Headlines:
District Courtroom Grants Keep of DHS Secretary Noem’s Choice to Finish Haitian TPS; Attraction Seemingly – A district courtroom granted plaintiffs a keep of Secretary Noem’s determination to finish Haitian Momentary Protected Standing pending the end result of litigation.
Congress Scraps Visas for Afghans Who Helped the US – Congress has permitted a bundle of spending payments that doesn’t authorize any new visas for the Particular Immigrant Visa program for Afghans who labored with the US throughout the warfare towards the Taliban, successfully killing this system.
Fifth Circuit Upholds Trump Administration’s Coverage of Detention With out Launch on Bond – The U.S. Courtroom of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld the Trump administration’s coverage of obligatory detention of hundreds of individuals with out the opportunity of launch on bond for these caught up within the administration’s immigration sweeps in Texas and Louisiana.
Texas Governor Freezes New H-1B Visas for State Businesses and Universities, Launches Investigation – Texas Governor Greg Abbott introduced a direct freeze on new H-1B visas by all state businesses and universities and an investigation into “H-1B visa abuse.”
Group Recordsdata Criticism Towards ‘Gold Card’ Program – A gaggle, together with the American Affiliation of College Professors and others, filed a lawsuit difficult the Trump administration’s “Gold Card” visa program.
Particulars:
District Courtroom Grants Keep of DHS Secretary Noem’s Choice to Finish Haitian TPS; Attraction Seemingly
Following a January 28, 2026, ruling by the U.S. Courtroom of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem exceeded her statutory authority in her partial vacatur of Haiti’s Momentary Protected Standing (TPS) designation, on February 2, 2026, a district courtroom granted plaintiffs—5 Haitian TPS beneficiaries—a keep of Secretary Noem’s determination to finish Haitian TPS pending the end result of litigation.
The courtroom discovered plaintiffs’ assertion that Secretary Noem preordained her termination determination and did so due to hostility to nonwhite immigrants “considerably possible.” Quoting Secretary Noem’s statements to the impact that Haiti and sure different “rattling” nations have been “flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies,” the courtroom famous that plaintiffs on this case embody a neuroscientist, a software program engineer, a laboratory assistant, a school economics main, and a full-time registered nurse—removed from becoming Secretary Noem’s description. The courtroom additionally noticed that Secretary Noem made the choice to cancel Haitian TPS with out consulting with applicable businesses and ignoring Congress’s requirement that she evaluation situations in Haiti after such consultations. The courtroom famous that she additionally downplayed the hazard to Haitians of returning to Haiti whereas the Division of State up to date its journey advisory in July 2025 warning U.S. vacationers to not go to Haiti on account of safety dangers together with “kidnapping, crime, terrorist exercise, civil unrest, and restricted well being care.”
The Trump administration is anticipated to attraction the choice.
Congress Scraps Visas for Afghans Who Helped the US
Final yr, after an Afghan nationwide shot two Nationwide Guard members in Washington, DC, killing one, President Trump paused the Particular Immigrant Visa (SIV) program that supplied a authorized pathway to residence in the US for Afghans who had labored with the U.S. authorities and U.S. troops throughout the lengthy warfare towards the Taliban. Congress has now permitted a bundle of spending payments that doesn’t authorize any new visas for this system, successfully killing it.
“They’re simply slamming the door shut,” mentioned Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), the highest Democrat on the Senate’s Committee on Overseas Relations. “Stranding vetted SIV candidates or sending Afghan households again into the fingers of the Taliban isn’t about safety; it’s a betrayal of the guarantees we made to those that risked their lives for the US.”
It’s unclear if or when visa issuances is perhaps resumed for these with pending purposes beneath this system.
Fifth Circuit Upholds Trump Administration’s Coverage of Detention With out Launch on Bond
On February 6, 2026, regardless of quite a few rulings by decrease courts throughout the US, the U.S. Courtroom of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld the Trump administration’s coverage of obligatory detention of hundreds of individuals within the courtroom’s jurisdiction (Texas and Louisiana) with out the opportunity of launch on bond for these caught up within the administration’s immigration sweeps.
The courtroom primarily based its ruling on an expanded definition of “candidates for admission,” who may be held with out bond whereas they await choices in immigration courts, to noncitizens inside the US, not solely these arriving at ports of entry.
Different appeals courts are additionally anticipated to determine on related points in upcoming weeks.
Texas Governor Freezes New H-1B Visas for State Businesses and Universities, Launches Investigation
On January 27, 2026, Texas Governor Greg Abbott introduced a direct freeze on new H-1B visas by all state businesses and universities and an investigation into “H-1B visa abuse.”
In a letter to state company heads, Gov. Abbott mentioned, “No state company managed by a gubernatorially appointed head or public establishment of upper training shall, with out the written permission of the Texas Workforce Fee, provoke or file any new petition to sponsor a nonimmigrant employee beneath the federal H-1B visa program till the top of the Texas Legislature’s ninetieth Common Session on Might 31, 2027.” Though the freeze solely impacts new purposes and thus is not anticipated to have an effect on present H-1B employees in Texas, Gov. Abbott additionally ordered the state company and college heads to offer varied items of data, together with the numbers of H-1B visa holders the entity at present sponsors, and job classifications and descriptions, by March 27, 2026.
Response. Though H-1B employees make up a comparatively small share of the workforces in Texas businesses and universities, some argue that closing that pathway might have a destructive affect on a number of sectors. Jason Finkelman, an immigration lawyer in Austin, Texas, mentioned that researchers, professors, physicians, engineers, and others in Texas will likely be affected. “These researchers and professors are simply going to go to different U.S. universities. So we’re going to lose the expertise we want right here for universities, which goes to contribute to our downfall as being leaders in … greater training.” He famous that the H-1B visa “is probably the most regulated visa in our complete immigration system.”
Kathleen Campbell Walker, a previous president of the American Immigration Attorneys Affiliation, objected to the freeze. Amongst different issues, she famous that Texas medical training establishments depend on international physicians “to fill essential shortages in healthcare in rural areas of the state in addition to in Well being Skilled Scarcity Areas (HPSAs) and Medically Underserved Areas (MUAs).” Ms. Walker warned that “Texas universities will likely be severely hampered within the present world race for extremely proficient educators and researchers in addition to for physicians at its medical colleges.” She famous related efforts in Florida, Oklahoma, and South Carolina.
Group Recordsdata Criticism Towards ‘Gold Card’ Program
On February 3, 2026, a bunch together with the American Affiliation of College Professors and others filed a lawsuit difficult the Trump administration’s “Gold Card” visa program. The criticism asks a U.S. district courtroom for declaratory and injunctive reduction towards the Departments of Homeland Safety, State, and Commerce; U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Providers; and the heads of these businesses.
The criticism challenges the creation and implementation of the “Gold Card” program “in contravention of Congress’s unique authority to control immigration and to boost income. By giving precedence consideration to and awarding visas to people who will pay $1 million, moderately than to extremely proficient people whose admission would profit the US, this system runs counter to the legal guidelines enacted by Congress.”
Plaintiffs notice that the payment-linked program additionally “alters how immigrant classifications, together with the EB-1A ‘extraordinary skill’ and EB-2 ‘distinctive skill’ desire classes, are outlined and the way purposes are processed” and “causes the displacement of statutorily certified candidates given the restricted variety of out there visas and the preferential remedy of Gold Card purposes.” By treating a fee to the Commerce Division as proof of statutory eligibility for EB-1 and EB-2 visas, and expediting consideration of purposes from people who make the fee, the defendants “each exceed their statutory authority and act opposite to lengthy standing legal guidelines and insurance policies designed to draw extremely proficient people to the US,” the criticism states. By conditioning entry to the visas on fee, the Gold Card program “permits visas to be purchased, and thereby takes visas away from the folks to whom federal statute specifies they need to be awarded—scientists and engineers, physicians, researchers, and different achieved people whose admission would considerably profit the US.”
