An internal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) policy memorandum provides new insights into how immigration enforcement works inside people’s homes. According to the memorandum, as early as May 2025, ICE told officers and agents they could break into people’s homes without a judicial warrant, as long as they had an…
Articles Posted in ICE
When a Preschooler Becomes the Face of an Immigration Tug-of-War
A chilling photo of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos in Minnesota has put a human face to rising concerns over aggressive immigration enforcement actions taken by ICE officials. Since that photo made national headlines, we’ve learned that federal immigration agents detained the boy and his father outside their home in Columbia…
USCIS Freezes Many Immigration Benefit Processes — What’s Going On?
On December 2, 2025, USCIS issued a policy memorandum placing a hold on numerous immigration benefit requests and ordering the re-examination of previously approved cases. What the Memo Says: Key Provisions Pending benefit requests frozen for many nationals. USCIS is pausing processing of all pending immigration benefit requests if the…
Officials Pause All Asylum Decisions and Implement Enhanced Vetting Following National Guard Shooting
In the wake of a deadly shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has been instructed to pause all asylum decisions until further notice. Asylum officers at USCIS, a branch of the Department of Homeland Security, have been told to refrain from…
A Troubling New Tactic: ICE Detentions During USCIS Green Card Interviews
San Diego’s immigration community has been rattled by new reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is arresting individuals with no criminal history during routine green card interviews at USCIS offices—a practice that is historically unprecedented and deeply alarming. What’s Happening Starting in early November, immigration attorneys began reporting that…
Federal Judge Orders ICE to Restore Legal Access for Downtown L.A. Detainees
A federal judge has issued a court order requiring that immigrants detained at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) processing center in downtown Los Angeles be granted access to their attorneys in a timely manner. The ruling comes after lawyers reported that detainees were frequently denied phone access, had…
DOJ Hires 36 New Immigration Judges After Major Exodus
This week, the Justice Department announced that it has hired 36 new immigration judges — 11 permanent and 25 temporary — for the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), a key agency that handles immigration court proceedings in deportation cases. What’s happening? The hiring comes after several months of layoffs…
Supreme Court Decision Puts Temporary Protected Status of Venezuelans at Risk
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a troubling decision that could strip legal status from hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans currently living in the United States under Temporary Protected Status (TPS). On Friday, the Court granted the Trump administration’s request to halt a lower court ruling that found…
A New Enforcement Era: USCIS Gives Special Agents Law Enforcement Powers
Introducing sweeping changes, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has expanded its role by gaining law enforcement powers previously limited to agencies like Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Under a new final rule published today, USCIS will now recruit 1,811-classified special agents—fully empowered officers…
Immigration Updates: DHS Terminates Venezuela’s 2021 Designation for Temporary Protected Status, and EB-2 Annual Limit Reached
On September 3, 2025, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the termination of the 2021 designation of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) previously granted to Venezuelans by President Biden. The government’s actions mean that the 2021 designation for Venezuela TPS and any associated TPS-related protection and documentation for beneficiaries will expire on…