In August, President Donald Trump instituted a federal takeover of the D.C. police department after declaring a “crime emergency” in the city. Thousands of federal law enforcement officers and National Guard members were deployed, resulting in a surge of not only criminal arrests but also civil immigration arrests. Over 40 percent of the arrests made during Trump’s 30-day federal takeover of D.C. were immigration related, according to the Associated Press. Now, a lawsuit is challenging these arrests, saying that many of them violated federal law.
The lawsuit, filed on Thursday in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia by four plaintiffs and CASA, a national immigration rights organization, alleges that federal immigration officers did not follow proper procedures when making arrests during Trump’s D.C. crackdown. Although immigration agents are allowed to make an immigration arrest without a warrant, the officer must have “reason to believe” that the individual is in the U.S. in violation of any immigration law or regulation and is likely to escape before a warrant can be obtained. This “reason to believe” standard is considered equivalent to probable cause in immigration cases.
Four of the five named plaintiffs in the case were arrested without a warrant, detained, and ultimately released on immigration charges during Trump’s federal takeover. In each instance, federal officers failed to either inquire about the plaintiff’s legal status or assess whether they were a flight risk, or both, before making an arrest.
One plaintiff, Jose Escobar Molina, was approached and immediately handcuffed by plainclothed unidentified federal agents outside of his apartment building on the morning of August 21, despite having a valid Temporary Protected Status for El Salvador since 2001 and living in D.C. for 25 years. The officers did not have a warrant and never asked for Escobar Molina’s name, identification, immigration status, or about his ties to the community—ties that are often used to assess whether someone is a flight risk.
According to the lawsuit, when he told the officers that he had legal immigration status, they replied, “No you don’t. You are illegal.” After being put into a vehicle, he pressed the issue again and told the officers he had “papers.” To which the driver responded by yelling, “Shut up, bitch! You’re illegal.”
After spending the night in immigration detention, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement supervisor realized that Escobar Molina did, in fact, have legal status, and he was finally released.
Another plaintiff, named only as “N.S.” in the suit, spent nearly four weeks in immigration detention before being released, despite having a pending asylum application after fleeing Venezuela. Federal agents arrested N.S. in a Home Depot parking lot without asking any questions about where he lived, for how long, or anything else about his ties to the community. Without making an individualized determination as to whether he posed a flight risk, federal officers “pulled N.S. out of the driver’s seat, threw him against the car, handcuffed him, and provided him a clear bag in which to place his belongings, before placing him in the back of a van,” according to the complaint.
Both men, along with the other plaintiffs arrested without a warrant, now live in fear of being arrested and detained again as immigration arrests continue in the nation’s capital.
In a post on X, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) asserted that the lawsuit’s allegations are “disgusting, reckless, and categorically FALSE,” and defended DHS law enforcement’s use of “reasonable suspicion” to make arrests, rather than conducting “indiscriminate stops.”
But the issue at the heart of the complaint is not whether the officers had the “reasonable suspicion” to make the stops—stops that Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote could be made by considering factors like race, ethnicity, and speaking Spanish—but whether officers had probable cause to make the warrantless arrests that followed.
“They’re not even doing the bare minimum as far as asking individual questions about a person’s immigration status,” CASA Legal Director Ama Frimpong, toldThe Washington Post.
Federal law requires immigration officers to have “reason to believe” an individual is both in violation of an immigration law and is likely to escape before a warrant can be obtained. These measures are in place to protect individuals from wrongful arrest and detention. But clearly, laws meant to protect people’s rights are dispensable when standing in the way of Trump’s mass deportation goals.
A federal immigration officer who was captured on video pushing a woman to the ground outside an immigration court in New York City has been relieved of his duties while an investigation is conducted, the Department of Homeland Security announced Friday.
In a statement Friday, DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin called the conduct of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer “unacceptable and beneath the men and women of ICE.”
“Our ICE law enforcement are held to the highest professional standards and this officer is being relieved of current duties as we conduct a full investigation,” McLaughlin added.
Videos of the ICE officer’s actions at the 26 Federal Plaza federal building in lower Manhattan emerged on social media Thursday, generating widespread controversy.
The incident appears to have started when the woman and her young daughter desperately tried to cling to her husband, whom federal agents were attempting to take into custody. Agents were seen on video separating the family, with one of them grabbing the woman’s hair. The man was ultimately detained.
Another video showed the woman confronting the ICE officer at the center of the investigation. He was then captured on camera shoving the woman and pushing her to the floor in front of her children and a crowd of photojournalists and federal and court officials.
During the altercation, the ICE officer is heard saying “adios” — or goodbye — several times.
The woman in the videos told reporters Thursday her family is from Ecuador.
Under the second Trump administration, ICE officers have been deployed to immigration courts across the country to arrest some of those attending their hearings. The effort has been strongly denounced by advocates and Democratic leaders, who say it undermines due process principles and deters people from complying with the immigration process.
Brad Lander, New York City’s comptroller and one of the most vocal local critics of the courthouse arrests, said Thursday that the woman “did not pose any threat” to justify the officer’s actions and noted she had to be taken to the hospital.
“We can disagree on immigration policy, but you can’t watch that video and think that that’s how you want United States law enforcement officials treating human beings,” Lander told CBS News New York.
Asked if the videos indicate any justification for the officer’s use of force, a former ICE official who requested anonymity to speak freely said, “Absolutely none.” The official noted the incident should be reported to ICE’s Office of Professional Responsibility, which is charged with “impartially investigating allegations of employee and contractor misconduct.”
“He clearly lost his cool. Unless you claim self-defense or defense of others, [there’s] no way that use of force is justified,” the former ICE official said. “That’s assault.”
The American Civil Liberties Union is suing the Department of Homeland Security, its director and other federal agencies charging that federal agents are illegally and indiscriminately arresting people in D.C. who are perceived to be Latino.
The American Civil Liberties Union of D.C. is suing the Department of Homeland Security, its director and other federal agencies charging that federal agents are illegally and indiscriminately arresting people in D.C. who are perceived to be Latino.
The ACLU said in a 36-page lawsuit that the arrests began when President Donald Trump declared a crime emergency in the District on Aug. 11.
The lawsuit charges that for the past month and a half, plain clothes, masked and armed federal agents have been indiscriminately arresting District residents who are perceived to be Latino without probable cause or warrants.
“The crux of our case is to stop the government from making unlawful immigration arrests in D.C.,” Aditi Shah, a staff attorney with the D.C. ACLU, said. “What we are really concerned about is the rise in these mass immigration arrests where the requirements, under the law, in order to make these arrests are not being followed.”
Others named as defendants in the lawsuit include the Department of Justice, Attorney General Pam Bondi, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Border Patrol, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the leadership of those agencies.
The ACLU said it filed the class action lawsuit on behalf of several people who were detained and the nonprofit immigrant rights group CASA, demanding federal agents be ordered by the court to stop making arrests.
“We’re challenging the policy and practice of making arrests without a warrant and the probable cause findings that are required by Congress,” Shah emphasized.
The lawsuit alleges that some of the people who have been detained are being sent to detention centers far away from their homes, deliberately to keep them away from their families and lawyers.
One of the suit’s plaintiffs is D.C. resident 47-year-old Jose Escobar Molina, who has lived in D.C. for 25 years since coming from El Salvador with a valid Temporary Protected Status. It said that on Aug. 21, he was walking from his apartment in Northwest D.C. to his truck to begin his work day when two cars approached him and two plain-clothed federal agents, without identifying themselves, handcuffed and arrested Molina.
The lawsuit said Molina was then taken to a detention center in Chantilly, Virginia, where he was held overnight; and the next day, an U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement supervisor realized that he was in the U.S. legally and released him.
“That really matters to people who live and work in D.C. and who feel afraid of getting arbitrarily and unlawfully arrested,” Shah said.
Another plaintiff, a 51-year-old man who has lived in D.C. since 2024, is in the U.S. from Venezuela and has a pending asylum application because he fears he could be persecuted if forced to return.
On Aug. 12, the lawsuit charges, he was stopped by an agent wearing a Drug Enforcement Administration vest in the parking lot of a D.C. Home Depot as he was finishing shopping. The lawsuit said he was arrested without a warrant, and spent four weeks in custody at various facilities before being released on his own recognizance.
Both men and the other plaintiffs say they are fearful they could be arrested again at any moment. The lawsuit added that even those people who are released relatively quickly “experience significant physical and psychological harm from their arbitrary arrest and detention and fear they will experience those harms again.”
WTOP reached out to the Department of Homeland Security, and it had no comment on the lawsuit.
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Washington — The Department of Homeland Security has escalated its clash with so-called sanctuary states this week, warning California, New York, and Illinois in letters obtained by CBS News that refusal to honor immigration detainers could trigger federal legal action.
In letters dated Sept. 10, Acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons ordered the attorneys general of the three states to declare within two days whether they would comply with “thousands of ICE detainers” lodged against individuals in state custody, according to DHS. Immigration detainers are formal requests by ICE asking local jails and prisons to notify the agency before releasing an individual, and to hold them briefly so federal agents can take undocumented migrants into federal custody.
According to DHS, Illinois and New York formally declined to cooperate. California did not respond. On Sept. 18, Lyons sent follow-up letters obtained by CBS News accusing each state of obstructing immigration enforcement and vowing to enlist the Department of Justice in response. Senior DHS officials tell CBS News the department will tap the DOJ to sue states, blocking future federal funding.
In his follow-up letter to Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, Lyons wrote that the state’s refusal “will result in thousands of criminal aliens being released into Illinois communities,” adding that “ICE will engage with the U.S. Department of Justice and other federal partners to pursue all appropriate measures against you.”
Lyons wrote in his letter to California Attorney General Rob Bonta, “I take this lack of response to mean that you will continue refusing to honor ICE detainers, resulting in thousands of criminal aliens being released into California communities.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James received a similar warning after two aides to Gov. Kathy Hochul confirmed the state would not expand cooperation, according to DHS.
The Illinois attorney general’s office referred CBS News to a letter it sent to Lyons on Sept. 12, which argued ICE detainers are “requests” and state and local authorities cannot be forced to comply with them. The office also noted that it doesn’t oversee pre-trial detention in Illinois, so the office “rarely, if ever, receives ICE detainers,” and it can’t “unilaterally override state law” by forcing local police departments to honor ICE’s requests.
“Responding to an ICE detainer based on erroneous information could subject Illinois law enforcement agencies to liability for ICE’s mistakes,” the letter read. “And unfortunately, the number of erroneous detentions by ICE continues to grow at an alarming pace.”
CBS News has reached out to the California and New York attorney general’s offices for comment.
In a statement to CBS News, Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin wrote, “These dangerous sanctuary policies, often combined with cashless bail for serious crimes, allow criminal illegal aliens to be released back into American communities — threatening the American people’s lives and wellbeing.”
A DHS spokesperson tells CBS News that the agency has arrested roughly 400,000 undocumented immigrants since the start of the Trump administration, and 70% of those arrested by ICE have criminal charges or convictions.
Among those released by state authorities include undocumented migrants charged with sex crimes on minors, multiple assaults on police officers with a dangerous weapon, indecent assault and battery, as well as those with drug trafficking and weapons charges, a DHS spokesperson said.
Federal regulation dictates that immigration detainers instruct local jails and prisons to hold someone for up to 48 hours after their scheduled release so ICE can take custody. Historically, federal courts have ruled that these detainers are requests, with some local and state authorities outlawing compliance. Some courts have also found that holding people without a judge’s warrant can raise constitutional challenges, citing the Fourth Amendment’s protections against unlawful detention.
California, New York, and Illinois have each passed laws limiting compliance with ICE detainers.
California law bars local police from honoring detainers, except for individuals convicted of select serious crimes, while New York law restricts cooperation, requiring judicial warrants rather than administrative detainers to detain undocumented migrants. The New York attorney general’s office advises local police departments not to honor ICE detainers unless they are accompanied by warrants issued by judges. Illinois’ TRUST Act also prohibits state and local law enforcement from detaining individuals without a judicial warrant.
Supporters of city- and state-level “sanctuary” laws typically argue the policies lead to greater trust between local police and residents whose immigration status may make them reluctant to cooperate with law enforcement or report crimes.
But the Trump administration argues “sanctuary” policies make it harder for ICE to apprehend undocumented migrants, prompting the federal agency to send more law enforcement agents into American communities to conduct arrests on the streets. Those operations have drawn protests in major cities like New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles in recent months, leading to some clashes with ICE and several arrests.
In recent months, the Justice Department and other agencies have sought to cut off grants to cities and states that limit their cooperation with federal immigration authorities, drawinglawsuits.
In his warnings to state attorneys general, Lyons underscored that ICE prefers cooperation but will not allow what he calls “inadvisable and irresponsible obstruction” to continue, though he fell short of specifying exactly how the Justice Department will pursue lawsuits or other federal action in the coming weeks.
The problems echo a broader pattern across the US, where watchdogs and courts have flagged overcrowding, poor sanitation, and blocked access to counsel in ICE facilities from Arizona to Louisiana.
Advocates say some of the most jarring overcrowding is happening on 26 Federal Plaza’s 10th floor, where detainees have estimated that between 70 and 90 people have been crammed into rooms measuring roughly 215 square feet. That would leave each person with roughly the space of a doormat—less room than a folded bath towel—in an area no bigger than a studio apartment kitchen.
The arrests came as part of a coordinated action by progressive Democrats, timed to amplify demands for Albany to reconvene and pass the New York for All Act. The bill would bar state and local agencies, including police and sheriffs, from sharing information or resources with ICE, aiming to stop what lawmakers describe as abductions of immigrants at court hearings and check-ins. Along with New York City Council’s proposed Trust Act—which would let people sue if city agencies unlawfully cooperate with ICE—the legislation is essential, Democrats say, to defend due process and prevent local governments from becoming de facto extensions of ICE.
Dozens of anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protesters are arrested after refusing to leave the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building on September 18, 2025, in New York City.
Photograph: Spencer Platt; Getty Images
“The criminalization, demonization, and state-sponsored violence against immigrants in this country has reached a fever pitch under this administration. All of us, and especially elected leaders, must do more to protect New Yorkers, regardless of when they arrived,” Assembly member Emily Gallagher, a Democrat who represents parts of Brooklyn, said in a statement.
Many elected officials have been arrested while protesting the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement tactics. Among others, in June, Senator Alex Padilla of California was handcuffed after challenging Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem at a Los Angeles press conference, and in May, Newark mayor Ras Baraka was arrested outside a federal detention center during an attempted oversight visit.
In a statement, Yasmine Farhang, executive director of the Immigrant Defense Project, applauded the lawmakers’ actions Thursday, accusing the US government of “egregious abuses of power,” and imploring New York governor Kathy Hochul to use her clemency powers to shield migrants dealing with overlapping punishments from the courts and immigration authorities.
“New York leaders cannot let this cruelty go unchecked,” she said. “The moment to act is NOW.”
Local immigration advocates expressed anger and worry after a U.S. citizen was briefly detained — and footage of him handcuffed was posted on social media by a high-ranking member of the Trump administration — during a U.S. Department of Homeland Security raid on an Elgin home Tuesday.
Ismael Cordová-Clough, an Elgin immigration activist who witnessed the raid, said he was outraged that the operation was recorded and publicized online by the federal government, especially when one of the individuals captured on the footage was an American citizen.
“I think it’s disgusting, to be quite frank, that they utilized our community for their theatrics,” he said. “That is not putting our safety first. That is putting their show first.”
Early Tuesday, federal agents forcibly entered a home in the 900 block of Chippewa Drive in Elgin, destroying the front door and shattering a patio door in the process.
One of the residents in the home was Joe Botello, an U.S. citizen born in Texas, who described being handcuffed, questioned by armed agents and taken inside a U.S. Customs and Border Protection vehicle during the immigration enforcement operation.
Botello, 37, said he showed his identification to federal agents, told them he had been born in the United States and then was released. Another roommate of his was also handcuffed and questioned but let go shortly afterward, added Botello, who described being “a bit in shock” following the incident.
A few hours after the raid, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem shared a video on social media of four men — including Botello — handcuffed and being led away from the house.
“I was on the ground in Chicago today to make clear we are not backing down,” Noem said in the message on X. “Just this morning, DHS took violent offenders off the streets with arrests for assault, DUI and felony stalking. Our work is only beginning.”
Noem’s message and video post don’t explain that Botello is a U.S. citizen and was later released.
Joe Botello steps through a patio door shattered by federal agents when they broke down the front and back doors of his home in the 900 block of Chippewa Drive in the early morning on Sept. 16, 2025, in Elgin. Botello said the federal agents did not show residents in the home a warrant, placed him in a vehicle, but eventually released him after scanning his driver’s license. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
The front door of a home along the 900 block of Chippewa Drive is torn from its hinges and lies on a sofa after federal agents broke it down in the early morning on Sept. 16, 2025, in Elgin. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
Federal agents hang off the back of a military-style vehicle as they, along with several other vehicles, drive south along Chippewa Drive in Elgin on Sept. 16, 2025. Agents broke down doors of a nearby home and detained several people. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
Ismael Cordová-Clough, left, and Maria Elena Muniz, right, both members of an Elgin volunteer patrol group, document federal agents in vehicles departing from a raid along Chippewa Drive in Elgin on Sept. 16, 2025. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
Looking through a shattered patio door, Joe Botello stands on his deck after federal agents broke down two doors in the early morning of Sept. 16, 2025, in Elgin. He is a U.S. citizen and was released after being handcuffed and put in a vehicle. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
Federal agents conduct an operation in Elgin near the intersection of Chippewa Drive and Martin Drive on Sept. 16, 2025. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
Ismael Cordová-Clough, left, hugs Delani Hernandez as she cries after witnessing a man pulled from his truck and detained by federal agents along Route 31 in Elgin on Sept. 16, 2025. The two are members of a volunteer patrol group in the Elgin area. As Hernandez cried she said, “I couldn’t stop them, I couldn’t stop them.” It was her first day on patrol with the group, which posts and livestreams any suspected ICE activities in and around Elgin. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
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Joe Botello steps through a patio door shattered by federal agents when they broke down the front and back doors of his home in the 900 block of Chippewa Drive in the early morning on Sept. 16, 2025, in Elgin. Botello said the federal agents did not show residents in the home a warrant, placed him in a vehicle, but eventually released him after scanning his driver’s license. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
To Cordová-Clough, the video and Noem’s message “puts an overlay of guilt on (those recorded) just associated with their faces.”
“Honestly, if I was a U.S. citizen displayed in that manner by Kristi Noem or any other government official, absolutely I would be suing them,” he said. “If this was about public safety, you would be more mindful of who is (being recorded).”
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement Wednesday that “no U.S. citizen was arrested, they were briefly held for their and officers’ safety while the operation in the house was under way.”
“This is standard protocol,” the statement added.
DHS officials did not answer Tribune questions about the video of the raid or Noem’s social media post. The misleading video had not been taken down as of Wednesday evening.
Botello, who had chronicled the raid and its aftermath to the Tribune on Tuesday, declined to comment on Noem’s social media post Wednesday or the DHS statement.
Federal immigration officials released information Wednesday on five allegedly undocumented immigrants arrested during the raid on the Elgin home, which was part of “Operation Midway Blitz,” the ramped-up immigration enforcement announced specifically for the Chicago area by Noem last week.
Federal agents conduct an operation in Elgin near the intersection of Chippewa Drive and Martin Drive on Sept. 16, 2025. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
The surge began Sept. 6 and encompasses the entire state of Illinois, as well as Lake County, Indiana, according to information released by U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood, a Democrat from Naperville. Underwood, who met with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials this week, said the agency reported 250 arrests as of Monday. Individuals who are detained and processed are being transferred to detention centers in Indiana and Wisconsin.
Federal court records revealed that the target of the Elgin operation appeared to be Carlos Gonzalez-Leon, a citizen of Mexico who had been previously removed from the U.S. on three separate occasions. Immigration officials had the Chippewa Drive home where Gonzalez-Leon, Botello and others were staying under surveillance as far back as Sept. 10, nearly a week before the raid, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Chicago.
A border patrol agent said in an affidavit that he observed Gonzalez-Leon’s green Mercury minivan parked at the address. Two days later, agents tailed him as he got into a different vehicle and drove to a gas station, the complaint said.
The DHS release stated that Gonzalez-Leon was previously convicted of assaulting a family member. That conviction was not mentioned in the criminal complaint, however, and did not appear in a search of local criminal records.
DHS stated the arrests occurred during service of a search warrant for one individual in the home, but did not provide a copy of the warrant or say who the target was. In a news release late Tuesday, the agency identified five men arrested in the incident, all of whom are allegedly in the country illegally.
The others who were detained were Jose Morales-Rodriguez, of Mexico; Juan Eduardo Solarzano-Morales, of Mexico; Victor Manuel Rodriguez-Pantoja, of Mexico; and Ruben Antonio Gonzalez-Querales, of Venezuela, according to the news release.
Morales-Rodriguez has previous convictions that all appeared to be traffic-related, including a 2010 conviction for aggravated DUI and driving without a valid license, records show.
According to DHS, Solarzano-Morales has convictions for domestic violence and stalking. A search of local court records did not turn up any information on those cases.
The other two men arrested had no reported criminal background.
Chicago-area criminal defense attorney Steven Greenberg said authorities have the right to briefly detain and handcuff people when serving warrants if they deem it’s necessary. Noem’s social media post portrayed Botello in an unfair and inaccurate light, he said, but there’s likely little remedy because Noem has significant legal protections.
“It’s just so obvious why it’s irresponsible … to mislabel someone as a criminal when they’re not or an illegal alien when they’re not,” he said. “Federal government officials have immunity for virtually anything they do in the course of their employment for official acts, so he likely has no recourse.”
Ismael Cordová-Clough, left, and Maria Elena Muniz, right, both members of an Elgin volunteer patrol group, document federal agents in vehicles departing from a raid along Chippewa Drive in Elgin on Sept. 16, 2025. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
To Cordová-Clough, the arrests didn’t justify Noem’s social media post and video, which he believes should trouble every American.
“It also means that we must not believe in our criminal justice system, where you’re innocent until proven guilty,” he said. “They’re putting guilt at the forefront to excuse their behavior. And that’s not the best way to govern.”
Immigration advocate Delani Hernandez, a volunteer who patrols the Elgin area to spot raids or other immigration enforcement activity, called Noem’s video “propaganda” for President Donald Trump’s administration.
She added that Botello and others captured in the video were just “collateral damage.”
“Not all people there were bad people,” she said. “Some people were just there because they lived there.”
Chicago Tribune reporters Jason Meisner and Olivia Olander contributed.
The Department of Homeland Security’s mandate to carry out domestic surveillance has been a concern for privacy advocates since the organization was first created in the wake of the September 11 attacks. Now a data leak affecting the DHS’s intelligence arm has shed light not just on how the department gathers and stores that sensitive information—including about its surveillance of Americans—but on how it once left that data exposed to thousands of government and private sector workers and even foreign nationals who were never authorized to see it.
An internal DHS memo obtained by a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request and shared with WIRED reveals that from March to May of 2023, a DHS online platform used by the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A) to share sensitive but unclassified intelligence information and investigative leads among the DHS, the FBI, the National Counterterrorism Center, local law enforcement, and intelligence fusion centers across the US was misconfigured, accidentally exposing restricted intelligence information to all users of the platform.
Access to the data, according to a DHS inquiry described in the memo, was meant to be limited to users of the Homeland Security Information Network’s intelligence section, known as HSIN-Intel. Instead it was set to grant access to “everyone,” exposing the information to HSIN’s tens of thousands of users. The unauthorized users who had access included US government workers focused on fields unrelated to intelligence or law enforcement such as disaster response, as well as private sector contractors and foreign government staff with access to HSIN.
“DHS advertises HSIN as secure and says the information it holds is sensitive, critical national security information,” says Spencer Reynolds, an attorney for the Brennan Center for Justice who obtained the memo via FOIA and shared it with WIRED. “But this incident raises questions about how seriously they take information security. Thousands and thousands of users gained access to information they were never supposed to have.”
HSIN-Intel’s data includes everything from law enforcement leads and tips to reports on foreign hacking and disinformation campaigns, to analysis of domestic protest movements. The memo about the HSIN-Intel breach specifically mentions, for instance, a report discussing “protests relating to a police training facility in Atlanta”—likely the Stop Cop City protests opposing the creation of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center—noting that it focused on “media praising actions like throwing stones, fireworks and Molotov cocktails at police.”
In total, according to the memo about the DHS internal inquiry, 439 I&A “products” on the HSIN-Intel portion of the platform were improperly accessed 1,525 times. Of those unauthorized access instances, the report found that 518 were private sector users and another 46 were non-US citizens. The instances of foreign user accesses were “almost entirely” focused on cybersecurity information, the report notes, and 39 percent of all the improperly accessed intelligence products involved cybersecurity, such as foreign state-sponsored hacker groups and foreign targeting of government IT systems. The memo also noted that some of the unauthorized US users who viewed the information would have been eligible to have accessed the restricted information if they’d asked to be considered for authorization.
“When this coding error was discovered, I&A immediately fixed the problem and investigated any potential harm,” a DHS spokesperson told WIRED in a statement. “Following an extensive review, multiple oversight bodies determined there was no impactful or serious security breach. DHS takes all security and privacy measures seriously and is committed to ensuring its intelligence is shared with federal, state, local, tribal, territorial, and private sector partners to protect our homeland from the numerous adversarial threats we face.”
Eight years ago, Sara Fernandez flew into Newark, New Jersey, on her way back from the Dominican Republic, where her boyfriend lived. As she was going through airport security, she heard a T.S.A. agent say to one of his colleagues, “Do I need to pick her up and put her through the scanner?” Fernandez has dwarfism; she identifies as a little person. She also happened to be a new hire in the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, which oversees anti-discrimination enforcement for the Department of Homeland Security, including T.S.A. “The guy obviously didn’t know I worked for D.H.S.,” Fernandez recalled. He had made her feel “really awkward and uncomfortable,” but she didn’t want to get him in trouble, so she contacted T.S.A. and scheduled a phone call with him. “I wanted to be, like, ‘You upset me. Look at me. I’m a professional,’ ” she said. After their call, “he got some training. Moments like that can actually stick with a person more, because he got to hear it from me.”
Fernandez was raised in Pittsburgh by adoptive parents, also little people, who’d met at an annual meeting of Little People of America. Her mom’s family was “historically Republican,” in a moderate, John McCain kind of way, Fernandez told me. Her dad had emigrated from Argentina and worked as an accountant. “I have a picture of us at his naturalization ceremony, with American flags,” she said. Her parents weren’t political, but they believed in equal rights and taught their daughter not to feel limited by her stature. Still, she recalled, “as a kid, I was very reserved, observant, anxious. I didn’t want anyone to notice me.” Fernandez earned degrees in law and social work, and entered federal service through the Schedule A program, which expedites the hiring of qualified candidates with disabilities. She started at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, then went to D.H.S. in 2017, during the first Trump Administration. She married the man she’d been dating, who’s of average height, and gave birth to their son, a little person who’s now five years old.
Being in a civil-rights office, Fernandez often thought about the laws that made her career possible. In the federal government, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 prohibits discrimination on the basis of “a physical or mental disability,” and requires that “reasonable accommodations,” or tweaks to working conditions, be provided to disabled employees. (In 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act extended this protection to workers in state and local governments and the private sector.) D.H.S. gave Fernandez an accessible parking spot, placed step stools in common areas of the office, and brought over the customized chair she’d used at the E.E.O.C. During the pandemic, when she was dealing with an autoimmune sickness, her supervisor allowed her to work from home. “It was the best environment I’ve ever worked in,” she said.
Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden had issued executive orders to improve access and opportunities for civil servants with disabilities. The first Trump Administration also “prided itself on continuing efforts around disability hiring and retention,” Daniel Davis, a disability expert who recently left the Department of Health and Human Services, told me. More than a tenth of the federal workforce identified as disabled in fiscal year 2021 (the most recent data available), including a great number of disabled veterans. In the past decade, the over-all employment rate for adults with disabilities has risen from seventeen per cent to nearly twenty-three per cent, with a big jump since 2020. The pandemic that killed more than 1.2 million Americans and caused many others to become disabled also led employers to offer flexible schedules and remote-work arrangements that made it easier for disabled people to do their jobs.
Fernandez’s office was at D.H.S. headquarters, at St. Elizabeths, a huge campus in Washington, D.C. that was once the grounds of the Government Hospital for the Insane. Not long ago, people with disabilities had been relegated to such institutions, often against their will. At the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, or C.R.C.L., Fernandez was part of a team that enforced anti-discrimination and language-access laws, led equal-opportunity trainings, and reviewed requests for accommodation for D.H.S. employees. In 2023, she appeared alongside Alejandro Mayorkas, the Secretary of Homeland Security at the time, at a conference that marked the fiftieth anniversary of the Rehabilitation Act. They posed for a photo—Fernandez wore a blue pleated dress, her hair down to her shoulders—that was later published in an agency newsletter.
C.R.C.L. also set policies for, and handled complaints from, the public. Its jurisdiction was vast, ranging from the encounter Fernandez had at Newark Airport to much graver incidents: sexual harassment in immigration detention, neglect of wheelchair users in FEMA disaster recovery, racial bullying in the Coast Guard, assault by federal security guards.
Last year a group funded by the Heritage Foundation set up a website, “DHS Watch List,” to publicize the names and photographs of immigration judges and bureaucrats it deemed “subversive.” It described C.R.C.L. as “a bastion for leftist [sic] who want to use the tools in the department to frustrate efforts to deport illegal aliens.” Fernandez was surprised by this characterization. C.R.C.L. was a law-enforcement agency within a law-enforcement department—so unprogressive, in fact, that friends in the disability community had asked how she could even work there.
Early this year, when the Department of Government Efficiency started to push large-scale layoffs, Fernandez reassured herself that, because C.R.C.L. was mandated by the founding statute of D.H.S., its hundred and fifty or so employees would be protected. In late March, she learned otherwise. Her position, according to an e-mail from Human Resources, was being eliminated as “a result of the dissolution of Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.” The entire office was found to be “non-essential or not legally mandated,” as were two smaller offices that conducted oversight of the immigration-detention system and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. A spokesperson for D.H.S. referred to the three as “internal adversaries.” Civil-rights mechanisms at Homeland Security were essentially wiped out. Fernandez would be put on paid administrative leave for sixty days, then terminated at the end of May. She packed up her office and left.
One way to parse Donald Trump’s approach to disability is on the basis of his public comments. At a campaign rally in 2015, he mocked the hand movements of a disabled reporter. In his first term, he told aides that he didn’t want to appear with military amputees because “it doesn’t look good for me.” In 2020, according to a memoir by Trump’s nephew, who has a disabled son, the President said, of people with serious disabilities: “The shape they’re in, all the expenses, maybe those kinds of people should just die.” And this year, after his second Inauguration, he said that Biden’s recruitment of “individuals with ‘severe intellectual’ disabilities” were partly to blame for an aircraft collision over the Potomac River that killed sixty-seven people.
Fernandez had been so rattled by the general chaos in the Administration that her layoff initially came as a relief. Her husband, their five-year-old son, eight-year-old stepdaughter, and four dogs kept her more than occupied, especially when school let out for summer break. “Do you want some kids to live with you?” she joked to me one day, by text. “Mine are available.” After bedtime, she would go online to browse and exchange messages about crystals and rocks, which she’s collected her whole life. She posted closeups of blue lace agate and pink sugar amethyst on Instagram.
But the relief soon curdled into worry. Her family relied on her salary and health insurance; her husband, who is Dominican and has a green card, took irregular freelance gigs as a construction worker, a personal trainer, a dance instructor, and an Uber driver. She would have to find a new job soon, but where? She had only ever been in the public sector, and by choice. “I want to do good work, but also, I want to move the world forward,” she said.
The Department of Homeland Security ramped up immigration raids in Illinois on Monday afternoon in an operation they dubbed “Midway Blitz,” a continuation of military-themed rhetoric promoting Donald Trump’s larger crackdown on sanctuary cities. Chicagoans have turned out by the thousands in protest suggestions that the president would attempt to send national guard troops into the city, and in opposition to similar acts that courts have rules as illegal or unconstitutional.
“This ICE operation will target the criminal illegal aliens who flocked to Chicago and Illinois because they knew Governor Pritzker and his sanctuary policies would protect them and allow them to roam free on American streets,” DHS said on X today. “President Trump and Secretary Noem stand with the victims of illegal alien crime while Governor Pritzker stands with criminal illegal aliens.”
But as the administration has signaled similar pursuits in Democratic-led cities across the country, the legal parameters of federal law enforcement could be tested. Here’s what Trump can, and cannot, do in cities such as Chicago.
What are the limits of the civil authority of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officers?
Ice, which is housed in the Department of Homeland Security, primarily engages in enforcement and removal operations – finding, detaining and deporting undocumented immigrants. Ice agents can arrest any undocumented immigrant who has a deportation order issued by an immigration court. An Ice agent can arrest someone who in plain view is in the process of attempting to enter the United States unlawfully or if it has “reason to believe” that someone is unlawfully in the United States and is likely to escape before a warrant can be obtained.
Those reasons can be flimsy. More than 300 Korean employees working for firms building a battery plant in south Georgia were arrested last week in a raid that warrants suggest had targeted Central American construction workers. The US supreme court on Monday temporarily set aside a lower court’s order barring agents from stopping people without reasonable suspicion they are in the country illegally aside from an accent or the color of their skin.
How else might Homeland Security agents engage in law enforcement in Chicago?
A different DHS unit – homeland security investigations (HSI) – targets border-related crimes such as the trafficking of weapons, drugs and people, as well as the kind of fraud, money laundering or counterfeiting that rises to a national security risk. HSI is part of Joint Task Force Alpha, partnered with the Drug Enforcement Agency, FBI and other federal agencies to fight human trafficking from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and other countries. The US attorney general, Pam Bondi, announced last week that Joint Task Force Alpha would expand to cover the Canadian border and all maritime borders, which includes Chicago’s port.
Under other circumstances, HSI might also partner with state investigators and local police to track down fugitives who are also violating immigration law, to work on counterterrorism cases or to investigate and prosecute gangs and cartels that are violating both state and federal law.
However, the legal, moral and political conflict between the Trump administration and state leaders like Illinois governor JB Pritzker or Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson makes this kind of partnership unlikely. Johnson signed an order on 30 August declaring that Chicago cops “will not cooperate with or enable any unlawful or unconstitutional actions undertaken by federal law enforcement or U.S. Armed Forces within the City of Chicago”. Illinois law largely prohibits law enforcement from participating in actions to enforce immigration law.
What does this federal immigration enforcement surge look like?
About 300 federal agents are using North Chicago’s Naval Station Great Lakes as the logistical hub for ramped-up operations, according to ABC Chicago. That’s consistent with earlier reports that the White House intended to use the port as a staging area. The White House has not announced how many federal agents will be redeployed from other states to the Chicago area for this operation.
Trump threatened – as he has done many times – to deploy the national guard to Chicago to “clean up” the city’s crime, despite decreasing gun violence rates there. But his activation of national guard units in the federal takeover of Washington DC’s policing and the use of troops during an immigration enforcement surge in Los Angeles in June gave the threat more teeth.
A federal judge in California sharply chastised the administration for its use of military troops during the Los Angeles operation, declaring it a violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, a federal law prohibiting the use of troops in law enforcement. And the attorney general of Washington DC is suing the administration to force an end to the use of national guard troops there as well.
What is the Posse Comitatus Act?
The act consists of just one line. “Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army, the Navy, the Marine Corps, the Air Force, or the Space Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.”
It means, in essence, that the military cannot and should not meddle in the affairs of civilian government. In practice, it bars commanders from ordering troops to conduct “arrests, apprehensions, searches, seizures, security patrols, traffic control, crowd control, riot control, evidence collection, interrogation, or acting as informants”, as given in the order rebuking Trump’s use of troops in Los Angeles.
Gov. Maura Healey lashed out against the Trump administration in an appearance on MSNBC on Sunday, saying expanded ICE activity in Massachusetts and other states “insane,” and “not right.”
In her MSNBC appearance, Healey said she hasn’t heard from the White House about this latest ICE surge in her state.
“I’m a former prosecutor, a former attorney general. I’ve said many, many times, including to Trump, that I support as attorney general, and now as governor, everything we can do on public safety,” she said. “But what we have seen from ICE and the administration isn’t about public safety, it’s about political theater, about a political power grab and an attempt to intimidate.”
“We’ve seen construction workers, nannies, landscapers, healthcare aids — these are the people being taken in huge numbers, taken away from their families. It is not the kind of effort Donald Trump has said it was about.”
“But again, this is about show, it’s a show of force, it’s political theater. The same reason you see the National Guard on streets in cities in America. It’s just not right. It’s not helpful to public safety. It undermines the efforts of local law enforcement and it’s taking guardspeople with really important missions away from those missions, all to be part of some political theater… It’s just not right what’s happening across America right now.”
“The post that the president put out last night bragging about some Chicago apocalypse, it’s just insane. It’s not normal. It’s not right,” Healey said. “It is wrong and if you care about public safety you work with local officials, you work with state officials, you support and fund local law enforcement. That’s really what you need to do.”
ICE officials and Massachusetts leaders traded barbs about immigration policy Monday.
Wu released a statement to NBC10 Boston on Saturday night addressing the latest operation in the area, saying, “For months, the Trump DOJ, DHS, and ICE have been spreading blatant lies and threatening to ‘bring hell’ to cities like Boston who refuse to bow down to their authoritarian agenda, so this unconstitutional attack is not a surprise.”
“This country was born facing down bullies, with Bostonians leading the way,” Wu continued. “Today Boston is the safest major city in the country because we have worked to build trust in the community, so that everyone feels safe seeking help or reporting a crime. We will not be bullied or intimidated into abandoning the efforts that make Boston a safe home for everyone.”
A Brazilian man who’d been living in Clinton, Mass., under DACA is back with his daughters after being released from months in ICE custody in Texas, fearing he’d be deported and separated from the girls, who have health issues.
It wasn’t immediately clear how many federal agents were taking part in Operation Patriot 2.0, or what Massachusetts communities the operation was being conducted in. The New York Times, citing sources, reported that the operation was expected to last several weeks; the DHS spokesperson’s statement didn’t address how long Patriot 2.0 would take.
ICE agents were seen in the town of Clinton on Friday morning.
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) this month quietly awarded a $30,000 no-bid contract for sniper and combat training to a Virginia firm run by Dan LaLota, the brother of US representative Nick LaLota, a second-term Republican from New York.
Finalized on September 2, the award went to Target Down Group of Mechanicsville, Virginia, which will provide a five-day precision fires and observation course for the Homeland Security Investigations’ Special Response Team (SRT) sniper program. The course, intended to help inform new DHS procedures, is “aimed at equipping them with the necessary skills and knowledge to effectively conduct law enforcement sniper operations in high-risk environments,” per records reviewed by WIRED.
The SRT functions as the agency’s version of a SWAT team, composed of special agents with advanced tactical training for situations deemed too dangerous for standard personnel. SRT members wear military-style camouflage and helmets, carry a range of weapons, and train in breaching, sniper tactics, and close-quarters combat.
According to federal procurement records, the SRT contract was issued on a sole-source basis, with officials citing Target Down Group’s prior work with Homeland Security Investigations as well as its pre-clearance to conduct live-fire exercises at a law enforcement facility in Arizona.
Congressman LaLota, who served on the House Homeland Security Committee in the previous session, could not be reached for comment. Calls to his New York and Washington, DC, offices went unanswered Thursday.
DHS did not respond to a request for comment.
Reached by phone, Dan LaLota said his firm’s deal with ICE has nothing to do with his brother’s position in Congress. “I’m not a new guy on the block,” he tells WIRED, adding there’s only a few people qualified to provide the training DHS requested. “To say my company would be the only one eligible would not be unsound.”
LaLota added he could not speak on ICE’s behalf and declined to discuss details of his company’s work, calling the questions an invasion of privacy while directing reporters to his firm’s website for information about its staff and expertise.
Target Down Group’s website lists Dan LaLota, a retired Marine sniper, as the company’s president. According to his brother’s congressional biography, Dan LaLota served two decades in the Marine Corps, including tours with Force Reconnaissance and Marine Special Operations Command, earning a Bronze Star with Valor for actions in Fallujah, Iraq. LaLota told WIRED he also has seven years as a scout sniper instructor.
Federal procurement records list Target Down Group as a Virginia company; however, state records show the firm is not legally authorized to operate as a Virginia corporation at this time, having been terminated in November 2024 automatically after failing to meet its yearly filing and fee requirements with the state’s corporate registry. Nevertheless, the company was registered separately in Florida as of July. (Asked about the discrepancy, Target Down Group CEO Christopher Allison acknowledged the inquiry but did not provide comment.)
Federal acquisition rules allow sole-source contracts under certain conditions, effectively bypassing the competitive bidding process often required for federal awards. In a redacted justification memo, DHS said Target Down Group was the only vendor able to deliver the training, citing a tight operational schedule as well as the firm’s prior work with its sniper program and established ties to Arizona police, some of whom are participating in the exercise.
Dan LaLota declined to discuss any previous work for the government. “I’m not at liberty to discuss what business I have with a stranger like yourself. I hope you can understand that,” he said.
In June, NBC News reported that SRT units were preparing to deploy to several Democratic-led cities, including Philadelphia, Chicago, Seattle, Northern Virginia, and New York. The planned deployments followed immigration raids in Los Angeles that sparked days of protests and clashes with law enforcement. Philadelphia officials told NBC they had received no notice of incoming ICE forces.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly defended sending federal law enforcement and National Guard troops into Democratic-led cities by claiming they are plagued by “runaway crime,” a description critics call exaggerated and politically driven. In cities such as Chicago, Baltimore, and New Orleans, local and state officials have resisted the deployments, arguing they are motivated by politics, not public safety.
Attorneys for Kilmar Abrego Garcia have asked a federal judge to order Trump administration officials to stop making negative comments about him that they say could jeopardize his right to a fair trial.
Attorneys for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran national who was erroneously deported to El Salvador earlier this year, have asked a federal judge to order Trump administration officials to stop making negative comments about him that they say could jeopardize his right to a fair trial on human smuggling charges in Tennessee.
In a Thursday filing, Abrego Garcia’s lawyers said top U.S. government officials from the White House, Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security “have attacked Mr. Abrego in the media in numerous highly prejudicial, inflammatory, and false statements.”
His lawyers said officials have “expressed the opinion that he is guilty of the crimes charged and far worse.”
The Maryland construction worker, 30, was detained Monday in Baltimore by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after leaving a Tennessee jail last Friday, Aug. 22. Administration officials have said he’s part of the dangerous MS-13 gang, and plan to deport him to the African country of Uganda.
Abrego Garcia’s attorneys have denied allegations that he is part of the gang. In the filing, they referenced statements from officials that label him as someone who’s committed various crimes, even though he hasn’t been convicted of any crimes.
The charges in Tennessee are connected to a 2022 traffic stop, during which officers said he was pulled over for speeding. Abrego Garcia had $1,400 in cash on him and nine passengers in the SUV. Officers had a conversation about their suspicions of smuggling, but he was allowed to drive away with only a warning.
The indictment alleges from 2016 to 2025 Abrego Garcia was involved in a conspiracy to transport migrants who were already in the country. Abrego Garcia has pleaded not guilty.
This past Monday, shortly after Abrego Garcia was taken into custody, the Department of Homeland Security, on its official X account, posted video of him, handcuffed and shackled, being walked toward an elevator in the Baltimore field office by an ICE agent.
He doesn’t belong here. He won’t be staying here. America is a safer nation without this MS-13 Gangbanger in it.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem issued a statement announcing Abrego Garcia’s ICE arrest: “President Trump is not going to allow this illegal alien, who is an MS-13 gang member, human trafficker, serial domestic abuser, and child predator, to terrorize American citizens any longer.”
The unproven allegations in the DHS statement are included in the charging documents in the U.S.’s Tennessee case against Abrego Garcia. Government officials have acknowledged the in-depth investigation, and eventual indictment against Abrego Garcia began after he had already filed a federal lawsuit in Maryland, challenging his deportation to El Salvador.
During broadcast and published interviews since Abrego Garcia was taken into ICE custody Monday, government officials have described him as “a gang member and designated terrorist,” as well as a “wife beater, pedophile, human trafficker.”
Noem’s comments included, “He’s a horrible individual who needs to be held accountable for his crimes.”
This is the third request to the judge to stem extrajudicial comments from U.S. officials from any agency who could play a role in Abrego Garcia’s prosecution.
“If the government is allowed to continue this way, it will taint any conceivable jury pool by exposing the entire country to irrelevant, prejudicial, and false claims against Mr. Abrego,” Abrego Garcia’s lawyers wrote.
After being taken into ICE custody earlier this week, Abrego Garcia’s attorneys said he is seeking asylum in the U.S.
Maryland District Court Judge Paula Xinis, who is overseeing a suit challenging Abrego Garcia’s detention and deportation, has ruled the government cannot remove him from the continental U.S. before an evidentiary hearing for the lawsuit on Oct. 6.
She also ordered that he be kept within 200 miles of her court in Greenbelt to ensure he can access his lawyers. He’s being held at a detention facility in Farmville, Virginia, which is west of Richmond, according to ICE’s website.
In a statement emailed to The Associated Press, the Department of Homeland Security said the media has peddled a sob story about Abrego Garcia that has “completely fallen apart.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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FEMA did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment.
“It is not surprising that some of the same bureaucrats who presided over decades of inefficiency are now objecting to reform,” the agency told The Guardian, which reported on the retaliation against the employees who signed the letter. “Change is always hard. It is especially for those invested in the status quo, who have forgotten that their duty is to the American people not entrenched bureaucracy.”
The targeting of letter signers at FEMA echoes an earlier move at the Environmental Protection Agency in July, when that agency suspended about 140 employees who signed onto a similar public letter.
A FEMA employee who signed this week’s letter expressed concern to WIRED that the agency may try to seek out those who did not include their names on the letter—especially given how DHS reportedly administered polygraphs in April attempting to identify employees who leaked to the press. “I’m concerned they may use similar tactics to identify anonymous signers,” they say. This employee spoke to WIRED on the condition of anonymity, as they were not authorized to speak to the press.
On Tuesday morning, a day after the employees’ letter was published, former FEMA acting administrator Cameron Hamilton posted a criticism of the agency publicly on LinkedIn.
“Stating that @fema is operating more efficiently, and cutting red tape is either: uninformed about managing disasters; misled by public officials; or lying to the American the public [sic] to prop up talking points,” he wrote. “President Trump and the American people deserve better than this …FEMA is saving money which is good due to the astronomical U.S. Debt from Congress. Despite this, FEMA staff are responding to entirely new forms of bureaucracy now that is lengthening wait times for claim recipients, and delaying the deployment of time sensitive resources.”
Hamilton, who was fired from his position a day after testifying in defense of the agency to Congress in May, did not respond to WIRED’s questions about whether his post was related to the employees’ open letter.
Both Hamilton’s post and the open letter call out a new rule, instituted in June, mandating that any spending over $100,000 needs to be personally vetted by Noem. That cap, FEMA employees allege in Monday’s letter, “reduces FEMA’s authorities and capabilities to swiftly deliver our mission.” The policy came under fire in July after variousoutlets reported that it had caused a delay in the agency’s response following the flooding in Texas that killed at least 135 people. The agency’s chief of urban search and rescue operations resigned in late July, in part due to frustrations with how the DHS spending-approval process delayed aid during the disaster, CNN reported.
Screenshots of contract data seen by WIRED show that as of August 7, the agency still had more than $700 million left to allocate in non-disaster spending before the end of the fiscal year on September 30, with more than 1,000 open contract actions. The agency seems to be feeling the pressure to speed up contract proposals. In early August, several FEMA staff were asked to volunteer to work over a weekend to help review contracts to prepare them for Noem’s sign-off, according to emails reviewed by WIRED. (“Lots of work over the weekend,” read the notes from one meeting.)
“Disaster money is just sitting,” one FEMA employee tells WIRED. “Every single day applicants are asking their FEMA contact ‘where’s my money?’ And we are ordered to just say nothing and redirect.”
As the employees’ open letter states, roughly a third of FEMA’s full-time staff had already departed by May, “leading to the loss of irreplaceable institutional knowledge and long-built relationships.” These staff departures may further hamper efforts from the agency to implement financial efficiency measures like the contract reviews. A former FEMA employee tells WIRED that while the agency began the year with nine lawyers on the procurement team that helps review financial contracts during a disaster, almost the entire team has either left or been reassigned, leaving a dearth of experience just as hurricane season ramps up.
“I have no idea what happens,” the former employee tells WIRED, when a hurricane hits “and we need a contract attorney on shift 24/7.”
Washington — Kilmar Abrego Garcia is being processed for deportation to Uganda, the Department of Homeland Security said, after he was taken into custody Monday by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, days after his release from criminal custody.
Abrego Garcia, a native of El Salvador, was mistakenly deported to his home country in March and held in a notorious Salvadoran prison for months before being returned to the U.S. in June where he was jailed on federal human smuggling charges. A judge ruled that he should be released from detention ahead of a trial set for January.
Abrego Garcia was freed from pretrial detention last Friday. CBS News reported on Saturday that his attorneys were then sent a court-required notice of his potential deportation to Uganda. He arrived at the ICE facility on Monday morning to check in, speaking in Spanish to supporters who had gathered in a show of support outside of the facility.
“There was no need for them to take him into ICE detention. He was already on electronic monitoring from the U.S. Marshals Service and basically on house arrest,” his attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg said. “The only reason that they’ve chosen to take him into detention is to punish him. To punish him for exercising his constitutional rights.”
The Department of Homeland Security claims Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang, which his family denies.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement that ICE had arrested Abrego Garcia and was “processing him for deportation.” DHS said he is “being processed for removal to Uganda.” The U.S. reached an agreement with Uganda to accept some deportees last week.
“President Trump is not going to allow this illegal alien, who is an MS-13 gang member, human trafficker, serial domestic abuser, and child predator to terrorize American citizens any longer,” Noem said.
Sandoval-Moshenberg said Abrego Garcia filed a new lawsuit Monday challenging his confinement and deportation to any country “unless and until he had a fair trial in an immigration court.” In a legal filing over the weekend, Abrego Garcia’s lawyers said he was offered a plea deal that included deportation to Costa Rica. His attorneys said they then received a notice of his possible deportation to Uganda. Sandoval-Moshenberg clarified Monday that Abrego Garcia had stated that he was willing to accept refugee status in Costa Rica.
“The fact that they’re holding Costa Rica as a carrot and using Uganda as a stick to try to coerce him to plead guilty to a crime is such clear evidence that they’re weaponizing the immigration system in a manner that is completely unconstitutional,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said Monday.
Sandoval-Moshenberg said an ICE officer did not answer when asked about the reason for Abrego Garcia’s detention and would not say which detention center he would be taken to, or commit to providing paperwork.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat who traveled to El Salvador to advocate for the return of Abrego Garcia earlier this year, met with him Sunday. Van Hollen said in a statement that he was glad to “welcome him back to Maryland after what has been a long and torturous nightmare.”
“The federal courts and public outcry forced the Administration to bring Ábrego García back to Maryland, but Trump’s cronies continue to lie about the facts in his case and they are engaged in a malicious abuse of power as they threaten to deport him to Uganda — to block his chance to defend himself against the new charges they brought,” Van Hollen said. “As I told Kilmar and his wife Jennifer, we will stay in this fight for justice and due process because if his rights are denied, the rights of everyone else are put at risk.”
An immigration judge ruled in 2019 that Abrego Garcia may not be deported to El Salvador because he feared persecution by local gangs in the Central American country.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore advocated for due process for Abrego Garcia on Sunday, saying on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that “I just simply want a court and a judge to decide what is going to be the future fate of this case and all cases like this, and not simply the president of the United States or the secretary of homeland security who is trying to be judge, juror, prosecutor and executioner inside this case.”
It’s been nearly two weeks since President Donald Trump declared a crime emergency in the nation’s capital. But while the crime crackdown has yielded somewhat underwhelming results—”nearly 2,000 officers made fewer than 400 arrests,” reportsReason‘s Joe Lancaster—the campaign has been massively successful in galvanizing Trump’s base and providing the president and his Cabinet with ample P.R. opportunities.
The takeover has allowed Trump to flex his muscles, but it’s coming at a steep cost to American taxpayers. The Interceptreports that the use of military forces in Washington, D.C., could cost $1 million per day. With more National Guard members flooding into the capital, the campaign could end up costing hundreds of millions of dollars, according to The Intercept.
But this isn’t the first time that Trump has used—or suggested using—taxpayer money on expensive vanity projects. Here are five other especially wasteful examples.
Joseph Mario Giordano / SOPA Images/Sipa USA/Newscom
In June, Trump hosted a “big, beautiful” military parade to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Army. The event, which happened to coincide with the president’s 79th birthday, included a barrage of tanks, jet flyovers, and soldiers walking through the nation’s capital, and ended up costing American taxpayers $25 million to $45 million. That’s “$277,778–$500,000 per minute,” Reason‘s Billy Binion reported.
Trump has also displayed America’s military power at his Independence Day celebrations, including the 2019 “Salute to America,” which ran up a tab of more than $13 million, and the 2020 events in D.C. and Mount Rushmore that cost close to $15 million. Next year’s Independence Day, which will be America’s 250th birthday, is expected to be even bigger. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) appropriated $150 million to the Interior Department for “events, celebrations, and activities surrounding the observance and commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.”
2. Iced Out ICE Vehicles
Department of Homeland Security
The OBBBA also allocated nearly$30 billion to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for detention facility maintenance, transportation costs, and recruitment efforts at the agency. ICE appears to be sparing no expense.
In addition to offering starting salaries of nearly $90,000 and signing bonuses up to $50,000, ICE has also wasted taxpayer money on marketing gimmicks and vehicle upgrades. Recently, the agency spent “$2.4 million for Chevrolet Tahoes, Ford Expeditions, and other vehicles, as well as custom graphic wraps,” writesReason‘s Autumn Billings. These gold-detailed wraps include the words DEFEND THE HOMELAND, INTEGRITY, COURAGE, and ENDURANCE.
This vehicle spending is on top of the $700,000 that ICE spent on two gold-wrapped trucks, which the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) used in a (cringe)recruitment campaign on X.
Polaris/Newscom
On Tuesday, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced that the entire U.S.-Mexico border wall will be painted black. “That is specifically at the request of the president, who understands that in the hot temperatures down here when something is painted black it gets even warmer and it will make it even harder for people to climb,” said Noem.
During his first stint in the White House, Trump proposed an identical plan. The Washington Postreviewed a copy of federal painting estimates at the time, which showed “costs ranging from $500 million for two coats of acrylic paint to more than $3 billion for a premium ‘powder coating’ on the structure’s 30-foot steel bollards.”
More than five years later, the cost to paint the border wall is sure to be higher.
Avalon/Newscom
In 2018, Trump signed a $3.9 billion agreement with Boeing that would see the airplane manufacturer deliver two new jets to the Air Force One fleet by 2022. The planes are now expected to be delivered by 2027, years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget.
Under the terms of the contract, the cost overruns will be paid for by Boeing. Despite these delays, Trump may soon be flying in a luxury jetliner that was gifted to him by the Qatari government. While the president has called this new Air Force One “free,” renovating the plane will cost Americans millions of dollars. As The New York Timesreports, the Pentagon recently transferred $934 million from a nuclear missile project account to a classified project, which “congressional budget sleuths have come to think…almost certainly” includes the renovation of this new jet.
Andrea Hank/ZUMA Press/Newscom
In January, Trump revivedan executive order that he signed in his first administration to establish a National Garden of American Heroes. The garden, which is expected to open next year on America’s 250th birthday, will include 250 life-sized statues of American heroes.
But the $34 million project has run into a basic, but serious, issue: America doesn’t have enough quality sculptors to complete the garden by next July or a designated location to put it. Daniel Kunitz, editor of Sculpture magazine, toldPolitico that the idea “seems completely unworkable.”
Aug. 22—Dozens of people were taken into custody the weekend of Aug.16-17 in Fairfield following arrests at a nightclub and during traffic stops.
The Butler County Sheriff’s Office issued a statement saying multiple agencies, including BCSO, the Fairfield Police Department, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) arrested 34 at a nightclub on Saturday, and five others during traffic stops.
“All individuals were identified as being in the United States illegally and are currently being held pending further action by federal immigration authorities,” according to a news release from the Sheriff’s Office.
Arrests at Sabor Peruano Night Club, 7245 Dixie Highway, were in response to recent violence in the area and aimed at reducing criminal activity associated with the club, according to Fairfield Police.
In the past two months, Fairfield police investigated two shootings it said were directly linked to Sabor Peruano.
“Investigations revealed that many of the individuals involved were in the country illegally,” according to a media release from the Fairfield Police Department. “As a result, we have been working closely with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers to assist with our investigations.”
Before the operation was executed on Saturday, police officers anticipated encountering people who were in the country illegally and possibly armed. For that reason, the department requested federal law enforcement assistance.
“Despite multiple opportunities to address ongoing concerns, the ownership of Sabor Peruano has not taken sufficient steps to resolve the issues,” according to the Fairfield Police Department. “As such, we will continue to closely monitor the situation and allocate resources as necessary to ensure the safety of our community.”
They were arrested and transported to the Butler County Jail.
“The Fairfield Police Department is committed to maintaining the safety and well-being of our diverse community, and we value the strong relationships we’ve built with our residents and businesses,” according to the police department. “While we support local establishments, we must also ensure that all operations comply with the law and will not tolerate behavior that compromises public safety.”
The Sheriff’s Office also said it will keep detaining people who are in the United States illegally. The Butler County Sheriff’s Office said it will continue to work with ICE and surrounding law enforcement agencies “to aggressively identify, detain, and remove individuals unlawfully present in this country.”
“Many of these individuals have been here for years, living and working outside the law,” Jones said. “Butler County will not be a sanctuary. We will continue to enforce the law, protect our citizens, and hold accountable those who break it.”
Aug. 21—Dozens of people were taken into custody this weekend in Fairfield following arrests at a nightclub and during traffic stops.
The Butler County Sheriff’s Office issued a statement saying multiple agencies, including BCSO, the Fairfield Police Department, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) arrested 34 at a nightclub on Saturday, and five others during traffic stops.
“All individuals were identified as being in the United States illegally and are currently being held pending further action by federal immigration authorities,” according to a news release from the Sheriff’s Office.
Arrests at Sabor Peruano Night Club, 7245 Dixie Highway, were in response to recent violence in the area and aimed at reducing criminal activity associated with the club, according to Fairfield Police.
In the past two months, Fairfield police investigated two shootings it said were directly linked to Sabor Peruano.
“Investigations revealed that many of the individuals involved were in the country illegally,” according to a media release from the Fairfield Police Department. “As a result, we have been working closely with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers to assist with our investigations.”
Before the operation was executed on Saturday, police officers anticipated encountering people who were in the country illegally and possibly armed. For that reason, the department requested federal law enforcement assistance.
“Despite multiple opportunities to address ongoing concerns, the ownership of Sabor Peruano has not taken sufficient steps to resolve the issues,” according to the Fairfield Police Department. “As such, we will continue to closely monitor the situation and allocate resources as necessary to ensure the safety of our community.”
They were arrested and transported to the Butler County Jail.
“The Fairfield Police Department is committed to maintaining the safety and well-being of our diverse community, and we value the strong relationships we’ve built with our residents and businesses,” according to the police department. “While we support local establishments, we must also ensure that all operations comply with the law and will not tolerate behavior that compromises public safety.”
The Sheriff’s Office also said it will keep detaining people who are in the United States illegally. The Butler County Sheriff’s Office said it will continue to work with ICE and surrounding law enforcement agencies “to aggressively identify, detain, and remove individuals unlawfully present in this country.”
“Many of these individuals have been here for years, living and working outside the law,” Jones said. “Butler County will not be a sanctuary. We will continue to enforce the law, protect our citizens, and hold accountable those who break it.”
ICE-branded vehicles parked at the U.S. Capitol on August 13. Photo: Andrew Leyden/Getty Images
ICE is now flush with taxpayer cash thanks to the roughly $75 billion in additional funding the agency received from President Trump and the GOP’s new megabill, making Immigration and Customs Enforcement the most well-funded federal law enforcement agency in the country. Now, it is trying to use that money on some brand-new rides.
Government contracting documents made public this week show the agency proposed paying four companies more than $2.4 million: $2.25 million for 25 Chevrolet Tahoes from Hendrick Motorsports in North Carolina and about $174,000 for custom wrapping of Tahoes, Ford Expeditions and other vehicles by three companies, including two in the Washington region. ICE selected the companies without an open bidding process and was required to submit the documents to justify the lack of a full and open competition.
In the documents pertaining to the three vehicle-wrapping companies, the agency describes the need for the wraps as urgent and “essential for officers to provide support and a law enforcement presence in DC.” The agency also mentions “making the District of Columbia one of the safest cities in the world.”
They also want to buy some Ford Mustang GTs, Raptors, and GMC Yukon AT4s as part of a nearly $700,000 expenditure to support recruiting:
ICE wrote in the documents that the Mustangs were “an immediate request by the White House, on Thursday August 7, 2025.” The Mustangs — which are set to cost $121,450 — will aid in recruitment “by serving as a bold, high-performance symbol of innovation, strength and modern federal service,” the documents say.
DHS and ICE have already literally rolled out a few decal-wrapped ICEmobiles in D.C. and used footage of them on the streets in recruitment marketing on social media. The vehicles are emblazoned with gold ICE logos and the phrase Defend the homeland. The custom detailing also includes the words integrity,courage, and endurance on the rear bumper.
Spending millions on flashy vehicles is also sort of off-brand for ICE, since in its actual operations, the agency has become notorious for hiding its identity. Almost every time you see footage of ICE doing anything these days, it’s guys wearing full face masks and ad hoc tactical uniforms traveling around in unmarked vehicles and refusing to identify themselves.
In this sense, featuring the new ICEmobiles in a recruiting pitch is false advertising if recruits will never actually drive or ride in them. It would be more honest to slap terrifying, anonymous, and unaccountable on the bumpers.
The ICE vehicles’ color scheme and detailing also hold more than a passing resemblance to Trump’s crappy private jet:
Photo: Jane Barlow/PA Images via Getty Images
And speaking of planes, ICE wants to spend way, way more to start its own airline, NBC News reports:
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is pushing for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to use an influx of funds to buy, own and operate its own fleet of airplanes to deport immigrants, two sources familiar with the discussions told NBC News. Former officials said that ICE owning and maintaining its own planes would be costly but could make it easier for the agency to potentially double the number of people it deports each month.
ICE uses charter planes to deport immigrants and has done so for years. The agency has typically chartered eight to 14 planes at a time for deportation flights, according to Jason Houser, who served as ICE chief of staff from 2022 to 2023. He said that allowed the Biden administration to deport roughly 15,000 immigrants per month on charter flights.
Setting up ICE Air would cost billions:
It can cost $80 million to $400 million to buy a commercial airliner, according to aviation experts at the Pilot Institute, a company that trains pilots. Purchasing 30 passenger jets at that price range could cost $2.4 billion to $12 billion, but it’s unclear if ICE could lower the price per plane by buying a large number of them … Charter companies are also responsible for maintaining the planes and making sure they comply with Federal Aviation Administration rules. If Noem creates the first ICE air fleet, the agency would then be responsible for staffing the planes with pilots, medics and security, as well as maintaining them and ensuring they comply with aviation regulations.
It’s not clear whether this would save ICE money in the near or long term. NBC reports that according to one tracker, the agency chartered more than 1,000 charter flights through the end of July, and those flights typically cost about $25,000 per hour. And while the Trump administration would undoubtedly love to deport 30,000 people a month, it’s not at all clear that it will be able to do so, or for how long.
But even if ICE having its own airline ended up being a huge waste of taxpayer money, it’s hard to imagine Trump caring about that. He loves planes and symbolic branding opportunities almost as much as he loves the idea of turning deportation into America’s new pastime. And he’s already moving forward with the ill-advised idea of converting a jumbo jet Qatar didn’t want into the new Air Force One (which could cost $1 billion), while also trying to reopen Alcatraz (a potential waste of $2 billion). Plus, this week, he and Noem started having workers paint the southern border wall black so it would be hotter to the touch (during the day):
A $2 million contract that United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement signed with Israeli commercial spyware vendor Paragon Solutions has been paused and placed under compliance review, WIRED has learned.
The White House’s scrutiny of the contract marks the first test of the Biden administration’s executive order restricting the government’s use of spyware.
The one-year contract between Paragon’s US subsidiary in Chantilly, Virginia, and ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Division 3 was signed on September 27 and first reported by WIRED on October 1. A few days later, on October 8, HSI issued a stop-work order for the award “to review and verify compliance with Executive Order 14093,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson tells WIRED.
The executive order signed by President Joe Biden in March 2023 aims to restrict the US government’s use of commercial spyware technology while promoting its “responsible use” that aligns with the protection of human rights.
DHS did not confirm whether the contract, which says it covers a “fully configured proprietary solution including license, hardware, warranty, maintenance, and training,” includes the deployment of Paragon’s flagship product, Graphite, a powerful spyware tool that reportedly extracts data primarily from cloud backups.
“We immediately engaged the leadership at DHS and worked very collaboratively together to understand exactly what was put in place, what the scope of this contract was, and whether or not it adhered to the procedures and requirements of the executive order,” a senior US administration official with first-hand knowledge of the workings of the executive order tells WIRED. The official requested anonymity to speak candidly about the White House’s review of the ICE contract.
Paragon Solutions did not respond to WIRED’s request to comment on the contract’s review.
The process laid out in the executive order requires a robust review of the due diligence regarding both the vendor and the tool, to see whether any concerns, such as counterintelligence, security, and improper use risks, arise. It also stipulates that an agency may not make operational use of the commercial spyware until at least seven days after providing this information to the White House or until the president’s national security adviser consents.
“Ultimately, there will have to be a determination made by the leadership of the department. The outcome may be—based on the information and the facts that we have—that this particular vendor and tool does not spur a violation of the requirements in the executive order,” the senior official says.
John Fabbricatore enforced federal immigration laws in his position as an ICE field office director until two years ago, and now he hopes to help secure America’s borders as a congressman.
The Republican candidate in Colorado’s 6th Congressional District is drawing on his career with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as he runs against U.S. Rep. Jason Crow in the Nov. 5 election. Crow, a Democrat, just finished his third term in Congress as the representative of the district, which includes Aurora, Littleton, Englewood, Greenwood Village and Centennial.
The odds weigh heavily in Crow’s favor. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report doesn’t consider the fight for the 6th District to be competitive. It’s ranked as solidly Democratic, in part because Crow, 45, won all three of his elections by double-digit percentages and redistricting in 2020 resulted in boundaries more favorable to Democrats.
