This is not intended to be a complete list, rather a summary of some of the most far-reaching federal immigration laws passed in 2025.
- Laken Riley Act (enacted Jan. 29, 2025)
Certain immigrants who are accused of certain crimes will be detained indefinitely by ICE without due process or an opportunity to ask for release in immigration court. The incarceration will continue while their immigration case is pending – a process that can take years.
- Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025 (enacted Mar. 15, 2025)
Temporary Protection Status was removed for immigrants from Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Honduras, Nepal, Ethiopia, Burma and S. Sudan, although some court appeals are in process.
- H.R. 1 (reconciliation act), “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (enacted July 4, 2025)
This very large budget reconciliation law provides $170.7 billion in additional funding for immigration- and border enforcement-related activities. At the same time, it made $1 trillion in cuts to social safety net programs — the largest-ever cuts in U.S. history — and gave more than $4.5 trillion in tax breaks, mostly for the very wealthy.
OTHER INITIATIVES
- Just after 2025 ended, DHHS paused immigration applications from an additional 20 countries. Click here for more information and a full list of impacted countries.
- There are third-country agreements in place allowing for the deportation of migrants to countries they did not come from. Places such as Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and the brutal CECOT prison in El Salvador are being used as detention centers. There is little oversight of conditions. In 2025, 35 immigrants had died in these detention centers. In the US, the administration opened Alligator Alcatraz in Florida, which also has little oversight.
- Parole programs ended for Cubans, Nicaraguans, Haitians and Venezuelans.
- The “CBP” App has been rebranded as “CBP Home” for immigrants to self deport.
- The administration sent National Guards to US cities to assist with immigration arrests. 1995 federal immigration law
