PICK THREE (No time for all the reporting? Here are three important stories from the past week that you might have overlooked):
Trump Administration Asks Supreme Court to Allow End of Birthright Citizenship (New York Times, September 26, 2025): Government lawyers asked the justices to clear the way for the president’s executive order ending birthright citizenship.
Immigrants with No Criminal Record Now Largest Group in ICE Detention (Guardian, September 26, 2025): Prior to the second Trump administration, those people arrested by Ice with no criminal history represented a small fraction of the total population in Ice detention. Since January, however, that number has surged.
ICE on Campus: What to Do (AAC&U, Liberal Education, Summer 2025): A practical guide.
LOCAL AND OHIO NEWS
On October 8 at 7:00 PM at Oberlin’s Apollo Theater, filmmaker Pamela Yates and Paco de Onis will be screening their new film, Borderland – The Line Within and to discuss their film in progress, Borderland_Underground and connect with community activists. No charge, all are welcome.
‘I Was Reborn’: Cincinnati Imam Reflects on 10 Weeks in ICE Custody after Release (Guardian, September 25, 2025): Ayman Soliman recalls isolation, abuse and fear of deportation and the community that fought for his release.
What’s Next for Imam After Release from ICE? (Columbus Dispatch, September 25, 2025): Soliman aims to seek citizenship, bring family.
EMERGING POLICY AND THREATS TO IMMIGRANTS
Detention and Deportation
ICE Detainees Death Toll Reaches 16 Amid Concerns Over ‘Horrendous’ Conditions (Guardian, September 26, 2025): Rising toll worries activists as mass detention in US increases after Trump returned to White House in January.
ICE Detains Superintendent of Iowa’s Largest School District (Guardian, September 26, 2025): Fellow educators express shock at detention of ‘beacon of light’ Ian Roberts as DHS claims he had ‘no work authorization.’
Deadly ICE Shooting Comes as Violence Spikes Amid Trump Immigration Crackdown (Guardian, September 25, 2025): Trump officials seek to tie attacks to ‘radical left’ as agencies accused of violent tactics against migrants and protesters.
Under Trump Policy, Bonds for Immigrants Facing Deportation Are Vanishing (New York Times, September 24, 2025): The president has limited immigration judges’ power to release detainees facing deportation. Immigrant rights groups say the policy is illegal.
DACA Recipient Dies in Adelanto Detention Facility, 14th Death in ICE Custody This Year (Austin Kocher Substack, September 24, 2025): Ismael Ayala-Uribe, 39, died two days ago on Sunday while in ICE custody at the for-profit Adelanto Processing Center in California.
ICE Targeted Me for Organizing, Says Farm Worker Who Left US for Mexico (Guardian, September 23, 2025): Alfredo Juarez Zeferino spent a harrowing few months in Ice jail – and, under threat of deportation, chose to leave.
US Attorney, DHS Say ICE Won’t Comply with California’s New Mask Ban (Kate Wolffe, Sacramento Bee, September 22, 2025): Last week Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 627, called the “No Secret Police Act”, into law. It is slated to go into effect in January.
Profiles in Authoritarianism and Cruelty
‘Hell on Earth’: Immigrants Held in New California Detention Facility Beg for Help (Guardian, September 27, 2025): Six people at a remote Ice facility in California City describe medical problems and filthy conditions, which operator CoreCivic denies.
ICE Officer Who Shoved a Mother to the Floor at an Immigration Courthouse Is ‘Relieved of His Current Duties’, Agency Says (CNN, September 26, 2025): The incident was caught on camera and fueled outrage as more families across the US get punished after showing up to their immigration court hearings.
Van Nuys (CA) Car Wash Owner Files $50M Claim over Injuries Sustained During Immigration Raid (ABC7, September 25, 2025): ICE slammed the 79-year old US citizen to the ground during a raid.
ICE Agents Held 5-Year Old Girl Outside Leominster (MA) Home to Get Father to Surrender, Family Says (NBC10-Boston, September 22, 2025): Video appears to show federal immigration agents trying to coax the man out of his home while asking, “Is that your daughter?”
Colleges Pull Back as Trump Cuts Programs That Help Migrant Students (Jordan Owens, NPR, September 22, 2025): Some colleges have laid off staff members and cut back services after the Trump administration halted funding for programs that help students from migrant families attend and succeed in college.
I Sought to Protect an Immigrant Legal Client. Instead, I’m Facing Trump’s New Sanctions (Joshua Schroeder, Guardian, September 22, 2025): I appear to be the first attorney targeted in a scheme that calls on federal agencies to accuse lawyers of unethical conduct.
Stephen Miller’s Hypocrisy Is Right There in His Speech (Jonathan Chait, The Atlantic, September 22, 2025): In the White House adviser’s view, violent rhetoric is allowed only when he and Trump are the ones spewing it.
After Judge Grants Illinois Man Bond, ICE Is Keeping Him Locked Up: ‘I Pray to God that He Comes Out’ (Borderless, September 18, 2025): The Department of Homeland Security has removed the right to immigration court bonds, leaving immigrants in detention — and their cases in limbo — for months or even years.
THE COURTS
Petition by Man Against ICE Custody May Provide New Path to Release for Others (Guardian, September 25, 2025): What is at stake in this case is whether ICE may unilaterally take away – without a lawful basis –one’s ‘constitutionally protected interest in avoiding physical restraint.
Trump Administration Can’t Require States to Cooperate with Immigration Agents to Get FEMA Grants, Judge Rules (CBS News, September 24, 2025): U.S. District Judge William Smith of Rhode Island ruled in favor of 20 mostly Democratic states that had sued FEMA, accusing the administration of “holding critical emergency preparedness and response funding hostage” unless they assist immigration agents.
Trump Administration Fires More Immigration Judges (NPR, September 23, 2025): Nearly 20 immigration judges received emails this month informing them that they are being let go, NPR has learned, adding to the over 80 judges that have already been cut by President Trump so far this year.
The Hand That Rocks the Gavel (This American Life, September 21, 2025): In an hour-long edition, TAL talks with a group of immigration judges, who almost never speak to the press, who describe the dismantling of our immigration court system from the inside.
IMMIGRANTS AND THE ECONOMY
Alabama Builders Rethink Deportations as Raids Disappear Hundreds of Their ‘God-fearing, Family-oriented’ Immigrant Workers (Fortune, September 23, 2025): Contractors warn ICE raids are deepening a labor shortage that already threatens the state’s economic prosperity: Even in Alabama, where 65% of voters backed President Donald Trump with immigration as a top campaign issue.
The Economic Contributions of Hispanic Americans (American Immigration Council, September 15, 2025): Hispanic households now collectively earn more than $1.2 trillion and paid almost $309 billion in taxes in 2019 alone—and remain one of the fastest growth segments of the U.S. population.
ATTACKS ON AUTHORIZED IMMIGRATION, US CITIZENS
Inside the Trump Administration’s Sweeping Crackdown on Legal Immigration (CNN, September 24, 2025): A report on the steps the administration has taken to cut off routes of legal immigration.
Americans Detained During Immigration Enforcement Speak Out about Treatment by Federal Agents (CBS News, September 23, 2025): The administration is implementing enforcement polices in which they are profiling individuals based on appearance, language-use, type of work, or presence in a particular location. These harmful policies and practices place innocent people in harm’s way simply by going about their normal day-to-day lives.
NEW RESOURCES
The Ohio Immigrant Alliance has a new website. Check it out!
Why Is It So Hard to Become a US Citizen? (Melissa Cruz, American Immigration Council, September 17, 2025): The pathway to American citizenship for the vast majority is long, complex, and financially draining.
Nancy Hiemstra & Deidre Conon, Immigration Detention Inc.: The Big Business of Locking Up Immigrants (Pluto Press, 2025): provide a damning exposé of the ways immigration detention generates income while those detained are starved, sickened, and exploited as a matter of routine detention operation.
PUSHING BACK
For Nation Migration Week, Bishops Call for Solidarity with Immigrants Amid ‘Fear and Anxiety’ (OSV News, September 19, 2025): Catholic social teaching on immigration seeks to balance three interrelated principles — the right of persons to migrate in order to sustain their lives and those of their families; the right of a country to regulate its borders and control immigration; but also a nation’s duty to regulate its borders with justice and mercy.
ACTION ITEMS
OJO! Ohio Senate Bill 172 has passed the Ohio Senate and is in House committee. It specifies that “persons who are unlawfully present in the United States are not privileged from arrest.” In other words, individuals could be detained, arrested and held simply based on suspicion without due process or any warrants, including while they are in a courthouse. Write your representative and tell them that this law should not be passed. More information here.
I’m Your Neighbor Books in Portland Maine recently formed “Sanctuary Stories,” a program which hand-selects and gifts books to families impacted by ICE. Stories, they observe, provide a crucial sanctuary – a place of refuge, safety, hope, and healing. They are fund-raising for this project. If you are interested, you can donate here.
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]