Amazing story from an immigration attorney defending a DV survivor. unfunnylawyer.substack.com/p/seeds-plan...

After ten years of litigation, the Circuit Court rebuffs the BIA and grants asylum. samsramblingss.substack.com/p/the-saga-o...

ICE is furious because the Hilton cancelled their reservation because of ICE’s immigration enforcement activities.

The first genuinely nuanced view of the Venezuela strikes that I've found: behindtheborder.substack.com/p/listening-...

A big win on "cancellation of removal", with commentary from Shanta Driver of the United for Equality and Affirmative Action Legal Defense Fund (UEAALDF). samsramblingss.substack.com/p/justice-de...

A client was released and will sleep in his own bed tonight. Everything Is Terrible etc but I am grateful for the great writ of Habeas Corpus and federal judges who apply the law and smart lawyers I can rely on and learn from. May the coming year be better than 2025. Have a peaceful one, y’all.

Snowy hike up Mt. Abe this morning.

Your kid invites an undocumented friend over for a sleepover. Are you guilty of "alien harboring"? Legal guidance for churches, nonprofits, individuals, and anybody else who interacts with or provides services to an immigrant community. samsramblingss.substack.com/p/harboring-...

Merry Christmas. The court concludes that his continued detention offends due process. Accordingly, the court grants the petition, and orders the respondents to provide him with a constitutionally adequate bond hearing in Immigration Court as soon as possible. scholar.google.com/scholar_case...

DetentionReports.com has been updated. Detention trends for a total of 233 facilities can be found on the website. Of those, the 216 facilities that ICE identified on the most recent list have data updated through December 11.

Warrant needed to enter defendant's room at transitional homeless center to arrest him, NY trial court rules. It's not a traditional home, but Payton still applies, so physical fruits of search suppressed. www.nycourts.gov/reporter/3ds...

Coming tomorrow -- "Harboring in Cahokia", an exploration of the harboring law, with guidance for churches and nonprofits which serve undocumented communities. Subscribe for free and get a post every week. samsramblingss.substack.com

I've been reporting on the criminal justice system for over a decade and have lived in an authoritarian country overseas, but I've never seen anything like the police presence in ICE-occupied Memphis. Here's my dispatch: www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Vera’s ICE Detention Trends dashboard offers additional insight into the vast immigration detention network. Without data transparency, ICE’s operations—and their harms—will continue behind closed doors. Explore the tool:

Great piece from the Times on the recent crackdown on Sikh long-haul truckers in the United States (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/12/21/b...

More on Sikh persecution in Punjab here: samsramblingss.substack.com/p/hell-be-fi...

Loving these habeas petitions. Wish they weren't necessary. The Court GRANTS the Petition. Respondents shall release Petitioner immediately, and shall not re-detain Petitioner without first providing a pre-deprivation hearing before a neutral decisionmaker. scholar.google.com/scholar_case...

Solstice sunrise from the top of Beacon Mountain.

Fight or Flight? The first decision in nearly every removal case is whether to do the case at all. #asylum #immigration www.asylumist.com/2025/12/17/f...

As someone on the ground, I cannot emphasize how horrific this is. 90% of the cases I witnessed yesterday were pretermissions. Parents with their children being told they needed to defend against being deported to a third country. Trans asylum-seekers threatened with deportation to Uganda.

In Nigeria, Ozurumba was kidnapped, held prisoner, and coerced into serving as a cook for a terrorist group. After escaping, he was hunted across the country until he fled to the United States. ... and had his claim denied for "providing material support" samsramblingss.substack.com/p/where-do-t...

“Lucy did not know where she was, nor did she understand the words being spoken around her… and yet, under the system we have built, she was the one required to answer." I witnessed the kids docket at immigration court. It’s cruel and inhumane beyond belief. www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Lots of immigration news feels bad. This is about one of the brightest areas in a dark moment: habeas is working well for many, if they can get access. Good series, good reporting. How a ‘Habeas Machine’ Reunited One Family That Was Pulled Apart by ICE  talkingpointsmemo.com/news/how-a-h...

This is probably an unpopular position at various points in the political spectrum, but I don’t think someone’s right to migrate and live in this country should be determined by a calculation of their economic contribution

NEW: ICE has hired the infamous for-profit prison company GEO Group to help its immigrant bounty hunter program. GEO Group now stands to make money both tracking down immigrants and imprisoning them. theintercept.com/2025/12/19/i...

BIA in Matter of L-T-A-, 29 I&N Dec. 362 (BIA 2025), held that having a legal right to enter, live, work, and own property indefinitely in a third country shows “some other type of permanent resettlement” and triggers the firm resettlement bar. www.justice.gov/eoir/media/1...

Harboring law: "Mr. Garcia burned his hand and wrist in a hot oil spill in the Tokyo Dragon kitchen, and Ms. Yan took him to the hospital. A nurse became suspicious and alerted authorities. The government began investigating Tokyo Dragon." samsramblingss.substack.com/p/they-play-...

Total victory on this issue; members of Congress will again have the right to conduct surprise inspections of ICE detention centers.

Third Circuit too -- Paul Matey is big on this line of "reasoning". samsramblingss.substack.com/p/un-persons

I was in a tribunal a week ago where DHS moved to pretermit every single asylum case on "safe third country grounds." Every. single. one. At one point, a judge scheduled a second master for a man to prove he would be in danger in Honduras. Confused, he said "No, Peru. I'm from Peru."

ICE Accidentally Publishes A 'Watch List' Of Immigration Lawyers, Which Is Definitely A Normal Thing For The Government To Do - Above the Law

Congratulations to @russcontreras.bsky.social for being featured on the White House Recommended Reading List. He was featured for his reporting on how the administration has gutted major pillars of America’s civil rights protections. www.whitehouse.gov/media-bias-r...

Congratulations to @kendilanian-nbc.bsky.social for being featured on the White House Recommended Reading List. He was featured for his reporting on Patel's use of FBI resources for a private security detail. Thanks to Trump for elevating this important story. www.whitehouse.gov/media-bias-r...

Congratulations to @carolleonnig.bsky.social for being featured on the White House Recommended Reading List. She was featured for her reporting on Patel's use of FBI resources for a private security detail. Thanks to Trump for elevating this important story. www.whitehouse.gov/media-bias-r...

Are you waiting to hear back from the U.S. government about an immigration application? USCIS is putting a significant number of applications on hold and even threatening to reopen some applications it's approved in the past few years. @daralind.bsky.social explains what you need to know.

No biometrics = no way to apply “If a person is incarcerated and only has a USCIS benefit pending (and not an EOIR application), USCIS will not send officers to the detention facility to collect biometrics, even if requested by family members or an attorney” migrantinsider.com/p/scoop-sile...

Great post from Emily K. Abel re. the public charge rule from a public health context. "The proposal is cruel but not surprising." andreasankar1.substack.com/p/another-ex...

Administration terminating the family reunification parole. Existing paroles will end in one month. "If an alien was paroled in the United States under the FRP programs and their parole has not yet expired on Jan. 14, 2026, it will terminate on that date." www.uscis.gov/newsroom/ale...

To give you a sense of how big a departure this year, the government doesn't do this for wanted criminals.

I should note here that Immigration Judges are actually executive branch employees, and Trump has been actively getting rid of the ones he fears are interested in, y'know, judging, as opposed to facilitating shit like this ballsandstrikes.org/law-politics...

Supreme Court considering whether past conduct constitutes persecution is reviewed de novo or for substantial evidence. Hugely important for review of asylum decisions. www.scotusblog.com/2025/12/cour...

“Rules change when ICE is around.”

Sometimes asylum law is absurd. Claim rejected because: "petitioner's only evidence was that six male members of his family had been killed or had disappeared." Is that all? Maybe if a seventh relative had been killed, he would have had a case? scholar.google.com/scholar_case...

UPDATE: Early this morning, our client Allan Marrero, a queer immigrant New Yorker detained in a New Jersey ICE detention center was moved to an unknown location. Urge your elected official to contact the Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR) to demand Allan’s release! #FreeAllan

The Court chose to describe his three-day treatment in the hospital as including a “hot compress.” That’s like saying that a sore foot was treated with Tylenol and an amputation. samsramblingss.substack.com/p/hell-be-fi...

This year, the Trump admin has taken an axe to USCIS, the agency where people go to seek things like green cards, as they look to reduce legal migration. It's rocking the agency from the inside, crushing morale and prompting resignations. My latest: www.npr.org/2025/12/10/n...

Loved this from Migrant Insider: Davis locked the door. “You want some chicken?” he said through the glass. “You ain’t getting it here, bro.” And just like that, a store manager did what a lot of lawyers can’t do in a courtroom — he stopped the government cold. migrantinsider.com/p/am-dispatc...

Well, fuck. "The denial of rights to deportees is therefore not inconsistent, unprincipled or unconstitutional." At least he's only worried about people in "Asiatic" attire. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

Congratulations to @ellenwapo.bsky.social for making it onto the White House Recommended Reading List. She was featured, along with her colleague Alex Horton, for her reporting on Hegseth's "kill everybody" command. Thanks to Trump for elevating this story! www.whitehouse.gov/media-bias-r...

Mapping 1,200 ICE Partnerships: A visual report on the 287(g) Agreement Program Amazing analysis with a data dashboard for deep dive. Remarkable project. maxwellcommons.substack.com/p/everything...