arrest

Afghans given Sunday deadline amid concerns over security after conflict with Israel, but humanitarian groups warn that mass deportations could further destabilise Afghanistan.

Millions of Afghan migrants and refugees in Iran have been asked to leave or face arrest as a deadline set by the government comes to an end.

Sunday’s target date neared amid public concerns over security in the aftermath of the 12-day conflict with Israel, which the United States joined with air strikes on Iran’s uranium-enrichment facilities.

But humanitarian organisations warned that mass deportations could further destabilise Afghanistan, one of the world’s most impoverished nations. Iran is home to an estimated 4 million Afghan migrants and refugees, and many have lived there for decades.

In 2023, Tehran launched a campaign to expel foreigners it said were living in the country “illegally”. In March, the Iranian government ordered that Afghans without the right to remain should leave voluntarily by Sunday or face expulsion.

Since then, more than 700,000 Afghans have left, and hundreds of thousands of others face expulsion. More than 230,000 departed in June alone, the United Nations International Organization for Migration said.

The government has denied targeting Afghans, who have fled their homeland to escape war, poverty and Taliban rule.

Batoul Akbari, a restaurant owner, told Al Jazeera that Afghans living in Tehran were hurt by “anti-Afghan sentiment”, adding that it was heartbreaking to see “people sent away from the only home they have ever known”.

“Being born in Iran gives us the feeling of having two homelands,” Akbari said. “Our parents are from Afghanistan, but this is what we’ve always known as home.”

Mohammad Nasim Mazaheri, a student whose family had to leave Iran, agreed: “The deportations have torn families apart.”

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated that Iran deported more than 30,000 Afghans on average each day during the war with Israel, up from about 2,000 earlier.

“We have always striven to be good hosts, but national security is a priority, and naturally, illegal nationals must return,” Iranian government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani said on Tuesday.

Late last month, the UNHCR said, of the 1.2 million returning Afghans, more than half had come from Iran after its government set its deadline on March 20.

“They are coming in buses, and sometimes, five buses arrive at one time with families and others, and the people are let out of the bus, and they are simply bewildered, disoriented and tired and hungry as well,” Arafat Jamal, the UNHCR representative in Afghanistan said as he described the scene at a border crossing.

“This has been exacerbated by the war, but I must say it has been part of an underlying trend that we have seen of returns from Iran, some of which are voluntary, but a large portion were also deportations.”

Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar, reporting from Tehran, said Afghans have increasingly been blamed for economic hardships, shortages and social issues in Iran.

“These accusations have been fuelled by political rhetoric and social media campaigns following 12 days of conflict between Iran and Israel and claims that Israel has recruited Afghans as spies,” he said.

BBC show Pebble Mill at One was an iconic magazine programme that ran throughout the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s – and here’s what happened to the original faces of the daytime series

They were the familiar faces that lit up Britain’s afternoons – the hosts, producers and personalities behind Pebble Mill at One, the BBC’s beloved daytime magazine programme that ran from 1972 to 1986. Whether they were interviewing celebrities, dispensing gardening advice or covering human interest stories from the famous foyer of the Birmingham studio, the Pebble Mill team became a fixture of the nation’s lunchtime telly.

But what happened to the show’s stars when the cameras stopped rolling?

From telly legends who went on to headline primetime shows, to behind-the-scenes figures who subtly influenced British broadcasting, many continued to leave their mark across radio, film and theatre. Others quietly stepped out of the spotlight – while some faced scandals that shook their public persona.

Here, we reminisce about the highs, lows and unexpected twists in the lives of Pebble Mill’s most recognisable faces. From gardening guru Marian Foster and broadcasting legend Alan Titchmarsh to the late Donny MacLeod and troubled DJ Dave Lee Travis, here’s what unfolded for the faces who once dominated daytime TV.

Dave Lee Travis

Dave Lee Travis was best known as the host of The Golden Oldie Picture Show and a DJ on BBC Radio 1. However, his career was later marred by legal issues.

In 2014, he was found guilty of indecently assaulting a woman working on The Mrs Merton Show in 1995 and was handed a three-month suspended sentence.

Though acquitted of several other accusations, the conviction resulted in the presenter’s episodes of Top of the Pops being no longer repeated by the BBC. Travis expressed being “mortified” and “really disappointed” by the verdict.

Despite the scandal, the now 80-year-old made a comeback to broadcasting. Throughout the years, Travis has presented programmes on various UK radio stations, including periods at Classic Gold, BBC Three Counties Radio, and United DJs Radio.

In 2025, he hosts a Sunday morning programme on Heritage Chart Radio.

Currently residing in Buckinghamshire with his Swedish wife Marianne, whom he wed in 1971, Travis enjoys photography and vintage automobiles.

Jock Gallagher

Gallagher began his BBC career in 1966 as a news producer and swiftly climbed the ladder, ultimately leading the Pebble Mill at One.

His influence extended beyond the programme’s triumph to nurturing celebrated BBC radio productions including The Archers, alongside programmes such as From the Grassroots and Offshore Britons.

Following decades of broadcasting service, Gallagher stepped down from the BBC in 2014.

He died in May 2025 aged 87 at Worcester Hospital. Former colleagues and admirers paid tribute, with one remembering: “I remember having a conversation with Jock in the late 1980s when I was trying to become a researcher, and fancied working on Radio 4 series.”

Donny MacLeod

Donny was a beloved figure on television, known for his warmth, professionalism, and innovative approach, becoming a staple in homes as the leading presenter of his show and shaping daytime TV for countless viewers.

He was one of the original faces of Pebble Mill at One, hosting the show from its beginnings in 1972 until his sudden death in 1984.

His career was studded with standout moments, including major BBC specials like MacLeod’s Soviet Union and MacLeod’s America, and memorable interviews with prominent figures such as Edward Heath, Les Dawson, Terry Wogan, Dame Edna Everage, and Morecambe and Wise.

Touching tributes have continued to honour Donny’s legacy, with one colleague fondly remembering: “He was kind and ever prepared to lend this novice a helping hand… For 11 years Donny was Pebble Mill at One.”

Passing away at the young age of 52 from a heart attack, Donny is still deeply missed as a trailblazer in British daytime broadcasting.

David Attwood

Starting his career as an assistant floor manager, David Attwood climbed the ladder, contributing to series like Out of Town Boys (1978), Keep Smiling (1979), and the BAFTA-winning Boys from the Black Stuff (1982).

After completing the BBC Directors course in 1984, he quickly made a name for himself as a director.

Attwood’s portfolio includes directing All Together Now, Airbase, and the intense thriller Killing Time.

He later pursued a freelance career, directing critically acclaimed projects such as Wild West, Fidel, and Stuart: A Life Backwards, which starred Tom Hardy.

David sadly died on 21 March 2024 after battling illness.

Remembered by peers as a talented and considerate director, David left an indelible mark on British television drama over three decades.

Marian Foster

A multifaceted broadcaster, Marian Foster was celebrated for her engaging on-screen personality and a deep-rooted passion for horticulture, which became her signature.

She broke new ground as one of the original presenters on Top Gear and went on to host gardening segments for BBC Look North after her time at Pebble Mill.

Foster boasts an extensive career in radio, having presented shows on BBC Radio 2, Woman’s Hour on Radio 4, and currently hosts Garden Mania every Sunday on BBC Radio Newcastle and Radio Tees.

A familiar face at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, she has imparted her horticultural wisdom to audiences for more than three decades.

Her diverse work includes documenting the impact of Live Aid in Ethiopia and even sharing the stage with The Who for a rendition of Tommy.

In recent times, she has continued her role as a judge for Northumbria in Bloom, been featured by Radio Times, and remains an endearing presence in the North East.

Alan Titchmarsh

Alan Titchmarsh rose to fame as the beloved presenter of Ground Force and later captivated viewers on ITV’s Love Your Garden, affirming his status as one of the nation’s favourite gardeners.

His natural charm extended beyond the garden, leading him to host various programmes including The Alan Titchmarsh Show, Popstar to Operastar, and Secrets of the National Trust.

In 2024, he made waves when North Korean TV censored his jeans, prompting Titchmarsh to quip that it gave him “a bit of street cred”.

The 76 year old father of two is a prolific author, having penned over 70 books, including best-selling novels, gardening guides, and memoirs.

He currently presents a Saturday afternoon programme on Classic FM and continues to write regularly for the press. Now in his mid-70s, he divides his time between his farmhouse in Hampshire and his residence on the Isle of Wight.

Titchmarsh was awarded an MBE in the 2000 New Year Honours for his contributions to horticulture and broadcasting, and was later promoted to CBE in the 2025 New Year Honours for his services to horticulture and charity.

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When a group of armed, masked men was spotted dragging a woman into an SUV in the Fashion District last week, a witness called 911 to report a kidnapping.

But when Los Angeles Police Department officers arrived, instead of making arrests, they formed a line to protect the alleged abductors from an angry crowd of onlookers demanding the woman’s release.

The reported kidnappers, it turned out, were special agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Police Chief Jim McDonnell defended the officers’ response, saying their first responsibility was to keep the peace and that they had no authority to interfere with the federal operation.

In political and activist circles, and across social media, critics blasted the LAPD for holding back the crowd instead of investigating why the agents were arresting the woman, who was later found to be a U.S. citizen.

“What happened downtown on Tuesday morning certainly looked and felt like LAPD was supporting ICE,” said Mike Bonin, a former City Council member who is now executive director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at Cal State L.A.

Kimberly Noriega, left, speaks with her aunt, Anita Neri Lozano, at Veterans Memorial Park in Culver City on Sunday. The family was attending a news conference regarding the arrest of a beloved street vendor, Ambrocio Lozano.

(Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Times)

The incident was one of more than half a dozen in recent weeks in which the LAPD responded to federal immigration enforcement actions that were called in as kidnappings.

The presence of local police officers at the scenes — even if they are not actively assisting ICE — has led some city leaders to question the department’s role in an ongoing White House crackdown that has swept up hundreds of immigrants and sown fear across Southern California.

Incidents of impostors masquerading as law enforcement have compounded the situation, along with rumors — so far unverified — that federal authorities have enlisted bounty hunters or private security contractors for immigration arrests.

Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin called coverage of one reported kidnapping a “hoax” in a post Tuesday on X and said: “ICE does not employ bounty hunters to make arrests.”

In a letter to the Police Commission last week, City Councilmember Monica Rodriguez said the LAPD should make sure federal agents who cover their faces and often use unmarked vehicles are who they claim to be.

“Our residents have a right to know who is operating in their neighborhoods and under what legal authority,” wrote Rodriguez, whose district includes the San Fernando Valley. “Allowing unidentified actors to forcibly detain individuals without oversight is not only reckless — it erodes public trust and undermines the very rule of law.”

She said that city leaders couldn’t allow “bounty-hunter-style tactics to take root in our city,” and urged the commission, the LAPD’s civilian policymaking body, to “develop proper legal and safe protocol that provide for officer safety, transparency and accountability to our communities.”

Residents stand behind a line of Vernon police officers after an immigration raid in the city of Bell on June 20.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

“This lack of identification is unacceptable. It creates an environment ripe for abuse and impersonation, enabling copycat vigilantes to pose as federal agents,” Rodriguez wrote.

State and local officials have proposed legislation to increase transparency around officer identification, but it’s unclear if the bills will become law — and whether they could actually be enforced against federal agents.

Police Commission President Erroll Southers said Tuesday that he and another commissioner met with City Council members to discuss the Police Department’s response to the Trump administration’s aggressive sweeps. Several commissioners questioned McDonnell about how LAPD officers are supposed to respond to reported kidnappings.

Los Angeles police officers stand guard as community members protest recent immigration raids in front of the Federal Building in downtown L.A. on June 18.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

McDonnell said the department created new guidelines that require a supervisor to respond and instruct LAPD officers to verify the purported ICE agents are legitimate, preserving a record of the interaction on body-worn cameras.

The chief said the top priority for officers is maintaining the safety of all those present, but ultimately officers have no authority to interfere with a federal operation.

According to a new poll from YouGov, a public opinion research firm, nearly three-quarters of Californians believe local police officers should arrest federal immigration agents who “act maliciously or knowingly exceed their authority under federal law.”

The same survey also found that a majority of state residents want to completely forbid California officials from collaborating with immigration enforcement and make it easier for citizens to file lawsuits when “authorities violate the due process rights of immigrants.”

The LAPD has long claimed that it has no role in civil immigration enforcement, but the department is now facing pressure from City Hall and beyond to go further and protect Angelenos who are undocumented.

A motion considered this week by the L.A. City Council would, among other things, limit the LAPD’s “support to agencies performing immigration enforcement.”

Eastside residents and others march in Boyle Heights on Tuesday as part of a series of “Reclaim Our Streets” actions being conducted in protest of federal immigration enforcement operations.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

LAPD officials say that the department has responded to at least seven calls in which people contacted 911 to report a kidnapping that turned out to be an ICE operation.

One emergency call came in when a group of masked federal Border Patrol agents was spotted staging near Dodgers Stadium last week, sparking a wave of speculation online about potential immigration enforcement at the ballpark. LAPD officers responded to the scene and again provided crowd control after a group of protesters showed up.

Several police supervisors said that in the past, it was customary for federal agents conducting surveillance in a given LAPD division to give the area’s watch commander a heads-up as a courtesy. But that longstanding practice has ended, leaving them largely left in the dark about the timing and location of planned immigration raids.

Cmdr. Lillian Carranza said it was irresponsible for people to describe the arrests as “kidnappings” and encourage people to call 911, saying that there is misinformation circulating online about how and when federal authorities can arrest someone. Authorities don’t need to present a warrant when encountering someone on the street, she said; all they need is probable cause.

“If people have concerns about the conduct of federal agents, they need to seek justice in court,” she said. “That is the place to litigate the case. Not the streets.”

In a testy exchange last month, McDonnell told the City Council that even if he knew about an immigration operation beforehand, he would not alert city leaders.

The LAPD’s relationship with ICE has been the subject of intense debate on social media platforms such as Reddit, where some commenters argued that the department’s focus on policing protesters was a tacit endorsement of the federal government.

Much of the discussion has fixated on an incident that occurred last week in downtown Los Angeles in which a woman named Andrea Guadalupe Velez was detained by agents clad in bulletproof vests with gaiters over their faces.

A livestream video showed a man, Luis Hipolito, who was later arrested, asking agents for their names and badge numbers.

“I’m calling 911 right now,” he told the agents.

“911, I want to report a crime. I want to report a crime,” Hipolito is heard saying on the phone.

“What are you reporting?” an operator is heard asking.

“They’re kidnapping kids, they’re kidnapping people on Nine and Main Street,” he is heard saying. “I need LAPD right here, right now. Nine and Main Street. They’re kidnapping, they’re kidnapping people.”

After several agents were seen piling on top of Hipolito, LAPD officers arrived at the scene. They formed a line between the agents and the angry crowd, members of whom were shouting to release Hipolito.

Homeland Security’s McLaughlin said Velez “was arrested for assaulting an ICE enforcement officer.”

Federal authorities said in court filings that Velez “abruptly” stepped into the path of an agent in “an apparent effort to prevent him from apprehending the male subject he was chasing.”

Velez, a Cal Poly Pomona graduate who is 4 feet 11, allegedly stood in the path of the agent with her arms extended. The agent couldn’t stop in time and was struck in his head and chest, federal authorities allege.

Velez’s mother, Margarita Flores, was watching in her rearview mirror, having just dropped her daughter off at the scene.

Flores said she saw a man running toward her daughter and then Velez falling to the ground. Flores said the men didn’t have identification or license plates on their car.

Fearing a kidnapping, she told her other daughter, Estrella Rosas, to call the police. When the LAPD arrived, Rosas said, her sister “went running to one of the police officers in hopes that they could help her.”

“But one of the ICE agents went back after her and fully [put] her in handcuffs,” Rosas said. “He physically had to carry her to put her inside the car and they drove away in the car that had no license plates.”

Velez spent two days in a federal detention facility. Charged with assaulting a federal officer, she made her initial court appearance last week and was released on $5,000 bail. She has not yet entered a plea and is due back in court July 17.

Times staff writer Brittny Mejia contributed to this report.

July 3 (UPI) — Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested former middleweight world champion boxer Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. on Wednesday in Studio City, Calif., due to alleged cartel ties.

Chavez “has an active arrest warrant in Mexico for his involvement in organized crime and trafficking firearms, ammunition and explosives,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a news release on Thursday.

“It is shocking the previous administration flagged this criminal illegal alien as a public safety threat, but chose not to prioritize his removal and let him leave and come back into our country,” said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin.

“Under President Trump, no one is above the law — including world-famous athletes.”

DHS accuses Chavez of being a “criminal illegal alien” and said the Biden administration determined he was not an immigration enforcement priority despite knowing he had been “flagged as a public safety threat.”

Chavez legally entered the country on a tourist visa in August 2023 and is “believed to be an affiliate of the Sinaloa Cartel,” which is a designated foreign terrorist organization, according to the DHS.

The tourist visa expired in February 2025, and Chavez on April 2, 2024, filed an application to become a lawful permanent resident.

His application is based on being married to a U.S. citizen, who DHS says is connected to the Sinaloa Cartel through the now-dead son of cartel leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.

DHS officials said Chavez made “multiple fraudulent statements” on the application, determined he illegally was in the United States and was removable as of Friday.

Officials with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in December had notified ICE that Chavez “is an egregious public threat.”

Despite the notice, the Biden administration on Jan. 3 allowed Chavez to re-enter and paroled him into the country at the San Ysidro, Calif., port of entry.

While in the United States, Chavez was arrested, charged and convicted of driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol and driving without a license in 2012.

A district judge in 2023 issued an arrest warrant for Chavez for alleged organized criminal activities involving firearms, ammunition and explosives, according to DHS.

He also was arrested on Jan. 7, 2024, by Los Angeles Police and charged with illegal possession of an assault weapon and manufacture of a short-barreled rifle.

Chavez lost a cruiserweight boxing match against Jake Paul by unanimous decision on Saturday.

Influencer Liver King says he still has his sights on Joe Rogan, even after he was arrested in Texas earlier this week for making online threats toward the popular podcaster.

The 47-year-old social media personality known for his carnivorous and “primitive” lifestyle was released from Travis County Jail Wednesday afternoon on $20,000 bail, officials confirmed to The Times. He was arrested Tuesday in Austin on suspicion of one count of misdemeanor terroristic threat. Court records show that the influencer — born Brian Johnson — must stay at least 200 yards away from and must not contact Rogan and his family. Johnson is also prohibited from possessing firearms and must undergo a mental health evaluation within a week of his release.

Johnson addressed his release and its terms in a video posted Thursday to his Instagram and Facebook pages. Standing on a vibrating exercise plate, Johnson seemingly hints at plans to confront Rogan — namedropping a Hollywood star to sidestep mentioning the podcaster’s name — while respecting the terms of his restraining order.

“If anybody knows where Seth Rogen is — the other version of him that rhymes with ‘blow’… where his family’s gonna be today, if you can let my team know so that we can stay away from them,” he said, before immediately walking back his request.

“Don’t do anything to their family,” Johnson continues, before contradicting himself and asking fans again to alert him and his team if they are near anyone with “the last name Rogan.” He pans the camera down to display his ankle monitor and rambles about his plans to appear at the state capitol building.

He adds, naming the wrong celebrity: “I’m picking a fight. Who’s it with? Seth Rogen. It’s with Seth Rogen. What’s it for? Family.”

Neither representatives for Johnson nor Rogan immediately responded to The Times’ request for comment on Friday.

Liver King booking image.

(Austin Police Department)

A spokesperson for the Austin Police Department told The Times on Wednesday that detectives learned Tuesday morning that Johnson, 47, had “made threats against the “Joe Rogan Experience” host on his Instagram profile.” Detectives reviewed the posts and saw that Johnson was en route to Austin, where Rogan lives, “while continuing to make threatening statements,” the spokesperson said.

Detectives contacted the podcaster who claimed he never interacted with Johnson and felt threatened by Liver King’s online posts. The spokesperson said officials obtained an arrest warrant for Johnson and detained the social media star at an Austin hotel.

Johnson on Monday posted an Instagram video of himself bear-crawling as he calls out Rogan: “I challenge you man-to-man to a fight.” Johnson rambled in his video about his weight, the stakes of this would-be battle and the “real tension” he has with Rogan. Johnson continued to post Instagram videos — some still name-dropping Rogan and some filmed while he’s in a shower — throughout the day, even after he arrived at the hotel in Austin.

Johnson’s Instagram account also posted several lengthy videos documenting the moments prior to his arrest Tuesday. In one clip, Johnson can be seen getting dressed in a burgundy sweatsuit, including a hoodie featuring a design that essentially pits his brand logo against that of the “Joe Rogan Experience.” Videos also see Johnson haphazardly picking up dishes and various items — including a screwdriver and a multi-tool — as he instructs someone off-camera to keep recording.

A second video shows Johnson huddling and praying with his family in the hotel room before officers escort him down a hallway and into an elevator. In another video posted to Johnson’s account, the person off-screen explains to the influencer’s wife that her husband will be “in and out” and will “need to see a judge before he is dismissed.” They exit the hotel and approach the law enforcement vehicle, where officers are seen securing Johnson into the back seat.

In court documents reviewed by The Times on Friday, a detective noted that Johnson’s social media posts featured “long rants that didn’t appear to make much sense.”

“Affiant knows that behavior such as that can indicate some sort of mental health episode, indicating that Brian Johnson could be a danger to himself and others,” the detective wrote before detailing other videos from Johnson that raised concern.

The detective also wrote of their correspondences with Rogan, who spoke of Johnson’s alleged “significant drug issue” and said he feels “Johnson appears to be significantly unstable and seems like he needs help,” according to the court filing.

Mandonna “Donna” Kashanian lived in the United States for 47 years, married a U.S. citizen and raised their daughter. She was gardening in the yard of her New Orleans home when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers handcuffed and took her away, her family said.

Kashanian arrived in 1978 on a student visa and applied for asylum, fearing retaliation for her father’s support of the U.S.-backed shah. She lost her bid, but she was allowed to remain with her husband and child if she checked in regularly with immigration officials, her husband and daughter said. She complied, once checking in from South Carolina during Hurricane Katrina. She is now being held at an immigration detention center in Basile, La., while her family tries to get information.

Other Iranians are also getting arrested by immigration authorities after decades in the United States. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security won’t say how many people they’ve arrested, but U.S. military strikes on Iran have fueled fears that there is more to come.

“Some level of vigilance, of course, makes sense, but what it seems like ICE has done is basically give out an order to round up as many Iranians as you can, whether or not they’re linked to any threat and then arrest them and deport them, which is very concerning,” said Ryan Costello, policy director of the National Iranian American Council, an advocacy group.

Homeland Security did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment on Kashanian’s case but have been touting arrests of Iranians. The department announced the arrests of at least 11 Iranians on immigration violations a week ago, during the weekend of the U.S. missile strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. U.S. Customs and Border Protection said, without elaborating, that it arrested seven Iranians at a Los Angeles-area address that “has been repeatedly used to harbor illegal entrants linked to terrorism.”

The department “has been full throttle on identifying and arresting known or suspected terrorists and violent extremists that illegally entered this country, came in through Biden’s fraudulent parole programs or otherwise,” spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said of the 11 arrests. She didn’t offer any evidence of terrorist or extremist ties. Her comment on parole programs referred to former President Biden’s expanded legal pathways to entry, which President Trump shut down.

Russell Milne, Kashanian’s husband, said his wife is not a threat. Her appeal for asylum was complicated because of “events in her early life,” he explained. A court found an earlier marriage of hers to be fraudulent.

But over four decades, Kashanian, 64, built a life in Louisiana. The couple met when she was bartending as a student in the late 1980s. They married and had a daughter. She volunteered with Habitat for Humanity, filmed Persian cooking tutorials on YouTube and was a grandmother figure to the children next door.

The fear of deportation always hung over the family, Milne said, but he said his wife did everything that was being asked of her.

“She’s meeting her obligations,” Milne said. “She’s retirement age. She’s not a threat. Who picks up a grandmother?”

While Iranians have been crossing the border illegally for years, especially since 2021, they have faced little risk of being deported to their home countries due to severed diplomatic relations with the U.S. That seems to no longer be the case.

The Trump administration has deported hundreds of people, including Iranians, to countries other than their own in an attempt to circumvent diplomatic hurdles with governments that won’t take their people back. During Trump’s second term, countries including El Salvador, Costa Rica and Panama have taken back noncitizens from the U.S.

The administration has asked the Supreme Court to clear the way for several deportations to South Sudan, a war-ravaged country with which it has no ties, after the justices allowed deportations to countries other than those that noncitizens came from.

The U.S. Border Patrol arrested Iranians 1,700 times at the Mexican border from October 2021 through November 2024, according to the most recent public data available. The Homeland Security Department reported that about 600 Iranians overstayed visas as business or exchange visitors, tourists and students in the 12-month period through September 2023, the most recent report shows.

Iran was one of 12 countries subject to a U.S. travel ban imposed by Trump that took effect this month. Some fear ICE’s growing deportation arrests will be another blow.

In Oregon, an Iranian man was detained by immigration agents this past week while driving to the gym. He was picked up roughly two weeks before he was scheduled for a check-in at ICE offices in Portland, according to court documents filed by his attorney, Michael Purcell.

The man, identified in court filings as S.F., has lived in the U.S. for more than 20 years, and his wife and two children are U.S. citizens.

S.F. applied for asylum in the U.S. in the early 2000s, but his application was denied in 2002. His appeal failed, but the government did not deport him and he continued to live in the country for decades, according to court documents.

Due to “changed conditions” in Iran, S.F. would face “a vastly increased danger of persecution” if he were to be deported, Purcell wrote in his petition. “These circumstances relate to the recent bombing by the United States of Iranian nuclear facilities, thus creating a de facto state of war between the United States and Iran.”

S.F.’s long residency in the U.S., his conversion to Christianity and the fact that his wife and children are U.S. citizens “sharply increase the possibility of his imprisonment in Iran, or torture or execution,” he said.

Similarly, Kashanian’s daughter said she is worried what will happen to her mother.

“She tried to do everything right,” Kaitlynn Milne said.

Chandler, Rush and Spagat write for the Associated Press.

WASHINGTON — Just hours after she pleaded not guilty to federal charges brought by the Trump administration, Rep. LaMonica McIver of New Jersey was surrounded by dozens of supportive Democratic colleagues in the halls of the Capitol. The case, they argued, strikes at the heart of congressional power.

“If they can break LaMonica, they can break the House of Representatives,” said New York Rep. Yvette D. Clarke, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Federal prosecutors allege that McIver interfered with law enforcement during a visit with two other House Democrats to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Newark. She calls the charges “baseless.”

It’s far from the only clash between congressional Democrats and the Republican administration as officials ramp up deportations of immigrants around the country.

Sen. Alex Padilla of California was forcibly removed by federal agents, wrestled to the ground and held while attempting to ask a question at a news conference of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. At least six groups of House Democrats have recently been denied entry to ICE detention centers. In early June, federal agents entered the district office of Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) and briefly detained a staffer.

Congressional Republicans have largely criticized Democrats’ behavior as inflammatory and inappropriate, and some have publicly supported the prosecution of McIver.

Often in the dark about the Trump administration’s moves, congressional Democrats are wrestling with how to perform their oversight duties at a time of roiling tensions with the White House and new restrictions on lawmakers visiting federal facilities.

“We have the authority to conduct oversight business, and clearly, House Republicans are not doing that oversight here,” said New Jersey Rep. Rob Menendez, one of the House Democrats who went with McIver to the Newark ICE facility.

“It’s our obligation to continue to do it on-site at these detention facilities. And even if they don’t want us to, we are going to continue to exert our right.”

A stark new reality

The prospect of facing charges for once routine oversight activity has alarmed many congressional Democrats who never expected to face criminal prosecution as elected officials. Lawmakers in both parties were also unnerved by the recent targeted shootings of two Minnesota lawmakers — one of them fatal — and the nation’s tense political atmosphere.

“It’s a moment that calls for personal courage of members of Congress,” said Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.). “I wish that we had more physical protection. I think that’s one of those harsh realities that members of Congress who are not in leadership recognize: that oftentimes, we do this job at our own peril, and we do it anyway.”

The arrests and detentions of lawmakers have led some Democrats to take precautionary measures. Several have consulted with the House general counsel about their right to conduct oversight. Multiple lawmakers also sought personal legal counsel, while others have called for a review of congressional rules to provide greater protections.

“The Capitol Police are the security force for members of Congress. We need them to travel with us, to go to facilities and events that the president may have us arrested for,” said Rep. Jonathan Jackson (D-Ill.).

‘Not a lot of transparency’

As the minority party in the House, Democrats lack the subpoena power to force the White House to provide information. That’s a problem, they say, because the Trump administration is unusually secretive about its actions.

“There’s not a lot of transparency. From day to day, oftentimes, we’re learning about what’s happening at the same time as the rest of the nation,” said Rep. Lucy McBath (D-Ga.), who led a prayer for McIver at the Capitol rally.

To amplify their concerns, Democrats have turned to public letters, confronted officials at congressional hearings and used digital and media outreach to try to create public pressure.

“We’ve been very successful when they come in before committees,” said Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-Ill.), who added that she believed the public inquiries have “100%” resonated with voters.

Tapping into the information pipeline

Congressional Democrats say they often rely on local lawmakers, business leaders and advocates to be their eyes and ears on the ground.

A few Democrats say their best sources of information are across the political aisle, since Republicans typically have clearer lines of communication with the White House.

“I know who to call in Houston with the chamber. I think all of us do that,” Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas) said of how business leaders are keeping her updated.

Garcia said Democrats “need to put more pressure” on leading figures in the agriculture, restaurant and hospitality sectors to take their concerns about the immigrant crackdown to President Trump’s White House.

“They’re the ones he’ll listen to. They’re the ones who can add the pressure. He’s not going to listen to me, a Democrat who was an impeachment manager, who is on the bottom of his list, if I’m on it at all,” Garcia said.

Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) had a working relationship with a for-profit ICE facility in his district until the Department of Homeland Security in February ended reports as part of an agency-wide policy change. A member of Crow’s staff now regularly goes to the facility and waits, at times for hours, until staff at the Aurora facility respond to detailed questions posed by the office.

‘Real oversight’ requires winning elections

Still, many House Democrats concede that they can conduct little of their desired oversight until they are back in the majority.

Rep. Marc Veasey (D-Texas) said that “real oversight power and muscle” only comes “when you have a gavel.”

“Nothing else matters. No rousing oratory, no tours, no speeches, no social media or entertainment, none of that stuff,” Veasey said. “Because the thing that keeps Trump up at night more than anything else is the idea he’s going to lose this House and there’ll be real oversight pressure applied to him.”

Brown writes for the Associated Press.

NEWARK, N.J. — U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver pleaded not guilty Wednesday to federal charges accusing her of assaulting and interfering with immigration officers outside a New Jersey detention center during a congressional oversight visit at the facility.

“They will not intimidate me. They will not stop me from doing my job,” she said outside the courthouse in Newark after the brief hearing.

McIver, a Democrat, was charged by interim U.S. Atty. Alina Habba, a Republican appointed by President Trump, following the May 9 visit to Newark’s Delaney Hall. Immigration and Customs Enforcement uses the privately owned, 1,000-bed facility as a detention center.

This month she was indicted on three counts of assaulting, resisting, impeding and interfering with federal officials. Two of the counts carry a maximum sentence of up to eight years in prison. The third is a misdemeanor with a maximum punishment of one year in prison.

During Wednesday’s hearing, McIver stood and told U.S. District Judge Jamel Semper: “Your honor, I plead not guilty.” The judge set a Nov. 10 trial date.

Outside the courthouse, McIver warned that anyone who pushes back against the Trump administration will find themselves in a similar position.

McIver’s lawyer, former U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Paul Fishman, said McIver pleaded not guilty because she is not guilty. He said federal agents created a risky situation at Delaney Hall.

A message seeking comment Wednesday was left with Habba’s office.

Among those at McIver’s side Wednesday were her family and elected officials, including Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who was outside the detention center with McIver and other legislators on May 9.

Baraka was also arrested on a trespassing charge that was later dropped and is suing Habba over what he called a malicious prosecution.

Baraka accused the Trump administration of using law enforcement as “an appendage of their ideology to begin to hammer us.”

The indictment of McIver is the latest development in a legal-political drama that has seen the Trump administration take Democratic officials from New Jersey’s largest city to court amid the president’s ongoing immigration crackdown and Democrats’ efforts to respond. The prosecution is a rare federal criminal case against a sitting member of Congress for allegations other than fraud or corruption.

A nearly two-minute video clip released by the Department of Homeland Security shows McIver at the facility inside a chain-link fence just before Baraka’s arrest on other side of the barrier, where other people were protesting. McIver and uniformed officials go through the gate, and she joins others shouting that they should circle the mayor.

The video shows McIver in a tightly packed group of people and officers. At one point her left elbow and then her right elbow push into an officer wearing a dark face covering and an olive green uniform emblazoned with the word “Police.”

It is not clear from police bodycam video if the contact was intentional, incidental or the result of jostling in the chaotic scene.

The complaint alleges that she “slammed” her forearm into an agent and then tried to restrain the agent by grabbing him.

The indictment also says she placed her arms around the mayor to try to stop his arrest and says again that she slammed her forearm into and grabbed an agent.

Democrats including New Jersey Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman and Rob Menendez, who were with McIver at the detention center that day, have criticized the arrest and disputed the charges.

Members of Congress are legally authorized to go into federal immigration facilities as part of their oversight powers, even without notice. Congress passed a 2019 appropriations bill spelling out that authority.

McIver, 39, first came to Congress in September in a special election after the death of Rep. Donald Payne Jr. left a vacancy in the 10th District. She was then elected to a full term in November.

A Newark native, she was president of the Newark City Council from 2022 to 2024 and worked in the city’s public schools before that.

Catalini writes for the Associated Press.

McALLEN, Texas — Adults fighting kids for clean water, despondent toddlers, and a child with swollen feet denied a medical exam: These first-hand accounts from immigrant families at detention centers included in a motion filed by advocates Friday night are offering a glimpse of conditions at Texas facilities.

Families shared their testimonies with immigrant advocates filing a lawsuit to prevent the Trump administration from terminating the Flores settlement agreement, a 1990s-era policy that requires immigrant children detained in federal custody be held in safe and sanitary conditions.

The agreement could challenge President Trump’s family detention provisions in his massive tax and spending bill, which also seeks to make the detention time indefinite and comes as the administration ramps up arrests of immigrants nationwide.

“At a time when Congress is considering funding the indefinite detention of children and families, defending the Flores Settlement is more urgent than ever,” Mishan Wroe, a senior immigration attorney at the National Center for Youth Law, said in a statement Friday.

Advocates with the center, as well as the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, RAICES and Children’s Rights contacted or visited children and their families held in two Texas family detention centers in Dilley and Karnes, which reopened this year.

The conditions of the family detention facilities were undisclosed until immigration attorneys filed an opposing motion Friday night before a California federal court.

The oversight of the detention facilities was possible because of the settlement, and the visits help ensure standards of compliance and transparency, said Sergio Perez, the executive director of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law. Without the settlement, those overseeing the facilities would lose access to them and could not document what is happening inside.

Out of 90 families who spoke to RAICES, an immigration legal support group, since March, 40 expressed medical concerns, according to the court documents. Several testimonies expressed concern over water quantity and quality.

Emailed messages seeking comment were sent to the office of U.S. Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi and to CoreCivic and Geo Group, the private prison companies that operate the detention facilities in Dilley and Karnes, respectively. There was no response from Bondi’s office or the operators of the facilities as of midday Saturday.

One mother was told she would have to use tap water for formula for her 9-month-old, who had diarrhea for three days after. A 16-year-old girl described people scrambling over one another for water.

“We don’t get enough water. They put out a little case of water, and everyone has to run for it,” said the declaration from the girl held with her mother and two younger siblings at the Karnes County Immigration Processing Center. “An adult here even pushed my little sister out of the way to get to the water first.”

Faisal Al-Juburi, chief external affairs officer for RAICES, said Friday in a statement that the conditions “only serve to reinforce the vital need for transparent and enforceable standards and accountability measures,” citing an “unconscionable obstruction of medical care for those with acute, chronic, and terminal illnesses.”

One family with a young boy with cancer said he missed his doctor’s appointment after the family was arrested after they attended an immigration court hearing. He is now experiencing relapse symptoms, according to the motion. Another family said their 9-month-old lost more than 8 pounds while in detention for a month.

Children spoke openly about their trauma during visits with legal monitors, including a 12-year-old boy with a blood condition. He reported that his feet became too inflamed to walk, and even though he saw a doctor, he was denied further testing. Now, he stays mostly off his feet. “It hurts when I walk,” he said in a court declaration.

Arrests have left psychological trauma. A mother of a 3-year-old boy who saw agents go inside his babysitter’s home with guns started acting differently after detention. She said he now throws himself on the ground, bruises himself and refuses to eat most days.

Growing concerns as ICE ramps up operations

Many of the families in detention were already living in the U.S., reflecting the recent shift from immigration arrests at the border to internal operations.

Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff and main architect of Trump’s immigration policies, said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers would target at least 3,000 arrests a day, up from about 650 a day during the first few months of Trump’s second term.

Leecia Welch, the deputy legal director at Children’s Rights, said that as bad as facility conditions are, they will only get worse as more immigrants are brought in.

“As of early June, the census at Dilley was around 300, and only two of its five areas were open,” Welch said of her visits. “With a capacity of around 2,400, it’s hard to imagine what it would be like with 2,000 more people.”

Pediatricians such as Dr. Marsha Griffin with the American Academy of Pediatrics Council said they are concerned and are advocating across the country to allow pediatric monitors with child welfare experts inside the facilities.

Challenge to Flores agreement

The Flores agreement is poised to become more relevant if Trump’s tax and spending legislation, known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, passes with the current language allowing the indefinite detention of immigrant families, which is not allowed under the Flores agreement.

Trump’s legislation approved by the House also proposes setting aside $45 billion in funding, a threefold spending increase, over the next four years to expand ICE detention of adults and families. The Senate is now considering the bill.

Under these increased efforts to add more detention space, Geo Group, the corporation operating the detention facility in Karnes, will soon be reopening an infamous prison — which housed gangsters Al Capone and Machine Gun Kelly — for migrant detention in Leavenworth, Kan.

Immigration advocates argue that if the settlement were terminated, the government would need to create regulations that conform to the agreement’s terms.

“Plaintiffs did not settle for policy making — they settled for rulemaking,” the motion read.

The federal government will have a chance to submit a reply brief. A court hearing is scheduled for mid-July.

Gonzalez writes for the Associated Press.

On Tuesday, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander was arrested by several masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at a courthouse in Manhattan as he attempted to steer an individual past immigration authorities. That same day, masked agents outside a Walmart in Pico Rivera detained two individuals — one a target of immigration enforcement, the other a U.S. citizen who tried to intervene.

These two scenes from opposite sides of the country illustrate what has become a more common problem: federal agents wearing masks to avoid recognition. On Thursday, masked individuals said to be affiliated with the Department of Homeland Security descended on a Home Depot in Hollywood and on Dodger Stadium.

Masking is not good law enforcement practice. It may contradict Homeland Security regulations, while potentially providing cover for some officers to violate constitutional and civil rights. It undermines agents’ authority and endangers public safety as well.

The federal government has no specific policy banning immigration agents from wearing masks. But the fact that such practice is not illegal does not make it acceptable. Department of Homeland Security regulations require immigration officers to identify themselves during an arrest or, in cases of a warrantless arrest, provide a statement explaining how they identified themselves. The use of masks seems to violate the intent of these directives for identification.

ICE agents in masks are becoming disturbingly routine. There were ICE agents in masks at the Los Angeles immigration protests recently, just as there have been at enforcement actions in Minneapolis, Boston, Phoenix and across the country. In March a video of Rumeysa Ozturk, a doctoral student at Tufts University, being detained by masked officers on the street went viral.

There seems to be no uniformity in the face coverings immigration agents wear, which has included ski masks, surgical masks, balaclavas and sunglasses. Such inconsistency across a federal workforce flies in the face of sound policing. Masked agents can confuse both bystanders and ICE targets, which risks people interfering with enforcement actions that look more like kidnappings. The International Assn. of Chiefs of Police has warned that the public “may be intimidated or fearful of officers wearing a face covering, which may heighten their defensive reactions.”

Todd Lyons, acting director of ICE, said earlier this month that immigration agents wear masks to protect themselves. “I’m sorry if people are offended by them wearing masks,” he said, “but I’m not going to let my officers and agents go out there and put their lives on the line, their family on the line, because people don’t like what immigration enforcement is.”

Yet law enforcement jobs come with an assumption of exactly that risk. Consider that the overwhelming majority of police officers, sheriffs and FBI agents fulfill their duties without concealing their faces. Correction officers who deal with prisoners do not wear masks, nor do judges who administer our laws. Because these public employees have such tremendous power, their roles require full transparency.

Besides, ICE agents are increasingly targeting noncriminals, which mitigates the argument that agents require masks for safety. According to the research site Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, about 44% of people in ICE detention as of June 1 have no criminal record.

When ICE agents wear masks, there can be unintended consequences. Lately, there has been a spike in people impersonating agents and engaging in harassment, assault and violence. In April, a Florida woman wore a mask as she posed as an ICE agent and attempted to kidnap her ex-boyfriend’s wife.

Ironically, the Trump administration has a double standard around the idea of people wearing masks. It has demanded that universities bar students from wearing masks during protests. In the aftermath of the Los Angeles immigration protests, the president posted on social media, “From now on, MASKS WILL NOT BE ALLOWED to be worn at protests.” Shouldn’t that principle be applied to both sides?

True, it makes sense for immigration agents to use face coverings when they are making arrests of a high-profile target or conducting an undercover operation. However, masking should be the exception, not the norm. If ICE agents are conducting their duties anonymously, they open the door to potential civil rights and due process violations. The practice gives impunity to agents to make unlawful arrests, without the possibility of public accountability.

Masking can also be seen as a show of intimidation by immigration agents — whether their target is an undocumented migrant or an American citizen, like Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who was arrested outside a New Jersey detention facility in May. Masked ICE agents give the impression of being a secret police force, which is not good for our democracy.

Last week, two Democratic lawmakers in California introduced a bill that would bar local, state and federal law enforcement officers in California from wearing masks on duty (with certain exceptions). Although this is a step in the right direction, it remains unclear whether such a state measure could be applied to federal agents. Congress should ban the use of masks by immigration agents.

ICE officers should not be allowed to conceal their faces. The public’s need for accountability strongly outweighs any rationale for agents’ anonymity.

Raul A. Reyes is an immigration attorney and contributor to NBC Latino and CNN Opinion. X: @RaulAReyes; Instagram: @raulareyes1

New York City’s Comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander has been freed after being arrested by federal agents at an immigration court as he linked arms with a man authorities were attempting to detain. The incident was caught on camera.

One of the two detainees still missing after escaping from a New Jersey federal immigration detention center has been arrested, the FBI said Tuesday.

Franklin Norberto Bautista-Reyes, from Honduras, has been taken into custody, FBI spokesperson Amy Thoreson said in an email. Andres Felipe Pineda-Mogollon, from Colombia, is still missing from Thursday night’s escape, the bureau said.

Bautista-Reyes and Pineda-Mogollon and two other men busted out of the Delaney Hall detention center in Newark during reports of disorder there by breaking through a wall and escaping from a parking lot, according to U.S. Sen. Andy Kim, a New Jersey Democrat, and Homeland Security officials.

All four men were in the country illegally and had been charged by local police in New Jersey and New York City, federal officials said.

Bautista-Reyes was charged in May with aggravated assault, attempt to cause bodily injury, terroristic threats and a weapon crime. Pineda-Mogollon, from Colombia, was charged with minor larceny and burglary crimes.

The details surrounding Bautista-Reyes’ capture were not immediately clear. Messages seeking information were sent to the FBI and the Homeland Security Department, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The FBI on Monday had increased the reward for information leading to their arrest to $25,000 from $10,000.

Joel Enrique Sandoval-Lopez, one of the other fugitives, was taken into custody in Passaic, N.J., on Friday, the day after the escape in nearby Newark. Then, on Sunday, Joan Sebastian Castaneda-Lozada surrendered to federal authorities in Milleville, N.J. Sandoval-Lopez, from Honduras, was charged with unlawful possession of a handgun in October and aggravated assault in February, officials said. Castaneda-Lozada, from Colombia, was charged with burglary, theft and conspiracy, authorities said.

A message seeking comment on behalf of the men was left Tuesday with the New Jersey public defender’s office. It’s unclear who may be representing the men.

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, a Democrat who’s been critical of President Trump’s immigration crackdown, cited reports of a possible uprising and escape after disorder broke out at the facility Thursday night and protesters outside the center locked arms and pushed against barricades as vehicles passed through gates. Much is still unclear about what unfolded there.

But GEO Group, the company that owns and operates the detention facility for the federal government, said in a statement that there was “no widespread unrest” at the facility.

Delaney Hall has been the site of clashes this year between Democratic officials who say the facility needs more oversight and the Trump administration and those who run the facility.

Baraka was arrested May 9, handcuffed and charged with trespassing. The charge was later dropped and U.S. Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver was later charged with assaulting federal officers, stemming from a skirmish that happened outside the facility. She has denied the charges.

Catalini writes for the Associated Press.

Protesters have denounced the leader’s incarceration and ban from public office as an act of political retribution.

A federal court in Argentina has granted former President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner house arrest to serve her six-year sentence for corruption charges.

On Tuesday, the court decided that the 72-year-old Fernandez’s age and visibility as a political figure made house arrest a reasonable option for her confinement.

Just three years ago, in 2022, the popular left-wing leader faced an assassination attempt, wherein an assailant aimed a pistol at her head. The court cited such dangers in its decision, saying Fernandez’s safety “would become complex in a situation of prison confinement in coexistence with any type of prison population”.

It is not uncommon for courts in Argentina to permit house arrest for individuals of advanced age as well.

The former president’s house arrest must begin immediately, the court ruled. It also explained that she would be subject to electronic monitoring. She will serve out her sentence at her apartment in Buenos Aires that she shares with her daughter and granddaughter.

Fernandez, the court said, “must remain at the registered address, an obligation that she may not break except in exceptional situations”.  Any future visitors to the apartment — outside of household staff, healthcare workers and other approved individuals — will have to be vetted by the court.

The former president’s incarceration comes after Argentina’s Supreme Court last week upheld her conviction and barred her from running for public office ever again.

She was found guilty in 2022 of using public works projects, including roadways, to give beneficial contracts to a close associate of her family, Lazaro Baez. Prosecutors said the contracts awarded to Baez had rates 20 percent higher than normal — a sum that could translate to millions of dollars.

Other scandals have dogged her political career, including accusations of bribery and money laundering. Some of those cases continue to be weighed by Argentina’s judicial system.

But Fernandez has dismissed the allegations against her as political attacks. She had been preparing to launch a bid in this year’s legislative elections, until the ban on her candidacy.

Fernandez served as Argentina’s president from 2007 to 2015, after succeeding her husband, the late Nestor Kirchner.

In 2019, four years after she left the Casa Rosada — the “Pink House” of the presidency — Fernandez returned to the executive branch as vice president to Alberto Fernandez, another left-wing politician.

Both Fernandez and Alberto Fernandez — who share no familial relation — faced sharp criticism for their management of Argentina’s economy, including their heavy reliance on government spending and their devaluation of the country’s peso through the printing of excess currency.

But particularly among working-class Argentinians, Fernandez continues to enjoy substantial popularity, particularly for her investments in social programmes to alleviate poverty.

Since 2024, Fernandez has led the Justicialist Party, the main pillar of opposition against the government of current President Javier Milei, a libertarian. He took office in 2023, succeeding Alberto Fernandez.

Faced with Fernandez’s incarceration, supporters of the former president took to the streets in Buenos Aires to protest over the past week, calling her lifetime ban from public office an act of political retribution.

NEW YORK — New York City comptroller and Democratic mayoral candidate Brad Lander was arrested by federal agents at an immigration court Tuesday as he was trying to accompany a person out of a courtroom.

A reporter with the Associated Press witnessed Lander’s arrest at a federal building in Manhattan. The person Lander was walking out of the courtroom was also arrested.

Lander had spent the morning observing immigration court hearings and told an AP reporter that he was there to “accompany” some immigrants out of the building.

A video of the arrest, captured by an AP reporter, shows an agent telling Lander, “You’re obstructing.”

Lander replies, as he’s being handcuffed, “I’m not obstructing, I’m standing right here in the hallway.”

“You don’t have the authority to arrest U.S. citizens asking for a judicial warrant,” Lander said as he was led down a hallway and into an elevator.

One of the officers who led Lander away wore a tactical vest labeled “federal agent.” Others were in plainclothes, with surgical masks over their faces.

The episode occurred as federal immigration officials are conducting large-scale arrests outside immigration courtrooms across the country.

Emailed inquiries to the FBI and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement were not immediately returned.

Lander is a candidate in the city’s Democratic mayoral primary. Early voting in the contest is underway.

Attanasio writes for the Associated Press.

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration directed immigration officers to pause arrests at farms, restaurants and hotels after the president expressed alarm about the impact of his aggressive enforcement, an official said Saturday.

The move marks a remarkable turnabout in Trump’s immigration crackdown since he took office in January. It follows weeks of increased enforcement since Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff and main architect of Trump’s immigration policies, said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers would target at least 3,000 arrests a day, up from about 650 a day during the first five months of Trump’s second term.

Tatum King, an official with ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations unit, wrote regional leaders on Thursday to halt investigations of the agricultural industry, including meatpackers, restaurants and hotels, according to the New York Times.

A U.S. official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed to the Associated Press the contents of the directive. The Homeland Security Department did not dispute it.

“We will follow the president’s direction and continue to work to get the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens off of America’s streets,” Tricia McLaughlin, a Homeland Security spokesperson, said when asked to confirm the directive.

The shift suggests Trump’s promise of mass deportations has limits if it threatens industries that rely on workers in the country illegally. Trump posted on his Truth Social site Thursday that he disapproved of how farmers and hotels were being affected.

“Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace,” he wrote. “In many cases the Criminals allowed into our Country by the VERY Stupid Biden Open Borders Policy are applying for those jobs. This is not good. We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming!”

While ICE’s presence in Los Angeles has captured public attention and prompted Trump to deploy the California National Guard and Marines, immigration authorities have also been a growing presence at farms and factories across the country.

Farm bureaus in California say raids at packinghouses and fields are threatening businesses that supply much of the country’s food. Dozens of farmworkers were arrested after uniformed agents fanned out on farms northwest of Los Angeles in Ventura County, which is known for growing strawberries, lemons and avocados. Others are skipping work as fear spreads.

ICE made more than 70 arrests Tuesday at a food packaging company in Omaha. The owner of Glenn Valley Foods said the company was enrolled in a voluntary program to verify workers’ immigration status and that it was operating at 30% capacity as it scrambled to find replacements.

Tom Homan, the White House border advisor, has repeatedly said ICE will send officers into communities and workplaces, particularly in “sanctuary” jurisdictions that limit the agency’s access to local jails.

Sanctuary cities “will get exactly what they don’t want, more officers in the communities and more officers at the work sites,” Homan said Monday on Fox News Channel. “We can’t arrest them in the jail, we’ll arrest them in the community. If we can’t arrest them in the community, we’re going to increase work-site enforcement operation. We’re going to flood the zone.”

Madhani and Spagat write for the Associated Press.

An aide to Los Angeles City Councilmember Ysabel Jurado has been placed on unpaid leave after being arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police officer with a deadly weapon at an anti-ICE protest, Jurado and her staff said Monday.

Luz Aguilar, 26, who serves as Jurado’s deputy for economic innovation and community growth, was arrested around 7 p.m. Sunday and booked several hours later, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department inmate records.

“The allegations are deeply concerning and I take them very seriously,” Jurado, who represents downtown and neighborhoods on L.A.’s Eastside, said in a statement. “While I respect the individual’s right to due process, I hold my team to the highest standards of conduct.”

Aguilar‘s father is Pasadena City Councilmember Rick Cole, who is also a high-level aide to L.A. City Controller Kenneth Mejia. Aguilar’s sister, 26-year-old Antonia Aguilar, was arrested at the same time, records show.

Both were being held in lieu of $50,000 bail.

Jurado said Luz Aguilar — who is listed in inmate records as AguilarCole — has been placed on unpaid leave while the council office assesses the facts and considers “appropriate action.” Although Aguilar was accused of assaulting a police officer with a deadly weapon, “it’s a developing situation,” said Lisa Marroquin, a spokesperson for Jurado.

Marroquin could not say which law enforcement agency the officer was from.

Cole, in a text message, said Monday that he did not yet have information on the allegations. A day earlier, while appearing at an anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement rally in Pasadena, he said the fight against the immigration arrests was personal to him.

“I’ve just seen pictures of my two daughters on a curb in downtown Los Angeles in handcuffs [with] the LAPD,” he said at the rally. “So I’m going to be figuring out where they are so I can go bail them out.”

Protests against federal immigration raids continued to rage Sunday after President Trump ordered the National Guard to Southern California. Some demonstrators in downtown L.A. dropped rocks from a freeway overpass onto police cruisers, while others vandalized government buildings, burned Waymo cars or burglarized businesses.

Mejia, Cole’s boss, is an outspoken critic of the Los Angeles Police Department. On Friday, Mejia voiced concerns about the presence of LAPD officers “within the vicinity of ICE raids.”

Mejia said he has asked for the department to turn over information about the financial impact of the raids on police resources. L.A. declared itself a “sanctuary” city last year, and Police Chief Jim McDonnell has repeatedly said that the LAPD is not involved in “civil immigration enforcement,” pointing to a decades-old policy.

“LAPD’s presence raises serious questions about whether we are abiding by our City’s mandate as a Sanctuary City and is a cause for concern and confusion regarding LAPD’s role,” Mejia said in a statement on social media.

An LAPD spokesperson did not have any details on the arrests when reached by The Times.

Jurado, a former tenant rights attorney, won a seat on the 15-member council in November. During the campaign, she described herself as an abolitionist — someone who supports the abolition of police and prisons.

During the campaign’s final weeks, Jurado was heard on a recording telling college students, “F— the police, that’s how I see ‘em.” She later issued a statement downplaying her remark, saying it was “just a lyric” from a rap song.

The City Council has scheduled a special meeting Tuesday to discuss the federal immigration raids — including “related threats to public service and facilities” — and has left open the possibility of a closed-door meeting with McDonnell on that topic.

Unions in California are different from those in other places.

More than any state in our troubled country, their ranks are filled with people of color and immigrants. While unions have always been tied closely with the struggles of civil rights, that has become even more pronounced in the years since George Floyd was killed by a police officer in Minneapolis.

In the subsequent national soul-searching, unions were forced to do a bit of their own. But where that conversation has largely broken down for general society under the pressure of President Trump’s right-wing rage, it took hold inside of unions to a much greater degree — leading to more leadership from people of color, sometimes younger leadership and definitely an understanding from the rank and file that these are organizations that fight far beyond the workplace.

Which is why the arrest of David Huerta, president of SEIU-USWW and SEIU California, by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Friday is going to have a major impact on the coming months as deportations continue.

“They have woke us up,” Tia Orr told me Saturday morning. She’s the executive director of the 700,000-strong Service Employees International Union California, of which Huerta is a part, and the first African American and Latina to lead the organization.

“And I think they’ve woke people up across the nation, certainly in California, and people are ready to get to action,” she added. “I haven’t seen that in a long time. I don’t know that I’ve seen something like that before, and so yes, it is going to result in action that I believe is going to be historical.”

While unions have voiced their disapproval of mass deportations since the MAGA threat first manifested, their might has not gone full force against them, taking instead a bit of a wait-and-see approach.

Well, folks, we’ve seen. We’ve seen the unidentified masked men rounding up immigrants across the country and shipping them into life sentences at torturous foreign prisons; we’ve watched a 9-year-old Southern California boy separated from his father and detained for deportation; and Friday, across Los Angeles, we saw an anonymous military-style force of federal agents sweep up our neighbors, family members and friends in what seemed to be a haphazard and deliberately cruel way.

And for those of you who have watched the video of Huerta’s arrest, we’ve seen a middle-aged Latino man in a plaid button-down be roughly pushed by authorities in riot gear until he falls backward, and seems to strike his head on the curb. Huerta was, according to a television interview with Mayor Karen Bass, pepper-sprayed as well. Then he was taken to the hospital for treatment, then into custody, where he remains until a Monday arraignment.

U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli wrote on social media that “Federal agents were executing a lawful judicial warrant at a LA worksite this morning when David Huerta deliberately obstructed their access by blocking their vehicle. He was arrested for interfering with federal officers … Let me be clear: I don’t care who you are—if you impede federal agents, you will be arrested and prosecuted. No one has the right to assault, obstruct, or interfere with federal authorities carrying out their duties.”

I have covered protests, violent and nonviolent, for more than two decades. In one of the first such events I covered, I watched an iconic union leader, Bill Camp, sit down in the middle of the road in a Santa suit and refuse to move. Police arrested him. But they managed to do it without violence, and without Camp’s resistance. This is how unions do good trouble — without fear, without violence.

Huerta understands the rules and power of peaceful protest better than most. The union he is president of — SEIU United Service Workers West — started the Justice for Janitors campaign in 1990, a bottom-up movement that in Los Angeles was mostly powered by the immigrant Latina women who cleaned commercial office space for wages as low as $7 an hour.

After weeks of protests, police attacked those Latina workers in June of that year in what became known as the “Battle of Century City.” Two dozen workers were injured but the union did not back down. Eventually, it won the contracts it was seeking, and equally as important, it won public support.

Huerta joined USWW a few years after that incident, growing the Justice for Janitors campaign. The union was and has always been one powered by immigrant workers who saw that collective power was their best power, and Huerta has led decades of building that truth into a practical force. He is, says Orr, an organizer who knows how to bring people together.

To say he is a beloved and respected leader in both the union and California in general is an understatement. You can still find his bio on the White House website, since he was honored as a “Champion of Change,” by President Obama. Within hours of his arrest, political leaders across the state were voicing support.

“David Huerta is a respected leader, a patriot, and an advocate for working people. No one should ever be harmed for witnessing government action,” Gov. Gavin Newsom posted online.

Perhaps more importantly, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler, speaking for her 15 million members, issued a statement.

Huerta “was doing what he has always done, and what we do in unions: putting solidarity into practice and defending our fellow workers,” she said. “The labor movement stands with David and we will continue to demand justice for our union brother until he is released.”

Similar statements came from the Teamsters and other unions. Solidarity isn’t a buzzword to unions. It’s the bedrock of their power. In arresting Huerta, that solidarity has been supercharged. Already, union members from across the state are making plans to gather Monday for Huerta’s arraignment in downtown Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, Stephen Miller, the Santa Monica native and architect of Trump’s deportation plans, has said the raids we are seeing now are just the beginning, and that he would like to see thousands of arrests every day, because our immigrant communities are filled with “every kind of criminal thug that you can imagine on planet earth.”

But in arresting Huerta, the battleground has been redrawn in ways we don’t fully yet appreciate. No doubt, Miller will have his way and the raids will not only continue, but increase.

But also, the unions are not going to back down.

“Right now, just in the last 14 hours, labor unions are joining together from far and wide, communities are reaching out in ways I’ve never seen,” Orr told me. “Something is different.”

Rosa Parks was just a woman on a bus, she pointed out, until she was something more. George Floyd was just another Black man stopped by police. Until he was something more.

Huerta is the something more of these immigration raids — not because he’s a union boss, but because he’s a union organizer with ties to both people in power and people in fear.

The coming months will show what happens when those two groups decide, together, that backing down is not an option.

At least 11 people died and dozens were injured in stampede outside Bengaluru stadium on Wednesday.

Police in the southern Indian city of Bengaluru have arrested four people after a stampede during the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) cricket team’s Indian Premier League victory celebrations killed 11 people and injured at least 47, local media reported.

Three people from an event management company and one official from the RCB team were arrested on Friday, according to local media reports.

Media outlet India Today said Nikhil Sosale, Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s head of marketing, was arrested at Bengaluru’s airport.

The Indian Express newspaper reported Sosale was arrested along with an executive from an event management company.

There was no immediate comment from RCB.

Tens of thousands of people had packed the streets of the city in the southern Indian state of Karnataka on Wednesday to welcome home their hero Virat Kohli and his RCB team after they beat Punjab Kings in the final of the Indian Premier League.

As the team was celebrating with the trophy inside a stadium in the city, thousands of people tried to push through the gates, leading to a stampede.

The franchise said later the incident was “unfortunate” and pledged one million Indian rupees ($11,655) to each family of the 11 fans who died.

The deaths have prompted widespread anger and top police officers have been suspended.

On Thursday during a news conference, Karnataka state’s chief minister Siddaramaiah, who only uses one name, criticised the suspended officials.

“These officers appear to be irresponsible and negligent and it has been decided to suspend them,” Siddaramaiah said.

The chief minister also said “legal action has been taken against the representatives of RCB,” as well as the event organisers and the state’s cricket association. He noted that a first information report, which marks the start of a police investigation, had been “registered against them”.

Kohli, who top-scored in the final, said he was “at a loss for words” after celebrations of a dream first IPL crown turned to tragedy.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the accident “absolutely heartrending”.

Stampedes occur frequently in India, mainly at religious events, but it was the first time in 45 years that fans had died in a crush at a sporting event, local media said.

India’s head cricket coach Gautam Gambhir said on Thursday he did not support such roadshows and celebrations.

“Celebration is important. But more important than that is the life of any person. So, if we are not prepared or if we can’t handle the crowd in that way, then we might as well not have these roadshows,” Gambhir told reporters.

The pioneering IPL sold its broadcast rights in 2022 for five seasons to global media giants for an eye-popping $6.2bn, putting it up amongst the highest-ranked sport leagues in cost-per-match terms.