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The original was posted on /r/keep_track by /u/rusticgorilla on 2025-05-29 11:08:41+00:00.
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This week, we’re trying something new. With so many stories to cover, I’ll now be sharing a comprehensive roundup at the end of each month, featuring the most important news stories that relate to the Trump administration. While I can’t include every link imaginable, I’ll try to make these posts as exhaustive as possible.
Illegal deportations
Abrego Garcia: Kilmar Abrego Garcia remains incarcerated in El Salvador as litigation proceeds in Judge Paula Xinis’ courtroom. Over the past month, the majority of legal disputes have revolved around the Trump administration’s obstruction of the discovery process. During the most recent hearing on May 16, the government invoked the state secrets privilege to avoid disclosing its efforts, or lack thereof, to secure Abrego Garcia’s release and return to the United States.
Cristian: The 4th Circuit upheld a lower court order requiring the government to “facilitate” the return of a second man illegally removed from the country and imprisoned in El Salvador. The man, known in court filings as Cristian, was legally shielded from deportation under a court-approved settlement protecting asylum-seekers who arrived in the country as unaccompanied minors. The Trump administration kidnapped him and sent him to CECOT anyway.
O.C.G.: Massachusetts District Judge Brian Murphy ordered the Trump administration to return a third unlawfully deported man known in court documents as O.C.G. The government deported O.C.G. to Mexico despite his expressing fear of persecution and harm to immigration authorities; he had been raped and targeted for being gay. The administration lied in court filings, saying O.C.G. never expressed fear of removal to Mexico, before later retracting their statement when no official would testify to the fact under oath.
In general, this case presents no special facts or legal circumstances, only the banal horror of a man being wrongfully loaded onto a bus and sent back to a country where he was allegedly just raped and kidnapped…On balance, the Court finds that the public benefits from living in a country where rules are followed and where promises are kept. Rules are tedious and frustrating, but they also keep us fair and honest.
Immigration courts are dismissing the aslyum cases of immigrants who were imprisoned in El Salvador. “It seems the government’s intention in dismissing these cases across the country is to complete the disappearance of people to El Salvador, to end their legal proceedings, and to act as though they weren’t here seeking asylum in the first place,” said Lindsay Toczylowski, executive director of Immigrant Defenders Law Center.
Third country removals
The Trump administration is reportedly negotiating with 19 other countries, including Angola, Guyana, Libya, Panama, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, and Ukraine, about accepting immigrants from other nations that the U.S. is seeking to remove from the country.
South Sudan: The Trump administration attempted to remove roughly half a dozen men of various nationalities to South Sudan without due process, violating Judge Murphy’s court order. Judge Murphy intervened, ordering that the men must be given a reasonable fear interview, access to attorneys, and the chance to reopen immigration proceedings to challenge their removal to a third country. Due to the court’s action, the plane carrying the immigrants landed at a U.S. military base in Djibouti, where they will be held while the process plays out.
- Despite the administration proposing to conduct reasonable fear interviews in Djibouti, DOJ lawyers now object to the terms they themselves suggested. The government filed yet another emergency appeal with the Supreme Court on Tuesday, seeking permission to send the immigrants to South Sudan without due process.
Immigration actions
The Postal Inspection Service is sharing USPS data with the Department of Homeland Security to help immigration authorities locate and detain undocumented immigrants.
ICE has entered into a contract with the Airlines Reporting Corporation to obtain access to data on air travelers, potentially to target visa holders, green card holders, and undocumented immigrants at airports.
ICE is getting side-door access to the nationwide system of Flock license plate cameras by asking local police to perform lookups on their behalf, according to 404 Media.
Customs and Border Protection plans to expand its program for real-time face recognition at the border, even for outbound traffic.
The Trump administration is freezing all new student and exchange visitor visas as it prepares “for an expansion of required social media screening and vetting.”
The Trump administration is preparing to use a nearly $3 billion “America First Opportunity Fund” at the State Department to incentivize other countries to accept deportations of their nationals living undocumented in the U.S.
Department of Justice lawyers are moving to dismiss existing immigration cases to avoid due process, tricking individuals into showing up at court only to be detained by ICE and put into expedited removal proceedings. Numerous reports of this tactic, designed to target those who are following the law, have been piling up across the country. Individuals subject to expedited removal do not receive a hearing before a judge, thereby circumventing immigration court review. Those who are deterred from appearing at their court dates will be issued an in absentia removal order by the judge, creating a no-win situation.
Homeland Security agents are doing “welfare checks” on immigrant children, replacing a job normally done by social workers from the Office of Refugee Resettlement.
- Related: “An Agency Tasked With Protecting Immigrant Children Is Becoming an Enforcement Arm, Current and Former Staffers Say,” ProPublica, May 14, 2025
- Related: “‘The Children Are Being Used as Bait’: Thousands of kids are stuck in immigration facilities—with no end in sight,” Mother Jones, May 12, 2025
The Department of Homeland Security is asking NGO shelters near the U.S.-Mexico border to house migrants released from ICE detention, even as FEMA threatens to pr…
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