2,119 events on record Subscribe September 16, 2026
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Timeline

Every entry in the archive, ordered by event date. Page 24 of 43, showing January 23, 2026 to February 5, 2026. Pages contain 50 entries each; entries for a given date may continue on the next or previous page.

2026 Events (1,295)

February(96)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

January(130)

Federal agents deployed tear gas and chemical munitions against protesters and journalists at Portland ICE facility

Over the weekend of January 31–February 1, 2026, federal agents deployed tear gas and chemical munitions against protesters and freelance journalists outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Portland, Oregon. The deployments were the subject of lawsuits by protesters, journalists, and nearby residents, represented in part by the ACLU of Oregon, who alleged the munitions were used in retaliation for First Amendment activity. On February 3, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order barring agents from using less-lethal munitions and chemical agents absent an imminent threat of physical harm.

United States and Grenada signed third-country deportation MOU after months of resistance

The United States and Grenada signed a Memorandum of Understanding on January 30, 2026 in Washington, D.C., allowing the U.S. to propose third-country nationals for transfer to Grenada on a case-by-case basis. Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell had publicly resisted the arrangement for weeks, repeatedly telling reporters in January that Grenada had "not agreed to accept" any deportees, before signing alongside seven other Caribbean leaders at the State Department.

CBP agents smashed a livestreaming bystander's car window and detained her for hours at an El Monte, California gas station

On January 30, 2026, federal agents responding to a Customs and Border Protection call surrounded U.S. citizen Maria Santay's car at a gas station in El Monte, California, and broke her window with a hammer while she livestreamed the encounter on Instagram and cried out that she was a citizen. Agents then drove her roughly 40 miles round trip to Santa Ana and back before releasing her from custody that evening; Santay says she was denied a restroom and made to urinate in handcuffs in a parking lot before her release.

Federal grand jury indicts independent journalist Georgia Fort and former CNN anchor Don Lemon under FACE Act for covering anti-ICE church protest

On January 30, 2026, federal agents arrested independent journalist Georgia Fort and former CNN anchor Don Lemon following an anti-ICE protest at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, where a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official serves as pastor. A federal grand jury in Minnesota indicted both on charges of "conspiracy against right of religious freedom at place of worship" under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act of 1994. Both journalists have maintained they were reporting on the protest, not participating in it. As of mid-May 2026, Fort reports that the legal constraints of the pending prosecution have functionally silenced significant portions of her newsgathering.

Former Bucks County deputy sheriff Ryan Gaffney photographed naked people in custody with personal phone

On January 30, 2026, Ryan Gaffney, then a Bucks County deputy sheriff, covered his body camera and used his personal cellphone to photograph a man who was naked from the waist down and suffering a mental health crisis during a warrant execution in Middletown Township. Gaffney shared the image with female employees in the sheriff's office and sent it to personal contacts. A court-ordered forensic search later uncovered a second incident from December 26, 2024, in which Gaffney photographed a handcuffed man in custody in a hotel room and distributed that image to 12 personal contacts over four dates.

DHS and ICE agents chased down and detained a St. Peter, Minnesota bystander at gunpoint for filming an immigration operation

On January 29, 2026, DHS and ICE agents in three vehicles boxed in and detained a U.S. citizen at gunpoint in St. Peter, Minnesota after she filmed federal immigration agents from her car, dragging her from the vehicle and forcing her to the ground when she refused to exit. Agents held her and began driving her toward a Twin Cities-area immigration detention facility before turning back roughly 20 minutes later and returning her to St. Peter police without explanation or charge. DHS said she had driven recklessly and attempted to ram an officer's vehicle; her dashcam video, reviewed by NPR, shows her calmly refusing commands and asking bystanders to call 911.

President Trump and his sons sued the IRS and Treasury for $10 billion over a tax-return leak

On January 29, 2026, President Donald Trump, his two adult sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, and the Trump Organization filed suit in federal court in Florida against the Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department, seeking at least $10 billion in damages over the 2019 leak of Trump's tax returns. The complaint attributes legal responsibility to the IRS for the conduct of Charles Littlejohn, a Booz Allen Hamilton contractor with staff-like access to taxpayer records who was sentenced to five years in prison in 2024 for disclosing thousands of returns, including Trump's, to news organizations. Trump filed in his personal capacity; as the sitting president he also heads the executive branch whose Department of Justice is responsible for defending the federal agencies named as defendants.

AG Bondi posted sealed booking photos of 16 Minnesota defendants in violation of a court sealing order

On January 28, 2026, then-Attorney General Pam Bondi posted on X the names and booking photos of 16 people arrested in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area on federal charges of assaulting or impeding immigration officers, describing them as "rioters," while their cases remained under a federal court sealing order. Magistrate Judge Dulce Foster later found in one of the cases that Bondi's post "directly violated a court order sealing the case" and "thumbed its nose at the notion that defendants are innocent until proven guilty."

FBI raids Fulton County, Georgia election office to seize 2020 ballots; DNI Gabbard joins

On January 28, 2026, FBI agents executed a federal search warrant at the Fulton County, Georgia election office in Union City, seizing the physical 2020 presidential-election ballots, ballot images, tabulator tapes, and voter rolls of the county Donald Trump falsely blames for his narrow Georgia loss. The warrant followed a December 2025 Justice Department lawsuit demanding the records; Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard — who has no domestic law-enforcement authority — joined the raid, ran a parallel election-fraud inquiry, and arranged a call for Trump to thank the agents. County officials said the seizure left them unable to vouch for the chain of custody of the 2020 records.

NPR investigation reveals DOE secretly rewrote nuclear reactor safety rules, kept them hidden until forced release

NPR reported on January 28, 2026 that the Department of Energy had quietly rewritten internal safety, security, and environmental rules for a new generation of experimental nuclear reactors under its Reactor Pilot Program, cutting roughly 750 pages -- about two-thirds -- of requirements including guard-training and nuclear-material-security standards, and loosening groundwater protections. The department shared the rewritten rules with ten companies participating in the program but did not make them public; NPR obtained copies and reported the changes were made without any public comment process, months after DOE officials told companies they intended to cut red tape to meet a Trump executive order deadline of July 4, 2026 for at least three of the reactors to come online.

Education Department found San Jose State violated Title IX over transgender volleyball player, threatened funding

On January 28, 2026, the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights concluded that San Jose State University violated Title IX by allowing a transgender athlete to compete on its women's volleyball team and by allegedly retaliating against players who objected. The department offered SJSU a settlement requiring it to adopt binary definitions of sex, restore athletic records and titles it said were misappropriated, and send personalized apologies to every woman on the 2022-2024 indoor volleyball roster and the 2023 beach volleyball team, warning that rejection could bring a Justice Department lawsuit and the loss of federal funding.

ICE agent attempted to enter Ecuador's consulate in Minneapolis, was turned back by employee

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent attempted to enter Ecuador's consulate in Minneapolis on January 27, 2026, and was physically turned back by a consular employee, in an encounter captured on video that Reuters verified. Ecuador's foreign ministry filed an official diplomatic protest with the U.S. embassy in Quito over the incident; ICE said its officers were pursuing a fugitive who fled into the building and that its agents never actually entered the consulate.

Federal agents blocked Minnesota investigators from Alex Pretti shooting evidence, refused to honor state search warrant

On January 27, 2026, federal agents blocked Minnesota's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension from accessing evidence at the Minneapolis scene where federal officers had killed Alex Pretti three days earlier, turning away state investigators even after they obtained a valid search warrant. Federal agents also failed to maintain proper chain of custody for the murder weapon, placing it on a vehicle seat rather than securing it in a labeled evidence bag. The FBI subsequently refused to share evidence with state investigators, and Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty issued formal Touhy demands after a federal judge dissolved an emergency evidence preservation order.

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.

Alligator Alcatraz guards Trejos and Seenaraine allegedly battered detainee during Jan. 25 transfer at Florida facility

On Jan. 25, 2026, Critical Response Strategies corrections officers Stephen Trejos and Andre Seenaraine allegedly battered detainee Rigoberto Rodriguez Arce, a Cuban national ICE had detained weeks earlier, during a chaotic detainee transfer at Florida's "Alligator Alcatraz" immigration detention facility in Ochopee. A witness said Trejos slammed Rodriguez Arce to the ground and struck him after handcuffed detainees banged their cuffs on benches, and that Seenaraine later punched him in another room; Trejos's attorney says surveillance video instead shows a single "compliance strike" after Rodriguez Arce spat at him. Collier County prosecutors charged both officers with misdemeanor battery in June 2026, both pleaded not guilty, and the case became public in September 2026.

University of Arkansas at Little Rock scrubbed two race-focused history lectures from its website citing state law

Arkansas Times reporting published January 24, 2026 revealed that University of Arkansas at Little Rock administrators had pressured organizers of its "Evenings with History" lecture series to retitle or add disclaimer language to two lectures on race and history, citing the state's 2025 ACCESS Act, and had the events' announcements removed from the university's website after a history professor refused to make the changes. Rather than accept the administration's requested edits, UALR's history department voted to withdraw from the two lectures entirely, and the university said only that it was reviewing its participation in the series for compliance with the law.

CoreCivic held ~1,500 Dilley detainees, many children, in what detainees described as putrid water and bug-contaminated food, sparking mass protest

On January 24, 2026, an estimated 80% of the roughly 1,500-1,900 people held at CoreCivic's South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas -- many of them children -- staged a roughly 30-minute protest, chanting "Libertad" and "let us out," after guards ordered visiting attorneys to leave and physically blocked other detainees from joining; the Frio County Sheriff's office, Texas DPS, and Border Patrol responded. Detainees told immigration attorney Eric Lee, present for a client visit, that drinking water was "putrid" and meals contained "bugs," dirt, and debris, describing conditions attorneys said had not changed despite a prior lawsuit alleging inhumane food, water, and medical care at the facility.

Border Patrol agents shoot and kill U.S. citizen VA nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis

On January 24, 2026, two federal agents — Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and CBP officer Raymundo Gutierrez — shot and killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen and Department of Veterans Affairs intensive-care nurse, on a Minneapolis street during a federal immigration surge. The Department of Homeland Security said Pretti was armed and "violently resisted," but bystander videos showed him pepper-sprayed and pinned to the ground before the shots, and the Hennepin County medical examiner ruled the death a homicide. The two agents were placed on administrative leave and the Justice Department opened a civil rights investigation.

AG Bondi demanded Minnesota turn over voter rolls, Medicaid/SNAP data, end sanctuary policies amid deadly ICE crackdown

On January 24, 2026, U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi sent Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz a letter demanding the state hand over its voter rolls, Medicaid and SNAP recipient data, and repeal its "sanctuary" policies, framing compliance as a path to end the federal immigration surge in the Twin Cities. The letter came hours after Border Patrol agents fatally shot U.S. citizen Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon rejected the demand as "an outrageous attempt to coerce Minnesota," and Gov. Walz called the voter-roll request unrelated to any legitimate concern.

ICE agents stopped and arrested F.R.P. in a Walmart parking lot in Cheektowaga, New York; his wife was arrested in the same incident

On January 24, 2026, ICE agents stopped a man identified in court filings as F.R.P. in a Walmart parking lot in Cheektowaga, New York, arresting and detaining him without a judicial warrant for 25 days. His wife was arrested in the same incident. 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 agents stopped and arrested R.C.R. in a Walmart parking lot in Cheektowaga, New York; her husband was arrested in the same incident

On January 24, 2026, ICE agents stopped a woman identified in court filings as R.C.R. in a Walmart parking lot in Cheektowaga, New York, arresting and detaining her without a judicial warrant for 26 days. Her husband was arrested in the same incident. 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.

DHS immigration agents arrested F.R.P. and his wife without a warrant in a Cheektowaga Walmart parking lot, complaint alleges

On January 24, 2026, DHS immigration officers stopped and arrested F.R.P., a 63-year-old Latino resident of Buffalo with a pending asylum application and employment authorization, along with his wife R.C.R., without a warrant in the parking lot of a Walmart in Cheektowaga, New York. F.R.P. was released on bond on February 18, 2026; R.C.R. was released on bond on February 19. The arrest is among eight incidents documented in a class action complaint filed April 8, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, alleging that DHS agencies ICE and CBP engage in a systematic policy of racial profiling and warrantless immigration arrests targeting Latino New Yorkers.

Immigration officer detained Cheektowaga woman with pending asylum claim for 26 days after warrantless arrest

On January 24, 2026, a federal immigration officer detained R.C.R., a 55-year-old Cheektowaga resident, without a judicial warrant while she was in a Walmart parking lot with her husband. R.C.R. had a pending asylum application and employment authorization at the time; she was held for 26 days and released on bond on February 19, 2026.

Baltimore Mayor Scott's administration cut off Inspector General's IT access; Cumming said it jeopardized whistleblower confidentiality

On January 24, 2026, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott's administration, through the city's Office of Information & Technology, cut off Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming's office from administrative access to city IT systems and heavily redacted records subpoenaed as part of her investigation into the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE). The city said the access removal addressed a Law Department attorney-client privilege violation; Cumming said it stripped her office's ability to monitor who accesses sensitive systems, including whistleblower complaints and ethics files, calling the action "unprecedented."

Texas AG Paxton issued opinion enabling exclusion of Islamic schools from voucher program over unsubstantiated terrorism claims

On January 24, 2026, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued a legal opinion authorizing the state comptroller to exclude private schools from the state's new voucher program over alleged ties to terrorism or foreign governments. The opinion followed a request from Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock after researcher Sam Westrop — previously found liable in the U.K. for over $173,000 in libel damages for a false terrorism claim — alleged that nearly 50 Texas Islamic and Chinese-linked private schools had extremist or foreign-government ties. The comptroller's office used taxpayer funds to investigate the schools and delayed their admittance to the voucher program before four Islamic schools sued and were subsequently admitted.

JTF Southern Spear killed 2 aboard suspected narcotics vessel in eastern Pacific; 36th strike, ~117 campaign deaths

On January 23, 2026, Joint Task Force Southern Spear, operating at the direction of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, conducted a lethal strike on a vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing two people and leaving one survivor. The strike was characterized by SOUTHCOM as targeting "Designated Terrorist Organizations" engaged in narco-trafficking, yet no public evidence was provided identifying the victims or their alleged activities. This was the 36th strike in the Southern Spear campaign since September 2025, resuming after a three-week gap following the January 3 capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

Intercept investigation revealed ICE database marked protest observers as domestic terrorists; DHS revoked travel credentials in retaliation

A January 23, 2026 video captured an ICE agent recording a protest observer and stating, "we have a nice little database, and now you're considered a domestic terrorist," the first documented evidence of a DHS/ICE/CBP database labeling lawful protest observers as terrorists and revoking their TSA PreCheck, Global Entry, and passport access. The Intercept filed a FOIA lawsuit against DHS on June 24, 2026 after the agency refused to produce documents about the program, with court exhibits from a Minnesota immigration case corroborating the database's use and at least one civilian losing travel credentials within three days of photographing an ICE operation.

ICE detained former Venezuelan opposition mayor Carlos Garcia-Oden at routine Cincinnati check-in

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained Carlos Garcia-Oden, a former opposition mayor of Mérida, Venezuela, at a scheduled immigration check-in in Cincinnati, Ohio, on January 23, 2026, and booked him into the Butler County Jail as deportation proceedings began. Garcia-Oden had complied with ICE check-ins for years, held a valid work permit through 2030, and had no criminal record; his family said ICE gave no reason for the arrest. He fled Venezuela in 2017 after being sentenced in absentia for opposing Nicolás Maduro's government and has an asylum claim pending.

ICE detained Chicago man acquitted in Bovino murder-for-hire plot, held him without a hearing for weeks

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement took Juan Espinoza Martinez, a 37-year-old Chicago construction worker, into custody on Jan. 23, 2026 -- one day after a federal jury acquitted him of offering a bounty for the murder of U.S. Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino -- and held him at the Clay County Justice Center in Brazil, Indiana without a hearing before an immigration judge. U.S. District Judge James Hanlon ruled Feb. 6, 2026 that the continued detention was unlawful for lack of that hearing and ordered the government to release Espinoza Martinez or grant him a bond hearing.