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Timeline › 2026 › February › 23

February 23, 2026

3 entries on this date.

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.