Week ending August 21, 2026
This week’s most consequential developments involve TPS, motions to reopen, and the administration’s rapidly expanding use of third-country removal agreements.
BIA issues a significant new precedential decision on motions to reopen. On August 18, the Board of Immigration Appeals issued Matter of M-M-L-J-, 29 I&N Dec. 843 (BIA 2026). The Board held that a noncitizen generally gets only one motion to reopen total—whether filed before the Immigration Court or the BIA. More significantly, it held that equitable tolling does not apply to the numerical one-motion bar, although the statutory exception for certain battered spouses, children, and parents remains.
Court clears the way for termination of Ethiopian TPS. On August 18, a federal judge allowed DHS to terminate TPS for more than 5,000 Ethiopian nationals, reversing an earlier block in light of recent Supreme Court precedent limiting judicial review of TPS termination decisions. Constitutional claims concerning alleged discriminatory motivation remain in litigation.
The United States conducts its first large deportation flight to Haiti following the end of TPS. More than 160 people were deported to Haiti on August 20, the first large removal flight since the administration prevailed in litigation permitting termination of Haitian TPS affecting roughly 350,000 people. The flight landed in Cap-Haïtien rather than Port-au-Prince because of severe gang violence and security conditions in the capital.
Salvadoran TPS work authorization is generating new uncertainty. USCIS recently notified employers using E-Verify that Salvadoran TPS is scheduled to terminate on September 9, 2026, creating questions about continued employment authorization and possible statutory or litigation-based extensions. Approximately 170,000 Salvadorans may be affected.
Third-country deportations expand dramatically: U.S. begins sending non-Liberians to Liberia. On August 20, the United States carried out its first removal under an agreement permitting Liberia to accept as many as 1,200 deportees who are not Liberian nationals. AP reports that the administration now has arrangements with numerous countries to accept people who are nationals of somewhere else.
U.S. is also sending Mexican nationals through Guatemala and Honduras rather than directly to Mexico. AP reports that nearly 2,300 Mexican nationals have been deported to Guatemala in 2026, with additional removals through Honduras. Mexico has objected to the practice, maintaining that its citizens should be returned directly to Mexico.
Newly released records raise serious asylum-confidentiality concerns involving Iran. Newly released emails show that ICE coordinated with Iranian officials in arranging deportation flights and that Iranian authorities had input concerning some people placed on removal lists. Advocates allege the interactions risked exposing asylum seekers or dissidents to Iranian authorities. DHS and ICE deny improperly sharing confidential asylum information.
ICE proposes liability insurance for local police participating in immigration enforcement. ICE is proposing an insurance program intended to protect state and local officers from personal financial liability arising from immigration arrests. The initiative appears designed to encourage greater local participation in federal immigration enforcement.
