Compassion Year in Review: Eyes on immigration

WORLD’s Compassion beat orbited around one topic for most of 2025: immigration. President Donald Trump’s mass deportation effort and other strict immigration measures riled critics while supporters praised his efforts. Here are our picks for this year’s top stories.

Trump’s mass deportation push

The Trump administration has aggressively ramped up deportations this year, with supporters arguing that the president is fully enforcing immigration laws that previous administrations neglected. Individuals with pending asylum claims, alongside lawful permanent residents with criminal records, found themselves detained in places like Florida’s Alligator Alcatraz. Ukrainians who fled the war in their home country have also faced the prospect of deportation. Trump has radically increased funding for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Department of Justice said it would begin using military lawyers as temporary immigration judges to cut through the backlog of cases in the U.S. immigration court system. The Trump administration also invoked the Alien Enemies Act to more easily deport illegal immigrants who are over the age of 14 and from Venezuela.

Afghans caught in the middle

As part of its immigration crackdown, the Trump administration this year set its sights on Afghan refugees, many of whom fled the Taliban and some of whom assisted the U.S. military in their home country. In April, officials ended temporary protected status, a form of provisional legal status, for many Afghans in the United States. An Afghan national’s shooting of two National Guard members the week of Thanksgiving further fueled the administration’s push. In November, it began shutting down many avenues for Afghans legally in the country to obtain green cards or other documents from the federal government. The government has not responded to U.S. service members from Afghanistan who pleaded with it to help their families still within arms’ reach of the Taliban.

The pushback

The Trump administration’s efforts to target Afghans, as well as individuals who entered the country illegally but were positively contributing to their communities, drew widespread criticism from opponents—including Christians, leaders at refugee resettlement groups, and protesters on U.S. streets. Some individuals also actively tried to interfere with ICE raids by publicizing information on the agency’s activities and deployments.

The National Guard

Trump deployed the National Guard to Washington, D.C., earlier this year, arguing it would help reduce crime in the city, but critics claimed that crime rates were already decreasing nationwide. Trump soon began sending the National Guard to other cities across the country—both to reduce crime and assist in immigration enforcement efforts. The deployments drew legal challenges every time.

Cashless bail controversy

In August, Trump signed two executive orders seeking to end cashless bail policies for violent offenders. Opponents of the policies say that releasing criminals without requiring them to pay any bail threatens public safety. But experts disagree over whether these policies put communities in any more danger than ordinary bail. Some argue that requiring cash bail policies could undermine the presumption of innocence and show preference to wealthy Americans over those with lower incomes. Also in August, authorities arrested Decarlos Brown for the stabbing murder of 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska, a Ukrainian refugee, on a North Carolina light rail train. A judge had released Brown months earlier without bail. In early December, a North Carolina measure dubbed “Iryna’s Law” went into effect, making violent offenders ineligible for cashless bail.

Taking aim at legal immigration

In addition to cracking down on illegal immigration, the Trump administration signaled that it sought to reduce legal immigration. It reduced the number of refugees who could enter the United States during fiscal year 2026 to a historic low—a move opponents greeted with significant criticism. It also hiked the price of the H-1B visa to $100,000 in a move that divided the public. The White House in November ordered that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services re-vet all refugees who had legally entered the country during the Biden administration.