Updated October 30, 2026
Immigration has been at the center of President Donald Trump's second term. Since taking office in January 2025, his administration has launched a mass deportation campaign led by border czar Tom Homan, expanded ICE arrests and detention, and sent deportees to prisons and third countries abroad. It has also cut legal immigration through travel bans, visa pauses, a $100,000 H-1B fee and a suspension of most refugee admissions. Courts have pushed back on several moves, most notably when the Supreme Court struck down Trump's order ending birthright citizenship in June 2026. This page collects Upward News reporting on each step, newest first, with every fact linked to the story it comes from.
October 2026: Upward tallied the administration's cuts to legal immigration, including an expanded travel ban covering 39 countries and a nearly 90 percent drop in refugee admissions; the administration says its cuts are the largest in American history.
August 2026: The State Department paused immigrant visa interviews at US embassies and consulates after a federal court struck down a broader visa freeze the administration imposed in January.
August 2026: The administration moved to revoke up to 200,000 business and tourist visas held by people who later sought asylum, in what State Department documents described as the largest mass visa revocation in US history.
July 2026: A new rule let US Citizenship and Immigration Services send asylum cases straight to immigration judges without an interview, which could move up to 444,724 pending cases into deportation proceedings.
June 2026: The Supreme Court struck down Trump's executive order ending birthright citizenship, ruling 6-3 that the 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship to nearly all children born on US soil.
June 2026: ICE arrested more than 10,000 people in five days at the end of the month, roughly double its earlier pace, as the number of people in its custody passed 63,000.
March 2026: With a partial Homeland Security shutdown in its sixth week, Trump sent ICE officers to about 13 airports to help with TSA staffing shortages; the shutdown began Feb. 14 amid Democrats' demands for limits on ICE.
January 2026: After federal agents fatally shot Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, Trump sent border czar Tom Homan to take direct control of ICE operations in Minnesota, removing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem from the state's chain of command.
January 2026: An ICE officer fatally shot Renee Good, 37, in Minneapolis; the officer said he fired in self-defense, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz dismissed the federal account, and protests spread to other cities.
December 2025: ICE launched an operation targeting Somali nationals in Minneapolis and St. Paul, following Trump's decision to end Temporary Protected Status for Somalis in Minnesota.
November 2025: After an Afghan national shot two National Guard members near the White House, Trump paused all asylum decisions and halted Afghan visa processing, and ordered a review of green card holders from 19 countries.
September 2025: Trump signed an order imposing a new $100,000 fee on H-1B visas, and the Labor Department launched Project Firewall to crack down on fraud in the program.
July 2025: Homeland Security deported five convicted criminals to Eswatini in a new wave of third-country deportations, after the Supreme Court lifted a lower-court order that had stalled such removals.
July 2025: Trump attended the opening of the "Alligator Alcatraz" detention center in the Florida Everglades, fast-tracked by Gov. Ron DeSantis, built in eight days and designed to hold up to 5,000 detainees.
June 2025: Trump deployed 2,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles after riots broke out over immigration raids; California Gov. Gavin Newsom called the deployment unlawful.
June 2025: The State Department began requiring student visa applicants to make their social media public so officers could screen for "hostile attitudes" toward the United States.
May 2025: In a 7-2 order, the Supreme Court cleared the administration to resume deportations of more than 500,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela who had entered under a Biden-era humanitarian parole program.
May 2025: The administration began resettling white Afrikaners from South Africa as refugees, an exception to Trump's January suspension of most refugee admissions.
April 2025: Trump signed an executive order to withhold federal funds from sanctuary jurisdictions, as the Justice Department sued Colorado and Denver over their sanctuary policies.
March 2025: Invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, the administration deported 240 suspected Tren de Aragua gang members to El Salvador, drawing criticism that some had not received due process.
January 2025: In his first days in office, Trump reinstated "Remain in Mexico" and ended the CBP One app, and ICE raids began, focused first on what Homan called "the most serious public safety threats."
January 2025: Trump signed an executive order to end birthright citizenship for many children born to mothers in the country illegally or temporarily; federal courts blocked it within weeks.
The White House wants one million deportations a year, and adviser Stephen Miller has pressed Homeland Security for 3,000 arrests a day to get there. ICE deported more than 65,000 people in Trump's first 100 days but warned Congress of a $2 billion shortfall and said it needed more detention space, before receiving $75 billion in a separate budget bill in the summer of 2025. By mid-2026 daily arrests had roughly doubled, and a Washington Post report found that migrants with no convictions made up the largest group being removed. The administration has also sent deportees to third countries such as Eswatini and South Sudan and used the Alien Enemies Act to fly suspected Tren de Aragua members to El Salvador.
In February 2025, Homan said southwest border crossings had fallen to 229 a day, compared with as many as 11,000 a day under President Joe Biden. Trump reinstated "Remain in Mexico" and ended the CBP One app that migrants used to book asylum appointments, and Upward later reported that legal asylum entries at southwest ports of entry fell 99.9 percent. After the National Guard shooting, the administration paused all asylum decisions, and in 2026 it let immigration officials send asylum cases straight to immigration judges. Refugee admissions have dropped nearly 90 percent, Upward reported, and the program was restarted mainly to admit white South Africans.
The administration has cut legal immigration as well as illegal entry. Upward's October 2026 tally found an expanded travel ban blocking people from 39 countries, student visa issuances down 42 percent and H-1B visas down 78 percent since Trump imposed a $100,000 fee. Student visa applicants must now make their social media public for screening, and the administration revoked Harvard's certification to enroll foreign students, a move a federal judge temporarily blocked. Citing a Cato Institute analysis, Upward reported that legal immigration cuts have outpaced cuts to illegal immigration by 2.7 to 1. The issue has split the right: Trump's defense of the H-1B program in November 2025 drew fury from many conservatives.
Trump's January 2025 executive order sought to deny automatic citizenship to many children born to mothers in the country illegally or temporarily, and federal courts blocked it within weeks. In June 2026 the Supreme Court struck the order down 6-3, with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett joining the liberal justices; Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a 91-page dissent. Before the ruling, the State Department had revoked more than 500 visas in suspected birth tourism cases, and afterward the Justice Department directed prosecutors to target birth tourism schemes while House Republicans weighed legislation or a constitutional amendment.
In December 2025 ICE surged officers into Minneapolis and St. Paul to arrest Somali nationals, and federal agencies widened a crackdown on fraud schemes in Minnesota; Upward reported that 82 of the 92 people charged were Somali Americans. In January 2026, federal agents shot and killed Renee Good and then Alex Pretti during enforcement operations there. Trump said he wanted to "de-escalate" and put Homan in charge, and a standoff over Democrats' demands for new limits on ICE led to a partial Homeland Security shutdown in February. Elsewhere, the Justice Department has sued sanctuary states and cities, and a House Judiciary Committee report said New York City district attorneys steered prosecutors toward reduced charges for noncitizen defendants.
ICE deported more than 65,000 people in Trump's first 100 days. In January 2026, the Department of Homeland Security claimed that 1.9 million to 2.2 million people had self-deported since Trump took office, for a total of nearly 3 million when combined with formal deportations. The White House has pushed for one million deportations a year, and Upward's analysis is that at the current rate of removals the administration will fall well short of that.
According to Upward's October 2026 tally, an expanded travel ban blocks people from 39 countries, visas for fiancés and spouses of US citizens are down 61 percent from February 2024 levels, student visas are down 42 percent, H-1B visas are down 78 percent and refugee admissions are down nearly 90 percent. The State Department has also paused immigrant visa interviews and plans to revoke up to 200,000 visitor visas held by people who later sought asylum. The administration says its cuts to legal immigration are the largest in American history.
No. In June 2026 the Court ruled 6-3 that the 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship to nearly all children born on US soil, striking down Trump's order. Speaker Mike Johnson said House Republicans are "looking at all angles" for a legislative fix or a constitutional amendment, but Upward's analysis is that birthright citizenship is here to stay.
In December 2025, more than 100 ICE officers were sent to Minneapolis to arrest up to 500 Somali nationals with deportation orders. In January 2026, an ICE officer fatally shot Renee Good, whom the administration accused of driving into the officer, and federal agents later shot and killed Alex Pretti, who was carrying a handgun. The deaths set off protests and a political backlash, and Trump put Tom Homan in charge of operations in Minnesota.
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