After many years as the Legislative Bulletin, we are giving our weekly roundup a new name: the Policy Bulletin. The content you rely on is not changing. Every week, our policy team will continue bringing you key immigration developments across Congress, the executive and judicial branches, and state and local governments. Thank you for your readership.
Federal
President Trump Ousts Secretary Noem Following Hearings
President Trump removed Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem on March 5, the day after she completed two days of contentious congressional testimony. During the hearings, Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike leveled sharp criticism at her stewardship of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) immigration enforcement operations, the ongoing DHS funding shutdown, and her management of departmental contracts. On immigration, Noem faced pointed questions about Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) use of masks during arrests, cuts to officer training, and her characterization of two Minneapolis protesters killed by immigration officers as “domestic terrorists,” with Senator John Kennedy (R-Louisiana) quoting her own January 27 statement back to her after she denied making it.
Beyond immigration, Senator Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) accused Noem of violating the Homeland Security Act by requiring personal approval of all DHS contracts above $100,000, a policy he said had strangled disaster relief to Hurricane Helene survivors. When asked whether unpaid outside adviser Corey Lewandowski played “a role in approving contracts” at DHS, Noem flatly denied it, testimony quickly contradicted by internal DHS records, showing Lewandowski personally approved a multimillion-dollar equipment contract and that his signature is typically the last required before contracts reach Noem for final sign-off. Trump announced he would nominate sitting Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma) as Noem’s replacement. Mullin served a decade in the House before winning his Senate seat in a 2022 special election, is a former undefeated MMA fighter and family plumbing business owner, and is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation.
DHS Funding Standoff Continues
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding shutdown entered its fourth week with no resolution in sight, as negotiations remain deadlocked over Democratic demands to include restrictions on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) as a condition of any funding bill. Democrats have continued to offer funding for all other DHS components through September 30, including the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the Coast Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Secret Service, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, while Republicans have pushed for a clean funding bill. A revised House measure brought to the floor on March 5 faced the same Senate obstacle as before, requiring at least seven Democratic votes to clear the filibuster threshold.
New details about ICE’s spending plans have added complexity to the debate. ICE has published a contracting notice seeking a five-year, $220 million deal to arm roughly 17,800 agents with new Tasers, up from 4,300 currently in the field, and the agency and CBP have committed to more than $144 million in weapons, ammunition, and accessories over the past year. Advocacy groups have responded by putting up billboards across the country highlighting ICE and CBP spending figures as the two sides remain at an impasse.
DHS Confirms More Than 80 DACA Recipients Deported; Advocates and Lawmakers Demand Accountability
In a letter to Senate Democrats made public on February 26, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had detained up to 261 recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and deported 86 of them as of November 2025. Noem asserted that 241 of the 261 detained individuals had “criminal histories” but declined to provide specifics about the nature of those offenses, a response lawmakers found inadequate given that DACA recipients are required to pass federal background checks at every two-year renewal. Since the Trump administration took office, ICE has detained and in some cases deported individuals accused, though not convicted, of minor infractions including traffic violations and nonviolent misdemeanors.
The cases have drawn mounting concern from advocates and lawmakers. For example, Maria de Jesus Estrada, a DACA recipient who had lived in California for 27 years, was arrested by ICE at an appointment to obtain her green card and deported to Mexico the following day. More than three dozen senators, led by Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Dick Durbin, demanded that DHS provide a full accounting of the arrests and deportations without delay. DACA, created in 2012, provides temporary protection from deportation and work authorization to more than 500,000 active recipients who came to the United States as children. It does not confer permanent legal status, and only Congress can provide Dreamers with a lasting legislative solution.
Legal
Supreme Court Limits Federal Court Discretion in Asylum Cases, Tightening Standards for Relief
On March 4, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Urias-Orellana v. Bondi that federal courts of appeals must apply a deferential “substantial evidence” standard when reviewing persecution determinations made by the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA). The decision resolved a split among the circuits and significantly narrows the ability of appellate courts to overturn asylum denials. The opinion was authored by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who held that reversal of a BIA persecution finding is warranted only if “any reasonable adjudicator would be compelled to conclude to the contrary,” a high bar that makes it considerably harder for asylum seekers to succeed on judicial review after an administrative denial.
The case arose from the asylum claim of a Salvadoran family who fled to the United States in 2021 after a hit man who had killed two of the father’s half-brothers repeatedly demanded money from him and physically assaulted him. An immigration judge found the family’s experiences did not rise to the level of persecution, in part because they had previously avoided danger by relocating within El Salvador, and the BIA upheld that determination. The Supreme Court’s ruling reaffirms and codifies the standard it first articulated in its 1992 decision in INS v. Elias-Zacarias, finding that Congress had endorsed rather than displaced that standard when it amended the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) in the years following that decision. For the hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers with pending cases in the United States, the ruling narrows one of the few remaining avenues to challenge a denial.
Federal Judge Restores Unrestricted Congressional Access to ICE Detention Facilities for Third Time
For the third time, a federal judge in Washington blocked the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from restricting unplanned visits by members of Congress to ICE detention facilities while litigation over the matter is ongoing. The judge found that DHS likely exceeded its legal authority because the last DHS appropriations bill prevents DHS from using funds to prevent members of Congress “from entering, for the purpose of conducting oversight, any facility operated by or for the Department of Homeland Security used to detain or otherwise house aliens.”
DHS immediately appealed the decision and defended its policy requiring a 7-day advance notice as “a commonsense measure to ensure the safety of staff, law enforcement, visitors, and detainees alike.” The judge determined that the government did not “cite any concrete examples of safety issues posed by congressional visits without advanced notice” and that the Plaintiffs, thirteen members of Congress, “continue to demonstrate a significant need for real-time, on-the-ground information about conditions in facilities, the status of detainees, and Defendants’ practices.”
State and Local
Florida Public Universities Suspend New H-1B Hiring Through End of Year
On March 1, the Florida Board of Governors voted to pause the hiring of international faculty and staff members on H-1B visas in public universities in Florida. The board is tasked with making decisions on public universities in Florida. Board members stated the motivating factor of the pause is to “root out any misuse in the H-1B system during the freeze” and determine the financial costs of the program. The pause will affect Floridian public universities for an indetermined amount of time. Currently, according to federal data collected last year, Florida universities employ 600 workers on H-1B visas.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has recently been vocal in his targeting and criticism of H-1B visas, and back in October 2025 urged the board to take action on H-1B misuse in Florida public universities. This pause also comes after the Trump Administration’s targeting of immigration visas in the United States, such as the installation of a one-time $100,000 fee for new H-1B applications in September 2025. Two members of the Florida Board of Governors dissented, citing the lack of data in making this pause, and the loss of talent in crucial research and medical roles. Analysts and advocates have also stated that “the number of H1-B visas at the state’s universities is too small to have much impact,” that foreign workers are paid less than their American counterparts, and the impact on the reputation of universities and research published in the United States.
Maryland and Washington, D.C. Communities Brace for ICE Surge
Community members, elected officials, and business owners in Maryland and Washington, D.C. are preparing for an intensification of federal immigration enforcement as new details emerge about Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) expanding detention infrastructure in the region and federal targeting of local workplaces. ICE purchased a 54-acre warehouse property near Hagerstown, Maryland in January for $102.4 million, with plans to convert it into a 1,500-person detention facility, and a watchdog group has photographed a large fleet of ICE vehicles arriving at the site, which advocates believe were redeployed from the Minnesota surge. Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown filed a lawsuit to halt construction, arguing that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) failed to conduct a federally required environmental review, while several Maryland lawmakers have urged local county commissioners to oppose the facility.
In Washington, D.C., the restaurant industry is confronting a parallel enforcement surge. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) sent letters to multiple establishments notifying owners that staff members appear unauthorized to work, giving owners 10 days to terminate employees or provide updated work authorization paperwork. Businesses have reported severe workforce losses, with one downtown restaurant losing 68 percent of its workers and another losing 63 percent, and the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington warning that the industry is “at a turning point.”
BILLS INTRODUCED AND CONSIDERED
S. 3995
A bill to require U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to timely update the Online Detainee Locator System and for other purposes
Sponsored by Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-New Mexico) (0 cosponsors)
03/04/2026 Introduced by Sen. Luján
03/04/2026 Read twice and referred to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary
S. 3996
A bill to improve the hiring and training processes at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection
Sponsored by Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-New Mexico) (0 cosponsors)
03/04/2026 Introduced by Sen. Luján
03/04/2026 Read twice and referred to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
H.R. 7744
Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2026
The bill provides annual appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security for fiscal year 2026, including funding allocations for ICE operations, border security, and Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers.
Sponsored by Rep. Tom Cole (R-Oklahoma) (0 cosponsors)
03/02/2026 Introduced by Rep. Cole
03/05/2026 Passed the House; engrossment corrections authorized by the Clerk
H.R. 7785
Protecting Our Communities Act
The bill would require ICE personnel to wear body cameras during enforcement operations, mandate identification display during arrests, prohibit face coverings that conceal identity, require de-escalation training, and mandate notification to local law enforcement prior to operations.
Sponsored by Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio) (0 cosponsors)
03/04/2026 Introduced by Rep. Beatty
03/04/2026 Referred to the Committees on the Judiciary and Homeland Security
H.R. 7836
Real Courts, Rule of Law Act of 2026
The bill would establish U.S. Immigration Courts as independent judicial entities under Article I of the Constitution, with structured procedures for removal proceedings, appellate review, and financial disclosure requirements for immigration judges.
Sponsored by Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-California) (3 cosponsors)
03/05/2026 Introduced by Rep. Lofgren
03/05/2026 Referred to the Committees on the Judiciary and the Budget
H.R. 7842
To amend section 5318 of title 31, United States Code, to require financial institutions to verify the lawful immigration status of applicants for deposit accounts through a self-attestation form to impose penalties on individuals for false attestations and for other purposes
Sponsored by Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tennessee) (2 cosponsors)
03/05/2026 Introduced by Rep. Ogles
03/05/2026 Referred to the House Committee on Financial Services
H.R. 7846
To amend title 18, United States Code, to establish a criminal penalty for obstructing immigration enforcement activities
Sponsored by Rep. Michael Rulli (R-Ohio) (3 cosponsors)
03/05/2026 Introduced by Rep. Rulli
03/05/2026 Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary
LEGISLATIVE FLOOR CALENDAR
The U.S. Senate is scheduled to be in session Monday, March 9 through Friday, March 13. The U.S. House of Representatives is in recess.
UPCOMING HEARINGS AND MARKUPS
Sanctuary Cities: The Cost of Undermining Law and Order
Date: Tuesday, March 10, 2026 at 10:00 AM ET (Senate Committee on the Budget)
Location: 608 Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C.
Witnesses: The Honorable Chad Wolf (Former Acting Secretary, U.S. Department of Homeland Security; Homeland Security and Immigration Chair, America First Policy Institute), Jessica M. Vaughan (Director of Policy Studies, Center for Immigration Studies), Donald Rosenberg (President, Advocates for Victims of Illegal Alien Crime), David J. Bier (Selz Foundation Chair in Immigration Policy, Cato Institute), Brendan Duke (Senior Director, Federal Budget, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)
Protecting American Citizenship: Birthright Citizenship for Illegal Aliens and Tourists
Date: Tuesday, March 10, 2026 at 2:30 PM ET (Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Constitution)
Location: 226 Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C.
Witnesses: 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:
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 (3/6/26 at 1:30 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.