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Illegal Immigration In US
US immigration agents in Oregon must stop arresting people without warrants unless there's a likelihood of escape, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday. US District Judge Mustafa Kasubhai issued a preliminary injunction in a proposed class-action lawsuit targeting the Department of Homeland Security's practice of arresting immigrants they happen to come across while conducting ramped-up enforcement operations, which critics have described as "arrest first, justify later." Similar actions, including immigration agents entering private property without a warrant issued by a court, have drawn concern from civil rights groups across the country amid President Donald Trump's mass deportation efforts. In a memo last week, Todd Lyons, the acting head of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, emphasised that agents should not make an arrest without an administrative arrest warrant issued by a supervisor unless they develop probable cause to believe the person is likely to escape from the ...
Senate Democrats are threatening to block legislation that would fund the Department of Homeland Security and several other agencies Thursday, potentially bringing the government a step closer to a partial shutdown if Republicans and the White House do not agree to new restrictions on President Donald Trump's surge of immigration enforcement. As the country reels from the deaths of two protesters at the hands of federal agents in Minneapolis, irate Senate Democrats laid out a list of demands ahead of a Thursday morning test vote, including that officers take off their masks and identify themselves and obtain warrants for arrest. If those are not met, Democrats say they are prepared to block the wide-ranging spending bill, denying Republicans the votes they need to pass it and triggering a shutdown at midnight on Friday. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday that Democrats won't provide needed votes until U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is "reined in and ...
The US Army has ordered several dozen additional active-duty soldiers to prepare for a possible deployment to Minneapolis if needed, a defense official said Wednesday, amid protests over the Trump administration's immigration enforcement crackdown. The defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive plans, confirmed that members of an Army military police brigade who are stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina have been given prepare-to-deploy orders. If deployed, the troops would likely offer support to civil authorities in Minneapolis, according to the official, who stressed that such standby orders are issued regularly and they do not necessarily mean that the troops would end up going. About 1,500 active-duty soldiers from the Army's 11th Airborne Division based in Alaska also have received similar standby orders. President Donald Trump has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act, a rarely used 19th century law that would allow him to use active-du
Maine became the latest target of the Trump administration's immigration enforcement crackdown, while a federal appeals court on Wednesday suspended a decision that prohibited federal officers from using tear gas or pepper spray against peaceful protesters in Minnesota. The 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals was persuaded to freeze a judge's ruling that bars retaliation against the public in Minnesota, including detaining people who follow agents in cars, while the government pursues an appeal. Operation Metro Surge, an immigration enforcement operation in the Twin Cities, has been underway for weeks. Attorney General Pam Bondi praised the appeals court on X, saying the Justice Department "will protect federal law enforcement agents from criminals in the streets AND activist judges in the courtroom." After the stay was issued, Greg Bovino of US Border Patrol, who has commanded the administration's big-city immigration campaign, was seen on video repeatedly warning protesters on a snow
A US federal judge Monday refused to temporarily block the Trump administration from enforcing a new policy requiring a week's notice before members of Congress can visit immigration detention facilities. District Judge Jia Cobb in Washington concluded that the Department of Homeland Security didn't violate an earlier court order when it reimposed a seven-day notice requirement for congressional oversight visits to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities. Cobb said she wasn't ruling on whether the new policy passes legal muster. Rather, she said, plaintiffs' attorneys representing several Democratic members of Congress used the wrong "procedural vehicle" to challenge it. The judge also concluded that the January 8 policy is a new agency action that isn't subject to her prior order in the plaintiffs' favour. Plaintiffs' lawyers asked Cobb to intervene after three Democratic members of Congress from Minnesota were blocked from visiting an ICE facility near Minneapolis ..
The mayor of Minneapolis said Sunday that sending active duty soldiers into Minnesota to help with an immigration crackdown is a ridiculous and unconstitutional idea, as he urged protesters to remain peaceful so the president won't see a need to send in the US military. Daily protests have been ongoing throughout January since the US Department of Homeland Security ramped up immigration enforcement in the twin cities of Minneapolis and St Paul by bringing in more than 2,000 federal officers. In a diverse neighbourhood where immigration and Customs enforcement officers have been frequently seen, US postal workers marched through on Sunday, chanting: Protect our routes. Get ICE out. The Pentagon has ordered about 1,500 active-duty soldiers based in Alaska who specialise in operating in arctic conditions to be ready in case of a possible deployment to Minnesota, two defence officials said Sunday. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military plans, s
A federal judge on Monday questioned whether government officials could be trusted to follow orders barring them from taking Kilmar Abrego Garcia into immigration custody or deporting him. US District Judge Paula Xinis noted that Abrego Garcia was already deported without legal authority once and said she was growing beyond impatient with government misrepresentations in her court. "Why should I give the respondents the benefit of the doubt? she asked, referring to the government attorneys. Abrego Garcia's mistaken deportation and imprisonment in El Salvador in March have galvanised both sides of the immigration debate. The Trump administration initially fought efforts to bring him back to the US but eventually complied after the US Supreme Court weighed in. He returned to the US in June, only to face an arrest warrant on human smuggling charges in Tennessee. Xinis ordered Abrego Garcia released from immigration custody on Dec 11 after determining that the government had no viable .
Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been released from an immigration detention centre in Pennsylvania following an order from a federal judge issued on Thursday, according to his attorney's office. Abrego Garcia's attorney confirmed he was released just before 5 pm Thursday and told The Associated Press he plans to return to Maryland, where he has an American wife and child and where he has lived for years after originally immigrating to the US illegally as a teenager. Attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg said he is not sure what comes next, but he is prepared to defend his client against further deportation efforts. US District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland earlier Thursday ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement to let Abrego Garcia go immediately, writing that federal authorities had detained him again after his return to the United States without any legal basis. The judge gave prosecutors until 5 pm EST to formally respond to the release order. The ruling marked a major victory for the
On a recent afternoon, Giselle Garcia, a volunteer who has been helping an Afghan family resettle, drove the father to a check-in with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She warned him and his family to prepare for the worst. The moment the father stepped into the ICE office in California's capital city, he was arrested. Coming just days after the shooting of two National Guard troops by an Afghan national suspect, federal authorities have carried out increased arrests of Afghans in the US, immigration lawyers say as Afghans both in and outside the country have come under intense scrutiny by immigration officials. Garcia said the family she helped had reported to all their appointments and were following all legal requirements. He was trying to be strong for his wife and kids in the car, but the anxiety and fear were palpable, she said. His wife was trying to hold back tears, but I could see her in the rearview mirror silently crying. They had fled Afghanistan under threat by
A 42-year-old woman has been charged for her role in an international smuggling conspiracy under which individuals primarily from India were brought illegally to the US across the border from Canada. Stacey Taylor of Plattsburgh, New York, appeared for an arraignment this week after a federal grand jury in Albany returned an indictment in October charging her for her role in the smuggling conspiracy, according to an official statement on Friday. Court records show that US Border Patrol agents interdicted Taylor's vehicle near Churubusco, New York, near the Quebec border in the early morning hours in January, and found four foreign nationals inside her vehicle. The four men - three Indian nationals and one Canadian national - had crossed the US-Canadian border illegally, without inspection. When law enforcement later examined Taylor's cellphone, they observed text messages that indicated that she had been involved in multiple other smuggling ventures in the days prior. Since her ..
Federal agents have now arrested more than 250 people during a North Carolina immigration crackdown centred around Charlotte, the state's largest city, the US Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday. The operation that began over the weekend is the latest phase of Republican President Donald Trump's aggressive mass deportation efforts that have sent the military and immigration agents into Democratic-run cities from Chicago to Los Angeles. Immigration officials have blanketed the country since January, pushing detention counts to all-time highs above 60,000. Big cities and small towns across the country are targeted daily amid higher-profile pushes in places such as Portland, Oregon, where more than 560 immigration arrests were made in October. Smaller bursts of enforcement have popped up elsewhere. The push to carry out arrests in North Carolina expanded to areas around the state capital of Raleigh on Tuesday, spreading fear in at least one immigrant-heavy suburb. Late ...
Since January, at least 2,790 Indian nationals who did not meet the criteria, and were illegally staying in the US, have returned, the government said on Thursday. External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal shared the number at his weekly media briefing in response to a query. "On deportation, since January of this year, we have had around 2,790-plus Indian nationals who did not meet the criteria. They were illegally staying there. We verified their credentials, their nationality. And they have returned. This is the status till yesterday, that is 29th October," he said. The spokesperson was also asked about the number of Indian nationals who have been deported from the UK so far this year. "From the UK side, this year we have had around 100 Indian nationals who have been deported after their nationality was duly verified by us," Jaiswal said.