Week ending August 28, 2026
Federal court blocks USCIS’s 39-country adjudication holds and certifies a nationwide class. On August 24, the Northern District of California granted a preliminary injunction in Red Eagle Law, L.C. v. Edlow, blocking USCIS Policy Memoranda PM-602-0192 and PM-602-0194. Those policies had placed adjudication holds on asylum and other immigration-benefit applications involving nationals of the 39 countries identified in Presidential Proclamations 10949 and 10998, as well as Palestinians. The court also certified a class covering affected applicants. USCIS acknowledged the ruling today and states that it has been ordered to adjudicate covered applications through its normal process.
Federal judge strikes down the 75-country immigrant-visa suspension. On August 21, U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas vacated the State Department policy that categorically suspended immigrant-visa issuance to nationals of 75 countries based on public-charge concerns. The court concluded that the Secretary of State lacked statutory authority to impose a nationality-wide prohibition that displaced the individualized adjudication Congress assigned to consular officers. The government may appeal.
State Department pauses or reschedules immigrant-visa appointments worldwide for public-charge training. Days after the 75-country policy was struck down, the State Department began adjusting immigrant-visa appointments at embassies and consulates worldwide while consular officers undergo training on the administration’s new public-charge screening procedures. Applicants with already scheduled interviews have reportedly received notices that appointments are being postponed or rescheduled, and DOS has not announced a firm date for normal scheduling to resume.
BIA: Immigration Judges generally lose bond jurisdiction once the removal order is administratively final. On August 25, the Board of Immigration Appeals issued Matter of W-F-D-, 29 I&N Dec. 854 (BIA 2026). The Board held that Immigration Judges generally lack jurisdiction to redetermine custody conditions after a respondent becomes subject to an administratively final removal order. The BIA vacated an IJ’s $1,500 bond order because the respondent’s removal order had already become final.
Administration proposes a $103,265 fee for certain H-1B petitions. DHS published a proposed rule this week that would impose a $103,265 fee on H-1B cap-subject petitions. The proposal follows litigation over the administration’s earlier temporary $100,000 fee, which a federal judge blocked in June. That ruling is on appeal. The new proposal attempts to establish the fee through notice-and-comment rulemaking.
State Department says it intends to revoke visas of visitors who subsequently seek asylum. The State Department said this week that it is coordinating with DHS to identify foreign nationals who entered on nonimmigrant visas and later applied for asylum, with the stated intention of revoking their nonimmigrant visas.
ICE arrests reached a record high—and most July arrests involved people without criminal records. Newly released federal data show ICE averaged more than 1,580 arrests per day in July, with roughly 49,500 arrests during the month. For the first time during the current administration, more than half involved people with neither a criminal conviction nor pending criminal charges; more than 800 such individuals were arrested per day on average.
BIA issues a new attorney-discipline precedent with an unusually broad definition of who qualifies to practice before EOIR. In Matter of Jones, 29 I&N Dec. 850 (BIA 2026), issued August 24, the Board held that being licensed and in good standing in one state is not sufficient to satisfy EOIR’s regulatory definition of “attorney” if the lawyer remains suspended, barred, or otherwise restricted from practicing law in another jurisdiction.
