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February 2026

96 entries from February 2026.

Feb 27

Trump orders federal agencies and contractors to cut off Anthropic over its AI-use limits

On February 27, 2026, President Trump ordered federal agencies and military contractors to halt business with the AI company Anthropic, giving the government roughly six months to phase out its products. The order followed the breakdown of Pentagon contract talks: the department sought access to Anthropic's Claude models "for all lawful purposes," while the company's acceptable-use policy barred their use for fully autonomous weapons and the mass domestic surveillance of Americans. Announcing the move on Truth Social, Trump called the company's refusal a "disastrous mistake," opening a retaliation campaign that culminated in the March 5 "supply chain risk" designation.

ICE detained Alberto Gutierrez Reyes, who died at Adelanto facility after repeated denied requests for medical care

Alberto Gutierrez Reyes, 48, died February 27, 2026 at a Victorville hospital after transfer from GEO Group's Adelanto ICE Processing Center, where he had repeatedly sought medical care for worsening symptoms. His wife said he was denied treatment; ICE said he had been evaluated before transport. Mexico later named his death among 17 in a July 2026 criminal complaint against U.S. officials, and a federal judge ordered ICE to fix Adelanto's medical care — an order the government is now appealing.

Judge found 32 warrantless Operation Midway Blitz arrests violated Castañon Nava consent decree, ordered releases

On February 27, 2026, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Cummings ruled that at least 32 warrantless arrests made by immigration agents during Operation Midway Blitz in the Chicago area violated the 2022 Castañon Nava consent decree, which permits warrantless immigration arrests only when agents have probable cause that a person is unlawfully present and a flight risk. Cummings ordered the government to release the affected detainees by noon the following Thursday; it was the second time in five months that Cummings found the same operation violated the decree.

ICE staged sham bond hearing for Iowa detainee Suraj Vasal with 30 minutes' notice and no opportunity to secure counsel

On February 27, 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement gave Suraj Vasal, an Indian asylum-seeker detained at Polk County Jail in Des Moines, Iowa, approximately 30 minutes' notice before a court-ordered bond hearing conducted via Zoom, with no information about its purpose until the call began. Vasal asked for time to secure an attorney; immigration officials denied the request and used the hearing to deny him bond. U.S. District Judge Stephen Locher later ruled that ICE's conduct violated Vasal's due process rights, finding the government had staged a "sham" hearing to satisfy a court order while ensuring Vasal remained detained.

Hegseth cancels 93 military fellowships at elite universities, bars officers from attending

In a memo signed February 27, 2026 — "Aligning Senior Service College Opportunities With American Values" — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the cancellation of about 93 Pentagon-funded Senior Service College fellowships at roughly 22 civilian universities, including Princeton, Yale, Columbia, Brown, MIT, and Georgetown, effective the 2026–27 academic year. He barred the military from sending active-duty officers to graduate programs at the named schools, declaring in a same-day video that elite institutions had become "factories of anti-American resentment and military disdain." Officers already enrolled were permitted to finish their coursework.

DOJ charges 30 more over anti-ICE Minnesota church protest, bringing total to 39 defendants

On February 27, 2026, the U.S. Justice Department unsealed a superseding indictment in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota charging 30 additional people — bringing the total to 39 — over the January 18 anti-ICE protest at Cities Church in St. Paul. All 39 are charged under place-of-worship civil-rights statutes, including the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, with conspiring to interfere with and interfering with the free exercise of religion; the defendants include independent journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort, who say they were covering the protest as reporters. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that 25 of the 30 newly charged had been arrested, even though a magistrate judge had earlier found no probable cause to arrest several defendants, including the journalists.

Isle of Wight County, Va., school board members pressured superintendent to suppress anti-ICE student walkout

In the hours before a Feb. 27, 2026 student-led anti-ICE walkout at Smithfield High School in Isle of Wight County, Virginia, School Board Chairman John Collick and board members Brandi Perkins and Mark Wooster pressured Superintendent Theo Cramer to invoke facially neutral conduct and political-activity policies to stop the protest and discipline any participating student or staff member. Collick, invoking his authority as chairman, directed Cramer to "do everything you can do to prevent a walkout" and posted a public Facebook statement urging parents to keep their children from participating. Roughly 150 of Smithfield High's 1,300 students walked out during a non-instructional period without incident, and the school ultimately took no disciplinary action against students or staff.

Feb 26

ICE used a false missing-child pretext to detain Columbia senior Ellie Aghayeva without a warrant

Around 6 a.m. on February 26, 2026, five federal ICE agents entered an off-campus Columbia University residential building without a judicial warrant by telling building staff they were police searching for a missing child, then arrested Elmina "Ellie" Aghayeva, a 29-year-old Columbia senior from Azerbaijan. Columbia said security-camera footage captured the agents using the missing-child story to gain entry; the Department of Homeland Security said her student visa had been revoked in 2016 and disputed assertions that agents impersonated NYPD officers. Aghayeva was released the same afternoon after New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani appealed directly to President Trump, and was placed in removal proceedings.

Federal Protective Service cited immigrant-accompaniment volunteers for loitering in San Diego federal building

On February 26, 2026, Federal Protective Service officers cited volunteer Patrick Corrigan and at least three others for "loitering" in a hallway outside the ICE check-in office at San Diego's Edward J. Schwartz Federal Building, where FAITH program volunteers had accompanied immigrants to check-ins and court hearings for about a year without incident. FPS said the underlying no-loitering regulation dated to November 2025, but volunteers said the enforcement itself was new.

ICE agents stopped and arrested Rene Antonio Benitez while he was driving his daughter to school in Brentwood, New York

On February 26, 2026, ICE agents in Brentwood, New York, stopped Rene Antonio Benitez while he was driving his daughter to school, demanding to know where he was going before arresting and detaining him without a judicial warrant. Benitez was released the same day after his attorneys filed a habeas corpus petition. His arrest is one of eight named in the April 2026 class-action lawsuit Benitez v. DHS, which alleges ICE and CBP agents have conducted a systematic pattern of warrantless stops and arrests of Latino residents across New York based on race and ethnicity.

DOJ sues five more states for full voter rolls, bringing nationwide campaign to 29 states

On February 26, 2026, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division announced federal lawsuits against Utah, Oklahoma, Kentucky, West Virginia, and New Jersey for failing to produce their full statewide voter registration lists, bringing the Department's nationwide total to 29 states and the District of Columbia. DOJ asserted authority under the Civil Rights Act of 1960 to compel production, inspection, and analysis of complete voter rolls — data that can include names, addresses, dates of birth, and partial Social Security or driver's license numbers — to cross-check for "improper registrations." The filings came after federal courts had dismissed several earlier DOJ voter-roll suits.

Miami prosecutor expands 'grand conspiracy' probe of Trump's investigators to 2016 Russia inquiry

On February 26, 2026, The New York Times reported that Jason A. Reding Quiñones, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, had expanded a criminal "grand conspiracy" inquiry into former law-enforcement and intelligence officials who investigated Donald Trump, with subpoenas issued in recent weeks now reaching the FBI's 2016 investigation of ties between the Trump campaign and Russia and FBI interviews probing the 2020 false-electors case. The expansion built on subpoenas the Miami office issued in November 2025 — which went to figures including former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page — and a broadened late-January 2026 round seeking documents about the January 2017 intelligence-community assessment on Russian election interference. The Times noted there is no evidence the separate inquiries were a single plot, and that tying the Washington-based Russia and false-electors matters to the Florida classified-documents case lets prosecutors use a Miami grand jury drawn from a less Democratic jury pool.

Kansas invalidates driver's licenses and birth certificates of 1,000+ transgender residents

On February 26, 2026, Kansas invalidated the driver's licenses and birth certificates of more than 1,000 transgender residents who had previously corrected the sex marker on those documents, acting under a new state law that requires records to reflect sex assigned at birth. The same law bars transgender people from using bathrooms and locker rooms matching their gender identity in government-owned or -leased buildings. Affected residents were directed to obtain replacement documents with no grace period.

Riverside County Sheriff Bianco seized 650,000 election ballots and launched unauthorized fraud probe, defying AG's halt order

On February 26, 2026, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco—a Republican candidate for California governor—seized approximately 650,000 ballots from a November 2025 special election and opened an unauthorized criminal investigation into alleged election fraud, relying entirely on disputed claims from a local activist group that county election officials had already publicly rejected. After California Attorney General Rob Bonta ordered him to halt the probe, Bianco defied the directive and seized an additional 426 boxes of ballots. On April 8, 2026, the California Supreme Court ordered Bianco to pause the investigation and preserve all seized materials while legal challenges to the seizure proceed.

Feb 25

Federal judge declared Trump administration's third-country deportation policy unlawful

U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy ruled on February 25, 2026 that DHS's policy of deporting people to countries other than the one designated in their removal proceedings — without meaningful notice or a chance to raise a fear of persecution there — violated the Administrative Procedure Act and due process, vacating the policy nationwide. The ruling capped nearly a year of litigation that began after DHS attempted to deport a group of men to South Sudan in violation of a standing injunction, forcing them into weeks of detention at a U.S. naval base in Djibouti; the government secured a stay from the First Circuit within weeks and continued third-country removals while its appeal remained pending as of this filing.

FBI fires about 10 employees who worked on Trump's Mar-a-Lago classified-documents case

Around February 25, 2026, the FBI dismissed roughly 10 employees who had worked on the criminal investigation into President Trump's retention of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. The firings came hours after FBI Director Kash Patel publicly characterized the inquiry — under which his and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles's phone records had been subpoenaed — as Biden-era overreach, and followed reporting that those subpoenas had surfaced. The bureau dismissed additional personnel the next day, bringing the total to roughly a dozen.

Trump administration halts $259.5M in Medicaid reimbursements to Minnesota

On February 25, 2026, Vice President JD Vance announced that the Trump administration would temporarily halt $259.5 million in federal Medicaid reimbursements to Minnesota, citing alleged fraud in the state's social programs and giving the state 60 days to overhaul its systems. Vance said Minnesota — where roughly 1.3 million residents rely on Medicaid — was the first of several states the administration expected to target this way. Minnesota sued, with Attorney General Keith Ellison arguing the withholding violates Fifth Amendment due process and the Administrative Procedure Act's bar on arbitrary and capricious agency action.

ICE detained McAllen mariachi student brothers and their parents at a routine check-in, held them at Dilley for two weeks

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained McAllen, Texas high school mariachi musicians Antonio and Caleb Gámez-Cuéllar, their younger brother Joshua, and their parents on February 25, 2026, during what family members and Rep. Nanette Barragán described as a routine immigration check-in. The family, who had passed a credible fear interview and had an outstanding asylum case with no missed court dates, was held at the Dilley detention facility for roughly two weeks.

ICE vehicle pursuit in Newark causes multi-vehicle crash, injuring three children

On February 25, 2026, ICE agents pursuing a fleeing van during a targeted operation in Newark, New Jersey, caused a multi-vehicle crash that sent three children to University Hospital with injuries. Mayor Ras Baraka condemned the pursuit as reckless, noting that New Jersey law bars law-enforcement vehicle chases absent an immediate threat and that roads were still being cleared from a snowstorm. DHS said the operation targeted a man with a 2017 final removal order, who was taken into custody after the collision.

Puerto Rico enacted a law barring transgender people from government restrooms matching their gender identity

On February 25, 2026, Puerto Rico Governor Jenniffer González-Colón signed House Bill 165, the "Public Government Restroom Facilities Regulation Act" (Law 26-2026), requiring multi-occupancy restrooms in government buildings — including the University of Puerto Rico — to be segregated by sex assigned at birth. The law bars transgender and nonbinary people from facilities matching their gender identity, prohibits designating any government restroom as inclusive or neutral, and imposes fines of up to $15,000 per violation. Puerto Rico became the first U.S. territory to enact a transgender bathroom ban.

Feb 24

EPA repealed Mercury and Air Toxics Standards for coal- and oil-fired power plants, again declining to monetize health benefits

On February 24, 2026, the EPA under Administrator Lee Zeldin finalized a repeal of the 2024 Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) amendments for coal- and oil-fired power plants, citing a 2020 finding that residual cancer risk was already below a presumptive acceptable threshold and eliminating continuous emissions monitoring requirements. As it had five weeks earlier in a separate rule for stationary combustion turbines, EPA did not monetize the health benefits of the toxic-pollutant reductions the standards had achieved, presenting only projected industry cost savings of $670 million through 2037. A coalition of 21 environmental and public-health organizations sued in the D.C. Circuit the following month.

Rep. Omar's silent State of the Union guest forcibly removed, injured, and charged

During President Trump's State of the Union address on February 24, 2026, Aliya Rahman — a Minneapolis software engineer attending as Rep. Ilhan Omar's invited guest — stood silently in the House gallery and was forcibly removed by U.S. Capitol Police after declining to sit. Rahman, who had disclosed injured shoulders and is autistic with a traumatic brain injury, was aggressively handled, required treatment at George Washington University Hospital, and was booked and charged with "Unlawful Conduct," a misdemeanor carrying up to six months. Rep. Omar condemned the response as a heavy-handed, chilling reaction to peaceful expression and demanded a full explanation.

DOJ withheld and removed Epstein-file records tied to a Trump sexual-abuse allegation

An NPR investigation published February 24, 2026 found that the Justice Department's public Epstein-files database was missing dozens of pages of FBI records connected to a woman's allegation that Donald Trump sexually abused her as a minor in the early 1980s. NPR reported that roughly 53 pages of interview notes were withheld or removed — some briefly taken offline and not fully restored — while other Epstein materials remained public. The DOJ said unpublished records were privileged, duplicative, or under review, and House Democrats and the Republican committee chair each announced investigations into the omissions.

ICE agents stopped and arrested A.M.C. as she was entering her apartment building in Brooklyn, New York

On February 24, 2026, ICE agents in Brooklyn, New York, stopped a woman identified in court filings as A.M.C. as she was entering her apartment building, arresting and detaining her without a judicial warrant for seven days. Her arrest is one of eight named in the April 2026 class-action lawsuit Benitez v. DHS, which alleges ICE and CBP agents have conducted a systematic pattern of warrantless stops and arrests of Latino residents across New York based on race and ethnicity.

DOJ sues UCLA over antisemitism, escalating a pressure campaign nine of its own career attorneys resigned over

On February 24, 2026, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division sued the University of California under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, alleging UCLA maintained an antisemitic "hostile work environment" for Jewish and Israeli faculty and staff. The suit was the latest step in a federal pressure campaign rooted in UCLA's tolerance of a 2024 pro-Palestinian encampment: the administration had already suspended $584 million in UC research grants and sought a $1.2 billion fine, which a federal judge blocked in November 2025 as unconstitutional. Nine career Justice Department attorneys assigned to the underlying antisemitism investigation had resigned, describing pressure to reach a preordained conclusion on a 30-day timetable. It was the first of two 2026 DOJ antisemitism suits against the university.

Feb 23

JTF Southern Spear killed three aboard suspected narcotics vessel in Caribbean; 44th strike, ~151 campaign deaths

On Feb. 23, 2026, U.S. Southern Command announced that Joint Task Force Southern Spear, at the direction of SOUTHCOM commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan, conducted a "lethal kinetic strike" on a vessel in the Caribbean it alleged was operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations and transiting known narco-trafficking routes, killing three men. As in prior strikes in the Operation Southern Spear campaign, the Pentagon presented no public evidence the vessel carried narcotics, did not identify those killed, and afforded no opportunity for interdiction, arrest, or judicial process. It was the last announced strike before a late-February pause; SOUTHCOM's next disclosed strike came on March 8, 2026.

DHS and ICE barred clergy from providing pastoral care to detainees at Minneapolis's Whipple building during Metro Surge

Since Operation Metro Surge began in December 2025, Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis systematically barred clergy from providing pastoral care to immigration detainees, citing shifting "security" and "safety" justifications with no written policy. Documented incidents include Father Christopher Collins being blocked from praying with a detained woman in December 2025 and a reverend being denied entry on Ash Wednesday 2026 while attempting to administer ashes to detainees. The pattern was publicly disclosed in detail on February 23, 2026, when the Minneapolis Area Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Minnesota Conference of the United Church of Christ, and Father Collins sued DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons, alleging First Amendment and Religious Freedom Restoration Act violations.

Justice Alito declined to recuse from Supreme Court's Suncor climate case cert grant despite fossil-fuel holdings and past recusals

On February 23, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari in Suncor Energy (U.S.A.) Inc. v. County Commissioners of Boulder County, agreeing to review whether federal law bars local governments from suing fossil-fuel companies over climate damages; Justice Samuel Alito participated in that decision rather than recusing. Alito holds up to $15,000 in ConocoPhillips stock and $15,000–$50,000 in Phillips 66 stock — both companies are defendants in parallel climate suits the Boulder case would help decide — plus a fund whose third-largest holding is ExxonMobil, a named party, and he had recused from an earlier petition in the same Boulder litigation and from a related 2025 petition on the same issue. A Supreme Court spokeswoman told NBC News in May 2026 that Alito's holdings do not include Suncor or ExxonMobil directly and that his earlier recusal had been inadvertent.

Feb 21

Trump threatened Netflix with "consequences" unless it fired board member Susan Rice amid pending Warner Bros. deal

On February 21, 2026, President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that Netflix should immediately fire board member Susan Rice or "pay the consequences," after Rice said on a podcast that corporations that acquiesce to Trump would be "held accountable" once Democrats regain power. Trump did not specify the consequences, but the threat came while Netflix's proposed $82 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery awaited Justice Department antitrust review — leverage Trump had referenced before regarding the deal.

Feb 20

JTF Southern Spear killed three aboard suspected narcotics vessel in eastern Pacific; 43rd strike, ~148 campaign deaths

On Friday, Feb. 20, 2026, U.S. Southern Command announced a "lethal kinetic strike" on a vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean it described as "operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations," killing three men. SOUTHCOM said the strike was carried out at the direction of its commander, Marine Gen. Francis L. Donovan, by Joint Task Force Southern Spear against a boat allegedly transiting known narco-trafficking routes. Independent trackers count it as the campaign's 43rd announced strike; as in every prior strike, the Pentagon provided no public evidence the vessel carried narcotics, made no attempt to interdict or arrest, and did not identify those killed.

DOJ fired judge-appointed interim US Attorney James Hundley hours after his unanimous EDVA appointment

On February 20, 2026, the federal judges of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia unanimously appointed defense attorney James Hundley as interim U.S. Attorney, succeeding Trump loyalist Lindsey Halligan, whose own appointment a federal judge had ruled invalid three months earlier. Hours later, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche announced on social media that Hundley was fired, writing "EDVA judges do not pick our US Attorney. POTUS does."

Interior's Solicitor's Office falsely denied holding Karen Budd-Falen ethics records, then released redacted files after press inquiry

Interior Department ethics officials told a researcher for the Center for Western Priorities in writing that a "thorough search" had found no ethics records for senior appointee Karen Budd-Falen, then reversed that claim hours later once press inquiries followed, releasing 91 heavily redacted pages on February 20, 2026. The released documents omitted an updated ethics recusal for Budd-Falen's current tenure and redacted her full list of former legal clients, even though her own financial disclosure lists a dozen such clients from the year before she rejoined government.

Memphis Police coordinated with ICE to detain 18-year-old soccer player during traffic stop, contradicting mayor's account

On February 20, 2026, the Memphis Police Department and Tennessee Highway Patrol coordinated with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations unit during a traffic stop in Memphis, Tennessee, leading to the two-month immigration detention of 18-year-old high school soccer player Yasser Lopez Soza. Video obtained by MLK50 through public-records requests shows an HSI agent riding along in the MPD cruiser that made the stop, contradicting Memphis Mayor Paul Young's public account that federal immigration officials had arrived only after independently monitoring police radio. A federal judge ordered Lopez Soza's immediate release in April 2026, finding the Department of Homeland Security had failed to provide bond as required by law.

Feb 19

Federal judge stripped Arizona prison agency of control over inmate healthcare, ordering receivership

On February 19, 2026, U.S. District Judge Roslyn Silver ordered Arizona's prison healthcare system into court receivership, finding the Department of Corrections had violated 131 of 154 standards required under a 2023 permanent injunction and that 14 years of litigation, contempt fines, and monitoring had failed to produce compliance. The 83-page order authorizes an independent receiver to take over healthcare operations across Arizona's nine state prisons, with authority to hire and fire staff, renegotiate or terminate the roughly $300 million NaphCare contract, set budgets, and override department administrators. ADCRR called the order "exorbitantly expensive" and "unnecessary" and said it would appeal.

Border Patrol leaves near-blind Rohingya refugee in freezing Buffalo lot; death ruled homicide

On February 19, 2026, U.S. Border Patrol agents took Nurul Amin Shah Alam — a 56-year-old, nearly blind Rohingya refugee who spoke little English — from a county jail and released him alone outside a closed Tim Hortons in Buffalo, New York, in near-freezing cold. He was found dead five days later, and the Erie County medical examiner ruled the death a homicide caused by a perforated duodenal ulcer precipitated by hypothermia and dehydration. DHS initially said agents had left him at a "safe location," but surveillance footage contradicted that account.

DHS admitted its 'Worst of the Worst' immigrant database mischaracterized hundreds of listings after CNN review

DHS launched a public website in December 2025 branding arrested immigrants the "worst of the worst," heavily promoted by Secretary Kristi Noem and the White House to justify aggressive immigration enforcement. A CNN review published February 19, 2026 found hundreds of the roughly 25,000 people listed were described as convicted of or arrested for serious crimes like homicide or sex offenses when the underlying charges were traffic violations, marijuana possession, or illegal reentry; DHS attributed the errors to a "glitch" affecting about 5 percent of entries.

U.S. Department of Education pressured 31 universities to end partnerships with minority doctoral-support nonprofit PhD Project

On February 19, 2026, the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights announced that its Title VI investigation into the PhD Project — a nonprofit that helps racial minorities earn doctoral degrees — had led 31 universities, including Arizona State, Ohio State, Michigan, Yale, Duke, and MIT, to sign resolution agreements ending their partnerships with the group, with 14 more schools in negotiations. OCR opened the investigation in March 2025, asserting that PhD Project membership "unlawfully limits eligibility based on the race of participants" and warning participating schools they risked losing federal funding. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon called the agreements "the Trump effect in action."

Monroe County, Florida sheriff's deputy misused police databases and license-plate cameras to track and pull over woman he met on TV set

On February 19, 2026, Monroe County Sheriff's Office Deputy Lamar Eliseo Roman pulled over a woman on U.S. 1 in the Florida Keys using a license-plate-reader hotlist alert, the culmination of two weeks in which he repeatedly searched sheriff's-office and state databases for her personal information. Roman had met the woman on February 3, 2026 while working security on the set of Apple TV+'s "Bad Monkey," and investigators say his in-car camera showed him driving into oncoming traffic during the pursuit that preceded the stop. He was fired and arrested on a felony database-misuse charge on March 10, 2026.

Feb 18

Judge held DOJ lawyer in contempt after ICE released habeas petitioner in Texas without ID, defying Minnesota order

On February 18, 2026, U.S. District Judge Laura Provinzino held Justice Department attorney Matthew Isihara in civil contempt after ICE released habeas petitioner Rigoberto Soto Jimenez in El Paso, Texas without his identification documents, defying her order that he be released in Minnesota with his property returned. Provinzino lifted the contempt finding one day later once the documents were returned, but rejected the government's understaffing excuse as a problem "of its own making."

ICE defied a New Jersey court's no-transfer order, moving detainee Jagpreet Singh to a Brooklyn facility

On February 18, 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement transferred detainee Jagpreet Singh from Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, roughly 22 hours after a federal judge had issued a text order barring his transfer outside New Jersey. U.S. District Judge Christine P. O'Hearn called the move "a blatant violation" of her order and ordered Singh's immediate release, later noting the government had separately admitted to more than 50 similar court-order violations in the preceding 60 days.

ICE detained DACA recipient Juan Chavez Velasco despite his active legal status

ICE agents detained Juan Chavez Velasco, a DACA recipient who had held continuous status for 13 years, outside his Weslaco, Texas neighborhood on February 18, 2026, as he drove breast milk to his premature newborn daughter in a hospital NICU. He told agents he had active DACA status; they told him it didn't matter, and DHS later said DACA does not confer legal status or protection from deportation. He was held for nearly three months at the Webb County Detention Center in Laredo, developing kidney stones and lacking adequate food and clean water, before being released to his family in May 2026.

ICE arrested DACA recipient at her permanent residency interview and deported her the next day under a decades-old removal order

On February 18, 2026, ICE agents arrested Maria de Jesus Estrada Juarez, a 27-year Sacramento resident with active DACA status, at a scheduled permanent residency interview and deported her to Mexico the following day under a 1998 removal order, denying her any notice or opportunity to contest the removal. U.S. District Judge Dena Coggins found the deportation a "flagrant violation" of Estrada Juarez's DACA protections and on March 24 issued a temporary restraining order requiring her return within seven days. She was reunited with her family in Sacramento by March 31, 2026.

USCIS and ICE directed agents to detain refugees who miss one-year green-card deadline

On February 18, 2026, USCIS Director Joseph Edlow and ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons issued a joint memo directing immigration agents to arrest and detain refugees who have not obtained a green card within one year of admission to the United States, rescinding 2010 ICE guidance under which that delay was not grounds for detention. The memo, disclosed in a federal court filing tied to refugee detentions in Minnesota, lets agents hold affected refugees in immigration detention while their green-card applications are pending.

DOJ Civil Rights Division opened investigations into three Michigan school districts over gender-identity curriculum

On February 18, 2026, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division announced investigations into the Lansing, Detroit, and Godfrey-Lee public school districts in Michigan, covering roughly 64,000 students, examining whether the districts taught sexual-orientation and gender-identity content without notifying parents of an opt-out right and whether they restricted bathrooms and locker rooms by biological sex. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said the department is "fiercely committed to ending the growing trend of local school authorities embedding sexuality and gender ideology in every aspect of public education." The department declined to explain why these three districts, of Michigan's more than 800, were selected.

Kansas Legislature overrode Gov. Kelly's veto to enact SB244 restricting transgender facility access and invalidating ID changes

On February 18, 2026, the Kansas Legislature overrode Governor Laura Kelly's veto of House Substitute for SB244, enacting a law that requires multiple-occupancy facilities in government-owned or -leased buildings to be designated by sex assigned at birth and requires driver's licenses and birth certificates to reflect sex assigned at birth, invalidating documents previously amended by transgender residents. The House voted 87-37 to override, a day after the Senate voted 31-9. The law creates a private right of action with liquidated damages of at least $1,000 and directs the state attorney general to enforce compliance by non-complying agencies.

Feb 17

ICE deports critically ill 2-month-old and family to Mexico after hospitalization

On February 17, 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported a critically ill two-month-old, Juan Nicolás, to Mexico along with his mother, father, and 16-month-old sister, hours after the infant was hospitalized for bronchitis and roughly three and a half weeks after the family was taken into custody at the CoreCivic-run South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas. The baby had become unresponsive and was treated at a Pearsall hospital the night of February 16, then discharged around midnight and returned to detention; Rep. Joaquin Castro, who had demanded the child's release, called the removal "heinous," while ICE described the hospital visit as a "precautionary evaluation" and said the child received "proper care."

Feb 16

JTF Southern Spear killed eleven across three suspected narcotics vessels in Pacific and Caribbean; 40th-42nd strikes, ~145 campaign deaths

Late on Feb. 16, 2026, at the direction of U.S. Southern Command commander Marine Gen. Francis L. Donovan, Joint Task Force Southern Spear carried out three near-simultaneous "lethal kinetic strikes" on three vessels SOUTHCOM alleged were trafficking drugs along known routes, killing eleven men — four on each of two boats in the eastern Pacific and three on a third in the Caribbean. SOUTHCOM presented no evidence and made no attempt at interdiction, arrest, or judicial process, and no U.S. forces were harmed. It was the deadliest single day in the Operation Southern Spear boat-strike campaign to that point.

Feb 15

ICE denied humanitarian parole to 79-year-old dementia patient, holding her at Eloy nine months

An Arizona Daily Star investigation published February 15, 2026 found that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has largely stopped exercising discretion to release medically vulnerable detainees on humanitarian parole, instead issuing what immigration attorneys describe as blanket denials. The investigation centered on Julia Benitez, a 79-year-old Cuban asylum seeker with dementia who uses a wheelchair, whom ICE held at Eloy Detention Center in Arizona for nine months despite her family's repeated parole requests and her rapidly deteriorating mental condition. Detentions of people 65 and older rose 150% in the first five months of 2025 compared with the same period in 2024, according to a Lee Enterprises analysis of ICE detention data.

Feb 13

Judge ordered release of 4 Operation Midway Blitz detainees, rejected ICE directive expanding warrantless-arrest discretion

On February 13, 2026, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Cummings ordered the Department of Homeland Security to release four people who had been arrested without warrants during Operation Midway Blitz, and separately rejected a recent ICE directive — a memo from Acting Director Todd Lyons — that sought to give agents more discretion to make warrantless arrests, finding it inconsistent with the 2022 Castañon Nava consent decree. The ruling followed a federal appeals court's earlier rejection of Cummings' original October 2025 order to release hundreds of people arrested without warrants under the same operation.

JTF Southern Spear killed three aboard suspected narcotics vessel in Caribbean; 39th strike, ~134 campaign deaths

On Feb. 13, 2026, at the direction of U.S. Southern Command commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a "lethal kinetic strike" on a vessel in the Caribbean Sea that SOUTHCOM alleged — without presenting evidence and without interdiction, arrest, or judicial process — was operated by a designated terrorist organization. Three men were killed and no U.S. forces were harmed. The strike is part of the open-ended Operation Southern Spear campaign of lethal strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats.

DHS and ICE began occupying a Romulus, Michigan warehouse for a detention facility without notifying local or state officials

On February 13, 2026, the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement began taking occupancy of a roughly 300,000-square-foot warehouse at 7525 Cogswell Street in Romulus, Michigan, intending to convert it into a roughly 500-bed immigration detention facility, without formally notifying the city, Wayne County, the state of Michigan, or the state's congressional delegation in advance. Michigan's attorney general and the City of Romulus later sued DHS and ICE over the lack of environmental review and intergovernmental consultation, and in June 2026 the agencies abandoned the plan and agreed to sell the property.

Justice Department sued Harvard to compel production of admissions data

On February 13, 2026, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division sued Harvard University in federal court in Massachusetts, seeking an order compelling Harvard to turn over five years of undergraduate, medical-school, and law-school admissions data -- including grades, test scores, essays, and race/ethnicity -- that DOJ had demanded since opening a compliance review in April 2025. DOJ said Harvard had "thwarted" the investigation into whether the university continued considering race in admissions after the Supreme Court barred affirmative action; Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon called Harvard's refusal "a red flag." Harvard said it has been responding to the government's requests and is in compliance with the Supreme Court's ruling, and characterized the suit as "retaliatory actions" tied to its earlier refusal to accept a list of administration demands.

ICE agents tracked Minnesota protesters to their homes, ACLU court filings revealed

Nearly 100 sworn statements filed February 13, 2026 in an ACLU-led civil case over Minnesota's "Operation Metro Surge" immigration deployment describe more than a dozen instances of federal agents identifying protest-monitors' home addresses, apparently via license-plate tracking, and showing up there -- most without an individually established date. One monitor, Daniel Woo, said an ICE-linked SUV he had tracked later drove to and parked in front of his home. DHS said the agency does not use force against peaceful protesters or stop cars without reasonable suspicion, and did not address the specific incidents.

Feb 12

DOJ logged members of Congress's search histories as they reviewed unredacted Epstein files

It emerged that the Department of Justice had logged and tracked the searches members of Congress ran while reviewing unredacted Epstein files on DOJ systems, and a printout titled "Jayapal Pramila Search History" was photographed in Attorney General Pam Bondi's materials at a House Judiciary Committee hearing. Rep. Pramila Jayapal confirmed the listed searches were hers; the DOJ said it "logs all searches made on its systems," framing the practice as protecting victim information. Speaker Mike Johnson called the tracking not "appropriate," and Democratic lawmakers demanded the department end what they described as surveillance of the legislative branch.

United States signed third-country deportation agreement with Burundi, setting no cap on transfers

On February 12, 2026, the United States and Burundi signed a Memorandum of Understanding permitting the U.S. to deport third-country nationals -- migrants who are not Burundian citizens -- to Burundi, after Burundi had previously declined to sign without additional U.S. funding for the International Organization for Migration. The agreement, negotiated by the U.S. Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security, was not made public until it appeared on the State Department's website in June 2026; it sets no cap on the number of transfers and states Burundi will not accept people with violent-crime records. As of this entry's recording, no transfers under the agreement are known to have occurred.

Nebraska handed the Justice Department its full voter file, including partial Social Security numbers, while an appeal was still pending

On February 12, 2026, Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen transmitted the state's entire voter registration database to the U.S. Department of Justice, including every registered voter's full name, home address, date of birth and the last four digits of their Social Security, driver's license or state ID number. The transfer came one day after the Nebraska Supreme Court declined to enjoin it while an appeal by Common Cause Nebraska proceeded, and it formed part of a DOJ campaign that had by then sought voter files from 44 states and sued more than 20 of them.

Feb 11

Trump administration moved to rescind $600M in CDC health grants, targeting only 4 of 107 recipient states

The Office of Management and Budget ordered the CDC to cancel roughly $602 million in public health grants -- funding disease-outbreak tracking, workforce and infrastructure programs -- to California, Colorado, Illinois and Minnesota, effective February 11, 2026; the same directive also canceled $943 million in Department of Transportation funding to the same four states. All four states, led by Democratic governors, sued the next day, and a federal judge in Illinois granted a 14-day temporary restraining order on February 12 keeping the health funds flowing while the case proceeds.

White House fires court-appointed U.S. Attorney Donald Kinsella hours after judges seated him

After a federal court found the administration's prior U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York was serving unlawfully, the district's judges invoked 28 U.S.C. § 546 to appoint veteran prosecutor Donald T. Kinsella, who was sworn in on February 11, 2026. Within about five hours, the White House emailed Kinsella that the president had removed him, and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche posted that "judges don't pick U.S. Attorneys, @POTUS does," telling Kinsella, "You are fired."

Attorney General Bondi told the House Judiciary Committee under oath that Maxwell was not moved to a lower-security prison

On February 11, 2026, Attorney General Pam Bondi testified before the House Judiciary Committee and, asked by Rep. Deborah Ross whether Ghislaine Maxwell had received special treatment in prison, answered that she did not know Maxwell was being transferred and that Maxwell "was not transferred to a lower-level facility," later repeating twice that it was a "same level" prison. The Bureau of Prisons, which falls under Bondi's department, classifies FCI Tallahassee — where Maxwell had been held — as low security and FPC Bryan, where the Justice Department moved her in August 2025 after she met with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, as a minimum-security prison camp.

ICE detained pregnant Massachusetts woman in bedless holding cell, denied care until hospitalization forced her release

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Djeniffer Benvinda Ribeiro Semedo, a 22-year-old Cape Verdean national who was 24 weeks pregnant, at Brockton District Court on February 11, 2026 on an outstanding default warrant and held her at its Burlington field office in a bedless holding room, where she slept on a concrete bench. Her abdominal pain, nausea, and decreased fetal movement went unaddressed over roughly three days until she was transferred to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center on February 13, where ICE agents continued to restrict her family's access to her.

U.S. House passes SAVE America Act (H.R. 22) requiring documentary proof of citizenship for federal voter registration

On February 11, 2026, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act, H.R. 22 of the 119th Congress, on a near-party-line vote. The bill would require every American to produce documentary proof of U.S. citizenship — typically a birth certificate or passport — in order to register to vote or update voter registration information for federal elections. According to the Brennan Center for Justice and the ACLU, more than 21 million eligible American voters do not currently have ready access to the required documents. The bill is now in the Senate.

Former San Leandro councilmember Bryan Azevedo pleaded guilty to accepting bribes from the Duong family for housing-company votes

On February 11, 2026, former San Leandro City Council member Bryan Azevedo pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud and making false statements to federal investigators, admitting he accepted a paid 2023 Vietnam trip and set up an LLC in his wife's name to receive kickbacks from David Trung Duong and Andy Hung Duong in exchange for advocating city contracts and purchases for their company, Evolutionary Homes. Azevedo, who resigned from the council the day before his plea, is cooperating with prosecutors in the related federal bribery case against former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, in which the Duongs are also charged.

UT Knoxville Chancellor fired assistant professor Tamar Shirinian for Facebook post criticizing Charlie Kirk

On February 11, 2026, University of Tennessee Knoxville Chancellor Donde Plowman terminated anthropology assistant professor Tamar Shirinian, citing "misconduct" over Facebook comments she made about Charlie Kirk following his assassination in September 2025. Shirinian had written on a friend's private Facebook page that Kirk's children were "better off living in a world without a disgusting psychopath like him." Despite Shirinian's subsequent apology, Chancellor Plowman signed the termination letter in February after a months-long administrative investigation launched by UT System President Randy Boyd.

Feb 10

National Park Service removed the Pride flag from Stonewall National Monument, the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ rights movement

On February 10, 2026, the National Park Service quietly removed the Pride flag — which had flown for years at the Stonewall National Monument in Manhattan and includes colors representing the transgender community — citing a Department of the Interior directive limiting NPS flagpoles to the U.S. flag and other "congressionally or departmentally authorized" flags. A coalition of LGBTQ+ nonprofits sued a week later, arguing NPS's own policy exempts flags that provide historical context — the same exception that allows Confederate flags at sites like Gettysburg — and the Trump administration settled on April 13, 2026, agreeing to restore the flag permanently within seven days.

Coast Guard sole-sourced $957 million Arctic icebreaker contract to Davie Defense without competitive bidding

On February 10, 2026, the U.S. Coast Guard awarded a sole-source, single-offer contract worth $957 million to Davie Defense Inc. for five Arctic Security Cutters, citing a public-interest exception rather than competing the work. The award completed an 11-ship, roughly $3.3 billion program that followed President Trump's personal push for a larger icebreaker fleet than the Coast Guard had itself requested; the program's first two contracts, awarded to Bollinger Shipyards and Rauma Marine Constructions on December 26, 2025, are recorded separately.

DOJ sought grand jury indictment of six lawmakers over anti-illegal-orders video; grand jury rejected the case

On February 10, 2026, attorneys from the office of Jeanine Pirro, the Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, presented a criminal case to a federal grand jury seeking to indict six Democratic members of Congress — Sens. Mark Kelly and Elissa Slotkin and Reps. Jason Crow, Maggie Goodlander, Chris Deluzio, and Chrissy Houlahan — over a November 2025 social media video reminding military and intelligence personnel of their duty to refuse illegal orders. The grand jury declined to find probable cause, rejecting the indictment; no career federal prosecutors were involved in bringing the case. The attempt followed President Trump's public accusations that the lawmakers had committed "seditious" acts "punishable by death," and came about two months after an FBI counterterrorism inquiry into the same six lawmakers over the same video.

Trump purchased up to $5 million in Axon Enterprise stock 14 days before ICE posted a $220M Taser contract tailored to Axon's specifications

On February 10, 2026, President Donald Trump purchased between $1 million and $5 million in Axon Enterprise stock, according to federal financial disclosure forms filed with the Office of Government Ethics in May 2026. Fourteen days later, on February 24, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement published a solicitation for a five-year, $220 million contract for roughly 17,800 conductive energy weapons whose technical specifications — including a 45-foot effective range and 10 individually deployable probes — procurement experts said effectively matched only Axon's TASER 10 model. Axon's stock rose more than 34% in the seven days following the ICE notice; no contract has been awarded.

University of North Texas administrators removed artist's ICE-critical exhibit to avoid Texas legislature backlash

University of North Texas President Harrison Keller and then-Provost Michael McPherson had artist Victor "Marka27" Quiñonez's ICE-critical exhibition "Ni De Aquí, Ni De Allá" removed from the CVAD Gallery in Denton, Texas, around February 9-11, 2026, days after it opened February 3. Leaked text messages show McPherson said removing the show would make it "easier to manage any barking from our friends in Austin," a reference to the Texas legislature, even though UNT's own art policy bars viewpoint-based censorship.

Feb 9

JTF Southern Spear killed two aboard suspected narcotics vessel in eastern Pacific; 38th strike, ~131 campaign deaths

On Monday, Feb. 9, 2026, U.S. Southern Command announced a "lethal kinetic strike" on a vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean it described as "operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations" and transiting known narco-trafficking routes, killing two of the three people aboard. SOUTHCOM said the strike was carried out at the direction of its commander, Gen. Francis L. Donovan, by Joint Task Force Southern Spear, and that it notified the U.S. Coast Guard to activate search-and-rescue for the lone survivor. As in every prior strike in the campaign, the Pentagon presented no public evidence the vessel carried narcotics, made no attempt to interdict or arrest, and did not identify those killed.

CBP removed civil rights history, including a James Meredith desegregation story, from its website during Black History Month

U.S. Customs and Border Protection deleted several historical "Did you know?" stories from its public website between February 2 and February 9, 2026, during the 100th anniversary of Black History Month. The removed content included an account of Border Patrol agents protecting James Meredith during the 1962 desegregation of the University of Mississippi, along with biographies of Black explorer Matthew Henson and other Black and female CBP figures, all of which had been posted by CBP since March 2014. A CBP spokesperson told Unraveled the agency was "looking into" the removals but did not explain them.

ODNI general counsel warned whistleblower's attorney against briefing Congress on classified Gabbard complaint

On February 9, 2026, the general counsel's office for Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard sent a letter warning attorney Andrew Bakaj — who represents an anonymous intelligence-community whistleblower alleging Gabbard withheld top-secret material for political reasons — against directly briefing members of Congress on the classified complaint, citing the risk that Bakaj or his client could face criminal charges for mishandling classified information. The complaint had not reached the "Gang of Eight" congressional leaders until roughly eight months after it was filed, prompting Senate Intelligence Committee Democrats to demand answers about the delay.

DOJ moved to dismiss Steve Bannon's Jan. 6 contempt-of-Congress conviction, seeking to erase it rather than pardon him

On February 9, 2026, the Justice Department — through U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro's filing, publicly backed by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche — asked both the federal district court and the Supreme Court to dismiss Steve Bannon's 2022 contempt-of-Congress conviction with prejudice, stating only that "dismissal of this criminal case is in the interests of justice." Bannon had already served his four-month sentence for defying a Jan. 6 committee subpoena; the filing sought to erase the conviction itself rather than secure a pardon.

Feb 7

State Department orders all pre-2025 official X posts removed, accessible only via FOIA

The State Department directed all of its official accounts on X — including those of U.S. embassies and missions, ambassadors, and department bureaus and programs — to remove every post made before President Trump returned to office on January 20, 2025, spanning the Obama, first Trump, and Biden administrations. The posts will be internally archived but taken off public view, with anyone seeking them required to file a Freedom of Information Act request, a break from the usual practice of leaving prior administrations' agency posts publicly visible. A department spokesperson said the goal was to "limit confusion" and to "speak with one voice."

Feb 6

Trump excluded Govs. Polis and Moore from bipartisan White House governors' meeting and dinner over their criticism

On February 6, 2026, President Trump restricted that month's White House working meeting of the National Governors Association to Republican governors only, and personally blocked Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore from the traditionally bipartisan black-tie dinner held alongside it. Other Democratic governors who have also criticized Trump, including California's Gavin Newsom and Illinois' JB Pritzker, remained invited to the dinner. NGA leadership said it would not treat the restricted meeting as an official NGA event, calling it a break from decades of bipartisan tradition.

Pentagon cuts ties with Harvard, ending military training and fellowships

On February 6, 2026, the Department of War (Pentagon) announced it would sever academic ties with Harvard University, ending Pentagon-funded graduate-level professional military education, fellowships, and certificate programs connected to the school beginning in the 2026–27 academic year. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Harvard "no longer meets the needs of the War Department," faulting officers who returned "looking too much like Harvard — heads full of globalist and radical ideologies," and a Pentagon account posted on X that "Harvard is woke; The War Department is not." The Pentagon described the cut as the first in a broader review of elite universities, with officers already enrolled allowed to finish their coursework.

FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force visited former Extinction Rebellion NYC member's upstate New York home under NSPM-7 directive

On February 6, 2026, two special agents from the FBI's New York Joint Terrorism Task Force visited the upstate New York home of a former Extinction Rebellion NYC member to question him about the group, following a phone contact the prior month. The visit came after President Trump's National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 directed federal Joint Terrorism Task Forces to investigate groups and individuals linked to "anti-fascism," "anti-capitalism," and similar political activity. The FBI's New York field office would not confirm or deny an investigation, citing standing Justice Department policy.

Feb 5

Judge's ruling revealed ICE unlawfully re-deported 3 Ms. L-settlement-protected families to Honduras and elsewhere, defying a federal court order

A ruling by U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw in San Diego, issued February 5, 2026, revealed that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had unlawfully re-deported three families protected from removal under the 2018 Ms. L v. ICE family-separation settlement, in violation of a June 2025 stay of removal issued in the case. One mother and her three children, including a 6-year-old U.S. citizen, were coerced into deportation to Honduras in July 2025 after ICE officers removed her ankle monitor and detained the family for three days despite her refusal to sign a voluntary-departure document; two other families were removed in a similar pattern. Sabraw rejected the government's claim the families left voluntarily, found the removals relied on "lies, deception and coercion," and ordered the government to return all three families to the U.S. at its own expense.

ICE deported Army veteran Godfrey Wade to Jamaica while his removal-order appeal was still pending

On February 5, 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported Godfrey Wade, a 65-year-old honorably discharged Army veteran and lawful permanent resident of the United States since 1975, to Jamaica while his appeal of a 2014 in-absentia removal order remained pending before the Board of Immigration Appeals. ICE detained Wade after a September 13, 2025 traffic stop in Conyers, Georgia, under a removal order he did not learn existed until his green-card renewal was denied in December 2024 — notices of the 2014 hearing and order had been mailed to an address that returned them undeliverable. An immigration judge denied Wade's motion to reopen the case in under two minutes without addressing the returned-notice evidence, and DHS has defended the removal, calling Wade "a criminal illegal alien" who "received full due process."

JTF Southern Spear killed two aboard suspected narcotics vessel in eastern Pacific; 37th strike, ~129 campaign deaths

On Feb. 5, 2026, at the direction of U.S. Southern Command commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a "lethal kinetic strike" on a vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean that SOUTHCOM alleged — without presenting evidence and without interdiction, arrest, or judicial process — was operated by a designated terrorist organization. Two people were killed and no U.S. forces were harmed. The strike is part of the open-ended Operation Southern Spear campaign of lethal strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats.

ICE agent Gregory Morgan pointed handgun at civilian motorists on Minneapolis highway during Metro Surge

On Feb. 5, 2026, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations officer Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr. pulled his unmarked SUV alongside a civilian vehicle on a Minneapolis highway during Operation Metro Surge and pointed a handgun at the driver and passenger, who had no way of knowing he was a federal officer. Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty charged Morgan on April 16, 2026 with two counts of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon — the first criminal charges against a federal officer for on-duty conduct during the Minnesota immigration surge — and a nationwide warrant was issued for his arrest.

ICE detained asylum seeker four months, denying scheduled cyst surgery and chaining her during outdoor time

Guatemalan asylum seeker Andrea Pedro-Francisco, then 23, was arrested by ICE on February 5, 2026, in Burnsville, Minnesota, during Operation Metro Surge, days before a scheduled surgery to remove an ovarian cyst, and transferred to Camp East Montana and the El Paso Service Processing Center in El Paso, Texas. Over nearly four months in custody, ICE denied her the surgery, provided only over-the-counter pain medication, and had her chained during her roughly one hour of daily outdoor time; a federal judge denied her habeas corpus petition and ICE twice denied her requests for humanitarian parole. She was released June 3, 2026, after Democratic Sen. Tina Smith personally intervened with a DHS official.

Mustang, Oklahoma school district suspended 122 students for ICE-protest walkout, harsher than peer districts' response

On Feb. 5, 2026, Mustang Public Schools in Oklahoma gave in-school suspensions to 122 students who participated in a walkout protesting ICE's mass-deportation enforcement, imposing the harshest of the truancy penalties its discipline manual allows rather than the lighter options the same policy also permits. Gov. Kevin Stitt publicly praised Superintendent Charles Bradley by name for the suspensions, and Republican state lawmakers separately pushed for participating students' teachers to lose their licenses, though state and district review found no evidence school staff organized the protest. Other Oklahoma districts responding to the same wave of ICE-protest walkouts imposed markedly lighter discipline — marking absences or issuing warnings rather than suspension.

Feb 4

Gabbard's ODNI confirmed it covertly obtained and tested Puerto Rico voting machines, drawing expert alarm over its authority

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, under Director Tulsi Gabbard, confirmed to reporters on February 4, 2026 that it had obtained electronic voting machines from Puerto Rico and tested them for security vulnerabilities, with the U.S. Attorney in Puerto Rico, Homeland Security Investigations agents, and an FBI supervisory special agent facilitating the turnover; ODNI cited "extremely concerning" cybersecurity findings without supporting detail and has not disclosed exactly when the machines were obtained or tested beyond saying it occurred "last year." A former senior U.S. intelligence official who has worked on election security called the action "well beyond what ODNI has the authority or expertise to do," and Puerto Rico's nonvoting congressional representative, Pablo José Hernández, said the administration has not explained why Gabbard's office was involved. The disclosure follows Gabbard's presence at an FBI search of a Fulton County, Georgia election office and Trump's calls to "nationalize" future elections.

Karoline Leavitt falsely claimed all 4,000 Operation Metro Surge arrests were dangerous criminals

On February 4, 2026, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt issued a public statement claiming that ICE had arrested "more than 4,000 dangerous criminal illegal aliens" in Minnesota since the start of Operation Metro Surge. An Intercept analysis of ICE arrest data obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request by the Deportation Data Project, published March 30, 2026, found that 63 percent of the 4,030 people arrested had no criminal convictions or pending charges, directly contradicting Leavitt's characterization. ICE possessed the underlying data at the time of Leavitt's statement.

CIA shuts down its World Factbook after more than 60 years, with no warning

On or about February 4, 2026, the CIA abruptly took its World Factbook — the authoritative public reference on the world's countries, published since 1962 and online since 1997 — offline, replacing it with a webpage declaring the publication had "sunset." The agency gave no advance notice and no explanation, declined to comment on the record, and set up redirects that led away from the data while removing the Factbook's historical archives, breaking millions of links used by schools, researchers, and news organizations.

ICE agents stopped and arrested H.L.A.O. while he was waiting for the Shelter Island ferry in Greenport, New York

On February 4, 2026, ICE agents in Greenport, New York, stopped a man identified in court filings as H.L.A.O. while he was waiting for the Shelter Island ferry, arresting and detaining him without a judicial warrant for 22 days. His arrest is one of eight named in the April 2026 class-action lawsuit Benitez v. DHS, which alleges ICE and CBP agents have conducted a systematic pattern of warrantless stops and arrests of Latino residents across New York based on race and ethnicity.

ICE detained a Columbia Heights, MN fifth-grader and her family, holding them in a Texas facility unknown to her school for a month

A Valley View Elementary fifth-grader in Columbia Heights, Minnesota stopped attending class in early January 2026, and her family became unreachable, leaving behind a school-issued Chromebook and an empty rental home. On February 4, 2026, Columbia Heights Public Schools disclosed that two classmates had recognized the girl in the cafeteria of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Dilley, Texas family detention center before their own release, and confirmed ICE has detained seven of its students, ages 5 to 17, since a district-area enforcement surge began; five have been released and two, including this girl, remain in custody. The exact date ICE detained the girl and her family has not been publicly established.

ICE agents detained Long Island man for 22 days after warrantless arrest at Greenport ferry stop

On February 4, 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained H.L.A.O., a 46-year-old Long Island resident, at the Shelter Island ferry stop in Greenport, New York, without a judicial warrant. ICE agents approached him based on his appearance and the language he spoke; he was held in immigration custody for 22 days before being released.

Montana Free Press revealed Secretary of State Jacobsen told DOJ her office had satisfied its demand for the state's voter file

On February 4, 2026, Montana Free Press reported that emails obtained through a public-records request showed Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen's office had told the U.S. Department of Justice on December 2, 2025 that Montana had "fully satisfied" DOJ's August 14, 2025 demand for the state's complete voter registration list, which sought voters' full names, dates of birth, addresses, driver's license numbers, and the last four digits of Social Security numbers. The reporting did not establish the precise date the underlying file was transmitted or confirm which of the requested sensitive fields it contained; Jacobsen's office subsequently denied providing "confidential" or "unredacted" voter data without explaining the discrepancy with its own written confirmation to DOJ.

Feb 3

Arizona Republican Duwayne Collier filed as a Green Party secretary of state candidate, misrepresenting his affiliation to split the Democratic vote

Duwayne Collier, a registered Republican and paid petition circulator for Uncle Sam Petitions — a firm that works almost exclusively for Republican candidates — filed a statement of interest to run for Arizona secretary of state as a Green Party candidate on February 3, 2026. The Arizona Green Party disavowed him as a GOP-planted "sham" candidate alongside a similar gubernatorial candidacy. Collier went on to pay more than $250,000 of his $296,000 in public Clean Elections funding to Bootstrap Campaigns, the same undisclosed Nevada shell company used by the gubernatorial candidate.

Judge Blackwell found ICE, DHS and DOJ routinely defied orders releasing Minnesota detainees; DOJ ended the testifying attorney's detail

On February 3, 2026, U.S. District Judge Jerry Blackwell found in open court in St. Paul, Minnesota that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department had routinely failed to comply with orders releasing immigration detainees, leaving people jailed for days or weeks after judges ordered them freed. Questioned about noncompliance in cases she was handling, Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Julie Le, who had been assigned 91 immigration cases in under a month, told Blackwell that "this job sucks" and that she lacked "the power or the voice" to fix a broken system. The U.S. Attorney's Office ended Le's detail the following day, and DHS publicly called her conduct "unprofessional and unbecoming."

Washington Post investigation revealed DHS subpoenaed Google to unmask a critic hours after his email to a DHS official

A Washington Post investigation published February 3, 2026, revealed that the Department of Homeland Security has used administrative subpoenas -- issued without a judge's or grand jury's order -- to identify private citizens who criticize the agency, centering on a Philadelphia-area retiree who emailed a DHS attorney urging leniency for an Afghan asylum seeker. Four hours after the email, DHS subpoenaed Google for the man's account information, and DHS agents later visited his home to question him about it. The ACLU moved to quash the subpoena, and DHS withdrew it in early February 2026.

Feb 2

Arkansans sued the state's parole board and corrections department over denial of counsel and hearings

On February 2, 2026, incarcerated Arkansans represented by the MacArthur Justice Center, ACLU of Arkansas, and Latham & Watkins filed a federal class-action lawsuit against the Arkansas Post-Prison Transfer Board and the Department of Corrections, alleging systemic denial of counsel, coerced hearing waivers, and blocked presentation of evidence at parole revocation proceedings. The suit says thousands of people have been returned to prison through the challenged practices.

Feb 1

Minnesota Star Tribune investigation revealed ICE held Whipple detainees in overcrowded cells without bedding, medical care, or menstrual products

A Minnesota Star Tribune investigation, published February 1, 2026 and based on interviews with 30 detainees, attorneys, and advocates plus a review of nearly 200 federal court records, found that ICE and DHS held immigration detainees at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis in overcrowded cells with no bedding, non-working sinks, and one sandwich a day, while denying requested medical care and menstrual products. Detainees described being locked in bathrooms with strangers of the opposite sex for up to 24 hours and being released into the cold at night with no way home. DHS disputed the allegations, saying ICE holds "higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons."

UT Austin's presidential committee denied tenure to border-surveillance scholar Iván Chaar López despite unanimous faculty approval

In February 2026, the University of Texas at Austin's presidential Promotion and Tenure Committee denied tenure to historian Iván Chaar López despite a unanimous recommendation from his department (7-0), external reviewers (8-0), and his college's tenure committee (19-2), offering no stated academic reason. The denial followed the UT System Board of Regents' adoption of a "controversial topics" classroom-speech policy and the elimination of several interdisciplinary departments, including ethnic and gender studies. No source discloses the exact day of the February decision; the date recorded here is a placeholder for the month.