(Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

Gracias, Minnesota.

Gracias, America.

While Minnesota is where much of the resistance has been happening, my gratitude spills beyond its borders because the resistance has been virtually everywhere ICE brutality occurs.

Even before two citizens were killed by immigration authorities in Minneapolis recently, the country responded with a collective “ugh” to federal agents’  tactics.

It hasn’t escaped notice that this purge’s purpose, according to abundant evidence from the Trump administration, is to prevent the “civilizational erasure” white supremacists believe will be triggered by non-white immigrants. 

The deportations have gone far beyond the stated mandate of removing undocumented immigrants who have committed serious crimes. Undocumented immigrants with no criminal records, legal immigrants and citizens have been routinely ensnared as if relentless quotas are at work.

The U.S. Supreme Court gave immigration authorities permission for their campaign of terror against all immigrants, whether they are in the country legally or not. Justice Brett Kavanaugh undid an order by a lower court that barred immigration authorities from using ethnicity as cause to arrest and detain. This is now appropriately called the Kavanaugh Stop.

Americans, even those who believe immigration really is a problem, are saying, enough.

Protests and polling tell us as much. 

Trump supporters are turning on key architects of the purge, advocating a purge of their own. They are urging throwing Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem under the bus to appease voters as the congressional midterm election begins in earnest. The administration sent the guy who led the crackdown in Minneapolis, Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino, packing and replaced him with Border Czar Tom Homan.

This is progress.

Gracias, America, but the work won’t be done until Trump and Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller are effectively neutralized. They created and cheered on pedal-to-metal deportations that feature traumatizing children to deport them.

Other features of this purge:

• Harsh mass detention used as a cudgel to get immigrants to stop their claims for lawful stays.
• Inviting undocumented immigrants married to U.S. citizens and who are pursuing legal status to come in for interviews where they  are then arrested and detained for deportation.
• And the jack-booted tactics generally of masked immigration agents who trample rights and deny due process.

The protests grew after immigration agents killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti, white U.S. citizens who  had empathy for the scores of non-white victims of this purge.

They didn’t have to step up. And they haven’t been alone. 

Minnesota doesn’t have a large undocumented immigrant population relative to other states such as California, Texas, New York and Florida, but its citizens, armed only with whistles and cellphone cameras, have put themselves on the frontlines.

Empathy lives.

Enter hope.

U.S. history’s lesson: When injustices have been overcome, it is because people who don’t directly bear the brunt of the injustice have risen up. Good and Pretti were two of them.

More than 77 million people voted to reelect Trump in 2024. They knew exactly who and what they were getting.

It’s difficult to not give in to despair when your fellow Americans reelect venality and cruelty, Trump’s trademarks.

No, despair doesn’t quite capture the feeling. It is a gnawing pain in the soul that makes one feel so desolately alone. Cynicism and hopelessness beckon.

Gracias, America, for giving me and others hope that MAGA may not ultimately speak for America.

But, for now, it is a hope that requires nurturing. We’ve been disappointed before.

The midterm election and then the 2028 election will tell the tale. The first could make Congress a truly co-equal branch of government with the power to check this imperial presidency. The second will send an even stronger message if candidates who follow Trump’s playbook of nativist division are trounced at the polls.

It will take both those events to signal course correction.

Undocumented immigrants live in the crosshairs. It is part of their existence. They’ve always known that arrest, detention and deportation could happen. They’ve always known the risk but brave it to escape persecution and poverty in their native countries and to secure brighter futures for their children.

What’s different now is the brutality.

The broadening pushback is a signal that America may be at yet another turning point – that the direct targets of injustice are not alone, that others stand and fight with them because humanity counts and citizens feel called to stand up when they see American values betrayed.

From the son of people who were once undocumented, a heartfelt gracias.

Pedestrians walk through the streets of the Little Haiti neighborhood on June 06, 2025 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — A federal judge late Monday blocked the termination of temporary protections for roughly 350,000 Haitians from taking effect, a move that prevents the Trump administration from acting to deport them as litigation continues. 

In a searing 83-page order, District of Columbia federal Judge Ana C. Reyes found that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem does not have “unbounded discretion” to terminate Temporary Protected Status for Haiti and rejected the Trump administration’s arguments that ending the status is  in the public interest. 

“Secretary Noem complains of strains unlawful immigrants place on our immigration-enforcement system. Her answer? Turn 352,959 lawful immigrants into unlawful immigrants overnight,” Reyes wrote. “She complains of strains to our economy. Her answer? Turn employed lawful immigrants who contribute billions in taxes into the legally unemployable. This approach is many things—in the public interest is not one of them.”

The decision came the day before hundreds of thousands of Haitians were at risk of losing their work permits and deportation protections, opening them up to removal. 

The Trump administration has moved to strip the legal status of immigrants, as many as 1.5 million, by ending the TPS designation and revoking humanitarian protections initially granted under the Biden administration. So far, Noem has ended TPS for 12 countries.  

Other judges found Noem overreached

Reyes said the Trump administration would face no harm by allowing TPS recipients from Haiti to keep their legal status while they challenge Noem’s move to end their status. 

Last year, Noem initially tried to remove extended protections for TPS holders from Haiti granted under the Biden administration, which meant protections would end by August. But several judges found that move from Noem an overreach of her authority. 

TPS is usually granted for 18 months to nationals who hail from a country deemed too dangerous to return to due to violence and instability. 

In her order, Reyes cited contradictions by the Trump administration in its attempts to end TPS for Haiti. She pointed to Noem’s argument that conditions in Haiti have improved, but at the same time the State Department has a “do not travel” advisory for Haiti because of violence. 

There has been escalating gang violence in Haiti since the assassination of the country’s president in 2021. 

“There is an old adage among lawyers. If you have the facts on your side, pound the facts. If you have the law on your side, pound the law. If you have neither, pound the table,” Reyes wrote. “Secretary Noem, the record to-date shows, does not have the facts on her side—or at least has ignored them. Does not have the law on her side—or at least has ignored it. Having neither and bringing the adage into the 21st century, she pounds X (f/k/a Twitter).”

Reyes was nominated by former President Joe Biden.

‘Hostility to nonwhite immigrants’

Reyes added that one of the arguments from the plaintiffs – Haitian TPS recipients – that Noem “preordained her termination decision and did so

because of hostility to nonwhite immigrants,” is likely substantial.   

Reyes also pointed to the 2024 presidential campaign, where President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance spread false rumors claiming Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, ate residents’ pets. 

In her order, she said Trump referred to those Haitians with TPS as being in the country without legal authorization, despite their legal status, and recalled how the president vowed to revoke “Haiti’s TPS designation and send ‘them back to their country.’”

There are five Haitian TPS recipients who are plaintiffs in the case. They argued that Noem violated the Administrative Procedure Act, the process of how agencies issue regulations, by ending TPS for Haiti. 

Those recipients include Fritz Emmanuel Lesly Miot, who is a neuroscientist researching Alzheimer’s disease who has had TPS since 2011; Rudolph Civil, a software engineer at a national bank who was granted TPS in 2010; Marlene Gail Noble, a laboratory assistant in a toxicology department who’s been a TPS recipient since 2024; Marica Merline Laguerre, an economics major at Hunter College and a TPS holder since 2010; and Vilbrun Dorsainvil, a full-time registered nurse and TPS holder since 2021.

A reprieve

This is not the first time the Trump administration has tried to end the TPS designation for Haiti, but the courts blocked those attempts in 2018.

Monday’s decision came as a brief relief for immigrants and advocates in Springfield, Ohio. 

“This 11th hour reprieve is, of course, welcome,” Ohio Immigrant Alliance Executive Director Lynn Tramonte said in a statement. “But people can’t live their lives like this, pegging their families’ futures to a court case. The least this country can do is honor their strength and contributions by giving them a permanent home.” 

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 — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced Monday that body cameras would be given to federal immigration agents across the country, starting in Minneapolis, where two U.S. citizens were shot and killed by agents in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

“As funding is available, the body camera program will be expanded nationwide,” she wrote on social media. “We will rapidly acquire and deploy body cameras to DHS law enforcement across the country.”

Noem did not specifically say agents would be required to wear the cameras.

President Donald Trump said he was supportive of the move, according to White House pool reports.

“It wasn’t my decision,” he said. “I leave it to her. It tends to be good for law enforcement, because people can’t lie about what happened.”

The announcement comes amid a partial government shutdown by congressional Democrats who are pushing to change immigration enforcement operations across the country. One of those proposed policy changes is a requirement for federal immigration officers to wear body cameras. 

Democrats have also called for Noem to resign or be impeached after a second Minneapolis resident was shot and killed on Jan. 24 by federal immigration agents, 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse Alex Pretti. On Jan. 7, Renee Good, a poet and mother of three, was killed by federal immigration agent Jonathan Ross. 

Even without approved funding in the Homeland Security appropriations bill, the agency still has roughly $175 billion in funding for immigration enforcement from the massive tax cuts and spending package passed last year. 

In the fiscal year 2026 appropriations bill for Homeland Security, $20 million was set aside for body cameras for immigration agents. That measure would be the subject of two weeks of negotiations under the spending package under consideration in the House.

A Planned Parenthood clinic in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (Photo by McKenzie Romero/Utah News Dispatch)

WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Monday closed the lawsuit Planned Parenthood filed last summer after Republicans’ “big, beautiful” law blocked Medicaid patients from visiting its clinics for any health care appointments for one year. 

Planned Parenthood filed notice with the court Friday that it had dismissed “without prejudice all claims against” the Trump administration in the case. Massachusetts District Court Judge Indira Talwani issued an electronic order Monday closing the case “Pursuant to Plaintiffs’ Notice of Voluntary Dismissal without Prejudice.”

The law prevents people on Medicaid from being seen at Planned Parenthood facilities through early July, when the one-year period would expire.

Planned Parenthood Federation of America President and CEO Alexis McGill Johnson wrote in a statement released last week that President Donald Trump “and his allies in Congress have weaponized the federal government to target Planned Parenthood at the expense of patients —  stripping people of the care they rely on. 

“Through every attack, Planned Parenthood has never lost sight of its focus: ensuring patients can get the care they need from the provider they trust. That will never change. Care continues, as does our commitment to fighting for everyone’s freedom to make their own decisions about their bodies, lives, and futures.”

The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment from States Newsroom. 

Talwani originally ruled for Planned Parenthood in the case, temporarily blocking the defunding provision from taking effect. But an appeals court later overturned that decision, allowing the Trump administration to legally withhold Medicaid funding from going to Planned Parenthood. 

Talwani was nominated by former President Barack Obama.

The provision in Republicans’ “big, beautiful” law that blocks all Medicaid funding from going to Planned Parenthood was originally slated to last for a decade, but the final version covered one year. 

Federal law for decades has barred spending from covering abortions with limited exceptions for rape, incest, or the woman’s life. 

So the new language prevented Medicaid patients from scheduling appointments at Planned Parenthood for other types of health care, like annual physicals, cancer screenings, or birth control appointments. 

Shireen Ghorbani, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Association of Utah, which filed the lawsuit along with Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts and Planned Parenthood Federation of America, wrote in a statement that its health care providers would “continue to see patients and deliver on our mission to provide high-quality care and education to everyone who needs it, no matter where they live or how much money they make.” 

A Planned Parenthood spokesperson, who did not want to comment on the record, said that certain clinics may choose to cover the cost of treating Medicaid patients, even though the clinic will not receive reimbursement from the federal government under the law. 

Angela Vasquez-Giroux, vice president of communications at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, wrote in a statement that the organization’s “health centers initially shielded the overwhelming majority of patients who rely on Medicaid from the harm of this cruel law. Unfortunately, the consequences for patients will worsen considerably over time as health centers close, costs rise, and access to their trusted provider is pushed further out of reach.”

The Lyndon Baines Johnson Department of Education Building pictured on Nov. 25, 2024. (Photo by Shauneen Miranda/States Newsroom)

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Education exhausted millions in taxpayer dollars trying to eliminate a chunk of its Office for Civil Rights, a government watchdog found in a report released Monday.  

The department spent between roughly $28.5 million and $38 million on the salaries and benefits of the hundreds of Office for Civil Rights, or OCR, employees who were not working between March and December 2025, according to a Government Accountability Office report.

OCR employees — tasked with investigating civil rights complaints from students and families — were targeted in March as part of a larger Reduction in Force, or RIF, effort at the department and placed on paid administrative leave while legal challenges against President Donald Trump’s administration unfolded.

Amid a mounting backlog of discrimination complaints, the department said in December it would be bringing back the affected employees. The agency moved to rescind the RIFs against the OCR employees in early January while legal challenges proceeded.   

Complaints resolved

The department resolved more than 7,000 of the over 9,000 discrimination complaints it received between March and September, GAO, an independent, nonpartisan body that reports to Congress, said.

However, roughly 90% of the resolved complaints were due to the department dismissing the complaint, the watchdog found. The dismissal rate ranged from 49% to 81% during academic years in the 2010s, GAO found in a 2021 report.

The department “has not made complete information publicly available about potential costs and has not made any information available about potential savings associated with its OCR RIF actions,” GAO said, calling on the agency to provide those estimates and document its analysis. 

Trump has taken significant steps to try to dismantle the 46-year-old department as part of his quest to move education “back to the states.”

In response to a draft of the report, Kimberly Richey, the assistant secretary for OCR, said the matter is rendered “moot” because the agency brought OCR employees back to work in December and rescinded the RIFs. 

“We do not concur with the recommendation,” Richey wrote. 

‘Unacceptable’

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, who requested the GAO report, blasted the millions of dollars the department spent as “unacceptable” in a Monday statement. 

“Every child in America should be able to get a good education no matter where they live, what their religious beliefs are or whether or not they have a disability,” said the Vermont independent, who serves as ranking member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. 

“Instead, the Trump administration fired half of the Education Department employees working to protect the civil rights of students and wasted as much as $38 million in taxpayer dollars by preventing investigators from doing their jobs,” he added. 

Rachel Gittleman, president of American Federation of Government Employees Local 252, which represents Education Department workers, said that “instead of following court orders and federal law, the Trump Administration chose to keep these civil rights professionals on paid administrative leave rather than letting them do their jobs, while students, families, and schools paid the price.” 

Gittleman added that Education Secretary Linda McMahon “has made clear that she would rather play politics than uphold her responsibility to protect students’ rights,” and “her actions have undermined the Department’s mission, harmed families, and subjected dedicated federal employees to needless uncertainty, abuse, and harassment.” 

The department did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday. 

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., answers reporters’ questions after holding a press conference on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House is expected to vote as soon as Tuesday on the government funding package that will end the ongoing partial government shutdown once it becomes law. 

The Senate voted Friday evening to approve the legislation after President Donald Trump and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., brokered a deal to remove the full-year appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security and replace it with a two-week stopgap. But the partial shutdown began early Saturday morning because the House had not yet acted on the same measure.

The additional time is supposed to give Republicans and Democrats more leeway to broker a deal on constraints to immigration enforcement after federal officers shot and killed two U.S. citizens in Minnesota within the last month. 

Trump wrote in a social media post that lawmakers in the House need to accept the package cannot change further. 

“I am working hard with Speaker Johnson to get the current funding deal, which passed in the Senate last week, through the House and to my desk, where I will sign it into Law, IMMEDIATELY!” Trump wrote. “We need to get the Government open, and I hope all Republicans and Democrats will join me in supporting this Bill, and send it to my desk WITHOUT DELAY. There can be NO CHANGES at this time. We will work together in good faith to address the issues that have been raised, but we cannot have another long, pointless, and destructive Shutdown that will hurt our Country so badly — One that will not benefit Republicans or Democrats. I hope everyone will vote, YES!”

House Speaker Mike Johnson said during a Sunday interview on the Fox News show “Fox and Friends” that he was confident lawmakers would approve the funding package Tuesday. 

“I don’t understand why anybody would have a problem with this, though. Remember, these are the bills that have already been passed, we’re going to do it again,” the Louisiana Republican said. 

The House voted in January to approve two separate bundles of appropriations bills and to pass the full-year Homeland Security bill before sending all six government funding bills to the Senate as one package. 

The other six annual government spending bills have already become law. 

Johnson added during the interview that negotiations between the president and Senate Democrats were an important step. 

“I think there’s some healthy conversations in good faith that’ll be had over the next couple of days, and I look forward to that,” he said. 

Some of those policy negotiations that Senate Democrats are unified on include the banning of unidentified and masked federal immigration agents, requiring the use of body cameras and the end of roving patrols, among other things. 

But House Democrats on the Homeland Security Committee on Sunday issued a letter, urging their caucus to reject funding for DHS.

“Democrats must act now to demand real changes that protect our communities before Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) receive another dollar in funding,” they wrote. “This is what our constituents elected us to do – to hold ICE and this administration accountable when they fail to adhere to the Constitution or follow the law.”

In the letter, House Democrats are pushing for the Trump administration to end the months-long immigration operation in Minneapolis and requiring immigration agents to get judicial warrants, among other things.

U.S. House Democrats, from left, Kelly Morrison, Ilhan Omar and Rep. Angie Craig, all of Minnesota, arrive outside of the regional Immigration and Customs Enfrocement headquarters at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis on Jan. 10, 2026. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked a Trump administration policy that prevented members of Congress from making unannounced oversight visits at facilities that hold immigrants.

The temporary restraining order from U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb of District of Columbia federal court blocked a seven-day notice requirement that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem established earlier this month. The order allows congressional Democrats to access facilities that are central to the national debate over President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

“The Court’s decision today to grant a temporary restraining order against ICE’s unlawful effort to obstruct congressional oversight is a victory for the American people,” Colorado Democratic Rep. Joe Neguse, who is the lead plaintiff in the case, said in a statement. “We will keep fighting to ensure the rule of law prevails.”

Noem issued the policy Jan. 8, one day after federal immigration officer Jonathan Ross shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Good in Minneapolis, the site of an aggressive immigration operation for nearly two months. 

A second Minneapolis resident, 37-year-old Alex Pretti, was shot and killed by a Customs and Border Protection officer and Border Patrol agent on Jan. 24. 

Following the Jan. 7 shooting, U.S. House Democrats from Minnesota tried to conduct unannounced oversight visits at a Department of Homeland Security facility that held immigrants, as allowed under a 2019 appropriations law. Democrats have argued the notice policies issued by Noem violate that appropriations law. 

Noem argued the notice policy was acceptable, despite the spending law, because the facilities were funded through the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” not an appropriations law, and were therefore exempt from the unannounced oversight visit policy.

Cobb rejected that argument, for now, while the case continues, saying the administration had not shown how the department could effectively separate the funds from each law. Cobb said the argument raised “practical challenges.”

“Perhaps reflecting that difficulty, Defendants have not seriously attempted to argue that DHS and ICE ensured that only OBBBA-funded resources were used before promulgating and first implementing the January 8 policy,” she wrote. 

A dozen Democratic lawmakers brought the suit in July, after DHS created a seven-day notice policy to visit a facility where immigrants are detained. In the filing, lawmakers argued that DHS overreached its authority in creating the policy and that it violated a 2019 appropriations law.

Cobb in December also issued a temporary block on that policy.

The House Democrats who sued include Neguse, Adriano Espaillat of New York, Jamie Raskin of Maryland, Robert Garcia of California, J. Luis Correa of California, Jason Crow of Colorado, Veronica Escobar of Texas, Dan Goldman of New York, Jimmy Gomez of California, Raul Ruiz of California, Bennie Thompson of Mississippi and Norma Torres of California.

WisconsinEye livestreamed a press conference on Monday morning. (Screenshot via WisEye)

WisconsinEye, the state’s nonprofit that livestreams and archives government meetings and legislative sessions, restarted its coverage Monday after lawmakers approved a $50,000 cash infusion for the short term and as they continue to work on a longer term deal. 

The organization, which has been providing streaming services in the Capitol for nearly two decades, halted its coverage about seven weeks ago due to financial and fundraising difficulties. Its leaders turned to state lawmakers for help. The Legislature and Gov. Tony Evers had already set aside $10 million for WisconsinEye, but with a fundraising match requirements the service was unable to meet.

WisconsinEye is now back online, broadcasting a Monday morning press conference and with plans to stream Tuesday legislative activity after the Joint Committee on Legislative Organization (JCLO) voted unanimously via paper ballot to provide $50,000 to the organization to resume its February coverage. According to a memo on the vote results, the costs will be divided equally between the Senate and the Assembly.

“WisconsinEye Public Affairs Network is operational for the month of February. We invite you to enjoy the benefits of State Capitol coverage and the program archive,” a message on the website states.

An Assembly committee is also preparing to consider a bill Tuesday that would provide a longer term solution for the organization. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) and Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer (D-Racine) announced that they had found a bipartisan legislative solution, which had yet to be considered by the Senate, about two weeks ago.

Under the Assembly proposal, the match requirements for the $10 million would be eliminated and would go to establishing an endowment fund for WisconsinEye. The interest from the endowment would help pay for the organization’s operational costs. Lawmakers said that since the interest won’t cover all of its costs, WisconsinEye will still be responsible for raising some money for its operational costs.

According to the bill draft, WisconsinEye would need to add four additional members to its board of directors who would be appointed by each legislative caucus leader, focus its coverage primarily on official state government meetings and business, provide free online public access to its live broadcasts and digital archives as well as submit an annual financial report to the Legislature and the Joint Finance Committee. The board appointees would not be allowed to be current legislators.

The bill also states that if WisconsinEye ceases operations and divests its assets, then it must pay back the grants and transfer its archives to the Wisconsin Historical Society.

The Assembly State Affairs Committee plans to consider the bill during a public hearing Tuesday afternoon and is scheduled to vote on it immediately following the hearing.

A Flock camera on the Lac Courte Orielles Reservation in SawYer County. (Photo by Frank Zufall/Wisconsin Examiner)

On Wednesday, work to remove a set of AI-powered, license plate reading Flock cameras from the City of Verona is expected to begin. Until then, local officials have chosen to physically cover the cameras, blocking their ability to monitor passing traffic. 

A lack of public trust not in the police department, but in the company Flock Safety, fueled the decision. Despite the Verona Common Council vote last fall not to renew the city’s contract with Flock, and the contract lapsing in December, the cameras have remained in place. 

Mayor Luke Diaz said the police department had made several requests to Flock for the cameras to be removed. “They weren’t removing them,” Diaz told the Wisconsin Examiner. “We kind of looked at the contract, talked it over amongst staff, and the thing we felt most comfortable with was just covering them so they could stop spying on people.”

“I’m 100% certain that they were still working,” Diaz said, adding that some other communities have had similar experiences with Flock refusing to remove unwanted cameras. “It could have been an accident, it could have been an oversight on their part, but I think it was deliberate,” Diaz told the Examiner.“Because I think that they want to keep the cameras up, whether they have permission or not.” 

Concerns about Flock cameras, which are equipped with AI-powered automatic license plate reader technology, are on the rise nationwide. The cameras take pictures of passing vehicles, storing them for up to 30 days in a database which organizes the images based on identifiable license plates and vehicle descriptions. Law enforcement agencies are able to search Flock’s network of images, including those captured in other parts of the country. 

Any Flock network could contain thousands or even millions of compiled law enforcement searches. Exactly why those searches are being done, however, isn’t always clear. An analysis of Flock audit data by the Wisconsin Examiner found that from January to May of 2025, Flock’s network was searched by 221 unique local and state law enforcement agencies. The most common search term turned out to be “investigation” without other context to determine the reason for  the search.

Some agencies used even vaguer terms such as “cooch,” “hunt,” or just “.”  After the Examiner’s first report on Flock, a Waukesha police officer who repeatedly used only a period to label Flock searches underwent re-training on proper use of the system. By contrast the West Allis Police Department, which used “.” to search Flock more than any other Wisconsin law enforcement agency from January to May 2025, admitted no wrongdoing and asserted that its officers are properly trained on the Flock system. Recently, 404 Media reported that law enforcement officers in some parts of the country have been advised to be as “vague as permissible” when entering reasons for using Flock’s network.

Other cases have also emerged involving officers outright misusing the Flock system. A Menasha police officer is currently facing charges of felony misconduct in public office for using Flock’s network to track a vehicle belonging to a private person while off duty. In Kenosha County, a sheriff’s deputy was accused of using Flock and a squad car tracking system called Polaris to stalk one of his co-workers. Similar cases of officers using Flock to stalk love interests or others have also surfaced, as well as at least one use of Flock by a Texas sheriff’s office in an abortion-related case. 

There are also fears about how the cameras can be used by the federal government to monitor local communities, especially for immigration enforcement. Those sorts of questions led Verona city officials to take a closer look at what their own police department’s Flock data revealed. In Minneapolis, immigration and border patrol agents have been involved in numerous clashes with local residents, raising concerns about monitoring of protesters and legal observers.

Just before Verona voted not to renew its contract with Flock, Verona Police Chief Dave Dresser tried to ease some of the public’s concerns. “The data’s only stored for 30 days, which is actually very restrictive,” said Dresser. “After 30 days, the data is purged. I believe there is misinformation that the data’s held for months and months or years, it’s not. It’s purged.” Dresser added, “we’ve opted out of sharing data with federal agencies, we understand the concerns there. We have revoked automatic access to our data from out of state agencies to address some of the privacy concerns.”

In a document outlining her own review of Verona’s Flock data, Ald. Beth Tucker Long stressed that “I am not against participation in the Flock network because I think our officers are doing anything inappropriate.” In fact, Tucker Long wrote, “I am very proud of our police force and I know that our officers conduct themselves with honor and integrity.” Tucker Long said that “Flock is not operating with integrity,” and focused on the federal government’s level of access. 

Within Verona’s Flock network there were 974 searches tagged as “federal” in October 2025, Tucker Long said, despite federal access to Flock having allegedly been cut off months before. Another 1,628 searches were done by organizations “self-identifying as ICE,” according to Tucker Long. “This does not include organizations that did not disclose that the searches were for ICE.” Over 5,700 Flock searches were done for “other image search,” which means that law enforcement did not search for a license plate, but rather used AI to search the full contents of an image. Tucker Long also pointed to nearly 1,100 searches which were logged as “Outside Assist,” implying that information was shared with another organization whose identity was not recorded in the system. 

When Flock first came to Verona, Diaz explained, there wasn’t much debate. Although Diaz couldn’t remember everything, he believes it was handled administratively as the sort of equipment request from the police department which wouldn’t necessarily come before the common council for approval. “I don’t think there was the awareness of the abuses the company Flock has made, and I think there’s a lot of stuff happening at the national level where it’s clear and obvious that we have a federal government that doesn’t believe in the Fourth Amendment, or the First Amendment, or the Fourteenth, and the Fifth. And that this Supreme Court isn’t going to stand up for the Constitution either, and so I think that’s created a lot of angst and awareness. And that people are looking around at these Flock things and saying these aren’t benign. They aren’t just like a helpful tool for the local police department. They’re a way for the feds to spy on our communities.” 

A Verona police spokesperson told the Examiner that the department is “committed to exploring other alternative tools and strategies” which will maintain the high standards city residents have come to expect. The spokesperson added that the department was encouraged that the decision to remove Flock was due to a lack of confidence in the multi-billion dollar company, and not the police department. 

This article has been edited to correct the name of Ald. Beth Tucker Long.

Federal agents take a man into custody in Denver, in a photo posted to social media by the Denver field office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Feb. 5, 2025. Denver Mayor Mike Johnston advised peers at a U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting to think about how to help their constituents while navigating federal pressure on immigration enforcement. (ICE)

WASHINGTON — As federal immigration enforcement agents continue to clash with protesters in cities around the country, U.S. mayors gathering in Washington, D.C., this week said they’re anxious about what might be coming next. 

At a nonpartisan forum of mayors, elected officials identifying as Democrats and Republicans described an escalating situation among municipalities, their residents and the Trump administration over immigration enforcement, sanctuary policies and the threats of revoked funding for cities that don’t comply with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s deportation efforts.

Fresno, California, Mayor Jerry Dyer, a Republican and a former police chief, expressed support for President Donald Trump’s immigration policies at the border, but he said agents lack training for city operations and are being rejected by communities because of their policing tactics. 

Suburban leaders from Minnesota, where agents have killed two community members and shot a third this month, echoed his sentiment. Edina, Minnesota, Mayor Jim Hovland, whose city of about 53,000 lies a few miles south of Minneapolis, said that ICE has also trickled out to suburbs and exurbs to conduct operations, spreading unease.  

“We were told the actions would be precise. They were not.” said Hovland, a Democrat, speaking on a panel before a crowded room of mayors and city staffers at the winter meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

“Fear has not confined itself to a single household or status,” Hovland said. “Immigration enforcement without coordination does not just remove individuals … it damages communities.”

Another Minnesota mayor, Elizabeth Kautz, a Republican who represents Burnsville, said that ICE has not reduced crime during its operations and has caused mayhem for residents.

Tim Busse, a mayor from nearby Bloomington, Minnesota, described an incident in which an Hispanic off-duty police officer was pulled over by immigration enforcement agents and nearly detained until she identified her occupation. 

“This is throughout the state of Minnesota and through our suburbs, including Edina and Burnsville and Bloomington, and quite simply retribution is real,” said Busse. 

Trump has threatened to cut off funding beginning Feb. 1 from sanctuary cities and states that refuse to participate in immigration enforcement, which is a federal responsibility. Some mayors said they won’t let the threat deter them.

Department of Justice opens civil rights investigation into killing of Alex Pretti

Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, a Democrat, told the room that his city has one of the highest concentrations of Venezuelans in the country. 

Johnston said it was a moral imperative for mayors to think of their constituents, harkening to the parable of the Good Samaritan – a biblical story about a man showing kindness to an injured stranger, no matter his status.

“And that’s a question that many of us are asking a lot right now, because there’s a question of … what happens to my city?” Johnston said. “Well yes, you could lose federal funds, you could be targeted for prosecution by the Department of Justice. You could see ICE agents deployed in the streets of your city. All of those are possible.”

Several mayors said that Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations are disrupting construction, health care, hospitality and food sectors. Others said that ICE operations have led to reduced 911 and emergency calls as residents fear possibly being detained. 

For some mayors, the battle over immigration enforcement is deeply personal. Berkeley, California, Mayor Adena Ishii, a Democrat, had Japanese-American relatives who were forcibly put in internment camps during World War II following an executive order from President Franklin D. Roosevelt. 

“My family was incarcerated by the United States government during World War II as U.S. citizens. We cannot repeat history,” said Ishii. “This is our opportunity to stand up and protect our people.”

Mayor Adrian Mapp was born on the island of Barbados before migrating to the United States at the tail end of the 1970s, and received his citizenship en route to being elected as a three-term mayor of Plainfield, New Jersey. 

“Sometimes as politicians you can choose to take an issue, but when the issue is your life, you don’t really get the choice,” Mapp told Stateline. “We have a very large immigrant community in Plainfield and a large undocumented community that is very fearful right now. In our downtown, a number of businesses are suffering because people are afraid to be seen in public.”

Mapp said that mayors should bring in faith leaders from all denominations and members of the legal world to provide information to the community about how to respond amid federal immigration enforcement, and the threats of ICE coming to their neighborhoods.

“There is a sense that this is what the community wants from us — to know that we’re standing up,” Mapp said.

Stateline reporter Robbie Sequeira can be reached at rsequeira@stateline.org.

About 40 people came out for a fat bike ride in Hayward, Wisconsin in memory of Alex Pretti. | Photo by Frank Zufall/Wisconsin Examiner

Over 40 riders gathered Saturday afternoon, Jan. 31, in Hayward for a “fat bike” recreational ride in the snow in memory of and solidarity with fellow biking enthusiast Alex Pretti, 37, who was shot and killed by U.S. Border Patrol agents during a federal immigration crackdown in Minneapolis on Jan. 24.

The Hayward event was just one of several in Wisconsin and hundreds held across the United States to honor Pretti, an intensive care nurse at the Veterans Administration (VA) hospital in Minneapolis.

Organizer Ian Fitch, a biking enthusiast and owner of the Whistlepunk Coffee Shop in Stone Lake, used to live near the Angry Catfish Bicycle shop in Minneapolis, the same bike shop Pretti used. Fitch said the event was inspired by the Minneapolis shop to draw the biking community together in honor of Pretti.

“This is what biking is very good at doing, bringing people together of all different types, and right now that seems like the best thing we can do for each other, to be together and to find common ground,” said Fitch.

He also said biking was a good activity to get people out, move, and process their pent-up energy.

David Schlabowske of Seeley, a former Milwaukee resident and past president of Wisconsin Bike Fed, a bicycle advocacy group, attended because it was also his way to protest how “immigration enforcement is being handled across the country and specifically in Minneapolis.”

Schlabowske said he had friends  who were members of Pretti’s Riverwest 24 team, a 24-hour community race in the Riverwest neighborhood of Milwaukee. One of the bikers was a close friend of Pretti’s since college and, Schlabowske said, he is still reeling from the tragic shooting.

“He’s just hunkered down at a friend’s farm in northern Minnesota because he is still kind of too gutted,” Schlabowske said of Pretti’s friend. “Normally, he’s a big bike-advocate guy. He would go on rides, but it’s too personal.”

Schlabowske said Pretti’s friend, who wants to stay out of the media spotlight, encouraged him to do the ride in Hayward because Pretti used to bike in the area on the 100 miles of mountain and fat bike trails.

“He said, ‘Alex would have loved your doing a fat bike ride in the winter for him,’” said Schlabowski.

Many of the riders were also concerned about the violence they’ve seen on social media and television.

“It’s awful what’s happening to our country,” said Del Bakkum, a retired dentist from Spooner. Bakkum said he is concerned over the “transgression” of constitutional rights by the government and the killing by federal agents of both Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis.

”I’m here also to ride into solidarity against the overreach of government that’s happening with ICE agents taking literally, taking people off of the streets, out of their homes, and creating chaos in our country,” said Susan Bauer of Hayward. “I never thought I would ever see this kind of action of our own government, hurting and murdering our own people.”

Bauer, a nurse, said she knows of another nurse working in Hayward who was mentored by Pretti as a student.

“I’m standing in solidarity with Alex because of his actions, and because he’s a nurse and because he worked for the VA and he supported our own vets,” she said, “and he was, you know, using his own constitutional right to have an firearm (Pretti was carrying a permitted concealed pistol when federal agents tackled him, but he did not brandish it), and that’s the main reason the Second Amendment was created, was to prevent overreach of government, to let citizens protect themselves against their own government.”

Ann Pollock resides in the Hayward area in the winter to take advantage of winter sports, cross-country skiing, fat-tire biking, and then lives in the summer in Madison. She came to the ride to protest the government’s actions and honor Pretti.  

Pollock said she knows of a family in the Twin Cities where the father, who has legal immigration status, was placed in a detention center for a week until, after a hearing where he proved his legal status, he was finally released.

“Why was he in detention all that time when he had his papers?” she asked. “It’s just wrong what the government is doing.”

 Pollock attended the ride to show solidarity with other riders and to demonstrate that there are progressives in Wisconsin’s deep-red 7th Congressional District.

Linda Shydlowski of Cable said she had been in Minneapolis on Friday, Jan. 23 to march with her daughter in a crowd of  40,000 protesters, and while she was in the Twin Cities she dropped  off food to Latino community members too afraid to come out of their houses for fear of being detained.

“We saw ICE circling around a drop-off facility in the Latino community, causing fear, and then to wake up the next morning, and you know Alex is shot. Devastating. Horrific,” she said.

Later, Shydlowski visited the memorial site constructed where Pretti had been killed.

“It was powerful to see so many people coming together in community, grieving together, those that personally knew him, those that didn’t know him at all, but we’re there in common ground, and that is for peace, for dignity of human life, and to care for each other,” she said.

While she was at the memorial, she said, she saw a man who spent over an hour on his knees crying.

She was also inspired to see two Somali women at the same site, a mother and daughter, passing out tea and a Hispanic woman offering food.

“It’s hard to know, really, what a group ride really accomplishes in light of everything going on,” said Shydlowski about the Jan. 31 bike event. “It’s such a small thing. But I think it’s powerful for people to come together and bear witness to what’s happened and ride with some hope, too, for things to get better.”

Chief Inspector Megan Williamson processes absentee ballots at the Hawthorne Library on Madison's East Side on Election Day Nov. 8, 2022. A voting bill introduced by Wisconsin Republican Congressman Bryan Steil would put new restrictions on how absentee ballots are handled as well as make other changes that voting rights advocates contend would increase barriers for voters.. (Photo by Henry Redman/Wisconsin Examiner)

Legislation proposed Friday by Wisconsin Republican U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil would require voters in every state to present a photo ID for a federal election, require states to verify that anyone registering to vote in a federal election is a U.S. citizen, and require paper ballots in all federal elections.

The bill also would put sharp restrictions on a person’s ability to collect ballots on behalf of other people. It would ban universal voting by mail and ranked choice voting in federal elections.

A press release from Steil’s office states that  the bill — dubbed the “Make Elections Great Again Act” — consists of “baseline requirements in place for state election administration.”

“Americans should be confident their elections are being run with integrity — including commonsense voter ID requirements, clean voter rolls, and citizenship verification,” Steil, who represents Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District and chairs the U.S. House Committee on House Administration, said in a statement. The bill would “improve voter confidence, bolster election integrity, and make it easy to vote, but hard to cheat.”

“The MEGA Act is a crucial step toward restoring trust in our democratic process and delivers long-overdue, common sense reforms that voters across our state and nation expect,” Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman Brian Schimming said in a statement.

But voting rights advocates said provisions in the legislation would increase needless barriers for voters, and that the legislation itself undermines trust in an election system that is already secure.

“The MEGA Act is a seriously problematic piece of anti-voter legislation. It will disenfranchise millions of voters across the country,” said Nick Ramos, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.

“This is a sweeping federal takeover of election administration,” said Samuel Liebert, Wisconsin state director for All Voting Is Local.

Provisions in the bill highlight claims that have been made by various activists and groups about voter fraud that election experts have argued are unsubstantiated.

The bill requires every state to make an agreement to share information with the U.S. attorney general about “evidence of potential fraud” in the state’s elections for federal office, including voting or attempts to vote by ineligible people. States without such an agreement would not be allowed to use federal funds from the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to administer their elections.

Liebert said under that provision and others, the U.S. attorney general could claw back federal funds on technical or even subjective grounds. “That puts local clerks at risk of losing the very resources needed to run secure elections,” he said, “leading to fewer poll workers, longer lines, and slower results.”

The bill requires a prospective voter to provide documentary proof of citizenship to register and a photo ID to vote, including by absentee ballot. That could block a number of eligible voters from casting ballots, he said, including the elderly, students, married women with name changes, rural voters, voters with disabilities and low-income voters lacking easy access to passports or certified birth certificates.

“There is no evidence this is needed: Noncitizen voting is already illegal and extraordinarily rare,” Liebert said.

The bill includes new restrictions on voting by mail in federal elections. 

It would outlaw universal voting by mail — a practice that is in place in eight states and the District of Columbia, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In addition, it would require mail-in ballot envelopes to include a postal bar code for tracking.

Absentee ballots would be required to arrive by the time the polls close in order to be counted, except for overseas voters and voters in the military. Currently some states allow absentee ballots to be counted if they have been postmarked by Election Day and arrive within a set number of days afterward. 

Mail-in ballots could not be counted until after the polls close under the bill. In 13 states, counting mail-in ballots can start ahead of Election Day under their current laws. Among the rest, some, including Wisconsin, allow counting to start before the polls close, while others don’t allow them to be counted until after the polls close. In Wisconsin, efforts to allow the counting of mail-in ballots to begin before Election Day have so far not succeeded. 

The bill would claw back federal funds from states that don’t follow its requirements for handling mail ballots.

Language in the bill also prevents people from distributing, ordering, requesting, delivering or possessing more than four ballots for a federal election, and requires that the ballot they’re handling must be associated with the individual, a family member or a person for whom the individual is a caregiver.

The aim is to outlaw “ballot harvesting,” Steil said in his press release.

A 2020 report by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University said attacks on ballot collection by calling it “ballot harvesting” have conflated two practices — illegal tampering with absentee ballots, and the benign practice of helping voters who need help in casting and returning an absentee ballot.

“Some voters need this assistance in order to cast a ballot,” the Brennan Center report states.

In the MEGA Act, “The limits on possession and return of mail ballots — including felony penalties — would make it harder for caregivers, family members, and community members to help voters who need assistance,” Liebert said. “This is especially concerning for voters with disabilities, older voters, and voters living in rural or tribal communities.”

The bill requires all states to verify the eligibility of voters to take part in federal elections every 30 days “through the use of all verification resources available to the State,” including the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements system maintained by the Department of Homeland Security.

In the course of those monthly checks, states must remove any duplicate registrations and any voters not eligible because of a criminal conviction, death, change of residence or because they’re identified as a noncitizen by the SAVE system.

The databases the bill prescribes are prone to errors, however, Liebert said, which “dramatically increases the risk of eligible voters being wrongly removed.”

Another provision gives private citizens the right to sue election officials whom they allege have allowed noncitizens to vote. That would create “a chilling effect that prioritizes risk avoidance over voter access,” Liebert added.

Liebert said the net effect of the bill would be a virtual federal takeover of the state’s role in administering elections.

“It strips states and local election officials of flexibility and imposes one-size-fits-all rules that don’t reflect how elections actually work on the ground — especially in a state like Wisconsin with decentralized administration,” he said.

“This bill is premised on the false idea that our elections are fundamentally broken,” Liebert said. “Election officials — including in Wisconsin — have shown again and again that elections are secure. Codifying suspicion into law doesn’t strengthen democracy; it undermines public confidence and puts election workers in harm’s way.”

Protesters gather in downtown Milwaukee to voice opposition to the actions of federal immigration agents. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)

Hundreds of people marched up State St. Friday from the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus to the Wisconsin State Capitol to protest federal immigration enforcement in Minnesota and across the country.

The anti-ICE protest was part of a day of action across the country organized in reaction to the recent killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good by federal agents in Minneapolis, and the ongoing federal crackdown in Minnesota. Friday’s national shutdown — a day of no school, no work and no shopping — was called for by student groups and immigrant rights advocates in Minnesota.

“What do we want? ICE out. When do we want it? Now,” protesters bundled in coats, scarves, gloves and hats chanted as they marched in the 13-degree weather.

“This month, I watched our neighbors in Minneapolis fight ICE on days colder than this one with love and solidarity,” Halsey Hazzard, a co-chair of Madison Area Democratic Socialists of America and a UW-Madison library employee, told the crowd gathered on the steps of the Capitol. Hazzard said the Trump administration “fears” people “coming together, reaching out to one another and learning that love is stronger than fear.” 

Dozens of businesses in Wisconsin’s capital city showed solidarity by closing up shop or donating proceeds to advocacy groups in Minnesota and Wisconsin. 

People carried signs expressing their opposition to the actions federal immigration agents have  taken in Minnesota and elsewhere, including detaining children. “Children aren’t criminals. Trump is,” one sign declared.

Recently, the Trump administration came under fire for its detainment in Minnesota of 5-year-old Liam Ramos and Vice President J.D. Vance defended the action. Ramos remains in a detention facility in Texas.

“No fear! No hate! No ICE in our state!” the Madison marchers chanted.

“Immigrants Make America Great,” another sign stated.

One sign called out the only Republican in the open race for governor of Wisconsin, stating “Tom Tiffany Likes ICE.” Tiffany, the congressman who represents the Northwoods, said in the wake of the shooting of Pretti, who was an ICU nurse from Green Bay, that he would work with local, state and federal law enforcement to “remove criminal illegal aliens.” He urged Minnesota leaders to do the same.

“Cooperation is how you avoid tragic consequences. Deporting illegal aliens is how you make America safer. And waiting for the facts is how you avoid escalating the situation,” Tiffany said.

Pretti’s death prompted protests across the country, including in Green Bay, last weekend. 

Once the group made it to the Capitol, a number of speakers criticized the Trump administration and called for the elimination of ICE.

“Today, we are standing together to demand defund ICE,” Hazzard said.

“Defund ICE,” protesters echoed. 

“Not another dollar for ICE to terrorize our communities. We must strip ICE of its funding for both enforcement and detention. Abolish ICE. End the occupation of Minneapolis and all other cities,” Hazzard said.

A big crowd descends on Milwaukee’s Cathedral Park

Hundreds of people raised their voices in Milwaukee on Friday in opposition to a federal immigration crackdown in Minnesota. Trudging through  a  fresh coat of snow,  protesters streamed into Cathedral Square Park by the dozens. Activists from various local groups charged the crowd with a short round of speeches before taking to the streets for a march. 

Chanting “move ICE, get out the way;” “no ICE, no KKK, no Fascist USA,” and the names of Renee Good and Alex Pretti — two Minneapolis residents who were killed in separate incidents involving federal agents — the marchers filled the streets of downtown. The crowd of people of all ages from  young children to older seniors, passed the Federal Building of Milwaukee and City Hall before returning to the park. 

No violence, conflicts, or destruction occurred. A single drone was seen hovering over the march, and police presence was minimal.

U.S. President Donald Trump holds up a signed executive order alongside Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, Roger Penske, chair of the Penske Corporation, Bud Denker, President of Penske Corporation, and U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, in the Oval Office of the White House on Jan. 30, 2026 in Washington, DC. Trump signed an order aimed at bringing an IndyCar race to the District of Columbia this summer as part of the celebration of America’s 250th birthday. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

The nation’s capital will host an autorace through its streets this summer, President Donald Trump said Friday.

The IndyCar race, which Trump compared to the Indianapolis 500, will take place Aug. 23, with preliminary events such as practice sessions occurring for two days before, Trump said during an Oval Office announcement. 

It will be free for spectators to attend and broadcast by Fox.

The event, dubbed the Freedom 250 Grand Prix, is one of several Trump’s White House has planned to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence this summer. The celebration is also scheduled to include an Ultimate Fighting Championship match at the White House.

The race track will go around “our iconic national monuments in celebration of America’s 250th birthday,” according to an executive order Trump signed. The exact route will be finalized by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum within the next two weeks, according to the order.

Trump implied that the site of the race had already been chosen, saying that he urged organizers to choose “the best site,” no matter the permitting difficulties. The order directs Duffy and Burgum to ensure all permits are secured.

Duffy, Burgum, and representatives of the Penske Corp., which owns the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indiana that hosts the sport’s premiere event, flanked Trump during the Oval Office signing.

Trump noted that Penske executives had long sought a race in Washington, D.C., but had not made progress with lawmakers they’d lobbied. Trump approved the plan after “half a meeting,” he said.

“They’ve been coming here for years, and everybody wanted it,” he said. “Every senator wants it, every Congress, everybody wants it, but they don’t get things done. Trump gets things done.”

Officials at the White House Friday lauded the plan.

“To think of 190 miles an hour down Pennsylvania Avenue, this is going to be wild,” said Duffy, a former member of Congress from Wisconsin. “Freedom, America, speed and roadracing. It doesn’t get more American than that, Mr. President.”

Kevin Warsh, second from left, listens during a panel discussion at the Semafor 2024 World Economy Summit on April 18, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images for Semafor)

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s new Federal Reserve chair pick likely faces headwinds in the U.S. Senate, as a key lawmaker opposes the administration’s ongoing criminal probe of current Fed leader Jerome Powell.

Trump announced early Friday he’s tapped Kevin Warsh to lead the central bank after Powell’s term ends in May. Warsh sat on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors from 2006 to 2011 after being nominated by President George W. Bush and is a visiting scholar at Stanford University’s business school and the university’s conservative think tank, the Hoover Institution.

“I have known Kevin for a long period of time, and have no doubt that he will go down as one of the GREAT Fed Chairmen, maybe the best,” Trump wrote on his own platform, Truth Social. “On top of everything else, he is ‘central casting,’ and he will never let you down.”

But the president is one vote short needed to push the nominee through the tightly divided Senate Banking Committee if all Democrats on the panel vote against.

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., a member of the Banking Committee, praised Warsh as a “qualified nominee with a deep understanding of monetary policy.” 

But Tillis, who is retiring after this term, said he won’t vote for the pick if Trump continues to investigate Powell on accusations that he lied to Congress over the cost of renovations to the Fed’s Washington, D.C., headquarters.

“Protecting the independence of the Federal Reserve from political interference or legal intimidation is non-negotiable. My position has not changed: I will oppose the confirmation of any Federal Reserve nominee, including for the position of Chairman, until the DOJ’s inquiry into Chairman Powell is fully and transparently resolved,” Tillis wrote on social media Friday morning.

The Federal Reserve holds significant influence over the nation’s economy, and numerous experts advise separating monetary policy from political influence. Adjusting interest rates, to cool inflation or stimulate the economy, is one tool the central bank uses to accomplish maximum employment and price stability.

Threats to Powell

Trump has publicly threatened to fire Powell multiple times if the chair did not lower interest rates more aggressively.

Powell revealed in mid-January that he received a federal grand jury subpoena from the Department of Justice for a probe into whether he lied to Congress about construction costs.

Powell said in a rare video statement at the time that the investigation was not purely about oversight but rather about “setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the president.”

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche declined to comment on the status of the subpoenas Friday when asked if Trump’s nomination process would speed up the investigation into Powell.

“I don’t think the timing of President Trump’s decision to nominate somebody is a controlling factor in any investigation,” he told reporters at an unrelated press conference at the Justice Department.

No commitment to lower rates

Trump praised Warsh on social media Friday morning, upon announcing his decision.

Warsh, a former New York banker and economic adviser to Bush, served on the Fed board through the tumultuous global financial crisis.

Trump told reporters Friday afternoon that he hasn’t asked Warsh about a commitment to lower interest rates. 

“I don’t want to ask him that question. I think it’s inappropriate. Probably, probably would be allowed, but I want to keep it nice and pure. But he certainly wants to cut rates. I’ve been watching him for a long time,” Trump said.

When asked about Tillis’s opposition, Trump called the senator an “obstructionist.”

“I mean, you know, if he doesn’t approve, we just have to wait till somebody comes in that will approve it, right?” Trump said. 

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., a member of the Senate Banking Committee, urged her Republican colleagues on the panel to oppose Trump’s pick.

“Trump can’t appoint his next puppet to the Fed all by himself. The Senate has to approve it. Any senator who claims to care about the independence of the Fed, including my Republican colleagues, should refuse to move forward with this nomination period until Trump drops his witch hunts,” Warren said in a video message posted on social media Friday afternoon.

Powell has not been Trump’s only target on the Federal Reserve. The president is awaiting a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court on whether he violated the law when he fired Federal Reserve Board Gov. Lisa Cook, a President Joe Biden appointee, via social media over the summer.  

Jacob Fischler and Shauneen Miranda contributed to this report.

U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman announces charges against Jeffrey Epstein on July 8, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Justice released more than 3 million pages of documents Friday related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The release, which in the 3 million pages includes more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images, comes more than 40 days after the agency was legally required to release the full set of files involving the disgraced financier, in compliance with federal law. 

The department instead opted for a piecemeal rollout of the files, prompting backlash.

U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said Friday’s release marks the end of a “very comprehensive” records review process to “ensure transparency to the American people and compliance” with the federal law — known as the Epstein Files Transparency Act — mandating the release. 

“After submitting the final report to Congress as required under the act and publishing the written justifications for redactions in the Federal Register, the department’s obligations under the act will be completed,” he said. 

In total, the DOJ has now released approximately 3.5 million pages in adherence with the federal law. 

President Donald Trump signed a bill into law in November requiring the DOJ to make publicly available “all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials in DOJ’s possession that relate to the investigation and prosecution of Jeffrey Epstein,” including materials related to Epstein’s accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.

GOP Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California co-sponsored the measure — which gave the department 30 days after the bill was enacted into law to release the files, or Dec. 19.

Trump, who has appeared in several of the files, had a well-documented friendship with Epstein, but has maintained he had a falling-out with the disgraced financier and was never involved in any alleged crimes. 

“There’s a hunger or a thirst for information that I do not think will be satisfied by the review of these documents,” Blanche said. 

“There’s nothing I can do about that.” 

The U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., surrounded by snow and ice, on Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)

WASHINGTON — The federal government began a partial shutdown early Saturday, even though Senate Democrats and President Donald Trump reached a deal that allows lawmakers more time to negotiate new constraints on immigration enforcement. 

The Senate voted 71-29 on Friday evening to pass the reworked government funding package before a midnight deadline. But the earliest the House could clear it for Trump’s signature is Monday evening, when members return from a recess.

The scheduling problem guarantees the current spending law, which Congress approved in November at the end of the last shutdown, will expire without a replacement. 

However, the effects on the nation are not expected to be as dramatic as those during the historic 43-day shutdown last year. Since Congress has already passed half of the dozen annual appropriations bills, this shutdown will only affect part of the government, and possibly with moderate impacts since it may only last a few days until the House acts.

The unexpected hitch in progress toward passing the $1.2 trillion package came about after immigration agents killed a second person in Minneapolis and Senate Democrats demanded reforms be included in the Department of Homeland Security spending bill. Trump has agreed to two weeks of negotiations on the DHS bill, which includes funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection and other immigration enforcement agencies.

Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, said the full-year measures are “fiscally responsible bills that reflect months of hard work and deliberation from members from both parties and both sides of the Capitol.”

“The package also continues funding for the Department of Homeland Security for two weeks to allow us additional time to evaluate further changes in ICE procedures beyond those that we have already included in this bill,” she said. 

Once the package becomes law, she said, 96% of government will be funded for the fiscal year that began back on Oct. 1. 

Washington Democratic Sen. Patty Murray, ranking member on the Appropriations Committee, said approving the five full-year bills and a stopgap for the Homeland Security Department represented “a simple, commonsense path forward.”

“It is good news we have a deal to fund these key programs families count on while work continues on serious DHS accountability over the next two weeks,” Murray said. “It could not be more clear that ICE and CBP are out of control and that we cannot just wait for the same president who caused this mess to address it.”

Senators from North Carolina, South Carolina tangle

South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said in a floor speech several hours before voting began that he would hold up quick consideration of the funding package until leaders agreed to schedule floor votes on two separate proposals. 

The first would establish some sort of criminal penalty for local or state officials who do not cooperate with federal immigration enforcement agents, often called sanctuary cities. The second would clear the way for conservative organizations to file lawsuits against former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith for his investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. 

“What is the right answer when a state or a mayor says, ‘I don’t like this federal law, I’m not going to do it because there’s good politics for me.’ I think you risk going to jail,” Graham said. “We cannot live in a country this way, where you get to pick and choose the laws you don’t like.”

A spokesperson for Graham later confirmed to States Newsroom that the senator didn’t want the votes Friday but “just sometime down the road.” Graham released a statement later in the afternoon that Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., had agreed to schedule floor votes “at a time to be determined.”

North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis spoke directly after Graham and rebuked him for delaying the entire funding package. 

Tillis called on senators from both political parties to start negotiations about “common sense sorts of ways to lower the temperature” on immigration enforcement.

He said officials should “hold people accountable when they’re harming ICE agents, and hold ICE agents accountable if they reacted in a way that’s not consistent with their law enforcement training.”

Tillis argued that Graham’s approach to pushing for amendment votes that are unlikely to succeed wouldn’t have any tangible, real-world impacts. 

“One senator has a lot of power. And if you use it judiciously, you can be productive and make a difference,” Tillis said. “But if you use it in the heat of the moment, you can make a point that not a damn person is going to remember a month later.”

Some departments, judiciary affected

The departments of Defense, Education, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Labor, State, Transportation and Treasury will all experience the funding lapse. The Executive Office of the President, Supreme Court and judicial branch will also be affected. 

All other federal programs will continue uninterrupted, since their spending bills have become law, including those at the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, Interior, Justice and Veterans Affairs, as well as military construction projects and funding for Congress. 

A spokesperson for the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts wrote in a statement earlier this week that “operations would continue using court fees and other available balances through Wednesday, February 4. 

“The following day, on February 5, the Judiciary would begin operating under the terms of the Anti-Deficiency Act. Federal courts would continue operating, but would be limited to activities needed to support the exercise of the Judiciary’s constitutional functions and to address emergency circumstances.”

House Democrats demand changes in DHS bill

A spokesperson for the White House budget office said the departments and agencies affected by the funding lapse can use their contingency plans from the last shutdown unless they had “big changes.”

Those documents detail how many employees continue working without pay during a shutdown and how many are furloughed. 

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Democrats wouldn’t support the spending bill unless major reforms are made in the way immigration officers conduct enforcement.

“We’re going to have to evaluate what the real opportunity is to get dramatic changes at the Department of Homeland Security. It has to be bold,” he said during a morning press conference. “The Senate has to do its thing before we have anything to evaluate.”

Madison small businesses and residents, protesting a federal immigration crackdown in Minnesota, are planning to show solidarity Friday by shutting down or donating proceeds to immigration and other advocacy organizations. On Friday, Jan. 9, people gathered outside the Wisconsin State Capitol to protest and mourn over the killing of Renee Good by ICE agent Jonathan Ross in Minneapolis. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)

Madison small businesses and residents, protesting a federal immigration crackdown in Minnesota, are showing solidarity Friday by shutting down or donating proceeds to immigration and other advocacy organizations, with marches and rallies planned during the day.

The businesses are following a call for a “nationwide shutdown” — a day of no school, no work and no shopping. According to the Guardian, the call for the shutdown came from several student groups at the University of Minnesota.

“The people of the Twin Cities have shown the way for the whole country — to stop ICE’s reign of terror, we need to SHUT IT DOWN,” states a website about the effort.

Madison businesses shutting down 

An array of small businesses in Wisconsin’s capital have announced plans to support the day of action. 

There is also a student walkout planned for 2 p.m. by UW-Madison students who plan to meet at Library Mall on campus and march to the state Capitol at 2:45 p.m. A rally is planned at 3 p.m. at the Capitol. Another march is also planned in Milwaukee at 2 p.m. at Cathedral Square Park.

Lake City Books, located on N. Hamilton St. in downtown Madison, will be staying open to serve  as a warming place for people protesting at the Capitol, according to the business’s Instagram account. The local bookstore plans to have free hand warmers and sign-making materials available.

The book store will kick off its February fundraiser with proceeds from its “Books Against Tyranny” display donated to the Minnesota ACLU chapter to “support those whose First Amendment rights have been violated.”

“We stand with MN. We support free speech and all peaceful protest. Please be kind to each other and continue to support small local businesses,” the book store said. 

Bloom Bake Shop plans to close its two locations in Madison at 2 p.m. so its team members can attend the rally downtown. The local bakery said it will also be selling sugar cookies dedicated to Minnesota, and the profits from the cookies will go to the Immigrant Rapid Response Fund.

“At Bloom, we’ve been clear about where we stand: with Minnesota, and with all those living in fear or suffering during this American crisis. We stand with people peacefully exercising their rights, and with those working to protect the freedoms our communities depend on,” the bakery said in an Instagram post. “Life feels bitter right now. Our intention is to offer something sweet, along with sincere hope, during these very challenging times. We must resist. We must stay strong. Together.”

Madison Sourdough said it plans to donate 10% of its proceeds on Friday to Voces de la Frontera, though it plans to close its kitchen early at 1:30 p.m., so its staff can attend the march and rally protesting unconstitutional and immoral tactics in Minnesota and across the country.

Casetta Kitchen said it plans to donate 20% of its Friday sales to Community Aid Network Minnesota. 

Forward Craft and Coffee on Atwood Avenue in Madison said it will be donating $1 of every drink it sells to the Minnesota Rapid Response Fund.

Other Madison businesses with plans to close or donate proceeds include: 

• A Room of One’s Own
• Ailimentari
• Ahan
• Boulders Climbing Gym
• Lola’s
• Mansion Hill Inn
• Origin Breads
• Robin Room Bar 
• SevvenCycle
• Teasider
• The Bubbling Tea Pot

Wisconsin Democratic lawmakers also express solidarity

State Rep. Francesca (D-Madison) said in a video that the shutdown is “a way to show the world that we grow power. We fight back as a collective and stand together.” She encouraged small businesses to join the shutdown effort in whatever way they can. 

On Thursday, a group of Wisconsin state lawmakers — all Democrats — took part in a solidarity event in support of Minnesota. Some traveled to Minneapolis to be in solidarity in person, including state Sens. Melissa Ratcliff (D-Cottage Grove) and Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee) as well as state Reps. Ryan Clancy (D-Milwaukee), Christian Phelps (D-Eau Claire), Maureen McCarville (D-DeForest). 

Others joined from a Zoom call including state Reps. Deb Andraca (D-Whitefish Bay), Christine Sinicki (D-Milwaukee), Robyn Vining (D-Wauwatosa), Brienne Brown (D-Whitewater) and Darrin Madison (D-Milwaukee), who spoke on the call. 

“We also continue to grieve and remember the loss of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Their lives mattered. Their families alongside every single family impacted by the actions of ICE deserve truth, justice and full accountability, and we stand with them in that demand. Right now, our communities are being tested,” Madison said. 

Madison said that “our communities are being tested” by an agency that “too often treats our neighbors like targets instead of human beings.”

“Here in Wisconsin, we, too, are pushing back,” Madison said. “Faith leaders, workers and neighbors are building rapid response networks and community defense efforts to protect families when the system refuses to. We stand in solidarity with Minnesota and communities who are saying ‘We will not be divided. We will not be intimidated and we will not stop organizing until every family can live without fear because we must keep families together.’”

“Far too often, [African-American] contributions are confined to lessons about slavery, the Civil Rights Movement, or even limited to Martin Luther King's ‘I Have a Dream’ speech,” Sen. Dora Drake said. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

As the Trump administration pulls down displays on Black history, Wisconsin state Sen. Dora Drake (D-Milwaukee) and Rep. Shelia Stubbs (D-Madison) are renewing their push for Wisconsin to bolster education on African-American history in schools.

Their bill would require the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) to work with a handful of organizations, including the African American/Jewish Friendship Group, Inc., the Wisconsin Black Historical Society, America’s Black Holocaust Museum in Milwaukee and the University of Wisconsin system, to develop a model curriculum on African-American history for each grade from kindergarten through high school. The bill would have Black history instruction incorporated into model academic standards for social studies.

“African Americans have lived in Wisconsin for over 300 years — long before we officially became a state. Our ancestors, our heritage and our culture have shaped the development of our state and our nation in so many ways,” Stubbs said. “Unfortunately, the history lessons that are being taught to our children and the course of their education do not always reflect the fact.”

Stubbs said the bill would help students be better informed, develop empathy and an appreciation for Black perspectives and experiences. 

“By actively working with community partners, who have extensive background and study and teach in African-American history, we’ll ensure that the information being shared with students is thorough, it’s accurate and is culturally sensitive,” Stubbs said.

Wisconsin already has a state statute that requires that school boards provide students with “an understanding of human relations, particularly with regard to American Indians, Black Americans, Hispanics, Hmong Americans, and Asian Americans,” and that law was recently changed by the state Legislature to include instruction about the state’s Hmong and Asian American communities.

But the lawmakers argue the state needs to go further.

“While there is language in the statutes to promote the understanding of human relations with regards to marginalized groups, we lack stronger language, specifically requiring the development of rigorous, developmentally appropriate curriculum with regard to the African-American history,” Stubbs said. 

Former state Rep. LaKeshia Myers (D-Milwaukee) and former Sen. Lena Taylor (D-Milwaukee) first introduced the proposal in 2021 following an uptick of racially insensitive incidents at schools. 

The bill would require public school boards, independent charter schools and private schools to include instruction on African American history. DPI would need to hire three education consultants to assist schools with updating curriculum. The bill includes an appropriation of $384,000 for this purpose.

The bill would also prohibit DPI from granting a teaching license if someone hasn’t received instruction in African-American history. 

Drake said that schools focusing on limited pieces of Black history overlook the “breadth and the depth” of Black history and allow for “misconceptions, misinterpretations and inaccurate history and historical lessons.”

“Far too often, [African-American] contributions are confined to lessons about slavery, the Civil Rights Movement, or even limited to Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech,” Drake said. 

The civil right leader’s speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. has been a point of discussion recently among Wisconsin lawmakers, including Drake, as his speech has been used to justify a constitutional amendment proposal to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in Wisconsin local and state government. 

Drake noted that the introduction of the bill comes as the National Park Service and federal agencies under leadership of President Donald Trump have been removing Black historical figures and events from their websites and museums. She specifically noted the removal of an exhibit titled “Freedom and Slavery in the Making of a New Nation” that memorialized nine people enslaved by George Washington at the presidential mansion by the National Park Service at the direction of Trump earlier this month.

“Their stories were removed,” Drake said. “This instance is far too similar to the millions of African-Americans’ stories that have been lost and forgotten.”

Drake said the bill would ensure that erasure doesn’t happen in Wisconsin by incorporating Black history into the state’s K-12 curriculum. She said students would learn about pivotal moments and figures including those who fought in the American Revolution, led rebellions against slavery, including Nat Turner, built thriving communities during the Reconstruction Era including Black Wall Street, and championed civil rights.

William Greer, the retired CEO of Journey Mental Health Center, Inc., a historical fiction writer and a member of the African American/Jewish Friendship Group, said he received little  education on Black history in high school and as a student at UW-Madison, where he went to school with the goal of becoming an English teacher.

“I came away from those experiences with only your rudimentary knowledge of the contribution of African-Americans,” Greer said. “This left me with an impression of self-doubt.”

Greer said he later educated himself on Black writers, including James Baldwin, Toni Morrison and Zora Neale Hurston. It changed the trajectory of his life.

“I discovered that the fortitude and resilience of Black people did not begin or end in America. This discovery struck the shackles from my mind, and I was finally able to dream with purpose,” Greer said. “In today’s climate the stakes are too high to leave this critical learning to chance… America is the only country in the world that routinely has the word ‘dream’ attached to its name. People from all over the world come here in pursuit of the American Dream. Freedom, opportunity and diversity are the underpinnings of that dream and if you remove any one of these pillars, the dream will crumble.”

The African American/Jewish Friendship Group is a nonprofit group that was started by Merle and Gerald Sternberg in 1990 to improve race relations in Dane County. 

The bill was announced just days before the start of Black History Month, though Merle Sternberg said education on Black history needs to go beyond February. She said teaching American history without including African-American history “would be like teaching math without addition or subtraction.” 

“African-American history is U.S history and that traditional way of highlighting a few key figures and events during Black History Month is no longer sufficient,” Sternberg said. “Now more than ever, we need to give voice to Black history, not silence it.”

The bill would need to advance in the state Senate and Assembly, which are controlled by Republicans, to become law.

“This is something that should be supported by everyone,” Drake told reporters. “So it’ll be sent out for a cosponsorship and we’ll continue to have conversations to see if they can get it in the public hearing.”

Flanked by Rev. Julia Burkey, left, and U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, right, Christine Neumann-Ortiz speaks at a press conference Thursday about plans to respond if federal immigration agents surge into Wisconsin. (Photo by Erik Gunn/Wisconsin Examiner)

A surge in Wisconsin of federal immigration enforcement will be met with an organized and peaceful resistance, the product of more than a year’s worth of planning and training, advocates vowed Thursday.

Voces de la Frontera, a statewide immigrant rights advocacy group based in Milwaukee, has established a 24-hour hotline to field calls from people concerned about the possible presence of federal agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as border patrol.

At an afternoon news conference with U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Black Earth) in a Madison church, Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director of Voces, said the hotline is “the starting point” for people who want to respond if they encounter a possible surge of ICE or border patrol agents.

Staffed around the clock by volunteers, the hotline was established to provide a centralized source of verified reports when there’s new ICE or border patrol activity around the state and to quickly dispel false reports that only increase fear.

Advocates and their allies are bracing for the possibility of a new federal surge in Wisconsin following what has now been more than two months of escalated federal activity in Minneapolis.

“It is not likely a question of if they’ll be coming into the community in a stronger way,” Pocan said. “It is a question of when they’ll be coming into the community.”

The Minnesota surge has led to the deaths of two people — Renee Good and Alex Pretti — who were killed by federal agents. In both instances, eyewitness accounts and videos refuted Trump administration claims that the victims had acted violently in the moments before they were shot.

“It’s not just the killings and the violence, but people are being separated and they’re also being held in dangerous and deadly conditions that are harder to see,” Neumann-Ortiz said — because federal officials have been “denying much oversight.”

Pocan authored a bill to abolish ICE during Trump’s first term, but acknowledged that even he has been taken aback by the agency’s actions in the last year.

“I don’t think people realized — nor did I — that we would ever get to this point where ICE was this rogue, this out of control,” Pocan said. “We have seen them going into communities and really having devastating consequences.”

He endorsed a description of the agencies as “a modern day Gestapo” that he attributed to New York Democratic Congressman Jerry Nadler. “It’s treating the non-citizen and citizen alike with this disrespect.”

Pocan said Wisconsin can respond both forcefully and peacefully.

“Our message is that this is a community that’s going to be united,” he said. “We are going to fight back. And I do not mean physically fight back — I mean morally fight back — on what ICE is doing and how it’s treating our neighbors and our community, and what we’re seeing in Minneapolis and other places across the country.”

Rev. Julia Burkey, the senior pastor at Orchard Ridge United Church of Christ where the news conference was held, described the actions of the federal Department of Homeland Security as “terrorizing and killing innocent people, who are all beloved children of God, simply seeking to live their lives and make peace in their communities.”

She contrasted that with the response of Twin Cities residents who have turned out to support the immigrant community.

“We also are so inspired by the people of Minnesota and how they are loving their neighbors, how they’re singing songs of love and solidarity, how they’re protecting the most vulnerable people who are delivering church meals to those who are even afraid to go outside,” Burkey said.  “What we’re seeing is a groundswell of neighborly love, and we have that groundswell of neighborly love here in Wisconsin, too.”

Voces and its allies have been preparing for a wave of federal anti-immigrant action since President Donald Trump was elected to his second term.

“In Wisconsin, we have been building — really since November 2024 — with other organizations, faith groups, unions, a statewide community defense network to stand in solidarity with immigrant families and to protect our collective democratic rights,” Neumann-Ortiz said. “This network exists to help people assert their constitutional rights through peaceful assembly to document ICE violations and expose the truth about what is happening in our communities.”

Neumann-Ortiz urged people not to post or share purported sightings of ICE or other federal agents that have not been verified, to avoid spreading needless fear and misinformation.

The Voces hotline has trained volunteers who can be dispatched to locations where the federal agencies are suspected of operating and document what they encounter.

Verifiers are trained to not interfere in federal options, Neumann-Ortiz said, but instead “observe, record and support impacted families, connecting them through another network of folks who can provide legal resources and mutual aid when necessary.”

Voces also coordinates a rapid response network of volunteers to peacefully protest and publicize “unlawful and abusive activity” by federal agents, she said. Tens of thousands of volunteers have been trained across the state in churches, schools, workplaces and other locations on their legal rights and on how to respond safely, nonviolently and effectively and in a spirit of “collective care,”  she added.

“Everyone should know that you have the right to remain silent if you are questioned by ICE, you have the right to an attorney if you are arrested or detained, and you have the right to demand that ICE present a judicial warrant signed by a judge before giving them access to your home, workplace, or any other area that is considered a private area not open to the public,” Neumann-Ortiz said.

“Together, these efforts represent a model of community-based safety, rooted in solidarity, dignity, shared responsibility,” she said. “We believe that real security comes from people looking out for one another, not from militarized federal agencies. Our communities deserve safety without fear, justice without violence and dignity without conditions.”