffs, Two Regional Jails Are Leasing Their Empty Cells to ICE (Signal, September 4, 2025): The U.S. Department of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement lacks the bed space to execute Trump’s mass deportation campaign. Ohio sheriffs are helping out, for a fee.
EMERGING POLICY AND THREATS TO IMMIGRANTS
Detention and Deportation
Judge Says U.S. Trying to do ‘End-Run” Around Legal Protections with Deportations to Ghana (CBS News, September 13, 2025): Attorneys have alleged in a lawsuit that the deportees have been held in “squalid conditions and surrounded by armed military guards in an open-air detention facility” in Ghana.
Fort Bliss Now Detaining Over 1,000 People (Austin Kocher Substack, September 13, 2025): Report covers 197 facilities with information current through September 11, 2025.
Man Fatally Shot in Confrontation with ICE Officers in Chicago Area (New York Times, September 12, 2025): The shooting took place during a federal crackdown on illegal immigration in the region. Officials said an ICE officer was dragged and injured.
House GOP – and 11 Democrats – Pass Bill to ‘Supercharge’ Trump Anti-Migrant Agenda (Common Dreams, September 11, 2025): Measure would increase sentences for undocumented immigrants who repeatedly enter the United States illegally or enter the country and then commit a felony.
Justice Dept. Reverses Course on Claims Guatemalan Children’s Parents Sought Their Return (New York Times, September 10, 2025): A government lawyer said there was no basis for claims made earlier to a judge about the children, who were nearly deported over Labor Day weekend.
Over 40% of Arrests in Trump’s DC Law Enforcement Surge Related to Immigration (AP, September 10, 2025): The prominence of immigration arrests — more than 940 people out of 2,300 arrested — has fueled criticism that the true purpose of the operation may have been to expand deportations.
Under Trump Administration, ICE Scraps Paperwork Officers Once Had To Do Before Immigration Arrests (NBC News, September 9, 2025): “It’s hard to fill out a worksheet that just says, ‘Meet in the Home Depot parking lot.’”
ICE Launches ‘Operation Midway Blitz’ Targeting Immigrants in Chicago (Washington Post, September 8, 2025): The Trump administration announced the start of a stepped-up immigration enforcement operation in the city as the president vows a broader crackdown on violent crime.
A Houston Mother Held by ICE Must Choose: Indefinite Detention or Be Deported Without Her Family (Texas Tribune, September 8 2025): Margarita Avila, a Houston mother of nine, was detained by ICE after an altercation that led to no charges. Her close-knit family weigh their futures if she is deported.
US Immigration Officers Ramp Up Sweeps in LA after Raid Restrictions Are Lifted (Guardian, September 8, 2025): Head of US Border Patrol says operations will start back up in city after temporary restraining order reversed.
Speed, Confusion, No Courts: ICE Ships Upstate NY Factory Workers to Central America in 72 Hours (Syracuse.com, September 8, 2025): Advocates and families trying to get in touch with the roughly 70 people who were taken described breathlessly fast movement by federal authorities on a trip that herded the workers through as many as three different Border Patrol stations and immigration detention centers in two days.
Trump Administration Begins New ICE Operations in Massachusetts (Guardian, September 6, 2025): A Department of Homeland Security official confirmed the action in a statement, blaming mayor’s sanctuary policies.
How Encounters with Police Can Lead to ICE Arrests – Even in Sanctuary Cities (The Marshall Project, September 5, 2025): ICE agents stationed jails screens people booked into the facilities.
Migrants Vanish into Opaque ICE Detention System (Wall Street Journal, August 6, 2025): Frequent long-distance moves leave families and lawyers struggling to keep track of people facing deportation—and undermine their legal defense
Profiles in Authoritarianism
Trump’s Immigration Police State Is Growing at Warp Speed (Ian Gordon, Mother Jones, September 13, 2025): And now more local cops than ever before are signing up to work with ICE.
A U.S. Citizen Detained by ICE for Three Days Tells His Story (Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic, September 10, 2025): A conversation with George Retes, an Army veteran swept up in a California raid.
Rightwing Influencer Accompanied ICE Agents During Raids in Chicago (Guardian, September 10, 2025): Ben Bergquam was with Ice agents during a raid on Sunday and yelled at protesters that they were ‘the enemy within.’
Riots and Abuse Troubled These Former Prisons. ICE Plans to Reopen Them (Washington Post, September 7, 2025): The same operators that closed facilities plan to reopen them to hold immigrants. Advocates say that puts detainees at risk of violence and mistreatment.
State Department Agents Are Now Working with ICE on Immigration (Wired, September 4, 2025): The State Department’s law enforcement arm is now involved in immigration enforcement, an area solidly outside its usual duties. One source compares it to IRS agents investigating espionage at NASA.
Trump Is Building His Own Paramilitary Force (Ezra Klein, New York Times, August 27, 2025): With guest Radley Balko, truly terrifying.
The Courts Respond
Judge Blocks a Trump Policy Cutting Off Head Start for Immigrants in the US Illegally (AP, September 10, 2025): The order from the judge in U.S. District Court in Rhode Island applies to 20 states and the District of Columbia, whose attorneys general, all Democrats, sued the administration. It puts the administration’s reinterpretation of a Clinton-era federal policy on hold while the case is decided.
Kavanaugh Faces Blowback for Claiming Americans Can Sue over Encounters with ICE (CNN, September 10, 2025): The Supreme Court has severely limited the ability of people to sue federal law enforcement officers for excessive force claims.
IMMIGRANTS AND THE ECONOMY
Congressional Budget Office Says Trump’s Immigration Crackdown Will Shrink U.S. Population Faster than Expected, a Threat to Inflation and GDP Growth (Fortune, September 11, 2025): The agency now projects 290,000 immigrants will be removed from the country between 2026 and 2029. Economists warned less immigration and negative net migration could create woes for the U.S. labor force and inflation.
Trump Offered to Let S. Korean Detainees Stay, Train U.S. Workers, Seoul Says (Washington Post, September 11, 2025): The 316 South Koreans arrested at the Hyundai-LG plant in Georgia are expected to return home Friday. The raid may chill investment in the U.S., South Korea’s president said.
A Witch Hunt Won’t Feed America (Layla Halibasic, The Fulcrum, September 10, 2025): Missouri’s food economy runs on undocumented labor. Turning a blind eye won’t work anymore.
Farmers Advocate for Reform, Workers Fight for Survival Amid Trump Immigration Crackdown (Idaho Capital Sun, September 8, 2025): Most farmworkers earn less than $40,000 annually and nearly 70% of people working in agriculture were not born in the U.S., according to federal data.
Immigration Raid Exposes Tensions from Seoul to Washington to Rural Georgia (New York Times, September 6, 2025): The raid at a Georgia plant being built with heavy investment from South Korea reveals strain as a rush to expand manufacturing in the United States clashes with an immigration crackdown.
ATTACKS ON AUTHORIZED IMMIGRATION
Under Trump, the Criminal Legal System Now Targets Another Population: Green Card Holders (Prism Reports, September 9, 2025): While there is little public data about the number of lawful permanent residents targeted at ports of entry, a recent uptick in reports leaves many immigrants fearful of traveling abroad
Getting a Visa to Visit the U.S. Could Take Even Longer (New York Times, September 8, 2025): A new State Department rule requires would-be travelers to be interviewed in their home countries, where wait times can be more than a year.
IMMIGRATION REFORM
Bipartisan Lawmakers Introduce Dignity Act of 2025 on Immigration Reform (DailyFly, September 8, 2025): The Dignity Act of 2025 establishes a seven year temporary legal status program allowing immigrants to live and work legally based on the completion of certain tasks.
RESISTANCE: COMMUNITIES RESPOND
How Schools Are Helping Students Feel Safe Enough to Attend Amid Immigration Raids (Nadia Tamez-Robledo, Ed Surge, September 12, 2025): Researchers have found that stress can impede normal childhood development, and instability like that caused by the Trump administration’s current immigration policies can interfere with children’s ability to focus and learn while in school.
They Watched ICE Detain Their Dad. Now D.C. Neighbors Escort Them to School (Washington Post, September 11, 2025): “Walking school buses” help kids get to class as an influx of federal immigration agents has mixed-status and undocumented families worrying about even their morning routines.
California Lawmakers Pass Bill to Ban ICE Agents from Wearing Masks (Politico, September 11, 2025): Gavin Newsom will now decide whether California will attempt to ban face coverings for federal agents operating in the state.
Teachers Sue over Trump’s Immigration Crackdown, Saying Students Are Staying Home (AP, September 10, 2025): Labor unions representing millions of educators and school employees are suing the administration over its immigration crackdown, saying arrests near school campuses are terrorizing children and their teachers, leading some students to drop out.
Anger, Identity, Hope: American Communities Wrestle with Immigration Detention (Michigan Advance, September 9, 2025): Local community members are protesting a Lake County Michigan, GEO-run detention center that promises income and jobs.
Why the Justice Department is Wrong About Sanctuary Cities (American Immigration Council, September 3, 2025): States are well within their legal authority to refuse to carry out immigration enforcement.
BY THE NUMBERS
How Many Undocumented Students Are Enrolled at US Colleges? (Higher Ed Dive, September 9, 2025): More than 500,000 students without legal status attend colleges nationwide, but Trump administration policies could hinder their enrollment.
Mexican Immigrants More Likely to Remain Behind Bars After Arrest, Data Shows (Salvador Rivera, Border Report, September 5, 2025): 57 percent of Mexican nationals arrested for crossing the border or for being in the country illegally were held in detention centers while their proceedings take place in immigration court. Overall, only 30 percent of migrants were detained after their apprehensions.
SOME BACKGROUND
How Do You Prove Your Citizenship? (Nick Miroff, The Atlantic, September 12, 2025): ICE won’t say.
The H-2A Visa Trap (Max Blau and Zaydee Sanchez, ProPublica, September 13, 2025): over the years, the promises of H-2A — such as humane working conditions, free housing and far better wages than back home — have been undermined by the relative ease of exploiting workers due to scant oversight of the program.
Who Are Chicago’s Immigrants? (Julie Bosman, New York Times, September 9, 2025): Almost 40 percent of immigrants living in Chicago are from Mexico. More than 800,000 of the city’s 2.7 million residents identify as Hispanic or Latino.
Enemies of the State (Jonathan Blitzer, New Yorker, September 8, 2025): How the Trump Administration declared war on Venezuelan migrants in the U.S.
Donald Trump’s Mass Deportation Agenda Has a Surprising Stakeholder: Bill Gates (Matt Shuham and Ryan Grenoble, HuffPost, September 8 2025): Gates’ connection to the U.S. detention and deportation machine is a company called Signature Aviation. Signature calls itself “the world’s largest network of private aviation terminals,” and it’s a linchpin in the day-to-day machinery of Trump’s immigration enforcement apparatus. As a fixed-base operator, or FBO, Signature supplies ground crews, aviation fuel, boarding stairs, and airplane hangar space at hundreds of airports around the world, mostly in the United States.
ACTION ITEMS
This week, TroubleNation leaders of groups across the state of Ohio got together to discuss immigration action and detentions in their communities. They are rising to the challenge, making good trouble – spreading awareness, forcing our representatives to defend their conduct and reminding them that we will hold them accountable. It is heartening to see so many of us in the fight to protect our neighbors and keep our communities safe. Find a TroubleNation group doing this work in your area and see how you can help.
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]