How the Trump administration is using immigration authorities are trying to restrict speech 

During President Donald Trump’s second term, immigration authorities under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have increasingly used their powers to curb independent and critical reporting. 

Here are four things you need to know about how immigration agencies have participated in restricting press freedom in the United States:  

1. Detaining non-U.S. citizen reporters – At least two journalists who had covered immigration for local Spanish-language outlets, were detained and then held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) authorities in relation to their work, despite being in the country legally. In Nashville, Estefany Rodríguez was detained by immigration authorities and held by ICE for over 10 days before being released. Journalist Mario Guevara was detained by local law enforcement near Atlanta and eventually transferred to ICE detention before he was deported. Both Rodríguez and Guevara had moved to the U.S. to escape threats in their home countries of Colombia and El Salvador respectively. Their detentions a safe haven for journalists seeing asylum from threats in their home countries. 
   • On October 26, 2025, British commentator Sami Hamdi was arrested at the San Francisco International Airport while attempting to board a domestic flight. The State Department and ICE had revoked Hamdi’s visa two days prior without notifying Hamdi. He was released after two weeks in ICE detention and self-deported to the UK. 
   • In March 2025, Tufts University doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk’s visa was also revoked after previously writing an op-ed in a student paper criticizing the school’s response to the Israel-Gaza war, and she spent six weeks in ICE detention, media outlets reported. 
2. Restricting entry to the U.S. – In June 2025, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents at the Los Angeles International Airport denied entry to Australian writer Alistair Kitchen after border officials searched his phone and questioned him about his views on the Israel-Gaza war. Kitchen had previously written about student protests on the Columbia University campus, and published his reporting on Substack. 
   • While the number of reported border stops and denial of entry into the U.S. remains low, these types of cases send a potent message about changing norms about who can enter the U.S. Additionally, expanded screening and vetting of foreign visa applicants’ social media handles from the State Department  has created a sense of unease, including among journalists, that those who have expressed or engaged with views that conflict with the administration will not be admitted into the country. 

3. Threats to change journalist visa process – DHS officials have proposed changes that would shorten the length of foreign media visas, known as “I visas,” for journalists working in the U.S. Currently, such visas can be extended for the duration of employment and compliance with local law. Newly proposed restrictions would permit reporters entry into the U.S. for 240 days, or 90 days for Chinese nationals, with the possibility to renew their visas based on length of their journalistic assignment. These changes would make it more difficult for foreign correspondents to stay in the U.S. for longer periods of time and create a possible framework for censorship in which the administration could trade visa renewal for compliance with reporting.

4. Unsafe protest situations during ICE actions – As immigration and other law enforcement authorities last year began to ramp up their operations across the country, journalists covering protests against these actions faced increased risks, attacks, and arrests, including those of  Don Lemon, Georgia Fort, Junn Bollmann, and Michael Walker Beute. Additionally, at immigration courts, federal agents have assaulted journalists and limited access.

See CPJ’s first-ever travel advisory for journalists entering and exiting the United States.