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Immigration News Today: International Students Stripped of Legal Status Are Winning in Court

Fisayo Okare

Apr 25, 2025

Harvard University

Harvard University.

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Just have a minute? Here are the top stories you need to know about immigration. This summary was featured in Documented’s Early Arrival newsletter. You can subscribe to receive it in your inbox three times per week here.

International students stripped of legal status in the U.S. are piling up wins in court:

A court ruling in a student’s favor led to his status being restored this week, and he has returned to his apartment, but he is still asking his roommates to screen visitors.— AP News

Feds launch first-of-its-kind sting with Florida cops to deport undocumented immigrants:

The Department of Homeland Security-led effort — nicknamed Operation Tidal Wave — started Monday and will continue through Saturday. — Miami Herald

Wife of Kilmar Abrego Garcia forced into safe house after government posts address online:

“I don’t feel safe when the government posts my address … especially when this case has gone viral and people have all sorts of opinions,” Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, said. “So, this is definitely a bit terrifying. I’m scared for my kids.” — The Washington Post

Wrong turn leads to hundreds of immigrant arrests at the Detroit-Canada border bridge:

The road that leads to the Ambassador Bridge, which connects Detroit to Canada, is notoriously difficult to navigate, even for locals. For immigrants without legal status, a wrong turn onto the bridge can devolve into a nightmare. — NPR

Trump has dramatically reshaped the U.S. immigration system, but is not meeting mass deportation aims:

The number of immigration arrests is up significantly, but the current pace of deportations suggests the administration will fall well short of its stated goal of 1 million deportations annually. — Migration Policy Institute

Undocumented immigrant incarceration rate is about half that of native-born Americans:

New research finds that undocumented immigrants are always less likely to be incarcerated than native-born Americans, but legal immigrants are the least likely of all. — Cato Institute

Trump is jailing immigrant families again. A mother, father and teen tell of ‘anguish on a daily basis’:

The Texas-based legal nonprofit Raices said it was aware of at least 100 families held at the Karnes detention center since early March, after the Trump administration restarted the practice known as “family detention” – locking up children along with their parents. — The Guardian U.S. 

Opinion — Trump is vulnerable on immigration:

A columnist suggests Democrats can move public opinion by highlighting the unpopular aspects of Trump’s agenda, such as his abuse of the deportation system. — The Atlantic

Washington D.C.

Trump will hold a rally in Michigan next week to mark his first 100 days in office:

Michigan was one of the key battleground states Trump flipped last year from Democrats on his path back to the White House. — AP News

Federal judge blocks parts of Trump’s executive order on voting:

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly blocked a section of Trump’s executive order on voting, including the parts that aimed “to modify the content of the federal voter registration application form […] to require documentary proof of United States citizenship.” — Read the order here

Trump is pretending to be weak when it comes to El Salvador:
Trump has plenty of leverage to bring back people incorrectly sent to El Salvador’s notorious prison known as CECOT. — POLITICO

U.S. judge blocks Trump from withholding funds from 16 ‘sanctuary’ cities, counties:

The 16 localities brought their lawsuit a day after the Department of Justice sued the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago, seeking a court order blocking sanctuary laws. — Reuters

Polls show Trump’s approval rating on immigration going south:

Recent surveys from Reuters-Ipsos, Quinnipiac, Economist-YouGov, and Pew, show approval of Trump’s immigration policy is falling. — Intelligencer

New York

The New York State police are feeding ICE a gang database:

For 20 years, state police have been quietly building a database of suspected gang members — and they’re feeding it to Trump’s administration. — New York Focus via Documented

New York nail salon named one of the worst employers in the country:

Envy Nails was added to the National Conference on Worker Safety and Health’s list of Dirty Dozen employers for denying over 100 immigrant workers their minimum wage. — Documented

Workers say DoorDash has resolved only 1/3 of wage theft claims:

Dozens of app workers gathered outside DoorDash’s Fifth Avenue headquarters Wednesday morning to demand an end to app deactivations and wage theft. — Documented

What immigrant community advocates want in this year’s New York State budget:

Advocates defending the state’s immigrant communities called for several initiatives to be included in the final deal, from expanded tax credits to legal services funding, citing ongoing attacks by the Trump administration and the impact of federal cuts. — City Limits

21 years later, deported back to a ‘home’ he barely knew:On paper, Nascimento Blair fit the profile of the people Trump says he wants to deport: those with criminal backgrounds. But to Blair and his supporters, his life story was one of rehabilitation. — The New York Times

Fisayo Okare

Fisayo writes Documented's "Early Arrival" newsletter. She has also led other projects at Documented, including the column, "Our City," and a radio show, “Documented.” She is an award-winning multimedia journalist with an MSc in Journalism and a BSc in Mass Communication.

@fisvyo

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