President Donald Trump used a late-night Thanksgiving post on Truth Social to outline what he called a “reverse migration” plan, pledging a permanent halt to immigration from what he described as “Third World Countries” and a sweeping rollback of Biden-era admissions.
Trump said his administration would pause all migration from nations he labels “Third World,” revoke what he claimed were “millions” of Biden-era admissions — “including those signed by Sleepy Joe Biden’s Autopen” — and remove foreign nationals he deems public charges, security risks, or “non-compatible with Western Civilization.”
He argued that the U.S. immigration system has been overwhelmed and said his approach would allow it to “fully recover.” Trump also vowed to end federal benefits for noncitizens, denaturalize migrants accused of undermining “domestic tranquility,” and expand deportations.
Streets are blocked after reports that two National Guard soldiers were shot near the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Anthony Peltier)
Trump’s comments come after two National Guard members were shot just blocks from the White House in what officials called a “targeted” attack. One of the guardsman, Sarah Beckstrom, 20, of West Virginia, has died, Trump announced earlier on Thursday.
President Trump announced Thursday that National Guard member Sarah Beckstrom, 20, of West Virginia, has died after she and another guardsman were shot in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday.(District of Columbia National Guard via X)
The president said the second service member wounded in the attack, Andrew Wolfe, 24, is still “fighting for his life.”
The suspected gunman, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, is also in serious condition.
Undated file photo of Rahmanullah Lakanwal, the suspect in the shooting of two National Guard soldiers in Washington, D.C., November 26, 2025.(Provided by Department of Justice)
Lakanwal entered the U.S. legally in 2021 under humanitarian parole as part of the Biden administration’s Operation Allies Welcome in the aftermath of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Trump ended his social media post with a stern warning: “Other than that, HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL, except those that hate, steal, murder, and destroy everything that America stands for — You won’t be here for long!”
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump vowed on Thanksgiving night to “permanently pause migration” from poorer nations in a blistering anti-immigrant screed posted to social media.
The extended rant came in the wake of the Wednesday shooting of two National Guard members who were deployed to patrol Washington, D.C. under Trump’s orders, one of whom died shortly before the president spoke to U.S. troops by video on Thursday evening.
A 29-year-old Afghan national who worked with the CIA during the Afghanistan War is facing charges for the shooting.
The president said on his Truth Social platform that “most” foreign-born U.S. residents “are on welfare, from failed nations, or from prisons, mental institutions, gangs, or drug cartels” as he blamed them for crime across the country that is predominantly committed by U.S. citizens.
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WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump says he wants to “permanently pause migration” from poorer nations and is promising to seek to expel millions of immigrants from the United States by revoking their legal status. He is blaming immigrants for problems from crime to housing shortages as part of “social dysfunction” in America and demanding “REVERSE MIGRATION.”
What You Need To Know
President Donald Trump says he wants to “permanently pause migration” from poorer nations and is promising to seek to expel millions of immigrants from the United States by revoking their legal status
He’s blaming immigrants for problems from crime to housing shortages as part of “social dysfunction” in America and demanding “REVERSE MIGRATION”
The comment came late Thursday in his most severe social media post against immigration since returning to the Oval Office in January
A day earlier, two National Guard members who were patrolling the streets of the nation’s capital under his orders were shot
His most severe social media post against immigration since returning to the Oval Office in January came after the shooting Wednesday of two National Guard members who were patrolling the streets of the nation’s capital under his orders. One died and the other is in critical condition.
A 29-year-old Afghan national who worked with the CIA during the Afghanistan War is facing charges. The suspect came to the U.S. as part of a program to resettle those who had helped American troops after U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Trump’s threat to stop immigration would be a serious blow to a nation that has long defined itself as welcoming immigrants.
Since the shooting not far from the White House, administration officials have pledged to reexamine millions of legal immigrants, building on a 10-month campaign to reduce the immigrant population. In a lengthy social media post late Thursday, the Republican president asserted that millions of people born outside the U.S. and now living in the country bore a large share of the blame for America’s societal ills.
“Only REVERSE MIGRATION can fully cure this situation,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform. “Other than that, HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL, except those that hate, steal, murder, and destroy everything that America stands for — You won’t be here for long!”
Trump was elected on a promise to crack down on illegal migration, and raids and deportations undertaken by his administration have disrupted communities across the country. Construction sites and schools have been frequent targets. The prospect of more deportations could be economically dangerous as America’s foreign-born workers account for nearly 31 million jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The president said on Truth Social that “most” foreign-born U.S. residents “are on welfare, from failed nations, or from prisons, mental institutions, gangs, or drug cartels” as he blamed them for crime across the country that is predominantly committed by U.S. citizens.
There are roughly 50 million foreign-born residents in the U.S., and multiple studies have found that immigrants are generally less likely to commit crimes than are people who were born in the country.
The perception that immigration breeds crime “continues to falter under the weight of the evidence,” according to a review of academic literature last year in the Annual Review of Criminology.
“With few exceptions, studies conducted at both the aggregate and individual levels demonstrate that high concentrations of immigrants are not associated with increased levels of crime and delinquency across neighborhoods and cities in the United States,” it said.
A study by economists initially released in 2023 found immigrants are 60% less likely to be incarcerated than people born in the U.S. Immigrants have been imprisoned at lower rates for 150 years, the study found, adding to past research undermining Trump’s claims.
Trump seemed to have little interest in a policy debate in his post, which the White House, on its own rapid response social media account, called “one of the most important messages ever released by President Trump.”
He pledged to “terminate” millions of admissions to the country made during the term of his predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden. He also wants to end federal benefits and subsidies for those who are not U.S. citizens, denaturalize people “who undermine domestic tranquility” and deport foreign nationals deemed “non-compatible with Western Civilization.”
Trump claimed immigrants from Somalia were “completely taking over the once great State of Minnesota” as he used a dated slur for intellectually disabled people to demean that state’s governor, Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee last year.
On Wednesday night, Trump called for the reinvestigation of all Afghan refugees who had entered under the Biden administration. On Thursday, the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Joseph Edlow, said the agency would take additional steps to screen people from 19 “high-risk” countries “to the maximum degree possible.”
Edlow did not name the countries. But in June, the administration banned travel to the U.S. by citizens of 12 countries and restricted access from seven others, citing national security concerns.
The shooting of the two National Guard members appeared to trigger Trump’s anger over immigrants, yet he did not specifically refer to the event in his social media post.
The suspect, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, is accused of driving across the country to the District of Columbia and shooting two West Virginia National Guard members, Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24. Beckstrom died on Thursday; Wolfe is in critical condition.
The suspect, currently in custody, was also shot and had wounds that were not believed to be life-threatening.
Trump was asked by a reporter Thursday if he blamed the shootings on all Afghans who came to the U.S.
“No, but we’ve had a lot of problems with Afghans,” the president said.
President Donald Trump’s administration is expanding its immigration crackdown in the aftermath of the shooting of a pair of National Guard members in Washington.
The two guard members remained in critical condition on Thursday after they were shot in an ambush Wednesday near the White House. The suspect is Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, an Afghan national who was subdued and taken into custody shortly after.
Federal authorities have launched a sprawling, nationwide terrorism investigation into what Jeanine Pirro, the US attorney for DC, called a “brazen and targeted” attack. Police scoured the scene of the shooting, while authorities searched homes in Washington state and California.
Trump, Vice President JD Vance and others in the administration quickly blamed the Biden administration for letting Lakanwal into the US and seized on the case to push for deeper immigration curbs, including halting reviews of Afghan immigration proceedings and ordering a review of those already in the US. That raises the prospect that settlement rights for Afghan allies of US forces may be curtailed.
“We must now re-examine every single alien who has entered our country from Afghanistan under Biden, and we must take all necessary measures to ensure the removal of any alien from any country who does not belong here or add benefit to our country,” Trump said in a recorded video address published by the White House Wednesday.
On Thursday, Joseph Edlow, the head of US Citizenship and Immigration Services, said in a social media post that his agency, under Trump’s orders, is conducting “a full scale, rigorous reexamination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern.” He didn’t name specific countries.
Even before Wednesday’s shooting, the Trump administration had moved to slash legal migration to the US. Trump’s second term has seen the administration severely lower its refugee cap, end temporary protected status for migrants from numerous countries, impose a $100,000 application fee for H-1B visas heavily used by tech companies and universities to bring over high-skilled workers and revoke thousands of visas. It also plans to review the cases of all refugees resettled under the Biden administration, according to an internal Nov. 21 memo seen by Bloomberg News.
The calls for further steps came swiftly after Wednesday’s shooting, even as the investigation is in its early stages. Authorities are treating it as a terror case but haven’t publicly described his specific motive. On Thursday morning, they said that interviews and search warrants were still being carried out.
Lakanwal lived in Washington state with his wife and, authorities believe, five children. They say he drove to Washington, DC — a cross-country trip of nearly 3,000 miles — with the intent of carrying out the attack. He then drew a revolver and fired at two national Guard Members from West Virginia, blocks from the White House. The two victims are Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Andrew Wolfe, 24; both remained in critical condition Thursday.
Lakanwal was evacuated from Afghanistan in 2021 around the time of the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal. AfghanEvac, a nonprofit group dedicated to supporting resettlement of US allies in Afghanistan, said he served in an elite Afghan counterterrorism unit operated by the CIA with direct U.S. intelligence and military support to support their fight against the Taliban.
Lakanwal arrived in the US in September of that year “due to his prior work with the U.S. government, including CIA, as a member of a partner force in Kandahar,” CIA Director John Ratcliffe said in a statement.
Lakanwal arrived under humanitarian parole and was granted asylum earlier this year by the Trump administration, according to AfghanEvac.
But the administration’s response raises the prospect that it will seek to block or even revoke status of Afghan nationals who helped US forces fight the Taliban.
The US immediately suspended processing of immigration requests related to Afghan nationals and is reviewing all asylum cases approved under the Biden administration, according to Tricia McLaughlin, an assistant secretary of homeland security.
Trump called for reviewing every person who came to the US from Afghanistan under the Biden administration, while Vance said they will “redouble our efforts to deport people with no right to be in our country.”
And several top aides said that Lakanwal’s work with the CIA and other American agencies should not have meant that he was afforded residency or status in the US.
Ratcliffe said “this individual — and so many others — should have never been allowed to come here” while Attorney General Pam Bondi called Lakanwal a “monster who should not have been in our country” during a Fox News interview Thursday. FBI Director Kash Patel said at the Thursday press conference that “you miss all the signs when you do absolutely zero vetting” and Jeanine Pirro, the US attorney for Washington, DC, said “this is what happens in this country when people are allowed in who are not properly vetted.”
But while the Trump administration said it was a failure of vetting, the Afghan settlement rights group said there is vetting and that Lakanwal was a bad apple.
“Afghan immigrants and wartime allies who resettle in the United States undergo some of the most extensive security vetting of any population entering the country,” AfghanEvac President Shawn VanDiver said in a written statement.
The group supports “fully supports the perpetrator facing full accountability” and “rejects any attempt to leverage this tragedy as a political ploy to isolate or harm Afghans who have resettled in the United States,” VanDiver added.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights and advocacy group, said the anger over the crime must be directed at the perpetrator and not every Afghan national in the US or seeking to move to the US. “Using this horrific attack as an excuse to smear and punish every Afghan, every refugee, or every immigrant rips at something very basic in our Constitution and many faiths: the idea that guilt is personal, not inherited or collective,” the group said in a written statement.
Aside from immigration reform, the political fallout from the attack could widen. Bondi also signaled that the administration may scrutinize Democrats who had criticized the deployments.
Speaking on Fox News on Thursday morning, Bondi criticized Democratic lawmakers, without naming any, and media figures who have criticized Trump’s use of the National Guard.
“They should be praising our men and women in law enforcement. And we are looking at everything they have said, and why they said it, and if they encouraged acts of violence,” she said, without elaborating.
The administration is already seeking to court-martial Senator Mark Kelly, an Arizona Democrat, after a video in which Democratic lawmakers told US service members that they can refuse unlawful orders. Trump has called the video “seditious” and reposted calls for the lawmakers to be killed.
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser, meanwhile, condemned the shooting and pledged that the suspect will be prosecuted, but also hinted at her unease with the deployment. “These young people should be at home in West Virginia with their families,” she said. She didn’t elaborate.
Pirro, separately, declined to discuss the issue. “I don’t even want to talk about whether they should have been there” she said. “We ought to kiss the ground and thank god that the president said it’s time to bring in more law enforcement.”
Josh Wingrove, Maria Paula Mijares Torres, Bloomberg
Last week, a judge handed down a 223-page opinion that lambasted the Department of Homeland Security for how it has carried out raids targeting undocumented immigrants in Chicago. Buried in a footnote were two sentences that revealed at least one member of law enforcement used ChatGPT to write a report that was meant to document how the officer used force against an individual.
The ruling, written by US District Judge Sara Ellis, took issue with the way members of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other agencies comported themselves while carrying out their so-called “Operation Midway Blitz” that saw more than 3,300 people arrested and more than 600 held in ICE custody, including repeated violent conflicts with protesters and citizens. Those incidents were supposed to be documented by the agencies in use-of-force reports, but Judge Ellis noted that there were often inconsistencies between what appeared on tape from the officers’ body-worn cameras and what ended up in the written record, resulting in her deeming the reports unreliable.
More than that, though, she said at least one report was not even written by an officer. Instead, per her footnote, body camera footage revealed that an agent “asked ChatGPT to compile a narrative for a report based off of a brief sentence about an encounter and several images.” The officer reportedly submitted the output from ChatGPT as the report, despite the fact that it was provided with extremely limited information and likely filled in the rest with assumptions.
“To the extent that agents use ChatGPT to create their use of force reports, this further undermines their credibility and may explain the inaccuracy of these reports when viewed in light of the [body-worn camera] footage,” Ellis wrote in the footnote.
Per the Associated Press, it is unknown if the Department of Homeland Security has a clear policy regarding the use of generative AI tools to create reports. One would assume that, at the very least, it is far from best practice, considering generative AI will fill in gaps with completely fabricated information when it doesn’t have anything to draw from in its training data.
The DHS does have a dedicated page regarding the use of AI at the agency, and has deployed its own chatbot to help agents complete “day-to-day activities” after undergoing test runs with commercially available chatbots, including ChatGPT, but the footnote doesn’t indicate that the agency’s internal tool is what was used by the officer. It suggests the person filling out the report went to ChatGPT and uploaded the information to complete the report.
No wonder one expert told the Associated Press this is the “worst case scenario” for AI use by law enforcement.
BRENTWOOD – Mayra Jimenez Almaras was 8 when she came to the U.S. from Mexico with her parents and two siblings. At 11, she was working long hours under the scorching sun in the Brentwood fields, picking green beans and packing corn.
Those days are now behind her as the 21-year-old prepares to graduate from Saint Mary’s College of California in December with a bachelor’s degree in finance.
As a way to give back to the organization that helped her family, Jimenez Almaras works as a community health worker with Hijas del Campo, which, translated from Spanish, means “daughters of the field.”
The Contra Costa County-based nonprofit aims to help migrants, seasonal farmworkers, and their families to improve their lives, working conditions, health, and safety. Their work focuses on food security, health care, housing, education, workers’ rights and legal aid.
Jimenez Almaras was in high school when she first met Marivel Mendoza and Dorina Moraida, co-founders of Hijas del Campo. At the time, they were handing out back-to-school supplies and educational resources.
“A door opened for me, providing different types of resources, not just education-wise but, in general, so much mentorship and leadership,” said Jimenez Almaras.
Through the nonprofit, Jimenez Almaras not only received support for her college application but also a laptop.
That same laptop not only helped Jimenez Almaras, but also her mom, who later used it to complete a community health worker certification program through Hijas del Campo.
Now, Jimenez Almaras’s mother no longer works in the fields, but instead in an elderly care home.
Her two siblings have also moved on. Her older brother teaches at an area school, while her younger brother is pursuing a degree at a community college.
Jimenez Almaras said that while the world sees farmworkers as a vital source of food for their plates, many fail to recognize that farmworkers themselves face food and financial insecurities, as well as chronic diseases.
She urged local leaders to respect and advocate for the community that provides sustenance.
“Have that respect, treat everyone equally, and at the end of the day, just be thankful that we’re there every single day, not only thriving for our own families, but thriving for yours as well,” said Jimenez Almaras. “Look out for the people that feed you and don’t bite those hands.”
Hijas del Campo co-founders Dorina Salgado-Moraida, left, and Marivel Mendoza are photographed in Brentwood, Calif., on Friday, Oct. 10, 2025. Hijas del Campo is Contra Costa County-based nonprofit organization that aims to help migrant and seasonal farmworkers, along with their families, to improve their daily lives, working conditions, health and safety. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
Hijas del Campo was founded by a group of women who met in early 2020 after seeing how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted farmworkers.
Mendoza and Moraida are both first-generation Mexican-American women whose parents toiled in the fields when they first moved to the U.S.
“My dad didn’t work in the fields too long, but he would always talk to us about how hard that work was and how important it was for us to honor the people who pick our food because it’s a backbreaking job,” said Moraida, the nonprofit’s program director.
Volunteer Milka Ambrosio sorts and unloads a recent shipment of donated items while at Hijas del Campo in Brentwood, Calif., on Friday, Oct. 10, 2025. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
The organization just celebrated its fifth anniversary. Over the years, it has worked with 500 core families — nearly 2,000 people — through outreach activities, giving farmworkers bags of essential, seasonal items, said Mendoza, executive director of Hijas del Campo.
For example, during the summer, packed bags include intravenous fluids to treat dehydration, masks to reduce the risk of valley fever, and sunscreen to protect workers from the sun. During the winter, there are hand warmers, socks, gloves, and scarves, among other items.
“When we say we take care of farmworkers in our county, it doesn’t matter where they’re from,” said Mendoza. “We’re going to make sure that we have some kind of touch point with them and connect them to resources where they live, if it’s possible.”
Volunteers work on sorting donated clothes at Hijas del Campo in Brentwood, Calif., on Friday, Oct. 10, 2025. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
The nonprofit has also partnered with Contra Costa Health Services, the California Department of Public Health, and San Joaquin County to inform providers about the rise in valley fever and how to recognize its symptoms among agricultural workers.
Amid federal political uncertainty, Mendoza and Moraida said the organization is also educating farmworkers on their rights and partnering with immigration law groups, such as the Immigration Institute of the Bay Area.
Beyond health, education has become a cornerstone of their work. The organization partners with Lenovo, which donates about 20-30 laptops annually to students from farmworker families, and organizes a “Lunch and Learn” program, bringing in professionals who are either immigrants or first-generation college students to share their stories and inspire students.
In 2023, Hijas del Campo began building four tiny homes to provide transitional housing for farmworkers living in unsafe or substandard conditions. Each of the homes offers wraparound services, including financial literacy, mental health support, and healthcare access.
Part of the rent paid to the nonprofit is deposited into a savings account and returned after two years, in hopes that the residents will be independent enough to move out and find their own housing.
“The hope is that in two years, they’ll feel more stable and confident. Having a secure place to live changes a person,” said Moraida.
ABOUT SHARE THE SPIRIT Share the Spirit is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization operated by the East Bay Times/Bay Area News Group. Since 1989, Share the Spirit has been producing series of stories during the holiday season that highlight the wishes of those in need and invite readers to help fulfill them.
HOW TO HELP Donations to Hijas del Campo will enable the nonprofit to buy and distribute 500 food bags to 378 low-income farmworker families in Contra Costa County for two months, prioritizing access for people who face barriers to traditional food assistance. Goal: $10,000
McALLEN, Texas — A federal judge in California has expanded a decision granting more detained immigrants the ability to request a bond hearing after the Trump administration ended the practice in July. Lawyers say thousands could benefit from the order, but it’s expected to be appealed.
U.S. District Judge Sunshine S. Sykes on Tuesday expanded an order from last week granting detained immigrants with no criminal history the opportunity to request a bond hearing. Now, instead of only impacting a few named in the California lawsuit, the decision will apply to immigrants held in detention nationwide.
It’s part of an ongoing lawsuit challenging changes the Trump administration made over the summer when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it was revisiting its authority to detain people and would make noncitizens ineligible for bond hearings before an immigration judge.
Prior to the policy change, most noncitizens with no criminal record who were arrested away from the border had an opportunity to request such a hearing and if bond was granted remain free while their cases wound through immigration court.
Sykes issued an order on Thursday that found the new policy unlawful.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, Tricia McLaughlin, released a statement Wednesday that pointed to a September decision from the Justice Department’s Board of Immigration Appeals allowing the new policy.
She said the previous policy “dangerously unleashed millions of unvetted illegal aliens into American communities—and they used many loopholes to do so.”
Her statement did not say whether Sykes’ decision would be appealed and the department did not respond to questions on the matter.
Tuesday’s decision could impact thousands of immigrants but not all. Those with criminal convictions or who have an expedited removal order would still not be allowed a bond hearing.
Matt Adams, lead attorney for the plaintiffs, said he has heard of immigration judges already advising some immigrants of their right to a bond hearing since Sykes’ orders were filed.
“These are people who’ve been living here in the United States, many for years, many for decades, who have U.S. citizen family members, who have no criminal history, who do not present any danger or threat of a flight risk, and yet they were being locked up without any possibility of being released during these lengthy proceedings,” Adams said.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Wednesday’s “heinous assault” on two National Guard members near the White House proves that lax migration policies are “the single greatest national security threat facing our nation.”
“No country can tolerate such a risk to our very survival,” he said.
Trump’s remarks, released in a video on social media, underscores his intention to reshape the country’s immigration system and increase scrutiny of migrants who are already here. With aggressive deportation efforts already underway, his response to the shooting showed that his focus will not waver.
The suspect in the shooting is believed to be an Afghan national, according to Trump and two law enforcement officials. He entered the United States in September 2021, after the chaotic collapse of the government in Kabul, when Americans were frantically evacuating people as the Taliban took control.
The 29-year-old suspect was part of Operation Allies Welcome, the Biden-era program that resettled tens of thousands of Afghans after the U.S. withdrawal from the country, officials said. The initiative brought roughly 76,000 Afghans to the United States, many of whom had worked alongside American troops and diplomats as interpreters and translators.
It has since faced intense scrutiny from Trump and his allies, congressional Republicans and some government watchdogs over gaps in the vetting process and the speed of admissions, even as advocates say it offered a lifeline to people at risk of Taliban reprisals.
Trump described Afghanistan as “a hellhole on earth,” and he said his administration would review everyone who entered from the country under President Joe Biden — a measure his administration had already been planning before the incident.
During his remarks, Trump also swung his focus to Minnesota, where he complained about “hundreds of thousands of Somalians” who are “ripping apart that once-great state.”
Minnesota has the country’s largest Somali community, roughly 87,000 people. Many came as refugees over the years.
The reference to immigrants with no connection to Wednesday’s developments was a reminder of the scope of Trump’s ambitions to rein in migration.
Administration officials have been ramping up deportations of people in the country illegally, as well as clamping down on refugee admissions. The focus has involved the realignment of resources at federal agencies, stirring concern about potentially undermining other law enforcement priorities.
However, Trump’s remarks were a signal that scrutiny of migrants and the nation’s borders will only increase. He said he wants to remove anyone “who does not belong here or does not add benefit to our country.”
“If they can’t love our country, we don’t want them,” Trump added.
Afterward, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services announced it would indefinitely stop processing all immigration requests for Afghan nationals pending a review of security and vetting protocols.
Supporters of Afghan evacuees said they feared that people who escaped danger from the Taliban would now face renewed suspicion and scrutiny.
“I don’t want people to leverage this tragedy into a political ploy,” said Shawn VanDiver, president of #AfghanEvac.
He said Wednesday’s shooting should not shed a negative light on the tens of thousands of Afghan nationals who have gone through the various legal pathways to resettling in the U.S. and those who await in the pipeline.
Under Operation Allies Welcome, tens of thousands of Afghans were first brought to U.S. military bases around the country, where they completed immigration processing and medical evaluations before settling into the country. Four years later, there are still scores of Afghans who were evacuated at transit points in the Middle East and Europe as part of the program.
Those in countries like Qatar and Albania, who have undergone the rigorous process, have been left in limbo since Trump entered his second term and paused the program as part of his series of executive actions cracking down on immigration.
Vice President JD Vance, writing on social media, criticized Biden for “opening the floodgate to unvetted Afghan refugees,” adding that “they shouldn’t have been in our country.”
“Already some voices in corporate media chirp that our immigration policies are too harsh,” he said. “Tonight is a reminder of why they’re wrong.”
___
Amiri reported from New York. Associated Press writer Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.
TAMPA, Fla. — The holiday season involves traveling for many, but for several immigrant families here in the Tampa Bay area, there’s hesitancy about any travel plans.
And one has been a permanent U.S. resident for nearly 20 years.
What You Need To Know
An immigration attorney says many of her clients are hesitant to travel this holiday season
The attorney’s advice is that residents or those with pending cases carry their legal documents
She says there have been cases where immigration enforcement has stopped or questioned her clients about their legal statuses
One family shares the impact this hesitancy is having on their annual travel plans
Immigration lawyers say fewer people are traveling because of stronger immigration enforcement by the Trump administration.
A picture shows a glimpse into the life of Adriana.
“This picture was taken at my dad’s birthday party, where he turned 95. This is all of the family together,” she says.
Adriana, who did not want her identity revealed even though she’s been a permanent U.S. resident for 16 years, says increased immigration enforcement concerns her because of the uncertainty about what would happen if she were detained.
And it made her think twice about her annual travel plans to see her family in Colombia, with her husband, Osvaldo.
“We have this fear of going and not being allowed back into the country,” she says.
It’s filled her with anxiety, thinking about leaving the country. Osvaldo is a citizen as well; he also did not want his identity revealed to protect his wife.
He says their concerns would keep his wife from seeing her elderly parents.
“It makes you think twice more about traveling to visit your family and that shouldn’t be there, you’re going to visit family, you’re going to have a good time,” he said.
Immigration attorney Danielle Hernandez has heard similar stories from the families she serves. She says there have been cases where immigration enforcement has stopped or questioned her clients about their legal statuses.
“We’ve heard of residents being detained, sometimes they have infractions that they’re not aware of that have immigration consequences, then we have people who are going through the right process and have immigration cases pending who are rightfully anxious about being detained,” says Hernandez.
She’s advising permanent residents who are planning to travel to carry all legal documentation, and for those who have pending cases, to carry receipts of those applications.
Adriana says despite her concerns, it’s a risk she’s willing to take to see her loved ones.
“We all go with faith that we’ll return because we have our employment here, and it would just hurt not coming back knowing I have my life here,” she says.
A life she’s worked hard to build and one she hopes to continue calling her forever home.
The immigration attorney says even those traveling by car — regardless of the distance — could still be stopped and questioned about their legal status.
People stand near debris on a street on October 6, 2025 in the Solino neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, as residents have begun returning to the area after it was attacked by gang fighters in late 2024. More than 16,000 people have been killed in armed violence in Haiti since the start of 2022, the United Nations said on October 2, warning that “the worst may be yet to come”. The poorest country in the Americas, Haiti has long suffered at the hands of violent criminal gangs that commit murders, rapes, looting, and kidnappings against a backdrop of chronic political instability.
CLARENS SIFFROY
AFP via Getty Images
The Trump administration’s decision to end Temporary Protected Status, TPS, for up to a half million Haitians prompted an immediate wave of criticism from non-profit organizations working in Haiti, community activists and some Democratic lawmakers.
In its announcement on Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, the Department of Homeland Security said it does not serve national interests to have Haitians legally living and working in the U.S. on a temporary basis, even though their unstable homeland faces one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
DHS said Secretary Kristi Noem “has determined that there are no extraordinary and temporary conditions in Haiti that prevent Haitian nationals (or aliens having no nationality who last habitually resided in Haiti) from returning in safety.”
The agency set a Feb. 3, 2026, deadline for leaving and said those who self-deport and use the CBP Home mobile application to report their departure will also be eligible for a complimentary plane ticket, a $1,000 exit bonus and noted there were potential future opportunities for legal immigration.
But the administration has already set up barriers for that to happen. Haiti is one of 19 countries covered by a travel ban that restricts nationals from entering the United States. That restriction was introduced earlier this year by President Donald Trump and applies to any Haitian who currently doesn’t have a valid U.S. visa.
Advocates for Haiti, from a Miami-Dade County commissioner to international groups, blasted the move in statement to the Miami Herald. It’s also likely to draw legal challenges:
* “Is this the way to give thanks to a people whose ancestors fought for U.S. independence, a people who by defeating the Napoleon army, allowed the U.S. to double its size through the Louisiana Purchase, thereby contributing to its wealth ? A people who continue to give their all to make this nation great.
“Haiti is going through one of the worst crisis in history; it is totally controlled by violent gangs , plagued by political violence and instability, with daily reports of killings, kidnappings, arson and collective gang rapes. Forcing anyone to return under these conditions could expose them to serious harm and possibly death.
“TPS holders work hard to take care of their families, send remittances back home and contribute about $21 billion annually to the U.S. economy, in addition to paying $5.2 billion in combined federal, payroll, state, and local taxes. I urge the Trump administration to reverse course and Congress to work promptly in a bi-partisan manner to blaze a path to protect these most deserving families.” —Miami Dade County Commissioner Marleine Bastien.
* “The Trump Administration, hellbent on ending TPS for Haitians, will be remembered for their cruelty and attacks against Haitians living lawfully in the United States. They must reverse course now.” — U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-New York, House Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member.
* “At World Relief, we’re heartbroken by this decision to press ahead with the termination of Temporary Protected Status for Haitians currently residing and working lawfully in the United States—though, at this point, after the Department of Homeland Security has sought to terminate TPS for lawfully present individuals from Afghanistan, Syria, South Sudan, Burma and Venezuela, we’re no longer surprised.
“As an organization that has operated in Haiti since 1988 in partnership with local churches, we are painfully aware that, whatever our government says, Haiti is not currently a safe place to which to deport hundreds of thousands of people, particularly after being hit hard by Hurricane Melissa less than a month ago. We pray that Secretary Noem will reconsider this decision and that Americans will both advocate for their Haitian neighbors in the U.S. and step up to provide further resources to come alongside brave Haitian leaders confronting one humanitarian crisis after another.” — Matthew Soerens, vice president of advocacy and policy at World Relief.
Armed gang members on a motorbike patrol the streets in the Mariani neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on October 6, 2025. Mariani is near the Route Nationale 2, parts of which have been taken over by gangs. More than 16,000 people have been killed in armed violence in Haiti since the start of 2022, the United Nations said on October 2, warning that “the worst may be yet to come”. The poorest country in the Americas, Haiti has long suffered at the hands of violent criminal gangs that commit murders, rapes, looting, and kidnappings against a backdrop of chronic political instability. CLARENS SIFFROY AFP via Getty Images
* “Blown away by the hatefulness, which seems to pervade our government leadership. Protected status, ha! Such a travesty, half a million Haitians have nowhere to return to. Breaks our heart… This just adds to the displacement problem. When will this end?
“America being great by disparaging the world’s most vulnerable people…really? So sad! Hope the challenges overwhelm the administration and they are forced to back down. This is a complete farce!!” — Dr. Ted Higgins, a retired vascular surgeon based in Kansas City who built and operates a medical center in Fond-Parisien along National Road 8, which connects Port-au-Prince to the Dominican capital of Santo Domingo
* “As Mayor of North Miami, I am deeply disappointed by the administration’s decision to end Haiti’s TPS designation. Every day, I hear from residents who cannot safely return due to political violence and instability, and Haiti simply cannot absorb hundreds of thousands of people right now. Announcing this on the eve of Thanksgiving is especially cruel to families already living in fear. As one of the cities with the largest Haitian communities in America, we are devastated.
“This moment demands compassion and responsible leadership. The Haitian community has shown remarkable resilience, and while this decision may shake us, it will not break our spirit.” — North Miami Mayor Alix Desulme
This story was originally published November 26, 2025 at 9:11 PM.
Jacqueline Charles has reported on Haiti and the English-speaking Caribbean for the Miami Herald for over a decade. A Pulitzer Prize finalist for her coverage of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, she was awarded a 2018 Maria Moors Cabot Prize — the most prestigious award for coverage of the Americas.
“No country can tolerate such a risk to our very survival,” he said.
Trump’s remarks, released in a video on social media, underscores his intention to reshape the country’s immigration system and increase scrutiny of migrants who are already here. With aggressive deportation efforts already underway, his response to the shooting showed that his focus will not waver.
The suspect in the shooting is believed to be an Afghan national, according to Trump and two law enforcement officials. He entered the United States in September 2021, after the chaotic collapse of the government in Kabul, when Americans were frantically evacuating people as the Taliban took control.
The 29-year-old suspect was part of Operation Allies Welcome, the Biden-era program that resettled tens of thousands of Afghans after the U.S. withdrawal from the country, officials said. The initiative brought roughly 76,000 Afghans to the United States, many of whom had worked alongside American troops and diplomats as interpreters and translators.
It has since faced intense scrutiny from Trump and his allies, congressional Republicans and some government watchdogs over gaps in the vetting process and the speed of admissions, even as advocates say it offered a lifeline to people at risk of Taliban reprisals.
Trump described Afghanistan as “a hellhole on earth,” and he said his administration would review everyone who entered from the country under President Joe Biden — a measure his administration had already been planning before the incident.
During his remarks, Trump also swung his focus to Minnesota, where he complained about “hundreds of thousands of Somalians” who are “ripping apart that once-great state.”
Minnesota has the country’s largest Somali community, roughly 87,000 people. Many came as refugees over the years.
The reference to immigrants with no connection to Wednesday’s developments was a reminder of the scope of Trump’s ambitions to rein in migration.
Administration officials have been ramping up deportations of people in the country illegally, as well as clamping down on refugee admissions. The focus has involved the realignment of resources at federal agencies, stirring concern about potentially undermining other law enforcement priorities.
However, Trump’s remarks were a signal that scrutiny of migrants and the nation’s borders will only increase. He said he wants to remove anyone “who does not belong here or does not add benefit to our country.”
“If they can’t love our country, we don’t want them,” Trump added.
Afterward, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services announced it would indefinitely stop processing all immigration requests for Afghan nationals pending a review of security and vetting protocols.
Supporters of Afghan evacuees said they feared that people who escaped danger from the Taliban would now face renewed suspicion and scrutiny.
“I don’t want people to leverage this tragedy into a political ploy,” said Shawn VanDiver, president of #AfghanEvac.
He said Wednesday’s shooting should not shed a negative light on the tens of thousands of Afghan nationals who have gone through the various legal pathways to resettling in the U.S. and those who await in the pipeline.
Under Operation Allies Welcome, tens of thousands of Afghans were first brought to U.S. military bases around the country, where they completed immigration processing and medical evaluations before settling into the country. Four years later, there are still scores of Afghans who were evacuated at transit points in the Middle East and Europe as part of the program.
Those in countries like Qatar and Albania, who have undergone the rigorous process, have been left in limbo since Trump entered his second term and paused the program as part of his series of executive actions cracking down on immigration.
Vice President JD Vance, writing on social media, criticized Biden for “opening the floodgate to unvetted Afghan refugees,” adding that “they shouldn’t have been in our country.”
“Already some voices in corporate media chirp that our immigration policies are too harsh,” he said. “Tonight is a reminder of why they’re wrong.”
Amiri reported from New York. Associated Press writer Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.
During remarks to the United Nations on Tuesday, President Donald Trump pushed world leaders to close borders to immigrants and asylum seekers.
Chris Megerian and Farnoush Amiri | The Associated Press
After being deported from Minnesota last week, a young mother says she’s back in Honduras without her 8-month-old child.
Kimberlyn Yaritza Menjivar Aguilar, 22, lived in St. Cloud with her partner. They moved to South Dakota shortly before having a child in March.
In a Zoom conversation translated from Spanish to English from her parents’ house in Honduras, Menjivar Aguilar told WCCO about the moment she was detained by federal agents at a September fingerprinting appointment for an approved work permit.
“‘Is this your baby?’ I said yes. And soon after they asked if I was breastfeeding. I said no,” said Menjivar Aguilar through a translator. “They arrested me in handcuffs behind my back.”
Kimberlyn Yaritza Menjivar Aguilar with her child
Kimberlyn Yaritza Menjivar Aguilar
Kelly Clark is Menjivar Aguilar’s immigration lawyer.
“She signed something that they told her was, ‘If you are removed you can take your baby with you,’ and she signed that document, but at the end she was removed without her baby,” Clark said.
Menjivar Aguilar explains her two-week journey to the U.S. when she was 17, crossing the Rio Grande with her younger brother, all to escape a gang who was trying to recruit them, and to be with their dad in the U.S. He’s since been deported, too.
The assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security released this statement: “On September 29, ICE arrested Kimberlyn Yaritza Menjivar Aguilar, an illegal alien from Honduras. She illegally entered the U.S. on April 13, 2021, near Eagle Pass, Texas, and was RELEASED into this country by the Biden administration. She received full due process and was ordered removed by an immigration judge on October 12, 2022. This administration is not going to ignore the rule of law.”
Kimberlyn Yaritza Menjivar Aguilar with her child.
Kimberlyn Yaritza Menjivar Aguilar
Her lawyer confirms she had the outstanding order of removal from 2022 after missing a court date, which Menjivar Aquilar says she didn’t know about as her father handled her documents and mail.
“After that removal order happened, she was given deferred action, which is literally a ‘we’re not going to deport you,’” Clark said. “It is discretionary. It can be revoked, but it wasn’t revoked”
“All I want is to be with my family, my baby and my partner,” Menjivar Aguilar said.
When Menjivar Aguilar was detained in September, she was approved for a special immigrant juvenile visa. Her attorney is now working with the family to see if they can get her and her baby back together.
A Brazilian woman who had been living in the United States for most of her life is being held in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Louisiana as she fights deportation.
Ferreira’s lawyer Todd Pomerleau said she was detained on Nov. 12 after leaving her home in Revere to pick up her 11-year-old son in New Hampshire. Pomerleau said ICE agents stopped her and detained her. She then was taken to Vermont before being moved to Louisiana.
The Department of Homeland Security said Ferreira overstayed a tourist visa and has a prior battery arrest — allegations Pomerleau disputes. He argues that Ferreira arrived in the U.S. as a child and later qualified for DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.
“She came here at 6 years old,” said Pomerleau. “Age of 6, and they’re calling her a criminal illegal alien.”
He insists the government’s claims about a visa violation are not correct.
“They’re saying she violated a visa,” he said. “You can’t violate a visa under the immigration laws until six months after your 18th birthday. By then, she already had DACA, which you can’t get if you’re a criminal illegal alien, cause [of] its disqualifying factors for people who have crimes.”
Ferreira shares custody of her son with Michael Leavitt, brother to Karoline Leavitt. A source confirmed the family connection, but said the two women have not spoken in years. The White House press secretary has not publicly commented on the case.
Pomerleau described the past relationship between Ferreira and Michael Leavitt as typical of many young couples.
“Like a modern family,” he said. “They’re two people that were young and in love at one point. They were engaged to be married, and it didn’t work out, like countless others.”
In a statement, DHS described Ferreira as “a criminal illegal alien from Brazil” and said she entered the U.S. on a B-2 tourist visa requiring her departure by June 6, 1999.
Her attorney disputes the agency’s claims and said he has seen no evidence she ever committed a crime.
“Under the immigration laws, she’s following the only processes that she has available to her, and I’ve seen no proof whatsoever that she has ever committed a crime,” Pomerleau said.
Pedro Latorre, a church deacon who lives across from Ferreira’s home, said the situation has been painful for many Hispanic families in the area.
“It’s very painful for the family,” he said, adding that fear has been widespread. “I’m concerned because we know each other, and the problem is that … people are afraid about this.”
Ferreira remains in custody as her attorney seeks bond. A judge could decide on her release by Thanksgiving.
After being deported from Minnesota last week, a young mother says she’s back in Honduras without her 8-month-old child.
Kimberlyn Yaritza Menjiver Aguilar, 22, lived in St. Cloud with her partner. They moved to South Dakota shortly before having a child in March.
In a Zoom conversation translated from Spanish to English from her parents’ house in Honduras, Menjivar Aguilar told WCCO about the moment she was detained by federal agents at a September fingerprinting appointment for an approved work permit.
“‘Is this your baby?’ I said yes. And soon after they asked if I was breastfeeding. I said no,” said Menjivar Aguilar through a translator. “They arrested me in handcuffs behind my back.”
Kimberlyn Yaritza Menjiver Aguilar with her child
Kimberlyn Yaritza Menjiver Aguilar
Kelly Clark is Menjivar Aguilar’s immigration lawyer.
“She signed something that they told her was, ‘If you are removed you can take your baby with you,’ and she signed that document, but at the end she was removed without her baby,” Clark said.
Menjivar Aguilar explains her two-week journey to the U.S. when she was 17, crossing the Rio Grande with her younger brother, all to escape a gang who was trying to recruit them, and to be with their dad in the U.S. He’s since been deported, too.
The assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security released this statement: “On September 29, ICE arrested Kimberlyn Yaritza Menjivar Aguilar, an illegal alien from Honduras. She illegally entered the U.S. on April 13, 2021, near Eagle Pass, Texas, and was RELEASED into this country by the Biden administration. She received full due process and was ordered removed by an immigration judge on October 12, 2022. This administration is not going to ignore the rule of law.”
Kimberlyn Yaritza Menjiver Aguilar with her child.
Kimberlyn Yaritza Menjiver Aguilar
Her lawyer confirms she had the outstanding order of removal from 2022 after missing a court date, which Menjivar Aquilar says she didn’t know about as her father handled her documents and mail.
“After that removal order happened, she was given deferred action, which is literally a ‘we’re not going to deport you,’” Clark said. “It is discretionary. It can be revoked, but it wasn’t revoked”
“All I want is to be with my family, my baby and my partner,” Menjivar Aguilar said.
When Menjivar Aguilar was detained in September, she was approved for a special immigrant juvenile visa. Her attorney is now working with the family to see if they can get her and her baby back together.
LOS ANGELES — The leader of a major labor union in Southern California who was arrested while protesting an immigration raid earlier this year has pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor charge and will face trial in January.
David Huerta is president of the Service Employees International Union California. He was arrested June 6 while joining a large crowd of demonstrators outside a business in Los Angeles where federal agents were investigating suspected immigration violations.
Huerta was initially charged with obstruction, resistance or opposition to a federal officer — a class A felony. However, federal prosecutors last month dismissed the original felony charge of conspiracy to impede an officer.
On Tuesday, he entered a not guilty plea to misdemeanor obstruction of justice. His trial is scheduled to begin Jan. 20, 2026, the Los Angeles Times reported.
During the June protest, Huerta sat down in front of a vehicular gate and encouraged others to walk in circles to try to prevent law enforcement from going in or out, a special agent for Homeland Security Investigations, which is part of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, wrote in an earlier federal court filing.
An officer told Huerta to leave, then put his hands on Huerta to move him out of the way of a vehicle, the agent wrote. Huerta pushed back, and the officer pushed Huerta to the ground and arrested him, according to the filing.
Huerta’s union represents hundreds of thousands of janitors, security officers and other workers across California. His arrest became a rallying cry for immigrant advocates across the country as they called for his release and an end to President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Abbe David Lowell and Marilyn Bednarski, Huerta’s attorneys, said in a statement that they will seek “the speediest trial” to vindicate him.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem concluded that Haiti no longer meets the ‘statutory requirements for TPS.’
Carlos Gonzalez
TNS
The Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday announced the end of temporary immigration protections for Haitians, adding them to a growing list of immigrant groups seeing their protected status revoked by the Trump administration.
The decision, which becomes effective on Feb. 3, 2026, could affect more than a half million Haitians living in the U.S. under what is known as Temporary Protected Status. The designation was granted to Haiti after a string of natural and political disasters, starting with a catastrophic earthquake in 2010 that left the country and economy in ruins.
Barring potential legal delays from lawsuits, Haitians now will face returning to an unstable country facing one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises as criminal gangs control all major roads in and out of the capital of Port-au-Prince, and aggressively spread their terror to other regions.
DHS in its Federal Register notice acknowledged that “certain conditions in Haiti remain concerning.” But despite that, and the escalating violence “that has ‘engulfed’ Port-au-Prince‘, Secretary Kristi Noem “has determined that there are no extraordinary and temporary conditions in Haiti that prevent Haitian nationals (or aliens having no nationality who last habitually resided in Haiti) from returning in safety,” the agency wrote.
“Moreover, even if the Department found that there existed conditions that were extraordinary and temporary that prevented Haitian nationals,” the agency added, “from returning in safety, termination of Temporary Protected Status of Haiti is still required because it is contrary to the national interest of the United States to permit Haitian nationals …to remain temporarily in the United States.”
As of 11:59 p.m. February 3, 2026, all Haitian nationals who have been granted TPS, will lose the status and must leave.
“After consulting with interagency partners, Secretary Noem concluded that Haiti no longer meets the statutory requirements for TPS,” the agency wrote in its announcement.
“This decision was based on a review conducted by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, input from relevant U.S. government agencies, and an analysis indicating that allowing Haitian nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is inconsistent with U.S. national interests.”
The numbers paint a terrible picture in Haiti. A record 5.7 million people — 51% of the total population — are currently experiencing acute levels of hunger, with children increasingly at risk for malnutrition, the World Food Program recently warned. Meanwhile, as many as 1 in 4 Haitians, 2.7 million people, are forced to live in gang-controlled neighborhoods, more than 1.4 million are internally displaced, according to the United Nations. Rape, kidnapping and gang-related killings, all over 4,000 this year, are daily realities of life.
DHS said that the data indicates parts of the country are suitable to return to. That isn’t entirely true.
Even in communities, where armed groups are not yet visibly a problem, the situation is critical. The northern port city of Cap-Haïtien, which until this month offered the only access for international flights amid an ongoing U.S. Federal Aviation Administration ban on U.S. carriers, is bursting at the seams. The southern regions are also struggling to recover from Hurricane Melissa.
The storm’s recent passage unleashed widespread disruption and compounded existing problems with food and transportation, even though the country dodged a direct hit. At least 43 deaths were reported, mostly in the south, which is today completely cut off from the north and capital by road due to the presence of gangs that on Sunday once more forced the suspension of flights after firing on a domestic airline as it landed at the Port-au-Prince airport.
“Many households rely on unsafe water sources and lack access to basic sanitation, increasing the risk of disease outbreaks,” the U.N. said about the situation in southern Haiti. “Health facilities are under-equipped, financially inaccessible for many, and unable to provide mental health support. As a result, preventable illnesses and malnutrition are on the rise, particularly among children and pregnant women. Vulnerable groups — including women, girls, and youth — face heightened protection risks, including exploitation and violence.”
Though DHS previously announced the end of Haiti’s designation as of Feb. 3, the law requires the secretary to review country conditions at least 60 days before the expiration of TPS to determine whether the country continues to meet the conditions for designation.
“Based on the Department’s review, the Secretary has determined that while the current situation in Haiti is concerning, the United States must prioritize its national interests and permitting Haitian nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is contrary to the U.S. national interest,” the notice said.
The administration’s decision isn’t surprising. Since taking office, President Donald Trump has moved to rollback immigration protections for Haitians and others, and ended TPS protections for millions of migrants from Venezuela, Nicaragua, Honduras, Syria, Nepal, Cameroon, Afghanistan, Burma, Somalia and Myanmar.
The agency’s order, issued a day before the Thanksgiving holiday, was blunt: “If you are an alien who is currently a beneficiary of TPS for Haiti, you should prepare to depart if you have no other lawful basis for remaining in the United States.”
But advocates for Haitians in the U.S. called the move poorly-timed and cruel.
“If Haiti doesn’t warrant TPS, which country does?” said Guerline Jozef, co-founder of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, a San Diego immigrant rights group. “For this news to come on the eve of Thanksgiving is devastating.”
Jozef pointed out that Washington has acknowledged both in recent communiqués and actions the crisis plaguing Haiti, which has been mired by repeated crises since its first designation. Among them: a deadly Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and a 7.2 earthquake in in 2021, five weeks after its president, Jovenel Moïse, was assassinated in the middle of the night.
In justifying its decision, DHS quoted U.N. Secretary General António Guterres’s comments in August that “there are emerging signals of hope.” But in that same meeting, he also warned that they were in “a perfect storm” of suffering as state authority crumbled across Haiti and lawlessness and gang brutality paralyze daily life.
In May, the Trump administration designated a powerful coalition of gangs, Viv Ansanm, and another group, Gran Grif, as Foreign Terrorists Organizations. In September, the U.S.’s new ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz, led an aggressive push at the U.N. Security Council for support for a new Gang Suppression Force to help in the fight against terrorist gangs. Despite DHS’ highlight of these decisions, little has improved in Haiti since the steps were taken. In fact, the situation has worsened.
The deployment of the first contingent of the 5,500-GSF is still uncertain even as the U.S. pushes for general elections, which last took place in 2016, and last week gangs escalated their attacks. The latter, led the State Department on Monday to revoke the visa of a member of the ruling presidential council, Fritz Alphonse Jean. Jean has vehemently denied the accusations, and in a scathing press conference on Tuesday accused the U.S. of threatening him and others because they want to fire the prime minister over “incompetence.”
A State Department spokesperson, responding to a Miami Herald inquiry about Jean’s claims, said “We will not comment on or speculate about private diplomatic discussions or unverified reports.”
In another recent example reflecting conditions in Haiti: Over the weekend, a group of members of Congress, mostly Republicans, visited the Dominican Republic after canceling plans to travel to Port-au-Prince amid safety and logistics concerns.
“It makes absolutely no sense for the U.S. to terminate TPS for Haiti at this critical time, where the admiration has acknowledged the ongoing political crisis in Haiti to the point of having a Level 4 ‘Do not travel’ warning to the country,” Jozef said. “They must protect the Haitian who have called the U.S. home for over a decade, those who are already here, who have families, who have businesses in their adoptive communities.”
It’s not the first time the administration has tried to revoke TPS for Haitians. Soon after taking office this year, Trump attempted to rollback an extension given under the Biden administration. The decision was overridden by a New York federal judge, who said Noem had no authority to shorten the designation. The decision was part of a lawsuit spearheaded by a group of lawyers that, included Miami immigration attorney Ira Kurzban.
The suit was amended earlier this year to prevent the administration from ending the designation. Kurzban, who also successfully sued DHS during the first Trump administration after it sought to revoke TPS for Haitians, said the administration’s rationale for ending TPS is based on “outright lies.”
“Haiti is in political and economic turmoil due in large measure to U.S. foreign policy, including by the current administration. The reasons offered to terminate TPS are frivolous and include mischaracterizations and outright lies,” he said.
“They are a product of Trump, [Vice President JD] Vance and Sec. Noem’s actions that demonstrate hatred of Haitians and racism toward Black refugees.”
This story was originally published November 26, 2025 at 11:30 AM.
Jacqueline Charles has reported on Haiti and the English-speaking Caribbean for the Miami Herald for over a decade. A Pulitzer Prize finalist for her coverage of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, she was awarded a 2018 Maria Moors Cabot Prize — the most prestigious award for coverage of the Americas.
The number of immigration detainees without criminal records who are held in federal detention centers after getting arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement has increased by over 2,000% since the start of the second Trump administration in January, according to official government data.
The statistics, published online by ICE as part of a transparency requirement mandated by Congress, illustrate the wide-ranging scope of President Trump’s mass deportation campaign.
On Nov. 16, the government figures show, ICE was holding 65,135 people in detention facilities throughout the U.S., the highest level ever publicly reported by the agency, which was created in 2003 following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. CBS News first reported the record detention levels earlier this month, citing internal data.
The official figures indicate that 30,986 – or 48% — of the ICE detainees in custody as of Nov. 16 lacked any criminal charges or convictions in the U.S. and were being held solely because of civil violations of U.S. immigration law. ICE calls them “immigration violators.”
Those with criminal convictions represented about 26%, or 17,171, of all ICE detainees on Nov. 16. The data show 16,978 individuals — another 26% of ICE’s detainee population — had criminal charges.
The statistics released by ICE do not specify the severity and nature of the charges or convictions for the detainees with criminal histories. They could range from violent or serious felonies, to misdemeanors and immigration-related crimes, such as illegal re-entry into the U.S.
Illegal presence in the U.S., including after overstaying a visa, is not a crime by itself and is generally handled as a civil matter in immigration court. While illegal entry into the U.S. is a federal misdemeanor crime for a first-time offense with a 5-year statute of limitations, those accused of doing so typically have their cases treated as civil immigration violations, absent additional criminal activity.
While all three categories of ICE detainees — immigration violators, those with criminal charges and those with criminal convictions — have grown under the second Trump administration, the statistics published by the agency indicate the non-criminal group has seen the most rapid and pronounced rise.
ICE’s detention population includes individuals arrested by that agency, typically in communities or jails inside of the U.S., as well as detainees transferred by Customs and Border Protection. Most detainees initially arrested by CBP, most commonly along the U.S.-Mexico border, historically have lacked criminal histories in the U.S. because many have not lived in the country for significant periods or at all.
As of Nov. 16, 52,510 of ICE’s detainees had been initially taken into custody by that agency, while 12,625 had been arrested by CBP.
When focusing solely on ICE detainees initially arrested by that agency — and not CBP — the figures show a 2,143% spike in non-criminal detainees from Jan. 26 (945) to Nov. 16 (21,194). The number of detainees initially arrested by ICE who have convictions or criminal charges increased by 73% and 226%, respectively, during that same time period, according to the ICE data.
The latest figures also indicate that for the first time, non-criminal detainees arrested by ICE outnumber those with criminal convictions. From Sept. 21 to Nov. 16, non-criminal detainees increased by about a third, while the number of detained with criminal convictions remained nearly flat.
The numbers underscore that while the Trump administration has said its deportation effort would mainly focus on criminals deemed to be “the worst of the worst,” a growing share of those swept up under its crackdown are immigrants accused of living in the U.S. illegally but who otherwise lack any criminal history.
At the same time, some senior Trump administration officials, including border czar Tom Homan and acting ICE director Todd Lyons, have said anyone encountered by immigration authorities and found to be in the U.S. illegally will be arrested, even if they’re not the intended target of an operation. Those so-called “collateral arrests” had been largely banned under Biden-era rules the Trump administration scrapped.
The government has the legal authority to arrest, detain and process for deportation anyone suspected of violating U.S. immigration law, irrespective of any criminal activity. But some of those individuals may be eligible for forms of legal relief, such as asylum, that can stall or halt their deportation.
In a statement, Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said the administration is “targeting the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens—including murderers, rapists, gang members, pedophiles, and terrorists.” She said 70% of those arrested by ICE had criminal charges or convictions, but did not specify a timeframe or offer a breakdown to support the percentage.
McLaughlin also said detainees listed as non-criminals could have warrants or criminal histories outside of the U.S., or otherwise pose a threat to national security. But DHS has not released data showing how many people fall into those categories.
Tucked in a two-sentence footnote in a voluminous court opinion, a federal judge recently called out immigration agents using artificial intelligence to write use-of-force reports, raising concerns that it could lead to inaccuracies and further erode public confidence in how police have handled the immigration crackdown in the Chicago area and ensuing protests.
U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis wrote the footnote in a 223-page opinion issued last week, noting that the practice of using ChatGPT to write use-of-force reports undermines the agents’ credibility and “may explain the inaccuracy of these reports.” She described what she saw in at least one body camera video, writing that an agent asks ChatGPT to compile a narrative for a report after giving the program a brief sentence of description and several images.
The judge noted factual discrepancies between the official narrative about those law enforcement responses and what body camera footage showed. But experts say the use of AI to write a report that depends on an officer’s specific perspective without using an officer’s actual experience is the worst possible use of the technology and raises serious concerns about accuracy and privacy.
Law enforcement agencies across the country have been grappling with how to create guardrails that allow officers to use the increasingly available AI technology while maintaining accuracy, privacy and professionalism. Experts said the example recounted in the opinion didn’t meet that challenge.
“What this guy did is the worst of all worlds. Giving it a single sentence and a few pictures — if that’s true, if that’s what happened here — that goes against every bit of advice we have out there. It’s a nightmare scenario,” said Ian Adams, assistant criminology professor at the University of South Carolina who serves on a task force on artificial intelligence through the Council for Criminal Justice, a nonpartisan think tank.
The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment, and it was unclear if the agency had guidelines or policies on the use of AI by agents. The body camera footage cited in the order has not yet been released.
Adams said few departments have put policies in place, but those that have often prohibit the use of predictive AI when writing reports justifying law enforcement decisions, especially use-of-force reports. Courts have established a standard referred to as objective reasonableness when considering whether a use of force was justified, relying heavily on the perspective of the specific officer in that specific scenario.
“We need the specific articulated events of that event and the specific thoughts of that specific officer to let us know if this was a justified use of force,” Adams said. “That is the worst case scenario, other than explicitly telling it to make up facts, because you’re begging it to make up facts in this high-stakes situation.”
Besides raising concerns about an AI-generated report inaccurately characterizing what happened, the use of AI also raises potential privacy concerns.
Katie Kinsey, chief of staff and tech policy counsel at the Policing Project at NYU School of Law, said if the agent in the order was using a public ChatGPT version, he probably didn’t understand he lost control of the images the moment he uploaded them, allowing them to be part of the public domain and potentially used by bad actors.
Kinsey said from a technology standpoint most departments are building the plane as it’s being flown when it comes to AI. She said it’s often a pattern in law enforcement to wait until new technologies are already being used and in some cases mistakes being made to then talk about putting guidelines or policies in place.
“You would rather do things the other way around, where you understand the risks and develop guardrails around the risks,” Kinsey said. “Even if they aren’t studying best practices, there’s some lower hanging fruit that could help. We can start from transparency.”
Kinsey said while federal law enforcement considers how the technology should be used or not used, it could adopt a policy like those put in place in Utah or California recently, where police reports or communications written using AI have to be labeled.
The photographs the officer used to generate a narrative also caused accuracy concerns for some experts.
Well-known tech companies like Axon have begun offering AI components with their body cameras to assist in writing incident reports. Those AI programs marketed to police operate on a closed system and largely limit themselves to using audio from body cameras to produce narratives because the companies have said programs that attempt to use visuals are not effective enough for use.
“There are many different ways to describe a color, or a facial expression or any visual component. You could ask any AI expert and they would tell you prompts return very different results between different AI applications, and that gets complicated with a visual component,” said Andrew Guthrie Ferguson, a law professor at George Washington University Law School.
“There’s also a professionalism questions. Are we OK with police officers using predictive analytics?” he added. “It’s about what the model thinks should have happened, but might not be what actually happened. You don’t want it to be what ends up in court, to justify your actions.”
DENVER (AP) — A federal judge ruled Tuesday that immigration officers in Colorado can only arrest people without a warrant if they think those people are likely to flee.
U.S. District Senior Judge R. Brooke Jackson issued the order in a legal challenge brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado and other lawyers.
They’re representing four people, including asylum-seekers, who were arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement without warrants this year as part of President Donald Trump’s increased immigration enforcement. The lawsuit accuses immigration officers of indiscriminately arresting Latinos to meet enforcement goals without evaluating what’s required to legally detain them.
Jackson said each of those who sued had longstanding ties to their communities and no reasonable officer could have concluded they were likely to flee before getting a warrant to arrest them.
Before arresting anyone without a warrant, immigration officers must have probable cause to believe both that someone is in the country illegally and that they are likely to flee before an arrest warrant can be obtained, under federal law, he said. Jackson also said immigration officers needed to document the reasons for why they are arresting someone.
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, called it an “activist ruling” and said the department follows the law.
“Allegations that DHS law enforcement engages in ‘racial profiling’ are disgusting, reckless, and categorically FALSE,” she said in a statement.
Another judge had also issued a restraining order barring federal agents from stopping people based solely on their race, language, job or location in the Los Angeles area after finding that they were conducting indiscriminate stops. The Supreme Court lifted that order in September.
McLaughlin suggested the government would appeal the Colorado ruling.
“The Supreme Court recently vindicated us on this question elsewhere, and we look forward to further vindication in this case as well,” she said.
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Los Angeles labor union leader David Jose Huerta pleaded not guilty to federal misdemeanor charges Tuesday when he made his first court appearance in connection with his arrest during an immigration enforcement operation protest in Los Angeles.
Huerta, 58, pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor charge of obstruction, resistance, or opposition of a federal officer. The misdemeanor carries a statutory maximum sentence of one year in federal prison.
Trial was scheduled for Jan. 20 in Los Angeles.
Huerta, president of the Service Employees International Union California, was arrested June 6 during a protest outside a business in Los Angeles where federal agents were investigating suspected immigration violations. Huerta called the case “baseless” and insisted he was exercising his First Amendment rights when agents detained him outside Ambiance Apparel, the site where dozens of undocumented workers were arrested.
“These charges are baseless,” Huerta said outside federal court Tuesday. “They are an attempt to silence anyone who dares to speak out, organize or demand justice.
“I will not be silenced. I look forward to presenting my case and being exonerated.”
Huerta and his attorneys did not take questions outside of court Tuesday.
Huerta’s union represents hundreds of thousands of janitors, security officers and other workers across California.
During the June protest, Huerta sat down in front of vehicle gate and encouraged others to walk in circles to try to prevent law enforcement from going in or out, a special agent for Homeland Security Investigations, which is part of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, wrote in an earlier federal court filing. An officer told Huerta to leave, then put his hands on Huerta to move him out of the way of a vehicle, the agent wrote. Huerta pushed back, and the officer pushed Huerta to the ground and arrested him, according to the filing.
Huerta later was released from federal custody on bond and the original felony obstruction charge was later reduced to a misdemeanor.
At Tuesday’s hearing, United States Magistrate Judge Alicia G. Rosenberg ordered Huerta be released on his personal recognizance. The judge restricted Huerta’s foreign travel and ordered him to seek court permission before traveling outside the United States and surrender his passport to his attorney, the Department of Justice said.
Huerta was allowed by the judge to fly to Mexico for the holidays in December. He is free to travel in the U.S. without court approval, the DOJ said.
He was ordered to stay at least 100 feet away from federal officers, the DOJ said.
The U.S. Department of Justice said Tuesday that it will have no further comment.
Huerta’s arrest came as federal immigration enforcement operations ramped up in Southern California as part of the President Trump‘s mass deportation campaign promise. Huerta was among the first people arrested in the Los Angeles protests in opposition to the federal operations.
