Beyond the Border: Another ICE shooting, an operation in California and terminating refugee status
Here's what happened this week in immigration news.
Written by Emma Chen, Edited by Kate Morrissey
Welcome to another edition of Beyond the Border, which summarizes immigration news from across the country in a weekly roundup. Did we miss something? Message us via kate@daylightsandiego.org or on Instagram.
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Federal use of force
PBS News Hour reported that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers shot 28-year-old Oscar Belgal in the neck while his 5-year-old son sat in his car in New York City, prompting outrage as federal officials claimed he attempted to ram officers with his vehicle.
CCTV footage released by New York police and published by the Associated Press appears to show Bengal backing his car away from the agents before pulling away from them. The outlet reported he has already appeared in immigration court and is being held in solitary confinement despite needing surgery to remove a bullet from his neck.
The Homeland Security secretary defended ICE officers who shot and wounded Belgal, claiming Belgal endangered the child during the arrest, BBC News reported.
Following the shooting, community leaders and elected officials planned a protest outside a Target store in the Bronx over allegations that the retailer allowed ICE officers to use its parking lot for immigration operations, NBC New York reported.
The Guardian reported that an ICE officer struck Miguel Parra-Hernandez with a vehicle during an immigration enforcement operation in Harris County, Texas.
The Houston Chronicle reported that Parra-Hernandez's family is seeking his release from immigration custody.
Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare is considering aggravated assault charges against the ICE officer after surveillance footage raised questions about the officer’s actions, The New York Times reported
The Marshall Project reported that despite a Department of Homeland Security use of force policy instructing otherwise, many shootings by ICE officers are of people driving cars.
FOX 12 Oregon reported that federal immigration officers used tear gas to disperse community members who surrounded and blocked their vehicles during an enforcement operation in northeast Salem, Oregon, prompting complaints of respiratory problems and an investigation by local police.
Truthout reported that Border Patrol agents used pepper spray and other force against activists protesting border wall construction near Lochiel, Arizona, while federal officials defended their actions as necessary to protect personnel.
Targeting California
ICE launched a 45-day immigration enforcement operation in California ahead of the midterm elections with sources alleging that supervisors instructed officers to target undocumented immigrants regardless of criminal history, The New Republic reported.
ABC30 reported that ICE officers visited three Lennar construction sites in Fresno and Madera counties over two days, detaining workers at two locations before leaving a third site without making arrests after a supervisor challenged their authority to enter.
An off-duty ICE officer is facing criminal charges after police said he assaulted a 72-year-old man and the man's daughter outside their Fresno home before the homeowner shot him, KMPH reported.
CalMatters reported that an increase in ICE arrests across California’s San Joaquin Valley prompted protests, disrupted agricultural communities and left immigrant families afraid to leave their homes, with advocates documenting at least 100 detentions over three days.
The Stockton Chronicle posted a video on Instagram showing residents in Cutler and Orosi, California, forming a caravan of vehicles to follow masked federal immigration officers as they left the area amid growing concerns over ICE enforcement in the Central Valley.
Talking Points Memo reported that the Justice Department gave California officials 48 hours to review a list of alleged noncitizen voters in Los Angeles County and prevent election officials from counting their mail-in ballots until they verify their citizenship, threatening legal action if the state fails to comply.
ICE-related deaths
The Washington Post reported that the family of Silverio Villegas Gonzalez filed a wrongful-death claim against the federal government, accusing an ICE officer of unjustifiably shooting the Mexican immigrant during a September 2025 traffic stop near Chicago and leaving his two young sons in foster care.
A newly released police report about a death at an ICE detention center in Michigan shows what police learned from security footage and an interview with a guard there, MLive reported. It also shows that the man had an abnormal electrocardiogram while in custody two months before his death but never received a follow up appointment with a specialist.
Tracking detention facilities
An NPR investigation found indications that ICE used a warehouse in Roxbury, New Jersey, to hold immigrants despite a federal court order restricting its conversion into a detention facility.
The Department of Homeland Security purchased the Adelanto ICE Processing Center near Victorville as part of its broader effort to acquire immigration detention facilities rather than rely exclusively on privately owned properties, KVCR reported.
WSB-TV reported that federal officials plan to sell a Georgia warehouse that ICE previously purchased for a proposed detention center, prompting relief among Oakwood residents who opposed plans to hold approximately 1,000 to 1,500 immigrants at the site.
The Gilroy City Council unanimously approved a 45-day moratorium on new detention facilities as residents and local officials raised concerns about a proposed ICE facility near the city’s borders, San José Spotlight reported.
Detention conditions
A pregnant Salvadoran immigrant said she endured inadequate nutrition — including raw chicken — inconsistent access to prenatal vitamins and serious health complications during six months at an ICE detention center in Texas, where her medical records documented high blood pressure and gestational diabetes, The Marshall Project reported.
Arizona Mirror reported that immigrants at an ICE detention facility in Florence, Arizona, say repeated fire alarms are disrupting their sleep. The Department of Homeland Security and private prison operator CoreCivic have denied the issue, but a reporter heard the alarm during a phone call with a detained person.
ICE officers have confined migrant children and their families in hotels, where parents and attorneys struggle to locate them while the families said they experienced constant surveillance, inadequate access to food and threats of separation, The Marshall Project reported.
Federal court updates
A federal judge temporarily halted border wall construction in Texas’ Big Bend region after environmental groups challenged the Trump administration’s decision to bypass environmental protection laws, citing concerns about irreparable environmental harm, Texas Monthly reported.
Legal services organization Public Counsel said its attorneys asked a federal court to enforce an order requiring the Department of Homeland Security and ICE to improve conditions at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, alleging that officials continued to deny detainees adequate sanitation, privacy and outdoor recreation.
A federal judge in Chicago warned that Homeland Security employees who participated in Operation Midway Blitz could have to surrender their personal phones for review as a lawsuit challenging the immigration operation proceeds, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
A federal judge ordered the Department of Homeland Security to return an Egyptian immigrant who grew up in Arizona to the United States after ruling that federal authorities violated his due process rights by deporting him to Equatorial Guinea without allowing him to challenge the removal, the Arizona Daily Star reported.
Other stories to watch
The Trump administration shortened the period refugees have to contest the termination of their legal status from 30 days to 10 days, raising concerns among immigration advocates about refugees’ ability to secure legal assistance and challenge government decisions, the Associated Press reported.
The GEO Group filed a federal lawsuit challenging California's Civil Detainees' Bill of Rights Act — which guarantees detainees access to medical care, clean water, safe living conditions and other protections — arguing that the state cannot impose additional standards on federal immigration detention operations, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Latino USA investigated how authorities incorrectly linked Venezuelan immigrant Nixon Azuaje-Pérez to the Tren de Aragua gang following a shooting in Aurora, Colorado, and how the allegations contributed to his detention and transfer to a high-security prison in El Salvador.
Department of Homeland Security officers searched Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar’s Washington, D.C., home as part of a federal criminal investigation involving her immigration paperwork, prompting Omar and Democratic leaders to accuse the Trump administration of using federal law enforcement to target political opponents, Politico reported.
Sen. Alex Padilla’s office released a statement that he discovered immigration officials conducting court proceedings in a basement area of a downtown Los Angeles federal building during an unannounced oversight visit, prompting concerns about transparency and access to legal representation.
PBS interviewed journalist Caitlin Dickerson about what happens to children after their parents are deported. The Brookings Institution estimated that more than 35,000 children have lost all parents or guardians who lived with them, the outlet reported.
Catholic Review reported that a traveling memorial featuring more than 100 crosses honoring immigrants who died in ICE custody or during immigration enforcement operations launched in Illinois, with organizers planning to bring the exhibit to communities nationwide.
Thanks for reading! Take care and stay well.
— Emma
