immigration updates: July 22, 2025

I-9 stuff, the IRS and Medicaid join the co-opted, overstating the overstays, and . . . Eswatini.

they get anonymity, we lose confidentiality

While ICE gets to dress like us (on a really bad day), but with masks and no identification, the Trump administration has found ways to permit ICE to unearth formerly confidential information from other agencies.

A ProPublica report dove into the IRS’ new digital system giving Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) real‑time access to taxpayer data––including home addresses––dramatically curtailing taxpayer confidentiality and exposing individuals without a criminal history to enforcement actions.

Meanwhile, the administration’s agreement between CMS and Homeland Security gives ICE limited access to personal data for all 79 million Medicaid recipients: including immigration status. Emergency Medicaid (covering only lifesaving services) is available to everyone, regardless of immigration status. Twenty states have sued, alleging violation of federal privacy laws, though the transfer of data has already occurred.

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more headaches for employers . . .

. . . and more work for HR. In conjunction with the mass revocations of work authorization for (soon to be former) TPS holders, E‑Verify employers can now access a “Revoked Document Number” field in the new Status Change Report, a tool for identifying whether a work permit has been revoked. Employers enrolled in E‑Verify are now expected to regularly run the Status Change Report and compare employee documents against the “Revoked Document Number” field. If a match is found, they must reverify the authorization using Form I‑9 Supplement B (without creating a new E‑Verify case). Failure to act could expose employers to liability for knowingly continuing to employ unauthorized workers, though no indication has been given regarding how frequently this should be done. To be on the safe side, employers should create internal protocols, document all actions, and talk to their lawyers when reviewing I‑9s or generally evaluating risk.

The lines get a bit shorter next month

It’s the time of the month we all look forward to the most over here: the Visa Bulletin update! In the Family Final Action Dates, the F2A category (spouses and children under the age of 21 of permanent residents) jumped forward 8 months worldwide (to 9/1/22), with Mexico also advancing 7 months. The F3 (married adult children of U.S. citizens) and F4 categories (siblings of U.S. citizen adults) for the Philippines advanced over 2 months and 7 months, respectively—while Mexico’s F2B (unmarried adult children of permanent residents) moved ahead a full year. The Dates for Filing chart also advanced across categories, especially for F2B Mexico (forward one year) and F4 Worldwide/China (forward over 3 months). In the Employment-Based categories, EB-3 showed the most movement, with Worldwide, Mexico, and the Philippines advancing over 6 weeks (Final Action) and 2 months (Dates for Filing). EB-1 and EB-2 China and EB-3 India basically stayed the same. The EB-4 is still unavailable for everyone.

A brief explainer of how the bulletin works (and what these dates mean) can be found in the May 21st newsletter.

this stuff isn’t popular

An interesting class action lawsuit accuses the Departments of Justice and of Homeland Security of colluding to deport people right from court, alleging a violation of due process. We can anticipate that they’ll also get sued over their new practice of arresting migrants (who have been here less than two years) as they exit courtrooms—even those with pending asylum cases and no criminal history. And due to another new policy, once arrested, they won’t be eligible for bond. Along with removing the migrants from court, the Administration is removing many of the judges as well, with no reason given, despite the backlog of nearly 4 million cases. (As we’ve discussed, the immigration courts essentially all more under the executive branch than the judicial branch, giving the Administration far more leeway to mold the courts to their liking.) Meanwhile, the Administration considered bringing criminal charges against immigration judges that considered switching to virtual hearings in order to mitigate against the chances of migrants skipping on their in-person hearings due to fears of arrest.

And Eswatini, an African nation we understand to be smaller than New Jersey and ruled by a monarchy, will now receive deportees convicted of criminal offenses whose home countries refuse to accept them.

Coincidentally or not, two-thirds of the lawyers charged with defending the Administration have quit.

The public, including some Republicans, is not happy. Polls are showing that the public now rates immigration FAR more favorably than they do the Administration's approach to immigration. Maybe it’s the armed ICE officers raiding churches, arresting doctor’s with pending green card applications outside their kids’ preschool, tear-gassing and arresting U.S. citizen veterans without any basis other than looking Hispanic and being on a farm, limiting multi-lingual services (by making English the official language), or any of the other enforcement actions we’ve been detailing.

And the numbers they’ve been citing to justify the travel ban and restrictions on students turn out to have been substantially overblown.

Matthew Blaisdell, Esq.

Sunset Immigration PLLC

219 36th Street, Ste 511

Brooklyn, NY 11232

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