Beyond the Border: Rearrests despite court orders, ICE recruits with troubling records and a detained 8-year-old

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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ICE-related deaths 

The Indianapolis Star reported that staff at Indiana’s Miami Correctional Facility ignored warnings about an immigrant’s deteriorating mental health before his suicide attempt.

Six Democratic members of Congress demanded an investigation into the death of 43-year-old Guatemalan immigrant Guillermo Pascual Verganza at Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego, inewsource reported.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported that a Chicago-area man died shortly after Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported him to Pakistan,and his family and attorney are questioning whether he had access to the medications he needed for several chronic conditions.

Documented reported that Chaofeng Ge died by suicide in ICE custody afterdetention staff ignored his requests to be placed with other Chinese detainees. 

The Baltimore Banner reported that Sen. Chris Van Hollen raised concerns about possible retaliation against the wife of a man who died in ICE custody in Louisiana while calling for greater scrutiny of the circumstances surrounding the death.

ICE activity 

ICE officers detained an 8-year-old Haitian boy during a scheduled immigration appointment in San Diego, separating him from the family member who was caring for him, KPBS reported. 

WJTV reported that the family of the boy has struggled to determine where the Department of Health and Human Services was holding him.

ICE detained immigrant women who sought police assistance for domestic violence, highlighting concerns that current immigration policies discourage survivors from reporting abuse, ProPublica reported.

The Guardian reported that ICE officers have rearrested at least 20 immigrants nationwide after federal courts ordered their release through habeas corpus petitions. The American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado has identified at least 17 similar cases in a court filing.

WKOW reported that authorities released a Wisconsin state trooper after ICE officers detained the South African man at an airport.

ICE officers detained a University of Maryland student and her mother during a scheduled immigration check-in, FOX 5 DC reported.

ICE officers detained two people outside a Santa Clarita sheriff's station without notifying local authorities in advance, KTLA reported.

The Boston Globe reported that immigration raids across Massachusetts contributed to increased student absenteeism as families feared enforcement actions and children struggled with the psychological effects of witnessing arrests.

The Stockton Chronicle posted a video on Instagram that showed three ICE officers entering Sonora Market in Stockton, California, before residents confronted them and demanded they leave.

Detained Berkeley Student 

Approximately 300 University of California Berkeley students protested to demand the release of a fellow student detained by ICE, The Daily Californian reported.

A federal judge ordered the release of University of California Berkeley student Paula Albornoz Hernandez after ICE detained her, Berkeleyside reported.

Immigration agency staffing

The Washington Post reported that at least 19 newly hired ICE officers out of about 300 reviewed have past allegations of misconduct, criminal charges or other employment concerns, raising questions about the agency's accelerated recruitment and background screening procedures.

The New York Times reported that ICE officer David Brouillette, who fatally shot an immigrant in Maine, has intense anti-immigrant views — in addition to a history of domestic violence and abuse. 

ICE hired a former Detroit police officer who killed a teenager while on duty, raising questions about federal recruitment standards, the Detroit Free Press reported.

Institutional culture, dehumanization of immigrants and professional pressures discourage Border Patrol agents from publicly opposing agency practices or resigning in protest, The New Yorker reported.

ICE and local police 

The Davis police department issued a traffic citation to a driver who honked during an immigration operation, the Davis Vanguard reported.

The Los Angeles Police Department held a community meeting in North Hollywood after a video captured a violent ICE arrest that raised concerns among residents, CBS Los Angeles reported.

Third-country removals 

The New York Times reported that many immigrants sent to third countries by the Trump administration are then deported to their home countries even though they had U.S. immigration court ordered protections from getting sent back there.

Over the past decade, the United States has pressured Mexico to cooperate with its immigration policies, and Mexican immigration officials put systems in place that paved the way for the movement of deportees to southern Mexico that is happening today, The Border Chronicle reported.

Border wall construction

ProPublica reported that contractors building a second border wall through Arizona's Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument unearthed Native American remains after warnings from tribal leaders that construction could disturb ancestral burial sites.

The Border Chronicle reported that construction of a second border wall and expanded surveillance infrastructure threatened environmentally sensitive areas, including Quitobaquito Springs in Arizona's Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.

The Associated Press reported that the Supreme Court allowed border wall construction in the Big Bend region of Texas to move forward despite bipartisan opposition.

Detention facilities and conditions 

A longtime green card holder from the Chicago suburbs spent 15 months in immigration custody despite her established residence in the U.S., the Chicago Tribune reported.

Internal investigators with ICE found that 23 deaths in the agency's custody involved deficient medical care, The San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Project Salt Box reported that the Department of Homeland Security's draft environmental assessment found no significant environmental harm from a proposed 1,500-bed detention center in Surprise, Arizona. The facility's prospective operator helped prepare the review.

Project Salt Box reported that private prison company CoreCivic urged ICE to purchase additional detention facilities following the election after the company earned approximately $1.3 billion from previous facility sales.

Private prison company GEO Group is also trying to make additional detention center sales to ICE after selling its Adelanto facility for $950 million, Project Salt Box reported.

The New York Times reported that the Department of Homeland Security implemented a policy in September that removed immigrants with final deportation orders from ICE’s online locator system, making it difficult for some families and attorneys to determine the whereabouts of more than 20,000 people in federal custody.

Four immigrant legal aid organizations filed a lawsuit challenging ICE’s practice of concealing the locations of people in its custody, the Associated Press reported. 

Surveillance

The New York Times reported that federal authorities are using artificial intelligence-powered surveillance cameras along the U.S.-Mexico border to monitor movement of people, including those living in the U.S.

ICE's Homeland Security Investigations division conducted extensive surveillance of left-wing activists, using undercover operations, intercepted communications and other investigative tools that civil liberties advocates compared to historical government suppression on political dissent, WIRED reported.

Midterm election analysis 

Democrats won major races across the U.S.-Mexico border region, including Gina Hinojosa's victory in Texas, The Border Chronicle reported. Several historically Republican-leaning border counties in Texas shifted toward Democratic candidates during the 2026 midterm elections, The Texas Tribune reported.

The Border Chronicle reported that Democratic victories in the 2026 midterm elections generated hope among residents of Columbus, New Mexico, even as federal surveillance and Border Patrol activity continued throughout the region.

The Texas Tribune reported that Erik Gomez, the Republican mayor of Sabinal, Texas, struggled with whether to support Ken Paxton in the race for U.S. Senate.

The Associated Press reported that Houston's mayor signed an order limiting local police cooperation with ICE following the midterm election results.

Democratic lawmakers are already making moves to prepare to investigate the Department of Homeland Security after the midterm election results, Mother Jones reported.

Democratic lawmakers are planning to launch investigations into fatal shootings by immigration officials after they take over Congress in January, NPR reported.

The Texas Tribune reported that the Democrats taking charge in Texas will have a lot of work ahead of them to reverse former Gov. Greg Abbott's Operation Lone Star immigration policies.

President Donald Trump appointed Stephen Miller as his new chief of staff, a promotion for the man at the center of many of the administration's cruelest immigration policies, NPR reported.

The New York Times reported that immigration enforcement operations in Kansas contributed to changing political attitudes and helped Democrats gain support in a previously Republican county.

Anti-ICE protests 

ABC10 reported that students and colleagues called for the release of a Northern California nurse who had spent nearly two months in ICE custody.

Protesters gathered outside White Memorial Hospital in Boyle Heights after ICE officers brought a person to the emergency room, CBS Los Angeles reported. LAist reported that ICE officers detained two U.S. citizens who protested there.

The Williston Observer reported that  demonstrators in Vermont protested  against immigration enforcement by creating a mock funeral procession outside an ICE facility.

Federal officers carried a woman who had a white mobility cane into an ICE facility during the Nov. 6 protest in Williston, Vermont, Medical Daily reported.

Other stories to watch 

PBS' Frontline examined Haiti's deportation crisis, documenting the challenges facing people returned to a country experiencing political instability, gang violence and humanitarian emergencies as well as the pervasive fear among those still in the U.S. about the possibility of deportation.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in the Western District of Washington plans to stop defending ICE in many habeas corpus petition cases because of the quantity being filed, Newsweek reported.

The United States skipped a United Nations review of its human rights record, prompting criticism from international officials and human rights representatives, Reuters reported.

Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed a former U.S. attorney to serve as a judge in Sacramento after he lost his position after questioning an immigration raid, KDH News reported.

Mother Jones reported that a disabled U.S. citizen dragged from her car by ICE during Operation Metro Surge is pursuing legal action seeking to identify the masked officers involved.

ABC7 Chicago reported that although an immigration judge dismissed the federal government's deportation case against a longtime Chicago resident, she remains in  custody while officials consider an appeal.

A federal appeals court allowed officers to continue using tear gas outside an ICE detention facility in Portland, Oregon, KOIN reported.

The Davis police department issued a traffic citation to a driver who honked during an immigration operation, the Davis Vanguard reported.

CBS New York reported that a judge ordered Mayor Zohran Mamdani's administration to provide ICE with information concerning residents at a Bronx homeless shelter.

A federal court sentenced a former ICE officer to 21 months in prison for lying to federal agents during a domestic violence investigation, WLWT reported.

Hospital workers in Los Angeles have explored using union contract provisions to challenge warrantless ICE operations and protect patients' access to medical care, LA Public Press reported.

WIRED reported that ICE's Homeland Security Investigations branch has used administrative subpoenas approximately 185,000 times since Trump returned to office, exceeding the number issued over more than six years during an earlier period.

CBS Los Angeles reported that Border Patrol agents fired at a suspect during a pursuit near the U.S.-Mexico border.

MPR News reported that the Sing Again project recorded lullabies and poems from 61 Somali grandmothers in Minnesota to preserve their language, cultural traditions and intergenerational connections.

Thanks for reading! Take care and stay well.

— Emma