By Christine Mai-Duc, KFF Health News

Jacob Sweidan has seen his patients through the federal immigration raids of the 1990s, a sitting governor’s call to abolish birthright citizenship, and the highly publicized workplace crackdowns and family separation policies of President Donald Trump’s first term.

But in his 40 years as a pediatrician in Southern California serving those too poor to afford care, including many immigrant families, Sweidan said he’s never seen a drop-off in patient visits like this.

“They are scared to come to the offices. They’re getting sicker and sicker,” said Sweidan, who specializes in neonatology and runs five clinics in Los Angeles and Orange counties. “And when they are near collapsing, they go to the ER because they have no choice.”

In the last two months, he has sent young children to the emergency room because their parents worked up the courage to call his office only after several days of high fever. He said he attended to a 14-year-old boy in the ER who was on the verge of a diabetic coma because he’d run out of insulin, his parents too frightened to venture out for a refill.

Sweidan had stopped offering telehealth visits after the COVID-19 pandemic, but he and other health care providers have brought them back as ramped-up immigration enforcement drives patients without legal status — and even their U.S. citizen children — deeper into the shadows.

Patients in need of care are increasingly scared to seek it after Trump rescinded a Biden-era policy that barred immigration officials from conducting operations in “sensitive” areas such as schools, hospitals, and churches. Clinics and health plans have taken a page out of their COVID playbooks, revamping tested strategies to care for patients scared to leave the house.

Sara Rosenbaum, professor emerita of health law and policy at George Washington University, said she’s heard from clinic administrators and industry colleagues who have experienced a substantial drop in in-person visits among immigrant patients.

“I don’t think there’s a community health center in the country that is not feeling this,” Rosenbaum said.

At St. John’s Community Health clinics in the Los Angeles area, which serve an estimated 30,000 patients without legal status annually, virtual visits have skyrocketed from roughly 8% of appointments to about 25%, said Jim Mangia, president and chief executive officer. The organization is also registering some patients for in-home health visits, a service funded by private donors, and has trained employees how to read a warrant.

“People are not picking up their medicine,” Mangia said. “They’re not seeing the doctor.”

Mangia said that, in the past eight weeks, federal agents have attempted to gain access to patients at a St. John’s mobile clinic in Downey and pointed a gun at an employee during a raid at MacArthur Park. Last month, Immigration and Customs Enforcement contractors sat in a Southern California hospital waiting for a patient and federal prosecutors charged two health center workers they say interfered with immigration officers’ attempts to arrest someone at an Ontario facility.

C.S., an immigrant from Huntington Park without legal status, said she signed up for St. John’s home visit services in July because she fears going outside. The 71-year-old woman, who asked to be identified only by her initials for fear of deportation, said she has missed blood work and other lab tests this year. Too afraid to take the bus, she skipped a recent appointment with a specialist for her arthritic hands. She is also prediabetic and struggles with leg pain after a car hit her a few years ago.

“I feel so worried because if I don’t get the care I need, it can get much worse,” she said in Spanish, speaking about her health issues through an interpreter. A doctor at the clinic gave her a number to call in case she wants to schedule an appointment by phone.

Officials at the federal Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to questions from KFF Health News seeking comment about the impact of the raids on patients.

There’s no indication the Trump administration intends to shift its strategy. Federal officials have sought to pause a judge’s order temporarily restricting how they conduct raids in Southern California after immigrant advocates filed a lawsuit accusing ICE of deploying unconstitutional tactics. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Aug. 1 denied the request, leaving the restraining order in place.

In July, Los Angeles County supervisors directed county agencies to explore expanding virtual appointment options after the county’s director of health services noted a “huge increase” in phone and video visits. Meanwhile, state lawmakers in California are considering legislation that would restrict immigration agents’ access to places such as schools and health care facilities — Colorado’s governor, Democrat Jared Polis, signed a similar bill into law in May.

Immigrants and their families will likely end up using more costly care in emergency rooms as a last resort. And recently passed cuts to Medicaid are expected to further stress ERs and hospitals, said Nicole Lamoureux, president of the National Association of Free & Charitable Clinics.

“Not only are clinics trying to reach people who are retreating from care before they end up with more severe conditions, but the health care safety net is going to be strained due to an influx in patient demand,” Lamoureux said.

Mitesh Popat, CEO of Venice Family Clinic, nearly 90% of whose patients are at or below the federal poverty line, said staff call patients before appointments to ask if they plan to come in person and to offer telehealth as an option if they are nervous. They also call if a patient doesn’t show five minutes into their appointment and offer immediate telehealth service as an alternative. The clinic has seen a roughly 5% rise in telehealth visits over the past month, Popat said.

In the Salinas Valley, an area with a large concentration of Spanish-speaking farmworkers, Clinica de Salud del Valle de Salinas began promoting telehealth services with Spanish radio ads in January. The clinics also trained people how to use Zoom and other digital platforms at health fairs and community meetings.

CalOptima Health, which covers nearly 1 in 3 residents of Orange County and is the biggest Medi-Cal benefits administrator in the area, sent more than a quarter-million text messages to patients in July encouraging them to use telehealth rather than forgo care, said Chief Executive Officer Michael Hunn. The insurer has also set up a webpage of resources for patients seeking care by phone or home delivery of medication.

“The Latino community is facing a fear pandemic. They’re quarantining just the way we all had to during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Seciah Aquino, executive director of the Latino Coalition for a Healthy California, an advocacy group that promotes health access for immigrants and Latinos.

But substituting telehealth isn’t a long-term solution, said Isabel Becerra, chief executive officer of the Coalition of Orange County Community Health Centers, whose members reported increases in telehealth visits as high as 40% in the past month.

“As a stopgap, it’s very effective,” said Becerra, whose group represents 20 clinics in Southern California. “Telehealth can only take you so far. What about when you need lab work? You can’t look at a cavity through a screen.”

Telehealth also brings a host of other challenges, including technical hiccups with translation services and limited computer proficiency or internet access among patients, she said.

And it’s not just immigrants living in the country unlawfully who are scared to seek out care. In southeast Los Angeles County, V.M., a 59-year-old naturalized citizen, relies on her roommate to pick up her groceries and prescriptions. She asked that only her initials be used to share her story and those of her family and friends out of fear they could be targeted.

When she does venture out — to church or for her monthly appointment at a rheumatology clinic — she carries her passport and looks askance at any cars with tinted windows.

“I feel paranoid,” said V.M., who came to the U.S. more than 40 years ago and is a patient of Venice Family Clinic. “Sometimes I feel scared. Sometimes I feel angry. Sometimes I feel sad.”

She now sees her therapist virtually for her depression, which began 10 years ago when rheumatoid arthritis forced her to stop working. She worries about her older brother, who has high blood pressure and has stopped going to the doctor, and about a friend from the rheumatology clinic, who ices swollen hands and feet because she’s missed four months of appointments in a row.

“Somebody has to wake up or people are going to start falling apart outside on the streets and they’re going to die,” she said.

This article was produced by KFF Health News , which publishes California Healthline , an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation .

©2025 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration said Thursday it is reviewing more than 55 million people who have valid U.S. visas for any violations that could lead to deportation, part of a growing crackdown on foreigners who are permitted to be in the United States.

In a written answer to a question from The Associated Press, the State Department said all U.S. visa holders, which can include tourists from many countries, are subject to “continuous vetting,” with an eye toward any indication they could be ineligible for permission to enter or stay in the United States.

Should such information be found, the visa will be revoked, and if the visa holder is in the United States, he or she would be subject to deportation.

The U.S. also will stop issuing worker visas for commercial truck drivers, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday on X. He said the change was effective immediately.

“The increasing number of foreign drivers operating large tractor-trailer trucks on U.S. roads is endangering American lives and undercutting the livelihoods of American truckers,” Rubio posted. The department did not immediately respond to a question about the number of foreign truck drivers working in the U.S.

Since President Donald Trump took office, his administration has focused on deporting migrants illegally in the United States as well as holders of student and visitor exchange visas. The State Department’s new language suggests that the continual vetting process, which officials acknowledge is time-consuming, is far more widespread and could mean even those approved to be in the U.S. could abruptly see those permissions revoked.

The department said it was looking for indicators of ineligibility, including people staying past the authorized timeframe outlined in a visa, criminal activity, threats to public safety, engaging in any form of terrorist activity or providing support to a terrorist organization.

“We review all available information as part of our vetting, including law enforcement or immigration records or any other information that comes to light after visa issuance indicating a potential ineligibility,” the department said.

The administration has steadily imposed more restrictions and requirements on visa applicants, including requiring them to submit to in-person interviews. The review of all visa holders appears to be a significant expansion of what had initially been a process focused mainly on students who have been involved in what the government perceives as pro-Palestinian or anti-Israel activity.

Officials say the reviews will include all visa holders’ social media accounts, law enforcement and immigration records in their home countries, along with any actionable violations of U.S. law committed while they were in the United States.

The reviews will include new tools for data collection on past, present and future visa applicants, including a complete scouring of social media sites made possible by new requirements introduced earlier this year. Those make it mandatory for privacy switches on cellphones and other electronic devices or apps to be turned off when an applicant appears for a visa interview.

“As part of the Trump Administration’s commitment to protect U.S. national security and public safety, since Inauguration Day the State Department has revoked more than twice as many visas, including nearly four times as many student visas, as during the same time period last year,” the State Department said.

The vast majority of foreigners seeking to come to the U.S. require visas, especially those who want to study or work for extended periods. Among the exceptions for short-term tourist or business visits are citizens of the 40 mainly European and Asian countries belonging to the Visa Waiver Program, which grants those nationals a stay of up to three months without having to apply for a visa.

But large swaths of the world — including highly populated countries like China, India, Indonesia, Russia and most of Africa — are not part of the program, meaning their citizens must apply for and receive visas to travel to the United States.

Earlier this week, the department said that since Trump returned to the White House, it has revoked more than 6,000 student visas for overstays and violations of local, state and federal law, the vast majority of which were assault, driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs and support for terrorism.

It said about 4,000 of those 6,000 were due to actual infractions of laws and that approximately 200 to 300 visas were revoked for terrorism-related issues, including providing support for designated terrorist organizations or state sponsors of terrorism.

By CHRIS MEGERIAN and JACQUELYN MARTIN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump plans to join a Thursday evening patrol in the nation’s capital as federal authorities deploy checkpoints around the city and sometimes ask people for their immigration status after stopping them.

“I’m going to be going out tonight with the police and with the military,” the Republican president told Todd Starnes, a conservative commentator.

Trump’s presence during his controversial crackdown, which has lasted for two weeks, would be the latest show of force from the White House. Hundreds of federal agents and National Guard soldiers have surged into Washington this month, leaving some residents on edge and creating tense confrontations in the streets.

Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday visited some of the troops at Union Station, showing their support while protestors chanted “free D.C.”

Although the city has historically struggled with crime, statistics show the problem was declining before Trump declared there was a crisis that required his intervention.

Immigration enforcement has been a core part of the crackdown, rattling people in some of the city’s neighborhoods. A daycare was partially closed on Thursday when staff became afraid to go to work because they heard about federal agents nearby. An administrator asked parents to keep their children at home if possible.

Other day cares have stopped taking kids on daily walks because of fears about encountering law enforcement.

Since Aug. 7, when Trump began surging federal agents into the city, there have been 630 arrests, including 251 people who are in the country illegally, according to the White House. Trump has been ratcheting up the pressure since then, seizing control of the D.C. police department on Aug. 11 and deploying more National Guard troops, mostly from Republican-led states.

Soldiers have been largely stationed in downtown areas, such as monuments on the National Mall and transit stations.

However, federal agents are operating more widely through the city. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser acknowledged the proliferation of traffic checkpoints on Thursday.

“The surge of federal officers is allowing for different types of deployments, more frequent types of deployments, like checkpoints,” Bowser said.

Not a normal traffic stop

On Thursday morning, as Martin Romero rode through Washington’s Rock Creek Park on his way to a construction job in Virginia, he saw police on the road up ahead. He figured it was a normal traffic stop, but it wasn’t.

Romero, 41, said that U.S. Park Police were telling pickup trucks with company logos to pull over, reminding them that commercial vehicles weren’t allowed on park roads. They checked for licenses and insurance information, and then U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents came over.

Romero said there were two agents on one side of his truck and three on the other. He started to get nervous as the agents asked where they were from and whether they were in the country illegally.

“We just came here to work,” Romero said afterwards. “We aren’t doing anything bad.”

Two people in his truck were detained and the agents didn’t give a reason, he said. He also saw three other people taken from other vehicles.

“I feel really worried because they took two of our guys,” he said. “They wouldn’t say where they’re taking them or if they’ll be able to come back.”

Romero said he called his boss, who told him to just head home. They wouldn’t be working today.

Enrique Martinez, a supervisor at the construction company, came to the scene afterwards. He pondered whether to call families of the detained men.

“This has never happened to our company before,” Martinez said. “I’m not really sure what to do.”

Checkpoints are legal, to a point

The Supreme Court has upheld the use of law enforcement and government checkpoints for specific purposes, such as for policing the border and for identifying suspected drunk drivers.

But there are restrictions on that authority, especially when it comes to general crime control. Jeffrey Bellin, a former prosecutor in Washington and professor at Vanderbilt Law School who specializes in criminal law and procedures, said the Constitution doesn’t allow “the government to be constantly checking us and stopping to see if we’re up to any criminal activity.”

He said checkpoints for a legally justifiable purpose — like checking for drivers’ licenses and registrations — cannot be used as “subterfuge” or a pretext for stops that would otherwise not be allowed. And though the court has affirmed the use of checkpoints at the border, and even some distance away from it, to ask drivers about immigration status, Bellin said it was unlikely the authority would extend to Washington.

Anthony Michael Kreis, a professor at Georgia State College of Law, said the seemingly “arbitrary” and intrusive nature of the checkpoints in the capital could leave residents feeling aggrieved.

“Some of the things could be entirely constitutional and fine, but at the same time, the way that things are unfolding, people are suspicious — and I think for good reason,” he said.

From Los Angeles to D.C.

There are few places in the country that have been unaffected by Trump’s deportation drive, but his push into D.C. is shaping into something more sustained, similar to what has unfolded in the Los Angeles area since early June.

In Los Angeles, immigration officers — working with the Border Patrol and other federal agencies — have been a near-daily presence at Home Depots, car washes and other highly visible locations.

In a demonstration of how enforcement has affected routines, the bishop of San Bernardino, California, formally excused parishioners of their weekly obligation to attend Mass after immigration agents detained people on two parish properties.

Immigration officials have been an unusually public presence, sending horse patrols to the city’s famed MacArthur Park and appearing outside California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s news conference last week on congressional redistricting. Authorities said an agent fired at a moving vehicle last week after the driver refused to roll down his window during an immigration stop.

The National Guard and Marines were previously in the city for weeks on an assignment to maintain order amid protests.

A federal judge blocked the administration from conducting indiscriminate immigration stops in Southern California but authorities have vowed to keep the pressure on.

Associated Press writers Eric Tucker and Ashraf Khalil in Washington and Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed reporting.

By JANIE HAR, Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal appeals court on Wednesday sided with the Trump administration and halted for now a lower court’s order that had kept in place temporary protections for 60,000 migrants from Central America and Nepal.

This means that the Republican administration can move toward removing an estimated 7,000 people from Nepal whose Temporary Protected Status designations expired Aug. 5. The TPS designations and legal status of 51,000 Hondurans and 3,000 Nicaraguans are set to expire Sept. 8, at which point they will become eligible for removal.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco granted the emergency stay pending an appeal as immigrants rights advocates allege that the administration acted unlawfully in ending Temporary Protected Status designations for people from Honduras, Nicaragua and Nepal.

“The district court’s order granting plaintiffs’ motion to postpone, entered July 31, 2025, is stayed pending further order of this court,” wrote the judges, who are appointees of Democrat Bill Clinton and Republicans George W. Bush and Donald Trump.

Temporary Protected Status is a designation that can be granted by the Homeland Security secretary, preventing migrants from being deported and allowing them to work. The Trump administration has aggressively sought to remove the protection, thus making more people eligible for removal. It’s part of a wider effort by the administration to carry out mass deportations of immigrants.

Secretary Kristi Noem can extend Temporary Protected Status to immigrants in the U.S. if conditions in their homelands are deemed unsafe for return due to a natural disaster, political instability or other dangerous conditions.

Immigrants rights advocates say TPS holders from Nepal have lived in the U.S. for more than a decade while people from Honduras and Nicaragua have lived in the country for 26 years, after Hurricane Mitch in 1998 devastated both countries.

“The Trump administration is systematically de-documenting immigrants who have lived lawfully in this country for decades, raising U.S.-citizen children, starting businesses, and contributing to their communities,” said Jessica Bansal, attorney at the National Day Laborer Organization, in a statement.

Noem ended the programs after determining that conditions no longer warranted protections.

In a sharply written July 31 order, U.S. District Judge Trina L. Thompson in San Francisco kept the protections in place while the case proceeds. The next hearing is Nov. 18.

She said the administration ended the migrant status protections without an “objective review of the country conditions,” such as political violence in Honduras and the impact of recent hurricanes and storms in Nicaragua.

In response, Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant secretary at DHS, said, “TPS was never meant to be a de facto asylum system, yet that is how previous administrations have used it for decades.”

The Trump administration has already terminated TPS designations for about 350,000 Venezuelans, 500,000 Haitians, more than 160,000 Ukrainians and thousands of people from Afghanistan and Cameroon. Some have pending lawsuits in federal courts.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs argued that Noem’s decisions are unlawful because they were predetermined by President Donald Trump’s campaign promises and motivated by racial animus.

But Drew Ensign, a U.S. deputy assistant attorney general, said at a hearing Tuesday that the government suffers an ongoing irreparable harm from its “inability to carry out the programs that it has determined are warranted.”

In May, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to end TPS designations for Venezuelans. The justices provided no rationale, which is common in emergency appeals, and did not rule on the underlying claims.

Michigan has long been home to Hmong refugees. The community comprises families who fled war, lived in refugee camps, and rebuilt their lives in the United States. Many fought alongside the U.S. during the Vietnam War.

Last month, ICE agents arrested and detained around a dozen Hmong refugees in Detroit. 

Michigan State Rep. Mai Xiong (D-Warren) was on The Metro urging for clarity from federal immigration officials.

A spokesperson for Immigration and Customs Enforcement later told The Metro the people arrested include “a known gang member” and convicted criminals.

Still, family members and lawmakers like Xiong and State Sen. Stephanie Chang say the cases are more complex than that. They issued an open letter to ICE field director Kevin Raycraft, urging for the release of detained community members.

Arrested at work, a family in limbo

Last week, ICE deported some of the detained Hmong and Laotian refugees. Several are still in custody, including Lue Yang, a torque technician in the auto industry, a father of six, and president of the Hmong Family Association of Lansing, MI. 

Family describes him as a vital community leader.

“He has literally brought our Hmong community out and gave us a voice — that we do exist in the state of Michigan,” said Ann Vue, Yang’s wife.

Yang was arrested at work in July and is now in custody in a federal detention center in Baldwin. His potential deportation could stem from a decades-old conviction that the state expunged. 

Aisa Villarosa, an attorney with the Asian Law Caucus, says she is concerned about the “covert nature” of many of these arrests and deportations — and the people ICE is targeting.

“We are seeing folks who are anchors of their communities, beloved family members, stripped from their families, often after decades of living peacefully in their communities,” Villarosa said.

State response and what’s at stake

Chang is crafting legislation to protect families like Yang’s, but she says state policy has limits.

“These are not violent offenders. These are not people who are a danger to the community.”

Chang urges a case-by-case judgment that weighs identity, community ties, and journey — not just records. How that plays out in Yang’s case could signal how much due process and consistent legal standards govern these cases.

Guests: 

• Ann Vue, wife of detained Hmong refugee Lue Yang
• Aisa Villarosa, immigration attorney with the Asian Law Caucus
• Michigan State Senator Stephanie Chang

Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

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The post The Metro: Expunged on paper, not in court. A Hmong dad’s detention in Michigan appeared first on WDET 101.9 FM.

By PATRICK WHITTLE

OLD ORCHARD BEACH, Maine (AP) — A Maine police officer arrested by immigration authorities has agreed to voluntarily leave the country, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Monday.

ICE arrested Old Orchard Beach Police Department reserve Officer Jon Luke Evans, of Jamaica, on July 25, as part of the agency’s effort to step up immigration enforcement. Officials with the town and police department have said federal authorities previously told them Evans was legally authorized to work in the U.S.

An ICE representative reached by telephone told The Associated Press on Monday that a judge has granted voluntary departure for Evans and that he could leave as soon as that day. The representative did not provide other details about Evans’ case.

Evans’ arrest touched off a dispute between Old Orchard Beach officials and ICE. Police Chief Elise Chard has said the department was notified by federal officials that Evans was legally permitted to work in the country, and that the town submitted information via the Department of Homeland Security’s E-Verify program prior to Evans’ employment. Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin then accused the town of “reckless reliance” on the department’s E-Verify program.

E-Verify is an online system that allows employers to check if potential employees can work legally in the U.S.

The town is aware of reports that Evans plans to leave the country voluntarily, Chard said Monday.

“The town reiterates its ongoing commitment to meeting all state and federal laws regarding employment,” Chard said in a statement. “We will continue to rely on the I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification form and the E-Verify database to confirm employment eligibility.”

ICE’s detainee lookup website said Monday that Evans was being held at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, Rhode Island. However, a representative for Wyatt said Evans had been transferred to an ICE facility in Burlington, Massachusetts. ICE officials did not respond to requests for comment on the discrepancy. It was unclear if Evans was represented by an attorney, and a message left for him at the detention facility was not returned.

ICE officials said in July that Evans overstayed his visa and unlawfully attempted to purchase a firearm. WMTW-TV reported Monday that Evans’ agreement to a voluntary departure means he will be allowed to leave the U.S. at his own expense to avoid being deported.

By ASHRAF KHALIL, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Washington, D.C., police chief ordered more cooperation between her officers and federal immigration officials as President Donald Trump’s law enforcement takeover of the nation’s capital took root Thursday. National Guard troops watched over some of the world’s most renowned landmarks and Humvees took up position in front of the busy main train station.

In a city tense from days of ramp-up toward federal law enforcement intervention, volunteers helped homeless people leave long-standing encampments — to where, exactly, was often unclear. The mayor, meanwhile, left town for a family commitment. And the president told reporters that he was pleased at how the operation — and, now, its direct link with his immigration-control efforts — was unfolding.

“That’s a very positive thing, I have heard that just happened,” Trump said of Police Chief Pamela Smith’s order. “That’s a great step. That’s a great step if they’re doing that.”

The police chief’s order establishes that Metropolitan Police Department officers may now share information with immigration agencies regarding people not in custody — such as someone involved in a traffic stop or checkpoint. MPD officers may also provide “transportation for federal immigration employees and detained subject,” the order states.

The changes, which raise collaboration between the two forces in notable ways, are effective immediately. Mayor Muriel Bowser, walking a tightrope between the Republican White House and the constituency of her largely Democratic city, was out of town Thursday for a family commitment in Martha’s Vineyard but would be back Friday, her office said.

A boost in police activity, federal and otherwise

For an already wary Washington, Thursday marked a notable — and highly visible — uptick in presence from the previous two days. The visibility of federal forces around the city, including in many high-traffic areas, was striking to residents going about their lives. Trump has the power to take over federal law enforcement for 30 days before his actions must be reviewed by Congress, though he has said he’ll re-evaluate as that deadline approaches.

The response before Thursday had been gradual and, by all appearances, low key. But on Wednesday night, officers set up a checkpoint in one of D.C.’s popular nightlife areas, drawing protests. The White House said 45 arrests were made Wednesday night, including 29 arrests of people living in the country illegally, including for distribution or possession of drugs, carrying a concealed weapon and assaulting a federal officer.

Troops were stationed outside the Union Station transportation hub as the 800 Guard members who have been activated by Trump start in on missions that include monument security, community safety patrols and beautification efforts, the Pentagon said.

“They will remain until law and order has been restored in the District as determined by the president, standing as the gatekeepers of our great nation’s capital,” Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson said. “The National Guard is uniquely qualified for this mission as a community-based force with strong local ties and disciplined training.”

Wilson said the troops won’t be armed and declined to give more details on what the safety patrols or beautification efforts would entail or how many Guard members have already been sent out on the streets.

National Guard Major Micah Maxwell said troops will assist law enforcement in a variety of roles, including traffic control posts and crowd control. The Guard members have been trained in de-escalation tactics and crowd control equipment, Maxwell said.

The White House said Thursday that Guard members aren’t making arrests but are “protecting federal assets, providing a safe environment for law enforcement officers to make arrests, and deterring violent crime with a visible law enforcement presence.”

For homeless residents, an uncertain time is at hand

Meanwhile, about a dozen homeless residents in Washington packed up their belongings with help from volunteers from some city agencies. Items largely were not forcibly thrown out by law enforcement, but a garbage truck idled nearby.

Several protesters held signs close by, some critical of the Trump administration. Once the residents had left, a construction vehicle from a city agency cleared through the remains of the tents.

Advocates expected law enforcement officers to fan out across D.C. later Thursday to take down — or supervise the takedown of — any remaining homeless encampments.

For two days, small groups of federal officers have been visible in scattered parts of the city. But more were present in high-profile locations Wednesday night, and troops were expected to start doing more missions Thursday.

Agents from Homeland Security Investigations have patrolled the popular U Street corridor, while Drug Enforcement Administration officers were seen on the National Mall, with Guard members parked nearby. DEA agents also joined MPD officers on patrol in the Navy Yard neighborhood, while FBI agents stood along the heavily trafficked Massachusetts Avenue.

Associated Press journalists Jacquelyn Martin, Mike Pesoli and David Klepper contributed to this report.

By AMANDA SEITZ and KIMBERLY KINDY, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge ordered the nation’s health department to stop giving deportation officials access to the personal information — including home addresses — of all 79 million Medicaid enrollees.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services first handed over the personal data on millions of Medicaid enrollees in a handful of states in June. After an Associated Press report identified the new policy, 20 states filed a lawsuit to stop its implementation.

In July, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services entered into a new agreement that gave the Department of Homeland Security daily access to view the personal data — including Social Security numbers and home address — of all the nation’s 79 million Medicaid enrollees. Neither agreement was announced publicly.

The extraordinary disclosure of such personal health data to deportation officials in the Trump administration’s far-reaching immigration crackdown immediately prompted the lawsuit over privacy concerns.

The Medicaid data sharing is part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to provide DHS with more data on migrants. In May, for example, a federal judge refused to block the Internal Revenue Service from sharing immigrants’ tax data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to help agents locate and detain people living without legal status in the U.S.

The order, issued by federal Judge Vince Chhabria in California, temporarily halts the health department from sharing personal data of enrollees in those 20 states, which include California, Arizona, Washington and New York.

“Using CMS data for immigration enforcement threatens to significantly disrupt the operation of Medicaid—a program that Congress has deemed critical for the provision of health coverage to the nation’s most vulnerable residents,” Chhabria wrote in his decision, issued on Tuesday.

Chhabria, an appointee of President Barack Obama, said that the order will remain in effect until the health department outlines “reasoned decisionmaking” for its new policy of sharing data with deportation officials.

A spokesperson for the federal health department declined to directly answer whether the agency would stop sharing its data with DHS. HHS has maintained that its agreement with DHS is legal.

Immigrants who are not living in the U.S. legally, as well as some lawfully present immigrants, are not allowed to enroll in the Medicaid program that provides nearly free coverage for health services. But federal law requires all states to offer emergency Medicaid, a temporary coverage that pays only for lifesaving services in emergency rooms to anyone, including non-U.S. citizens. Medicaid is a jointly funded program between states and the federal government.

Immigration advocates have said the disclosure of personal data could cause alarm among people seeking emergency medical help for themselves or their children. Other efforts to crack down on illegal immigration have made schools, churches, courthouses and other everyday places feel perilous to immigrants and even U.S. citizens who fear getting caught up in a raid.

“Protecting people’s private health information is vitally important,” Washington state’s Attorney General Nick Brown said in a statement. “And everyone should be able to seek medical care without fear of what the federal government may do with that information.”

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Thursday asked the Supreme Court to halt a court order restricting immigration stops that swept up at least two U.S. citizens in Southern California.

The emergency petition comes after an appeals court refused to lift a temporary restraining order barring authorities from stopping or arresting people based solely on factors like what language speak or where they work.

The move is the latest in a string of emergency appeals from the Trump administration to the high court, which has recently sided with the Republican president in a number of high-profile cases.

The Justice Department argued that federal agents are allowed to consider those factors when ramping up enforcement of immigration laws in Los Angeles, an area it considers a “top enforcement priority.”

Trump officials asked the justices to immediately halt the order from U.S. District Judge Maame E. Frimpong in Los Angeles. She found a “mountain of evidence” that enforcement tactics were violating the U.S. Constitution in what the plaintiffs called “roving patrols.”

Her ruling came in a lawsuit filed by immigrant advocacy groups who accused President Donald Trump’s administration of systematically targeting brown-skinned people in Southern California during the administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

Trump’s Solicitor General D. John Sauer asked the justices to immediately halt Frimpong’s order, arguing that it puts a “straitjacket” on agents in an area with a large number of people in the U.S. illegally.

“No one thinks that speaking Spanish or working in construction always creates reasonable suspicion … But in many situations, such factors—alone or in combination—can heighten the likelihood that someone is unlawfully present in the United States,” Sauer wrote.

Department of Homeland Security attorneys have said immigration officers target people based on illegal presence in the U.S., not skin color, race or ethnicity.

Frimpong’s order bars authorities from using factors like apparent race or ethnicity, speaking Spanish or English with an accent, presence at a location such as a tow yard or car wash, or someone’s occupation as the only basis for reasonable suspicion for detention.

The Los Angeles region has been a battleground for the Trump administration after its aggressive immigration strategy spurred protests and the deployment of the National Guards and Marines for several weeks.

Plaintiffs on the lawsuit before Frimpong included three detained immigrants and two U.S. citizens. One was Los Angeles resident Brian Gavidia, who was shown in a June 13 video being seized by federal agents as he yelled, “I was born here in the states, East LA bro!”

He was released about 20 minutes later after showing agents his identification, as was another citizen stopped at a car wash, according to the lawsuit.

By SOPHIA TAREEN

Top Trump administration officials boast that a new state partnership to expand immigrant detention in Indiana will be the next so-called “ Alligator Alcatraz.”

However, the agreement is already prompting backlash in the Midwest state, starting with its splashy “Speedway Slammer” moniker.

Here’s a closer look at the agreement, the pushback and Indiana’s role in the Trump agenda to aggressively detain and deport people in the country illegally.

More beds, not new construction

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem trumpeted the deal late Tuesday, saying Indiana would add 1,000 detention beds for immigrants facing deportation under a revived federal program.

On social media, DHS also posted an altered image of a race car emblazoned with “ICE,” short for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The IndyCar-style vehicle is shown rolling past a barbed-wire prison wall.

“If you are in America illegally, you could find yourself in Indiana’s Speedway Slammer,” Noem said, likening it to the controversial facility built in the Florida Everglades. She added the new partnership will “help remove the worst of the worst out of our country.”

However, the Indiana deal doesn’t involve construction.

Federal funds will be used for space at the Miami Correctional Facility in Bunker Hill, roughly 75 miles north of Indianapolis. The prison’s total capacity is 3,100 beds, of which 1,200 are not filled, according to Indiana Department of Correction spokeswoman Annie Goeller.

Officials did not say when the detentions would start. “Details about the partnership and how IDOC can best support those efforts are being determined,” Geoller said.

The deal is part of the decades-old 287(g) program, which Trump has revived and expanded. It delegates immigration enforcement powers to state and local law enforcement agencies. Immigrants, attorneys and advocates have raised a number of concerns about the program, including a lack of oversight.

The Florida detention facility has prompted lawsuits and complaints about poor conditions and violations of detainees’ rights. Authorities have disputed the claims.

Republican Gov. Mike Braun first announced the federal partnership on Friday.

“Indiana is not a safe haven for illegal immigration,” he said. “Indiana will fully partner with federal immigration authorities as they enforce the most fundamental laws of our country.”

Pushback to a borrowed name

The outlandish name quickly drew backlash, notably from the town of Speedway, an Indianapolis suburb which is home to the iconic racetrack that hosts the Indianapolis 500.

“This designation was developed and released independently by the federal agency, without the Town’s involvement or prior notice regarding the use of the name ‘Speedway,’ ” officials with the Indiana town of roughly 14,000 said in a statement. “Our primary focus remains the well-being of our residents, businesses, and visitors.”

IndyCar officials were also caught off guard.

“We were unaware of plans to incorporate our imagery as part of announcement,” IndyCar said, asking that its intellectual property “not be utilized moving forward in relation to this matter.”

The altered image used by DHS featured an IndyCar with the No. 5, the same number as the only Mexican driver in the series.

“I was just a little bit shocked at the coincidences of that and, you know, of what it means,” IndyCar driver Pato O’Ward said Wednesday. “I don’t think it made a lot of people proud, to say the least.”

President Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan said Wednesday that he didn’t name the facility.

“But I’ll say this, the work of ICE, the men and women of ICE, are trying to do their job with integrity and honor,” he told reporters at the White House. “I don’t want these names to detract from that.”

Indiana embraces immigration enforcement

Leaders in the Trump administration have already singled out Indiana as key to their immigration agenda.

Braun, a first-term governor and former U.S. senator, has been a strong Trump supporter. In January, Braun signed an executive order directing law enforcement agencies to “fully cooperate” on immigration enforcement.

The nation’s newest immigration court opened in Indianapolis earlier this year as a way to address the backlog and divert cases from the busy courthouse in Chicago.

Federal and state leaders are also working on plans to use a central Indiana military base, Camp Atterbury, to temporarily house detainees.

“Indiana is taking a comprehensive and collaborative approach to combating illegal immigration and will continue to lead the way among states,” Braun said in a statement Tuesday.

Associated Press writer Will Weissert in Washington contributed to this report.

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — IndyCar driver Pato O’Ward and series officials were shocked by a social media post from the Department of Homeland Security that touts plans for an immigration detention center in Indiana dubbed “Speedway Slammer,” and includes a car with the same number as the only Mexican driver in the series.

“It caught a lot of people off guard. Definitely caught me off guard,” O’Ward said Wednesday. “I was just a little bit shocked at the coincidences of that and, you know, of what it means. … I don’t think it made a lot of people proud, to say the least.”

The post Tuesday included an image of a IndyCar-style vehicle with the No. 5 that had “ICE” imposed on it multiple times similar to the display of a sponsor. It appeared to be a computer-created image, with the car on a track and a prison-like building in the background.

Indiana is home to Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and is where the IndyCar Series is based.

“We were unaware of plans to incorporate our imagery as part of yesterday’s announcement,” IndyCar said in a statement Wednesday. “Consistent with our approach to public policy and political issues, we are communicating our preference that our IP not be utilized moving forward in relation to this matter.”

O’Ward said he didn’t see the post until a friend texted him about it.

“I haven’t really read into it too much because I don’t think I want to,” he said.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in a separate post used “SpeedwaySlammer” when announcing the new partnership with the state of Indiana to expand detention space by 1,000 beds.

The 26-year-old O’Ward, who was born in Monterrey, Mexico, is second in points, though Alex Palou can clinch the IndyCar season title as early as this weekend in Portland. O’Ward was in Texas to promote next year’s inaugural Grand Prix of Arlington.

That race on March 15 will be on a 2.7-mile layout that goes around the home stadiums of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys and MLB’s Texas Rangers. O’Ward threw a ceremonial first pitch before the Rangers’ game against the New York Yankees.

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN and ELLIOT SPAGAT, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge agreed on Friday to temporarily block the Trump administration’s efforts to expand fast-track deportations of immigrants who legally entered the U.S. under a process known as humanitarian parole — a ruling that could benefit hundreds of thousands of people.

U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb in Washington, D.C., ruled that the Department of Homeland Security exceeded its statutory authority in its effort to expand “expedited removal” for many immigrants. The judge said those immigrants are facing perils that outweigh any harm from “pressing pause” on the administration’s plans.

The case “presents a question of fair play” for people fleeing oppression and violence in their home countries, Cobb said in her 84-page order.

“In a world of bad options, they played by the rules,” she wrote. “Now, the Government has not only closed off those pathways for new arrivals but changed the game for parolees already here, restricting their ability to seek immigration relief and subjecting them to summary removal despite statutory law prohibiting the Executive Branch from doing so.”

Fast-track deportations allow immigration officers to remove somebody from the U.S. without seeing a judge first. In immigration cases, parole allows somebody applying for admission to the U.S. to enter the country without being held in detention.

Immigrants’ advocacy groups sued Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to challenge three recent DHS agency actions that expanded expedited removal. A surge of arrests at immigration courts highlights the lawsuit’s high stakes.

The judge’s ruling applies to any non-citizen who has entered the U.S. through the parole process at a port of entry. She suspended the challenged DHS actions until the case’s conclusion.

Cobb said the case’s “underlying question” is whether people who escaped oppression will have the chance to “plead their case within a system of rules.”

“Or, alternatively, will they be summarily removed from a country that — as they are swept up at checkpoints and outside courtrooms, often by plainclothes officers without explanation or charges — may look to them more and more like the countries from which they tried to escape?” she added.

A plaintiffs’ attorney, Justice Action Center legal director Esther Sung, described the ruling as a “huge win” for hundreds of thousands of immigrants and their families. Sung said many people are afraid to attend routine immigration hearings out of fear of getting arrested.

“Hopefully this decision will alleviate that fear,” Sung said.

Since May, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have positioned themselves in hallways to arrest people after judges accept government requests to dismiss deportation cases. After being arrested, the government renews deportation proceedings but under fast-track authority.

President Donald Trump sharply expanded fast-track authority in January, allowing immigration officers to deport someone without first seeing a judge. Although fast-track deportations can be put on hold by filing an asylum claim, people may be unaware of that right and, even if they are, can be swiftly removed if they fail an initial screening.

“Expedited removal” was created under a 1996 law and has been used widely for people stopped at the border since 2004. Trump attempted to expand those powers nationwide to anyone in the country less than two years in 2019 but was held up in court. His latest efforts amount to a second try.

ICE exercised its expanded authority sparingly at first during Trump’s second term but has since relied on it for aggressive enforcement in immigration courts and in “workplace raids,” according to plaintiffs’ attorneys.

Spagat reported from San Diego.

Federal immigration enforcement has ramped up under the Trump administration, leaving many in Detroit’s immigrant communities feeling anxious and unsettled. Policies have shifted the ground beneath them, especially in District 6, home to much of Southwest Detroit’s immigrant population.

Gabriela Santiago‑Romero represents that area on Detroit City Council. For her, the issue is personal. She’s a Mexican immigrant who grew up in the same neighborhood she now serves. Since enforcement efforts have increased, she’s been more present in the community, talking with neighbors about their rights and advocating for ways they can live with less fear.

Today, she joins us on The Metro to talk about the pressure, opportunity, and accountability shaping both her work and her community and what it means to take on issues deeply connected to her own identity.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.

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The U.S. government is building an immense 5,000-person detention camp in west Texas, government contract announcements said, sharply increasing the Trump administration’s ability to hold detained immigrants amid its ever-growing mass deportation efforts.

A Defense Department contract announcement on Monday said Acquisition Logistics, a Virginia-based firm, had been awarded $232 million in Army funds to build the facility, which would be used for single immigrant adults.

Procurement documents called it a “soft sided facility,” a phrase often used for tent camps.

The announcement came just weeks after Florida authorities rushed to construct a new immigration detention center dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” which was built on an isolated airstrip surrounded by swampland in the Florida Everglades.

The announcement said the new facility would be built in El Paso, which is home to Ft. Bliss, an Army base that stretches across parts of Texas and New Mexico.

President Donald Trump recently signed a law setting aside $170 billion on border and immigration enforcement, including $45 billion for detention, even as the number of illegal border crossings has plunged. ICE will see its funding grow by $76.5 billion over five years, nearly 10 times its current annual budget.

Trump has vowed to deport millions of immigrants living illegally in the U.S.

By BEN FINLEY, Associated Press

A federal judge in Maryland has prohibited the Trump administration from taking Kilmar Abrego Garcia into immediate immigration custody if he’s released from jail in Tennessee while awaiting trial on human smuggling charges, according to an order issued Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered the U.S. government to provide notice of three business days if Immigration and Customs Enforcement intends to initiate deportation proceedings against him.

The judge also ordered the government to restore the federal supervision that Abrego Garcia was under before he was wrongfully deported to his native El Salvador in March. That supervision had allowed Abrego Garcia to live and work in Maryland for years, while he periodically checked in with ICE.

“Defendants have done little to assure the Court that absent intervention, Abrego Garcia’s due process rights will be protected,” Xinis wrote in her order.

Abrego Garcia became a prominent face in the debate over President Donald Trump’s immigration policies following his wrongful explusion to El Salvador in March. Trump’s administration violated a U.S. immigration judge’s order in 2019 that shields Abrego Garcia from deportation to El Salvador because he likely faces threats of gang violence there.

The smuggling case stems from a 2022 traffic stop for speeding, during which Abrego Garcia was driving a vehicle with nine passengers. Police in Tennessee suspected human smuggling, but he was allowed to drive on.

Abrego Garcia’s criminal attorneys in the Tennessee case want him released from jail to await trial, but only if he won’t be taken into ICE custody and deported. A federal judge in that criminal case on Wednesday affirmed that Abrego Garcia is eligible for release. U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw ruled that appropriate release conditions will mitigate any risk of flight or any danger to the community.

Crenshaw then sent the case back to U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes, who originally held that Abrego Garcia is eligible for release last month. Holmes has held off on ordering his release at the request of Abrego Garcia’s own lawyers. On Wednesday, she signed yet another order putting off his release from jail, this time for 30 days.

U.S. officials have said they’ll try to deport Abrego Garcia to a country that isn’t El Salvador, such as Mexico or South Sudan, before his trial starts in January because they allege he’s a danger to the community.

Abrego Garcia’s American wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, is suing the Trump administration in Xinis’ Maryland court over his wrongful deportation in March and is trying to prevent another expulsion.

U.S. officials have argued that Abrego Garcia can be deported because he came to the U.S. illegally around 2011 and because a U.S. immigration judge deemed him eligible for expulsion in 2019, although not to his native El Salvador. Following the 2019 decision, Abrego Garcia was released under federal supervision, received a federal work permit and checked in with ICE each year, his attorneys have said.

The Trump administration recently stated in court documents that they revoked Abrego Garcia’s supervised release when they deported him in March, claiming that he was in the MS-13 gang.

Associated Press writer Travis Loller contributed from Nashville, Tenn.

In Detroit, the fallout from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s doubling down on aggressive tactics has shaken local communities.

Just last month, a Detroit teen less than four credits from graduation was deported after getting stopped by ICE for a traffic violation.

These are some of the tactics that led over 300 faith leaders and community members to march this week from Corktown to Detroit’s ICE field office. The goal of the demonstration — organized by the advocacy group Strangers No Longer — was to deliver a pastoral letter demanding humane enforcement.

Immigrant rights and environmental justice advocate Odalis Perales is working with Strangers No Longer to break down barriers between faith communities, in schools, and among police about the challenges and tension of this moment.

She joined The Metro on Thursday to talk about her progress and respond to ICE’s refusal to engage with the group’s pastoral letter and demands. 

Use the media player above to hear the full conversation.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.

Trusted, accurate, up-to-date.

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By JULIE WATSON, AMY TAXIN and OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ, Associated Press

Federal authorities now say they arrested more than 360 people at two Southern California marijuana farms last week, characterizing the raids as one of the largest operations since President Donald Trump took office in January.

One farmworker died after falling from a greenhouse roof during the chaotic raids on Thursday after the Department of Homeland Security executed criminal search warrants at Glass House Farms facilities in Camarillo and Carpinteria, northwest of Los Angeles.

The raids came more than a month into an extended crackdown across Southern California that was originally centered on Los Angeles, where local officials say the federal actions are spreading fear in immigrant communities. A federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to halt indiscriminate immigration stops and arrests in seven California counties, including Los Angeles.

What happened?

During the raid on the Camarillo site, crowds gathered seeking information about their relatives and to protest immigration enforcement. Authorities clad in military-style helmets and uniforms faced off with the demonstrators, and people ultimately retreated amid acrid green and white billowing smoke.

Glass House Brands is a major cannabis company in California that started a decade ago with a greenhouse in the Santa Barbara County community of Carpinteria.

The company said it later expanded, buying another facility in the Ventura County community of Camarillo that included six tomato and cucumber-growing greenhouses. Glass House converted two of them to grow cannabis, according to the company’s website.

Relatives of workers at the Camarillo site said tomatoes are still grown at the location in addition to cannabis.

Arrest numbers keep rising

The federal government initially reported that some 200 people suspected of being in the country illegally were arrested.

Then on Saturday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said 319 people were arrested and said on X it was “quickly becoming one of the largest operations since President Trump took office.”

A day later, the arrest numbers, according to the Department of Homeland Security, were up to 361 from the two locations.

The government said four of the 361 arrested had prior criminal records, including convictions for rape and kidnapping.

One death reported from the raids

A farmworker who fell from a greenhouse roof during the raid at the farm in Camarillo died Saturday of his injuries.

Jaime Alanis, 57, is the first known fatality during one of the Trump administration’s ongoing immigration enforcement operations. Yesenia Duran, Alanis’ niece, confirmed his death to The Associated Press.

She posted on the fundraising site GoFundMe that her uncle was his family’s only provider and he had been sending his earnings back to a wife and daughter in Mexico. Alanis worked at the farm for 10 years, his family said.

He called his wife in Mexico and told her he was hiding from federal agents during the raid Thursday. A doctor told his relatives that the ambulance crew who took him to a hospital said he fell about 30 feet, Duran said.

Why was the business raided?

The government says it is investigating potential child labor, human trafficking and other abuse. Initially, DHS said 10 immigrant children were on the property. They later increased that number to 14.

Authorities declined to share the warrant for the operation. The administration has released no additional information about the children, including their ages and what they were doing on the property when authorities arrived. DHS has not provided details to back up its claim of possible trafficking or other abuse, and the company has not been charged with anything.

It was unclear if any of the minors were the children of farm workers at the sites or if they came to the U.S. without an adult.

Federal and state laws allow children as young as 12 to work in agriculture under certain conditions, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. In California, children as young as 12 can work on farms outside of school hours, while those as young as 16 can work during school hours if they are not required to attend school, the agency said on its website.

No one under the age of 21 is allowed to work in the cannabis industry.

The California Department of Cannabis Control conducted a site visit in May 2025 and observed no minors on the premises, a spokesperson said. After receiving a subsequent complaint, the state opened an investigation to ensure full compliance with state law.

U.S. citizens were among those arrested

Four U.S. citizens were arrested during the raids for allegedly “assaulting or resisting officers,” according to DHS, and authorities were offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a person suspected of firing a gun at federal agents.

Among those arrested was California State University Channel Islands professor Jonathan Caravello, U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli posted on X.

Essayli said Caravello was arrested for throwing a tear gas canister at law enforcement and was to appear in court Tuesday.

The California Faculty Association said Caravello was taken away by agents who did not identify themselves nor inform him of why he was being arrested. The association said he was then held without being able to contact his family.

Caravello was attempting to dislodge a tear gas canister that was stuck underneath someone’s wheelchair, witnesses told KABC-TV, the ABC affiliate in Los Angeles.

A federal judge on Monday ordered Caravello to be released on $15,000 bond. He’s scheduled to be arraigned August 1.

Separately, the federal Bureau of Prisons said George Retes, 25, was in their custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles from Thursday to Sunday.

Retes’ family told KABC-TV on Sunday that he is a U.S. citizen, works as a security guard at the farm in Camarillo and is a disabled U.S. Army veteran. They said Retes was trying to drive away during the clashes between protesters and agents when an officer stopped him, broke his car window and shot pepper spray before dragging him out of his car and arresting him.

Retes’ sister, Destinee Magaña, told the television station on Sunday that the family had been trying to get in touch with her brother.

Federal agents “thought he was probably part of the protest, but he wasn’t, he was trying to reverse his car,” Magaña said.

Neither Retes nor Magaña responded to emails Monday from The Associated Press seeking comment.

The region prepares for more raids

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is now proposing to provide cash assistance to residents too scared to leave their homes to go to work.

The plan comes as part of a sweeping executive order the mayor signed on Friday that instructs Los Angeles officials “to bolster their protocols and training to prepare for federal immigration activity occurring on city property.”

The order also establishes a police department working group for immigrants and expands access to resources for impacted families. In addition, it seeks records from the federal government on what the city deems unlawful raids from federal agencies.

The monetary relief will not come from city funds but from philanthropic partners, officials said. Immigrant rights groups will distribute cash cards similar to those used to provide financial assistance to Angelenos struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic. It wasn’t immediately clear how people will qualify to receive the cards.

The goal is to help people who have been deterred “from attending school and church, seeking city services, accessing health care, and going to work,” the order states.

Associated Press writer Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

When a Venezuelan immigrant was arrested last year and charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in Jefferson County, the teen’s mother hoped for justice.

J.E., who is being identified by her initials to protect her daughter’s identity, wanted the suspect to be convicted, locked away. She wanted to know he couldn’t hurt anyone else, at least for a while.

But that’s not what happened.

Jesus Alberto Pereira Castillo, 21, posted $5,000 bail and was released from the Jefferson County jail on Nov. 27, 2024, court records show. He was subsequently arrested by federal immigration authorities and was deported from the country by May.

“Clerk notified via email that deft” — the defendant — “has been removed from the country,” Chief Judge Jeffrey Pilkington wrote in a May 19 order.

The deportation effectively ended the state’s criminal case against Castillo — the prosecution cannot continue without his presence in court, though he remains wanted on a warrant and could be prosecuted if he were to return to Colorado.

There was no conviction, no sentence, no jail time — just a deportation.

“It’s been pretty hard on me and my daughter,” J.E. said. “She doesn’t feel like she is getting the justice she deserves. It just has been so easy for immigrants to come into the country after they are deported. So the fear is that he might relocate somewhere else in the U.S. and do this to someone else. Them deporting him ruined justice for my daughter.”

At least two dozen defendants and one witness in criminal cases in metro Denver have been taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and deported in the middle of ongoing state prosecutions since September, The Denver Post found. District attorneys across the region started to notice more defendants disappearing into ICE custody this spring, as President Donald Trump ramped up deportations nationwide.

Colorado district attorneys who spoke with The Post said such deportations are not in the interest of justice and do not improve public safety over the long term.

“If I can’t hold someone accountable because the defendant is deported before we’ve reached a just outcome in the case, and the defendant finds their way back here and commits another crime, that does not make the community safer,” 17th Judicial District Attorney Brian Mason said. “If victims of crime are afraid to call the police after they have been sexually assaulted or some other terrible crime because they are worried about being deported, that makes our community less safe.”

The defendants deported were charged with crimes that included driving under the influence, car theft, drug distribution, assault, domestic violence, attempted murder and human trafficking.

Again and again, court records reviewed by The Post showed criminal cases stalled by deportations.

“Def does not appear as he was deported and is no longer in the U.S.,” a document notes in the file for a  26-year-old man from Brazil who was accused of swinging a knife at his wife.

“Deft no longer in the country. Defendant (failed to appear),” a record states in the file for a 32-year-old man from Mexico charged with driving a stolen car.

‘Full force of the law’

Detectives with the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office and the Denver Police Department spent six months building a case against a 28-year-old man from El Salvador who they alleged sold drugs and was connected to a woman who fatally overdosed at an Arapahoe County apartment complex in October.

The investigation included a drug deal with an undercover Denver detective and ongoing surveillance. The man was charged with four felony counts related to drug dealing and two counts of child abuse after the six-month investigation culminated in his arrest on April 9.

The man’s arrest affidavit notes that he was arrested by the Aurora Police Department’s SWAT team, and then, without further explanation, says he was taken into custody by ICE.

Aurora police spokesman Joe Moylan said the city’s SWAT team assisted in the arrest and then turned the man over to the sheriff’s office while at the scene. Anders Nelson, a spokesman for the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office, said the agency “partners with ICE” when pursuing cases against suspected non-citizen drug dealers.

“ICE uses various means to positively identify these individuals, and so when they are arrested, ICE agents respond to identify the individual so that we can charge them accordingly under their correct name,” Nelson said. “In this case, the subject had a lengthy criminal history that included active warrants for his arrest and had entered the U.S. illegally on several occasions, and so ICE agents took custody of him.”

The suspect accused of selling drugs was deported within a month. The state criminal case remains open.

“Deft has been deported,” the man’s court records noted on May 9.

In an emailed statement, Denver ICE spokesman Steve Kotecki said the federal agency “arrests aliens who threaten public safety and commit crimes.”

Before their recent arrests and deportations, the two men from El Salvador and Brazil had previously been cited only for traffic violations in Colorado, according to records kept by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. The man from Mexico had prior convictions for car theft and drug possession.

“ICE recognizes the importance of addressing unlawful actions with the full force of the law, ensuring that individuals are held accountable for their actions,” Kotecki said in the statement. “We are committed to creating safe and thriving communities by supporting effective and fair law enforcement practices.”

Tristan Gorman, a criminal defense attorney, noted that ICE’s mid-case deportations, which come before a defendant is convicted of a crime, are “completely disregarding the constitutional presumption of innocence.”

Mason, who serves as DA for Adams and Broomfield counties, said federal agencies “are under enormous pressure to implement the policies of the current administration.”

“This is new,” he said of the growing number of mid-case deportations.

Long-used process is no longer reliable

In the past, when ICE detained defendants while their state cases were ongoing, prosecutors relied on court orders called writs to ensure the defendants still appeared in court. A writ in this context is a judge’s order to a custodial agency, like a jail or immigration detention center, requiring the agency to bring the defendant to court.

ICE is no longer reliably complying with writs to produce defendants for their state hearings, First Judicial District Attorney Alexis King said.

“It’s hard to know and it’s hard to predict how a writ will be honored or not,” she said. “…A writ was our standard process that we relied on to keep someone available for a criminal proceeding. It is not consistently working.”

ICE hasn’t communicated its policies or procedures in any cohesive way to her team of Jefferson and Gilpin county prosecutors, King said. Her office is relying on personal connections between staff and officials at ICE to try to ensure defendants in federal custody are brought to court.

“It’s felt pretty ad hoc, and often reliant on us being very proactive,” she said.

ICE officials informed the Adams County Sheriff’s Office and the Denver Sheriff Department in June that the agency would no longer comply with writs for detainees in immigration custody to physically appear in the counties’ criminal courts.

“ICE Denver is no longer honor (sic) writ from Denver County Court due to the Denver County Jail do not (sic) comply with immigration detainer or fail to transfer custody of aliens in a safe and orderly manner,” Hung Thach, a supervisory detention and deportation officer in the Denver field office, wrote in a June 16 email to Denver officials.

In a statement issued to 9News and Colorado Public Radio, Denver Field Office Director Robert Gaudian said ICE would not honor the writs because agency officials were not confident the detainees would be returned to ICE’s custody after their state court appearances.

Kotecki did not respond to a request to share that statement with The Post. He previously has requested blanket anonymity for his statements as a spokesman for the federal agency, which The Post declined to grant. He also has said he would no longer provide information to The Post unless the newspaper complied with his request for anonymity.

“In the past, ICE Denver and the Adams County sheriff have enjoyed a great working relationship, with ICE honoring writs for trials and the sheriff notifying us of an alien’s release,” Gaudian said in the statement, according to 9News. “This relationship must be reciprocal, though. If I’m not confident that the sheriff will return an alien to us, then I cannot in good conscience release that individual.”

Denver sheriff’s spokeswoman Daria Serna defended the department’s practices for handling writs in a statement Wednesday.

“The Denver Sheriff Department’s policy and practice for the transfer of people in custody are in alignment with state and local laws,” she said.

ICE approach varies by jurisdiction

So far in Boulder, immigration authorities have largely complied with writs to produce defendants for state court hearings with just a handful of exceptions, said Michael Dougherty, the Boulder County district attorney.

The bigger risk for his office is not knowing about ICE detainment in time to seek a writ and delay deportation, because federal agents are failing to consistently alert prosecutors when they arrest defendants in state criminal cases, he said.

“ICE should provide a notification anytime they pick someone up and the person is a defendant,” Dougherty said. “That has not always happened. What has happened, more often than not, is we find out from the defense attorney or someone connected to the defendant that someone has been arrested by ICE and held for possible deportation.”

Dougherty noted that deportations seem to be happening much faster than in past years. When a defendant is deported in the middle of a case, it has a broad impact, he said.

“The victim never had his or her day in court,” he said. “We couldn’t do justice. There is no conviction, no sex offender registration and no consequences. And the person is deported to a country. We have no reason to believe the person is held responsible for the crime they were accused of.”

In Douglas, Elbert and Lincoln counties, prosecutors have not had any issues with ICE agents deporting defendants mid-case, said 23rd Judicial District Attorney George Brauchler. He said federal agents have given his office warnings when ICE is interested in defendants, which has allowed prosecutors to revoke defendants’ bonds to keep them in jail — in state custody — while the criminal case is pending.

Gorman, the defense attorney, said revoking bond simply because a person could be deported is fundamentally unfair.

“We’re just basically saying to them, ‘Yeah, we put all these terms and conditions on your bond and you’ve got to comply with them or we will revoke your bond,” she said. “But even if you do absolutely everything right and show up at all your court dates, we might revoke your bond anyway… even though you followed all the rules.”

Arrests at courthouses

Colorado law prohibits ICE agents from arresting people at or near state courthouses for civil immigration purposes — a line that federal agents have crossed multiple times this year, including in Denver and on the Western Slope.

Federal agents have also been routinely making immigration arrests at Denver’s federal courthouses, which are not covered by the state prohibition.

In Garfield, Pitkin and Rio Blanco counties, federal agents monitored courthouse dockets in order to detain defendants for immigration proceedings, Ninth Judicial District Chief Judge John Neiley wrote in an April 8 order instructing federal agents to stop.

“In short, these types of arrests make courthouses less safe, frustrate the process of justice, and could have a chilling effect on litigants, witnesses, victims, court personnel and other members of the public who have a right and obligation to participate fairly in the judicial system,” Neiley wrote in the order.

Although the practice is against Colorado law, there are no criminal penalties for federal agents who make such prohibited arrests. Rather, state law says they can be held in contempt of court or sued by the Colorado Attorney General’s Office. Spokesman Lawrence Pacheco said the office could not confirm or comment on any such investigations.

“Attorney General (Phil) Weiser is concerned about reports of ICE arrests at state courthouses interfering with state criminal prosecutions and having a chilling effect on witnesses and victims in criminal cases,” Pacheco said. “Federal immigration arrests at courthouses make our communities less safe and violate state law.”

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