This edition in 10 slides Flip through ↓
Immigration on the ballot from Colorado to North Carolina, an ICE death announcement, a 15-state sweep of commercial drivers, and court orders on an Afghan deportation flight and Tennessee driver’s licenses.
Immigration at the polls: Colorado's ICE amendment trails, 287(g) sheriffs fall and five states add citizen-only voting
Referenda: Colorado voters were rejecting Amendment 81, which would have written into the state constitution a requirement that police and prosecutors notify the Department of Homeland Security within 72 hours of charging someone whose immigration status can't be confirmed, if the charge is a violent crime or the person has a prior felony. The measure would have overridden state laws that limit cooperation with ICE. It needed 55% to pass and had about 44% in the Denver Gazette's count; the race had not been called. In Chicago, about 85% of voters backed an advisory question urging the city to seek compensation from the federal government for Operation Midway Blitz. West Virginia, South Dakota, Kansas, Arkansas and Alaska approved citizen-only voting language that largely restates existing law, Bloomberg Law notes. Arizona voters rejected Prop. 144, which paired a citizenship requirement with new ID rules, and California voters rejected Prop. 39, a voter-ID and citizenship-verification initiative. [CPR News, Denver Gazette, NBC Chicago, Bloomberg Law and others]
287(g): In Frederick County, Md., Democrat Karl Bickel unseated Sheriff Chuck Jenkins with 55.6% of the vote. Jenkins ran a 287(g) program for 18 years, until Maryland banned the agreements in February; the county dropped off ICE's roster that month, according to 287(g) Watch. In Alamance County, N.C., unaffiliated candidate Shannon Long defeated Sheriff Terry Johnson, in office since 2002. Long opposed 287(g) “in its current form”; the county holds a Warrant Service Officer agreement signed in 2020. In Wake County, N.C., Sheriff Willie Rowe, who opposed joining 287(g), won a second term with 70.5%. [El Tiempo Latino, Elon News Network, News & Observer, 287(g) Watch]
At the polls: Immigration agents did not turn up in large numbers at voting sites, The New York Times reports, but administration officials warned that noncitizens who voted illegally would be hunted down, and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said agents would comb voter records after the election. LULAC told Noticias Telemundo it had received reports of ICE agents at polling places; Mullin said in a PBS NewsHour clip that he did not send agents there. Otherwise Election Day was largely uneventful, USA Today reports: ballot scanners failed in a New York county, polling places flooded in the Southwest and bomb threats hit Toledo, Ohio. [New York Times, Noticias Telemundo, PBS NewsHour, USA Today]
The voters: In exit polling, 57% of voters said the administration's enforcement had gone too far and 60% disapproved of ICE. Only about 14% named immigration as the country's most important issue. Immigrant voters in New York and Chicago weighed enforcement alongside household costs, Documented and Borderless Magazine report; Borderless also found paper-ballot shortages at some polling places. [Newsweek, Documented, Borderless Magazine]
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ICE announces death after lengthy Texas hospital stay
ICE announced that Fran Gregory Portillo-Zapata, a 53-year-old Venezuelan, died in Texas after a lengthy hospital stay. The agency’s announcement does not give a cause of death. [ICE]
More than 230 arrested in 15-state commercial-driver operation
Authorities arrested more than 230 immigrants in a 15-state operation aimed at commercial truck drivers, FreightWaves reports. Officials cast the sweep as a crackdown on immigration violations and on safety threats in trucking. [FreightWaves]
Judge temporarily blocks Afghan deportation flight
A federal judge temporarily blocked the deportation of detained Afghans to Pakistan, the Associated Press and Bloomberg Law report. A Spanish-language AP headline names Afghanistan as the destination instead, and how far the order reaches is not yet clear. [Associated Press, Bloomberg Law]
El Paso Matters reports on Afghan detainees held at Camp East Montana, the ICE facility in Texas. [El Paso Matters]
Tennessee license restrictions temporarily blocked
A Nashville judge has temporarily barred Tennessee from denying driver’s licenses and renewals to immigrants with federal permission to live and work in the United States, Tennessee Lookout reports. The order comes in the lawsuit the Daybook covered Nov. 2. DACA recipients and other work-permit holders are among those the restrictions would shut out, The Tennessean reports. [Tennessee Lookout, The Tennessean]
Lawmakers turned away as appeals court questions ICE inspection limits
Sen. Alex Padilla and Rep. Jim Costa were turned away from an ICE detention center in McFarland, California, ABC30 and KMPH report. [ABC30, KMPH]
In Washington, D.C. Circuit judges questioned ICE’s limits on unannounced congressional visits, Courthouse News Service reports. They also weighed whether lawmakers can sue over access at all, Bloomberg Law reports. The court has not ruled. [Courthouse News Service, Bloomberg Law]
Advocates challenge an Illinois contract’s immigration-data loophole
Privacy advocates say a loophole in an Illinois state contract lets ICE tap state data for immigration enforcement, WBEZ reports. [WBEZ]
Central Texas cities, meanwhile, are reconsidering their Flock camera systems, Community Impact reports. [Community Impact]
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
A Ninth Circuit order on Oct. 29 keeps DV-2027 diversity-visa lottery registration closed while the government appeals a ruling that would have reopened it. The court questioned whether the law firm that sued had any right to bring the case, Davis Vanguard reports; the program is paused, not abolished, Goeschl Law notes. [Davis Vanguard, Goeschl Law]
Santa Clara County now requires visitors to the Elmwood Correctional Facility parking lot to show ID and state their business, after run-ins with immigration agents outside the jail, San José Spotlight reports. Immigrant advocates say agents remain nearby. [San José Spotlight]
Kansas City’s immigration court is carrying about 40,000 pending cases with too few staff and too little space, local immigration lawyers told KMBC. The court plans to move to a larger building with more courtrooms and staff. [KMBC]
ICE detained Paula Valentina Albornoz Hernandez, a UC Berkeley student, at San Francisco International Airport as she was traveling to Portland, SFGATE reports. Her lawyer says she has a pending asylum application and a work permit; the university is lining up legal help. [SFGATE]
Arizona has asked a federal judge to throw out the Trump administration’s suit against in-state tuition for undocumented students, arguing that the federal government lacks standing, Arizona Capitol Times reports. Under the voter-approved policy, eligibility turns on schooling in Arizona, not immigration status. [Arizona Capitol Times]
A Labor Department plan to overhaul PERM, the labor certification behind employer-sponsored green cards, cleared initial White House review on Oct. 23, Jackson Lewis writes in the National Law Review. Nothing changes yet: the proposal still has to be published for comment and then finalized. [National Law Review]
Women who do farm work in Central Washington say jobs are getting scarcer and that they are treated unequally in hiring, the Yakima Herald-Republic reports. A researcher ties the trend to the growth of the H-2A guest-worker program and to gendered hiring; a growers’ association leader disputes parts of the study’s methods. [Yakima Herald-Republic]
Nye County’s $1 million federal grant comes with strings, including a ban on restricting communication with federal authorities about anyone’s citizenship or immigration status, The Nevada Independent reports. The statute behind that condition does not require local officials to collect status information or hold people for immigration authorities. [The Nevada Independent]
Volunteers who monitor immigration enforcement on California’s Central Coast say ICE agents arrested them as they documented operations, La Opinión reports. [La Opinión]
A Ninth Circuit panel reversed itself on Nov. 3 and granted the government a 14-day administrative stay of the order restoring Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelans, Bloomberg Law reports; on Oct. 30 it had refused to pause the order. The stay begins Nov. 6, the day protections were expected to return, and runs until at least Nov. 20. Telemundo 51 explains the order on video. [Bloomberg Law, Telemundo 51]