Washington has discovered a way to make immigration paperwork cost more than some houses. As The Hill reports, the Department of Homeland Security formally published a proposed rule yesterday that would add a $103,265 fee to every cap-subject H-1B petition, including petitions under the advanced-degree exemption. The charge would come on top of the filing…
Border Security and the Future of Big Bend
Sen. John Cornyn is raising an objection that deserves more attention than the usual Washington exchange of talking points. The Texas Republican supports securing the southern border, but he’s asking the Trump administration to meet with local officials, law-enforcement leaders, landowners, and park advocates before constructing additional physical barriers in Big Bend National Park and…
Visa Revocations and the Limits of American Entry
The Trump administration announced that the State Department has revoked more than 175,000 visas since President Trump returned to office, marking a significant expansion of immigration enforcement. According to the department, the affected foreign nationals violated visa conditions, committed crimes, defrauded Americans, abused the immigration system, called for violence against Americans, or threatened national security.…
The Border, the Bump, and the Citizenship Battle
The Supreme Court’s ruling upholding birthright citizenship has set off the next round of immigration politics: not just who gets citizenship after birth, but who should be allowed into the country before birth. Specifically, some have begun floating tighter restrictions on pregnant foreign visitors entering the United States. The issue is “birth tourism,” meaning foreign…
Birthright Citizenship Survives, and the Justices Bring the Receipts
The Supreme Court’s birthright citizenship ruling is one of those cases where constitutional text, history, immigration policy, presidential power, and judicial philosophy all collide in one very crowded legal hallway. The Court affirmed the lower court’s judgment against President Trump’s executive order, which sought to deny citizenship to children born in the United States to…
Lock Them Up or Not? The Fight Over Mandatory Detention
The legal fight over mandatory detention isn’t just about one policy tweak. It’s about the basic rules of the game when the government decides who gets to stay free and who sits in detention while their case plays out. Under the Trump administration’s policy, certain noncitizens—often those with past criminal convictions or specific immigration violations—could…
The GOP Tug-of-War Over Haitian TPS
At first glance, the House-passed bill extending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitian migrants through 2029 looks like a fairly routine immigration measure, one of those periodic “kick the can” decisions Washington specializes in. But the reaction to it, particularly from within the Republican Party, tells a much bigger story about where immigration politics currently…
Dignity on the Line: Can Immigration Reform Thread the Needle?
The Dignity (Dignidad) Act is what happens when lawmakers attempt something that feels almost nostalgic in modern Washington: an actual compromise. Instead of leaning hard in one ideological direction, the bill tries to stitch together two competing priorities that have defined the immigration debate for decades—enforcement and legalization—and present them as a single, cohesive plan.…
Birthright Citizenship: Constitutional Bedrock or Policy Loophole?
The latest legal battle over birthright citizenship—sparked by efforts tied to Trump and now before the Supreme Court—has reignited one of those debates that manages to feel both incredibly straightforward and maddeningly complex at the same time. At first glance, the issue seems almost too simple to argue about. The Fourteenth Amendment says what it…
The Line, the Law, and the Loophole: Should Asylum Seekers Be Turned Away?
When immigration policy hits the courtroom—especially the U.S. Supreme Court—you can be sure we’re dealing with more than just a technical dispute. We’re dealing with competing visions of law, sovereignty, and human obligation, all wrapped into one messy, politically radioactive package. At the center of this particular fight is “metering,” which is a practice where…
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