This Is The Trash Out There!

Did the town do the right thing?

Small town shuts down pro-ICE MAGA film that mocks queer shooting victim Renee Good

The film’s script reportedly depicts Good as a fat blue-hair woman

LGBTQ Nation

Daniel Villarreal (he/him)

October 6, 2026

The town commissioners of Livingston, Montana voted last Saturday to “immediately temporarily suspend” a filming permit for a movie tentatively titled Pawn Shop, a pro-ICE feature film produced by the anti-LGBTQ+, right-wing media outlet The Daily Wire.

The pro-ICE film reportedly depicts ICE-shooting victim Renee Good — a queer, blonde-hair mother of three — as “a fat blue-hair” woman named Melanie who is shot by ICE agents while driving and listening to NPR. Right-wingers have long vilified NPR as being a biased, liberal, and leftist media outlet, even though studies have shown that the outlet is generally unbiased, independent of government propaganda, and provides key benefits to US democracy.

But the show went on because of the First Amendment.

Troops At Polling Places

With all the rhetoric coming out Trump about the elections... people are worried about what he will pull out of his hat!

CNN News writes in Will the Trump administration send federal officers or troops to the polls? Here’s what we know

Here is what top officials within the administration or the military have said about the potential of sending troops or federal officers to polling locations:

Mullin says ICE officers could be at polling places in specific circumstances. The law says they can’t be

Concerns about immigration authorities being dispatched to polling places partly stem from Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin’s decision earlier this year to deploy Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to airports during a government shutdown. While immigration authorities have long had a presence and enforced immigration laws at airports, the large-scale deployment of ICE officers to assist with security and lines was a new development.

It also spurred concern about whether polling places could be next, especially given the administration’s broader crusade against what it claims — without evidence — is widespread voter fraud by immigrants in the country illegally.

“These are all tools of how the president is trying to think about a much larger plan, which is, if you cannot hold onto power through democratic elections, then adjust democratic elections,” Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, told CNN in March.

Asked by reporters last week whether ICE officers could be sent to polling locations in November, Mullin left open the possibility that they could be under specific circumstances.

Doesn't this answer give you a warm fuzzy feeling?

In a letter responding to Sen. Elissa Slotkin, a Michigan Democrat who asked military leaders to commit to not sending troops to the polls, Caine wrote the military has “no plans” to send federal military personnel or federalized National Guard troops to voting locations.

“Likewise, the Joint Force has no plans to use such personnel to seize ballots, voting machines, or other election-related material,” wrote Caine, who is the nation’s highest-ranking military officer.

Notice the wording... “no plans” but that doesn't rule out sending 

The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law wrote;

Preventing Voter Intimidation by Federal Agents at the Polls
Any deployment that intimidates voters or interferes with elections would be illegal. Should one occur, officials and civil society are prepared to challenge illegal acts so that voting can proceed uninterrupted.

In May, when President Trump was asked whether he would send National Guard troops or Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers to polling locations during the midterm elections, he responded that he would “do anything necessary to make sure we have honest elections; we have to have honest elections.” Several of his officials and allies have made similar comments in recent weeks and months. While no public information suggests that the federal government currently plans to deploy armed law enforcement agents to the polls in November, these statements appear designed to sow fear among voters.

Despite the implied threat, the law is clear: Sending armed federal agents, including those from ICE, to election sites is illegal. Federal law and many states’ laws prohibit not only armed federal agents at polling sites, but also interference in elections or voter intimidation by any officials or private citizens. More important, using these tactics would be a flagrant attempt to hold on to power through force and intimidation and an affront to free and fair elections. Yet, given the Trump administration’s pattern of flouting rules and engaging in plainly illegal and unethical conduct, including attempting to overturn a valid election, we must take this threat seriously.

The law reads...

Whoever, being an officer of the Army or Navy, or other person in the civil, military, or naval service of the United States, orders, brings, keeps, or has under his authority or control any troops or armed men at any place where a general or special election is held, unless such force be necessary to repel armed enemies of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both; and be disqualified from holding any office of honor, profit, or trust under the United States.

As the old saying goes... "May you live in interesting times!"

"Sanctuary State"

When Washington state refused Texas's subpoena for the records of trans children and the records of women from Texas... it was to protect the identities of medical patients.

When Texas refused an extradition order, it was for a criminal assault where a person beat shot [updated] another person and then lied about it. That person was an ICE agent.

PBS News reported that;

Castro is accused of firing gun through door of home

Castro is accused of firing a gun through the front door of a Minneapolis home, shooting Sosa-Celis in the leg. Prosecutors say Castro also falsely accused Sosa-Celis and another man of attacking an ICE officer with a broom handle and a snow shovel.

But while this back-and-forth in the legal system plays out...

 ICE officer’s release from Texas jail opens a new front in the escalating fight over extradition

AP News

By  MICHAEL GONZALEZ, VALERIE GONZALEZ and SUDHIN THANAWALA

August 27, 2026

The release of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer from a Texas jail on Thursday despite Minnesota’s request for his return could set a dangerous precedent, increasing friction between states and helping criminal defendants avoid justice, legal experts said.

Christian Castro was released from a detention center in Brownsville after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott declined to immediately sign his extradition warrant. A federal judge also declined to block Castro’s release or order Abbott to sign the warrant.

Minnesota officials say they believe Castro could flee to Mexico to avoid prosecution on charges he shot a man and lied about it during an immigration crackdown in Minneapolis in January. Extradition from Mexico would require action by the Trump administration, which opened an investigation into Castro’s actions but also has argued ICE agents have “absolute immunity” for their actions on duty.

But now it has escalated to another level:

Trump’s DOJ Blocked Serious ICE Shooting Charge Over Federal Prosecutor’s “Strongest Possible” Objections

A prosecutor planned to file civil rights charges — similar to those brought against the officers who killed George Floyd — against an ICE agent. In an email we exclusively obtained, he reveals that Trump officials quashed those plans.

Propublica

by Megan Rose and Andy Mannix

September 2, 2026

Over the “strongest possible” objections from the federal prosecutor handling the case, leaders at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., quashed plans to bring civil rights charges against an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent accused of shooting a Venezuelan immigrant and then lying about it. 

The agent, 52-year-old Christian Castro, allegedly shot Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis in the leg in Minneapolis this January during Operation Metro Surge, the Trump administration’s immigration blitz that sent thousands of federal agents into the state. The incident was one of three shootings by immigration agents in the city, the other two of which were fatal. 

Federal prosecutors in Minnesota had been preparing to charge Castro with deprivation of rights under color of law for the shooting of Sosa-Celis, according to several people familiar with the case. Those charges are similar to the ones leveled against Minneapolis police officers accused in George Floyd’s killing and can carry hefty prison sentences. 

Late on Tuesday, Matthew Evans, the assistant U.S. attorney in Minnesota in charge of the case, told lawyers for Sosa-Celis and other victims to prepare for Castro to be charged “only with False Statements,” according to an email that was reviewed by ProPublica. 

You know what that behavior and being above the law reminds me of? The KGB, NKVD, Stasi, Cheka... the whole alphabet soup of Cold War secret police.

The Hill reports that;

U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr., an appointee of President Trump who oversees the case, will consider Minnesota’s bid at a Tuesday afternoon hearing in his Brownsville, Texas, courtroom.

It has become a major legal clash between Abbott and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), who requested Castro’s extradition as state authorities charged the ICE officer with four counts of second-degree assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime.

The officer stands accused of injuring a Venezuelan man in the leg by firing a gun at the front door of an occupied Minneapolis home on Jan. 14 amid an immigration enforcement surge in the Twin Cities. Castro had allegedly told investigators he opened fire in self-defense after being hit with a shovel and a broom, only for video footage to undercut the officer’s claim. 

Abbott has refused to sign a rendition warrant that would pave the way for the officer to return to Minnesota for trial.

This is a whole new level of political interference in our legal systems. Think about this for a moment: The governor and the judge are saying that for the shooting, Castro can't be charged, only for the misdemeanor.

This doesn't make sense... for the serious crimes of shooting an individual, they say he can't be charged because it was justified. While he used a lie to justify it! Duh! What circular logic. Has Texas become a "sanctuary state" for all the ICE agents who cross the line?

A Tail Of Two States

A Synopsis:

In the first state, an ICE agent shot a man and lied about it. ICE argues that agents have “absolute immunity” for their actions on duty and then spirits the agent away to another state.

The first state indicts the agent for assault and falsely reporting a crime and sends an extradition order to the state where ICE shipped him. That state says, “We will think about it,” and releases the agent from custody.

So that is where we are now: The ICE agent is somewhere, maybe even in Mexico.

ICE officer’s release from Texas jail opens a new front in the escalating fight over extradition

AP News

By MICHAEL GONZALEZ, VALERIE GONZALEZ and SUDHIN THANAWALA

August 27, 2026

The release of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer from a Texas jail on Thursday despite Minnesota’s request for his return could set a dangerous precedent, increasing friction between states and helping criminal defendants avoid justice, legal experts said.

Christian Castro was released from a detention center in Brownsville after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott declined to immediately sign his extradition warrant. A federal judge also declined to block Castro’s release or order Abbott to sign the warrant.

Minnesota officials say they believe Castro could flee to Mexico to avoid prosecution on charges he shot a man and lied about it during an immigration crackdown in Minneapolis in January. Extradition from Mexico would require action by the Trump administration, which opened an investigation into Castro’s actions but also has argued ICE agents have “absolute immunity” for their actions on duty.

And no way in hell will Trump extradite him!

But this goes way beyond this case. Texas and other Republican states have been trying to get health care records on women having abortions and children going to trans clinics in other states. Some see this as tit for tat.

The decision is alarming because it injects politics into the extradition process, said Marsh Halberg, a criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor in Minnesota.

“Something that’s been a routine process may now turn into a political card,” he said in a phone interview.

In recent months, California and New York have rejected extradition requests from Louisiana for doctors accused of mailing abortion pills.

But legal scholars say those cases are different because the doctors weren’t in Louisiana and never fled the state and became fugitives.

Is Texas looking the other way in a case of perjury and attempted murder because of the denial of a witch-hunt for medical records?

But it gets even more convoluted… the feds jump in!

Judge denies Minnesota's request to halt release of ICE officer charged in Minneapolis shooting

CBS News

By Aki Nace, Stephen Swanson

August 26, 2026

A federal judge on Wednesday denied Minnesota's request for a temporary restraining order to halt the release of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent sought for extradition in a shooting earlier this year in north Minneapolis amid Operation Metro Surge, and then lying about the circumstances under oath.

[…]

In U.S. District Court Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr.'s 13-page ruling, he denied Minnesota's request because the "matter does not present an issue ripe for adjudication," saying Minnesota's case is based on claims that Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has violated the Extradition Act by refusing to sign Castro's rendition warrant.

"The record reflects only that Governor Abbott has neither agreed nor refused to sign the rendition warrant as to Castro. Instead, Governor Abbott has requested that the Texas Secretary of State 'investigate [Minnesota's] demand and report to [the Governor] concerning Mr. Castro's situation and circumstances and whether he ought to be surrendered,'" Rodriguez wrote in his ruling.

So that’s where we are now… in limbo.

This Is Your Government!

I am not even to write anything, you have to read this! The whole article article... this is what Trump is doing to the country with his xenophobic adminstration in your name.

Society / August 11, 2026

One Woman’s Message From the Hell of ICE Detention

My husband, son, and I have been locked up for months—despite being permanent residents with no criminal record. It is an unendurable, unending nightmare.

The Nation

Maryam Tahmasebi

You got to read it! They are doing it your name, in the name of your country, you can't sit back say you never knew... because the truth is out there. It is on the internet. The Nation is a well respected magazine.

Ice Is Not Nice!

[Editorial]

The New Bandwagon… “Ice ICE!” Liberal candidates (while conservatives cry for more funding) are talking about getting rid of ICE, an agency created in response to 9/11.

It was a knee-jerk reaction to the attacks on us; maybe it is time to revisit it, either to abolish it or reshape it away from the Gestapo-like agency that Trump molded it into. But let’s not have another knee-jerk reaction in the opposite direction.

ICE was created to track down potential security threats inside the country, but it has morphed into an agency known for bashing heads and civil liberties violations.

Under Trump’s presidencies, it has been transformed into a heavy-handed force that ignored the Constitution and due process. However, no matter what replaces it, the system remains ripe for abuse. Who defines what a “terrorist” is? Under Trump, the transgender community has been targeted and demonized as terrorists.

All I am saying is: don’t be hasty and create another monster!

[/Editorial]

They Just Disappeared!

Just as the KGB could make people disappear during the Cold War, so can ICE. Several Oglala Sioux tribal members were picked up by ICE, yet the agency has refused to comment on the detention—even going so far as to not acknowledge that they have them in custody!

Oglala Sioux Tribe leader says ICE detained tribal citizens in Minneapolis operation
KVIH
by MINA ALLEN
January 14, 2026

The president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe is calling on federal authorities to immediately release tribal citizens who were detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement during an operation at a Minneapolis homeless encampment last week.

In a statement issued Tuesday, Oglala Sioux Tribe President Frank Star Comes Out said three of four tribal members arrested Friday were transferred to an ICE detention facility at Fort Snelling. The statement accompanied a formal memorandum sent to federal immigration officials demanding their release.

Star Comes Out emphasized that tribal citizens are not subject to immigration enforcement, noting that they hold U.S. citizenship by law and citizenship within their tribal nation by treaty. “Tribal citizens are not aliens and fall completely outside immigration jurisdiction,” he said.

Officials have not provided clear details about why the men were detained. According to Star Comes Out, when the tribe contacted the Department of Homeland Security seeking information, the agency shared only the first names of the detainees and declined to release additional details unless the tribe agreed to enter into a formal immigration enforcement agreement with ICE.

 The United States government is using extortion to force the tribe to back off on the rights guaranteed to its members by the Constitution and the laws of this land!

That was in the middle of January. By February:

 'A State of Panic’: Native Americans Left in the Dark Weeks After ICE Arrests
Time
by Philip Wang
Feb 18, 2026

For Native American leaders, the recent wave of immigration arrests has felt less like an isolated enforcement effort and more like a pattern: federal action first, explanations later.

That anxiety intensified after reports last month that four members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe were detained during a sweeping immigration operation in Minneapolis. When Frank Star Comes Out, the tribe’s president, learned of the arrests, he said he immediately called the Department of Homeland Security.

“We were in contact with DHS, but they wanted names, and I said, ‘Well, we want names, too. What are you doing? Detaining Native Americans?’ But they couldn't answer that. So that conversation just went nowhere, stalemate,” President Frank Star Comes Out tells TIME. 

Star Comes Out, who received the report from a tribal member doing street outreach work with homeless Native American people in the Twin Cities, said he reached out to Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) officials for help without much success.

 I guess the officials at ICE have never heard of the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924. Does this mean that, in the eyes of ICE, homeless people are nationless people?

In March...

Oglala Sioux Tribe Rejects ICE Conditions for Information on Detained Members
Native News Online
by Levi Rickert
March 4, 2026

Leaders of the Oglala Sioux Tribe are demanding the immediate release of tribal citizens held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and are pushing back on federal conditions for information about their whereabouts.

Tribal President Frank Star Comes Out said in a memorandum to Department of Homeland Security officials that three of four tribal members detained during immigration enforcement activity in Minneapolis remain in ICE custody at the Fort Snelling facility, a site with historical significance for Indigenous people. One of the four has since been released.

[…]

Tribal leaders called the reported condition an unacceptable infringement on tribal sovereignty, saying treaties between the federal government and sovereign nations do not allow federal agencies to impose immigration enforcement arrangements as a prerequisite for transparency.

The dispute has drawn criticism from Indigenous rights advocates, who say the detentions reflect broader concerns about racial profiling and a lack of understanding among federal agents about tribal citizenship and sovereign status.

Tribal officials are seeking direct government-to-government consultations and written assurances that enrolled tribal citizens will not be subject to immigration detention moving forward.

Crickets… that is all the tribal leaders have heard!

It is fundamentally wrong that this has been going on for over four months. American citizens are being unlawfully detained!

So Where Did Trump Get The Amazing Idea Of ICE In Airports?

What could possibly go wrong?

Where did the "bright idea" of putting untrained ICE agents in airports actually come from?

ICE officers go to TSA checkpoints at Trump’s direction, while long wait times at airports persist

The LA Times

By Wyatte Grantham-Philips

March 23, 2026

• President Trump is deploying hundreds of ICE officers to major U.S. airports to support TSA checkpoints strained by a government shutdown.
• TSA and other Homeland Security workers have labored without pay since February, prompting many to call in sick or resign.
• Labor unions warn that ICE’s immigration enforcement role could distract from airport security and escalate tensions with travelers.

Armed federal immigration officers in tactical gear moved through terminals at some of the busiest U.S. airports Monday, standing near security lines and checkpoints after President Trump ordered their deployment during a partial government shutdown that has disrupted air travel nationwide.

The officers were not making arrests or screening passengers. The Trump administration vaguely said they would supplement Transportation Security Administration staffing at certain airports. But after a year of intensified immigration enforcement and protests in cities across the country, their appearance at airport checkpoints has unsettled some travelers and raised new questions about how far their presence might extend.

The first thought that popped into my head was: "Why do they need tactical gear in an airport?" Talk about escalation!

So whose idea was it? Well it all seems to funnel back to a right-wing radio talk show!

Opinion | Was a conservative radio caller behind the idea to send ICE agents into airports?

A suggestion from ‘Linda from Arizona’ on The Clay and Buck Show made its way to Fox News and, soon after, into White House policy

Poynter

By: Tom Jones

March 24, 2026

On Monday, ICE agents were deployed to 14 airports throughout the country to, in theory, help ease the long lines because of a shortage of Transportation Security Administration agents. Many TSA agents have quit during this latest partial government shutdown, and thousands called out of work because they are not being paid.

[...]

So, where did President Donald Trump get the idea to send ICE into airports to help the TSA? It might have been …

Linda from Arizona.

Several media observers — including Semafor’s Ben Smith and CNN’s Brian Stelter — noted that a woman named Linda called into Clay Travis’ conservative radio show last Friday and made the suggestion to deploy ICE to airports.

Linda told “The Clay and Buck Show,” “I think I have a solution to the TSA problem. … We need to bring in ICE agents.” Travis replied, “Linda, I have to say that’s kind of a brilliant idea.”

So here’s where the story gets a little more suspect. That night, Travis appeared on Trump’s favorite network — Fox News — and passed along the idea. Less than 24 hours later, Trump announced the plan to send in ICE agents.

Now, it’s entirely possible that more folks than just Linda from Arizona had this idea, and it’s possible that some of those people work in the White House.

So it was a radio talk show caller that put armed tactical gear ICE agents in airports! And other right-wing pundits jumped on the bandwagon!

The Democratic Docket wrote,

Steve Bannon suggested that President Donald Trump deployed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to major U.S. airports as part of a “test run” for using them to meddle in upcoming elections.

“We can use this as a test run, as a test case, to really perfect ICE’s involvement in the 2026 midterms,” Bannon, a close Trump ally, said on his War Room podcast Monday.

Last month, Bannon, who served as White House chief strategist during the opening months of Trump’s first term and who remains an influential figure in the current administration, urged the president to send immigration officers to voting sites during this year’s midterms.

He baselessly claimed that the tactic would prevent Democrats from “stealing” elections. In reality, the move is clearly meant to intimidate voters and poll workers and artificially influence election outcomes. 

The White House and leaders of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE, have never definitively ruled out the tactic, even though federal law expressly bars the stationing of law enforcement officers or members of the military at polling places.

Are you scared yet? Because it looks like the groundwork is being laid to rig the elections.

But here is the "minor" fact that all of these pundits are ignoring: The Law.

18 U.S. Code § 592 - Troops at polls

Cornell Law School

Whoever, being an officer of the Army or Navy, or other person in the civil, military, or naval service of the United States, orders, brings, keeps, or has under his authority or control any troops or armed men at any place where a general or special election is held, unless such force be necessary to repel armed enemies of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both; and be disqualified from holding any office of honor, profit, or trust under the United States.

Hey Trump... 5 years! You still want to bring ICE to the polls?

"Your Papers Please" The Continuing Sage...

ICE doesn't care where you were born only if you look like... a foreigner. A U.S. citizen was detained for over 30 hours when returning form a trip abroad!

‘Terrifying’: Family says Evanston-born U.S. citizen detained for hours after returning to O’Hare

WGN 9

by: Andrea Medina, Ashlyn Wright

Posted: Mar 8, 2026

Outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in suburban Broadview on Sunday, Sarah Afzal spoke on behalf of her 28-year-old sister, Sundas Naqvi, who goes by Sunny.

Elected officials, family members and Sunny’s attorney stood alongside her, sharing their accounts of what they say happened after Sunny returned to Chicago.

Afzal says Sunny, a U.S. citizen born in Evanston, was detained by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport while returning from Turkey on Thursday.

“Detained with no cause. All she was told was that there was curious travel history,” said Cook County Commissioner Kevin Morrison.

Big Brother is watching you!

They have seized electronic devices from U.S. citizens, last December...

Naturalized citizen sues DHS after his electronic devices were searched at Houston airport

Houston Chronicle

By Julián Aguilar,

Dec 11, 2025

A U.S. citizen detained last summer at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport is suing the Department of Homeland Security, alleging that federal agents violated his constitutional protections against illegal search and seizure.

Wilmer Chavarria was detained for hours by Customs and Border Protection agents in July after a visit to his native Nicaragua. Chavarria came to the United States in 2008 as a college student and has been a naturalized U.S. citizen since 2018. He is a school superintendent in Vermont.

The lawsuit argues that Chavarria and other U.S. citizens do not have to surrender their electronic devices to federal agents without a warrant. It challenges yearslong policies that federal agents have relied upon to perform warrantless searches of electronic devices.

Pacific Legal said in a summary of the case that Chavarria was told he wasn’t protected under the Fourth Amendment, and agents ordered him to turn over his electronic devices for inspection.

This lawsuit will not go far... the courts in the past have ruled that crossing a boarder they can search electronic devices. But now that ruling is being stretched.

Then we have legally issued passports with a "X" on them are getting more scrutiny by ICE CBP!

US tells airlines to disregard ‘X’ sex markers on passports and input ‘M’ or ‘F’

Customs and Border Protection implemented rule this week, sending Americans with ‘X’ marker into panic

The Guardian

Hannah Harris Green

Sat 18 Oct 2025

US Customs and Border Protection implemented a rule this week that will require airlines to disregard “X” sex markers on passports and input an “M” or “F” marker instead, sending those people with an “X” marker into panic.

“X” markers became available to US passport holders in 2022, in an effort to allow people with gender identities other than male and female to obtain more accurate travel documents.

Now, the new CBP rule has many people on social media and beyond worried that they will no longer be allowed to fly internationally.

“It’s a little bit too soon to say how this is going to practically work out,” said Andy Izenson, senior legal director at the Chosen Family Law Center.

Passports with “X” markers should still be considered valid travel documents; the US district court of Massachusetts issued an order in June ensuring that they would remain valid after the Trump administration attempted to ban them under executive order 14168, titled Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.

But that sure doesn't mean that you will not be hassled...

While the courts have continued to prevent the Trump administration from outright banning a third gender marker, this week’s rule can still serve to make the lives of trans and non-binary people more difficult, Izenson says.

“I would suggest the intent is to ensure that any individual person who’s acting under color of law or as an agent of the state has as much leeway to act out their personal bigotry as they want, without any concern about consequences,” Izenson said.

Fragoman writes that...

US Visitor Visa Rules for the 2026 FIFA World Cup: What Fans Should Know

By: Brian L. Simmons

February 3, 2026

The 2026 FIFA World Cup arrives amid rapidly evolving US immigration and security policies driven by a series of executive actions, expanded travel bans and tightening visa rules. While many of these restrictions primarily affect immigrant visas or long‑term entry, some directly impact short‑term visitors, including potential World Cup attendees, particularly those from countries subject to bans or partial suspensions.

There is a lot of nail biting in the FIFA now with another World War! Several governments have issued travel advisories or warnings related to stricter immigration enforcement and protests including; France, Germany, Ireland, Canada, and  the United Kingdom!

Iran’s World Cup place in US put in doubt by Middle East war. FIFA has Iraq next in line

AP News

By  GRAHAM DUNBAR

March 2, 2026

 Iran’s place at the men’s World Cup in three months was put in doubt Monday amid an escalating Middle East conflict sparked by the soccer tournament’s co-host the United States.

Iran is due to play its three group stage games in the U.S. — two in Inglewood, California, then in Seattle — from June 15-26. Cities in Canada and Mexico also will host some of the 104 games.

The U.S. and Israel have targeted Iran in coordinated attacks since Saturday that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and dozens more senior officials.

It provoked an Iranian response that aimed missiles at U.S. allies including 2022 World Cup host Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which FIFA has picked to stage the 2034 edition.

“What is certain is that after this attack, we cannot be expected to look forward to the World Cup with hope,” said Iran’s top soccer official Mehdi Taj, a vice president of the Asian Football Confederation.

Iran’s place in the tournament is now in doubt following coordinated attacks by the U.S. and Israel. I bet many at FIFA have their heads on their arms crying!. This World Cup is shaping up to be a disaster. You want to bet that many star players will be barred from even entering the U.S.?

That you Donald!

Knock, Knock, Your Papers Please!

You know we have seen all this before—and it is important to remember where and why.

Lawsuit challenges ICE ability to enter homes without warrants from judges

The lawsuit argues that allowing ICE officers to enter someone’s home to conduct arrests based solely on an administrative warrant violates constitutional rights.

NBC News

Jan. 30, 2026

By Reuters

The lawsuit by the Greater Boston Latino Network and Brazilian Worker Center was filed in federal court in Boston and marked the first case to challenge the constitutionality of a policy laid out in a May memo ICE issued that became public last week as a result of a whistleblower complaint.

The policy marked a departure for ICE, whose agents in the past had generally been barred from entering private homes and businesses without a warrant signed by a federal judge.

When before did we have government barging into out homes?

But as President Donald Trump’s administration ramped up immigration enforcement last year in its quest to carry out mass deportations, the acting head of ICE issued a memo that advised its agents they could rely instead on administrative warrants.

Lyons in the memo said DHS Office of General Counsel had “recently determined the U.S. Constitution, the Immigration and Nationality Act, and the immigration regulations do not prohibit relying on administrative warrants for this purpose.”

Those warrants, also known as Form I-205s, are issued by officials within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, including ones in ICE itself.

There is one thing I know for certain: you cannot get a "yes" or "no" position out of a lawyer. It is always preceded by, "In my opinion..."

The Law Fare analysis concludes:

This raises a big question: Can ICE enter a home to make an arrest without a judicial warrant?

The standard view has been that administrative warrants can't authorize home entry because they're executive branch orders, and the executive branch can't be in charge of deciding whether to give itself a warrant.  Under Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573 (1980), the government needs an arrest warrant to enter a home to make an arrest.  But Payton refers to a "judicial officer" inserting his judgment "between the zealous officer and the citizen," and the immigration officer who signs a Form I-205 is not a "judicial officer." That's the traditional thinking.

That thinking is captured by Judge Wright's reasoning in the Kidd v. Mayorkas opinion.  Judge Wright was addressing the broad category of administrative warrants, which included the subcategory of Form I-205 warrants, and here's what he wrote:

[...]

If that's the DHS argument—and I'm just speculating about that—I think the problem on the merits is that there's been a lot of water under the bridge since Justice Frankfurter's opinion in Abel.  Coolidge from 1971 and Shadwick from 1972 settled the idea that a warrant requires a neutral and detached magistrate. Payton from 1980 settled that a judicial warrant is needed for entry.  To go back to the 1960 opinion in Abel, and to read its dicta as binding without considering the Supreme Court's later holdings in Coolidge, Shadwick, and Payton, seems pretty problematic.

There is one thing that I know for certain is that you cannot get a yes or no position out if a lawyer... it is always preceded with "In my opinion..."

It's always hard to offer a take on a legal argument when you have to speculate about what the legal argument is, so my take on this is tentative.  But if I had to summarize my current thinking, it seems to me that the DHS policy is likely wrong in light of Coolidge, Shadwick, and Payton, although the DHS position is not frivolous in light of Abel as interpreted in Malagerio—and the trickier issue may be actually getting a merits ruling on the issue in court in light of the absence of remedies due to the Supreme Court's gradual cutting back on Bivens remedies. Or at least that's my tentative take without actually getting to see the DHS legal analysis, and with the caveat that I don't know the administrative law remedies that may be available.

It is my opinion that, with all this legal wrangling, it is we—the citizens—who are getting screwed!

Lies, Lies, And More Lie... Yes, I'm Talking About ICE

What does it mean when you cannot trust your government? It seems like one lie after another is coming form DHS!

Feds are not telling the truth about shooting of Marimar Martinez, attorney says

“We live in a strange time right now. We cannot trust our federal government,” attorney Chris Parente said.

NBC Ch 5 Chicago

By Charlie Wojciechowski 

February 11, 2026

An attorney representing a Chicago woman who was shot by a federal agent in the fall said the government is not telling the truth about her case and directed the public to look at newly released evidence to see for themselves.

“We live in a strange time right now. We cannot trust our federal government,” attorney Chris Parente said.

Parente represents Marimar Martinez, a Chicago Montessori teacher who was shot several times by Border Patrol Agent Charles Exum on October 4 last year.

However, evidence show it different!

In an attempt to clear Martinez's name, her attorneys filed a multi-million civil lawsuit on her behalf on Wednesday.

“To have your own government call you something as hurtful as a domestic terrorist when you know you are not, is simply unacceptable,” Parente said.

Late Tuesday night, the US Attorney’s office released a trove of evidence related to the shooting, including body camera video from those officers inside their vehicle.

On the video, one of the officers and be heard saying, “it’s time to get aggressive and get the [expletive] out of here.”

Thirty seconds later, another officer calls in that “we’ve been struck” then shots can be heard.

It is one lie after another, they lied about Ms. Good, they lied about Mr.Pretti!

Marimar Martínez lawyers say officials ‘created a culture of violence’ among agents

By Jason Meisner

Chicago Tribune

February 11, 2026

Lawyers for Marimar Martínez, the Chicago woman shot by a Border Patrol agent in October, said Wednesday newly released evidence in the case demonstrates how Trump administration officials “have created a culture of violence among their agents” where the shootings of U.S. citizens are “embraced, celebrated and promoted.”

Investigative materials made public Tuesday showed that after shooting Martínez five times on Oct. 4, Border Patrol Agent Charles Exum joked about it in a text chat with colleagues, was called a “legend” by one of his fellow agents, and even received praise directly from his boss, Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino, as Martínez lay badly wounded in a hospital.

“As Marimar was fighting for her life, Greg Bovino was promoting the agent without any investigation being done into the shooting,” Martínez’s lead attorney, Christopher Parente, said in a statement Wednesday ahead of a news conference at a downtown law office.

One of the things about lawsuits is the "Right of Discovery"

After the shooting, Parente said, government officials immediately attacked Martínez, saying she had a history of doxing federal agents and had posted threats on social media, including one specifically that said in Spanish: “Hey to all my gang let’s (expletive) these mother(expletive) up, don’t let them take anyone.”

But investigative reports released by Parente on Wednesday showed that threat had been posted by someone else unrelated to Martínez.

The DHS agents lied for the start!  ABC Chicago 7 reports that Ms. Martinez is filing a civil lawsuit,

While all criminal charges have been dismissed against Martinez, the I-Team is learning more about an open criminal investigation into the shooting, and the agent who fired those five shots.

[...]

Contradicting Evidence

It was Oct. 4 near 39th Street and Kedzie Avenue on the Southwest Side when footage from a Border Patrol agent's body-camera starts recording, after Martinez had followed the agents for several blocks, honking her horn.

While the footage has been referenced in court, the public is now able to see it for the first time.

U.S. Border Patrol Agent Charles Exum Jr. can be seen driving an SUV, along with three other agents as passengers; all of the agents' faces were blurred by the government.

I would like to point out that honking a horn is not a crime. Honking your horn is not a death sentence!

Surveillance footage reviewed by the I-Team shows Martinez was on the driver's side of the agents' vehicle when Agent Exum can be seen swerving the SUV's steering wheel in her direction. He then stops the car, steps out and fires five shots.

But...

"I got out (of the vehicle) so we could defend," Exum says. Then, multiple agents can be heard warning him to stay quiet.

"Hey, hey, since we're recording, keep it... Keep everything out, you're good man," one agent tells him.

"You don't give statements to anybody," another agent can be heard telling Exum. "Absolutely no statements at all, no statements, you keep your mouth shut."

You think that they just realized that "screwed the pooch"

"You can see the bullet went back to front, which is not only inconsistent with (Agent Exum's) statement to the FBI that all five shots went through the windshield," Parente said, "but it's also extremely troubling that he's shooting at a fleeing vehicle, which is a violation of the Border Patrol's published use of force policy."

Wait a minute... the agent said she was driving towards him?????

With the public getting its first look at evidence in the case on Wednesday, one thing that's still locked in federal custody is Martinez's car she was driving the day of the shooting.

That's because more than four months later, the federal government still possesses her vehicle due to an "ongoing and pending criminal investigation" into the shooting by the U.S. Attorney's Office in South Bend, Indiana, according to court testimony and filings reviewed by the I-Team, as well as Martinez's attorneys.

On cross-examination at the November hearing, Parente disputed Exum's version of events, citing FBI reports stating it was not a supervisor, but Exum who initiated the request for the vehicle repair.

Why? Maybe because the damage doesn't match what the agents said?

Mother Jones writes,

Newly released body camera footage further undermines the Trump administration’s efforts to falsely portray Marimar Martinez—who was shot multiple times by Border Patrol agent Charles Exum in October—as a “domestic terrorist.” Federal prosecutors shared three videos on Tuesday evening after a federal judge ruled last week that the footage and other evidence could be made public.

Martinez’s shooting caused nationwide outrage, particularly after it was revealed that Exum had bragged about shooting Martinez. “Read it,” he wrote in one message after being sent an article about the incident. “5 shots, 7 holes.” He continued: “I fired 5 rounds and she had 7 holes. Put that in your book boys.”

[...]

The videos released on Tuesday shed further light on why prosecutors dropped charges against Martinez rather than try to bring a case against her to trial.

The newly released evidence is also part of a pattern. It is one of many examples of DHS immigration agents lying and providing false information to justify shootings and other uses of excessive force against US citizens and immigrants. These claims have collapsed again and again once DHS is forced to defend them in court. 

The current adminstration is okay with lies, as long as it is their lies.

House Democrats ask Trump administration if any Jan. 6 rioters are now working for ICE

CBS News

By Scott MacFarlane

January 13, 2026

Nearly one year after the mass pardon of more than 1,500 Trump-supporting Capitol riot defendants, members of a House committee are investigating whether any of the pardoned rioters are now working for President Trump's administration in the fast-growing Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

In a three-page letter sent Monday to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Attorney General Pam Bondi and obtained by CBS News, the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee has requested all "records, documents, memos, and internal communications regarding the solicitation and hiring of anyone charged or investigated for actions in connection to the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol."

The committee's Democrats also said it remains unclear how many January 6 defendants "have been invited to join the ranks of this Administration, including among the masked Department of Homeland Security agents and officers."

If you want thugs you hire thugs!

Raskin's inquiry said, "Who is hiding behind these masks? How many of them were among the violent rioters who attacked the Capitol on January 6th and were convicted of their offenses?"

DHS Noem & DOJ Bondi both said that there weren't any!

At least one Capitol riot defendant has secured a high-ranking post in the Justice Department: Jared Wise, who is serving as an agency adviser.

I repeat my question: What does it mean when you cannot trust your government?

They Just Made A Big Mistake

[Editorial]

The Republicans just made a big, big mistake! Huge.

The Hour reported that,

“As the 102 Democratic majority stood up and cheered, Republicans including Sen. Rob Sampson of Wolcott, Rep. Ben McGorty of Shelton, Rep. Kurt Vail of Stafford walked out. State Rep. Cara Pavalock-D'Amato of Bristol wore a sweater with the words "ICE IN," on the back. The walkout and ICE criticism comes at a time of heightened tension and scrutiny nationwide.”

While Republicans continue to harp on crime and undocumented immigrants, residents are starting to look around and ask: Where? Most of us don’t see it. Yes, crime exists, but we don’t need federal "surge" tactics in our neighborhoods. As the GOP tries to force national rhetoric into local politics, voters are seeing through the facade.

We see the videos on Facebook and the reports on TV. We see the violence and realize: That isn’t us. We aren’t like that. So why are there ICE raids here?

As the polls show, the people don’t like what they are seeing,  Quinnipiac University reported that,

“61% Of Voters Think The Trump Administration Has Not Given An Honest Account Of The Fatal Shooting Of Alex Pretti, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; 58% Of Voters Think DHS Secretary Kristi Noem Should Be Removed”

So I hope that the Connecticut Republicans continue supporting Trump. Because the voters are saying enough! Enough!

Wow six! It is a regular crime wave! This is the bull that the CT Republicans are pushing! Six undocumented arrested by ICE and they want to call in ICE thugs! 

And this also is why they are losing...

Inside One Minneapolis Church, a Different Type of Protest

In the weeks since ICE agents began conducting operations across the city, Westminster Presbyterian has given its members a place to protest on their own terms.

The New York Times

By Claire Fahy

Feb. 3, 2026

On Sunday morning, as some people packed the diners in downtown Minneapolis in search of warm breakfast and coffee, others filed into the pews at Westminster Presbyterian.

One detail, however, hinted that this wasn’t a typical weekly service — a woman with knitting needles was making a red hat worn by many of those who have poured into the streets to deplore the presence of immigration agents.

The church offered a quieter but, for many, an equally powerful form of protest: prayer. Absent were the animal onesies and profanity-laden chants of the crowds outside the B.H. Whipple Federal Building. In their place were hymns, scripture and a full-throated sermon.

“The main reason why Operation Metro Surge has not gone according to the Department of Homeland Security’s plan is because the architects assumed that Minnesotans would turn on one another, or decide that it’s too costly to show solidarity to people who are suffering or who are gripped by fear,” the Rev. Matthew Skinner declared from the pulpit. “So far, we haven’t done that.”

Places of worship have played pivotal roles in protests throughout history. The Presbyterian Church has urged members into action in the Revolutionary War and supported the civil rights movement. Since Immigration and Customs Enforcement began operations in Minnesota in December, leaders of many faiths have provided support for the people resisting.

ICE’s presence isn't driving wedges between us; it’s uniting us. We see the violence and hear the rhetoric, and we respond: That this is not us. That is not the U.S. The Republicans seem to have forgotten the lessons of Selma, Montgomery, Birmingham, and Little Rock. They’ve forgotten that there comes a point where the American people simply say, "Enough." In the 1960s, that message was delivered on the evening news; today, it’s being delivered via social media.

These aren't "radical leftists" protesting in the streets or praying in the pews—they are our neighbors. And that is exactly why the GOP is losing the room.

[Editorial]

What We Need Is More Lawsuits!

What we need is more lawsuits. Earlier this morning, I wrote about Trump suing everyone in sight—but we need to sue ICE and DHS!

South Portland man intends to sue ICE after agents threatened arrest

Maine Public

By Michael Livingston

January 31, 2026

A South Portland man who says he was threatened with arrest by federal immigration officials last week has filed notice of his intent to sue ICE and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Robert Peck is alleging their actions violated his First Amendment rights to document and observe the agents conduct "Operation Catch of the Day," a recent immigration enforcement initiative launched by ICE in Maine.

He was following ICE when they stopped and surrounded his car and...

That's when he says the two agents stopped and approached his car. They told him he was impeding federal law enforcement by following them and he says they threatened to arrest him even though he says he kept a "safe and respectful distance from their vehicle."

Peck recorded the interaction which is now posted online.

The video shows agents asking Peck if he was following them. Peck replies "yes" which agents say is him admitting to impeding with federal law enforcement.

The agents cite a federal statute before Peck explains he was "observing" not "impeding."

One agent says, "if you keep doing it, we'll pull you back out and arrest you."

And that is why he is suing ICE, for threatening him!

Peck's attorney David Webbert says the agents caused his client emotional harm and trauma. The notice says Peck can't "drive his car without fear of violent and sudden arrest."

"He thought, if they ever see him again, they could easily kill him," Webbert said.

It was a very smart move on his part. Why? It is called "Discovery." I asked Gemini about Discovery:

The Discovery "Toolbox"

Lawyers don't just ask nicely for information; they use specific legal instruments to get what they need:

• Interrogatories: These are written questions that the other side must answer in writing and under oath. They are great for getting basic facts, dates, and names.
• Requests for Production (RFP): This is the "paperwork" phase. You can demand documents, emails, text messages, photos, or even physical access to a property to inspect it.
• Depositions: This is the high-drama part. A witness or party is questioned in person (or via video), under oath, with a court reporter transcribing everything. It’s used to lock in a person’s story before they take the stand at trial.
• Requests for Admission (RFA): These are "True or False" statements used to narrow the issues. For example: "Admit that you were driving a red sedan on June 1st." If they admit it, that’s one less thing to prove in court.

Just think of what we could find by digging through ICE records! I also hope this doesn't become a class action suit. Why? Because if DHS has to adjudicate each case separately, they are stuck fighting on every front. With a class action, it’s only one case—but with individual suits, they are forced to defend their actions over and over again.

Wait! There's More!

Yesterday I wrote about what ICE is doing to children in Minneapolis, but there is far more happening across the country.

ICE is building a surveillance network rivaling those of North Korea, China, and Russia.

The powerful tools in ICE’s arsenal to track suspects — and protesters

Biometric trackers, cellphone location databases and drones are among the surveillance technologies that federal agents are tapping in their deportation campaign.

The Washington Post

By Eva Dou, Artur Galocha and Kevin Schaul

January 29, 2026

Federal immigration officers fanning out across Minnesota and other parts of the country are newly equipped with an array of state-of-the-art surveillance technologies, thanks to a bill passed last summer that transformed Immigration and Customs Enforcement into the country’s most highly funded law enforcement agency. ICE has wasted no time spending its war chest, buying new tools ranging from biometric trackers to mobile phone location databases, spyware and drones, while loosening restrictions on how it uses some of these technologies.

These new surveillance powers come at a time when ICE is also pushing the bounds of its traditional role of immigration enforcement. In recent months, ICE leaders, backed by top Trump administration officials, have asserted the authority to use all available tools to monitor and investigate anti-ICE protester networks, including U.S. citizens. Democratic lawmakers and civil rights groups say the agency’s expanding use of its surveillance tools infringes on privacy and free speech rights of immigrants and U.S. citizens alike.

Big Brother is watching you—checking to see if you are naughty or nice!

ICE started using facial recognition technology on the streets over the past year. A new app made by NEC, Mobile Fortify, enables ICE officers to immediately compare phone scans of faces and fingerprints they encounter in the field against databases containing individuals’ immigration status and other biographical information. In the fall, ICE purchased an iris-scanning mobile app that its manufacturer, BI2 Technologies, says can get an identifying read on a person’s eye within seconds from a distance of 15 inches.

“There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment.” George Orwell 1984.

ICE ordered mobile license plate readers from Motorola Solutions in the fall and renewed a contract for Thomson Reuters’s database, which boasts more than 20 billion plate scans, including from private surveillance video feeds. Thomson Reuters has said this data can show, for instance, when an individual registered at one address regularly parks his or her car at another location.

The ACLU reported that Flock is sharing their data with ICE!

There’s been more news recently about the driver-surveillance company Flock. The company has recently been feeling the heat after the revelation that data from its national license plate scanner network was (and likely still is being) shared with Trump Administration agencies including ICE. Recently my colleagues at the ACLU of Massachusetts carried out a broad statewide open-records project, and among their findings is that Flock’s default agreement with police departments gives the company the right to share data with federal and local agencies for “investigative purposes” even if a local department chooses to restrict data to its own officers.

Even in states that bar the distribution of data from speed and red light camera... they are just ignoring the state laws!  That is the scary part, DHS is building a database of "troublemakers" those who are using their Constitutional rights are being monitored by ICE!

Cell-site simulators, also called Stingrays, masquerade as cell towers and trick nearby cellphones to connect, allowing ICE officers to track a phone’s location in real time. The devices, often mounted atop vehicles, are used in two ways. If officers already know the identifying number of the target phone, they can use the cell-site simulator to look for it. They also can scan for all cellphones in the area.

Pro tip: If you are protesting, set your phone to Airplane Mode. This stops location broadcasting while still allowing you to record.

And then there are the drones—not hobby drones, but military-grade systems. The Post writes,

Drones are an increasingly ubiquitous part of federal law enforcement agencies’ field operations, providing real-time aerial video back to a base. One compact model purchased by ICE, the Skydio X10D, is advertised as being able to detect individuals from 7.5 miles away and identify them from 0.8 miles. Many models are equipped with night vision and thermal cameras.

“It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place.” George Orwell 1984.

The Tale of Two Cities opens with the famous, lines:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

And so it is today.

And today, darkness is winning.

---

I Like Herring, But Not Red Herring!

The media is making a big thing out what happened eleven days before his murder!

New video appears to show Alex Pretti confronting federal agents 11 days before fatal shooting

Pretti appeared to have his gun on him at the time, though he was only detained briefly

Independent 

Brendan Rascius

January 29, 2026

Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old nurse fatally shot by a federal immigration officer in Minneapolis on Saturday, appeared to confront federal agents less than two weeks before his death, newly published video footage shows.

A video published by The News Movement, a digital media company, seemed to show Pretti kicking a government vehicle and being tackled to the ground on a city street January 13.

The BBC reported on Wednesday that the man in the video “has the same coat, facial hair and gait as Alex Pretti and a facial recognition tool suggests a 97% match.” CNN later reported that Pretti’s family confirmed to the outlet that he is the man in the video.

Okay we have already establish that the fact he carried a gun irrelevant, he was properly licensed to carry it.

“During the altercation, agents fired tear gas and pepper balls into the crowd,” The News Movement narrator says. “They continued to hold the man down before they retreat and he walks away.”

The day before the video was published, sources told CNN that Pretti sustained a broken rib after he was tackled by federal officers roughly a week before he was killed. DHS said it had “no record of this incident.” It’s not clear if the alleged incident is the same one as portrayed in the newly released video.

This has no bearing on the murder!

They are just trying to cloud the fact that he was murdered in clod blood.

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I just want to say, I make no money off of this blog. Nothing at all!

How To Win And Influence Friends

Well I can tell one way not to...

US sending ICE unit to Winter Olympics for security, prompting concern and confusion in Italy

AP News

By  COLLEEN BARRY, DAVID BILLER and TRISHA THOMAS

January 27, 2026

News that a unit of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would be present during the upcoming Winter Games has set off concern and confusion in Italy, where people have expressed outrage at the inclusion of an agency that has dominated headlines for leading the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

Homeland Security Investigations, a unit within ICE that focuses on cross-border crimes, frequently sends its officers to overseas events like the Olympics to assist with security. HSI officers are separate from the ICE arm at the forefront of the immigration crackdown known as Enforcement and Removal Operations, and there was no indication ERO officers were being sent to Italy.

To put it mildly, Italian officials are not happy!

Italy reacts to U.S. security deployment

The reaction among some in Italy reflects not only a worsening perception abroad of the administration’s tactics on immigration but also underscores a broader rift between the U.S. under President Donald Trump and its international allies.

Vague reports that ICE would be deployed in some capacity surfaced over the weekend, resulting in a series of online petitions gathering support of people opposed to the presence of ICE at the Games. They followed a RAI news report that aired Sunday showing an Italian news crew being threatened in Minneapolis by ICE agents. Trump’s immigration crackdown has in recent weeks intensified in Minneapolis, leading to the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens at the hands of federal immigration officers.

You know if they send any unit besides HSI and ICE it would probably not cause as much of a flap. But ICE the whole world is watching!

Glub, Glub, Glub!

On a lake, when the ice cracks, you can hear it propagate across the water… ICE is doing the same with the Republicans; you can see the cracks spreading.

Slowly, Trump is sinking! He is way down in the polls, and ICE is the albatross pulling him down!

Immigration helped Trump win the White House - now tactics could hurt Republicans in midterms

Reuter

By Bo Erickson, Brad Brooks, Tim Reid and Nathan Layne

January 28, 2026

Summary

• Trump's immigration tactics cause unease among voters, potentially threaten Republican midterm prospects
• Republican strategists warn of political risks from aggressive immigration enforcement
• Democrats see opportunity in opposing Trump's immigration crackdown, aim to mobilize voters
•  President Donald Trump's hardline immigration agenda, a key force behind his return to the White House in 2024, is increasingly showing signs of becoming a liability, threatening Republican prospects in the November midterm elections.

What was once his most potent campaign issue is now driving unease among voters unsettled by the administration’s aggressive tactics in its immigration crackdown, including the targeting of U.S. citizens and violent measures against peaceful protesters.

Illegal immigration and inflation were the twin issues that helped Trump win the election. Now, opinion polls show a growing number of Americans, including key independent voters, are unhappy with Trump's handling of both, putting Republicans on the defensive ahead of the midterms.

The cracks are showing — the people do not like what Trump is doing!

The cracks are spreading.

The lake is no longer silent.

---

When your ship is sinking what do you do? Why you abandoned ship and you blame others!

Trump weighing Noem’s ouster at Homeland Security

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem is on “very thin ice,” a White House official told MS NOW.

By Laura Barrón-López, Jake Traylor, Marc Santia, Jacqueline Alemany, and Ali Vitali

Dec. 8, 2025,

White House officials have grown frustrated with Kristi Noem’s leadership of the Department of Homeland Security, leading to calls for a new secretary to more aggressively support key parts of the president’s deportation agenda, two sources familiar with the situation told MS NOW. 

President Trump is considering removing Noem as secretary as early as January, according to a White House official, a current federal official and two former Homeland Security officials.

Noem is on “very thin ice,” a White House official told MS NOW, adding she will likely be replaced early next year. The White House official added that Stephen Miller, President Trump’s deputy chief of staff, is leading the charge to remove Noem.

Frustrations from Miller and other senior White House officials are two-fold. Noem isn’t moving fast enough to build out more detention centers with the money approved in Trump’s big summer spending bill, the White House official and a federal official said. The bill directed $170 billion toward immigration enforcement, with some $75 billion going to ICE alone. That massive cash infusion included $45 billion specifically for detention facilities.

Multiple governors have also called Trump personally and voiced frustration with Noem’s handling of FEMA and disaster relief funds, the White House official told MS NOW.

Now over month later the crack is getting even wider!

Scoop: Blame game erupts over Trump team's false claim Alex Pretti sought "massacre"

Axios

Marc Caputo

Jan 28, 2026

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is under fire for issuing misleading and incendiary information that claimed immigration agents killed an armed Minnesota protestor Saturday because he wanted to "massacre" them.

• That language has now become a source of controversy in the Trump administration.
• White House officials are blaming Customs and Border Patrol for furnishing inaccurate information, while others are targeting Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff and top Trump adviser, six sources with knowledge of the situation told Axios.

Why it matters: The episode illustrates the confusion that gripped the administration after the Saturday shooting death of Minnesota protester Alex Pretti. And it shows the influence of Miller, Trump's close and longest-serving political adviser whose dominion in the White House far exceeds his title.

• Miller's power extends to de facto oversight of Noem, though she's a Cabinet secretary who technically outranks him.
• "Everything I've done, I've done at the direction of the president and Stephen," Noem told a person who relayed her remarks to Axios.

We are now in the blame-game part of the crack!

Between the lines: Miller said the Minnesota operation didn't follow the guidelines established by the White House in the aftermath of the Jan. 7 shooting of another Minneapolis demonstrator, Renee Good.

• Specifically, Miller said, Bovino's crew was supposed to divide its force into two groups: One unit was supposed to handle the arrests of specifically targeted "criminal aliens" and the other squad was in charge of crowd control to keep "disruptors" from interfering.
• "The White House provided clear guidance to DHS that the extra personnel that had been sent to Minnesota for force protection should be used for conducting fugitive operations to create a physical barrier between the arrest teams and the disruptors," Miller said.
• "We are evaluating why the CBP team may not have been following that protocol."

No, no it wasn't me it was... the finger pointing begins!

Pressure mounts on Kristi Noem as Republicans join calls for her to go

Key senators urge resignation as Democrats threaten to impeach DHS secretary if Trump does not fire her

The Guardian

Chris Stein in Washington

Tue 27 Jan 2026

Top House Democrats on Tuesday told Donald Trump to fire Kristi Noem or they would launch impeachment proceedings against the homeland security secretary, in response to the weekend killing of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, as two Republican senators join calls for her to resign.

The ultimatum from Democrats came after a majority of the House caucus signed on to articles of impeachment introduced earlier in the month in response to the shooting death of Renee Good, who, like Pretti, was a US citizen killed by federal agents during the increasingly violent immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota’s largest city.

“The violence unleashed on the American people by the Department of Homeland Security must end forthwith. Kristi Noem should be fired immediately, or we will commence impeachment proceedings in the House of Representatives,” said Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, and his two deputies, Katherine Clark and Pete Aguilar, in a joint statement.

The guys got the perfect fall-girl to rap.

Thump, thump, that was the sound of the Republican clown car running over Kristi.