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    ICE arrests 100 people three days into Maine immigration crackdown, DHS says

    Organizers say ICE agents have been targeting African nationals amid surge focused in Portland and LewistonPeople affected by the US visa freeze: share your experienceThree days into its immigration crackdown in Maine, the Department of Homeland Security said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents had arrested “more than 100 illegal aliens”.In a statement to the Guardian on Friday, the DHS assistant secretary of public affairs, Tricia McLaughlin, said some of those taken into custody were “the worst of the worst” and had been “charged and convicted of horrific crimes”, but cited the same four examples it released earlier in the week. Continue reading… More

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    Trump to Canada’s Mark Carney: you are uninvited to my ‘board of peace’ – as it happened

    This live blog is now closed.Trump news at a glance: president’s ‘board of peace’ takes shapeThe committee is taking a recess for members to vote on the House floor. A reminder that today we’re expecting a vote on Department of Homeland Security funding bill that dozens of Democrats have vowed to vote against.The top Democrat on the House judiciary committee, Jamie Raskin, praised Jack Smith’s handling of his investigations into the president. Raskin also noted the persistent denigration by Donald Trump as Smith conducted the probes. Continue reading… More

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    Man accused of plot to murder US border patrol’s Bovino found not guilty

    Acquittal of Juan Espinoza Martinez in Chicago marks latest major federal prosecution to fall apart in courtA man accused of a murder-for-hire plot targeting a top US border patrol leader was found not guilty on Thursday in Chicago, the latest high-profile prosecution by the Department of Justice to fall apart in court.The government alleged that Juan Espinoza Martinez, 37, had offered a $10,000 bounty over Snapchat in October for the killing of Gregory Bovino, the border patrol official who has spearheaded aggressive immigration operations in cities across the country. Defense lawyers argued Espinoza Martinez was sharing an innocuous social media message that did not constitute a threat. Continue reading… More

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    ‘It’s like they’re hunting’: US citizens and legal residents report increase in racial profiling by ICE

    Trump administration’s immigration crackdown has led some people to take drastic measures to ensure their safetyIt was a normal Tuesday morning for Mohamed when he left his San Diego, California, house for his daily exercise in mid-January. But as he walked around the Colina del Sol park, four US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents approached and encircled the middle-aged father, who is using a pseudonym out of fear of retaliation from federal agents. The officers, Mohamed said, who wore jackets with ICE emblazoned on them and balaclavas that obscured their faces, asked for his green card before they began drilling him with questions about what he was doing in the park.“I was terrified,” Mohamed, a lawful permanent resident from Somalia, said through a translator. The ordeal ended shortly thereafter, but the experience has left a lasting impact on him. “I have high blood pressure,” Mohamed said about the encounter he believes was based on racial profiling. “I used to do my daily exercises; now I don’t even do that any more because I’m scared.” Continue reading… More

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    Greenlandic lawmaker says Nato has no mandate to negotiate nation’s status – as it happened

    This blog is now closedTrump declaration of Greenland framework deal met with scepticism as doubts persistTrump news at a glance: at Davos, president rambles, backs down and touts ‘future deal’ on GreenlandHouse Republicans are starting a push on Wednesday to hold former president Bill Clinton and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton in contempt of Congress over the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, opening the prospect of the House using one of its most powerful punishments against a former president for the first time.The contempt proceedings are an initial step toward a criminal prosecution by the Department of Justice that, if successful, could send the Clintons to prison.They’re not above the law. We’ve issued subpoenas in good faith.For five months we’ve worked with them. And time’s up. Continue reading… More

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    ICE detains five-year-old Minnesota boy arriving home, say school officials

    Superintendent says Liam Ramos and his father were taken into custody while in their driveway and sent to TexasUS Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained a five-year-old Minnesota boy on Tuesday as he returned home from school and transported him and his father to a Texas detention center, according to school officials.Liam Ramos, a preschooler, and his father were taken into custody while in their driveway, the superintendent of the school district in Columbia Heights, a Minneapolis suburb, said at a press conference on Wednesday. Liam, who had recently turned five, is one of four children in the school district who have been detained by federal immigration agents during the Trump administration’s enforcement surge in the region over the last two weeks, the district said. Continue reading… More

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    Minneapolis leaders call the ICE surge a ‘siege’. My reporting from there concurs

    After covering Trump’s immigration policies from Chicago and LA, the Twin Cities operation feels like a marked escalationThe Minneapolis Star Tribune editorial board described the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operation in the Twin Cities as “a military occupation”. Local leaders have used words like “siege” and “invasion”. After a week of reporting in Minneapolis and St Paul, I wouldn’t know how else to describe the scene.I’ve been covering the administration’s immigration policies since Donald Trump’s inauguration on 20 January last year. I was in Chicago in January last year, when the administration assigned hundreds of federal agents to conduct “enhanced targeted operations” in the city. I was in Los Angeles last summer, when agents began seizing workers at car washes and garment warehouses, grabbing bicyclists and raiding churches. Continue reading… More

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    Here’s how to fix America’s immigration system. Trump’s path is not the solution | Kenneth Roth

    A grand bargain on immigration could address problems with both the old approach and Trump’s new approachImmigration is one of the most divisive issues facing the United States, as it is in many countries. An ICE agent’s killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis is only the latest outrage that has brought the issue to the fore.Facing a 30 January deadline to renew funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which houses ICE, Democrats are now insisting on limits on ICE, at risk of another shutdown. It may be a pipe dream, but it is worth asking whether now might finally be a time to forge the long-elusive bipartisan agreement on immigration.Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch (1993-2022), is a visiting professor at Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs. His book, Righting Wrongs: Three Decades on the Front Lines Battling Abusive Governments, is published by Knopf and Allen Lane Continue reading… More