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February 19, 2026

5 entries on this date.

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.