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Timeline › 2026 › January › 26

January 26, 2026

7 entries on this date.

Chief Judge Schiltz found ICE, DHS Secretary Noem, and Acting Director Lyons defied 'dozens' of court orders; summoned Lyons over contempt

On January 26, 2026, Minnesota Chief U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz ordered Todd Lyons, ICE's acting director, to personally appear in federal court to explain why he should not be held in contempt, finding that Lyons, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, and the acting ICE director of the agency's St. Paul field office had failed to comply with "dozens of court orders" in recent weeks. The order arose from ICE's failure to hold a court-ordered bond hearing for detainee Juan Hugo Tobay Robles, or release him, within seven days as a January 14, 2026 order had required. DHS called Schiltz an "activist judge" and did not address the specific findings of noncompliance.

Homeland Security Investigations agents pepper-sprayed bystanders during Phoenix-area Zipps raids that arrested 39 workers

On January 26, 2026, Homeland Security Investigations agents served search warrants at 15 Zipps Sports Grill locations across the Phoenix metro area, arresting 39 workers, including a married couple who had worked at the chain for 18 years. As agents left several locations, they pepper-sprayed bystanders and protesters who had gathered to watch or object, including a woman in Tempe who was hospitalized; a police-procedures expert who reviewed video of one incident found no use-of-force justification for it.

Federal prosecutors misreported ICE detainee's Maine location to court, nearly stripping habeas jurisdiction

Court filings entered Jan. 26, 2026 revealed that the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maine, relying on incorrect location information from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told a federal judge that immigration detainee Cristian Yair de la Cruz Guillermo had been moved to Massachusetts -- which would have stripped the Maine court of habeas jurisdiction over his case -- before correcting the claim the same day to say he remained in Fort Fairfield, Maine. U.S. District Judge John Woodcock Jr. then issued a temporary restraining order barring CBP, ICE, DOJ and DHS officials from moving Guillermo out of state, citing a similar location misreport in an unrelated detainee's case.

Trump announced DOJ and Congress were investigating Rep. Ilhan Omar's finances amid Minnesota fraud scandal

On January 26, 2026, President Trump wrote on Truth Social that the Justice Department and Congress were "looking at" Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), tying the claim to her reported net worth and an ongoing Minnesota fraud investigation involving mostly Somali-American defendants. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters the same day that the administration was "very focused on getting to the bottom of" whether Omar was connected to the fraud rings. The Justice Department had not confirmed an active case, and Omar called the post a deflection from Trump's declining support.

FBI opens criminal probe of Minneapolis anti-ICE activists' Signal chats

On Monday, January 26, 2026, FBI Director Kash Patel said the bureau had opened a criminal investigation into encrypted Signal group chats used by Minneapolis anti-ICE activists to share descriptions and license plates of suspected immigration-enforcement vehicles. Patel disclosed the probe in an interview with conservative commentator Benny Johnson, saying it was prompted by a viral X thread from influencer Cam Higby, who claimed to have "infiltrated" the chats, and that the FBI was examining whether the activity crossed legal thresholds such as "doxxing" agents. Free-speech advocates noted that observing and documenting on-duty law enforcement is generally lawful and warned the investigation could chill protected organizing.

ICE-linked SUV accelerated at a Minnesota protest monitor before agents shouted her home address at her

Emily Beltz, 44, said that on January 26, 2026, an SUV she had been following near her Minneapolis-suburb apartment building -- after apparently identifying her home through license-plate tracking -- "suddenly turned and sped at" her car before braking hard at the last moment, while a masked agent inside shouted her home address at her. Beltz's account, along with nearly 100 other sworn statements describing federal agents in Minnesota's "Operation Metro Surge" immigration deployment identifying protest-monitors' home addresses, was later filed February 13, 2026 in an ACLU-led civil case, Tincher v. Noem.

ICE agents arrested asylum seeker Isa Maluenga Avila without explanation, detained her 18 days at Eloy

On January 26, 2026, masked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Isa Maluenga Avila, a 41-year-old Tucson asylum seeker lawfully admitted at the Nogales port of entry in 2023, without explanation as she left a bank, and sent her to Eloy Detention Center. ICE gave no reason for the arrest, and Maluenga Avila had no criminal record and no active removal case or final removal order against her. She was held 18 days in conditions she described as inhumane before an immigration judge ordered her release on February 13, 2026, after DHS moved to dismiss its case rather than respond to a federal habeas corpus petition her attorney had filed.