Immigration News Today: ICE Targeted Me for Organizing, Says Farm Worker Who Left US for Mexico

Documented

Sep 24, 2025

Irmelda and Antonio, 33 and 32, prune and clear weeds away from blueberry bushes on a farm in Mattituck, Long Island, New York on Wednesday April 10, 2019. Both undocumented immigrants from Guerrero, Mexico, an indigenous region in the mountains of the country's west coast, they came to the US 16 years ago, looking for a better life. Now, they work seven days a week on this farm, planting and harvesting the crops that help make life possible in this area. Brittany Kriegstein, 2019

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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.

Around the U.S.

ICE targeted me for organizing, says farm worker who left US for Mexico:

Alfredo Juarez Zeferino spent a harrowing few months in ICE jail and, under threat of deportation, chose to leave. –The Guardian

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Georgia senators demand answers on more than a dozen deaths in immigration detention:

Since President Trump took office, 15 people have died in immigration detention. Ten of those deaths occurred between January and June, Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock wrote in a letter. –NPR

L.A. petition alleges ‘ethnic cleansing’ by federal immigration agents, demands U.N. probe:

Rep. Maxine Waters and a group of U.S. citizens are petitioning the United Nations to investigate the Trump administration sweeps for potential human rights violations. –The Los Angeles Times

The Republicans who are quietly intervening to help immigrants in custody: 

Some GOP lawmakers who back Trump’s deportation policies have still asked the administration to help detained immigrant constituents. –The Wall Street Journal

We spent an emotional day with one of Atlanta’s top immigration attorneys. Here’s why he says the system doesn’t work.

“It doesn’t work for deporting the right people, and it doesn’t work for getting the right people here. But this is all fixable. Congress can fix all of it tomorrow,” said lawyer Charles H. Kuck. –Atlanta Magazine

New York

When ICE shows up at a factory, what can a governor do?

“I’m used to being able to solve problems,” Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York said as she visited a factory where immigration officials arrested 57 people. –The New York Times

USCIS stops paying New York clerks for swearing in new citizens:

This summer, the federal agency quietly ended a reimbursement practice that had been in place for decades. –The Times Union

Family left with no answers a year after son killed at Brooklyn’s West Indian Day Parade: 

It’s been more than a year since a gunman shot and killed Denzel Chan as he watched the West Indian Day Parade on Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn. –Gothamist

A 92-year-old’s bittersweet journey to becoming a New York candy-store icon: 

Ray Alvarez — who runs Ray’s Candy Store, the 24-hour East Village institution famous for its egg creams and other goodies — was born Asghar Ghahraman on a farm in Iran. –ABC 7

NYC issuing more housing vouchers for homeless residents than ever before:

The number of households using rental assistance to exit shelters has risen by 83% over the past four years. –Gothamist

Washington D.C.

Trump upbraids U.N. in speech, claiming ‘your countries are going to hell’:

“Immigration and the high cost of so-called green renewable energy is destroying a large part of the free world,” Trump told leaders. –The Washington Post

I sought to protect an immigrant legal client. Instead, I’m facing Trump’s new sanctions:

Joshua Schroeder says he appears to be the first attorney targeted in a scheme that calls on federal agencies to accuse lawyers of unethical conduct. –The Guardian Opinion

More deportations, but far from the ‘largest in history’: Nine months of Trump’s immigration crusade in charts:

The Republican administration has expelled nearly 170,000 people so far in 2025, a figure that falls far short of its latest goal of one million in the first year. –EL PAÍS USA

More Americans in new poll think companies benefit from legal immigration:

The survey finds that Americans are more likely than they were in March 2024 to say it’s a “major benefit” that people who come to the U.S. legally contribute to economic growth. –NBC News

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