Oct. 15 (UPI) — The Department of Homeland Security said it has credible intelligence that Mexican cartels have placed bounties on Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection officers.
The Tuesday statement from DHS said criminal networks have instructed “U.S.-based sympathetics,” including Chicago street gangs, to “monitor, harass and assassinate” federal agents.
According to the federal agencies, the cartels are offering $2,000 for gathering intelligence, between $5,000 and $10,000 for kidnapping and assaults on standard ICE and CBP officers and up to $50,000 to assassinate high-ranking officials.
“These criminal networks are not just resisting the rule of law, they are waging an organized campaign of terror against the brave men and women who protected our borders and communities,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said.
ICE has been conducting an immigration crackdown in Chicago, employing aggressive tactics, such as the use of tear gas and forced entries, that have drawn criticism over the use of force and accusations of intimidation against residents. Local leaders have accused the Trump administration of overreach and violating the Constitution.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly attempted to deploy the National Guard to the city, but federal judges have blocked or delayed the move.
“ICE is recklessly throwing tear gas into our neighborhoods and busy streets, including near children at school and CPD officers,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said Tuesday in a statement.
“The Trump administration must stop their deployment of dangerous chemical weapons into the air of peaceful American communities.”
Trump has criticized out at Pritzker for resisting troop deployments, saying he and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson “should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers.”
According to the DHS, gangs have established so-called spotter networks in Chicago’s Pilsen and Little Village neighborhoods. Groups including the Latin Kins have stationed members on rooftops with firearms and radios to track ICE and CBP movements to disrupt federal immigration raids being conducted under Operation Midway Blitz.
Last week, the Justice Department charged Juan Espinoza Martinez, 37, with one count of murder-for-hire targeting a senior ICE agent involved in the Chicago operation.
Federal prosecutors alleged Martinez, identified as a Latin Kings gang member, sent a Snapchat message offering $10,000 “if u take him down” and $2,000 for information on the agent’s whereabouts.
On Oct. 3, DHS announced that more than 1,000 undocumented migrants had been detained under Operation Midway Blitz, which began Sept. 8.
As Californians start voting on Democrats’ effort to boost their ranks in Congress, former President Barack Obama warned that democracy is in peril as he urged voters to support Proposition 50 in a television ad that started airing Tuesday.
“California, the whole nation is counting on you,” Obama says in the 30-second ad, which the main pro-Proposition 50 campaign began broadcasting Tuesday across the state. The spot is part of a multimillion-dollar ad buy promoting the congressional redistricting ballot measure through the Nov. 4 election.
Proposition 50 was spearheaded by Gov. Gavin Newsom and other California Democratic leaders this summer after President Trump urged GOP-led states, notably Texas, to redraw their congressional districts to boost the number of Republicans elected to the House in next year’s midterm election, in an effort to continue enacting his agenda during his final years in office.
“Republicans want to steal enough seats in Congress to rig the next election and wield unchecked power for two more years,” Obama says in the ad, which includes footage of ICE raids. “With Prop. 50, you can stop Republicans in their tracks. Prop. 50 puts our elections back on a level playing field, preserves independent redistricting over the long term, and lets the people decide. Return your ballot today.”
Congressional districts were long drawn in smoke-filled chambers by partisans focused on protecting their parties’ power and incumbents. But good-government groups and elected officials, notably former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, have fought to take the drawing of congressional boundaries out of the hands of politicians to end gerrymandering and create more competitive districts.
In California, these districts have been drawn by an independent commission created by voters in 2010, which is why state Democrats have to go to the ballot box to seek a mid-decade partisan redistricting that could improve their party’s chances in five of the state’s 52 congressional districts.
The ad featuring Obama, who spoke Monday on comedian Marc Maron’s final podcast about Trump’s policies testing the nation’s values, appears on Californians’ televisions after mail ballots were sent to the state’s 23 million registered voters last week.
The proposition’s prospects are uncertain — it’s about an obscure topic that few Californians know about, and off-year elections traditionally have low voter turnout. Still, more than $150 million has been contributed to the three main committees supporting and opposing the proposition, in addition to millions more funding other efforts.
Obama is not the only famous person to appear in ads about Proposition 50.
In September, former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who championed the creation of the independent redistricting commission while in office and has campaigned for similar reforms across the nation since then, was featured in ads opposing the November ballot measure.
He described Proposition 50 as favoring entrenched politicians instead of voters.
“That’s what they want to do, is take us backwards. This is why it is important for you to vote no on Proposition 50,” the Hollywood celebrity and former governor says in the ad, which was filmed last month when he spoke to USC students. “The Constitution does not start with ‘We, the politicians.’ It starts with ‘We, the people.’ … Democracy — we’ve got to protect it, and we’ve got to go and fight for it.”
Enough that certain people are still mad nearly two weeks after it was announced that the “Nuevayol” singer — one of the most popular and consequential artists on the planet, someone who can single-handedly boost local economies — will be the halftime performer during Super Bowl LX, to be held Feb. 8, 2026, in Santa Clara, Calif.
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The right-wing backlash was immediate, with much of the criticism focusing on three things: first, that Bad Bunny (real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio) has been vocal about his opposition to the ongoing immigration raids, both in the mainland and in Puerto Rico; secondly, that he sings primarily in Spanish; and thirdly, that he’s “not American.”
This latter point, as conservative media personality Tomi Lahren hilariously learned the hard way and in real time, is not factually correct. (The interjection by Lahren’s guest, Krystal Ball — “He’s Puerto Rican…. That’s part of America, dear” — is still sending me.) And even if it was, it’d be irrelevant. As my colleague LZ Grandersonrecently pointed out, there have been plenty of non-American musical acts who have performed at the Super Bowl — from the Rolling Stones to U2 to Shakira.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was so appalled by Bad Bunny being tapped to perform that she announced that Immigration and Customs Enforcement would be present at the big game.
“I have the responsibility for making sure everybody who goes to the Super Bowl has the opportunity to enjoy it and to leave, and that’s what America’s about,” she said. “So yeah, we’ll be all over that place. We’re going to enforce the law.”
What Noem left out was that federal law enforcement agents have historically been present at such high-profile events as the Copa America and previous Super Bowls — rapper 21 Savage was even arrested by ICE during the 2019 game, held in Atlanta.
To be clear, I’m not surprised that conservatives were upset about the pick. In fact, I’m willing to bet that they would’ve been mad regardless of whom the National Football League selected. At one point, Taylor Swift was rumored to be the headliner, and we all know how President Trump feels about her — she’s a “woke singer” who “is no longer hot.” Then there’s Kendrick Lamar, who upset many on the right last year when he reclaimed the American flag for Black people during his performance.
I expected the outrage. In fact, when I found out, I lamented that the announcement came while I was still on paternity leave and would therefore be unable to write about it in this space. Because surely, the news cycle would have moved on to something else.
But I was wrong. This story is about to be two weeks old and it still has legs.
“I’ve never heard of him. I don’t know who he is,” Trump said, channeling his inner Mariah Carey during an interview with Newsmax on Monday. “I don’t know why they’re doing it. It’s crazy. And then they blame it on some promoter they hired to pick up entertainment. I think it’s absolutely ridiculous.”
Even the Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.), known pop culture maven, chimed in.
“I didn’t even know who Bad Bunny was. But it sounds like a terrible decision, in my view, from what I’m hearing,” Johnson said during an interview. “It sounds like he’s not someone who appeals to a broader audience. And there are so many eyes on the Super Bowl — a lot of young, impressionable children. And, in my view, you would have Lee Greenwood, or role models, doing that. Not somebody like this.”
Lee Greenwood? Be serious, Mike Johnson.
For the unfamiliar, Greenwood is best known for “God Bless the U.S.A.” and has had nearly as many marriages (five) as he’s had No. 1 hits on Billboard’s U.S. Hot Country Songs chart (seven). He clearly lacks the number of bangers to put together a solid halftime performance.
But wait, there’s more. Turning Point USA — the conservative nonprofit organization founded by the late Charlie Kirk — announced Thursday via social media that it was planning on counter-programming Bad Bunny’s performance and organizing its own Super Bowl halftime show with an artist (or artists) to be determined. The group also published a poll asking people to vote on what kind of act they wanted; with the first option being “Anything in English.” (I saw them at South by Southwest in 2012, and let me tell you — they were meh.)
If it seems like I’m making light of things, it’s because I am. The whole situation is absurd and the outrage feels manufactured. At best, it’s just fodder to feed into the bottomless right wing content machine, and at worst, it feels like a distraction from much bigger issues, like the government shutdown or the ongoing constitutional crisis playing out in cities such as Chicago and Portland, Ore.
And if right-wingers are genuinely about Bad Bunny at the Super Bowl, here’s an idea: Don’t watch. But that wouldn’t be very American, would it?
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A pair of thank yous
This week’s edition of the Latinx Files is my first one since coming back from paternity leave — a period in which I was fully able to bond with my baby and not think about work. This is in large part because of Suzy Exposito and Carlos de Loera, who handled the day-to-day operations of De Los and who wrote this weekly newsletter, respectively. Thank you both. I am eternally grateful.
Stories we read this week that we think you should read
Unless otherwise noted, stories below were published by the Los Angeles Times.
Crank up the Benny Hill theme song and let the belly laughs commence.
As President Trump’s summer of immigration raids turns into a fall of occupation, I need some — and who knew his deportation machine could bring them? To watch videos of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in action failing bigly is like watching “Star Wars” Stormtroopers constantly misfiring or bonking their heads despite the full backing of the emperor himself.
Have you seen the one where two masked agents struggle to subdue a Latino male on a lawn while a small dog barks from behind a fence? And when the agents grab onto his T-shirt, he slips out of it, grabs his discarded hat and darts away like Bugs Bunny humiliating Elmer Fudd?
Or what about the reel where a handcuffed white man, evidently a protester, dressed in all-black walks alongside his captors before spinning off them like Saquon Barkley evading a tackler as he disappears into a crowd — but not before a fellow protester filming the scene offers his comrade an enthusiastic back slap?
You can get your jollies with a Dave Chappelle special, or by catching Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth trying out his Gen. Patton impression before another group of stone-faced generals, but it’s better to settle on yuks that matter — chortles that provoke as much hope as humor.
It’s a reminder that martial law-hungry Trump’s would-be empire is not all powerful. And that Americans can still snicker in the face of official wrong — and should.
“Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion,” Kurt Vonnegut supposedly said, adding that he “prefer[ed] to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward.”
When you see la migra unable to kick down the front door of a Nicaraguan immigrant at a Fontana apartment just a second after the man shut it in their faces, you just have to giggle at a scenario straight out of the Keystone Kops. And then there’s the viral footage of a food delivery driver on his bike cussing out a phalanx of armed Border Patrol agents in downtown Chicago last month.
“I’m not a U.S. citizen!” the guy yells, daring someone to detain him. Someone finally barks “Get him!” as a bunch of agents feebly give chase; the man pedals away like he’s a Tour de France champion with a peloton hot on his trail. The defeated agents run like they’re wearing concrete boots with skates on them as their quarry makes his escape.
These videos are balm and inspiration for our dark times and they’re even better with a soundtrack — I’ve seen people remix them with jaunty Mexican banda classics such as “La Chona” or “El Sinaloense.” The best ones use “Yakety Sax,” the high-energy romp so many of us Yanks remember as the tune that Benny Hill used when ending his eponymous show with a bunch of people chasing after him after yet another comedic misunderstanding.
Because that’s what all these immigration crackdowns are: sick charades. Armed men grabbing tamale ladies? Tough guys too scared to show their face? Billions of dollars spent on all this? All one can do is laugh at the absurdity of it all to keep from weeping.
Those videos are sadly just a drop in the toxic river of posts showing immigration agents brutalizing migrants and citizens alike that long ago drowned out almost anything else on my social media feeds. That’s why each of those ICE-as-ignoramuses videos is a treasure and why I see so many of my friends share. They bear witness that Trump’s deportation leviathan not only is not invincible, it’s also beatable.
The videos are especially important as a repudiation of one of the Homeland Security Department’s main propaganda planks: use slickly produced clips to glorify la migra as badass avengers with attempts at humor as fundamental to their mission. A recent one consisted of a close-up of one of those vents above your airplane seat that regulates air circulation while the plane’s captain welcomes the viewer to “ICE Air” over the intercom.
“Next time, come to America legally or don’t come at all! Thank you!” the captain announces in a goofy voice.
Cue the “Simpsons” clip of Bart tossing a cake that reads “At Least You Tried” into the garbage.
What Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and her writer’s room of revanchists don’t get is that only the worst of the worst ever root for Goliath. That means the joke is on them every time they march through peaceful neighborhoods like “Call of Duty” knockoffs. Scenes like that don’t strike fear in anyone; they just expose the buffoonery behind the bravura. That’s why we need to share anything that captures them flailing around as much as possible.
Humans have laughed at tyrants going back to the days of the ancient Greeks. Yet I’ve also seen some pro-immigrant activists insist now is not the time to laugh, even if it’s at ICE’s expense. To them, Otto Santa Ana says they’re missing out on a valuable tool in the fight for our democracy. He’s a retired UCLA Chicano studies professor who’s working on a book about the history of humor, down to its biology.
“The people who are laughing at ICE are not contrary to the people who are standing on the front lines,” he said. “The mocking allows us to redirect that frustration into something positive. We both laugh at the perpetrator and bond with other people laughing. When it reaches viral levels, we know that our community takes joy in it — and our community needs any joy right now.”
Santa Ana chuckled as I described some of the better videos I’ve seen. He turned me on to more. When I asked whether republishing those clips with ironic songs represented a new front in political humor, he said they reminded him of Martin Luther, the man who sparked the Reformation by calling out the moral and financial rot of the Catholic Church at the time. Part of his strategy was publishing a heretical, hysterical song against the pope based on a German folk tune that ensured people would listen and allow his critiques against the Catholic Church to spread faster and further.
“Today’s videos are just another manifestation that technology can be used to embolden us, to unify us,” Santa Ana said.
“The act shifts the public narrative of ICE from scary and powerful to laughable and weak,” he added. “And the oppressed sense their moral superiority vindicated against an evil.”
He concluded: “The authoritarian feeds on fear and ignorance and when people who can stand up for their rights articulate it humorously, it helps to bring the henchman down.”
You heard the profe, America. Go find the latest ICE Follies, and tell everyone you know!
BATON ROUGE, La. — The immigration detainees sent to a notorious Louisiana prison last month are being punished for crimes for which they have already served time, the American Civil Liberties Union said Monday in a lawsuit challenging the government’s decision to hold what it calls the “worst of the worst” there.
The lawsuit accuses President Trump’s administration of selecting the former slave plantation known as Angola for its “uniquely horrifying history” and intentionally subjecting immigrant detainees to inhumane conditions — including foul water and lacking basic necessities — in violation of the Double Jeopardy clause, which protects people from being punished twice for the same crime.
The ACLU also alleges some immigrants detained at the newly opened “Louisiana Lockup” should be released because the government failed to deport them within six months of a removal order. The lawsuit cites a 2001 Supreme Court ruling raised in several recent immigration cases, including that of the Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, that says immigration detention should be “nonpunitive.”
“The anti-immigrant campaign under the guise of ‘Making America Safe Again’ does not remotely outweigh or justify indefinite detention in ‘America’s Bloodiest Prison’ without any of the rights afforded to criminal defendants,” ACLU attorneys argue in a petition reviewed by The Associated Press.
The AP sent requests for comment to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry.
The lawsuit comes a month after state and federal authorities gathered at the sprawling Louisiana State Penitentiary to announce that the previously shuttered prison complex had been refurbished to house up to 400 immigrant detainees that officials said would include some of the most violent in ICE custody.
The complex had been nicknamed “the dungeon” because it previously held inmates in solitary cells for more than 23 hours a day.
ICE repurposed the facility amid an ongoing legal battle over an immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” and as Trump continues his large-scale attempt to remove millions of people suspected of entering the country illegally. The federal government has been racing to to expand its deportation infrastructure and, with state allies, has announced other new facilities, including what it calls the “Speedway Slammer” in Indiana and the “Cornhusker Clink” in Nebraska. ICE is seeking to detain 100,000 people under a $45 billion expansion Trump signed into law in July.
At Angola last month, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told reporters the “legendary” maximum security prison, the largest in the nation, had been chosen to house a new ICE facility to encourage people in the U.S. illegally to self-deport. “This facility will hold the most dangerous of criminals,” she said.
Authorities said the immigration detainees would be isolated from Angola’s thousands of civil prisoners, many of whom are serving life sentences for violent offenses.
“I know you all in the media will attempt to have a field day with this facility, and you will try to find everything wrong with our operation in an effort to make those who broke the law in some of the most violent ways victims,” Landry, a Republican, said during a news conference last month.
“If you don’t think that they belong in somewhere like this, you’ve got a problem.”
The ACLU lawsuit says detainees at “Louisiana Lockup” already were “forced to go on hunger strike” to “demand basic necessities such as medical care, toilet paper, hygiene products and clean drinking water.” Detainees have described a long-neglected facility that was not yet prepared to house them, saying they are contending with mold, dust and ”black” water coming out of showers, court records show.
Federal and state officials have said those claims are part of a “false narrative” created by the media, and that the hunger strike only occurred after inaccurate reporting.
The lawsuit was filed in Baton Rouge federal court on behalf of Oscar Hernandez Amaya, a 34-year-old Honduran man who has been in ICE custody for two years. He was transferred to “Louisiana Lockup” last month from an ICE detention center in Pennsylvania.
Amaya fled Honduras two decades ago after refusing the violent MS-13 gang’s admonition “to torture and kill another human being,” the lawsuit alleges. The gang had recruited him at age 12, court documents say.
Amaya came to the United States, where he worked “without incident” until 2016. He was arrested that year and later convicted of attempted aggravated assault and sentenced to more than four years in prison. He was released on good-time credits after about two years and then transferred to ICE custody.
An immigration judge this year awarded Amaya “Convention Against Torture” protection from being returned to Honduras, the lawsuit says, but the U.S. government has failed to deport him to another country.
“The U.S. Supreme Court has been very clear that immigration detention cannot be used for punitive purposes,” Nora Ahmed, the ACLU of Louisiana’s legal director, told AP. “You cannot serve time for a crime in immigration detention.”
Mustian and Cline write for the Associated Press. Mustian reported from New York.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement held a hiring fair last month in Provo, Utah, that drew hundreds of job seekers — in part with signing bonuses up to $50,000 and salaries of $50,000 to $100,000 a year. This follows recruiting events in Arlington, Texas, in August and Chantilly, Va., in June. Despite polls showing that most Americans do not like how the agency is doing its job, these expos were quite popular. “This is a highly desired career,” an ICE official told reporters at the Texas event. “A lot of people want to do this job.”
That seems to be true, which makes recent changes in ICE’s hiring and recruiting practices all the more troubling. Flush with cash from Congress, the agency isramping up hiring while lowering standards for employment. ICE is using controversial slogans and imagery to attract new recruits. In its rush to expand, ICE is placing immigrants, citizens and its own agents in harm’s way.
Under the terms of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that the president signed into law in July, Congresshas given ICE an additional $75 billion in funding. The agency wants tohire at least 10,000 new agents as the administration seeks to fulfill its promise ofdeporting a million immigrants a year.
To meet this goal, ICE is lowering hiring standards. ICE agents can now beas young as 18, and there is no longer anage cap for new hires. The agency has alsocut training time for recruits from 13to eight weeks, byreducing Spanish lessons, firearms training andclassroom hours. Working for ICE does not require a high school diploma, a military background or any law enforcement experience. An aspiring ICE agent only has to pass a background check, meet physical and medical requirements, and complete the abbreviated training course.
In contrast, manylocal police andsheriff’s departments have stricter hiring requirements. The Los Angeles Police Departmentrequires its applicants to have a high school diploma, to complete six months of training and to be 21 at the time of police academy graduation.
ICE’s lower standards are alarming, given that agents have the power to make decisions with life-altering consequences. A teenager who formerly worked in a retail store or office workers bored with their daily routine could soon be out on the streets of L.A., carrying a gun and chasing anyone they think might be a migrant. New ICE agents might be placed in volatile situations without enough experience or judgment to make sound decisions. Immigrants — oranyone who looks like one — may be at risk of rookie ICE hires violating their constitutional and civil rights.
Unfortunately, we havebeen here before. Between 2006 and 2009, the Border Patrol scaled up quickly too. Hiring and training requirements were eased, with some agentsrushed into training before background checks were completed. This resulted in drug cartel members being hired,corruption and a spike in agents being arrested for misconduct. With its ongoing rapid expansion, ICEis poised to repeat the same kind of mistakes.
ICE’s recruitment campaign is likewise problematic. “America has been invaded by criminals and predators. We need YOU to get them out,” isone such appeal, which plays on false notions of “invasion” and immigrant criminality. On its official X account, Homeland Securityuses images of Uncle Sam, as though joining ICE were akin to a military mobilization.In one post, the agency asks, “Want to deport illegals with your absolute boys?” In another,it asks, “Which way, American man?” This memeappears to reference, “Which Way Western Man?” —a 1978 book by an avowed white supremacist.
ICE slogans urge job seekers to “Defend Your Country” and “Protect the Homeland.” But such language smacks of propaganda, not professionalism. Former ICE officials are rightfully concerned that such tactics might draw thewrong kind of recruits. Rather than attracting qualified applicants who want to serve in federal law enforcement, ICE may be appealing to people with antipathy toward immigrants, or who see themselves as helping defend the U.S. from demographic changes.
ICE performs a vital function for the government, with agents shouldering great personal risk and responsibility. Yet ICE’s current practices are far from ideal, with well-documented instances of agents using excessive force and engagingin physical andverbal abuse of suspected undocumented immigrants. So this is not the time for ICE to lower standards. The agency’s latest hiring and recruiting efforts will not bolster the agency’s image or effectiveness. Instead they raise serious questions about new agents’ readiness, ability and suitability for this line of work. To put it simply, do we really want teenagers participating in ICE raids?
To remedy the situation, ICE should slow down and properly train incoming agents. The minimum age should be reinstated to 21. More thorough Spanish-language instruction should be restored to curriculums. Otherwise, fast-tracked employees will be sent unprepared into communities that arealready angry and fearful, which is potentially dangerous for everyone involved.
ICE’s hiring spree is reckless and irresponsible. As a matter of public safety, immigration enforcement should not be an entry-level job.
Raul A. Reyes is an immigration attorney and contributor to NBC Latino and CNN Opinion. X: @RaulAReyes; Instagram: @raulareyes1
A federal judge has temporarily blocked a new Trump administration policy to keep migrant children in detention after they turn 18, moving quickly to stop transfers to adult facilities that advocates said were scheduled for this weekend.
U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras on Saturday issued a temporary restraining order to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement not to detain any child who came to the country alone and without permission in ICE adult detention facilities after they become an adult.
The Washington, D.C., judge found that such automatic detention violates a court order he issued in 2021 barring such practices.
ICE and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security didn’t immediately respond Saturday to emails seeking comment.
The push to detain new adults is yet another battle over one of the most sensitive issues in President Trump’s hard-line immigration agenda — how to treat children who cross the border unaccompanied by adults.
The Associated Press reported Friday that officials are offering migrant children age 14 and older $2,500 to voluntarily return to their home countries. Last month a separate federal judge blocked attempts to immediately deport Guatemalan migrant children who came to the U.S. alone back to their home country. Some children had been put on board planes in that late-night operation before a judge blocked it.
“All of these are pieces of the same general policy to coerce immigrant youth into giving up their right to seek protection in the United States,” said Michelle Lapointe, a lawyer for the American Immigration Council, one of the groups that asked Contreras to intervene in a filing made early Saturday, just after midnight.
Unaccompanied children are held in shelters run by the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which isn’t part of ICE. Contreras’ 2021 order instructed federal officials to release minors who turn 18 from those shelters to “the least restrictive setting available.” He ruled that that is what’s required by federal law as long as the minor isn’t a danger to themselves or others and isn’t a flight risk. Minors are often released to the custody of a relative, or maybe into foster care.
But lawyers who represent unaccompanied minors said they began getting word in the last few days that ICE was telling shelters that children who were about to turn 18 — even those who had already-approved release plans — could no longer be released and would instead be taken to detention facilities, possibly as early as Saturday. One email from ICE asserted that the new adults could only be released by ICE under its case-by-case parole authority for “urgent humanitarian reasons” or “significant public benefit.” From March through September, ICE has paroled fewer than 500 people overall.
The plaintiffs argued that “release on parole is all but a dead letter” and that children aging out of shelters would experience lasting harm from unnecessary and inappropriate adult detention” in jails that might be overcrowded or in remote locations. The plaintiffs said that was especially true because some of the clients they cited had been victims of trafficking or had been abused, neglected or abandoned by their parents.
U.S. border authorities have arrested children crossing the border without parents more than 400,000 times since October 2021. A 2008 law requires them to appear before an immigration judge before being returned to their countries.
Children have been spending more time in government-run shelters since the Trump administration put them under closer scrutiny before releasing them to family in the United States to pursue their immigration cases.
The additional scrutiny includes fingerprinting, DNA testing and home visits by immigration officers. Over the summer, immigration officers started showing up and arresting parents.
The average length of stay at government-run shelters for those released in the U.S. was 171 days in July, down from a peak of 217 days in April but well above 37 days in January, when Trump took office.
About two months ago, my cousin Guillermo happily ventured from picturesque Cuernavaca, Mexico, to 95-degree Southern California.
He took his wife and two young kids to Disneyland, Universal Studios, the zoo, the beach and a Dodger game over a week span and then gleefully returned home. He spent about $6,000 for what he hoped was a lifetime of stories and memories.
His actions were pretty normal for a tourist though his timing was not.
Tourism to Los Angeles and California, in general, has been down this summer, representing a blow to one of the state’s biggest industries.
Theories as to why people aren’t visiting were explored this past week by my colleague Cerys Davis.
International tourist arrivals to the state fell by 8% in the three months through August, according to data released Monday from Visit California. That is more than 170,000 fewer global tourists than last year. This is critical because international tourists spend up to eight times more per visit than domestic tourists.
Of all the state’s international travelers, arrivals from Canada fell the most (32%) in the three summer months.
Empty landmarks
On Hollywood Boulevard, there are fewer tourists, and the ones who show up are spending less, said Salim Osman, who works for Ride Like A Star, an exotic car company that rents to visitors looking to take a luxury vehicle for a spin and snap the quintessential L.A. selfie.
This summer, he said foot traffic dropped by nearly 50%.
“It used to be shoulder to shoulder out here,” he said, looking along the boulevard, normally teeming with tourists.
Business has been slow around the TCL Chinese Theatre, where visitors place their hands into the concrete hand prints of celebrities like Kristen Stewart and Denzel Washington.
There were fewer people to hop onto sightseeing buses, check out Madame Tussauds wax museum and snap impromptu photos with patrolling characters such as Spider-Man and Mickey Mouse. Souvenir shop operators nearby say they have also had to increase the prices of many of their memorabilia because of tariffs and a decline in sales.
Many of the state’s most prominent attractions are also experiencing dry spells. Yosemite National Park reported a decrease of up to 50% in bookings ahead of Memorial Day weekend.
Theories as to what’s keeping tourists away
The region’s economy and image suffered significant setbacks this year.
Shocking images of the destructive Eaton and Palisades fires in January, followed by the immigration crackdown in June, made global news and repelled visitors like friends of Australian tourists Geoffrey and Tennille Mutton, who didn’t accompany the couple to California this summer.
“A lot of people have had a changed view of America,” Geoffrey said as his family enjoyed Ben & Jerry’s ice cream outside of Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre. “They don’t want to come here and support this place.”
Meanwhile, President Trump’s tariff policies and other geopolitical posturing have convinced many international tourists to avoid America, particularly Canadians, said Palm Springs Mayor Ron deHarte.
“We’ve hurt our Canadian friends with actions that the administration has taken. It’s understandable,” he said. “We don’t know how long they won’t want to travel to the states, but we’re hopeful that it is short-term.”
President Trump’s talk of making Canada the 51st state and his decision to hit Canada with tariffs have not endeared him to Canadian travelers. Meanwhile, media overseas have been bombarded with stories of capricious denials and detentions at U.S. border crossings.
Visitors from China, India, Germany and Australia also avoided the state, according to the latest data. That has resulted in a dip in traffic at most Los Angeles area airports. Cynthia Guidry, director of Long Beach Airport, said reduced airline schedules, economic pressures and rising costs also hurt airport traffic.
Viva Mexico (tourists)!
Despite the southern border lockdown and the widespread immigration raids, Mexicans were a surprising exception to the tourism slump. Arrivals from our southern neighbor were up about 5% over the last three months from 2024.
I asked my cousin, Guillermo, about his travel motivations.
He noted his desire to see family but also to visit many of Southern California’s jewels. He added that planning for this trip started a year earlier too.
Asked if he’d reconsider visiting California in the future, he delivered a timeless response.
Have a great weekend, from the Essential California team
Jim Rainey, staff writer Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor Andrew J. Campa, reporter Hugo Martín, assistant editor Karim Doumar, head of newsletters Diamy Wang, homepage intern Izzy Nunes, audience intern
Oct. 3 (UPI) — Protesters clashed with law enforcement agencies outside a U.S. Immigration and Enforcement detention site near Chicago hours after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem visited.
At least five people were arrested and are facing charges of aggravated battery to a police officer, as well as resisting and obstruction, a Cook County Sheriff’s Office official told CNN.
Surrounded by armed agents and a camera crew, Noem was on the rooftop of the center in Brookview, which is about 20 miles west of Chicago, WLS-TV reported.
She was accompanied by El Centro Border Patrol Sector Chief Gregory Bovino.
Noem was seen directing protesters and media away from the area after arriving at 8 a.m. She left at 9:45 a.m.
The situation escalated shortly after 9 a.m. with pushing, shoving and arrests, WLS reported.
Not used were tear gas, pellets or other chemical substances but have utilized in the past, the Sun Times reported.
Counter-protesters were also in the area in support of ICE and federal agents.
Aldermen, previously arrested demonstrators and political candidates, during a 9 a.m. news conference there, demanded transparency and safety protocols.
About 100 to 200 protesters were in the area during the morning but by 11 am., there were more law enforcement officers than demonstrators, WBBM-TV reported.
During the protest, Broadview police officers, Cook County sheriff’s deputies and Illinois State Police troopers held them back.
Protesters chanted and held signs, including ones that said “ICE melts under resistance” and “Hate has no home here.”
“I’m not gonna look back and say I sat at home and did nothing,” Nocole Bandyk, who lives in a nearby suburb, told CNN. “It’s wrong … It’s just wrong what they’re doing. We are becoming a fascist authoritarian state and it’s wrong.”
ICE, under the direction of President Donald Trump, has ramped up enforcement in Midway Blitz Operation, which began Sept. 8. Since then, there have been more than 800 arrests, according to Homeland Security.
Protesters said they wanted to know about the conditions inside the ICE facility, and for officials to be allowed inside to inspect it.
Illinois Gov. JB Prizter again on Friday criticized the operation.
“Federal agents reporting to Secretary Noem have spent weeks snatching up families, scaring law-abiding residents, violating due process rights, and even detaining U.S. citizens,” Pritzker wrote on Facebook. “Secretary Noem should no longer be able to step foot inside the State of Illinois without any form of public accountability.”
In a statement to WLS-TV, he said: “Last time when the secretary was here, she snuck in during the early morning to film social media videos and fled before sunrise. Illinois is not a photo opportunity or war zone, it’s a sovereign state where our people deserve rights, respect and answers.”
Noem earlier went to Broadview Village Hall, asking to meet with the Mayor Katrina Thompson, but she was out of the building, village spokesperson David Ormsby said.
Noem posted on X that she was going into the municipal building “for a quick bathroom break.”
The mayor then went to the detention sites, accompanied by Broadview Police Chief Thomas Mills and other officers, and asked to have the fencing around the site to be removed.
On Thursday, a free speech zone that consists of barricades was erected. Instead of congregating there, protesters went to another entrance, WGN-TV reported.
The village’s fire department describes it as “illegally built” fencing, and it would block firefighters’ access to areas on that street during an emergency.
Also, village officials have launched three criminal investigations into ICE actions.
The Department of Homeland Security sent a memo to the Department of Defense — which the Trump administration has informally changed to Department of War — requesting 100 active-duty troops be deployed across Chicago for the protection of ICE agents.
McALLEN, Texas — The Trump administration said Friday that it would pay migrant children $2,500 to voluntarily return to their home countries, dangling a new incentive in efforts to persuade people to self-deport.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement didn’t say how much migrants would get or when the offer would take effect, but the Associated Press obtained an email to migrant shelters saying children 14 years of age and older would get $2,500 each. Children were given 24 hours to respond.
The notice to shelters from the U.S. Health and Human Services Department’s Administration for Families and Children did not indicate any consequences for children who decline the offer. It asked shelter directors to acknowledge the offer within four hours.
ICE said in a statement that the offer would initially be for 17-year-olds.
“Any payment to support a return home would be provided after an immigration judge grants the request and the individual arrives in their country of origin,” ICE said. “Access to financial support when returning home would assist should they choose that option.”
Advocates said the sizable sum may prevent children from making informed decisions.
“For a child, $2,500 might be the most money they’ve ever seen in their life, and that may make it very, very difficult for them to accurately weigh the long-term risks of taking voluntary departure versus trying to stay in the United States and going through the immigration court process to get relief that they may be legally entitled to,” Melissa Adamson, senior attorney at the National Center for Youth Law, said in response to the plans Friday.
ICE dismissed widespread reports among immigration lawyers and advocates that it was launching a much broader crackdown Friday to deport migrant children who entered the country without their parents, called “Freaky Friday.”
BROADVIEW, Ill. — Federal agents detained multiple people Friday near an immigration facility outside Chicago that has frequently been targeted by protesters during President Trump’s administration’s surge of immigration enforcement this fall.
A crowd grew over several hours, some riled by newly installed barricades to separate them from law enforcement officers stationed outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing facility in Broadview, about 12 miles (19 kilometers) west of Chicago.
Some protesters have aimed to block vehicles from going in or out of the area in recent weeks, part of growing pushback to a surge of immigration enforcement that begin in early September. Federal agents have repeatedly fired tear gas, pepper balls and other projectiles toward crowds and at least five people have faced federal charges after being arrested in those clashes.
Local law enforcement stepped up their own presence Friday, closing several streets around the facility and putting Illinois State Police officers wearing riot helmets and holding batons on patrol. The state police set up concrete barriers Thursday night to segregate protesters and designate spaces to demonstrate.
It was unclear how many people were detained Friday. One man was seen struggling on the ground with agents after he appeared to break through a line into the roadway and in front of a vehicle.
Mostly reporters and a handful of protesters stood within the designated protest zone in front of the ICE facility as helicopters hovered overhead.
“Every week, ICE escalates its violence against us,” said Demi Palecek, a military veteran and candidate for Congress. “With this level of escalation, it’s only a matter of time before someone is killed.”
Several demonstrators said they were frustrated by the designated protest zone, saying keeping them off public streets violated their First Amendment right to free speech. Others were angered by officers from local or state agencies standing shoulder-to-shoulder with federal officers, including Homeland Security Investigations, ICE, the Bureau of Prisons and others.
Most ignored the zone to protest on the other side of the facility, where Illinois State Police officers held them back.
Jonny Bishop, a 28-year-old former teacher from Palatine, Illinois, said attempting to designate a “free speech zone” infringes on protesters’ First Amendment rights.
“As the day went on, we were progressively pushed, not just by ICE but also by Broadview Police Department,” he said. “We’ve done these things peacefully…But our rights are being violated.”
Bishop, from a Mexican immigrant family, said he has been hit by tear gas and pepper balls at previous protests. He said the main contrast between Friday’s protests and earlier efforts is local, county and state law enforcement agencies working alongside federal agents.
“ICE acts with impunity,” he said. “They know that they can shoot at us. They can tear gas us. And Broadview Police Department is not going to do anything.”
At one point, state police officers joined Border Patrol in advancing toward protesters, forming a larger perimeter around the building. Some protesters yelled in law enforcement officers’ faces while the officers grabbed them by the shoulders and pushed them back.
Fernando and O’Connor write for the Associated Press. O’Connor reported from Springfield, Ill. AP journalists Erin Hooley and Laura Bargfeld contributed to this report.
Oct. 2 (UPI) — Federal prosecutors on Thursday charged the now former head of De Moines Public Schools on weapons and immigration offenses.
Ian Andre Roberts, 54, a citizen of the South American nation of Guyana, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Friday following a short chase in Des Moines, prompting his resignation.
According to the indictment made public Thursday, Roberts was in the country illegally.
The document states that Roberts entered the United States in 1999 on a student visa that expired in 2004.
In 2001 and thrice in 2018, Roberts filed for permanent residency, applications which were all rejected. In 2018 and 2020, he also applied for an adjustment to his status in the country based on his marriage to U.S. citizen Lenisha Roberts but was denied over his failure to respond to a request for additional information.
Starting in December 2019, Roberts had lawful authorization to work in the United States, but not after December 2020.
The document states he was ordered removed from the country on May 22, 2024. In late April of this year, a judge denied his motion to reopen his case.
On Friday morning, ICE officers surveilled Robert’s residence on Saint Andrews Circle in Des Moines. According to the indictment, those officers spotted a man who looked like Roberts in a white Jeep Cherokee, which they followed. The suspect vehicle drove at “a high rate of speed” into a mobile home park, it said.
The ICE agents located the vehicle abandoned and conducted a search for Roberts, who was found about 200 yards south of the Jeep, hiding in brush, according to the indictment.
As search of his vehicle revealed a 9mm Glock wrapped in a towel under the driver’s seat, purchased by his wife in October 2019, as well as his Guyana passport, renewed in April 2024 with a 2029 expiration.
Three additional firearms, including rifle and a 20-gauge shotgun, were discovered in his residence, along with multiple firearm magazines.
Roberts was being held at the Woodbury County jail, but has since been taken into custody by the Justice Department on a federal warrant, the county’s sheriff’s office said in a statement.
Following his arrest, Roberts resigned as superintendent. His lawyer, Alfredo Parrish, announced Roberts’ resignation during a press conference his on Tuesday.
“We want you to know that Dr. Roberts’ greatest concern is about his students who he actually loves and the students who love him back and the staff,” Parrish said.
Des Moines Public Schools said in a statement that Matt Smith, associate superintendent, would fill in as interim superintended until further notice.
“Our priority is to provide a safe, secure and outstanding education for all students and to support our students, families and employees,” the school board said.
Oct. 1 (UPI) — Homeland Security adviser Corey Lewandowski said Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will attend the Super Bowl’s halftime show featuring Bad Bunny.
Lewandowski, 52, appeared on “The Benny Show” podcast on Wednesday when he made his claim about ICE at the Super Bowl, according to The Hill.
“There is nowhere that you can provide a safe haven to the people in this country illegally,” Lewandowski said in response to a question from podcast host Benny Johnson.
“We will find you. We will apprehend you. We will put you in a detention facility, and we will deport you,” he claimed.
Lewandowski was President Donald Trump‘s campaign manager in 2016 and a senior adviser in 2020 and 2024.
The Super Bowl is the only U.S. performance scheduled so far in 2026 for Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, aka Bad Bunny, who is from Puerto Rico and has won three Grammy Awards.
The popular rapper last month said he was skipping performing in the United States due to his fear that ICE would raid his concert venues, Variety reported.
Bad Bunny on Sunday affirmed he is skipping dates in the United States, other than the Super Bowl, next year, according to Billboard.
“I’ve been thinking about it these days, and after discussing it with my team, I think I’ll do just one date in the United States,” he posted on X.
The popular rapper has a world tour scheduled from December through July, but said concerns that ICE might show up at U.S. shows caused him to skip performing here.
The Super Bowl is scheduled at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Feb. 8.
When my father was crossing the U.S.-Mexico border like an undocumented Road Runner back in the 1970s, la migra caught him more than a few times.
They chased him and his friends through factories in Los Angeles and across the hills that separate Tijuana and San Diego. He was tackled and handcuffed and hauled off in cars, trucks and vans. Sometimes, Papi and his pals were dropped off at the border checkpoint in San Ysidro and ordered to walk back into Mexico. Other times, he was packed into grimy cells with other men.
But there was no anger or terror in his voice when I asked him recently how la migra treated him whenever they’d catch him.
“Like humans,” he said. “They had a job to do, and they knew why we mojados were coming here, so they knew they would see us again. So why make it difficult for both of us?”
His most vivid memory was the time a guard in El Centro gave him extra food because he thought my dad was a bit too skinny.
There’s never a pretty way to deport someone. But there’s always a less indecent, a less callous, a less ugly way.
The Trump presidency has amply proven he has no interest in skirting meanness and cruelty.
“The way they treat immigrants now is a disgrace,” Papi said. “Like animals. It’s sad. It’s ugly. It needs to stop.”
I talked to him a few days after a gunman fired on a Dallas ICE facility, killing a detainee and striking two others before killing himself. One of the other wounded detainees, an immigrant from Mexico, died days later. Instead of expressing sympathy for the deceased, the Trump administration initially offered one giant shrug. What passed for empathy was Vice President JD Vance telling reporters, “Look, just because we don’t support illegal aliens, we don’t want them to be executed by violent assassins engaged in political violence” while blaming the attack on Democrats.
It was up to Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem to try and show that the federal government has a heart. Her statement on the Dallas attack offered “prayers” to the victims and their families but quickly pivoted to what she felt was the real tragedy.
How ungrateful critics are of la migra.
“For months, we’ve been warning politicians and the media to tone down their rhetoric about ICE law enforcement before someone was killed,” Noem said. “This shooting must serve as a wake-up call to the far-left that their rhetoric about ICE has consequences…The violence and dehumanization of these men and women who are simply enforcing the law must stop.”
You might have been forgiven for not realizing from such a statement that the three people punctured by a gunman’s bullets were immigrants.
This administration is never going to roll out the welcome mat for illegal immigrants. But the least they can do it deal with them as if … well, as if they are human.
Under Noem’s leadership, DHS’ social media campaign has instead produced videos that call undocumented immigrants “the worst of the worst” and depict immigration agents as heroes called by God to confront invading hordes. A recent one even used the theme song to the cartoon version of the Pokémon trading card game — tagline “Gotta catch them all” — to imply going after the mango guy and tamale lady is no different than capturing fictional monsters.
That’s one step away from “The Eternal Jew,” the infamous Nazi propaganda movie that compared Jews to rats and argued they needed to be eradicated.
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem speaks during a tour of the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) as prisoners stand, looking out from a cell, in Tecoluca, El Salvador, in March.
(Alex Brandon/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
Noem is correct when she said that words have consequences — but the “violence and dehumanization” she decries against ICE workers is nothing compared to the cascade of hate spewing from Trump and his goons against immigrants. That rot in the top has infested all parts of American government, leading to officials trying to outdo themselves over who can show the most fealty to Trump by being nastiest to people.
If there were a Cruelty Olympics, Trump’s sycophants would all be elbowing each other for the gold.
Politicians in red states propose repulsive names for their immigration detention facility — “Alligator Alcatraz” in Florida, for instance, or “Speedway Slammer” in Indiana. U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli, Trump’s top prosecutor in Southern California, has trumpeted the arrests of activists he claimed attacked federal agents even as video uploaded by civilians offers a different story. In a recent case, a federal jury acquitted Brayan Ramos-Brito of misdemeanor assault charges after evidence shown in court contradicted what Border Patrol agents had reported to justify his prosecution.
Our nation’s deportation Leviathan is so imperious that an ICE agent, face contorted with anger, outside a New York immigration court recently shoved an Ecuadorian woman pleading for her husband down to the ground, stood over her and wagged his finger in front of her bawling children even as cameras recorded the terrible scene. The move was so egregious that Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughin quickly put out a statement claiming the incident was “unacceptable and beneath the men and women of ICE.”
The act was so outrageous and it was all caught on camera, so what choice did she have? Nevertheless, CBS News reported that the agent is back on duty.
Noem and her crew are so high on their holy war that they don’t realize they’re their own worst enemy. La migra didn’t face the same public acrimony during Barack Obama’s first term, when deportation rates were so high immigration activists dubbed him the “deporter-in-chief.” They didn’t need local law enforcement to fend off angry crowds every time they conducted a raid in Trump’s first term.
The difference now is that cruelty seems like an absolute mandate, so forgive those of us who aren’t throwing roses at ICE when they march into our neighborhoods and haul off our loved ones. And it seems more folks are souring on Trump’s deportation plans. A June Gallup poll found that 79% of Americans said immigration was “a good thing” — a 15% increase since last year and the highest mark recorded by Gallup since it started asking the question in 2001. Meanwhile, a Washington Post/Ipsos September poll showed 44% of adults surveyed approved of Trump’s performance on immigration — a six-point drop since February.
I asked my dad how he thought the government should treat deportees. Our family has personally known Border Patrol agents.
“Well, most of them shouldn’t be deported in the first place,” he said. “If they want to work or already have families here, let them stay but say they need to behave well or they have to leave.”
That’s probably not going to happen, so what should the government do?
“Don’t yell at people,” my dad said. “Talk with patience. Feed immigrants well, give them clean clothes and give them privacy when they have to use the bathroom. Say, ‘sorry we have to do all this, but it’s what Trump wants.’
“And then they should apologize,” Papi concluded. “ They should tell everyone, ’We’re sorry we’ve been so mean. We can do better.’”
Sept. 30 (UPI) — Iowa formally revoked the license of the Des Moines schools superintendent who was picked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and switched his status from paid to unpaid leave.
The Des Moines Public School Board had placed Ian Roberts on paid administrative leave. Monday morning, it learned that the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners had revoked Roberts’ license to practice in the state, which meant that the local board had to put him on unpaid leave, retroactive to the state board’s decision, a press release said.
“New information and confirmed facts will continue to inform our decisions as we develop a path forward,” said Jackie Norris, chair of the Des Moines Public Schools Board. “Two things can be true at the same time – Dr. Roberts was an effective and well-respected leader and there are serious questions related to his citizenship and ability to legally perform his duties as superintendent.”
During a news conference later that day, attorney Alfredo Parrish said that Roberts had submitted his immediate resignation to the local school board, reported the Des Moines Register. Parrish said that Roberts, his client, does not want to be a distraction while he challenges efforts to deport him in court.
“He understands that he has the community’s support and it really gives him inspiration,” Parrish said. “His spirits are high.”
The Des Moines School Board is scheduled to discuss whether to terminate or accept Roberts’ resignation Tuesday evening.
Roberts was born in Guyana and came to the United States for college in 1999. He went on to get a Ph.D. and became a teacher and school administrator. He has worked in education for 20 years and had jobs in Maryland, Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.
He was arrested on Friday “in possession of a loaded handgun, $3,000 in cash and a fixed blade hunting knife,” an ICE press release said. It said when his car was approached by officers, he sped away. “Roberts has existing weapon possession charges from Feb. 5, 2020. Roberts entered the United States in 1999 on a student visa and was given a final order of removal by an immigration judge in May of 2024.”
The school board has asked for clarification from Roberts’ attorney by Tuesday afternoon. The district said Roberts filled out an I-9 form, said he was a citizen and provided two forms of verification: a driver’s license and a Social Security card.
“It still seems baffling to me how someone could be hired and their status not be legal in that process,” the Rev. Robyn Bles, who has a child in the district, told the New York Times. “The case that is being presented to us doesn’t stand up to the fact that he has been hired and worked in multiple districts and multiple states. So what’s going on in all of those places?”
Des Moines attorney Alfredo Parrish, whose firm is representing Roberts, told CNN he had spoken with Roberts via phone and said they had a good conversation and he sounded well. He declined to say more.
The school district said it will continue to share updates on any decisions made with families, staff and the public as information becomes available.
After making a cameoduring Shakira and Jennifer Lopez’s2020 halftime show in Miami, Bad Bunny will return to the Super Bowl stage next year — this time, as the headlining act.
The 2026 Super Bowl LX will take place Feb. 8 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. The Puerto Rican hitmaker’s performance is expected to be the first fully Spanish-language performance on the stage, and he’s the first Latino man to headline.
The announcement came after Bad Bunny, full name Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, said he would not tour his latest album, “Debí Tirar Más Fotos,” to the continental U.S. due to the ongoing threat of ICE arresting his concertgoers. “There was the issue of — like, f— ICE could be outside [my concert]. And it’s something that we were talking about and very concerned about,” he told i-D magazine.
Instead, the Grammy-winning artist’s No Me Quiero Ir de Aquí (I Don’t Want to Leave Here) residency — which took place at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico in San Juan — broughtan estimated $733 million to Puerto Rico as600,000-plus tourists came to the island for his concert.
As an unincorporated territory of the United States, Puerto Rico still has an ICE presence. In June 2025, Benito posted footageon his Instagram stories of an ICE raid in progress in Carolina, showcasing agents arresting alleged undocumented immigrants.
Yet since announcing his Super Bowl halftime show, the singer hasn’t voiced concerns about ICE. His post on X, which strays from his previous remarks on avoiding the States as a stance against ICE, reads: “I’ve been thinking about it these days, and after discussing it with my team, I think I’ll do just one date in the United States.”
As Santa Clara County is a sanctuary jurisdiction, Lina Baroudi, an immigration attorney in San Jose, believes local law enforcement is unlikely to cooperate with ICE. “Federal agents can operate independently. Sanctuary laws don’t prevent them from entering public spaces or executing federal warrants,” she says.
Between January and July in the Bay Area, ICE made 2,640 arrests— a 123% increase compared with 2024. “By June 2025, around 60% of ICE daily arrests in California were of people without criminal charges or convictions,” Baroudi says. The agency has historically had an increased presence in cities hosting the Super Bowl. ICE will likely be prohibited from operating inside the stadium, but ICE can operate in public spaces such as the parking lot, where fans may gather to hear the performance.
And yet, given the Trump administration’s hostility toward immigrants and Spanish speakers in the U.S., it feels especially poignant that the country’s biggest sporting event of the year will showcase a performance sung entirely in Spanish.
“What I’m feeling goes beyond myself,” Bad Bunny said in a statement. “It’s for those who came before me and ran countless yards so I could come in and score a touchdown… this is for my people, my culture and our history. Ve y dile a tu abuela, que seremos el HALFTIME SHOW DEL SUPER BOWL.”
The NFL has made a concerted effort over the years to globalize American football, with a special focus on building a fan base in Latin America; it recently enlisted Colombian pop starKarol G to perform at a halftime show in Brazil. Given that the Latine buying power in the U.S. is estimated at $3.6 trillion, tapping Bad Bunny as the headliner is a strategic move toward the league’s international expansion.
Year after year, since 2022, artists have broken the record for the highest viewership during a Super Bowl halftime show. During the 2025 Super Bowl, Kendrick Lamar drew the largest audience ever, with 133.5 million people tuning in for his performance, surpassing the actual game’s viewership.
While the Bad Bunny halftime show has the potential to break viewership records, bring in new audiences and educate viewers on the Puerto Rico he loves — it also poses a potential security risk for his Latine fans in attendance, who deserve solidarity and increased institutional support.
Ian Andre Roberts, the superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools in Iowa, was apprehended by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for being illegally in the United States and in possession of a loaded gun. Photo courtesy of ICE
Sept. 27 (UPI) — The superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools in Iowa was apprehended by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on a deportation order and in possession of a loaded gun in a district vehicle.
Ian Andre Roberts, 54, entered from Guyana in 1999 on a student visa and had a final order for removal by an immigration judge in May 2024, ICE said in a news release Friday.
“This suspect was arrested in possession of a loaded weapon in a vehicle provided by Des Moines Public Schools after fleeing federal law enforcement,” Sam Olson, ICE field office director in St. Paul, Minn., said in the release.
“This should be a wake-up call for our communities to the great work that our officers are doing every day to remove public safety threats. How this illegal alien was hired without work authorization, a final order of removal, and a prior weapons charge is beyond comprehension and should alarm the parents of that school district,” he said.
On Friday, ICE officers approached Roberts in the vehicle and, after identifying himself, he sped away, the agency said. His vehicle was found later near a wooded area.
At 8:45 a.m., the Iowa Department of Public Safety said in a news release that the agency received a mutual aid request to assist ICE in finding someone who fled from a traffic stop.
Iowa State Patrol troopers and special agents assisted ICE in finding Roberts, and he was taken into custody. Initially, he was listed as detained at the Pottawattamie County Jail, although the ICE website later removed any mention of a specific detention facility.
In 2021, Roberts pleaded guilty in Erie., Pa. to unlawful possession of a loaded firearm in a vehicle, which is a fifth-degree penalty, according to court records. It is a violation of law for someone without legal status in the United States to possess a firearm and ammunition.
On Friday, he also was in possession of a fixed-blade hunting knife and $3,000 in cash.
Roberts began working for the school district in 2023 after the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners granted Roberts a license to serve in Iowa as a superintendent.
Before coming to Iowa, he had been the superintendent of Middlecreek Township School District in Erie, Pa., since August 2020. Before that, he was chief schools officer for Aspire Public Schools Oakland, Calif., from 2018-2020.
The district said a third-party comprehensive background check was conducted on Roberts, and he was required to verify employment eligibility for all employees. The search found he held educational leadership positions in the U.S. for more than 20 years.
“We do not have all the facts. There is much we do not know,” school board President Jackie Norris said Friday during a news conference. “However, what we do know is Dr. Roberts has been an integral part of our school community since he joined two years ago.”
Later Friday, the district said in a news release that it “has not been formally notified by ICE about this matter, nor have we been able to talk with Dr. Roberts since his detention.”
Weapons are prohibited on school grounds, at school-sponsored events and at school-related activities.
Associate Superintendent Matt Smith will serve as interim superintendent, having previously served as interim superintendent during the 2022-23 school year. The district is the largest in Iowa with more than 30,000 students and nearly 5,000 teachers in more than 60 schools, according to its website.
“Unfortunate situations like today underscore exactly why we must fix our broken immigration system. An individual with a prior weapons charge and an active deportation order should never have been placed in this position of public trust,” Republican U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn, who serves the Des Moines area, posted on X.
U.S. Rep. and Iowa Senate candidate Ashley Hinson wrote on X that “He should be deported immediately. He should have never been anywhere around Iowa kids in the first place!”
Roberts, who was born in Guyana in 1973, competed for the South American nation in the 2000 Sydney Olympics in track and field as an 800-meter runner, coming in next to last in his heat.
“After transitioning from my professional track and field career, I embarked on a mission to transform schools,” he wrote on his LinkedIn Profile. “I’ve been in the trenches as a teacher in Brooklyn, New York, Prince Georges County, Maryland, and Baltimore City, where I earned the honor of being named Teacher of the Year for two consecutive years.
“Throughout my career, my Olympic tenacity has fueled my commitment to achieving excellence in education. I’ve led schools to achieve unprecedented gains in college acceptance/enrollment, increased attendance, and academic achievement.”
He received a doctorate from Trident University in Arizona, masters’ degrees from St. John’s and Georgetown and a bachelor’s from Morgan State. He went to Harvard’s graduate school of education and MIT’s School of Management.
The city’s Democratic mayor says there is no need for the US president to send federal forces.
Published On 27 Sep 202527 Sep 2025
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United States President Donald Trump has authorised the deployment of troops to the northwestern city of Portland, Oregon, as well as to federal immigration facilities around the country, in his latest controversial use of the military for domestic purposes.
Writing on his Truth Social network on Saturday, the US president said he would be asking his defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, to carry out the order, adding that the soldiers would be permitted to use “full force, if necessary”.
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Trump claimed the move was necessary to protect “war-ravaged” Portland and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities from “domestic terrorists”, but the city’s mayor and other Democratic leaders were quick to condemn the decision.
Just days before Trump’s announcement on Saturday, a deadly shooting took place at an ICE facility in Texas. One detainee was killed and two others were severely injured in the attack, which Trump blamed, without providing evidence, on the “radical left”.
Protests against the US government’s anti-immigration policies have taken place outside ICE facilities in cities, including Portland.
It was unclear whether just the National Guard or other military branches, or both – as happened in June in Los Angeles, amid protests against immigration raids, will be deployed to Portland.
Portland and state leaders lambasted Trump on Saturday, saying his actions were against their wishes. By law, the National Guard can generally only be deployed at a state governor’s request, and there are ongoing lawsuits in California as well as Washington, DC over the deployment of troops.
“The number of necessary troops is zero, in Portland and any other American city. The president will not find lawlessness or violence here unless he plans to perpetrate it,” said Keith Wilson, the mayor of Portland.
Meanwhile, US Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, noted Trump’s decision to send federal forces to the city in 2020, after protests broke out there following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Wyden said on X that Trump “may be replaying the 2020 playbook and surging into Portland with the goal of provoking conflict and violence”.
Despite Trump’s claims about Portland, overall violent crime in the city was down by 17 percent from January to June, when compared with the first six months of 2024, according to a recent report from the Major Cities Chiefs Association.
An ICE officer has been placed on leave after video emerged of him forcefully shoving an Ecuadorian woman to the ground at a New York immigration courthouse, where her husband was taken into custody.
STACEY Solomon and her family are such big fans of the Regnum Carya hotel in Turkey, she’s gone as far to call it her ‘second home’.
And this year the star visited the Regnum The Crown – its sister hotel which opened its doors back in July.
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Stacey Solomon and her family recently took a trip to TurkeyCredit: Instagram / staceysolomon
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There are eight swimming pools and a waterpark called Regnum AquatlantisCredit: EasyJet
The hotel is in the Turkish seaside city of Antalya and it has got some very impressive facilities.
Beating the heat in Turkey can be solved by splashing about in the pool, and this resort has eight.
The resort has your regular outdoor pools as well as a salt-water pool, kids pools, and indoor ones too.
For kids, there’s a waterpark called Regnum Aquatlantis with flumes, slides, attractions like tipping buckets, a lazy river and wave pool.
For even more entertainment, there’s a cinema and playroom, and for the teens, there’s a tech lounge with gaming pods.
The hotel is ideally not that far from The Land of Legends theme park also known as “the Turkish Disneyland” either, in fact, it’s an 8 minute drive away.
There, visitors will find thrilling rollercoasters, a watercoaster and entertainment shows.
Back at the hotel, there’s a luxurious private Blue Flag beach with incredibly clear waters.
Along the white stretch of sand are four beach clubs, each scattered with sun umbrellas and loungers.
As for activities on the beach, guests can play volleyball, take part in yoga sessions, minifootball and even sound healing.
Inside Stacey Solomon’s £3k a week Turkey hotel with waterpark, swim up bar and private beach
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Around the hotel are suites and villas for guestsCredit: Regnum The Crown
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There are lots of dining options tooCredit: EasyJet
The fussiest of eaters won’t have a problem at the hotel either because there are plenty of dining options from the classic buffet to tapas.
There’s also Pan-Asian, Arabic, and Slavic restaurants too, and lots of snacks and meals at the beach clubs.
There’s an on-site spa too where guests can book massages, and relax in the sauna, steam room and even an ice fountain.
Another place for adults to relax is the rooftop which has an infinity pool, restaurant, bar, fitness club and private dining.
When it comes to rooms, there are plenty of options from spacious suites to family-rooms and even private villas – some of which even have personal butler service.
And while summer in the UK might be coming to a close, there is still plenty of time to lap up the sun in Turkey.
During October, there are highs of 26C, and even in December temperatures average out at around 16C.
