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Browse major news stories and see what officials have said.

Aug 25, 2026· Updated

ICE Arrests a 5-Year-Old on His Way to a Soccer Game and Sends Him to the Country’s Only Family Detention Camp — a Federal Judge Appoints Outside Monitors, and ICE Blocks a Congressman From Visiting the Boy

On August 16, 2026, federal immigration agents stopped Victor Martinez Nieto in Austin, Texas, as he drove his five-year-old son, Liam Tadeo, to a soccer game. Video of the stop shows the crying child holding his handcuffed father's hand. Both were taken to the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley — the only family detention facility in the United States, run under contract by the private prison company CoreCivic. Liam was supposed to start kindergarten that week. It was the second time in 2026 that a five-year-old named Liam was taken to Dilley. In January, ICE agents detained Liam Conejo Ramos on his walk home from preschool in Columbia Heights, Minnesota; a federal judge ordered him and his father released at the end of that month. The August arrest landed in the middle of a widening fight over the facility. The Texas Tribune reported on August 12 that federal data showed many children at Dilley had been held 100 days or longer, far past the 20-day limit set by the Flores settlement, and that in the first year after the camp reopened in March 2025 the administration held roughly 3,000 children there, more than half of them beyond 20 days. On August 18, Chief U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee appointed a special master, Andrea Sheridan Ordin, and an independent monitor, Dr. Paul Wise, with authority to inspect facilities, review records and interview detainees — citing minors confined for 50, 91 and even 323 days. Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), who had led 111 House Democrats in a late-July letter demanding DHS shut Dilley down and terminate the CoreCivic contract, tried to visit Liam Tadeo and was turned away: ICE said the boy's father had not given permission, though Castro's office said it had obtained the mother's. Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, demanded the release of Liam and of at least 112 children then held at the camp. DHS and CoreCivic have said Dilley meets federal detention standards and undergoes regular audits.

“Trump is using children as bait and leverage to fuel his mass deportation machine.”
Gregorio Casar (D-TX) · Aug 25, 2026

ICE Has Detained More Than 50 Spouses and Parents of Active-Duty Troops — an Army Sergeant’s Wife Was Deported to Honduras Days After the Sailor on the USS Lincoln Learned His Father Was Taken in Key West

An Associated Press investigation published August 5, 2026 found that more than 50 immediate family members of active-duty U.S. troops — spouses and parents — have been placed in federal immigration detention since January 2025. At least six had been deported, one self-deported, and eight remained in custody when the AP published. Separately, DHS data obtained by Congress showed that between January 20, 2025 and January 26, 2026, ICE arrested 125 military veterans, nearly two-thirds of whom had no active criminal warrant, and moved to deport at least 282 veterans and family members. The through-line is a policy change: in April, ICE rescinded its long-standing guidance treating military service as a "significant mitigating factor" in whether to pursue enforcement, replacing it with a far less protective policy. Processing time for military parole in place — the discretionary protection recruiters have long cited to non-citizen family members — has more than doubled, to about 12 months. On August 9, 2026, a bicameral group of Democrats sent a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin demanding an accounting. It was led by Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Tammy Duckworth and Richard Blumenthal and Reps. Chrissy Houlahan, Maggie Goodlander, Delia Ramirez and Lizzie Fletcher, and signed by roughly 55 members in all, including Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Nancy Pelosi. The letter argues the Pentagon's new coordination with DHS — detaining people on military property and handing them to ICE — turns bases into "traps" and creates a chilling effect on service members and their families, who "may avoid accessing bases, medical care, housing offices, or support services — or leave the military entirely." The signers set an August 23 deadline for answers. The Pentagon declined to comment and said it would reply directly to the authors. Two cases put faces on the numbers in the last week of August. On Monday, August 24, Cristy Maryori Villafranca-Trejo — wife of Army Sgt. Hedar Leonel Turcios Juarez, stationed at Fort Bliss — was deported to Honduras, at least the seventh military spouse or parent removed under the crackdown. She was detained July 11 outside a Walmart near the base; she had no known criminal record, and her appeal and military parole-in-place application were still pending. Rep. Veronica Escobar, who represents El Paso, had opened a congressional inquiry into her case and visited her in detention. Two days earlier, in Key West, Border Patrol arrested Luis Manuel Aviles Roa, a Nicaraguan handyman of nearly 20 years' residence whose son Joshua is a sailor in his ninth month aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln — the carrier already at the center of a Senate inquiry over its record 250-day deployment. DHS has not disputed the pattern; it has defended it. "Having a family member in the military is not a free pass to violate our nation's laws," the department said of the Aviles arrest, adding that "U.S. military service alone does not automatically grant lawful immigration status, or exempt aliens from the consequences of violating U.S. immigration laws." Republican chairmen of the Armed Services and Veterans' Affairs committees, Roger Wicker and Jerry Moran, did not respond to press requests for comment.

“My heart breaks for her, her children and the soldier who must feel so betrayed by the country he is sacrificing for. There are far too many families like theirs who are being targeted instead of supported.”
Veronica Escobar (D-TX) · Aug 24, 2026

Aug 24, 2026· Updated

ICE Immigration Crackdown in Minnesota

Federal immigration enforcement operation "Metro Surge" in Minneapolis-St. Paul has sparked protests, economic boycotts, and political backlash after two fatal shootings by federal agents. The crackdown has led to hundreds of businesses closing in solidarity, state legislators nationwide proposing limits on ICE cooperation, and a growing constitutional clash between state and federal authorities. In August 2026 the operation produced a second scandal. Court filings in the Minneapolis conspiracy prosecution — reported by the Minnesota Reformer on August 13 and detailed further in documents covered by NPR on August 25 — showed that DHS ran a parallel covert surveillance campaign, codenamed in part "Operation Puppet Master," against labor unions, environmental groups, churches and community organizations that had protested the crackdown. Undercover agents attended a meeting at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church and a public library gathering, photographed license plates, built dossiers on attendees including their families and jobs, and subpoenaed the financial records of unions including the Communications Workers of America and SEIU. None of the organizations was accused of criminal wrongdoing. On August 24, House Oversight Ranking Member Robert Garcia (D-CA) sent records demands to Attorney General Todd Blanche and DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin. The Justice Department defended the operation in a court filing, calling undercover membership in the groups it was investigating "a standard law enforcement practice."

“DHS crossed the line of routine law enforcement into targeting political dissent — a violation that is unacceptable to American democracy.”
Robert Garcia (D-CA) · Aug 24, 2026

The First Deportation Flight to Haiti After TPS Ends Lands in Cap-Haïtien With 161 People — Into a Country the U.S. Government Itself Bars Its Own Citizens From Flying Into

On Thursday, August 20, 2026, an ICE charter carrying 161 people left Alexandria, Louisiana and landed at Cap-Haïtien — the first deportation flight to Haiti since the Trump administration formally terminated Temporary Protected Status for roughly 350,000 Haitian nationals, a termination the Supreme Court affirmed in June. Those aboard included former TPS holders as well as people who had completed prison sentences. DHS has said it plans twice-weekly flights. The destination is itself the story: the U.S. government's own ban on commercial flights into Port-au-Prince, in force through early September because of gang violence, forced the flight to land 130 miles north in Cap-Haïtien. The United Nations has warned that Haiti — where armed groups control most of the capital and more than a million people are displaced — cannot absorb mass returns. Local officials in Cap-Haïtien said they were not ready. Democratic lawmakers who have spent two years trying to extend Haitian TPS by statute responded within hours. Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), who led the House effort to extend the designation, called the deportations "cruel and shameful." Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.), co-chair of the Haiti Caucus, said the removals were "a humanitarian betrayal that will stain America for generations." Rep. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio), whose Cincinnati-area district has one of the country's larger recently arrived Haitian populations, said the deportations were "inhumane." Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) called the flight "utterly shameful," and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said it was "cruel" to strip the protections now. No congressional Republican was found on the record about the flight in the first 48 hours.

“Our Haitian neighbors asked only for safety from the gang violence, rampant sexual exploitation, and vicious anarchy that has totally overtaken their nation. Donald Trump saw their suffering, and asked only how he could make it worse. His act to force thousands of men, women, and children back into the same hell they barely escaped with their lives is a humanitarian betrayal that will stain America for generations.”
Yvette Clarke (D-NY) · Aug 21, 2026

San Diego County Votes 3-2 to Throw ICE and Border Patrol Off Its Firing Ranges — the Elected Sheriff Bans ICE but Keeps CBP, and the Acting ICE Director Calls It "Political Obstruction"

On August 18, 2026, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 to terminate the agreements that let U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection train at the San Diego Regional Firearms Training Center on Alta Road in Otay Mesa — a county-owned facility a few miles from the Mexican border — and at a Navy facility the county leases. The proposal came from Supervisors Paloma Aguirre and Terra Lawson-Remer, who framed it as a refusal to let county property underwrite federal immigration raids. Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe provided the third vote; Republican Supervisor Jim Desmond voted no, arguing that badly behaved agents are an argument for more training, not less. Separately and on the same day, Sheriff Kelly Martinez — an independently elected officer who controls the range's day-to-day operations — announced she was barring ICE from sheriff's training sites and firearms qualifications, but would continue to allow CBP access, citing the harm to cross-border communities if the roughly 1,700 CBP officers who qualify there had to go elsewhere. CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott called the board's vote "unprecedented." On August 20, Acting ICE Director David Venturella issued a statement saying the agency "will not allow political obstruction" to keep its officers from training.

“ICE will not allow political obstruction to prevent our officers and agents from receiving the training they need to safely and effectively enforce the laws of the United States and carry out President Trump's mandate to restore integrity to our immigration system.”
David Venturella (R) · Aug 20, 2026

Aug 20, 2026· Updated

Four Armed ICE Agents Show Up at a Sacramento Immigration Law Firm With a List From Washington and Ask to Tour the Offices "For Beds" — Then Threaten to Come Back at 3 A.M. and Breach the Windows

On the morning of Friday, August 14, 2026, at least four armed ICE officers arrived in a convoy of vehicles at the Morris Law Group, an immigration law firm in the North Natomas neighborhood of Sacramento. Staff say the agents told them they had a list from Washington, D.C. that named the building's address as the primary mailing address for a large number of people they planned to arrest, and asked to tour the office looking for beds. The firm serves as a mailing address for clients working through the asylum and citizenship process — a standard arrangement in immigration practice, and the reason its address appears repeatedly in federal records. Employees turned the agents away for lacking a judicial warrant. According to the firm, the agents stayed in the parking lot for roughly an hour, and one threatened to return at 3 a.m. and breach the windows to force entry. The Department of Homeland Security's account is that officers approached "an unmarked door" they believed was a target address and left once they realized it was a law firm — an account the firm disputes, noting its signage and the length of the standoff. California's two senators announced investigations. Adam Schiff called the attempted warrantless entry unconscionable; Alex Padilla said he does not put anything past the administration. Sacramento City Council member Lisa Kaplan, whose district includes the firm, called it a direct assault on the rule of law. On August 27, 2026, Schiff and Padilla formally demanded a federal investigation into the operation.

“The attempt by ICE to target an immigration law firm with an illegal search in District 1 is a flagrant abuse of power meant purely for harassment and intimidation and a direct assault on the rule of law.”
Lisa Kaplan (D-CA) · Aug 20, 2026

Aug 20, 2026· Updated

A 4-Foot-11 Man Walking to Work in Arlington Is Tasered by ICE and Wakes Up With a Brain Bleed — Then the Ankle Monitor ICE Fitted Him With Blocks the MRI His Doctors Ordered

At about 6:30 a.m. on August 11, 2026, José Mejía Hernández, 45, was walking to work in Arlington, Virginia when two trucks pulled up and men got out and ran at him. He did not know who they were, according to his attorney, and he ran. He believes he was hit in the back with a stun device. He remembers nothing after that. He woke in a hospital with a brain hemorrhage, blackened eyes, facial lacerations and cuts requiring stitches — and two ICE officers at his bedside, who his lawyer Carlos Jurado says never left, meaning he was never given a private moment with his doctors. He was discharged within 72 hours, fitted with a GPS ankle monitor and handed immigration forms. When doctors ordered an MRI more than a week later to measure the bleeding and swelling in his brain, the metal ankle monitor made the scan impossible, and ICE refused to remove it. "Mr. Mejia Hernandez is 4'11," Jurado said. "He's 125 pounds. This man is not a Division 1 athlete." The Department of Homeland Security disputes the account. It said Mejía Hernández "attempted to flee from the scene requiring ICE to use necessary force to gain control of the situation," and called it "FALSE" that he was unconscious and woke in a hospital bed, saying officers rendered aid and asked the responsive individual if he was okay. The incident occurred a day after an ICE agent pointed a loaded gun at U.S. citizen Carolina Molina a few miles away in Falls Church — an encounter her dashcam contradicted DHS's account of — and Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) said he was "certainly very concerned that it's the same group of ICE agents running the corridor along Columbia Pike." Beyer called the injuries "extremely disturbing" and told constituents to "exercise extreme caution," saying ICE agents in Northern Virginia "are disappearing people, and they are all too frequently becoming out of control or violent." Arlington's elected prosecutor and county board chair both said publicly that they were investigating what they could. Arlington Commonwealth's Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti said "no one is above the law — not any individual, not law enforcement, and not federal officials." County Board Chair Matt de Ferranti said ICE does not communicate with the county about its operations at all.

“We’re certainly very concerned that it’s the same group of ICE agents running the corridor along Columbia Pike.”
Don Beyer (D-VA) · Aug 20, 2026

ICE Starts Detaining Haitians in Springfield, Ohio and Fitting More Than a Hundred With Ankle Monitors — as Ohio's Two Republican Senators Predict a "Booming Bonanza" Without Them and the Republican Governor Says the Opposite

Three weeks after Temporary Protected Status ended for roughly 350,000 Haitians, Immigration and Customs Enforcement began targeted enforcement in Springfield, Ohio — the city of about 60,000 that became a national flashpoint in 2024 over false claims about Haitian immigrants eating pets, and that is now home to an estimated 12,000 to 15,000 Haitians. Clark County Sheriff Christopher Clark said on August 18, 2026 that ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations personnel had been in the county since the prior Tuesday conducting targeted enforcement, and that he had learned it only because he asked for a meeting. By August 19 at least 15 to 17 Haitians had been detained, several of them held at the Butler County Jail, and more than 100 others had been summoned to ICE offices — including the Westerville field office — and fitted with electronic ankle monitors, a practice reporters could not find ICE using anywhere else in the country. Mayor Rob Rue confirmed the operations and said the city neither directs nor controls them, urging residents to "treat one another with dignity and respect." DHS would say only that it "does not discuss ongoing or future operations." The same week, Ohio's two Republican senators told reporters they were not worried about Springfield's economy losing its Haitian workforce. Jon Husted said the city was "on the rise" with "a bunch of new jobs coming." Bernie Moreno, a longtime critic of TPS, predicted "a big, huge, booming bonanza" and said the jobs would go to American citizens. Republican Gov. Mike DeWine — who defended Springfield's Haitians through the 2024 controversy — took the opposite view in a New York Times op-ed, writing that deporting "hard-working individuals" threatens his state's economic momentum.

“ICE has advised city staff that its enforcement and removal operations is conducting field enforcement activity throughout the nation as part of its daily duties, including in Springfield and surrounding areas. These are federal immigration enforcement operations. The city does not direct or control ICE enforcement activity.”
Rob Rue (R-OH) · Aug 19, 2026

One State Sues Another Over an ICE Agent: Minnesota Takes Greg Abbott to Court for Refusing to Extradite the Officer Charged With Shooting Into a Minneapolis Home

On August 18, 2026, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison sued Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to force him to extradite Christian Castro, an ICE agent charged in Hennepin County with four counts of second-degree assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime. Castro is accused of firing his gun at the front door of an occupied Minneapolis home on January 14, 2026, during Operation Metro Surge, striking a Venezuelan man in the leg, and then lying about the circumstances of the shooting. A Hennepin County judge found probable cause on both sets of charges. Castro was arrested in Texas on May 29, 2026. Gov. Tim Walz's extradition warrant has sat with Abbott's office since June 3 unsigned. Extradition between states is ordinarily a ministerial act under the Extradition Clause of the Constitution and the federal Extradition Act; Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said she had "never heard of anything taking this long." Abbott, asked about the suit at an Austin news conference the same day, tied his refusal to unrelated grievances against Minnesota, saying he did not trust Gov. Walz and would not respond "until they step up and do what's right." Ellison warned that Castro could walk free as early as August 26 if the warrant is not signed. The case is a rare state-versus-state clash arising directly from federal immigration enforcement.

“A Hennepin County District Court judge found probable cause to believe that ICE agent Christian Castro committed felony-level assault when he allegedly fired his gun into a Minnesota home with people inside it and hit someone. A Hennepin County District Court judge also found probable cause to believe that Castro falsely reported a crime because he allegedly lied about the circumstances surrounding the shooting. Now, Governor Abbott is trying to shield Castro from being held accountable for these serious charges by refusing to extradite him to Minnesota. Abbott’s refusal to extradite Castro is unconstitutional and violates federal law and Texas law. I will not stand for that, so I’m taking Abbott to court. Christian Castro will stand trial in Minnesota.”
Keith Ellison (D-MN) · Aug 18, 2026

Aug 16, 2026· Updated

The DNC Adopts a Resolution Calling on Congress to Abolish ICE — and a Second Resolution Calling to Reform It — as Jeffries Refuses to Back Abolition

At the Democratic National Committee's summer meeting in Austin, Texas, the DNC Resolutions Committee voted 25-12 on Thursday, August 13, 2026 to advance Resolution 27, which urges congressional Democrats to pass legislation eliminating US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and winding down the federal immigration detention system. The committee also advanced a separate resolution calling for ICE to be reformed rather than abolished. Both were bundled into a larger package and adopted by the full membership on a unanimous voice vote on Saturday, August 15 — leaving the party formally on record for two contradictory positions at once. Resolution 27 was introduced by Michele Johnson, a DNC committeewoman from Louisiana, who argued the party's caution is why voters do not trust it. Marge Hoffa, vice chair of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, objected that the DNC would be contradicting its own record of demanding reform. DNC Chair Ken Martin downplayed the vote, noting that official party positions are set in the quadrennial platform. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press" the next morning, declined to endorse abolition and instead called for "dramatic, bold and transformational" reform — unmasking agents, body cameras, judicial warrants and state-level criminal accountability. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), on the same program, said he has called for abolishing ICE. Republicans moved immediately to make the vote a midterm issue: RNC Chairman Joe Gruters said Democrats "made it official," and the White House called the party "extreme radical Democrats."

“The masks should come off. Body cameras should come on.”
Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) · Aug 16, 2026

ICE Moves to Buy Up to $20 Million of Electric Shock Gloves, Drawing Denunciations From a Dozen Congressional Democrats

On Monday, August 10, 2026, the Department of Homeland Security posted a procurement notice signaling that Immigration and Customs Enforcement intends to buy thousands of "Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter" devices — marketed as the G.L.O.V.E., or CTG-5 — from Compliant Technologies LLC of Lexington, Kentucky, on a no-bid basis. The gloves function as ordinary patrol gloves until an officer presses a switch, at which point they deliver a painful electric shock on contact. Reporting by Axios and CBS News on August 12 put the value of the planned purchase at $10 million to $20 million, with deliveries to be completed by the end of March. ICE and DHS have described the device as a "conductive distraction and de-escalation device." A DHS spokesperson said ICE "is constantly assessing the needs of our officers in the field to ensure they have the tools and equipment necessary to safely arrest and remove criminal illegal aliens from our country," and the agency said its officers "regularly receive ongoing use of force training." Within 48 hours at least a dozen congressional Democrats — four senators and eight House members — publicly condemned the plan, most of them on social media. Several tied the purchase directly to the roughly $70 billion in ICE and Customs and Border Protection funding Congress approved in June over Democratic objections, and several used the occasion to renew calls to abolish the agency. Reps. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) and Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.) had introduced the Melt ICE Act in January to dismantle DHS. No congressional Republican was on record defending or criticizing the purchase in the first days of coverage.

“Beyond cruel. This is appalling and inhumane.”
John Hickenlooper (D-CO) · Aug 13, 2026

Two More Deaths Tied to Newark's Delaney Hall ICE Jail; Senate Republicans Block Booker's Bid to Close It as ICE Stops Reporting Deaths That Happen After Release

Delaney Hall, the 1,000-bed private ICE detention facility in Newark operated by GEO Group, recorded two more detainee deaths in the space of two weeks in the summer of 2026 — the second and third connected to the facility in less than a year. Edwin Jovanny Lopez Cornejo, a 41-year-old Salvadoran national from Plainfield, died in ICE custody at Delaney Hall on the first weekend of August. His family said he had been denied medication. New Jersey's Democratic officials — Gov. Mikie Sherrill, Sen. Cory Booker, Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, and Rep. Analilia Mejia — demanded answers and renewed calls to close the facility. On August 6, Booker went to the Senate floor to seek unanimous consent for a measure forcing Delaney Hall's closure. Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) objected, blocking it, and argued that the Democrats' diagnosis of the detention system was "ideological." A third death surfaced separately, and only because a member of Congress disclosed it. Jose Chajon-Raxon, a Guatemalan man arrested by ICE on July 18, was treated for "seizure-like activity" a day later, taken to a hospital, and released from ICE custody on July 22 before dying. ICE had recently dropped a Biden-era rule requiring it to review and report detainee deaths occurring within 30 days after release, and DHS did not disclose the death until confirming it on August 12 after Rep. Rob Menendez (D-N.J.) revealed it. DHS said that "per ICE policy, when an individual is no longer in ICE custody then ICE will no longer be responsible for monitoring or reviewing deaths." Menendez and Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) called the policy change a deliberate accountability loophole. All nine Democrats in New Jersey's House delegation signed a letter to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin and Acting ICE Director David J. Venturella demanding answers. Delaney Hall was already the subject of an existing oversight fight: in May 2026, Sen. Andy Kim was pepper-sprayed outside the facility and Sherrill was denied entry during a detainee hunger strike. More than 50 immigrants have died in ICE custody since the start of the administration.

“ICE is killing people on American streets and in detention centers across the country. They can try to evade accountability, but the American people deserve answers and transparency, which is exactly what I intend to deliver alongside my House Democratic colleagues.”
Robert Menendez (D-NJ) · Aug 12, 2026

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