This Week On ICE

Welcome back to This Week on ICE.

While we were recording this week’s episode, news broke that the Trump Administration is in talks to shut down the Florida Everglades ICE Detention Center known as Alligator Alcatraz. These talks are still preliminary, with DHS officials having said it has become too expensive to keep operating the center, which at one point burned $1.2 million taxpayer dollars per day. It’s also a facility that continues to be mired in federal reimbursement delays.

Meanwhile, The U.S. State Department announced yesterday it will begin revoking the U.S. passports of those who owe $100,000 or more in unpaid child support. The revocations will begin today and will apply to about 2,700 American passport holders, per the State Department. Moving forward, this revocation program will expand to cover parents who owe more than $2,500 in unpaid child support, which could encompass many more thousands of people, officials told the Associated Press.

There’s much more to tell you. Let’s get into it.

The top line: The Trump Administration has announced an end to fast-track ICE agent trainings.

Yesterday, POLITICO broke the news that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will overhaul its training program for immigration agents, including restoring training that had been axed amid a rush to put thousands of agents on the streets. This comes amid a year defined by controversial ICE crackdowns in major U.S. cities, as well as a massive dip in approval ratings for the Trump administration across party lines.

“During the partial government shutdown, there were negotiations that were made on Capitol Hill. I should highlight that the wanting to reform how ICE is trained was a bipartisan issue. A major push from the Democrats, for sure, but overall a lot of the lawmakers saw that there needed to be a change to reel in ICE,” — Ben

So, what will this mean for arrests, raids and detentions going forward? For this, we look toward Border Czar Tom Homan:

While speaking at The Border Security Expo on Thursday, Homan said during opening remarks: "If you think last year's historic number is good, wait till next year and we have 10,000 more agents on the border. You ain't seen s*** yet."

Meanwhile, DHS is still working to increase ICE detention capacity. Homan quite famously said last year that these detention facilities are going to be “Amazon Prime, but for human beings.” This is the same man who also said, “We’re gonna flood the zone” with ICE agents to increase arrests just this week.

While it remains to be seen what the scope and content of these trainings will look like moving forward, Homan’s language hasn’t shifted, indicating that we may continue to see highly consequential ICE raids and detentions in the future.

Also on our radar: Landlords are allegedly using the threat of ICE arrests by harass immigrant tenants

In late April, the New York-based news site Documented reported that New York City landlords are allegedly using ICE threats to intimidate immigrant tenants, according to various advocacy organizations and elected officials who testified at a joint oversight hearing of a City Council committees on Housing and Immigration.

But this isn’t the only instance of this. Kelly dove into how, across major cities in America, some landlords are weaponizing ICE against their tenants, with some landlords even facing criminal charges for harassment. She also explained the ways some cities are fighting back to protect renters from having this happen to them.

“To be sure, there are several laws protecting immigrant tenants. In New York, you can’t retaliate against a tenant for reporting housing issues. Yet advocates say immigration enforcement is regularly used against immigrant tenants who report landlords for bad conditions. And these are only the reported issues. For every reported issue, there are countless more that fall into the shadows.”— Kelly

Plus: An interview exclusive with Colleen Putzel-Kavanaugh of the Migration Policy Institute

Putzel-Kavanaugh’s specialty is on migration along the U.S. Mexico Border. She has spent years conducting field research and humanitarian work with migrants. During her chat with Matt, she explained how asylum seekers and migrants have felt the impact of the administration’s actions over the past year.

“When we see that immigration has become a sort of ‘all-of-government’ problem’ we mean every-step-of-the-way government — not just federal government, but down to the state level. It’s sort of a new phenomenon that has been growing for years, ” — Colleen

That’s all for now. Keep sending your questions, comments and thoughts to [email protected]. Catch you next time.

— Kelly, Matt and Ben

Welcome back to This Week on ICE.

This week, we’re tracking several consequential developments in U.S. immigration policy made in the last week. We’re also diving even deeper into the unprecedented dilemma for Afghan allies stranded at a way-station in Doha, Qatar.

Plus: We’ve brought on our new co-host for a little bit while Matt is traveling — Ben Camacho. Welcome, Ben!

We’re so glad you’re here. Let’s get started.

The top line: Trump’s suspension of asylum cases at the U.S. southern border is illegal, per a recent federal appeals court decision. Here’s what that means:

Since January 2025, the Trump administration shut down migrants’ ability to seek asylum at the U.S. southern border, preventing hundreds of thousands of families from pleading their legal case to enter the U.S. after facing violence, persecution, or severely limited opportunity in their home country. That may be over.

“There has been zero processing of asylum cases at the U.S. southern border since Inauguration Day. But, basically, [the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit] said that the President can't circumvent immigration law. Go figure.”— Kelly

But there’s another update at the border wall: An Indigenous community centered in Tecate, Baja California, claims construction, excavation, and even detonations have begun near the community’s sacred Cerro Cuchumá, which is protected by a long-standing agreement with the U.S. government that prohibits development in the area.

Despite the site’s designation in the National Register of Historic Places, and despite this week’s federal appeals court decision, border wall construction is moving full speed ahead at a key crossing point that once saw as many as 200 to 300 migrants monthly.

“One of the reasons that Matt and I founded this podcast was to track the ways in which norms are being subverted: When it comes to the Trump Administration, in every way that is possible, rule of law has been atrophied. Rule of Law is a suggestion. In this case, they are impeding on an agreement made in the 90s between the U.S. and a community that has existed before modern borders were even in place.” — Kelly

Also on our radar: Adelanto ICE Processing Center may be forced to unseal documents surrounding a violent use-of-force incident. Ben gives us the latest:

In June of 2020, Adelanto ICE Processing Center — which is owned by GEO Group —reportedly used chemical agents on detainees protesting facility conditions, and then allegedly denied them adequate medical care. Now, members of the press, including the groups Public Justice, The First Amendment Coalition, The Southlander (which is Ben’s newsroom), and LA Public Press just won a “motion to intervene,” allowing them to ask to unseal confidential court records and demand transparency around how this federally contracted detention center operates.

What have been the defining markers of these partnerships between the Trump Administration and private prison companies like GEO Group? — Kelly

It’s money, money, money. ICE detention centers and prisons are a multi-billion dollar industry in the United States. Just last year GEO Group and CoreCivic, which is another private prison company, received over $2 billion from the federal government. These agreements are [on the receiving end of] ICE raids, courthouse arrests, brutalities, summary executions of U.S. citizens. It’s a industry of violence that is fueled by violence, and people at the top are getting paid by it,” — Ben

A key hearing on the motion to unseal Adelanto’s documents is set for May 18. Stick with us, and we’ll provide updates as they come.

Plus: ICE can’t automatically detain those they arrest, per another federal appeals court decision — for now.

Ricardo Cunha, a Brazilian national, lived in Massachusetts for over 20 years before being detained by ICE last year. He sought release on bond while his immigration case processed, but the federal government argued that anyone detained during immigration raids could be held without bond or hearings.

Advocates have warned that such a policy strips away due process and allows authorities to detain individuals arbitrarily, with little oversight or accountability.

“What this equates to is mandatory, indefinite detention for anyone who gets taken by ICE. And I think that’s what’s at the heart of this case, ” — Ben

On Your Way Out: We dive deeper into what may become of Afghan allies stranded in Qatar.

Last fall, Trump halted a key U.S. resettlement program that resettled 190,000 Afghans who helped the American war effort in Afghanistan. Today, 1100 of these allies have been in limbo at a way-station run by the State Department in Doha, Qatar.

Fast forward to today: Trump is in talks to force these allies to choose between two impossible choices: Get deported back to Afghanistan, where they face near-certain death and violent persecution by the Taliban for their services to the U.S. military, or get deported to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“The real kicker is that this program did not just come out of thin air. The program [built on top of] existing, vetted, lawful immigration pathways that were created by Congress, some that were even forged during the first Trump administration,” — Kelly

So, where are we at right now? The State Department has declined to provide any updated so far. But what we do know is that the advocacy group Afghan Evac is working on an emergency bill to protect these allies in Doha, Qatar. As for the camp in Qatar, it is reportedly slated for closure in the near future. At a press conference hosted by Afghan Evac last week, Kelly clocked a bold argument made by Major General Paul Eaton, who is a former United States Army officer who commanded the operations to train Iraqi troops during Operation Iraqi Freedom:

“[Major General Eaton] argued this is a very bad strategy. We’re basically broke our promise to Afghan allies. And if, in the future, we start another war, which, under this administration is pretty likely, and we need allies on the front lines to protect our troops, they’re going to look toward what what happened to Afghan allies, and wonder, ‘will that happen to us?’ So now this becomes a national security issue, which is the very thing the Trump administration has said they’re trying to prevent by deporting Afghan allies to DRC,” — Kelly

That’s all for now. Keep sending your questions, comments and thoughts to [email protected]. Catch you next time.

— Kelly and Ben

Welcome back to This Week on ICE.

Kelly and I are still out-of-office this week. So, for this week’s episode, we’re featuring the most important highlights from two great guests we’ve had on the show.

Before we get to it, here’s a rundown of this week’s developments involving ICE and the U.S. immigration crackdown 👇 — Matt

Republicans in the Senate passed a bill in the wee hours of Thursday morning that could send up to $140 billion in funding to ICE and Border Patrol without Democratic support — enough to fund those departments through the rest of Trump’s term. GOP Senators are attempting to circumvent the need to woo at least seven Democrats by using a budget reconciliation process, but it won’t be easy.

Republican Senators Rand Paul and Lisa Murkowski crossed party lines to vote against the package, and the arcane rules of the reconciliation process means a final bill won’t be ready to pass until June 1 at the earliest. It also doesn’t necessarily mean the ongoing Department of Homeland Security shutdown will end any sooner, as the House has yet to vote on a similar reconciliation bill meant to restore funding to the rest of that department.

Also on Thursday, NBC reported that DHS has instructed ICE to limit some of its most aggressive detention tactics, including entering homes without judicial warrants and detaining targets during immigration court proceedings. The rollback is part of a larger pattern under new DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who is attempting to sharply contrast himself with the bombastic style of his predecessor, Kristi Noem.

President Trump is reportedly considering forcing Afghans who worked with the U.S. military during its twenty-year occupation of their home country to choose between being deported to the Democratic Republic of Congo or repatriated to Afghanistan, where they will almost certainly be tortured and killed. The DRC is hardly a safer option: at least 600,000 people live as refugees and over six million have been internally displaced due to a complex ongoing conflict in the eastern provinces. Lawmakers from both parties have instead urged the president to restore a program he blocked which allowed Afghans to settle in the U.S. after an extensive security vetting.

On Tuesday, the U.S. issued sanction against casinos and individuals associated with the Cartel del Noreste, a Mexican criminal group previously designated a terrorist organization. The particular Cartel’s territory abuts the southern tip of Texas, and the sanctioned individuals are believed to be deeply involved in human smuggling. It’s worth noting that a CNBC poll taken April 15-19 found that 51% of registered voters approve of Trump’s handling of the southern border, one of the few policy areas where he is not underwater.

Finally, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a California law that would have forced ICE agents to display ID while on duty Wednesday. Though the 9th Circuit is habitually skeptical of the Trump administration’s legal maneuvers on migration, the court found California’s attempt to directly regulate federal agents violated the supremacy clause of the Constitution. The finding could limit attempts by other states to impose similar requirements on ICE agents operating within their borders.

Now, onto the best of our guests. Stick with us:

#1: A targeted attack on one of the world’s most vulnerable diaspora communities.

Trisha Mukherjee joined us to break down her investigation into a proposed Trump administration ban on remittances sent from the United States to Haiti — announced not through any formal policy channel, but via a DHS social media post on March 2nd. She went line-by-line through the post’s claims and found that essentially none of them held up.

The $6.1 billion figure? Inflated beyond what World Bank data supports. The characterization of Haitian immigrants as illegal? Flatly inaccurate — most arrived under Temporary Protected Status, granted precisely because Haiti is in the grip of a humanitarian catastrophe. (By comparison, the U.S. sends over $60 billion in remittances to Mexico annually and over $120 billion to India — Haiti doesn’t even crack the top ten recipient countries.)

“This is just meant to instill fear. It’s meant to make Haitians not feel welcome.” — Trisha Mukherjee

Mukherjee introduced us to one of her sources: Joanne, a 30-year-old Haitian doctor who fled her neighborhood in Port-au-Prince in the middle of the night after gunshots and armed gangs tore through her street — and who was only able to complete medical school because family members in New York City sent money back from their own after-tax earnings. It’s the kind of story that puts a human face on what an abstract policy debate actually costs.

“Plain and simple, there’s a real risk of their family members starving. Just because accessing food is already so difficult.” — Trisha Mukherjee

#2: Inside one of the nation’s largest — and most troubled — immigration detention centers.

Ryanne Mena has been on the Adelanto ICE Processing Center beat for months — and what she’s hearing from inside is alarming.

Detainees describe waiting weeks for medical appointments, only to be handed ibuprofen. Flies in the shower walls. Spoiled vegetables. Water with a smell they can’t identify and are afraid to drink.

Adelanto, which sits just outside Los Angeles, can hold nearly 2,000 people across its east and west facilities, and is operated by The GEO Group — one of the country’s largest private prison companies, which donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Trump’s 2024 campaign and subsequently secured over a billion dollars in federal detention contracts. The facility was down to just three detainees under a COVID-era court order at the start of 2025; that order was lifted, and by mid-February the population had surged to roughly 1,800.

“Many of them have told me that they’re afraid they’re going to die there.” — Ryanne Mena

Five people have died at Adelanto since September — including José Guadalupe Ramos Solano, a Mexican national. The Mexican government has since filed an amicus brief in support of a federal class action lawsuit against the facility and raised the matter with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights — the first time, Mena says, she has ever seen a foreign nation intervene in the conditions of an American immigration detention center.

Introducing Ben Camacho

For the next few weeks we are honored to have investigative journalist Ben Camacho filling in for Matt while he’s visiting his old stomping grounds in China. Ben’s reporting helped expose a police gang and forced the city of Glendale to cancel a contract with ICE, and the Los Angeles Press Club honored his documentary “The Blue Hand” with the Charles M. Rappleye Investigative Journalism Award.

He’s already got some great stories and interviews in the works for you all, so stay tuned.

That’s all for now. Keep sending us your questions, comments and thoughts to [email protected]. Catch you next time!

Welcome back to This Week on ICE.

This week, we are both out of office - but it doesn’t mean we’re out of pocket. Matt and I are taking this time to feature highlights from our best guest interviews.

Before we get to it, though, here’s a rundown of this week’s developments involving ICE and the U.S. immigration crackdown 👇 — Kelly

Over the weekend — Costa Rica received the first group of migrants from other countries deported from the ​United States. So far, the Trump administration has sent 15,000 people to unfamiliar, “third country” nations, with more still to come. Last week, we explained the ballooning “third country” apparatus and talked about the cadre of African countries beginning to receive U.S. immigrants.

On Tuesday — an appeals court ordered a federal judge to end an investigation into probable criminal contempt by U.S. officials who deported Venezuelan immigrants to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison last year. Lee Gelernt, the ACLU’s lead attorney, called the ruling “a blow to the rule of law.”

On Wednesday — in a court declaration, immigration lawyer Katherine Blankenship said some detainees in Alligator Alcatraz were taunted, threatened, then beaten and pepper-sprayed by ICE agents. Phone services, which are required to be available to detainees 24-7, were cut off the day these alleged beatings occurred.

Also on Wednesday — Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum ordered Mexican consular personnel to conduct daily visits to ICE facilities following an escalation of deaths of Mexican citizens caught up in Trump’s mass deportation agenda.

On Thursday — for the first time, Minnesota authorities have charged an ICE agent with a felony following Operation Metro Surge. The officer, Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr., was charged with two counts of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon for pointing a gun at two civilians in their car.

Also on Thursday — The House passed legislation to extend Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitians, preventing them from legal limbo - for now. The bill is now up to vote in the Senate and, should it pass, it would require DHS to designate Haiti for TPS for three years.

This week — ICE reported the 16th immigrant detainee death this year. By comparison, last year, it announced 33 deaths, the most in over two decades. In the entirety of 2024, there were 11. An NBC investigation released Wednesday revealed that ICE has quietly reduced what details about these deaths are made public.

Now, onto the best of our guests. Stick with us:

#1: The expert whose research proves immigrants help the U.S. economy even more than native citizens in many contexts.

“We found that over the last 30 years, immigrants of all types, legal and illegal, have reduced the deficits at the federal, state and local level by about 14 and a half trillion dollars.” — David Bier

The Cato Institute’s David Bier, our first-ever guest on the pod, spoke with us about a first-of-its-kind study he conducted that sheds light on the essential economic power engine that is the U.S. immigrant population. He’s the consumate DC wonk, consistently fact-checking inaccuracies pedaled by U.S. President Trump and using empirical evidence to poke holes in Trumps immigration crackdown promises. (For one, his research has proven that Trump has actually reduced legal entry into the United States more than illegal entry.

“By keeping out immigrants, not redesigning a better legal immigration system, and deporting people… we likely have already hit [a point of population decline], given the amount of deportations and how low illegal immigration is. We’re heading to negative territory quite rapidly under this administration.” — David Bier

#2: The immigration lawyer who helped a detained man and his asylum-seeking partner arrange a wedding in the back room of an ICE field office.

“We were in this awful position of, do we fight for the asylum case … or do we go with voluntary departure? We can maybe prevent [this client] from getting detained and tortured in [their] home country. It is just an awful choice to have to make.” — Robin Nice

Robin Nice, an immigration attorney and partner at McHaffey & Nice in Boston, opened up about the kinds of cases she has dealt with amid the black box of ICE detention activities. She told us that even citizens and lawful permanent residents can be wrongly detained, sometimes even just for “a day while they figure it out,” which she called a massive violation of rights and due process.

In the case of her two recently married clients, the husband ultimately accepted voluntary departure while still in ICE custody. After the wedding, he was swiftly transferred from Plymouth, MA, where he was married, to a processing center in Texas and is set to return to his home country in Central America.

“It was just me, the pastor, the couple, and then these two ICE people, just like, in the doorway watching. They were allowed to hug afterwards and give a smooch afterwards, and then he went back to detention, and that’s that.” — Robin Nice

That’s all for now. Keep sending us your questions, comments and thoughts to [email protected]. Catch you next time!

Welcome back to This Week on ICE.

This week, we’re looking into how powerful surveillance tools are being used on both sides of the border in ways that raise serious questions about privacy and oversight. Then, we’re getting into how and where the U.S. is deporting people (if you’re keeping score — it’s as many as 64 countries and counting), including legally ambiguous arrangements with countries far from migrants’ original homes. And finally, we’ll look at what these shifts mean for people caught inside detention centers with special guest and LA-based crime and public safety journalist Ryanne Mena.

We’re so glad you’re here. Let’s get started.

The top line: A new ICE surveillance tool has (literally) entered the chat. Plus, an AI-driven surveillance arrangement between Texas and Mexico.

Many of us thought we’d be safe from hacking so long as we avoided clicking on strange links or downloading sketchy files. But through a cascade of investments in data and specialized tools from private companies over the last year or so, the Department of Homeland Security has managed to circumvent the need for a warrant to hack into private citizen’s devices. Sounds illegal, right? Most advocates and lawmakers would agree with you. And yet, the plot thickens:

This week, ICE admitted to using a “zero click” spyware tool that can intercept encrypted messages on apps like WhatsApp. ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons says the investment is part of the agency’s efforts to track fentanyl traffickers, but privacy wonks say the tool in question, Graphite, has a troubling history.

“In 2025, WhatsApp disclosed that it discovered 90 journalists and humanitarian workers were targeted using Graphite. To this day, we don’t know who hacked these 90 people. Because of that, Italy basically stopped a contract with Graphite’s parent company, Paragon, which is an Israeli spyware company.” — Kelly

Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons maintains these surveillance efforts are intended to disrupt fentanyl traffickers, but rights experts say the tech “should require the strongest judicial oversight” to prevent DHS “from abusing Constitutional and human rights in the process,” per NPR.

Meanwhile, Mexico has ramped up its surveillance of its own citizens, and has agreed to share reams of AI-driven surveillance data with Texas.

“Juárez is now the linchpin of a $1.27 billion surveillance empire.” — Kelly

A private company called Grupo Segurtech is almost done building a 20-floor AI surveillance tower, Torre Centinela, in Juárez — a city notorious for rampant cartel violence and femicide. The mega-company has invested in surveillance across Mexico and Latin America, but Juárez is of particular concern, given its close proximity to El Paso, Texas, just across the border.

Under a 2022 memorandum between Texas and Chihuahua state, Mexican authorities will share vast amounts of surveillance data collected from Torre Centinela once it’s complete. Advocates fear could be turned against migrants in ways that are impossible to predict or control.

Also on our radar: African countries are receiving their first “third-country” deportees from the U.S. — under shaky legal precedent.

On Monday the Democratic Republic of Congo confirmed it would receive deportees from the United States even if they are from nowhere near central Africa. Neighboring Uganda already received a flight of a dozen deportees, and nations across Africa and Asia are set to follow suit.

“Are these actions legal?” — Kelly

“It’s a legal gray area. … Let’s say that I got into the United States from Mexico. They might send me back to Mexico. Let’s say I came in a different way. They might look for a third country that could then host [me], but it is supposed to be a place that is safe, that has high standards of detention, that respects human rights.

What the Trump administration is doing is looking at countries like Uganda, Rwanda, [and leaning on their history of hosting refugees as a model for how they would potentially treat deportees. But there’s not guarantee that these deportees will have due process once they leave the U.S., nor is there a guarantee they will be treated well in these third-country detention centers.]

How is this person who’s been deported to Rwanda, for example, supposed to contact a lawyer in the United States, file a lawsuit, attempt to [return to the United States]? It is a huge hurdle to get back in.” — Matt

Interview Exclusive: The Mexican government has launched an unprecedented investigation into deaths at Adelanto ICE Processing Center in Los Angeles. Journalist Ryanne Mena tells us what she’s tracking.

Ryanne Mena, an award-winning journalist based in Los Angeles who covers crime and public safety, opened up her reporter’s notebook to decode one of California’s largest immigration detention facilities. Here’s what she told us:

“I’ve been speaking to dozens of people detained inside the Adelanto ICE facility. Their biggest issue that they talk about is medical care — or a lack thereof.

They tell me that it takes weeks to get an appointment after they put a medical request in. When they do see medical staff on site, they’re often just given painkillers that don’t actually help the ailment that they went to go seek care for. They also detail unsanitary conditions. Last week, I spoke to someone detained inside the Adelanto West facility. … [They] told me that there were flies in the shower walls. … Inadequate food and water is also an issue that dozens of people have told me about. The food that they’re served is often just soy, and the vegetables that they’re served aren’t fresh, and sometimes it’s food that’s been spoiled. People go hungry and portions aren’t big enough. They tell me that the water has a funny smell to it, and that they’re concerned about the kind of water that they’re ingesting.” — Ryanne

Meanwhile, the Mexican government has initiated a cascade of diplomatic and legal measures against Adelanto, including filing an amicus brief in support of a federal class-action lawsuit against the ICE processing center and taking the case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

“It is very significant that Mexico is getting involved in this federal lawsuit. I’ve been following Adelanto since 2018, and this is the first time I’ve heard of a foreign nation becoming involved in [a lawsuit having] to do with the conditions of an American immigration detention center. I will be closely following what comes next with this federal lawsuit and what other actions Mexico may take.” — Ryanne

On Your Way Out:

ICE has arrested at least 800 people based on tips from the TSA, according to an exclusive report from Reuters. That figure is much higher than previously known, and includes arrests made before the deployment of ICE agents to airports.

Tuan Van Bui, a 55-year old migrant from Vietnam became the 46th person to die at an ICE facility under the Trump administration. His cause of death is currently unclear, and being investigated. Court records show that Bui had filed a habeas corpus petition challenging his detention in February, but died before a hearing was held.

And finally, courts across the country dealt the Trump administration a series of blows last week: A federal judge in California allowed a class-action lawsuit from asylum seekers who had made appointments via the CBP One App – only to have them suddenly cancelled by the Trump administration last year.

Similarly, a federal judge in Boston ruled that the the administration’s termination of status for up to 900,000 people who used CBP One to legally enter the country was unlawful and those remaining in the country must have their status reinstated.

Another Federal judge also threw out a DOJ lawsuit against the city of Denver and state of Colorado for their so-called sanctuary laws.

That’s all for now. Keep sending us your questions, comments and thoughts to [email protected]. Thanks for being here, and catch you next time!

— Kelly and Matt

Welcome back to This Week on ICE.

Before we get to the good stuff, here’s the latest: On Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump fired U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi — a former lobbyist of the nation’s largest private, for-profit prison and top ICE detention contractor the GEO Group.

We’ve got a great slate of stories for you. Let’s get into it.

The top line: The U.S. Supreme Court projected skepticism of the Trump Administration’s executive order to end birthright citizenship.

Trump broke with all precedent on Wednesday to attend the SCOTUS hearing on his administration’s attempt to end birthright citizenship in the United States. After more than two hours of deliberation, the justices expressed significant skepticism over some of the Trump administration’s claims, but also brought up key weaknesses in the ACLU’s case to defend the current interpretation of the law.

“Basically the government was attempting to argue that the 14th Amendment needs reinterpretation. … What the 14th Amendment says, and the way it’s been interpreted, is that anyone born in the United States or who is subject to the jurisdiction of the United States is automatically a U.S. citizen, and there’s some very narrow exceptions to that.” — Matt

Trump administration’s main argument was that “we’re in a new world” since the passing of 14th Amendment. In reply, Chief Justice John Roberts shot back: “It’s the same Constitution.”

“He was there to intimidate the justices that he appointed. That’s my opinion. That’s my interpretation. … It takes quite a lot for the court to rule against the Trump administration, but I think this is a case where that might happen.” — Matt

Also on our radar: DHS has paused ICE detention warehouse contracts — for now — following a new Congressional investigation and months of bipartisan dissent.

Under the leadership of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin, DHS is scrutinizing all contracts signed under former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, temporarily ceasing any new contracts from being signed. Meanwhile, 52 members of Congress have opened up an investigation to look into ICE detention warehouse contracts because the facilities are deeply unpopular nationwide, are being pushed through at high speed, and raise serious questions about the legality of the purchases.

“They’re going to look into whether current government contractors, real estate brokers and property owners are profiting from the White House’s fast-track expansion of ICE detention centers. … They really want clarity on their roles, including whether they’ve donated to the Trump campaign or cabinet officials, and whether they will commit to not allowing their work to be used to facilitate inhumane conditions in these facilities. … These private companies have to reply by April 13.” — Kelly

The investigation currently applies only to future ICE detention warehouse contracts; any deal already signed is still moving forward. So far, 11 warehouses have been purchased across eight states, with tens of billions more planned to be spent retrofitting warehouse facilities by fall of this year.

“If you take a look at your hand and imagine that the size of your hand is the total $38 billion budget [for the ICE Detention Reengineering Initiative,] with DHS having already spent a bit over $1 billion — that only takes up half of your pinky nail. They have another 37 billion that they want to spend in four months. So, this investigation is basically saying, ‘whoa, whoa, whoa, where is this money going?’” — Kelly

Interview Exclusive: On March 2, DHS announced on social media the proposal of a ban on Haitians sending remittances to Haiti. A journalist covering this story opens up her reporter’s notebook to tell us why.

Trisha Mukherjee joined us to discuss the Trump administration’s attempt to ban remittances from the United States to Haiti due to unfounded claims. She helped us decode DHS-driven misinformation and what the proposal could mean for one of the most vulnerable groups of immigrants in the United States.

DHS Misleading Claim #1: There is a scourge of illegal immigration of Haitians to the United States.

This is false. Haitians are one group among 11 immigrant groups in the U.S. under Temporary Protected Status (TPS). It’s a special status designated to those whose countries are confronting war, disaster, or extraordinarily dangerous conditions. You can read more about Haitians and TPS in episode #2 of this podcast.

“My sources essentially said that [the Administration’s remittances ban proposal] is meant to instill fear. It's meant to make Haitians not feel welcome. This comes amidst a landscape of trying to get rid of TPS at a time that is just so terrible for the country.” — Trisha

DHS Misleading Claim #2: American dollars subsidize foreign economies.

“Remittances are money earned by people living and working in the U.S. and then sent back to family or friends, typically in their home countries. … This money is a crucial inflow to people living in [Haiti]. It represents things from food — something as basic as just being able to eat every day — to opportunities like education that really allow [Haitians] to work towards their dreams or a better life.” — Trisha

DHS Misleading Claim #3: Haitians send over $6 billion in remittances to Haiti.

According to the most recent data from the IMF and the World Bank, global remittances to Haiti totaled $4.2 billion in 2024, with a majority coming from the United States. Mexico is the top recipient of remittances from the United States, receiving over $60 billion annually. Haiti doesn’t even make the top 10 countries sending remittances from the United States.

“This is just an especially bad time to be thinking about ending TPS for Haitian immigrants in the U.S., yet that is one of Trump's main promises.” — Trisha

On Your Way Out:

A Mexican immigrant, Jose Guadalupe Ramos, died in ICE custody at the Adelanto Detention Center in Los Angeles, California. Guadalupe Ramos had known medical conditions, including diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia. He has become the 14th Mexican national to die in ICE custody this year.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has opened an investigation into his death and said her government will pursue legal action to demand improved conditions at U.S. immigration detention facilities.

Next week, Los Angeles–based journalist Ryanne Mena will join us to discuss Guadalupe Ramos and her months-long coverage of the Adelanto Detention Center. Stay tuned.

In another case, the high-profile death of Nurul Amin Shah Alam, a nearly-blind Rohingya refugee, was ruled a homicide by the New York State Medical Examiner’s Office. Shah Alam was found dead in February after CBP officers left him outside a closed coffee shop in freezing temperatures. Officials said the cause of death was “complications of a perforated ulcer precipitated by hypothermia and dehydration,” and noted that prosecution may be warranted.

Meanwhile, new data released through a federal lawsuit shows that roughly two-thirds of the people arrested by ICE in Minnesota during Operation Metro Surge earlier this year had no criminal convictions or pending charges. This contrasts with claims from the White House that those arrested were “dangerous criminal immigrants.”

In other developments, ICE agents will reportedly be stationed outside graduation events this spring for newly enlisted Marines to identify whether any family members are undocumented, according to the Marine Corps.

Finally, since the beginning of this month, thousands of lawfully-present immigrants — including refugees, asylum seekers, and trafficking survivors — have lost access to SNAP benefits due to new federal restrictions under the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”

That’s all for now. Please keep sending us your questions, comments and thoughts to [email protected]. Thanks for being here, and catch you next time.

— Kelly and Matt

Welcome back to This Week on ICE.

Over the weekend, U.S. President Donald Trump announced he would deploy ICE agents to U.S. airports to help TSA workers if an agreement isn’t reached in Congress to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). On Monday, we saw the beginnings of that promise, with ICE deployed to 14 airports nationwide. Also on Monday, Markwayne Mullin was officially sworn in as the new DHS Secretary. On Wednesday via a post on Truth Social, Trump floated the idea of sending the National Guard to provide further assistance to TSA officers as the five-weeks-and-counting partial government shutdown bottlenecks travel and TSA agents go without a second full paycheck. Early Friday, after seven previous failed attempts, the Senate finally voted to fund DHS except for ICE operations and Border Patrol. The bill has been brought to the House today. It approved, it would then be passed to Trump to sign, potentially ending the longest partial government shutdown in U.S. history.

It’s Friday afternoon, and we’re so glad you’re here. Let’s get started.

The top line: Kelly reported from JFK International Airport to get an up-close look at ICE deployments to airports. Here’s what she found out.

John F. Kennedy (JFK) International Airport in New York has among the nation’s highest rates (37%) of TSA call-outs from work amid a protracted government shutdown that started after a Congressional budget stalemate over DHS funding — largely centered on disputes over ICE. That shutdown that has left 47,000 TSA agents without full paychecks since at least February 14, causing massive airport disruptions nationwide and hours-long wait times at security checkpoints.

Once Kelly got to JFK, her experience underscored what news headlines have already uncovered: ICE agents weren’t doing much of anything in the way of supporting TSA activities.

“If we remember, there was a congressional hearing with an ICE whistleblower [and former ICE lawyer] named Ryan Schwank. He said himself that ICE’s training program is ‘deficient, effective and broken.’ He claimed that new recruits are actually trained to violate the Fourth Amendment and that essential safety and legal training hours are slashed to increase officer production. So, if we can’t even assume a certain level of training just to be ICE officers, we can’t really assume that ICE officers can then have the appropriate training or awareness to be TSA agents.” — Kelly

The part that was personal to Kelly, however, was what she saw in just a 30-second span later that afternoon in Terminal 5: At one moment, a group of American travelers were giving death stares to a group of ICE agents stationed nearby. A brief moment later, an older gentleman walked up to this group, thanking them profusely for their service and for being there.

“What is abundantly clear is that when it comes to ICE, there are at least two distinct Americas: There’s one America that sees ICE as an extension of a police state, an entity that is knowingly breaking laws and destabilizing norms that challenge the basic human rights and dignities of anyone who chooses to be in this country, regardless of their current citizenship status. And then there’s the other America. That is the America that sees ICE as defending their safety and their opportunities from dangerous, criminal outsiders. And I saw that pretty much point blank.” — Kelly

What to know about our rights at airports:

* Can ICE take my phone or search my bags? — If you are flying domestically, no. However, federal agents can search your bags and digital devices if you are flying in from overseas, under the border exception to the 4th Amendment. Even then, they cannot hack into your phone or plug in a special device to open your tech without a warrant. Consider turning off biometrics, deleting social media and messaging apps when passing through security, or even leaving your personal device at home and opting for a burner phone during travel.

* Can ICE arrest me at the airport? — Potentially. Legal experts warn that non-citizens are at heightened risk of having this happen to them, especially given that TSA now provides information about travelers to ICE .

Per your First Amendment rights, you cannot be arrested for reasons directly pertaining to your religion or political beliefs. But here’s what we know so far about ICE arrests this week: Earlier this month, two U.S. citizens and three green card holders were in ICE custody for nearly 30 hours after being detained at Chicago O’Hare airport. Authorities claimed they were detained all because of their recent travel history raising suspicion among ICE officers. These folks had just arrived at O’Hare after a trip to Istanbul. These folks were taken from O’Hare airport an moved to a facility in Wisconsin and release at 5 AM with no way to get home.

* Can I be denied entry into the U.S.? — If you’re not a U.S. citizen, you can be denied entry into the United States, as ICEs can refuse entry if they believe you are “inadmissible.” (It’s basically a catch-all for things such as visa issues, prior violations with the law). U.S. citizens cannot be denied entry to the country.

You asked us all of your burning questions about ICE. Here are our answers:

How true are reports of ICE searching your phone/laptop for anti-Trump content at TSA?

“ I’ve not been able to find any documented reports of travelers turning up at a TSA line and having ICE seize their devices and search their devices and prevent them from continuing on in their journey. That really changes if you’re flying in from overseas, that in that case, you’re considered to be at a U.S. border. At the airport, and there’s a special exception to the Fourth Amendment called the Border Exception, which allows federal agents to make warrantless searches of your person, your luggage, and your electronic devices. ” — Matt

What can I do as a citizen to help?

You have a legal right to film and audio‑record ICE in public areas like airports, but you cannot interfere with their activities. As you film or record, it’s best to keep a distance of about 10 ft away. If you’re filming someone being detained, calmly ask them for their name and an emergency contact number. You can then remind them of their right to remain silent and reach out to their emergency contact to inform them of what’s going on.

Later, consider waiting to upload media once you’ve left the immediate area and brought yourself to a safe location. Consider sharing it with a local volunteer ICE alert hotline — like Hands Off NYC.

Are brown/black people being pulled aside for “additional screening” at higher rates?

Historically and statistically, Black and brown people are pulled aside more often at airports. But regarding this new ICE deployment, it’s too soon to tell if this will be the case. Regardless, it’s your First Amendment right not to be questioned or judged based on religion or political affiliation, and you can refuse those questions if asked by ICE agents.

This feels a lot like the month before COVID. Will the gas crisis force us all to stay local very soon?

Is ICE presence deterring travelers?

Individual reports have so far shown that ICE presence is intimidating folks from traveling. Previous government shutdowns give us some clues:

An economic study conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond about the 2025 government shutdown, which 45 days long, reveals that the resulting airport delays cost Americans about $66 million with 1000s of flights cut. In Boston’s airport alone, delays jumped to 500% and the airport lost about $21 million due to lost time, cancelations, and delays.

“Right now we’re already facing an economy defined by hiring slumps, inflation, tariffs, and if this [partial shutdown] is approaching the longest government shutdown in history, statistics indicate that this is going to have a real ding in the economy, and possibly deter people from spending money like traveling.” — Kelly

Is it time to flee the country? How do you know?

This decision calls for a deeply personal reflection, with no easy answer for everyone. Recent ICE activity escalations, including their new presence at airports, may not yet be an obvious “flee now” moment for you, but it could be for someone else.

At the beginning of Trump’s second term, a cadre of academics who study fascism and authoritarianism fled the country fairly quickly in order to more freely continue their research. Others felt they had no choice but to self deport.

“It’s important to reflect on what level of risk you’re willing to tolerate, and if that level of risk is breached, then have an action plan. It may feel a little silly, but you might end up helping yourself more than you think.” — Kelly

On your way out: Follow us on social!

Ever the Millennials that we are, Matt and I share short video clips of each episode on our personal Instagrams. Feel free to join us for that ride here and here. If you’re not extremely online, we would be incredibly grateful if you shared our show with a friend by forwarding this email, or if you gave us a 5-star review on Spotify and Apple podcasts.

That’s all for now. Keep sending your questions, comments and thoughts to [email protected]. Catch you next time.

— Kelly and Matt

Welcome back to This Week on ICE.

On Wednesday, DHS confirmed ICE has detained and deported hundreds of pregnant, postpartum and nursing immigrants since day one of Trumps second term, contradicting its own laws surrounding the safety of these individuals. On Thursday, the U.S. Senate advanced Markwayne Mullin’s nomination to serve as new DHS secretary, replacing Kristi Noem. Also on Thursday, residents of the Twin Cities, Minnesota, were awarded the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for their powerful resistance to the ICE surge in Minneapolis earlier this year.

It’s Friday, and we have a full slate of stories to dive into. Let’s get started.

The top line: The U.S. Supreme Court has voted to protect Haitians and Syrians harboring in the U.S. under Temporary Protected Status — for now.

On Tuesday, U.S. Supreme Court held off on lifting Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for hundreds of thousands of migrants which the Trump administration had attempted to end. The court is now expected to expedite its decision as to whether the government will kick out these communities it once offered shelter from violence and persecution.

When will the final call be made? Possibly April. The pause buys those with TPS precious time to seek alternative status in the United States, or get their affairs in order while they prepare for possible disruptions to their lives.

“Basically what the government is arguing here is based on a claim that outgoing Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, made — that Syria and Haiti are now stable enough that these TPS applications should no longer apply to them. That’s simply not true. ” — Matt

For one, the Caribbean country of Haiti remains exceptionally dangerous, with armed gangs controlling as much as 90 percent of the capital, Port-au-Prince, while a fragile post-Assad Syria continues to see ethnic and religious persecution, clashes with Kurdish groups, and Israeli strikes as war continues to broil across the Middle East.

Despite these pressures, the outlook is difficult to be optimistic about: The Court’s 6-3 conservative majority already confirmed the revocation of Venezuelan TPS (twice), making a similar outcome here feel likely. Further, the Trump administration appears very keen to let TPS protections lapse for all 13 eligible countries, potentially leaving up to 1.3 million people in legal limbo and in the crosshairs of deportation.

Also on our radar: Business is booming for private prisons. We sat in on a shareholder call to find out who’s really winning Trump’s immigration crackdown.

For CoreCivic, one of the largest private, for-profit prison companies in the country, business has never been better. The company has seen a 103% year-over-year revenue increase driven almost entirely by ICE detention contracts, and currently houses nearly one in four of the roughly 70,000 ICE detainees now in custody, a record high. This is all according a recent quarterly earnings conference call published by the company in February. Their vault in profits comes as the country is on track to have the deadliest fiscal year for ICE detainees since 2004, per NPR.

“The way that I see is that this isn’t really a private prison company. It’s more of an immigration detention company that does some state prison work on the side. That is how much money [they’re making from ICE], and how dependent they are on the federal government for these contracts.” — Kelly

Looking ahead, the Trump administration’s $45 billion “ICE Detention Re-Engineering Initiative” is poised to dramatically expand the detention system through a mix of private prison contracts and cheaper, faster-to-build warehouse facilities.

“With $45 billion, the United States could have built anywhere from 87,000 to 110,000 affordable housing units in this country. … We could have really made something constructive with this. That same money can construct anywhere from 300 to over 700 new public schools.” — Kelly

Plus: After a fiery Wednesday hearing on Capitol Hill, DHS Sec. newcomer Markwayne Mullin barely skated through to a full Senate vote, while promising to take a quieter approach to ICE deportations.

Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Homeland Security had a rocky confirmation committee hearing, due in large part to opposition from Republican Senator Rand Paul.

“[Mullin] tried to give the Democrats a little bit of a bone and say that he would reverse the guidance from Kristi Noem that allowed ICE agents to use what’s called an administrative warrant [to arrest and detain immigrants, as opposed to a judicial warrant, which demands a higher threshold for an arrest.] Democrats didn’t seem to buy it on his word alone. It does seem to be part of a pattern among ICE recently, where they’re realizing that they overstepped in Minnesota. … I don’t think that means they’re going to stop harassing immigrants, but they will do so more quietly and in a less public way. ” — Matt

On your way out: An immigration judge has ended the asylum claims of Liam Conejo Ramos and his family.

Recall the five-year-old boy in the blue bunny hat who became a national symbol of the ICE crackdown in Minneapolis, Minnesota. On Wednesday, an immigration judge ended the asylum claims of Liam Conejo Ramos and his family, according to their Minneapolis lawyer. They plan to appeal the decision, and if the family loses the appeal, they will be deported to Ecuador, their country of origin.

“I see [Liam Conejo Ramos’ family] as being used as a cruel example by the Trump Administration. They want to say ‘this is the pressure that we are going to put your family under. We are not beyond the idea of using your children as bait to get you out of your home, and we’re going to detain you, and then we’re going to deny your asylum claim, and then we will deport you back to your country.’ This narrative fits really well for the Trump administration, trying to pressure people to simply self-deport.” — Kelly

That’s all for now. Please keep sending your questions, comments and thoughts to [email protected]. Catch you next time.

— Kelly and Matt

Welcome back to This Week on ICE.

The top line: Tennessee is trying kick migrant kids out of schools.

The Tennessee state legislature has introduced a bill attempting to ban undocumented children from public schools, in a move that could deprive some 10,000 children from a basic education. It’s part of a wider raft of legislation in at least five other states introduced by GOP lawmakers backed by the far-right Heritage Foundation that is set to challenge decades of legal precedence in educational law.

 “Cassandra Zimmer-Wong, who was an immigration policy analyst at the Nissen Center Cassandra told The Intercept that the ramifications of this particular legislation in Tennessee are huge. Denying children education could create an uneducated potentially illiterate underclass of children — and then adults — in this country.” — Kelly

CBP doesn’t want you to know they’re watching you.

Customs and Border Protection removed multiple officials who objected to orders to deliberately misclassify documents in an effort to prevent them from being accessed via the Freedom of Information Act, according to a report from Dell Cameron in WIRED Magazine. Those removed include the agency’s top privacy official, as well as one of the branch directors in charge of privacy, after they were asked to label complete and signed-off Privacy Threshold Analyses as drafts, preventing their release to journalists and citizens who request them via the FOIA process.

The orders followed a major disclosure last year to 404 Media, which discovered DHS was using Mobile Fortify, a previously unknown piece of software used to identify and determine a person’s immigration status using facial recognition and fingerprint analysis.

Also on our radar: The DHS mini-shutdown rumbles on with no end in sight.

TSA agents will miss their first paychecks today as lawmakers on Capitol Hill are no closer to breaking the deadlock on funding the Department of Homeland Security, nearly a month into the mini-shutdown. Security lines at some airports have stretched for hours as agents stay home — or in hundreds of cases, outright quit rather than work for no pay.

Efforts at compromise in the Senate, where the GOP majority needs to peel off seven Democrats to advance funding, have all failed. Meanwhile President Trump’s focus is on his bruising poll numbers approaching the midterm elections.

 “The White House is in a completely different universe. President Trump is threatening not to sign any legislation at all until Congress passes the SAVE act which… he thinks it will help him win the midterms by severely restricting voting rights in the United States” — Matt

That’s all for now. Please keep sending your questions, comments and thoughts to [email protected]. Catch you next time.

— Kelly and Matt

Welcome back to This Week on ICE.

On Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem following a controversial tenure marked by a brutal and unpopular ICE surge in Minneapolis, MN, and multiple punishing appearances before Congress, making her the first cabinet member ousted during Trump’s second term.

Over 1000 people have died less than a week into the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran, with the Islamic Republic unleashing massive regional retaliation. Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, Republicans are attempting to use this war to strong-arm Democrats into voting to end the mini-shutdown at ICE’s superseding authority, the Department of Homeland Security.

We’ve got a full slate of stories to share with you. Let’s get started.

The top line: Republican efforts to leverage the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran against Democrats has failed so far.

Perhaps surprising no one, a recent poll conducted by YouGov and The Economist shows that 45 percent of Americans oppose the use of military force in Iran.

For Democrats and independents specifically, the message is even clearer: 73 percent of Democrats and 50 percent of independents oppose the use of military force to overturn Iran’s regime.

“On Monday, Republicans did pressure Democrats to vote to fund the DHS in the middle of this war, and the idea is to put Democrats in this position where they look weak or unpatriotic — and it’s not working. Republicans would need to flip seven Democrats in the Senate in order to pass the bill.” — Matt

Continuing the tough week for Republicans, Democrats harshly criticized then-DHS Secretary Krisi Noem this week in back-to-back Congressional hearings. But, this time, they were joined by Republican Senators Thom Tillis and John N. Kennedy, both of whom are not up for re-election and may well be “in a position to attack DHS … [and] let people forget about whatever went on right now in 2026,” Matt explained. The change of heart underscores Noem’s eventual ouster on Thursday.

Also on our radar: What we know about where taxpayer money is going to fund Florida’s controversial ICE detention center, Alligator Alcatraz.

Alligator Alcatraz is burning through $1.2 million in taxpayer money every single day in construction and operating costs.

By our math, it’s more than enough to power an NFL stadium, run a major AI data center, or fund 23,500 schoolchildren each year. Early in construction, costs hit $3 million per day, according to hundreds of pages of public records relinquished by the state of Florida following a lawsuit spearheaded by environmental advocacy group Friends of the Everglades.

“The state of Florida asked the federal government for $1.5 billion, but they didn’t wait for the budget approval. They just started building building, building. So there is no guarantee that the state of Florida will be reimbursed by the federal government. That one and a half billion dollars may fall on taxpayers in Florida for a facility that has already reportedly delayed payments to contractors and staff. ” — Kelly

The state’s budget request, which would also pull from funds designated for natural disaster management, has been plagued by delays due to the state refusing to conduct an environmental assessment for a facility nestled in a nature preserve within the Florida Everglades that would hold more detainees than the largest U.S. federal prison.

So, where is the money going? Documents obtained through a lawsuit show some clues — including at least $73 million promised to 12 vendors, including a food services company tied to bug-infested meals.

“The state is claiming that these 12 vendors … are non-bid vendors. But there’s already a slew of investigative journalists and news publications tracing the thread of these organizations. Many of the owners of these vendors are major Republican donors to political committees for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Trump, and other GOP candidates.” — Kelly

Come Monday, the Florida State Legislature will debate reopening the emergency fund that had initially funded the detention facility. Stay tuned for updates on the result of these debates next week.

Plus: What the primary election results in Texas and North Carolina say about American sentiment toward ICE crackdowns.

In the Democratic primaries in Texas, the candidates held nearly identical policy positions. Ultimately, however, it was their differing calculations on how to approach ICE that quietly became the decisive contrast between U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett and Texas State Rep. Talarico’s campaign.

“[During debates], Talarico probably edged a little bit closer to saying that ICE should be defunded. He said that the money given to ICE in that Big Beautiful Bill that we’ve discussed ad nauseam, should be taken back and ‘put into our communities where it belongs.’ He didn’t come out and say, ‘abolish ICE,’ but that’s kind of the whole point. If it’s not about policy, then it’s about style.” — Matt

Meanwhile, in North Carolina, seven-term Democrat Carla Cunningham lost her primary. Analysts explain this was due to her breaking with the Democratic Party to support a bill that would increase cooperation between local law enforcement and ICE. The result? A stunning upset, with Cunningham winning only 22 percent of the vote, underscoring local voter sentiment toward policy issues like immigration and ICE crackdowns.

On your way out: A listener and friend of the podcast asks, “How are lawyers helping get their clients out of ICE detention. And, what if ICE agents fail to comply with lawyer demands?”

Immigration lawyers — like Robin Nice, who was on our show last week — are increasingly using habeas corpus petitions to secure release from ICE detention. It basic emphasizes the right to ask a court to challenges the reasons behind a client being detained. Last year, 97 percent of habeas petitions were successful in federal courts, but that doesn’t mean that a detainee gets released right away.

“On average, courts nationwide [received] more than 200 habeas petitions filed by immigrants every single day, and the sum of all these immigration related habeas petitions in 2025 is greater than the sum of all immigration related habeas petitions between 2009 and 2024, according to a study by ProPublica.” — Matt

ICE is effectively banking on detention conditions being so harsh that people will abandon their cases and self‑deport, and in some instances has even delayed complying with court orders to release people on bond. On top of that, a recent Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling upholding “mandatory detention” would let the government hold non‑citizens indefinitely for immigration offenses, with no bond and no habeas petition — undermining a core liberty protection in the U.S.

This clash with other courts is likely to push the issue to the Supreme Court.

That’s all for now. Please keep sending your questions, comments and thoughts to [email protected]. Catch you next time.

— Kelly and Matt