- ICE admitted in a letter to Senator Disk Durbin of Illinois that it had arrested 261 DACA beneficiaries and deported 86 of them in the first 10 months of 2025. While ICE claims in the letter that 241 of the individuals have “criminal histories”, it does not provide any details of what types of histories those may be, or if any had actually been convicted of any crimes that would lead to a revocation of DACA. Nor do they even attempt to provide any justification for the other 20 arrested. An estimated 516,000 people remained enrolled in DACA across the country as of June 2025.
- The National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) filed an emergency motion to halt ICE enforcement actions at schools. The NEA and AFT had previously joined with community organizations in a lawsuit aimed at restoring protections at sensitive locations such as schools, hospitals, and houses of worship. This month’s motion, part of the lawsuit, includes statements from 60 NEA and AFT members detailing the overwhelming challenges and hardships experienced by both teachers and students in the atmosphere of fear created by the constant threat of civil enforcement action.
- At a forum organized by Congressional Democrats earlier this week, Ryan Schwank, a former ICE attorney, detailed how training of ICE officers has been reduced to the point where it is now “deficient, defective, and broken”. In particular, Schank pointed out that use of force instruction was effectively non-existent, meaning that ICE officers lack the training necessary to make split second decisions in life or death situations. He also reinforced media reports that officers are quietly being instructed to use administrative warrants to violate the our 4th Amendment rights.
- In a truly shocking action, CBP is being accused of leaving a nearly blind refugee at a local restaurant last week, where he later died from health-related causes. CBP had taken custody of Nurul Amin Shah Alam and then dropped him off at a Tim Horton’s near his last known address, but his family had moved and they had not been informed of his release. It was not until days later, and after a missing person alert had been issued, that Mr. Alam was found dead near the restaurant.
- The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued a new proposed rule that would bar many mixed-status families from accessing federally funding housing assistance, even where there are US citizens in the family. The proposed rule would deny housing assistance to all family members if one member was the family does not meet eligibility criteria. As it stands now, families received pro-rated assistance for family members who are eligible for federal assistance, such as US citizens and LPRs. The proposed rule was published on Friday, triggering a 60-day comment period that ends on April 21. MIRA will be drafting a comment for our members and allies to sign-on to, and will share other opportunities for our communities to respond to this latest attack.
- The Trump Administration has continued its assault on humanitarian immigration with new rules around both asylees and refugees. On Monday, DHS issued a new proposed rule that would make it nearly impossible for asylum applicants to obtain work authorization while their applications are pending, a process that can often take years. The proposal would bar asylum applicants from obtaining work authorization until processing of asylum applications averages under 6 months. Current estimates are that it will take between 14 and 173 years to clear the current backlog of cases. It would allow USCIS officers to deny an application for work authorization without reason and make asylum applicants wait 1 year (instead of the current six months) before they are eligible to apply for a work permit. This is on top of a memo we reported on last week that would require refugees to be taken into DHS custody for “inspection and examination” before being granted their green cards.