Welcome to the Garfinkel Immigration news roundup, where every month we will summarize and provide links to the latest stories impacting U.S. immigration.
Below is the February 2025 edition of the Garfinkel Immigration news roundup:
ICE visits Q&A for healthcare employers, hospitals, clinics, schools and universities
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is the primary agency for immigration enforcement.
Historically, ICE has focused on investigations within industries known to employ large numbers of undocumented workers and arrested unauthorized workers and/or audited I-9 files. ICE has historically maintained a policy limiting enforcement at certain “sensitive” or “protected” locations. As such, ICE enforcement at hospitals, schools and universities has been rare. On January 21, 2025, DHS rescinded this policy, meaning increased enforcement at hospitals, schools and universities is possible.
The purpose of the below Q&As is to help prepare healthcare employers, hospitals and educational institutions in the event they must interact with ICE.
Guide: ICE visits Q&A for healthcare employers, hospitals, and clinics
Guide: ICE visits Q&A for schools and universities
Resources: Know Your Rights — Information for employers, employees, and foreign nationals about worksite visits, I-9 compliance, and more
The government could come to your workplace for different reasons. They could request access to specific areas of the premises, seek information about employees or documentation, or serve a subpoena or warrant for records or to inspect physical areas. It is important for both employers and employees to know their rights and responsibilities in these situations.
This story from Garfinkel Immigration Law Firm contains resources which provide further information about employees’ rights in the workplace, I-9 compliance, worksite visits and more.
Learn more and access downloadable, PDF versions of the Firm’s memos here.
President Donald Trump’s initial immigration actions: Effects on employers and impacts to global mobility
President Donald Trump began his second term in the White House on Jan. 20, 2025, and immediately issued a flurry of executive orders related to immigration policy. The Trump administration’s focus on immigration since taking office also signals that more policy changes are expected in the near future.
With the potential for disruption to workforce planning and compliance burdens, it is essential for employers to understand the most recent immigration actions during Trump’s first month in office, and how they may affect them, their employees, and overall global mobility, a topic which Partner Nam Douglass discusses in the Firm’s latest white paper.
Read the full white paper here.
Judge blocks ICE enforcement actions at some churches, other houses of worship
A federal judge temporarily blocked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from “entering churches or targeting migrants nearby,” as detailed in this story from USA Today.
“U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang in Maryland ordered the Department of Homeland Security and its subdivision, ICE, not to conduct immigration enforcement actions in or near any place of worship associated with the case brought by Quakers, Baptists and Sikh,” the story read.
The story added that the “order doesn’t apply to arrests authorized by an administrative or judicial warrant.”
Read the full story from USA Today here.
Why Trump’s immigration policy ‘deserves more attention’ from investors
This story from Yahoo Finance analyzes claims by “Wall Street investors” that “President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, which include mass deportations, could be … meaningful to the path of inflation, monetary policy, and the overall market narrative.”
“Increased immigration helped drive the U.S. economy over the past several years, boosting the labor force and overall economic growth,” the story read. “From 2022 to 2024, an average of 3 million people immigrated to the U.S. each year. Given Trump’s focus on limiting immigration, Morgan Stanley assumes this number will fall to 1 million this year and 500,000 in 2026.”
The story continued: “Morgan Stanley believes this will bring GDP down from a range of 2.5% to 3% seen over the past few years to 2% this year and 1% to 1.5% next year. That could have implications for the stock market. Many equity strategists made bullish calls on stocks this year based on the assumption that the economy will continue at a rate above 2% in 2025.”
Find out more here via Yahoo Finance.
One month in office: How Trump’s orders have reshaped decades of immigration policies
This story from the Miami Herald explores how President Trump has already “reshaped” immigration policy one month into his second term in the White House.
“A month into his second term, President Donald Trump has enacted sweeping measures aimed at radically reshaping the federal immigration system and reversing decades of legal protections,” the story read.
The story added: “His administration has targeted not only undocumented immigrants, both with and without criminal histories, but also hundreds of thousands of people who are in the country legally, limiting and ending temporary deportation protections for Cubans, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans, and Haitians. Trump is already facing extensive litigation challenging many of the measures.”