Week ending September 18, 2026
New public-charge rules take effect today. Beginning September 18, USCIS is applying the administration’s new public-charge framework to covered applications. The change gives officers broader discretion to consider an applicant’s circumstances and receipt of means-tested public benefits when determining inadmissibility under INA § 212(a)(4). Litigation is already underway: on September 14, a coalition of 22 states, D.C., and several cities filed lawsuits seeking to block the rule.
Federal judge blocks DHS’s new F/J/I fixed-duration rule just before it was to take effect. On September 14, U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV in Massachusetts blocked the rule that would have replaced the longstanding “duration of status” (D/S) system for F students and J exchange visitors with fixed admission periods—generally capped at four years—and imposed fixed periods for I journalists. The rule had been scheduled to take effect September 15. The court concluded DHS had not adequately justified the change or addressed significant concerns raised during rulemaking.
First Circuit rejects DHS’s rapid third-country deportation procedure. Today, September 18, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit upheld a lower-court ruling against DHS’s policy for rapidly removing people to countries other than those designated in their removal proceedings. The challenged procedure sometimes provided only hours of notice and could permit removal without a meaningful opportunity to raise fear of persecution or torture in the proposed destination. (Reuters)
ICE arrests continue to climb sharply, including through expanded federal and local data sharing. Reuters reporting published September 17 shows interior immigration arrests have risen substantially as ICE expands cooperation with local law enforcement and uses more government data and technology to locate people. August arrests reportedly approached 51,000, continuing the recent trend toward enforcement against people beyond traditional serious-criminal priorities.
DHS watchdog report documents serious detention-condition violations at “Alligator Alcatraz.” A DHS Inspector General report released this week found that detainees at the now-closed Florida facility were sometimes held in outdoor metal holding cages providing approximately 18 square feet per person, below ICE’s 37-square-foot standard. Inspectors also identified problems involving medical care, sanitation, food service and living space.
USCIS’s new affirmative-asylum procedure is beginning to have broader practical consequences. The asylum rule that took effect this summer permits USCIS to refer certain legally deficient affirmative asylum applications into removal proceedings without first conducting the traditional asylum interview. Reporting this week estimates that a very large portion of the affirmative-asylum backlog could potentially fall within the policy’s reach.
