Judge halts rushed asylum interviews for children
A federal judge has restored at least 21 days’ notice before unaccompanied children sit for asylum interviews. In Texas, local police are taking on immigration powers faster than anyone is overseeing them.
Judge temporarily blocks rushed asylum interviews for children
A federal judge has temporarily blocked the government from rushing unaccompanied children through asylum procedures. The temporary restraining order restores at least 21 days’ notice before an interview. It protects children’s time to prepare for asylum interviews; it does not touch removal hearings or release anyone from detention. [NILC, Center for Gender & Refugee Studies (UC Law SF), Claro Sports]
Texas police gain immigration powers while oversight lags
Texas police agencies are taking on immigration powers faster than anyone is overseeing them, a KXAN investigation finds. A companion investigation, in Spanish, follows the ICE money reshaping local police work. The state’s participating agencies are listed on 287(g) Watch’s Texas roster. [KXAN, 287(g) Watch]
Venezuelan TPS ruling leaves practical questions open
The Ninth Circuit has restored Venezuelans’ Temporary Protected Status, Bloomberg Law reports. On Friday the court refused the administration’s request to keep on hold a ruling that found DHS ended the status unlawfully; with the Supreme Court’s hold from last year expiring, protections are set to resume Nov. 6. The administration can still ask the Supreme Court to step in again, La Nación notes, and how USCIS will restore work permits and deportation protection is still unsettled. [Bloomberg Law, La Nación]
Highland Hospital patient’s transfer to ICE prompts demands for answers
Highland Hospital in Oakland, California, run by the public Alameda Health System, released a patient into ICE custody without ever receiving a warrant, officials acknowledged, The Oaklandside reports. Agents had brought Eduardo Antonio Ruiz-Garcia there after arresting him Oct. 16 in Emeryville; his lawyer says an agent fractured six of his ribs, which DHS denies. Alameda County supervisors are questioning the hospital’s cooperation with ICE, and neighbors are demanding information about ICE activity there. [The Oaklandside, KALW, KQED]
Foster-care youth face deportation as lawyers challenge children’s detention
Immigrant youth in Massachusetts foster care are being ordered deported, GBH reports. In Connecticut, abused and neglected immigrant children face new hurdles to legal status, CT Mirror reports. [GBH, CT Mirror]
Lawyers are turning to habeas corpus petitions to get children released from detention, The Guardian reports. A habeas win challenges custody; it does not grant status or undo a removal order. [The Guardian]
DOJ seeks sanctions over analysis of noncitizen-voter claims
The Justice Department wants a federal judge to consider contempt charges against an immigrant-rights group and its lawyers over their analysis of DOJ’s list of more than 20,000 alleged noncitizen voters in California, the Associated Press reports. UCLA’s Voting Rights Project ran the analysis for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) after Chief Judge James Boasberg let the group see the list only to argue that it has standing to sue; its filing found more than 40% of the names are not in California’s voter file. DOJ says publishing those broader findings broke the judge’s order; the project says it fully complied. [Associated Press]
Around the system
Immigrant advocates sued Tennessee to restore its previous licensing process after new rules denied temporary licenses to some noncitizens with federal work authorization, including DACA recipients. [WSMV]
Gov. Bill Lee is questioning the rules himself, seeking information on their effects after hundreds of people with valid federal work permits were denied licenses. [Tennessee Lookout via News From The States]
USCIS says it has taken about 2.2 million “enforcement actions” since Jan. 20, 2025 — a tally that mixes benefit denials, removal notices and program terminations, not deportations. [USCIS]
GEO Group won a contract worth about $1.5 billion to run Tacoma’s Northwest ICE Processing Center for up to 10 years. ICE received one offer. [Project Salt Box]
Deaths in ICE custody ran at twice the historical rate over the past year, a UCLA School of Law analysis finds, even after accounting for the size of the detained population and time in custody. [KESQ]
Gustavo Rivero Napoles, a longtime Miami resident with stage 4 cancer, died two days after ICE released him into a hospital intensive care unit, the Miami Herald reports. Since a June policy change, ICE no longer has to report deaths that follow release from custody. [Miami Herald]
CBP still had not posted detailed September border data as of Oct. 30, Adam Isacson writes, keeping full fiscal 2026 breakdowns by nationality, demographic and sector out of public view. [Adam Isacson]
ICE arrested more than 180 people across four north Alabama counties, Marshall County Sheriff Phil Sims told AL.com; his deputies helped find and arrest them. 287(g) Watch lists his office with both Jail Enforcement and Task Force agreements. [AL.com, 287(g) Watch]
A federal judge gave the Labor Department until Dec. 30 to reset H-2A farmworker wages, after ruling in August that the administration unlawfully cut them. Employers keep paying current rates; back pay is still to be decided. [MLive]