Immigration law

U.S. Magistrate Judge Maureen P. Kelly held Attorney General Todd Blanche, Homeland Security chief Markwayne Mullin, and an acting ICE field office director in civil contempt after Nain Vasquez Gonzalez, a Salvadoran man she had ordered released following 38 months of detention, was rearrested by ICE agents in New Jersey hours later. Kelly said officials gave "inconsistent stories" and failed to produce body camera footage, with one agent's camera reportedly uncharged. She criticized ICE's use of masks to conceal agents' identities, calling it "unamerican," and imposed sanctions covering attorney's fees. Immigration attorneys called the contempt finding unusual but an even-handed application of court authority.

Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, the Venezuelan man shot by an ICE officer in Austin on Sept. 20 during a traffic stop, has pleaded not guilty to a federal charge of assaulting, resisting, impeding and obstructing a federal officer. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. A hearing revealed one ICE agent's body camera footage did not clearly show the alleged assault, and the agent who fired the shot was not wearing a camera and has not been interviewed. A judge ruled Garces Perez a flight risk, ordering him held in custody, pausing his bid for deportation protection and a U-visa tied to a separate criminal case.

Jose Fiscal Belli, a 32-year-old restaurant co-owner and Little League coach in Paris, Illinois, has been held in ICE custody since July 21 after Indiana State Police stopped him for a parking violation outside an Indianapolis government building and turned him over to federal agents. Fiscal Belli, brought to the U.S. from Mexico at 16, had a 2011 deportation order he says he didn't know about while pursuing legal status through marriage to his American wife. An immigration judge denied him bond despite no criminal record. The case has split the heavily pro-Trump town of about 8,000, where residents, local Republican officials, and the Democratic mayor have rallied to support him, raising funds and writing letters urging his release while he fights deportation from a Kentucky jail.

A federal judge on Oct. 15 dismissed the Department of Justice's lawsuit challenging New York City's sanctuary policy, ruling the administration lacked standing and that federal law does not require states to assist with immigration enforcement. U.S. District Judge Ramon Reyes cited the Tenth Amendment's anticommandeering doctrine, saying states may control how their agencies and personnel are used. The DOJ had sued in July 2025, arguing the city's policy obstructed enforcement and cited a shooting of a CBP officer by immigrants previously released despite a detainer. DHS says NYC failed to honor nearly 15,000 ICE detainers since January 2025. Mayor Zohran Mamdani called the ruling a "victory for New Yorkers."

Growing delays in DACA renewal processing are creating uncertainty for recipients nationwide, including an estimated 16,000 in Arizona. Federal data show the median wait for renewals rose to roughly 70 days between October and February, up from about 15 days previously, with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services reporting more than 200,000 pending applications, the highest number on record. Immigration attorneys say processing has become unpredictable, with some later filers receiving approvals before earlier applicants.

The delays carry real stakes: recipients whose work authorization lapses while awaiting renewal lose both employment eligibility and protection from removal proceedings. The Department of Homeland Security says more than 260 DACA recipients have been detained and more than 80 deported. A Tucson immigration judge's recent ruling allowing a case against a DACA recipient to proceed has further unsettled recipients and advocates, who say the program's protections feel less certain than before, even for those who have maintained status for years.

American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten appeared outside Delaney Hall, an ICE detention facility, to criticize the Trump administration's immigration enforcement and deportation practices. Weingarten argued that many detainees had committed no crimes beyond immigration violations, calling conditions at such facilities "unimaginable" and describing the broader system as broken and in need of reform. She said she had spoken with families leaving after visiting detained relatives.

The Department of Homeland Security pushed back, with a spokesperson telling media that rhetoric from politicians and activists "demonizing" ICE officers has coincided with a sharp rise in threats against agency law enforcement personnel. Critics also noted Weingarten's record leading the AFT since 2008, a period marked by declining student performance, as reason to question her broader public advocacy. The episode highlights ongoing friction between labor and immigration advocacy groups and the administration over enforcement tactics, detention conditions, and the pace of deportations.

Immigration attorneys and advocates across the country report that as of September 15, immigrants with final removal orders are no longer listed in ICE's online detainee locator, the database used to find people in federal custody. NBC4 independently verified several detainees with final orders missing from the system. In one case, an Ohio attorney said she could not locate her client, a Zimbabwean nurse with a longstanding withholding-of-removal order, for 32 hours after an "irregular" ICE check-in turned into a detention and transfer to a Louisiana facility. Attorneys say ICE officers have cited new internal orders not to disclose the location of detainees with final removal orders, though ICE has issued no formal public notice of the change.

The shift coincides with the Trump administration's push to deport people to third countries rather than their home nations, a workaround for withholding-of-removal protections. The Supreme Court recently allowed that third-country deportation policy to proceed while agreeing to hear arguments on its legality in December. Advocates say the database change makes it harder to file emergency legal challenges before removals occur.