[Paigelynne Gonyea ](https://www.syracuse.com/news/2026/06/federal-agents-track-down-syracuse-woman-demand-she-remove-instagram-post-about-ice.html "https://www.syracuse.com/news/2026/06/federal-agents-track-down-syracuse-woman-demand-she-remove-instagram-post-about-ice.html")wasn’t sure Onondaga County Board of Elections commissioners would hire her to work as a poll worker after the attention she drew in the June primary. But they did and she returned to the downtown library today to help voters through Election Day. In June, two agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement tracked Gonyea to her job at a primary election polling place to deliver a warning letter about her Instagram account. They said she had threatened a law enforcement officer in a January post when she named the Border Patrol agent who shot and killed Minnesota protester Renee Good. Agents accused Gonyea of posting the agent’s name – Jonathan Ross – and his address. Gonyea admitted she named the agent, a fact that had been widely reported in the news. She said Ross should be indicted. She said she did not post his address and cannot find any evidence of a post with an address. Either way, she believes she has a First Amendment right to share a name and address on the Internet. Last week, [Gonyea sued ICE ](https://www.syracuse.com/politics/2026/10/syracuse-woman-sues-ice-after-2-agents-warned-her-about-an-instagram-post.html "https://www.syracuse.com/politics/2026/10/syracuse-woman-sues-ice-after-2-agents-warned-her-about-an-instagram-post.html")in pursuit of records that would show where they got that information. She believes ICE agents fabricated an Instagram post. She is represented by lawyers for the New York Civil Liberties Union. ... The moment federal agents walked into a polling place, they signaled alarms about voter intimidation, citizen surveillance and free speech. “I really think that we are in scary times,” she said. The warning letter was serious. It hangs on her refrigerator. It said, “This notice officially informs you that it is unlawful to threaten to assault, kidnap, and/or murder a federal official or that federal official’s immediate family member with the intent to impede, intimidate, and/or interfere with the federal official’s duties or retaliate against a federal official due to the performance of their duties.” After agents delivered the letter to Gonyea, they went to Rochester to deliver a similar warning to [David Streever,](https://www.syracuse.com/news/2026/06/another-ice-threat-visit-how-did-agents-track-down-this-critic-on-his-vacation.html "https://www.syracuse.com/news/2026/06/another-ice-threat-visit-how-did-agents-track-down-this-critic-on-his-vacation.html") who had written an angry email to the former acting ICE Director Todd Lyons. [Streever also sued ICE](https://www.syracuse.com/news/2026/07/ice-critic-sues-us-government-over-free-speech-after-federal-agents-track-him-down.html "https://www.syracuse.com/news/2026/07/ice-critic-sues-us-government-over-free-speech-after-federal-agents-track-him-down.html"). A federal judge said agents [likely violated his First Amendment rights.](https://www.syracuse.com/news/2026/09/federal-judge-says-ice-likely-violated-upstate-ny-mans-free-speech-with-warning-over-angry-email.html "https://www.syracuse.com/news/2026/09/federal-judge-says-ice-likely-violated-upstate-ny-mans-free-speech-with-warning-over-angry-email.html") Gonyea encouraged Streever to share his story. She said she has spoken with at least 10 other people who received similar warning letters, but were afraid to go public. ... Critics said she was simply trying to win attention or make money. Someone threatened violence against her family, she said. “There’s no money with suing the federal government,” she said. “I’m hoping to set a precedent, maybe have some kind of further protections on the First Amendment right, some government oversights...policy and procedural changes so this doesn’t happen to me or anyone else again.” Gonyea has not heard from ICE agents since June. But there is evidence that they continue to pursue her. In September, Meta alerted Gonyea that the U.S. Justice Department had issued a federal grand jury subpoena for records related to her Instagram account. ... Military troops and armed federal officers, including immigration agents, are not allowed at polling places under state and federal law, James reminded voters last week. New York law says local governments and their employees may not grant access to federal agents for immigration purposes unless the officers present a judicial warrant or a court order, she said.

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/90924

Orders for what one official called a “national no enforcement day” began circulating on Monday inside U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. Handed down through ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division through internal group chats and verbal commands, the directive called for a halt to all immigration enforcement operations on Election Day, according to ICE officials across the country who spoke to The Intercept.

“We were told all operations are canceled for Election Day.”

“We were told all operations are canceled for Election Day,” said one ICE immigration official, who operates in the south and requested anonymity to protect their livelihood. “Word of mouth from our first-line supervisors, no official email notice.” According to multiple ICE officials who spoke to The Intercept, the orders were handed down quietly to avoid media attention. “Yesterday was the least amount of activity observed from ICE ERO throughout the entire year so far,” said Sherman Austin, the creator of StopICE.net, a crowdsourced platform tracking reported ICE activity across the United States. “You can kind of tell like from the morning. Usually, ICE gets started really early, and there’s a huge spike in activity between 5 a.m. and 10 a.m. That spike wasn’t there on Election Day.” Another ICE official, who works in the Great Lakes region, confirmed the orders ahead of Election Day, referring to it as “National No Enforcement Day.” [image

Related

Inside ICE, Officials Question String of Trump Admin “Midterm Panic Moves”](https://theintercept.com/2026/10/15/ice-omar-raid-midterms-political/)

“We were told to do ‘admin’ shit,” the official said. They said that ICE deportation officers who regularly do street-level operations were diverted to administrative office work: “I’ll be drinking coffee at the office for the first time in a year.” In total, ICE officials working in four areas of responsibility — ICE’s jurisdictional regions — coving parts of the northeastern, midwestern, northern, and south-central U.S. regions told The Intercept that they had received orders to stand down on Election Day.

“Something Unusual Was Going On”

StopICE, the tracking website, which has roughly half a million subscribers, did record some ICE activity on Election Day, according to Austin, although most of the reports stemmed from sightings unrelated to any immigration enforcement activities. [image

Related

“Offensive Driving”: ICE’s Deadly Weaponization of Vehicles Against Civilians](https://theintercept.com/2026/11/02/ice-vehicles-cars-hit-weapon/)

“There were a few reports that came in about ICE being at usual spots like the jails,” Austin said, “or seen driving in certain areas in in the city, but it wasn’t the same type of activity that’s usually seen on the site. It was pretty clear that something unusual was going on.” AntiFreeze, another crowdsourced ICE-tracking platform that allows users to report and receive real-time alerts about ICE raids, also saw abnormally low levels of ICE activity on November 3, according to Josh, the creator and developer behind the site, who requested to keep his last name anonymous. “On Election Day, our network only logged about 56 reported ICE sightings nationwide, which is one of the quietest Tuesdays we’ve ever seen,” Josh said. “We did get about three sightings that did report ICE activity near polling stations, but most of the reports were observations of vehicles associated with ICE. We barely got any reports about actual ICE arrests yesterday.” Local activists also observed a low level of ICE activity on the street level. “There was no evidence of street abductions,” said an activist working with the rapid-response network in Minnesota’s Twin Cities. [image

Related

In California’s Central Valley, ICE Swung a Red District Blue](https://theintercept.com/2026/11/04/villegas-valadao-california-election-ice/)

“ICE, in some capacity, was still out and about, but we did not see any reports of off-the-street detainments by ICE or attempts at detainments,” said the activist, who said they got word of ICE arrests at jails, but not targeted operations among the general public. “There were a lot of folks, probably more than usual, observing, and so I think we can be pretty confident that this wasn’t due to lack of observation.” Leo Martinez, who volunteers with VC Defensa in Southern California, told The Intercept that no one in his rapid-response group reported any sightings of ICE activity on Tuesday. It is still unclear exactly where the orders to halt immigration enforcement operations on Election Day originated from, although some ICE officials believe the orders stemmed from ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations leadership — and not directly from the White House. “Nobody from the SDDO level” — a reference to Supervisory Detention and Deportation Officer, part of ICE’s upper management — “expected it to happen until the very last moment,” said another ICE official familiar with the matter. “But I think some of us caught on that senior leadership was making this call with fears of us being at the polls.” The official said, “It’s crazy that The White House didn’t catch on.” The post ICE Was Secretly Ordered to Stop All Immigration Raids on Election Day appeared first on The Intercept. ——— From The Intercept via This RSS Feed.

Hossein Batooie is an Iranian immigrant living in Colorado. In 2025, he was sent to the concentration camp known as the Denver Contract Detention Facilityas part of a larger operation to detain Iranian nationals during the war between Israel and the U.S. against Iran. Hossein has been in the USA 26 years. in 2004, Hossein Batooie was granted legal status by an immigration judge after seeking asylum. He reports that solitary confinement and transportation is being used to "torment" people into giving up their cases, signing papers, and self deporting. He tells the tragic story of his friend who after 6 months in solitary, and multiple transfers to detainment facilities around the country in desperation gave up and signed his own deportation papers. He was deported back to Iran where he was killed by the regime. The interview was filmed at the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition (CIRC). Hossein's account can be found in the Mr. Grievances Audio Visual Exhibit a part of From Many Paths One Home: The Colorado Story. The artist had compiled some of Hossein's ICE grievances along with audio to create a powerful art piece on the wall behind him. The exhibit and event by co_immigrant Video Source

Please let me know if you have more information. Video Source

Video Source Ice Out Report

A Maryland woman who spoke publicly about her husband’s death in ICE custody has been placed in deportation proceedings, according to documents shared with The Washington Post. Veronica Ramirez received media attention this month after her husband, Julian Curo Churata, died in an ICE detention center in Louisiana. Curo Churata, originally from Peru, had lived in the United States for more than a decade before he was detained by immigration officers in June. He died Sept. 29. Hospital records showed Curo Churata died of cardiac arrest due to septic shock. ICE officials said guards found him in “medical distress” and took him to the hospital just after 8 p.m. Medical reports show the hospital, a seven-minute drive away, did not record Curo Churata arriving until 10:26 p.m. In a story that ran on the front page of The Post earlier this month, Ramirez said that ICE officials had yet to provide the family any details of what happened to her husband. ... On Friday, Ramirez’s attorney said she received a notice that deportation proceedings had been initiated against her. The notice is dated three days after the article was published online, according to the copy. The document states that Ramirez, who is from El Salvador, is an “alien present in the United States who has not been admitted or paroled” and orders her to report to an immigration court for a hearing next month. In a statement provided by her attorney, Ramirez said she’s “so afraid. ICE has already taken my daughter’s father, my husband, Julian, away from her. He died while in their custody. Now, I am terrified that they might try to separate her from me as well.” Ramirez and Curo-Churata had shared a home in Prince George’s County with their 6-year-old daughter and Ramirez’s son. Curo Churata also had an older son from a previous relationship. During his months in detention, Curo Churata would call every day, Ramirez said, to reassure her that he was staying safe and tell his kids that he missed them. The couple had agreed not to tell their daughter about his detention, so Curo Churata, a carpenter by trade, would tell her that he was helping build a beautiful house far away. “She would say, ‘Dad, why don’t you finish that job? That job is awful, they won’t let you come back to us,’” Ramirez recalled. “He would tell her, ‘No, my love, I’m almost finished, and then I’ll be able to come home and be with you.’” After her husband’s death, Ramirez said she saw her daughter, once a happy and energetic child, become withdrawn. “She’s afraid - afraid of being alone,” Ramirez said. ... Max Schoening, Ramirez’s lawyer, said the ICE notice was “clear retaliation” for speaking out. Schoening said Ramirez had applied for asylum when she entered the U.S. in 2018. That claim was rejected in 2023, he said, but ICE has not had contact with her since then. “All of a sudden, when she speaks out about her husband’s death in ICE custody and seeking accountability and truth about what happened, they’re retaliating by trying to deport her and separate her from her kids,” Schoening said.

Please let me know if you have more information on this incident, like the date or the iceout.org report. Video Source

Mario Morales is accused of striking Miguel Parra-Hernandez with his vehicle while on patrol as an ICE agent. A grand jury indicted Morales Friday morning. His lawyer argues the indictment is “political prosecution.”

———

Mario Alberto Morales, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer [indicted by a grand jury](https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/politics/immigration/2026/10/30/565692/grand-jury-indicts-ice-officer-responsible-for-running-houston-immigrant-over/) last week, surrendered himself in a Harris County District Court Monday. In Harris County 488th District Court, Morales entered in a gray suit and purple tie alongside his legal team David Lindenmuth and newly added co-counsel former Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg. In one-word answers, Morales acknowledged he understood the charge against him. Lawyers for the district attorney’s office requested a $75,000 bond due to the "violent nature" of the incident and some "admissions of prior drug use" they uncovered in their investigation. Morales' lawyer David Lindenmuth countered and requested a $25,000 bond, arguing his client posed no flight risk and that there is no on-going threat to the community. Judge Matthew Peneguy, who presided over the hearing, ordered a $30,000 bond and said Morales is to have no contact with any of the victims or witnesses in the case. Morales was indicted for a second-degree felony offense of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. The agent is accused of striking Miguel Parra-Hernandez with his vehicle, breaking his leg and ankle, on Oct. 10. An ICE spokesperson claimed Parra-Hernandez ran in front of the vehicle while fleeing from the scene of an attempted traffic stop. ... Parra-Hernandez's family, his lawyer and immigrant rights advocacy groups have disputed ICE's account. Surveillance video and footage from Morales' body camera, released by the Harris County District Attorney's office, show Morales pursuing Parra-Hernandez as he ran away from the agent's unmarked vehicle. Morales' car is seen jumping the median to make a left turn into a parking lot, then hitting Parra-Hernandez from behind and coming to a stop several feet after running him over. The indictment was announced Friday by Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare and Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez. Gonzalez said investigators developed serious concerns over Morales' actions, including how he pursued Parra-Hernandez and the manner in which Parra-Hernandez was struck. ... The indictment is a rare but not unprecedented instance of state agencies prosecuting a federal agent. A federal grand jury in Minnesota indicted Texas-based ICE agent Christian Castro for making false claims to the Federal Bureau of Investigations over the shooting of a Venezuelan man in January. A legal battle ensued between the states over the extradition of the agent. Castro was ultimately arrested when he returned to Minnesota for a court appearance. If Morales is convicted, the assault charge carries up to 20 years in prison.

The Washington County District Attorney’s office will review video footage and police reports related to an early October incident in which a masked federal immigration agent appeared to slash the tire of a car belonging to two U.S. citizens who said they were documenting immigration enforcement activity in the Hillsboro area. Stephen Mayer, a spokesperson for Washington County District Attorney Kevin Barton’s office, confirmed Monday that the office will review evidence from the Hillsboro Police Department documenting the matter, which took place on Oct. 7. The incident — which was [captured on video that the American Civil Liberties Union released](https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/aclu-releases-video-of-ice-agent-slashing-observers-tire) — has drawn condemnation from Democratic politicians, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has said it is conducting an internal investigation into the events. The American Civil Liberties Union and its local Oregon chapter have not identified the couple and instead identified them by the initials “A.P and M.P.” “We have received police reports and video from Hillsboro Police,” Mayer said in a statement. “As with all case referrals, we will review the investigation and applicable law to determine whether the evidence supports criminal charges.” ... Federal agents have significant criminal immunity for conduct within the scope of their duties. Over the past few decades, federal courts have [rarely allowed state-led prosecutions of federal agents](https://oregoncapitalchronicle.com/2025/12/05/portlands-da-balked-at-charging-federal-agents-under-oregon-law-then-ag-rayfield-stepped-in/). Mayer pointed to the failed prosecution of a federal Drug Enforcement Administration who ran a stop sign in Salem and killed a cyclist in 2023 ... The development also deviates from an [initial plan announced](https://oregoncapitalchronicle.com/2025/12/05/portlands-da-balked-at-charging-federal-agents-under-oregon-law-then-ag-rayfield-stepped-in/) last year by Rayfield, who vowed to use his agency’s resources at the Oregon Department of Justice to conduct investigations into reports of federal agents violating state law and then forward his findings to district attorneys for consideration for prosecution. Jenny Hansson, a spokesperson for the Oregon Department of Justice, didn’t immediately respond to questions Monday about those dynamics. She told the Capital Chronicle that the Oregon Department of Justice was aware of the incident captured on video and was in communication with local authorities while they investigate. She said the agency “will take whatever additional next steps are necessary.” “Oregonians have a right to observe and record law enforcement in public and no one, including federal agents, is above the law,” she said in a statement. “Everyone in our communities deserves to feel safe, and we will continue to stand up for their rights.”

Video Source

Immigrants who have been granted release from detention after winning habeas corpus petitions in court are being re-arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement ([ICE](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ice-us-immigration-and-customs-enforcement)). The Guardian has identified at least 20 cases nationwide relating to people who were detained after being released on habeas corpus petition in the last year, according to court records, attorneys and media reports. Increasing [arrests and detentions](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/aug/29/trump-immigration-ice-cbp-data) have led to immigrants filing more than 91,000 habeas petitions as they seek to challenge their detentions, according to research [by ProPublica](https://projects.propublica.org/habeas-tracker/). More petitions have been filed since 25 January than during the past three presidential administrations, including Trump’s first term, combined, the outlet found. A petition of habeas corpus – Latin for “you shall have a body” – challenges in a federal court the government’s right to hold someone in custody while their main legal case is proceeding. But in a new development, people are winning their release only to find themselves quickly detained again. “We’ve seen a very, very sharp increase in people who are released on habeas petitions, only to be very rapidly re-detained, often in violation of the federal court’s order,” said Bridget Pranzatelli, an attorney with the National Immigration Project. One of her clients,** **Akram Mahmoud Omar, a 77-year-old Palestinian man who suffered a heart attack while detained in “Camp 57”, the ICE detention facility within Louisiana’s [notorious state prison](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/18/louisiana-angola-prison-trump-ice-immigration) in Angola, was arrested again by ICE within 10 days of being released following a habeas petition, as first [reported](https://theintercept.com/2026/06/10/ice-deport-elderly-palestinian-immigrant/) by the Intercept. And in Minnesota, seven immigrants were re-detained before even exiting the Whipple federal building detention facility on the outskirts of Minneapolis, as first [reported](https://www.mprnews.org/story/2026/10/27/minnesota-immigration-rearrest-case-judge-threatens-ice-with-contempt-sanctions) by MPR. ... Courts are taking notice. In an October [ruling](https://www.ca10.uscourts.gov/sites/ca10/files/opinions/010111530610.pdf), the 10th US circuit court of appeals in Colorado** **denied the government’s attempt to dismiss a habeas petition on the grounds that they had the power to re-detain the petitioner. The government had a previous “demonstrated pattern of re-detaining” non-citizens who had been granted habeas relief, according to the court. In Louisiana, in the case of another client of Pranzatelli,** **a federal judge** **held a senior federal immigration official in contempt of court for violating orders, demanding Ibrahim Mohammed’s release after he had been re-arrested three times by ICE**, **as first [reported](https://www.thebanner.com/community/local-news/ice-unlawful-arrest-court-contempt-XL43TXX2PFD4NI6GVO3OYPJQYE/) by the Banner. Two other federal judges, in [Pennsylvania](https://www.courthousenews.com/federal-immigration-officials-held-in-contempt-for-disobeying-court-orders/) and [Minnesota](https://www.mprnews.org/story/2026/02/24/judge-finds-government-in-contempt-orders-ice-to-repay-man-for-flight-home-from-texas), have also held federal immigration authorities in contempt or threatened to do so. Attorneys believe that certain re-detentions are connected to the Trump administration’s push to deport people [to third countries](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/sep/21/what-is-trump-third-country-deportation-policy). ... The [Trump administration](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/trump-administration) is increasingly sending immigrants who cannot be removed to their home countries, either because the country will not accept them or they have protections from being deported there, to another country entirely, where they don’t hold citizenship and often have no ties. In the past, these immigrants were essentially safe from deportation. ... More than 25,000 non-citizens [have been deported](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/sep/21/what-is-trump-third-country-deportation-policy) from the US to countries that are not their own, despite potentially facing torture or persecution. Often, they are being incarcerated in prisons or detained in secured hotels and pressured to return to their home countries, which human rights experts say [violates](https://www.hrw.org/report/2026/10/08/to-scare-people/us-expulsions-of-third-country-nationals-to-countries-in-africa) the Convention Against Torture. ... In the current political climate, attorneys are eager for judges to grant habeas petitions that prevent the government from easily re-detaining and deporting a client. ... In September, an appeals court ruled that the Trump administration had to provide sufficient notice of third-country deportations and allow immigrants to contest their removals. Shortly after, the six-justice conservative majority of the supreme court [granted an emergency stay ](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/sep/29/trump-immigration-deport-migrants-third-country)of the ruling, allowing the Trump administration to continue quickly deporting immigrants to third countries, without issuing an explanation. Additionally, some immigrants facing third country removals who won withholding of removal are now eligible for asylum [after a court overruled a Biden-era policy](https://immigrantjustice.org/for-attorneys/resources/ebsc-v-trump-an-explainer-for-advocates-on-vacatur-of-the-circumvention-of-lawful-pathways-rule/) prohibiting most people who crossed the [US-Mexico border](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/us-mexico-border) unlawfully from obtaining asylum. ... Yet many people are being re-arrested with no apparent plans for deportation, leaving them stranded in detention indefinitely. Courts are also taking months to adjudicate the thousands of habeas cases, particularly in Louisiana and Texas where many detention centers are located, according to an [analysis](https://boltsmag.org/louisiana-immigration-detention-habeas-crisis/) by Bolts and New Orleans-based outlet the Lens, and the [Texas Tribune](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/12/04/texas-immigrants-deportation-cases-habeas-corpus-detention/). And the fear of re-detention risks further trauma for their clients and families, attorneys say.

Video Source Related Article

A federal judge barred immigration agents in Southern California from stopping people based on racial stereotypes, finding evidence of an unwritten, “officially sanctioned” policy of targeting people who appear Latino. In her order granting a preliminary injunction, U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong cited “a mountain of evidence” provided by the plaintiffs, including [body-camera footage and text messages](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-07-27/immigration-agents-racial-profiling-aclu) that captured immigration agents referring to Latinos using slurs such as “tonk” and “wet.” “The Government’s showing that it trains agents to follow the law cannot defeat the mountain of evidence that, in practice, agents do not follow the law,” Frimpong wrote. The injunction, issued last week and made public Thursday, requires agents to establish individualized reasonable suspicion before detaining someone for immigration enforcement, rather than relying on racial stereotypes. Simply appearing to be Latino and working class is insufficient, Frimpong wrote, even if a person shares those characteristics with an identified target. The order exempts stops at ports of entry, checkpoints and other functional equivalents of the border. Frimpong concluded that plaintiffs were likely to prove the practice violated the 4th Amendment’s protection against unreasonable seizures and the 5th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection. The judge noted that her ruling was not a final determination that the government maintained an unlawful policy. The Trump administration filed a notice of appeal Wednesday, seeking review by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. In an application to stay Frimpong’s order pending the appeal, a Justice Department official said the injunction “gravely hinders the government’s ability to conduct immigration stops.” ... Tajsar said the plaintiffs would closely monitor the government’s compliance with [the injunction](https://www.aclusocal.org/app/uploads/2026/10/ECF-823-Order-Granting-Suspicionless-Stops-PI.pdf). ... Based on the evidence, Frimpong said, plaintiffs “have shown that they will likely be able to prove the Government does have a policy in the Los Angeles area of stopping people for immigration purposes just because they look Latino or because they look Latino and working class.” The judge cited accounts of Latino U.S. citizens whose attempts to establish their citizenship were rejected, including a car wash worker who said an agent refused to let him retrieve his passport. She also described instances in which agents detained Latino workers and customers while leaving white people nearby alone. Frimpong’s order applies in the Central District of California, which encompasses Los Angeles and the surrounding areas, including Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. The newly disclosed evidence had not yet been turned over by the government when the Supreme Court [last year](https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2025-09-08/supreme-court-immigration-stops-los-angeles) stayed the judge’s [earlier order](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-07-11/federal-judge-temporarily-halts-alleged-indiscriminate-immigration-stops) barring stops based solely on race or ethnicity, language, location or employment, either alone or in combination. In a 10-page concurring opinion, Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh said the plaintiffs had no good basis to believe law enforcement would unlawfully stop them in the future based on the prohibited factors. He also wrote that apparent ethnicity can be a relevant factor in immigration stops when considered alongside other salient factors and that reasonable suspicion permits brief stops for questioning. But Frimpong wrote that the new request differed from the earlier one in its evidence, legal theories and proposed relief. The Supreme Court had not explained its reasons for granting the stay, she noted, and Kavanaugh’s concurrence was not binding precedent.

Video Source

After Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare announced a felony indictment on Friday against a federal immigration agent who struck a man with his vehicle, a spokesperson for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) claimed the DA was acting outside of his jurisdiction. "This is nothing more than a political stunt by Houston sanctuary politicians," the ICE spokesperson wrote in a statement. "Federal officers acting in the course of their duties can only be investigated by other Federal agencies. Local governments do not have the authority to run such an investigation." Legal experts, however, disagreed. ... "If a federal agent simply walked up to the mayor of Houston and shot him, the mere fact that he’s a federal agent and on duty does not stop the local DA’s office from charging him with murder because his actions are clearly unreasonable," said Tom Hogan, assistant professor at the South Texas College of Law. On Oct. 10, ICE agent Mario Alberto Morales allegedly ran over Miguel Parra-Hernandez on purpose, breaking his legs and ankle. A spokesperson for ICE asserted Parra-Hernandez ran in front of the vehicle while fleeing — an account disputed by his attorney. The Harris County Sheriff's Office responded to the crash. "Our vehicular crimes division immediately began investigating the incident, just as they would any other serious crash involving a pedestrian," Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said on Friday. "Based on the evidence gathered, investigators developed serious concerns about the actions of the agent involved, including the circumstances surrounding the vehicle pursuit and the manner in which Mr. Parra-Hernandez was struck." ... Hogan said the prosecution’s case against Morales will center on "whether or not they acted within a reasonable fashion." Under the U.S. Constitution's Supremacy Clause and Supreme Court precedent, federal agents are broadly protected from criminal prosecution when acting in the course of their official duties, if their actions are deemed "necessary and proper," David Kwok, director of the University of Houston Law Center's Criminal Justice Institute, said. "This is so-called ‘Supremacy Clause immunity,' and there’s two prongs to it — the actions must be authorized by federal law, and they must be necessary and proper in that situation," Kwok said. "The first part, ‘authorized by federal law,' is relatively generous. The ‘necessary and proper' — that’s where most of the fight is going to be about.” Harris County prosecutors face an additional hurdle. Because Morales is a federal agent, the defense could attempt to have the case transferred to federal court. There, Morales might benefit from friendlier judges, according to UH Law Center professor Seth Chandler. "In federal court, you do have a greater prospect, I think, of getting more conservatively-oriented, law enforcement-oriented judges than you might in Harris County, and then you also get the benefit of the Fifth Circuit (Court of Appeals), which is well known as a fairly conservative circuit," Chandler said. "That doesn’t mean that they don’t care about civil liberties. It doesn’t mean that they don’t care about the law. But on balance, I suspect that the United States government is going to prefer to have this litigated in its own courts." First, Morales must be taken into custody. His attorney, David Lindenmuth, told *Houston Public Media* Morales was in the Houston area and planned to surrender himself on Monday.

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Three people detained at an Indiana immigration facility known as the “Speedway Slammer” say detainees languish in solitary confinement for weeks, are denied essential medical treatment and are subjected to abuse and racial slurs by facility officials. The detainees alleged in a lawsuit filed Thursday that conditions at the Miami Detention Center in Bunker Hill, Indiana, are inhumane, and officials’ neglect has created a “dangerous medical crisis,” according to a copy obtained by The Associated Press. The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit in federal court in the Northern District of Indiana. The AP has previously reported on [medical neglect](https://www.ap.org/news-highlights/spotlights/2026/from-festering-infections-to-untreated-cancer-ice-detainees-across-the-us-describe-medical-neglect/), dangerous conditions and [human rights abuses](https://apnews.com/article/ice-camp-detention-trump-homeland-security-dhs-immigration-deaths-abuse-30ec92636a5601b0071895efa871b990) at immigration detention facilities across the country. At least 37 people have died in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody this fiscal year, the most in the agency’s history, [according to the Migration Policy Institute](https://www.migrationpolicy.org/journal/policy-beat/ice-mandatory-detention-deaths?eType=EmailBlastContent\&eId=8c022b31-1017-41fd-9a39-3cf544a25164). Two people have died at the Indiana facility this year — Tuan Van Bui, a 55-year-old Vietnamese man, and Lorth Sim, a 59-year-old Cambodian man. Sim’s son sued ICE in August saying it withheld information about his father’s death. The Miami Detention Center, around 60 miles (100 kilometers) north of Indianapolis, was a maximum security prison before the Trump administration [converted it into an immigration detention facility](https://apnews.com/article/immigration-detention-indiana-prison-immigrants-f4af2d5ad5ece8481b0750dad53fb743) last year. As a prison, it had a record of [inhumane conditions](https://apnews.com/article/prisons-indiana-96025e40dab65b4cdc629d9e3b283e96), violence and [inmate deaths](https://apnews.com/article/prisons-indiana-homicide-e9b8510dd43be2765c5830b6329f5e74). ... None of the three detainees in the lawsuit have ever been convicted of a crime in the U.S., according to the complaint. While the Trump administration has said its immigration crackdown is focused on immigrants with criminal records, recent [data shows](https://apnews.com/article/border-immigration-customs-enforcement-data-statistics-f07f56a34bda225e5afa356781ac1740) most of those arrested have no criminal convictions. The plaintiffs say officials deny detainees medical treatment for severe conditions, leaving some in agony and crisis. Cynthia Acevedo, a Guatemalan national arrested by ICE in July, suffered from multiple seizures a week after officers at the facility switched her to a medication less effective at treating her epilepsy, and officials often failed to give it to her regularly, according to her attorneys. She also alleges she was sexually assaulted soon after arriving at the facility, and that officials waited days to take her report and never provided her with a rape kit, HIV test or medication. A man who could barely walk due to inflamed leg wounds also received no care despite multiple requests for help, according to the complaint. Officials at the facility use “abusive forms of punishment” on detainees and “excessive force bordering on torture,” attorneys wrote in the complaint. State staff direct racial slurs at detainees, and have told them to go back to their country and referred to them as a “plague,” they added. Sergei Vasenin, a Ukrainian-born man who has been detained in the facility for more than a year, was once thrown in solitary confinement for around nine weeks, according to the complaint. He “spent up to 23 to 24 hours per day in a tiny, frigid cell,” his lawyers wrote. Vasenin talked out loud to himself “to stay sane” and contemplated suicide multiple times, they added. Recently, one man attempted suicide after other detainees “begged” officers to help him for days, the complaint said. Officers instead locked him in a cell and failed to remove a cable that he then used to hang himself. Detainees are held in cells “smaller than an average parking space” with one small window slit, according to a description and image included in the complaint. Solitary confinement cells are so cold that some people stuff toilet paper in the vents to try to staunch the frigid air. Detainees are allowed to leave to shower “every few days,” the complaint said. Kemoye Muslar, the third plaintiff in the lawsuit, alleged his cell flooded with sewage water for three days, which he spent trying not to “slip and fall into human waste,” his attorneys wrote. They said that staff wear masks to keep out the smell of blood and feces on the floor and clogged toilets.

After China launched its [authoritarian crackdown](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/03/10/hong-kong-security-law-47-democracy-activists-repression/) on Hong Kong in 2020 — [arresting activists](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/27/world/asia/hong-kong-protests-prison.html) and [shuttering media outlets](https://www.ifj.org/fileadmin/user_upload/IFJ_China_Report_-_Lights_Out_-_February_2022.pdf) — a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers, including Marco Rubio, called for providing a haven for people fleeing repression. President Joe Biden [responded in 2021](https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/biden-offer-temporary-safe-haven-hong-kong-residents-us-2021-08-05/) with a directive allowing thousands of Hong Kong citizens to remain legally in the United States and [extended the protections twice](https://www.aila.org/library/presidential-documents-90-fr-6749-1-17-25). The Trump administration appears poised to allow those protections to expire in February. That could result in some good people being sent to cruel and unjust fates. Many of them have been involved in advocating for the restoration of political freedoms in their home city. Even low-profile activism in Hong Kong can result in a prison sentence. Under sweeping rules, [Facebook posts](https://eusee.hivos.org/alert/sedition-sentence-for-facebook-posts-in-hong-kong/), memes or [protest songs](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/07/19/hong-kong-song-ban-national-security-law-repression/) could be grounds for sedition charges. Comments made outside the island can also be prosecuted as a crime in Hong Kong. Yet in recent months, at least a dozen Hong Kong citizens who are in the U.S. with the protected status [have been detained](https://www.politico.com/news/2026/10/10/ice-hong-kong-deportations-01115839) by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Several were arrested at airports while trying to board domestic flights. Other Hong Kong citizens with different statuses have also been detained. Some say they were coerced into signing statements promising to voluntarily leave the country. Most, if not all, have been released by immigration judges but have been forced to wear ankle monitoring bracelets and restricted from traveling. The State Department has said about 3,800 Hong Kong citizens were in the U.S. as of 2021 and were therefore eligible for [Deferred Enforced Departure](https://www.aila.org/library/presidential-memorandum-86-fr-43587-8-10-21) status, although some advocacy groups believe the number was as high as 7,000. Many were already in the U.S. on student or work visas when China imposed its draconian national security law in 2020 following months of anti-government protests. Some people might have applied to stay in the U.S. under different programs, including traditional asylum claims. ... Hong Kong is still in the grip of a repressive government. The newspaper publisher [Jimmy Lai](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/05/10/jimmy-lai-is-not-forgotten-trump-goes-china/), 78, remains behind bars after [being convicted](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/12/14/hong-kong-jimmy-lai-apple-china-verdict/) at an unfair trial and sentenced to [20 years in prison](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/02/08/hong-kong-jimmy-lai-prison-sentence-20-years/). The young student activist [Joshua Wong](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/09/01/jailed-hong-kong-protester-joshua-wong-needs-us-support/), who as a teenager became the face of an earlier 2014 protest movement, recently turned 30 in prison with no prospect for release. Hong Kong has jailed [hundreds of political prisoners](https://www.hkdc.us/hong-kong-political-prisoners), according to human rights advocacy groups. Thus, those lucky enough to be in the U.S. still need a haven. President Donald Trump has said that freeing Lai is a priority in his dealings with Chinese President Xi Jinping. That was welcome news. Wong and others unjustly imprisoned in Hong Kong deserve similar efforts. The least the Trump administration can do is stop the harassment of exiled Hong Kongers who might have to join China’s political prisoners if denied the right to stay in America.

A Harris County grand jury on Friday indicted an U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in connection with an Oct. 10 crash in northwest Houston that left an immigrant wailing in pain from a broken leg after [he was hit by the agent’s SUV, ](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/article/ice-agent-intentionally-hit-fleeing-man-da-says-22474151.php)[according to the Harris County District Attorney's Office. ](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/article/ice-agent-intentionally-hit-fleeing-man-da-says-22474151.php) [Mario Alberto Morales, 33,](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/article/mario-alberto-morales-what-know-ice-agent-22502798.php) is believed to be the first federal agent to be charged in Texas over an incident related to the agency’s recent ramped up enforcement actions during the Trump administration. It represents a rare instance of a state prosecutor pursuing charges against immigration authorities. In this case, prosecutors secured within weeks the charge that District Attorney Sean Teare said early on was appropriate for what the ICE agent is accused of doing. During a news conference announcing the charge, Teare said Morales "aggressively" steered his vehicle into Miguel Parra Hernandez, seriously injuring him. Parra Hernandez, 48, who hails from Mexico, is a construction worker who had been in Houston for decades without a criminal record or deportation order. Teare, a former vehicular crimes prosecutor, said "the case is as clear as any that I've ever prosecuted or investigated.\ \ "As long as I am district attorney, this office will prosecute any law enforcement officer who violates the law," Teare said. "An ICE badge does not give you free reign to injure, kill, or violate the constitutional rights of anyone.” ... Morales is accused of severely injuring the 48-year-old Parra Hernandez, a Mexican immigrant who worked as a construction worker in Houston, during a chase around 7:30 a.m. on Oct. 10 through a strip mall parking lot at the intersection of Texas 6 and Clay Road. Morales is alleged to have driven his Jeep Grand Cherokee into Parra Hernandez, who has been recovering at a rehabilitation facility under the watch of ICE agents since the crash. The crash was investigated by the Harris County Sheriff's Office, which responded to the scene after ICE called an ambulance for Parra Hernandez. ... The indictment coincided with an unusual step by Teare's office to make public evidence in the case before a trial or other court proceedings. The office shared portions of a 911 call that Morales made following the crash, as well as footage from his body-worn camera. ... The surveillance footage from a nearby bakery appeared to show Morales turn into Parra Hernandez as he ran, though a view of the actual collision was obscured by another vehicle that authorities believe isn't connected to the incident. ... After the collision, Morales stepped out of the Jeep and in Spanish asked Parra Hernandez, who was on the ground and crying out in pain, “where’s the other one” before telling him to show him his hand. Parra Hernandez then turned on his back and said, “You ran over me.” Parra Hernandez later screamed in pain “my foot.” "He got hit with a car, bro," Morales told another ICE agent. "I was coming in and I hit him with the car." ... During Friday's press conference, Teare also played parts of Morales' 911 call that he made seeking an ambulance for Parra Hernandez's injuries. “I tried to get around him and he hit my car,” Morales told the dispatcher. “He’s fine, he’s just complaining of the pain” As Parra Hernandez’s screams can be heard in the background, Morales told the dispatcher that he wanted to move the injured man to his government vehicle. The dispatcher told Morales not to move him and to wait for paramedics to arrive.  Representatives with FIEL Houston, an immigrant rights group, reported that Parra Hernandez's leg was broken in three places and required surgery in the days after the crash. ... Throughout the chase, Morales had two detainees in the back of his Jeep that have since been deported. The video doesn't make clear that the men are there, and they're never heard in the footage shared by Teare's office. ... Teare previously said it would be against most law enforcement agency protocols for a police officer to participate in a vehicle chase with detained individuals aboard. ... Morales’ indictment is a rare case of state prosecutors seeking charges against federal agents who injure, or even kill, people in the line of duty. However, the charges aren’t without precedent. Earlier this year, prosecutors in Minneapolis charged an ICE agent, Christian Castro, with assault and making a false statement after he allegedly fired a gun through a home’s front door and shot a man in the leg. He was also indicted on charges of lying to the FBI. ... Morales’ indictment comes as Teare’s office continues to investigate ICE agents who were involved in the July shooting of [Lorenzo Salgado Araujo](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/article/lorenzo-salgado-araujo-what-we-know-22336680.php).   Salgado was shot at the end of a chase through Houston’s East End. In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, DHS claimed [Salgado](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/trending/article/new-mural-honors-lorenzo-salgado-seiu-22492532.php) “weaponized” his vehicle against the agents pursuing him. That claim was disputed by three men who were in Salgado’s van when he was shot.

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