U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deportation rates continue to rise, reports Priscilla Alvarez at CNN. Between August and September of this year, more than 2,500 family members were removed from the U.S. — just shy of the 2,711 removed in all of fiscal year 2018. “While fiscal year 2019 data hasn't been released, the latest figures show how recent efforts rolled out by the Trump administration are driving removal numbers upward.”

While ICE claims to target criminals, “government data has also revealed a jump in arrests of people without criminal records. In Trump's first year, for example, ICE arrested 109,000 criminals and 46,000 people without criminal records—a 171% increase in the number of non-criminal individuals arrested over 2016.”

Meanwhile, more than 140 businesses and trade associations — including Amazon and IBM — joined an amicus brief filed with the Supreme Court in support of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The brief argues that ending DACA “would inflict serious harm on U.S. companies and their workers” Gabriel T. Rubin reports for The Wall Street Journal.

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DORIAN DEPORTATIONS – The Bahamian government may be using the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian to target and deport Haitians, Brianna Sacks reports for BuzzFeed News. “This storm is looking like the opportunity that the government wanted or needed to be able to finally rid themselves of Haitians amongst us and the shanty towns,” said Louby Georges, a director with Human Rights Bahamas.

SENDING TALENT TO CHINA – Mehdi Ostadhassan moved to North Dakota in 2009 to pursue a career in petroleum engineering, but his status as an Iranian national has made it harder to obtain a green card, CNN’s Daniel Burke reports. Ostadhassan has faced multiple green card rejections to date. The kicker: If things do not change, Ostadhassan and his family will be forced to move to China, where he was given a lucrative job offer. “The United States has given me everything: a career, a family, a life,” Ostadhassan said. “That's part of why I want to stay in this country. I want to give something back. And I believe that I am.”

REFUGEE LAWSUIT – The International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) has filed a lawsuit requesting additional information on the Trump administration’s new refugee resettlement policy, which allows states and localities to block refugees from coming into their communities, Samuel Smith at the Christian Post reports. “Through this litigation we hope to shed light on how the Trump administration is abdicating its responsibility to administer the refugee resettlement program by providing states and localities with the ability to block resettlement,” IRAP senior litigation attorney Melissa Keaney said in a statement.

FOR-PROFIT CHILD DETENTION – The Trump administration has shifted the care of migrant children from religious-based nonprofit groups to private, for-profit contractors, Garance Burke and Martha Mendoza report for the Associated Press. The federal government “spent a record $3.5 billion caring for migrant children over the past two years to run its shelters through both contracts and grants.” Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo, who joined more than 40 law enforcement officials calling for adequate care of migrant children, asks, “What’s really the motivator, the deterrence or the dollar?”

DAMAGES – The ACLU is suing the Trump administration on behalf of migrant families separated at the border, Claire Hansen reports for U.S. News & World Report. The lawsuit seeks to create a fund to pay for mental health services for affected migrant families, and names defendants including current and former White House and immigration enforcement agency officials: “Today, even after many – but not all – families have been reunified by a federal court order, the effects of the separations continue, separated families can never be made whole, justice requires redress for their sufferings.”

“OPEN SOCIETY” – “Common Ground,” a Koch network-funded initiative, launched a pop-up art installation this week in Miami, Adriana Gomez Licon reports for the Associated Press. The installation highlights positive personal stories of immigrants who show ideals “that Charles Koch and his recently deceased brother David have said are essential to their philanthropic work, such as patriotism and entrepreneurship.” At the Global Philanthropy Forum in April, Koch said, “We have to have an open society: open to ideas, people, goods and services, to learn from each other and have us all benefit.”

Thanks for reading,

Ali

P.S. This week, we’re celebrating our 100th episode of “Only in America” — tune in for a conversation with author and comedian Maeve Higgins, who is host of the podcast “Maeve in America: Immigration IRL.” We talked about the realities of immigration courts, the parallels between past and present immigrant stories, and the merits of American potato dishes — don’t miss it.