Residential and commercial development in the Sugarhouse area of Salt Lake City is pictured in July 2024. A new study found Utah median household incomes increased at a higher rate than any other state over the past 50 years. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
Household incomes have grown in nearly every state over the past 50 years, but a new study concludes that growth has been uneven across the country.
An analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data, released Tuesday from the Urban Institute’s Center for Local Finance and Growth, found inflation-adjusted incomes in Western, mid-Atlantic and New England states have grown the most since 1970, while incomes in Midwestern states have grown the least.
Between 1970 and 2023, Utah household incomes increased at a higher rate than any other state: The median income went up 78%, an increase of $40,820 in inflation-adjusted dollars to $93,421. Utah was followed by Colorado, New Hampshire, California, Arizona and Virginia, all of which saw more than 60% growth in median household incomes adjusted for inflation.
Nationally, median household incomes grew by an average of 32%.
The study found only one state saw inflation-adjusted incomes drop over the past five decades: West Virginia’s median household income fell by 0.4%, from $56,161 to $55,948 in inflation-adjusted dollars.
West Virginia had the second-lowest household income in the study, ranking ahead of only Mississippi’s $54,203. Massachusetts ranked the highest, with a median household income of $99,858.
The Urban Institute, a left-leaning think tank, found that rates of state sales and income taxes had no association with changes in median household income. The analysis also found states with colder temperatures and higher property taxes saw greater median income growth, despite popular notions that lower property taxes and warm temperatures can lead to more prosperity.
The factors most strongly associated with household income growth were educational attainment and increases in the percentage of immigrants in the state population, the study concluded.
“This could be because immigration leads to economic growth, immigrants seek out growing areas, or both,” the study said.
This story was originally produced by Stateline, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Wisconsin Examiner, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem paints a section of the border barrier in New Mexico in August to prevent rust and make it hotter to prevent climbing. Declines in immigration contributed to a low population gain in the United States last year. (Photo by Danielle Prokop/Source NM)
A drop in immigration amid President Donald Trump’s enforcement crackdown led to historically slow population growth in the United States last year.
Activity at the southern border is at a historic low. The population change reflects the last months of the Biden administration, when immigration controls began to tighten, and the first months of the Trump administration’s massive anti-immigration and deportation agenda.
Five states lost population, according to the new Census Bureau estimates released Jan. 27 covering changes between mid-2024 and mid-2025. The changes suggest Texas and Florida could gain congressional seats at the expense of California, Illinois and New York.
States that did gain population were concentrated in the South, where numbers appear to give Republican states in the region a political edge halfway through the decade.
An analysis by Jonathan Cervas at Carnegie Mellon University predicted four more seats in Congress after the 2030 census for Texas and Florida, with losses of four seats in California and two each in New York and Illinois. Cervas is an assistant teaching professor who researches representation and redistricting.
“We are still a long way off from 2030, so there is a lot of uncertainty in these projections,” Cervas said, adding that California’s loss in the next decade could be only two or three seats.
Another expert, redistricting consultant Kimball Brace of Virginia, said he was suspicious of the sudden drop in California’s population. Earlier projections had the state losing only one seat after 2030, he said.
“This acceleration in California’s population loss is not something that was in the projections at all,” Brace said. “I’ve got to be a little bit skeptical in terms of the numbers. It shows a significant difference in what we’ve seen in the early part of the decade.”
Brace was still working on his own analysis. William Frey, a demographer at The Brookings Institution, said net immigration was about 1.3 million nationally for the year, down by more than half from the year before.
“As a result most states showed slower growth or greater declines,” Frey said. California had about 200,000 fewer immigrants than the previous year, similar to Texas and New York, though those two states eked out populations gains anyway because of people moving in and births
Texas and North Carolina gained the most people between mid-2024 and mid-2025, while California and Hawaii lost the most.
Nationally, the population increased only about 1.7 million, or half a percentage point, to about 341.8 million. It was the lowest increase of the decade and the smallest gain since the pandemic sharply cut growth in 2020 and 2021. Growth was just 1.4 million between mid-2019 and mid-2020, and only about 500,000 between mid-2020 and mid-2021. Before that, national population growth was below 2 million only twice since 1975.
Among the states, Texas gained about 391,000 in population, up 1.2%, followed in the top 5 by Florida (197,000, or .8%, North Carolina (146,000, or 1.3%), Georgia (99,000, or .9%) and South Carolina (80,000, or 1.5%).
California went from one of the largest increases the previous year to the greatest population loss, about 9,500, less than .1%, followed by Hawaii (down 2,000, or .1%), Vermont (down 1,900 or 0.3%), New Mexico (down 1,300, or 0.1%) and West Virginia (down 1,300 or .1%).
Vermont had the largest percentage decrease and South Carolina had the largest increase.
This story was originally produced by Stateline, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Wisconsin Examiner, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
Hundreds gather around a growing memorial site at 26th Street and Nicollet Avenue South in Minneapolis, where federal agents shot and killed Alex Pretti Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026 earlier in the day. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)
WASHINGTON — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is facing mounting criticism, including from some congressional Republicans and moderate Democrats, for her response to a second killing by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis.
President Donald Trump reiterated his confidence in Noem Tuesday, but several Republican senators, a group that overwhelmingly voted last year for Noem to lead the Department of Homeland Security, are pushing for an independent investigation into the Saturday killing of 37-year-old Alex Pretti by Border Patrol agents and calling for her to testify before Congress.
And Democrats who are generally not among their party’s most aggressive members in opposing the Trump administration have joined a call to impeach Noem and restrict her department’s funding.
Trump told reporters, though, that the former South Dakota governor had done a good job, especially on controlling border crossings.
“No,” he said, when asked if she would step down, according to White House pool reports.
He made a similar statement to Fox News’ Will Cain during an afternoon appearance in Iowa.
“She was there with the border,” he told Cain. “Who closed up the border? She did.”
GOP calls for investigation
The calls for an independent investigation signaled something of a loss of confidence in Noem from some Republicans in the wake of missteps following Pretti’s killing. No Republican senators voted against her confirmation last year.
Kentucky Republican Rand Paul, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, criticized Noem Tuesday for not placing the agents involved in shooting Pretti on administrative leave.
“That should happen immediately,” Paul wrote on social media Tuesday, adding that “for calm to be restored” an independent investigation needs to happen.
Within hours of Saturday’s shooting Noem labeled Pretti, an intensive care unit nurse, as a “domestic terrorist” who intended “to inflict maximum damage on individuals and kill law enforcement.”
Both Good and Pretti’s shootings were widely caught on camera, contradicting claims by Noem that both posed a threat.
Noem sits for a television interview with Peter Doocy of Fox News at the Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 25, 2026. (Photo by Tia Dufour/DHS)
Multiple videos show that Good was driving away when Ross fired three shots into her windshield.
Video analysis by the New York Times shows Pretti wrestled to the ground by multiple agents and, while pinned down, two officers fired 10 shots. The analysis also showed that an officer took away a handgun from Pretti, which he had a permit for, while he was pinned down.
The contradictions hurt Noem’s standing with some Republicans.
“I can’t recall ever hearing a police chief immediately describing the victim as a “domestic terrorist” or a “would-be assassin,’” Paul said, taking aim at Noem as well as White House senior advisor Stephen Miller, who called Pretti a “would-be assassin.”
Hearings
Noem also said that because Pretti had a handgun, he inherently posed a danger to DHS agents, a claim that has divided Republicans.
Republican Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho took issue with Noem’s criticism of Pretti’s possession of a gun.
“His family, law-abiding citizens exercising their Second Amendment right and the trust of the American people deserve a fair process,” he said on social media Monday.
Sen. John Curtis, Republican of Utah, criticized Noem for her handling of Saturday’s shooting.
“Officials who rush to judgment before all the facts are known undermine public trust and the law-enforcement mission,” he wrote on social media Monday. “I disagree with Secretary Noem’s premature DHS response, which came before all the facts were known and weakened confidence.”
He also called for an independent investigation.
Paul on Monday called for several leaders of agencies within Homeland Security to testify before his committee – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Those same agency leaders are scheduled to appear before the House Committee on Homeland Security on Feb. 10.
In the House, 162 Democrats had co-sponsored articles of impeachment against Noem by Tuesday afternoon, a number that climbed throughout the day. The articles were first introduced shortly after Good’s death.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and other House Democratic leaders issued a joint statement Monday calling for Noem to be fired. If she’s not, Democrats would move forward with impeachment, the leaders said. The effort is unlikely to move in the House-controlled GOP.
“Dramatic changes at the Department of Homeland Security are needed,” Jeffries said. “Federal agents who have broken the law must be criminally prosecuted. The paramilitary tactics must cease and desist.”
Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, called for Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio to begin impeachment proceedings into Noem, noting that masked agents of her department “brutally killed two American citizens.”
“Far from condemning these unlawful and savage killings in cold blood, Secretary Noem immediately labeled Renée and Alex ‘domestic terrorists,’ blatantly lied about the circumstances of the shootings that took their lives, and attempted to cover-up and blockade any legitimate investigation into their deaths,” Raskin said.
On Tuesday, Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, a moderate Democrat who voted to confirm Noem, made a direct appeal to Trump to fire her.
“Americans have died,” Fetterman said in a statement. “She is betraying DHS’s core mission and trashing your border security legacy.”
Nevada Sen. Jacky Rosen, another moderate Democrat, also called for Noem to be impeached.
Trump pivots
Facing mounting pressure, Trump has softened his tone with state and local officials and walked back his administration’s aggressive immigration operations in Minnesota that Noem has overseen.
Trump directed border czar Tom Homan to Minnesota to take over ICE operations, effectively sidelining Noem, who in December deployed 3,000 federal immigration officers to the state after right-wing media influencers resurfaced reports of fraud in the state’s social service programs.
By Monday evening, top Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino was removed from his position as at-large commander and sent back to California, according to multiple media reports.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the decision to send Homan to Minnesota, arguing that Noem is occupied with managing FEMA operations as a winter storm covers much of the country.
Funding bill
In the wake of Saturday’s shooting, Senate Democrats quickly opposed the Homeland Security spending bill the chamber was set to pass this week.
Instead, Democrats argued the measure must be stripped from the government funding package of six bills and renegotiated to include more constraints on federal immigration enforcement.
The funding package passed the House this month, but a majority of Democrats opposed any funding for ICE, which would maintain a flat funding level of $10 billion.
Even if there is a partial government shutdown, DHS still has up to $190 billion it can spend from the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” the president’s signature tax and spending cuts package signed into law last summer.
Rep. Elijah Behnke (R-Town of Chase) said that the Trump accounts are “designed to help families build long-term financial security” and allow children to “grow alongside the American economy.” (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)
Assembly Republicans proposed Tuesday that Wisconsin match federal policy by putting $1,000 of state funds into savings accounts for newborn babies in Wisconsin during President Donald Trump’s term.
The federal tax and spending bill signed into law by Trump in July 2025 included a provision that will allow for parents in the U.S. to create “Trump accounts,” which would be an IRA account, for their children. Under the provision, the federal government will provide $1,000 into the account for babies born between Jan. 1, 2025 through the end of 2028 and who are U.S. citizens with a valid Social Security number.
Rep. Elijah Behnke (R-Town of Chase) said that the accounts are “designed to help families build long-term financial security” and allow children to “grow alongside the American economy.” The money in the accounts will be invested in low-cost index funds tied to the U.S stock market, and the accounts will be managed by a private company.
Behnke said “starting early makes a powerful difference” for children who will have the funds set aside, which could be used for down payment on a house, higher education or starting a business in the future.
“We’re concerned that they’ll never be able to buy a home. Maybe this gives them a chance down the road,” Behnke said.
The bill will provide a state match of $1,000 to the accounts for babies born in Wisconsin.
Parents must opt in and open the accounts for the funds to be set aside and then invested. Children, parents, family members, friends and employers will also be able to contribute up to $5,000 per year per child to the account with funds unable to be accessed until recipients turn 18.
The investment account plan is not the only Trump administration policy that Wisconsin Republicans have sought to replicate at the state level this session. Others include exempting tips and overtime pay from the state income tax.
Behnke said lawmakers would tap the state’s budget surplus for the initiative. According to the bill draft, the state would set aside $60 million in annual funding for the 2025-27 budget cycle for this purpose.
“We have a surplus, thankfully, and it’s over a $1 billion, and obviously we’re discussing some property tax relief, but 60,000 kids [are] estimated to be born in Wisconsin each year, so that would be about $60 million put into account for the next couple years,” Behnke said.
Recent projections from the Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau estimate that the state’s budget surplus at the end of June 2027 will be $2.37 billion, which is about $1.5 billion above the projected balance when the current state budget was enacted last year. Evers has called for lawmakers to use over $1 billion from the surplus to address rising property taxes throughout the state. Republican lawmakers have signaled some willingness to work on the issue, including Behnke who said that “we’d all be taxed out of our homes if we don’t do something to fix it.”
Behnke said he did not know where the state Senate and Gov. Tony Evers stand on his proposal. Their support will be necessary for the policy to become a reality.
“I’ve asked one elected Democrat and he said he would get back to me,” Behnke said. “[Evers has] been very focused on kids’ education, and since we can use this fund for higher education, I mean, I think some of it would be attractive for him to sign.”
Behnke is also the lead Assembly author on a bipartisan bill that would give children born or adopted in Wisconsin $25 in a state-managed 529 account to help kickstart their educational savings. The bill has bipartisan support and recently received a public hearing in the state Senate last week.
Democratic lawmaker urges caution
One of the Democratic coauthors on that bill, Rep. Alex Joers (D-Waunakee), told the Wisconsin Examiner he recommends caution in pursuing a state match to the “Trump accounts.” He said he thought the effort was a “flashy” one meant to “grab headlines.”
“It’s a little bit risky to be putting our state funds towards a federal program that isn’t technically set up yet,” Joers said. “We’re basically having to make a dedicated state funding decision based on a federal program that hasn’t begun yet, so that’s to me a little bit fiscally concerning.”
The Trump administration has said that the accounts are supposed to become available on July 4, 2026.
Joers noted that the state has to “balance its ledger,” unlike the federal government, and Wisconsin policymakers are discussing using the budget surplus for property tax relief, boosting aid to schools, funding for child care and other priorities.
Joers said the “WisKids” bill is designed to be sustainable year after year, meanwhile the “Trump accounts” bill would expire after 2028.
Wisconsin has had a 529 account program for the last 25 years that is primarily managed through Edvest. According to the bill coauthors, there are over 400,000 accounts and assets totaling $8.6 billion under management.
Parents would need to claim the $25 before their child turns 10, under the legislation. The funds in the account could be used for college, technical education, credential programs or apprenticeships. Withdrawals from a 529 account are tax-free for qualified expenses including tuition, room and board.
“The reality is that most Wisconsin families still aren’t saving early for their child’s education, and many aren’t saving at all,” Behnke said in written testimony about the proposal. “WisKids is designed to change that… We know this approach works. Oklahoma saw a dramatic increase in family-owned 529 accounts after launching a similar program. A small investment at birth encouraged parents to keep saving and gave them a different way of thinking about their child’s future.”
Joers said that calculations show the $25 would potentially grow to be about $100, but the purpose of the bill is to act as a “tap on the shoulder” for parents and guardians to get them interested in starting an Edvest account.
The “WisKids” bill would not need additional state general purpose revenue, but would instead tap into existing funds held by the state Department of Financial Institutions (DFI).
According to a fiscal estimate by the agency, the legislation would use an existing college savings program trust fund, which is funded by administrative fees established by the college savings program board and imposed on college savings program accounts. The state stopped collecting fees on 529 accounts in 2005, but the funds have remained growing in the account and are ready to be used, Joers said.
Under the legislation, the minimum balance of the trust fund that must be maintained to meet the reasonably anticipated needs of the college savings program would have to be calculated and if the trust fund balance falls below that amount, the DFI would stop making deposits until the trust fund balance is sufficient.
“It’s in line with what their program was established for, but they can’t just do that. They need legislation to be able to do that,” Joers said.
Joers noted that Edvest accounts can be rolled over into a retirement account should the funds not be used for educational purposes.
Promoting the Trump accounts proposal, Behnke said that parents could supplement the account in a way that would be “life-changing.”
“Just with mom and dad, skipping one quick meal, or one small luxury a month — lets their kids become a millionaire,” Behnke said.
“That’s a bipartisan consensus that we want our kids born in Wisconsin to be best set up for the future,” Joers said. But, he cautioned, it’s important to do it in a way that’s “sustainable, and not just going along with the headlines of the day.”
Wisconsin health officials have confirmed the first measles case in the state in 2026. (Photo by George Frey/Getty Images)
Wisconsin’s first case of measles in 2026 was confirmed this week in a Waukesha resident, state health officials have reported.
The Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) reported that the individual’s illness was “related to international travel.” Citing privacy concerns, the department withheld all other information, including demographic information about the patient and whether or not the individual was vaccinated.
DHS and the Waukesha County Health and Human Services department are working to identify and notify people who might have been exposed to the individual. DHS reported that no public places where others might have been exposed have been identified.
The illness was the first confirmed case of measles in Wisconsin for 2026, according to DHS, and was confirmed by the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene.
The department is urging state residents to get a measles vaccination if they haven’t done so already.
A report in mid-December from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found there had been 1,958 confirmed cases of measles in 43 states last year through Dec. 16, and a sharp increase in December raised concerns for holiday travelers, Stateline reported.
State health officials are urging Wisconsin residents to check their vaccination status “to make sure they are protected from measles.” The department is advising people with winter vacation plans to check measles activity in the places they plan to visit and confirm that they and any traveling companions are up to date on needed vaccines.
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem at a roundtable discussion with local ranchers and employees from U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Jan. 7, 2026 in Brownsville, Texas. (Photo by Michael Gonzalez/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — A growing number of U.S. House Democrats are pushing for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s impeachment after another fatal shooting of an American citizen by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis this month.
At least 164 members — more than three-fourths of all House Democrats, who total 213 — backed an impeachment resolution against Noem as of Tuesday afternoon, according to the office of Illinois Rep. Robin Kelly, who authored the measure.
“Kristi Noem should be fired immediately, or we will commence impeachment proceedings in the House of Representatives. We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Democratic Whip Katherine Clark and Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar said in a statement Tuesday.
Kelly’s three articles of impeachment against Noem accuse the secretary of obstruction of Congress, violation of public trust and self-dealing. The resolution came after the Jan. 7 fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good by a federal agent in Minneapolis.
Democratic calls for Noem’s impeachment grew even louder after federal agents fatally shot 37-year-old Alex Pretti in Minneapolis Jan. 24.
President Donald Trump’s administration has taken heat for its immigration enforcement tactics and appeared to dial down its rhetoric following the shooting.
Republicans control the U.S. House with a narrow 218-member majority.
In a statement shared with States Newsroom on Tuesday, Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the department, said, “DHS enforces the laws Congress passes, period,” adding that “if certain members don’t like those laws, changing them is literally their job.”
“While (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) officers are facing a staggering 1,300% spike in assaults, too many politicians would rather defend criminals and attack the men and women who are enforcing our laws and did nothing while Joe Biden facilitated an invasion of tens of millions of illegal aliens into our country,” McLaughlin said. “It’s time they focus on protecting the American people, the work this Department is doing every day under Secretary Noem’s leadership.”
Here’s a list of the Democratic co-sponsors, as of Tuesday afternoon, per Kelly’s office:
Alabama
Rep. Terri Sewell
Rep. Shomari Figures
Arizona
Rep. Yassamin Ansari
Rep. Adelita Grijalva
California
Rep. Nanette Barragán
Rep. Julia Brownley
Rep. Salud Carbajal
Rep. Judy Chu
Rep. Lou Correa
Rep. Mark DeSaulnier
Rep. Laura Friedman
Rep. John Garamendi
Rep. Jimmy Gomez
Rep. Jared Huffman
Rep. Sara Jacobs
Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove
Rep. Doris Matsui
Rep. Dave Min
Rep. Kevin Mullin
Rep. Luz Rivas
Rep. Linda Sánchez
Rep. Brad Sherman
Rep. Lateefah Simon
Rep. Eric Swalwell
Rep. Mark Takano
Rep. Mike Thompson
Rep. Norma Torres
Rep. Juan Vargas
Rep. Maxine Waters
Rep. Sam Liccardo
Rep. Scott Peters
Rep. Raul Ruiz
Rep. Rob Garcia
Rep. Mike Levin
Rep. Gil Cisneros
Rep. Zoe Lofgren
Rep. Nancy Pelosi
Colorado
Rep. Diana DeGette
Rep. Brittany Pettersen
Rep. Joe Neguse
Rep. Jason Crow
Connecticut
Rep. John Larson
Rep. Joe Courtney
Rep. Jahana Hayes
Rep. Rosa DeLauro
Delaware
Rep. Sarah McBride
District of Columbia
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton*
Florida
Rep. Lois Frankel
Rep. Maxwell Frost
Rep. Darren Soto
Rep. Kathy Castor
Rep. Frederica Wilson
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz
Georgia
Rep. Nikema Williams
Rep. Hank Johnson
Hawaii
Rep. Jill Tokuda
Illinois
Rep. Nikki Budzinski
Rep. Sean Casten
Rep. Danny Davis
Rep. Chuy García
Rep. Jonathan Jackson
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi
Rep. Mike Quigley
Rep. Jan Schakowsky
Rep. Eric Sorensen
Rep. Bill Foster
Indiana
Rep. André Carson
Rep. Frank Mrvan
Kentucky
Rep. Morgan McGarvey
Louisiana
Rep. Troy Carter
Maine
Rep. Chellie Pingree
Maryland
Rep. Sarah Elfreth
Rep. April McClain Delaney
Rep. Kweisi Mfume
Rep. Johnny Olszewski
Rep. Steny Hoyer
Massachusetts
Rep. Bill Keating
Rep. Stephen Lynch
Rep. Jim McGovern
Rep. Seth Moulton
Rep. Lori Trahan
Rep. Jake Auchincloss
Rep. Ayanna Pressley
Rep. Richard Neal
Michigan
Rep. Haley Stevens
Rep. Shri Thanedar
Rep. Rashida Tlaib
Rep. Debbie Dingell
Minnesota
Rep. Angie Craig
Rep. Betty McCollum
Rep. Kelly Morrison
Rep. Ilhan Omar
Mississippi
Rep. Bennie Thompson
Missouri
Rep. Wesley Bell
Nevada
Rep. Dina Titus
Rep. Steven Horsford
Rep. Susie Lee
New Hampshire
Rep. Chris Pappas
New Jersey
Rep. LaMonica McIver
Rep. Rob Menendez
Rep. Donald Norcross
Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman
New Mexico
Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández
Rep. Melanie Stansbury
Rep. Gabe Vasquez
New York
Rep. Yvette Clarke
Rep. Adriano Espaillat
Rep. Dan Goldman
Rep. Tim Kennedy
Rep. Jerry Nadler
Rep. Paul Tonko
Rep. Ritchie Torres
Rep. Nydia Velázquez
Rep. Laura Gillen
Rep. Gregory Meeks
Rep. Grace Meng
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Rep. George Latimer
Rep. Pat Ryan
Rep. John Mannion
North Carolina
Rep. Alma Adams
Rep. Valerie Foushee
Rep. Deborah Ross
Ohio
Rep. Joyce Beatty
Rep. Shontel Brown
Rep. Greg Landsman
Oregon
Rep. Suzanne Bonamici
Rep. Maxine Dexter
Rep. Val Hoyle
Rep. Andrea Salinas
Rep. Janelle Bynum
Pennsylvania
Rep. Brendan Boyle
Rep. Madeleine Dean
Rep. Chris Deluzio
Rep. Dwight Evans
Rep. Summer Lee
Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon
Rep. Chrissy Houlahan
Rhode Island
Rep. Gabe Amo
Tennessee
Rep. Steve Cohen
Texas
Rep. Greg Casar
Rep. Joaquin Castro
Rep. Jasmine Crockett
Rep. Lloyd Doggett
Rep. Veronica Escobar
Rep. Sylvia Garcia
Rep. Al Green
Rep. Julie Johnson
Rep. Lizzie Fletcher
Rep. Vicente Gonzalez
Vermont
Rep. Becca Balint
Virginia
Rep. Suhas Subramanyam
Rep. James Walkinshaw
Rep. Bobby Scott
Rep. Don Beyer
Rep. Eugene Vindman
Rep. Jennifer McClellan
Washington
Rep. Pramila Jayapal
Rep. Emily Randall
Rep. Adam Smith
Rep. Marilyn Strickland
Rep. Suzan DelBene
Wisconsin
Rep. Gwen Moore
Rep. Mark Pocan
*Norton is the non-voting delegate who represents Washington, D.C., in Congress.
An Avelo Airlines jet that has been painted all white and is used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Air Operations at Mesa Gateway Airport for deportation and detainee transfers. Photo by Jerod MacDonald-Evoy/Arizona Mirror
Two gay Iranian men who came to the United States seeking asylum and who were set to be deported on Sunday to Iran, where homosexuality has been punished by death, had their deportations delayed.
While the two men were not deported on Sunday, an unknown number of other Iranians were, as immigration watchdogs and journalists noted that a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement chartered aircraft that departed from Phoenix Mesa Gateway Airport made its way to the country.
Rebekah Wolf, an attorney for the American Immigration Council, which is representing the two men, confirmed to the Arizona Mirror that one of the men was able to obtain a temporary stay of removal from late Friday from the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Wolf declined to publicly identify her clients out of fear for their safety, but the Mirror has reviewed court documents and detention records that confirm key details of their story.
The other man, who is medically fragile, had his deportation delayed because he is under a medical quarantine due to a measles outbreak at the ICE Florence Detention Facility he is currently detained at, Wolf said. ICE, the Arizona Department of Health Services and the Pinal County Health Department all refused to comment on the outbreak.
Wolf’s clients, who have no criminal convictions and who both came to the United States in 2025 on asylum claims, were arrested by the Iranian “morality police” for being gay years ago. That spurred them to flee the country.
Homosexuality is a crime in Iran and the country has executed men for it as recently as 2022.
“Our position has been that, if we can get a court, any court, any judge to fully consider all of the evidence in the case, that a grant of asylum is obvious,” Wolf said. “These are very straightforward cases.”
Wolf’s clients were denied asylum in spring 2025 and have been working on appealing that denial, but were not granted stays of removal. She said that when her clients initially went before the court, they did not have legal representation, leading to the court and judge not seeing all the evidence for their case.
“The reason that we are in this position is because these clients, while they have very straightforward asylum claims, did not have representation,” Wolf said.
While the temporary stay will help her one client, it does not halt deportation for the entirety of the appeal process.
ICE did not respond to a request for comment about what agreement it had made to allow its deportation aircraft to fly into Iran and what agreement it may have come to with the country allowing it to conduct the deportation.
Wolf also said that she has been in communication with members of Congress who have taken interest in the case, which has led to some interesting revelations.
“Up until Sunday morning, the last we had heard was that there was not going to be a flight on Sunday,” Wolf said, of information she and members of Congress had been told. “The lack of communication or transparency between DHS and Congress is pretty telling about the sort of state of things.”
U.S. Rep. Yassamin Ansari, a Phoenix Democrat, has been outspoken about the deportations to Iran, asking the ICE and DHS to clarify what arrangements the United States has made to conduct the deportations back to Iran.
The Mesa Gateway Airport that the two men are scheduled to fly out of plays a crucial role in ICE’s ramping up of aerial deportation efforts. It hosts the agency’s headquarters for its “ICE Air” operations, which uses subcontractors and subleases to disguise deportation aircraft.
The Arizona Removal Operations Coordination Center, or AROCC for short, is a 25,000-square-foot facility at the airport. It opened in 2010 to little fanfare and can house up to 157 detainees and 79 employees from ICE, according to anICE press release from 2010.
This story was originally produced by Arizona Mirror, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Wisconsin Examiner, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
Federal agents block in and stop a woman to ask her about another person’s whereabouts on Jan. 19, 2026, in south Minneapolis. Cellphone video taken by bystanders has contradicted the Trump administration’s account of some recent immigration enforcement incidents. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)
PORTLAND, Ore. — Keith Ellison held up his cellphone. The Minnesota attorney general was onstage in an Oregon theater in front of hundreds of people, accompanied by four of his Democratic peers from other states, to mark a year of coordinated legal strategy to resist the Trump administration’s expansive use of executive power.
“Can I just note, real quickly, that we need everybody to use these things?” Ellison said to the audience, which earlier had greeted the out-of-state attorney general with a standing ovation. “They have been remarkably helpful.”
Ellison and his fellow Democratic attorneys general were sitting onstage last week at Revolution Hall, a music venue most evenings. Over the past year, AGs have emerged as unlikely rock stars of legal resistance to President Donald Trump, who has made broad use of presidential authority on immigration enforcement and a wide range of other issues, unchecked by the majority-Republican Congress.
Cellphone video has emerged as a powerful rebuttal to Trump’s version of events, at a time when the federal government has restricted state and local investigators from accessing potential evidence to pursue their own investigations into excessive force and fatal shootings by immigration agents in their jurisdictions.
On Saturday, witnesses with cellphone cameras recorded federal agents in Minneapolis shooting and killing Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse who, like many in the city, was recording how U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents interact with the public during enforcement activity. The video evidence of Pretti’s killing was captured by coordinated but loosely organized bands of ordinary citizens using their cellphones.
The images, shared widely on social media, directly contradict official accounts, including claims by U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who accused Pretti of attacking agents. Bystander video shows Pretti filming with his cellphone before multiple agents tackled him to the ground, beat him, and then shot him to death after taking his gun. Pretti, who was licensed to carry a gun in public in Minnesota, never drew his weapon.
Two weeks earlier in Minneapolis, cellphone cameras captured from multiple angles the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good by an immigration agent. A week after that in nearby St. Paul, Minnesota, cellphone video showed armed immigration agents forcing ChongLy Scott Thao, a middle-aged naturalized U.S. citizen, from his home and into subfreezing temperatures while he was wearing only underwear and sandals.
There are “a whole lot more stories,” Ellison said, many caught on mobile phones or dashboard cameras, and all demonstrating the forceful tactics being used by some of the more than 3,000 federal immigration agents in his state. One image Ellison didn’t mention: the photo of a 5-year-old from Ecuador in federal custody, wearing a blue bunny hat and his Spider-Man backpack.
In Minnesota, the state has set up an online tip portal to capture citizen-generated evidence of federal misconduct or unlawful behavior, including cellphone images, after the U.S. Department of Justice refused to share evidence in Good’s death with county prosecutors and Ellison’s office. Similar evidence-gathering portals or federal accountability commissions are in place in Colorado, Illinois and Oregon.
When ordinary people capture aggressive federal tactics on video, Ellison said, they’re also helping make a case in federal court that the mass federal deployment of immigration agents to their states is unconstitutional and violates state sovereignty. Minnesota has sued to end ICE’s aggressive enforcement action in the state, officially known as Operation Metro Surge.
Author Cheryl Strayed moderates a panel in Portland, Ore., with five Democratic attorneys general — Oregon Attorney General Day Rayfield, California Attorney General Rob Bonta, Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez, Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison — on Jan. 21, 2026. (Photo by Erika Bolstad/Stateline)
Such evidence could also be critical if the federal government continues to resist investigating or pursuing federal criminal charges against the unidentified agents who killed Pretti, as well as Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who killed Good. In a separate case, a federal judge issued an order after Pretti’s death blocking the Trump administration from destroying or altering evidence related to the shooting.
Constitutional limits make it difficult, although not impossible, for states to prosecute federal officers for violations of state law, said Bryna Godar, a staff attorney with the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School. But there are some successful cases in which states have pursued officers who are alleged to have gone beyond the scope of their federal duties or have acted unreasonably in carrying out those duties, she said.
Such cases arise most frequently during periods of considerable friction between states and the federal government, Godar said, including disputes over enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act, Prohibition, and integration and desegregation policies. Another such test of federalism and state sovereignty may be upon us, she said.
“It seems like we’re potentially entering another period or in another period of increased friction between the states and the federal government in a way that could lead to these cases again,” Godar said.
Ellison said that state and county investigators were proceeding carefully and deliberately with their own investigation.
“It’s true that the feds are denying us access to the investigative file,” Ellison said. “It’s also true that there’s no statute of limitations on murder.”
Noem has repeatedly insisted that ICE agents and other officers are the actual victims of the increased violence. She also has argued that protests and scrutiny of their enforcement tactics has not only interfered with their operations, but also has provoked the aggressive federal response.
Deputy U.S. Attorney Todd Blanche said Jan. 16 that the Justice Department will provide all resources necessary to support immigration enforcement, and will prosecute anyone they determine has attacked, impeded or obstructed federal efforts. The Justice Department issued subpoenas last week to multiple Minnesota Democratic officials in an investigation into whether those state leaders have impeded the enforcement surge.
In Minneapolis last week after meeting with immigration agents, Vice President JD Vance suggested the cellphone activism is causing the violence. He blamed “a few very far-left agitators” for the aggressive federal response, saying federal agents were “under an incredible amount of duress” and that state and local authorities had failed to cooperate. Following Good’s death, Vance described it as “a tragedy of her own making.”
“A lot of these guys are unable to do their jobs without being harassed, without being doxed, and sometimes without being assaulted,” Vance said, flanked by federal immigration officials working in Minnesota. “That’s totally unacceptable.”
Often, bystanders capture photos and video at great personal risk, as neighborhoods are swarmed by heavily armed federal agents in unmarked cars smashing car windows and dragging drivers to the ground, ramming doors at private residences and spraying protesters and observers in the face with chemical irritants. The bystanders’ videos frequently counter official, federal accounts of events.
The citizen-generated evidence aids in accountability and in making their case of federal overreach, said Ellison, who in 2021 led the successful prosecution of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for the 2020 death of George Floyd. Chauvin’s conviction relied in part on 10 minutes of cellphone footage filmed by 17-year-old Darnella Frazier.
Ellison and the other Democratic attorneys general encouraged people to continue bearing witness and posting to social media.
“Much of the evidence we’ve been able to generate is because of you,” Ellison said. “You have to fight in a courtroom. We absolutely have to. But ultimately, this country will be saved by the people of the United States. And so that means you’re protesting, you’re gathering evidence, you’re sharing with us … is actually how we’re going to win.”
Since their first lawsuit targeting Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order at the beginning of his term in 2025, the Democratic AGs have filed 77 cases. They’ve won 43 of the 53 resolved cases, according to a tracker from the Progressive State Leaders Committee.
It’s not that they want to file so many lawsuits, but they know they must, said Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield, who hosted Ellison, Rob Bonta of California, Anne Lopez of Hawaii and Aaron Frey of Maine. Oregon hadn’t even been to the U.S. Supreme Court to argue a case in a decade, Rayfield said, until the state took the lead last year on behalf of a coalition of a dozen states that sued over Trump’s sweeping tariff policy on most goods entering the United States.
“We’re not backing down,” Rayfield said. “We aren’t going to let this president continue to chip away our rights and our democracy at this time. We’re going to continue to fight for this entire term and do our job as attorneys general.”
Beyond the AGs, individuals, businesses, labor unions, professional associations, universities, local governments and other entities have filed 593 cases against the president’s expansion of executive branch powers since the beginning of his term, according to the daily digital law policy journal Just Security.
“The unlawfulness has only escalated,” Bonta said. “It’s gotten worse.”
This story was originally produced by Stateline, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Wisconsin Examiner, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
(The Center Square) - A group of Wisconsin lawmakers are proposing two ways to change rulemaking in the state after lawmakers’ ability to review and approve rules was taken away following a state Supreme Court ruling last year.
(The Center Square) - Wisconsin lawmakers are looking to add requirements for what the Department of Public Instruction posts online regarding investigations into K-12 teacher license holders.
Most people taken into custody by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not have a criminal conviction, recent reports show.
PolitiFact reported Jan. 23 that as of Jan. 7, 74% of immigrants being held in detention did not have a criminal conviction.
The libertarian Cato Institute, saying it received leaked ICE data, reported in September that over the previous year, 73% taken into ICE custody had no criminal conviction; 8% had a violent or property conviction.
In late September, the number of people in immigration detention who had no criminal record outnumbered those convicted of crimes, The Guardian reported, citing ICE data.
ICE data for fiscal 2026, through Nov. 15, showed 72% of booked detainees did not have a criminal conviction.
Under 30% of people arrested in crackdowns in Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and across Massachusetts had a criminal conviction, The New York Times reported in December.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Reading Time: 7minutesClick here to read highlights from the story
The U.S. Department of Education delayed wage garnishment for people whose student loans are in default.
Nearly 125,000 Wisconsinites have student loans that are in default.
The Wisconsin Coalition on Student Debt offers a toll-free, confidential helpline at (833) 589-0750 and via email at studentloanquestions@debtsmarts.org.
It’s a tumultuous time for student loan borrowers.
Following years of waiving payments and penalties after the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Department of Education announced in December it would soon begin garnishing the wages of borrowers who’ve defaulted on their loans.
Then, Jan. 16, department officials reversed course, saying they would wait to start “involuntary collections” until other changes to the student loan system take effect. They did not specify how long the delay would last.
Another major student loan change is pending court approval. The agreement, which settles a lawsuit brought by the department, would end the popular Biden-era repayment plan Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE). The plan offered borrowers more flexibility than any other.
Meanwhile, other changes to borrowing and repayment programs will reduce the options available to current and future students.
More than 720,000 Wisconsinites hold student loans, according to U.S. Department of Education data analyzed by researchers at the Education Data Initiative. Of those, 74,000 were in default as of last September, meaning they hadn’t made a payment in at least 270 days, and the number has likely grown since then. Overall, the state’s borrowers owe around $23.6 billion. What do all these changes mean for them?
“There have been so many announcements … The landscape is going to continue to be really confusing,” said Carole Trone, executive director of the Wisconsin Coalition on Student Debt, which runs a helpline providing free, confidential advice for people who have loans or are considering taking one out.
“Borrowers often express that they’re confused and overwhelmed,” Trone said. “What our organization is thinking of is how we can reach those borrowers and help them work through their confusion and feel confident with the path forward.”
The helpline received about 160 calls last year, and it can accommodate far more, Trone said. For privacy, staff don’t record any details about the caller or the reason for the person’s call, and they don’t ask for login information for callers’ loan accounts. To reach the helpline toll-free, call (833) 589-0750, or email studentloanquestions@debtsmarts.org. Staffing for the helpline is provided by Ascendium Education Group. Ascendium is a financial supporter of Wisconsin Watch, but is not involved in editorial decisions.
Wisconsin Watch spoke to Trone about what borrowers and prospective borrowers need to know right now. The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
How does the helpline work and why was it created?
The helpline was originally set up back in the early days of the pandemic … When you call the toll-free helpline, you’re going to talk to a live person. These are trained professionals whose work, day in and day out, is working with student loan borrowers, helping them navigate the complicated process and helping them understand what might be confusing that’s come out in the news or in notices they’ve gotten.
The helpline is not a replacement for talking to your loan servicer (the company where you send payments) or logging in to your account at studentaid.gov and seeing what loans are recorded there. But what our helpline is designed to provide is a very accessible, no-wait-time forum where you can ask one-on-one, “Hey, I got this notice. What do you think it means?” or “I haven’t been paying. What should I start with doing?”… It’s a really good starting point for anyone.
In 2020, there was this historic payment pause for loans because of the challenges from the pandemic. In Wisconsin, we don’t have a statewide helpline for student loan borrowers. We don’t have an ombudsman, we don’t have a higher ed agency. These are where borrowers in other states can often turn to, so we wanted to be able to provide a resource.
The Department of Education has threatened to start garnishing wages. What should borrowers in default know?
This option to garnish wages was around last year. What’s new is that they (took) the next step, which is starting to send letters out to affected borrowers. Policy says you’re supposed to have 30 days notice before (garnishment) happens. The other thing they can do is withhold your tax refund if you’re in default or severely delinquent on your loan.
The other thing that could be almost as damaging is that your credit score is going to be affected. And just to give you a sense of how really devastating this impact could be, if you did a four-year program and you took out loans for each semester, that’s probably eight semesters minimum, so you’ve got eight loan lines. If you are late in paying, that means you’ve got eight nonpayment reports going to the credit agencies. What was happening even last year was that credit reporting had resumed, and people may not have been aware of it until they went to take out a car loan or a mortgage, and they couldn’t because their credit score tanked maybe 100 or more points.
What can borrowers do if they’re in default?
First, we know borrowers are feeling a lot of emotional pain over this. If you’re stressed out, if you’re embarrassed, if you’re overwhelmed, sometimes people just can’t move forward on this. I want to encourage people to call our helpline or email us. That is exactly what we are here for.
There are ways that you can get out of default that are tied to your income levels … You can start to rehabilitate your loan. You have to request a form from your loan servicer. They’ll need to know your income to be able to set an income-driven repayment amount. And if that amount is too much, you need to let the servicer know that … Based on your income, that mandatory payment can be as low as $10 a month. The point is to show that you are making on-time, monthly payments for nine months, and that will restore your loan. But you need to be serious when you’re doing that.
What advice do you have for borrowers who are currently signed up for the SAVE repayment plan, which is set to end soon?
If you’re in SAVE, you’re still in what they’re calling “administrative forbearance” because of all this litigation. But as of last August, your loan balance is growing because they resumed collecting interest. If you’re in the SAVE program and you are eligible for Public Service Loan Forgiveness, you should know that while you’re in (administrative forbearance), you’re not making any progress toward the payment count that you need … There will be a timeline for when people have to move out of the SAVE program, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they have that timeline starting as early as summer.
If you’re trying to figure out what you can do, you can call our helpline. There is also a really helpful loan simulator tool on the studentaid.gov website. You can say “My number one priority is to be eligible for Public Service Loan Forgiveness,” or “I want to pay off my loan as fast as possible,” or “I want the lowest possible payment,” and it can give you pretty accurate scenarios of what you can expect your payment amount to be.
Provisions in last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act will eliminate some other repayment plans and add some new ones. What should prospective borrowers know?
The goal is to create fewer programs and fewer options.
The goal is to create fewer programs and fewer options. In principle, I think everyone would appreciate more simplicity. What has happened is that all these repayment plans have come out of different administrations and regulatory initiatives. Those are now getting caught up in the courts. One thing to know is that Public Service Loan Forgiveness came through Congress (rather than the regulatory process), and that’s why it’s on much firmer ground.
There will be basically one income-based repayment plan, called RAP (Repayment Assistance Plan), and there’s the standard repayment plan. It’s not like on July 1 of this year there’s a light switch and everyone is in RAP. Many of those (existing) plans will continue on the terms those borrowers agreed to. It will be new loans that will start to have only those two options.
Starting July 1, there will also be lower limits on how much students and their families can borrow. How do you anticipate that those changes are going to affect students?
We know that in areas like health care or in fields like law, people do (sometimes) borrow more than what these new limits are going to be. And so there’s been a lot of attention now to who’s going to be affected by that. If you’re borrowing more than the $200,000 limit, for instance, to be a medical doctor, what’s that going to mean? … Colleges and professional schools are concerned that people who are currently in their programs will hit the final year or two years of their programs and not be able to borrow the money to complete their programs.
There is a concern that the contingent of borrowers who don’t have the assets (and) the strong credit ratings to be able to turn to the private loan market won’t have options and therefore won’t pursue these degrees.
What should people know before taking out private student loans?
Private loans have a lot fewer protections than federal loans. They do not have forbearance, so when you take out that loan, repayment pretty much starts as soon as you’ve taken it out. They don’t have income-driven repayment options. If you take out a loan to go to a college and they’ve misrepresented the value of their degrees or what jobs their graduates are getting, there are federal protections that you don’t have with a private loan provider.
The big thing related to equity is that if you don’t have a high enough credit rating to qualify for the loan, you’ll be denied. And so, in the worst-case scenario, we’re worried that for these high-cost health care degrees, we will see a lot fewer first-generation, lower-income students going into those professions.
A lot is changing now, but what’s a piece of advice that you’ll keep giving?
I think there is justifiable concern about student loan debt, but we are seeing signs that many more students are hesitating or choosing not to pursue postsecondary education because they figure that’s the only way to avoid student loan debt. The challenge with that approach is that the economic studies say most jobs are going to require some kind of postsecondary credential. So we do want to make sure that students and potential borrowers read up and learn about what their programs are going to cost.
In Wisconsin, the average amount of student loan debt that an undergraduate takes on is about $33,000 for someone who completes their degree. So when you hear the stories of huge amounts of debt, those things happen. It’s heartbreaking to see those stories, but it’s not the norm.
Editor’s note: This story was corrected to reflect that the Wisconsin Coalition on Student Debt helpline received about 160 calls last year.
Natalie Yahr reports on pathways to success statewide for Wisconsin Watch, working in partnership with Open Campus. Email her at nyahr@wisconsinwatch.org.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
Wisconsinites owe $23.6 billion in student loans, and thousands of Wisconsin borrowers are in default. But Carole Trone, executive director of the Wisconsin Coalition on Student Debt, doesn’t want those kinds of numbers to scare students away from college altogether.
“I think there is justifiable concern about student loan debt,” said Trone, whose group helps Wisconsinites figure out costs before, during and after college.
“But we are seeing signs that many more students are hesitating or choosing not to pursue postsecondary education because they figure that’s the only way to avoid student loan debt,” Trone said. The problem with that plan, she said, is that studies suggest most of the jobs of the future will require some sort of credential beyond a high school diploma.
She’d like students to hear a different number: $33,000. “In Wisconsin, the average amount of student loan debt that an undergraduate takes on is about $33,000 for someone who completes their degree. So when you hear the stories of huge amounts of debt, those things happen. It’s heartbreaking to see those stories, but it’s not the norm.”
Trone talked with Wisconsin Watch about what students can do at every step in their education to reduce what they borrow and increase the chance they’ll be able to pay it back.
“It has finally, truly gotten better, easier, simpler — at long last — so it is completely worth it to do it,” said Trone. “It keeps your options open.”
Forget the ‘dream’ school
“I caution people about talking about their ‘dream college,’” Trone said. Instead, she urges students to make a list of things like how much they’re willing to pay, what kinds of programs they’re considering and the typical salaries for those professions.
Then, she recommends students use the Department of Education’s College Scorecard website to compare schools.
“Not all programs cost the same, and not all programs are worth the same … You want to look for colleges that have strong graduation rates. You want to see how many students get financial aid. You want to see what the net cost of attendance is,” Trone said.
Meet with an adviser
Sometimes students end up paying more for school because the school doesn’t accept their prior credits, or because they need a class that’s seldom offered.
“If you’re trying to bring credits into that institution, talk to someone about that. Don’t just assume that those credits will transfer,” Trone said. “Try to map out what classes you need to take, and meet with your adviser and figure out when those classes are being offered.”
Limit loans
When colleges send financial aid offer letters, they list the maximum amount the student can borrow. But students have the option to borrow less or decline loans altogether, and they can make those decisions until around the time they’re enrolling in classes.
“Make sure that you have really thought about do you actually really need to borrow this money, because you’ll be paying it back with interest,” Trone said.
“The most important thing that you can do to be able to repay any loans you take out is to finish your program,” Trone said. People leave school for all sorts of reasons, including family commitments and job changes. “A lot of that can be really unavoidable … but those are the borrowers that often have the most difficulty in repaying their loans.”
Update your contact information
One simple step can help keep borrowers on track: signing into studentaid.gov to update their contact information regularly.
“After you’ve left college, that’s the time when lots of folks are moving around or changing email addresses,” Trone said. “When things start coming due or there’s changes, they need to be able to reach you.”
Natalie Yahr reports on pathways to success statewide for Wisconsin Watch, working in partnership with Open Campus. Email her at nyahr@wisconsinwatch.org.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
Broomball is a lot like ice hockey, except players wear shoes and use a ball instead of a puck. In La Crosse, bar-sponsored teams play weekly during the winter.
For the last eight years, Sevastopol has worked on changing its culture. They’ve done everything from providing all students with free meals to putting staff through an intensive poverty simulation so they could go from sympathetic to empathetic.
Wisconsin and tribes would have less power to protect waterways under the Clean Water Act if the Environmental Protection Agency adopts proposed changes to how it treats energy and infrastructure projects.
Login
