ICE

# Asylum Seekers# Detention# Immigration

No Fly Zone

By now, I’m sure you’ve heard reports about ICE detaining asylum seekers and other non-citizens at airports during domestic travel. According to one DHS official, “ICE is now making between 20 and 40 arrests per day at airports nationwide.” That’s up from “fewer than 10 airport arrests per day in May 2025.” However, since we don’t have data on the number of undocumented or otherwise vulnerable people who travel by air, it is difficult to know the likelihood that any one person will be detained. Nevertheless, given the uptick in arrests, most attorneys–including me–recommend that asylum seekers and certain other non-citizens avoid domestic air travel.

Today, we’ll talk about which travelers face a risk of detention, and whether there is anything you can do to protect yourself.

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By Jason Dzubow
# Asylum Seekers# Human Rights# International

The Escalating Threat of Third Country Deportations

The Trump Administration has dramatically increased the practice of deporting non-citizens to third countries. As of May 2026, more than 21,000 people have been removed to at least 24 different countries. In many cases, the non-citizen has no connection to the third country and in some case, has never even been to that country. Upon arrival in the the third country, non-citizens can be subject to arbitrary detention, human rights abuses, and sometimes, return to their home country where they fear persecution.

Here, we’ll take a look at what the U.S. government is doing and who might be vulnerable to a third country deportation.

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By Jason Dzubow
# Asylum Seekers# Immigration Court

More Asylum Seekers Are “No Shows” in Immigration Court

Recent data reveals that increasing numbers of asylum seekers are failing to appear for their Immigration Court hearings and effectively abandoning their applications to remain in the United States.

In FY2023, there were 13,319 abandoned cases in our nation’s Immigration Courts; in FY2024, there were 18,436 abandonments; and in FY2025, the first year of the Trump Administration, the number of abandoned cases soared to 51,446.

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By Jason Dzubow
# Immigration# National Security

ICE, Lies, and Videotape

Last week, an ICE agent in Minneapolis fatally shot Renee Good, a U.S. citizen and mother of three. Ms. Good was in her vehicle protesting an ICE enforcement action in her city. Most people who have seen the various videos (including me) view the killing as completely unjustified or–at a minimum–believe that the incident requires a fair investigation to determine exactly what happened. Unfortunately, that did not stop President Trump and his team from quickly labeling Ms. Good a domestic terrorist and professional agitator, who the ICE agent shot in self defense. 

The killing and the Administration’s callous response have sparked mass protests in Minnesota and throughout the United States.

It’s difficult to know what to say about this terrible shooting and the subsequent attacks on Ms. Good, but for me, the incident fits a familiar pattern. The Trump Administration lies about anyone it does not like, and then uses those lies to justify harming that person. The difference here is that the harm came first and the lies came afterward. Also, the video evidence allows us to see for ourselves how the Administration is mischaracterizing events.

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By Jason Dzubow
# Immigration

Violence, Terror, and Hypocrisy: The Dallas ICE Shooting

Last week, a 29-year-old man opened fire on an ICE facility in Dallas, Texas. One detained migrant was killed and two others were injured. The shooter died of a self-inflicted wound.

DHS quickly concluded that this was “an attack on ICE law enforcement,” and the Acting U.S. Attorney for the region noted the “tragic irony” that migrants were harmed rather than ICE agents. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem called out “the far-left,” and said that comparing ICE to the “Nazi Gestapo, the Secret Police, and slave patrols has consequences.”

For an Administration that has consistently dehumanized, demonized, and lied about non-citizens, the idea of blaming far-left rhetoric for the Dallas attack is richly hypocritical. So too is the “irony” that migrants were harmed instead of ICE agents, which assumes that the murderer was somehow trying to help immigrants. Despite all this, I think it’s worth exploring whether anti-ICE rhetoric is contributing to increased violence and whether there might be more effective ways to talk about the government’s aggressive approach to immigration enforcement.

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By Jason Dzubow
# Asylum Seekers# Detention

Are Asylum Seekers Safe from ICE?

There are probably 4+ million asylum seekers in the United States. These are people who filed an application for asylum, form I-589, with the USCIS Asylum Office or with the Immigration Court, and their dependents. Under the new Trump Administration, are such people safe from detention and deportation by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement)? 

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By Jason Dzubow
# Immigration Court

The Return of Prosecutorial Discretion

The Trump Administration’s onslaught of anti-immigrant rule-making, combined with increased enforcement, pushed the Immigration Court backlog to new heights–there are currently more than 1.3 million noncitizens in removal proceedings.

When Joe Biden came into office, we were hoping his Administration would move quickly to un-do the damage caused by his predecessor, and to issue new, badly-needed administrative (and hopefully legislative) changes. To be fair, there have been some changes, especially to the more high-profile Trump-era policies such as the Muslim travel ban and the Migrant Protection Protocols. Progress in other areas has been slower, but now–after more than four months of deliberation–we have a new DHS memo on prosecutorial discretion.

The purpose of the memo is to guide DHS/ICE attorneys (the prosecutors in Immigration Court) about their enforcement priorities, i.e., who should and should not be a priority for deportation. The ability of prosecutors to make these decisions is important, since there are not enough resources to deport everyone, and DHS needs to decide where to focus its efforts. The new memo sets forth how DHS attorneys should exercise their “prosecutorial discretion” or “PD.”

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By Jason Dzubow
# Asylum Seekers

An Interview with Harvey Finkle: Documenting the New Sanctuary Movement

Photographer Harvey Finkle has documented immigration to the city of Philadelphia since the 1970s. His work has been hailed as “visual anthropology” that records successive waves of settlement, mostly in South Philadelphia, by European Jews, Vietnamese, Cambodians, Burmese, Mexicans, Central Americans, and other immigrants and refugees.

In his new book, Faces of Courage: Ten years of Building Sanctuary, Mr. Finkle chronicles the first ten years of the New Sanctuary Movement of Philadelphia—a coalition of twenty-eight congregations that works to build community across religious, ethnic, and class lines to end injustices against all immigrants, documented or otherwise.

The Asylumist recently caught up with Mr. Finkle, to ask about his career, his book, and the New Sanctuary Movement.

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By Jason Dzubow
# Detention# Immigration

What to Do If You Are Stopped by ICE

In order to “amplify” the President’s tough-on-immigrants campaign message and win votes, the Trump Administration is planning on conducting a series of ICE raids in “sanctuary” jurisdictions, such as California, Denver, and Philadelphia. What should you do if ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) comes looking for you? Or if you get caught up in a … Read more

By Jason Dzubow