Under DHS's new proposed rule, if you were born in, or are a citizen of, one of the countries on this map, you would be banned from getting a four-year degree in the United States, with a student visa limited to two years maximum.
Here's the best example I can give for why collective punishment based on visa overstay rates is arbitrary and cruel.
In 2019, six students from Tuvalu were supposed to leave the US. One didn't.
As a result, the visa overstay rate was 17%—meaning all Tuvalans would be punished.
Also, whoops, just realizing I forgot to add Chad to the map. Chad would also be subject to the ban, because they had a student visa/exchange visitor overstay rate over 10% in FY2019.
That completes the band across the middle of Africa.
One final thing to add to this thread; that things are not totally lost if the rule goes into effect.
Students in those situation would be able to ask DHS for an extension of their visas past two years. So that means it's not a total ban.
But those extensions aren't guaranteed.
Putting this here: I maybe should not have used the word "ban." Some people would still be able to get a four-year degree, but would be required to apply to extend their visas repeatedly through their time in college—extensions which aren't guaranteed.
NEW: the Trump admin has moved to terminate TPS for Honduras and Nicaragua, covering over 50,000 people
Both of these designations date back to 1999, meaning Trump wants to strip legal status from people who have had a background check every 18 months for the last 26 years.
That is not how ANYTHING works. You cannot just apply to become a citizen! There is no “line” that people can get in.
That is not how TPS works. No one enters on TPS. As a status it is ONLY available for people who are already inside the United States at the time the designation happens.
With this vote, Congress makes ICE the highest-funded federal law enforcement agency in history, with more money per year at its disposal over the next four years than the budgets of the FBI, DEA, ATF, US Marshals, and Bureau of Prisons combined.
Here is the funding for immigration enforcement in the bill, to be spent through September 30, 2029.
- $74.9 billion for ICE detention and removal
- $65.6 billion for CBP infrastructure, hiring, tech
- $10 billion DHS slush fund
- $3.5 billion for state enforcement
And more!
Read more about what's in the bill that just passed in our explainer. We estimate that ICE could increase detention capacity to at least 116,000 beds, including over 40,000 detention beds in tent camps — which we believe is a conservative estimate. americanimmigrationcouncil.org/fact-sheet/hou…
For those curious, those white things hanging from the ceiling are ventilation and air conditioning (which is seemingly not turned on where the picture was taken). If you count from the foreground, you can see one actively in use 7 down; it's inflated. Air comes out of the holes.
Seen some questions about where bathrooms are. Hard to say.
When I visited a CBP facility in Tucson that was built off of a similar model, there was a modified port-a-potty in the back of each cell and more bathrooms/showers outside of the cells.
If the bill passes, it could make ICE the nation’s largest jailer, with more funding for detention than the entire federal Bureau of Prisons. It would give ICE enough money to have more officers on board than the entire FBI.
This alone could transform American society forever.
If the GOP reconciliation bill passes, ICE gets through FY2029:
- $45 billion for detention, on top of the current annual budget of $3.4 billion
- $14.4 billion for transportation and removal, on top of the current annual budget of $750 million
- $8 billion for hiring
- And more
Read more about what’s in the reconciliation bill here. Note that our analysis has not yet been fully updated with changes made in the Senate bill.
NEW: Erez Reuveni, the DOJ lawyer fired for his honesty in the Kilmar Abrego Garcia case, tells Congress that Emil Bove suggested the DOJ respond to any court orders blocking the CECOT deportations with "fuck you."
He also says DOJ lawyer Drew Ensign lied to Judge Boasberg.
Reuveni accuses Drew Ensign, the DOJ lawyer appearing for the Trump admin in the Alien Enemies Act case, of lying to Judge Boasberg on March 15 when he said he didn't know planes were taking off.
He says Ensign was at a meeting the day before when the flight were planned!
Reuveni says that on March 15 he was emailing DHS updates telling them that Judge Boasberg was ordering DHS to halt the flights.
His supervisor, August Flentje, noted Bove's "fuck you" line and joked Reuveni might be fired for telling DHS not to violate the order.
DISASTROUS. This means they will send people to horrific situations with no due process — in direct violation of promises the Solicitor General made to the Court in previous cases.
This greenlights sending people to be enslaved in Libya or tortured in any random foreign country.
Today the GOP justices on the Supreme Court endorsed migrants being sold into slavery.
They'll claim otherwise, but that's the reality — today's decision permits Trump to send people from countries around the world to any global hellhole that accepts a U.S. financial incentive.
Sotomayor's dissent is scathing. She accuses her colleagues of a gross abuse of discretion, saying they "interven[ed] to grant the Government emergency relief from an order it has repeatedly defied."
She's right. The 6-justice majority is effectively endorsing contempt of court.