© Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters
Plan to install barriers through popular national park sparked outrage from advocates and politicians alike
A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from expanding the border wall and other security infrastructure across the Big Bend region of west Texas, where contentious plans to build roads and vehicle barriers through a popular national park have led to furious backlash and public protests.
US district judge Kathleen Cardone’s ruling after a Friday hearing in El Paso deals a major blow to the Trump administration’s efforts to expand the border wall through west Texas at breakneck pace, while riding roughshod over the objections of local business owners, landowners, public land advocates and politicians from both parties.
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© Photograph: Scott McWilliams/AP
© Photograph: Scott McWilliams/AP
© Photograph: Scott McWilliams/AP
© Jose Luis Gonzalez/Reuters
© Brandon Bell/Getty Images
© Nick Hagen for The New York Times
Refugees from third countries are being sent to Equatorial Guinea, where they are often sent back to the very countries they fled
For nearly a year, the Hotel Bamy in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, has been Adam’s prison. He is confined alone to a hotel room, under constant watch by the security officers and soldiers of a notoriously oppressive regime who control his movements. Not long ago, they barged into his room, handcuffed and beat him, and warned him not to tell anyone. There is no cell to point to, no charges or formal sentence, and nothing on paper to document his plight.
Adam, 26, has chosen not to share his real name or even his country of origin out of fear for his safety. He fled indefinite, forced military conscription in his home country after enduring abuse during his military service.
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© Photograph: Monika Pronczuk/AP
© Photograph: Monika Pronczuk/AP
© Photograph: Monika Pronczuk/AP
Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez remains in custody after surgery to remove bullet supporters say was stuck close to his spine
The Venezuelan delivery driver who was shot and wounded by a federal immigration agent in Texas last month had surgery on Thursday to remove the bullet that had been lodged in his back for nearly two weeks.
Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez, 28, had appeared in court in a wheelchair on Wednesday, wearing a sling on his arm. He remains in custody on charges that he assaulted an officer while trying to evade arrest.
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© Photograph: Wilber Rafael Garces Perez/Reuters
© Photograph: Wilber Rafael Garces Perez/Reuters
© Photograph: Wilber Rafael Garces Perez/Reuters
© Ints Kalnins/Reuters
Court will review practice of indefinite detention for undocumented immigrants living in the US
The US supreme court agreed on Thursday to take up a case challenging the Trump administration’s practice of indefinite detention for undocumented immigrants living in the US and awaiting deportation proceedings.
At the center of the immigration case is a dispute over Donald Trump’s reinterpretation of a longstanding policy that has led to a huge surge in the number of migrants held in detention centers.
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© Photograph: Caitlin Ochs/Reuters
© Photograph: Caitlin Ochs/Reuters
© Photograph: Caitlin Ochs/Reuters
© Tim Evans/Reuters
© Jordan Vonderhaar for The New York Times
© Tierney L. Cross for The New York Times
© Jean-Francois Badias/Associated Press
ICE-watchers get creative after the killing of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, as Trump’s immigration crackdown takes a more secretive approach
Most of the time, the scene outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in the small, coastal town of Scarborough, Maine, could be confused for a nature watch in “Vacationland”, the slogan on state license plates.
People sitting in lawn chairs under a tent. Birds chirping. The sound of the breeze moving through the trees.
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© Photograph: Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
© Photograph: Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
© Photograph: Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
The candidates running to replace Gavin Newsom sparred over taxes, immigration and regulating AI
Xavier Becerra and Steve Hilton, the candidates running to be California’s next governor, clashed on Wednesday over taxes, immigration and regulating artificial intelligence in a testy debate held days before voters begin receiving their ballots in the heavily Democratic state.
Hilton, the former Fox News host endorsed by Donald Trump, used the hourlong matchup, hosted by CNN, to argue that Becerra, a former congressman who served as the US health and human services secretary during the Biden administration, was not actively campaigning and instead taking voters for granted.
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© Photograph: Carlos Barría/Reuters
© Photograph: Carlos Barría/Reuters
© Photograph: Carlos Barría/Reuters
© Doug Mills/The New York Times
© Jenn Ackerman for The New York Times
FBI accuses Chloe Freeman of federal misdemeanor in case of undocumented Mexican migrant arrested in Michigan
The federal government is charging a Michigan nurse accused of illegally helping an undocumented immigrant, who was being treated in a hospital, escape from immigration officials, court records unsealed this week show.
An FBI agent’s declaration submitted in a federal court accuses Chloe Renae Freeman, 33, of “instigating or assisting escape”, a federal misdemeanor, by helping a patient leave an Ann Arbor hospital while in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody in May. The patient, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, had been arrested about two hours earlier by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) border patrol agents.
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© Photograph: US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan
© Photograph: US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan
© Photograph: US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan
When one track failed, Trump administration rushed immigration case of Palestine rights advocate Salah Sarsour
An immigration judge has ruled that the president of Wisconsin’s largest mosque can be deported under a controversial, cold-war era law the Trump administration has sought to wield against foreign nationals who have been outspoken about Palestinian rights.
Salah Sarsour, a US permanent resident for nearly three decades, was detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in March. He was released after a federal judge found he had probably been detained in retaliation of his advocacy for Palestinian rights, which the federal judge said would render his detention unlawful.
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© Photograph: Yaseen Najeeb
© Photograph: Yaseen Najeeb
© Photograph: Yaseen Najeeb
Senator Jim Justice of West Virginia criticizes immigration crackdown as ranchers’ associations condemn ICE activity
A close political ally of Donald Trump has broken from the administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement agenda and recommended it “step back” to evaluate what it could do better.
“To get better, the first thing you got to do is admit you’re doing something wrong,” Jim Justice, a Republican senator of West Virginia, told Politico. “And in this situation, with all that’s going on and all the stuff, we probably got to step back from it and say: ‘Maybe we’re doing something wrong here or there,’ and then adjust to that.”
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© Photograph: Daniel Heuer/Bloomberg via Getty Images
© Photograph: Daniel Heuer/Bloomberg via Getty Images
© Photograph: Daniel Heuer/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Burundi joins several other African nations in accepting people deported under Trump’s hardline policy
Burundi has agreed to join a clutch of other African nations in receiving migrants from other countries deported from the US under Donald Trump’s hardline immigration policy.
However, Burundi will only accept those not accused of crime or terrorism links, said Nancy Ninette Mutoni, a spokesperson for the country’s president, Évariste Ndayishimiye. Tuesday’s announcement gave no details of numbers, timing or financial details.
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© Photograph: Miguel Gutiérrez/EPA
© Photograph: Miguel Gutiérrez/EPA
© Photograph: Miguel Gutiérrez/EPA
After switching tactics, federal agents are detaining and deporting record numbers of people from the US
When federal agents fatally shot US citizen protesters Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis in January during the nation’s largest immigration-enforcement operation ever, it marked a turning point for the second Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign.
Donald Trump in his second term had sparked outrage and huge protests with federal immigration officers descending en masse to one Democratic-run city after another in what some leaders called militarized “invasions”. Los Angeles, Chicago, Charlotte, New Orleans, then Minneapolis saw lines of masked and armored officers swaggering into town to conduct street arrests, ambushes of day workers waiting in Home Depot car parks for hire, and neighborhood sweeps. Adults and kids were whisked off to detention and protests met with aggressive deployment of chemical spray, teargas, fists and batons. The killings in Minneapolis were the culmination of what appeared to many to be a federal shock force increasingly out of control while being defended by federal leaders – and public opinion broadly turned against this violence.
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© Photograph: Blake Fagan/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Blake Fagan/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Blake Fagan/AFP/Getty Images
© Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times
A Sierra Leonean nurse detained, handcuffed and flown to Ghana. An Iranian dissident sent to Central African Republic. A Cameroonian deported to Equatorial Guinea.
This is the face of the Trump administration’s policy since 2025 – striking deals with 35 countries and sending up to 25,000 migrants in the US across the world, often to places they have no connection to at all.
The Guardian investigations correspondent Louisa Loveluck – as part of a consortium of journalists organised by Forbidden Stories – uncovers some of the human stories behind these deals.
Today in Focus host Annie Kelly asks whether this is even legal and what happens to people once they are banished.
What is Trump’s third-country deportation policy and whom does it target?
Banished to alien lands: Trump’s secret deportation deals
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© Composite: Guardian Design/Rabbiatu Kuyateh
© Composite: Guardian Design/Rabbiatu Kuyateh
© Composite: Guardian Design/Rabbiatu Kuyateh
Garcés Pérez, who was shot in his car by agents, is accused of striking officer with side mirror while trying to drive away
Federal prosecutors on Tuesday announced an assault charge against a Venezuelan delivery driver who was shot in his car by a federal immigration agent in Texas, accusing the man of striking an officer with his side mirror while trying to drive away.
Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez, 28, was charged with one count of assaulting, resisting and impeding a federal officer, according to a criminal complaint. Garcés Pérez, whose attorney has said still has a bullet lodged in his back from the 20 September shooting, made an initial court appearance in an Austin federal court on Tuesday, according to the US attorney’s office in the western district of Texas.
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© Photograph: Austin Police/Reuters
© Photograph: Austin Police/Reuters
© Photograph: Austin Police/Reuters
State passes law banning local, state and federal officers from using gloves that deliver painful electric shocks
California has passed a law Tuesday banning local, state and federal law enforcement officers from using gloves that can deliver painful electric shocks to people.
The ban on shock gloves will take effect next year and remain in place until 2030. It comes weeks after US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) moved to equip its officers with the gloves, which are designed to gain compliance from combative individuals. Last month, the agency awarded a nearly $17m contract to buy 6,000 pairs.
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© Photograph: Dylan Lovan/AP
© Photograph: Dylan Lovan/AP
© Photograph: Dylan Lovan/AP
Conservative majority temporarily lifts lower-court decision as liberal justices dissent from ruling
The Trump administration may deport immigrants to a “third country”, or a country other than their homeland, without providing them an opportunity to dispute due to humanitarian concerns, the supreme court said in a brief order on Tuesday.
The six-justice conservative majority of the high court temporarily lifted a lower court decision that determined immigrants being deported to a third country needed notice to argue they are at risk of persecution.
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© Photograph: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
© Photograph: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
© Photograph: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
© Carielle Doe for The New York Times
© Austin Police, via Reuters
© Austin Police, via Reuters
© Arif Kartono/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
These men in Maine, Georgia and Florida shared no ties – until they became casualties in the latest phase of Trump’s anti-immigration campaign
It was 7am on 13 July this year. A warm, sunny morning, as residents of Biddeford, Maine, left their homes, got into their cars and began their commute. Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero came out of the apartment he lived in with his partner and daughter and drove off in his white car. Minutes later, neighbors heard three pops. Durán Guerrero was dead.
More than 1,200 miles (1,900km) away in Ocilla, Georgia, Jesús Manuel Arenas-Silva was shuffled on to a bus. Private sector guards and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials were beginning the process of transferring him and several other immigrants from one detention center to another nearly two hours away. Ten minutes into the ride, he became unconscious. Doctors at a nearby hospital pronounced him dead.
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© Composite: Rita Liu/The Guardian/Getty Images/GoFundMe
© Composite: Rita Liu/The Guardian/Getty Images/GoFundMe
© Composite: Rita Liu/The Guardian/Getty Images/GoFundMe
Post came in response to rumor of ‘huge migrant caravan’
Brian Dawkins says he did not give permission for footage
The NFL has asked the US Department of Homeland Security to take down a video likening former Eagles star Brian Dawkins’s most violent hits to a clampdown on immigrants.
The video posted to social media on Sunday shows Dawkins’ pregame walkout as he chants “The time has come,” followed by a series of violent hits from his playing career. The DHS post includes the caption “Our time has come” in response to a social media account claiming a “huge migrant caravan” is approaching the United States’ southern border.
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© Photograph: Chris Szagola/AP
© Photograph: Chris Szagola/AP
© Photograph: Chris Szagola/AP
Sending migrants to countries they do not come from can have deadly consequences and must be halted, says report
The deportation of thousands of migrants from the US to third countries has set off a “cascade of human rights violations” that could have “deadly” consequences, two dozen UN human rights experts have warned.
Since Donald Trump returned to power in 2025, the US government has been offering millions of dollars to foreign governments to take in migrants, including refugees and asylum seekers, with no ties to their countries. Deals have been struck with 35 nations, nearly a third of them in Africa.
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© Photograph: Matthew Jacobs/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Matthew Jacobs/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Matthew Jacobs/AFP/Getty Images
After public backlash, the Trump administration changed its tactics from ‘siege’ to ‘soft feet’. Now, ICE is everywhere
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© Photograph: Vecindarios 901
© Photograph: Vecindarios 901
© Photograph: Vecindarios 901
© Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times
Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez has bullet lodged in back as accounts differ over events leading to traffic-stop shooting
The Venezuelan man shot by federal immigration officers after a traffic stop in Texas needs surgery to avoid losing feeling on the left side of his body, according to his supporters.
Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez, 28, has spent the past five days in detention with a bullet lodged in his back, after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) rapidly removed him from a hospital in Austin where he had been taken on Sunday after the shooting.
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© Photograph: Wilber Rafael Garces Perez/Reuters
© Photograph: Wilber Rafael Garces Perez/Reuters
© Photograph: Wilber Rafael Garces Perez/Reuters
© Gabriel V. Cárdenas for The New York Times
© Kenny Holston/The New York Times
© Cheney Orr/Reuters
Exclusive: Democrats Dick Durbin of Illinois and Alex Padilla of California seek to prevent unlawful arrests
US senators have introduced legislation aimed at cutting down warrantless or specious ICE arrests, and curbing the agency’s ability to indefinitely detain immigrants who do not pose any danger to their communities.
The new legislation, shared exclusively with the Guardian, would require immigration officers to obtain an administrative warrant from a supervisor outlining a probable cause for detaining someone. Such a warrant must also be presented to each person who is detained, the bill says, alongside notice of when the detainee must appear in immigration court.
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© Photograph: Melissa Bender/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Melissa Bender/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Melissa Bender/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
© Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York Times
Like many other families coping with a loved one’s detention, Alma Ramirez and her children have faced financial struggles and mental health tolls
A version of this story was originally published in La Opinión. Read the story in Spanish here.
Every night, for months, as they settled into bed at their home in Watts, California, seven-year-old José, named after his father, would look over to his mother, Alma Ramirez, and ask her one question:
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© Photograph: Janette Villafana | Impremedia
© Photograph: Janette Villafana | Impremedia
© Photograph: Janette Villafana | Impremedia
© Doug Mills/The New York Times
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