Legal
Supreme Court Hears Oral Arguments in Birthright Citizenship Case
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments on April 1 in a case challenging President Trump’s January 2025 executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship for children born in the United States to certain types of immigrant parents. Birthright citizenship is guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment, which provides that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States,” language the Supreme Court interpreted in its 1898 decision in U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark to extend citizenship to children born on U.S. soil regardless of their parents’ immigration status or nationality. The administration argues that the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” excludes children of parents who are unlawfully present or present only temporarily, a reading that constitutional scholars across the political spectrum have broadly contested as inconsistent with the amendment’s text, history, and longstanding precedent.
The case reaches the court on an expedited basis after lower courts uniformly blocked the executive order, with the legal question now centered not only on the merits of the birthright citizenship claim but on the separate procedural question of whether universal injunctions — court orders blocking a policy nationwide — are an appropriate remedy. A ruling that leaves the merits open while curtailing the scope of injunctions could allow the policy to take partial effect even without the court fully endorsing the administration’s constitutional theory. Advocates estimate that the order ending birthright citizenship, if implemented, would affect about 255,000 babies born each year over decades and warn it would have cascading effects on access to public education, health care, and other services. Some states are already moving to restrict access to public benefits for children who would lose citizenship under the administration’s interpretation.
Judge Blocks Termination of Legal Status for Thousands Who Entered Through CBP One Program
A federal judge in Boston ruled on March 31 that the Trump administration unlawfully terminated the immigration parole status of migrants who entered the United States through the Biden-era CBP One program, ordering the administration to restore their legal status. The court found that the April 2025 DHS decision to cancel the parole status of CBP One entrants en masse violated the procedural requirements of U.S. immigration law, which generally requires individualized determinations before parole can be revoked. More than 900,000 migrants from countries across the globe were admitted at official ports of entry under the CBP One system, though it is unclear how many will benefit from the ruling, as some have already been deported or have since obtained another form of lawful status.
The CBP One program allowed asylum seekers to schedule appointments at southern border ports of entry through a mobile app, and migrants who used it were admitted with parole status and placed into standard removal proceedings. The Trump administration shut down the app on its first day in office, repurposing it as “CBP Home” to facilitate voluntary departures, and has argued that the Biden administration lacked legal authority to admit hundreds of thousands of migrants outside traditional immigration channels. DHS condemned the ruling as “blatant judicial activism” and the Justice Department is expected to appeal. Democracy Forward, which brought the challenge, said the order was a clear rejection of the administration’s attempt to “erase lawful status for hundreds of thousands of people with the click of a button.”
Federal
DHS Shutdown Enters Seventh Week With No Resolution After House and Senate Pass Competing Bills
As Congress departed for a two-week recess, the 48-day Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding shutdown remained unresolved after the House and Senate passed competing funding bills during the final hours of the legislative week. The Senate voted in the early hours of March 27 to fund TSA, the Coast Guard, and FEMA while excluding ICE and Border Patrol, whose operations have continued through $75 billion in prior-year reconciliation funding. Hours later, the House passed a separate short-term measure along party-line lines — 213 to 203 — to fund all of DHS, including ICE and CBP, at current levels for 60 days through May 22, rejecting the Senate’s piecemeal approach. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) immediately declared the House bill “dead on arrival” in the upper chamber, and with Congress now on recess, a resolution appears unlikely before late April.
With lawmakers unable to agree, President Trump bypassed Congress entirely, signing an executive order directing DHS Secretary Mullin to pay TSA employees, declaring an emergency at the nation’s airports. The legal basis for the order remained unclear, and it did not extend to other unpaid DHS workers. Trump subsequently announced a broader order to compensate all DHS employees who have gone without pay, though the White House did not immediately identify a funding source for that commitment. Separately, Secretary Mullin ordered a pause on new warehouse detention facility purchases, initiating a review of contracts signed under former Secretary Noem, whose tenure saw the federal government spend $894 million acquiring at least 10 warehouses for conversion into large-scale ICE detention centers.
Bipartisan Coalition Forces House Vote on Restoring Temporary Protected Status for Haitians
A discharge petition led by Representative Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) secured the signatures of a majority of House members, forcing a floor vote on legislation that would restore Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitian nationals whose protections the Trump administration moved to terminate earlier this year. The petition garnered support from all House Democrats as well as a handful of Republicans, marking a rare instance of the minority party using the procedural tool to bypass House leadership and bring a bill directly to the floor without approval from Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA).
TPS allows nationals of designated countries experiencing extraordinary conditions, including armed conflict, natural disasters, or other crises, to live and work legally in the United States on a temporary basis. The Trump administration announced the termination of Haiti’s TPS designation in early 2025, a decision currently under review by the Supreme Court alongside a parallel challenge involving Syrian nationals. Approximately 348,000 Haitians hold TPS in the United States, with particularly large concentrations in South Florida, where Republican members of Congress have faced constituent pressure over the termination. The bipartisan support behind the discharge petition reflects both the demographic stakes in competitive districts and broader unease among some Republicans with the pace and scope of the administration’s immigration enforcement agenda. The floor vote, once scheduled, will represent the first direct House test of whether a bipartisan majority exists to restore the program legislatively, independent of the ongoing litigation.
Administration Resumes Asylum Processing After Rolling Back Crackdown Enacted Following D.C. National Guard Shooting
The Trump administration announced on March 30 that it is lifting the pause on asylum adjudications for most applicants, partially reversing a sweeping freeze on asylum cases that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) imposed in late November 2025 following the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., allegedly by an Afghan man who had been granted asylum earlier that year; one of the soldiers died from her injuries. That freeze was unprecedented in scope, halting hundreds of thousands of asylum applications filed outside of immigration court regardless of the applicant’s nationality or individual circumstances.
DHS confirmed that “USCIS has lifted the adjudicative hold for thoroughly screened asylum seekers from non high-risk countries,” framing the rollback as a reallocation of resources toward higher-risk cases rather than an easing of scrutiny. The asylum freeze will remain in place for nationals of 39 countries currently subject to full or partial entry restrictions under the Trump administration’s travel ban proclamation, which was expanded in December 2025 and covers countries including Afghanistan, Iran, Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela, Somalia, Nigeria, and Senegal. A parallel freeze on all other legal immigration applications filed by nationals of those same 39 countries, including work permits, green cards, and citizenship applications, also remains in effect.
State and Local
ICE Agents Deployed to Screen Families of New Marines at South Carolina Graduation Ceremonies
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were stationed outside the Marine Corps Recruit Depot at Parris Island, South Carolina, beginning March 30 to conduct immigration status checks on family members and other guests attending recruit graduation ceremonies and family days, according to a notice posted on the base’s official website. The base cited “increased force protection measures” as the rationale, noting that federal law enforcement personnel would be present at installation access points “to conduct enhanced screening and lawful immigration status inquiries,” and that all visitors must present a REAL ID, U.S. passport, or U.S. birth certificate to gain access, documents that undocumented immigrants typically cannot obtain. A base spokesperson acknowledged that while the Marine Corps routinely coordinates with federal partners on security matters, “this is the first time in recent memory that federal law enforcement agencies have supported base access operations at Parris Island in this capacity.”
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) pushed back on reports suggesting agents would make arrests at the ceremonies and that ICE’s role was limited to screening. Nevertheless, the deployment drew immediate concern from military families and advocates, particularly given that many Marines come from immigrant households and that the Marine Corps’ own Parole in Place program has historically shielded undocumented family members of active-duty service members from deportation, a protection the Trump administration has sought to curtail. Critics argued that stationing immigration enforcement agents at a military graduation, regardless of whether arrests occur, would deter families from attending their service members’ ceremonies and send a chilling message to immigrant communities considering military service as a path to citizenship.
BILLS INTRODUCED AND CONSIDERED
S. 4277
A bill to make appropriations for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Sponsored by Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Missouri) (2 cosponsors)
03/27/2026 Introduced by Sen. Schmitt
04/02/2026 Read the second time and placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders (Calendar No. 368)
H.R. 8182
To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to restrict visa issuance to individuals who have directed, authorized, significantly supported, participated in, or carried out violations of religious freedom
Sponsored by Rep. Tim Moore (R-North Carolina) (10 cosponsors)
04/02/2026 Introduced by Rep. Moore
04/02/2026 Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary
H.R. 8191
To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to provide for electronic notification regarding change in status of immigration petitions or applications
Sponsored by Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-Virginia) (1 cosponsor)
04/02/2026 Introduced by Rep. Subramanyam
04/02/2026 Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary
LEGISLATIVE FLOOR CALENDAR
The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives are scheduled to be in recess from Monday, March 30, through Friday, April 10.
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:
Fact Sheet: Immigrants and Public Benefits in 2026
Explainer: U.S. Border Patrol Authorities and the 100-Mile Border Zone
Explainer: Operation PARRIS and Refugee Arrests and Re-Vetting
Explainer: Impact of Travel and Immigration Restrictions on the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup
*As of publication (4/3/26 at 1:00 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.