IMMIGRATION LAW UNDER THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

These are very difficult times for immigrants who live in our

community and the attorneys who represent them. The vast number of

people who are being arrested are not convicted felons or members of a

violent street gang. They are people who have lived here for many years,

have no criminal record, work hard, have families and pose no threat to our

society.

Below are examples of some of the most horrible  things I have recently seen in my practice, along with some suggestions on what we can do to help the people who are the targets of these actions.

The rule of law is not being respected by the current administration.  In my over 40 years of practice I have never seen anything like this.  Recently, I obtained a court order staying the deportation of one of my clients that was ignored by ICE.  This order prohibited ICE from deporting him until a decision was issued by an immigration judge.  My client went to his green card interview in downtown L.A. in May 2025.  He was being petitioned by his U.S. Citizen wife.  He has no criminal record.

Years ago this client had been married to someone else.  He filed for his green card through her.  Their marriage fell apart before his green card was approved.  They sent a notice for him to go to immigration court, but the notice was sent to the ex-wife and she never told him about it.  The immigration judge entered an absentia removal order for failure to appear.  This client was not aware of the deportation order until he came to see us to represent him many years later.  

At the conclusion of his interview, he was handcuffed and taken to the Adelanto Detention Center to be deported.  We had previously filed a Motion to Reopen has case.  We tried to forward the temporary stay order to his deportation officer at this facility.

To get around this, ICE immediately transferred our client to another detention center located in another state.  They would not tell us where he was until it was too late.  This made it impossible to contact the new deportation officer to let him know we had a court order staying his deportation.  

He was deported a few days later and now back in Belize. It will take years to try to bring him back.  Had our client remained in the U.S. this was a case that could have easily been fixed here.  His wife and three minor children are the true victims of this injustice.  Their hopes and dreams for the future have been destroyed.  

Even the easiest case can be a problem.  I recently went on a very simple green card interview that had a terrible result.  Our client was being petitioned by one of his U.S. Citizen children.  This was a very simple straight forward case.  During the interview my client told the officer that he had forgotten to include the names of his step children in the biographic portion of the green card petition form.  Things like this are normally considered very minor omissions like a misspelled name or wrong birth date.  

In the past the immigration officer would simply handwrite in the corrections and go on with the interview.  In this case my client was charged with immigration fraud.  This never once happened to me prior to the current administration.  This administration is now looking for any excuse to deny a case, no matter how insignificant it is.  I could provide numerous other examples of the terrible injustices that are happening to immigrants trying to fix their immigration status the right way.  

Many things are being done to make things harder that you won’t see on the news.  The filing fees have gone up dramatically; so people can’t afford to pay them.  In some cases, they are 8-9x’s more.   The waiting times to process cases has increased tremendously and many new restrictions have been imposed to make things much harder on almost every case.    It is my understanding six immigration judges have been fired in California because they were perceived to be too liberal.  

They have cancelled programs granting Temporary Protected Status to thousands of people from Central America, Haiti and Venezuela; so they can be soon be put into removal proceedings and deported.  These are people who have families and have lived here for many years.

Here is what to tell someone who calls you to say they are afraid to go outside because of the ICE raids and don’t know what to do.  

1. If ICE comes to a private residence or business, they cannot enter the premises without a warrant signed by a judge. ICE is creating fake warrants signed by an ICE agent, not by a judge.  

2. You need to have them ask to see the warrant and see if it signed by a judge at the bottom of the “warrant.”   If this is not the case, the warrant is not valid and ICE cannot enter the premises.  

3. Tell them not to volunteer any information to ICE about their immigration status and not to sign anything waiving their right to see a judge.  

There have been many instances where an immigrant will be arrested and deported after coming out of immigration court.  This only happens when someone goes to court without a lawyer.  If someone has an attorney, they are safe.  The attorney will make the court appearance remotely on something called Webex and the client does not have to physically go to court.  

If an immigrant is not represented by an attorney when they go to court in person, the DHS lawyer will tell the immigration judge to dismiss the case .  The judge must grant this request since DHS has the authority to decide what cases they want to prosecute, not the court.  

Once the case is dismissed the court no longer has jurisdiction and ICE will pick them up and deport them when they come out of court, without any real due process.  If someone contacts you about this you need to tell them not to go to court without having an attorney .

This administration has now made it almost impossible to win an asylum case.  Denials are between 85-90 percent.  I recently went to immigration court in West Los Angeles to put on my client’s asylum case.  To my surprise the DHS attorney did not ever show up to the hearing. That was a first.   The regulations are now so stacked against us that DHS apparently feels they don’t even need to show up.  

We are trying to use the courts to stop some of the most extreme abuses being done by DHS, but what do you do when DHS does not comply with a court order?  This is happening a lot.  The courts don’t have their own police to enforce their orders; so, it appears DHS can violate them with impunity.  

A federal judge in Los Angeles just issued a temporary stay that has blocked federal agents from using racial profiling to carry out indiscriminate immigration arrests that have terrorized our entire immigrant community.  This ruling applies to Los Angeles, Riverside, Orange, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obisbo counties.  ICE cannot conduct racial profiling and randomly arrest people simply because they speak Spanish, or because they are in a location where a lot of immigrants live or work.     

They need to show probable cause,  just like in a criminal case.  I am sure this ruling will go up to the U.S. Supreme Court and who knows what they will do.   If you want to help you can contact a non-profit organization like CLUE which is powerful church movement helping immigrants.  

You can find CLUE at cluejustice.org to see what you can do to help, like contributing to a bond fund to get people out o detention.  This is the one I most commonly do volunteer work for.   There are many other non-profit groups that you can contact to help.   The only way to fight back is by showing the public is horrified by what is happening.  If you know of an immigrant who is being abused by federal agents and you think that story will touch our heart, please contact the press to let them know.  

Also, going to a protest is very effective way to show the will of the people.  You can feel like you are doing something to help and let everyone to know these authoritarian actions must stop.  The people who are at risk are your friends, co-workers, neighbors, family members and business owners and their workers who you see everyday.  We need to make a difference for today for someone who is fighting for tomorrow.

DAVID ACALIN 

DAVID ACALIN LAW