Top Immigration Story of 2025: The First Year Immigration Agenda of President Trump's Second Term

For a number of years, I have been posting a top 10 list of immigration news stories for the year. Here is the list for 2024.

When I thought about compiling this year's list, I was at a loss. There are just too many stories to identify. The move of the blog to a new platform complicated matters logistically. Still, breathtaking immigration news came in massive waves. Items that would be BIG stories in other years were quickly forgotten in 2025. Even the forcible removal of a sitting U.S. Senator (Alex Padilla) with immigration questions from Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem's press conference was soon forgotten. So was a record-breaking immigration raid at a Hyundai plant in Georgia that riled the Korean government and caused problems for the Trump administration. And many of us have become acquainted with the playing of ICE propaganda advertisements that glorify President Trump's mass deportation campaign during professional sporting events.

In the end, the immigration story of the year is President Donald Trump. His aggressive immigration agenda kicking off his second term is not like anything the nation has seen in modern U.S. history – and maybe ever in U.S. history. Indeed, I think that this President's immigration actions rival those of Congress of 1882, which passed the Chinese Exclusion Act.

Here is a quick list of ten major immigration news stories from 2025. I no doubt missed many more and apologize in advance.

1. President Trump unleashed a mass deportation campaign, including deployment of the military to combat the migrant "invasion." The claim is that the administration was targeting the "worst of the worst" criminals. The data shows otherwise. See also here. The campaign even came to state and immigration courts where law-abiding noncitizens taking care of their judicial business were arrested and, in some instances, deported.
2. The attack on birthright citizenship enshrined in the Fourteenth Amendment that now is before the U.S. Supreme Court (Trump v. Barbara). No president had previously challenged birthright citizenship.
3. Kristi Noem was appointed Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and took an extremely hard line – some might say heartless or even fascist – set of immigration positions. Tom Homan was named "Border Czar" and took similarly hardline immigration positions; he also has been accused of taking payoffs.
4. The racial dragnet in Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington D.C., New Orleans, Charlotte, etc. Latina/os were the targets of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) roving patrols in major cities with Democratic mayors. The patrols relied on race as a factor in immigration stops and Latina/os were understandably terrified. Arrests were made; immigrants detained; U.S. citizens were questioned and, in some instances, arrested. Protests and, at times, violence followed. Life on the streets of these vibrant cities quieted. School attendance dropped. Day laborer pick up points at Home Depots disappeared. Mixed status families made continency plans if an immigrant parent were deported unexpectedly. The Supreme Court allowed the roving patrols to continue.
5. The Trump administration eliminated Temporary Protected Status, Humanitarian Parole, and related relief for noncitizens from the developing world. Noncitizens lawfully in the country thus lost their legal status and were subject to removal.
6. The Trump administration relied on the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 in an attempt to remove noncitzens from the United States without due process. The Act only had been invoked three times in U.S. history – and then only time times of declared war (War of 1812, WWI, and WW II). Fortunately, the Supreme Court halted this attempt and made clear that noncitizens have a right to due process before removal from the country,.
7. The Trump administration pursued hyperaggressive immigration measures and litigation positions in the courts. The once-respected Department of Justice lost its luster.
8. The Trump administration engaged in a mass purge of immigration judges believed to be too pro-immigrant because of their decisions or background.
9. As it did in President Trump's first term, The Trump administration has consistently attacked sanctuary cities and states and enlisted other states to assist the U.S. government in immigration enforcement.
10. After a tragic shooting in which an asylee from Afghanistan is the primary suspect, the administration puts a stop on all immigration actions on immigration applications of noncitizens from 19 nations. This even meant cancellation of naturalization ceremonies for lawful permanent residents who had already satisfied all of the requirements for naturalization.

There no doubt is lots more that I could list. But one gets the picture. All in all, 2025 was a momentous year in U.S. immigration history.