Trump Rules Cut Asylum Approvals to Two-Decade Low

Corey Ruiz, a 38-year-old Black man, was shot and killed by Madison police officers on July 22 in Wisconsin during what witnesses described as a broad daylight encounter that quickly turned fatal. Four officers held Ruiz down before firing three shots, according to initial reports and video footage circulating on social media. The incident has sparked protests at the intersection where it occurred, with demonstrators demanding answers in a pattern that echoes previous cases of law enforcement shootings.

This killing stands out because it involves local police rather than federal immigration agents. In recent months, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has conducted record numbers of arrests, averaging 1,474 per day in the first 11 days of July alone. Those operations have targeted day laborers, street vendors and others in communities across the country, often with little advance notice to families or legal observers. Data from the agency shows these detentions have outpaced earlier periods since the start of the current administration.

The Madison case arrives as the Trump administration continues to narrow asylum pathways. New rules from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services now route hundreds of thousands of applications directly to immigration courts, a shift expected to increase denial rates. Asylum approvals have already fallen to their lowest levels in at least two decades. Temporary protected status holders facing expiration of their protections are also turning to asylum as one of the remaining options, only to encounter tighter standards and reduced benefits while cases are pending.

Critics point out that the focus on ICE has sometimes overshadowed violence by city and county departments. Since January, federal agents have been linked to eight public shootings and more than 50 deaths in detention. Yet local police departments operate with their own histories of fatal encounters, including those involving Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, Alex Pretti, Ruben Ray Martinez and Renee Good in other jurisdictions. The Ruiz shooting has renewed calls for scrutiny of both federal and municipal forces rather than treating ICE as the sole source of concern.

Community groups in Madison and elsewhere have organized protests that blend demands for police reform with opposition to expanded immigration enforcement. Videos of the Ruiz incident have spread widely, mirroring the documentation that accompanied earlier ICE raids in southern California. Residents have described a climate of fear that extends beyond undocumented immigrants to include Black and Latino citizens who interact with any level of law enforcement.

Advocates argue that accountability measures aimed only at federal agents will leave gaps in oversight. Local departments often receive federal funding and cooperate with immigration authorities through data sharing and joint operations. Without broader reforms to use-of-force policies and independent investigations, they say, incidents like the one in Madison will continue regardless of changes at the border or in asylum processing.

The events have drawn attention to how enforcement priorities at the federal level can influence local practices. With daily ICE arrests at historic highs and asylum rules tightened further, pressure is mounting on both state and city officials to address the full range of law enforcement conduct in their communities.