#immigration
22 entries with this tag
A Guardian Investigation Found ICE Force-Fed Hunger-Striking Detainees — Restraining Them and Pushing a Tube Through the Nose Into the Stomach, One Kurdish Asylum Seeker for Eight Months, an Afghan Man Daily for Nearly Six — Using Court Orders, on People With No Lawyers, to Break Strikes Protesting Worm-Infested Food and Medical Neglect. Doctors and the UN Call It Torture
A Guardian investigation built on court records found that the Trump administration tried to subject at least 10 hunger-striking immigrants in ICE detention to involuntary medical procedures, including force-feeding — the practice of restraining a person and forcing a tube through the nose, down the esophagus, and into the stomach to deliver liquid nutrition against their will. At least three, and possibly five, were actually force-fed; five others abandoned their hunger strikes at the last moment rather than endure it. The durations are staggering: a Kurdish asylum seeker at ICE's Port Isabel Service Processing Center in Los Fresnos, Texas was force-fed for eight months; another striker at the same facility for six; an Afghan man was force-fed daily for nearly six months, from September 2025 through March 2026. ICE obtained court orders to authorize the procedures, and in six cases reviewed the detainees had no legal representation. Some were also placed in solitary confinement. The hunger strikes they were being punished for breaking were protests against the detention conditions themselves — overcrowding, spoiled and worm-infested food and water, inadequate medical care, and alleged physical and psychological abuse. Force-feeding a competent hunger striker is recognized by the World Medical Association as a violation of medical ethics and by United Nations experts as cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment that can amount to torture. Nearly 50 Democratic lawmakers have demanded a watchdog investigation. DHS disputes the abuse reports and says detainees receive adequate care.
Trump Is Now in an Open Feud With the Pope — Demanding the First American-Born Pontiff Stop Criticizing His Wars and Deportations, Questioning Whether Leo XIV Was Even Legitimately Elected, and Summoning a Vatican Diplomat to the Pentagon for a "Bitter Lecture" to Get in Line
A diplomatic rift between the United States and the Holy See that began in early 2026 has escalated into an open feud between Trump and Pope Leo XIV — the first U.S.-born pope. Leo has criticized, on moral and humanitarian grounds, the administration's foreign and domestic conduct: the war on Iran, military action toward Venezuela, the Greenland and Cuba crises, the halting of foreign aid, and the mass-deportation operation known as Operation Metro Surge. Trump's response has not been to answer the criticism but to try to silence the critic. He has demanded that Leo refrain from criticizing U.S. policy, and has gone so far as to question the legitimacy of Leo's election as pope. A top Vatican diplomat was summoned to the Pentagon and given what was described as a "bitter lecture" demanding the Pope get behind Trump. The White House invited Leo to celebrate America's 250th birthday in Washington; he declined. Secretary of State Marco Rubio — himself Catholic — was dispatched to meet the pontiff to manage the damage. It is an extraordinary spectacle: the President of the United States pressuring the Vatican to stop making moral objections to his killing and deporting, and impugning the validity of a papal conclave because the man it chose will not bless his policies. A president confident in the morality of his actions does not need to lecture the Pope into silence.
The Administration Spent the Summer Trying to Strip Legal Status From 350,000 Haitians and Send Them Back to a Country Ruled by Gangs — Losing in Court After Court but Never Stopping, Until the Whiplash of Last-Minute Reprieves Was Already Separating Families and Costing People Their Jobs
About 350,000 Haitians who have lived and worked legally in the United States under Temporary Protected Status spent the summer of 2026 in engineered limbo. TPS exists precisely because a country is too dangerous to return people to, and Haiti — where armed gangs control most of the capital, there is no elected government, and the humanitarian situation is catastrophic — is the textbook case. The Trump administration moved to terminate the designation anyway. In June the Supreme Court cleared the way for terminations to proceed; but lower courts kept intervening, granting a February stay and then a series of last-minute reprieves that pushed the cutoff from February to July 10, to July 24, to July 27, as a D.C. Circuit panel rejected the administration's bid to end protections on 48 hours' notice. The Department of Homeland Security and the federal courts remain openly at odds. The practical result is not an orderly policy but chaos: families bracing for separation with days' notice, and employers — confused by work permits that are technically auto-extended but bear expired dates — already letting Haitian workers go, even though rejecting valid extended documents is itself unlawful. Whether or not the courts ultimately let the termination stand, the administration has already inflicted the harm: a third of a million people made to live week to week on whether they will be deported to a collapsed state, their jobs and families unraveling in the uncertainty the government manufactured.
ICE Agents Shot and Killed Two Men Six Days Apart — a Houston Man on His Way to Work and a Colombian Food-Delivery Driver in Maine — Neither Was the Person They Were Looking For, Neither Agent Wore a Body Camera, and When ICE Paused Traffic Stops, Trump Ordered Them Resumed the Same Day
In the span of six days in July 2026, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents fatally shot two men — and in both cases, the man they killed was not the person they had come to arrest. On July 7, an ICE agent shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican immigrant, in Houston as he headed to work. On July 13, ICE officer David Brouillette shot and killed Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 25-year-old Colombian food-delivery driver, during a traffic stop in Biddeford, Maine. Neither man was the target of the operation. In both shootings, the agents were not wearing body cameras. Witnesses in the Maine case gave accounts "extremely different" from ICE's — saying no agent was ever in front of the vehicle and that shots came from the side of the van, contradicting the agency's report. Federal immigration agents have now killed at least four people this year, part of a documented pattern of escalating deadly force as arrests went quieter and more violent. Nationwide "ICE Out" protests erupted in Houston, Los Angeles, Manhattan, Columbia, and beyond. ICE announced it was pausing most traffic stops and expanding body-camera use — and then, on July 15, Trump issued a statement saying ICE "cannot give up" traffic stops, and vehicle stops were permitted to resume the same day. Separately, a New York Times review found that 213 of more than 400 resolved federal cases accusing people of assaulting or impeding ICE and Border Patrol agents had been dismissed, withdrawn, or ended in acquittals — collapsing the "agents under assault" narrative used to justify the aggression.
Trump Calls a 74-Year-Old Law a "Loophole" and Shuts Down Green Cards for Legal Immigrants Already in the US
USCIS announced it will stop processing green cards for immigrants inside the United States, calling adjustment of status a "loophole." It is not a loophole. Congress expressly created adjustment of status in the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (Section 245) specifically so immigrants wouldn't have to leave the country to get a green card. USCIS's own policy manual says so. 56% of all legal immigrants since 1980 used this process. Now doctors, spouses of citizens, and skilled workers must self-deport to apply.
DHS Shutdown Ends After Record-Shattering 76 Days — 1,000+ TSA Officers Quit, ICE Still Unfunded
Congress finally funded most of DHS after a record 76-day shutdown that left 260,000 workers in limbo. Over 1,000 TSA officers quit. Airline security lines hit historic waits. The bill funds TSA, Coast Guard, FEMA, and Secret Service through September — but deliberately excludes ICE and CBP, which remain a separate political fight.
Leaked SCOTUS Memos Expose the Shadow Docket Machine: 25 Trump Wins, 7 Without a Word of Explanation
Leaked internal Supreme Court memos reveal how the "shadow docket" was born — and how it has since delivered Trump roughly 25 victories without full briefing, oral arguments, or signed opinions. The administration filed 34 emergency applications in one year (vs. 19 in all four Biden years). Seven rulings had zero written explanation. The court is governing by unsigned orders.
Visa Applicants Must Set Social Media to "Public" — Government Screening Your Posts to Decide Entry
The State Department now requires visa applicants across 15+ categories to make all social media profiles public for government review. Refusing means visa denial. The ACLU, Brennan Center, and EFF say it violates the First Amendment and chills free speech worldwide.
DOJ Admits ICE Courthouse Arrests Based on "Erroneous" Legal Authority
The DOJ admitted it wrongly used an ICE memo to justify arresting hundreds of immigrants at immigration courthouses. The memo only applied to criminal courts, not immigration courts. The DOJ blamed ICE. DHS said arrests would continue anyway.
ICE Violated 96+ Court Orders in One Month in Minnesota
A federal judge found ICE violated at least 96 court orders in 74 cases in a single month — "more court orders this month than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence." A Trump attorney was held in civil contempt.
Immigration Detention Deaths Hit 20-Year High
32 people died in ICE detention in 2025 — matching the 20-year record and exceeding the entire Biden term (26 deaths in 4 years). ICE now holds 65,000 people. Oversight staff was gutted by 80-96%.
Mass Student Visa Revocations: 8,000+ Visas Pulled
The State Department revoked 8,000+ student visas and 100,000 total nonimmigrant visas — double the Biden rate. ICE ran criminal checks on all 1.3 million international students. Some were detained for campus advocacy.
ICE Agents Killed Two U.S. Citizens in Minneapolis
During immigration raids in Minneapolis, federal agents fatally shot two U.S. citizens in separate incidents. Video evidence contradicted official accounts. 2025 was the deadliest year for ICE detention on record.
"Trump Gold Card": Selling Residency for $1M While Pricing Out Skilled Workers with $100K H-1B Fee
Trump launched a "Gold Card" program selling fast-tracked U.S. residency for $1M ($5M for a tax-free "Platinum" version) while simultaneously raising the H-1B visa fee from ~$2,500 to $100,000 — pricing out the skilled workers who actually power American tech and innovation.
Federal Takeover of DC Under False "Crime Emergency" — Crime Was at 30-Year Low
Trump declared a "crime emergency" and federalized DC police, deployed 800+ National Guard troops, and set up checkpoints with masked agents in residential neighborhoods — despite the DOJ's own office confirming violent crime was at a 30-year low.
Vance Twists Christian Theology to Argue You Don't Have to Love Immigrants — Pope Corrects Him
Vance invoked "ordo amoris" (ordered love) to argue Christianity requires loving Americans before foreigners. The Pope personally rebuked him, writing the true ordo amoris is found in the Good Samaritan — "a fraternity open to all, without exception."
Attempted to End Birthright Citizenship by Executive Order
Trump signed an executive order attempting to strip citizenship from babies born on U.S. soil — directly contradicting the 14th Amendment and 130+ years of Supreme Court precedent. Federal courts unanimously blocked it as "blatantly unconstitutional."
Tear-Gassed Asylum Seekers Including Children at Border
Border Patrol fired tear gas across the international border into Mexico, hitting hundreds of asylum seekers including mothers carrying toddlers in diapers. The iconic Reuters photo of a fleeing family became a symbol of Trump's cruelty.
Deliberate Family Separation at the Border
The "zero tolerance" immigration policy deliberately separated thousands of children — including infants — from their parents at the border, with no system to reunite them. Hundreds of children remain separated years later.
"Shithole Countries" Racist Remark
During a White House meeting, Trump asked "Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?" about Haiti, El Salvador, and African nations — suggesting the U.S. should accept more immigrants from Norway.
Muslim Travel Ban
Trump signed an executive order banning citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S., causing chaos at airports worldwide. Over 700 travelers were detained and up to 60,000 visas were revoked.
"Mexico Will Pay for the Wall" — They Never Did
Trump's signature campaign promise — that Mexico would pay for a border wall — was never fulfilled. Mexico never paid a cent. Instead, Trump diverted $16+ billion in American taxpayer and military construction funds.