A federal judge blocked the government from deporting Guatemalan children who came to the U.S. alone, report Rebecca Santana and Valerie Gonzalez of the Associated Press.
Officials had said the government was trying to reunite the children with their families, but the judge, a Trump appointee, wrote of “no evidence before the Court that the parents of these children sought their return.”
Separately, a proposed rule the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published in the Federal Register this week would require immigration applicants to give their social media identifiers to the U.S. government, reports Daniel Shoer Roth of the Miami Herald.
The rule would apply to naturalization, asylum and refugee-classification applications, among others.
Finally, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is looking to obtain hundreds of new office spaces across the U.S. as the agency expands its reach, report Hannah Natanson and Robert Klemko of The Washington Post.
The General Services Administration, responsible for obtaining federal real estate, is searching for 300 office spaces as soon as possible, according to information the Post obtained. This new space would accommodate the more than 10,000 new agency employees.
Welcome to Friday’s edition of The Forum Daily. I’m Dan Gordon, the Forum’s VP of strategic communications, and the great Forum Daily team also includes Marcela Aguirre, Masooma Amin, Jillian Clark and Clara Villatoro. If you have a story to share from your own community, please send it to me at [email protected].
SEPARATION OR DEPORTATION — Amid the surge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests, migrant children are being separated from their parents and sent to federal shelters. Many parents — including Sulma Martinez, who “had a work permit, a pending asylum claim and a pathway to a visa for crime victims” — are given a choice between remaining separated or being deported as a family, reports Maria Sacchetti of The Washington Post. For now, she remains separated from her 14-year-old twins and has a final deportation hearing scheduled for Oct. 10.
DETENTION CONDITIONS — At a Texas facility meant for immigrant family detainees, attorneys say that children face unsafe conditions, reports Valerie Gonzalez of the Associated Press. Details of the conditions were revealed in a lawsuit against the U.S. government’s attempt to end long-held protections for immigrant children. The allegations include children having to fight for water and long waits for medical attention. Elsewhere, a federal judge ordered the administration to improve conditions at an immigrant detention center in New York City, reports Laura Romero of ABC News.
EXEMPTION — After a new rule was put into place requiring in-person interviews for people applying for temporary visas, the State Department announced that it would lift the new requirement for H-2A visa applicants, reports Dan Gooding of Newsweek. While this is considered a win for migrant farmworkers and their employers, experts point out that the increase in scrutiny over visa applications affects everyone. “All delays in processing create opportunity costs and can hinder operations,"said Matt Mauntel-Medici, an immigration attorney in Iowa.
ART AND WELCOME — At a Welcome Week celebration in Austin, Minnesota, neighbors gathered to share and celebrate their own stories of welcome, reports Evan Berg of KIMT 3 News. Meanwhile, in Omaha, Nebraska, artist David Manzanares’ most recent project is a mural for the city’s Center for Immigrant and Refugee Advancement building, reports Madison Perales of KETV 7 News. The work draws on his experience with the American immigration system and his Indigenous Mexican culture.
