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.”

White House Border Czar Tom Homan talks with reporters on the driveway outside the White House West Wing on March 17, 2025. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

President Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, cited “sanctuary” policies and the Biden administration’s ineffective border enforcement as the reason for the ongoing massive presence of immigration agents in Minnesota in a press conference Thursday morning. 

Homan took over operations in Minnesota Monday from Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino, who was demoted after his agents shot and killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis over the weekend. 

Three thousand immigration agents remain in Minnesota, Homan said, and a reduction in force depends on cooperation from elected officials.

Over the past month, immigration agents have shot three people, killing two; racially profiled people, asking them to produce proof of legal residency; detained legal immigrants and shipped them across state lines, including young children; caused numerous car crashes; deployed chemical irritants on public school property; smashed the car windows of observers and arrested them before releasing them without charges; and threatened journalists who were filming them from a distance in a public space, among other high-profile incidents. 

Homan tacitly acknowledged the chaos, saying, “I’m not here because the federal government has carried out its mission perfectly.” 

Despite agents’ frequent arrests of legal immigrants and those without criminal histories, Homan insisted that immigration operations in Minnesota are targeted on removing undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes.

Homan, who reportedly was investigated for receiving $50,000 in cash from an undercover FBI agent in 2024 in an alleged bribery scheme, said state and local law enforcement agencies’ refusal to assist immigration agents is the reason for the prolonged federal presence in Minnesota. 

“Give us access to the illegal alien public safety threat and the safety and security of a jail,” Homan said in the press conference.

Many of the “worst of the worst” immigrants convicted of crimes, whose names have been provided to media outlets, were handed over to immigration officials after finishing sentences in state prisons, according to an MPR News analysis. Eight local law enforcement agencies in Minnesota have signed agreements with ICE to allow access to jails, or assist in immigration enforcement in other ways. 

Other Trump administration officials have given different explanations for the ongoing “surge” — and made other demands of elected officials. Initial reports suggested the operation would target Somali Americans. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said when the operation began in December that it was intended to “eradicate FRAUD.” Attorney General Pam Bondi sent a letter to Gov. Tim Walz last week demanding the state hand over troves of Medicaid, nutrition assistance and voter data.

Homan said he has met with Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and local law enforcement leaders, and that those meetings have been “productive,” though he urged those elected officials to tone down their rhetoric. 

“I’ve begged for the last two months on TV for the rhetoric to stop. I said in March if the rhetoric doesn’t stop, there’s going to be bloodshed. And there has been,” he said.

(He did not address Trump’s rhetoric; the president has called Somali Americans “garbage” and his political enemies “vermin.”)

Through a spokesperson, Frey responded to Homan’s news conference, saying “Any drawdown of ICE agents is a step in the right direction—but my ask remains the same: Operation Metro Surge must end.” 

A spokesperson for Walz said “we need a drawdown in federal forces, impartial (Bureau of Criminal Apprehension) investigations, and an end to the campaign of retribution against Minnesota.”

Ellison did not immediately return requests for comment.   

Homan seemed to take a shot at his predecessor, Bovino, who made frequent appearances in Minneapolis and at the Whipple Federal Building, surrounded by camerapeople. 

“I didn’t come to seek photo ops or headlines,” Homan said. “I came here to seek solutions.” 

Max Nesterak contributed reporting.

Diana E. Murphy federal courthouse is shown in Minneapolis Friday, May 17, 2024. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)

Patrick J. Schiltz, chief judge of the federal district court in Minnesota and a former clerk to conservative icon Antonin Scalia, ripped the Trump administration for ignoring dozens of court orders in a ruling Wednesday.

Schiltz had previously demanded to see U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Todd Lyons for a Friday contempt proceeding.

After ICE released a detainee identified in court documents as Juan T.R., Schiltz canceled the hearing but also blasted the government for undermining the rule of law by ignoring judicial orders.

“That does not end the court’s concerns, however,” he wrote, attaching an appendix identifying 96 court orders that ICE violated in 74 cases.

“The extent of ICE’s noncompliance is almost certainly substantially understated,” he continued. “This list should give pause to anyone — no matter his or her political beliefs — who cares about the rule of law.”

Schiltz is a noted figure in conservative legal circles, making his sharp order all the more notable. He was appointed by former President George W. Bush.

The last straw for Schiltz was the officials’ failure to follow a Jan. 14 order to grant a timely bond hearing for Juan T.R., who Schiltz said remained in custody as of Friday. The Monday order excoriated Lyons and his colleagues for causing “significant hardship” for Minnesota residents caught up in the federal dragnet, many of whom “have lawfully lived and worked in the United States for years and done absolutely nothing wrong,” he emphasized.

Schiltz described scenarios in which detainees were held longer than necessary; removed to detention facilities elsewhere in the country; or released hundreds or even thousands of miles from home with no arrangements made for their return.

Bystanders watch as Washington, D.C., police and agents from the federal Drug Enforcement Administration make an arrest in August. Crime in major U.S. cities continued to decline in 2025, with homicides down 21% from 2024 and 44% from a peak in 2021, according to a new analysis by the Council on Criminal Justice. (Photo by Noelle Straub/Stateline)

Crime continued to decline in 2025, with homicides down 21% from 2024 and 44% from a peak in 2021, according to a new analysis of crime trends in 40 large U.S. cities released by the nonpartisan think tank Council on Criminal Justice.

If federal nationwide data, which is set to be released later this year, reflects similar trends, the national homicide rate could fall to its lowest level in more than a century.

The Council on Criminal Justice study analyzed 13 types of offenses — from homicides to drug crimes to shoplifting — in cities that have consistently published monthly data over the past eight years. Researchers found that 11 of the 13 offenses were lower in 2025 than in 2024, with nine dropping by 10% or more. 

Drug offenses were the only category to rise, while sexual assaults remained unchanged.

Carjackings and shoplifting also declined sharply. Reported carjackings fell 61% from 2023, while reported shoplifting dropped 10% from 2024.

Among the 35 cities reporting homicides, nearly all recorded declines. Denver; Omaha, Nebraska; and Washington, D.C., saw homicide rates drop roughly 40%.

There were some modest increases, including in Little Rock, Arkansas; Fort Worth, Texas; and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The homicide rate in El Paso, Texas, remained flat. Overall, 922 fewer homicides were reported across the cities in the sample.

The downward trends extend beyond homicides. In 2025, reported incidents of aggravated assaults fell 9%, gun assaults 22%, robberies 23%, residential burglaries 17%, nonresidential burglaries 18%, larcenies 11%, and domestic violence 2%.

Looking at longer-term trends, violent crime levels in most cities are at or below pre-pandemic levels, the analysis found. Homicides were 25% lower than in 2019, with Baltimore seeing the largest drop at 60%. Milwaukee had the largest increase in homicides, at 42%. 

Robberies, carjackings, domestic violence incidents, gun assaults, aggravated assaults and sexual assaults also remained below 2019 levels. Only motor vehicle thefts and nonresidential burglaries remained slightly elevated.

Nonviolent crimes have shown varied trends over the past seven years. Burglaries fell 45%, larcenies 20%, drug offenses 19%, and shoplifting 4% compared with 2019 levels.

The Council on Criminal Justice also examined trends from recent peaks, finding substantial declines in all major offense categories. Homicides fell 44% from their 2021 peak, gun assaults fell 44%, aggravated assaults 19%, domestic violence 23%, robbery 39%, carjackings 61%, residential burglaries 51%, and motor vehicle thefts 43%.

Despite the downward trajectory, researchers caution that the reasons for the decline are uncertain. Changes in criminal justice policies, law enforcement practices, crime-fighting technology, social and economic conditions, and local violence prevention efforts could all be contributing factors, according to the analysis. 

Stateline reporter Amanda Watford can be reached at ahernandez@stateline.org.

North Lake Processing Center | Mary Minnick photo

Four individuals were arrested in Ypsilanti on Tuesday, a spokesperson for ICE confirmed, after information from Ypsilanti Community Schools Superintendent Alena Zachery-Ross and Washtenaw County Sheriff Alyshia Dyer was shared Wednesday morning with community members about ICE arrests in the area.

Christine Sauvé, the Policy, Engagement, and Communications Manager for the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center, confirmed to the Michigan Advance that three parents of Ypsilanti Community Schools students “were arrested by immigration agents while waiting to pick up their children at a bus stop when coming home from school.”

A spokesperson from ICE wrote in a statement that bus stops were not targeted in the arrests made, and that the arrests were made during a targeted vehicle stop. 

“ICE does not target schools for enforcement actions or bus stop locations. To be clear, no children were present during these arrests,” the ICE spokesperson wrote.

Dyer wrote in an email to the Advance, “I have now been able to confirm after talking with immigration enforcement leadership they will not and do not target bus stops or schools and while they did make arrests in Washtenaw on Tuesday, they never did any of this intentionally near any school bus stop areas nor were they targeting bus stops.”

A Wednesday statement from Dyer on her Facebook page said, “Based on the information we currently have, ICE activity did not occur on any school grounds. However, it did take place near bus stops in the Ypsilanti community, and it appears that parents connected to local schools were targeted at a bus stop in Ypsilanti during student drop-off times.”

Sauvé said that the three individuals arrested in the first vehicle stop — two women from Honduras and one from Mexico, the latter of whom had a final order of removal, according to the ICE statement — are all currently detained at the North Lake Processing Center in Baldwin, Mich., and the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center has scheduled time with each to provide free legal services to them. Michigan Advance was able to independently confirm based on ICE data that one of the individuals was listed as detained at the center in Baldwin.

“Parents should be able to take their children to school without fear, and children should not have to worry their parents will be arrested at a bus stop,” Sauvé wrote. “This kind of trauma has been shown to have negative effects on children’s health and wellbeing. Community members are terrified but we are heartened by the strong community response.”

MLive reported on Thursday that within three miles of where Tuesday’s detention occurred, school campuses include Ypsilanti Puentes Multilingual School — a Ypsilanti Community Schools K-4 school with a Spanish-language immersion program — Washtenaw International High School, Ypsilanti International Elementary School, Ypsilanti Community High School and several other elementary and middle schools within the district.

Michigan Immigrant Rights Center is not currently in contact with the fourth arrested individual, a man from Honduras, who was detained in a second vehicle stop in Ypsilanti, and that person’s detention location is not currently known.

ICE did not immediately respond to a follow-up inquiry about where each person is being detained.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro speaks with reporters and editors in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 29, 2026. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)

WASHINGTON — Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro is preparing a response should the Trump administration surge federal immigration agents into the commonwealth, he said Thursday in Washington, D.C.

Recent deadly shootings of two Minneapolis residents by federal agents compelled the Democratic governor “to let the good people of Pennsylvania know my views on this, where I stand, and also let them know that I’m going to protect them,” he said.

Shapiro declined to provide details, saying it would “not be prudent” to share specifics on whether a response would be a law enforcement operation or confined to challenging the administration in the courtroom.

“We’re prepared on every level now. If the president of the United States seeks to impose his will, and the federal will, on our commonwealth, there may be some things that we can’t stop, but I can tell you, we’ve learned from the good example in other states,” Shapiro said, citing actions by other Democratic governors in California, Illinois, Minnesota and Maine.

D.C. stop for presidential hopefuls

Shapiro delivered the comments during an intimate brunch with the Washington press corps hosted by The Christian Science Monitor. The Monitor routinely hosts press events with elected officials and newsmakers, and has historically been a stop on the circuit for presidential hopefuls.

Shapiro brushed aside questions about a possible presidential bid in 2028, instead saying he’s running for reelection this year and believes that “no one should be looking past these midterms.”

“I don’t think we should be thinking about anything other than curtailing the chaos, the cruelty and the corruption of this administration, and the best way for voters to do that is by showing up in record numbers,” Shapiro said.

The Pennsylvania executive also expressed he is “deeply concerned” about the administration’s efforts to undermine the election.

“The administration demanded that I turn over all of the voter rolls for our commonwealth. We have roughly 9 million voters. … I have a legal responsibility to protect that information. I also do not trust this administration to use that for anything other than nefarious purposes, and so I refuse to share that information. They’ve sued us, and we’ll see them in court,” he said.

The Trump administration has sued more than 20 states to date for voter roll data, including personally identifying information, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. The administration has said it plans to share the data with the Department of Homeland Security to search for noncitizens. 

Among the states targeted alongside Pennsylvania: Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oregon, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

New book

Shapiro told reporters he attended Thursday’s event to promote his new book, titled “Where We Keep the Light: Stories from a Life of Service,” which features stories about his faith, the process of being vetted as a potential 2024 vice presidential candidate for Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, and the “dark moment” in April 2025 when a lone man set fire to the governor’s mansion in an attempt on Shapiro’s life.

“We have to acknowledge political violence has been an issue for generations. I think it is also true that over the last several years, we’ve seen a rise,” he said, citing the recent attack on U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., the killings of former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, and of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, as well as the assassination attempts of President Donald Trump on the campaign trail.

Elected leaders, he said, have a “responsibility to speak and act with moral clarity and to condemn that violence regardless of who’s targeted.”

“I must say, when the president of the United States fails to condemn acts of political violence because they’re targeting someone that he dislikes or disagrees with, that makes us all less safe,” he said.

The governor has been on a media blitz promoting his book, including an appearance on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” earlier this week.

He told the host it’s a “sad day in America that a governor of a commonwealth needs to prepare for a federal onslaught where they would send troops in to undermine the freedoms and constitutional rights of our citizens.” 

In response to a request for comment, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said assaults on federal immigration agents are on the rise because of “untrue smears by elected Democrats.”

“Just the other day, an officer had his finger bitten off by a radical left-wing rioter. ICE officers act heroically to enforce the law and protect American communities and local officials should work with them, not against them. Anyone pointing the finger at law enforcement officers instead of the criminals is simply doing the bidding of criminal illegal aliens,” Jackson said in a written statement.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune speaks to reporters at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 28, 2026. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate could vote as soon as Thursday night to approve a government funding package after Democrats brokered a deal with the White House to strip out the full-year spending bill for the Department of Homeland Security. 

That bill will be replaced by a two-week stopgap for programs run out of DHS, which includes the Coast Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency — at a time when the agency is responding to a major winter storm — and the Secret Service. 

The change is intended to give Republicans and Democrats more time to reach agreement on restrictions to federal immigration enforcement after the deadly shooting of a second U.S. citizen by immigration agents in Minneapolis on Saturday.

President Donald Trump wrote in a social media post that he wanted lawmakers to send him the reworked package in time to avoid a partial government shutdown, which would likely begin this weekend after a stopgap spending law expires. 

“I am working hard with Congress to ensure that we are able to fully fund the Government, without delay,” Trump wrote. “Republicans and Democrats in Congress have come together to get the vast majority of the Government funded until September, while at the same time providing an extension to the Department of Homeland Security (including the very important Coast Guard, which we are expanding and rebuilding like never before). Hopefully, both Republicans and Democrats will give a very much needed Bipartisan ‘YES’ Vote.”

The package, once through the Senate, will need to go back to the House for final approval, though GOP leaders in that chamber haven’t announced if they will bring lawmakers back before Monday, when members are scheduled to return to Capitol Hill from a weeklong break. 

Once the House clears the package, it will head to Trump for his signature.

Senators did not change or remove the Defense, Financial Services and General Government, Labor-HHS-Education, National Security-State and Transportation-HUD appropriations bills from the package.

Congress previously approved half of the dozen annual spending bills, so once this package becomes law, the Department of Homeland Security will be the only division of the federal government without its full-year funding bill.

List of Democratic demands

Democrats and Republicans reached consensus on some changes to the Homeland Security appropriations bill after the Jan. 7 shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good, including funding for body cameras and additional oversight of detention facilities. 

The House approved that bill last week and sent it to the Senate as part of the larger package.  

But Border Patrol agents’ shooting and killing of Alex Pretti led Democrats to call for the DHS spending bill to be pulled to give lawmakers time to negotiate additional guardrails on federal immigration actions. 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., outlined a list of proposed changes Tuesday that included: 

• The end of roving patrols;
• Tightening the rules governing the use of warrants;
• Requiring Immigration and Customs Enforcement to coordinate with state and local law enforcement;
• Implementing a uniform code of conduct that holds federal law enforcement to the same set of standards that apply to state and local agencies;
• Barring the wearing of masks;
• Requiring the use of body cameras; and
• Mandating immigration agents carry proper identification. 

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said Thursday morning that “there’s a path to consider some of” the changes to federal immigration during bipartisan negotiations.

But he expressed doubt later in the day that a two-week stopgap bill for DHS would give lawmakers enough time to find agreement on changes to immigration enforcement, saying there’s “no way you could do it that fast.”

“At some point we want to fund the government,” Thune said. “Obviously the two-week (continuing resolution) probably means there’s going to be another two-week CR and maybe another two-week CR after that. I don’t know why they’re doing it that way.”

Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee Chairwoman Katie Britt, R-Ala., also expressed doubt a two-week stopgap would provide enough time for negotiators to broker a bipartisan deal and hold votes in each chamber. 

“I think, obviously, four weeks would be much better when you’re looking at what’s in front of us,” she said. 

Britt said she’d decide on any counter-proposals to Democrats after the government was funded. 

“We’re going to land this plane and then we’re going to figure it out,” she said. 

Homan comments please Tillis

In response to immigration agents killing Pretti, the president directed his border czar, Tom Homan, to head to Minneapolis. 

Homan said during a morning press conference that immigration enforcement would only end if state officials cooperate and aid the federal government in the Trump administration’s immigration campaign. States and localities are not required to enforce immigration law, as it’s a federal responsibility. 

Homan did not specify how long he would remain in Minnesota, only “until the problem’s gone.”

North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis said in the afternoon that he had messaged Trump to express his appreciation for sending Homan to Minneapolis, saying it led to a “sea change.”

“I texted the president and said, ‘great job,’” Tillis said. “You know, I can’t imagine we would be in this place if he’d been there to begin with.”

Tillis said he thought Homan’s press conference had been “perfect.”

“He said at least twice he wasn’t there for a photo op and he was there to de-escalate,” Tillis said. “That’s what happens when you put a professional law enforcement officer in the role versus people who have no experience in it.”

People whistle and film as federal agents block an alley near 35th Street and Chicago Avenue while they break a car window to detain a man and his young daughter Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)

Less than an hour after the Saturday morning killing of Alex Pretti by federal agents in south Minneapolis, conservative influencer Cam Higby took to social media with a sensational claim: Higby had “infiltrated” the group chats fueling local resistance to Operation Metro Surge.

On Monday, FBI director Kash Patel said he had “opened an investigation” into the chats. Many are said to be hosted on Signal, the encrypted messaging app.

“You cannot create a scenario that illegally entraps and puts law enforcement in harm’s way,” Patel said in a podcast interview with Benny Johnson, another conservative influencer. Johnson’s title for the episode’s YouTube stream, “Kash Patel Announces FBI Crack-Down of Left-Wing Minnesota Terrorist Network LIVE: ‘Tim Walz Next…’,” left little to the imagination.

In response to emailed questions about the nature of its investigation, the FBI declined to comment. 

First Amendment lawyers and national security experts expressed deep skepticism that any charges stemming from it will stick, however. 

“As a general proposition, reporting on things you are observing and sharing those observations is absolutely legal,” Jane Kirtley, professor of media ethics and law at the University of Minnesota Law School, said in an interview.

A guide that Higby described as “the watered down opsec version” of a “TRAINING MANUAL for domestic terrorist patrols chasing ICE agents in Minneapolis” instructs observers to draw attention to suspected ICE activity using whistles and car horns — but specifically warns against impeding officers.

Kirtley said Patel’s statements to date have been too vague to support firm conclusions about what the FBI will actually investigate or what charges, if any, the United States Department of Justice would bring as a result. The sorts of loaded terms that influencers like Higby and President Trump himself have used to describe organizers’ activities — such as “conspiracy” or “insurrection” — are formal legal concepts that require certain standards to be met, she added.

Jason Marisam, a constitutional law professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law, said any prosecution would likely need to pass a two-part test established in a nearly 60-year-old U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Brandenburg v. Ohio.

Brandenburg prohibits speech only if it is “directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action,” such as violence against law enforcement officers, and “is likely to incite or produce such action,” according to a summary by Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute. 

Brandenburg is “a very high bar,” Marisam said. Speech that only indirectly led to “lawless action,” such as coordinating a protest that later turned violent, would likely not meet it, he added.

Marisam said Brandenburg, incidentally, is the same standard that former special counsel Jack Smith would have needed to meet had his January 6th prosecution against President Trump gone to trial, Marisam added. That case was mooted after Trump won a second term and subsequently oversaw a campaign of professional retribution against the career prosecutors on Smith’s team. 

Marisam said narrowing or overturning Brandenburg has not yet been a priority for conservatives in the judiciary, despite self-evident benefits for Trump’s efforts to quell dissent and consolidate power. But he acknowledged that the “politics of free speech” can change depending on who’s in charge in Washington.

For instance, Trump supporters castigated what they perceived to be limits on free speech during the Biden years, but have remained silent in the face of a student’s deportation for writing an op-ed. 

Still, Patel’s apparent interest in Twin Cities observers’ encrypted chats is likely less the opening move of a well-thought-out legal strategy than an effort to discourage legally permissible activity, Marisam said.

“It seems to me that (Patel’s) announcement is meant to chill speech ahead of time,” he said.

In a blog post published Tuesday, Patrick Eddington, a senior fellow with the libertarian Cato Institute, said federal prosecutors would likewise struggle to make hay out of Twin Cities observers’ use of the encrypted messaging apps themselves. 

Trump officials and right-wing pundits have pointed to Signal’s popularity within the observer networks as evidence that participants want to evade legal accountability for their actions. Signal uses end-to-end encryption, meaning messages sent on properly secured devices kept in their owners’ possession are effectively impossible for third parties to see. Signal itself can’t access messages or calls sent over the app, the company says, though messages on a user’s device can be read if it is hacked or stolen. (Or, if the wrong person is added to a Signal chat, as when senior national security figures in the Trump administration — including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth — sent information about military operations to the editor of The Atlantic magazine after he’d been accidentally included.) 

Eddington, who works on homeland security and civil liberties issues for Cato, said the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ 1999 ruling in Bernstein v. United States Department of Justice established ordinary citizens’ rights to use encrypted channels for communication they wish to keep private. Government efforts to curtail encryption could impede individuals’ rights under the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits “unreasonable search and seizure.”

Eddington cited a much earlier precedent that may well have informed the Constitution’s privacy protections, though its contemporary legal relevance is unclear. Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and other members of America’s founding generation used “codes and ciphers” to communicate before, during and after the Revolutionary War, Eddington wrote. 

“The use of encryption to keep government authorities from getting access to our private communications is literally as American as apple pie,” he wrote.

Lincoln Hills, the troubled youth detention facility, ended court-ordered monitoring Wednesday. | Photo courtesy Wisconsin Department of Corrections

On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge James Peterson ended mandated oversight of the Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake youth prisons. A court-mandated monitoring program for the juvenile detention facilities found them to be in “substantial compliance” with reforms sought in a 2018 class action settlement, marking a new chapter in their troubled history.

Teresa Abreu, the court-appointed monitor, praised the progress both facilities have made in the latest report. “This accomplishment reflects years of deliberate and meaningful reform, including the elimination of OC spray, the removal of punitive room confinement, the reduction of restraint usage and confinement in general, the use of MANDT, the implementation of a robust behavior management system and programming efforts to reduce idleness, and a strong emphasis on staff wellness.” 

For years, the Lincoln Hills School for Boys and the Copper Lake School for Girls were notorious among the nation’s largest juvenile prisons. Children and teens incarcerated there, most of them from Milwaukee, described being subjected to  pepper spray, solitary confinement, and man-handling by guards. Guards also reported experiencing violence and injuries caused by incarcerated youth. 

Those reports culminated in a lawsuit filed in 2017 by the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin, the Juvenile Law Center, and the Milwaukee-based law firm Quarles & Brady LLP over conditions in both corrections facilities. A settlement agreement was eventually reached, and included a consent decree which mandated that policies, practices, and conditions improve at Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake, while also appointing a monitor to ensure that the facilities came into compliance with the settlement. 

“When we started this lawsuit in 2017, the use of pepper spray on children, solitary confinement, shackling, and strip searches were rampant at Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake,” Tim Muth, staff attorney at the ACLU of Wisconsin said in a statement. “Today, those practices have been eliminated or significantly restricted at the facilities, and the reforms codified into binding regulations.” 

Gov. Tony Evers praised the facilities’ progress. “This has been a goal a decade in the making, and it’s tremendous to be able to celebrate the completion of reforms at Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake schools today…This is a win for our state, a win for youth in our care, and a win for those who dedicate their time and energy to supporting the needed advancement of our justice system.”

Abreu’s most recent assessment noted that the overall climate, safety and culture at Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake had seen “a demonstrable improvement,” but stressed that sustaining reforms to the facilities “must remain a top priority, not just to protect youth and staff but also to ensure continued compliance with the Consent Decree, which has now been codified by the Wisconsin Administrative Code.” 

Kate Burdick, senior attorney at the Juvenile Law Center, commended Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake as being a “far cry from where we started” in a statement. “Yet we know that no child should grow up in prison — even an improved one. Across Wisconsin, the focus should be on building up alternatives to incarceration that support young people and help them thrive at home and in their own communities.” 

Today there are 112 youth incarcerated by the Wisconsin Department of Corrections according to the most recent population report. That number includes  71 boys at Lincoln Hills and 22 girls at Copper Lake. While improvements have been made to both facilities, plans to eventually close the two prisons have been stalled by years of legislative debate and local pushback from communities that don’t want new juvenile prisons built in their backyards. 

In 2024, Lincoln Hills was engulfed by a new wave of controversy after a staff member died from injuries he’d received during an assault. One of the involved teens, 18-year-old Rian Nyblom, pleaded guilty last year, and a trial for 17-year-old Javarius Hurd has been delayed. Hurd pleaded guilty to homicide and battery charges, but has argued that he was not responsible due to mental illness 

Abreu stressed in her monitoring report  more improvements are needed  at Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake. “Despite this progress, critical work remains,” the monitor wrote. “The Defendants must establish a comprehensive, long-term strategy for youth who are not suited for a juvenile correctional setting. As the Monitor has consistently advised, greater emphasis must be placed on transferring youth from [Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake] to more appropriate placements or diverting them from confinement altogether. The opening of new facilities should not result in increased incarceration; rather, it should advance the vision of placing youth closer to home and ultimately closing [Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake].”

Rep. Andrew Hysell said Wisconsin’s state level officials need to act when the federal government is “failing” people. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

Wisconsin’s freshman Democratic lawmakers are calling for the state’s constitution to be amended to include an explicit protection for Wisconsinites’ fundamental right to privacy.

“For months, we have seen agents of the federal government run roughshod over the law and the Constitution. Doing so is harming and even killing Americans,” Rep. Andrew Hysell (D-Sun Prairie) said at a press conference. “Not surprisingly, people here in Wisconsin are very afraid. If members of ICE can kill with impunity, how can anyone feel safe? This should not be happening in the United States.” 

The recent shooting of Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse from Green Bay, by federal Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis has prompted an array of reactions from Wisconsin politicians including Gov. Tony Evers, who joined a lawsuit challenging the presence of federal immigration agents in the Twin Cities, and candidates for governor, including U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, who said that “cooperation is how you avoid tragic consequences.”

Hysell said Wisconsin’s state level officials need to act when the federal government is “failing” people.

“When federal agents operate outside the limits set by the United States Constitution, state constitutions become the last meaningful line of defense for individual liberty,” Hysell said. 

Hysell said that elevating an individual right to privacy in Wisconsin would place clear constitutional limits on government intrusion, including administrative warrants issued by enforcement agencies rather than judges, civil detentions that function as criminal restraints without criminal process, pretextual entry into homes and the collection or use of personal data and location information without individualized judicial review.

Hysell said a constitutional amendment would act as a stronger protection than a change in state law. 

“A fundamental right flips the script in court. Instead of you having to plead to the judge that the government has done something wrong, the government has to justify how it had the power to do it in the first place,” Hysell said. “Wisconsin has a statutory right to privacy that provides some protection, but it’s not enough. Elevating the right to privacy to a constitutional level here in Wisconsin gives us protection from governmental overreach and abuse, exactly the kind of things we’ve seen in Minneapolis.”

Hysell said the bill has the support of all 23 first-term Democratic representatives.

“It’s actually quite simple,” Sen. Melissa Ratcliff (D-Cottage Grove) said. “It affirms Wisconsinites constitutional right to privacy. It’s very simple in language, and it’s a fundamental promise that deeply personal decisions belong to individuals and families — not politicians or the government.”

Constitutional amendments in Wisconsin have to pass two consecutive sessions of the state Legislature and receive approval from a majority of voters to become law. 

Wisconsin voters have decided on 10 constitutional amendment questions in the last five years. There are likely to be three on deck, including one to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, on the ballot in November alongside Wisconsin’s open race for governor, Congressional races and state legislative races.

“Wisconsin constitutional amendments used to mean something, but now they have become weaponized by the Republican majority and used as a way to circumvent the governor’s desk all while debasing our state constitution,” Ratcliff said. “Today’s proposed Wisconsin constitutional right to privacy amendment is not political theater or abstract language. It’s about ensuring that government power has clear limits, that individuals are protected from unreasonable intrusion and that all of our core liberties are upheld.”

Hysell said there are 11 other states, including Montana and Alaska, that have privacy rights covered in their state constitutions.

The proposal will face a difficult path in the Republican-led Legislature.

Hysell said in response to a question about getting Republicans on board that “this really should be a nonpartisan issue because it’s about protecting all Americans.”

President Donald Trump endorsed Michael Alfonso, the son-in-law of Department of Transportation Sec. Sean Duffy, in the Republican primary for Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District Tuesday evening. (Alfonso headshot courtesy of campaign)

President Donald Trump endorsed Michael Alfonso, the son-in-law of Department of Transportation Sec. Sean Duffy, in the Republican primary for Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District Tuesday evening.

The race for the seat, which represents a large swath of the state’s northwest area, is open as current Rep. Tom Tiffany is running in the open race for governor. Trump has endorsed Tiffany in that race.

“It is my Great Honor to endorse MAGA Warrior Michael Alfonso, a young ‘STAR’ who is running to represent the incredible people of Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District,” Trump said in a post. “As your next Congressman, Michael will work tirelessly to Grow our Economy, Cut Taxes and Regulations, Champion our Amazing Farmers and Ranchers, Promote MADE IN THE U.S.A., Advance American Energy DOMINANCE, Keep our Border SECURE, Stop Migrant Crime, Support our Military/Veterans, Safeguard our Elections, and Protect our always under siege Second Amendment.”

Alfonso, who is 25 and married to Duffy’s daughter Evita Duffy-Alfonso, announced his campaign for the seat in Oct. 2025, saying that “Northern Wisconsin needs to continue to have a representative who will truly put our families, communities, and America first.” He has worked as a producer for the The Dan Bongino podcast.

“I was born and raised with the traditional Wisconsin values of faith, community, and hard work – and now I’m ready to give back to the area that gave so much to me. I’ve watched as the American Dream has continued to slip away from the people who so deserve it,” Alfonso said. “I’ve seen the effects of higher taxes and the increased cost of living on our families and our farms, and the erosion of our constitutional rights.”

The seat was held by Duffy from 2010 until 2019 when he abruptly resigned to focus on his family especially as his ninth child was diagnosed with severe health complications. 

Politico reports that Duffy’s campaigning on behalf of his son-in-law, including pushing Trump hard for an endorsement, had become a point of frustration in the White House.

Duffy said in a statement to Politico that Alfonso “will be the hardest working MAGA warrior for Wisconsin’s 7th district.” 

“I show up for the American people and for my family, and I’ll never apologize for that. My son-in-law will make a great congressman, and I know he is honored to have President Trump’s complete and total endorsement,” Duffy said. 

Trump’s endorsement has held significant sway in past elections in Wisconsin. Freshman U.S. Rep. Tony Wied, a businessman, entered the race for Wisconsin’s 8th Congressional District in 2024 with Trump’s endorsement and went on to win a three-way primary that year. 

Alfonso said it is his “greatest honor” to accept the endorsement. 

“He is truly the greatest president of all time, and I pledge to be a steadfast MAGA warrior for the people of Wisconsin’s 7th District,” Alfonso said. 

There are two other Republicans running for the open seat, which leans Republican, including Paul Wassgren, a businessman, and Jessi Ebben, a Stanley resident with a background in public relations and health care. Businessman Chris Armstrong and former state lawmaker and environmental advocate Fred Clark are running in the Democratic primary for the seat. 

The Wisconsin College Republicans and Turning Point Action have endorsed Alfonso as well. 

According to his campaign website, Alfonso has said that was “deeply inspired by the courage of Charlie Kirk, who risked his life to speak the truth on American campuses,” as a college student at UW-Madison. The website adds, “in the wake of Charlie’s assassination, Michael is ready to take on the challenge and honor of representing the hardworking people of Wisconsin’s 7th District.”

“He is an America First Gen-Z conservative who truly gets our generation, and will champion real conservative values as a congressman,” the Wisconsin College Republicans said in a statement.

Demonstrators gather outside of the Henry Whipple Federal Building, shouting at federal vehicles and recording their plates Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)

A Minneapolis-based human rights group is suing the Department of Homeland Security, accusing DHS officials and agents of illegally and systematically preventing detained immigrants from meeting with their lawyers.

The proposed class action lawsuit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court of Minnesota, was brought on behalf of the Advocates for Human Rights and a St. Paul woman referred to by the initials “L.H.M.”

According to the complaint, L.H.M., who has lived in Minnesota since 2019 and has a pending asylum claim, was arrested Monday after a routine check-in at ICE’s Office of Intensive Supervision in Bloomington.

After L.H.M.’s family contacted her attorney, the lawyer immediately travelled to the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building but was unilaterally refused access to L.H.M.

L.H.M. recently underwent cranial surgery, the lawsuit states, and “has significant medical needs that may be severely adversely affected by detention conditions or involuntary transfer out of state.”

According to the claim, federal agents at the Whipple Building — and at least one ICE attorney — have repeatedly told frustrated lawyers that “no visitation between detainees and attorneys is or has ever been permitted at Whipple.”

“This is false,” the complaint continues. “Whipple has rooms labeled ‘ERO Visitation,’ where attorneys have met with clients held at Whipple for years.”

Nowadays, when lawyers attempt to arrange visits at Whipple, phone calls and emails allegedly go unanswered.

According to the suit, one lawyer was recently threatened with arrest at the Whipple Building, despite having received prior permission from agency officials. Another attorney attempting to speak to a client was “confronted by six armed security personnel, one of whom said, ‘We’re not having a debate here, turn your car around and get the hell out of here.’”

The lawsuit asserts claims under the First Amendment, the Fifth Amendment, the Administrative Procedures Act and the Immigration and Nationality Act. 

A spokesperson for Homeland Security responded: “Any allegations people detained by ICE do not have access to attorneys are false. Illegal aliens in the Whipple Federal Building have access to phones they can use to contact their families and lawyers. Additionally, ICE gives all illegal aliens arrested a court-approved list of free or low-cost attorneys. All detainees receive full due process.”

(Homeland Security has a burgeoning record of providing false information to the public, as detailed in a recent Stateline story; after the recent killing of Alex Pretti by Border Patrol, a Homeland Security spokesperson claimed Pretti “wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement” even though he never drew his gun, for which he had a permit.)

This is not the first time DHS has been sued for impeding detainees’ access to counsel. Similar suits in New York and Illinois have resulted in court orders.

DHS also has a recent history of defying court orders.

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz, chief judge of the Minnesota district, issued an order in a habeas petition in which he identified 96 court orders that ICE has violated since January 1 – a tally that he said is likely an undercount because it was assembled in haste.

“This list should give pause to anyone — no matter his or her political beliefs — who cares about the rule of law,” wrote Schiltz, who was appointed to the bench by George W. Bush and clerked for Antonin Scalia, the late Supreme Court justice and conservative icon.

“ICE has likely violated more court orders in January 2026 than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence,” Schiltz wrote.

Screenshot from Bruce Springsteen's song 'Streets of Minneapolis'

Bruce Springsteen released a fiery anti-ICE protest song on Wednesday slamming “King Trump’s private army” and venerating the observers and demonstrators who “stood for justice, their voices ringing through the night.”

The song from the rock legend comes just days after federal immigration agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA, on Saturday. He is the second fatality in a month, following poet and mother Renee Good, who was killed about a mile away in her car on Jan. 7. Both victims are honored by name in Springsteen’s lyrics, with the refrain, “We’ll remember the names of those who died; On the streets of Minneapolis.”

In a statement, Springsteen said he wrote the song on Saturday following Pretti’s killing and dedicated it to “the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.”

The title of the song echoes his 1993 song, “Streets of Philadelphia,” written for the film “Philadelphia” about the AIDS epidemic.

The song’s release underscores the cultural and historical significance of the resistance to the violent federal siege on the state still underway, which has mobilized tens of thousands in opposition and captured international attention through bystander videos documenting the federal agents’ brutality against immigrants and American citizens alike.

The song pays homage to the signature symbols of resistance — the whistle and the phone — which counter Stephen Miller and Kristi Noem’s “dirty lies.”

President Trump promised “reckoning and retribution is coming” for Minnesota and sent 3,000 federal agents and officers to the state in the “largest (Department of Homeland Security) operation ever.” But the operation, labeled a military occupation by local Democratic leaders, has turned public opinion sharply against the president and ICE.

A picture sits at a memorial to Alex Pretti on Jan. 25, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Minnesota’s U.S. senators took to the chamber’s floor Wednesday afternoon to honor two constituents killed by federal agents this month and call for the Department of Homeland Security to end its surge in the Twin Cities.

Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith led a chorus of Democratic senators calling for an end to the aggressive tactics used by immigration officers during President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown following the fatal shootings of Renee Good on Jan. 7 and Alex Pretti on Jan. 24, by federal agents in Minneapolis.

The Democrats repeated their demand that Congress amend the annual DHS funding bill, which must pass by Friday at midnight to avoid a partial government shutdown, to add accountability measures. 

Smith and Klobuchar, who is reported to be considering a bid for governor this year, added more personal reflections about the weekslong influx of immigration agents, and the massive protests against it, in their state.

“I want to just take a pause to acknowledge my beloved Minnesota,” Smith said, her voice starting to shake. “I am so proud to be your senator, and, you know, so many people around the country are looking to you, to us, for hope, and you are showing the world how to respond to violence, how to stand up to bullies with strength and with dignity and with peace.”

They said the DHS funding bill should not pass until the department withdraws its agents from the state. Klobuchar and other Democrats who spoke over the following hour-plus also called for DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to resign.

“There must be new leadership in the Department of Homeland Security now, and there must be major reforms to these agencies before this Congress should approve another cent,” Klobuchar said.

Those reforms should include an end to immigration agents’ “roving patrols,” requirements that agents remove masks and wear body cameras, and that the department enforce a use-of-force policy and provide “meaningful accountability” and transparency into officer-involved shootings, Klobuchar said.

Minnesota’s senators also called for Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to depart their home state.

“I can not state it more unequivocally: ICE must leave Minnesota,” Klobuchar said.

Louisiana Republican U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy talks with reporters in the Dirksen Senate office building on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)

WASHINGTON — The fierce debate surrounding school choice initiatives took center stage Wednesday during a hearing in a U.S. Senate panel. 

President Donald Trump’s administration and congressional Republicans have made school choice a central point of their education agenda, including a sweeping national school voucher program baked into the GOP’s mega tax and spending cut bill Trump signed into law in July. 

The hearing came in the middle of National School Choice Week, which the U.S. Department of Education dubbed a “time to highlight the many different types of education across the United States and to empower families to choose the best learning option for their child’s success.” 

The umbrella term “school choice” centers on alternative programs to one’s assigned public school. Opponents argue these efforts drain critical funds and resources from school districts, though advocates say the initiatives are necessary for parents dissatisfied with their local public schools.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, which held the hearing, described school choice as “the avenue for expressing the innovation that we need to meet a student’s need.” 

“Traditional schools work for many students — what we’re asking, though, is to give the parent the choice if it does not,” the Louisiana Republican added.

Many models for school choice

Proponents in Ohio and Florida touted the work of their respective organizations and the broader school choice efforts in their states. 

Cris Gulacy-Worrel serves as vice president of Oakmont Education, an operator of dropout recovery charter schools serving more than 5,500 students in Ohio, Iowa and Michigan. 

Gulacy-Worrel said last year, Oakmont Education “graduated 1,309 students, and we’ve placed over 4,500 young people directly into the workforce over the last three years alone.”

“For far too long, we’ve been told school choice is about (Education Savings Accounts) or public charter schools — it’s not,” she said. “What we’re really talking about is educational plurality, a system with room for many models and many pathways to success.”

John Kirtley is chairman of Step Up For Students, a nonprofit scholarship funding organization that distributes scholarships for children in Florida. 

Kirtley said his state “has been moving towards a new definition of public education: Raise taxpayer dollars to educate children, but then empower families to direct those dollars to different providers and even different delivery methods that best suit their individual children’s learning needs.” 

More than half of all K-12 students in the Sunshine State participate in a school choice program rather than attending their local public school. 

Bernie Sanders sees two-tier system created

Meanwhile, Sen. Bernie Sanders, the panel’s ranking member, said that while there are a “number of things we can and should be doing to strengthen and improve education” in the country, “we should not be creating a two-tier education system in America — private schools for the wealthy and well-connected and severely under-funded and under-resourced public schools for low-income, disabled and working-class kids.” 

The Vermont independent said that “unfortunately, that is precisely what the Trump administration and my Republican colleagues in Congress are doing,” pointing to the national school voucher program that’s now law. 

Sanders’ staff released a committee report Wednesday analyzing the state laws of 21 states with school voucher programs that scholarship granting organizations administer, in an effort to understand the forthcoming federal school voucher program’s potential effects.

Among the findings, the report concluded that “nearly half of analyzed private schools (48%) explicitly state that they choose not to provide some or all students with disabilities with the services, protections, and rights provided to those students in public schools under federal law.” 

Arizona voucher program

Marisol Garcia, president of the Arizona Education Association, testified about the negative repercussions of private school vouchers in the Grand Canyon state. 

In 2022, Arizona became the first state in the country to enact a universal school voucher program. 

Garcia described her state’s voucher program as a “bloated mess costing three times more than it was projected” and said vouchers “often only offer the illusion of choice.” 

“Every child deserves a great public school in Arizona,” she added. “Our experiences show that vouchers are not the way to achieve that goal.” 

National school voucher program 

The permanent national school voucher program, starting in 2027, allocates up to $1,700 in federal tax credits for individuals who donate to organizations that provide private and religious school scholarships. 

The program reflects a sweeping bill that Cassidy and GOP Reps. Adrian Smith of Nebraska and Burgess Owens of Utah had reintroduced in their respective chambers in 2025.

Cassidy defended the program during the hearing, saying: “We’re not trying to supplant funding for public education — we’re trying to supplement funding for education.” 

As of Tuesday, nearly half of all states have opted in to the initiative, per the Education Department. 

Musician Nicki Minaj attends the Treasury Department's Trump Accounts Summit with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, left, at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium on Jan. 28, 2026 in Washington, DC.  (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump touted the coming generation of “Trump Account children” Wednesday as the administration aims to deflect attention from rising food prices and a deadly federal immigration crackdown that in recent weeks took the lives of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis.

The day-long U.S. Treasury Department event in Washington, D.C., brought together big names from corporate America and entertainment to promote forthcoming tax-deferred investment accounts that will be available to all U.S. children — and that will be seeded with one-time $1,000 contributions from the government for babies born between Jan. 1, 2025 and Dec. 31, 2028.

Trump said the accounts, enacted under the massive tax and spending cuts package in July, will be “remembered as one of the most transformative policy innovations of all time.”

“Perhaps no provision of the great, big, beautiful bill will prove more consequential than Trump Accounts,” Trump said during his roughly 45-minute speech that included a brief appearance by Grammy-nominated rapper Nicki Minaj, who has become an advocate for the policy.

Higher birth rate

Ahead of the president’s remarks, panel speakers, including White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell, framed the policy as celebratory of this year’s 250th birthday of the United States, and as a carrot to encourage a higher birth rate.

“Today and forevermore, every child born in America becomes a shareholder in America,” said Brad Gerstner, founder and CEO of Altimeter Capital, a California-based tech investment firm.

The Treasury event, titled the “Trump Accounts Summit,” came one day after Trump delivered remarks on the economy in Iowa, where he told voters, “I hope you remember us for the midterms.”

The event also followed days of protests and intense criticism of the administration, even from Trump’s own party, over the Jan. 24 fatal shooting in Minneapolis by federal agents of 37-year-old Alex Pretti. Pretti’s death occurred just over two weeks after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed a driver, Renee Good, 37, also amid the administration’s immigration crackdown in the Midwestern city.

An interest-bearing account for American children has drawn bipartisan support. 

U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., touted his own such proposal in late 2018, bringing the idea to the 2020 presidential campaign trail. Booker’s “American Opportunity Account” bill proposed $1,000 seed money from the government, with up to $2,000 in annual contributions per child, depending on a family’s income level.

In May, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, with the backing of Dell and Gerstner,  proposed similar accounts for every child born in the U.S. to be seeded with $1,000 from the government. Cruz attended Wednesday’s event and received public recognition from the president.

Launch coming in July

The Trump Accounts, as named in the law, are set to launch July 5, according to the White House website, TrumpAccounts.gov. 

While the accounts will legally belong to a minor, they can only be managed by a parent or guardian until a child’s 18th birthday. Parents and guardians will need to elect to open the account during tax filing season or via a government portal scheduled to launch this summer.

The accounts are structured like a traditional individual retirement account, but with different investment features and restrictions.

Annual contributions from parents and guardians, as well as their employers, are capped at $5,000 per year. Parents can elect to divert pre-tax contributions from their paychecks directly into their child’s account. Employers can match up to $2,500.

Trump told the crowd Wednesday that “dozens of major employers have signed up to add the Trump account contributions to their employee benefit packages, including Uber, Schwab, Charter Communications and many, many others.”

The government’s $1,000 seed money as well as contributions from state and local governments, and 501(c)3 organizations, will not count toward the $5,000 annual cap.

The most high-profile foundation contribution to date has come from Dell, and his wife Susan, who pledged last month to give $250 to children up to age 10 who were born before the time window to receive the government seed money. The money is targeted to children in ZIP codes where the median income is less than $150,000, Dell said Wednesday.

Trump said other companies announced “really big contributions” Wednesday, including Intel, Nvidia, Broadcom, IBM, Steak and Shake, Coinbase, Continental Resources and Comcast.

William McBride, chief economist at the Tax Foundation, told States Newsroom during an interview Tuesday that while specific federal guidance is still emerging, direct charitable contributions to individual investment accounts are “pretty much a completely new concept in the tax code.”

The Tax Foundation, a nonprofit that describes itself as nonpartisan, advocates for economic growth and simpler tax policies.

Some exceptions to penalty

The accounts are bound by certain restrictions, including a prohibition on withdrawals until age 18, when the account essentially becomes an individual retirement account subject to tax penalties for early withdrawal before age 59.5.

Penalty-free exceptions include accessing the cash for a first-home purchase, up to $10,000; birth or child adoption fees up to $5,000; and qualifying medical expenses.

“It’s aimed at trying to get families to save and grow that balance,” said Rita Assaf, vice president of retirement offerings for Fidelity Investments.

“But for those that need flexibility of cash, this is where maybe that account, depending on your goal, may not be a right account for you. For day-to-day, or, some sort of big event needs before age 18, that’s where you might want to consider other accounts,” Assaf told States Newsroom in an interview Tuesday.

Other restrictions on the account include types of investments. Eligible investments include mutual funds or exchange traded funds, or ETFs, that track the returns of large American companies, for example the S&P 500 index.

A child’s account that receives the maximum family and employer contributions of $5,000 at the start of each year could grow to nearly $200,000 by age 18, assuming a 7% annual rate of return, according to a Fidelity Investment hypothetical example, not adjusted for inflation. 

If a child qualified for the $1,000 government seed money, and a parent left it untouched until age 18, the White House estimates the former minor would have $5,800 upon reaching adulthood, assuming historical returns for the S&P 500.

McBride said that while several specifics remain unclear, the accounts have “a lot of potential” and that advocates hope children from varying socioeconomic levels become more engaged in the process of creating wealth, learning how to invest money, and manage money.

“I’d say it has huge upside, and it just remains to be seen if it will actually catch on and become a way to sort of encourage a broader swath of society to participate in the benefits of capitalism, if you will.”

A masked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent knocks on a car window in Minnesota on Jan. 12, 2026. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Democrats on Wednesday detailed the “common sense” changes they want to implement for federal immigration enforcement, saying reforms must be added to a funding package that needs to become law before the weekend to avoid a partial government shutdown. 

Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said after a closed-door lunch that lawmakers in the conference are united on several policy restrictions.

They include:

• The end of roving patrols;
• Tightening the rules governing the use of warrants;
• Requiring Immigration and Customs Enforcement to coordinate with state and local law enforcement;
• Implementing a uniform code of conduct that holds federal law enforcement to the same set of standards that apply to state and local agencies;
• Barring the wearing of masks;
• Requiring the use of body cameras;
• Mandating immigration agents carry proper identification. 

“These are common-sense reforms, ones that Americans know and expect from law enforcement,” Schumer said. “If Republicans refuse to support them, they are choosing chaos over order, plain and simple. They are choosing to protect ICE from accountability over American lives.”

Schumer said Democrats want to negotiate with Republicans, but called on Senate GOP leaders to separate out the funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security from a package that includes five other full-year appropriations bills. 

The bills must become law before a Friday midnight deadline to avoid a partial government shutdown. 

Schumer said he expects senators could “very quickly negotiate a bipartisan proposal” on restrictions to federal immigration activities.

Thune, White House weigh in

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said shortly before Schumer spoke that he isn’t ruling out any options for funding the government.

“These are all hypotheticals at this point, and I will reserve optionality to consider that,” Thune said. “But I think the best path forward, as I’ve said, is to keep the package intact. And if there are things that the Democrats want that the administration can agree with them about, then let’s do that.”

Thune expressed concern that any changes to the six-bill government spending package, which includes funding for the Department of Defense, would require it to go back to the House for final approval before it could become law. 

The House is out this week and isn’t scheduled to return to Capitol Hill until 

Monday, possibly causing a brief funding lapse if Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., doesn’t call that chamber back early. 

A White House official said in a statement to States Newsroom the administration wants to avoid a shutdown and is committed to a “productive dialogue with the Congress.”

“A demand for agreement on legislative reforms as a condition of funding the Department of Homeland Security with a government funding deadline just 48 hours away is a demand for a partial government shutdown,” according to a White House official. “This bipartisan appropriations package, which the Democrats agreed to and have now walked away from, has been under negotiation for more than a month. The White House urges congressional Democrats not to subject the country to another debilitating government shutdown.”

Schumer said during his press conference the White House “has had no specific, good, concrete ideas.”

Alex Pretti killing

Congress has approved half of a dozen full-year government funding bills, but hasn’t yet cleared the remaining measures, which make up a huge swath of government spending. 

A partial government shutdown would affect the Departments of Defense, Education, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Labor, State, Transportation and Treasury. The Executive Office of the President, Supreme Court and judicial branch would also go without funding. 

Democrats’ insistence for additional guardrails on how federal immigration officers operate follows the death of 37-year-old Alex Pretti, the second person in Minneapolis shot and killed by federal immigration agents.

ICE would still be able to operate during a shutdown, due to an influx of funding from the massive tax and spending cuts package Republicans passed and President Donald Trump signed into law last summer.

The “One Big Beautiful Act” provided the Department of Homeland Security with $170 billion for immigration enforcement spread across four years, with $75 billion of that going directly to ICE. 

The Homeland Security appropriations bill at the center of the current dispute in Congress keeps ICE flat funded at $10 billion for the fiscal year that began on Oct. 1 and will end on Sept. 30.

In the wake of the Jan. 7 shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good by federal immigration officer Jonathan Ross, Democrats and Republicans agreed to some changes for the department that are provided for in the bill. That includes $20 million for body cameras for ICE and other federal immigration officers, $20 million for independent oversight of detention facilities and a $1 billion cut to Customs and Border Protection funding, which totals $18.3 billion.  

Border Patrol agents’ shooting of Pretti on Jan. 24 spurred Democrats to call for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to resign and demand additional reforms at DHS. 

No masks, body cameras required

Maine independent Sen. Angus King said Wednesday while the funding bill up for debate allocates money for optional body cameras, he wants to require immigration agents to wear them and to identify themselves. 

“I think one of the things that should be in it is no masks,” King said. “There’s not a law enforcement agency in the United States that wears masks. I’ve never encountered that before in my life.”

King added he wants to see increased “accountability” for federal immigration officers, including “independent investigations of injuries to either detainees or private citizens.”

The top Democrat on the panel that deals with Homeland Security funding, Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, said the proposed changes are a start.

“I’ve got a much longer list of reforms that I would like, but we’re operating in a world of possibility, and I think that these reforms are things that we could get done in the next couple days, or the next week,” he said. 

Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski said she’s okay splitting off the Homeland Security spending bill from the rest of the package. 

Murkowski also said she believes Trump should replace Noem.

“Ultimately it’s his call as to who he keeps in this position, whether it’s Secretary Noem or someone else. I understand that. And he’ll decide,” she said. “I just think that he deserves better.”

Two ‘losers,’ Trump says

North Carolina GOP Sen. Thom Tillis also called for Noem’s resignation, and for White House senior advisor Stephen Miller to be removed. Miller is the main architect of the Trump administration’s immigration policy, and played a pivotal role in the president’s first administration.

On Tuesday during an interview with ABC News, Trump called Tillis and Murkowski “both losers” for calling for Noem’s resignation and criticizing her handling of immigration operations in Minnesota. The president has stood by Noem.

“I’m kind of excited about being called a loser,” Tillis said. “Apparently, that qualifies me for DHS secretary and senior advisor to the president.”

South Dakota Republican Sen. Mike Rounds didn’t entirely rule out supporting a five-bill funding package if GOP leaders agree to remove the DHS appropriations bill. 

“I won’t get ahead of the president on it … but even if you do that, the House still has to approve that,” Rounds said. “The question is, logistically, can they get back in time to do it by Friday night?”

Texas Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar, ranking member on the House Homeland Security Appropriations subcommittee, wrote in a social media post that while the current bill isn’t perfect, it “is better than those alternatives.”

“But the worst thing Congress could do is allow a powerful department to operate with a blank check under a continuing resolution or shut the government down entirely.”

Federal Bureau of Investigation agents carried out a raid Wednesday at the Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center is located in Union City, Georgia. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder

ATLANTA — Officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided the Fulton County elections warehouse Wednesday. 

A court order signed by Magistrate Judge Catherine M. Salinas authorized agents to seize all physical ballots from the 2020 election in Fulton County, all ballot images and Fulton County’s 2020 voter rolls. A copy of the order was given to the Recorder by a House lawmaker.

“We are aware of the ongoing law enforcement activity involving the FBI at the Fulton County warehouse,” said Cae’Lenthya Moore, the executive assistant to Fulton County Clerk Ché Alexander. “At this time, we are only aware of activities involving the warehouse location.”

Officials at the FBI’s field office in Atlanta did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday. 

The Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center is located in Union City, just south of Atlanta. The county, which is home to much of the city of Atlanta, was also at the center of President Donald Trump’s baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen in Georgia and other swing states.

Fulton County was also where Trump was indicted in 2023 following his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.

Fulton County Elections Board Chair Sherri Allen told reporters that “Fulton County Department of Registration and Elections has always, and will continue to maintain fair, transparent and accurate elections.” 

“We have fully complied,” she added. “We will always comply with law enforcement and with the rule of law.”

Fulton County Commission Chair Robb Pitts said he has not been told where the ballots will be taken upon leaving the warehouse, and that he can no longer guarantee they will remain safe and secure. Audits of the 2020 election in Fulton County, he added, have repeatedly been found to be accurate.

“That election has been reviewed, it’s been audited, and in every case, every instance, we get a clean bill of health,” he said.

Trump has repeatedly blamed his 2020 loss on unfounded accusations of rampant voting fraud, even though two recounts affirmed former President Joe Biden’s narrow victory in Georgia. Last week, in a speech before the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Trump once again claimed that the 2020 election was rigged and said that the individuals involved “will soon be prosecuted for what they did.”

State Rep. Saira Draper, an Atlanta Democrat and voting rights attorney who showed up to the scene of the raid, said the raid was “an assault on our democracy,” and an attempt to target a Democratic stronghold in Georgia.

“This is certainly an attempt to sow chaos, it is an attempt to undermine confidence in our elections,” she said. “It’s focused on Fulton County, because this is where the Democratic voters are.”

The Carter Center, which helps monitor elections across the U.S. as well as in countries like Venezuela, Sierra Leone and Nepal, said the raid “appears to be yet another attempt to sow doubt in election integrity and undermine voter confidence during a consequential election year.”

In December, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Fulton County for refusing to turn over voter records from the 2020 election. Alexander, the county clerk, previously denied Justice Department officials’ request for the data according to the lawsuit, stating that the records were under seal and could not be released without a court order. She later filed a motion to dismiss the complaint.

The Justice Department has also filed its most recent lawsuit seeking Georgia’s unredacted voter data against Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger last week. Officials from the secretary of state’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the raid.

Georgia’s political ecosystem, however, was quick to react. In a statement, Georgia GOP Chair Josh McKoon celebrated the FBI’s raid, saying that it was “long overdue.”

“Georgians have waited years for real answers about what happened in 2020,” McKoon said. “Getting every detail out, especially around ballot handling and processes in Fulton, is absolutely critical.”

But Charlie Bailey, chair of the Democratic Party of Georgia, criticized the move.

“Every Georgian should be alarmed that Donald Trump is wielding federal law enforcement to push his baseless, dangerous lies about winning the 2020 election,” Bailey said in a statement, adding that “we will not be intimidated by a fragile bully who has been proven wrong by independent reviews time and time again.”

U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, who is up for re-election in November, also criticized the raid, calling it a “sore loser’s crusade.”

“From Minnesota to Georgia, on display to the whole world is a President spiraling out of control, wielding federal law enforcement as an unaccountable instrument of personal power and revenge,” he said.

U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter, who is running for Senate on the Republican side, put out a statement on social media, saying “Georgians are about to get some long-overdue answers and learn just how right President Trump was in 2020.”

U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, another Republican Senate candidate, also issued a succinct statement directed at FBI Director Kash Patel.

“Go get ‘em, Kash,” he wrote.

Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann speaks at the first candidate forum of the campaign cycle. He said “affordability” is the greatest threat and expressed concerns about young people and retirees leaving the state to live elsewhere. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann announced Wednesday afternoon that he is ending his campaign for governor. The announcement comes after President Donald Trump endorsed Schoemann’s rival, U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany Tuesday. 

Schoemann, who launched his campaign about nine months ago, congratulated Tiffany on the endorsement.

“I wish Tom great success in November,” Schoemann said in a statement. “If we focus on the people of Wisconsin rather than fighting with one another, we can make Wisconsin the place to be, not just be from.”

Tiffany, who has represented Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District since 2020, has been considered the frontrunner in the GOP primary race since he entered in September 2025. In recent campaign finance reports, Tiffany outraised Schoemann by nearly $1.5 million.

Schoemann’s exit from the race clears the way for Tiffany to go on to be the Republican nominee in the general election in November. His is the second dropout from the GOP primary. Businessman Bill Berrien dropped out last year shortly after Tiffany joined the race.

Trump announced his endorsement of Tiffany in a Truth Social post on Tuesday evening, saying he has “always been at my side.” Tiffany told WISN-12 that he learned about the endorsement at a dinner and spoke to Schoemann on Wednesday.

“I think the primary is probably behind us,” Tiffany said.

Tiffany said in a statement that he appreciates Schoemann’s words.

“We are both committed to making Wisconsin the place to be,” Tiffany said. “As governor, I will ensure seniors, young families, and the next generation can afford to stay here by lowering property taxes and utility rates, cutting red tape to reduce housing costs and delivering honest government and strong schools for every Wisconsinite.” 

The primary is scheduled for Aug 11. The Democratic primary field remains crowded and includes Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, Milwaukee Co. Executive David Crowley, state Sen. Kelda Roys, state Rep. Francesca Hong, former Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. CEO Missy Hughes, former Department of Administration Sec. Joel Brennan. 

The winner of the Democratic primary will likely face Tiffany on Nov. 3.

U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., left, and Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn., stand outside the regional ICE headquarters at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building on Jan. 10, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  A man squirted an unknown substance on Omar during a town hall on Jan. 27, 2026. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — U.S. Capitol Police investigated a drastic increase in threats against members of Congress and their staffs last year, looking into nearly 15,000 statements, behaviors and communications.

The volume of investigations rose sharply from the 9,474 USCP checked during 2024, the 8,008 in 2023 and the 7,501 in 2022. 

USCP Chief Michael Sullivan wrote in a statement released around the time a man squirted an unknown substance on Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar during a town hall Tuesday night that the agency has been strengthening its “partnerships with law enforcement agencies across the country to keep the Members of Congress safe when they are away from Capitol Hill.”

“We want to make sure agencies have the resources they need to be able to enhance protection, which is critical to the democratic process,” Sullivan added.

Political violence

Last year saw several instances of political violence, including the arson at the official home of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, the killing of Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, the shooting at the CDC’s headquarters in Atlanta and the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk during a rally at Utah Valley University.

Earlier Tuesday, at an appearance in Iowa, President Donald Trump singled out Omar, a Somali-American who came to the United States with family members as asylum seekers in 1995 and became a U.S. citizen in 2000. 

Trump, who frequently criticizes Omar, said she should not speak about the U.S. Constitution when she comes from a country that is a “disaster,” adding Somalia is known for “pirates.”

USCP said in its announcement the number of partnerships with local or state law enforcement to bolster security for lawmakers when they are away from Capitol Hill tripled during the last year, rising from approximately 115 to 350 departments.

“For any agency that does not have a formal agreement with us, I would encourage them to proactively reach out,” USCP Intelligence Services Bureau Director Ravi Satkalmi wrote in a statement. “The agreement provides a framework for us to reimburse partner agencies for support they provide to help secure Members of Congress.”

Spending increase for lawmakers’ security

Congress approved USCP’s annual funding bill in November, increasing spending on the agency by $46 million to a total of $852 million.

The legislation included $203.5 million “for the Senate and the House to enhance security measures and member protection,” according to a summary from Senate Appropriations Committee ranking member Patty Murray, D-Wash. 

That same package, which ended the government shutdown, provided an additional $30 million for USCP, $30 million for the U.S. Marshals Service to bolster security for members of the judicial and executive branches, and $28 million for enhanced safety for Supreme Court justices.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said Wednesday morning the attack on Omar was “unfortunate” and that everyone has a responsibility to “dial down the temperature.”

“When you’re a public figure, obviously, those are some of the things that come with the job. But it’s up to our citizens in this country too, the people out there, to do their part, obviously, to make their views known and weigh in and exercise their First Amendment right. But do it in a way that’s lawful and hopefully respectful.”