Beyond the Border: ICE intimidating witnesses with guns, more airport arrests and surveillance of labor unions and nonprofits

Here's what happened this week in immigration news.

Written by Rami Alarian, 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.

Want to support this work? Consider donating to Daylight San Diego or email lauren@daylightsandiego.org if you're interested in sponsoring this newsletter.

ICE and guns 

The Atlanta Voice reported that dashcam video shows an ICE officer pointing a gun at a Virginia counselor after she shouted at officers detaining two men. The footage contradicts a Department of Homeland Security claim that she tried to weaponize her vehicle. 

A Chicago ICE watcher identified the officer who pointed his gun at the counselor as 40-year-old Martin Lagunas, Unraveled reported. According to the outlet, he'd been part of a team that appeared in Chicago and the Twin Cities and that documenters had previously recorded intimidating observers, drivers and protesters in at least three states. Two Department of Homeland Security sources later confirmed Lagunas’s identity, Migrant Insider reported. 

Los Angeles Times reported that the family of Keith Porter Jr., whom an off-duty ICE officer fatally shot in December 2025, asked a Los Angeles County District Attorney to bring the case before a grand jury. 

Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero was driving a car owned by an ICE operation’s intended target when an officer shot and killed him in Maine last month, The Boston Globe reported. 

The Intercept reported that ICE has held a Los Angeles journalist for over 300 days after shooting him in the elbow during an October arrest and failing to provide adequate treatment for the injury. 

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors approved a proposal on Tuesday that would end agreements that allowed federal immigration agencies to use county gun ranges, Daylight San Diego reported. ICE and Customs and Border Protection have used the facilities for years for mandatory firearm training.

ICE arrests of people with pending cases

ICE officers detained a 27-year-old Venezuelan mariachi musician during a traffic stop in San Antonio despite a pending asylum case and work authorization, San Antonio Express-News reported. The local mariachi community is pushing for his release.

The New York Times reported that at an airport in Burbank, ICE officers detained a Russian woman with a pending marriage-based green card application and no criminal history. 

NPR reported that a Venezuelan professional soccer player spent nearly six months in an immigration detention center in Georgia despite having two pending immigration applications, one for an extension of his tourist visa and the other for a visa for people with extraordinary abilities. 

ICE detained the San Diego Padres minor-league catching coordinator at an airport while he traveled for work, NBC News reported. The Department of Homeland Security said he overstayed a tourist visa. KPBS reported that his family said he has a valid work permit and is currently pursuing an asylum application. 

The Chicago Tribune reported that ICE released a Chicago DJ and his husband on bond after officials detained the couple at an airport while they had pending asylum cases and legal work permits. 

Surveillance 

Documents show the Department of Homeland Security and Minnesota’s U.S. attorney’s office conducted an investigation into left-leaning labor unions and political groups, The New York Times reported. “Operation Puppet Master” sent undercover operatives to infiltrate Signal chats and community meetings while obtaining financial records from labor unions and nonprofit groups, The Guardian reported. 

Immigration policy changes and their effects

A Board of Immigration Appeals ruling could stop participants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program from becoming eligible to apply for green cards through U.S. citizen spouses after traveling abroad through a program called advance parole, Los Angeles Times reported. 

A Trump administration policy requiring border-region financial services businesses to report cash transactions over $200 — which the administration later raised to $1,000 — has driven away customers and devastated small money-transfer businesses, The Guardian reported. 

The Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump administration has considered a $100,000 fee for international students to use the Optional Practical Training program which allows F-1 visa holders to work in the U.S. after graduation. 

Deportations 

A Cuban immigrant whom ICE sent to Eswatini last year is still imprisoned in a maximum-security prison there despite having no ties to the nation and no charges against him, The New York Times Magazine reported. He has since struggled to receive medical treatment for glaucoma and other conditions. After a hunger strike, he obtained a phone which allowed him to participate in video call interviews for the first time. 

Mother Jones reported that two deaf, Venezuelan asylum seekers said ICE denied them sign language interpreters during detention and deportation proceedings. The agency deported one to Mexico and the other to Venezuela.

CBS News reported that the Trump administration has quietly deported hundreds of Mexican immigrants to Guatemala and Honduras even though Mexico is willing to receive all of its citizens. 

ICE deported 20 people to Liberia on Thursday under a new agreement that will send as many as 1,200 people to the country, The Guardian reported. 

Associated Press reported that the Brazilian wife of an Army staff sergeant returned to the U.S. after ICE officers removed her from a deportation flight to Brazil. 

Other news 

The manufacturer of the shock-emitting gloves that ICE plans to distribute to its officers over the next seven months warns that repeated or prolonged use can factor into “sudden death,” The Latin Times reported. 404 Media published the user manual for the gloves.

Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott halted border construction in Big Bend National Park Sunday night, pausing work after a patrol road and vehicle barrier drew bipartisan criticism, The New York TImes reported. 

NPR reported that the Trump administration has significantly expanded the 287(g) program, which deputizes local law enforcement to perform immigration enforcement including interrogations, collecting evidence or making immigration arrests. The outlet detailed what that program has looked like in one Florida county.

Residents of Douglas, Arizona, held the binational Friends across Borders event, featuring a 5K run, yoga, panels and music to counter portrayal of the border as a place that needs to be militarized, The Border Chronicle reported. 

While President Donald Trump made English the official language of the United States last year, his administration has at the same time moved to zero out federal funding for teaching it, NPR’s Code Switch podcast reported. 

The Bulwark reported that despite JD Vance blaming undocumented immigrants for rising home costs, new-home prices rose sharply this year in the regions most reliant on immigrant construction labor. 

NPR's Code Switch podcast reported that the Trump administration has closed nearly every path to enter the U.S. except for H-2A visas, a visa for seasonal agricultural workers.

Thanks for reading! Take care and stay well.

— Rami