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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

Federal Agency

Appears in 26 stories

Stories

Judge blocks ICE raids on Alabama construction sites as likely unconstitutional

Rule Changes

Defendant; subject of the challenged enforcement policies

A federal judge barred U.S. immigration officers from three enforcement practices after a U.S.-born concrete worker said agents detained him three times, twice at Alabama homebuilding sites and once at his home. Chief U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey Beaverstock ruled the policies likely violate the Fourth Amendment, noting agents dismissed his state REAL ID as 'fake.'

Updated Yesterday

ICE signs $125M surveillance data contract with Thomson Reuters after contested procurement

New Capabilities

Contracting agency

Immigration and Customs Enforcement signed a five-year, $125 million data analytics contract with Thomson Reuters Special Services on September 17. The deal gives the agency access to the Clear database—property records, social media posts, and geolocation data—to monitor up to 1 million people and identify "potentially criminal and fraudulent behavior" before it happens.

Updated 6 days ago

Immigration judge rules Wisconsin mosque leader can be deported on foreign policy grounds

Rule Changes

Arrested and sought deportation of Sarsour

An immigration judge ruled Salah Sarsour, president of Wisconsin's largest mosque, can be deported on foreign policy grounds. The government argued his decades-old convictions in Israel make him a national security threat.

Updated Oct 1

Newsom signs California laws taxing detention centers, allowing suits against federal agents

Rule Changes

Target of the new California laws

California became the first state to tax private immigration detention centers when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a 25% levy and a package of companion laws on Sept. 29, escalating the state's fight with the Trump administration's deportation program. The laws also let Californians sue federal agents for constitutional violations, ban ICE from using electric shock gloves, and expand state investigations of detention facilities.

Updated Oct 1

Trump withdraws ICE director nominee after Senate confirmation stalls

Rule Changes

Without Senate-confirmed director since 2017

The White House withdrew Lance Schroyer's nomination to lead U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on September 17, 2026. The former Oklahoma state trooper's confirmation stalled after Republican Senator Rand Paul blocked a hearing over fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens by federal agents in Minneapolis.

Updated Sep 18

Salt Lake City makes daily nonresidential water cap permanent

Rule Changes

Detention center plan stalled; property reportedly being offloaded

Salt Lake City's council voted Tuesday to make permanent a rule capping daily water use for new nonresidential buildings at 200,000 gallons. The limit, an emergency measure in place since March, was set to expire Sunday.

Updated Sep 15

End of protected status for Haitians brings deportations and family separations

Rule Changes

Increasing arrests of Haitians; began deportations in late August 2026

Harriett Cecilia Joseph built a life in Springfield, Ohio: a quality-control job, her own event-planning business. On a Monday in August, her work permit expired and her legal status vanished, the result of a Supreme Court ruling that let the Trump administration end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haiti.

Updated Sep 15

San Francisco judge says firing came 48 hours after ICE challenge

Rule Changes

Presence at courts, arrests

A San Francisco immigration judge says she was fired 48 hours after challenging ICE's detention of a migrant. "If you do something even small that they don't like, they're gonna fire you," she told Bay Area News.

Updated Sep 11

TRM Labs doubles valuation to $2 billion in expanded Series C

Money Moves

Customer; awarded TRM a roughly $95 million contract

TRM Labs, a San Francisco company that traces illicit cryptocurrency, expanded its Series C round on September 9 at a $2 billion valuation, twice its February level. Blockchain Capital, which led a $70 million tranche in February, led this expansion too.

Updated Sep 10

ICE detainee deaths under Trump's second term pass 57 as screening questions mount

Rule Changes

Agency responsible for the detention facility and reporting

Lianyong Wei, a 51-year-old Chinese national, was booked into immigration detention in Saipan on Aug. 22. He was found unresponsive during morning checks the next day and pronounced dead at a territorial hospital at 7:30 a.m. His death marks the 57th detainee fatality since President Trump's second term began in January 2025, and the 24th since Jan. 1, 2026.

Updated Sep 4

ICE detains immigrants at SFO beyond 72-hour limit

Rule Changes

Conducting enforcement and transfers from airports

A lounge inside San Francisco International Airport has become a makeshift holding cell. Immigration agents held 25 people there for more than three days this year, some in chairs under lights left on all night, with limited access to medical care, legal representation, or beds.

Updated Sep 4

ICE says it has enough body cameras after series of deadly shootings

Rule Changes

Implementing agency-wide body camera program

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) says it now has enough body cameras to equip every officer and agent. The announcement follows five years of delays, a February count of 3,000 cameras for 13,000 officers, and more than two dozen shootings as ICE arrests climbed under the Trump administration.

Updated Sep 3

Senate locks in multi-year ICE and Border Patrol funding

Money Moves

Largest recipient of the new funding

ICE and Border Patrol budgets normally have to be renegotiated every year, which gives both parties leverage during shutdown fights. Early Friday, the Senate voted 52-47 to fund them for three years straight, through the end of President Trump's term.

Updated Jun 5

Private prison companies face wave of forced-labor lawsuits from immigration detainees

Rule Changes

Federal agency that contracts with GEO Group

GEO Group has spent more than a decade fighting a lawsuit from roughly 60,000 immigration detainees at its Aurora, Colorado facility. They allege they were forced to perform janitorial work for one dollar a day — or nothing — under threat of solitary confinement. On February 25, the Supreme Court ruled 9-0 against GEO's immunity claim; Justice Elena Kagan wrote that the company "must wait" for trial.

Updated May 29

Department of Homeland Security shutdown over immigration enforcement

Rule Changes

Separately funded, operations continue

The U.S. Senate passed a DHS funding bill by voice vote at 2:20 a.m. on March 27, 2026. It ends the partial shutdown that began February 14 for most agencies, but leaves out ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations and most U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Updated May 29

Federal immigration surge in Minneapolis

Force in Play

Primary agency conducting arrests

From December 4, 2025, to February 12, 2026, Minneapolis hosted Operation Metro Surge, the largest federal immigration enforcement operation in American history: 2,000 agents, 4,000+ arrests, two U.S. citizens fatally shot. On February 12, White House border czar Tom Homan announced the operation's conclusion, declaring Minnesota 'now less of a sanctuary state.'

Updated May 27

2026 federal spending showdown

Rule Changes

Draws down 700 agents from Minnesota; Democrats demand operational reforms by Feb 13

A three-day partial government shutdown ended February 3 when the House passed a split funding package 217-214 and Trump signed it. The deal provides full-year appropriations for five agencies through September and extends DHS funding through February 13.

Updated May 23

Federal immigration showdown in Minnesota

Force in Play

Acting Director Todd Lyons ordered to appear in federal court January 31 to face contempt allegations

The Department of Homeland Security deployed 3,000 federal agents to Minneapolis in what it calls the largest immigration enforcement operation in U.S. history. Two months in, two U.S. citizens are dead: Renee Good, 37, shot January 7, and Alexander Pretti, 37, an ICU nurse, shot January 24; DHS claims self-defense in both cases, but witness videos contradict that.

Updated May 23

Cold war law revived to deport campus activists

Rule Changes

Detained Khalil; seeking deportation

The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 gave the Secretary of State power to deport noncitizens whose presence threatens U.S. foreign policy. For seven decades, this Cold War-era statute gathered dust until March 8, 2025, when ICE arrested Mahmoud Khalil—a Columbia graduate student and green card holder—from his apartment for his role negotiating on behalf of pro-Palestinian protesters.

Updated May 21

States sue to stop federal immigration surge

Force in Play

700-agent drawdown implemented; school districts lawsuit filed; 22% student absence spike documented; jail-based cooperation model underway

U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez denied Minnesota's request for a temporary restraining order against Operation Metro Surge on February 2, 2026. She cited insufficient proof of constitutional violations, though she acknowledged evidence of racial profiling and excessive force.

Updated May 20

ICE shoots American mother, ignites mass uprising

Force in Play

Under intense scrutiny after multiple shootings

ICE agent Jonathan Ross fired three shots in 700 milliseconds, killing 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good in her car on a Minneapolis street. Good was a U.S. citizen, a mother of three, standing with her wife to support neighbors during Trump's self-proclaimed "largest immigration operation ever"—2,000 federal agents deployed to Minnesota.

Updated May 20

ICE blocks congressional oversight after fatal Minneapolis shooting

Force in Play

Conducting largest enforcement operation in agency history

Three Minnesota congresswomen entered a Minneapolis ICE detention center on January 10 but were ordered out minutes later. They'd come three days after an ICE agent shot 37-year-old U.S. citizen Renee Good in the head during what the Trump administration called the largest immigration enforcement operation ever. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem secretly signed a seven-day notice rule the day after Good's killing—a rule a federal judge had already blocked—and Judge Jia Cobb refused to block it on January 20.

Updated May 20

Federal agent kills Minneapolis woman during Trump's mass deportation campaign

Force in Play

Conducting largest immigration operation in history

An ICE agent shot Renee Nicole Good through her car window on a Minneapolis street January 7, killing the 37-year-old mother instantly. Federal officials claimed self-defense, saying Good weaponized her Honda Pilot to ram agents. But video shows something different: a woman slowly backing up and pulling forward, trying to leave, before an officer fires three shots into her head. "Having seen the video myself, that is bullshit," said Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. The shooter: Jonathan Ross, a 43-year-old deportation officer who was dragged fifty yards by a vehicle he tried to forcibly enter just six months earlier. Seventeen days later, on January 24, Border Patrol agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse and legal gun owner. Video shows Pretti filming agents with his phone, getting pepper-sprayed, wrestled to the ground by six agents, then shot at least ten times. DHS claimed he was armed and violent. Video evidence again contradicts the official account. At least six federal prosecutors resigned in protest over how investigations were being handled—pressure to investigate victims' families rather than the shooters. On January 24, FBI agent Tracee Mergen, supervisor of the Public Corruption Squad in Minneapolis, resigned over pressure to "reclassify/discontinue the investigation" into Good's killing and focus instead on her widow Becca. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara noted that two of the city's three homicides in 2026 were committed by federal agents.

Updated May 19

Supreme Court blocks Trump's National Guard deployment to Illinois

Rule Changes

Conducting immigration enforcement operations in Chicago

The Supreme Court told President Trump he can't send National Guard troops to Illinois. The 6-3 decision on December 23 marks the first time the modern court has blocked a president from federalizing state Guard units over a governor's objections. Trump claimed protests at an ICE facility in suburban Chicago constituted a rebellion, and the court wasn't buying it.

Updated May 16

Chicago’s ICE crackdown hits a wall of judges

Rule Changes

Conducted Operation Midway Blitz and faces court limits on warrantless arrests

Federal agents flooded the Chicago area under “Operation Midway Blitz,” arresting thousands in a sweeping immigration crackdown. A little-known consent decree from an earlier ICE raid suddenly roared back to life, and a Chicago judge ordered hundreds of detainees released — until a divided appeals court slammed on the brakes.

Updated May 15

Trump’s deportation machine turns to threats and indefinite detention

Force in Play

Primary implementer of Trump’s mass deportation strategy

An ICE officer emailed a Colombian couple in Texas a choice no parent should face: board a deportation flight or risk a 10‑year prison sentence and losing their six‑year‑old to federal custody. They abandoned their trafficking victim visa case and were on a plane to Bogotá within weeks.

Updated May 11