Administration returns to the Supreme Court over third-country removals

The administration has returned to the Supreme Court seeking permission to speed up removals to third countries—countries where the person being removed has no connection. The request asks the justices to halt lower-court orders requiring a meaningful chance to object before someone is sent to a country where they say they could face persecution or torture. It is the latest procedural move in the existing third-country-removals litigation, not the separate case in which a judge held the government in contempt over one asylum seeker’s removal. Reuters, The Washington Post, AP via WBAY

The dispute is about process, not an outright ban on removals to third countries. The lower-court rulings require notice and a real opportunity to raise a fear-based objection before removal. The administration says that requirement disrupts removals; challengers say it is the minimum safeguard against sending someone into danger. Courthouse News

White House seeks to cancel money Congress already approved

The White House has moved to rescind nearly $1 billion that Congress had already appropriated, including money connected to refugee and immigrant services. A rescission is an administration request to cancel previously approved spending. Here, the legal and political fight is over whether the timing lets the executive branch make that cancellation effective without a new vote by Congress. White House, CNN

The practical stakes are larger than the budget terminology suggests. If the maneuver stands, programs funded by those appropriations could lose money that lawmakers had directed them to receive. That is why the story is also a separation-of-powers dispute: Congress controls appropriations, while the administration is testing how far it can go in withholding or cancelling them. CNBC, NBC News, TIME

Venezuela TPS reaches a decision point

The Supreme Court was set to consider the Venezuela Temporary Protected Status dispute at its September 28 private conference, just days before the current October 2 deadline. The underlying case concerns whether DHS can unwind the 2023 extension. For people covered by TPS, the immediate stakes are protection from removal and work authorization—not an automatic path to permanent residence. La Nación, Ninth Circuit opinion, Local 10 News Miami-Ft. Lauderdale

In plain terms, this is about whether a limited group of Venezuelans can keep living and working in the United States while the case continues. TPS is temporary protection, not a green card or a route to citizenship. USCIS says the present court order preserves certain Venezuela TPS documents through October 2; who is covered depends on the document and case posture. USCIS

More on H-1B: the Chamber challenges a proposed $103,265 fee

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is asking DHS to withdraw a proposed $103,265 fee for certain cap-subject H-1B petitions. The Chamber argues that the agency lacks authority to use immigration fees this way, and that the proposal would weigh especially heavily on employers that file relatively few cap-subject petitions. The American Bazaar, U.S. Chamber of Commerce

The proposal would apply to petitions competing for the annual H-1B allocation, including the advanced-degree exemption, rather than to every H-1B petition. It would be an added filing charge, on top of other applicable fees, and is still a proposed rule—not a fee now in effect. Federal Register

Around the system

• ICE arrest priorities: Fox News reported that the administration denied ICE agents had been instructed to limit arrests to people with criminal records after conflicting guidance alarmed agents. President Trump reaffirmed the broader enforcement policy; DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin described the agency’s priority as the “worst of the worst” and parole violators. Fox News

• Social-media screening: Starting October 1, applicants for I, TN and TD visas join the existing online-presence review system. The change affects foreign-media representatives, eligible Canadian and Mexican professionals, and certain family members—not every visa applicant. Deccan Chronicle

• A court-ordered return: U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher held the administration in contempt after a 19-year-old asylum seeker was removed to El Salvador despite court orders, and ordered the government to bring him back. Axios

• Duration of status: A new rule replaces open-ended admission for new F-1 students with a fixed period that can be capped at four years, with extensions handled through USCIS. Students in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas described revisiting their education plans. KRGV

• Southwest Kansas: Reporting from the region shows immigration-enforcement activity affecting families, schools, agriculture and the beef-processing economy around Liberal and Dodge City, Kansas. Garden City Telegram, KVOE

• Birth-tourism facilitators: Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced a visa-restriction policy aimed at people who knowingly participate in or facilitate commercial birth-tourism networks. Reporting says the policy reaches organizers and intermediaries as well as service providers alleged to knowingly participate. ColombiaOne, U.S. Department of State

• October 1 employment mobility: The new fiscal year brings a new annual allocation of employment-based immigrant-visa numbers, while separate federal actions affecting certain nonimmigrant workers are also taking effect or being watched closely. Federal Register, Visa Bulletin