TAPIA-RUANO & GUNN P.C.

10/01/2026

MOMENTOUS VICTORY FOR IMMIGRANTS' RIGHTS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 1, 2026
NYCLU Media, 212-607-3360, [email protected]
ACLU Media, [email protected]

NEW YORK - In a momentous victory for immigrants’ rights, today the Southern District of New York issued a final, landmark ruling in African Communities Together and The Door v. Todd Lyons striking down one of the Trump administration’s most extreme policies that allowed ICE agents to arrest people for showing up to immigration court. With this ruling, ICE officers cannot conduct civil immigration enforcement actions in or near immigration courthouses, except under limited circumstances, in New York City and across the nation.

09/17/2026

The Florida Bar declines to investigate a complaint filed by over 128 former federal and state court judges against unethical conduct by a federal government employee in Trump Administration.

09/11/2026

https://x.com/AILAExecDir/status/2097774319740899728

09/03/2026

Immigration attorneys (AILA) sue USCIS due to illegal action.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Today, the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and immigration law firm Benach Pitney Reilly sued the Trump Administration for implementing substantive form changes again, without warning, that will harm potentially thousands of AILA members and their clients. The lawsuit was filed by AILA and co-counsel on behalf of AILA members in the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia.

Late on Monday, August 31, 2026, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that as of that SAME DAY, new editions of the forms I-864, I-864A, and I-864EZ would be required without exception—potentially leading to the rejection of countless applications. In violation of the Administrative Procedures Act (APA), the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA), and longstanding agency practice, no notice was given and no grace period was implemented; USCIS only informed the public of these changes via the “Forms Update Alert” after 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time on the day they would take effect. To make matters even more alarming, form errors on the USCIS website created additional barriers to compliance.

Immigration attorneys and their clients realized that potentially hundreds of forms that had been submitted properly and in accordance with the law would be rejected even if mailed before the new form was made available. Thousands of other forms were in the process of being prepared and submitted in the coming days and weeks before the annual visa allotment expires and the new public charge rules take effect. AILA immediately requested that USCIS grant a grace period for acceptance of the new forms, but the agency has declined to do so, resulting in this litigation.”

09/02/2026

THE REAL COST OF FUNDING ICE

The larger a number is, the more difficult it becomes for humans to grasp it. So, when it comes to Trump's mass deportation budget, knowing that Congress gave him $240,000,000,000 can feel abstract — rather than the urgent and deeply personal issue it is.

Here’s one way to think about it:

With ICE and CBP’s budget, Congress could completely erase the medical debt of every single person in the country – and still have tens of billions of dollars left over.

And that’s just one example of how Congress could use our tax dollars to transform people’s lives for the better, instead of tearing families and communities apart.

(Published by the National Immigration Law Center.)

08/07/2026

As of July 24, 2026, a federal judge in the Southern District of Illinois has blocked Illinois from providing in-state tuition and state financial aid to undocumented students, such as DACA and the RISE Act recipients.

The Department of Justice has also filed suit against other States. Kentucky undocumented students are no longer eligible for in-state tuition at public colleges.

08/07/2026

Is this the country we want?

ICE is on pace for the deadliest year in its history. In the 500 days between President Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20, 2025 and June 4, 2026, 52 people died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody in the United States. This does not include others murdered by ICE like Renee Good and Alex Pretti. The mortality rate of deaths in ICE custody is at its highest level in over a decade and has more than doubled since Trump’s second term began.

The second Trump administration launched an aggressive campaign to expand immigration detention, pushing the number of people held to a record high of over 71,000 people in January 2026. The surge in deaths is much worse than what one would expect even considering the much higher number of people in detention. Deaths in ICE custody have increased at a rate disproportionate to the growth in the detained population.

In July ICE just set the largest single month arrest record in the history of the Department of Homeland Security. ICE is holding roughly 68,000 people, and most of them have never been convicted of anything. Nearly 90 percent of the people ICE holds are in for profit prisons.

The private prisons are owned by the GEO Group-a group that donated more than $12 million to Trump's Pac in 2023, and as recently as April 2026, donated more than $1+ million to MAGA, Inc., Trump's super PAC. (See reporting by New York Times, and CNN.)

If you want to stop this-- wishing for it to stop is not enough, vote for change in the upcoming elections.

07/17/2026

We join AILA in urging the Administration to shift course on public charge and to maintain clear, consistent standards that ensure fair adjudications and protect the well-being of families.

AILA raised serious concerns about the Trump Administration’s changes to the “public charge” rule which will take effect on September 20, 2026, warning that the policy would create confusion, expand government agents’ discretion without accountability, and harm immigrant families and communi...

06/30/2026

Trump's Executive Order on who would be considered a US citizen is dead- as it should be.

AILA College of Past Presidents Member Jeremy McKinney shares takeaways from today's SCOTUS decision in Trump v. Barbara, writing “Executive Order 14160 is dead. Birthright citizenship is again what it has been since 1898 and what the Fourteenth Amendment has guaranteed since ratification.”

06/04/2026

Chicago Public Media has partnered with local newsrooms to create one comprehensive "Chicago Immigration Hub." The hub pulls together essential immigration coverage from 15 newsrooms, including WBEZ, the Chicago Sun-Times and La Voz Chicago.

The site offers "solutions-oriented news, guides and cultural coverage for local immigrants and all Chicagoans.” Its a collaborative space for journalists to fortify their immigration-related coverage and more efficiently get immigration resources and news to the community.

Participating newsrooms include: Block Club Chicago, Borderless Magazine, Chicago Reader, Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community (Chinatown Spotlight), Cicero Independiente, Injustice Watch, La Raza, ProPublica, Public Media Institute (Lumpen Radio), Reparations Media, South Side Weekly and The TRiiBE.

A link to the hub can be found below:

Your source for Chicago immigration news, guides and explainers.