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Browse major news stories and see what officials have said.

Sep 23, 2026· Updated

An ICE Officer Shoots a DoorDash Driver in North Austin, Then Agents Move Him Into Federal Custody Before His Wife Can See Him — Greg Casar Says "The Horror Has Come to Our City," and Austin's Mayor Says "Austinites Have a Right to Know What Happened"

Just before 1 p.m. on Sunday, September 20, 2026, an ICE officer shot and wounded Wilber Rafael Garcés Perez, 28, a Venezuelan DoorDash driver, during a vehicle stop and pursuit in North Austin. ICE said it had targeted his car over a license-plate check tied to a final removal order; his attorney says he entered the country legally and held a valid work permit. Garcés Perez called his wife at 12:30 p.m. to tell her he had been shot. He was hospitalized in serious but stable condition, then moved by federal agents to an undisclosed location — without being allowed to see his wife first — before landing in ICE custody pending removal. Rep. Greg Casar posted the same morning that "the horror has come to our city," and hours later sent DHS a formal letter demanding release of the unedited body-camera footage, preservation of evidence, and a briefing for Congress by September 28. Rep. Joaquin Castro said "Trump has allowed ICE to flood our streets and put our communities in harms way again and again and Governor Abbott is complicit every time." Austin Mayor Kirk Watson said "Austinites have a right to know what happened." Texas Senate candidate James Talarico said past incidents show "this agency cannot be trusted to report all the facts," and called for a full independent investigation with all footage released. DHS, without naming Garcés Perez, said he had a final removal order and entered during the Biden administration; Homeland Security Investigations, with FBI assistance, is leading the review.

“ICE has become an abusive, rogue organization. They said that Homeland Security was going to do a joint investigation with the FBI. Homeland Security, at this point, has zero credibility.”
Joaquin Castro (D-TX) · Sep 23, 2026

Families of Five People Killed by Federal Immigration Agents Tell a Democratic Shadow Hearing the Government's "Falsehoods" Amount to "Dual Assassinations" — Richard Blumenthal Says the Anger "Ought to Be Directed at Congress" Too, and Alex Padilla Promises Investigations "When We Get the Gavels Back"

On September 22, 2026, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), the ranking members of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and the House Oversight Committee, convened their fifth bicameral "shadow hearing" on immigration enforcement in a Senate office building. Relatives of five people killed by ICE or CBP agents — Ruben Ray Martinez, Renée Good, Alex Pretti, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, who was shot in Biddeford, Maine — described what they called official falsehoods, obstruction of investigations and smears of the victims. Democrats in the minority cannot compel testimony or issue subpoenas; members at the forum pledged formal investigations if their party wins control of either chamber in November.

“I also feel your anger, and we should share that anger, and it is anger that should be directed at the administration. But it also ought to be directed at Congress. … There was hope that (ICE) would abandon the physical brutality and inhumanity of its tactics on the streets, there was hope that there would be accountability.”
Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) · Sep 22, 2026

Sep 20, 2026· Updated

A Trump-Backed Miami Republican Tells Him in a New Ad His Immigration Enforcement Has "Gone Too Far" — Trump Answers "I Got Her Elected. Without Me She Wouldn't Have Gotten Elected"

Six weeks before the midterms, Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL), who represents a 74% Hispanic Miami-area district, released a campaign ad warning President Trump that "some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far" and that the Hispanic voters who backed him in 2024 "feel betrayed." She cited a statistic that half of those detained in July had no criminal record and urged the White House to "be careful what your advisers are telling you." Trump responded dismissively on Friday, September 18, calling Salazar "a nice person" while crediting himself for her election ("Without me she wouldn't have gotten elected") and defending his enforcement posture. Salazar repeated her warning two days later in a nationally televised Sunday show interview, again urging Trump to "preserve that fortune" he built with Hispanic voters. The public break is one of the most direct challenges to Trump's immigration crackdown from a sitting Republican ahead of the midterms, and comes as other battleground-district GOP members have quietly shifted their own messaging.

“Please preserve that fortune that you have brought to the party.”
Maria Salazar (R-FL) · Sep 20, 2026

Sep 17, 2026· Updated

Trump Nominates Former Oklahoma Trooper Lance Schroyer as ICE Director — Then Withdraws Him After Rand Paul Refuses a Hearing Over the Minneapolis Shootings

On June 27, 2026, President Donald Trump announced he intends to nominate Lance Schroyer, a former Oklahoma state trooper and U.S. Marine with roughly 29 years of law enforcement experience, to serve as Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Schroyer currently serves as a senior adviser to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and previously led large-scale enforcement operations in Oklahoma under the 287(g) program. If confirmed by the Senate, he would become the first Senate-confirmed ICE director since 2017, ending a stretch in which the agency has operated under acting leadership. The pick, which followed the May resignation of former director Todd Lyons, drew immediate praise from Oklahoma and Republican officials, while analysts noted his relative lack of federal-agency experience is likely to be scrutinized at a confirmation hearing. Update (September 17, 2026): The White House withdrew Schroyer's nomination in a brief statement that gave no reason. Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rand Paul had declined to schedule a confirmation hearing until DHS provided an update on its internal investigation into the January fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis. Paul said he learned of the withdrawal when it was made public. David Venturella continues to perform the duties of ICE director; the agency has not had a Senate-confirmed director since 2017.

“I don't have a concern with who the nominee was. I had asked them to give me an update on the internal investigation into civilian deaths. And I'm still waiting.”
Rand Paul (R-KY) · Sep 17, 2026

Sep 15, 2026· Updated

A Lame-Duck Democrat Files Articles of Impeachment Naming Four People Killed by ICE and CBP — and the White House Answers That He "Should Be Thanking President Trump"

On Monday, August 24, 2026, Rep. Al Green (D-TX) filed H.Res.1486, articles of impeachment charging President Trump with high crimes and misdemeanors for the way federal immigration enforcement has been run. The resolution accuses Trump of "abusing the powers of the presidency by operating United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) as his vicious, quota-driven, unaccountable paramilitary police forces," and of "wantonly devolving the United States democratic republic into an authoritarian regime." The resolution names four people killed by the two agencies in 2026: Renee Good and Alex Pretti in January, and Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in July. Green's charge is not only the killings but the aftermath — that the agencies operated "with anonymity and secrecy," assaulted civilians, and covered up unjustified killings. Green is the member who has forced this question more than anyone else. He was the first to file articles against Trump in his first term, and he filed again in June 2025 over the strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, an effort the House torpedoed 344-79. The House has voted to table five of his impeachment resolutions; the most recent, in December 2025, was tabled 237-140 with 47 Democrats voting "present." Green lost his primary runoff in May 2026 and leaves the House in January, which is why coverage framed this as a lame-duck filing that he knows lacks the votes. The timing is what makes it more than a footnote. It lands 71 days before the midterms, while House Democrats are openly split over how hard to confront Trump — Hakeem Jeffries said at a CNBC summit in June that impeachment would not be a focus for the party even if it wins the majority, and Jamie Raskin has called impeachment "not a plausible instrument" from the minority. The White House and DHS both answered within hours, and neither engaged the underlying deaths.

“They will acknowledge that what the president is doing is impeachable, but they would have us wait. Well, the Constitution doesn't have a wait clause in it. … I believe that there are some Republicans and Democrats who are considering voting to protect the president.”
Al Green (D-TX) · Sep 15, 2026

Reports of an ICE Surge in Indianapolis Draw a Congressional Inquiry From André Carson and a Warning From Jim Banks That "We Will Not Let Indianapolis Become Minneapolis" — While the Mayor Says Nobody Told the City Anything

In the first days of September 2026, immigrant-aid groups in Indianapolis and Bloomington reported a sharp increase in Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity — masked agents, unmarked vehicles, arrests off traffic stops, and a foot pursuit that crossed multiple lanes of traffic. ICE would not confirm an operation or provide details. On Sept. 3, Rep. André Carson (D-Ind.) sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and acting ICE Director David Venturella demanding an accounting. Carson's objection was to the method as much as the scale: agents whose identity, authority and mission the public cannot verify, he wrote, produce fear rather than safety. Indiana's Republicans answered in the opposite direction. Sen. Jim Banks said anyone obstructing ICE in Indiana should be arrested and prosecuted, and invoked Minneapolis — where Operation Metro Surge and the shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis by ICE officer Christian Castro have produced eight months of litigation — as the outcome he intends to avoid. Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith said he "proudly" supported the officers working in the state. City government's position was that it had no position, because it had no information. Mayor Joe Hogsett's office and City-County Council President Maggie Lewis both said no federal immigration authority had communicated with any city or county agency about current or planned operations in Marion County; the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department and the Marion County Sheriff's Office each said they were not involved. Both Hogsett and Lewis paired that with a statement of what kind of city Indianapolis intends to be.

“At this time, we have no information indicating that federal immigration authorities have formally changed their approach or are specifically targeting Indianapolis.”
Maggie Lewis (D-IN) · Sep 3, 2026

Texas Lets an ICE Agent Charged With Four Felonies in Minnesota Walk Out of Jail Rather Than Extradite Him — and Minnesota’s Attorney General Says Greg Abbott Has Turned Texas Into "a Sanctuary State for Accused Felons"

On Jan. 14, 2026, during Operation Metro Surge, ICE agent Christian Castro fired his gun through the closed front door of a north Minneapolis duplex and hit Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, a Venezuelan immigrant, in the leg. Castro told investigators the men inside had assaulted him with a broom and a snow shovel; surveillance footage contradicted that account, and the assault charges filed against the two men were dropped. A Hennepin County judge found probable cause that Castro committed four counts of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon and one count of falsely reporting a crime. He was arrested by the Texas Rangers on May 29 and held in the Carrizalez-Rucker jail in Cameron County. A governor's warrant for Castro's extradition sat on Gov. Greg Abbott's desk from June 3 forward, unsigned. Abbott said he had "serious doubts" Castro qualified as a fugitive under the Extradition Clause. Attorney General Keith Ellison sued Abbott on Aug. 18 to compel him to sign it. On Aug. 26 U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr. ruled the suit was not ripe and declined to intervene; Abbott answered Ellison on social media that "you guys are such bad lawyers." Texas law bars holding an extradition subject more than 90 days, and at 7 a.m. on Aug. 27 the Cameron County sheriff released Castro. DHS said he had been suspended without pay pending a federal investigation. The standoff is the first time in this administration that two states have gone to federal court against each other over whether one must hand over a federal immigration officer to face state criminal charges — a fight over the Constitution's Extradition Clause with an accused shooter now at liberty and Minnesota's case stalled.

“I've said all along that Christian Castro would face justice in Minnesota. And now that he's finally turned himself in in Texas, he soon will.”
Keith Ellison (D-MN) · Sep 3, 2026

DHS Names Its New York Immigration Sweep "Operation Rotten Apple" and Says It Ran It Because the City Elected a Socialist — 2,197 Arrests, and the Governor Answers That the Federal Government Counts "Anybody Who Crossed the Border" as a Criminal

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin came to Manhattan on September 1, 2026 to announce the results of a month-long ICE surge across New York City, Long Island and the Hudson Valley: 2,197 arrests between July 27 and August 29, in an operation the department named "Operation Rotten Apple." Mullin framed the sweep explicitly as a punishment for New York's politics rather than as routine enforcement, saying the operation was undertaken "because you have a very liberal-slash-socialist mayor here in New York City," calling New York a "crime-ridden city," and promising to send "as many people as we have possible" now that a new state law has forced local agencies out of 287(g) partnerships with ICE. Pressed on whether everyone arrested was a criminal, he answered that entering the country outside legal channels is itself the crime. Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani rejected the arrest tally at a competing press conference the same day, with Hochul saying there is "no way" that number reflects crimes as New York defines them and Mamdani defending the city's sanctuary policies as bipartisan in origin.

“When you choose to take the shortcut, you have made a conscious decision to enter this country illegally and break our nation’s laws.”
Markwayne Mullin (R) · Sep 1, 2026

Two Fatal ICE Shootings in Houston and Maine Trigger Senate Demands for Body Cameras and Vetting Answers

Two people were killed by federal immigration officers in July 2026, neither of whom was the target of the operation that killed them. On July 7, ICE officers shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old Mexican national, during a traffic stop in Houston as he was on his way to work. On July 13, officers shot and killed Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 26-year-old Colombian national, in his car near his home in Biddeford, Maine, after ICE attempted a vehicle stop; DHS said the officer fired "fearing for public safety," while Sen. Angus King's office said Durán Guerrero was not the target of the warrant. The Associated Press subsequently reported that the ICE officer who fired in Maine, David Brouillette, had a documented history of serious mental health problems and violent behavior toward family members recorded in family court files. On July 20, Sen. Angus King (I-ME) led a letter signed by 38 Democratic senators demanding that DHS explain its vetting and training of new agents and its vehicle pursuit policies, and calling for body cameras to be issued to all officers. ICE subsequently pulled back on vehicle stops. At least 10 people have died in encounters with immigration agents since the start of the administration's crackdown.

“It's for our safety and the public safety, too.”
Markwayne Mullin (R) · Sep 1, 2026

Aug 30, 2026· Updated

ICE Arrests Parents at Danbury School Bus Stops in the First Week of School — Waiting Until the Kids Were on the Bus — and Connecticut’s Governor Says Trump Promised Governors He Would Not Do This

Over three days in late August 2026, as Danbury, Connecticut schools opened for the year, ICE agents detained close to 50 people in the city — 16 on Monday, at least nine on Tuesday and 25 on Wednesday, according to the advocacy group Danbury Unites for Immigrants. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) said agents were arresting parents at school bus stops and had waited until children boarded the buses, so the children would return in the afternoon to find their parents gone. On August 26, Murphy joined Gov. Ned Lamont, Rep. Jahana Hayes (D-CT-05), Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz and Danbury Mayor Roberto Alves at Kennedy Park to condemn the operation. Lamont said Trump had personally told a gathering of governors earlier in the year that ICE would not be sent into cities that had not asked for help. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), traveling in Ukraine, issued a written statement. DHS rejected the mayor's allegation of racial profiling, said ICE "does not target schools," and said the operation had arrested people convicted of assault, weapons offenses, sexual assault, molestation of a minor and DUI. The Danbury operation is part of a documented rise in ICE arrests in states that did not request federal enforcement.

“Very few of them, only a fraction, maybe six or seven, have any kind of criminal history. In fact, they are seizing people. Many of them have legal status in this country.”
Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) · Aug 30, 2026

ICE Signs a $16.7 Million No-Bid Contract for 6,000 Pairs of Gloves That Deliver Electric Shocks — Sixteen Senators Ask Why Its Existing Tools Are Not Enough, and the Border Czar Answers "You Can’t Just Go From 0 to 100"

On August 10, 2026 the Department of Homeland Security published a notice that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement intended to spend up to $20 million on the CTG-5 G.L.O.V.E. — for Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter — a patrol glove made by Compliant Technologies LLC of Kentucky that functions normally until an officer switches it into "electrical mode," at which point contact with exposed skin delivers a charge of up to 380 volts. ICE signed the contract on Wednesday, August 26 and posted the award on Thursday, August 27: $16.7 million, no bid, for 6,000 pairs at roughly $2,495 apiece. The agency wrote in its procurement documents that it "does not currently have an empty hand use of force device to provide to the field amidst unprecedented levels of threats and violence against ICE officers and agents." A DHS spokesperson said ICE is "constantly assessing the needs of our officers in the field." The purchase went through over two rounds of congressional objection. On August 20, Homeland Security Committee Democrats Bennie Thompson, Lou Correa and Shri Thanedar wrote to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin asking him to stop the procurement, citing what they called a pattern of DHS personnel permanently injuring and nearly killing people with weapons already labeled "less-lethal." On August 27 — the day the award posted — Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto led fifteen colleagues in a letter to Acting ICE Director David Venturella putting more than thirty questions to the agency about protocols, training, safety limits and accountability. The signers included Angus King, the letter's only non-Democrat. White House border czar Tom Homan had defended the device on Fox & Friends on August 13, framing it as a rung on the use-of-force ladder below lethal weapons. The device arrives against the record this site has already documented: fatal ICE shootings in Houston and Maine, an ICE agent charged with firing into a Minneapolis home, and a man in Arlington, Virginia tasered on his way to work who woke with a brain bleed.

“At a time when the American people have demanded de-escalation in immigration enforcement, it is not clear why existing tools and tactics are insufficient for the agency.”
Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) · Aug 27, 2026

The Third Circuit Rules 2-1 That the Speech or Debate Clause Does Not Shield Rep. LaMonica McIver — Sending the Only Member of Congress Indicted by Trump’s Justice Department to Trial Ten Weeks Before the Midterms

On August 26, 2026, a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled that Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) is not immune from prosecution on charges arising from a May 2025 congressional oversight visit to the Delaney Hall immigration detention facility in Newark. The 2-1 panel allowed two of three counts of impeding and interfering with federal officers to proceed to trial and remanded the third to the district court. Writing for the majority, Judge Cindy Chung held that the charged conduct — physical contact with two officers — was "unambiguously non-legislative" and that the Speech or Debate Clause immunizes legislative acts only. Judge Thomas Ambro dissented in part, writing that the Constitution does not permit the Executive to wield prosecutorial discretion in retaliation against disfavored legislators, and would have allowed McIver discovery into the government's motives. McIver, who is running for reelection while under indictment, said the court "got it wrong" and that the ruling "chills" congressional oversight authority. The charges were originally brought by Alina Habba, whose appointment as U.S. Attorney for New Jersey the same court later found unlawful. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill both said publicly they stand with her. No Republican member of Congress was on record about the ruling in the first 48 hours.

“I fundamentally believe that the court got it wrong here. To protect the people, their elected representatives must be authorized to conduct oversight of the executive branch without fear of retaliation.”
LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) · Aug 26, 2026

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