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Browse major news stories and see what officials have said.

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

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

Aug 19, 2026· Updated

ICE Agent Points a Gun at a U.S. Citizen in Northern Virginia; Her Dashcam Video Contradicts the DHS Account

On Monday, August 10, 2026, ICE officers conducting what the Department of Homeland Security described as a targeted enforcement operation in the Bailey's Crossroads area near Falls Church, Virginia, drew a firearm on Carolina Molina — a U.S. citizen, Northern Virginia native and licensed professional counselor who performs psychological evaluations in immigration cases. Molina says she was driving between immigration attorneys' offices dropping off business cards when she saw agents making arrests, and that she shouted at them from her car. DHS said in a statement that an "anti-ICE agitator began to drive her car in circles around our ICE officers and then attempted to harm officers by weaponizing her vehicle against them — all in an attempt to help illegal aliens get away," and that officers stopped her vehicle fearing for their safety. Molina's dashcam footage, which she released and which went viral on August 12, does not show her driving at the officers; a masked agent is seen approaching her window with a gun pointed at her, telling her "you almost ran us over." Molina was not arrested or charged. Fairfax County's Mason District Supervisor Andres Jimenez said the federal account "does not match the video." Northern Virginia's House delegation responded within a day. Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA-8), whose district includes Falls Church, said his office had contacted Molina and that he would demand "answers and consequences." Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-VA-11), who represents most of Fairfax County, called it a product of ICE's broken accountability system. Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA-10), in whose district Molina lives, tied the encounter to a national pattern of armed confrontations between ICE agents and American citizens. The incident landed as ICE was promising to have every field officer equipped with a body camera by the end of August — a rollout already under scrutiny over provisions letting agency leadership withhold footage after serious injuries or deaths in custody.

“Carolina Molina is not only a constituent, she’s a mother. She’s a wife, she’s a daughter, she’s a sister. If not for her dash cam on her car, I don’t know what would have happened to Carolina Molina. In so many situations there is not a camera, and it’s the ICE officers sometimes making up stories about the person they have harassed or intimidated or pulled a gun on.”
Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA) · 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.

“Christian Castro’s not above the law, and Greg Abbott isn’t either. This means that as early as Aug. 26… Christian Castro could walk free.”
Keith Ellison (D-MN) · Aug 18, 2026

After Bulldozers Reach Santa Elena Canyon, CBP Halts Border Barrier Construction Inside Big Bend National Park — With a Republican Senator, a Republican Border Sheriff and the Texas Governor All Against the Project

On August 16, 2026, Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott announced he was pausing all construction activity for the border barrier inside Big Bend National Park while he traveled to West Texas for what he called a personal, on-the-ground evaluation. Video of crews clearing pristine Chihuahuan Desert wilderness near Santa Elena Canyon had circulated for days, and the project was already facing litigation, including a suit by the Lipan Apache and a petition for a temporary restraining order filed by Texas state Sen. Roland Gutierrez. The opposition was not partisan. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) had written to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin on August 7 asking him to halt work until stakeholders were consulted, citing a bipartisan group of Texas border sheriffs, county judges and private landowners, and arguing that Big Bend's 1,000-foot riverbank cliffs and canyon terrain are their own deterrent. Terrell County Sheriff Thaddeus Cleveland, a Republican, said he had been urging Scott to visit for months because the original plan was flawed. Gov. Greg Abbott said Mullin had assured him no barrier of any kind would go up in the park at all, and that drones and fiber optics would secure the area instead. Democrats treated the pause as incomplete and, in Abbott's case, belated. Gutierrez called it a good thing but pressed for a full stop, accusing CBP of having characterized the clearing already done as mere surveying. State Rep. Gina Hinojosa said Abbott had known about the project for months and said nothing while the bulldozers worked.

“Good thing, for sure.”
Roland Gutierrez (D-TX) · Aug 17, 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.

“This is just not the government people want. A government so sadistic and cruel that it delights in using your hard-earned tax dollars to buy gloves that shock people upon contact.”
Chris Murphy (D-CT) · 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

Temporary Protected Status Ends for 350,000 Haitians After Senate Republicans Block Extension Bill

Temporary Protected Status for more than 350,000 Haitians ended in late July 2026 after a year of litigation and a failed effort in Congress. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced the termination in November 2025; a district judge blocked it in February 2026, and on June 25, 2026 the Supreme Court cleared the way for the administration to end the program for Haiti and Syria. The D.C. Circuit rejected the administration's request to terminate protections on July 24, holding them in place until at least July 27. In the interim, Sens. Ed Markey (D-MA) and Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE) sought unanimous consent on July 22 and 23 to pass S. 4814, the House-approved bill designating Haiti for TPS through the next presidential election, which had cleared the House 224-204 in April on a bipartisan discharge petition led by Rep. Ayanna Pressley. Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) objected, blocking the bill. As protections lapsed, ICE prepared targeted arrest operations and deportation flights, with planning that included Ohio communities with large Haitian populations.

“Washington has invented a new definition of "temporary": Permanent. I object to this bill which would keep 350,000 Haitians here permanently. TPS was created for emergencies. Democrats have turned it into a one-way ratchet toward permanent mass immigration. Temporary must mean temporary. And elections must have consequences.”
Eric Schmitt (R-MO) · Jul 23, 2026

Supreme Court Upholds Birthright Citizenship 6-3, Strikes Down Trump Order (Trump v. Barbara, June 2026)

On June 30, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Trump v. Barbara that the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees birthright citizenship, striking down President Trump's Day-1 executive order that sought to deny citizenship to U.S.-born children of undocumented or temporary-status parents. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority, joined by Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, Barrett, and Jackson, holding that such children are "subject to the jurisdiction" of the United States and are citizens at birth; Justice Kavanaugh concurred in the judgment on statutory grounds, while Justices Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch dissented. Trump called the decision "too bad for our Country" and urged Congress to pass legislation restricting birthright citizenship, promising his "Complete and Total Support." The ruling drew celebration from Democrats and calls from Republicans, including Sen. Lindsey Graham, for legislation or a constitutional amendment.

“The fact that this case was a 5-4 decision, effectively, means that the concept of birthright citizenship, which is an absurdity to the 14th Amendment, that concept is hanging by a thread.”
JD Vance (R-OH) · Jun 30, 2026

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Jun 9, 2026

House Passes $70 Billion ICE and Border Patrol Funding Bill 214-212, Sending It to Trump's Desk

The House narrowly passed the Secure America Act (S.2) 214-212 on June 9, 2026, sending the $70 billion immigration enforcement package to Trump's desk. Rep. Kevin Kiley (I-CA), who caucuses with Republicans, was the only non-Democrat to vote against it, citing concerns about bypassing the bipartisan appropriations process. The bill funds ICE ($38.6B) and CBP ($26B) through fiscal year 2029, locking in immigration enforcement funding through the remainder of the Trump term. The Senate had passed the bill 52-47 on June 5.

“With today's vote, House and Senate Republicans have officially ended the third Democrat government shutdown of this Congress. And here's the end result of Democrats' record-setting obstruction: CBP and ICE will now be funded for the remainder of President Trump's term and Democrats will have no ability to defund these agencies in the 119th or 120th Congresses. We have three full years of funding. What we've done now by funding it for three years, we've taken away [Democrats'] ability to cut that funding, to block that funding or to take hostage the funding for the remainder of the Trump administration.”
Mike Johnson (R-LA) · Jun 9, 2026

Senate Passes $70 Billion ICE and Border Patrol Funding Bill 52-47

The Senate voted 52-47 early on June 5, 2026 to pass a $70 billion immigration enforcement package funding ICE ($38.6B) and Customs and Border Protection ($26B) through the end of the Trump administration. The bill also includes a $5 billion DHS enforcement allocation and a $1.776 billion DOJ "anti-weaponization" settlement fund that had sparked weeks of internal Republican backlash. Sen. Lisa Murkowski was the only Republican to vote against the bill, which all Democrats opposed. The final vote came just before 5 a.m. after a 19-hour session that saw Republicans defeat multiple Democratic and GOP amendments to eliminate the settlement fund. The bill now heads to the House, where Majority Leader Steve Scalise indicated he wants quick passage.

“Why are we doing this bill? We are here today only because Democrats refuse to appropriate a single dollar for our border and immigration law enforcement.”
John Thune (R-SD) · Jun 5, 2026

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