Federal
Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Holds Nomination Hearing for Senator Markwayne Mullin
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) held a confirmation hearing on March 18 for Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma), nominated to serve as the next Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). A full Senate confirmation is expected as early as next week. Mullin, 48, is a business owner who has represented Oklahoma in Congress for over a decade, first in the House and then in the Senate since 2023. On immigration, Mullin sought to distinguish himself from outgoing Secretary Kristi Noem, indicating he would reverse the administration’s practice of allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to enter homes with only an administrative warrant rather than a judicial one, a central sticking point in ongoing DHS funding negotiations.
Mullin’s nomination is being described as an opportunity for DHS to “hit reset” on what its priorities will be. Several Democratic members of the committee said Mullin’s stated openness to judicial warrants was not sufficient to break the shutdown impasse without accompanying legislation, with Senator Ruben Gallego (D-Arizona) telling reporters, “Openness doesn’t mean anything to me until I see it in actual legislation.” Mullin also expressed regret for having publicly called Alex Pretti, a Minneapolis man killed by an immigration agent in January, a “deranged individual,” saying he had “gone out too fast” and that as secretary he would not comment ahead of the facts. Additionally, Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino announced he would retire, marking another leadership transition at a federal immigration agency.
DACA Recipients Face Deportation and Renewal Delays as Democrats Demand Answers from DHS
On March 17, forty-one Senate Democrats signed a letter addressed to Kristi Noem, former Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Joseph Edlow, and Senator Markwayne Mullin demanding answers about what they describe as the deliberate “slow-walking” of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) renewal applications. The letter said the delays have left recipients without valid work authorization and vulnerable to arrest. Led by Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nevada) and Dick Durbin (D-Illinois), the letter stated that Democratic offices have heard from constituents “whose DACA has lapsed due to renewal delays being picked up by ICE.” USCIS has acknowledged that nearly 27,000 DACA renewal applications were pending as of mid-2025, and a review of court filings identified at least four individuals with pending renewals who have been arrested. Democratic staff separately learned that renewals are frozen entirely for recipients from countries on the Trump administration’s travel ban list, a policy change that was never publicly announced.
The number of DACA recipients that have been detained and deported has become a point of contention, with DHS providing conflicting numbers across different congressional inquiries. The agency told House members in January that it had detained 270 DACA recipients and deported 174, higher than the 261 detained and 86 deported it reported to Senator Durbin in February. Advocates say that the pattern of delays, freezes, and arrests amounts to “circumventing the law and ending the program without ending the program.” Among the cases drawing particular attention is the detention of a DACA recipient who was arrested by ICE while traveling to visit his premature baby in a neonatal intensive care unit.
White House Releases DHS Funding Offer as Shutdown Continues
The White House released a formal written offer on March 17 outlining concessions it is willing to make to end the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding shutdown. The offer proposed five changes: expanding body camera use for immigration agents, limiting enforcement in sensitive locations such as hospitals and schools, increasing oversight of detention facilities, requiring visible officer identification, and codifying existing law prohibiting the detention or deportation of U.S. citizens. However, the offer did not address Democrats’ two core demands — judicial warrants before entering private property and a prohibition on agents wearing masks — which the administration has previously described as redlines, leading Senate Democrats to reject the proposal as insufficient.
The shutdown is impacting air travel, with a senior Transportation Security Administration (TSA) official warning that some smaller airports may shut down entirely if the impasse continues, as hundreds of TSA officers have resigned and callout rates have increased. Separately, the Senate opened floor debate on the SAVE America Act, a Trump-backed voter ID bill that has already cleared the House, adding another flashpoint to an already contentious week on Capitol Hill, with some hard-right House Republicans threatening to block any DHS deal until the measure passes. In response to the shutdown standoff, Representatives Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pennsylvania) and Tom Suozzi (D-New York) are planning to introduce a bipartisan bill that would fund DHS at previously agreed-upon levels. Their bill also mandates new standards for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations, including body cameras, officer identification, training requirements, limits on enforcement in sensitive locations, a ban on masks, independent investigations of use-of-force incidents, and a requirement that agents obtain judicial warrants for criminal arrests.
New Federal Restrictions on Immigrant Truckers Take Effect, Creating Licensing Crisis in California and Beyond
A new Department of Transportation rule that took effect on March 16 bars asylum seekers, refugees, and DACA recipients from obtaining or renewing commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs), a change that federal regulators estimate will affect nearly 200,000 drivers nationwide. Existing licenses will remain valid until their expiration dates, but the rule eliminates the ability to renew them, effectively setting a clock on when those drivers must leave the workforce. The administration framed the rule as a road safety measure, but immigrant rights groups and state officials countered that it removes qualified, legally authorized workers from the industry.
Foreign-born drivers account for nearly one in six U.S. truck drivers, and the trucking industry has warned the restrictions will ripple through supply chains and raise consumer costs. The new rule is the latest in a series of actions targeting immigrant truck drivers, following a 2025 executive order sidelining drivers not proficient in English and an August 2025 State Department pause on employment visas for commercial truck drivers. Legal challenges are pending, with unions and advocacy groups seeking a stay on implementation. The impact is particularly acute in California, which along with at least 45 other states previously operated nondomiciled CDL programs allowing immigrants with work authorization to obtain licenses. Under the new rule, such licenses are restricted to holders of H-2A, H-2B, and E-2 visas, a narrow category that excludes most of the affected drivers, and California DMV officials have said there are no guarantees that alternative pathways will become available.
Afghan Asylum Seeker Who Aided U.S. Military Dies in ICE Custody in Texas
Mohammad Nazeer Paktiawal, a 41-year-old Afghan father of six who served alongside U.S. forces in Afghanistan for over a decade before evacuating to the United States in 2021, died on March 14. His death occurred less than 24 hours after being arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents near his home in Richardson, Texas. His brother said agents detained him in front of his children as he was dropping them off at school. ICE confirmed the death and said Paktiawal collapsed with shortness of breath and chest pains while being processed at a Dallas holding facility and was later declared dead at Parkland Hospital after multiple resuscitation attempts. ICE cited an expired humanitarian parole status and a pending, unadjudicated fraud charge as grounds for the arrest, while his family said he had a pending immigration case and had served as a member of Afghan special forces hired by the U.S. government.
Paktiawal’s death drew renewed attention to conditions inside the rapidly expanding ICE detention system. Under outgoing DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, the department purchased at least 11 warehouses to convert into large-scale detention facilities, funded in part by $45 billion allocated in last summer’s reconciliation package. With Senator Mullin advancing through Senate confirmation to replace Noem, lawmakers from both parties have pressed him on the warehouse program, raising concerns about transparency, community impact, and the premiums DHS paid for the facilities.
Legal
Supreme Court to Rule on Whether Administration Can End Temporary Protected Status for Haitians and Syrians
The Supreme Court announced on March 16 that it will hear expedited oral arguments on whether the Trump administration can terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Syrian and Haitian nationals, combining the two cases for one hour of argument during the week of April 27. TPS is a congressionally established protection that allows nationals of designated countries experiencing armed conflict, natural disasters, or other extraordinary circumstances to live and work temporarily in the United States. In March 2025, roughly 1.3 million individuals from 17 countries held TPS, including approximately 348,000 Haitians and 6,100 Syrians. The court left lower-court injunctions blocking the terminations in place while litigation proceeds, with a final ruling expected by late June or early July.
Federal judges in New York and Washington, D.C. had separately blocked the terminations, with the D.C. court finding it substantially likely that the decision to end Haiti’s designation was motivated by hostility toward nonwhite immigrants, and the New York court finding the Syria termination violated the Administrative Procedure Act. The administration bypassed the normal appellate process through a rare “certiorari before judgment” petition, arguing that lower courts have shown persistent disregard for the Supreme Court’s prior stay orders in similar cases and citing the justices’ earlier decision to allow TPS terminations for Venezuelans to proceed as precedent. Challengers in both cases argue that returning TPS holders to their home countries would cause irreversible harm, pointing to active State Department “Do Not Travel” advisories for both Syria and Haiti.
Administration Wins Appellate Ruling Allowing Swift Deportations to Third Countries, Reversing Earlier Block
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled on March 16, by a 2-1 vote, to stay a lower court order that had struck down the Trump administration’s policy of rapidly deporting migrants to third countries — nations other than their countries of origin — without providing them meaningful notice or an opportunity to contest their removal. A federal judge in Massachusetts had ruled in February that the policy violated federal immigration law and due process, but the First Circuit’s ruling allows the practice to continue while the appeal is litigated on an expedited basis, with the government’s opening brief due by March 30. The Supreme Court has previously intervened in this case twice, blocking earlier rulings by the judge, including a decision last summer that permitted deportations to South Sudan to proceed after a group of men had been held in a converted shipping container at a U.S. naval base in Djibouti.
The administration’s third-country deportation program has expanded significantly in scale and geography since its launch, with Senate Democrats reporting that the administration has spent over $32 million in taxpayer funds to relocate approximately 300 deportees to partner countries including Eswatini, Rwanda, Ghana, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, and South Sudan. Eswatini alone has received at least 19 deportees under a $5.1 million agreement with the U.S. government, and a fourth cohort arrived on March 12 following confirmation of the deal by the country’s government. Human rights advocates warn that the rapid timelines for deportation prevent individuals from accessing due process and increase the risk of harm in receiving countries, many of which have poor human rights records.
BILLS INTRODUCED AND CONSIDERED
H.R. 7939
To ensure rights under the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution are protected during immigration enforcement actions, and for other purposes
Sponsored by Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-Texas) (0 cosponsors)
03/16/2026 Introduced by Rep. Gonzalez
03/16/2026 Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary
H.Res. 1115
Providing for consideration of H.R. 556 (lead ammunition on federal land), H.R. 1958 (inadmissibility and deportability for fraud and unlawful receipt of public benefits), and H.R. 4638 (inadmissibility and deportability for harming law enforcement animals), and relating to consideration of motions to suspend the rules
Sponsored by Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-North Carolina) (0 cosponsors)
03/16/2026 Introduced by Rep. Foxx
03/17/2026 Motion to reconsider laid on the table, agreed to without objection
H.R. 7958
To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to deem specified activities in support of terrorism as renunciation of United States nationality
Sponsored by Rep. Pat Harrigan (R-North Carolina) (0 cosponsors)
03/17/2026 Introduced by Rep. Harrigan
03/17/2026 Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary
H.R. 7964
To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to prohibit the admission of aliens from certain countries where the United States cannot reliably verify the identities or backgrounds of individuals seeking entry, building upon the framework established by Presidential Proclamation 9645 and upheld by the Supreme Court in Trump v. Hawaii, 585 U.S. ___ (2018), and for other purposes
Sponsored by Rep. Andrew Ogles (R-Tennessee) (3 cosponsors)
03/17/2026 Introduced by Rep. Ogles
03/17/2026 Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary
H.R. 7975
To amend Public Law 119-21 to rescind the increased appropriations for immigration and customs enforcement (ICE), and to reverse the harmful reduction in supplemental nutrition assistance program benefits under the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008
Sponsored by Rep. Shontel Brown (D-Ohio) (1 cosponsor)
03/18/2026 Introduced by Rep. Brown
03/18/2026 Referred to the Committees on the Judiciary and Agriculture
H.R. 7982
To provide that no Federal funds made available to certain State Homeland Security Grant program recipients may be used to carry out any civil immigration enforcement activity, and for other purposes
Sponsored by Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-New Jersey) (3 cosponsors)
03/18/2026 Introduced by Rep. McIver
03/18/2026 Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary
H.R. 7986
To provide that no Federal funds made available to the Department of Homeland Security or Department of Justice may be used to carry out any civil immigration enforcement activity within one mile of any 2026 Fédération Internationale de Football Association World Cup match or Fan Festival, and for other purposes
Sponsored by Rep. Nellie Pou (D-New Jersey) (3 cosponsors)
03/18/2026 Introduced by Rep. Pou
03/18/2026 Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary
H.R. 7988
Safe Passage to the World Cup Act
The bill would prohibit federal funds from being used for civil immigration enforcement on public transit and at transit hubs in World Cup host metropolitan areas from June 11 to July 19, 2026, with exceptions for exigent circumstances involving threats to public safety or national security.
Sponsored by Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-California) (3 cosponsors)
03/18/2026 Introduced by Rep. Swalwell
03/18/2026 Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary
H.R. 8013
Keep Innovators in America Act
The bill would protect work authorization for international students by preserving Optional Practical Training (OPT) work permits for STEM graduates, ensuring they can remain and work in the U.S. after completing their studies.
Sponsored by Rep. Sam Liccardo (D-California) (2 cosponsors)
03/19/2026 Introduced by Rep. Liccardo
03/19/2026 Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary
LEGISLATIVE FLOOR CALENDAR
The U.S. Senate is scheduled to be in session Monday, March 23 through Friday, March 27. The U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to be in session Tuesday, March 24 through Friday, March 27.
UPCOMING HEARINGS AND MARKUPS
Protecting American Citizenship II: Federalism, Sanctuary Cities, and the Rule of Law
Date: Wednesday, March 25, 2026 at 2:00 PM ET (Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Constitution)
Location: 226 Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C.
Witnesses: Clarence Birkhead (Sheriff, Durham County); Others to be announced
SPOTLIGHT ON NATIONAL IMMIGRATION FORUM RESOURCES
The Forum is constantly publishing new policy-focused resources that engage with some of the most topical issues around immigration today. Here are a few that are particularly relevant this week:
Explainer: Impact of Travel and Immigration Restrictions on the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup
Reclassifying ‘Applicants for Admission’: How the Second Trump Administration is Reshaping Mandatory Detention
Explainer: Asylum Work Authorization Rulemaking
Reshaping Refuge: The New Era of United States Refugee Admissions
*As of publication (3/20/26 at 2:00 PM EST)
This Bulletin is not intended to be comprehensive. Please contact Nicci Mattey, Senior Policy & Advocacy Associate at the Forum, with questions, comments, and suggestions for additional items to be included. Nicci can be reached at nmattey@forumtogether.org. Thank you.