Immigration & Demographic Change

Two controversial federal‑agent shootings in Minneapolis — including the killing of Alex Pretti, where available video and officials’ accounts have challenged DHS’s initial claims and body‑worn camera footage remains under review — have sparked protests and intense scrutiny of DHS leadership. In response, DHS pulled Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino from the operation and installed border czar Tom Homan to lead Operation Metro Surge and meet with Gov. Tim Walz and Mayor Jacob Frey to press for targeted tactics and custody transfers, even as President Trump renewed public attacks on Minnesota officials within 48 hours.

A preliminary CBP Office of Professional Responsibility review sent to Congress says two CBP officers—a Border Patrol agent and a CBP officer—fired during the encounter that killed Alex Pretti, noting an agent shouted “He’s got a gun!” and both fired seconds later, that a 9mm was later recovered from Pretti’s waistband, and that the report does not allege he brandished the weapon. CBS and other outlets report both officers have been placed on administrative leave and that Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino has been relieved of his Minneapolis command amid scrutiny and calls for independent review.

A federal judge has ruled in favor of Any Lucia López Belloza, the Babson College student mistakenly deported to Honduras, and ordered the Trump administration to remedy the error within three weeks. The ruling explicitly recognizes the removal as erroneous and grants the relief her lawyer had sought to effect her return.

A federal judge has temporarily barred ICE from deporting or transferring 5‑year‑old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, ordering they remain in the Western District of Texas while litigation proceeds; the pair are being held at the Dilley family detention center and have a pending immigration court (asylum) case docketed Dec. 17, 2024. The Minnesota arrest that led to their transfer has prompted competing accounts — Columbia Heights school officials and the family allege agents used the boy as “bait” to lure others, while DHS says the father fled and “abandoned” the child — fueling broader scrutiny of ICE’s tactics.

Rep. Seth Moulton, D‑Mass., told CNN it is "not extreme" to compare U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to Nazi Germany, arguing that ICE tip lines and the targeting of specific communities by "agents of the state" echo how ordinary Germans came to accept persecution of their neighbors. He tied his remarks to current operations in Minneapolis, saying 'that’s what’s happening today in Minneapolis,' and added that his Massachusetts constituents fear they could be next. The Fox report frames his comments alongside other recent Nazi and Gestapo analogies from Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and author Stephen King, and notes that celebrities such as Bruce Springsteen have called for ICE to "get the f--- out" of Minneapolis after the fatal ICE shooting of Renee Nicole Good and a subsequent Border Patrol killing of Alex Pretti. ICE did not immediately respond to Fox’s request for comment, but the remarks are already circulating in partisan media and social feeds as another escalation in rhetoric around immigration enforcement, drawing fire from critics who say Holocaust analogies trivialize Nazi crimes and fuel further polarization. Coming as Congress fights over DHS funding and Democrats debate reforms or abolition of ICE, a sitting member of Congress explicitly endorsing Nazi comparisons to current U.S. agents is likely to be cited by both sides in the broader political battle over Trump‑era enforcement.

After the killing of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, corporate leaders and tech CEOs urged "de‑escalation": Apple’s Tim Cook sent an internal memo and said he spoke with President Trump, dozens of Minnesota CEOs (including 3M, UnitedHealth and Target) signed a Chamber letter calling for immediate de‑escalation, and hundreds of Amazon, Google and Meta employees pressed their companies to publicly condemn ICE and cancel contracts. Tech chiefs such as Sam Altman and Dario Amodei sent internal warnings that ICE tactics have "gone too far," while experts say firms are issuing cautious, collective statements to acknowledge employee anger without directly confronting the administration — even as DHS and local officials dispute details about an injured officer and national polls show growing public unease with aggressive ICE operations that is eroding support for the administration’s immigration push.

House Homeland Security Committee Democrats have been holding "shadow" impeachment hearings and a rapidly growing number of House Democrats — led by Rep. Robin Kelly — have co‑sponsored three articles accusing DHS Secretary Kristi Noem of obstruction of Congress, violations of public trust, and self‑dealing, with leadership figures including Hakeem Jeffries warning they will move to impeach if President Trump does not remove her. The push, occurring amid internal Democratic debate over impeachment versus using appropriations and operational limits and amid some bipartisan calls for Noem to resign, coincides with a formal Feb. 10 Homeland Security oversight hearing featuring ICE Director Todd Lyons and CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott, even as the White House and many Republicans defend Noem.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said firing DHS Secretary Kristi Noem would be "a start" but "not enough," calling DHS under the Trump administration a "killing machine" after the fatal ICE shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis and other recent vehicle‑related encounters (including a Portland shooting), and laying out demands — warrants for arrests, bans on masks, mandatory body cameras and criminal accountability — before Democrats will back the GOP DHS funding bill. The Minneapolis killing, disputed by local officials and captured on bystander video, has spurred nationwide "ICE Out For Good" protests, intensified calls for oversight and hearings, and prompted many Democrats to threaten to withhold funding unless statutory guardrails are enacted.

Minneapolis police identified the man who rushed Rep. Ilhan Omar during a Minneapolis town hall and sprayed her with a foul‑smelling, unknown liquid delivered from a syringe as 55‑year‑old Anthony (James) Kazmierczak; officers immediately took him into custody and he was booked into Hennepin County Jail on a third‑degree assault charge. The attack — which occurred as Omar was calling for DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to resign and advocating abolishing ICE — prompted forensic and U.S. Capitol Police follow‑up; Omar declined immediate medical attention, continued the event, and later said she was “ok” and would not be intimidated.

A coalition of local prosecutors has launched the "Fight Against Federal Overreach" project to coordinate legal and political pushback against Trump‑era immigration enforcement surges they say are unconstitutional and undermining the justice system. Announced Wednesday and anchored in Minneapolis, the group includes Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty and prosecutors from Austin, Texas, and several Virginia jurisdictions, and is responding in particular to aggressive ICE and Border Patrol tactics during Operation Metro Surge that left two civilians dead in Minneapolis, including Alex Pretti. Krasner blasted masked officers with hidden badge numbers and cited Vice President JD Vance’s blanket assertion of immunity for federal agents, arguing that with DOJ’s Civil Rights Division refusing to open probes and U.S. attorneys’ offices hollowed out, "the federal government are the rogue sheriffs" and local prosecutors must fill the gap because state convictions are beyond the president’s pardon power. The group points to federal officials cutting Minnesota investigators out of crime scenes in the killings of Pretti and Renee Good and says immigration arrests around courthouses are scaring victims, witnesses and defendants away from participating in prosecutions, corroding local public safety. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has defended the enforcement operations as constitutional and necessary, but the project signals a new front in the fight over federal‑state balance on immigration, with local DAs openly exploring state‑level charges and strategies to hold federal officers to account.

Portland, Maine police arrested nine anti‑ICE protesters Tuesday after they refused to leave Sen. Susan Collins’ downtown office, where about 50 demonstrators packed the eighth floor of One Canal Plaza to demand she use her power as the Senate’s top appropriator to cut funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Officers said the group was repeatedly warned they would face criminal trespass charges if they didn’t disperse; nine people, ages 31 to 65, chose to stay, sang 'We Shall Overcome' in the hallway and asked to be arrested. The protesters, including the Rev. Christine Dyke of Gorham First Parish Congregational Church, called for an end to ICE’s latest deportation operation in Maine, arguing it is terrifying asylum‑seeking immigrants who fled their home countries in fear. Collins, who has been defending the pending DHS spending bill that Democrats want to block after the fatal Alex Pretti shooting in Minneapolis, said Monday that most of the measure’s money goes to non‑immigration and non‑border operations and warned that defeating it risks a 'dangerous and detrimental' government shutdown. The Portland sit‑in adds pressure on Collins from the left at home as national Democrats try to leverage ICE tactics and Trump’s interior‑enforcement surge to reshape Homeland Security funding.

Virginia Democrats have introduced House Bill 1442, sponsored by Del. Alfonso Lopez, that would bar 'any person' from enforcing federal immigration laws within 40 feet of polling places, election board meetings or recount facilities, a restriction Republicans say is unconstitutional under the Supremacy Clause. The measure comes as the new Democratic majority and Gov. Abigail Spanberger advance a slate of immigration‑related bills, and as GOP House Minority Leader Terry Kilgore openly accuses Democrats of trying to shield illegal voting, citing federal arrest and interrogation authorities in 8 U.S.C. §§ 1226 and 1357. A DHS spokesperson told Fox News that ICE is not planning operations targeting polling sites, but made clear that if a 'dangerous criminal alien' happens to be near a polling location during a targeted operation, they may still be arrested. The bill spotlights a growing clash between blue‑state legislatures and the Trump administration over how far states can go in walling off local spaces—including election sites—from federal immigration enforcement, and it is already being used in conservative media and online to fuel claims about noncitizen voting and 'sanctuary' election zones.

DHS data provided to CBS shows ICE is holding about 73,000 people facing deportation — a record high that the agency says includes individuals in active removal proceedings or under final orders. The public acknowledgment adds transparency even as separate reporting by the New York Times highlights concerns about detention conditions after the family of a Cuban immigrant says he was killed in ICE custody in a legal filing.

After an in‑person meeting in Minneapolis with Trump’s border czar Tom Homan that Frey called a "productive conversation," Mayor Jacob Frey reiterated that Minneapolis "does not and will not enforce federal immigration laws" and said local police will focus on keeping "neighbors and streets safe." President Trump responded on Truth Social calling Frey’s stance a "very serious violation of the Law" and warning he is "PLAYING WITH FIRE!," and Frey rebutted on X by invoking Rudy Giuliani’s sanctuary‑city policy.

At a chaotic Minneapolis town hall Rep. Ilhan Omar was reportedly hit with an unknown spray, prompting multiple House Republicans — including Pete Stauber, Nathaniel Moran, Tom Barrett, Don Bacon and Nancy Mace — to publicly condemn the attack. They called for the attacker to be prosecuted and "punished to the full extent of the law," with Barrett citing a reported 57% increase in acts and threats against members of Congress since 2024 and framing the incident as part of a broader rise in political violence.

Indivisible has scheduled a nationwide "No Kings 3" protest wave for March 28, 2026, with a flagship march in the Minneapolis–St. Paul metro that organizers — including co‑executive director Ezra Levin — say could draw as many as 9 million people and has been focused on Minnesota after the deployment of roughly 3,000 federal agents and the fatal ICE/Border Patrol shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good. The march follows recent coordinated walkouts that drew thousands into the streets in cities such as Atlanta, New York City, Minneapolis and Washington, D.C., including high‑school student walkouts, and is being promoted by organizers as resistance to what they describe as efforts to consolidate and expand President Trump’s power.

A nationwide crackdown that sent thousands of DHS agents into Minneapolis and other cities — and that produced multiple controversial use‑of‑force incidents, including the fatal ICE shooting of Renee Good and a second deadly federal shooting in the Twin Cities plus a Border Patrol shooting in Portland — has sparked large protests, lawsuits and resignations at DOJ, prompted threats to invoke the Insurrection Act and put troops on standby. Against that fraught backdrop, Democrats won two Minnesota special‑house races, tying the state House at 67–67.

National Education Association president Becky Pringle is slated to speak Wednesday on a Sunrise Movement–hosted mass Zoom call titled "Roadmap to Political Revolution," focused on opposing Trump administration immigration enforcement and ICE after the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis. The virtual event, which will also feature Rep. Ro Khanna, Sunrise executive director Aru Shiney‑Ajay and include phone‑banking for Illinois Democratic congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh, is billed as a strategy session on "turning the tide on ICE" through organizing in Minneapolis and beyond. Pringle and the NEA, along with the American Federation of Teachers and other unions, have recently issued statements demanding that ICE stay away from schools, with Pringle writing that "ICE must leave our schools and communities immediately." The appearance underscores how the 3‑million‑member NEA—still the only union with a federal charter, though a 2025 bill seeks to repeal it over political activity—is openly aligning with a hard‑left climate group that also pushes the Green New Deal, racial‑justice investment and an explicit "political revolution" against Trump. For parents and taxpayers, it’s another sign that the nation’s biggest teachers union is treating immigration enforcement as a core political battleground, not just a classroom issue.

Organizers of the 'No Kings' protest movement have announced a third, nationwide day of demonstrations for March 28, 2026, saying they will focus on what they call President Donald Trump’s authoritarianism and his immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, where federal agents recently killed two people. Ezra Levin, co‑executive director of the Indivisible network, told the Associated Press they expect as many as 9 million participants and predict it could become the largest protest in U.S. history. The loosely coordinated coalition — which staged 'No Kings' rallies in roughly 2,000 locations last June and 2,700 in October — is explicitly linking the new protests to what it calls a 'secret police force' murdering Americans and violating constitutional rights. The movement’s earlier actions were sparked by Trump’s mass-deportation push, his deployment of National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles, and a Washington, D.C., military parade they described as a 'coronation.' This new round comes as public anger over the Minneapolis deaths and Operation Metro Surge is already driving boycotts, business closures and legal challenges, raising the stakes for another large-scale, coordinated protest wave across U.S. cities.

On Jan. 26, 2026, Maple Grove police declared an unlawful assembly and arrested 13 people outside the SpringHill Suites during a protest targeting a Border Patrol commander, saying the demonstration escalated into property damage and objects were allegedly thrown at officers. Fox News reports the arrestees faced charges including riot, damage to property and obstructing legal process, and identified prior convictions for some — including Justin Neal Shelton’s 2007 first‑degree aggravated robbery conviction involving an assault on a pregnant woman and multiple theft/property‑damage convictions for Abraham Nelson Coleman — while noting among those arrested were University of Minnesota 1L Jaylynn Marie Rodriguez and Rayna Michelle Alston, who reportedly uses the slogan “disrupt disturb resist” on her Instagram.

Federal prosecutors have opened an 18 U.S.C. §372 investigation into whether Gov. Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, AG Keith Ellison and other Minnesota officials conspired to impede Operation Metro Surge—an approximately 3,000‑agent ICE/Border Patrol deployment—and have served grand‑jury subpoenas on multiple state and local offices as protests escalated after the ICE‑related killing of Renee Good. At the same time, federal judges in Minnesota have imposed limits on how federal officers may police demonstrations and ordered preservation of evidence amid contested DOJ/DHS handling of the Good and Alex Pretti shootings, developments that have prompted accusations of evidence obstruction and politicization of the justice system.

As Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino is reassigned and border czar Tom Homan takes over federal operations in Minneapolis, the agency’s large deployment and tactics have come under intense scrutiny after the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti — the second U.S. citizen killed in recent Minnesota federal actions — with bystander videos, local officials and DHS offering sharply conflicting accounts. Critics point to CBP’s documented history of excessive force and limited urban crowd‑control training amid a surge of protests, strikes and political condemnations, while DHS alleges agitators attacked agents, prompting calls for independent investigations and a pullback of the federal presence.

Ecuador has filed a formal protest after federal immigration officers attempted to enter its consulate in Minneapolis, and Ecuador’s foreign minister said the officers were stopped. Some reports identify the officers as ICE agents, but officials have not publicly detailed which agency was involved or how the attempt unfolded.

Dozens of protesters were arrested after staging a sit-in in the lobby of the Hilton Garden Inn in downtown Manhattan; the NYPD says officers ordered the crowd to leave before arresting those who remained but has not provided a precise arrest count. Demonstrators wearing shirts reading "Hilton houses ICE" demanded the hotel stop allegedly housing federal immigration officers, and a DHS spokesperson said the department would not disclose whether officers were staying at the hotel.

Spain’s government has announced it will use an expedited decree to grant up to one year of legal residency and work authorization to an estimated 500,000–800,000 immigrants currently living in the country without papers, making it one of Europe’s largest recent mass regularizations. Migration Minister Elma Saiz said Tuesday that foreigners who arrived before Dec. 31, 2025, can prove at least five months’ residence, and have no criminal record will be able to apply between April and the end of June 2026. The move, struck in a deal between Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s Socialists and the leftist Podemos party, bypasses a stalled parliamentary bill and is being cheered by migrant-rights and Catholic groups that gathered 700,000 signatures for a similar initiative born during the COVID-19 pandemic. Podemos MEP Irene Montero explicitly contrasted the measure with the Trump administration’s hard-line enforcement in the U.S., “particularly in Minnesota,” underscoring how Spain is positioning itself as a counterexample to U.S. and European crackdowns. For U.S. audiences, the policy will offer a live test of whether large-scale legalization for long‑resident workers in key sectors like agriculture and services can be sold domestically and managed administratively at a time when Washington is moving in the opposite direction.

Sen. Lindsey Graham pushed back at Sen. Thom Tillis for criticizing DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and White House adviser Stephen Miller after they labeled Alex Pretti a "domestic terrorist," saying Miller's support from President Trump is "rock solid" and praising his role for the administration. Those early characterizations were made before an incident report and remain unsubstantiated, drawing bipartisan criticism and putting Trump in a delicate position as he defends Noem, promises a thorough investigation, and faces intra‑GOP disagreement over whether Pretti’s possession of a firearm justified the federal agents’ use of deadly force.

A federal judge in Fort Myers has opened a two‑day hearing on whether immigrants held at Florida’s state‑run Everglades detention center, dubbed 'Alligator Alcatraz,' are being unlawfully denied access to their lawyers. Civil‑rights attorneys are seeking a temporary injunction requiring the DeSantis‑built facility to provide attorney access comparable to federally run ICE centers, arguing that three‑day advance appointment rules, frequent last‑minute transfers and long scheduling delays have prevented detainees from meeting counsel before critical deadlines, violating their First Amendment rights. State officials deny restricting access and say the protocols are driven by security and staffing needs, while federal defendants argue any limits are permissible so long as they are reasonably related to 'legitimate penological interest.' ICE Miami deputy field office director Juan Lopez Vega, who tried unsuccessfully to quash a subpoena, is among those expected to testify, and the case proceeds alongside other federal suits that have challenged the facility’s authority to operate and its environmental review. The outcome will help determine how far states can go in running their own immigration lockups and what minimum lawyer‑access standards apply when they do, issues that are drawing intense scrutiny amid Trump‑era crackdowns and reports of due‑process failures in remote detention sites.

In a Fox News interview Tuesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said that under state law he expects all state and local law enforcement to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security, warning that any Florida official who "acts like Jacob Frey" in resisting federal immigration operations "gets removed" from office. DeSantis contrasted Florida’s approach with that of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, accusing them of "sabotaging" Trump administration immigration enforcement by refusing to transfer jailed noncitizens to DHS custody. He echoed unsubstantiated Trump‑era claims about "paid" protesters in Minnesota opposing Operation Metro Surge, while also acknowledging that tactics may need review after the fatal ICE and Border Patrol shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. His remarks come as Republican officials in several states push hard‑line cooperation mandates and threaten sanctions against local leaders who adopt sanctuary‑style limits, deepening the national fight over how far states can go in compelling or punishing cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. The comments also signal how DeSantis is positioning himself as an enforcer willing to wield removal powers against local elected officials in future clashes over Trump’s deportation agenda.

PolitiFact, writing for PBS, examined President Donald Trump’s repeated claims this month that anti‑ICE demonstrators in Minnesota are 'highly paid professional agitators,' 'paid agitators and insurrectionists' and 'professional troublemakers,' and found no evidence to support them. The fact‑check notes that neither the White House nor other officials such as DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, Vice President JD Vance or Sen. Markwayne Mullin have produced proof that Minnesota’s large, weeks‑long protests are funded operations rather than local grassroots actions. Reporters reviewed viral social‑media posts that purported to show 'paid' protesters and concluded those examples did not hold up, while experts and on‑the‑ground reporting point instead to long‑standing volunteer networks of labor, faith and immigrant‑rights groups organizing walkouts, marches, food drives and mutual‑aid efforts. The analysis situates Trump’s accusations in the broader rhetoric around Operation Metro Surge and recent fatal ICE and Border Patrol shootings, where labeling protesters as paid 'insurrectionists' is being used to justify a hardened federal response and calls in Congress to investigate protest funding. The piece underscores that, as of now, the 'paid agitator' narrative is a political assertion without substantiating evidence, even as it spreads widely in pro‑administration media and social feeds.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has ordered all state agencies and public universities to stop filing new H-1B visa petitions, citing what he calls 'egregious schemes' in which U.S. workers were allegedly fired and replaced with lower-paid foreign labor. In a letter issued Tuesday, he said the pause—effective immediately and lasting until May 31, 2027 unless lifted earlier by the Texas Workforce Commission—will give state and federal officials time to reform the program, which he argues has been used for jobs that 'could—and should—have been filled by Texans.' Abbott directed state entities to file detailed reports by March 27 listing every current H‑1B worker, job classification, country of origin, visa expiration date, and prior efforts to recruit Texas residents. The move comes after President Donald Trump on Sept. 19 signed executive orders creating a 'Trump Gold Card' and a $100,000 fee for H‑1B visas, while declaring that large‑scale use of H‑1Bs to replace Americans undermines U.S. economic and national security. Texas’s action, echoing rhetoric from Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, injects a major state government into the national fight over whether skilled‑worker visas complement or displace the U.S. workforce, and could pressure other red states to follow suit, particularly in higher education and tech-heavy public institutions.

Germany’s Foreign Federal Office has updated its U.S. travel advisory to warn citizens that demonstrations in Minneapolis and other cities over President Trump’s immigration enforcement policies "sometimes lead to violent clashes with migration and security authorities," and that there is an "increased risk of politically motivated violence" amid rising crime in major American cities. Issued Tuesday alongside guidance on a severe U.S. winter storm, the notice urges German travelers to monitor local media, avoid large crowds where violence may occur, and follow instructions from U.S. authorities. The advisory specifically cites recent deadly shootings by federal officers in Minneapolis, including the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, as tensions escalate around DHS’s Operation Metro Surge. It comes as the U.S. State Department maintains its own Level 2 "Exercise Increased Caution" advisory for Germany over terrorism risks, underscoring how both governments now formally flag security concerns for each other’s citizens. The move adds international scrutiny to the domestic fight over immigration tactics and public safety in U.S. cities that depend heavily on foreign tourism and investment.

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, speaking at a morning event outside City Hall, endorsed a new 'ICE OUT' legislative package and described federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers as 'a small bunch of wannabe Nazis,' vowing 'we will hunt you down' and 'we will find you' if they 'come to Philly to commit crimes.' City Councilmembers Kendra Brooks and Rue Landau’s bills would bar ICE from using city‑owned property, sharply restrict information‑sharing and cooperation by city agencies, and limit agents’ access to public facilities such as libraries, shelters and health centers without a judicial warrant. Krasner cast his remarks as defending constitutional rights and praised bystanders who film immigration raids, while critics warned his language could further inflame tensions and be read as a threat against federal officers. The comments follow earlier statements from Krasner and Sheriff Rochelle Bilal promising to charge ICE agents they say break state law, and come weeks after Pennsylvania legislators and the White House warned that local attempts to obstruct federal immigration enforcement could trigger serious legal consequences. The clash situates Philadelphia as a front‑line test of how far sanctuary‑aligned local officials are prepared to go in resisting Trump‑era interior enforcement and how aggressively federal authorities may respond.

Rep. Eric Swalwell, D‑Calif., told CNN that if he is elected governor of California he would move to strip driver’s licenses from ICE agents who wear masks while operating in the state, declare anyone who has worked for ICE "un‑hirable" in California, and direct state law enforcement to prosecute former agents for crimes such as kidnapping, battery, assault and murder tied to deportation operations. The comments came in a Tuesday interview about President Trump’s mass‑deportation drive and the recent killing of protesters Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis, as Swalwell backed impeachment of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and insisted "there have to be consequences" when federal officers "publicly execute" people. He framed his pledge as an aggressive use of gubernatorial emergency powers and urged other Democratic governors to "go on offense" against ICE, escalating earlier remarks in which he had only said a Swalwell administration would bar ex‑ICE personnel from state jobs. The remarks drew immediate attention on social media from both immigration‑hardline and civil‑liberties circles, with supporters cheering a hard line on what they see as lawless federal agents and critics warning that blanket blacklisting of former ICE employees would be legally dubious and deepen state‑federal conflict over immigration enforcement. The proposal underscores how far some Democrats are now willing to go rhetorically against ICE in the Trump era, and it previews a possible flashpoint in California’s 2026 governor’s race over how much a state can or should punish federal officers for carrying out controversial federal policies.

In a Jan. 27 MS NOW interview, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro praised Minneapolis residents protesting DHS’s Operation Metro Surge as 'inspiring,' said Immigration and Customs Enforcement is 'acting outside the bounds of the law,' and warned Pennsylvania is preparing legally and in communities as though it could be the next target of a federal interior‑enforcement surge. Asked what he would do in Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s place, Shapiro said he would bring state charges against federal officers who shot peaceful protesters, signaling a willingness to push state prosecutorial power directly against federal agents. He called on Congress to 'put some guardrails around ICE spending' by tightening appropriations, framed 2028 as needing a 'national referendum on Donald Trump and his policies,' and recounted last year’s hammer‑and‑Molotov attack on the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion, which ended with a 25‑ to 50‑year attempted‑murder sentence. Shapiro also revisited the 2024 Harris VP vetting, saying a staffer’s question about whether he was a 'double agent for Israel' offended him and that he later asked to be taken out of contention, while still saying the country would have been better off if the Harris–Walz ticket had won. The interview positions Shapiro more clearly on the national stage as a 2028 aspirant who intends to run directly against Trump’s immigration agenda and to test the limits of state resistance to federal ICE operations.

Axios reports that California Gov. Gavin Newsom has opened a state investigation into whether TikTok is unlawfully censoring content critical of President Trump and his immigration crackdown, after users said over the weekend they were suddenly unable to upload videos about ICE raids and the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. TikTok attributes the disruptions to a 'major infrastructure issue' tied to a power outage at a U.S. data‑center partner and says videos of Pretti’s killing have been continuously available, but the timing has fueled the hashtag #TikTokCensorship and suspicions that the platform is muting Trump‑unfriendly material just days after finalizing a U.S. joint‑venture deal. Separately, Meta is blocking links to ICE List — a site that has doxxed thousands of alleged DHS employees — citing its policy against sharing personally identifiable information for law‑enforcement, military and security personnel. The fracas comes as activists and residents increasingly rely on TikTok and other apps to document and track ICE operations in Minnesota and other states, and as lawmakers like Sen. Chris Murphy warn that opaque, politically sensitive content policies on dominant social platforms are emerging as a major 'threat to democracy.' The story puts hard names and explanations to what had been viral complaints that posts about ICE and about Jeffrey Epstein were being throttled or blocked, and raises stakes for regulators looking at how much control politically exposed platforms can exert over real‑time protest and enforcement footage.

A new Washington Post investigation, discussed in a CBS News interview with reporter David Nakamura, finds that Department of Homeland Security officers have fired shots during arrests or at protesters at least 16 times since July 2025, and that Trump aides have declared every one of those shootings justified before internal or external investigations were completed. The shootings, which span multiple DHS components, come amid a broader Trump‑era interior enforcement surge that has already produced controversial fatal incidents in Minneapolis, Portland and other cities. According to the report, political appointees are moving quickly to publicly defend agents, potentially prejudging facts and undermining the integrity of formal use‑of‑force reviews that are supposed to determine whether officers acted lawfully. Civil‑rights advocates and some former officials on social media are warning that this "verdict first, investigation later" pattern looks like an attempt to inoculate agents and the department from accountability and to shape public perception before facts are known. The pattern is likely to fuel calls in Congress for independent investigations and stronger oversight of DHS shooting reviews as lawmakers weigh funding and impeachment pushes linked to ICE and Border Patrol tactics.

The Census pegs the U.S. population at 341.8 million as of July 2025, up 1.8 million in 12 months — the slowest post‑COVID growth — with a 1.3 million rise in the foreign‑born population (down from 2.7 million the year before) while births exceeded deaths by only about 500,000. Experts attribute the slowdown to a mix of late‑Biden asylum restrictions and Trump‑era deportations and border crackdowns, and census forecasters warn net immigration could fall by another 1 million this year; the Trump administration says deportations have eased housing pressures in immigrant‑heavy communities. State changes were uneven — Vermont declined 0.3% while South Carolina grew 1.5%, with Idaho, North Carolina and Texas among the fastest‑growing — and analysts note some of the prior surge reflected pent‑up demand from COVID border closures and shifting global policies that may be diverting migrants.

Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox reported in a Jan. 12 letter to the city clerk that the department declined all 57 immigration detainer requests it received from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2025, citing compliance with the city’s Boston Trust Act and state law. The detainers, which ICE uses to ask local jails to hold people believed removable beyond their normal release date or to notify ICE before release, jumped sharply from 15 requests in 2024, but Cox said BPD is barred from holding people solely on that basis. The City Council reaffirmed the Trust Act in December 2025, and the Trump administration is simultaneously suing Boston over the sanctuary policy, as critics argue such non-cooperation releases removable noncitizens back into communities where some later reoffend. The letter lists the dates and methods of each ICE request but omits detainee identities or alleged offenses, and Cox emphasized that the department’s priority is building trust so immigrant communities feel safe reporting crime. The disclosure puts hard numbers on how one major city is implementing sanctuary rules amid a national crackdown, and it will likely be used on both sides of the federal–local fight over immigration enforcement and public safety.

U.S. Chief Magistrate Judge Patrick J. Schiltz ordered acting ICE Director Todd Lyons to appear in person for a show‑cause contempt hearing after ICE failed to provide a bond hearing or release Ecuadorian detainee Juan Hugo Tobay Robles — conduct Schiltz said was one of “dozens” of recent violations tied to the Trump administration’s Operation Metro Surge that has caused significant hardship. Separately, Schiltz and his wife have long donated to the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota and Mid‑Minnesota Legal Aid — a fact that has drawn conservative scrutiny over potential recusal even as Schiltz says he supports legal representation for the poor — and he has previously clashed with DOJ in other high‑profile Minnesota matters.

Legal experts say Fourth Amendment protections constrain ICE searches and seizures amid a surge of immigration enforcement in Minneapolis, advising residents they can refuse consent to searches and request warrants. A separate PBS fact-check found FBI Director Kash Patel’s blanket claim that guns are barred at protests is incorrect under Minnesota law — the state is a permit‑to‑carry jurisdiction that generally does not ban otherwise lawful firearms at demonstrations — and Patel later narrowed his remarks to say the FBI isn’t targeting peaceful, lawful gun owners absent threats.

DHS and Border Patrol publicized arrests in "Operation Metro Surge," releasing a curated list of detainees — including convicted sex offenders and other prior offenders — and framing the sweep as taking the "worst of the worst" off the streets, a narrative Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin tied to local non‑cooperation with ICE detainers and that has been echoed by the White House and GOP surrogates; Minnesota Democrats and local officials have denounced the raids as politically toxic and say they have terrified communities, with Hmong businesses reporting 60–70% revenue losses and residents saying children are being kept home. The enforcement wave has been marked by violent incidents and contested law‑enforcement accounts: DHS alleges a protester bit off an HSI officer’s finger and officials described assaults on officers, while CBP told Congress two officers fired in the fatal Alex Pretti encounter even as internal reports do not allege Pretti fired his weapon and note irregular handling of his handgun.

A new projection based on 2025 population estimates by Carnegie Mellon redistricting expert Jonathan Cervas, shared via the Redistricting Network, forecasts that New York and California will together lose six U.S. House seats after the 2030 census, while Texas and Florida would gain a combined eight. The analysis suggests New York’s delegation would shrink from 26 to 24 seats and California’s from 52 to 48, continuing decades‑long declines for both Democratic‑leaning states, while Texas would rise from 38 to 42 seats and Florida from 28 to 32 on the strength of strong population growth. Smaller blue states such as Illinois, Rhode Island and Oregon are also projected to lose seats, while red‑leaning states including Utah and Idaho may gain. Experts warn these shifts would also redistribute Electoral College votes, further complicating Democrats’ path to the presidency. The piece also notes concern from New York redistricting lawyer Jeff Wice that adding a citizenship question to the 2030 census, as some Republicans and President Trump have urged, could further depress counts in immigrant communities and accelerate seat losses for blue states.

House Judiciary Committee Democrats, led by Ranking Member Jamie Raskin, sent Attorney General Pam Bondi a letter demanding DOJ records by Feb. 2, alleging senior Trump administration officials ordered federal scrutiny of Renee Good’s widow, blocked state prosecutors’ access to evidence, and are taking similar steps in the Alex Pretti case. Multiple outlets report DOJ declined to open civil‑rights probes into both killings—routing the Pretti matter to ICE’s HSI and CBP’s compliance review—while congressional and state officials have raised alarms about investigatory irregularities (two agents fired in Pretti’s death, the recovered handgun lacked documented chain of custody, evidence was returned to DHS, several prosecutors resigned) and a federal judge has ordered preservation of federal evidence.

An MS NOW investigation found 15 federal immigration agent vehicle shootings since July. In one high‑profile case, CBP’s preliminary Office of Professional Responsibility report to Congress says two agents — a Border Patrol agent with a Glock 19 and a CBP officer with a Glock 47 — fired after an agent yelled “He’s got a gun!,” describes whistles, OC spray and a brief struggle with shots fired roughly five seconds later, notes an agent secured the suspect’s firearm in a government vehicle without clear chain‑of‑custody documentation, and partially contradicts earlier DHS and White House claims that only one agent fired “defensive shots.”

The Department of Homeland Security says it deported three Iranian nationals identified as former members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — Ehsan Khaledi, Mohammad Mehrani and Morteza Nasirikakolaki — on a Sunday charter flight that returned 14 Iranians to Tehran. DHS says all three men entered the U.S. illegally via the southern border in 2024 and that each had an executable final removal order from a federal immigration judge, making this the first deportation flight to Tehran since Iran’s latest anti‑government protests triggered a deadly crackdown. The article notes the flight is the third returning Iranian nationals since September 2025 and comes as President Trump has moved a carrier strike group toward Iran while publicly warning Tehran he may order strikes if mass executions of protesters continue. Human‑rights advocates had spotlighted the flight after two gay Iranian men slated for removal — whose lawyer warned of a high risk of execution if sent back — were taken off the manifest and placed in quarantine for measles exposure. The report underscores how Trump’s interior‑enforcement campaign and his escalating confrontation with Iran are intersecting in sensitive deportation decisions involving alleged former IRGC personnel and at‑risk asylum seekers.

U.S. Embassy officials say ICE agents—specifically Homeland Security Investigations—are expected to support U.S. diplomatic security details at the 2026 Milan‑Cortina Winter Olympics and will not carry out immigration enforcement, a security-assistance role HSI has filled at past Games. The plan has provoked strong pushback from Italian leaders — Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala declared ICE "not welcome," while Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi and other officials stressed uncertainty about the composition of U.S. security teams and insisted ICE will not operate on Italian territory, even as responses from national figures varied in tone.

MLK Day was marked by protests and efforts to "reclaim" the holiday as activists and community leaders warned the fraught U.S. political climate could enable civil‑rights rollbacks under the Trump era. Tensions were amplified by sharp rhetoric from public figures, including a former DHS official who called Gov. Tim Walz's comparison of immigrant children to Anne Frank "disgusting" and inflammatory.

At a Sunday press conference on Minnesota’s ICE surge, Gov. Tim Walz compared immigrant children hiding from federal immigration agents to Anne Frank, saying kids in his state are afraid to go outside and that 'somebody's gonna write that children's story about Minnesota.' Former acting DHS Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli called the analogy 'disgusting' on Fox News, accusing Walz of deliberately stoking chaos around immigration enforcement and being willing to see people hurt for political gain. The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum issued an unusually direct public rebuke, stressing that Anne Frank was 'targeted and murdered solely because she was Jewish' and that using her experience for political equivalencies is 'never acceptable,' particularly amid surging antisemitism in the U.S. The Anti‑Defamation League recently reported 9,354 antisemitic incidents in 2024, a record and a 344% increase over five years, giving added weight to concern that casual Holocaust analogies in U.S. political fights normalize or trivialize Nazi crimes. The dispute unfolds against the backdrop of aggressive Trump‑era ICE operations and protests in Minnesota, where both anti‑enforcement rhetoric and official defenses of federal agents are hardening into sharper, more inflammatory language on all sides.

A federal judge ruled that ICE illegally detained an Iowa man before issuing a notice to appear, saying agents tried to "cover its tracks." In a related sign of judicial pushback on immigration enforcement, a Florida judge has harshly criticized the Trump DOJ’s immigration position as “incoherent” and threatened sanctions.

U.S. District Judge Roy Dalton in Orlando ordered the release of Venezuelan high school student Javier Gimenez Rivero, who has lived in Florida with his family for more than four years, and issued a scathing written order saying the Trump Justice Department’s argument that he lacked jurisdiction over the habeas case 'beggars belief' and appeared to 'deliberately mislead the Court.' In the order, memorializing remarks from a hearing last week and published Monday, Dalton called DOJ’s position on the merits 'ill‑informed,' 'incoherent' and 'simply insupportable on all fronts,' noting that judges appointed by presidents from Ronald Reagan through Donald Trump have already rejected the government’s reading of the statute. He said the government is free to argue for changing the law, but faulted U.S. Attorney Gregory Kehoe and Assistant U.S. Attorney Joy Warner for failing their duty of candor by not citing contrary binding precedent, and directed them to show cause by Feb. 9 why they should not be sanctioned. Dalton stressed that Gimenez Rivero’s release 'provides him with the remedy he deserves' but does not 'remedy everything that happened in this Court,' adding that his case is just one of 'many cases flooding the courts' in which the government has unlawfully detained long‑present noncitizens and declaring, 'In this country, we don’t enforce the law by breaking the law.' The ruling, widely shared in legal circles and immigrant‑rights feeds, underscores growing judicial backlash to what multiple judges now describe as slapdash, law‑breaking immigration enforcement under Trump’s DOJ.

A federal judge in Texas has issued a temporary order blocking Immigration and Customs Enforcement from removing or transferring 5‑year‑old Ecuadorian boy Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, whose Minnesota arrest last week became a flashpoint in the Trump administration’s interior‑enforcement surge. U.S. District Judge Fred Biery ruled Monday that the pair must remain where they are while a court case proceeds, effectively freezing their status as detainees at the family detention facility in Dilley, Texas, near San Antonio. The two were taken into custody in Minnesota in an incident that quickly drew national outrage and claims that ICE used the child as bait, accusations DHS disputes, and their rapid transfer to Texas had raised fears among advocates that they could be deported before courts could review their asylum claims. Biery’s order adds a new legal constraint on DHS and ICE operations tied to Operation Metro Surge and underscores how individual family cases are now being used by federal judges to put at least temporary brakes on elements of Trump’s mass‑deportation campaign. Immigrant‑rights lawyers and Minnesota officials are pointing to the ruling on social media as evidence that courts are starting to push back on what they call "deportation by ambush," while administration allies frame it as another example of the judiciary hamstringing lawful enforcement.

Roughly 200 protesters filled the Minnesota Capitol on Tuesday, marching to Gov. Tim Walz’s office and chanting anti‑ICE slogans as anger mounts over two recent fatal shootings by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis. Demonstrators shouted "ICE out now," demanded criminal charges for the officers involved, and held signs reading "Justice for Good" and "Justice for Pretti" bearing photos of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both killed this month by federal agents. The protest, which remained non‑violent inside the building, is part of a broader wave of actions targeting Operation Metro Surge, the Trump administration’s large ICE/Border Patrol deployment in the Twin Cities that local officials say is terrorizing immigrant communities. The article notes President Trump recently described a phone call with Walz as "very good" and said border czar Tom Homan will follow up, while Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said he urged Homan to end the surge and reiterated that the city will not help enforce federal immigration law. The confrontation underscores how lethal use of force by federal agents and mass interior enforcement are fueling direct pressure on state and local leaders, and widening the rift between the White House and Democratic officials over who controls public safety in Minneapolis.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem declared Friday that the U.S. border is the "most secure" in the nation’s history, pointing to newly released Customs and Border Protection data showing an eighth straight month of zero parole releases and what CBP calls record‑low encounter numbers. According to CBP, total nationwide encounters from October through December 2025 fell to 91,603 — the lowest first‑quarter total on record — with December encounters at 30,698, a 92% drop from the Biden‑era monthly peak of 370,883. Along the southwest border, Border Patrol reported 21,815 apprehensions for the first quarter of FY 2026 and 6,478 in December, numbers the agency says are roughly 95–96% below averages under the prior administration. CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott said agents have set a "new standard" for border security, while Noem credited President Trump’s policies and highlighted that CBP seized 39,030 pounds of illicit drugs in December. The administration’s sweeping "most secure" claim, based solely on its preferred metrics, will feed an election‑year fight over whether sharply lower apprehension and parole figures reflect genuine control of the border or simply a different mix of enforcement tools and humanitarian policies that remain contested and only partly transparent.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said ICE has removed more than 670,000 people in the past year, and the department has publicly highlighted a holiday‑time surge of arrests — including named noncitizens with violent and sexual convictions across operations in Minnesota, Ohio, California and New Orleans — framing the actions as “ICE’s Christmas gift to Americans” and asserting more than 2.5 million people have left the U.S. since President Trump returned to office. The enforcement push, which DHS says includes roughly 70% of arrestees with U.S. criminal convictions, has prompted protests and criticism from sanctuary officials and lawmakers (including Maine Gov. Janet Mills, Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey) and sparked disputes over deaths in custody and the scope of federal operations.

Border Patrol agents arrested five migrants in Montebello after video showed them leaping across rooftops to evade officers during an immigration raid. Separately, near the U.S.–Mexico border a shooting involving Border Patrol left a person in critical condition.

An early‑morning shooting just after 7:30 a.m. Tuesday near milepost 15 on West Arivaca Road — about 25 miles from the U.S.–Mexico border and 20 miles from Arivaca — left one person critically wounded who was taken into custody, treated on scene by Santa Rita Fire District and American Medical Response crews, and airlifted to a regional level‑one trauma center. The FBI said it is investigating an alleged assault on a federal officer in connection with the shooting, and the Pima County Sheriff’s Office is working jointly with the FBI and U.S. Customs and Border Protection; CBP and Border Patrol had not immediately commented.

Census data show U.S. population growth has roughly halved, falling to its lowest rate since the COVID pandemic as immigration has stalled. Reporters and analysts link the slowdown largely to the federal government's dramatic immigration restrictions and tougher border and deportation policies, noting immigrants had become the primary source of recent population gains as the native‑born population ages and birthrates decline.

The House Homeland Security Committee has set a Feb. 10 hearing where acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott and USCIS Director Joseph Edlow will testify amid intense scrutiny of federal immigration operations in Minneapolis. Chairman Andrew Garbarino, R‑N.Y., said the panel requested their appearance even before Border Patrol agents fatally shot Alex Pretti over the weekend, adding that 'transparency and communication are needed to turn the temperature down.' The hearing will be one of Congress’s first public forums to question top DHS component heads about the twin Minneapolis shootings and the broader Trump‑era interior enforcement surge, as protests, lawsuits and impeachment threats against DHS Secretary Kristi Noem mount. CBS reports Noem is expected to remain in her post but shift focus back toward the southern border and other priorities, and she is separately expected to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee in March. The session will test how far Republicans are willing to press their own administration on rules of engagement, oversight and civil‑rights protections while still backing Trump’s mass‑deportation agenda.

A national education watchdog group, Defending Education, has launched a public database cataloging more than 700 K‑12 school districts in 33 states and Washington, D.C., that have adopted 'sanctuary,' 'safe haven' or other immigration‑related policies limiting cooperation with federal immigration authorities. The tool lets parents search by state and district and links directly to board resolutions, staff guidance and written procedures on how schools should respond if ICE or other federal agents seek access to campuses. Senior communications director Erika Sanzi told Fox the group believes districts are "playing a dangerous game" when they move to resist or impede federal law enforcement, arguing schools risk "shielding violent family members" from deportation even as many educators say such policies are needed to reassure immigrant families. The rollout comes amid a sharp escalation in Trump‑era immigration enforcement and visible youth activism, including student walkouts against ICE operations in Phoenix and Minnesota and school closures in the Twin Cities over 'safety concerns' tied to raids. By systematizing where and how districts have drawn lines on cooperating with ICE, the database adds a new layer to a national fight over whether schools should act as neutral ground, local sanctuary, or adjuncts to federal enforcement in the immigration wars.

President Donald Trump issued a formal White House statement for International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27, honoring the six million Jews and millions of other victims murdered by Nazi Germany and marking 81 years since the liberation of Auschwitz‑Birkenau. Trump’s message explicitly included Slavs, Roma, people with disabilities, religious leaders, LGBT people and political prisoners among those targeted, and he said that since returning to office he has made it a priority to direct the federal government to use 'all appropriate legal tools' to combat antisemitism and to champion Jewish Americans’ right to practice their faith without fear. Secretary of State Marco Rubio released a parallel statement emphasizing that Holocaust remembrance underpins a U.S. commitment to inherent human dignity and to 'counter antisemitism worldwide, champion justice for Holocaust survivors and heirs, and defend the integrity of Holocaust memory.' The article juxtaposes those messages with backlash to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s recent comparison of Trump‑era ICE raids to Anne Frank’s story, a remark Trump’s antisemitism envoy and others have condemned as trivializing the Holocaust. The statements are part of a broader political fight over how the administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement and its rhetoric fit with its claimed role as a defender of Jews and Holocaust memory.

Faith leaders and congregations have mobilized to resist ICE’s "Operation Metro Surge," backing protests and an "ICE Out" economic blackout in which dozens of Twin Cities restaurants, bars and cafés plan early closures, fund staff to join demonstrations, post signs barring federal agents and distribute whistles, while some hotels identified as housing ICE officers have turned away guests. The enforcement sweep has reportedly battered Minneapolis’s economy—businesses cite sales drops up to 80% and a Minneapolis Fed survey found reduced foot traffic and lower employment—prompting a lawsuit by the state and cities to halt the operation even as U.S. officials, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, have visited, condemned a church disruption and said federal subpoenas have been issued to state and local leaders.

At this week’s Arlington County Board meeting in Northern Virginia, Board Chair Matt de Ferranti told residents to call 911 whenever they see Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers operating in the community, framing the move as a way for local officials to track ICE activity and "prevent violence" while reminding the public that county law bars local police and residents from helping enforce federal immigration law. De Ferranti, a Democrat, praised new Gov. Abigail Spanberger for rescinding former Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s 287(g) cooperation agreement with DHS, and attacked ICE tactics as "designed to provoke and seek out conflict" by going door-to-door for undocumented people. The guidance comes after Arlington officials last year refused to honor an ICE detainer on David Cabrera, a twice‑deported Guatemalan national and convicted rapist, a case that drew sharp criticism from ICE Director Todd Lyons when the county released him from its jail. Arlington, a wealthy, densely populated suburb directly across the Potomac from Washington, has long been a Democratic stronghold and sanctuary‑style jurisdiction, and this latest directive underscores how some local governments are not only refusing to cooperate with ICE but actively encouraging residents to treat immigration agents as potential threats worth reporting to 911. The move is already feeding online debate over whether using emergency lines to flag federal officers endangers public safety, violates the spirit of federal supremacy, or is a legitimate local response to Trump‑era interior enforcement surges.

Maine Gov. Janet Mills will deliver her final State of the State address Tuesday night in Augusta, outlining her record and remaining priorities as she simultaneously launches a bid to unseat Republican Sen. Susan Collins. The speech comes a week after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement began a new operation in Maine as part of President Trump’s nationwide immigration crackdown; Mills has condemned the effort as "untrained and reckless," accused agents of arresting legally present people, and publicly demanded a face‑to‑face meeting with Trump to press him to withdraw ICE personnel from Maine and other states. Ahead of the address, she announced her supplemental budget will include more than $2 million for Planned Parenthood and Maine Family Planning to offset federal and congressional cuts, underscoring how abortion access and federal‑state fights over health funding will feature in both state policy and her Senate campaign. Term‑limited after two four‑year terms, Mills is pitching herself as Democrats’ best chance to flip Collins’ seat in a key 2026 midterm contest, while progressive challenger Graham Platner has secured an endorsement from Sen. Bernie Sanders, setting up an intraparty fight watched closely by national strategists.

Alex Vindman, the Army veteran who testified in former President Trump’s first impeachment, has formally launched a Democratic bid for the 2026 special U.S. Senate election in Florida to challenge GOP Sen. Ashley Moody, who was appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis to complete Marco Rubio’s term. Vindman’s two‑minute launch ad titled “Patriot” uses footage of Minneapolis shootings and accuses Trump‑aligned forces of acting as “thug militias” amid a “reign of terror and retribution,” a campaign entry that comes as Trump carried Florida by 13 points in 2024 and Republicans hold a 53–47 Senate majority; Moody had not publicly commented as of Tuesday morning.

CBS reports that Senate Democrats, under pressure after Border Patrol agents killed 37‑year‑old Alex Pretti in Minneapolis—the second deadly federal‑agent shooting there this month—are threatening to block a six‑bill funding package unless the DHS title is stripped, a move that would likely cause a partial government shutdown. But because President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act handed DHS an extra roughly $165 billion last year, including $75 billion for ICE and $65 billion for CBP, the article shows that immigration enforcement would continue uninterrupted for years even if annual DHS appropriations lapse. Internal summaries from Sen. Patty Murray and Rep. Rosa DeLauro concede that failure to pass a Homeland Security bill would instead shut or furlough other DHS components—FEMA, TSA, CISA, the Coast Guard—while ICE and CBP carried on using OBBBA money without the new policy constraints Congress is now debating. During the 43‑day shutdown last fall, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem already used that cushion to keep more than 70,000 law‑enforcement officers paid, and Sen. Rand Paul is now publicly pointing out that ICE effectively has nearly 87% more funding locked in than last year even if the current $10 billion add‑on fails. The story underscores that the real stakes in this week’s standoff are not whether the Trump administration’s mass‑deportation machinery keeps running—it will—but whether Congress leaves it operating on a huge, pre‑authorized pot of money with fewer strings while starving the rest of DHS.

Virginia Commonwealth University Health says it has placed a nurse on administrative leave and barred her from patient contact while VCU Police investigate a series of viral TikTok videos in which she discussed 'resistance' tactics against federal immigration agents. In clips reposted by LibsOfTikTok, the nurse — using the handle Redheadredemption — urged medical workers to fill syringes with saline or the paralytic succinylcholine as a 'sabotage' or scare tactic, suggested spraying people with poison ivy or oak water, and told single women to date ICE agents and slip Ex‑Lax into their drinks to sideline them from duty. VCU called the videos 'highly inappropriate' and said they do not reflect the health system’s values, stressing that it 'prioritizes the health and safety of anyone who comes to us for care.' The case comes amid intense national backlash and protests over Trump‑era immigration crackdowns, especially in Minnesota, and feeds broader online debates over how far anti‑ICE activism can go before it crosses into criminal incitement or professional misconduct. Legal and medical‑ethics experts on social media are already noting that even if framed as 'jokes,' such public statements can trigger licensure, employment and potentially criminal consequences when they describe methods of assaulting or poisoning law‑enforcement officers.

FBI Director Kash Patel urged the public and media not to “cement a false narrative” and to remain calm while the FBI and DHS, working with state and local partners, investigate two killings involving ICE and Border Patrol agents in Minnesota and review Signal group chats that share agents’ movements — involvement the bureau says is limited to instances where users incite violence or threaten officers. Patel also disclosed the FBI arrested four people for vandalizing an FBI vehicle and stealing sensitive information used to threaten agents and their families, and that the bureau led actions charging protesters with federal FACE Act violations after anti‑ICE demonstrators stormed a Minnesota church.

On 60 Minutes, two U.S. citizens — paralegal Dayanne Figueroa and teacher’s assistant Marimar Martinez — gave on‑camera accounts of guns‑drawn Border Patrol stops after collisions with Border Patrol SUVs in Chicago, with bystander and surveillance video that appears to show an agent’s SUV veering into Figueroa’s car, agents drawing guns, dragging and handcuffing her, and Martinez saying she “feared for [her] life” after being wounded. Their lawyers provided footage they say contradicts DHS’s claim that agents were “boxed in,” and the broadcast highlighted lasting physical and psychological harm while increasing pressure on DHS to explain the disparity.

Sen. Murphy is preparing to tie statutory reforms of DHS and ICE to an upcoming funding bill as Democrats — galvanized by the Minneapolis killing of Renee Good, described as at least the fifth fatality since the Trump administration’s mass deportation push — push to constrain immigration enforcement. Minnesota AG Keith Ellison and other Democrats say the recent raids have eroded public trust, calling the surge “a dramatic escalation founded on lies and untruths,” and their comments are fueling threats to restrict DHS funding and even calls to fire or impeach officials like Noem amid appropriations talks.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said on CBS that the Trump administration’s Minnesota immigration crackdown "must be terminated" after Border Patrol agents shot and killed Minneapolis ICU nurse Alex Pretti, calling the deployment "broken" and demanding all federal agents be pulled out of the state. He said President Trump should fire Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem as "wholly unqualified" and, if he refuses, Congress should remove her, but stressed his main focus is on whether lawmakers will strip funding for interior ICE operations from the DHS appropriations bill due this week. With a Jan. 30 deadline to avert a partial shutdown, Shapiro urged senators to add explicit language barring money for operations like the Minnesota surge and said there is "bipartisan consensus" that the deployment "is wrong and needs to end," arguing a shutdown is unnecessary if Congress cuts off funds for the mission. His comments add pressure from a prominent swing‑state Democrat to an already volatile fight over DHS funding, impeachment efforts against Noem, and the political fallout from two recent fatal federal shootings in Minneapolis. Any change to DHS funding would still need House approval, where members are currently in recess, underscoring the narrow window for real action before government funding expires.

Federal prosecutors have charged two U.S. Navy sailors based at Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Florida — Jacinth Bailey and Morgan Chambers — with one count each of conspiracy to commit marriage fraud for allegedly entering sham marriages with Chinese nationals in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash. Court documents say Bailey, assigned to the carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, was offered $45,000 and Chambers $35,000 to marry Chinese citizens, help them obtain green cards, and later divorce, with Bailey allegedly participating in staged post‑wedding photos to bolster immigration paperwork. The indictment describes a broader plot dating to at least September 2024 that “preferred” recruiting military members as spouses, and follows related guilty pleas by former Navy recruiter Brinio Urena for a paid marriage to a Chinese woman and by Navy reservist Raymond Zumba for trying to bribe a Jacksonville base official for fraudulent ID cards tied to people with links to China. Former CIA operative J. Michael Waller told Fox News Digital he believes the effort reflects a targeted Chinese intelligence operation aimed at using spousal privileges to gain access to Naval Air Station Jacksonville. The case highlights growing counter‑intelligence concerns about how foreign governments may exploit marriage, ID, and base‑access rules around U.S. installations — an issue that has drawn wider attention as Congress and the Pentagon scrutinize Chinese‑linked activity near U.S. military facilities.

ICE launched "Operation Catch of the Day" in Maine as part of a broader Trump-era crackdown, deploying roughly 200 federal agents to pursue about 1,400 targets — including many Somali, other African and Central American immigrants — and has arrested over 200 people amid growing fear, school absences and protests in Portland and Lewiston. Governor Janet Mills has demanded answers and urged President Trump to withdraw the agents, calling the tactics reckless, while DHS defends the sweep as targeting the "worst of the worst" and warns of prosecutions for obstruction even as court records and local officials show many arrestees had minor or no convictions.

Minnesota officials, led by Attorney General Keith Ellison, and House Judiciary Democrats are pressing the Justice Department for records and answers after DOJ lawyers reportedly told its Civil Rights Division not to investigate the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti during Operation Metro Surge and state investigators were blocked from evidence access. The lawmakers allege DOJ ordered investigative targeting of Good’s widow and unusually gave ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations lead responsibility in the Pretti case rather than an independent or FBI review—actions that coincided with the Minnesota BCA’s withdrawal from the Good probe and a federal order preserving evidence in Pretti’s case.

Retired law‑enforcement leaders say Minneapolis is facing a dangerous breakdown in public order as massive anti‑ICE protests collide with aggressive federal immigration operations. Former LAPD detective Moses Castillo, a veteran of the 1992 LA riots, told Fox News the current tactics are "creating more mayhem than results" and warned that poorly coordinated raids risk a "friendly‑fire" killing, even if shootings are later ruled legally justified under Graham v. Connor. Retired lieutenant Randy Sutton, who runs The Wounded Blue, described an "unprecedented" mob mentality, with hundreds or thousands surrounding federal agents, and accused Minnesota’s governor and Minneapolis leaders of "abdicating" responsibility for public safety; he pointed to an incident where an ICE officer’s finger was reportedly bitten off as evidence that violence against officers is being normalized. The article notes these warnings come as President Trump dispatches Border Czar Tom Homan to Minnesota, framing the city as gripped by "violent chaos" while protests over recent fatal ICE and Border Patrol shootings continue and social media amplifies both anger at federal agents and calls to protect them. The retired officers’ comments underscore growing concern inside the policing community that the way these operations are being run is escalating risk for both agents and the public, beyond the underlying legal questions about individual shootings.

Federal judges in Minnesota have rejected multiple arrest warrants tied to a Jan. 18 anti‑ICE protest at Cities Church, finding the warrants lacked probable cause. One of three people previously taken into federal custody was St. Paul school board clerk Chauntyll Allen, who is charged with conspiracy to deprive others of their constitutional rights and has been criticized by state Rep. Elliott Engen while defending the disruption in a TMZ interview as something that "needed to be done to get the message across."

On Jan. 16 a vehicle crash in North Carolina killed college soccer player Fletcher Harris, 20, and his girlfriend Skylar Provenza, 19; the suspected driver, Juan Alvarado Aguilar, has been arrested, charged with felony death-by-vehicle and is subject to an ICE detainer. Court records show Aguilar previously faced a 2020 Cabarrus County DWI dismissed "with leave" (which can allow reinstatement) and has two failures to appear; troopers reported a strong odor of alcohol at the scene, said Aguilar appeared unsteady and admitted driving, prosecutors sought to raise bond to $2 million and the judge set it at more than $5 million.

New Jersey State Police say 40‑year‑old Hernando Garcia‑Morales of Palisades Park was arrested Jan. 9 after a baseball‑sized rock smashed through a northbound New Jersey Turnpike school‑bus window on Jan. 7, fracturing an 8‑year‑old girl’s skull as her Yeshivat Noam third‑grade class returned from a Liberty Science Center field trip. He faces multiple state charges, including aggravated assault, resisting arrest and weapons counts from Turnpike troopers, plus additional aggravated‑assault, criminal‑trespass and criminal‑mischief charges from Bogota police tied to other alleged incidents. DHS told Fox News it has lodged an ICE detainer, asserts Garcia‑Morales is a Mexican national in the U.S. illegally with a two‑decade record that includes a 2006 weapons/theft arrest and downgraded 2023 Hackensack burglary‑related charges, and blames New Jersey’s sanctuary policies for his continued presence in the community. School officials say police told them he confessed to the Turnpike rock attack and "several other" rock‑throwing incidents. The case is being seized on by federal officials as evidence in the national fight over state non‑cooperation with ICE, while civil‑liberties advocates online are warning against tarring entire immigrant communities based on one serious but still‑unadjudicated allegation.

Federal Border Patrol and other federal immigration agents shot and killed a man during an enforcement operation in south Minneapolis near 26th Street and Nicollet Avenue; witness video shows agents tackling the man before gunfire, and DHS says a handgun and two magazines were recovered. President Trump defended the agents on Truth Social, saying they "had to protect themselves" and alleging local officials had "called off" police support for ICE, while Gov. Tim Walz, Mayor Jacob Frey and protesters condemned the shooting and demanded the federal operation be ended.

The Eighth Circuit panel held that DOJ’s affidavits establish probable cause to charge five additional defendants — including former CNN anchor Don Lemon — in the disruption of a St. Paul church that targeted an ICE field‑office official, but declined DOJ’s unprecedented request to compel a district judge to sign arrest warrants. Chief Judge Patrick Schiltz rejected DOJ’s “emergency” framing (warning of “copycats”), called the worst alleged conduct protesters “yelling horrible things” with no violence, and noted DOJ has other remedies such as grand‑jury indictments or revised affidavits.

Lehigh County Executive Josh Siegel and Controller Mark Pinsley moved to evict a DHS Homeland Security Investigations/ICE office from county-owned space, saying the agency has occupied the space for 38 months without a fully executed lease and now owes about $115,000 in back rent. Siegel called ICE’s presence a "threat to public safety and public trust" and said the county will issue a 30-day eviction notice, while Pinsley — who urged officials to "deport ICE" and told Kristi Noem to "pack your masks, tear gas and pepper balls and hit the road" — was criticized by Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, R‑Pa., as engaging in "far-left politics" that could hamper investigations into human trafficking and other crimes.

President Trump has threatened to withhold unspecified federal payments to jurisdictions he labels "sanctuary" beginning Feb. 1, echoing remarks at the Detroit Economic Club and an August executive order directing DOJ and DHS to compile lists and cut funds. The threat comes after DOJ identified more than 30 jurisdictions (including Minnesota), even as a federal judge has enjoined the administration from withholding funds from 16 jurisdictions, and has provoked local backlash such as a Hennepin County committee resolution condemning ICE and calling for its removal amid reports of an additional 1,000 ICE agents being deployed to the Minneapolis area.

As more than 2,000 federal immigration agents sweep Minneapolis–St. Paul in an Operation Metro Surge that DHS says has produced over 3,000 arrests since early December, local residents have quietly built ad hoc "underground railroad" networks to shelter families and children fearing detention. The piece follows the Indigenous Ecuadorian family of Melida Rita Wampash Tuntuam—detained despite only minor traffic offenses—whose 20‑ and 22‑year‑old children moved seven younger siblings, including a 5‑month‑old baby, into a south Minneapolis safe house after masked ICE officers twice surrounded their home. Christian nonprofit Source MN and volunteers like factory worker and mother of five Feliza Martinez are paying rent, delivering food and setting up emergency custody plans so U.S.-based children are not taken into government care if parents are seized; Martinez says she now gets terrified calls from immigrant families "every single day." The article also reports allegations that ICE agents broke down doors without judicial warrants and came to the family home after promising to send a social worker, deepening mistrust and fueling the broader wave of protests, business shutdowns and school absences already documented in Minnesota. The story captures how a federal enforcement campaign that Washington sells as targeting criminals is, at street level, fracturing mixed-status households and pitting fearful neighborhoods and church networks against a heavily militarized federal presence.

DHS says a Cuban entrant rammed ICE vehicles during an arrest in San Antonio, and video released by law enforcement shows officers subduing the suspect after he allegedly nearly ran over an officer. Officials and conservative outlets have framed the episode as part of a broader rise in hostile encounters with immigration agents — citing separate Minnesota incidents where agents were pelted and spat on — and some coverage links these clashes to Trump-era rhetoric about “paid agitators,” prompting pushback from Minnesota leaders who accuse the White House of politicizing enforcement.

The article details the case of Guan Heng, a 38‑year‑old Chinese asylum seeker who says he fled China more than four years ago after secretly filming and publishing video of detention facilities in Xinjiang, and who has been held in ICE custody since agents encountered him during an August immigration operation near Albany, New York. Speaking by phone from Broome County Correctional Facility, Guan says he fears prosecution, imprisonment and torture if returned to China; a U.S. immigration judge is scheduled to hear his appeal on Monday. DHS initially tried to deport him to Uganda—a country he transited—before dropping that plan in December amid public outcry and pressure from lawmakers including Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of the House Select Committee on the CCP, who is urging Secretary Kristi Noem to free him and grant asylum. Policy analysts and immigration advocates quoted in the piece say his case exemplifies a broader Trump administration effort to rapidly close asylum cases, keep applicants detained, and issue removal orders en masse, with federal data showing 170,626 asylum seekers ordered deported in 2025 and abandonment rates nearly tripling compared with the prior decade. The story underscores how the administration’s anti‑immigration campaign is ensnaring political dissidents from adversary states, raising questions about whether U.S. asylum protections for human‑rights whistleblowers are being eroded in practice.

An anonymous 12‑page letter titled "A Real American Response to Foreign Terrorist Invasions" was delivered to the Sonoma County Republican Party office in Northern California, calling for an 'all‑out war' on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and detailing how to build a chemical improvised explosive device. The unsigned document, which references the early‑January ICE killing of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis, labels ICE personnel 'domestic terrorists,' urges that agents be 'sent home in a body bag,' and explicitly calls for them and their backers to be 'IED’d, run over with vehicles, shot at by snipers, sprayed with toxic chemicals.' It includes step‑by‑step IED instructions in a section titled "Carrying the War Back to the ICE Invader Murderers and Protecting Our Personnel" and likens the effort to a 'private patriotic' action in the mold of Jan. 6 rioters. The letter also names Trump‑era officials such as DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and aide Stephen Miller, along with ICE critic Rep. Ilhan Omar, as part of a broader screed against the administration’s immigration crackdown. The Sonoma GOP says it is cooperating with authorities; while the article does not spell out an FBI response, such explicit, instructional threats against federal officers are typically treated as serious domestic‑terrorism concerns.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Friday that the city’s universal pre‑K and 3‑K programs for children turning 3 or 4 in 2026 will enroll “every single New Yorker” regardless of immigration status and will not ask families about children’s status during enrollment. In a media roundtable, he stressed that all children in the city are “New Yorkers” who should have access to free early‑childhood programs that can save families tens of thousands of dollars a year in childcare costs. Mamdani also reiterated New York’s sanctuary‑city rules, saying ICE agents are barred from schools, hospitals and other city property unless they present a judicial warrant signed by a judge, and that agents usually carry only administrative warrants or no paperwork. The clarification came after a reporter asked how the city will keep families safe from ICE amid rising national tension over immigration enforcement and recent high‑profile raids in other states. The policy puts New York firmly on the side of including undocumented children in public early‑education while limiting federal immigration agents’ access to those settings, a stance likely to draw fire from immigration‑hardline politicians and praise from immigrant‑rights groups watching how big cities respond to Trump‑era enforcement.

The Third Circuit reversed a district‑court order that had freed pro‑Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil from immigration detention, ruling the lower judge lacked authority to order his release; Khalil’s attorney Bobby Hodgson said the defense will continue to fight the case and called the ruling a setback for immigrants’ rights. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani urged that Khalil “should remain in New York City,” the NYCLU said he cannot be legally detained or deported while appeals are pending, and the White House has accused him of visa fraud while an immigration judge’s removal order cited a memo from Secretary of State Marco Rubio characterizing his campus protests as contrary to U.S. foreign‑policy interests.

U.S. District Judge William Young issued a nationwide remedial order barring the Trump administration from altering the immigration status of noncitizen members of the American Association of University Professors and the Middle East Studies Association who were members between March 25 and Sept. 30, 2025, whose status had not expired and who committed no crimes after Sept. 30, 2025, and he ruled that any such change will be presumed retaliatory, shifting the burden to the government to prove otherwise. Young said the president, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and Secretary of State Marco Rubio engaged in an “unconstitutional conspiracy” to chill pro‑Palestinian speech and tied the order to a broader campaign targeting thousands of campus protesters, while the administration argues the individuals were “pro‑Hamas”; AP has not identified any members whose status has been changed.

Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D‑Texas, joined by Rep. Dan Goldman, D‑N.Y., has introduced the TRACK ICE Act, a bill that would force Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection to publicly disclose details of their detention and deportation flights within 72 hours. The proposal comes amid a sharp increase in Trump‑era deportation flights—up an estimated 44% between 2024 and 2025, according to Human Rights First—and growing Democratic efforts to rein in ICE after the fatal Jan. 7 shooting of Renee Nicole Good by an ICE agent in Minneapolis. The bill would require DHS to publish each ICE Air or CBP‑commissioned flight’s aircraft identification code, departure and arrival times, mission designation, and anonymized demographics of detainees, including age group, nationality, sex and family status. Crockett calls current operations "ghost flights" that tear families apart without oversight, while critics warn that granular disclosure could endanger agents and targets or compromise operations. DHS has not yet commented, but the measure signals a push by progressive Democrats to drag a largely opaque air‑deportation system into public view as Trump’s mass‑removal machinery ramps up.

An internal ICE memo dated May 2025 and signed by Acting Director Todd Lyons asserts that officers may rely on administrative immigration warrants — without a judge‑signed judicial warrant — to enter residences, authorizes the use of the "necessary and reasonable" force after knocking and identifying themselves (operations between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.), and has been used in training and operationalized in incidents such as a Jan. 11 Minneapolis entry where agents rammed a door. Whistleblowers and legal advocates call the policy a flagrant Fourth Amendment violation and lawmakers including Sen. Richard Blumenthal are demanding hearings, while DHS says affected individuals have due process and that administrative-warrant issuers found probable cause.

Republican officials in several states told Fox News that laws and policies blocking local cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement are forcing ICE to rely on more visible, "at‑large" community arrests instead of quiet jail pickups, a dynamic they argue has helped fuel unrest like the recent Minnesota protests. Citing a New York Times analysis, the piece notes that states such as California, Illinois, New York, Washington and Oregon now see more than 90% of ICE arrests made in the community because jails won’t honor detainers. Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman and Alabama AG Steve Marshall say their states avoid that kind of street‑level chaos by cooperating with ICE under programs like 287(g), while blasting Democratic jurisdictions for "welcoming" offenders back into their communities. The article frames Virginia as a looming test case, recounting that former Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed a 287(g) deal to help ICE identify and transfer jailed noncitizens, while new Gov. Abigail Spanberger has taken "sweeping day‑one actions" to break with ICE and align the state with sanctuary‑style limits. The piece reflects a broader political push by GOP officials to blame local non‑cooperation for volatile federal raids and protests, even as it leans heavily on partisan characterizations rather than fresh public data or independent analysis.

Arizona authorities say Javier Enrique Erazo‑Zuniga, a 27‑year‑old Venezuelan national, has been indicted on multiple felonies after allegedly claiming part of the Hidden Valley area near Maricopa as his "territory" and extorting residents at gunpoint. Arizona Department of Public Safety investigators began probing Erazo‑Zuniga in December after reports that he was demanding money from locals, and court records describe at least two 2024 incidents in which he allegedly put a victim in a headlock and cut their neck with a knife, and later waited at another victim’s driveway and held them at gunpoint. A search of his bedroom recovered a firearm DPS believes was used in the December gunpoint incident, and a Pinal County grand jury has charged him with aggravated assault involving a firearm (designated a dangerous felony), two forgery counts and two weapons‑misconduct counts for possessing handguns while prohibited; DPS says he is also being charged with assisting a criminal street gang and terrorism, with possible additional state or federal counts to come. Erazo‑Zuniga is being held in Pinal County Jail on a $250,000 secured bond and is scheduled for arraignment Friday, while DPS has publicly urged other victims who may have been too afraid to report earlier extortion attempts to contact its tip line at 602‑644‑5805. The case lands amid growing federal scrutiny of Venezuelan criminal groups like Tren de Aragua and follows recent Colorado and Oregon prosecutions, as law‑enforcement officials and political figures increasingly point to such incidents in arguments over border enforcement and community safety.

The Trump administration is preparing to deport at least 40 Iranian nationals to Iran on a charter flight from Arizona as early as Sunday, the first known U.S. deportation flight to the country in decades and the first since Trump threatened Tehran over its bloody protest crackdown. Lawyers and relatives say the group includes at least two gay men with pending asylum appeals who fled likely death sentences after arrests by Iran’s morality police, and who now fear execution if returned to a regime where homosexuality is punishable by death and thousands of protesters have reportedly been killed in recent weeks. One man’s family says he has lived in the U.S. since arriving as a minor, has U.S.‑citizen children, and was picked up by ICE despite years of regular check‑ins on an old removal order for non‑violent offenses. The deportations come as Trump publicly calls Ayatollah Ali Khamenei “a sick man,” labels Iran “the worst place to live anywhere in the world,” urges Iranians to keep protesting and says U.S. airstrikes remain possible, underscoring a sharp disconnect between the administration’s human‑rights rhetoric and its enforcement choices. Advocates are rushing to federal court to try to halt the flight, arguing that many of those on the manifest have never received full, meaningful asylum hearings before being sent back into a country where they could be jailed or killed.

A Venezuelan woman shot and wounded by a Border Patrol agent during a Jan. 8 immigration stop in a Portland, Oregon, medical-complex parking lot has pleaded guilty to illegally entering the United States and was sentenced to one year of probation. Yorlenys Zambrano-Contreras appeared by video from ICE detention in Tacoma, Washington, and will be allowed to remain out of custody in Oregon under a negotiated deal that includes location monitoring and a nighttime curfew, along with a ban on being in areas where prostitution is occurring. The FBI has told the court it found no surveillance or other video of the shooting, in which the same agent also wounded driver Luis Nino-Moncada after he allegedly reversed a pickup repeatedly into an unoccupied Border Patrol rental car and struck the agent, who then fired two shots claiming fear for his life. Nino-Moncada has been indicted on federal charges of aggravated assault on a federal employee and damaging federal property and remains jailed pending a March jury trial, while Portland’s police chief and DHS say both he and Zambrano-Contreras entered the U.S. illegally in 2022–23 and have "some nexus" to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, though they were not suspects in an earlier gang shooting. The incident, coming one day after an ICE shooting death in Minneapolis, has fed protests over aggressive federal immigration tactics and the lack of video evidence in lethal and near-lethal encounters.

At a Minnesota event Vice President JD Vance said the state Department of Corrections was not among the “worst offenders” in cooperating with ICE, and DOC Commissioner Paul Schnell confirmed the agency routinely coordinates with ICE weeks before inmates’ release to arrange custody transfers. ICE deportation branch head Marcus Charles likewise acknowledged that Minnesota DOC notifies ICE of soon-to-be-released undocumented prisoners, while blaming county jails for often failing to honor ICE detainers.

In a new podcast interview, White House border czar Tom Homan said the Trump administration will “work around” Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s executive order directing state and local police not to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and will respond by sending more federal agents into the state. Homan, a Virginia resident, blasted Spanberger for what he called a sharp break from her law‑and‑order campaign persona and accused her of abandoning child‑trafficking victims by refusing to help ICE transfer noncitizens from local jails. He said the administration is already using similar workarounds in New York, California, Oregon and Illinois, which he described as “not friendly” to ICE, and reiterated plans to hire “thousands of agents” and “flood sanctuary cities” so federal teams can track down noncitizens released from jails. Homan also claimed ICE has located about 130,000 previously missing migrant children, many allegedly exploited in sex trafficking or forced labor, contrasting that with what he said was inaction by the prior administration—figures that are his assertions and not independently substantiated in this piece. The remarks underscore an escalating clash between the White House and blue‑state governors over immigration enforcement, with federal officials openly planning to increase street‑level raids and arrests when local law‑enforcement agencies refuse to honor detainers.

St. Paul’s mayor says members of the city’s Hmong community are sheltering indoors and “afraid to leave their homes” amid a recent surge in ICE activity. Reporting from the Twin Cities documents similar behavior — including a Minneapolis asylum‑seeker family who haven’t left their apartment for weeks — and pediatricians say many children are showing stress‑related symptoms, with some injured after exposure to tear gas and other chemical irritants at protests and near schools.

The Army has ordered a military police brigade at Fort Bragg to prepare to deploy to Minneapolis, and the Pentagon has put roughly 1,500 soldiers from the 11th Airborne in Alaska on similar standby amid ICE-related protests and an incident in which a CBP K‑9 was allegedly targeted at a Minneapolis‑area kennel. Officials say any active‑duty units would likely support civil authorities; the Minnesota National Guard has been mobilized but not deployed, Gov. Tim Walz has urged against sending more federal troops, and the orders — issued after presidential threats to invoke the Insurrection Act — do not guarantee deployment.

The El Paso County medical examiner ruled the Jan. 3 death of Geraldo Lunas Campos a homicide, citing "asphyxia due to neck and torso compression" while he was being physically restrained at ICE’s Camp East Montana, and documenting abrasions on the chest and knees, neck hemorrhages, and petechial hemorrhages in the eyelids and neck. An outside forensic pathologist said the injuries are consistent with pressure from a hand or knee on the neck; the autopsy notes antidepressant use and a history of bipolar disorder and anxiety but makes no mention of a suicide attempt, contradicting DHS/ICE’s evolving public explanations.

The 8th Circuit granted an administrative stay pausing U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez’s preliminary injunction — which barred federal agents in Minnesota from using pepper spray or nonlethal munitions on peaceful protesters, arresting peaceful protesters, or stopping or detaining drivers and passengers near protests without reasonable articulable suspicion — while the government pursues an appeal. The injunction, filed by the ACLU on behalf of six community members (one plaintiff, Susan Tincher, said she was handcuffed within 15 seconds of arriving and held for five hours), came amid deployment of thousands of federal agents to Minneapolis and has drawn political reactions, with Attorney General Pam Bondi calling the stay a victory and reports noting ICE guidance asserting broader force and entry authorities.

NPR details how Immigration and Customs Enforcement has become the highest‑funded U.S. law‑enforcement agency after President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, jumping from a long‑standing ~$10 billion annual budget to authority over roughly $85 billion. The law gives ICE a $75 billion multi‑year supplement on top of its base budget, meaning if spent steadily the agency would wield nearly $29 billion a year—about triple its recent funding and close to the entire Justice Department’s requested 2026 budget. DHS has set goals of deporting 1 million people annually and expanding detention capacity so ICE can hold up to 100,000 people per day, backed by $45 billion earmarked for new beds, compared with about 65,700 already detained as of Nov. 30. The piece traces the political and migration context—from Obama‑era underfunding through Trump’s first term, Title 42 under Biden, and Trump’s 2025 return—showing how rising encounters and nativist politics paved the way for this escalation. It also notes growing criticism over ICE tactics, including masked agents sweeping U.S. neighborhoods and the killing of Renee Macklin Good in Minneapolis, as civil‑rights advocates warn that an agency now larger than all other federal law‑enforcement budgets combined is operating with limited transparency or oversight.

Marcus Coleman, a California truck driver, says Gov. Gavin Newsom has never responded to his repeated calls and emails after his then‑5‑year‑old daughter Dalilah was left unable to walk or speak in a 2024 construction‑zone crash that federal officials blame on an undocumented Indian national, Partap Singh, driving an 18‑wheeler. According to DHS, Singh failed to stop in a construction zone and triggered a multi‑vehicle pileup that critically injured Dalilah, who spent three weeks in a coma and now, at 7, is nonverbal and relearning to walk with intensive therapy. Coleman tells Fox he has been denied Social Security and other public benefits for her care and says his family is "falling short" financially, accusing California leaders of prioritizing politics over victims and calling the state’s policies allowing foreign‑born truckers to obtain CDLs with what he describes as minimal oversight "gross negligence." The case has drawn national attention from Trump administration officials, including Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who blasted California’s "weak leadership" and tied the crash to broader concerns about licensing standards for non‑citizen commercial drivers. Coleman says the only acknowledgment from Newsom has been a social‑media post accusing Trump and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem of politicizing the tragedy, which he believes "totally neglected" his daughter’s suffering.

The article reports that on the morning of Jan. 21, 2026, Department of Homeland Security officers in unincorporated Compton, California tried to arrest William Eduardo Moran Carballo, a Salvadoran national whom DHS labels a 'violent criminal illegal alien' tied to human smuggling and with two prior arrests for inflicting corporal injury on a spouse or cohabitant, and a 2019 final removal order from an immigration judge. According to DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin, Carballo allegedly 'weaponized his vehicle and rammed law enforcement' in an effort to escape, prompting a federal agent to fire what DHS calls 'defensive shots'; Carballo was not hit, fled on foot and was then apprehended, while a CBP officer was injured but the suspect was not. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department says deputies were called only to provide outside perimeter traffic control and were not directly involved in the confrontation, underscoring that this was a DHS‑run operation. DHS frames the incident as part of a broader surge in 'dangerous attempts to evade arrest,' claiming a 3,200% rise in vehicle attacks on officers and blaming 'sanctuary politicians,' including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, for encouraging people to evade ICE and providing guides on how to recognize and block agents; those are political assertions that are not independently corroborated in this piece. The case will feed into the wider national fight over Trump‑era interior immigration crackdowns, the accuracy of DHS’s assault statistics, and the risks these operations pose to agents, bystanders and suspects in dense urban areas.

The Trump administration is poised to keep about 2,400 National Guard troops stationed in Washington, D.C., through 2026, officials say. At the same time, the Pentagon has ordered additional active-duty soldiers to be readied for a possible deployment to Minneapolis, reflecting heightened federal readiness for domestic contingencies.

The Department of Homeland Security told Fox News that traffic to its website jumped 68.49% in 2025, to 102 million pageviews and 67 million unique visitors, and highlighted strong interest in a page describing self‑deportation through its CBP Home mobile app. Launched in March 2025 under President Trump’s second term, the app lets people in the U.S. illegally apply for voluntary departure, with DHS offering a $1,000 stipend plus free flights and travel assistance to those who leave, including a heavily promoted Cyber Monday 'deal.' DHS and Secretary Kristi Noem now claim that in Trump’s first year back in office nearly 3 million 'illegal aliens' exited the U.S., including an estimated 2.2 million self‑deportations and more than 675,000 deportations, and say Border Patrol apprehensions over the past year were the lowest in the agency’s history. The department is also preparing a redesigned website and has added a 'Worst of the Worst' page naming migrants it labels rapists, murderers and child predators to showcase arrests. The figures and framing are part of a broader administration effort to argue the border is 'the most secure in history' and to normalize self‑deportation as a core enforcement tool, though the underlying methodology for its exit estimates is not detailed in this piece.

Mexico has demanded answers after a Mexican citizen reportedly died while in ICE custody in Georgia, calling for an investigation into the circumstances of the death. The case comes amid broader scrutiny of deaths in U.S. immigration detention — including a legal filing alleging a Cuban immigrant was killed in ICE custody — and follows recent, tense cooperation between the two governments, such as Mexico’s transfer of 37 alleged cartel suspects to U.S. custody.

Geraldo Lunas Campos, a Cuban detainee who died Jan. 3 at ICE’s Camp East Montana facility on Fort Bliss, has been described by ICE and a DHS official as having committed suicide after "resisting interventions," though ICE initially said he had "experienced medical distress." His children have filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas seeking to block the deportation of two detainees they say witnessed guards choking or struggling with Lunas Campos before his death, to preserve their testimony for a planned wrongful‑death suit. The family also says an El Paso medical examiner’s office employee told them the manner of death would be listed as homicide based on an audio recording they shared, a recording The New York Times could not independently verify, underscoring a major discrepancy with ICE’s account.

Knoxville police say 27‑year‑old Eric Ramon Alcantara‑Guevara has been charged with vehicular homicide, DUI and leaving the scene after allegedly driving the wrong way on Interstate 640 West on the night of Jan. 18 and colliding head‑on with a westbound motorcycle, killing the rider at the scene near the Broadway exit. Officers say the occupants of the passenger vehicle fled before they arrived, but Alcantara‑Guevara was found and arrested shortly afterward; investigators allege he ran from the crash. Knox County jail and court records show multiple warrants issued Jan. 19, including a $125,000 pre‑trial bond on the vehicular‑homicide count, and note that an ICE immigration hold was placed the same day, indicating federal authorities believe he is in the U.S. unlawfully, though ICE has not yet publicly confirmed his status or any prior contact. Alcantara‑Guevara appeared in court Jan. 20 for required 48‑hour bond hearings and is due back Feb. 26, while Knoxville police say the investigation into the fatal wreck is ongoing and have not yet released the victim’s name pending family notification. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R‑Tenn., has already seized on the case, calling for Alcantara‑Guevara to "face the full wrath of American justice" and be deported if convicted, highlighting how individual criminal cases involving suspected unauthorized immigrants are feeding a wider political fight over immigration enforcement and road safety.

An aggressive wave of firings and resignations at Attorney General Bondi’s Justice Department has removed what watchdogs estimate as more than 230 DOJ lawyers and roughly 6,400 overall departures in 2025 — erasing “centuries of combined experience” across national security, civil‑rights, environmental, ethics and Jan. 6 prosecutions, former acting AG Stuart Gerson warned. The purge has included veteran counterterrorism prosecutor Michael Ben'Ary, whose DOJ phone was remotely disabled and who was fired mid‑case after a right‑wing commentator highlighted his past work under Deputy AG Lisa Monaco, and the formal termination of multiple Minnesota AUSAs (including No. 2 Joseph Thompson) amid a dispute over the ICE‑shooting probe while the FBI excludes local prosecutors and state leaders launch parallel investigations.

Minnesota police chiefs allege ICE and Border Patrol agents have "targeted" off‑duty officers of color during Operation Metro Surge, citing incidents in which officers were boxed in, ordered to produce proof of citizenship and, in one case, had a phone knocked from her hand while recording. Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt and St. Paul Police Chief Axel Henry called the stops civil‑rights violations that undermine community trust and urged greater oversight and vetting of the roughly 3,000 federal agents deployed, while a Border Patrol commander declined to address the Brooklyn Park incident and said agents will continue their Title 8 mission.

At a Jan. 9 Concord vigil for Renee Nicole Good, New Hampshire Episcopal Bishop Robert Hirschfeld warned clergy to "get their affairs in order" and prepare for a "new era of martyrdom" amid an ICE crackdown, explicitly invoking the example of Episcopal seminarian Jonathan Daniels. Daniels—praised by Martin Luther King Jr. for his 1965 civil‑rights work and killing—has been declared a martyr and saint by the Episcopal Church, with a feast day on Aug. 14 that commemorates his arrest during a peaceful protest.

Video and medical records show masked, unmarked Border Patrol agents boxed in and repeatedly rammed a white van during an Oct. 23 Houston stop — injuring the driver’s 16‑year‑old U.S.‑citizen son, who was treated at a children’s trauma unit, while the seized phone later surfaced sold in a Walmart lot and DHS’s account that the driver rammed a federal vehicle conflicts with the footage, prompting a local probe. The incident arrives amid a broader Trump‑era escalation in interior enforcement — financed by GOP tax-and-spending changes that helped swell ICE ranks (to about 22,000) and fund billions for enforcement — as joint operations and pressure for mass deportations bring high‑risk tactics once used at the border into U.S. cities and stoke political and legal controversy.

Sens. Rick Scott of Florida, Jim Banks of Indiana and Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma have asked Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to terminate the Guam–CNMI Visa Waiver Program for Chinese travelers, arguing it fuels Chinese 'birth tourism' in the Northern Mariana Islands and creates long‑term security risks. In a Jan. 15 letter, they say allowing mainland Chinese and Hong Kong passport holders to enter Guam and the Northern Marianas visa‑free for short stays has spawned an industry of women giving birth there to secure U.S. citizenship for their children, who they warn could later seek sensitive federal jobs with Mandarin fluency. The push comes as Scott advances a separate November bill to bar surrogacy in the U.S. for residents of certain countries, including China, and as President Trump has publicly complained that China is 'making a big business' out of exploiting birthright citizenship. Local Republican delegate Kimberlyn King‑Hinds counters that births to tourists on Saipan have plunged from 581 in 2018 to just 58 in 2024 and says 'birth tourism' is not overwhelming the islands’ lone public hospital compared with foreign births in the mainland U.S. Conservative think‑tank voices at the Heritage Foundation argue no visa‑waiver should exist for China at all because of weak information‑sharing and overstay risks, underscoring how a once‑technical territorial travel program has become swept into the broader fight over Chinese influence, security vetting and the future of birthright citizenship.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani used a Tuesday appearance on ABC’s 'The View' to state explicitly that he supports abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, saying, 'I am in support of abolishing ICE' because the agency 'terrorizes' people regardless of their immigration status or the facts of their cases. Pressed by co‑host Alyssa Farah Griffin about whether ICE has any legitimate law‑enforcement role, Mamdani argued the agency is failing its stated mission and that he is 'tired of waking up every day' to images of people dragged from cars and homes, calling instead for an immigration system grounded in 'humanity.' The segment noted that calls to defund or abolish ICE have intensified among some Democrats after an ICE officer fatally shot Minnesota resident Renee Good, even as party strategists like James Carville warn the slogan is politically dangerous. Co‑host Whoopi Goldberg praised Mamdani on air, saying, 'You make sense' and suggesting that if he can deliver on his vision he could 'remake the nation,' while Fox notes ICE did not immediately comment. The exchange underscores how the Minneapolis shooting and Trump‑era mass‑deportation push are driving some Democratic leaders toward maximalist positions on ICE, deepening a rift with moderates who favor reform over abolition.

Axios reports that a hacker or insider last week leaked a trove of sensitive personal information on roughly 4,500 ICE and Border Patrol employees — including about 2,000 frontline enforcement agents — to a site called ICE List, in what appears to be the largest known breach of DHS staff data to date. The leak, coming on the heels of ICE’s fatal shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis and nationwide protests over mass deportation raids, is part of a broader shift toward U.S.-based 'strategic hacktivism' targeting the surveillance tools ICE uses under President Trump’s $75 billion enforcement buildup. Activists have built their own counter‑surveillance infrastructure since 2020, mapping Flock Safety cameras, flagging Bluetooth signals from law‑enforcement devices, and crowdsourcing raid locations, while loose hacker collectives like 'The Com' have previously dumped data on hundreds of DHS officials. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has condemned the doxing and vowed prosecutions, and the article details how ICE is asking courts for sweeping subpoena power to unmask anonymous social‑media accounts tracking agents, as three women already face federal indictments for livestreaming an agent to his home and posting his address. The standoff underscores a rapidly escalating information war: a heavily surveilled deportation apparatus backed by Palantir and Israeli spyware firms is now facing a decentralized adversary willing to weaponize leaks and real‑time tracking, with serious implications for agent safety, civil liberties, and how far the government can go to pierce online anonymity.

The Trump administration’s Justice Department has asked a federal judge to reject Minnesota’s request for an injunction limiting Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in the state, arguing the move would amount to an 'unprecedented act of judicial overreach' and give the state an unconstitutional veto over federal law enforcement. In a Monday filing responding to Minnesota’s lawsuit, DOJ lawyers called the state’s theory 'legally frivolous' and an 'absurdity,' insisting the Tenth Amendment does not let states eject federal officers simply because they dislike current enforcement. Minnesota is seeking to block a massive ICE surge that has brought more than 2,000 federal immigration officers into the Twin Cities, which state officials say has terrorized communities, disrupted local policing and followed the fatal Jan. 13 shooting of 37‑year‑old Renee Good by an ICE agent in south Minneapolis. DOJ counters that ICE and other DHS personnel in and around Minneapolis are facing rising 'threats, violence, aggression, attacks, vehicle block‑ins, and obstruction,' framing the surge as both lawful and necessary in the face of what DHS says is a 1,300% increase in assaults on agents. The state has until Thursday to respond, setting up a fast‑moving test of how far federal courts are willing to go in refereeing clashes between a state government and an administration that is using an aggressive immigration crackdown as a centerpiece of its domestic agenda.

Masked ICE agents forced open the St. Paul home of ChongLy “Scott” Thao without a warrant, pointed guns at family members and led the longtime U.S. citizen outside in only underwear, sandals and a blanket in subfreezing temperatures as neighbors filmed and a 4‑year‑old cried. DHS called it a “targeted” operation aimed at two convicted sex offenders and said Thao matched a description and refused biometric checks, but his family disputes that anyone with such convictions lived there, state registry records show none at the address, and agents—after driving him to an undisclosed location to photograph him—allowed him to prove his citizenship and returned him home without apology.

A federal judge refused to block DHS’s new rule requiring seven days’ notice for congressional visits to ICE facilities, saying the plaintiffs used the wrong procedural vehicle and suggesting lawmakers file a new challenge. The ruling leaves in place an incident in which Rep. Ilhan Omar and Minnesota colleagues were asked to leave the Whipple Building ICE facility on Jan. 10, and advocates such as Democracy Forward say they will pursue further legal options to contest what they call an effort to evade congressional oversight.

The University of Minnesota is tightening campus security and offering more remote class flexibility as thousands of federal immigration agents operate in the state under DHS’s Operation Metro Surge. In guidance issued Thursday ahead of Tuesday’s spring‑semester start, administrators said nearly all campus buildings will shift to badge‑only entry via U Cards, while some courses will permit virtual attendance at deans’ discretion to accommodate students worried about travel during the federal surge. The university stressed that its police department does not enforce federal immigration law and does not ask about immigration status, and it is steering non‑citizen students to Student Legal Services for immigration advice, including reminders to carry documentation. The changes mirror moves by other Minnesota institutions and faith groups to shield students and workers as ICE ramp‑ups and the Renee Good shooting fuel protests, fear and legal challenges across the Twin Cities. For a flagship public university, these steps effectively codify a partial sanctuary posture on campus, even as federal operations continue around it.

President Donald Trump issued a formal Martin Luther King Jr. Day proclamation Monday evening only after civil-rights groups criticized him for breaking with recent presidential practice by neither attending public commemorations nor recognizing the holiday earlier in the day. The proclamation, released while Trump spent the holiday at Mar-a-Lago and prepared to attend the college football championship in Miami, praised King’s “extraordinary resolve” and tied his legacy to “law, order, liberty, and justice for all,” echoing the administration’s current enforcement rhetoric. Trump also claimed he honored King last year by declassifying assassination files, a move historians said produced little new information and that most of King’s family had opposed. The White House did not promote the proclamation on Trump’s or the administration’s social-media feeds, which instead focused on immigration crackdowns and football, and the timing drew fire from the NAACP and other advocates who saw it as an afterthought. Bernice King, Dr. King’s daughter, used the day to urge Americans to push for an end to “state-sanctioned and facilitated violence” against Black and Brown immigrants and others, underscoring how Trump’s immigration policies and rhetoric are reshaping the politics of a holiday meant to honor nonviolent civil-rights struggle.

Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego has called for ICE to be "totally torn down" and remade in the wake of the Minneapolis shooting of U.S. citizen Renee Nicole Good. Other Democrats, including Sen. Mark Warner, have also criticized ICE and the Biden administration’s handling of the border — with Warner claiming roughly 75% of ICE arrestees in Virginia have no criminal record — underscoring intra‑party debates over local cooperation with the agency after multiple controversial shootings.

Sen. Mark Warner, D‑Va., told Fox News’ 'Special Report' that the Biden administration 'screwed up the border' while also asserting that roughly 75% of people arrested by ICE in Virginia have no criminal record beyond entering illegally, despite federal claims that agents are targeting the 'worst of the worst.' Asked whether he supports new Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s move to end state law‑enforcement collaboration with ICE on criminal cases, Warner said he backs focusing on migrants with criminal records but argued that is not what is actually happening under President Trump’s mass‑deportation agenda. He linked his concerns to recent incidents, including the fatal ICE shooting of U.S. citizen Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis and a separate shooting of an alleged undocumented immigrant, and criticized masked ICE agents for grabbing parents at school drop‑offs and work sites in ways he says are destroying trust and leaving children stranded. Warner added that, based on what he has seen in Minnesota, there is 'virtually no collaboration' between local police and ICE, and he blamed federal tactics for that breakdown. His comments put a prominent centrist Democrat on record critiquing both the prior Democratic administration’s border failures and the current Republican administration’s enforcement approach, underscoring how volatile ICE’s role has become in national politics.

Gov. Kathy Hochul has endorsed a bill that would give New Yorkers a private right of action to sue ICE agents for alleged constitutional or other rights violations, a measure Democrats say is part of a broader response to the Minneapolis shooting of Renee Good. The proposal is one element of a multi‑state Democratic push—alongside Oregon and California bills, New Jersey sanctuary measures, and a Maryland proposal to “digitally unmask” agents—that raises novel constitutional and federal‑preemption questions courts will likely have to resolve.

Rep. Angie Craig, a Minnesota Democrat, likened recent ICE raids to actions in 1930s Germany and said cutting ICE funding or even a shutdown were options, asserting that "nothing should be off the table" to stop the operations. Other Democrats, including Sen. Ruben Gallego — who told CNN ICE should be "totally torn down" and rebuilt to focus on criminals rather than aggressive tactics — have echoed calls for major changes, prompting the White House to accuse Gallego of pandering to the "radical left" and defend ICE as removing "rapists, murderers, and other criminals."

DHS highlighted a viral St. Paul video showing an ICE agent telling bystanders they were impeding an operation to arrest an alleged child‑sex‑offender, a clip praised by DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin and shared by White House officials. The video surfaced amid a volatile federal surge of roughly 3,000 immigration officers to the Twin Cities after the ICE killing of Renee Good, sparking frequent clashes — protesters following and blocking ICE vehicles, sit‑ins and accusations of aggressive tactics and projectiles, multiple arrests and injuries, and disputed claims between DHS and Minnesota officials over detainers and conduct.

The article details a sharp clash between Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and the Department of Homeland Security over Operation Midway Blitz, a large ICE/Border Patrol surge that began around early September. Johnson, citing University of Chicago Crime Lab data and NPR analysis, says Chicago had its safest summer since 1965 with 123 murders from June through August 2025 and argues violent crime rose again "once ICE and the Border Patrol showed up," especially where they were most active. DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin counters that Johnson is "demonizing" law enforcement amid what she calls a 1,300% increase in assaults on agents, touts more than 4,500 arrests of noncitizens with criminal records during the operation, and urges him to "turn down the rhetoric" and cooperate to prevent further killings by "gang members, murderers, drug traffickers, and rapists." The dispute is playing out publicly on X, with Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino pointing to "double‑digit decreases" in Chicago violent crime tied to arrests of "violent illegal aliens," while Johnson and Rep. Jesús García highlight fatal shootings by agents such as that of Mexican national Silverio Gonzalez and call for federal investigations. The confrontation underscores a broader national fault line over whether aggressive federal immigration raids in big "sanctuary" cities reduce or inflame crime and how much latitude DHS should have when local leaders argue they have driven down violence on their own.

On Jan. 18 CBS’s 60 Minutes aired Sharyn Alfonsi’s CECOT deportation segment — about a month after editor‑in‑chief Bari Weiss had it pulled from the Dec. 21 broadcast — adding written statements from the White House and Homeland Security and prompting CBS to frame the broadcast as evidence of editorial independence. The report says that between March and April last year exactly 252 Venezuelan men, including college student Luis Muñoz Pinto, were deported to El Salvador’s CECOT prison under an Alien Enemies Act theory, offers graphic first‑person accounts of beatings and abuse, and notes that Alfonsi repeatedly sought but did not secure on‑camera interviews with key Trump administration officials.

Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., is preparing to introduce the Stop Citizenship Abuse and Misrepresentation (SCAM) Act, a White House-backed bill that would make it far easier for the federal government to strip naturalized Americans of citizenship for up to 10 years after they take the oath. The proposal creates a post‑naturalization window in which conviction for defrauding any level of U.S. government of $10,000 or more, committing espionage, an aggravated felony, or affiliating with a foreign terrorist organization would serve as automatic proof that the person never met the 'good moral character' requirement and can be denaturalized and deported. The bill includes a built‑in fallback: if courts strike down the 10‑year window as unconstitutional, it would automatically revert to a five‑year period rather than invalidating the whole law. Schmitt frames the measure as a response to the sprawling Minnesota social‑services fraud scandal—where prosecutors estimate up to $9 billion was stolen and some defendants are Somali immigrants—while senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller calls it a necessary response to what he labels the 'Somali fraud scandal.' Immigrant‑rights lawyers and some constitutional scholars have already warned in other forums that broad new denaturalization powers risk creating a second‑class form of citizenship for the foreign‑born, setting up a likely court fight if the bill advances.

Joe Abraham, whose 20‑year‑old daughter Katie was killed in a Jan. 19, 2025 hit‑and‑run in Urbana, Illinois, is publicly tying her death to what he calls the state’s failed border and sanctuary policies and says top Democrats have ignored him. Police say Guatemalan national Julio Cucul‑Bol, who had been deported previously and was allegedly driving drunk about 80 mph, slammed into the stopped Honda Civic carrying Katie and friends, fled the scene, and was later arrested near Dallas with fake Mexican ID while heading toward Matamoros, Mexico; he accepted a plea deal and was sentenced to 30 years in prison. DHS has named an immigration‑enforcement surge 'Operation Midway Blitz' in Katie’s honor and is using the case to highlight what it calls 'criminal illegal immigrants' protected by sanctuary jurisdictions, while Abraham says Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth have never contacted him, even when he attended a congressional hearing where his daughter’s case was cited. The piece is part victim testimony, part political messaging: Abraham appears in a video for 'The American Border Story,' a national initiative backed by immigration‑restriction advocates, urging would‑be migrants to 'do things the right way' and demanding state leaders acknowledge the human cost when repeat immigration violators are on U.S. roads. The case is fueling online arguments over whether it proves sanctuary policies endanger residents or is being used as a single, horrific anecdote to sell a broader partisan crackdown that still lacks transparent data on how often such repeat‑entry DUIs occur.

New York City’s chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America is organizing what it calls a large rapid‑response network to federal immigration enforcement, with leaders telling attendees at a recent meeting they aim to train roughly 4,000 volunteers to monitor and, in some cases, disrupt ICE operations across the city, according to the New York Post account cited by Fox. A DSA organizer identified only as “Marina” said similar tactics have previously helped deter ICE detentions in New York and pointed to ongoing protests in Minnesota — including whistle alerts, crowd mobilization and confrontations outside federal buildings — as a model. The planned tactics include using whistles and other noisemakers to broadcast ICE activity and draw activists into the streets in real time, essentially standing up a civilian alert system parallel to DHS operations. The organizing push comes as Minnesota has seen mass protests and federal use of tear gas after an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Nicole Good, and as President Trump has publicly threatened, then downplayed for now, use of the Insurrection Act and placed the Army’s 11th Airborne Division on prepare‑to‑deploy orders for Minnesota. DHS declined comment to Fox, but the episode underscores how street‑level resistance to immigration raids in one Midwestern city is being consciously exported to New York, potentially setting up sharper clashes between federal agents and organized networks of activists in multiple jurisdictions.

Video from downtown Minneapolis shows an unidentified man being chased into a parking garage and struck in the head with a flagpole by a group of apparent anti‑ICE protesters on Saturday afternoon, leaving him with a bleeding head wound as they followed and pepper‑sprayed him while shouting insults and calling him a 'Nazi.' The man, whose jacket was soaked in blood, repeatedly told the crowd he was trying to leave and declined help from at least one woman who asked if he needed assistance before getting into a car that protesters then pounded with flagpoles as it sped away. Earlier at the same protest, pardoned Jan. 6 rioter and Florida Republican Senate candidate Jake Lang was filmed being dragged by demonstrators, bleeding from the back of the head, after joining an Americans Against Islamification 'Crusader March on Little Somalia' that planned a Quran burning at Minneapolis City Hall; Lang later claimed on X that his body armor stopped a stabbing attempt. The Minneapolis Police Department said it is aware of social‑media accounts of Lang being assaulted but that no official report has yet been filed, underscoring how much of the incident is currently documented only via protester and bystander video. The confrontation adds another flashpoint to already tense Minneapolis demonstrations over ICE operations and federal immigration policy, and it is already being weaponized online by pro‑ and anti‑administration voices portraying either a 'lynching' of white Christians or extremist provocation designed to spark violence.

Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman told his staff that a member of his office was "wrongfully detained" by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Friday and later released, calling the incident "unacceptable" and saying it caused distress to the employee, their family and the office. In an internal memo obtained by CBS and first reported by the Los Angeles Times, Hochman described the employee as a "dedicated public servant" and said he has contacted unspecified federal counterparts to demand greater respect for residents’ rights and to prevent similar conduct. The Department of Homeland Security, responding to questions, flatly denied the account, saying that neither ICE nor Customs and Border Protection has "any record" of detaining an LA County DA employee and branding any suggestion of racial profiling by its officers as "FALSE and disgusting." The DA’s office declined to provide additional details about the staffer, the circumstances of the stop, or what documentation they have of the detention, leaving an unresolved factual dispute between one of the nation’s largest local prosecutorial agencies and federal immigration authorities. The episode feeds into a broader national clash over ICE tactics, alleged profiling and local–federal cooperation in immigration enforcement, particularly in large, diverse jurisdictions like Los Angeles.

Newly compiled data from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission show that Texas hospitals reported $1.05 billion in costs during fiscal year 2025 tied to patients classified as "individuals not lawfully present" in the United States, based on 313,742 recorded visits. The figures, the first collected under an August 2024 executive order by Gov. Greg Abbott, cover reporting that began in November 2024 and average roughly $105 million per month, suggesting the true 12‑month total could be higher than what is captured. The largest share of expenses — about $565.4 million — came from inpatient discharges for non‑Medicaid and non‑CHIP patients, while emergency department visits for that same group added roughly $205.5 million; Medicaid and CHIP enrollees accounted for another $279.6 million in inpatient and emergency costs combined. Abbott’s order requires hospitals to file quarterly breakdowns of inpatient discharges, ER visits and associated costs for patients not lawfully present, a move his office frames as necessary amid record border crossings and pressure on state services. Supporters are already using the numbers to argue that unauthorized immigration is straining public resources, while critics are likely to question the methodology, how immigration status is determined in clinical settings, and whether these costs are being double‑counted or offset by taxes and economic activity.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom walked back his earlier characterization of Minnesota ICE operations as "state‑sponsored terrorism," telling Ben Shapiro that "our ICE officers obviously are not terrorists" and acknowledging his rhetoric made politics worse. The White House blasted the reversal — spokeswoman Abigail Jackson called Newsom an "inauthentic slimeball" who smeared ICE and then threw staff under the bus, accused his language of risking incitement and said he "will never be ready for primetime."

Pennsylvania Republican officials have warned Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner and the city sheriff against attempting to arrest or prosecute ICE agents over immigration-enforcement operations, arguing federal supremacy would block such efforts. Krasner says any charges would be brought under state law and therefore beyond a presidential pardon, while DOJ emphasized a "zero-tolerance policy for violence against law enforcement" and legal experts say local attempts to prosecute on-duty federal agents would likely be defeated in court amid frayed trust between local and federal authorities.

DNC Chair Ken Martin defended a social post likening the U.S. under former President Trump to Iran’s theocratic regime — framing "Tehran to Minneapolis" as shared systems that "wield violence without accountability" and tying protests over the Renee Good shooting to protests against Iran’s clerical regime — and said he would wear Sen. Lindsey Graham’s condemnation "as a badge of honor." Republican allies blasted the remarks, with an RNC spokesperson calling Martin "unhinged," Graham calling him a "worthless piece of crap," and RNC press secretary Kiersten Pels accusing him of encouraging obstruction, while a DNC source and an anonymous committee member said party officials largely supported the "general gist" of his comments.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday that the state will 'respect law enforcement' and 'the rule of law' as he backed Jacksonville’s decision to place its Hispanic Outreach Coordinator, Yanira 'Yaya' Cardona, on administrative leave after she used Instagram Live to warn residents that ICE had set up 'speed traps' and was targeting certain roads and types of businesses. Cardona, appointed by Democratic Mayor Donna Deegan, told viewers that 'ICE is out and about,' advised them to stay home if possible, and urged them to line up lawyers, powers of attorney and compliance plans amid stepped‑up immigration enforcement. DeSantis also referenced an unrelated Florida woman accused of assaulting ICE agents, saying, 'this is not Minneapolis. That is not going to end well for you in Florida,' underscoring his message that confrontation with officers will bring 'consequences.' Deegan, while stressing Jacksonville is 'a city of immigrants' and that many residents are frightened by national ICE crackdowns and reports of citizens being detained, said the leave was not about Cardona’s substantive warnings and that her video shared information already circulating in local news and on social media. The clash highlights how local officials walking a line between informing immigrant communities and avoiding interference with federal enforcement are colliding with Republican leaders who want state and city workers firmly on ICE’s side as raids expand nationwide.

Ohio Sen. Bernie Moreno has sent a sharply worded letter to Lucas County Commissioner Pete Gerken after Gerken said ICE and related agencies had 'changed from a legitimate agency to a terrorist group' and voted with the county board against enforcing a federal grant tied to DHS. Moreno’s letter, obtained by Fox News, argues the vote is 'incoherent and perilous,' cites Ohio Revised Code 3.07 on misconduct in office, and questions whether branding federal law-enforcement officers as 'terrorists' is compatible with Gerken’s oath and statutory duty to help fund justice and public-safety functions. He notes Toledo Public Schools are facing a roughly $70 million deficit and the county sheriff is seeking a $6.57 million budget increase, calling the rejection of federal money under those conditions 'particularly confounding' and warning the rhetoric could fuel real-world violence against ICE and Border Patrol personnel amid a reported surge in assaults. Moreno demands written answers within five days on how much of Lucas County’s budget comes from federal funds, whether such language comports with Gerken’s duties, and how residents benefit from turning down DHS assistance, as Democrats nationwide intensify criticism of ICE operations following the Renee Good shooting in Minneapolis. The clash highlights how local resistance to Trump-era immigration enforcement and federal grants is now drawing direct legal and political threats from Republican senators, raising questions about oath violations and the boundaries of rhetoric toward federal officers.

The Pittsburgh Commission on Human Relations used its official X account to promote a Jan. 13 event in nearby Wilkinsburg billed as 'Rebirthing Civil Disobedience, Part II,' advertising 'tactical training in the art of civil disobedience' and urging residents to 'build your CD muscle' with 'no experience necessary.' The flier, which featured images of police confronting protesters, listed Pittsburgh Democratic Socialists of America and grassroots group 50501 Pittsburgh as partners and highlighted a featured 'practitioner and trainer' described as a legal adviser and human‑rights attorney. The promotion drew online backlash from critics who said a city agency was effectively encouraging organized resistance to federal immigration enforcement, especially in light of the fatal Jan. 7 ICE shooting of Minneapolis activist Renee Nicole Good that has already ignited nationwide protests. None of the groups involved, nor ICE, responded to Fox’s questions, leaving unclear who is funding the training and what specific tactics are being taught. The episode underscores how local human‑rights bodies are becoming players in the fight over ICE tactics and protest strategy, blurring lines between civic education and organized direct‑action preparation.

Maine Gov. Janet Mills said in a Jan. 16 TV interview that she has received no confirmation or denial from the Trump administration about reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement could begin a major operation in Portland and Lewiston as soon as next week, but is preparing for the possibility after local mayors alerted residents. Mills, a former district attorney and attorney general, condemned Trump’s recent claim at the Detroit Economic Club that 'Somali scams' are happening in Maine, calling it unconstitutional and discriminatory to target an entire Somali‑American community over alleged misconduct by a few individuals. She stressed that the state is ready to investigate any substantiated fraud cases but warned that 'provocative' ICE tactics or sweeps that endanger civil rights and civil liberties 'are not welcome here,' contrasting Maine’s training standards for law enforcement with violent arrest videos emerging from Minnesota. The interview signals a looming confrontation between a Democratic governor and federal immigration agencies as Trump’s Minnesota‑style crackdown appears to expand to new states with sizable Somali‑American populations.

Rep. Ritchie Torres, D‑N.Y., says he will introduce the Quick Recognition Act next week to require Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection officers to wear uniforms bearing QR codes that, when scanned, would display the officer’s name, badge number and employing agency. Torres argues the change is urgently needed to "unmask ICE not only physically but digitally" and calls the agency a "systemically corrupt institution," vowing to oppose any future appropriation that funds ICE by more than $1. The Trump White House is denouncing the proposal, with spokeswoman Abigail Jackson telling Fox News it would spur a "widescale doxxing campaign" and encourage protesters to interfere with operations, and citing DHS claims of a 1,300% increase in assaults on ICE officers that it blames on Democratic "smears." The article notes related moves by Rep. Shri Thanedar, D‑Mich., who has introduced a bill to abolish ICE after the fatal shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis, underscoring how that incident and the administration’s Minnesota raids are driving more aggressive Democratic efforts to constrain or dismantle immigration enforcement. Critics on the right are already framing Torres’ QR‑code plan as a direct threat to officer safety, while supporters on the left see it as a basic transparency measure in an era of masked, unbadged federal agents confronting protesters.

In a new podcast interview focused on the Minneapolis ICE killing of Renee Nicole Good, California Democratic Rep. Juan Vargas said the Department of Homeland Security 'shouldn’t continue as it is' and vowed to fight to 'drastically reduce' its funding so ICE only pursues murderers and rapists. Speaking on Kate Powell’s show in an episode titled 'Impeaching Noem,' Vargas backed efforts to impeach DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, accusing her of violating the law and applauding unlawful conduct by ICE and related agencies. He argued Congress should not 'give more money' to an agency he says is 'attacking families' and called it 'criminal on our part' to continue funding current operations in Minnesota, where DHS says the agent who shot Good suffered internal bleeding after being hit by her car. The comments go further than many Democrats who criticize ICE tactics but stop short of explicit defund‑and‑rebuild talk, signaling how the Minneapolis raids and shootings are hardening a faction of the party against continued broad funding for the agency.

The State Department has circulated a cable to all U.S. embassies and consulates spelling out which "major sporting events" will be exempt from President Trump’s new visa ban on citizens of 39 countries and the Palestinian Authority, beyond the already announced 2026 World Cup and 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Athletes, coaches and support staff for those events—and for competitions run or sanctioned by a long list of governing bodies and U.S. pro leagues, from the IOC, FIFA and Special Olympics to the NCAA, NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, NASCAR, Formula 1, PGA, LPGA, LIV Golf, MLS, UFC, WWE and others—can still obtain visas to compete. Foreign spectators, media and corporate sponsors from affected countries generally will not qualify under the exemption and would need some other basis to enter the U.S. The cable emphasizes that only a “small subset” of travelers tied to the World Cup, Olympics and other covered events will meet the exception, implementing a clause in Trump’s proclamation that left it to Secretary of State Marco Rubio to define which competitions qualified. The move attempts to preserve the ability of international athletes and teams to appear at U.S.-hosted events while maintaining the administration’s broader restrictions, but it also means many overseas fans and businesses will remain locked out despite the U.S. hosting the world’s biggest tournaments.

ICE Deputy Director Madison Sheahan resigned to launch a Republican campaign against Rep. Marcy Kaptur in Ohio’s 9th District, pitching a pro‑Trump, "No Excuses. Let’s Get It Done." message and touting her tenure overseeing rapid internal growth at the agency. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem immediately appointed longtime ICE attorney Charles Wall—ICE’s Principal Legal Advisor since 2012 who oversees more than 3,500 attorneys and support staff—as deputy director, saying the move aligns leadership with intensified enforcement and public‑safety priorities amid rising protests and threats to officers.

A Cuban national identified as Robyn Argote Brooks was arrested and indicted after Department of Homeland Security and ICE released video showing him allegedly ramming two ICE vehicles in a San Antonio parking lot during a targeted stop, nearly striking an agent before being pulled from the car; one agent was treated for neck injuries and Brooks is in ICE custody. DHS said Brooks entered the U.S. in 2024 via the CBP One app and cited the case while reporting 66 vehicular attacks on ICE officers between Jan. 21, 2025 and Jan. 7, 2026 (versus two in the same period a year earlier) and asserting a more than 1,300% increase in overall assaults, while characterizing CBP One as having allowed over a million "unvetted" migrants.

DHS and USCIS have launched Operation PARRIS (Post‑Admission Refugee Reverification and Integrity Strengthening), begun in mid‑December to reexamine roughly 5,600 refugees in Minnesota from 39 “countries of concern” named in Trump travel‑ban proclamations by conducting onsite reinterviews, background checks and document verification to determine whether refugee status should be maintained, revoked, or referred to ICE. The operation is tied to a sprawling Minnesota fraud probe into daycare, Medicaid and social‑services billing that federal officials say has produced dozens of criminal charges and convictions; DHS is also reviewing naturalization cases involving migrants from 19 countries for possible denaturalization, and the DOJ and some lawmakers have signaled further enforcement and legislative action.

The Trump administration will pause processing of immigrant visas for nationals of 75 countries beginning Jan. 21, a State Department directive that covers permanent‑residence visas — including green cards, fiancé visas and certain work visas — but not temporary nonimmigrant tourist or business visas. The State Department told consular officers to implement the freeze and to step up screening and documentation, framing the move as aimed at blocking migrants who would use U.S. public benefits and placing the burden on applicants to prove they will not rely on welfare; the list of affected countries includes Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Egypt, Guatemala, Pakistan and Senegal.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has lodged an immigration detainer against Aristides Eli Orellana-Ramirez, an El Salvadoran national who DHS says entered the U.S. illegally and is now charged with murdering 16-year-old Bravlio Galeano Ayala and 18-year-old Samir Canales Molina in Charlotte, North Carolina. Charlotte-Mecklenburg police say gunfire erupted around 3:30 a.m. on Dec. 20, 2025 in southwest Charlotte and that the two teens, whose bodies were later found more than six miles apart, are believed to have been shot at the same location before trying to flee for help. DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin called the case 'another tragic loss of life at the hands of a criminal illegal alien' and tied it to what the department calls 'sanctuary' policies, noting that North Carolina authorities have declined to honor nearly 1,400 ICE detainers in recent years. The detainer and arrest are being highlighted as part of 'Operation Charlotte’s Web,' a Trump administration surge of federal agents into Mecklenburg County and surrounding areas aimed at rounding up 'high-threat' unauthorized immigrants with violent criminal histories, a campaign that local officials have vowed to resist. The case is already fueling partisan battles over whether refusing ICE access to jails and detainers increases or reduces public safety in major U.S. cities.

In a Fox & Friends appearance, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey reaffirmed his refusal to broadly cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement even when pressed about the 2024 drunk‑driving death of Victoria Eileen Harwell, allegedly caused by Ecuadorian national Llangari Inga. The article recounts that Inga was twice released from Hennepin County custody in May 2025 despite ICE detainers, before federal agents finally arrested him after his blood‑alcohol level tested at roughly twice the legal limit. DHS now claims that since President Trump took office, Gov. Tim Walz and Frey’s policies have led to nearly 470 criminal non‑citizens being released back onto Minnesota streets, a figure the mayor counters by arguing that many ICE targets are "not a problem" for city safety. Frey insisted he supports investigating and jailing people who commit serious crimes but said his administration will not help sweep up long‑time immigrant residents, while DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin framed sanctuary politicians as "fighting for criminal illegal aliens" and Trump and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem as standing with victims like Harwell.

Chicago and the State of Illinois have filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration challenging what they call 'illegal actions' by immigration agents—alleging ICE officers have interrogated people about citizenship status without cause, carried out civil immigration arrests without warrants, used 'noxious chemicals' in public areas, and conducted operations at or near so‑called sensitive locations such as schools and shelters. The suit also contends DHS personnel have trespassed on city‑ and state‑owned property and that the White House is using policy levers to coerce Illinois and Chicago to abandon their sanctuary‑style limits on cooperation. In an exclusive response, DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin mocked the plaintiffs for 'miraculously' discovering the 10th Amendment only when resisting federal law enforcement, labeled the case 'baseless,' and argued that Illinois politicians have released violent non‑citizens who then harmed residents, citing the drunk‑driving death of college‑bound Illinois resident Katie Abraham. White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson echoed the attack, calling the lawsuit by Mayor Brandon Johnson and Attorney General Kwame Raoul a 'pathetic stunt' that proves Democrats 'put illegal criminals over hardworking Americans' and insisting the administration will keep aggressive ICE operations in place. The clash sets up a high‑profile court test over how far federal agents can go in conducting civil immigration enforcement on local turf and near community institutions, and whether sanctuary jurisdictions can use federalism arguments to rein in those tactics.

The Los Angeles County Board unanimously approved Supervisor Lindsey Horvath’s motion directing county counsel to draft an "ICE‑free zones" ordinance within 30 days that would bar use of county‑owned and county‑controlled property as staging, processing or operations bases for unauthorized civil immigration enforcement—while still allowing criminal enforcement and actions under valid judicial warrants—and would require uniform signage and a permit process after a disruptive October 2025 federal operation at Deane Dana Friendship Park. The Justice Department, via First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, warned local jurisdictions cannot exclude federal agents from public spaces and threatened arrests or charges for those who impede agents, and critics say the measure could put federal funding (reported by some outlets as up to $1 billion) at risk.