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  • Gov. JB Pritzker expecting federal ‘actions’ by weekend as local officials brace for 300 immigration agents

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    Amid growing angst, anxiety and even annoyance over the continued sketchy details surrounding the Trump administration’s threats to deploy forces into Chicago, Gov. JB Pritzker on Wednesday said he expects federal agents to assemble here by the end of the week, and suburban officials have been told to expect about 300 immigration agents to be sent to the area as part of increased operations.

    “They haven’t confirmed any of that to us, but what we’re hearing is that they’ll be assembled, ready to go on Friday, and that they will begin actions on Saturday,” Pritzker said, referring to possible additional immigration enforcement in the Chicago area.

    Pritzker’s latest comments came after President Donald Trump once again said he wanted the two-term governor to ask him to send in the National Guard to help stem crime in Chicago — a move Pritzker has repeatedly vowed he would not do, arguing it’s unnecessary and an authoritarian move to put troops on the streets of the nation’s third-largest city.

    While Trump has said the issue of sending troops to Chicago isn’t political, his campaign team sent out a fundraising email Wednesday stating, “WE’RE GOING INTO CHICAGO” and declaring as “breaking news,” “CHICAGO WILL BE LIBERATED.”

    The email sought donations of as little as $15 to “join the MAGA Blitz and say: LIBERATE CHICAGO – SAVE AMERICA – STAND WITH TRUMP!”

    “The Radical Left Governors and Mayors of crime ridden cities don’t want to stop the radical crime. I wish they’d just give me a call. I’d gain respect for them,” Trump was quoted in the email from his political team. “This isn’t a political thing; We have the right to do it because I HAVE AN OBLIGATION TO KEEP AMERICA SAFE!”

    During his comments in Washington, Trump claimed Chicagoans want him to send the National Guard into the city and that politicians who oppose such a move, including Pritzker, are “out of tune” with their constituents.

    As Trump attempted to lure Pritzker into asking for the president’s help, he did find another governor — Louisiana Republican Gov. Jeff Landry — asking for federal assistance, with Trump pivoting to say he might send Guard troops to New Orleans.

    The move appeared to be aimed at cutting into the criticism from Democratic governors that the White House was only focusing on blue states.

    “We have a great thing going. I could do that with Chicago. We could do that with New York. We could do it with Los Angeles,” Trump said. “So we’re making a determination now, do we go to Chicago, or do we go to a place like New Orleans, where we have a great governor?”

    Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, right, listens during a bilateral meeting between President Donald Trump, left, and Polish President Karol Nawrocki, not pictured, in the Oval Office at the White House on Sept. 3, 2025, in Washington. (Alex Wong/Getty)

    Pritzker, a 2028 presidential aspirant, maintained on Wednesday that he thought the Trump administration was staging the Texas National Guard for deployment in Illinois, even after a report from the Houston Chronicle on Tuesday said Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s office had denied that claim.

    “I’m not suggesting that I am absolutely certain of whether or not the Texas National Guard will, in fact, end up in the state of Illinois. What I know is that we’ve been told by people who seem to have the credentials to know,” Pritzker said Wednesday at the Metropolitan Peace Academy on the Lower West Side.

    The governor also reiterated that the state “cannot stand in the way” of federal law enforcement.

    “It’s not like we’re going to have armed men standing in between,” he said, but rather, the state could combat potential illegal actions in court.

    As the politicians spoke with reporters, local law enforcement near the Naval Station Great Lakes in North Chicago, which is expected to act as the nerve center for the federal effort, met with federal authorities who on Wednesday morning briefed them on the roughly 300 agents’ arrival and the potential for the National Guard’s deployment, according to Gregory Jackson, chief of staff for North Chicago Mayor Leon Rockingham Jr. The city’s police chief, Laz Perez, was among those in attendance, Jackson said.

    As a result, Rockingham and Waukegan Mayor Sam Cunningham said they are taking steps to ensure the safety of people in their communities, where there is fear of family separation in mixed families where some members are documented and others are not.

    “I don’t believe that a time has come in our country where the National Guard and ICE are coming into our community to basically scare the Latino population,” Rockingham said. “I didn’t think our country would ever get to that point.”

    The officers will stay in hotels in Waukegan, Gurnee and possibly other area communities. National Guard troops will be used as they were in Los Angeles to protect federal buildings, Jackson said.

    Federal buildings in the area include the Navy base, the James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center and an FBI firing range in North Chicago, as well as a U.S. Social Security Office in Waukegan.

    Along with representatives of law enforcement from neighboring communities, Jackson said U.S. Navy personnel and naval police were at the briefing, as well as representatives of ICE, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

    The main gate of Naval Station Great Lakes before sunset on Sept 2, 2025. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
    The main gate of Naval Station Great Lakes before sunset on Sept 2, 2025. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

    With the naval base in North Chicago becoming a focal point of the federal effort, Illinois U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, both Democrats, said they had requested a meeting with the secretary of the Navy about “Trump’s plan to use Naval Station Great Lakes to house ICE officers.”

    Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, also demanded the committee’s chair schedule a hearing on “Trump’s threats to deploy the military to Chicago and other American cities,” according to his office.

    Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Fox News on Wednesday that he thought a federal judge’s ruling this week that found the deployment of the National Guard to Los Angeles to be unconstitutional would be overturned.

    In June, Trump sent more than 2,000 Guard members to California following protests over stepped-up immigration enforcement actions. But a federal judge in California on Tuesday issued an injunction that prohibits the Trump administration from using federalized National Guard troops and military personnel in that state for law enforcement activities.

    Hegseth touted the cooperation the Trump administration has received from Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser as “the right kind of collaboration with state, local, city law enforcement” and called it a “template” for other cities.

    But the District of Columbia is not a state. Rather, it is a federal district where Trump has greater latitude than he does in dealing with state governors and state sovereignty.

    Hegseth declined to provide a timeline for potential Guard intervention in Chicago, saying that the decision lies with the president.

    “Whether it’s Chicago or Baltimore or New Orleans, wherever it is, we will be proud to partner with law enforcement that will partner with us. But, as the president has said, he wants governors to invite us in. And, unfortunately, you have got some governors that aren’t willing to do that in Illinois and Maryland,” Hegseth said.

    Gov. JB Pritzker speaks with reporters after leaving a meeting with community violence intervention leaders Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025, at Metropolitan Peace Academy in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)
    Gov. JB Pritzker talks with reporters after leaving a meeting with community violence intervention leaders Sept. 3, 2025, at Metropolitan Peace Academy in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)

    Pritzker on Wednesday said he thought the president might be floating actions in the more Trump-friendly state of Louisiana in response to Tuesday’s court ruling.

    The governor also suggested the administration was pushing for him to call the president in order to help in possible future litigation.

    “He’s going to end up in court,” Pritzker said, “and that will be a fact that they will use in court, that the governor called to ask for help, and I’m sorry, I’m not going to provide him with evidence to support his desire to have the court rule in his favor.”

    Steve Sadin is a freelance reporter.

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    Olivia Olander, Steve Sadin, Rick Pearson

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  • Detroit father of 5 released from ICE detention after federal court order

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    Steve Neavling

    The Patrick V. McNamara Federal Building in downtown Detroit, where immigration hearings take place.

    A longtime Detroit resident and father of five U.S. citizen children was released from immigration detention on Wednesday after a federal judge ruled that the Trump administration unlawfully denied him due process.

    Juan Manuel Lopez-Campos, who has lived in the U.S. for 26 years and has no criminal record, was arrested during a traffic stop in June and held for more than two months without a chance to seek bond.

    The ACLU of Michigan took up his case and sued on his behalf. In response to the suit, U.S. District Judge Brandy R. McMillion ruled that the Trump administration’s new directive to deny bond hearings is “not only wrong but also fundamentally unfair.”

    Lopez-Campos walked free Wednesday.

    “I am happy to finally be with my family with the help of my legal team,” Lopez-Campos said in a statement. “I hope to continue to fight my case.”

    The Trump administration’s directive in July attempted to reverse decades of policy by eliminating access to bond hearings for immigrants facing civil detention. If left in place, the directive would have subjected immigrants to mandatory detention without judicial review, a process that can take months or even years, legal experts said.

    “There are hundreds, if not thousands, of others still being wrongly denied what Juan just experienced: the opportunity to fight your immigration case from home,” Ramis J. Wadood, staff attorney for the ACLU of Michigan, said. “Because of that, we will not rest until every affected individual is allowed to exercise the same right to due process and has a chance to come home to their families.”

    Lopez-Campos’s attorney, Shahad Atiya, who worked with the ACLU on the case, said the government had “no legitimate reason” to keep him locked up.”

    “The cruelty was the point, but we’re glad that justice prevailed,” Atiya said.

    Lopez-Campos was one of more than 1,400 immigrants who were arrested by federal agents since President Donald Trump took office in January. Most of them had no criminal convictions.

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    Steve Neavling

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  • Gov. JB Pritzker braces Chicagoans for federal incursion as Trump says ‘we’re going in’ but won’t say when

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    In the face of continued and confusing threats that Chicago would be subjected to a federal incursion over immigration and crime, Gov. JB Pritzker on Tuesday sought to brace Chicagoans for a spike in raids from federal authorities and even potentially the National Guard in coming days.

    “Let’s be clear, the terror and cruelty is the point, not the safety of anyone living here,” Pritzker said at a downtown news conference, standing alongside Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle and other state leaders.

    While Trump remained ambiguous — even in his most recent comments Tuesday — about a timeline or the details of a federal crackdown in Illinois, Pritzker made it clear his administration thinks Trump plans to deploy armed military personnel to Chicago’s streets and direct immigration enforcement agents to “raid Latino communities” in the coming weeks.

    The deployments would look similar to recent actions the Trump administration took in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., Pritzker said, citing conversations with unnamed sources and journalists, though he acknowledged the administration’s plans are blanketed in rumors and speculation, and the governor blamed Washington for a lack of coordination.

    The governor’s announcement in Chicago came just hours after Trump told reporters in Washington that it was a matter of when — not if — he would send members of the National Guard into Chicago over the city’s crime problem.

    “Well, we’re going in. I didn’t say when we’re going in,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “Look, I have an obligation. This isn’t a political thing. I have an obligation when we lose, when 20 people are killed over the last two and a half weeks, and 75 are shot with bullets.”

    But Pritzker countered that the move was not only political but authoritarian, adding that he specifically has “reason to believe that the Trump administration has already begun staging the Texas National Guard for deployment in Illinois.” The Texas Military Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Pritzker’s remarks, but in a published report in the Houston Chronicle Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s office disputed the claim.

    How Trump’s moves would actually occur, however, remained unclear. Earlier Tuesday, a federal judge in California issued an injunction that prohibits the Trump administration from using federalized National Guard troops and military personnel in that state for law enforcement activities. The judge said the Trump administration “willfully” broke federal law by sending Guard troops to the Los Angeles area in early June after days of protests over immigration raids. Trump dismissed the ruling as a decision from a “radically left judge.”

    Pritzker said the state has heard from representatives within the Trump administration that it planned to soon send agents from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to assist ICE agents in Chicago. Already, the administration is “staging military vehicles on federal property,” including at the Naval Station Great Lakes in North Chicago, Pritzker said.

    Federal officials are preparing for raids, Pritzker said, potentially timed to coincide with planned celebrations for Mexican Independence Day this month — though he later added he was not suggesting people change their plans in anticipation of potential immigration enforcement actions.

    Gov. JB Pritzker, center, invites Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to talk about the planned deployment of federal military and Department of Homeland Security personnel to Chicago during a news conference on Sept. 2, 2025. Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton is at right. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)

    The governor said Trump would be looking for “any excuse” to send active duty military to Chicago.

    “If someone flings a sandwich at an ICE agent, Trump will try to go on TV and declare an emergency in Chicago,” Pritzker said, apparently referring to a widely shared incident in Washington in which a person threw a sandwich at a federal officer. “I’m imploring everyone, if and when that happens, do not take the bait.”

    The governor said he expected the amplified federal presence to last around one month.

    The latest intelligence relayed by the governor came after the head of Illinois State Police received a phone call from Trump border official Gregory Bovino over the weekend “indicating that ICE would be deployed to Chicago,” Pritzker told reporters. It is the first outreach the state has received from the Trump administration on the issue, the governor said.

    Bovino spearheaded Trump’s immigration crackdown in Los Angeles and is known for his aggressive tactics and social media videos promoting his agents’ role in deporting thousands of immigrants.

    “Bovino was short on details and long on rhetoric,” Pritzker said Tuesday.

    Pritzker continued to call for Chicagoans to peacefully protest against Trump’s actions, look out for neighbors and know their rights in the face of immigration enforcement. Chicagoans should also “film things that you see happening in your neighborhoods and your streets and share them with the news media,” he said.

    “Our goal is not to scare anyone but to prepare everyone to face some ugly realities in the coming days,” Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton said at the same news conference Tuesday. “Many Illinoisans who look a certain way are going to spend this time living in deep fear.”

    A man runs south on Main Street past the main gate at the Naval Station Great Lakes on Sept 2, 2025, in North Chicago. Gov. JB Pritzker said the administration is "staging military vehicles on federal property," including at the Naval Station Great Lakes in North Chicago. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
    A man runs south on Main Street past the main gate at the Naval Station Great Lakes on Sept 2, 2025, in North Chicago. Gov. JB Pritzker said the administration is “staging military vehicles on federal property,” including at the Naval Station Great Lakes. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

    Before Pritzker’s public comments Tuesday, Trump renewed his criticisms of the Democratic governor and said he’s responsible for crime in Chicago.

    “There’s no place, there’s no place in the world, including you can go to Afghanistan. You can go to places that you would think of, they don’t even come close to this. Chicago is a hellhole right now,” he said.

    The president’s comments came following a Labor Day weekend that saw more than four dozen people shot and eight killed between 10 p.m. Friday and 5 p.m. Monday.

    Even though the spotlight was once again turned on Chicago violence with the threat of Trump sending in the National Guard, CPD records show the 2025 Labor Day weekend’s killing total actually was slightly down compared to other recent years. Records reviewed by the Tribune show that the Labor Day weekend in Chicago has on average in recent years resulted in 11 killings and about 38 other nonfatal shootings.

    The worst recent year came in 2020, when 14 people were killed and 44 were wounded over that holiday period. This year’s figure comes during a continuing trend of better violence numbers in the city since the COVID-19 pandemic. Before the weekend began, Chicago had recorded 266 homicides in 2025, according to the Police Department. That was a 32% decline in killings from the same time period in 2024. Total shooting incidents were also down 36% citywide.

    Trump had previously warned of National Guard intervention in Chicago but had said he would like to be invited by Pritzker — something the two-term Democratic governor said would not happen.

    President Donald Trump spoke about sending National Guard troops to Chicago during a press conference in the Oval Office at the White House on Sept. 2, 2025. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP)
    President Donald Trump talks about sending National Guard troops to Chicago during a news conference in the Oval Office at the White House on Sept. 2, 2025. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP)

    Also during the news conference, Trump contended that a morning TV show interviewed a dozen people urging Guard intervention in Chicago.

    “Most of them were African American. They were Black. And they were saying, ‘Please, please, please, let the president send it.’ These were people from Chicago. ‘Please. We need help. We need help. We can’t walk outside. We’re petrified,’” Trump said.

    “If the governor of Illinois would call up, call me up. I would love to do it now. We’re going to do it anyway. We have the right to do it because I have an obligation to protect this country,” he said.

    Asked about violence in Chicago, Johnson pointed the finger back at Trump for the city’s ongoing gun violence epidemic — including this past holiday weekend because “the president continues to allow tens of thousands of guns to be trafficked into our state and our city.”

    “Every time someone is shot, every time someone loses their life to violence, it’s a tragedy,” Johnson said. “The fact of the matter is, is that we have illegal guns that are being trafficked in our city. That’s the problem, right? We have done everything in our power locally getting guns off the streets of Chicago.”

    The mayor also staunchly rejected the notion Trump would help the situation by sending in troops and instead said local leaders will “take every single measure that we can to protect our people from these threats.”

    Trump, who federalized law enforcement in Washington, D.C., as well as deployed the National Guard, said the nation’s capital “serves as a template, and we’re going to do it elsewhere, but Chicago is certainly going to be high.”

    Gov. JB Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson appear on a television screen in downtown Chicago on Sept. 2, 2025, as they respond after President Donald Trump said he's sending troops to the city. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)
    Gov. JB Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson appear on a television screen in downtown Chicago on Sept. 2, 2025, as they respond after President Donald Trump said he’s sending troops to the city. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)

    But Trump has greater power to federalize resources, such as the Guard, in the District of Columbia, which is not a state. The president’s power is limited elsewhere by state sovereignty.

    “It’s an honor to do it. … A lot of presidents wouldn’t do what I’m doing. I don’t need this heat. But when I watch television last night and I’m watching the news and I see that nine people were killed in Chicago and 54 were badly wounded with bullets. I say, ‘That’s not this country. We have to do something,’” Trump said. “We have a lot of people. We have a great force. We have a great military force.”

    After he spoke to reporters, the White House issued a statement asking, “For J.B. Pritzker, When Will Enough Be Enough?”

    “Pritzker is too blinded by Trump Derangement Syndrome to … act in the best interest of his constituents and end this bloodshed,” the statement said. “The Trump Administration’s message to Chicagoans and residents in Democrat-run cities nationwide is simple: You don’t have to live like this.”

    Chicago Tribune’s Alice Yin, Sam Charles and Dan Petrella contributed.

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    Olivia Olander, Rick Pearson

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  • Did 1.6M immigrants illegally in US ‘voluntarily’ leave?

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    Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem touted the results of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, saying more than 1 million immigrants in the U.S. illegally chose to leave the country.

    “According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, we have 1.6 million illegal aliens that have gone home voluntarily,” Noem told reporters during an Aug. 19 visit to the U.S. southern border. “They have left the United States, returned to their countries at the encouragement of President (Donald) Trump and his policies so that they have an opportunity to come back to America the right way.”

    Noem repeated the statistic at an Aug. 26 cabinet meeting. 

    The Department of Homeland Security told PolitiFact that tens of thousands of immigrants had used a government app to voluntarily leave the country, and that 1.6 million immigrants who were in the country illegally had left the U.S. since Jan. 20, when Trump took office. But it didn’t specify how Noem reached that number.

    The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics did not present this data as Noem described. 

    Sign up for PolitiFact texts

    An Aug. 14 press release announcing that 1.6 million immigrants had left the U.S. showed one possible source for Noem’s data; the press release included a chart from the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank that favors low immigration levels. 

    On Aug. 12, the organization published a report analyzing survey data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Census Current Population Survey.

    “We preliminarily estimate that the number of illegal immigrants has fallen by 1.6 million in just the last six months,” the report said.

    Steven Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies and one of the report’s authors, told PolitiFact the “overwhelming majority” of the 1.6 million would have left on their own. 

    But the number also includes immigrants who, for example, were deported, died, left voluntarily and those whose status changed such as by getting asylum. DHS previously told PolitiFact that it had deported 239,000 people as of June 30.

    The Center for Immigration Studies number is an estimate. And the group’s report pointed to several data limitations, including a lack of official government data and possible reluctance by immigrants to complete a government survey because of Trump’s immigration crackdown.

    “There is always some uncertainty in research of this kind, which we point out in our report,” Camarota told PolitiFact, adding that he would refer to the number as an estimate “based on the best data available.” 

    The U.S. Census Bureau has cautioned against using the Current Population Survey to estimate the number of foreign-born people in the country. It said the Current Population Survey’s sample size of 60,000 households makes it less reliable than data from the bureau’s  American Community Survey, which has a sample size of 3.5 million households. 

    Using the Current Population Survey, the Pew Research Center estimated that the U.S. foreign born population had dropped by 1.4 million people from January to June. However, it did not specify how many of those people were in the U.S. illegally and it also noted that part of the drop could be attributed to decreased survey responses.    

    Other researchers who study immigrant populations also said the Current Population Survey points to a drop in the number of people in the U.S. illegally. However, they said it’s too soon to know by how much.

    Surveys used to estimate the number of immigrants illegally in the U.S. have limitations

    The Department of Homeland Security and several research groups typically publish annual estimates of how many immigrants are in the U.S. illegally. Every group has its own methodology, but collectively, the groups rely on Census Bureau data. 

    Researchers generally rely on the bureau’s more robust American Community Survey. That’s because the Current Population Survey’s sample size has a large margin of error, said Robert Warren, a demographer and senior visiting fellow at the Center for Migration Studies of New York, one of the groups that estimates the immigrant population.

    In July 2025 the Current Population Survey reported an adult foreign born population of 48.5 million people with a margin of error of plus or minus 830,000 people, Jed Kolko, an economist who served as under secretary of commerce for economic affairs during the Biden Administration, told PolitiFact. By comparison, the 2023 American Community Survey reported an adult foreign born population of 45.5 million with a margin of error of plus or minus 162,000.

    The Current Population Survey is published monthly compared with the American Community Survey, which is published once a year and its data is from the year prior. The American Community Survey’s time lag makes it useless in measuring the most recent, month-by-month changes in the nation’s foreign born population, Warren said.

    Group questions whether respondents were reluctant survey participants

    The Center for Immigration Studies’ report acknowledged that immigrants in the U.S. illegally might be more reluctant to complete the government’s Current Population Survey or identify themselves as foreign-born. The Trump administration has given immigration officials access to other federal data to help identify and potentially deport people.

    “If (fewer people are responding), then our estimate of illegal immigrants based on the survey may be overstating the decline in their actual numbers,” the Center for Immigration Studies report said.

    Camarota, the report’s co-author, has since questioned the report’s suggestion that immigrants may have been reluctant to participate, calling it nothing more than a possibility: “There is as yet no evidence of this,” Camarota wrote in an Aug. 20 blog post.

    The group’s report also acknowledged that administrative data needed to estimate the unauthorized immigrant population is unavailable, further increasing the “uncertainty of our estimate.”

    To estimate the number of immigrants in the U.S. illegally, Camarota told PolitiFact, he first needs to estimate the number of people in the country legally. DHS and State Department data on people who have legally entered the country hasn’t been updated since May 2025, he said. 

    What we know about the current unauthorized population in the U.S. 

    Multiple immigration experts said they believe the Current Population Survey data points to signs of a decrease, but it’s not conclusive enough to say how much with certainty.

    For example, the Pew Research Center’s estimate that the foreign born population had dropped by 1.4 million people didn’t include how many of those people were in the U.S. illegally. The center’s estimates of the unauthorized population rely on the 2023 American Community Survey.

    The Current Population Survey “may offer an early sign that immigrants, unauthorized and legal alike, are leaving the country in some number, though not to the extent suggested by DHS or others,” Michelle Mittelstadt, communications director for the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank that also estimates the number of unauthorized people in the U.S., said. 

    “We think more likely at this point that lower survey response rates among immigrants and the small sample size of the survey are driving much of the estimated change,” Mittelstadt said, adding that a drop of 1.6 million people “would be far outside trends the U.S. has seen before, even during economic recessions and prior periods of high immigration enforcement.”

    Warren said the Current Population Survey “provides strong evidence of a decline.”

    Even though the 1.6 million figure in six months would be “unprecedented,” he said there have been drops in the foreign population. From 2016 to 2019, an average of 1.3 million people left the foreign-born population each year, according to Warren’s analyses of the American Community Survey. 

    Mark Hugo Lopez, director of race and ethnicity at Pew Research Center, said the drop in the unauthorized immigrant population is in part because of a decrease in the number of people illegally entering the U.S. and the administration’s stepped up enforcement. That could include people who voluntarily left the country.

    “More data is needed though to assess this. As it becomes available, we’ll know more,” he said.

    Our ruling

    Noem said, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics statistics show, “We have 1.6 million illegal aliens that have gone home voluntarily.”

    The number Noem presented as a statement of fact appears to be based on an estimate from an immigration think tank’s analysis of data from a Bureau of Labor Statistics and U.S. Census survey. It has a small sample size and large margin of error. 

    The figure represents not only people who might have voluntarily left the U.S., but also people who were deported, died or whose status changed such as by receiving asylum.

    Other researchers said the preliminary government data shows there has likely been a decrease in the unauthorized immigrant population but it’s too soon to know how large it is. One research group estimated that the foreign born population had dropped by 1.4 million people between January and June. However, it didn’t estimate how many of those people were in the U.S. illegally. 

    That group and other immigrant population researchers added that immigrant participation in the government survey might have declined, which could inflate the drop.

    The statement is partially accurate but leaves out important details or takes things out of context. We rate it Half True. ​

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  • ICE arrested more than 1,400 undocumented immigrants in Michigan under Trump, and most had no criminal convictions

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    Steve Neavling

    Protesters rally outside the U.S. District Court in Detroit after an undocumented immigrant was arrested.

    Since President Donald Trump took office in January, federal agents arrested 1,432 undocumented immigrants in Michigan as of the end of July, and most had no criminal convictions, according to data from the Deportation Data Project.

    The total is nearly triple the 523 arrests recorded during the same period in 2024, when Joe Biden was president, according to a Metro Times review of the data.

    Despite Trump’s claims that his administration is targeting criminals, only 420 – or 29% – of those arrested by his administration in Michigan have been convicted of a crime. Another 31% had “pending criminal charges,” and most notably, about 40% had never been convicted of a crime.

    Among those arrested were 11 children, including a girl no older than four. The oldest person was in his 80s.

    That hasn’t stopped the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from claiming that agents are arresting the “worst of the worst.”

    Arrests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Michigan have surged under President Donald Trump. - Steve Neavling

    Steve Neavling

    Arrests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Michigan have surged under President Donald Trump.

    During the same time period last year, about half of the people arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Michigan had at least one criminal conviction and 24% had “pending criminal charges.” About 26% had no criminal record.

    Those figures show that under Trump, ICE is arresting undocumented immigrants without criminal records at a much higher rate than it did under Biden.

    Nationwide, the number of immigrants arrested by ICE with no criminal history surged from about 860 to 7,800 in June, an increase of more than 800%, according to Reuters.

    In Michigan, a vast majority of those arrested were men. Only 86 were women.

    The immigrants held citizenship in dozens of countries, from China and India to Haiti and Russia. But most were from Central and South America. Mexicans made up 37% of those arrested, followed by 17% from Venezuela, and 8% from Honduras.

    Of those arrested under Trump, 864 have been deported.

    Fears of mass deportations have shaken immigrant communities in Michigan, especially southwest Detroit, where families are keeping children from school and limiting time outside.

    In April, U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, joined the ACLU of Michigan and the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center (MIRC) to call out federal agents for arresting immigrants who took a wrong turn near the Ambassador Bridge in Southwest Detroit.

    Tensions rose on June 30 when ICE agents, backed by Detroit police, swept into the Joy Road-Livernois neighborhood to detain Marcos Fabian Arita Bautista, a Honduran man. Protests erupted, and a man attempted to block ICE agents with his car. Two people were arrested, and Detroit cops used pepper spray on protesters.

    Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, who is running for governor as an independent and is trying to appeal to Trump supporters, called undocumented immigrants “illegal” in January while speaking to business leaders. When called out by pro-immigration groups, Duggan dismissed the criticism as “political correctness.”

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  • Hateful robber on Manhattan subway train threatens to call ICE on victim, then beats him: cops | amNewYork

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    A NYPD police officer on the New York Subway.

    Photo by Dean Moses

    Upper Manhattan detectives are looking for a hateful robber who assaulted a man on a subway train on Sunday morning after threatening to call ICE on him.

    According to police sources, the disturbing incident unfolded at around 03:39 a.m. on Aug. 31 aboard a northbound 1 train as it pulled into the 86th Street station on the Upper West Side.

    Cops say a man approached a 23-year-old Hispanic straphanger and started a verbal dispute.

    Sources with knowledge of the incident reported that the suspect threatened the victim, telling him, “You don’t belong in this country,” before adding, “I’m going to call ICE on you.”

    Cops say things escalated when the perpetrator launched an attack, punching the commuter some six times about the head. During the assault, he grabbed the victim’s duffel bag and threw it before snatching his iPhone and fleeing.

    While the victim was not able to recover his cellphone, he was able to retrieve his bag, police said. He refused medical treatment.

    A description of the suspect was not immediately available. No arrests have been made, and the investigation remains ongoing.

    Anyone with information regarding these incidents can call Crime Stoppers at 800-577-TIPS (for Spanish, dial 888-57-PISTA). You can also submit tips online at crimestoppers.nypdonline.org, or on X (formerly Twitter) @NYPDTips. All calls and messages are kept confidential.

    This comes amid escalating tensions over President Donald Trump’s weeping immigration agenda that has many in the immigrant community fearful of ICE, as well as families detained by federal agents as they attended routine immigration hearings.

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    Dean Moses

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  • FBI Doubles Reward in Glass House Farms Raid Shooting Case

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    A $100,000 reward is being offered for information on the unknown man who allegedly pointed an apparent weapon during an ICE raid on a marijuana facility

    Credit: FBI

    Last month’s immigration raids at the Glass House Farms cannabis facility were pure chaos. Agents swarmed the grow fields as workers scattered – including one who fell to his death from a rooftop while running from capture. A violent clash between protestors and federal agents at two Glass House Farms locations in Ventura County rapidly deteriorated into violence. In the middle of it all, someone – the FBI says – whipped out a weapon.

    Now the FBI has doubled the reward offered for information on the unidentified purported gunman from $50,000 to $100,000. Initially, federal officials said shots were fired by the man, saying on social media: “brave agents faced gun fire as they executed on criminal search warrants at a marijuana facility.”

    But now it seems to be unclear if any bullets were fired, with the FBI saying Friday that the protester “appeared to point a firearm and possibly fired a pistol at federal law enforcement officers on July 10, 2025, in Camarillo at approximately 2:26 pm. At the time of the alleged assault, the unknown male is believed to have been participating in a protest.”

    When it was over, officials had arrested 200 migrants and said they had “rescued” ten minors who were working for Glass House Farms.

    Ten juveniles were among the workers federal agents took into custody in two sweeps at Glass House Farms in Ventura County last month.
    Credit: Department of Justice

    The worker who died while attempting to elude capture, Jaime Alanis, suffered a head injury in a fall that led to his death, family members said in a GoFundMe post. “My uncle Jaime was just a hard-working, innocent farmer. He has his wife and daughter waiting for him. He was chased by ICE agents, and we were told he fell 30ft,” the worker’s niece Yesenia Duran wrote on the page, which is seeking funds to send his body back to Mexico. “He was his family’s provider. They took one of our family members We need justice. We are still investigating what happened.”

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    Michele McPhee

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  • San Bernardino man arrested after he protested immigration officer shooting at his truck

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    Francisco Longoria, a San Bernardino man who was driving his truck when a masked U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer shot at it, has been arrested and charged by federal authorities. They allege he assaulted immigration officers during the incident.

    In a statement, Longoria’s attorneys said Homeland Security Investigations agents arrived at the Longoria household at 4:18 a.m. Thursday, with an armored personnel carrier, a type of military vehicle, and deployed more than a dozen “fully armed and armored” agents to swarm the home, breaking the locks on his gate. An agent called out to Longoria to come out, using a bullhorn, as agents stood at each door and pointed their rifles at the door and at the occupants inside, the attorneys said.

    “These are the type of tactics reserved for dangerous criminals such as violent gang members, drug lords, and terrorists,” the attorneys said. “It was clearly intended to intimidate and punish Mr. Longoria and his family for daring to speak out about their attempted murder by ICE and CBP agents on August 16th.”

    On that day, federal immigration officers stopped Longoria in San Bernardino. During the encounter, Longoria, who was in his truck with his 18-year-old son and 23-year-old son-in-law, feared for his safety and drove off after masked officers shattered his car window, his attorneys said.

    Department of Homeland Security officials have said officers were injured during the encounter when Longoria tried to “run them down.” Longoria’s attorneys dispute their client injured the officers or attempted to hit them, and earlier this week they called for an investigation of the shooting.

    On Friday morning, the U.S. attorney’s office confirmed that Homeland Security Investigations agents arrested Longoria the day before. Word of his arrest was earlier reported by the San Bernardino Sun.

    Ciaran McEvoy, spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles, said Longoria made an initial appearance before a U.S. District Court judge in Riverside, and is set to be arraigned on Sept. 30. The federal magistrate judge ordered him released on a $5,000 bond.

    Longoria was being held at the San Bernardino County jail, in custody of the U.S. Marshals Service, as of Thursday afternoon, McEvoy said in an email.

    “Since Longoria is an illegal alien, ICE has a detainer on him,” he said. Longoria’s attorneys said their client was transferred into Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody as of Friday.

    An unnamed Department of Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed federal agents arrested Longoria at his home.

    “CBP and ICE remain committed to enforcing the law, protecting officers, and keeping dangerous criminals off America’s streets — even as local officials in California undermine those efforts,” the official said.

    According to a criminal complaint submitted by a Homeland Security Investigations agent, whose name is redacted, Longoria is facing a charge of assault on a federal officer with a deadly/dangerous weapon.

    In the complaint, the agent, who interviewed the officers who stopped Longoria, said the officers had stopped Longoria’s GMC pickup truck to conduct “an immigration check.” Two of them were ICE officers and the other two were CBP officers.

    The complaint states that the officers were identifiable by their visible clothing marked with “police.”

    After they stopped Longoria’s truck, the complaint states, he refused to comply with the demands to turn off his vehicle and roll down the window. One of the CBP officers, identified as J.C., decided to break the window after Longoria refused the commands, and was allegedly struck by the driver’s door on his left elbow and left calf. The passenger side window was also shattered by agents during the encounter.

    Another CBP officer was allegedly struck by the front bumper/fender of the truck on his right leg. “The Truck kept pushing Officer S.T., and Officer S.T. shot at the Truck, afraid for his life,” according to the complaint.

    Longoria’s attorneys had previously released surveillance video of the incident, which appears to dispute a key claim by Homeland Security — that Longoria drove his truck toward officers and injured them.

    In the surveillance video, the moment Longoria drives away, officers on both sides of the truck remain in sight of the video, and they then pile into their vehicles and pursue Longoria’s truck down a side street.

    After Longoria drove off, the family called 911. While San Bernardino police were questioning Longoria, the immigration officers arrived, and family members identified the one they believed had shot at the truck.

    At the initial court appearance, the judge questioned the assistant U.S. attorney prosecuting the case, Cory Burleson, about the government’s claim that it was conducting an “immigration check,” a term he couldn’t clarify when asked by the court, according to Longoria’s attorneys. Burleson also claimed Longoria was stopped due to a traffic violation, but couldn’t identify the violation, his attorneys said. When the judge asked Burleson to identify the alleged injuries of the officers, Burleson said he was “not aware of any injuries,” Longoria’s attorneys said.

    Longoria’s attorneys said their client was granted bond, but because of the ICE hold, has since been transferred into ICE custody, which they believe is the “true purpose of this false and baseless charge.”

    “No reasonable prosecutor could believe that a conviction would be secured against Mr. Longoria for the August 16th stop, when every video supports Mr. Longoria’s version of events and directly contradicts DHS’ story,” his attorneys said. “Yet [the Department of Justice] will not drop the charges; it has been their practice during this Administration to pursue charges based on unsubstantiated and false affidavits in order to arrest individuals and then turn them over to ICE.”

    His attorneys said they intend to continue advocating for Longoria, his son and son-in-law.

    “We are in contact with local and State authorities and are encouraging a state investigation and criminal charges against the ICE/CBP agents,” the attorneys said.

    This article is part of The Times’ equity reporting initiative, funded by the James Irvine Foundation, exploring the challenges facing low-income workers and the efforts being made to address California’s economic divide.

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    Melissa Gomez

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  • ICE in court: Temporary order blocking mass detainment at 26 Federal Plaza extended amid uncertainty | amNewYork

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    A man is led away to the 10th floor by ICE.

    Photo by Dean Moses

    A judge’s temporary restraining order preventing a large number of immigrants from being held in ICE detention on the 10th floor of 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan has been extended, but advocates and elected officials fear what will happen when the ruling finally expires.

    The immigration court at Fedearl Plaza continues to play host to a steady stream of emotional ICE arrests, including family separations that leave children weeping. The number of arrests appears to have slowed over the last several weeks since a federal judge ordered that conditions in the facility be improved, as well as reduce the number of people held there. 

    The order was due to sunset on Aug. 26, but has since been extended through Tuesday, Sept. 9. The arrests went on Wednesday, Aug. 27, as amNewYork observed two apprehensions in immigration court on the 12th floor.

    In one incident, an ICE agent confiscated a woman’s paperwork as she left a courtroom in order to prevent her from leaving the building. She said she just needed to use the bathroom; however, she snatched the paperback and returned to court.

    “I guess she changed her mind,” the agent said.

    In another incident, a man leaving his hearing later that afternoon was ambushed by several masked men and pulled away into a stairwell. 

    A man is taken by ICE at court.Photo by Dean Moses
    A woman is led away by ICE. Photo by Dean Moses

    City Comptroller Brad Lander, who has made visits to immigration court almost on a weekly basis, says that it appears that the Department of Homeland Security is abiding by the judge’s order while also stating that even one detainment is too many.

    “The numbers have been more like three or four in recent days — three or four too many, but thankfully down from the numbers that we were seeing earlier,” Lander said. “We were worried before today that the temporary restraining order was not going to be extended. So, it’s extended until Sept. 9, that is a good thing.”

    With the order expiring next month, some say they are concerned about the wide-ranging effects on the immigrant community. In an interview with amNewYork, Co-Director of Health Justice New York Lawyers for the Public Interest Karina Albistegui Adler said the medical well-being of detainees in custody is one of her biggest concerns.

    She claims people in ICE detention are not receiving urgent medical care.

    ”We’ve seen cases where people are detained who have very serious conditions, like a history of a recent open-heart surgery, and long-term care for HIV that they’ve been receiving. They’re detained at their court hearing without those medications,” Adler said. “Because they are being moved around, family members don’t know where they are, don’t know how to advocate for them to get their medication. Sometimes they themselves don’t know that they have the right to continue to receive care.”

    The 10th floor of 26 Federal Plaza was widely criticized for its cramped and unhygienic conditions, which led to several filings seeking to prevent overcrowding. Yet while the in-court detentions have slightly slowed, Adler railed that anyone detained is not given medical attention once they are taken.

    “That exacerbates their health just being detained. There’s no way to be healthy when you’re in immigration custody, frankly. And what we’re seeing with not just in the past three months with 26 Federal Plaza, but really, since January, is an overall increase in the need for health care advocacy,” Adler said.

    An ICE agent stands in front of an American flag in 26 Federal Plaza.Photo by Dean Moses

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    Dean Moses

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  • ICE will ‘ramp up’ immigration raids in Los Angeles, other ‘sanctuary cities,’ border advisor says

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    President Donald Trump’s border czar told reporters Thursday that federal authorities planned to increase immigration raids in Los Angeles and other so-called “sanctuary cities,” with Chicago likely the next target.

    “You’re going to see a ramp up of operations in New York; you’re going to see a ramp up of operations continue in L.A., Portland, Seattle, all these sanctuary cities that refuse to work with ICE,” Tom Homan said.

    Since June, Southern California has been ground zero of thousands of immigration arrests as well as legal battles over whether the raids violate the U.S. Constitution.

    There is no agreed-upon definition for sanctuary policies or sanctuary cities, but the terms generally describe limited cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

    Homan did not elaborate on specifics about new raids in L.A.

    But talking to reporters Thursday morning, he said Immigration and Customs Enforcement is considering using a naval base north of Chicago as its hub when potential enforcement raids take place in that city.

    Tom Homan said, “there’s discussions about that, yes,” when asked by reporters outside the White House.

    He didn’t provide an exact timeline for the use.

    “The planning is still being discussed,” he said. “So, maybe by the end of today.”

    Earlier this week, Trump said Chicago would likely be the next city in which he’ll direct a crack down on crime and, in particular, illegal immigration.

    He recently sent 2,000 National Guard troops to Washington D.C. after having dispatched soldiers, ICE and border patrol agents to Los Angeles since early June. The Department of Homeland Security said that as of Aug. 8 ICE and Border Patrol agents had arrested 2,792 illegal aliens in the Los Angeles area.

    “I think Chicago will be… next,” Trump told reporters at the White House last Friday.

    He also called the City of Broad Shoulders a “mess” and that its residents were “screaming for us to come.” Three days after Trump railed about crime in Chicago, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson released a statement, saying overall crime in the city had dropped by 21.6%, year to date, with homicides falling by 32.3%.

    Homan would not commit to how many soldiers and agents would be used in any immigration enforcement.

    “We’re not going to tell you how many resources we’re going to send to the city,” he said. “We don’t want the bad guys to know what we’re sending.”

    He added, “It will be a large contingent.”

    Since a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting federal agents from targeting people solely based on their race, language, vocation or location, the number of arrests in Southern California declined in July.

    But raids are continuing, with Home Depot stores becoming a common target in recent weeks.

    On Aug. 1, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied a Trump administration request to lift the restraining order prohibiting roving raids.

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    Andrew J. Campa

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  • Rep. Doris Matsui says ICE told her people have been held overnight at Sacramento facility

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    Rep. Doris Matsui says ICE told her people have been held overnight at Sacramento facility

    “This is not a detention facility. They are holding people longer than they should,” Matsui said.

    So Hi everyone. I’m back again. I was here on Friday. Today is what? Thursday? Yes, it’s Thursday, and I appreciate all of you being here. Now I’m back here with *** couple of folks that you all know who are really warriors with me and what’s going on here. They have been involved in issues of civil liberties and civil rights and immigrant rights for *** very long time. I have to say today we were once again denied entry. But I would say this. You know they did deny us entry after I stated who I was that I had *** constitutional mandate to inspect the facilities. That They did not have adequate answers as to why I should be detained other than I have to work with my congressional relations person, which is ridiculous because I have *** constitution right to come here at any time. So what happened here is that. Even though we were denied. We probably got more information than we ever had. And because After we went from one room to another to try to get More answers, *** supervisor, we went back again. And We asked questions. I ask questions about if we’re not, we’re denied entry. Answer *** few questions, right? Because how many people are being held here now? What type of facility is it since we can’t see it, how large is it? Are they denied um. Food or do they get food, water. And are they here overnight? Now we found some interesting things because We did find out, I asked, who is now, how many people are now here? They said 5, and I said how many people? We’re here overnight. And they said 2. And they just put him on *** plane to Seattle. This is not an overnight facility at all. You’re only supposed to be here at the most. 12 hours. And then the interesting question is, OK, if they are overnight. How did they sleep? We asked if there are beds. They said there are some accommodations, so as my colleagues and I said, that means that there’s no beds. And so we here really believe that. Yes. This is not *** place. And they were even saying that this is not *** detention facility, but in fact they are holding people here longer than they should. And so for all of us here. We know that this cannot keep going on, and I emphasize, as I did over and over again. This facility, the John Moss Federal Building, is not *** facility to hold anybody, to process people, yes, but not to hold. It is an office building. It is an office building. And also, as I stipulate over and over again. The Constitution that guides us, the Constitution. Constitution mandates that as *** member of Congress, I am entitled. Entitled to conduct. Federal oversight. Over any facilities. So right now, it was pretty clear to all of us. That they don’t want us to see the facility. And they would be sort of add more to this conversation here too because I believe that we got more information than we ever did. Even though we didn’t get entrance to see the facility itself, they had to answer some questions, and they felt, I know, very uneasy about it, but we got enough answers to where we know we’re on the right track, and as I said to them again, we will be back. And we’ll make sure that um we are more even more prepared than ever before because now we have *** real system of how we’re gonna go about this. So anyway, I really want to bring up *** couple of my uh compadres here. Who are really on the front lines also and so I wanna bring first of all Phil Serta um board of supervisors, Sacramento County who’s been *** stalwart for immigrant rights and civil rights and everything that’s important for all of us in Sacramento. Yes, Bill. Great. Thank you and good morning. First, I would like to start by thanking Congresswoman Doris Matsui for the invitation to join her here this morning to what we had hoped inspect, rightfully inspect the facilities in back of us to ensure that our common constituents, immigrants, important parts of our community fabric. are being treated fairly, that they’re receiving due process that they have, as *** congresswoman stated, the basics of human decency, meaning food, water, the ability to be at least reasonably comfortable. And let me say first and foremost here we are. At the Moss Federal Building, two football fields away from the state capitol, and this behind us has amounted to what is in some respects *** mini penitentiary, at least in my estimation. When you look at the surroundings, when you notice that the guards, the folks, the security people behind. The glass are not even weaponized with pistols. Their holsters are empty, meaning that they’re treating it like any other prison in the state of California. And it was really sobering, quite frankly, to at least see what we saw today. And again, I want to uplift and really highlight the fact that we have *** congresswoman who continually is doing the right thing here by again attempting to express her constitutional right. She has *** constitutional right to inspect these facilities. I have known the Matsui family for over 50 years. I’ve had the honor of serving alongside Congresswoman Doris Matsui for almost 15 years. This is part and parcel of who she is and what she cares about. And so we’re not going to let up. This is not the end. We will continue to try and learn as much as we possibly can. We will attempt to do what we can in the future. To make sure again that our constituents have what they deserve, and that is dignity, due process, the right to representation, and again thank you to Congresswoman Doris Matsui for the invitation to participate this morning. With that, you’ll oblige me, I would like to bring up our dear friend and also. Someone who is *** local champion time and time again for immigrant rights, someone who can speak very intimately about being *** farm worker, being an immigrant himself here in California, here in Sacramento, and someone who has taken *** very strong leadership role in our city council, Mayor Pro Tem Eric Guerra. Thank you very much. I appreciate everyone for being here. Thank you, Congresswoman Mattsui. I want to thank all of our volunteers and the attorney of the day program and also thank you Supervisor Phil Serna, you know, Eric Guerra again here, council member for the city of Sacramento. This day here is very disturbing, especially for *** building where I took my citizenship exam. This is an administrative building. And I remember coming here to go through the process as many people have tried to go through the process to do the right thing and then picked up by immigration agents and then being held here and treating it as *** prison as *** detention facility. There was *** very simple, two very simple questions that should have been answered today, and those questions should have been answered in the form of yes. Number one, can we inspect the facility? Taxpayers have the right for their elected representatives to oversee federally funded taxpayer funded buildings and facilities and to make sure that those tax dollars are being spent appropriately. The answer was no. The second very simple question. Are there beds if they’re staying overnight, are there beds? The answer should have been yes, and the answer was fumbled around until finally we’ve got some accommodations. That to me is an unanswer. That’s an answer of no. Two very simple questions that were not answered today, and that is disturbing because what we heard and what I heard about our constituents was that over 20 people were being held here over *** week ago. It doesn’t take. *** week to get authorization to open *** door. If the federal government takes over *** week to get authorization to open *** door, that tells me that there’s something wrong in the bureaucracy of this administration for oversight. And if they are taking longer, that means that they’re hiding something. And we heard today that they flew people out today, meaning that they’re also reducing the number because they know they did something wrong. They were holding more. they should have holding them overnight. It was *** simple question. Are they overnight? They’re not allowed to be overnight. And if they are overnight, do they have beds? They have no beds. This is the type of issue that we need answers. We want to address. We will continue to push it and to make sure that people have their constitutional rights. The Fourth Amendment and the Fourth Amendment require that people have due process. People, in fact, Word people, it doesn’t say any other status or whatnot. That’s what the Constitution says. That’s what our Bill of Rights say. And why were all these put in place? Because we did not want in this country *** king to control over people’s individual freedoms and liberties. And yet this is what’s happening right now. This is the wrong direction and we need answers here, and I appreciate everyone bringing to Light again what is happening here with our tax dollars, that is something that is taking away people’s constitutional rights. Thank you, Congresswoman Mattsuy again for your leadership in moving this forward, and I do want to ask, you know, if we can have our representatives here from the Turney day program and Oral resist please speak about the issues. Congressman, did you want to make any other comments here. Thank you very much, Eric. I can feel your passion as we all feel here. We have some wonderful people we work with Norcal Resist and also the California Immigration Project, and the lawyers and advocates are so critical for getting us the information and having oversight, which is really critical to all of us as we move forward. I’m bringing up now, Nicole. Nicole here works for the uh she’s the executive director of the California uh Immigration project and she has been absolutely wonderful and I want her to kind of expand on what we were doing and what we couldn’t see or say, OK. Good morning. My name is Nicole Zenardi. Um, I appreciate the vote of confidence from the Congress. I’m actually not the executive director though. I’m the legal director of California Immigration Project. Um, CIP provides free immigration legal services in Sacramento and the Central Valley, including removal defense and rapid response assistance. Also coordinate the Fuel Network, which stands for Sacramento Family Unity Education and Legal Network, which is *** collaborative of over 80 local nonprofits, pro bono attorneys, school districts, local businesses, and other service providers funded by the city of Sacramento and dedicated to serving our city’s immigrants. Um, I’ll provide just some context on *** few of our programs that um we’re currently using to do our best to meet the needs given, um, what we’re seeing right now in terms of ICE enforcement, um, and then share some anecdotes that we’ve learned through this work. So in addition to providing full scope legal representation that is assisting someone in *** removal case from start to finish, um, CIP and fuel also provide *** variety of limited scope assistance, um, and this is really done to bridge the gap between the need that we see for representation in removal proceedings at the immigration court and the dire lack of capacity among pro bono attorneys and other immigration legal service providers, um, particularly here in Sacramento. So two of our limited scope service programs are the Rapid Response program and the Attorney of the Day program, both of which take place in this building. Our rapid response program is *** collaborative effort of fuel partners and volunteer attorneys. Um, the first step in this system is an emergency hotline, and verifying ICE activity. So our fuel partner NorcalR Resist manages the hotline, which individuals can call if they see or know of *** recent ICE arrest. NorcalR Resist volunteers then verify any ICE activity that they got. Call about and collect important initial information. And the second step in this rapid response system is emergency legal intervention. When our team receives information about an arrest in our community, we activate our group of volunteer attorneys to send someone here to the ICE processing center at the federal mosque building to provide emergency legal assistance, and this is in an effort to prevent detention or imminent deportation. The Attorney of the day program, which is led by our AOD coordinator at the California Immigration Project, also brings together fuel partners and volunteer attorneys, and the goal of this program is to provide limited day of assistance to individuals attending their preliminary removal proceedings here at the Sacramento Immigration court, also in the federal mosque building, and to assist these individuals who. Have an attorney, which is the vast majority of individuals going through this process. AOD volunteers provide consultations, assistance in advocating before the immigration judge, and help with filing certain forms uh with the court. Our attorneys of the day and court observer volunteers also play an integral role in documenting ICE enforcement that we’re seeing at the court and providing emergency intervention when necessary. Um, both of our rapid both our rapid response and Attorney of the day program started back during the first Trump administration and over the last several years we have worked to develop and strengthen both of these programs. With these services as well as other programs and projects in place, we thought that we were prepared for the changes that we all knew were coming in January of this year, but what we are seeing now is so much worse and frankly more horrendous than what most of us anticipated, and the need is relentless and overwhelming. Since January we have seen an exponential increase in the number of ICE arrests in the Sacramento community, and what is notably different about these arrests happening now is, first, the extreme frequency which they are happening and the aggressive intimidation tactics used during these arrests. And second, where these arrests are occurring. Not only are we seeing more arrests in and around homes, workplaces, and during vehicle stops, but people are being arrested at their ICE check-ins at their immigration. court hearings and inside of USCIS interviews. Particularly concerning is that and in blatant contradiction of the enforcement policy stated by the current administration is that ICE is targeting people who are actively abiding by their immigration obligations who are not safety or security threats. For example, most of the individuals we have seen arrested at the court in recent months have attended all of their hearings, have already submitted an asylum or other application, and have no criminal history. At the Immigration Corps and USCIS office, both in this building behind us, groups of up to 10 ICE agents will patrol the hall in plain clothes without identification and often with their faces covered. We have seen these agents be verbally and physically aggressive with individuals as that they arrest as well as volunteer observers. The surge in enforcement and infiltration into previously safe spaces and aggressive intimidation tactics by ICE has spread uncertainty, fear, and desperation among community members. It has *** chilling effect on people going to their mandatory immigration court hearings, as well as applying for immigration relief, going to school and work, and seeking medical assistance. Additionally, as the speakers before me alluded to, we recently learned that ICE is holding detained individuals at the Federal mosque building behind me overnight, sometimes for several nights. This is an abrupt and quite shocking departure from previous practice. Up until earlier this month, the first week in August, when ICE arrested someone in Sacramento and took them. The ICE office behind me for processing, the individual was released or transferred to another facility by the end of the day. This was because we were told the mosque building does not have the infrastructure to hold individuals overnight, and this has been the case for years. But now we are getting reports from detained individuals who we have spoken with, as well as guards in the building that groups of people are being held for multiple nights in the basement. The building is not set up to hold people for any length of time, and we have talked to folks who have slept on the floor and do not have access to air conditioning or adequate food. We have spoken to family members who have been bringing things like sleeping pads and clothes for folks who are held here for multiple days. And at the same time this is happening, we and our observers and volunteers have struggled in recent months with gaining access into the building, including the court and ICE office, as well as gaining access to the individuals being held there, and this inhibits our ability to gather information about ICE enforcement, the conditions inside, and prevents us from providing crucial legal immigration services and support. On that note, I would like to thank Congresswoman Mattsui for her dedication to all members of our community and for championing an effort to learn what is actually happening inside this building and to hold ICE accountable for its actions, as well as for listening to the insight and concerns of our partners who are doing the work on the ground. I also want to express gratitude for and uplift the voices of individuals and families who are directly affected by this nightmare of ICE enforcement and the service providers who assist and support them every single day. Their bravery and willingness to share their experiences and observation sheds light on the truth of ISIS’s actions and empowers us all to fight back against their intimidation, brutality, and disregard for morality and due process. Thank you. Thank you very much, Nicole and I also want to thank uh you know all the advocates that have been working so hard here, the activists, the community we’re Sacramento, we’re *** community that comes together and when we see people being treated as they are here and through some of the streets that we see, I say that’s not Sacramento, we stand up for our community. As mentioned before, Eric and Phil and I have wonderful memories of this John Moss federal building. My late husband started his congressional career in this office. This is the only federal office congressional office at that time until the new one was built. He moved there and I moved there, but this one had wonderful memories because it’s sacramento and then to see what’s happening to it. We cannot let that happen or what’s happening today we see across the country. Fear is not *** way at all. To get people to come together. And I look at this and I think that’s not how we operate at all. And cruelty is not *** strategy that works, not in Sacramento, not in California, and I would say that we will be watching, we’re organizing, we’re learning, and we will be back every single time we’re back we get more information. So watch for us. We’re gonna be here We’re not gonna go away. So this is the end of the press conference and we’ll be happy to have some asides here. Congresswoman Matsui, you said that you will be back. When do you plan to come back and what is your chief demand that you would like to continue to drive home and what are you hoping that continued visits to the mosque building will result in? We are negotiating *** time to come back, which I think is ridiculous that we have to do that, but we are negotiating. We have an email from them. The date may not be appropriate because I’ll have to be in session in Washington DC, but we are negotiating that. But what I want to make *** point here is that this building is an office building. It should be *** processing building. Yes, that’s always been the way it is. I should not be here in, you know, patrolling the hallways. In *** way, what’s happening here is spreading intimidation and the fear that is so unlike how we live in this country and so we want to take *** step here to make sure that this federal building is not used as *** detention facility or *** prison-like facility. Our constituents deserve far more. We’re very close to them. This community stands up. It stands up and we intend to make sure that this does not get worse here and we’re starting here and we’ll continue to do this. And do you have counterparts in Congress who are doing the exact same thing at federal buildings across the country. I know you know what happened in Southern California. I know you had our wonderful senator here. And that was extreme, I must say, um, and so we are looking at what happened there. This is Sacramento. We don’t have *** detention facility. We don’t have big facilities in Sacramento. The next one I believe is in Stockton, but we love Sacramento and we’re not going to let these things happen, so we are taking those steps because the community is outraged. I don’t know about you all, but I have been going around the community, even to grocery stores, every, you know, what I normally do, talking to people in neighborhoods and come up to people come up to me and say. It’s an outrage what’s happening and thank you all for standing up for us in Sacramento because our neighbors should not be treated that way so we stand up Sacramento and we are.

    Rep. Doris Matsui says ICE told her people have been held overnight at Sacramento facility

    “This is not a detention facility. They are holding people longer than they should,” Matsui said.

    Updated: 10:20 AM PDT Aug 28, 2025

    Editorial Standards ⓘ

    Congresswoman Doris Matsui said Thursday the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement again denied her access to inspect its facility in downtown Sacramento, but that she has received confirmation that people have been held there “longer than they should.”Last week, Matsui and the Sacramento city leaders sent letters requesting an inspection of the facility located at the John E. Moss Federal Building located at the Capitol Mall. They demanded the access over reports of what they called “deplorable conditions for people being detained in the building’s basement.” Those allegations include limited water, lack of food, lack of access to restrooms, inadequate ventilation and denial of beds.ICE has not responded to KCRA 3’s requests for comment about the claims. Matsui said after first being denied access on Aug. 22 to verify those reports she was again denied permission to inspect the building, despite being entitled to tour the site in her district as part of her congressional oversight duties. She said she was in negotiations to do so in the future. Still, Matsui said an official at the building did confirm some information about people being detained there in response to her questions. The person said that there are now five people being held in the facility. Two people who were held overnight were just put on a plane to Seattle, she said she was told. Asked whether those who were held overnight had beds, she said she was told there “were accommodations.” “That means there are no beds,” she said was her takeaway. “This is not a detention facility. They are holding people longer than they should,” Matsui said. She said people are only supposed to be held at such processing facilities for 12 hours at the most. Nicole Zanardi, a legal director with the California Immigration Project, said her organization provides free legal services and rapid response for immigrants. She said her group has received reports from guards and others at the building that people began to be held there overnight earlier this month, in a departure from past practices. Lawyers have lately struggled with gaining access to the building to gather information and provide legal immigration services, she said. Matsui vowed to return to the building to learn more. KCRA 3 has reached out to ICE for comment on the new claims. See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel

    Congresswoman Doris Matsui said Thursday the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement again denied her access to inspect its facility in downtown Sacramento, but that she has received confirmation that people have been held there “longer than they should.”

    Last week, Matsui and the Sacramento city leaders sent letters requesting an inspection of the facility located at the John E. Moss Federal Building located at the Capitol Mall. They demanded the access over reports of what they called “deplorable conditions for people being detained in the building’s basement.” Those allegations include limited water, lack of food, lack of access to restrooms, inadequate ventilation and denial of beds.

    ICE has not responded to KCRA 3’s requests for comment about the claims.

    Matsui said after first being denied access on Aug. 22 to verify those reports she was again denied permission to inspect the building, despite being entitled to tour the site in her district as part of her congressional oversight duties. She said she was in negotiations to do so in the future.

    Still, Matsui said an official at the building did confirm some information about people being detained there in response to her questions. The person said that there are now five people being held in the facility. Two people who were held overnight were just put on a plane to Seattle, she said she was told.

    Asked whether those who were held overnight had beds, she said she was told there “were accommodations.”

    “That means there are no beds,” she said was her takeaway.

    “This is not a detention facility. They are holding people longer than they should,” Matsui said.

    She said people are only supposed to be held at such processing facilities for 12 hours at the most.

    Nicole Zanardi, a legal director with the California Immigration Project, said her organization provides free legal services and rapid response for immigrants.

    She said her group has received reports from guards and others at the building that people began to be held there overnight earlier this month, in a departure from past practices.

    Lawyers have lately struggled with gaining access to the building to gather information and provide legal immigration services, she said.

    Matsui vowed to return to the building to learn more.

    KCRA 3 has reached out to ICE for comment on the new claims.

    See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel

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  • L.A. teen is moved to ICE detention center out of state without parents’ knowledge

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    Benjamin Guerrero-Cruz’s family was stunned and heartbroken when the 18-year-old was grabbed by immigration agents while walking his dog in Van Nuys just days before he was set to start his senior year at Reseda Charter High School.

    This week, his family was caught off-guard once again when they learned that Immigration and Customs Enforcement had transferred him to Arizona without notifying any relatives, according to the office of U.S. Rep. Luz Rivas (D-North Hollywood), which spoke to his family and reviewed ICE detention records.

    Guerrero-Cruz was moved out of the Adelanto Detention Facility in San Bernardino County late Monday night and taken to a holding facility in Arizona in the middle of the desert, according to the congresswoman’s office.

    On Tuesday night, he was scheduled to be transferred to Louisiana, a major hub for deportation flights, but at the last minute he was taken off the plane and sent back to Adelanto, where he is currently being held.

    “Benjamin and his family deserve answers behind ICE’s inconsistent and chaotic decision-making process, including why Benjamin was initially transferred to Arizona, why he was slated to be transferred to Louisiana afterward, and why his family wasn’t notified of his whereabouts by ICE throughout this process,” Rivas said in a statement.

    On Tuesday, Rivas introduced a bill that would require ICE to notify an immediate family member of a detainee within 24 hours of a detainee’s transfer. Currently, ICE is required to notify a family member only in the case of a detainee’s death.

    “Benjamin’s story of being detained and sent across state lines without warning or notification is like many other detainees in Los Angeles and across the country,” Rivas said. “Many immigrant families in my district do not know the whereabouts of their loved ones after they are detained by ICE.”

    The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The agency previously stated that Guerrero-Cruz was awaiting deportation to Chile after overstaying his visa, which required him to depart the United States on March 15, 2023.

    Benjamin Guerrero-Cruz, shown at school, is an avid soccer player and loving older brother, according to his family.

    (Rita Silva)

    Guerrero-Cruz was arrested Aug. 8 and held in downtown L.A. for a week, during which time he was briefly taken on an unexplained trip to a detention center in Santa Ana before being transferred to Adelanto on Aug. 15, according to a former teacher who visited him in custody.

    His experience of being pingponged around different facilities is common among those being detained in what the Trump administration is billing as the largest deportation effort in American history.

    This trend is also reflected in ICE’s flight data. The agency conducted 2,022 domestic transfer flights from May through July — representing a 90% increase from the same period last year, according to a widely cited database of flights created by immigrant rights advocate Tom Cartwright.

    Cartwright posited in his July report that this uptick could be related to a “need to optimize bed space as detention numbers have ballooned from 39,152 on 29 December to 56,945 on 26 July.”

    Jorge-Mario Cabrera, spokesperson for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights L.A., called the Trump administration’s detention policies cruel, saying it appears that they are detaining people for as long as possible and “moving them from place to place for no reason other than because they can.”

    “The fact that these dumbfounding transfers in the middle of the night cause chaos, confusion, and minimizes access to legal representation does not seem to bother them one bit,” he said in a statement.

    Susham M. Modi, an immigration attorney based in Houston, said he had witnessed an uptick in the frequency of transfers among those recently detained by ICE.

    “[Detainees are] also being often transferred to where there’s less lawyers,” he said. “I’ve seen consults where they’ve been transferred to Oklahoma, where it is very hard to find an attorney that might do, for example, federal court litigation.”

    Although families can use ICE’s Online Detainee Locator to search for loved ones, it isn’t always up to date, and some families do not know how to use it, Modi said. When detainees are transferred, they often can’t make outgoing calls from the detention facility until someone has deposited money into their account — another hurdle for keeping family members updated on their whereabouts, he added.

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  • Fact-checking claims about Kilmar Abrego Garcia

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    The Trump administration again detained Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran citizen and Maryland resident whose wrongful deportation case gained national attention at the beginning of the administration’s illegal immigration crackdown.

    Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers detained Abrego Garcia during his Aug. 25 immigration check-in. A Department of Homeland Security press release said Abrego Garcia was being processed for deportation to Uganda, but a district judge ordered him not to be deported until she can hold an evidentiary hearing

    Trump officials defended Abrego Garcia’s detention and deportation by continuing to level accusations against him since wrongly deporting him in March to an El Salvador maximum-security prison. Abrego Garcia had a withholding of removal order that prevented his deportation to his home country. He sued the U.S. government over his mistaken deportation in April and was returned to the U.S. on June 6 to face criminal charges. He was imprisoned in Tennessee, but a judge ordered his release July 23 while he awaits trial.

    In Aug. 25 remarks during an executive order signing, President Donald Trump said of Abrego Garcia, “He beat the hell out of his wife, his wife is afraid to even talk about him. She’s been mauled by this animal. And you know, through a system of liberal courts, you know, he’s doing things. But now we have that under control.”

    U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in the same ceremony, “(Abrego Garcia) will no longer terrorize our country. He’s currently charged with human smuggling, including children.”

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    Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said in an X post, “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.” 

    Some of these statements are exaggerated, and others are based on information from dubious informants. Here’s what we know about Abrego Garcia’s history.

    Recent judicial decisions said the government hasn’t proven Abrego Garcia’s gang membership

    Trump and his administration officials have repeatedly said Abrego Garcia is a member of MS-13, a gang that originated in Los Angeles and is composed primarily of Salvadoran immigrants and their descendants. Abrego Garcia and his lawyer said he is not an MS-13  member. Federal judges in 2025 have agreed. 

    A federal judge in July described the U.S. government’s “poor attempts to tie Abrego to MS-13,” saying that to conclude Abrego Garcia is a member of or affiliated with MS-13, the court “would have to make so many inferences” that the “conclusion would border on fanciful.”

    Claims of Abrego Garcia’s alleged gang membership date to 2019 when Maryland police took him into custody while he was looking for day labor outside a Home Depot. Officers asked Abrego Garcia if he was a gang member, and he said no. A police informant told law enforcement that Abrego Garcia was an MS-13 gang member, according to a police report known as a “gang field interview sheet.”

    ICE took Abrego Garcia into custody after the arrest and Abrego Garcia sought bond. An immigration judge denied his initial bond request, describing officers’ determination that he was a member of MS-13 as “trustworthy” and “supported by other evidence in the record.”

    Abrego Garcia appealed that ruling, and an appeals board upheld the judge’s decision, saying the judge “appropriately considered allegations of gang affiliation.”

    In April, while Abrego Garcia was imprisoned in El Salvador, two judges said the U.S. government didn’t sufficiently prove Abrego Garcia’s gang membership.

    Trump has falsely said Abrego Garcia has the figures “MS-13” tattooed on his knuckles. 

    “There is no evidence before the Court that Abrego: has markings or tattoos showing gang affiliation; has working relationships with known MS-13 members; ever told any of the witnesses that he is a MS-13 member; or has ever been affiliated with any sort of gang activity,” Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw said in the July decision ordering Abrego Garcia’s release. 

    Grand jury indicted Abrego Garcia for transporting undocumented immigrants across the border

    Noem said Abrego Garcia was involved in human trafficking. That’s inaccurate.

    A grand jury indictment charged Abrego Garcia with one count of conspiracy to transport undocumented immigrants in the U.S. illegally, and one count of unlawful transportation of undocumented people. The May 21 indictment was unsealed June 6. 

    Abrego Garcia pleaded not guilty to the charges, which stem from a 2022 traffic stop. U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes reiterated that Abrego Garcia is charged with human smuggling, not human trafficking. Trafficking is a crime against people, regardless of their immigration status or crossing of a border, while smuggling is a crime against a country’s immigration laws.

    The indictment alleges that from 2016 to 2025, Abrego Garcia participated in a criminal conspiracy to bring undocumented immigrants from “countries such as Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Ecuador and elsewhere” who crossed the Mexico border into Texas.

    In some instances, the indictment said, MS-13 members and their associates accompanied Abrego Garcia on trips transporting people illegally in the U.S. from Texas to other U.S. locations. Some of the people he transported were also MS-13 members and associates, the indictment said.

    It alleged that Abrego Garcia and coconspirators “transported children on the floorboards of vehicles.”

    In a 2022 traffic stop, a Tennessee Highway Patrol state trooper found Abrego Garcia driving nine passengers, all Hispanic men, the indictment said. Other government statements said he was driving eight people. 

    At the time, Abrego Garcia was released with a warning for driving with an expired license. 

    Defense attorneys questioned the credentials and motives of unnamed cooperating witnesses — people who provide information to the Justice Department as part of an agreement. 

    CNN reported that one witness is a two-time felon who had been deported from the U.S. five times, and has again returned illegally, seeking work authorization. Another admitted to human trafficking and is being held with criminal charges.

    Abrego Garcia’s wife filed two protective orders against him over domestic violence

    Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, a U.S. citizen, filed protective orders against him in 2020 and 2021. In the orders, Vasquez Sura said Abrego Garcia had slapped, punched and bruised her. 

    A few days after filing the 2020 protective order, Vasquez Sura, filed an order rescinding it, citing her son’s birthday and saying Abrego Garcia had agreed to go to counseling. 

    After the 2021 filing, a court ordered Abrego Garcia not to contact, harass or abuse Vasquez Sura. 

    Vasquez Sura has criticized the Trump administration, telling Newsweek that her protective orders are “not a justification for ICE’s action.”

    “After surviving domestic violence in a previous relationship, I acted out of caution following a disagreement with Kilmar by seeking a civil protective order, in case things escalated,” she said. “Things did not escalate, and I decided not to follow through with the civil court process. We were able to work through the situation privately as a family, including by going to counseling.”

    In July, Judge Crenshaw said, “The allegations against Abrego in the protective orders are both serious and concerning.”

    However, he said, the matters had been resolved and “there is no proof offered to suggest that Abrego failed to comply with those orders while they were in place, nor evidence suggesting that Abrego has engaged in similar conduct over the past four years.”

    Bondi’s accusations against Abrego Garcia based on information from coconspirators

    Bondi has floated a connection between Abrego Garcia and other crimes, without filing charges.

    In June 6 remarks, Bondi said, “A coconspirator alleged that the defendant solicited nude photographs and videos of a minor. A coconspirator also alleges the defendant played a role in the murder of a rival gang member’s mother.” 

    These allegations don’t appear on the indictment, but they were mentioned in the government’s motion for detention, which said it learned that Abrego Garcia “solicited nude photographs and videos of a minor, beginning in approximately 2020.” That motion said “no charges against the defendant regarding child pornography have been filed, but it demonstrates the danger the defendant poses to the community not just with respect to alien smuggling,” adding that investigation into that solicitation is ongoing. The government’s motion for detention was denied.

    In court, Abrego Garcia’s lawyers objected to hearsay and at times “multiple tiers of hearsay,” CNN reported, including when a federal agent said he heard that a cooperator heard someone else accusing Abrego Garcia of sexually harassing women.

    PolitiFact Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.

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  • Phoenix EDM scene organizes to support families harmed by ICE

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    On the orders of President Donald Trump and thanks to an increased budget from Congress, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — better known as ICE — is ramping up its mass deportation efforts. In Phoenix, an increase in deportations of longstanding, law-abiding community members has motivated political organizers and Phoenix electronic music scene heads to team up in an effort to raise money for families impacted by the Trump administration’s mass deportations…

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    TJ L’Heureux

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  • Kilmar Abrego Garcia detained by ICE in Baltimore, faces deportation efforts – WTOP News

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    The Maryland construction worker became the face of President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration policies when he was wrongfully deported in March to a notorious prison in his native El Salvador.

    Listen to WTOP for continuing live coverage from Baltimore on Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s ICE appointment.

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    Before being detained by ICE, Kilmar Abrego Garcia gives speech to a crowd

    BALTIMORE (AP) — Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose case has become a flashpoint in President Donald Trump’s aggressive effort to remove noncitizens from the U.S., was detained by immigration authorities in Baltimore on Monday to face renewed efforts to deport him after a brief period of freedom.

    Abrego Garcia’s attorneys quickly filed a lawsuit to fight those removal efforts until a court has heard his claim for protection, stating that the U.S. could place him in a country where “his safety cannot be assured.”

    The new lawsuit triggered a blanket court order that automatically pauses deportation efforts for two days. The order applies to immigrants in Maryland who are challenging their detention.

    Crowd yells ‘shame!’

    Abrego Garcia, a 30-year-old Maryland construction worker and Salvadoran national, spoke at a rally before he turned himself in.

    “This administration has hit us hard, but I want to tell you guys something: God is with us, and God will never leave us,” Abrego Garcia said, speaking through a translator. “God will bring justice to all the injustice we are suffering.”

    Roughly 200 people had gathered and prayed in front of the Baltimore field office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Some held signs with messages such as “Stop Detaining Our Neighbors” and “Free Kilmar.”

    With Abrego Garcia and his wife standing before them, the crowd spoke in unison: “The people united will never be defeated.”

    The crowd waited outside after Abrego Garcia entered the federal building. When his lawyer and wife walked out without him after his detainment, the crowd yelled “Shame!”

    Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a post on X that Abrego Garcia was being processed for deportation. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi told Trump during a meeting in the Oval Office that Abrego Garcia “will no longer terrorize our country.”

    But Abrego Garcia’s lead immigration attorney, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, said lawyers will fight the administration’s removal attempts.

    “I expect there’s going to be a status conference very promptly, and we’re going to ask for an interim order that he not be deported, pending his due process rights to contest deportation to any particular country,” he said.

    Reunion with family

    Abrego Garcia was wrongfully deported in March to a notorious prison in his native El Salvador. He was returned to the U.S. in June, only to face human smuggling charges that his lawyers have called preposterous and vindictive.

    The Trump administration has said it is trying to deport Abrego Garcia months before his trial is scheduled in Tennessee, alleging that the married father is a danger to the community and an MS-13 gang member. He has denied the gang allegation, pleaded not guilty to smuggling charges and has asked a judge to dismiss the case on ground of vindictive prosecution.

    Abrego Garcia was released Friday afternoon from a jail in Tennessee and returned to his family in Maryland. Video released by advocates of the reunion showed a room decorated with streamers, flowers and signs. He embraced loved ones and thanked them “for everything.”

    ‘Hold Abrego Garcia accountable’

    Immigration officials have said they plan to deport Abrego Garcia to Uganda, which recently agreed to accept certain deportees from the U.S. He declined an offer to be removed to Costa Rica in exchange for pleading guilty to human smuggling charges.

    Filings in federal court show the Costa Rican government saying Abrego Garcia would be welcomed as a legal immigrant and wouldn’t face detention.

    In a statement, Justice Department spokesperson Chad Gilmartin said the criminal charges underscore how Abrego Garcia presents a “clear danger” and that he can either plead guilty or stand trial.

    “Either way, we will hold Abrego Garcia accountable and protect the American people,” Gilmartin said.

    The U.S. mistakenly deported Abrego Garcia to El Salvador in March, despite a judge’s earlier determination that he faced a “well-founded fear” of violence there. Facing a court order, the Trump administration brought him back to the United States in June, only to detain him on human smuggling charges.

    He pleaded not guilty and asked the judge to dismiss the case, calling it an attempt to punish him for challenging his deportation to El Salvador. His lawyers have argued that the threat to deport him to Uganda is more proof that the prosecution is vindictive.

    The smuggling charges stem from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee for speeding. There were nine passengers in the car, and officers discussed among themselves their suspicions of smuggling. Abrego Garcia was allowed to continue driving with only a warning.

    Abrego Garcia has an American wife and children and has lived in Maryland for years. Although he was deemed eligible for pretrial release last month, he remained in jail at the request of his attorneys, who feared the Republican administration could try to immediately deport him again if he were freed.

    A recent ruling in a separate case in Maryland required ICE to provide 72 hours’ notice before initiating deportation proceedings — time to allow a prospective deportee to mount a defense. An email from ICE sent to attorneys at 4:01 p.m. on Friday refers to that decision.

    “Please let this email serve as notice that DHS may remove your client, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, to Uganda no earlier than 72 hours from now (absent weekends),” it states. Uganda recently agreed to take deportees from the U.S., provided they do not have criminal records and are not unaccompanied minors.

    Federal officials have argued that Abrego Garcia can be deported because he came to the U.S. illegally and because a U.S. immigration judge deemed him eligible for expulsion in 2019, just not to his native El Salvador.

    ___

    A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Abrego Garcia is being sent to Uganda, a country with a language he doesn’t speak. Uganda’s official language is English.

    Copyright
    © 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.

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  • ICE director says agents won’t be at DC schools as classes start

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    Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are not expected to be at schools in the nation’s capital when classes kick off on Monday, acting director Todd Lyons recently told NBC News.

    Newsweek has reached out to ICE for comment via email on Saturday.

    Why It Matters

    President Donald Trump has pledged to launch the largest mass deportation operation in U.S. history. The initiative has seen an intensification of ICE raids across the country, with thousands of people having been swept up, arrested, and detained. Shortly after taking office, Trump threw out Department of Homeland Security (DHS) policies to limit where ICE arrests can take place, granting it the right to conduct raids in places of worship, schools, and hospitals.

    The nation’s capital has been in the limelight over the past few weeks after Trump said on August 11 that the city had been “overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs and homeless people.” He has deployed federal troops, officers and agents to Washington, D.C., as part of a crackdown on crime and homelessness.

    What To Know

    As the school year is kicking off across the U.S., the first day of class for D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) is on Monday, August 25. Lyons told NBC News in an interview earlier this week that “day one, you’re not going to see us,” but noted that there might be circumstances when ICE officers may need to come to schools in the future.

    Lyons said one of those circumstances might be to conduct safety and wellness checks on students, stating, “We want to use our special agents and our officers to go ahead and locate these individuals. And if [there are] some we haven’t, and the last known address was at a school, we just want to make sure that child is safe. If we have the opportunity to reunite that parent with that child, that’s what we want to do.”

    Lyons noted that under “exigent” circumstances would officers arrive at school, including “something violent going on.” Nationwide, there have been several ICE arrests of parents at school property, including one at an Oregon preschool. In addition, some students, including a teenage boy in Los Angeles, have also been detained.

    A Stanford University researcher reported in June that ICE “raids increased student absences from schools because parents fear being separated from their children,” finding “recent raids coincided with a 22 percent increase in daily student absences with particularly large increases among the youngest student.”

    ICE has repeatedly maintained that it’s targeting people without proper documentation and criminal histories, and is working to expand its force with an addition 10,000 agents. The agency received billions in funding from the One Big Beautiful Bill.

    Todd Lyons, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) speaks to the press on the agility course at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers (FLETC) in Brunswick, Georgia, on August 21.

    AP Photo/Fran Ruchalski

    What People Are Saying

    Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel said at a press conference this week: “I think people who have that concern for themselves personally and for all of us who are concerned for them and their safety are making adjustments.”

    Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, said in a previous statement shared with Newsweek: “Under Secretary Noem, we are delivering on President Trump’s and the American people’s mandate to arrest and deport criminal illegal aliens to make America safe. Secretary Noem unleashed ICE to target the worst of the worst and carry out the largest deportation operation of criminal aliens in American history.”

    What Happens Next?

    ICE is looking to significantly increase its force, offering signing bonuses up to $50,000, student loan payments, tuition reimbursement and starting salaries that can approach $90,000.

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  • $500 million to paint the border wall? 5 of Trump’s strangest, most expensive vanity projects

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    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,” reports Reason‘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 Intercept reports 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,” writes Reason‘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 Post reviewed 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 Times reports, 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 revived an 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, told Politico that the idea “seems completely unworkable.”

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    Jeff Luse

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  • Kilmar Abrego Garcia Is Freed From Tennessee Jail So He Can Rejoin Family In Maryland To Await Trial – KXL

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    Kilmar Abrego Garcia, center, leaves the Putnam County Jail, Friday, Aug. 22, 2025, in Cookeville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Brett Carlsen)

    NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Kilmar Abrego Garcia was released from jail in Tennessee on Friday so he can rejoin his family in Maryland while awaiting trial on human smuggling charges.

    The Salvadoran national’s case became a flashpoint in President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda after he was mistakenly deported in March. Facing a court order, the Trump administration brought him back to the U.S. in June, only to detain him on criminal charges.

    Although Abrego Garcia was deemed eligible for pretrial release, he had remained in jail at the request of his attorneys, who feared the Republican administration could try to immediately deport him again if he were freed. Those fears were somewhat allayed by a recent ruling in a separate case, which requires immigration officials to allow Abrego Garcia time to mount a challenge to any deportation order.

    On Friday, after two months, Abrego Garcia walked out of the Putnam County jail wearing a short-sleeved white button-down shirt and black pants and accompanied by defense attorney Rascoe Dean and two other men. They did not speak to reporters but got into a white SUV and sped off.

    The release order from the court requires Abrego Garcia to travel directly to Maryland, where he will be in home detention with his brother designated as his custodian. He is required to submit to electronic monitoring and can only leave the home for work, religious services and other approved activities.

    An attorney for Abrego Garcia in his deportation case in Maryland, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, said in a statement Friday his client had been “reunited with his loving family” for the first time since he was wrongfully deported to a notorious El Salvador prison in March.

    “While his release brings some relief, we all know that he is far from safe,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said. “ICE detention or deportation to an unknown third country still threaten to tear his family apart.”

    Earlier this week, Abrego Garcia’s criminal attorneys filed a motion asking the judge to dismiss the smuggling case, claiming he is being prosecuted to punish him for challenging his removal to El Salvador.

    In a statement Friday, defense attorney Sean Hecker reiterated his contention that his client was “unlawfully arrested and deported, and then imprisoned, all because of the government’s vindictive attack on a man who had the courage to fight back against the Administration’s continuing assault on the rule of law. He is grateful that his access to American courts has provided meaningful due process.”

    Abrego Garcia has pleaded not guilty to the smuggling charges, which stem from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee for speeding. Body camera footage from a Tennessee Highway Patrol officer shows a calm exchange with Abrego Garcia. There were nine passengers in the car, and the officers discussed among themselves their suspicions of smuggling. However, Abrego Garcia was allowed to continue driving with only a warning.

    A Department of Homeland Security agent testified he did not begin investigating the traffic stop until this April, when the government was facing mounting pressure to return Abrego Garcia to the U.S.

    Abrego Garcia has an American wife and children and has lived in Maryland for years, but he immigrated to the U.S. illegally. In 2019, an immigration judge denied his application for asylum but granted him protection from being deported back to El Salvador, where he faces a “well-founded fear” of violence, according to court filings. He was required to check in yearly with Immigration and Customs Enforcement while Homeland Security issued him a work permit.

    Although Abrego Garcia can’t be deported to El Salvador without violating the judge’s order, Homeland Security officials have said they plan to deport him to an unnamed third country.

    More about:

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    Jordan Vawter

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  • Two Big Signs That ICE Has Way Too Much Money

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    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.

    The Washington Post reports that the Trump administration wants to spend millions on new ICE SUVs with custom gold-detailed auto wraps as a way to increase its visibility during Trump’s D.C. takeover and to help with the agency’s massive recruitment drive:

    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):

    Trump is now planning ride-alongs with his federal forces on patrol in D.C. Could a new ICE-branded Beast towing migrants in a gold cage be far behind?

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    Chas Danner

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  • The craziest deportation goals

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    Trump’s campaign promises, coming to fruition: “Until June, deportations had lagged behind immigration arrests and detentions,” reports The New York Times. “By the first week of August, deportations reached nearly 1,500 people per day, according to the latest data, a pace not seen since the Obama administration.”

    So far during President Donald Trump’s second term, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has deported 180,000 people. The administration aims for 1 million this year, but if current numbers hold, it’ll be closer to 400,000. Stephen Miller, the ardent immigration restrictionist who has Trump’s ear, said on Fox News in late May that ICE would set a goal of a “minimum” of 3,000 arrests a day—far more than what it’s currently logging. But that’s beside the point: The administration seems interested in aggressive benchmarks and willing to use whatever tactics to get there, including compromising on apprehending the largest threats and instead going after people who’ve simply overstayed (a civil offense, not a criminal one).

    In fact, it’s looking very possible that the numbers will be juiced in order for these goals to be met, since the Trump administration enjoys its bragging rights. “The Department of Homeland Security says the total number of deportations so far under Mr. Trump is much higher—at 332,000. That figure includes people who are turned around or quickly deported at U.S. borders by Customs and Border Protection,” per the Times. There’s a fair bit of space between 180,000 and 332,000; expect more creative accounting as enforcement actions heat up further.

    Meanwhile, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is pushing for ICE to simply buy its own planes. “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,” reports NBC News. To double these numbers, Houser says, you’d need to purchase about 30 planes, at $80–400 million a pop; so purchasing 30 passenger planes could cost anywhere from $2.4 billion to $12 billion. It’s estimated that ICE had chartered a little more than 1,000 flights by the end of July, at $100,000 to $200,000 per flight.

    Case in point: Angel Rodrigo Minguela Palacios, a strawberry delivery guy who had overstayed a tourist visa to escape his native Coahuila, a state in northern Mexico where he’d been the victim of stabbings and kidnappings, had been working for the same company for eight years and raising three kids with his girlfriend of eight years when Border Patrol nabbed him, reports The Los Angeles Times. He had been dropping off strawberries in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo, outside of where California Gov. Gavin Newsom was holding an event—and where Border Patrol has lately taken to assembling.

    Border Patrol detained him and threw him in the “B-18” federal detention center in downtown L.A., where he’s been since.

    “When asked last week whether the person arrested outside the news conference had a criminal record, a Homeland Security spokesperson said the agency would share a criminal rap sheet when it was available,” reports the L.A. Times. “After four follow-up emails from a reporter, [Spokeswoman Tricia] McLaughlin on Saturday said agents had arrested ‘two illegal aliens’ in the vicinity of Newsom’s news conference—including ‘an alleged Tren de Aragua gang member and narcotics trafficker.’” Reporters asked for clarification as to whether that describes one person or two; then, “when presented with Minguela’s biographical information Monday, the department said he had been arrested because he overstayed his visa—a civil, not criminal, offense.”

    It appears Minguela has no criminal record, and was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. The kicker: When Minguela handed one of the agents arresting him a “Know Your Rights” card he keeps in his wallet, the agent reportedly said, “This is of no use to me.”

    Scenes from New York: Wild. But I do believe it.

    QUICK HITS

    • “SpaceX’s impressive track record, including the construction of the Starlink satellite-internet network and its innovation on reusable rocket technology, has had a deep impact on the space industry and US space policy. It has also made SpaceX among the most highly valued private companies in the world,” reports Bloomberg. But now, Starship—the first fully reusable orbital rocket, which Elon Musk says will be able to bring humans to Mars—is plagued by issues, which Musk is attempting to solve by shuffling around engineering talent internally. “To make Starship work, SpaceX is betting that it can draw resources away from its core rocket program at a time when the company faces weak competition. Some planned launches of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rockets would potentially be pushed from the end of this year to early 2026 because of the surge of Falcon engineers working on Starship, the people familiar with the company’s planning said.”
    • “Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard began a fresh strike Tuesday against national security officials whom President Donald Trump deems political enemies, announcing she had revoked the clearances of 37 people, including several currently serving U.S. intelligence officials,” reports The Washington Post. Many of the officials who had their clearances revoked were involved in the 2016 Russian interference investigations and the Trump impeachment.
    • Really useful chart to help you make sense of how tariffs will raise prices:
    • Relatedly: “Automakers can’t eat the cost of tariffs forever, and September is a convenient time to adjust prices, as the 2026 models begin arriving in showrooms,” reports Axios. Interestingly, “if companies try to offset tariffs on imported cars with higher prices, they’ll need to make adjustments across their portfolio to maintain reasonable gaps between vehicle segments. [General Motors’] entry-level Chevrolet Trax, for example, is imported from South Korea, now subject to a 15% tariff. But if it raised the price of the Trax, it might end up costing about the same as a Chevy Equinox, currently made in Mexico but moving to the U.S. in 2027.” Industrywide, forecasters predict a roughly 6 percent increase in prices next year, best-case scenario.
    • Breaking the law:
    • “A former top City Hall advisor and current campaign confidante to Mayor Eric Adams attempted to give money to a reporter from THE CITY following a campaign event in Harlem Wednesday,” reports The City. “The failed payoff—a wad of cash in a red envelope stuffed inside an opened bag of Herr’s Sour Cream & Onion ripple potato chips—was made by Winnie Greco, a longtime Adams ally who resigned last year from her position as the mayor’s liaison to the Asian community after she was targeted in multiple investigations.”
    • Why elites still worship socialism:

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    Liz Wolfe

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