The Trump administration’s indefinite refugee ban, stop work orders and prolonged delays in reimbursement for resettlement agencies have had a devastating impact on tens of thousands of refugee families and communities across the country and around the world. Welcome to the latest edition of State of Play from Church World Service. This resource will provide regular updates from the CWS Policy Team on the current state of play; updated asks for national, state and local leaders; and the latest headlines and community resources.
Breaking: Yesterday in Florida, a truck fatally struck a person who was fleeing after he was stopped by officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), an ICE component. The death marks the third immigration enforcement-related death within a week, after ICE shot and killed individuals in Texas and Maine.
A spokesperson for the Florida Highway Patrol said that during an encounter with ICE and HSI officers, four people ran from a vehicle and a passing tractor trailer hit one of them. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) hasn’t yet said whether the victim was an intended target for an enforcement operation.
The latest: President Trump appears to reverse ICE decision to pause vehicle stops in the wake of shootings; the administration admits to accidentally sharing Medicaid data with ICE; and Congress may consider additional anti-immigrant legislation.
After deaths in Texas and Maine, ICE suspends most vehicle stops, in a move that President Trump seems to reverse. A top ICE official directed the agency’s officers to cease most vehicle stops nationwide. Though the text of the directive isn’t public, the Atlantic reports that ICE would make exceptions to the guidance “in instances when ICE pursues criminal suspects in cooperation with other police agencies.” In a social media post this morning, President Trump seems to have reversed the decision, telling ICE officers to “go back and do your very important job.”
The internal guidance came after elected officials from both Texas and Maine called for independent investigations into both killings. Senator Susan Collins of Maine, a Republican, said she urged DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin to “cease all non-urgent vehicle stops.” After President Trump weighed in publicly on the decision to halt vehicle stops, it is unclear to what extent ICE intends to implement the directive. Yesterday, border czar Tom Homan told the press the pause would be temporary, while officers receive additional training.
Both shootings and yesterday’s death in Florida happened in the midst of a surge in DHS’s enforcement activity nationwide. Thus far, over the course of the second Trump administration, Congress has provided approximately $250 billion to ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to facilitate enforcement, detention, and deportation. During the same time span, ICE has shot and killed 11 people, and dozens have died in immigration detention. Urge your elected officials to demand justice in the wake of the killings, commit to rescinding hundreds of billions of additional dollars for immigration enforcement, and pass meaningful guardrails to rein in DHS’s lawlessness.
In a statement yesterday, CWS called for an independent investigation into the shootings and demanded “accountability from DHS and ICE in response to their campaign of violent, dehumanizing enforcement actions that are terrorizing communities across the United States.”
Administration says Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) accidentally shared Medicaid enrollee data with ICE, despite court order. In a recent court filing, the Justice Department said that on June 9, HHS accidentally shared a folder containing Medicaid beneficiaries’ sensitive data with DHS in violation of a court order. The folder included information on individuals living in states that had sued to stop the federal government from using their Medicaid data for immigration enforcement.
In June 2025, a group of 21 states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit alleging that HHS’s Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) “handed over a trove of individuals’ protected health data” to DHS in violation of federal law. In August 2025, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction to prevent the federal government from using plaintiff states’ data for immigration enforcement.
The Justice Department says that CMS improperly shared the file while transmitting data about individuals from states that are not party to the lawsuit.
In 2025, CMS and ICE took steps to formalize their information-sharing process. A 2025 KFF/New York Times survey found that around half of immigrant adults report that they are concerned about the risk that their health information will be shared with immigration enforcement officials.
People without lawful status cannot enroll in Medicaid, though providers can be reimbursed for emergency care that they offer to immigrants – including both undocumented people and those with lawful status – who would be eligible for Medicaid but for their immigration status.
More on the Medicaid litigation timeline: In December 2025, the judge narrowed the scope of his original order. He said that HHS and CMS could share the states’ Medicaid-related information, including address, immigration status, and date of birth with DHS, as long as they only shared information pertaining to people who were not lawfully residing in the United States. However, on May 26, the judge again temporarily enjoined HHS and CMS from sharing any Medicaid data from states involved in the lawsuit, after the states described the administration’s failure to comply with the revised order’s parameters. CMS improperly shared the data in the weeks following the return to tighter restrictions.
House Republicans take up a restrictive immigration bill. House Republicans are at an impasse as a group of hardline conservatives urge Republican leaders to call for a vote on an immigration and border crackdown. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who chairs the powerful House Judiciary Committee, says he is in talks with Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas). Rep. Roy is leading the call for the House to vote on a bill he introduced in June, the “Permanent Trump Secure Border Act” (H.R. 9199), which Rep. Jordan has agreed to mark up on Tuesday. That bill – which is effectively a reincarnation of H.R. 2, an extreme, anti-immigrant proposal from 2023 – would criminalize longtime community members, undermine asylum protections, and eviscerate statutes that protect unaccompanied children and victims of trafficking.
Today’s Headlines
- New York Times: ICE ordered to cease most vehicle stops after fatal shootings in Maine and Houston
- The Guardian: ‘Fear, intimidation, violence’: calls mount to remove ICE from US streets after agents killed two men
- AP News: Mexico asks US state attorneys general to investigate migrant deaths in ICE custody
- Miami Herald: Mexican man is killed by truck as he flees immigration agents in St. Augustine
- Reuters: Trump officials turn over withheld evidence in immigration agents’ killings of Renee Good, Alex Pretti
Opportunities to Take Action:
- CWS Action Alert: Demand Justice and Accountability After ICE Shootings
- CWS Action Alert: Urge Your Senators to Pass Legislation to Protect Haitian TPS Holders
- Tell Your State and Local Officials: Protect Our Freedom to Welcome
- CWS Action Alert: With All Eyes on Iran, Palestinians Continue to Suffer Daily Attacks and Constant Hunger
- Sign Petition to the White House: Keep Our Promise to Refugees
- CWS Action Alert: Tell Your State Lawmakers – Do Not Let Refugees & Other Newcomers Go Hungry as Federal SNAP Cuts Take Effect
- CWS Action Alert: Immigrant Children Are Under Attack: Urge Congress to Demand Safety and Due Process
Community Resources:
- CWS: Lakou Tanama Virtual Haitian Healing Spaces
- CLINIC: Parish Toolkit: Supporting Immigrants in a Time of Need
- CWS: Ten Major Immigration and Refugee Policy Changes Since January 2025
- CWS: Bill Summary of the Protecting Sensitive Locations Act
- Refugee Storytellers Collective: Making Informed Decisions: A Risk Assessment Worksheet for Public Engagement
- ACLU: Enforcement at the Airport
- United Church of Christ: Love Knows No Borders Resources
- IRAP: Refugee Re-vetting and Detention
- USAHello: Multilingual Immigration Guide with clear, direct-to-community information
- IRAP: What do the recent U.S. immigration changes mean for Afghans?
- NILC: How to Find a Loved One After a U.S. Immigration Arrest and What to Do if Arrested or Detained by Immigration
- CWS: How the One Big Beautiful Bill Will Impact You
- Just Security: Litigation Tracker: Legal Challenges to Trump Administration Actions
- CWS: Story Submission Form for Refugees Overseas
Stories of Impact
Miriam and her family fled the Democratic Republic of Congo after facing persecution by paramilitary groups. They lived in a refugee camp in Burundi for fifteen years as they proceeded through the lengthy U.S. refugee resettlement vetting and screening process. She gave birth while going through this years-long process, and was erroneously advised by UN staff at the camp that adding her new son to the case would delay resettlement – and she understood she would be able to immediately apply for him once the rest of the family arrived in the U.S. Upon resettlement, Miriam immediately filed a Follow-to-Join application for her son, an application that has now been blocked by the refugee ban. Her lawyer asked the government about requesting an exception to the ban for Miriam’s now-nine-year-old son, and was told the exception process “was not for” him. Exceptions have been granted to over 4,000 white Afrikaners. Miriam believes the government is purposefully neglecting her and preventing reunification with her son because her family is Black. She calls her son every day.
Babak resettled in the U.S. as a refugee from Iran, and is now a citizen. He has submitted an application for his wife and her parents through the Lautenberg program for those facing religious persecution in Iran and former Soviet Union countries. The family is Zoroastrian, a religious group that faces discrimination across all facets of society in Iran. While his wife was able to make it to the U.S. via another pathway, the family has been separated for years. They had been scheduled for an appointment to move their case forward and were preparing to leave for processing in Austria when the refugee ban stalled their case once again.
Yodit and Senai are a mother and son who have been separated for 17 years. Yodit fled Eritrea in 2008 and was resettled in the U.S. in 2018. She is now a U.S. citizen. She has filed a Follow-to-Join application for her son, Senai, who remains in danger in Eritrea. They have completed all necessary steps and her son was waiting to receive a travel document to the U.S. when the refugee ban went into place. When Yodit learned the administration was admitting white Afrikaners as refugees, she felt the administration was discriminating against her because of her race.
Find more stories of impact here, and watch this space for new stories as they arise. Have a story to share? You can share it with us via this form for refugees overseas or this form for refugees, immigrants and service providers in the U.S.
