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Timeline

Every entry in the archive, ordered by event date. Page 20 of 42, showing March 9, 2026 to March 23, 2026. Pages contain 50 entries each; entries for a given date may continue on the next or previous page.

2026 Events (1,252)

March(108)

Pentagon declares in-building press workspace off-limits days after court ordered access restored

On March 23, 2026 — three days after a federal judge permanently enjoined the Defense Department's earlier press restrictions as unconstitutional — Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell announced that the in-building press workspace, including the decades-old "Correspondents' Corridor," was now entirely off-limits to journalists. The department said a replacement workspace would be relocated to an annex outside the Pentagon and that all journalist access would henceforth require an escort by authorized personnel. The New York Times and the Pentagon Press Association called the move a violation of the court's order and a retaliatory narrowing of press access.

USAGM leadership directed Voice of America to publish White House talking points as news, journalists' lawsuit alleged

On March 23, 2026, Voice of America journalists and press-freedom groups sued the U.S. Agency for Global Media, Kari Lake, and acting CEO Michael Rigas, alleging USAGM leadership directed VOA to publish White House talking points nearly verbatim as news and suppress disfavored coverage, including reporting on the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. The suit alleges this compelled propaganda violates the statutory firewall protecting VOA's editorial independence and the First Amendment.

Trump ordered ICE deployed to 14 airports as explicit shutdown pressure on Democrats, displacing TSA roles

On March 23, 2026, President Trump ordered armed, uniformed ICE agents deployed to at least 14 major U.S. airports — including Phoenix, Houston, Chicago, New York, and New Orleans — to staff security checkpoints alongside TSA officers during a partial government shutdown that had begun February 14, 2026. Trump stated the deployment was intended to "ramp up pressure on Democrats" over shutdown funding, and threatened to deploy the National Guard to airports if ICE's presence proved insufficient.

TSA shared passenger screening data with ICE to target and detain asylum-seeking mother at San Francisco airport

On March 23, 2026, Transportation Security Administration agents at San Francisco International Airport shared passenger screening data with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, alerting ICE that Guatemalan mother Angelina Lopez-Jimenez and her young daughter would be boarding a flight, resulting in Lopez-Jimenez's public detention in Terminal 3 as bystanders recorded the arrest. TSA had been sharing passenger information with immigration officials for roughly a year under a program flagging individuals subject to deportation orders, first reported by the New York Times in December 2025 but largely unnoticed until the SFO incident.

Trump White House declassified closed FBI file on Rep. Swalwell during his gubernatorial campaign

On March 23, 2026, the Trump White House declassified a decade-old, closed FBI investigative file on then-Rep. Eric Swalwell's past association with suspected Chinese intelligence operative Christine Fang, months before California's June 2026 gubernatorial primary in which Swalwell was a leading Democratic candidate. FBI Director Kash Patel had pushed for the file's release even though the bureau's own 2017 review found no corruption violations by Swalwell. Swalwell's attorneys sent Patel a cease-and-desist letter warning the release would violate federal privacy law and the Justice Department's norm against election-season investigatory action targeting a candidate.

Utah Gov. Cox signed HB404 letting landlords bar transgender renters from sex-designated housing

On March 23, 2026, Utah Governor Spencer Cox signed HB404, the Sex-Designated Housing Amendments, into law. The measure adds an exemption to the Utah Fair Housing Act allowing landlords to designate shared-occupancy housing as single-sex based on biological sex and to restrict occupancy accordingly, permitting the exclusion of transgender renters based on birth sex rather than gender identity.

ICE agents violently arrest mother and daughter at San Francisco International Airport

On the night of March 22, 2026, plainclothes ICE agents forcibly arrested a woman, later identified by DHS as Angelina Lopez-Jimenez, and her roughly 10-year-old daughter inside San Francisco International Airport, holding the crying woman on the floor and wheeling her away in restraints while refusing bystanders' requests to identify themselves or show badges. About a dozen San Francisco police officers formed a barrier around the agents but did not intervene. DHS said the family was subject to a 2019 final order of removal and was being repatriated to Guatemala; the arrest coincided with a new federal deployment of ICE agents to U.S. airports.

State Department declares wartime emergency to bypass Congress on $23B in Mideast arms sales

On March 20, 2026, the State Department declared a national-security "wartime emergency" to bypass Congress and force through more than $23 billion in arms sales to the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Jordan. Secretary of State Marco Rubio invoked emergency-certification authority under the Arms Export Control Act to waive the statutory congressional-review window across 11 weapons packages — some still under review on Capitol Hill, others never formally submitted to Congress. Coverage described it as the administration's second use of emergency authority to circumvent congressional approval of arms transfers since the war with Iran began.

ICE held nearly 1,560 children past 20-day Flores limit at Dilley facility over six months; 13-year-old attempted suicide after care denied

Court filings submitted March 20, 2026, and July 15, 2026, in the Flores v. Bondi/Blanche family-detention case documented that nearly 1,560 immigrant children were held at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Dilley, Texas facility beyond the 20-day limit set by the Flores settlement over a six-month window, without adequate food, medical care, or mental-health services. The March 20 filings described a 13-year-old girl who attempted suicide by cutting her wrist after Dilley staff withheld her prescribed antidepressants and denied her request to be reunited with her mother, even as the government's own records reported "no placements on suicide watch." The Department of Homeland Security disputed the allegations and reiterated that the administration is seeking to terminate the Flores settlement altogether.

DOE and Commerce awarded SoftBank a federal AI data-center land deal two months after its $50 million gift to Trump's library

On March 20, 2026, the U.S. Department of Energy and Department of Commerce announced a partnership letting SoftBank subsidiary SB Energy redevelop the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant near Piketon, Ohio into a 10-gigawatt AI data-center campus on federal land. SoftBank had donated $50 million to Trump's presidential library in January 2026, while its proposal was reported to be on the administration's shortlist for the project; congressional Democrats disclosed the donation's timing on August 6, 2026, after SoftBank confirmed the dates in a written response to their inquiry.

DOJ moved to dismiss remaining charges against ex-officers who falsified Breonna Taylor warrant

On March 20, 2026, Justice Department prosecutors under Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon asked a federal judge in Louisville to dismiss "in the interest of justice" the remaining misdemeanor civil-rights charges against former Louisville detective Joshua Jaynes and former Sgt. Kyle Meany, the two officers accused of falsifying the warrant used in the 2020 raid that killed Breonna Taylor. The charges, originally brought as felonies by DOJ under the Biden administration, had already been reduced twice to misdemeanors by judges who found no direct link between the false warrant information and Taylor's death. The dismissal request followed the same DOJ's separate push, months earlier, for early release of Brett Hankison, the only officer convicted in connection with Taylor's killing.

ICE detained breastfeeding Nashville mother with valid work permit, denied her release

On March 20, 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained Misslenys Hernandez Zabala, a Venezuelan asylum seeker with a valid work permit and Social Security number, in Nashville, Tennessee, moments after she dropped off her breastfeeding 10-month-old son with a nanny on her way to work. Despite pleas from immigrant-rights advocates citing her nursing infant and a pending court date not scheduled until 2028, ICE declined to release her.

NBC News investigation revealed Corey Lewandowski solicited kickback payments from DHS contractors GEO Group and Salus

NBC News published an investigation on March 19, 2026 reporting that Corey Lewandowski, a Department of Homeland Security special government employee functioning as de facto chief of staff to Secretary Kristi Noem, solicited payments from DHS contractors GEO Group and Salus Worldwide Solutions in exchange for protecting or securing their contracts. GEO Group's founder declined the demand, while representatives connected to Salus were told a Lewandowski-tied "consultant" needed to be hired to secure contracts worth up to $50 million. Congressional Democrats opened multiple investigations following the report, and Lewandowski denied the allegations through a spokesperson.

CDC blocks publication of cleared MMWR study showing COVID vaccine effectiveness

A CDC scientific report finding that the 2025–2026 COVID-19 vaccine roughly halved healthy adults' risk of emergency-department visits and hospitalizations was scheduled to run in the agency's flagship Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on March 19, 2026, after clearing internal scientific review. Acting CDC Director Jay Bhattacharya blocked its publication, objecting to the study's test-negative design — a methodology the CDC has long used to measure vaccine effectiveness and that appeared in an MMWR flu-vaccine study the prior month. A former CDC immunization director called blocking an already-cleared, scheduled MMWR report unprecedented.

JTF Southern Spear killed two aboard suspected narcotics vessel in eastern Pacific; 46th strike, ~158 campaign deaths

On March 19, 2026, U.S. Southern Command (Joint Task Force Southern Spear) carried out a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel it described as transiting known narco-trafficking routes in the eastern Pacific Ocean, identified by USNI News as the 46th strike since the administration's maritime lethal-force campaign began on September 1, 2025. SOUTHCOM announced the strike the next day and said it had notified the U.S. Coast Guard to activate search and rescue for survivors; the Coast Guard ultimately rescued one survivor, and two people were killed. As throughout the campaign, which by this point had killed at least 156 people, those aboard were targeted without charge, trial, identification, or judicial authorization.

State Department adds 12 countries to $15,000 visa-bond program

On March 18, 2026, the State Department added 12 countries — Cambodia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Grenada, Lesotho, Mauritius, Mongolia, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Papua New Guinea, Seychelles, and Tunisia — to its visa-bond program, requiring B-1/B-2 visitor-visa applicants from those nations to post a refundable bond of $5,000, $10,000, or $15,000 as a condition of issuance, effective April 2, 2026. The addition brings the program to 50 countries, predominantly lower-income states; bonded travelers may enter only through commercial airports and are barred from land, sea, charter, and general-aviation ports of entry.

FBI Director Kash Patel admitted under oath that FBI buys Americans' location data from brokers without a warrant

On March 18, 2026, FBI Director Kash Patel testified under oath at a Senate Intelligence Committee worldwide threats hearing in Washington, D.C. that the FBI purchases Americans' location data from commercial data brokers rather than obtaining a warrant, in response to questioning from Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). Patel said the practice is "consistent with the constitution and the laws under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act," directly reversing predecessor Christopher Wray's 2023 sworn testimony that the bureau had stopped the practice. Wyden called the warrantless purchase "an outrageous end run around the fourth amendment."

Gabbard's 2026 threat assessment drops climate and foreign election-interference analysis

On March 18, 2026, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard released the Intelligence Community's 2026 Annual Threat Assessment and testified to the Senate and House intelligence committees. The assessment omitted the climate-and-environment analysis prior editions had carried — after Gabbard gutted the National Intelligence Council office covering those issues — and Gabbard told lawmakers the IC found no evidence of foreign threats to the November 2026 midterms, a departure from the community's prior findings on Russian and other election interference. Critics charged that the IC's flagship analytic product was being shaped to fit White House messaging.

Trump administration steered no-bid federal contracts worth up to $118M to Jan. 6 rally planner's firm Event Strategies

A March 18, 2026 New York Times report, later detailed in a July 2, 2026 House Natural Resources Committee Democratic staff oversight report, found that Event Strategies Inc.—an events firm formerly led by January 6 rally planner Justin Caporale—received an indefinite-delivery federal master contract worth up to $100 million plus more than $18 million in State Department contracts tied to the America250/Freedom250 anniversary events, all awarded outside competitive bidding. The State Department contracts, described blandly as "event planning" and "event support," listed the U.S. Chief of Protocol's office under Ambassador Monica Crowley as the funding office. Since the start of 2025 the firm had received 18 federal contracts connected to the semiquincentennial.

NPR investigation revealed ICE collected DNA samples from protesters arrested at immigration enforcement operations without related charges

An NPR investigation published March 18, 2026 documented six people arrested by federal immigration officers in Minnesota, Illinois, and Oregon while observing or protesting ICE operations who were then subjected to DNA cheek swabs despite facing no charges tied to their protest conduct. In the lead case, ICE officers tackled and detained a Minneapolis protest observer, identified only as Ben, for roughly three hours in late January 2026 before swabbing him, leaving him with three broken ribs. DHS told NPR federal law requires DNA collection from those arrested or facing charges, but legal scholars said applying that authority to civil-immigration protest arrests is constitutionally doubtful.

Former Bonner Springs, Kansas detective Kyle Rector charged with using Flock cameras, police databases to stalk estranged wife

On March 18, 2026, Wyandotte County, Kansas prosecutors filed 18 criminal charges against former Bonner Springs Police Department detective Kyle Rector, 39, after a Kansas Bureau of Investigation inquiry found he used Flock Safety license-plate readers, a department crime- center database, and his patrol vehicle to track his estranged wife and two men she was allegedly involved with. The surveillance began after the couple separated in November 2025 and continued after Rector's wife obtained a protection order in January 2026, which investigators say he violated with additional database searches; Bonner Springs police had already fired him on Jan. 26, 2026.

Utah Gov. Cox signed HB 174, permanently banning hormone therapy for transgender minors

On March 18, 2026, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox signed House Bill 174, the "Sex Characteristic Change Treatment Amendments," converting the state's temporary 2023 moratorium on hormone therapy for transgender minors into a permanent ban. The law bars new hormone treatment for minors and requires most minors already receiving care to taper off within roughly six months of the law's May 2026 effective date, with a narrow exception for certain older adolescents. It passed both chambers by wide margins over the objections of civil-liberties groups.

DHS letter disclosed ICE detained 265, deported 132 abuse-survivor immigrant youths after ending SIJS deferred-action protections

A DHS letter to Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, obtained exclusively by NBC News, disclosed that ICE detained 265 and deported 132 young immigrants holding Special Immigrant Juvenile Status between January 20 and December 22, 2025. The administration ended the deferred-action policy that had generally protected SIJS recipients from deportation since 2022, and DHS did not disclose whether any of the 132 deported had criminal charges or convictions, while characterizing SIJS status as "infected with fraud."

Interim U.S. Attorney Darin Smith committed grand-jury misconduct in Wyoming case, calling defendants 'murderers'

On March 15, 2026, in Casper, Wyoming, interim U.S. Attorney Darin Smith told a federal grand jury the nine defendants in a firearms, drug, and child pornography case were "bad guys" and "murderers" before any evidence was presented, said deliberations "won't take long," and passed out business cards inviting improper ex parte contact with jurors. Three federal judges later found the conduct "deeply concerning" and dismissed the resulting indictments without prejudice.

AP investigation revealed DHS, ICE, State Department and USCIS immigration data had gone stale amid Trump's deportation push

An Associated Press investigation published March 15, 2026 found that federal immigration-enforcement data from the Department of Homeland Security, ICE, the State Department, and USCIS had gone stale or stopped updating amid the Trump administration's mass-deportation push. DHS's Office of Homeland Security Statistics had not updated its monthly enforcement reports since early 2025, ICE's arrest/removal dashboard had not updated past January 2025, and State Department and USCIS statistics had also gone stale, while DHS made inconsistent, unverifiable public claims about deportation totals. Researchers, including the UC Berkeley/UCLA Deportation Data Project, had to pursue FOIA litigation to reconstruct basic enforcement figures.

ICE detained Afghan war ally Mohammad Nazeer Paktiawal, who died in custody the next day after agents denied his inhaler

Mohammad Nazeer Paktiawal, a 41-year-old Afghan national who served alongside U.S. Army Special Forces, was detained by ICE agents outside his Richardson, Texas home on March 13, 2026, and died the next day at a Dallas hospital after suffering anaphylaxis and an asthma exacerbation in ICE custody. A death certificate reported July 6, 2026 lists the death as accidental, citing an unidentified adverse drug reaction; his family disputes the finding.

U.S. Border Patrol and ICE detained Canadian mother and her 7-year-old autistic daughter for 19 days despite valid work visa

On March 14, 2026, U.S. Border Patrol agents detained Canadian citizen Tania Warner and her seven-year-old autistic daughter, Ayla Lucas, at a checkpoint in Sarita, Texas, and ICE held them for 19 days at processing and family-detention facilities in Texas despite Warner holding a work visa valid through 2030. Neither DHS nor CBP explained the legal basis for the detention; a federal immigration judge released the pair on $9,500 bond on April 2, 2026, after finding they were not a flight risk.

ProPublica investigation revealed DHS election-security official pushed to ban voting machines, questioned Democratic wins

ProPublica reported on March 14, 2026, that David Harvilicz, the DHS assistant secretary overseeing the security of federal election infrastructure, has publicly called for banning voting machines and repeatedly questioned the validity of Democratic electoral victories. His deputy, Heather Honey, previously led the Election Integrity Network, a group that has challenged U.S. election legitimacy, and Harvilicz's team has been engaged in data-gathering efforts scouring voter rolls for noncitizens that have incorrectly flagged hundreds of citizens.

FCC Chair Carr threatens broadcasters' licenses over Iran war coverage

On Saturday, March 14, 2026, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr publicly warned that television broadcasters "running hoaxes and news distortions" about the war in Iran could "lose their licenses," telling them to "correct course before their license renewals come up." Carr issued the threat while amplifying a Truth Social post by President Trump attacking war coverage by outlets including The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. Media-law experts and lawmakers called the threat from the nation's chief broadcast regulator "authoritarian" and "unconstitutional."

CBP officer's personal vehicle struck LA protester outside federal detention center; no police report filed

On March 13, 2026, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer driving his personal vehicle struck protester Jasmin Alyssa Quan-Martinez outside the federal detention complex in downtown Los Angeles, with video showing her carried on the hood before being thrown to the curb; she sustained minor injuries. The Department of Homeland Security said roughly ten protesters had surrounded and struck the officer's car as he left work and characterized the incident as one "rioter" jumping onto a moving vehicle, an account Quan-Martinez disputed. No police report was filed and no arrests or charges had been announced in the days after.

Wright invokes Defense Production Act to override California, restart Sable oil pipelines

On March 13, 2026, President Trump signed an executive order delegating his Defense Production Act authority to Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who that same day ordered Sable Offshore Corp. to restart the Santa Ynez Unit and its offshore pipeline system along the California coast. The lines had been shut since the 2015 Refugio oil spill and remained subject to California regulatory approval; invoking the 1950 national-defense statute let the administration override the state hold, and oil resumed flowing on March 14. California Attorney General Rob Bonta sued days later, calling the order executive overreach that purported to authorize illegal oil transportation through state-regulated pipelines.

Education Department found Colorado's Jefferson County schools violated Title IX, threatened funding over trans-inclusive policies

On March 13, 2026, the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights concluded that Jefferson County Public Schools in Colorado violated Title IX by letting students access overnight accommodations, facilities, and sports teams based on gender identity rather than biological sex. OCR gave the district 10 days to sign a resolution agreement adopting biology-based eligibility rules or face enforcement, a finding Jeffco disputed as resting on a data error mistaking coaches, trainers, and mascots for male athletes on girls' teams.

Monroe County, Tenn. deputies arrested Facebook community-page operator Emma Berger over posting a public warrant

Monroe County, Tennessee sheriff's deputies arrested Emma Berger, who runs an 8,000-member community Facebook page, on a felony identity-theft charge on March 13, 2026, after she posted a publicly-filed arrest warrant that briefly contained unredacted personal information before she removed and re-posted a redacted version. District Attorney Stephen Hatchett dismissed the charge on March 23, 2026, calling it "legally flawed" and confirming his own office had originally supplied the warrant; Berger has sued Sheriff Tommy Jones alleging false arrest and a First Amendment violation.

Texas Supreme Court ordered PFLAG to turn over internal transgender-youth records in Paxton probe on a mere-belief standard

On March 13, 2026, the Texas Supreme Court reversed a Travis County judge's limits and ordered PFLAG, an LGBTQ family-advocacy organization, to turn over internal communications and provider-referral records to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's office as part of his investigation into whether medical providers are circumventing the state's ban on gender-affirming care for minors through deceptive billing. Writing for the court, Chief Justice Jimmy Blacklock held that the AG's civil-investigative-demand authority is triggered by "mere belief," not proof, and that courts should not second-guess the AG's investigatory decisions. The AG's office agreed to redactions protecting the identities of the families and children named in the records.

ICE deported four migrants to Eswatini on third third-country removal flight, bringing total to 19

On March 12, 2026, four migrants deported by the United States arrived in Eswatini, the third flight under the Trump administration's third-country removal arrangement, bringing the total transferred to the country to 19. Eswatini's government said the group included two Somali nationals and one each from Sudan and Tanzania, and confirmed they would be held at Matsapha Correctional Complex; human rights lawyers' court challenge to the removal arrangement had been dismissed at first instance, with an appeal pending.

Hegseth launches task force to ideologically review the military's senior service colleges

On March 12, 2026, Secretary of War (Defense) Pete Hegseth announced a 90-day task force to review the U.S. military's Senior Service Colleges — the Army War College, National Defense University, Naval War College, Marine Corps University, and Air War College — declaring that professional military education "should produce warfighters and leaders—not wokesters." Under Secretary for Personnel and Readiness Anthony Tata was tasked with standing up the review to scrutinize professors, administrators, and curriculum and to "rip out" courses and ideologies the department deems DEI-related, with the stated aim of refocusing the schools on national-security strategy, history, and warfighting.

VTDigger reporting revealed Vermont prisons restricted immigration attorneys' access to ICE detainees under Commissioner Murad

VTDigger reporting published March 12, 2026, revealed that the Vermont Department of Corrections progressively restricted immigration attorneys' access to ICE detainees in state prisons after Jon Murad became interim, and later permanent, Commissioner in August 2025. Attorneys with the Vermont Asylum Assistance Project said the department stopped providing detainees' alien registration numbers in September 2025 and, in late October 2025, barred attorneys from bringing personal devices or volunteer paralegals into Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in South Burlington and Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans Town for interpretation, leaving them to share a single landline. Murad disputed the characterization, saying he was enforcing preexisting policy rather than imposing new restrictions.

CNN, ProPublica reported DHS sought access to restricted HHS child-support, employment database

CNN and ProPublica reported, independently and citing current and former federal officials, that the Department of Homeland Security requested access to HHS's restricted Federal Parent Locator Service, which holds child-support and employment data on millions of Americans, reportedly for immigration enforcement purposes. DHS and HHS both denied the request on the record when asked by CNN.

ICE rammed Vermont home on mistaken identity, detained three innocent immigrants whose subsequent detentions courts ruled unlawful

On March 11, 2026, ICE agents pursued a suspect to a home on Dorset Street in South Burlington, Vermont, obtained a search warrant, pulled activists from the front steps, and rammed through the front door — but did not find the man they were seeking. Instead, agents detained three other immigrant residents; federal and immigration judges later ruled all three detentions unlawful and ordered the men released. In a revised criminal complaint filed March 24, ICE agent Colton Riley acknowledged the agency no longer believed the man they chased had even been in the vehicle that triggered the pursuit — because one of the men detained in the raid told the FBI he was the actual driver.

ICE detained 14-year-old Brazilian girl in parked car in Marlboro, Mass.; held overnight without guardian

ICE agents detained a 14-year-old Brazilian girl with an expired visitor visa in a parked car in Marlboro, Massachusetts on March 11, 2026, holding her roughly 10 hours before transporting her overnight to a New York detention facility with no appropriate guardian present. U.S. District Judge Leo T. Sorokin ordered her immediate return the next day, and she was reunited with her U.S.-citizen aunt on March 13.

ICE re-detained Sheboygan Falls mother at routine check-in despite prior court-granted cancellation of removal

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement re-detained Elvira Benitez-Suarez, a 51-year-old Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin mother of four U.S. citizen children, during a routine supervision check-in at ICE's Milwaukee field office on March 10, 2026, months after an immigration judge granted her cancellation of removal and a path to permanent residency. It was the second time Benitez-Suarez, who has lived in the U.S. for 35 years with no criminal record, had been taken into ICE custody; she was transferred to the Campbell County Detention Center in Kentucky while the Department of Homeland Security appealed the judge's ruling. Her attorney filed a federal habeas corpus petition in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky seeking her release.

Trump administration began forced third-country deportations to Moldova

ICE sent the first group of third-country nationals to Moldova on an ICE Air charter flight on March 10, 2026, the first such removal to the country, according to Human Rights First's ICE Flight Monitor. No agreement between the U.S. and Moldova has ever been disclosed; among those sent were Russian asylum seekers, including anti-war activists and draft evaders, some of whom did not speak Moldovan or have any connection to the country.

Whistleblower alleged ex-DOGE employee retained Social Security data on personal device, claimed remote-alter access

On March 10, 2026, The Washington Post reported a whistleblower's allegation that a former Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) employee at the Social Security Administration had retained copies of tightly restricted SSA databases covering nearly every living American -- including one on a personal thumb drive -- and claimed continued "God-level" access letting him remotely alter SSA records, with plans to share the data with a private-sector employer. SSA's inspector general confirmed to congressional committees it had opened an investigation into the anonymous complaint, and House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Robert Garcia demanded briefings from SSA and the OIG and requested transcribed interviews with former DOGE employees by March 23, 2026. SSA, the former employee, and the company he allegedly went to work for all disputed the allegations.

Iowa Gov. Reynolds signed SF579 barring local civil-rights protections broader than state law

On March 10, 2026, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds signed Senate File 579, amending the Iowa Civil Rights Act so that cities and counties may no longer enact anti-discrimination protections broader than or different from state law. Because Iowa statute does not include gender identity, the law nullifies local ordinances in roughly 14 cities and Johnson County — including Iowa City and Des Moines — that had extended protections to transgender residents in housing, employment, and public accommodations. It also ends the requirement that larger cities maintain independent local civil-rights agencies, routing complaints to the state.

Mississippi Secretary of State Watson rolled out unverified Experian data, marking 50,000 voters inactive and blocking some from March primaries

In July 2025, Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson's office distributed unverified consumer credit address data from Experian to all county election officials statewide, to be used as a new tool to identify voters who may have moved. Experian's TrueTrace product, which infers likely addresses from spending patterns, does not verify residency — a limitation Experian disclosed to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. Mississippi Today's investigation found the unverified data was used to mark approximately 50,000 registered voters inactive, some of whom still resided at their registered addresses and were blocked from casting a counted ballot during the March 10, 2026 congressional primaries.

Montana AG Knudsen issued a cease-and-desist ordering Helena to rescind its sanctuary-city resolution under state grant-funding threat

On March 10, 2026, Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen sent Helena a cease-and-desist letter declaring the city's January 26 sanctuary-city resolution a "blatant violation" of the state's 2021 ban on sanctuary jurisdictions and demanding the commission rescind or amend it within 15 days. The letter warned that continued non-compliance could trigger $10,000 fines for every five days out of compliance and the withholding of state grant funds, placing approximately $14 million in annual state and federal funding at risk. Facing that financial pressure, Helena's city commission voted 4–1 to rescind the resolution entirely at a six-hour special meeting on March 26, 2026.

ICE re-detained Baltimore man in defiance of federal release order, moved him toward deportation to Eswatini

On March 9, 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement re-detained Ibrahim Mohammed, a Baltimore-area Ethiopian man, roughly five weeks after a federal judge in Louisiana had ordered his release and found ICE's prior detention of him unconstitutional. ICE served Mohammed a Notice of Revocation of Release on March 10 and moved him toward the airport for removal to Eswatini, a country he had never been to, before U.S. District Judge John deGravelles issued an emergency five-day restraining order blocking his deportation. DeGravelles found no evidence Mohammed had been given the process his own order required before either the re-detention or the planned third-country removal.

FBI obtains Arizona Senate's 2020 Maricopa election audit records via grand-jury subpoena

In early March 2026 the FBI served the Arizona Senate a federal grand-jury subpoena for digital records from the chamber's discredited 2021 "audit" of Maricopa County's 2020 presidential election; Senate President Warren Petersen, a Republican, disclosed on March 9 that he had received and complied with it. The 2021 review — run by the Trump-allied firm Cyber Ninjas — had itself confirmed that Joe Biden won the county. State election officials condemned the subpoena as part of a federal campaign to relitigate an election that President Trump lost.

DOJ dropped Ticketmaster breakup demand, settled Live Nation antitrust case mid-trial; Trump had personally called CEO Rapino before deal

On March 9, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice reached a surprise mid-trial settlement with Live Nation Entertainment, abandoning its demand for Ticketmaster's divestiture and accepting structural remedies that included a fee cap and a $280 million fund — far short of the breakup the Biden-era DOJ had sought. The settlement was announced while the antitrust trial was underway in New York and blindsided the judge and the DOJ's own trial team. A court filing disclosed June 24, 2026 documented that President Trump had personally spoken with Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino before the settlement was reached, and that Live Nation had hired Trump allies during the same period.

Federal judge found ICE, Border Patrol made warrantless, race-based stops of Somali, Latino Minnesotans

U.S. District Judge Eric Tostrud ruled on March 9, 2026 that ICE and Border Patrol agents violated the Fourth Amendment by stopping and detaining Somali and Latino Minnesotans based solely on race or ethnicity during a January-February 2026 immigration enforcement surge in the Twin Cities. Of 33 witnesses examined in an ACLU class-action suit, Tostrud found 23 were subjected to stops lacking reasonable suspicion, and 17 were stopped based solely on race or ethnicity; he denied a preliminary injunction and class certification, citing the surge's wind-down.