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May 13, 2026

6 entries on this date.

DEA agent fatally shot Darrin Pigram while serving Memphis Safe Task Force arrest warrant

On the morning of May 13, 2026, a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent with the Memphis Safe Task Force fatally shot 41-year-old Darrin Pigram while serving a Shelby County arrest warrant at a Burger King in the Frayser area of Memphis. Pigram, who had been indicted days earlier on charges including aggravated assault, allegedly reached for his waistband as agents approached; he was transported to a hospital and later died of his injuries, and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is reviewing the shooting at the request of the Shelby County District Attorney.

ACLU lawsuit revealed Memphis Safe Task Force retaliated against residents who recorded its agents

On May 13, 2026, the ACLU of Tennessee filed a federal lawsuit, Demster v. Blanche, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee on behalf of four Memphis residents, alleging a sustained pattern of retaliation by the multi-agency Memphis Safe Task Force against people who recorded its immigration and law-enforcement operations. The suit documents an October 2025 arrest and 27-hour jailing of one observer on a charge later dismissed, dozens of arrest threats against another observer under Tennessee's proximity "Halo Law," a traffic ticket that was never filed in court, and agents photographing, tailing, and surveilling observers' homes with unmarked vehicles.

Vance and Oz blamed immigrants for California Medicaid fraud that HHS's own watchdog later traced mainly to corporations

At a White House anti-fraud press conference on May 13, 2026, Vice President JD Vance said "tens of billions, hundreds of billions" of dollars in fraudulent Medicaid and Medicare payments in California were going to "illegal aliens" and fraudulent businesses, while CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz said roughly $200 million in "questionable expenditures" was linked to "immigration-related costs" tied to "folks who are undocumented." An HHS Office of Inspector General semiannual report to Congress, covering the six months through March 2026 and released that July, found corporations — through schemes such as unnecessary medical-device billing and Affordable Care Act enrollment fraud — responsible for the healthcare fraud cases it highlighted, without mentioning immigrants.

HSI conducts pre-dawn home raids on volunteers of Ventura County ICE-watch group VC Defensa

Before dawn on May 13, 2026, Homeland Security Investigations agents executed search warrants at the homes of volunteers of VC Defensa, a Ventura County, California immigrant-rights coalition that patrols neighborhoods to alert residents to ICE operations. Agents searched multiple locations, seized electronic devices, and briefly detained at least two volunteers, who were released the same day. The group's attorney called the operation "completely unconstitutional" and an intimidation tactic against protected organizing and said VC Defensa will sue; DHS said the warrants were part of an "ongoing investigation" and cited prior arrests of unnamed members, though no charges have been filed in connection with the searches.

Louisiana AG Murrill threatened to remove New Orleans mayor, DA, and 5 council members over court clerk fight

On May 13, 2026, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill sent letters to New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno, District Attorney Jason Williams, and five of the seven city council members warning they could be removed from office after the council voted to install an interim criminal court clerk and trigger a special election. Murrill argued the officials had "usurped" the authority of the clerk designated under a new state law consolidating the city's two clerk offices, and indicated the interim clerk could be jailed if he assumed the post.

Michigan prison staff dismissed inmate's blood-clot symptoms as lies days before her fatal pulmonary embolism

Khaira Howard, 28, died at Women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility in Ypsilanti, Michigan on May 13, 2026, days before a scheduled parole release, after corrections staff dismissed her reports that she had lost feeling in her legs. An autopsy the Michigan Department of Corrections released July 9, 2026 found the cause of death was a pulmonary thromboembolism caused by a deep vein thrombosis in her lower leg -- the same symptom a prisoner-observation aide said staff had disbelieved.