From American Immigration Council, This Week in Immigration <[email protected]>
Subject Trump’s Ballooning Travel Ban
Date December 21, 2025 3:01 PM
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Latest Analysis
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President Trump Expands His Travel Ban: What You Need to Know [[link removed]]
President Trump issued a newly enlarged travel ban, restricting the entry of nationals of 20 new countries (as well as the Palestinian Authority) and cutting back on exceptions included in the prior ban. With this new ban in place, roughly 1 in 5 people seeking to immigrate to the United States legally are now barred from doing so, and hundreds of thousands more seeking nonimmigrant visas to visit or reside temporarily will now be unable to do so.
ICE Uses a Growing Web of AI Services to Power Its Immigration Enforcement and Surveillance [[link removed]]
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released an updated version of its Artificial Intelligence (AI) Use Case Inventory this summer. At first glance, the changes seemed routine—some AI software programs were marked “inactive,” and a new one was added. But upon closer examination, the removal of the AI use cases does not appear to indicate a retreat from—but an expansion of—those AI capabilities.
Whistleblower Report Reveals USCIS is Circumventing Court Order on Immigrants’ Access to their Records [[link removed]]
A whistleblower report published today in Government Executive shows how U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is circumventing a court order that requires the agency to provide immigrants with their immigration records within the legal timelines.
Protecting Immigrant Communities: How States Can Lead in 2026 [[link removed]]
States have the power to enact policies to protect immigrants while ensuring due process and dignity for all residents. Here are three high-impact policy areas where states have already taken action and that lawmakers should consider in 2026.
Facts You Should Know
Last week, President Trump expanded the list of countries on his administration’s travel ban to 39 nations, which, among other things, will significantly impact the upcoming 2026 World Cup.
Fans from each of the 39 countries will largely be unable to attend any games in the U.S during next year’s tournament, unless they have a valid visa issued before June 9, 2025 for the original 19 countries announced in the June travel ban, or January 1, 2026 for the additional 20 countries recently added to the ban.
Read more: Trump's Travel Ban Decides the Real Winners and Losers of the 2026 FIFA World Cup Draw [[link removed]]
Across the Nation
Last week, the American Immigration Council won a critical victory for immigrant teens.
A federal court in D.C. ordered ICE to stop a dangerous new policy that would have sent unaccompanied children into adult detention centers the moment they turned 18—even when they posed no danger or flight risk and had families and safe places to live waiting for them.
The recent ruling enforces a long-standing court order that ICE tried to quietly sidestep. Since 2021, our Garcia v. Ramirez lawsuit protected immigrant teens who “aged out” of government shelters from being immediately transferred to adult detention centers, places notorious for their abusive and inhumane conditions.
Read more: Court Blocks ICE’s Unlawful Detention of Teens Turning 18 [[link removed]]
Quote of the Week
“These are 18-year-olds who are detained alongside adults, who have for the most part never had contact with the criminal legal system before – never been in jail, never been in prison – and are just completely bewildered by the fact that they are in these horrific conditions.”
— Suchita Mathur, senior litigation attorney [[link removed]]
Further Reading
Associated Press: Trump's crackdown on immigration is taking a toll on child care workers [[link removed]]
Slate: One of the Most Basic Rights in the Book Is Regularly Denied to ICE Detainees [[link removed]]
Univision: Cómo las redadas de ICE están golpeando a los centros que cuidan niños en EEUU [[link removed]]
Lawfare Daily: ‘Deportation, Inc.’ and the Rise of the Immigration Enforcement Economy [[link removed]]
Associated Press: A little-known diversity visa program is paused after the Brown University shooting [[link removed]]
Your support fuels this work
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Donate Now [[link removed]]
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