“Congressional Republicans have been some of the loudest cheerleaders of President Trump’s mass deportation agenda. But some lawmakers are now quietly asking the administration for help freeing detained immigrants in their districts,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“In recent months, Republicans in the House and Senate have intervened in cases where residents have been held in federal custody, according to the lawmakers as well as lawyers and advocacy groups involved with their release.”

Wall Street Journal: “Amazon, Alphabet’s Google, Microsoft and others warned H-1B holders not to leave the country and urged employees overseas on the visa to get back to the U.S. on Saturday because it could be difficult to re-enter… Companies worried they could be on the hook for enormous fee payments given how many of their employees use such visas.”

“Human-resources staffers divided up lists of workers and tried to determine employees’ locations so they could help them book flights, if needed. Immigration lawyers, meanwhile, sent bulletins to companies and visa holders and tried to address concerns—but often found themselves with few answers.”

“President Donald Trump on Friday rolled out a version of his administration’s long-promised gold card, a $1 million fast-track for wealthy foreigners to live and work in the United States,” Politico reports.

“President Trump plans to introduce a new $100,000 application fee for H-1B worker visas, in an effort to reduce their use as part of his broader immigration crackdown,” Reuters reports.

“The H-1B program has become critical for technology and staffing companies who rely on foreign workers to fill a variety of technical roles.”

“The Trump administration moved again Wednesday to make it harder to gain U.S. citizenship, announcing a slate of changes to the core civics test that immigrants must pass to be naturalized,” the Los Angeles Times reports.

“The changes would expand the number of questions immigrants need to be prepared to answer, and increase the number of questions they must answer correctly in order to pass.”

“For the hundreds of men who were detained at Alligator Alcatraz, entering the gates of the makeshift migrant detention center in the Everglades meant exiting the labyrinthine but familiar federal immigration process and entering what several immigration attorneys described as an alternate system where the normal rules don’t apply,” the Miami Herald reports.

“As of the end of August, the whereabouts of two-thirds of more than 1,800 men detained at Alligator Alcatraz during the month of July could not be determined.”

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan said yesterday the Trump administration “had doomed five West African men it deported to the prospect of torture and death in their home countries — even though they had won protection from U.S. immigration courts,” Politico reports.

“A federal judge on Saturday denounced the Trump administration for what she said appeared to be a deliberate scheme to ignore court-ordered protections for a group of deported immigrants who feared persecution in their home countries of Nigeria and Gambia,” the New York Times reports.

“But Judge Tanya Chutkan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia appeared reluctant to order the return of the five migrants to the United States, instead asking the government to submit a sworn statement detailing its efforts to prevent the deportations of the people to their home countries.”

CNN: Judge says Trump administration is making “an end run around” federal court orders in deportation case.

“A federal judge worried publicly Friday that the Trump administration had, ‘with a wink and a nod,’ deported a group of African nationals to Ghana, only to have Ghana redirect them to countries where they may face torture and persecution,” Politico reports.

“U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan is still weighing what, if any, power she has to order protections for the group of Nigerian and Gambian citizens, who were abruptly sent to Ghana last week aboard a U.S. military plane. But she made clear that she viewed the administration’s actions as underhanded.”

The State Department indicated it would review the legal status of immigrants “praising, rationalizing, or making light” of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s fatal shooting, Axios reports.

Said Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau: “In light of yesterday’s horrific assassination of a leading political figure, I want to underscore that foreigners who glorify violence and hatred are not welcome visitors to our country.”

He added: “I have been disgusted to see some on social media praising, rationalizing, or making light of the event, and have directed our consular officials to undertake appropriate action.”

“For more than 15 years, before they conducted any operation to arrest an immigrant in the United States, officers with Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division have been required to fill out a form with details about their target — name, appearance, known addresses and employment, immigration history, any criminal history and more — and give it to a supervisor for approval,” NBC News reports.

“This year, in a sign of how the agency has moved from targeted enforcement to broad street sweeps under the Trump administration, that policy has been ended.”

“The Department of Homeland Security said Monday it has launched a new immigration enforcement operation in Chicago as part of the Trump administration’s effort to target “sanctuary cities,” and immigrant advocates said several people in heavily Hispanic communities had already been detained,” the Washington Post reports.

A new Gallup poll finds 79 percent of Americans stating that overall immigration is a good thing for the country, vs. just 17 percent who said it is not.

“The Trump administration is planning to make the test to become a U.S. citizen more difficult, possibly with an essay requirement that would help give officials wide discretion on which immigrants are approved,” Axios reports.