A man died in ICE custody in Georgia amid a hunger strike, and the full Fifth Circuit ruled three long-term residents lack a constitutional right to bond hearings. The Justice Department pressed California counties to set aside ballots of those it calls possible noncitizens. 60 Minutes followed deportees to countries judges barred. A student who is a U.S. citizen was injured as ICE agents detained him in Santa Maria, California. A final rule ends 540-day automatic work-permit extensions.

A death during the Folkston hunger strike

An immigrant held at Georgia's Folkston ICE detention complex died Oct. 23 as a hunger strike over conditions there continued; officials had allegedly threatened strikers with force-feeding. [The Guardian]

ICE identified him as Luis Sandoval, 48, of El Salvador and said staff found him at about 1:46 a.m. with a ligature around his neck; an autopsy will be performed. [Univision]

Full Fifth Circuit rules against bond hearings for three long-term residents

The full Fifth Circuit ruled Friday that three immigrants who entered without admission, each in the country for more than a decade, have no due-process right to individual bond hearings, reversing a panel ruling. [Courthouse News Service]

Seven judges dissented; one other circuit has upheld the policy and nine have ruled against it. Lower courts had ordered the three men released before the ruling. [Bloomberg Law, France 24]

Justice Department presses California counties over suspected noncitizen ballots

California election officials are voicing concern and frustration over Justice Department letters demanding county registrars put in custody the ballots of people it believes are noncitizens. The Friday letters seek sensitive information, including Social Security numbers, on about 20,000 voters. [Associated Press]

The letters went to 57 of California's 58 counties; the one to San Bernardino County listed 1,133 names and gave the county 48 hours to commit to working with the Justice Department and DHS. Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., said the Justice Department has admitted its data is inaccurate and unreliable. [Telemundo]

Deported to countries judges had ruled off limits

A five-month CBS News/60 Minutes investigation found deportees sent to third countries and then on to countries to which U.S. immigration judges had barred their removal. Moussa Diawara, granted withholding of removal to Mali in 2012, left Texas on a July 30 deportation flight, landed in Ghana and says he was sent on to Mali within days; 17 of the 19 people from that flight sent to Ghana whom CBS reached gave similar accounts. [CBS News]

Relatives of seriously ill detainees at the Krome and Broward detention centers in Florida and the advocacy group Workers Circle told The Guardian that ICE was preparing to deport them to African countries. Immigration attorney Shalyn Fluharty said detainees' accounts pointed to flights Oct. 22–23 to the Central African Republic or Burundi; it is not clear whether they left. [LA NACION]

Student who is a U.S. citizen injured during ICE detention in Santa Maria, California

Police in Santa Maria, California, confirmed ICE officers were involved in an incident with Erik Zepeda, a 20-year-old special-education student and U.S. citizen, who says agents detained and injured him on his way to school Oct. 21. ICE said officers believed he matched its target's description and that he resisted, and called claims of broken bones “FALSE.” [News Channel 3-12]

School and city officials said he was hospitalized for wrist injuries; his former teacher and mentor, Glenn Goldin, said the wrist was broken and he had a black eye and lacerations. [Los Angeles Times, Noozhawk]

Final rule ends maximum 540-day automatic work-permit extensions

A USCIS final rule codifies last year’s interim regulation eliminating the maximum 540-day automatic extension of work permits for many renewal applicants, including H-4 and adjustment-of-status filers. It applies only to certain applications filed on or after Oct. 30, 2025. [Vanderbilt University]

For those filings, the automatic extension reverts to 180 days, or to none for categories not entitled to one, raising the risk of work gaps. [VisaHQ]

Around the system

• A ProPublica investigation follows Ingram, Texas, police officer Jaron Alexander, who suggested his town join ICE's 287(g) program and then began handing neighbors over to immigration agents after traffic stops — the town's police handed the equivalent of 10% of its roughly 1,900 residents to ICE within a year. [ProPublica]

• Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser sued Sept. 29 to stop or delay the opening of a planned GEO Group-run ICE detention center in Hudson, Colorado, alleging DHS and ICE skipped required environmental review and asking a judge to cancel the 1,250-bed facility's contract until the review is done. [News From The States]

• A settlement filed Oct. 23 ends the federal lawsuit over a proposed ICE facility at Newport, Oregon's airport, with DHS agreeing to give the city at least 30 days' notice before a final environmental review if it moves to open a detention facility there before Aug. 1. The state says ICE confirmed it has no current plans for a detention facility anywhere in Oregon. [OregonLive, Oregon Department of Justice]

• Univision cited reports of about 40 ICE detentions around Home Gardens Academy in Corona, California, and activists said some children saw their parents arrested. [Univision]

• The Advocate rode along on an Oct. 15 ICE operation in New Orleans that ended with a Honduran man's arrest after days of surveillance and a foot chase, as agents shift to quieter, one-by-one arrests. [The Advocate]

• CBP searched 52,080 travelers' electronic devices from Oct. 1, 2025, through June 30, 2026, up more than 32% from a year earlier and close to the full-year record of 55,424, according to agency data. [CBC News]

• More than 40 farmers and agricultural groups wrote to President Trump and congressional leaders that immigration enforcement is disrupting the food supply, asking Congress to provide work permits for long-term agricultural workers. [The Washington Post]

• DHS is offering $3,000, up from $2,500 last year, to some unaccompanied children who accept voluntary departure; a DHS official told ABC News the offer is aimed at children in government custody who are 14 or older and have no gang ties, though legal groups told Bloomberg Law that ICE attorneys had offered it to children as young as 5. [Gestión]

• A woman with a history of stillbirth says she fears losing another pregnancy while detained by ICE in Arizona. [The 19th]

• South Austin, Texas, restaurant owners report sales drops of 40% to 60% on some weekends since the summer amid ICE raids, saying customers and workers stay home for fear of encountering agents. [Univision]