Martha Bellisle, Author at The Rapid City Post

The entrance to the Northwest U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Processing Center is seen, Aug. 13, 2025, in Tacoma, Wash. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

Feeling hopeless in custody, many drop claims to remain in the US, leave voluntarily

October 12, 2025

His health declined at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Tacoma, Washington.. Without medications and unable to care for his family or sick granddaughter, Ramón Rodriguez Vazquez became distressed, and finally gave up. He dropped efforts to stay in the U.S. and moved back to Mexico without his wife, four children and 10 grandchildren. Similar dramas are playing out at immigration courts across the country, perhaps even more since early July, when ICE began opposing bond for anyone detained regardless of their circumstances.

President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House before signing an executive order regarding childhood cancer and the use of AI, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Lawsuit seeks to stop Trump’s $100,000 fee for H-1B visas

October 3, 2025

In what appears to be the first major challenge to the new $100,000 fee required for H-1B visa applications, a coalition of health care providers, religious groups, university professors and others filed a federal lawsuit Friday to stop the plan. The group says the new fee has “thrown employers, workers and federal agencies into chaos.” President Donald Trump signed a proclamation on Sept. 19 requiring the new fee, saying the H-1B visa program “has been deliberately exploited to replace, rather than supplement, American workers.” The lawsuit says the H-1B program drives innovation and economic growth in the U.S., and allows employers to fill jobs in specialized fields. They say the fee will impede that growth.

FILE - This photo combination shows, from left, Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, Jan. 31, 2024, in Salem, Ore., Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson, Jan. 27, 2025, in Seattle and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Aug. 21, 2025, in Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, Lindsey Wasson, Godofredo A. Vásquez)

Washington, Oregon and California governors form alliance in rebuke of Trump administration

September 3, 2025

The Democratic governors of Washington, Oregon and California have created an alliance to safeguard health policies, believing the Trump administration is putting Americans’ health and safety at risk by politicizing the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The move announced Wednesday comes with COVID-19 cases rising in the U.S. and as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. restructures and downsizes the CDC and attempts to advance anti-vaccine policies that are contradicted by decades of scientific research. Concerns about staffing and budget cuts were heightened after the White House sought to oust the agency’s director and some top CDC leaders resigned in protest.

Lawyer: Oregon firefighter arrested by Border Patrol during wildfire was on track for legal status

August 29, 2025

Lawyers are demanding the release of a longtime Oregon resident arrested by Border Patrol while fighting a Washington state wildfire. The attorneys said Friday that the firefighter was already on track for legal status after helping federal investigators solve a crime against his family. His lawyers say he has been in the U.S. for 19 years. They have not been able to locate him in the system and are demanding his release. They say his arrest was illegal and it violated Department of Homeland Security polices that says authorities cant do immigration enforcement in places where disaster and emergency response is happening. Federal authorities have declined to reveal details on the operation.

2 firefighters battling Washington state wildfire arrested by Border Patrol

August 28, 2025

Two firefighters were taken into custody by U.S. Border Patrol agents during a criminal investigation into two contractors who had provided a 44-person crew to help fight a Washington state wildfire. The Bureau of Land Management said Thursday it asked the Border Patrol to help with the Wednesday operation because the group was working in a remote area. The agency says Border Patrol agents checked the crew’s identities and detained two workers who were in the U.S. illegally. The BLM said Thursday it terminated the contracts with the two companies and escorted the other 42 workers off federal land.

Immigrant rights advocates monitor a webcam available to the public showing a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement flight departing from King County International Airport-Boeing Field, Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

US deportation flights hit record highs as carriers try to hide the planes, advocates say

August 27, 2025

As Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation flights reach record highs, the airlines running the trips have taken steps to make it more difficult to track the planes used to carry shackled people across the country and around the world. That’s according to independent groups monitoring the flights. In recent months, ICE Air contractors started using dummy call signs for the planes in the air and are hiding their tail numbers so they can’t be located on public tracking websites. Once on the ground, the planes are parked behind buildings so the migrants can’t be seen arriving or boarding. Despite these obstacles, dedicated immigrant rights advocates have created ways to follow ICE flights using shared information and crowdsourced data from radio signals.

FILE - Transportation Security Administration workers screen airline passengers at Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington, Monday, Jan. 28, 2019. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta,File)

Judge grants preliminary injunction to protect collective bargaining agreement for TSA workers

June 2, 2025

A federal judge has granted a preliminary injunction to stop Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem from killing a collective bargaining agreement for Transportation Safety Administration workers. U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman of Seattle says an injunction is needed to preserve the rights and benefits TSA workers have enjoyed for years while being represented by the American Federation of Government Employees. Pechman’s order Monday says the union’s lawsuit shows that Noem’s directive to end the agreement “constitutes impermissible retaliations.” AFGE National President Everett Kelley says the court’s decision “is a crucial victory for federal workers and the rule of law.”

Martha Bellisle.