People who are going through the U.S. immigration system are getting more scared as the Trump administration steps up its crackdown on illegal immigrants. New changes to the law are making things even harder for people seeking refuge and other migrants who want to become legal residents. A lot of people are now thinking about whether staying in court is worth the risk or whether it would be safer to leave the country on their own.
This week, one of these situations happened at an immigration court in Dallas. A young mother from Venezuela was nervously waiting for her hearing. As she got closer to the courtroom, an ICE worker in plain clothes stopped her. Even though the agent wasn’t there to hold her, the experience made her feel even more worried. Already worried about how her visa case would go, and this experience made her worry even more: staying in the U.S. was becoming too dangerous.
The mother said in Spanish that her biggest fear was being sent back to her home country without her five-year-old son. “The judge said my next court date is October 1, 2025, and that I should come alone,” she said. “Where will my son go if I’m sent away that day?” “Who is going to take care of him?”
These questions are very important to her because she is a mother and is sensitive. She is worried about both her own safety and the safety of her child. She is really thinking about deporting herself before her next hearing because of how unclear things are with immigration right now. She said, “It’s better not to come,” which meant she was giving up. “Everyone wants better luck, but some people can’t make it.” It’s too hard to understand.”
The new plan from the Trump administration is to arrest people in court.
There is reason to be afraid for this mother. A big change was made to how the U.S. government handles immigration court cases two weeks ago. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) lawyers started working with immigration judges to speed up deportations at the direction of the Trump administration. With this new strategy, cases against immigrants who came to the U.S. within the last two years are dropped. This ends their temporary protected status and makes them available for arrest and deportation right away.
In reality, this means that people who go to court hearings expecting to go through the legal process may be detained as soon as they leave the building. Lawyers have said that this is a new way of doing things that raises real concerns about due process.
Paul Hunker, an immigration lawyer who used to be ICE’s chief counsel in Dallas, said, “This level of coordination between the immigration court, ICE attorneys, and enforcement officers has never been seen before.” When you arrest people at the border, that’s one thing. But this is aimed at people who have lived in the U.S. for a long time and have ties to it. The fast-tracked removal process wasn’t made for these people.
For many years, expedited removal was mostly used for refugees caught at the border or soon after entering the country. But in January, President Trump signed an order that made this process bigger so that people who have been in the U.S. longer could also be part of it. Now, there is a chance that many refugees will be sent back to their home countries quickly, giving them little to no time to fight their cases in court.
As someone who used to work for ICE, Hunker isn’t sure if this strategy is legal. “If I were still in my former role, I would say this is a bad idea,” he stated. If someone has been in the country for a long time, their case gets more complicated. The fast removal process doesn’t give people a fair chance to be heard, and there’s a good chance the courts will rule it illegal.
DHS Backs Up New Policy
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has defended the choice to make these quick removals, even though there are concerns. A top DHS spokesperson said in a statement that the new strategies were meant to fix the problems with the previous administration’s “catch-and-release” policy, which they say let millions of migrants, including criminals, stay in the U.S. without being properly screened.
“Most aliens who illegally entered the U.S. within the past two years are subject to expedited removals,” the source said. “Biden chose to ignore this legal fact and let millions of illegal immigrants into the country with a notice to appear before an immigration judge instead.” As it should have always been, ICE is now following the law and putting these illegal immigrants through rapid removal.
The statement made it clear that migrants with true fear claims would still be able to go through the immigration process. However, things are much more complicated than that. Advocates for immigrants are worried that these policies will have unexpected effects, like making more migrants skip their court dates out of fear of being detained or sent back to their home country. If migrants don’t show up to court, they are automatically sent home, which makes it easy for ICE to arrest and send them home later.
“This is part of why the Trump administration is making these changes,” Hunker told us. “Once someone has a removal order, it’s much easier for ICE to pick them up and remove them from the country.”
The bigger effect on migrants
The situation for immigrant families is getting worse as the government pushes ahead with this new plan. Leaving families behind is very hard, and many people don’t know what to do. People who came to the U.S. to seek refuge now have to make impossible decisions: they can either keep fighting in court, where they could be detained and separated from their families, or they can leave on their own, where they could put their families’ safety at risk.
The choice seems clear to the mother from Venezuela in Dallas. She says she is going to leave the country on her own before her October court date. She said, “I’m scared for my son.” “I don’t want to be away from him. I only want to protect him.
As news of these new rules spreads among immigrant communities, more people will probably think again about their choices, weighing the risks of living in the U.S. against how hard things are in their home countries. The Trump administration says these actions are needed to keep the country’s borders safe, but critics say they make life hard for people who want to come to the US for safety and a better future.
Fear of being deported and being separated from their families isn’t just a political problem for many; it’s a matter of life and death.
