Migration

US judge says that rapid deportation of migrants to countries other than their own violates due process.

A United States federal judge has ruled that the administration of President Donald Trump had violated the law through the swift deportation of migrants to countries other than their own, without giving them an opportunity to appeal their removal.

US District Judge Brian Murphy declared the policy invalid on Wednesday, teeing up a possible appeal from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to the Supreme Court.

“It is not fine, nor is it legal,” Murphy wrote in his decision, adding that migrants could not be sent to an “unfamiliar and potentially dangerous country” without any legal recourse.

He added that due process – the right to receive fair legal proceedings – is an essential component of the US Constitution.

“These are our laws, and it is with profound gratitude for the unbelievable luck of being born in the United States of America that this Court affirms these and our nation’s bedrock principle: that no ‘person’ in this country may be ‘deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law’,” Murphy said.

The ruling is the latest legal setback in the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign.

Trump has long pledged to remove immigrants from the country who violate the law or are in the country without legal paperwork. But critics argue that his immigration crackdown has been marked by widespread neglect of due process rights.

They also point out that some of the deportees have been in the country legally, with their cases being processed through legal immigration pathways like asylum.

Murphy said in his ruling that the swift nature of the deportation obscures the details of each case, preventing courts from weighing whether each deportation is legal.

“The simple reality is that nobody knows the merits of any individual class member’s claim because [administration officials] are withholding the predicate fact: the country of removal,” wrote Murphy.

In the decision, Murphy also addressed some of the Trump administration’s arguments in favour of swift deportation.

He highlighted one argument, for instance, where the administration asserted it would be “fine” to deport migrants to third-party countries, so long as the Department of Homeland Security was not aware of anyone waiting to kill them upon arrival.

“It is not fine, nor is it legal,” Murphy responded in his decision.

Murphy has previously ruled against efforts to swiftly deport migrants to countries where they have no ties, and over the past year, he has seen some decisions overturned by the Supreme Court.

Noting that trend, Murphy said Wednesday’s decision would not take effect for 15 days, in order to give the administration the opportunity to appeal.

Last year, for instance, the conservative-majority Supreme Court lifted an injunction Murphy issued in April that sought to protect the due process rights of migrants being deported to third-party countries.

The injunction had come as part of a case where the Trump administration attempted to send eight men to South Sudan, despite concerns about human rights conditions there.

Wednesday’s decision, meanwhile, stemmed from a class-action lawsuit brought by immigrants similarly facing deportation to countries they had no relation to.

A lawyer for the plaintiffs, Trina Realmuto from the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, hailed Murphy’s latest ruling.

“Under the government’s policy, people have been forcibly returned to countries where US immigration judges have found they will be persecuted or tortured,” Realmuto said in a statement.

Realmuto added that the ruling was a “forceful statement” about the policy’s constitutionality.

Hundreds of far-right anti-Islam marched through Manchester on Saturday, demanding mass deportations of migrants and Muslims from the UK. Al Jazeera’s Nils Adler spoke to protesters and counter-protesters at the rally.

Bodies of five asylum seekers wash ashore in Libya as three others die in a separate incident off the coast of Greece.

Police in Libya have recovered the bodies of five asylum seekers that washed ashore near the capital, Tripoli, as authorities in Greece announced the deaths of three others in a separate incident off the coast of Crete.

The bodies in Libya were found on Saturday by residents of the coastal town of Qasr al-Akhyar, according to a police officer.

Hassan Al-Ghawil, head of investigations ⁠at the Qasr Al-Akhyar police station, told the Reuters news agency that the bodies were all of dark-skinned people. Two of them were women.

He said people in the area had reported seeing a child’s body wash ashore before the waves returned it to sea.

“We reported to the Red Crescent to ⁠recover the bodies,” said Ghawil. “The bodies we found are still intact, and we think there are more bodies ⁠to wash ashore.”

The tragedy came weeks after the International Organization for Migration said some fifty-three migrants, including ⁠two babies, were dead or missing after a rubber boat carrying 55 people capsized off the coast of Zuwara town in western Tripoli.

It also came as Greek authorities were responding to a separate incident in the eastern Mediterranean.

The Athens News Agency reported on Saturday that authorities had recovered three bodies and rescued at least 20 people after a wooden boat carrying migrants and asylum seekers capsized off the coast of Crete.

Most of the survivors were Egyptians and Sudanese people, the agency reported. They also included four minors.

According to the Greek public broadcaster ERT, the wooden boat capsized when passengers were trying to climb up the ladders during a rescue effort involving a commercial ship.

The search for survivors was continuing with four patrol boats, an aircraft, and two ships from the European border agency Frontex, a spokesperson for the Greek coastguard told the AFP news agency.

According to ERT, survivors said about 50 people had been on board the wooden boat.

A second boat carrying about 40 migrants and asylum seekers was spotted in the area, leading to another rescue operation.

Thousands of people attempt the perilous crossing from Libya to Europe over the Mediterranean every year. Libya has become a transit route for people fleeing conflict and poverty to Europe since the fall in 2011 of longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi.

Last week, a ‌UN report said migrants in Libya, including young girls, are at risk of being killed, tortured, raped or put into domestic slavery, and called for ‌a ‌moratorium on the return of migrant boats to the country until human rights are ensured.

Many of the migrants and asylum seekers departing Libya seek to arrive in Crete, the gateway to the EU.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), more than 16,770 people seeking asylum in Europe arrived in Crete in 2025.

Faced with the surge in arrivals, the conservative Greek government suspended the processing of asylum applications for three months last summer, particularly for those arriving from Libya.

The UNHCR says 107 people died or went missing in Greek waters in 2025.

Judge states Trump administration has made ‘one empty threat after another’ to deport Salvadoran national to Africa.

A United States federal judge has ruled that the administration of US President Donald Trump cannot re-detain Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national who was wrongfully deported last year and who the federal government has sought to deport again.

US District Judge Paula Xinis stated on Tuesday that a 90-day detention period had passed without the administration presenting a workable plan to deport Abrego Garcia, whose lawyers say he is being punished because his wrongful detention embarrassed the government.

Xinis said that the government “made one empty threat after another to remove him to countries in Africa with no real chance of success”.

“From this, the court easily concludes that there is no ‘good reason to believe’ removal is likely in the reasonably foreseeable future,” he added.

The ruling is a victory for Abrego Garcia, who has been fighting his attempted deportation by US immigration authorities who have tried to send him to African nations such as Uganda, Eswatini, Ghana, and Liberia. Abrego Garcia was released from an immigration detention facility in December.

His wrongful deportation to El Salvador, where he was held in a prison known for poor conditions and widespread abuse, became an early flashpoint in the Trump administration’s push to deport non-citizens from the US, often with few efforts to abide by due process requirements. The Trump administration had also accused Abrego Garcia of being a member of the criminal group MS-13, without offering any evidence.

His mistaken deportation prompted widespread anger and calls for the Trump administration to bring him back to the US. After initially stating that it had no authority to do so, the Trump administration brought Abrego Garcia back to the US in June following a court order mandating his return. It has since charged him with human smuggling, an allegation that he denies.

Democrats have called for a ban on immigration agents wearing masks and are pushing for increased oversight of their operations.

The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ran out of funding over the weekend, leading to the third partial government shutdown of President Donald Trump’s second term, as negotiations between Republicans and Democrats remain stalled while Congress is in recess until February 23.

Democrats are calling for changes to the DHS’s immigration operations after two fatal shootings of US citizens in the city of Minneapolis last month. Alex Pretti and Renee Good were shot dead by federal officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol during such operations.

On Monday, state officials in Minnesota said that the FBI has refused to share evidence with state law enforcement following Pretti’s killing on January 24.

“This lack of cooperation is concerning and unprecedented,” Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension superintendent, Drew Evans, said in a statement.

DHS entered a shutdown on Saturday, but will continue operations deemed essential. Cuts affect agencies under the DHS, including the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Customs and Border Protection (CBP) – which runs Border Patrol – ICE, and the US coastguard.

At US airports, 2,933 of the TSA’s 64,130 employees have been furloughed for the duration of the shutdown. The remaining 95 percent of staff will remain on duty but will work without pay until the DHS is funded.

Earlier this month, Democrats sent Republicans a list of 10 demands to rein in immigration enforcement. In a letter, authored by House of Representatives Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the politicians called for increased oversight of the DHS.

The letter called for DHS officers not to enter private property without a judicial warrant and to require verification that someone is not a US citizen before placing them in immigration detention. It also called for DHS to mandate that its officers do not wear masks, have visible identification, and wear clear uniforms.

Democrats are also seeking to prohibit immigration enforcement actions near courts, medical facilities, houses of worship, schools, and polling places.

They further called for increased coordination with local and state agencies after the federal government blocked state and local law enforcement from participating in investigations related to the deaths in Minneapolis.

“Federal immigration agents cannot continue to cause chaos in our cities while using taxpayer money that should be used to make life more affordable for working families,” Jeffries said in the letter.

“The American people rightfully expect their elected representatives to take action to rein in ICE and ensure no more lives are lost. It is critical that we come together to impose common sense reforms and accountability measures that the American people are demanding.”

Tom Homan, Trump’s border chief, dismissed the calls from Democrats on CBS’s Face the Nation, referring to the requests as “unreasonable”.

Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, meanwhile, echoed Homan’s stance. On CNN’s current affairs programme, State of the Union, he claimed that Democrats are engaging in “political theatre”.

The Republican Party currently controls the White House and both houses of Congress in the United States. But will that change in November?

Among Republican voters, US President Donald Trump is still wildly popular, despite criticism over uneven economic conditions and brutal anti-immigration tactics. And within the Democratic Party establishment, there is no sign of a desire to shift towards a more progressive, less centrist platform – even as left-leaning Democratic Socialists make gains.

Host Steve Clemons asks Republican strategist John Feehery and Amy Dacey, former chair of the Democratic National Committee, about Trumpism and the election prospects of both parties.

United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio has addressed European leaders at the Munich Security Conference (MSC) in an address seen as more conciliatory than in previous years.

Rubio on Saturday said Washington and Europe “belong together”, adding: “We want Europe to be strong. We believe that Europe must survive.”

He also said the US under Trump wants to lead global “renewal and restoration … and that while we are prepared, if necessary, to do this alone, it is our preference and it is our hope to do this together with you, our friends here in Europe”.

Rubio’s speech on Saturday was seen as more conciliatory than remarks made by US Vice President JD Vance last year, who used his appearance at the event to attack European policies on immigration and free speech, shocking European allies.

Despite the softer tone, Rubio still criticised Europe on migration. He warned of “civilisational erasure” caused by mass migration and said it is “destabilising” the West – a line that has been frequently repeated by US officials, including the president.

Other divisions remain between the once-ironclad allies. European leaders remain bruised by Trump’s desire to take control of Greenland, an autonomous territory of NATO-member Denmark.

European leaders have used the MSC as an opportunity to pledge to shoulder more of the burden of shared NATO defences. Leaders said this is essential for Europe to counter a hostile Russia, with NATO chief Mark Rutte saying “a strong Europe in a strong NATO means that the transatlantic bond will be stronger than ever.”

“This is the right time for a strong Europe,” said French President Emmanuel Macron, who stressed on Friday that the continent was “clear in the support of Ukraine” and “building its own architecture of security”.

“This Europe will be a good ally and partner for the United States of America,” the French leader said.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told the conference that Europe “must be ready to fight, to do whatever it takes to protect our people, our values and our way of life,” and added that the continent should focus on decreasing “some dependencies” and focus on creating a “more European NATO”.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz acknowledged a “rift” had opened up between Europe and the US, prompted by culture wars, but issued an appeal to Washington: “Let’s repair and revive transatlantic trust together.

“In the era of great power rivalry, even the United States will not be powerful enough to go it alone,” said the conservative leader, who has ramped up defence spending in the top European Union economy.

Russia’s full-scale war on Ukraine is set to enter its fifth gruelling year.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has been in Munich since Friday and meeting multiple allies, was expected to address the meeting on Saturday.

No Russian officials have been invited, but Foreign Minister Wang Yi of China has been invited and will deliver a key speech.

A US official said Rubio will meet with Zelenskyy at the conference. US officials have worked for months to try to broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, with little success.

At the White House on Friday, Trump urged Zelenskyy to “get moving” to end the war. “Russia wants to make a deal… He has to move,” the US leader said.

Speaking at the MSC, however, Rubio said he did not know if Russia was serious about ending its war against Ukraine.

A German government source said Merz and Rubio met at the conference on Friday and discussed “Ukraine, the status of negotiations with Russia and further support for the country, particularly in terms of military aid”.

They also discussed Europe’s role in NATO, and “Rubio praised Germany’s steps to strengthen the alliance,” the source added.

Macron said a new framework was needed to deal with “an aggressive Russia” once the fighting in Ukraine ends.

At the conference, the US secretary of state also touched on issues outside Europe.

On China, he said the US owes it to the world to manage its relations with China, even when the national interests of the two superpowers do not align. Speaking about Iran, he said President Trump’s preference is to reach a deal with Tehran, but said that’s “very hard to do”.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has determined it is safe for Yemenis to return to their country, despite ongoing conflict.

The United States government has ended the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation for Yemen, ordering the more than 1,000 Yemeni refugees and asylum seekers living in the country to leave within 60 days or face arrest and deportation.

The action on Friday came as part of US President Donald Trump’s broad immigration crackdown, which is impacting those who fled perilous lives in war-torn countries.

It will terminate TPS for roughly 1,400 Yemeni nationals who have had access to the legal status since September 2015 because of armed conflict in their country, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem announced on Friday.

“After reviewing conditions in the country and consulting with appropriate US government agencies, I determined that Yemen no longer meets the law’s requirements to be designated for Temporary Protected Status,” Noem said in a statement.

“Allowing TPS Yemen beneficiaries to remain temporarily in the United States is contrary to our national interest,” she said, describing the revocation as an act of “putting America first.”

Contrary to Noem’s determination, Yemen continues to be riven by years-long conflict in one of the world’s poorest nations.

The State Department currently advises against travel to Yemen, citing “terrorism, unrest, crime, health risks, kidnapping, and landmines”.

TPS allows narrow groups of people in the US to live and work in the country if they’re deemed to be in danger if they return to their home nations, because of war, natural disaster or other extraordinary circumstances.

While the protections are technically temporary, historically, presidents have continued to renew TPS statuses for refugees and asylum seekers rather than revoking them and rendering them undocumented.

The TPS for Yemen was last extended in 2024 and was set to expire on March 3 of this year.

Yemeni beneficiaries with no other lawful basis for remaining in the US have 60 days to voluntarily depart the country or face arrest, the statement said, offering a complimentary plane ticket and a $2,600 “exit bonus” for those who “self-deport”.

Since coming to office last year, Trump has ended the status for Venezuelans, Hondurans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, Somalis, Ukrainians and thousands of others.

The Trump administration has also expanded its travel restrictions since returning to power, imposing a total ban on citizens of 19 countries from entering the US, primarily targeting Muslim-majority and African nations, including Yemen, Somalia and South Sudan.

Citizens from a further 29 countries, including Nigeria and Senegal, are subject to partial bans.

A United States court has ordered the administration of President Donald Trump to facilitate the return of a Babson College student, Any Lucia Lopez Belloza, who was wrongfully deported last year.

In his ruling on Tuesday, US District Judge Richard Stearns gave the government two weeks to take steps to bring Lopez Belloza back.

He framed the order as an opportunity to correct a “mistake” – but he did not rule out holding the government in contempt if it failed to take the necessary actions.

“Wisdom counsels that redemption may be found by acknowledging and fixing our own errors,” Stearns wrote.

“In this unfortunate case, the government commendably admits that it did wrong. Now it is time for the government to make amends.”

A surprise trip turned deportation

Lopez Belloza, 19, was arrested on November 20 by immigration agents at Boston’s Logan airport.

The college freshman had been preparing to board a flight home to her family in Texas to surprise them for the Thanksgiving holiday.

She has since told The Associated Press news agency that she was denied access to a lawyer after her initial detention at the airport. The immigration agent told her she would need to sign a deportation document first, according to Lopez Belloza, who said she denied the offer.

For the next two nights, she said she was kept by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in a holding room with 17 other women, without enough room to lie down.

Then, she was loaded onto a deportation flight, which took her to Texas, then to her native Honduras, on November 22.

“I was numb the whole plane ride,” Lopez Belloza told the AP. “I just kept questioning myself. Why is it happening to me?”

Her lawyers, however, had obtained during that time a court order barring her removal from Massachusetts for 72 hours. Lopez Belloza’s deportation violated that court order.

She has remained in Honduras for the last two and a half months, while legal challenges over her case proceeded.

A legal battle

In court, the Trump administration has apologised for the error in Lopez Belloza’s case, acknowledging that a mistake was indeed made.

“On behalf of the government, we want to sincerely apologise,” prosecutor Mark Sauter told the court.

But Sauter rejected accusations that the government wilfully defied the 72-hour court order, saying that Lopez Belloza’s deportation was the mistake of one ICE agent and not an act of judicial defiance.

The government has also argued that Lopez Belloza was subject to a removal order before her November 20 arrest and therefore should not be returned to the US.

Lopez Belloza was brought to the US from Honduras when she was eight years old, and in 2016, she and her mother were ordered to be deported.

But the college freshman said she had no knowledge of any deportation order and has told the media that her previous legal representation had assured her there was no removal order against her.

Nevertheless, the Trump administration has rejected efforts to bring Lopez Belloza back to the country, even on a student visa.

In a February 6 court filing, US Attorney Leah B Foley wrote that a student visa “is unfeasible as the Secretary of State lacks authority to adjudicate visa applications and issue visas”.

“In any event,” Foley added, “Petitioner appears ineligible for a student visa.” She explained that Lopez Belloza “would remain subject to detention and removal if returned to the United States”.

The filing ended with a warning to the court to “refrain from ordering Respondents to return Petitioner to the status quo because this Court lacks authority”.

The Trump administration has questioned the authority of federal courts to intervene in immigration-related matters.

A series of mistakes

Critics, meanwhile, have accused the Trump administration of repeatedly failing to heed court orders it disagrees with.

Lopez Belloza’s case is not the first instance of an immigrant being wrongfully deported since the start of Trump’s second term.

Trump had campaigned on a pledge of mass deportation, and he has followed through with that promise, leading a series of controversial immigration crackdowns that have been accused of violating due process rights.

One of the most high-profile cases came in March 2025, when his administration wrongfully deported a Salvadoran father named Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who lived in Maryland with his wife, a US citizen.

Abrego Garcia had been subject to a 2019 court order barring his removal from the US on the basis that he could face gang violence in El Salvador.

But he was nevertheless sent back to the country and was briefly held in El Salvador’s Center for Terrorism Confinement (CECOT), a maximum-security prison.

On April 10, the US Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration must “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return, largely upholding a lower court’s decision.

But the Trump administration initially argued Abrego Garcia was outside of its power. Then, on June 6, it abruptly announced Abrego Garcia had been returned, only to file criminal charges against him and seek his deportation a second time.

Another case involved a Guatemalan man, identified only by his initials OCG.

He had been under a court protection order that barred him from being returned to Guatemala, for fear that his identity as a gay man would subject him to persecution.

But the Trump administration detained and deported him instead to Mexico, which in turn sent him back to Guatemala. He subsequently went into hiding for his safety.

In June, OCG was returned to the US after a court ordered the Trump administration to facilitate his return. It also noted that OCG’s deportation “lacked any semblance of due process”.

Lopez Belloza continues her studies at Babson College remotely from Honduras as she awaits the outcome of her legal proceedings.

US border chief announces the conclusion of a federal operation with 700 immigration agents set to leave Minnesota.

Tom Homan, the US border security chief, says that the immigration crackdown in Minnesota that led to mass detentions, protests and two deaths is coming to an end.

“As a result of our efforts here, Minnesota is now less of a sanctuary state for criminals,” Homan said at a news conference on Thursday.

“I have proposed, and President Trump has concurred, that this surge operation conclude,” he continued.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) launched Operation Metro Surge on December 1. Homan added that ICE operations would continue as they did before the operation began.

“Through targeted enforcement operations based on reasonable suspicion, and prioritising safety and security, ICE will continue to identify, arrest, and remove illegal aliens who pose a risk to public safety, as we’ve done for years,” he said.

Federal authorities say the sweeps focused on the Minneapolis-St Paul metro area have led to the arrest of more than 4,000 people. While the Trump administration has called those arrested “dangerous criminal illegal aliens,” many people with no criminal records, including children and US citizens, have also been detained.

Democratic Governor Tim Walz said Tuesday that he expected Operation Metro Surge to end in “days, not weeks and months,” based on his conversations with senior Trump administration officials. He told reporters he spoke this week with both Homan and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey also said he had a “positive meeting” with Homan on Monday and discussed the potential for a further drawdown of federal officers.

Homan took over the Minnesota operation in late January after the second fatal shooting by federal immigration agents and amid growing political backlash and questions about how the operation was being run.

“We’re very much in a trust but verify mode,” Walz said, adding that he expected to hear more from the administration “in the next day or so” about the future of what he said has been an “occupation” and a “retribution campaign” against the state.

Officials with the Department of Homeland Security did not reply to a request for comment on the governor’s remarks.

Walz said he had no reason not to believe Homan’s statement last week that 700 federal officers would leave Minnesota immediately, but the governor added that that still left 2,300 on Minnesota’s streets.

Homan at the time cited an “increase in unprecedented collaboration” resulting in the need for fewer federal officers in Minnesota, including help from jails that hold deportable inmates.

Measures would let authorities impose a 30-day blockade on sea arrivals if there is a ‘serious threat to public order”.

Italy’s government has signed off on a new bill to curb undocumented immigration, including using the navy to block incoming migrant ships in “exceptional” cases.

The cabinet of Italy’s conservative Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni greenlighted the migration bill on Wednesday. It also calls for stricter border surveillance and expands the list of convictions for which a foreigner can be expelled.

Before going into effect, the bill must be approved by both chambers of parliament.

One of the most controversial elements allows authorities to impose a 30-day naval blockade on sea arrivals if there is a “serious threat to public order or national security”.

Such a threat could include “exceptional migratory pressure that could compromise the secure management of borders”, says the bill. It also cites the “concrete risk” of terrorist acts or infiltration in Italy, global health emergencies and high-level international events.

Those violating the rules would face fines of up to 50,000 euros ($59,400) and would see their boats confiscated in the case of repeated violations, a measure that seems to target humanitarian rescue ships.

If approved by parliament, the bill could help revive Italy’s beleaguered “return hub” migrants centre in Albania, which has failed to take off due to a series of legal challenges and has been roundly condemned by rights groups.

Migrant boat arrivals to Italy down

The draft legislation comes a day after the European Parliament adopted two flagship texts tightening European Union migration policy, which Italy had pushed for. That EU legislation allows member states to deny asylum and deport migrants to designated “safe” countries outside the bloc, provided there is an agreement with the receiving country.

Meron Ameha Knikman, senior adviser for the International Rescue Committee, said those measures are “likely to force people to countries they may never have set foot in – places where they have no community, do not speak the language, and face a very real risk of abuse and exploitation.”

Meloni, the head of the far-right Brothers of Italy party, was elected in 2022 on a promise to stop the tens of thousands of migrants who land in small boats on Italy’s shores each year.

Her government has signed accords with North African countries to limit departures, while also restricting the activities of the charities that operate rescue boats in the Central Mediterranean.

The number of migrants arriving in Italy by sea this year has fallen to 2,000 compared with 4,400 during the same period last year, according to government figures.

Still, large numbers of migrants continue to die crossing the Central Mediterranean, with nearly 490 people reported missing this year, according to the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Leqaa Kordia’s family say they were left in the dark when the 33-year-old was rushed from an immigration detention centre in Texas to a nearby hospital late last week.

For more than 12 hours, Kordia’s family and legal representation said they were given no information about her whereabouts and condition. Her cousin, Hamzah Abushaban, said the family was “stonewalled, like hardcore”, as they searched for answers.

“Full transparency: Many people in her family thought she might have died, especially with the secrecy of her condition,” Abushaban told Al Jazeera. “Sometimes, silence speaks for itself.”

Her family and legal team confirmed on Tuesday that she has been released from the hospital. Kordia had suffered a seizure, but her family has only had fleeting contact with her since the medical emergency.

The ordeal is the latest turn in Kordia’s nearly yearlong detention, which began when she was among several protesters targeted by immigration officials for taking part in pro-Palestine demonstrations at Columbia University in 2024.

Kordia remains the only person targeted in connection with the demonstration who is still in immigration detention.

Personal losses helped inspire her protest: Nearly 200 members of her family have been killed in Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.

Her recent medical emergency underscores the dangers she faces from her continued detention, not to mention the urgent need for her release, according to Abushaban.

“She’s a fighter, but she’s not fooling anyone,” he said. “She’s still very sick”

‘Arbitrarily detained’

On Monday, Amnesty International joined calls for Kordia’s release, echoing her family’s assertion that she is being unfairly targeted for her pro-Palestine advocacy.

“She has been arbitrarily detained for over ten months for exercising her rights to free speech and protest,” Justin Mazzola, the deputy director of research at Amnesty International USA, said in a statement.

“The Trump administration must stop playing cruel political games with Leqaa’s life. Leqaa Kordia must be immediately released, and there must be accountability for the flagrant violation of her human rights.”

Kordia’s lawyers have also alleged unjust treatment, noting that federal judges had twice ruled she was eligible to be released on bond.

Each time, her release has been blocked after immigration officials filed “discretionary stay” requests to keep her in custody while the government appealed.

Since March 2025, the administration of President Donald Trump has targeted a range of student activists for deportation. They include Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi, both of Columbia University, and Rumeysa Ozturk, who attended Tufts University in Massachusetts.

But those pro-Palestinian student activists have all successfully petitioned for their release as their cases continue in immigration court, though courts have signalled that they could be taken back into custody.

Kordia, however, has not had that same success.

Kordia came to the US in 2016 from the town of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. Initially, she arrived using a visitor’s visa, later transitioning to a student visa.

Eventually, she applied for permanent residency through her mother, a US citizen residing in New Jersey.

But her legal team has said she was wrongly advised by a trusted mentor that the initial approval of her application meant she had legal status. She subsequently allowed her student visa to lapse.

Immigration officials have, in turn, maintained that Kordia was detained for overstaying her student visa, not for her pro-Palestine advocacy.

However, in an initial news release announcing Kordia’s arrest in March 2025, the Department of Homeland Security suggested that she and a second protester – who allegedly “self-deported” – were targeted for their advocacy.

“It is a privilege to be granted a visa to live and study in the United States of America,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in the release.

“When you advocate for violence and terrorism, that privilege should be revoked, and you should not be in this country.”

‘Intentionally dehumanising’

In his statement on Monday, Mazzola accused immigration officials of showing “blatant disregard” for Kordia’s human rights in detention, pointing to the deterioration of her health.

Kordia has been held at the Prairieland Detention Facility, some 2,400km (1,500 miles) away from her family in New Jersey.

Laila El-Haddad, an author and advocate, said she visited Kordia in December, finding her “very thin, very gaunt” as she complained about unsanitary conditions and a lack of nutritious food at the crowded facility.

“She talked about this being a place that is intentionally dehumanising; that aims to strip her and others of their dignity and their humanity,” she told Al Jazeera.

Kordia’s lawyers and family, meanwhile, said she regularly suffers dizzy spells, fainting and other signs of subpar nutrition.

Still, El-Haddad found that Kordia remained upbeat, and she described the 33-year-old as a pillar of support for other detainees.

“She’s very humble. She kept talking about how ‘I’m not a leader or an activist,’” El-Haddad remembered.

El-Hadded added that Kordia’s case has not gotten as much attention as those of other student protesters, but her story is just as powerful.

“She wasn’t a public-facing activist or speaker in the way some of the other [targeted protesters] were,” El-Hadded explained.

“But she found herself in a position and felt compelled [to protest] because of her own humanity and because she was a person with a deep moral compass and consciousness to act and to speak out.”

Abushaban said he has felt Kordia’s absence acutely at family events. It has been a year of missed birthdays, holidays and other gatherings.

He called for US officials, regardless of political affiliation, to have empathy for her plight.

“I was born and raised here, and the rest of my family were all born and raised here,” he said. “And just because we are Palestinians, we still have to feel suppressed in this country.”

Lawyers for the Ecuadorian asylum seeker have speculated the Trump administration is seeking ‘retaliatory’ actions.

The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has revealed it will continue to seek the deportation of five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father Adrian Conejo Arias, after their recent return to Minnesota.

The department, however, denied it is seeking their expedited removal, as the family’s lawyer claimed.

“These are regular removal proceedings,” DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said on Friday. “This is standard procedure, and there is nothing retaliatory about enforcing the nation’s immigration laws.”

Conejo Ramos’s case has drawn nationwide attention since his initial detention on January 20.

Photos went viral of Conejo Ramos standing in the snow, dressed in floppy blue bunny ears, with an immigration agent grabbing onto his Spiderman backpack.

Officials in Minnesota’s Columbia Heights Public School District accused immigration officials of using the preschool student as “bait” for his father. DHS, meanwhile, has claimed that his father abandoned the child when approached by immigration authorities.

Each side has denied the other’s account of the January 20 arrest.

Since December, the administration of President Donald Trump has led an immigration crackdown in Minnesota known as Operation Metro Surge. As many as 3,000 agents were deployed to the state at the operation’s height.

But bystander videos and photos have raised questions about the heavy-handed tactics being used, particularly in the Minneapolis-St Paul metropolitan area.

There, two US citizens were shot dead by immigration agents in the last month alone: Renee Nicole Good on January 7 and Alex Pretti on January 24.

The outcry over the shooting deaths, as well as other reports of violence against bystanders and warrantless arrests, has prompted the Trump administration to announce this week the withdrawal of nearly 700 immigration agents.

The detention of Conejo Ramos and his father had been among the high-profile flashpoints during the crackdown.

The five-year-old and his father were detained as they were coming home from preschool. They were quickly transported from Minnesota to Dilley, Texas, where they were kept in an immigration processing centre while Trump officials sought their expulsion.

But on January 27, Judge Fred Biery ruled that the two should be released while they challenged their expulsion.

“They seek nothing more than some modicum of due process and the rule of law,” Biery wrote in his brief but cutting decision.

Conejo Ramos and his father arrived in the US from Ecuador. Their legal team has said the pair entered the country legally and were in the midst of their asylum proceedings at the time of their detention.

Lawyer Danielle Molliver told Minnesota Public Radio this week that DHS had filed documents to expedite the father and son’s removal, speculating that the action was “retaliatory”.

“It’s really frustrating as an attorney, because they keep throwing new obstacles in our way,” she told the public broadcaster. “There’s absolutely no reason that this should be expedited.”

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is facing the possibility it could run out of funding next week, as Democrats press for reforms to its immigration enforcement tactics.

But Republican leaders on Thursday pushed back against the Democratic proposals, rejecting them as moot.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, for instance, called the demands “unrealistic and unserious”.

“This is not a blank check situation where Republicans just do agree to a list of Democrat demands,” Thune said, adding that the two parties appeared to be at an impasse.

“We aren’t anywhere close to having any sort of an agreement.”

Congress needs to pass funding legislation for the DHS by February 13, or else its programmes could be temporarily shuttered.

Ten demands from Democrats

Currently, Democrats are focused on changes to DHS’s immigration operations, particularly through programmes like Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

But any funding shortfall stands to affect other Homeland Security functions as well, including the services offered by Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which conducts security screenings at airports.

Top Democrats, however, have argued that a Homeland Security shutdown is necessary, given the abuses that have unfolded under President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Just last month, two US citizens, Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good, were killed at the hands of immigration agents in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in incidents that were caught on bystander video.

Their shooting deaths have since gone viral, prompting international outrage. Other footage shows masked agents deploying chemical agents and beating civilians who were documenting their activities or protesting – activities protected under the US Constitution.

To protect civil liberties and avoid further bloodshed, Democrats on Wednesday night released a series of 10 demands.

Many pertain to agent transparency. One of the demands was a ban on immigration agents wearing face masks, and another would require them to prominently display their identification number and agency.

Body cameras would also be mandated, though the Democrats clarified that the footage obtained through such devices should only be used for accountability, not to track protesters.

Other proposed rules would codify use-of-force policies in the Homeland Security Department and prohibit entry into households without a judicial warrant, as has been common practice under US law. They would also outlaw racial profiling as a metric for conducting immigration stops and arrests.

Political battle over funding

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said he was “astounded to hear” that Republicans considered the demands to be unreasonable.

“It’s about people’s basic rights. It’s about people’s safety,” Schumer said. He called on Republicans to “explain why” they objected to such standards.

In a joint statement with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Schumer appealed to members of both parties to coalesce around what he described as common-sense guardrails.

“Federal immigration agents cannot continue to cause chaos in our cities while using taxpayer money that should be used to make life more affordable for working families,” Schumer and Jeffries wrote.

“It is critical that we come together to impose common sense reforms and accountability measures that the American people are demanding.”

Already, Democrats succeeded in separating Homeland Security funding from a spending bill passed on Tuesday to prevent a partial government shutdown.

Some Democrats and Republicans have pushed for a second split in order to vote on funding for ICE and CBP separately from FEMA and TSA spending.

But Republican leaders have opposed holding separate votes on those agencies, with Thune arguing it would amount to giving Democrats the ability to “defund law enforcement”.

Thune added that he would encourage Democrats to submit their reforms in legislation separate from Homeland Security funding.

It remains to be seen whether the two parties can agree to a compromise before the February 13 deadline. Democrats, meanwhile, have continued to push for other measures, including the removal of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

United States border security chief Tom Homan has announced that the administration of President Donald Trump will “draw down” 700 immigration enforcement personnel from Minnesota while promising to continue operations in the northern state.

The update on Wednesday was the latest indication of the Trump administration pivoting on its enforcement surge in the state following the killing of two US citizens by immigration agents in Minneapolis in January.

Homan, who is officially called Trump’s “border czar”, said the decision came amid new cooperation agreements with local authorities, particularly related to detaining individuals at county jails. Details of those agreements were not immediately available.

About 3,000 immigration enforcement agents are currently believed to be in Minnesota as part of Trump’s enforcement operations.

“Given this increase in unprecedented collaboration, and as a result of the need for less law enforcement officers to do this work in a safer environment, I have announced, effective immediately, we will draw down 700 people effective today – 700 law enforcement personnel,” Homan said.

The announcement comes after Homan was sent to Minnesota at the end of January in response to widespread protests over immigration enforcement and the killing of Renee Nicole Good on January 7 by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent and Alex Pretti on January 24 by a US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer, both in Minneapolis.

Homan said reforms made since his arrival have included consolidating ICE and CBP under a single chain of command.

He said Trump “fully intends to achieve mass deportations during this administration, and immigration enforcement actions will continue every day throughout this country”.

Immigration rights observers have said the administration’s mass deportation approach has seen agents use increasingly “dragnet” tactics to meet large detention quotas, including randomly stopping individuals and asking for their papers. The administration has increasingly detained undocumented individuals with no criminal records, even US citizens and people who have legal status to live in the US.

Homan said agents would prioritise who they considered to be “public safety threats” but added, “Just because you prioritise public safety threats, don’t mean we forget about everybody else. We will continue to enforce the immigration laws in this country.”

The “drawdown”, he added, would not apply to what he described as “personnel providing security for our officers”.

“We will not draw down on personnel providing security and responding to hostile incidents until we see a change,” he said.

Critics have accused immigration enforcement officers, who do not receive the same level of crowd control training as most local police forces, of using excessive violence in responding to protesters and individuals legally monitoring their actions.

Trump administration officials have regularly blamed unrest on “agitators”. They accused both Good and Pretti of threatening officers before their killings although video evidence of the exchanges has contradicted that characterisation.

Last week, the administration announced it was opening a federal civil rights investigation into the killing of Pretti, who was fatally shot while he was pinned to the ground by immigration agents. That came moments after an agent removed a gun from Pretti’s body, which the 37-year-old had not drawn and was legally carrying.

Federal authorities have not opened a civil rights investigation into the killing of Good, who they have maintained sought to run over an ICE agent before she was fatally shot. Video evidence appeared to show Good trying to turn away from the agent.

On Friday, thousands of people took to the streets of Minneapolis and other US cities amid calls for a federal strike in protest against the Trump administration’s deportation drive.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and other state and local officials have also challenged the immigration enforcement surge in the state, arguing that the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE and the CBP, has been violating constitutional protections.

A federal judge last week said she will not halt the operations as a lawsuit progresses in court. Department of Justice lawyers have dismissed the suit as “legally frivolous”.

On Wednesday, a poll released by the Marquette Law School found wide-ranging disquiet over ICE’s approach, with 60 percent of US adults nationwide saying they disapproved of how the agency was conducting itself. The poll was conducted from January 21 to January 28, with many of the surveys conducted before Pretti’s killing.

The poll still found widespread support for ICE among Republicans, with about 80 percent approving of its work. Just 5 percent of Democrats voiced similar approval.

Perhaps most worryingly for Republicans ahead of the 2026 midterms in November, just 23 percent of independents – potential swing voters in the upcoming vote – approved of ICE’s actions.

SANTIAGO, Chile, Feb. 4 (UPI) — Chileans want more restrictive laws for unauthorized migrants and even the imposition of prison sentences, according to the latest Plaza Pública survey by public opinion firm Cadem.

The survey results were released after president-elect José Antonio Kast conducted a tour of Central America and the Caribbean this week.

Kast, who will take office in March, met with the presidents of the Dominican Republic, Panama and El Salvador to discuss security and organized crime in the region.

In El Salvador, he also visited the Terrorism Confinement Center, or Cecot, the notorious maximum-security mega prison promoted by President Nayib Bukele.

The Cadem survey found that 79% of respondents believe Chile should adopt a more restrictive migration policy than the current one. In addition, 74% said they agree with having a law that sets prison sentences for irregular migration, while 81% approve of expelling all irregular migrants.

However, 61% said they would support regularizing migrants who can prove they have formal employment.

Immigration was one of the most prominent issues in Kast’s presidential campaign, with proposals such as expelling irregular migrants, installing physical barriers at unauthorized border crossings and limiting the transfer of remittances abroad.

Chile’s migration conflict centers on a crisis of irregular immigration that has strained public services, including health care, education and housing, and increased perceptions of insecurity.

Kast has promoted with neighboring countries the opening of a humanitarian corridor to allow migrants to leave. He has also announced that during his first 90 days in office, he will submit to Congress a bill to classify irregular entry into Chile as a crime, which is currently considered only an administrative offense.

“The migration issue was a central topic of the presidential campaign that has just ended and, therefore, it will also be a central issue for the government that begins in March,” Republican Party lawmaker Stephan Schubert, tied to the incoming president’s coalition, told UPI.

For that reason, he emphasized the need to work on a migration reform to address all the changes that are required.

“It is an issue that needs to be put in order by the future government, and that involves strengthening borders to prevent irregular crossings, but also modifying legislation to establish irregular entry into Chile as a crime,” he said.

Schubert also said priority must be given to “the expulsion of those foreign citizens who, by administrative resolution or court ruling, must leave our country.”

Deputy-elect Fabián Ossandón, from the right-wing Partido de la Gente, told UPI that Kast should push for a deep migration reform, with a priority focus on the northern regions of the country, which border Peru and Bolivia.

“That agenda must include border control with technology and intelligence, effective expulsions of those who violate regulations, regularization processes with clear and demanding requirements, and real regional coordination with neighboring countries,” he said.

One obstacle for the new government is that it will not hold a majority in Congress to approve all of its reforms with the support of the center-right alone, forcing it to seek consensus.

Migration policy specialist Byron Duhalde, of the Center for Migration Studies at the University of Santiago, said the future president’s idea of modifying migration categories requires changes to the law.

“An absolute majority in Congress is required to approve modifications. The parties that are part of the new government do not have the necessary votes,” Duhalde said.

However, Ossandón defended the possibility, arguing that “there is broad-based citizen support to move forward with deep changes, and Congress has a responsibility to legislate on the real priorities of people and the country.”

He added: “On this matter, it is key to act with determination and coordination to push for an effective migration reform that provides certainty, order and clear rules, and that can be implemented as quickly as possible.”

Political analyst Guillermo Bustamante, an assistant professor in the the Faculty of Communications of the University of the Andes, said Kast will be forced to build bridges to advance legislative reforms.

“Here, the figures of his political committee, the presidents of governing and opposition parties, as well as parliamentary caucus leaders, will be relevant,” Bustamante said, adding that the first days of the new administration will be key for the opposition to define its own course of action.

“What we have seen so far does not allow us to ensure that migration will find an agreement between the parties, nor that there is an intention to engage in dialogue around this issue with a 20-year outlook,” he said.

Nevertheless, Duhalde noted that given the positions of political parties on migration, significant cross-party agreement exists on tightening certain measures.

“It is an issue in which the coalition of parties that will be governing will indeed have opportunities to negotiate with the Party of the People, for example, to secure the missing votes needed to legislate on this matter,” he said.

He said he believes clear results will only be achieved if authorities manage to respond to migrants’ needs.

“The challenge will be to design strategies and measures that respond in a balanced way in terms of security, but also protect the fundamental rights of these people in vulnerable situations, linked to the political, social and economic crisis in Venezuela,” Duhalde said.

What happens when a person has no country?

Citizens of Nowhere is a documentary short about stateless people in the United States – individuals who, through circumstance or legal technicality, belong to no nation. Without passports, citizenship or legal recognition, they live in a state of uncertainty.

From finding work and accessing education, to simply existing within a system that does not officially recognise them, stateless people face endless bureaucratic barriers.

This documentary short by Alicia Sully questions what citizenship really means, and what happens when a person has none.

A What Took You So Long? production, in association with United Stateless.

The ‘test’ of a new country

This longing is shared by Angelica Angel, a 24-year-old student activist in exile.

She had grown up with tear gas and police beatings in Venezuela. After all, she had started protesting at age 15.

“They’ve pointed their guns at me, beaten me and almost arrested me. That’s when you realise that these people have no limits: They target the elderly, women and even young girls,” Angel said.

But the increasing political repression ultimately made her life in Merida, a college town in western Venezuela, untenable.

After 2024’s disputed presidential election, Angel decided to voice her outrage on social media.

Maduro had claimed a third term in office, despite evidence that he had lost in a landslide. The opposition coalition obtained copies of more than 80 percent of the country’s voter tallies, showing that its candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez, had won the race.

Protests again broke out, and again, Maduro’s government responded with force.

Military and security officers detained nearly 2,000 people, including opposition leaders, journalists and human rights lawyers.

When Angel denounced the arbitrary detentions on TikTok, she began receiving daily threats.

By day, anonymous phone calls warned her of her impending arrest. By night, she heard pro-government gangs on motorcycles circling her home.

Fearing detention, she fled to Colombia in August 2024, leaving her family and friends behind.

But living outside Venezuela gave her a new perspective. She came to realise that the threats, persecution and violence she had learned to live with were not normal in a democratic country.

“When you leave, you realise that it isn’t normal to be afraid of the police, of unknown phone calls,” said Angel, her voice trembling. “I’m afraid to go back to my country and to be in that reality again.”

For exiled Venezuelans to return safely, Angel believes certain benchmarks must be met. The interim government must end arbitrary detention and allow opposition members, many of whom fled Venezuela, to return.

Only then, she explained, will Venezuela have moved past Maduro’s legacy.

“Exiles being able to return is a real test of whether a new country is taking shape,” she said.

Greece’s coastguard says 26 other people have been rescued from Aegean Sea as search-and-rescue operations continue.

A boat carrying migrants and asylum seekers has collided with a Greek coastguard vessel in the Aegean Sea near the island of Chios, killing at least 14 people, the coastguard says.

The incident occurred around 9pm local time on Tuesday (19:00 GMT) off the coast of Chios’s Mersinidi area, Greece’s Athens-Macedonian News Agency (AMNA) reported.

The coastguard said 26 people were rescued and brought to a hospital in Chios, including 24 migrants and two coastguard officers.

It said it was not immediately clear how many others had been on the speedboat.

Seven children and a pregnant woman were among the injured, Greek media reported.

A search-and-rescue operation involving patrol boats, a helicopter and divers was under way in the area, AMNA said.

Footage shared by Greece’s Ta Nea newspaper appeared to show at least one person being brought from a boat docked next to a jetty into a vehicle with blue flashing lights.

An unnamed coastguard official told the Reuters news agency that the collision occurred after the migrant boat “manoeuvred toward” a coastguard vessel that had instructed it to turn back.

Greece has long been a key transit point for migrants and refugees from the Middle East, Africa ‌and Asia trying to reach Europe.

In 2015 and 2016, Greece was on the front line of a migration crisis, with nearly one million people landing on its islands, including in Chios, from nearby Turkiye.

But arrivals have dropped in recent years as Greece ‌has toughened its asylum seeker and migrant policies, including by tightening border controls and sea ‌patrols.

The country has come under scrutiny for its ⁠treatment of migrants and asylum seekers approaching by sea, including after a shipwreck in 2023 in which hundreds of migrants and refugees died after what witnesses said was the coastguard’s attempt to tow their trawler.

The European Union’s border ‌agency said last year that it was reviewing 12 cases of potential human rights violations by Greece, including some allegations that people seeking asylum were pushed back from Greece’s ‍frontiers.

Greece has denied carrying out human rights violations or pushing asylum seekers from its shores.

Washington, DC – A group of United States citizens and immigrant rights groups has launched a lawsuit seeking to challenge the sweeping suspension of immigrant visa processing for 75 countries by the administration of United States President Donald Trump.

The lawsuit filed on Monday argues that the Trump administration has relied on a false narrative to justify the visa processing suspension, one of the most substantial restrictions on legal immigration in the country’s history.

The lawsuit charges the policy “constitutes an unlawful nationality-based ban on legal immigration and a new set of discriminatory, unlawful public charge rules that strips families and working people of the process guaranteed by law”, according to a case overview by the National Immigration Law Center, which is among the groups supporting the legal challenge.

The sprawling 106-page complaint further alleges that the administration relies “on an unsupported and demonstrably false claim that nationals of the covered countries migrate to the United States to improperly rely on cash welfare and are likely to become ‘public charges’”.

The State Department has described the action, announced in mid-January, as a “pause” on immigrant visa processing on “countries whose migrants take welfare from the American people at unacceptable rates”.

The department has not revealed the criteria it used to determine which countries were added to the list, which comes amid a wider effort to constrict legal immigration pathways into the US and to deport undocumented citizens from the country.

The affected countries include Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Mongolia, Brazil, Colombia, Cambodia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Senegal, Ghana, Somalia and Russia.

The list also includes Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon, Tunisia, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen, as well as several Caribbean, Pacific Island, and Eastern European countries.

Non-immigrant visas, including business and tourist visas, remain exempt.

“The freeze will remain active until the US can ensure that new immigrants will not extract wealth from the American people,” the State Department said in January.

‘Arbitrary, unlawful, and deeply harmful’

More than a dozen organisations and individuals named as plaintiffs in Monday’s lawsuit, as well as the seven legal organisations supporting them, argue the administration’s policy misuses the so-called “public charge” ground for inadmissibility laid out in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).

The provision, they argue, is meant to be a determination made on an “individualised” basis that a person risks becoming “primarily and permanently dependent on government for subsistence” if they are granted immigration status.

In turn, they said the administration is violating another provision of the INA, which says “no person shall receive any preference or priority or be discriminated against in the issuance of an immigrant visa because of the person’s race, sex, nationality, place of birth, or place of residence”.

It further argues that the administration has adopted an overly broad interpretation of what constitutes a “public charge”.

The plaintiffs include US citizens who had petitioned and been approved for their family members, including children and spouses, to join them in the US, a process known as “family unification”. Other plaintiffs included foreign nationals approved for immigrant visas through their specialised employment.

Hasan Shafiqullah, immigration supervising attorney at The Legal Aid Society, called the State Department policy “arbitrary, unlawful, and deeply harmful to families who have followed the rules and are simply seeking to reunite with their loved ones”.

Other lawyers supporting the case underscored that the policy disproportionately affects people from Africa, the Middle East, South and Central Asia and Eastern Europe.

Baher Azmy, the legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, accused the administration of relying on “obviously pretextual tropes about nonwhite families undeservedly taking benefits”.

“Congress and the Constitution prohibit white supremacy as grounds for immigration policy.”

The lawsuit further points to “arbitrary and disparaging” statements made by Trump and administration officials about immigrants being likely to receive public benefits.

It notes that most immigrants are ineligible for most government assistance programmes, yet are required to pay local, state, and federal taxes.

The State Department did not reply to a request for comment on the new legislation from Al Jazeera. US agencies typically do not comment on pending litigation.

Chances of success

The odds of success for the new lawsuit, which comes amid a deluge of legal challenges, remained unclear.

Plaintiffs have won at least temporary pauses on several key immigration issues, particularly related to Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to swiftly deport alleged gang members and his effort to end birthright citizenship, as lawsuits make their way through the legal system.

Many more long-term decisions remain elusive.

Meanwhile, in 2018, a 5-4 ruling by the conservative-dominated US Supreme Court upheld Trump’s visa-processing ban on several Muslim-majority countries, including Iran, Syria, Yemen, Libya and Somalia.

In the 2018 ruling, most justices ruled that the president had broad discretion to limit the entry of individuals into the US.

At the time, the Trump administration cited “national security” concerns rather than the “public charge” argument it has used in the most recent suspension.

ICE agents in California detained several residents, including a US citizen, amid a surge in immigration raids under the Trump administration. Protests under the ‘ICE Out of Everywhere’ campaign erupted across southern California, where demonstrators faced arrests and injuries.

Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian, were accompanied home by Texas Democratic Representative Joaquin Castro.

A five-year-old boy and his father, who were detained as part of United States President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration raids and held at a detention facility in Texas, have returned to their home in Minnesota.

Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian, who are asylum seekers from Ecuador, spent 10 days in the Dilley detention centre until US District Judge Fred Biery ordered their release on Saturday.

US Representative Joaquin Castro, a Texas Democrat, wrote in a social media post that he picked them up on Saturday night at the detention facility and escorted them home on Sunday.

“Liam is now home. With his hat and his backpack,” Castro wrote, including photos of the child. “We won’t stop until all children and families are home.”

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested Liam and his father on January 20 as the boy arrived home from preschool.

Images of the boy with a blue bunny hat and backpack being held by officers spread around the world and added fire to public outrage at the federal immigration crackdown, during which agents have shot dead two US citizens.

Liam was one of four students detained by immigration officials in a Minneapolis suburb, according to the Columbia Heights Public School District.

In a statement, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said ICE did not target or arrest Liam, and that his mother refused to take him after his father’s apprehension. His father told officers he wanted Liam to be with him, she said.

“The Trump administration is committed to restoring the rule of law and common sense to our immigration system, and will continue to fight for the arrest, detention, and removal of aliens who have no right to be in this country,” McLaughlin said.

Neighbours and school officials say that federal immigration officers used the preschooler as “bait” by telling him to knock on the door to his house so that his mother would answer.

DHS called the description of events an “abject lie”. It said the father fled on foot and left the boy in a running vehicle in their driveway.

Biery said in a scathing opinion that “the case has its genesis in the ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children”.

He criticised what he called the government’s apparent “ignorance” of the US Declaration of Independence, which “enumerated grievances against a would-be authoritarian king over our nascent nation”.

Biery also cited the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution, which protects the right against “unreasonable searches and seizures”.

US Representative Ilhan Omar, a Democrat from Minnesota, posted a photo to social media of her with Liam, his father and Castro, with her holding Liam’s Spider-Man backpack.

“Welcome home Liam,” she posted with two hearts.