United States Senator Bernie Sanders has never been the one to shy away from calling out Trump and his Republican Party for the occasional stunts they keep on pulling. This time, he is attacking the MAGA advocate for inciting hatred and pitting Americans against each other.
Since Trump’s return to power this year as the President of the United States, he has made several bad decisions, which have come at heavy prices. More recently, Trump has been propagating his hatred towards marginalised communities by partnering with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement department (ICE). They have been dragging people out of their homes and workplaces and arresting them to be deported later. On the occasion of showing signs of resistance, the authorities are using brute force and knocking them down, causing emotional and physical pain. On a much deeper level, they are separating individuals from their families and the places they have called their home for several years.
The move has garnered severe negative criticism from people, including celebrities, who have spoken against Trump and his government’s efforts to rid America’s population of immigrants who have been a crucial part of their history. That said, his efforts have also found support among many, especially Republicans and right-leaning people.
As time passes, Trump has been doubling down on his immigrant crackdown by trying to get rid of any opposition. The latest to fall victim to the President’s ill intentions is Portland, Oregon, where he has promised to deploy troops and allow the use of “full force” to deal with the rising protests against ICE and immigration detention centres. As per a BBC article on September 28, 2025, Trump spoke of this in a Truth Social post where he alleged that the step would protect the ICE facilities “from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists.”
After the news became public, Bernie Sanders took to X to share his opinion. He questioned Trump’s move and called the decision anti-American. He also said:
“Mr. President: Read the Constitution. The function of the U.S. military is to protect us from FOREIGN enemies, not Portland, OR. In this country, we have local and state police for law enforcement, not federal troops.”
Donald Trump has ordered the deployment of the national guard to Portland, Oregon, authorizing “full force, if necessary”, ignoring calls from local and state officials who say the president has been misinformed about the scale of a protest outside a federal immigration office.
The president says that he has directed all necessary troops to be deployed to protect “war ravaged Portland”, claiming that immigration facilities were “under siege from attack by Antifa and other domestic terrorists”.
Officials in Portland have pushed back against the decision and rejected the president’s characterization.
“There is no insurrection. There is no threat to national security and there is no need for military troops in our major city,” said Oregon’s Democratic governor, Tina Kotek.
Here are the key stories at a glance.
Donald Trump says he is deploying troops to Portland, Oregon
Donald Trump made the announcement on social media, where he claimed that the deployment was necessary “to protect war ravaged Portland,” and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) facilities he said were “under siege by antifascists and other domestic terrorists”.
Oregon’s governor, Tina Kotek, rejected the president’s characterization. “In my conversations directly with President Trump and secretary [of homeland security, Kristi] Noem, I have been abundantly clear that Portland and the state of Oregon believe in the rule of law and can manage our own local public safety needs,” Kotek said at a news conference in Portland on Saturday.
Portland residents scoff at Trump threat to send military: ‘This is not a war zone’
A visit to downtown Portland on Saturday, hours after Donald Trump falsely declared the city “war ravaged” to justify the deployment of federal troops, made it plain the US president’s impression of the city, apparently shaped by misleading conservative media reports, is entirely divorced from reality.
There were just four protesters outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) field office in an outlying residential neighborhood that the president had claimed was “under siege” by antifascists and “other domestic terrorists”.
Trump fires US attorney who told border agents to follow law on immigration raids
Donald Trump fired a top federal prosecutor in Sacramento just hours after she warned immigration agents they could not indiscriminately detain people in her district, according to documents reviewed by the New York Times.
Michele Beckwith, who became the acting US attorney in Sacramento in January, received an email at 4.31pm on 15 July notifying her that the president had ordered her termination.
‘Hell on earth’: immigrants held in new California detention facility beg for help
Immigrants locked up in California’s newest federal detention center have described the facility as a “a torture chamber”, “a zoo” and “hell on earth”, saying they were confined in filthy cells and suffered medical crises without help.
Six people detained at the California City detention center, which opened in late August and is now the state’s largest Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detention center, shared accounts with the Guardian of poor conditions and alleged mistreatment by staff.
US military brass brace for firings as Pentagon chief orders top-level meeting
US military officials are reportedly bracing for possible firings or demotions after the Trump administration’s Pentagon chief, Pete Hegseth, abruptly summoned hundreds of generals and admirals from around the world to attend a gathering in Virginia in the upcoming days.
FBI arrest man who allegedly threatened to shoot people at Texas Pride parade
Federal authorities in Texas have arrested a man for allegedly threatening to shoot people at a pro-LGBTQ+ parade, to avenge the murder of Charlie Kirk.
According to court documents viewed by the Guardian, on 18 September, the FBI’s field office in Dallas was notified by Abilene, Texas, police about online threats from a local resident.
President Donald Trump said on Saturday he is expanding his military interventions in US cities, this time by ordering troops to be deployed to Portland, Oregon.
He instructed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to provide as many soldiers as “necessary” to protect the city and any Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities threatened by “domestic terrorists,” he wrote on the platform Truth Social.
As an example, he cited the far-left anti-fascism movement Antifa, which he recently designated a “domestic terrorist organization.”
Trump described Portland, which is widely known for its progressive political values, as “war ravaged.”
The Republican wrote that he is granting the military broad authority to use “full force,” though it remains unclear what that entails. He also did not specify what types of troops will be deployed.
Oregon governor: ‘No need for military troops’
The Democratic governor of Oregon, Tina Kotek, told a press conference that she had spoken with Trump, telling him that Portland could manage its own public safety needs. She called any deployment an “abuse of power and a misuse of federal troops.”
“There is no insurrection. There is no threat to national security. And there is no need for military troops in our major city,” she said, adding that Portland was “safe and calm.”
Kotek told reporters that the administration had refused to explain what it meant by plans to deploy “full force” against the city.
“The president does not have the authority to deploy federal troops on state soil. I’m coordinating with Attorney General Dan Rayfield to see if any response is necessary,” she added.
Oregon’s Democratic Senator Ron Wyden issued even harsher criticism in a post on X.
“Trump is launching an authoritarian takeover of Portland hoping to provoke conflict in my hometown,” he wrote. “I urge Oregonians to reject Trump’s attempt to incite violence in what we know is a vibrant and peaceful city.”
Portland continues to limit cooperation with ICE
Portland describes itself as a “sanctuary city,” meaning it limits its cooperation with ICE.
Last week, the city announced that it would investigate whether an ICE facility in Portland was violating regulations by holding people for longer than allowed.
In a statement on Friday about alleged violence by Antifa supporters, the Department of Homeland Security mentioned rioters in Portland who had repeatedly attacked an ICE facility, listing several incidents that allegedly took place in June.
According to US media reports, there have been several protests in the city around an ICE facility, directed at Trump’s controversial immigration policy.
The president sent troops to Los Angeles in June, citing alleged unrest and resistance to ICE agents, whose operations against undocumented immigrants have frequently sparked protests.
Trump has also deployed National Guard troops to Washington and announced plans for a deployment in Memphis, Tennessee. He has repeatedly threatened to send the National Guard to Chicago as well.
National Guard members are not full-time active duty military personnel, but a part of the Army that can be deployed by the federal government or by a governor, often to help with disasters in states.
A federal immigration officer who was captured on video pushing a woman to the ground outside an immigration court in New York City has been relieved of his duties while an investigation is conducted, the Department of Homeland Security announced Friday.
In a statement Friday, DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin called the conduct of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer “unacceptable and beneath the men and women of ICE.”
“Our ICE law enforcement are held to the highest professional standards and this officer is being relieved of current duties as we conduct a full investigation,” McLaughlin added.
Videos of the ICE officer’s actions at the 26 Federal Plaza federal building in lower Manhattan emerged on social media Thursday, generating widespread controversy.
The incident appears to have started when the woman and her young daughter desperately tried to cling to her husband, whom federal agents were attempting to take into custody. Agents were seen on video separating the family, with one of them grabbing the woman’s hair. The man was ultimately detained.
Another video showed the woman confronting the ICE officer at the center of the investigation. He was then captured on camera shoving the woman and pushing her to the floor in front of her children and a crowd of photojournalists and federal and court officials.
During the altercation, the ICE officer is heard saying “adios” — or goodbye — several times.
The woman in the videos told reporters Thursday her family is from Ecuador.
Under the second Trump administration, ICE officers have been deployed to immigration courts across the country to arrest some of those attending their hearings. The effort has been strongly denounced by advocates and Democratic leaders, who say it undermines due process principles and deters people from complying with the immigration process.
Brad Lander, New York City’s comptroller and one of the most vocal local critics of the courthouse arrests, said Thursday that the woman “did not pose any threat” to justify the officer’s actions and noted she had to be taken to the hospital.
“We can disagree on immigration policy, but you can’t watch that video and think that that’s how you want United States law enforcement officials treating human beings,” Lander told CBS News New York.
Asked if the videos indicate any justification for the officer’s use of force, a former ICE official who requested anonymity to speak freely said, “Absolutely none.” The official noted the incident should be reported to ICE’s Office of Professional Responsibility, which is charged with “impartially investigating allegations of employee and contractor misconduct.”
“He clearly lost his cool. Unless you claim self-defense or defense of others, [there’s] no way that use of force is justified,” the former ICE official said. “That’s assault.”
The U.S. Marshals Service has agents in Summit County assisting U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement with an operation involving multiple federal agencies that began on the morning of Thursday, Sept. 25.
“(U.S. deputy marshals) are assisting immigration enforcement operations teams,” an employee of the Denver office, who declined to disclose their name, told Summit Daily News around 10 a.m.
The U.S. Marshals Service employee said U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement is the lead agency in the operation and declined to provide further details since the operation is “ongoing.” U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement, commonly called ICE, is the principal investigative arms of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Voces Unidas President and CEO Alex Sanchez said his nonprofit has received reports of people being detained at a construction site near Dillon, and through speaking with witnesses, the organization believes at least three people were detained. Summit Daily has not been able to independently verify those detainments. Read the full story via our partner, Summit Daily.
The Palmyra police department is the first municipal department in Wisconsin to sign a 287(g) agreement with the federal Immigration Customs Enforcement agency. | Photo via Palmyra Public Safety Department official website
A village police department in southeastern Wisconsin has pursued a type of 287(g) agreement with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that is not held by any other agency in the state.
The Wisconsin Examiner’s Criminal Justice Reporting Project shines a light on incarceration, law enforcement and criminal justice issues with support from the Public Welfare Foundation.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin criticized the Palmyra Police Department in Jefferson County, saying it is “partnering hand in glove with ICE to carry out this regime’s plan to deport our immigrant neighbors and loved ones.”
In a statement to the Examiner, interim police chief Paul Blount said the department’s focus is on criminals who threaten public safety and that this is “not a blanket immigration enforcement program.” Blount was not immediately available for an interview.
“If we find out that we have to participate in that aspect of it, where we’re actually going out, actively enforcing immigration policy and procedure and door to door, looking for undocumented individuals, then I would go on record on saying that we won’t participate in that,” Blount said, according to WISN 12 News.
He said that the agreement could be what keeps a local police department in the village, due to financial challenges, according to WISN 12 News. He also said there is a $100,000 incentive for the first arrest of an undocumented person that has been involved in a crime or is wanted, and $7,500 for each subsequent arrest.
According to WISN 12 News, Blount said that if the federal government approves the agreement, he would not move forward without approval from the village board. ICE’s online list currently shows Palmyra as a participating agency and includes Monday, Sept. 22 as the date of signature.
The Task Force Model serves as a “force multiplier,” according to ICE. It allows officers to enforce limited immigration authority while performing routine police duties, such as identifying a person who is not a U.S. citizen or national during a driving under the influence stop and sharing information directly with ICE. Agencies can carry out immigration enforcement activities under ICE supervision and oversight.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin said the department is “even taking it a step further than other agencies, instituting the most aggressive 287(g) model that gives officers the green light to stop people they think might be immigrants on the street, question them about their citizenship status, and even take them into custody.”
The 287(g) program allows a local law enforcement agency to enforce certain aspects of U.S. immigration law. According to ICE’s online list, Palmyra is the only police department in the state with a 287(g) agreement. There are 13 Wisconsin counties with a sheriff’s department partnering with ICE. These partnerships use the warrant service officer model or jail enforcement model, which are focused on local jails.
In the statement to the Examiner, Blount said that if the program is approved, it would allow officers to work in closer partnership with federal authorities. He said officers would gain access to databases and resources that help investigations and help combat serious crimes, such as narcotics trafficking and human trafficking.
“This is a tool, not a blanket immigration enforcement program,” Blount said. “Our focus is on criminals who threaten public safety — not law-abiding residents. The core mission of our department remains unchanged: responding to emergencies, enforcing traffic safety, and preventing crime in our community.”
The ACLU of Wisconsin also raised concern about racial profiling. Stateline reported that the task force agreements with ICE were discontinued in 2012 after a Department of Justice investigation found widespread racial profiling and other discrimination in an Arizona task force.
“This program tears apart communities and instills fear, and we must reject it in Wisconsin and everywhere else,” the ACLU said.
According to WISN 12 News, Blount said he will ensure there is a policy or procedure in place if the village does move forward so that residents “are protected from being profiled.”
One person was killed and several others wounded Wednesday in a shooting at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Dallas, Texas, with authorities describing it as a targeted act of violence.
“While the investigation is ongoing, an initial review of the evidence shows an ideological motive behind this attack,” FBI Director Kash Patel posted on X, sharing an image of a shell casing inscribed with the phrase ‘ANTI-ICE’.
A suspected sniper died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, officials said.
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Following the shooting, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem posted on X that ICE officers were facing “unprecedented violence against them.”
US President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown has seen almost 60,000 people arrested since his term began and sparked mass protests across the country.
A Chicago-based man who previously worked at Taco Bell has told Newsweek that he applied to join Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) because of former President Joe Biden‘s policies.
Alexander Acevedo, who worked as a shift manager at Taco Bell for eight years between 2014 and 2022, said he was motivated by concerns over public safety.
“Biden and his incompetence” led him to apply for a role with ICE, he told Newsweek.
Newsweek has reviewed Acevedo’s confirmation email from DHS, which states he applied for a role as a deportation officer. Acevedo is currently working at Jewel-Osco, a grocery store.
Alexander Acevedo, who worked as a shift manager at Taco Bell for eight years between 2014 and 2022, told Newsweek he applied to work for ICE because of former President Joe Biden’s policies. Alexander Acevedo, who worked as a shift manager at Taco Bell for eight years between 2014 and 2022, told Newsweek he applied to work for ICE because of former President Joe Biden’s policies. Alexander Acevedo
Why It Matters
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has launched a nationwide recruitment drive for ICE officers, citing a need for more personnel to manage enforcement and deportation responsibilities. DHS announced that ICE has received over 150,000 applications from Americans interested in joining the agency. ICE has issued more than 18,000 tentative job offers, according to DHS. The agency is offering several incentives, including a signing bonus of up to $50,000 and student loan repayment.
What To Know
Acevedo said he applied to ICE to help make the United States safer.
“I applied because I want to help make my country a safer place for my children and other Americans. I want to help my country, my city has a big illegal problem,” he said.
He praised the Trump administration’s efforts to conduct widespread deportations as it looks to remove millions of undocumented immigrants.
Chicago has seen increased federal attention in recent weeks as ICE has conducted multiple operations targeting individuals with outstanding deportation orders, often in coordination with local law enforcement.
The Trump administration has ramped up immigration enforcement in Chicago through Operation Midway Blitz, targeting individuals in the country without legal status who have criminal records or pending charges.
Operation Midway Blitz was launched in connection with the death of Katie Abraham, a 20-year-old Illinois college student killed in a hit-and-run incident. This allegedly involved Guatemalan national Julio Cucul-Bol, who was not legally in the U.S. and had used forged documents to hide his identity, police said. The operation has prompted protests in the city from groups advocating for the protection of undocumented immigrants.
The increased enforcement follows President Donald Trump‘s statements about deploying the National Guard to Chicago to address crime.
Acevedo described the federal efforts as “great for the city,” saying he is “thankful for President Trump” and supportive of any enforcement action to deport migrants without legal status.
Acevedo criticized Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.
“Pritzker cares more about criminals and illegal immigrants than American citizens,” Acevedo said, calling the governor “the dumbest person in Illinois politics.”
On Mayor Johnson, he said: “Brandon Johnson is just a racist tool put in to get the minority vote. He doesn’t know anything about politics.”
Newsweek has contacted the offices of both Johnson and Pritzker for comment.
Acevedo, who is Puerto Rican and voted for Trump, is still waiting to hear back from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on the status of his application.
People born in Puerto Rico have been automatically U.S. citizens since July 25, 1917, when the Jones-Shafroth Act was passed. This law granted citizenship at birth to all Puerto Ricans, making them U.S. citizens without the need for naturalization. Although Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory and not a state, its residents enjoy most of the same rights as citizens in the states, except that, for example, they cannot vote in presidential elections while living on the island.
Montgomery County officials are trying to reassure communities rattled by an incident involving the immigration arrest of two men near a Silver Spring middle school.
Montgomery County officials are trying to reassure communities rattled by an incident involving the arrest of two men near a Silver Spring middle school in Maryland.
According to an account posted by Montgomery County Councilmember Kristin Mink on her Facebook page, an Eastern Middle School parent described the arrest as being carried out by “Two heavily armed, masked men.” The parent said two men were chased, detained and then walked handcuffed along the sidewalk near the school.
In a message to the Montgomery County school community posted on the school system’s website on Tuesday, Montgomery County Public School Superintendent Thomas Taylor referred to the Sept. 10 incident as a “federal immigration enforcement action,” and said, “For many in our community, immigration enforcement is not simply a policy issue; it is deeply personal.”
Taylor restated his commitment to what he called “Strict Protocols for Immigration Enforcement Visits” and described the procedures that the schools follow in those cases.
During a briefing with reporters on Wednesday, Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich called the incident “destabilizing” for children who witnessed it, which happened when children and parents were arriving for the morning drop-off at the middle school.
“I’m sure that makes the kids even more nervous about coming to school, and that’s the last thing we need,” he said.
Erlich said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told Council officials that they weren’t going to do enforcement actions at schools.
During Elrich’s briefing, Louisa Cardona, recently appointed the county’s assistant chief administrative officer, urged families to “please make sure that your family has a family preparedness plan, please encourage your neighbors” to do the same, she said, suggesting that families contact the Gilchrist Immigrant Resource Center for more information.
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FRISCO, Colo. — Denver7 is pushing US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for answers one day after it conducted an operation at a Mexican restaurant in Frisco.
Sources confirmed to Denver7 Investigates that Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) executed a criminal warrant on Tuesday at Hacienda Real, a Mexican restaurant in Frisco.
Deputies responded to Straight Creek Drive to address community safety and traffic, but are “not providing support or assistance for this operation, nor has ICE requested any,” according to a statement by the sheriff’s office.
“As far as we know, this is a targeted criminal investigation, not civil immigration enforcement,” said Summit County Sheriff Jaime FitzSimons.
The sheriff’s office insisted its agency was only made aware of the operation as it began through a call to dispatch, per the sheriff.
Denver7 Investigates
ICE, Homeland Security operation unfolds at Mexican restaurant in Summit County
Hacienda Real Mexican Cuisine took to its Facebook page Tuesday evening, saying, “An anonymous call was made reporting that we had undocumented workers in our restaurant.”
The restaurant continued, “For several months, we have been cooperating with the authorities and providing all documents requested by ICE. Unfortunately, this process led to a broader inspection of the restaurant.”
Denver7 reached out to ICE multiple times on Wednesday for details on the operation and whether any arrests were made, but didn’t hear back as of the publication of this article.
Denver7
Email to ICE
Alex Sanchez, president and CEO of Voces Unidas, spoke with Denver7 via phone on Wednesday, saying the organization began receiving calls into its immigration hotline shortly after federal agents showed up in Frisco.
“We started to receive calls yesterday out of Summit County right about 11:15 in the morning,” Sanchez told Denver7. “Agents were being observed at being on the mall in Frisco, in between Walmart and Safeway, and specifically in and around a Mexican restaurant. We started to get calls from multiple sources.”
Denver7
Hacienda Real Mexican Cuisine in Frisco
“We started to receive videos, photos, as well as first-hand witness reports about what they were seeing and also not seeing,” Sanchez added. “Our team took all of those reports, and we started to investigate.”
Savanna Goodman is one of many Frisco residents who stopped by Hacienda Real Mexican Cuisine on Wednesday, taking the time to read the sign posted on the door.
“I was working a wedding, and they had booked Hacienda as their caterer, and the ICE raid happened, and there was no food for 75 people, and they had to pull strings,” she told Denver7. “Things are affecting people. This is real, guys, it’s real.”
Denver7
Hacienda Real in Frisco
Goodman told Denver7 she works in the restaurant business in Summit County and heard several restaurants in Frisco and nearby Breckenridge chose to close amid the operation at Hacienda Real Mexican Cuisine.
“Many businesses made decisions to shorten the day,” Sanchez said. “Many workers were questioning whether they should be leaving the area, whether they should be returning home.”
Denver7 Marianne McKiernan reached out to Denver7, saying she was in Summit County and witnessed the closure of several restaurants.
Denver7
Denver7 also reached out to the Colorado Restaurant Association regarding Tuesday’s operation at the Frisco restaurant. A spokesperson provided the following statement:
“We were sorry to hear that there was ICE activity in Summit County yesterday and are focusing our efforts on making sure that our members know how to prepare for a potential ICE visit, including how to prepare their teams. The last thing restaurants need right now is scared employees who are afraid to come to work because of the threat of ICE raids and potential detainment, even for those who are legally working and living here. Can you imagine being separated from your family, community, and source of income when you’ve done nothing wrong? Operating a restaurant is challenging enough right now without low staff turnout due to the threat of ICE activity.” –Nick Hoover, Colorado Restaurant Association Government Affairs Director
Denver7 | Your Voice: Get in touch with Veronica Acosta
Denver7’s Veronica Acosta covers stories that have an impact in all of Colorado’s communities, but specializes in reporting on immigration and wildfire management in our state. If you’d like to get in touch with Veronica, fill out the form below to send her an email.
She got to the base’s main gate at 6:30 a.m. Wednesday, dressed in her Army boots and a red and black dress adorned with embroidered flowers, one of two identical dresses she and her daughter received from her aunt on a family trip to Guadalajara.
The boots, she said, were for confidence, the dress to symbolize her Mexican heritage.
Lina Alvarez spearheaded a protest outside Naval Station Great Lakes on Sept. 6 that drew hundreds of people opposed to its use as a base of operations for President Donald Trump’s planned immigration “blitz” on Chicago.
Four days later, the 42-year-old retired U.S. Army sergeant first class returned to the North Chicago base alone, carrying two flags — American and Mexican — bound together as one and a poster board on which she wrote in green marker:
IMAGINE 4 deployments IEDs Small arms fire Indirect fire Soldier’s suicide PTSD But I must prove I’m American when they ask?
“I came here to be a voice for people who are too scared to come out here,” Alvarez said. “I came here to try to make the world a little bit safer for my daughter. I came here because last Saturday was the first time I felt a little bit of hope.”
While the Trump administration has singled out Chicago for immigration sweeps this month — dubbed “Operation Midway Blitz” — and a possible National Guard deployment aimed, he’s said, at curbing the city’s endemic crime, those threats have stirred considerable pushback from residents and leaders across the suburbs who have organized protests and publicly condemned the spectre of federal incursions.
Tensions over immigration enforcement were heightened Friday after the agency reported that one of its agents shot and killed a man who struck and dragged the officer during a traffic stop in west suburban Franklin Park. The agent suffered severe injuries, the agency reported.
But suburban protests had mounted even before the shooting. In Downers Grove a few hundred people rallied Sunday outside a hotel after immigration advocates spotted Department of Homeland Security vehicles in the parking lot and suspected federal agents were staying there.
A day earlier, a similar-sized crowd gathered near a Wheaton grocery store to protest federal immigration raids, some carrying signs that read: ICE is not welcome here. And on Friday, dozens protested outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center in Broadview.
A protester yells at federal agents as the officers attempt to clear a path for their vehicles to enter and exit the ICE facility in Broadview on Sept. 12, 2025. (Dominic Di Palermo/Chicago Tribune)
A protester yells “Shame!” at federal agents during a protest at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview on Sept. 12, 2025. (Dominic Di Palermo/Chicago Tribune)
A federal agent watches from the roof while demonstrators scream during a protest at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview on Sept. 12, 2025. (Dominic Di Palermo/Chicago Tribune)
Federal agents emerge from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview to push back protesters to allow vehicles to enter the facility on Sept. 12, 2025. One agent fired a nonlethal pepper ball into the crowd. (Dominic Di Palermo/Chicago Tribune)
Vehicles with federal agents drive close to protesters attempting to block their path to the Broadview ICE processing facility on Sept. 12, 2025. (Dominic Di Palermo/Chicago Tribune)
Federal agents head back into to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview after they cleared a path for vehicles to enter and exit the facility on Sept. 12, 2025. (Dominic Di Palermo/Chicago Tribune)
Protesters and activists shout down federal agents while vans enter the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Sept. 12, 2025. (Dominic Di Palermo/Chicago Tribune)
Protesters stand face to face with federal agents at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview on Sept. 12, 2025. (Dominic Di Palermo/Chicago Tribune)
Protesters yell at federal agents while they clear a path for vehicles to enter the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview on Sept. 12, 2025. (Dominic Di Palermo/Chicago Tribune)
Protesters and activists shout down federal agents while vans enter the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview to protest on Sept. 12, 2025. (Dominic Di Palermo/Chicago Tribune)
Protesters and activists shout down federal agents while vans enter the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview to protest on Sept. 12, 2025. (Dominic Di Palermo/Chicago Tribune)
Sandy Roelofs, general manager of New to You Upscale Resale in Broadview, delivers blankets to a federal agent at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview on Sept. 9, 2025. (Dominic Di Palermo/ Chicago Tribune)
A federal agent escorts a detainee into the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview on Sept. 9, 2025. (Dominic Di Palermo/ Chicago Tribune)
Federal agents clean off markings left by protesters on signs at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview on Sept. 5, 2025. (Dominic Di Palermo/ Chicago Tribune)
Federal agents clean markings left by protesters off of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview on Sept. 5, 2025. (Dominic Di Palermo/ Chicago Tribune)
A detainee is brought into the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview on Sept. 9, 2025. (Dominic Di Palermo/ Chicago Tribune)
Protesters and activists sit in front of a federal agent’s car to prevent it from entering the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview on Sept. 5, 2025. (Dominic Di Palermo/ Chicago Tribune)
Protesters and activists sing and chant with a drum circle while protesting outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview on Sept. 5, 2025. (Dominic Di Palermo/ Chicago Tribune)
Protesters and activists join hands and sing “We Shall Overcome” outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview on Sept. 5, 2025. (Dominic Di Palermo/ Chicago Tribune)
A federal agent drives off after being blocked by protesters while trying to enter the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview on Sept. 5, 2025. (Dominic Di Palermo/ Chicago Tribune)
Protesters and activists sit in front of a gate to prevent vehicles from entering the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview on Sept. 5, 2025. (Dominic Di Palermo/ Chicago Tribune)
Protesters and activists sit and join hands in front of a federal agent’s car to prevent it from entering the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview on Sept. 5, 2025. (Dominic Di Palermo/ Chicago Tribune)
Protesters and activists sit and join hands in front of a federal agent’s car to prevent it from entering the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview on Sept. 5, 2025. (Dominic Di Palermo/ Chicago Tribune)
Broadview police watch and ask protestors to move as protesters and activists sit and join hands in front of a federal agent’s car to prevent it from entering the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview on Sept. 5, 2025. (Dominic Di Palermo/ Chicago Tribune)
A federal agent enters an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview while protesters and activists shout on Sept. 5, 2025. (Dominic Di Palermo/ Chicago Tribune)
A protester, who declined to be named, leads others in a chant outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview on Sept. 5, 2025. (Dominic Di Palermo/ Chicago Tribune)
Joaquín Martínez of Des Plaines flies an “Our Lady of Guadalupe” flag after praying the rosary with a prayer group that met during a protest on Sept. 5, 2025, at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview. The group has been meeting at the facility every Friday since 2006 and praying for the immigrants that are held inside. Martínez has been attending for 18 years. (Dominic Di Palermo/ Chicago Tribune)
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A protester yells at federal agents as the officers attempt to clear a path for their vehicles to enter and exit the ICE facility in Broadview on Sept. 12, 2025. (Dominic Di Palermo/Chicago Tribune)
More rallies have been scheduled in Broadview and in other communities in the coming days, as suburbs that were once Republican strongholds have turned reliably Democrat-blue in the past decade. The demonstrations reflect both the disdain for Trump among an increasingly less conservative electorate and a significant suburban immigrant population that surpasses that of the city itself.
“It’s been historic,” said Cristobal Cavazos, co-founder of Immigrant Solidarity DuPage and Casa DuPage Workers Center. “I’m just so proud of our level of activity. When I first got into activism, the suburbs were seen as a land of conservative white folks. But that’s changing.”
Suburban mayors speak out
As ICE activity has ramped up, some suburban mayors have spoken out against the raids.
“We have communicated in partnership with the county that uninvited, unwanted and unjustified (presence) from ICE is unwelcomed,” Maywood Mayor Nathanial George Booker said in a statement. “Together, we will ensure that no show of force is stronger than a united community.”
Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss has joined protesters opposing ICE actions, going online to describe the situation as an emergency in which “we are under attack.” He has gotten rapid response training and gone to Pilsen to warn residents to know their rights in case of ICE detention, saying it’s “unacceptable” for masked federal agents without any identification to “snatch” people off the street.
In North Chicago, where DHS and ICE have a temporary office at Great Lakes Naval Station, Mayor Leon Rockingham Jr. joined a news conference with Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, who spoke out against ICE.
“If people have broken the law, they should be detained and brought to justice,” Rockingham later told the Tribune. “But we have a 40% Latino community, and the majority of them are hardworking, they have homes, they pay property taxes, and they’re living to raise a family. They shouldn’t have to live in fear. That’s not right.”
From left, U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider and North Chicago Mayor Leon Rockingham Jr. hold a news conference in North Chicago on Sept. 5, 2025, to discuss President Donald Trump’s plan to use Naval Station Great Lakes as a hub for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
Both Rockingham and Waukegan Mayor Sam Cunningham emphasized that their police departments won’t cooperate with ICE on immigration enforcement, a policy which is set by state law.
In west suburban Broadview, protesters have repeatedly marched and prayed outside an ICE facility there that Mayor Katrina Thompson said would be used as a primary processing center for detainees for about 45 days.
Thompson didn’t criticize the operation, but issued a statement that the village police would work with state and Cook County law enforcement to maintain safety and order as ICE operations unfold.
“Additionally, because Broadview respects the rule of law, we will defend the constitutionally protected right to peaceful protest and will accept no interference with that right,” Thompson said. “Simultaneously, we will reject any illegal behavior that puts Broadview police officers’ safety or the safety of local businesses and residents at risk.”
While the suburbs are home to a sizable immigrant population, the municipalities have not always been welcoming.
When Texas sent busloads of immigrants to the region in 2023 and 2024, most affected suburbs immediately sent the arrivals to Chicago, which officials said was better equipped to handle them as a sanctuary city. Several suburbs, citing a lack of resources for immigrants, passed ordinances restricting the buses or preventing migrants from being housed in their communities.
Earlier this month, a group of 50 people — some holding signs with messages like “stop illegal voting” — gathered in southwest suburban Orland Park for a tea party bus tour in support of a proposal to require documented proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections.
‘The strategy is working’
While the Trump administration appears to be walking back threats to deploy National Guard troops, Gov. JB Pritzker on Wednesday urged residents to remain vigilant in the face of what he expects will be increased ICE activity.
“They clearly have not gone out full force yet here with seemingly the number of people from ICE that they intended to have on the ground,” Pritzker said. “I haven’t seen all of those folks yet, but I anticipate that we will.”
Looming immigration raids have already caused the cancellation or postponement of Mexican Independence Day events slated for this weekend in Chicago, Waukegan and Wauconda.
It’s unclear how many people have thus far been swept up in the immigration blitz. At least three people were reportedly arrested along Archer Avenue on Chicago’s Southwest Side earlier in the week, while unconfirmed ICE sightings have been reported in Cicero, Elgin, Arlington Heights and Des Plaines.
Evanston’s mayor warned of ICE agents possibly descending on the north suburb, telling local news site Evanston Now that he’d been told a DHS helicopter was spotted flying along the lakefront Monday afternoon.
The mayor, who is running for Congress to succeed U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, told the Tribune that ICE was in Evanston Wednesday and on Thursday detained someone, but he did not have further details.
Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss stands face to face with federal agents during a protest outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview on Sept. 12, 2025. (Dominic Di Palermo/Chicago Tribune)
Biss confirmed that a city worker unknowingly ticketed an unmarked Homeland Security vehicle Wednesday, but the ticket was to be rescinded because the city does not ticket law enforcement vehicles being used for work.
“ICE is deliberately keeping us guessing to not only harm some people but terrify many more,” he said. “It has nothing to do with public safety or even with immigration. It’s about targeting people based on race and ethnicity.”
Homeland Security officials said Wednesday that federal agents “arrested several dangerous criminal illegal aliens in the sanctuary city of Chicago.” The release named about a dozen arrestees.
A previous Tribune analysis of ICE data suggested that many people previously arrested by the agency had no known criminal record.
Immigrant rights advocates saw a surge in hotline call volume this week, according to one of the leading groups — at one point fielding five times as many calls in a single day than they typically received in an entire month prior to Trump’s inauguration.
The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights family support hotline received 500 calls on Tuesday alone, with the “vast majority” reporting ICE sightings, Lawrence Benito, executive director at ICIRR, told reporters Thursday morning at a news conference in Brighton Park.
Before the start of the Trump administration, the hotline received about 100 calls per month, he said.
The coalition did not have an estimate for the number of people detained this week, but it thinks the total is higher than initial federal reports because it knows of individuals who have been arrested but not included among the names publicly posted by the administration, ICIRR spokesperson Brandon Lee said.
Cavazos, the DuPage County immigration advocate, said volunteer patrols across the city and suburbs have been able to educate the public on their rights and thwart ICE activity.
“A lot of these raids and operations are failing because people are not opening the door, they’re not talking, they’re not signing anything,” he said. “ICE is going away empty-handed. … I think that the strategy is working.”
Outside the Downers Grove hotel that has been the site of repeated protests over possible federal agents staying as guests, Lombard resident Bernadette Young admitted she’s questioned if the protests or rallies she’s attended over the last nine years make a difference. But she remained hopeful the demonstrations help raise awareness.
“It brings attention to the cause and it lets people know that we’re paying attention,” the York Township Democrat said.
A small group protests on Sept. 9, 2025, against federal immigration agents outside a Hampton Inn hotel in Downers Grove where agents are reportedly staying. From left, Emily Ellsworth, of Wheaton, her sister Penny Ellsworth, of Glen Ellyn, and Katie Scott, of Naperville, were among the eight people protesting. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)
Naperville resident Katie Scott agreed.
“It’s important to be out here,” said Scott, one of eight people protesting at the hotel Tuesday afternoon. “We want ICE to know that we’re watching what they’re doing.”
‘What did I come home to?’
Lina Alvarez is not a community activist. She doesn’t think of herself as being affiliated with much.
“I feel like I’m just a mom and someone who loves my community,” she said. “But it’s hard to live under this administration.”
A North Chicago native, she joined the Army National Guard at 17 in search of a way to pay for college.
She became an active-duty Army soldier after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and spent two decades in the military, driving tactical convoys and later, overseeing logistics. She was deployed to South Korea, Iraq and Afghanistan before her retirement in 2023, military records show..
In that time, she said, she had to stay silent through the racial rhetoric of her then-commander in chief and some fellow soldiers.
“We’ve got to build a wall,” she remembered one soldier telling her during Trump’s first term. “And you’re in charge of it.”
Back home in North Chicago looking for ways to give back to her community, she started substitute teaching at the local school district.
“I wanted to decompress,” she joked.
One day this past July, she answered a phone call from her sister who, in a shaky voice, told Alvarez her 14-year-old nephew had been surrounded by four suspected ICE agents in a gas station parking lot near his home. They wore tactical gear, the teen reported to his mom, and questioned if he spoke English, if he was Mexican.
The gas station attendant, who recognized the teen from his frequent patronage, rushed to his aid, Alvarez recalled being told. He yelled at the agents to leave the boy alone, that he was an American citizen. In the commotion, Alvarez said, her nephew was able to slip away and run home.
The news left Alvarez enraged and scared. Some of her relatives, she said, are undocumented immigrants.
“We live in fear,” she said. “And it hurts. … We don’t know if they’ll be here.”
After the incident, Alvarez said the family downloaded a location-sharing app. She prohibited her daughter, 11, from riding her bicycle “unless she’s with, and it sounds horrible, but unless she’s with a group of friends who are not only Spanish.”
Lina Alvarez, a retired U.S. Army sergeant first class, carries Mexican and American flags as she makes her way to protest in front of the main gate at the Naval Station Great Lakes in North Chicago on Sept. 10, 2025. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)Lina Alvarez, a retired U.S. Army sergeant first class, wears her Army boots underneath a traditional Mexican dress as she protests in front of the Naval Station Great Lakes in North Chicago on Sept. 10, 2025. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
Then, last week, her brother called Alvarez with a request. He and his son work as outside contractors at the naval base. And despite both being American citizens, they were scared to go to work with ICE agents amassing there. He asked if Alvarez could shuttle them to their respective shifts, hopeful that the sight of her license plate identifying her as a military veteran would provide safe cover.
She asked herself: “What did I come home to?”
Then she started to form a plan to stage a protest at the naval base on Saturday.
Alvarez contacted local advocacy organizations and asked them to help spread the word. She and her daughter canvassed retail stores, stopping strangers to ask them to join, or to drive by and honk their horns in solidarity.
At the least, she figured, there would be six people protesting: She and her daughter and four other relatives who pledged to attend. Instead, hundreds came. Some estimates put the total at 600; Alvarez said the crowd near her looked the same size as her former military company: 200 people.
The moment filled her with love and pride for her community. And it meant even more to have her daughter there, she said, joking that she “got to look like a cool mom.”
When Alvarez was growing up, she said her stepfather discouraged them from speaking Spanish, preferring instead for the children to focus on their English. He didn’t want them to be thought of as being Mexican, with whatever negative connotation could be thrust upon that label.
“I understand my parents had their reasoning and they survived their circumstances, but I want the opposite for my daughter,” she said. “I want her to be a proud Mexican and an American. And if she has to stand up to people who don’t want her here, I want her to have that strength early on.”
That’s one of the reasons why Alvarez returned to the naval base Wednesday and why she plans to be out there again, as long as she feels it’s helping, even if she’s the only one.
Chicago Tribune’s Stacey Wescott, Olivia Olander, Richard Requena and freelance reporter Alicia Fabbre contributed.
More than any other recent ruling in the Supreme Court’s emergency docket, known to critics as the “shadow docket” for the speed and darkness with how decisions are made, the order in Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo has people who don’t normally follow these things up in arms. A friend from Peru messaged me, out of the blue, to try to make sense of it for him. “Please explain how the Supreme Court could come to this conclusion!” he implored.
I couldn’t, for the simple reason that the court’s supermajority didn’t offer an explanation. That is, there was no reasoning to accompany an order that lifted a judge’s injunction that, for the better part of two months, sought to prevent federal agents from makingindiscriminate stops and arrests of workers in the Los Angeles area — a campaign against work itself that has swept up people who are a threat to no one else but Stephen Miller: day laborers at Home Depot, car washers, garment-factory workers, farm workers, you name it. Not even fruteros are spared. (The government hasn’t been complying exactly, but that’s another discussion.)
The judge’s ruling was common sense: Under the Fourth Amendment, which protects everyone against unreasonable searches and seizures, a person’s race or ethnicity, the language they speak, or the kinds of jobs they hold or seek cannot be the basis for immigration sweeps and detention. Yet a silent majority of the Supreme Court blocked that ruling, with no explanation. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, didn’t hold back: “We should not have to live in a country where the Government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low-wage job,” she wrote.
Brett Kavanaugh, who just last week tried to assuage judges that the Supreme Court could be doing a better job explaining its work in the shadows, opted to shed some light on this latest decision. In the process, he laid bare his own ignorance about Los Angeles, immigrant workers, communities in which their work is valued, and what the rest of us have been seeing with our own eyes regarding these immigration raids. The tell is near the top of his concurring opinion, which no other justice joined and states as fact something that isn’t: “Illegal immigration is especially pronounced in the Los Angeles area, among other locales in the United States.”
Anyone who knows even a little bit about Los Angeles, New York City, the District of Columbia, or other “locales” where immigrants breathe, live, work, and have families — many of them married to U.S. citizens, with children born here, or other deep roots — can attest that “illegal immigration,” the way Kavanaugh conceives of it, is a mirage. People with immigrant backgrounds simply exist in these cities and communities, and no one — except immigration authorities — goes around wondering who is or isn’t an immigrant, who does or doesn’t have papers, who crossed the border or flew in and overstayed their tourist visa. That just isn’t a thing. In many parts of California, there are people of Mexican descent whose families predated the Mexican-American War. Merely questioning their right to belong offends their very sense of self.
Kavanaugh appears to deeply care about who belongs and who doesn’t, at one point referencing a trope that anti-immigration proponents like to advance — that there are people who “are not only violating the immigration laws but also jumping in front of those noncitizens who follow the rules and wait in line to immigrate into the United States through the legal immigration process.” A notion that is cut from the same cloth as the so-called good-immigrant-bad-immigrant binary.
But even assuming that people cared about a person’s provenance, or whether they had authorization to be here, or carried identification with them, not only would the inquiry inevitably ensnare U.S. citizens, as has been the case; it would sweep far more than the modest, low-wage work and workers implicated by the Supreme Court’s decision. As Ahilan Arulanantham, an immigration scholar from Los Angeles, told me not too long ago, in Southern California specifically, “there are undocumented lawyers, there are undocumented accountants, there are undocumented doctors, lots of small-business owners, some people with advanced degrees.” In this reality, he added, the Trump administration’s onslaught “is felt actually throughout the social and economic fabric of the city.”
Worse still, the way Kavanaugh imagines these immigration sweeps to be are detached from the reality of their violence and duration. Pointing to the Immigration and Nationality Act and its regulations, which otherwise allow the government to “briefly detain” a person if agents have “a reasonable suspicion, based on specific articulable facts, that the person being questioned … is an alien illegally in the United States,” Kavanaugh thinks this dragnet of racial profiling allows people to experience a short inconvenience before they resume their daily activities. “If the officers learn that the individual they stopped is a U.S. citizen or otherwise lawfully in the United States, they promptly let the individual go,” he writes. “If the individual is illegally in the United States, the officers may arrest the individual and initiate the process for removal.”
As Sherrilyn Ifill, a civil-rights lawyer and the former president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund observed on Substack, just about everything Kavanaugh wrote in that rundown has no support in the factual record of the case, let alone the public record that we ourselves have had to bear witness to. “Every aspect of this description is belied by the reality that appears on our televisions and online every day.” She added: “But who are you going to believe — Justice Kavanaugh or your lying eyes? Kavanaugh’s description reads as though it were downloaded from the Department of Homeland Security’s website.”
But even if this fantasy world that Kavanaugh imagines were true, there’s the added complication that no law supersedes the Constitution. As Justice Sotomayor points out in dissent, even if such a made-up statute existed, “no Act of Congress can authorize a violation of the Constitution,” and it is up to judges to “decide whether the Fourth Amendment allows” these kinds of unreasonable stops.
All of this leads me to wonder: Has Brett Kavanaugh ever pulled up to a Home Depot to hire a day laborer to work on his backyard? Has he bought fresh-cut mangoes from a frutero? What about getting his car vacuumed and washed by an ensemble of workers? Does he leave a tip for the Central American hotel worker who cleans up his rooms? Has he gotten his hair cut by a Dominican barber? And can he imagine himself interacting with any of these workers, who may or may not be undocumented, during an ICE sweep that lands them in an unmarked vehicle, manned by masked agents of the state, subjecting them and their families to untold trauma until their release, which may not happen for days, if at all? Because I’ve done all of those things, and I can — and now I wonder if I might one day be swept up with them, too.
If he can’t do that, then it might have been wiser to keep silent, like his colleagues in the majority did — and wait until the issue returns to the Supreme Court. Because the issue will return — if not in the same California case, in another one from New York, D.C., or another city where the president of the United States has been dreaming of a national police force, unbound by law.
Donald Trump told reporters on Friday that he might send national guard troops into Portland, Oregon, apparently because he was misled about the scale of small protests outside an immigration detention facility there by a TV report that incorrectly presented video recorded during a protest in 2020 as having taken place in the city this summer.
“I will say this, I watched today, I didn’t know that was continuing to go on, but Portland is unbelievable, what’s going on,” Trump said. He then claimed, incorrectly, that he had seen video evidence of “the destruction of the city”.
In fact, a handful of protesters have demonstrated outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in a remote area of Portland along the south waterfront this year, but the scale of the protests, which attract dozens at most, is nothing like the 2020 protests following the police killing of George Floyd that regularly drew thousands to tens of thousands of demonstrators to a central part of the city for more than two months.
“Are you going into Portland?” a reporter asked Trump.
“Well, I’m going to look at it now because I didn’t know that was still going on. This has been going on for years,” the president replied. He then explained how he had been misled into the entirely false belief that the large-scale protests from 2020 had continued.
“We’ll be able to stop that very easily, but that was not on my list, Portland, but when I watched television last night, this has been going on,” Trump said.
“Like other mayors across the country, I have not asked for – and do not need – federal intervention,” Portland mayor Keith Wilson said in a statement on Friday. “We are proud that Portland police have successfully protected freedom of expression while addressing occasional violence and property destruction that takes place during protests at the ICE facility in Portland. We anticipate that the site, and the half-block surrounding it, will continue to be a focus of protests. Portland will continue to rise to the moment as a proud sanctuary city, taking legal action to stand up for our community and our rights.”
The president did not cite the specific news report that he was basing his impression on, but Fox News broadcast a report on Thursday that mixed images of a recent protest in Portland, attended by dozens of protesters, with a viral video clip from 2020 of one protester, Christopher David, being pepper-sprayed in the face by a federal agent that was wrongly described as having been shot in June of this year.
The report focused mainly on one protest outside the facility on Tuesday, attended by dozens of protesters who brought a guillotine as a prop before being doused with chemical agents by federal officers.
“These are paid terrorists,” the president said, once again spreading a baseless conspiracy theory his administration amplified about anti-fascist protesters in 2020.
“These are paid agitators, these are professional. I watched that last night, I’m very good at this stuff. These are paid agitators, they get paid money by radical left groups,” the president claimed.
He went on to suggest that well-printed signs displayed by some protesters proved his theory, saying: “These are paid agitators and they’re very dangerous for our country and when we go there, if we go to Portland, we’re going to wipe ’em out. They’re going to be gone. They won’t even stand to fight. They will not stay there. They’ve ruined that city.”
“It’s like living in hell,” the president said, describing an imaginary version of Portland that bears no resemblance to the actual city, in which fences around the federal courthouse that was the scene of mass protests in 2020 have been removed and the central police headquarters no longer has boarded-up windows.
The Oregon attorney general, Dan Rayfield, threatened to take action if Trump sent troops to Oregon.
“Although some threats from the Trump administration may be new or surprising, this one is not: we’ve been preparing to respond since Trump returned to office,” Rayfield said. “California showed how effective our approach can be to stop federal overreach. Oregon is a safe place, and we intend to keep it that way. The president may have a lot of power, but he has to stay in his lane – and if he doesn’t, we’ll hold him accountable.”
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Field Office in Chantilly, Virginia, “is failing to maintain safe and lawful conditions” for immigrants held at the facility, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia and the National Immigration Project.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Field Office in Chantilly, Virginia, “is failing to maintain safe and lawful conditions” for immigrants held at the facility, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia and the National Immigration Project.
In an interview with WTOP, Sophia Gregg, a senior immigration attorney with ACLU of Virginia, said the ICE field office, which is designed to process immigrants, is instead serving as a makeshift holding facility.
“We’re hearing of reports of upwards of eight days people are being held there in overcrowded rooms with anywhere from 12 to 100 other people,” she said, adding there have been reports of no beds, no showers and inadequate toilet facilities.
The ACLU of Virginia also alleges that people being held at the Chantilly field office have been barred from having contact with their attorneys.
“There’s very limited information coming out about the conditions because ICE is prohibiting attorneys from witnessing, viewing and advocating for their clients who might be held there in unsafe and inhumane conditions,” Gregg said.
“They’re being told that you can’t talk to your attorney until you get to a long-term holding facility. They’re being told that attorneys can’t visit them there. This is patently unconstitutional,” Gregg said. “Everyone, regardless of immigration status, is afforded access to counsel.”
Gregg’s organization and the National Immigration Project have sent a letter to ICE officials demanding the conditions be rectified.
At minimum, Gregg said, the immigrants being held should be released or detained at a long-term facility “that has an entire infrastructure to address medical needs, to address attorney access and can provide them with safe conditions, presumably.”
WTOP has reached out to the ICE Field Office in Chantilly. The facility is described on ICE’s website as having the District of Columbia and Virginia as its “Area of Responsibility.”
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One week after classes began, D.C. schools are working to address fears from parents, students and staff over raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and a surge of federal law enforcement in the District.
President Donald Trump’s administration has put a focus on reducing illegal immigration and crime in D.C. That emphasis on crime reduction has also brought thousands of National Guard troops to the nation’s capital.
A local state lawmaker plans to introduce legislation to codify the Pennsylvania State Police’s policy against assisting Immigration and Customs Enforcement with immigration arrests.
In a news release issued Wednesday, State Rep. Abigail Salisbury (D-Allegheny) says her proposed legislation aims to prevent the Pennsylvania State Police from entering into a 287(g) agreement. She claims such an agreement would “drain critical resources from PSP” and impair the agency’s ability to assist local police departments.
Currently, Salisbury says it’s estimated that two-thirds of Pennsylvania municipalities rely on PSP coverage, at increasing costs to the agency and taxpayers.
“PSP joining a 287(g) agreement would only increase workloads, further burden taxpayers and decrease trust by the communities who rely on our state troopers,” Salisbury said.
Salisbury emphasized that the current Pennsylvania State Police policy does not support working with ICE, and no such agreement is imminent.
She noted that while PSP has adopted internal policies prohibiting assistance to ICE, these policies do not carry the force of law and can change over time.
Salisbury is actively seeking co-sponsors for her legislation to ensure the policy is codified into law.
A Mesa County sheriff’s deputy resigned Tuesday, almost three months after he was accused of violating state law by sharing information with federal officials that led to a Utah college student’s immigration arrest, according to court records.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser on Thursday dropped the lawsuit he filed against Investigator Alexander Zwinck over the incident because of the deputy’s resignation, according to court records. Weiser agreed to dismiss the case because the law no longer applies to Zwinck after his resignation, according to a motion filed last week.
A larger investigation into whether other state law enforcement officers in the region collaborated with federal officials in a Signal group chat for the purposes of federal immigration enforcement will continue, said Lawrence Pacheco, spokesman for the attorney general’s office.
“Because the laws he is accused of violating apply only to state and local employees, the attorney general’s office is dismissing the lawsuit against Mr. Zwinck but retaining the right to re-file the case if Mr. Zwinck becomes a state or local employee in the future,” Pacheco said.
Weiser alleged in the lawsuit that Zwinck knowingly assisted in federal immigration enforcement by sharing information about 19-year-old Caroline Dias Goncalves in the Signal group chat during a June 5 traffic stop on Interstate 70 near Loma.
Colorado law prohibits local law enforcement officers from carrying out civil immigration enforcement and largely blocks local police agencies from working with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The deputy purposely stalled Dias Goncalves so federal immigration officers could get into position to arrest her, and passed on details about the make and model of her car, her license plate, and her direction and timing of travel to the federal officers, knowing it would be used for immigration enforcement, Weiser said.
Zwinck pulled Dias Goncalves over because she was following a semitrailer too closely. At about 1:40 p.m., he shared a picture of her driver’s license in the Signal group chat so that federal agents could run her information through a number of databases that are only accessible to them, Weiser alleged in the lawsuit.
Zwinck questioned Dias Goncalves about her accent and where she was from — she said she was born in Brazil. He shared his location with the federal agents, who responded that they were en route. He kept Dias Goncalves for about 15 minutes, then let her go with a warning at about 1:55 p.m.
The federal agents then arrested her on immigration grounds. Dias Goncalves, who attends the University of Utah, came to the U.S. from Brazil with her family when she was 7 and overstayed a tourist visa. She has a pending asylum application, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.
The Signal group chat included a mix of local and federal officers and was used for regional drug-smuggling enforcement, according to the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office.
After the U.S. government loaded children onto planes overnight to be sent back to their native Guatemala, a federal judge temporarily blocked the flights — with the youngsters still inside — as their attorneys said authorities were violating U.S. laws and sending vulnerable kids into potential peril.The extraordinary drama played out over predawn hours on a U.S. holiday weekend and vaulted from tarmacs in Texas to a courtroom in Washington. It was the latest showdown over the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration — and the latest high-stakes clash between the administration’s enforcement efforts and legal safeguards that Congress created for vulnerable migrants.For now, hundreds of Guatemalan children who arrived unaccompanied will stay while the legal fight plays out over the coming weeks.”I do not want there to be any ambiguity,” said Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan, who said her ruling applies broadly to Guatemalan minors who arrived in the U.S. without their parents or guardians.Minutes after she wrapped up a hastily scheduled hearing Sunday afternoon, five charter buses pulled up to a plane parked at the border-area airport in Harlingen, Texas. Hours earlier, authorities had walked dozens of passengers — perhaps 50 — toward the plane in a part of the airport that’s restricted to government planes, including deportation flights. The passengers were wearing colored clothing that is used in government-run shelters for migrant children.The U.S. government insists it’s reuniting the Guatemalan children with parents or guardians who sought their return. Lawyers for at least some of the minors say that’s nonsense and argue that in any event, authorities still would have to follow a legal process that they did not.While Sunday’s court hearing came in a case filed in federal court in Washington, similar emergency requests were filed in other parts of the country as well. Attorneys in Arizona and Illinois asked federal judges there to block deportations of unaccompanied minors, underscoring how the fight over the government’s efforts has quickly spread.Alarm bells raised among immigrant advocatesThe episode has raised alarms among immigrant advocates, who say it may represent a violation of federal laws designed to protect children who arrive without their parents.Shaina Aber of Acacia Center for Justice, an immigrant legal defense group, said it was notified Saturday evening that an official list had been drafted with the names of Guatemalan children whom the U.S. administration would attempt to send back to their home country. Advocates learned that the flights would leave from the Texas cities of Harlingen and El Paso, Aber said.She said she’d heard that federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials “were still taking the children,” having not gotten any guidance about the court order.The Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Sunday.Trump administration plans to remove nearly 700 Guatemalan childrenThe Trump administration is planning to remove nearly 700 Guatemalan children who came to the U.S. unaccompanied, according to a letter sent Friday by Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon. The Guatemalan government has said it is ready to take them in.It is another step in the Trump administration’s sweeping immigration enforcement efforts, which include plans to send a surge of officers to Chicago for an immigration crackdown, ramping up deportations and ending protections for people who have had permission to live and work in the United States.Lawyers for the Guatemalan children said the U.S. government doesn’t have the authority to remove the youngsters and is depriving them of due process by preventing them from pursuing asylum claims or immigration relief. Many have active cases in immigration courts, according to the attorneys’ court filing in Washington.Although the children are supposed to be in the care and custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, the government is “illegally transferring them to Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody to put them on flights to Guatemala, where they may face abuse, neglect, persecution, or torture,” argues the filing by attorneys with the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights and the National Immigration Law Center.An attorney with another advocacy group, the National Center for Youth Law, said the organization starting hearing a few weeks ago from legal service providers that Homeland Security Investigations agents were interviewing children — particularly from Guatemala — in Office of Refugee Resettlement facilities. HSI is ICE’s investigative arm.The agents asked the children about their relatives in Guatemala, said the attorney, Becky Wolozin.Then, on Friday, advocates across the country began getting word that their young clients’ immigration court hearings were being canceled, Wolozin said.Migrant children traveling without their parents or guardians are handed over to the Office of Refugee Resettlement when they are encountered by officials along the U.S.-Mexico border. Once in the U.S., the children often live in government-supervised shelters or with foster care families until they can be released to a sponsor — usually a family member — living in the country.The minors can request asylum, juvenile immigration status or visas for victims of sexual exploitation.Due to their age and often traumatic experiences getting to the U.S., their treatment is one of the most sensitive issues in immigration. Advocacy groups already have sued to ask courts to halt new Trump administration vetting procedures for unaccompanied children, saying the changes are keeping families separated longer and are inhumane.Guatemala says it is willing to receive the unaccompanied minorsGuatemalan Foreign Affairs Minister Carlos Martínez said Friday that the government has told the U.S. it is willing to receive hundreds of Guatemalan minors who arrived in the U.S. unaccompanied and are being held in government facilities.Guatemala is particularly concerned about minors who could pass age limits for the children’s facilities and be sent to adult detention centers, he said.President Bernardo Arévalo has said that his government has a moral and legal obligation to advocate for the children. His comments came days after U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem visited Guatemala.___Santana reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Jennifer Peltz in New York and Corey Williams in Detroit contributed.
After the U.S. government loaded children onto planes overnight to be sent back to their native Guatemala, a federal judge temporarily blocked the flights — with the youngsters still inside — as their attorneys said authorities were violating U.S. laws and sending vulnerable kids into potential peril.
The extraordinary drama played out over predawn hours on a U.S. holiday weekend and vaulted from tarmacs in Texas to a courtroom in Washington. It was the latest showdown over the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration — and the latest high-stakes clash between the administration’s enforcement efforts and legal safeguards that Congress created for vulnerable migrants.
For now, hundreds of Guatemalan children who arrived unaccompanied will stay while the legal fight plays out over the coming weeks.
“I do not want there to be any ambiguity,” said Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan, who said her ruling applies broadly to Guatemalan minors who arrived in the U.S. without their parents or guardians.
Minutes after she wrapped up a hastily scheduled hearing Sunday afternoon, five charter buses pulled up to a plane parked at the border-area airport in Harlingen, Texas. Hours earlier, authorities had walked dozens of passengers — perhaps 50 — toward the plane in a part of the airport that’s restricted to government planes, including deportation flights. The passengers were wearing colored clothing that is used in government-run shelters for migrant children.
The U.S. government insists it’s reuniting the Guatemalan children with parents or guardians who sought their return. Lawyers for at least some of the minors say that’s nonsense and argue that in any event, authorities still would have to follow a legal process that they did not.
While Sunday’s court hearing came in a case filed in federal court in Washington, similar emergency requests were filed in other parts of the country as well. Attorneys in Arizona and Illinois asked federal judges there to block deportations of unaccompanied minors, underscoring how the fight over the government’s efforts has quickly spread.
Alarm bells raised among immigrant advocates
The episode has raised alarms among immigrant advocates, who say it may represent a violation of federal laws designed to protect children who arrive without their parents.
Shaina Aber of Acacia Center for Justice, an immigrant legal defense group, said it was notified Saturday evening that an official list had been drafted with the names of Guatemalan children whom the U.S. administration would attempt to send back to their home country. Advocates learned that the flights would leave from the Texas cities of Harlingen and El Paso, Aber said.
She said she’d heard that federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials “were still taking the children,” having not gotten any guidance about the court order.
The Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Sunday.
Trump administration plans to remove nearly 700 Guatemalan children
The Trump administration is planning to remove nearly 700 Guatemalan children who came to the U.S. unaccompanied, according to a letter sent Friday by Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon. The Guatemalan government has said it is ready to take them in.
It is another step in the Trump administration’s sweeping immigration enforcement efforts, which include plans to send a surge of officers to Chicago for an immigration crackdown, ramping up deportations and ending protections for people who have had permission to live and work in the United States.
Lawyers for the Guatemalan children said the U.S. government doesn’t have the authority to remove the youngsters and is depriving them of due process by preventing them from pursuing asylum claims or immigration relief. Many have active cases in immigration courts, according to the attorneys’ court filing in Washington.
Although the children are supposed to be in the care and custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, the government is “illegally transferring them to Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody to put them on flights to Guatemala, where they may face abuse, neglect, persecution, or torture,” argues the filing by attorneys with the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights and the National Immigration Law Center.
An attorney with another advocacy group, the National Center for Youth Law, said the organization starting hearing a few weeks ago from legal service providers that Homeland Security Investigations agents were interviewing children — particularly from Guatemala — in Office of Refugee Resettlement facilities. HSI is ICE’s investigative arm.
The agents asked the children about their relatives in Guatemala, said the attorney, Becky Wolozin.
Then, on Friday, advocates across the country began getting word that their young clients’ immigration court hearings were being canceled, Wolozin said.
Migrant children traveling without their parents or guardians are handed over to the Office of Refugee Resettlement when they are encountered by officials along the U.S.-Mexico border. Once in the U.S., the children often live in government-supervised shelters or with foster care families until they can be released to a sponsor — usually a family member — living in the country.
The minors can request asylum, juvenile immigration status or visas for victims of sexual exploitation.
Due to their age and often traumatic experiences getting to the U.S., their treatment is one of the most sensitive issues in immigration. Advocacy groups already have sued to ask courts to halt new Trump administration vetting procedures for unaccompanied children, saying the changes are keeping families separated longer and are inhumane.
Guatemala says it is willing to receive the unaccompanied minors
Guatemalan Foreign Affairs Minister Carlos Martínez said Friday that the government has told the U.S. it is willing to receive hundreds of Guatemalan minors who arrived in the U.S. unaccompanied and are being held in government facilities.
Guatemala is particularly concerned about minors who could pass age limits for the children’s facilities and be sent to adult detention centers, he said.
President Bernardo Arévalo has said that his government has a moral and legal obligation to advocate for the children. His comments came days after U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem visited Guatemala.
___
Santana reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Jennifer Peltz in New York and Corey Williams in Detroit contributed.
SACRAMENTO, California — Gavin Newsom warned the country is on the precipice of tipping into authoritarianism, predicting that President Donald Trump does not want to leave office after his term ends and accusing federal immigration officials of acting as “the largest private police force in history.”
The California governor, speaking at POLITICO’s “The California Agenda: Sacramento Summit” on Wednesday, repeatedly urged the audience to “wake up” to dangers he said are posed by the president. He cast Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, as well as Border Patrol agents, as acting in Trump’s interests instead of the general public.
“When they’re done with this — all that funding and that ‘big beautiful betrayal’ allows more resources for this private police force that increasingly is showing a tendency not to swear an oath to the Constitution, but to the president of the United States,” Newsom said.
Newsom — stating that “the rule of law is being replaced by the rule of Don” — predicted the federal agents would be sent to voting booths and polling places across the country. But he later questioned whether there would be future democratic elections at all.
“I don’t think Donald Trump wants another election,” he said, adding he has two dozen “Trump 2028” hats sent to him by the president’s supporters. He suggested that people dismissing talk of a third term were naive.
Trump said this month he would “probably not” run for a third term, which would be in violation of the Constitution.
“We’re losing this country in real time,” Newsom said. “It’s not bloviation, not exaggeration. It’s happening.”
Washington — Kilmar Abrego Garcia is being processed for deportation to Uganda, the Department of Homeland Security said, after he was taken into custody Monday by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, days after his release from criminal custody.
Abrego Garcia, a native of El Salvador, was mistakenly deported to his home country in March and held in a notorious Salvadoran prison for months before being returned to the U.S. in June where he was jailed on federal human smuggling charges. A judge ruled that he should be released from detention ahead of a trial set for January.
Abrego Garcia was freed from pretrial detention last Friday. CBS News reported on Saturday that his attorneys were then sent a court-required notice of his potential deportation to Uganda. He arrived at the ICE facility on Monday morning to check in, speaking in Spanish to supporters who had gathered in a show of support outside of the facility.
“There was no need for them to take him into ICE detention. He was already on electronic monitoring from the U.S. Marshals Service and basically on house arrest,” his attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg said. “The only reason that they’ve chosen to take him into detention is to punish him. To punish him for exercising his constitutional rights.”
The Department of Homeland Security claims Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang, which his family denies.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement that ICE had arrested Abrego Garcia and was “processing him for deportation.” DHS said he is “being processed for removal to Uganda.” The U.S. reached an agreement with Uganda to accept some deportees last week.
“President Trump is not going to allow this illegal alien, who is an MS-13 gang member, human trafficker, serial domestic abuser, and child predator to terrorize American citizens any longer,” Noem said.
Sandoval-Moshenberg said Abrego Garcia filed a new lawsuit Monday challenging his confinement and deportation to any country “unless and until he had a fair trial in an immigration court.” In a legal filing over the weekend, Abrego Garcia’s lawyers said he was offered a plea deal that included deportation to Costa Rica. His attorneys said they then received a notice of his possible deportation to Uganda. Sandoval-Moshenberg clarified Monday that Abrego Garcia had stated that he was willing to accept refugee status in Costa Rica.
“The fact that they’re holding Costa Rica as a carrot and using Uganda as a stick to try to coerce him to plead guilty to a crime is such clear evidence that they’re weaponizing the immigration system in a manner that is completely unconstitutional,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said Monday.
Sandoval-Moshenberg said an ICE officer did not answer when asked about the reason for Abrego Garcia’s detention and would not say which detention center he would be taken to, or commit to providing paperwork.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat who traveled to El Salvador to advocate for the return of Abrego Garcia earlier this year, met with him Sunday. Van Hollen said in a statement that he was glad to “welcome him back to Maryland after what has been a long and torturous nightmare.”
“The federal courts and public outcry forced the Administration to bring Ábrego García back to Maryland, but Trump’s cronies continue to lie about the facts in his case and they are engaged in a malicious abuse of power as they threaten to deport him to Uganda — to block his chance to defend himself against the new charges they brought,” Van Hollen said. “As I told Kilmar and his wife Jennifer, we will stay in this fight for justice and due process because if his rights are denied, the rights of everyone else are put at risk.”
An immigration judge ruled in 2019 that Abrego Garcia may not be deported to El Salvador because he feared persecution by local gangs in the Central American country.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore advocated for due process for Abrego Garcia on Sunday, saying on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that “I just simply want a court and a judge to decide what is going to be the future fate of this case and all cases like this, and not simply the president of the United States or the secretary of homeland security who is trying to be judge, juror, prosecutor and executioner inside this case.”
