#immigration-enforcement

#immigration-enforcement

This was one of those eclectic, slightly hippie-ish coffee shops that used to be more common: colorful walls, mismatched armchairs, a big chalkboard advertising a local chess night and a knitting club. It was December 2024 and the national vibes, recall, were quite bad. Would things be any different here? A sleepy Portland coffee shop feels approximately one million miles away from the centers of power, but we live in a world where nothing is hidden and little is beyond reach.

The steady drizzle tested the limits of the string of tarps stretched across the backyard of a Maywood home. Beneath them, dozens of boxes, overflowing with clothes, shoes and toys, lay scattered across the pavement. Each gift was destined for one of more than 50 Southern California homes whose families have been caught in the growing immigration enforcement crackdown. This was not charity bestowed from afar, but mutual aid.

A news segment about the Trump administration's immigration policy that was abruptly pulled from "60 Minutes" was mistakenly aired on a TV app after the last minute decision not to air it touched off a public debate about journalistic independence.

High on the volcanic shoulders of Northern California's Cascade Range, the air is thin enough to sting your lungs. Between the mid-October freeze and November's first heavy snow, chainsaws echo in short bursts, muffled by dense trees and resin-sweet air. In the morning half-light, a small crew labors rhythmically, harvesting wild red firs for sale in Christmas tree lots across the country.

People line up outside the Centro Latino de San Francisco, a civic center serving seniors and those with disabilities, to receive the free lunch that they offer in San Francisco on Aug. 14, 2025. Experts across the state are reporting that older patients and social service clients are staying home to avoid rampant immigration enforcement. (Courtesy of Matthew Busch/The Investigative Reporting Program)

PINOLE So-called ICE free zones, a policy prohibiting federal agents from staging on publicly owned property, have expanded across the Bay Area after recent adoptions of the restrictions by Pinole and the West Contra Costa Unified School District. A vote by the Pinole City Council during a Dec. 16 meeting and the West Contra Costa Unified School District Board of Education during its Dec. 17 meeting

A federal jury has acquitted a South L.A. man who was charged with stealing government property by towing an immigration agent's vehicle during the arrest of a TikTok influencer in Downtown Los Angeles earlier this year. Bobby Nunez was arrested Sept. 2 after he was accused of interfering with the detainment of Tatiana Mafla-Martinez while she live-streamed her Aug. 15 arrest.

It's been more than three months since the United States Supreme Court voted 6-3 in Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo to approve an emergency request from the Trump Administration to temporarily suspend an order from two federal courts that barred the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from detaining people based on their ethnicity, speaking a language other than English, or the type of job held.

A Wisconsin jury found state court Judge Hannah Dugan guilty of obstructing federal immigration enforcement on Thursday, delivering a victory to the Trump administration's crusade against anyone-even judicial officers-who attempt to impede its mass deportation campaign. Dugan, a Milwaukee County Circuit Judge, helped a noncitizen evade ICE agents at the state courthouse by instructing him to exit the courtroom through a specific door. Agents apprehended him anyway, and prosecutors promptly charged Dugan with obstruction, a felony punishable by up to five years' imprisonment.

"What prepares men for totalitarian domination in the non-totalitarian world is the fact that loneliness, once a borderline experience usually suffered in certain marginal social conditions like old age, has become an everyday experience," wrote Hannah Arendt in her 1951 book, The Origins of Totalitarianism. I was born and raised in Chicagoland. Even during stints of travel and education, I have always considered myself a Chicagoan.

I mean, read the room, Brandon. Chicago's been under siege since the Trump administration launched Operation Midway Blitz in September, and DHS goons led by Nazi-shaped Gregory Bovino have since terrorized Halloween parades, pepper-sprayed a baby, and led to a 515% surge in arrests. (All of this, of course, has come as a part of Trump's ongoing efforts to carry out the largest deportation campaign in U.S. history.) And according to Justice Department records from November, 97% of the people detained had no criminal record at the time of their arrest.

There's blood everywhere, and the baby's dead,

Mayor Daniel Lurie's office has violated California public-records law by refusing to release information about the mayor's October call with President Donald Trump, a committee of city public-records commissioners ruled on Tuesday. The pivotal conversation between the two men preceded the president cancelling a planned "surge" of immigration agents to the Bay Area. A three-person committee of the city's Sunshine Ordinance Task Force, the body responsible for compliance with the city's public-records law, said Tuesday that Lurie's office had broken the California Public Records Act by claiming records related to the Oct. 22 call, including any logs, transcripts, and notes, are exempt under "attorney-client privilege."

San Francisco has been spared the widespread raids and sweeps that ICE agents have conducted in other cities, Milli Atkinson, head of the San Francisco Immigrant Legal Defense Collaborative, told a packed house at a panel discussion hosted by Mission Local, on how federal immigration policies have been playing out locally. But, Atkinson continued, "with the money from the 'Big Beautiful Bill,' we expect that is something that could happen here in the future, and we want to be prepared."

In November, his administration released a new national security strategy that redefines the goals of US foreign policy. Decades-long partners of the US, such as Europe, have had to realize that US support can no longer be taken for granted. Instead is being offered only when Trump senses a good deal for his country. What matters is "America First," or, as the slogan for his first 2016 election campaign said, "Make America Great Again" (MAGA).

San Francisco plans to launch a similar guest pass program, and airports in San Diego and Palm Springs have already done so, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Anyone seeking an OAK Guest Pass must file an online application with the Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport that asks for their date of birth, gender, and full legal name and asks them to scan their passport or state-issued ID. The Transportation Security Administration then reviews each application before granting approval.

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Dozens of protesters are blocking the two main entrances of the San Francisco ICE building Tuesday morning, according to the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity. In a press release, the organization says the protesters are from Bay Area faith communities and are standing up against ICE arrests. Video shows the large protest outside the ICE building on Sansome Street in the Financial District. Protesters were seen chanting and holding signs, some reading "ICE out of California."

"The goal is to shut this building down for the day," said Allison Tanner, a pastor at the Lakeshore Avenue Baptist Church in Oakland.

The ads are so widespread that TV viewers and social media users alike are seeing them everywhere, including on YouTube, Spotify, and LinkedIn. In one recent ad seen on LinkedIn, a stern-faced Uncle Sam points at the viewer. The message reads: "Join ICE Today" along with the note, "$50,000 signing bonus" at the bottom. Likewise, a 30-second TV spot that originally aired during the 2025 MTV Video Music Awards broadcast in September has been spotted nationwide in the months since.

Prosecutors allege that Dugan led 31-year-old Eduardo Flores-Ruiz through a back door after she told agents from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to speak to the chief judge about whether they were allowed to arrest people in the courthouse. Assistant US Attorney Keith Alexander alleged that Dugan said she would take the heat for helping Flores-Ruiz, who had appeared in court on a state charge. [The ICE agents] did not expect a judge, sworn to uphold the law, would divide their arrest team and impede their efforts to do their jobs, Alexander said.

Yesterday, after he made a stop at Target, he did get pulled over by [ICE] agents, and once he was able to produce his passport ID, they did let him go, Omar said on Sunday in an interview with WCCO. She added that her son, who she did not name, had earlier been praying at a mosque when ICE agents arrived and entered, before leaving without incident.