By Max Bryan, mbryan@detroitnews.com

Amid increased immigration enforcement across the country, Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald urged students, teachers and families not to interfere with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents — but to also know their rights if agents show up at a school or detain parents.

McDonald said in a Friday news release that interfering with ICE or other law enforcement “increases the risk for everyone.” The county prosecutor said ICE agents may enter public areas in schools without restriction, but must present either a judicial warrant or permission from the school to enter private areas like classrooms or offices.

McDonald’s statement follows news on Wednesday that ICE agents pursued purported gang members who had fled on foot near a Clarkston Community elementary school, Oakland County Sheriff’s Public Information Officer Steve Huber said Friday. The district issued a shelter-in-place order, sheriff’s deputies provided additional security to the school and assisted the search, Huber said.

The search and shelter-in-place order lasted for about an hour, according to district officials.

In preparation for a possible ICE presence, McDonald said schools should require visitors to sign in, make sure security cameras work, follow student privacy protections and have a communication plan. She also said faculty and staff should treat ICE agents like they would any visitor who’s not a parent or guardian and educate the staff on how to identify a judicial warrant.

The prosecutor also said parents and caregivers should remember their right not to answer any questions about immigration or birthplace, make sure the school has correct emergency contact information, ask their schools if they have an ICE preparedness plan and make a family plan if a parent is detained while their children are at school.

“As ICE raids have happened across our country, many community members, including our students, parents, and teachers, have experienced understandable anxiety and fear. Schools should be places where kids feel safe, and worrying that a teacher, child, or classmate could be detained can impact a student’s health and well-being. Working together, there are steps schools and families can take to keep kids safe, informed, and protected,” McDonald said in a statement.

School superintendents across Michigan vowed in January that they would keep their students and school buildings safe and instructed staff on proper procedures as the Trump administration increased its immigration enforcement efforts nationwide.

ICE officials said in September their agents do not “raid” schools, but could enter a school if an undocumented immigrant with a felony record were to flee into a school.

By NICHOLAS RICCARDI, JOSH BOAK and JAKE OFFENHARTZ

The two had called each other “fascist” and “communist,” but when President Donald Trump and New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani faced reporters in the Oval Office on Friday, they were just two iconoclastic New York politicians who were all smiles.

The much-anticipated face-to-face showed how the politicians’ shared love of New York City — and no doubt some political calculus — could paper over months of insults. Both men used a plainspoken, wry approach tailor-made for the age of social media to make their points, and each left the meeting with something he needed.

Here are some takeaways from the appearance.

Republicans lose their punching bag — at least for now

Trump’s party had been queueing up a 2026 campaign warning that the Democratic Party is getting taken over by people like Mamdani, a 34-year-old Muslim and self-described democratic socialist who may not play as well west of the Hudson River. But Trump swatted all that down.

“The better he does, the happier I am,” Trump, a native New Yorker, said of Mamdani.

Trump denied a charge by Elise Stefanik, the Republican candidate for New York governor and one of his political allies, that Mamdani, a longtime critic of Israel, is a “jihadist,” saying, “I just met with a man who’s a very rational person” and adding that they both wanted peace in the Middle East.

Trump said he’d happily live in Mamdani’s New York, countering conservative suggestions that rich New Yorkers should flee the city. He praised Mamdani’s decision to keep New York’s police commissioner, Jessica Tisch, noting she was a friend of the president’s daughter Ivanka. And he demurred when asked about Mamdani’s democratic socialism, saying instead that the two had many similar ideas. He noted — and Mamdani emphasized repeatedly — that they’d both run for office on affordability.

It was an inconvenient defense of democratic socialism on the very day that House Republicans muscled through a resolution condemning socialism with the express intent of embarassing their rivals over the mayor-elect. Trump even threw in some praise of another Republican punching bag, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, also a democratic socialist.

“Bernie Sanders and I agreed on much more than people thought,” Trump said. He added proudly that Mamdani was wowed by a painting of iconic Democratic President Franklin Delano Roosevelt — yet another GOP bugbear — in the Oval Office.

Trump, struggling amid mounting dissatisfaction in his first year back in office, may see an advantage in lashing his star to that of the latest avatar of affordability.

Of course, both Trump and Mamdani are experts at the 21st century art of political brawling and Trump is notoriously mercurial, so the detente may be short-lived. But it’s notable while it’s here.

Mamdani’s visit lets Trump talk about affordability

For the past few weeks, Trump has struggled to address voters’ concerns about inflation, suggesting that prices are already down and any claims otherwise are a “con job by the Democrats.” But Mamdani stomped his competition in the mayoral election by focusing relentlessly on the cost of rent, groceries and other basic needs — a successful strategy that White House officials noticed as they think about next year’s midterms.

The president leaned into that message in their White House meeting, saying he sees his efforts as complementary. He said that just like Mamdani, he too wants to build more housing. The president didn’t lay out any new policies as he repeated his claims that inflation has dropped under his watch.

“Anything I do is going to be good for New York if I can get prices down,” Trump said. “The new word is affordability. Another word is just groceries. You know, it’s sort of an old-fashioned word, but it’s very accurate. And they’re coming down. They’re coming down.”

The challenge for Trump is whether voters trust that he’s genuinely addressing inflation. The consumer price index has jumped to an annual rate of 3% compared to 2.3% in April, when the president rolled out his “Liberation Day” import taxes.

A confidence boost for Mamdani — with implications for his agenda

Throughout his campaign, Mamdani’s opponents claimed his far-left politics and relative inexperience would make him an easy target for Trump. Friday’s meeting will likely quiet those concerns — at least for now. Trump seemed thoroughly impressed with Mamdani, describing him as “a very rational man” who “wants to see New York be great again.”

“We had some interesting conversations and some of his ideas are the same that I have,” Trump added.

For his part, Mamdani struck a delicate balance: flattering Trump in broad terms, while avoiding sensitive subjects or concessions that could enrage his base. He noted repeatedly that many of his own voters were former Democrats who switched over to Trump in the previous election — a line the president seemed to like.

The backing of the president could help the mayor-elect avoid a National Guard deployment in New York, which Trump previously threatened as a likely outcome of his election victory. Trump also indicated that federal funding cuts could be off the table — a move that would give Mamdani a much better shot at achieving his ambitious agenda, which requires raising revenue for programs like universal free childcare.

“I want him to do a great job and will help him do a great job,” Trump said.

By MARK SHERMAN

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday temporarily blocked a lower court ruling that found Texas’ 2026 congressional redistricting plan pushed by President Donald Trump likely discriminates on the basis of race.

The order signed by Justice Samuel Alito will remain in place at least for the next few days while the court considers whether to allow the new map favorable to Republicans to be used in the midterm elections.

The court’s conservative majority has blocked similar lower court rulings because they have come too close to elections.

The order came about an hour after the state called on the high court to intervene to avoid confusion as congressional primary elections approach in March. The justices have blocked past lower-court rulings in congressional redistricting cases, most recently in Alabama and Louisiana, that came several months before elections.

The order was signed by Alito because he is the justice who handles emergency appeals from Texas.

Texas redrew its congressional map in the summer as part of Trump’s efforts to preserve a slim Republican majority in the House in next year’s elections, touching off a nationwide redistricting battle. The new redistricting map was engineered to give Republicans five additional House seats, but a panel of federal judges in El Paso ruled 2-1 Tuesday that the civil rights groups that challenged the map on behalf of Black and Hispanic voters were likely to win their case.

If that ruling eventually holds, Texas could be forced to hold elections next year using the map drawn by the GOP-controlled Legislature in 2021 based on the 2020 census.

Texas was the first state to meet Trump’s demands in what has become an expanding national battle over redistricting. Republicans drew the state’s new map to give the GOP five additional seats, and Missouri and North Carolina followed with new maps adding an additional Republican seat each. To counter those moves, California voters approved a ballot initiative to give Democrats an additional five seats there.

The redrawn maps are facing court challenges in California, Missouri and North Carolina.

The Supreme Court is separately considering a case from Louisiana which could further limit race-based districts under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. It’s not entirely clear how the current round of redistricting would be affected by the outcome in the Louisiana case.

By JACK DURA

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Abortion is again illegal in North Dakota after the state’s Supreme Court on Friday couldn’t muster the required majority to uphold a judge’s ruling that struck down the state’s ban last year.

The law makes it a felony crime for anyone to perform an abortion, though it specifically protects patients from prosecution. Doctors could be prosecuted and penalized by as much as five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Three justices agreed that the ban is unconstitutionally vague under the state constitution. The other two justices said the law is not unconstitutional.

The state constitution requires at least four of the five justices to agree for a law to be found unconstitutional, a high bar. Not enough members of the court joined together to affirm the lower court ruling.

In his opinion, Justice Jerod Tufte said the natural rights guaranteed by the state constitution in 1889 do not extend to abortion rights. He also said the law “provides adequate and fair warning to those attempting to comply.”

North Dakota Republican Attorney Drew Wrigley welcomed the ruling, saying, “The Supreme Court has upheld this important pro-life legislation, enacted by the people’s Legislature. The Attorney General’s office has the solemn responsibility of defending the laws of North Dakota, and today those laws have been upheld.”

Republican state Sen. Janne Myrdal, who introduced the 2023 legislation that became the law banning abortion, said she is “thrilled and grateful that two justices that are highly respected saw the truth of the matter, that this is fully constitutional for the mother and for the unborn child and thereafter for that sake.”

Attorneys for the challengers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The ruling means access to abortion in North Dakota will be outlawed. Even after a judge had earlier struck down the ban last year, the only scenarios for a patient to obtain an abortion in North Dakota had been for life- or health-preserving reasons in a hospital.

The only abortion provider relocated in 2022 from Fargo to nearby Moorhead, Minnesota.

Justice Daniel Crothers, one of the three judges to vote against the ban, wrote that the district court decision wasn’t wrong.

“The vagueness in the law relates to when an abortion can be performed to preserve the life and health of the mother,” Crothers wrote. “After striking this invalid provision, the remaining portions of the law would be inoperable.”

North Dakota’s newly confirmed ban prohibits the performance of an abortion as a felony crime. The only exceptions are for rape or incest in the first six weeks — before many women know they are pregnant — and to prevent the mother’s death or a “serious health risk” to her.

North Dakota joins 12 other states enforcing bans on abortion at all stages of pregnancy. Another four bar it at or around six weeks gestational age.

Judge Bruce Romanick had struck down the ban the state Legislature passed in 2023, less than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and opened the door to the state-level bans, largely turning the abortion battle to state courts and legislatures.

The Red River Women’s Clinic — the formerly sole abortion clinic in North Dakota — and several physicians challenged the law. The state appealed the 2024 ruling that overturned the ban.

The judge and the Supreme Court each denied requests by the state to keep the abortion ban in effect during the appeal. Those decisions allowed patients with pregnancy complications to seek care without fear of delay because of the law, Center for Reproductive Rights Staff Attorney Meetra Mehdizadeh previously said.

By MATT BROWN

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday ordered President Donald Trump to end the deployment of National Guard troops to the nation’s capital. But the ruling is unlikely to be the final word by the courts, the president or local leaders in the contentious duel over the federal district.

U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb put her order on hold for 21 days to allow the Trump administration time to either remove the troops or appeal the decision. The ruling marks another flashpoint in the months-long legal battle between local leaders and the president over longstanding norms about whether troops can support law enforcement activities on American streets.

Trump issued an emergency order in the capital in August, federalizing the local police force and sending in National Guard troops from eight states and the District of Columbia. The order expired a month later but the troops remained.

The soldiers have patrolled Washington’s neighborhoods, monuments, train stations, and high-traffic streets. They have set up checkpoints on highways and supported federal agents in raids that have arrested hundreds of people, often for immigration-related infractions. They’ve also been assigned to pick up trash, guard sports events, conventions and concerts and have been seen taking selfies with tourists and residents alike.

The White House has said Trump’s deployment was legal and vowed to appeal the ruling.

Here’s what to know about the National Guard deployment in the nation’s capital.

The judge ruled the deployment was unlawful

District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb filed the lawsuit against the administration that led to Cobb’s ruling.

Cobb ruled that Trump’s troop deployment violated the governance of the capital for a variety of reasons, including that the president had taken powers that officially resided in Congress; that the federal district’s autonomy from other states had been violated; and that Trump had moved to make the troop deployment a possibly permanent fixture of the city.

“At its core, Congress has given the District rights to govern itself. Those rights are infringed upon when defendants approve, in excess of their statutory authority, the deployment of National Guard troops to the District,” Cobb wrote.

The judge also added that D.C. “suffers a distinct injury from the presence of out-of-state National Guard units” because “the Constitution placed the District exclusively under Congress’s authority to prevent individual states from exerting any influence over the nation’s capital.”

Cobb added that repeated extensions of the troop deployment by the National Guard into next year “could be read to suggest that the use of the (D.C. National Guard) for crime deterrence and public safety missions in the District may become longstanding, if not permanent.”

Troops won’t necessarily leave the capital following the ruling

The Trump administration has three weeks to appeal the decision and White House officials have already vowed to oppose it. Troops remained stationed around the city on Friday after the ruling came down.

Before the ruling, states with contingents in the capital had indicated their missions would wrap up around the end of November unless ordered otherwise by the administration. According to formal orders reviewed by The Associated Press, the Washington D.C. National Guard will be deployed to the nation’s capital through the end of February. One court document indicated that the contingent could stay into next summer.

Deployments in Los Angeles, Portland, Oregon and Chicago have each faced court challenges with divergent rulings. The administration has had to scale back its operations in Chicago and Portland while it appeals in both cases.

The White House stands by the deployment

The White House says the Guard’s presence in the capital is a central part of what it calls successful crime-fighting efforts. It dismissed the ruling as wrongly decided.

“President Trump is well within his lawful authority to deploy the National Guard in Washington, D.C., to protect federal assets and assist law enforcement with specific tasks,” said White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson. “This lawsuit is nothing more than another attempt — at the detriment of DC residents — to undermine the President’s highly successful operations to stop violent crime in DC.”

That stands in contrast to what local D.C. leaders say.

Schwalb, the District’s attorney general, praised the judge’s decision and argued that the arrangement the president had sought for the city would weaken democratic principles.

“From the beginning, we made clear that the U.S. military should not be policing American citizens on American soil,” Schwalb said in a statement. “Normalizing the use of military troops for domestic law enforcement sets a dangerous precedent, where the President can disregard states’ independence and deploy troops wherever and whenever he wants, with no check on his military power.”

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, who has tried to strike a balance between working with some federal authorities and the opposition of some of her voters, has not publicly commented about the ruling.

States across the country have watched D.C.’s legal case play out

The case could have legal implications for Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops to other cities across the country. Dozens of states had joined the case, with their support for each side split along party lines.

The District of Columbia has always had a unique relationship with the federal government. But the legal dispute in D.C. raises some similar questions over the president’s power to deploy troops to aid in domestic law enforcement activities and whether the National Guard can be mobilized indefinitely without the consent of local leaders.

Prior to the D.C. deployment, Trump in June mobilized National Guard troops in Los Angeles as some in the city protested against immigration enforcement activities. Since deploying troops to Washington, Trump has also dispatched National Guard troops to Chicago, Portland and Charlotte, with more cities expected to see deployments in the future.

The mostly Democratic governors and mayors who lead the cities and states in the administration’s crosshairs broadly oppose the deployments. Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois, in a November interview with the AP, warned of the “militarization of our American cities.” Pritzker and other Democratic governors have been among the most intense legal opponents to Trump’s troop deployments and federal agent surges nationwide.

Some Republican leaders have welcomed federal law enforcement intervention into their states and lent state resources and agents.

Yet some of Trump’s allies have expressed concern. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, chair of the Republican Governors Association, warned that Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops without a state’s consent “sets a very dangerous precedent.”

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By Melissa Nann Burke, mburke@detroitnews.com

Washington ― U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin has been assigned around-the-clock police protection, her office said, following calls by President Donald Trump on Thursday morning that the Michigan lawmaker should be arrested and possibly put to death over a video that she made with other Democrats.

Slotkin told NBC News that she has received “hundreds and hundreds, if not, you know, closer to 1,000 threats” since the video first picked up traction in the news earlier in the week and then Trump suggested on Thursday that her message was “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!”

Now, a U.S. Capitol Police officer is following Slotkin around everywhere she goes to ensure her safety, her office said late Thursday.

The Holly Democrat had posted online the video recording of Democratic veterans in Congress on Tuesday. The video features Slotkin and five other lawmakers who contended that the Trump administration is pitting the uniformed military and intelligence community professionals against U.S. citizens, and urged them not to follow unspecified illegal orders: “Don’t give up the ship.”

Trump accuses Slotkin, other Democrats of ‘seditious behavior, punishable by death’

Trump lashed out at the Democratic lawmakers on Thursday in a torrent of posts on his Truth Social platform.

“It’s called SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL. Each one of these traitors to our Country should be ARRESTED AND PUT ON TRIAL,” Trump wrote. “Their words cannot be allowed to stand – We won’t have a Country anymore!!! An example MUST BE SET.”

The second-term Republican president followed up with other posts about the Democratic lawmakers: “This is really bad, and Dangerous to our Country. Their words cannot be allowed to stand. SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR FROM TRAITORS!!! LOCK THEM UP???”

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, told reporters Thursday that he’d requested extra security for Slotkin and Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, who was also in the video. Schumer railed against Trump’s language toward the lawmakers on the Senate floor, saying the president’s language “is an outright threat, and it’s deadly serious.”

“When Donald Trump uses the language of execution and treason, some of his supporters may very well listen,” Schumer said.

The other Democrats in the video with Slotkin besides Kelly were U.S. Reps. Jason Crow of Colorado, Chris Deluzio and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, and Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire.

Trump’s social media comments suggesting Slotkin and the other Democratic lawmakers could face execution for their remarks prompted the president’s spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitt, to argue the lawmakers had encouraged service members “to defy the President’s lawful orders.”

At a White House briefing Thursday with reporters, Leavitt said “no” when asked whether the president wants members of Congress executed.

“The president expects his Cabinet officials in the administration to follow the law and to demand accountability and hold people accountable for their dangerous rhetoric,” Leavitt said. “And I would just add that if this were Republican members of Congress who were encouraging members of the military and members of our United States government to defy orders from the president and from the chain of command, this entire room would be up in arms. But instead, it is the other way around, and I think that’s quite telling.”

By Claudia Boyd-Barrett, KFF Health News

In July, federal immigration agents took Milagro Solis-Portillo to Glendale Memorial Hospital just outside Los Angeles after she suffered a medical emergency while being detained. They didn’t leave.

For two weeks, Immigration and Customs Enforcement contractors sat guard in the hospital lobby 24 hours a day, working in shifts to monitor her movements, her attorney Ming Tanigawa-Lau said.

ICE later transferred the Salvadoran woman to Anaheim Global Medical Center, against her doctor’s orders and without explanation, her attorney said. There, Tanigawa-Lau said, ICE agents were allowed to stay in Solis-Portillo’s hospital room round-the-clock, listening to what should have been private conversations with providers. Solis-Portillo told her attorney that agents pressured her to say she was well enough to leave the hospital, telling her she wouldn’t be able to speak to her family or her attorney until she complied.

“She described it to me as feeling like she was being tortured,” Tanigawa-Lau said.

Legal experts say ICE agents can be in public areas of a hospital, such as a lobby, and can accompany already-detained patients as they receive care, illustrating the scope of federal authority. Detained patients, however, have rights and can try to advocate for themselves or seek legal recourse.

Earlier this year, California set aside $25 million to fund legal services for immigrants, and some local jurisdictions — including Orange County, Long Beach, and San Francisco— have put money toward legal aid efforts. The California Department of Social Services lists some legal defense nonprofits that have received funds.

Sophia Genovese, a supervising attorney and clinical teaching fellow at Georgetown Law, said law enforcement officers, including federal immigration agents, can guard and even restrain a person in their custody who is receiving health care, but they must follow constitutional and health privacy laws regardless of the person’s immigration status. Under those laws, patients can ask to speak with medical providers in private and to seek and speak confidentially with legal counsel, she said.

“ICE should be stationed outside of the room or outside of earshot during any communication between the patient and their doctor or medical provider,” Genovese said, adding that the same applies to a patient’s communication with lawyers. “That’s what they’re supposed to do.”

ICE guidelines

When it comes to communication and visits, ICE’s standards state that detainees should have access to a phone and be able to receive visits from family and friends, “within security and operational constraints.” However, these guidelines are not enforceable, Genovese said.

If immigration agents arrest someone without a warrant, they must tell them why they’ve been detained and generally can’t hold them for more than 48 hours without making a custody determination. A federal judge recently granted a temporary restraining order in a case in which a man named Bayron Rovidio Marin was monitored by immigration agents in a Los Angeles hospital for 37 days without being charged and was registered under a pseudonym.

In the past, perceived violations by agents could be reported to ICE leadership at local field offices, to the agency’s headquarters, or to an oversight body, Genovese said. But earlier this year, the Department of Homeland Security cut staffing at ombudsman offices that investigate civil rights complaints, saying they “obstructed immigration enforcement by adding bureaucratic hurdles.”

The assistant secretary for public affairs at DHS, Tricia McLaughlin, said that agents arrested Marin for being in the country illegally and that he admitted his lack of legal status to ICE agents. She said agents took him to the hospital after he injured his leg while trying to evade federal officers during a raid. She said officers did not prevent him from seeing his family or from using the phone.

“All detainees have access to phones they can use to contact their families and lawyers,” she said.

McLaughlin said the temporary restraining order was issued by an “activist” judge. She did not address questions about staffing cuts at the ombudsman offices.

DHS also said Solis-Portillo was in the country illegally. The department said she had been removed from the United States twice and arrested for the crimes of false identification, theft, and burglary.

“ICE takes its commitment to promoting safe, secure, humane environments for those in our custody very seriously,” McLaughlin said. “It is a long-standing practice to provide comprehensive medical care from the moment an alien enters ICE custody. This includes access to medical appointments and 24-hour emergency care.”

Protections in California

Anaheim Global Medical Center did not respond to a request for comment. In a statement, Dignity Health, which operates Glendale Memorial Hospital, said it “cannot legally restrict law enforcement or security personnel from being present in public areas which include the hospital lobby/waiting area.”

California enacted a law in September that prohibits medical establishments from allowing federal agents without a valid search warrant or court order into private areas, including places where patients receive treatment or discuss health matters. But many of the most high-profile news reports of immigration agents at health care facilities have involved detained patients brought in for care.

Erika Frank, vice president of legal counsel for the California Hospital Association, said hospitals have always had law enforcement, including federal agents, bring in people they’ve detained who need medical attention.

Hospitals will defer to law enforcement on whether a patient needs to be monitored at all times, according to association spokesperson Jan Emerson-Shea. If law enforcement officers overhear medical information about a patient while they’re in the hospital, it doesn’t constitute a patient-privacy violation, she added.

“This is no different, legally, from a patient or visitor overhearing information about another patient in a nearby bed or emergency department bay,” Emerson-Shea said in a statement.

She didn’t address whether patients can demand privacy with providers and attorneys, and she said hospitals don’t tell family and friends about the detained patient’s location, for safety reasons.

Sandy Reding, who is president of the California Nurses Association and visited the Glendale facility when Solis-Portillo was there, said nurses and patients were frightened to see masked immigration agents in the hospital’s lobby. She said she saw them sitting behind a registration desk where they could hear people discuss private health information.

“Hospitals used to be a sanctuary place, and now they’re not,” she said. “And it seems like ICE has just been running rampant.”

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to vote Nov. 18 on a proposal to provide more protections for detainees at county-operated health facilities. These include limiting the ability of immigration officials to hide patients’ identities, allowing patients to consent to the release of information to family members and legal counsel, and directing staff to insist immigration agents leave the room at times to protect patient privacy. The county would also defend employees who try to uphold its policies.

Solis-Portillo’s lawyer, Tanigawa-Lau, said her client ultimately decided to self-deport to El Salvador rather than fight her case, because she felt she couldn’t get the medical care she needed in ICE custody.

“Even though Milagro’s case is really terrible, I’m glad that there’s more awareness now about this issue,” Tanigawa-Lau said.

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

By Jonathan Shorman, Stateline.org

A day after President Donald Trump took office, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued a new directive to its agents: Arrests at courthouses, restricted under the Biden administration, were again permissible.

In Connecticut, a group of observers who keep watch on ICE activity in and around Stamford Superior Court have since witnessed a series of arrests. In one high-profile case in August, federal agents pursued two men into a bathroom.

“Is it an activity you want to be interfering with, people fulfilling their duty when they’re called to court and going to court? For me, it’s insanity,” said David Michel, a Democratic former state representative in Connecticut who helps observe courthouse activity.

Fueled by the Stamford uproar, Connecticut lawmakers last week approved restrictions on civil arrests and mask-wearing by federal law enforcement at state courthouses. And on Monday, a federal judge tossed a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Department of Justice that had sought to block similar restrictions in New York.

They are the latest examples of a growing number of Democratic states, and some judges, pushing back against ICE arrests in and around state courthouses. State lawmakers and other officials worry the raids risk keeping people from testifying in criminal trials, fighting evictions or seeking restraining orders against domestic abusers.

The courthouse arrests mark an intensifying clash between the Trump administration and Democratic states that pits federal authority against state sovereignty. Sitting at the core of the fight are questions about how much power states have to control what happens in their own courts and the physical grounds they sit on.

In Illinois, lawmakers approved a ban on civil immigration arrests at courthouses in October. In Rhode Island, lawmakers plan to again push for a ban after an earlier measure didn’t advance in March. Connecticut lawmakers were codifying limits imposed by the state Supreme Court chief justice in September. Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont is expected to sign the bill.

States that are clamping down on ICE continue to allow the agency to make criminal arrests, as opposed to noncriminal civil arrests. Many people arrested and subsequently deported are taken on noncriminal, administrative warrants. As of Sept. 21, 71.5% of ICE detainees had no criminal convictions, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a data research organization.

Some states, such as New York, already have limits on immigration enforcement in courthouses that date back to the first Trump administration, when ICE agents also engaged in courthouse arrests. New York’s Protect Our Courts Act, in place since 2020, prohibits civil arrests of people at state and local courthouses without a judicial warrant. The law also applies to people traveling to and from court, extending protections beyond courthouse grounds.

“One of the cornerstones of our democracy is open access to the courts. When that access is denied or chilled, all of us are made less safe and less free,” said Oren Sellstrom, litigation director at Lawyers for Civil Rights, a Boston-based group that works to provide legal support to immigrants, people of color and low-income individuals.

But in addition to challenging the New York law, the Justice Department is prosecuting a Wisconsin state judge, alleging she illegally helped a migrant avoid ICE agents.

“We aren’t some medieval kingdom; there are no legal sanctuaries where you can hide and avoid the consequences for breaking the law,” U.S. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to Stateline. “Nothing in the constitution prohibits arresting a lawbreaker where you find them.”

Some Republican lawmakers oppose efforts to limit ICE arrests in and near courthouses, arguing state officials should stay out of the way of federal law enforcement. The Ohio Senate in June passed a bill that would prohibit public officials from interfering in immigration arrests or prohibiting cooperation with ICE; the move came after judges in Franklin County, which includes Columbus, imposed restrictions on civil arrests in courthouses.

“The United States is a nation of immigrants, but we are also a nation of law and order. To have a civilized society, laws must be respected, this includes immigration laws,” Ohio Republican state Sen. Kristina Roegner, the bill’s sponsor, said in a news release at the time.

Roegner didn’t respond to Stateline’s interview request. The legislation remains in a House committee.

Knowing where a target will be

Courthouses offer an attractive location for ICE to make immigration arrests, according to both ICE and advocates for migrants.

Court records and hearing schedules often indicate who is expected in the building on any given day. Administrative warrants don’t allow ICE to enter private homes without permission, but the same protections don’t apply in public areas, such as courthouses. And many people have a strong incentive to show up for court, knowing that warrants can potentially be issued for their arrest if they don’t.

“So in some respects, it’s easy pickings,” said Steven Brown, executive director of the ACLU of Rhode Island.

In June, ICE arrested Pablo Grave de la Cruz at Rhode Island Traffic Tribunal in Cranston. A 36-year-old Rhode Island resident, he had come from Guatemala illegally as a teenager.

“They pulled up on him like he was a murderer or a rapist,” friend Brittany Donohue told the Rhode Island Current, which chronicled de la Cruz’s case. “He was leaving traffic court.”

An immigration judge has since granted de la Cruz permission to self-deport.

McLaughlin, the Homeland Security assistant secretary, said in her statement that allowing law enforcement to make arrests “of criminal illegal aliens in courthouses is common sense” — conserving law enforcement resources because officers know where a target will be. The department said the practice is safer for officers and the community, noting that individuals have gone through courthouse security.

Still, ICE’s directive on courthouse arrests sets some limits on the agency’s activity.

Agents “should, to the extent practicable” conduct civil immigration arrests in non-public areas of the courthouse and avoid public entrances. Actions should be taken “discreetly” to minimize disruption to court proceedings, and agents should generally avoid areas wholly dedicated to non-criminal proceedings, such as family court, the directive says.

Crucially, the directive says ICE can conduct civil immigration arrests “where such action is not precluded by laws imposed by the jurisdiction.” In other words, the agency’s guidance directs agents to respect state and local bans on noncriminal arrests.

Trump administration court actions

But the Trump administration has also gone to court to try to overcome state-level restrictions.

The Justice Department sued in June over New York’s Protect Our Courts Act, arguing that it “purposefully shields dangerous aliens” from lawful detention. The department says the law violates the U.S. Constitution’s supremacy clause, under which federal law supersedes state law.

New York Democratic Attorney General Letitia James argued the state law doesn’t conflict with federal law and sought the lawsuit’s dismissal.

U.S. District Court Judge Mae D’Agostino, an appointee of President Barack Obama, on Monday granted James’ motion. The judge wrote that the “entire purpose” of the lawsuit was to allow the federal government to commandeer New York’s resources — such as court schedules and court security screening measures — to aid immigration enforcement, even though states cannot generally be required to help the federal government enforce federal law.

“Compelling New York to allow federal immigration authorities to reap the benefits of the work of state employees is no different than permitting the federal government to commandeer state officials directly in furtherance of federal objectives,” the judge wrote.

The Justice Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The department is also prosecuting Wisconsin Judge Hannah Dugan, who prosecutors allege helped a person living in the country illegally avoid ICE agents in April inside a Milwaukee courthouse by letting him exit a courtroom through a side door. (Agents apprehended the individual near the courthouse.) A federal grand jury indicted Dugan on a count of concealing an individual and a count of obstructing a proceeding.

In court documents, Dugan’s lawyers have called the prosecution “virtually unprecedented and entirely unconstitutional.”

Dugan has pleaded not guilty, and a trial is set for December.

Lawmakers seek ‘order’ in courthouses

Rhode Island Democratic state Sen. Meghan Kallman is championing legislation that would generally ban civil arrests at courthouses. The measure received a hearing, but a legislative committee recommended further study.

Kallman hopes the bill will go further next year. The sense of urgency has intensified, she said, and more people now understand the consequences of what is happening.

“In order to create a system of law that is functioning and that encourages trust, we have to make those [courthouse] spaces safe,” she said.

Back in Connecticut, Democratic state Rep. Steven Stafstrom said his day job as a commercial litigator brings him into courthouses across the state weekly. Based on his conversations with court staff, other lawyers and senior administration within the judicial branch, he said “there’s a genuine fear, not just for safety, but for disruptions of orderly court processes in our courthouses.”

Some Connecticut Republicans have questioned whether a law that only pertains to civil arrests would prove effective. State Rep. Craig Fishbein, the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, noted during floor debate that entering the United States without permission is a criminal offense — a misdemeanor for first-time offenders and a felony for repeat offenders. Because of that, he suggested the measure wouldn’t stop many courthouse arrests.

“The advocates think they’re getting no arrests in courthouses, but they’ve been sold a bill of goods,” he said.

Stafstrom, who chairs the Judiciary Committee, said in response that he believed the legislation protects many people who are in the country illegally because that crime is often not prosecuted.

“All we’re asking is for ICE to recognize the need for order in our courthouses,” Stafstrom said.

Stateline reporter Jonathan Shorman can be reached at jshorman@stateline.org.

©2025 States Newsroom. Visit at stateline.org. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

The case against a Farmington Hills police officer accused of sexually assaulting a police cadet has advanced from district court to Oakland County Circuit Court for possible trial.

At the conclusion of a Nov. 20 preliminary exam, 52-1 District Judge Travis Reeds bound over the case against Michael Rybinski, ruling that the evidence presented established probable cause.

Rybinski, 31, of WIxom, is charged with one count of third-degree criminal sexual conduct and three counts of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct for an alleged assault that reportedly happened outside of work on June 16.

Rybinski is on administrative leave, according to the Farmington Hills Police Department.

As previously reported, the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office said the alleged victim stated that the incident happened in her car after she agreed to give Rybinski a ride home. He had reportedly called her for the ride, stating he was drunk. He’s accused of groping, forcibly fondling and trying to kiss her despite her repeatedly telling him to stop. The alleged victim reported the incident the next day, the prosecutor’s office said. The Farmington Hills Police Department subsequently referred to the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office Special Investigations Unit, the prosecutor’s office said.

Rybinski is out on bond after posting $2,000 — the required 10% of the $20,000 bond set at his district court arraignment. With the bindover, his arraignment in the higher court is scheduled for Dec. 4 before Judge Mary Ellen Brennan.

Third-degree criminal sexual conduct carries a penalty of up to 15 years in prison. Fourth-degree CSC is punishable by up to two years in prison.

On Nov. 10 Oakland University President Ora Hirsch Pescovitz formally adopted the Okanagan Charter.

The charter provides institutions with a common language, principles and framework to become a health and wellbeing promoting campus and outlines two calls to action: to embed health into all aspects of campus culture, across the administration, operations and academic mandates, and to lead health promotion action and collaboration locally and globally.

“We know that a mentally and physically healthy community leads to a thriving campus. Adopting the Okanagan Charter means we’re joining a global movement of health-promoting universities and reaffirming our commitment to embed health into every part of campus life,” said Becky Lewis, director of University Recreation and Well-Being and chair of OU’s Healthy Campus Network. “As part of the adoption, and as we move forward, we will foster an environment where everyone can live well in all areas of wellness – physical, mental, social, environmental and financial.”

Oakland is one of the first 50 universities in the country to adopt the charter.

“We’re so proud to lead by example and adopt the Okanagan Charter,” said Pescovitz. “By doing so, we are reaffirming our commitment to care for one another, nurture a campus where all can flourish and build a future rooted in health.”

The Roeper School has announced a new transportation service beginning in the 2026–2027 school year.

O’Neal Turner, Roeper’s director of enrollment and financial aid, said inaugural routes will serve families in and around the Livonia area and the southwestern suburbs.

“We’re proud to partner with Cranbrook Schools to make this service possible. By sharing a single route, both schools can reduce costs for families and minimize environmental impact,” Turner said in a statement. “This collaboration helps meet the needs of families who commute from communities as far as Ann Arbor while ensuring their children can continue to enjoy a Roeper education.”

The annual fee includes round-trip transportation and before-care/after-care services. For 2026–27, the cost will be $2,500 for the first child with a $500 discount for each additional sibling.

The proposed schedule includes a 6:45 am pick-up and 5:45 pm drop-off, though these times may be adjusted.

Registration for new and returning families will open in spring 2026. The exact pick-up locations and additional details will be shared before registration begins.

The Roeper School is a pre-kindergarten through grade 12 day school for gifted children located in Bloomfield Hills and Birmingham.

Thousands of students from southeast Michigan experienced hands-on learning in a new way.

Over 9,000 high school students from 132 schools across six counties turned out for MiCareerQuest Southeast, the region’s largest career exploration, at the Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi.

The event in its fifth year featured more than 210 career demonstrations in advanced manufacturing, construction, health sciences and technology. The interactive exhibits and hands-on demonstrations exposed students to industrial technology and may have helped some decide what their career choice will be.

“Some of these engineering tools really make me want to pursue something in that field when I go to college next year,” said Jared Jackson, a senior at Novi High School. “The tools they use to create cars and buildings and other things is amazing.”

“Hands-on events like MiCareerQuest open our students’ eyes to real-world career paths and inspire them to imagine their futures,” said Lisa Butts, director of K-12 Career Focused Education at Oxford Community Schools.

Alyssa Valdwin, a sophomore at Brandon High School, was interested in a specific career, but got a chance to see what other careers were available.

“I really want to be a postpartum nurse so the healthcare area was what I really wanted to see, but I wanted to see what other things they had to offer,” Baldwin said after she helped take lugnuts off a tire at the Baker College Auto Diesel Institute display.

One display that drew a crowd was a virtual reality set up from Emerge.

The company, started in 2017 and based in Troy, offers “virtual extended reality experiences”, according to Joe Bamberger, co-founder of the company.

Students put on virtual reality headsets and to explore the galaxy, oceans, deserts and more. Emerge can bring those experiences into classrooms through virtual field trips.

“We can do anything related to any educational area and we can provide in-building field trips and educational lessons in an immersive way,” said Bamberger. “Students can dissect things, try anything that is too dangerous or impossible or expensive to create in a classroom setting we can do over and over again. If you can think of it, we can create it.”

The company has been to all 28 school districts in Oakland County and last year went to schools in 29 different counties in Michigan.

“The kid that usually has his head down and asleep in class is usually the kid that we can’t get out of the headset,” said Bamberger.

Carissa Hanna and Apple Gillum, juniors at Royal Oak High School, gave their evaluation of the technology after a few minutes of moving planets around.

“It was fun and it was weird and it was cool,” said Hanna. “We were walking among the planets!”

Ken Gutman, superintendent of Oakland Intermediate Schools, explained the value of the event.

“With industry having the opportunity to share what they do, they can fill jobs they struggle to fill, but they can also show the value in what they do,” said Gutman. “There are over 200 careers here that they (students) may have never heard of. What a great opportunity for our kids.”

“I would recommend this to everyone because it is very helpful if you are still looking for your career and you get to do hands-on things and learn what you want to be in life,” said Erandy Ferreyra from Avondale High School.

A survey of students and administrators from last year’s event shows how effective the event can be:

89%t of students said they learned about career and training opportunities previously unfamiliar to them.
78% said the event helped them plan their post-high school education.
93% of educators said it effectively showcased potential career paths.
98%t agreed it represented a strong cross-section of in-demand careers

Oakland County employees will be busy Saturday sorting groceries and delivering Thanksgiving boxes.

Nov. 22 is the county’s annual Day of Service. County Executive Dave Coulter said it’s important to help families experiencing food insecurity. He praised county employees who volunteer.

“Their generosity reflects the best of public service, and I’m grateful to our nonprofit partners who work every day to ensure no one in our community goes hungry,” he said.

So many employees volunteered that some had to be put on a waiting list, according to county officials.

The volunteers will be distributing Thanksgiving food at Hospitality House at 2075 E. West Maple Road in Commerce Township from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Others will be at:

•  Forgotten Harvest, 15000 Eight Mile Road in Oak Park sorting and repacking rescued grocery items on the box line.

•  Oakland HOPE, 20 E. Walton Blvd. in Pontiac, loading food, assisting clients with pantry shopping and lending a hand at the charity’s thrift store.

•  Neighborhood House, 1720 S. Livernois Road in Rochester Hills, to label and organize thousands of donated food items from a local high school food drive.

The November Day of Service was launched three years ago by the county’s Equity Council and organized by the county’s diversity office. The effort is one part of the countywide Season of Giving campaign, which includes a second Day of Service on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

In addition to volunteering during and beyond the Season of Giving, employees donate food and pet supplies for fellow employees and for partner organizations like Children’s Village, the Animal Shelter and Oakland HOPE.

An Oakland Community College faculty member continues to make an impression in the art world.

Tylonn Sawyer had two pieces in art exhibitions this fall, ART Basel Paris and Palais de Tokyo, as well as fashion magazine W.

Art Basel is a global series of art platforms connecting collectors, galleries and artists, while Palais de Tokyo (Tokyo Palace) hosts contemporary art exhibitions as part of Paris Art Week. This marks Sawyer’s second consecutive year exhibiting in Paris.

His pieces were selected to represent Detroit artists by Detroit-based cultural organization Salonnière.

Sawyers’ 30 x 22-inch oil on paper, “The King James Version,” featured at ART Basel Paris depicts a young Black man holding an American flag.

At the Palais de Tokyo, his 8 x 6-foot charcoal, pastel and glitter on paper, “Black Man on Horse Bayard,” shows a Black man in a white riding suit on a black horse.

“This is the second year Salonierre has sponsored my trip to Paris to display my work. I’m very grateful for the opportunity to participate in Paris Week alongside other Detroit-area artists and curators,” Sawyer said.

His art was also highlighted in “W” magazine’s feature, “How Two New Art Exhibitions Are Spotlighting Black Queer History.” The magazine showcased his 72 x 48-inch lavender pencil on paper piece, “Strata Drawing 4: Cake Walk.”

Sawyer has taught art at OCC since 2016, covering all levels of drawing and oil painting.

He has also created public murals and collaborative projects for organizations such as Quicken Loans Corporation, Market International Festival at Eastern Market, Detroit’s Museum of Contemporary Art and The Detroit Institute of Arts.

“I like to teach art students as if they have never seen a pencil,” Sawyer said. “Once a student has learned foundational skills, then we work on establishing ways to use those skills to manifest whatever they observe or imagine.”

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