Friday, Aug. 21, 2026
This week, immigration policy moved from announcements to consequences: students and universities began planning around a new fixed-stay rule, while green-card applicants and people seeking work permits faced new requirements. Courts, states and churches also tested the practical limits of federal immigration power. Tell us what you think of this week-in-review format. Produced in part with AI, all errors are mine. —David
Student visas move from duration of status to a fixed end date
Harvard is advising some international students and scholars to be in the United States by Sept. 15. The Harvard Crimson reports that the university is advising F-1 and J-1 students and J-1 scholars in on-campus programs to try to be in the country when DHS’s final rule takes effect. Mexico City’s Excelsior describes the same rule and the coalition lawsuit seeking to stop it.
The rule replaces Duration of Status with fixed admission periods—generally up to four years for F-1 and J-1 students, with an “Admit Until Date” on the I-94—and shortens the F-1 post-completion grace period from 60 days to 30. It is scheduled to take effect Sept. 15, subject to congressional review. The lawsuit’s preliminary-injunction request has not been granted; Harvard says the rule remains in place for now.
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What changes to green-card rules and USCIS forms mean
The public-charge rule changes how DHS evaluates some applications for admission or a green card. The Federal Register says it replaces the 2022 framework on Sept. 18. USCIS guidance says the new approach applies to applications to enter the United States and to Form I-485 filings submitted on or after that date. Officers will review each case as a whole and may consider specified benefits received on or after Sept. 18; earlier benefits remain under the prior framework. Receiving a benefit alone does not mean an application will be denied. The Hill describes the added scrutiny green-card applicants may face, while La Nacion explains the practical changes for migrants.
USCIS is also replacing three key forms, with no grace period. Form I-485 is the green-card application; Form I-539 extends or changes some temporary stays; and Form I-765 is the work-permit application. The new 09/18/26 I-485 edition replaces the 01/20/25 edition. The new 09/15/26 I-539 and I-765 editions replace the 08/28/24 and 08/21/25 editions. USCIS says filings after each cutoff must use the current edition or be rejected.
After TPS decisions, workers and families face new realities
Sudan and Ukraine are in an interim phase, not a settled endpoint. USCIS’s Sudan page and Ukraine page list Oct. 19 as the current end date and describe individualized notices extending certain pending renewal applicants’ EADs through that date. Through the Immigration Lens notes that what happens afterward remains unresolved.
Honduras illustrates the downstream question. Infobae reports that the Honduran government is planning for possible returns while emphasizing that losing TPS does not mean everyone returns immediately. Other applications, family circumstances and litigation can change a person’s options.
Churches, TPS and the politics of immigration enforcement
A federal appeals court kept tighter limits on immigration enforcement at the houses of worship covered by a lawsuit. Politico, Government Executive and Maryland Matters report that the Fourth Circuit upheld a preliminary injunction requiring DHS agents to follow the more restrictive 2021 sensitive-places rules at the plaintiff congregations while the case continues. The ruling is not a nationwide ban: warrants and some emergency actions remain exceptions.
In Ohio, churches are part of the response to the end of Haiti’s TPS. In a conversation with Austin Kocher, Democratic Rep. Greg Landsman described congregations that built relationships in Haiti, sponsored people who fled, and are now confronting the possibility of their neighbors’ deportation. He pointed to Republican Gov. Mike DeWine’s description of deporting those families as “sending them back to hell.”
Upcoming
Next four weeks
- Aug. 24, 2026
DHS wants to raise the cost of applying for US citizenship (Form N-400) from $760 to $1,330 on paper, and $710 to $1,280 online, with the appeal of a denial (Form N-336) going from $830 to $1,475. Reduced fees and fee waivers for naturalisation would end. Comments close Aug. 24 and implementation likely soon after.
- Aug. 25, 2026
Adults who want to take custody of an immigrant child who arrived without a parent or guardian would have to show more documents — proof of identity, proof of income, and information for background checks — before the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) releases the child to them. Comments on the proposed rule are open until August 25, 2026.
- Aug. 28, 2026
The comment deadline closes on the DHS rule requiring foreign nationals in the US to register with the government and give fingerprints (Form G-325R). DHS is asking whether more immigration filings should count as registration on their own, and whether to change biometrics rules for some travelers; further rulemaking may follow.
- Aug. 31, 2026
Employers using the extra H-2B visas Congress allows for seasonal, non-farm jobs must file a sworn statement (attestation) that they meet the added conditions. The Labor Department is asking the White House budget office (OMB) to renew that collection — the requirement itself is not changing — and comments are open until August 31, 2026.
- Sept. 9, 2026
Starting September 9, the heaviest users of H-1B and L-1 visas owe a federal fee on every extension petition, not just when they hire someone new or take on another company's worker. The fee — $4,000 per H-1B petition, $4,500 per L-1 — applies to companies with 50 or more U.S. employees when more than half of them are on H-1B or L-1 visas. DHS says its old reading of a 2015 law wrongly let same-employer extensions skip the fee; this rule closes that gap through September 2027.
Protection from deportation for Salvadorans in the US (TPS) is scheduled to end September 9, 2026. DHS's decision on whether to extend it was due July 11 and has not been published; by law, if no termination notice publishes, the designation continues automatically for six months.
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Colorado, GEO and the limits of detention oversight
Colorado’s fight with GEO Group is to gain access to records needed for a tuberculosis investigation. The Colorado Sun and Denver Post report that the state sued after GEO missed a deadline to provide records about a June case at the Denver Contract Detention Facility in Aurora, Colorado. A separate ruling blocked parts of Colorado’s new detention-inspection law, according to Colorado Newsline.
The facility’s May ICE Office of Detention Oversight report rated it Superior, with all 29 reviewed standards compliant and zero deficiencies. That is an internal ICE assessment under its own standards, not an independent resolution of the TB records dispute or evidence that GEO caused a particular infection; this week the Project on Government Oversight published a deep dive into what they call ICE’s “broken” facility inspection system.