Overview

• After ICE arrested nearly 500 South Korean workers at a Georgia EV battery plant, the administration temporarily paused deportations to review options, and most workers ultimately returned to South Korea.
• Following a May pledge by Secretary of State Marco Rubio to aggressively revoke Chinese student visas, Trump later said he would allow 600,000 Chinese students, which a White House official described as a two‑year estimate under existing policy.
• Conservative allies including Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene and Fox News host Laura Ingraham criticized the student‑visa stance, underscoring tensions over the balance between enforcement and economic priorities.
• ICE circulated guidance in June urging agents to largely avoid worksite raids in sectors such as hotels and restaurants, then appeared to backtrack days later by saying all operations remained on the table.
• The White House insists policy consistency and says deportation priorities target criminal offenders, while outside analysts describe a pattern of reversals driven by business, university and diplomatic concerns.