# Immigration Removal Pipeline How a person actually gets deported, drawn as one pipeline with the bypasses beside it. The formal track — encounter, detainer, a [[Notice to Appear]] that opens a case, detention and bond, a merits hearing before an immigration judge, the [[Board of Immigration Appeals]], a petition for review in a court of appeals, and the order executed — is the one the statute describes in full. The bypass tracks — [[Expedited Removal]] and its 2025 nationwide expansion, reinstatement of prior orders, stipulated and administrative removal, the § 212(f) proclamation, the [[Alien Enemies Act]], and [[Third-Country Removal]] — are where most of the 2025–26 volume has actually gone. The structural point the map is built around: **the adjudicator works for the prosecutor's department.** Immigration judges are attorneys employed by the [[Executive Office for Immigration Review]], a component of the [[Department of Justice]]; the Attorney General hires and fires them, and can certify any Board decision to himself and rewrite the precedent that binds every judge below. Nothing in the pipeline is an Article III court until a habeas petition (for detention) or a petition for review (after the order) — and the order can be executed while the petition is pending. This is the process companion to the vault's immigration cluster: [[ICE]], [[CBP]], [[USCIS]], [[US Immigration Timeline]], and the 2026 Midterms issue page [[Immigration]]. Sibling maps: [[DHS Component Tree]] and [[DOJ Component Tree]] show the institutions this process runs through; [[National Guard Federalization Flow]] maps the military layer sent to protect the operations; [[How a Case Reaches the Supreme Court]] picks up where the petition for review ends. > [!note] How to read this chart > `──▶` = the main path · `└─▶` = a branch · `◇` = a decision point · `★` = a legally operative act · `✕` = the path is closed or dies here · `⚑` = a structural point worth stopping on. Statutory cites are to the Immigration and Nationality Act as codified in 8 U.S.C. (e.g. `§1225` = 8 U.S.C. § 1225) and to 8 C.F.R.; "INA §" numbers are given where practitioners use them. Named officeholders appear only in the "who holds the seats" block and were web-verified 2026-09-07; everything else in the fence is process, which is evergreen. Case dispositions are as of the build date and several are mid-appeal — see Notes. ``` IMMIGRATION REMOVAL PIPELINE — the formal track, the bypasses, and where the judge sits │ Legend: ──▶ main path └─▶ branch ◇ decision ★ operative act ✕ closed ⚑ structural point │ Process evergreen · dispositions and seats verified 2026-09-07 · cites to 8 U.S.C. unless noted │ ■ 0. THE FLOOR — removal is civil, the grounds are statutory, and the forum is executive │ │ Two lists make a person removable: §1182(a) INADMISSIBILITY (never lawfully admitted, or │ seeking admission) and §1227(a) DEPORTABILITY (admitted, then fell into a ground — crime, │ overstay, fraud, security). Removal is a CIVIL proceeding: no jury, no Sixth Amendment │ counsel (§1362 — counsel "at no expense to the Government"), no ex post facto bar, │ and detention is "regulatory," not punishment (Demore v. Kim, 2003). │ │ Who does what: │ PROSECUTES ..... DHS — ICE's Office of the Principal Legal Advisor (OPLA) in court; │ CBP at the border; USCIS on the asylum-screening side │ ADJUDICATES .... DOJ — the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR): │ ~700 immigration judges (IJs) → the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) │ REVIEWS ........ Article III — but only at two doors: habeas (detention) and the │ petition for review (after a final order) │ ⚑ The Constitution's "plenary power" line (Chae Chan Ping 1889; Knauff 1950 — for an │ arriving alien "the decision of the executive officer IS due process") sits beside the │ other line: a person inside the country is a "person" under the Fifth Amendment │ (Yamataya 1903; Zadvydas 2001; Reno v. Flores 1993). Which line applies is decided by │ WHERE THE STATUTE PLACES YOU — and 2025 moved the placement (Stage 4). │ ■ 1. ENCOUNTER AND ARREST — four doors in │ ├──▶ AT A PORT / BETWEEN PORTS ... CBP (Office of Field Operations · Border Patrol) │ §1225(a)(1): anyone "present in the United States who has not been admitted" is an │ "APPLICANT FOR ADMISSION" — the phrase the whole detention fight turns on. │ ├──▶ INTERIOR ARREST ............. ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) │ ★ Administrative warrant (Form I-200 / I-205), signed by an ICE SUPERVISOR, not a │ judge — it authorizes arrest, not entry into a home (that needs consent or a │ judicial warrant). Courthouse, worksite, and "collateral" arrests (anyone else │ present) run here. Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo (S. Ct. stay, 9/8/2025) let roving │ Los Angeles stops resume pending appeal; the merits never reached the Court. │ ├──▶ JAIL TRANSFER ............... the IMMIGRATION DETAINER (Form I-247A) │ A REQUEST that a jail hold a person up to 48 hours past release. Not a command: │ compliance is voluntary (Galarza v. Szalczyk, 3d Cir. 2014) — which is the whole │ legal content of "sanctuary." §287(g) agreements deputize state and local officers │ to serve as the front end of this door; the program expanded sharply from 2025. │ └──▶ CRIMINAL CUSTODY ............ §1226(c) attaches on release from criminal custody; ★ Laken Riley Act (Pub. L. 119-1, 1/29/2025) added ARREST or CHARGE — no conviction — for theft, burglary, shoplifting, or assault on a police officer. DHS counted 17,500 detentions under it in the first year. ■ 2. THE FORK — formal proceedings, or a bypass? │ │ ◇ Arriving, or entered without inspection and can't show 2 YEARS continuous presence? │ ──yes──▶ EXPEDITED REMOVAL (Bypass A — no judge) │ ◇ Removed before and re-entered? │ ──yes──▶ REINSTATEMENT (Bypass B — the old order comes back to life) │ ◇ Non-LPR with an aggravated-felony conviction? │ ──yes──▶ ADMINISTRATIVE REMOVAL (Bypass D — officer-issued) │ ◇ Covered by a proclamation (§212(f) · Alien Enemies Act)? │ ──yes──▶ Bypasses E / F (both lost or mooted in court — see below) │ └── otherwise ──▶ §240 REMOVAL PROCEEDINGS (Stages 3–7) │ ⚑ The fork is the most consequential decision in the pipeline and an OFFICER makes it, │ on a classification (arriving / EWI / prior order / conviction), before any judge. │ ■ 3. THE NOTICE TO APPEAR (Form I-862) — the charging document │ │ ★ §1229(a) requires ONE document stating the nature of the proceedings, the charges, │ the statutory grounds, and the TIME AND PLACE of the hearing. Pereira v. Sessions │ (2018) and Niz-Chavez v. Garland (2021): a notice missing the time and place is not │ a "notice to appear" and does not stop the clock for cancellation eligibility. │ ★ Jurisdiction vests in the immigration court when the NTA is FILED there │ (8 C.F.R. § 1003.14) — DHS, not the court, decides when and whether to file. │ ⚑ DHS can also decline to file, or move to dismiss, at any time. Prosecutorial │ discretion is the one lever that runs the whole length of the pipeline and leaves │ no record when exercised in the negative. │ ■ 4. DETENTION AND BOND — decided before the merits, and now the main fight │ ├─ §1226(a) DISCRETIONARY ........ ICE sets a bond or releases; the person may ask an IJ │ for a bond redetermination. Burden on the NONCITIZEN to show no danger and no │ flight risk (Matter of Guerra, 2006). This was the default for interior arrests │ of people who had lived here for years — until September 2025. │ ├─ §1226(c) MANDATORY ............ enumerated crimes (+ Laken Riley arrests): no bond. │ ◇ how long? Demore (2003) upheld "brief" mandatory detention; Jennings v. Rodriguez │ (2018) found no STATUTORY right to periodic bond hearings and sent the │ constitutional question back. Genalo v. G.M. (2d Cir. 2024: 21 months without a │ hearing is too long; cert granted 6/15/2026, ARGUMENT 10/13/2026) will answer it. │ ├─ §1225(b)(2)(A) "APPLICANT FOR ADMISSION" ... "shall be detained" — the reclassification │ ★ Matter of Yajure Hurtado (BIA, 9/5/2025): EVERY person who entered without │ inspection — regardless of years present — is an applicant for admission, │ detained under §1225(b), and an IJ has NO authority to hold a bond hearing. │ ──▶ Buenrostro-Mendez v. Bondi (5th Cir., 2/6/2026) agreed. 2d, 3d, 6th │ Circuits disagreed. Maldonado Bautista v. Noem (C.D. Cal., 2/18/2026) │ VACATED Yajure Hurtado for a nationwide class. Sosnava-Rodriguez v. Ortega │ (5th Cir., 7/2/2026: due process caps it at 90 days without a hearing) was │ vacated for en banc rehearing 7/10/2026, set for September 2026. │ ⚑ Detention is decided by CLASSIFICATION, not dangerousness. Move the person from │ §1226(a) to §1225(b) on paper and the bond hearing disappears; the only door │ left is Article III habeas, one petition at a time. │ ├─ POST-ORDER ..................... §1231(a)(6); Zadvydas v. Davis (2001): six months is │ the presumptive limit once removal is not reasonably foreseeable. │ └─ THE ONLY OUTSIDE REVIEW ....... HABEAS CORPUS, 28 U.S.C. § 2241, in the district of confinement. This is where an Article III judge first enters — and only for the custody, not the removal order. Population: ~65,800 in ICE detention (July 2026), 70.6% with no criminal conviction (Vera / TRAC); the FY2026 build-out targets 100,000+ beds by 9/30/2026. ■ 5. THE MERITS HEARING — §240 (8 U.S.C. § 1229a) before an immigration judge │ │ The judge: a DOJ ATTORNEY (§1101(b)(4)) appointed by the Attorney General, employed by │ EOIR's Office of the Chief Immigration Judge, subject to performance quotas, removable │ by the department that is the other party's parent. Not Article III; not an ALJ. │ ├─ MASTER CALENDAR ................ pleadings: admit or deny the NTA's allegations ├─ REMOVABILITY .................. DHS bears "clear and convincing" for an ADMITTED person │ (§1229a(c)(3)); an EWI bears the burden of showing lawful presence (§1229a(c)(2)). ├─ RELIEF (the noncitizen's burden, all of it): │ ASYLUM ............ §1158 — "well-founded fear" on a protected ground; 1-year │ filing deadline; DISCRETIONARY; leads to a green card │ WITHHOLDING ....... §1231(b)(3) — "more likely than not"; MANDATORY if met; bars │ removal to that country only; no status, no path to a green card │ CAT ............... 8 C.F.R. §§ 1208.16–.18 — torture "more likely than not"; │ no criminal bars; deferral is the last resort │ CANCELLATION ...... §1229b — LPRs: 5 yrs LPR + 7 yrs residence, no agg felony; │ non-LPRs: 10 yrs presence + "exceptional and extremely unusual │ hardship" to a U.S.-citizen or LPR spouse/parent/child; │ capped at 4,000 grants a year │ ADJUSTMENT ........ §1255 — a green card through a qualifying relative or petition │ VOLUNTARY DEPARTURE §1229c — leave at your own expense; no removal ORDER, so no │ §1182(a)(9)(A) order-based bar (the unlawful-presence bar can │ still apply) │ ⚑ PRETERMISSION: DHS may move to deny asylum WITHOUT a hearing where the application │ fails on its face; ~30,700 cases were pretermitted with an Asylum Cooperative │ Agreement country listed as the first country of removal (Mobile Pathways, 6/2026). │ ├─ THE 2025–26 BENCH ............. 100+ IJs fired since 1/2025 (UN special rapporteurs │ count 135 incl. 13 assistant chiefs and 9 appellate judges); 202 gone counting │ resignations. Backfill: up to 600 military JAG officers authorized as six-month │ TEMPORARY IJs (Hegseth, 8/27/2025); the May 2026 class of 77 IJs + 55 temporary │ IJs brought the corps back to ~700. │ └──▶ IJ DECISION ................. removal ordered · relief granted · proceedings terminated. Either side may appeal. ■ 6. THE BOARD OF IMMIGRATION APPEALS — 30 days, and a boss who can overrule it │ ├─ APPEAL ....................... within 30 days (8 C.F.R. § 1003.38). Board size cut │ from 28 to 15 members by interim rule (4/14/2025). The 2/6/2026 interim rule made │ merits review DISCRETIONARY and shortened briefing. ├─ PRECEDENT .................... a published Board decision binds every IJ and DHS. │ Under 8 C.F.R. § 1003.1(g)(3) the Attorney General may DESIGNATE an unpublished │ decision as precedent — used 2025–26 (Matter of Cotrufo — bond; Matter of │ O-Y-A-E- — CAT deferral reversed; Matter of De Jesus-Platon; Matter of │ Garcia-Flores) — bypassing the Board's own publication process and amicus briefing. └─ ★ ATTORNEY GENERAL CERTIFICATION (8 C.F.R. § 1003.1(h)) The AG may refer ANY Board decision to himself and decide it — rewriting the precedent nationwide. Matter of A-B- (2018, gang/domestic-violence asylum) and Matter of Castro-Tum (2018, no administrative closure) were certified, vacated in 2021, and the lines restored from 2025. There is no vote, no panel, no hearing. ⚑ The prosecutor's department head is the appellate court's final reviewer. ■ 7. THE PETITION FOR REVIEW — the first Article III judge, at the end │ ├─ §1252 ........................ EXCLUSIVE review in the court of appeals for the circuit │ where the IJ sat; 30 days from the BIA's order. Riley v. Bondi (S. Ct., 6/26/2025): │ the 30 days is a claims-processing rule, not jurisdictional — and a BIA order in │ WITHHOLDING-ONLY proceedings is not a "final order of removal" at all. ├─ ✕ NO AUTOMATIC STAY .......... §1252(b)(3)(B). Filing the petition does not stop the │ plane; a separate stay motion is needed and is often decided after removal. ├─ ✕ WHAT THE COURT MAY NOT REVIEW: discretionary judgments (§1252(a)(2)(B); Patel v. │ Garland, 2022 — even the underlying facts); most orders against people with │ criminal grounds (§1252(a)(2)(C)); expedited-removal orders except identity / │ status / whether an order exists (§1252(e); DHS v. Thuraissigiam, 2020). │ Preserved: constitutional claims and questions of law (§1252(a)(2)(D)). │ Loper Bright (2024) ended Chevron deference to the BIA's readings of the statute. └──▶ SUPREME COURT ............... certiorari — rare, and mostly on the pipeline's own machinery (Pereira, Niz-Chavez, Riley, Jennings, Genalo) rather than any merits. ■ 8. EXECUTION — the order becomes a plane │ ├─ §1231(a)(1) .................. 90-day "removal period" from the final order; custody │ review at 90 days and 180 (Zadvydas). ├─ WHERE TO §1231(b) ........... the country designated → citizenship → birth → … │ → §1231(b)(2)(E)(vii): "another country whose government will accept the alien." │ That clause is the statutory hook for THIRD-COUNTRY REMOVAL (Bypass G). ├─ MOTION TO REOPEN ............. §1229a(c)(7): one motion, 90 days, new evidence — the │ only ordinary route back into a closed case. ├─ THE WRONGFUL REMOVAL ......... Kilmar Abrego Garcia: removed 3/15/2025 to El Salvador │ despite a 2019 grant of withholding to that country; Noem v. Abrego Garcia │ (S. Ct., 4/10/2025) — the government must "facilitate" return; returned 6/6/2025 │ to face a federal indictment. ⚑ No stage of the formal pipeline prevented it; only │ a court order after the fact reached it. └─ VOLUME ....................... 234,236 ICE removals 10/1/2025–4/4/2026, a pace above 460,000 for FY2026 (ICE data via Kocher / TRAC). FY2025: 319,980 removals, or 442,637 counting voluntary returns (ICE's own two figures). ◆ THE BYPASS TRACKS — where the volume actually goes │ ├─ A. EXPEDITED REMOVAL §1225(b)(1) ★ an OFFICER orders removal; no IJ, no appeal │ ◇ fear of return claimed? ──▶ CREDIBLE-FEAR interview by a USCIS asylum officer │ ──positive──▶ §240 proceedings (or an asylum-merits interview) │ ──negative──▶ IJ "review" (a same-day telephonic check) ──▶ removal │ Built by IIRIRA (1996); applied within 100 miles / 14 days by a 2004 designation. │ ★ 1/21/2025 DHS designation: NATIONWIDE, anyone who cannot show 2 YEARS of │ continuous presence. Make the Road New York v. Mullin: D.D.C. (Cobb) stayed it │ 8/29/2025 ──▶ D.C. Cir. vacated the stay 2–1 (6/23/2026) ──▶ in effect 7/17/2026. │ ✕ Judicial review: §1252(e)(2) allows habeas only on identity, status, and whether │ an order exists — and Thuraissigiam (2020) held that is all the Suspension Clause │ requires for a recent entrant. The 2-year rule makes people who have lived here │ 23 months "recent entrants." │ ├─ B. REINSTATEMENT §1231(a)(5) ★ the prior order is "reinstated from its original │ date," "not subject to being reopened or reviewed," and the person "may not apply │ for any relief." Only a REASONABLE-FEAR screening (USCIS) → withholding-only │ proceedings (withholding / CAT, never asylum). Riley: that track's BIA order is not │ a final order of removal — so the 30-day petition clock is measured differently. │ ├─ C. STIPULATED REMOVAL 8 C.F.R. § 1003.25(b) ★ the person signs a waiver of hearing; │ the IJ signs the order without ever seeing them. Used on detained, unrepresented │ people; the "voluntary" in it is the contested part. │ ├─ D. ADMINISTRATIVE REMOVAL §1228(b) ★ non-LPRs with an aggravated-felony conviction: │ ICE issues the order itself; 10 days to respond; no IJ. │ ├─ E. §212(f) PROCLAMATION (8 U.S.C. § 1182(f)) ✕ LOST │ Proc. 10888, "Guaranteeing the States Protection Against Invasion" (1/20/2025): │ suspend entry across the southern border and BAR ASYLUM for those who cross. │ Trump v. Hawaii (2018) had upheld §1182(f) for entry from abroad. RAICES v. Noem: │ D.D.C. (Moss) vacated the asylum bar 7/2/2025 ──▶ D.C. Cir. AFFIRMED 4/24/2026 — │ the suspension-of-entry power cannot override §1158's guarantee that "any alien │ who is physically present" may apply for asylum. │ ├─ F. ALIEN ENEMIES ACT 50 U.S.C. § 21 ✕ MOOTED, never decided │ Proc. 10903 (3/14/2025): Tren de Aragua declared an "invasion or predatory │ incursion"; 238 Venezuelans flown to El Salvador's CECOT 3/15/2025 (137 under the │ Act). Trump v. J.G.G. (S. Ct., 4/7/2025): challenges go by habeas in the district of │ confinement, with notice "within a reasonable time"; A.A.R.P. v. Trump (5/16/2025): │ 24 hours is not reasonable. Rodriguez (S.D. Tex., 5/1/2025): the invocation was │ unlawful — no war, no invasion by a foreign nation. W.M.M. v. Trump (5th Cir. en │ banc, 8/13/2026): DISMISSED AS MOOT — all three named plaintiffs had been removed │ under ordinary INA authority. ⚑ The 1798 statute's meaning remains undecided; the │ ordinary pipeline did the work the emergency statute could not. │ ├─ G. THIRD-COUNTRY REMOVAL §1231(b)(2)(E)(vii) ⚑ STAYED, running │ DHS guidance (2/–3/2025): remove to a country that "will accept," with notice and │ a fear screening only if the destination has given no diplomatic assurance. │ D.V.D. v. DHS (D. Mass., Murphy): injunction 4/18/2025 ──▶ S. Ct. STAYED it │ 6/23/2025 (unsigned; Sotomayor dissent) ──▶ final judgment SET ASIDE the policy │ 2/25/2026 ──▶ 1st Cir. AFFIRMED 9/18/2026 ──▶ S. Ct. STAYED it again 9/29/2026 │ (Sotomayor, Kagan, Jackson dissent); cert granted, argument Dec. 2026. │ Deals bought by State's Office of Remigration (≥$410M pledged, per WaPo). │ Destinations: El Salvador (CECOT) · Eswatini (≥30 by 7/2026; up to 160 for $5.1M) │ · Ghana (agreement 9/2025) · Uganda · Rwanda · South Sudan · Costa Rica · Panama. │ └─ H. "SELF-DEPORTATION" ✕ no order at all The CBP Home app + a travel stipend: leave and no removal order issues. The §1182(a)(9)(B) unlawful-presence bar (3 / 10 years) still attaches on exit. ◆ WHO HOLDS THE SEATS — verified 2026-09-07 │ │ Attorney General ............... Todd Blanche (acting from 4/2/2026 after Bondi's │ removal; confirmed 8/8, sworn 8/10/2026) │ EOIR Director .................. Sirce Owen (acting) — Daren Margolin, director from │ 10/2025, resigned effective 7/18/2026; Owen returned │ BIA Chief Appellate IJ ......... David H. Wetmore │ DHS Secretary .................. Markwayne Mullin (confirmed 54–45, 3/23/2026; │ Kristi Noem removed 3/5/2026) │ ICE Director ................... David Venturella (acting, from 6/1/2026; ex-GEO │ Group) — Todd Lyons resigned effective 5/31/2026 │ CBP Commissioner ............... Rodney Scott │ USCIS Director ................. Joseph Edlow │ White House ..................... Tom Homan (border czar) · Stephen Miller (Deputy │ Chief of Staff for Policy — sidelined from │ operational control after Minneapolis, 3/2026) ◆ WHAT THE PIPELINE TELLS YOU — five facts │ │ 1. THE ADJUDICATOR WORKS FOR THE PROSECUTOR'S DEPARTMENT. The judge is a DOJ employee; │ the Attorney General appoints her, can fire her (100+ fired since 2025), can replace │ her with a six-month military lawyer, and can certify her reviewing court's decision │ to himself. Article III appears twice — habeas for custody, the petition for review │ after the order — and neither stops the plane by itself. │ │ 2. THE FORK IS TAKEN BY AN OFFICER, ON A CLASSIFICATION, BEFORE ANY JUDGE. Arriving / │ entered without inspection / prior order / conviction — each label routes a person │ around Stages 3–7 entirely. The 2025 changes were almost all changes to the LABELS │ (2 years, not 14 days; "applicant for admission," not "present"), not to the statute. │ │ 3. THE BYPASS THAT WORKS IS THE ONE CONGRESS WROTE. Expedited removal (1996), mandatory │ detention (1996), reinstatement (1996), third-country removal (1996's §1231(b)) all │ carry volume in 2026. The emergency-authority shortcuts — §212(f) and the Alien │ Enemies Act — lost in the D.C. Circuit or were mooted in the Fifth. The FY2026 pace │ of 460,000 removals runs on IIRIRA, not on 1798. │ │ 4. DETENTION IS DECIDED BY CLASSIFICATION, NOT DANGEROUSNESS. Yajure Hurtado moved every │ EWI from §1226(a) to §1225(b) with one Board decision; 70.6% of the ~65,800 detained │ have no conviction. Whether a bond hearing exists now depends on the circuit; the │ Supreme Court hears the §1226(c) half on 10/13/2026 and the Fifth Circuit en banc the │ §1225(b) half in September. │ │ 5. NOTHING IN THE FORMAL PIPELINE PREVENTED THE WRONGFUL REMOVAL. Abrego Garcia held a │ withholding grant — Stage 5's mandatory relief — and was on the plane anyway. The │ remedy came from an Article III court after the fact, was contested for three months, │ and did not exist for the 238 sent to CECOT the same day. ``` ## Notes - **⚑ The organizing fact is institutional, not political.** Immigration judges are defined at 8 U.S.C. § 1101(b)(4) as "an attorney whom the Attorney General appoints as an administrative judge within the Executive Office for Immigration Review." They are neither Article III judges nor Administrative Procedure Act ALJs, which is why performance quotas, terminations, and the JAG detail were all possible without a statute. The Board's regulation, 8 C.F.R. § 1003.1(h), lets the Attorney General direct any case to himself for review; the 2025–26 practice added § 1003.1(g)(3) designation of unpublished decisions as precedent. The Attorney General who now holds that power is [[Todd Blanche]], acting from April 2, 2026 after [[Pam Bondi]]'s removal and confirmed August 8, 2026. - **The two detention halves are in two different courts this fall.** *Genalo v. G.M.* (cert granted June 15, 2026; argument October 13, 2026) is the § 1226(c) question — whether mandatory criminal-ground detention becomes unconstitutional once prolonged (the Second Circuit said 21 months was too long and put a clear-and-convincing burden on the government). The § 1225(b) question — [[Matter of Yajure Hurtado]]'s reclassification of every entrant-without-inspection as an "applicant for admission" ineligible for bond — is split 2d/3d/6th against 5th/8th, was vacated for a nationwide class in *Maldonado Bautista v. Noem* (C.D. Cal., February 18, 2026), and is before the en banc Fifth Circuit in September 2026 after the July 2 panel's 90-day due-process limit in *Sosnava-Rodriguez v. Ortega* was vacated for rehearing. The map states both as open; neither should be described as settled. - **Expedited removal's nationwide expansion is in effect as of July 17, 2026.** The D.C. Circuit's 2–1 decision in *Make the Road New York v. Mullin* (June 23, 2026) vacated Judge Jia Cobb's August 29, 2025 stay of the January 21, 2025 designation and, on the government's renewed motion, allowed it to take effect immediately. The statute (§ 1225(b)(1)(A)(iii)) has always allowed the Secretary to designate up to the two-year limit; the 100-mile / 14-day rule was itself a 2004 designation, not law. [[Expedited Removal]] carries the concept; this map carries the process. - **The two proclamation-based bypasses both ended in 2026, differently.** *RAICES v. Noem* (D.C. Cir., April 24, 2026) affirmed the vacatur of Proclamation 10888's asylum bar on the merits: § 1182(f) suspends entry, it does not repeal § 1158. *W.M.M. v. Trump* (5th Cir. en banc, August 13, 2026) dismissed the [[Alien Enemies Act]] case as moot because the three named plaintiffs had already been removed under ordinary INA authority — leaving Judge Rodriguez's May 1, 2025 holding that the invocation was unlawful as the only merits ruling, and the statute's meaning unresolved at the appellate level. Judges Ho and others wrote separately that they would have reached and upheld the President's action. Proclamation numbers are from the Federal Register (90 FR 8333; 90 FR 13033). - **Third-country removal is running under a stay of a judgment against it.** *D.V.D. v. DHS*: the District of Massachusetts enjoined the policy April 18, 2025; the Supreme Court stayed the injunction June 23, 2025 in an unsigned order over a Sotomayor dissent; the district court entered final judgment setting the policy aside February 25, 2026; the First Circuit stayed that judgment pending expedited appeal, then affirmed it on September 18, 2026; on September 29, 2026 the Supreme Court stayed the judgment again (Sotomayor, Kagan and Jackson dissenting) and granted certiorari, with argument set for December. The deals with receiving countries are negotiated and paid for by the State Department's [[Office of Remigration]]. Counts and terms for Eswatini (at least 30 received by July 2026; up to 160 for $5.1 million per the Human Rights Watch review of the agreement) are from press and NGO reporting, not from DHS. [[Third-Country Removal]] carries the country-by-country record. - **Officeholder changes found in verification (all inside the fence's seat block):** [[Kristi Noem]] was removed as DHS Secretary March 5, 2026 and [[Markwayne Mullin]] confirmed 54–45 on March 23; [[Todd Lyons]] resigned as acting ICE Director effective May 31, 2026 and [[David Venturella]] took the seat June 1 in an acting capacity; [[Pam Bondi]] was removed April 1–2, 2026 and [[Todd Blanche]] confirmed August 8 and sworn August 10; Daren Margolin, EOIR Director from October 2025, resigned effective July 18, 2026 and [[Sirce Owen]] returned as acting director. [[Rodney Scott]] (CBP) and [[Joseph Edlow]] (USCIS) were confirmed in seat by a September 17–18, 2026 conference program listing them by title — a weak source; both are marked as verified-by-listing rather than by a primary announcement. [[Tom Homan]] and [[Stephen Miller]] hold White House roles with no statutory place in the pipeline and are listed for completeness. - **Numbers carried, with their sources.** ~65,800 in ICE detention in July 2026 with 70.6% lacking any criminal conviction (Vera Institute dashboard via TRAC); 234,236 ICE removals October 1, 2025 – April 4, 2026 and the 460,000 FY2026 pace (ICE data as compiled by Austin Kocher / TRAC); 17,500 Laken Riley Act detentions in year one (DHS, January 29, 2026); 100+ immigration judges fired since January 2025, with the UN special rapporteurs' July 2026 count of 135 and NPR's February 2026 count of 202 departures including resignations; up to 600 JAG officers authorized August 27, 2025; the May 2026 investiture of 77 IJs and 55 temporary IJs; the BIA reduced from 28 to 15 members by the April 14, 2025 interim rule; ~30,700 asylum pretermissions with an Asylum Cooperative Agreement country listed (Mobile Pathways, June 2026). The FY2025 figures are ICE's own and come in two versions — 319,980 removals, or 442,637 when voluntary returns are included (Axios, April 15, 2026, from ICE's year-end statistics) — and the map carries both because the gap between them is a definitional choice, not a discrepancy. Where a number could not be sourced to a document it is omitted rather than rounded — the number of active § 287(g) agreements is left unstated for that reason. - **What the map deliberately omits:** the visa and legal-immigration side (USCIS adjudication, consular processing, the cuts described on the [[Immigration]] issue page); the [[Birthright Citizenship Attack]] litigation, which is about who is a citizen rather than how a noncitizen is removed; [[Ideological Deportations]] as a campaign (the pipeline stage is the same — § 1227(a)(4)(C) plus detention — and the cases are on that page); the military and Guard layer ([[National Guard Federalization Flow]]); and the facilities themselves ([[Alligator Alcatraz]], [[Guantanamo]]). [[Operation Midway Blitz]] and [[Operation Metro Surge]] are Stage 1 as events. ## See also - [[Foundations Hub]] — parent hub for the map series - [[Expedited Removal]] · [[Notice to Appear]] · [[Withholding of Removal]] · [[Cancellation of Removal]] · [[Third-Country Removal]] — the stage concepts - [[Executive Office for Immigration Review]] · [[Board of Immigration Appeals]] — the adjudicators inside DOJ - [[Matter of Yajure Hurtado]] — the reclassification decision at the center of the detention fight - [[Laken Riley Act]] — the 2025 expansion of mandatory detention to arrests - [[Alien Enemies Act]] · [[Trump v. Hawaii]] — the two proclamation authorities - [[Kilmar Abrego Garcia]] · [[Kilmar Abrego Garcia CECOT]] — the wrongful-removal case - [[Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo]] — the Stage 1 roving-patrol stay - [[Convention Against Torture]] — the treaty behind CAT protection - [[Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996]] — the statute that built every bypass on this map - [[Hart-Celler Act]] — the 1965 Act the INA still is - [[Habeas Corpus]] · [[Fifth Amendment]] — the two constitutional doors - [[Sanctuary Jurisdiction]] — the detainer's voluntariness as policy - [[Temporary Protected Status]] — a status whose termination feeds Stage 1 - [[ICE]] · [[CBP]] · [[USCIS]] · [[Homeland Security Investigations]] · [[Department of Homeland Security]] · [[Department of Justice]] · [[Attorney General]] - [[Todd Blanche]] · [[Sirce Owen]] · [[Markwayne Mullin]] · [[David Venturella]] · [[Rodney Scott]] · [[Joseph Edlow]] · [[Tom Homan]] · [[Stephen Miller]] — the seats - [[Kristi Noem]] · [[Pam Bondi]] · [[Todd Lyons]] — who held them until 2026 - [[James Boasberg]] — the J.G.G. judge - [[Operation Midway Blitz]] · [[Operation Metro Surge]] · [[Alligator Alcatraz]] · [[Guantanamo]] — operations and facilities - [[Mahmoud Khalil Detention]] · [[Ideological Deportations]] — the § 1227(a)(4)(C) cases - [[Immigration]] · [[US Immigration Timeline]] · [[Immigration Restrictionism Ecosystem]] — the issue, the chronology, the ecosystem - [[DHS Component Tree]] · [[DOJ Component Tree]] · [[National Guard Federalization Flow]] · [[How a Case Reaches the Supreme Court]] · [[Federal Judiciary Tree]] — sibling maps - [[Federal Agencies Hub]] · [[Judiciary Hub]]