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It's Election Day. The Supreme Court on Monday turned away the administration's bid to set aside California ballots it says may have gone to noncitizens, and an Oregon judge found ICE repeatedly violated his arrest order.
Supreme Court rejects California ballot bid; ICE touts voter-fraud arrests
The Supreme Court on Monday rejected the administration's emergency request that California separate out up to 20,000 mail ballots federal officials allege could be cast by noncitizens. The brief, unexplained order came hours after the filing, without asking California to respond, NBC News reports. A Ninth Circuit panel had refused 2-1 on Friday, finding "no feasible way to identify and segregate the ballots of specific individuals without potentially catastrophic effects on the entire system"; a district judge had already said no. California says the federal list is highly unreliable and likely includes many citizens. [NBC News, ABC7 New York]
Election officials told USA TODAY they have spent months preparing in case federal agents show up to enforce immigration law or seize ballots and machines, with judges and state attorneys general on speed dial. Federal law restricts armed federal agents, including ICE, at polling places, and DHS says it is not planning operations at voting sites, La Alianza reports. [USA TODAY, La Alianza]
Separately, ICE put out a big press release: a Nov. 2 release touting more arrests "in connection with alleged voter fraud and election related offenses" in what it calls a nationwide crackdown. It lists 19 cases, including lawful permanent residents, as "just SOME" of its investigations. The cases are ICE's allegations, and they are separate from the California litigation. [ICE]
La Alianza also has a Spanish-language voting-rights guide with the Election Protection hotline in Spanish, 888-VE-Y-VOTA (888-839-8682). [La Alianza]
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Oregon judge expands oversight after finding ICE violated his arrest order
A federal judge found Nov. 2 that ICE repeatedly violated his order limiting warrantless arrests in Oregon, and that one officer lied in an arrest report. U.S. District Judge Mustafa Kasubhai's new order requires ICE to turn over records and body-camera footage for all civil immigration arrests in the state, plus unredacted copies of records it already disclosed, and to resend the order to its staff and contractors every 30 days. His Feb. 4 order, issued in Innovation Law Lab's suit over Operation Black Rose, barred most warrantless arrests without a flight-risk assessment; the officer's lie "calls into question the veracity of all I-213 forms completed by ICE officers in Oregon," Kasubhai wrote, The Oregonian reports. [Statesman Journal, The Oregonian]
After winning release in court, immigrants face ICE rearrest
ICE is rapidly rearresting immigrants who won release through federal habeas petitions, often in violation of court orders, The Guardian reports. UnoTV's account counts at least 20 people over the past year, including a 77-year-old Palestinian man rearrested within 10 days of his release order and seven people in Minnesota detained again before they left the Whipple federal building; lawyers tie many of the cases to expanded deportations to third countries. [The Guardian, UnoTV]
Long shelter stays drive some children to give up on staying in the U.S.
Some migrant children held for months in federal shelters are giving up on staying in the country, according to KFF Health News reporting published by CBS News. Almost 1,900 children were in Office of Refugee Resettlement shelters as of September, with average stays near six months; one 9-year-old from El Salvador has been held more than seven months since officers detained her mother at what was supposed to be the last appointment before reunification. The administration has offered children at least $2,500 to go home, and DHS says "ICE does not separate families." Lawyers are filing habeas petitions for children whose relatives are ready to take them, but funding cuts make that help harder to get, Univision reports. [CBS News, Univision]
Houston ICE officer surrenders, posts bond in vehicle-strike case
ICE officer Mario Alberto Morales surrendered Monday on an aggravated-assault charge in the Oct. 10 SUV strike on construction worker Miguel Parra Hernandez, PBS News reports, and was released on $30,000 bond. Prosecutors say video contradicts ICE's account; Morales, on the job a little over a year, says he committed no crime. [PBS News, Crossroads Today, NBC News]
Mamdani threatens to sue over ICE's use of city parking lots
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani told ICE on Monday to stop staging operations on city-owned lots or face legal action, in a letter to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin citing lots in Van Cortlandt Park and beside a city-run preschool in Queens. A February executive order bars agents from city property without a warrant or permission, Documented reports; DHS says ICE's presence is fully authorized, CBS New York reports. [NYC Mayor's Office, Documented, CBS New York]
Upcoming
The next four weeks.
- Nov. 9, 2026
DHS proposes charging F-1 students $70,000 for an initial period of Optional Practical Training and $30,000 for a later period. The fees are not in effect: comments on the proposed rule close November 9, while comments specifically on its required paperwork and information-collection estimates close December 7.
- Nov. 10, 2026
DHS proposes ending the regulation that lets certain H-1B, O-1 and other covered workers—and their families—remain in the United States for up to 60 days after a job ends. The grace period remains in effect for now; comments on the proposal close November 10.
- Nov. 13, 2026
USCIS proposes ending the regulation that generally tells officers to give weight to an earlier approval when deciding an extension involving the same facts. The proposal is not in effect; comments close November 13.
Comments close November 13 on DHS's rule cutting from 30 days to 10 the time refugees have to answer notices proposing to terminate their status. A court has blocked the shorter deadline through November 6 for refugees sent notices October 14–27 giving them fewer than 30 days.
- Nov. 16, 2026
State unemployment agencies will have to hand over confidential unemployment compensation (UC) records — information about individual claims and claimants — to federal officials who audit the programs, including the Labor Department's internal watchdog (DOL Office of Inspector General). The stated purpose is oversight and fraud detection.
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Around the system
- Chicago's former FBI chief Douglas DePodesta is suing U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros, alleging he was made a "scapegoat" for the collapsed Broadview Six prosecution. [WTTW]
- House Democrats want answers on U.S. citizens held by immigration agents after ProPublica counted more than 500; DHS says it is not arresting citizens. [ProPublica]
- DHS's four-year cap on student and exchange-visitor stays remains blocked nationwide under a Sept. 14 order now on appeal to the First Circuit, Steptoe notes. [Steptoe]
- The State Department's immigrant-visa interview pause continues, while some consulates share public-charge questions on housing, work, insurance and benefits. [EB-5 Insights]
- Minnesota's Truth Council released a preliminary report on Operation Metro Surge; chair Peter Cahill wrote that federal actions "violated the U.S. and Minnesota Constitutions." [MPR News]
- A federal judge ordered ICE to free Canadian dentist William Virgil Lizardo, calling the facts "appalling" after his hearing notice went to an outdated address. [Newsweek]
- Cyrus Mehta explains how to fight a visa revocation in removal proceedings, stressing that a visa is a travel document, not status. [Cyrus D. Mehta & Partners]
- Advocates and a University of Tennessee researcher sued ICE and DHS for records on what ICE tells local police about releasing 287(g) information. [WBIR]
- Fifty-one members of Congress urged the IRS to drop a proposed citizenship question from the 2026 Form 1040, saying it would deter ITIN filers. [Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus]
- Twenty-four attorneys general, co-led by California's Rob Bonta, oppose a proposed 2030 census rule they say would leave out about 16.1 million people. [California Department of Justice]
- Native American remains surfaced at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in soil churned by border-wall contractors, ProPublica confirmed, 15 days after a Hia-Ced O'odham elder warned of it. [ProPublica]
- DACA renewals are taking seven months on average, leaving some recipients out of work as permits expire, KCRA reports. [KCRA]