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Judge Dismisses Charges Against Kilmar Abrego Garcia

May 22, 2026 at 4:45 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

New York Times: “A federal judge on Friday dismissed the criminal case against the immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia, ruling that the Trump administration had brought human smuggling charges against him as part of a vindictive effort to punish him for challenging his wrongful deportation to El Salvador last year.”

Filed Under: Immigration

Trump to Make Green Card Applicants File Overseas

May 22, 2026 at 2:24 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Wall Street Journal: “Most green-card applicants will need to go abroad to apply for permanent residency at an American consulate, rather than filing from within the U.S. as they do now, the Trump administration announced Friday.”

“Under the new policy, most foreigners—from tech workers to spouses of U.S. citizens—would need to prove they have ‘extraordinary circumstances’ to apply for permanent residency within the U.S., or else risk being denied. Most would need to go abroad to apply at a U.S. consulate, where they risk losing whatever legal status they held in the U.S. and being unable to return.”

Filed Under: Immigration

Over 100,000 Family Separations in Trump Crackdown

May 18, 2026 at 4:00 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

New York Times: “A new analysis suggests that more than 100,000 children have been separated from their parents during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. And roughly three-quarters of those children are likely U.S. citizens.”

Filed Under: Immigration

Trump Abandons the Dreamers

May 18, 2026 at 7:05 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“President Trump talks sympathetically about the country’s 500,000 Dreamers — but his administration is putting them in the crosshairs for deportation,” Axios reports.

“The recipients of the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program are finding it no longer reliably protects them from deportation or disruptions to their ability to work legally.”

Filed Under: Immigration

Senate Rulekeeper Deals Blows to GOP’s Immigration Bill

May 14, 2026 at 9:42 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The Senate parliamentarian ruled Thursday that major pieces of the GOP’s party-line immigration enforcement package do not comply with the chamber’s rules — a setback to Republicans racing to clear the bill this month,” Politico reports. 

Filed Under: Immigration

Cleaning House After Kristi Noem

May 14, 2026 at 9:40 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has embarked on a wholesale effort to clean house at his embattled department, firing officials closely associated with his predecessor’s leadership and reviewing her spending decisions,” the Wall Street Journal reports. 

“Mullin’s moves follow the ouster of former Secretary Kristi Noem, who attracted unflattering attention for her department’s aggressive immigration enforcement—culminating in the killing of two U.S. citizen protesters in Minneapolis—as well as her spending millions on a flashy government-run ad campaign prominently featuring herself.”

Filed Under: Immigration

U.S. Border Patrol Chief Announces Resignation

May 14, 2026 at 2:34 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The head of the federal agency that patrols the borders of the United States says he is resigning,” the AP reports.

Filed Under: Immigration

Trump Pushes IRS to Identify Undocumented Immigrants

May 13, 2026 at 2:45 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The Trump administration is leaning on the Internal Revenue Service to upend how undocumented immigrants can file their taxes, as officials discuss changes that could force people to tell the agency about their immigration status or disengage from the tax system entirely,” the New York Times reports.

Filed Under: Immigration

‘Alligator Alcatraz’ to Close

May 13, 2026 at 11:01 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“An alliance of environmental groups and immigration advocates has welcomed what looks to be the imminent closure of Alligator Alcatraz, the notorious immigration jail in the remote Florida Everglades celebrated by Donald Trump for its harsh conditions,” The Guardian reports.

Filed Under: Immigration

An Overwhelming Rebuke of Trump’s ICE Policies

May 13, 2026 at 6:48 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Politico: “Ten thousand losses. That’s the Trump administration’s track record in court as federal judges grapple with the way ICE agents have swept through major U.S. cities and detained thousands of people in support of President Donald Trump’s aggressive deportation agenda.”

“More than 10,000 times, judges have said those detentions, typically carried out with no opportunity for detainees to plead their case, were illegal. That’s roughly 90 percent of all cases — a staggering rejection of a core piece of Trump’s immigration agenda.”

Filed Under: Immigration

Trump’s ‘Golden Visa’ for Global Elite Is Legally Dubious

May 10, 2026 at 10:20 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Washington Post: “Immigration attorney Michael Wildes has represented first lady Melania Trump and her parents, who are naturalized citizens. He has secured visas for Miss Universe titleholders when President Donald Trump ran the pageant organization. He has done legal work for the Kushner family.”

“But when he has received calls from potential clients interested in a gold card visa that Trump has touted for wealthy foreigners, he has told them there is little he can do because the program is legally dubious.”

Filed Under: Immigration

Trump Officials Deny They’re Softening on Immigration

May 8, 2026 at 7:18 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Markwayne Mullin made clear from the start of his tenure as secretary that he wanted the Department of Homeland Security to stay out of the headlines and adopt a quieter approach after a tumultuous year under his predecessor, Kristi Noem,” the New York Times reports. 

“He paused plans to convert industrial warehouses into immigrant detention centers. Immigration agents have been told to stop entering homes without judicial warrants. His department has tried to rebrand Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers as “NICE” officers, at the urging of President Trump.”

“The change in tactics stemmed from fears within the Republican Party that the crackdown could cost them voters in this year’s midterm elections. But the image overhaul has drawn backlash from some ardent Trump supporters who want the administration to dramatically ramp up arrests and broaden its focus beyond immigrants with criminal records.”

Filed Under: Immigration

How Trump Made the Doctor Shortage Worse

May 6, 2026 at 11:41 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Bloomberg: “America, growing grayer every year, is in desperate need of doctors. The U.S. faces an estimated shortage of more than 113,000 physicians by 2028, the National Center for Health Workforce Analysis estimates—and that deficit will continue to grow. For decades the U.S. has relied on foreign-born medical professionals to work in some of its neediest regions such as rural communities and inner-city wards.”

“But the Trump administration has made it harder for some doctors-in-training and practicing physicians to work in the U.S.”

Filed Under: Health Care, Immigration

House Passes Stalled Homeland Security Funding Bill

April 30, 2026 at 1:22 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

New York Times: “The House on Thursday passed stalled legislation reopening the Department of Homeland Security, ending a record shutdown at the agency and resolving uncertainty over whether thousands of federal security workers would be paid in May.”

“The voice vote after a brief debate brought to a close a bitter partisan fight spurred by President Trump’s immigration crackdown and the tactics of federal immigration officers who fatally shot two U.S. citizens during immigration roundups in Minneapolis earlier this year.”

Filed Under: Immigration

Justices Divided on Ending Protections for Some Migrants

April 29, 2026 at 2:45 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Wall Street Journal: “The Supreme Court on Wednesday appeared closely divided on the Trump administration’s bid to end legal protections for hundreds of thousands of immigrants who have been allowed to stay in the U.S. for humanitarian reasons.”

Filed Under: Immigration

Trump’s $1 Million ‘Gold Card’ Visa Hasn’t Been Popular

April 29, 2026 at 2:44 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Washington Post: “In the months since President Donald Trump launched a special “gold card” visa that would grant citizenship to people willing to pay $1 million, his administration has touted the program as a success. The president has called it a “green card on steroids,” and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick claimed the program has brought in $1.3 billion in revenue.”

“But in a new legal filing, the White House admitted that only a small pool of people have even started the process, let alone paid the government. In the court document, the administration said it has received 338 requests for the gold card visa and, of those people, 165 have actually paid the nonrefundable $15,000 filing fee to move forward. Just 59 people have moved on to the subsequent step of filling out paperwork from the Department of Homeland Security.”

Filed Under: Immigration

Trump Backs Renaming ‘ICE’ to ‘NICE’

April 27, 2026 at 1:11 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President Trump endorsed an idea to rebrand Immigration and Customs Enforcement, aka ICE, to “NICE,” NewsNation reports.

Filed Under: Immigration

Big Majority Oppose Ending Birthright Citizenship

April 27, 2026 at 7:26 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

A majority of Americans — 64% — believe all babies born in the country should automatically be granted citizenship, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll carried out as the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to rule on President Trump’s effort to end the ‌practice.

“The high court is poised to rule in the coming weeks on a range of polarizing issues – from immigration policy and transgender rights to rules on how to count mail-in ballots – that could help define the Republican president’s legacy and set key rules for the November 3 midterm elections.”

Filed Under: Immigration

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About Political Wire

goddard-bw-snapshotTaegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.

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