Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2026-01-14 Wednesday

Episode Date: January 14, 2026

Headlines for January 14, 2026; “Federal Invasion”: Minnesota Officials Condemn Violent ICE Raids, Arrests; Journalist Tests ICE Recruitment; Surprised to Find Herself Hired with No Background Check; ”ICE Is OK with Renee Good’s Killing”: Journalist Ken Klippenstein on ICE Tactics & Recruitment; ICE Detention Expands Dramatically; 70,000 Immigrants Now Jailed, Deaths Increase; Supreme Court Appears Poised to Uphold State Bans on Trans Student Athletes

From New York, this is Democracy Now. You're not going to say anything. Protests continue in Minnesota over what local officials are calling a federal invasion by immigration agents. We'll speak to the vice president of the St. Paul City Council. Then what happens when ICE hires agents with minimal screening, then sends them onto the streets armed and masked? We'll speak to a journalist who applied for a. nice job and was offered it without even a background check. We'll also look at the rapid

expansion of ICE detention in Trump's first year in office. Then the Supreme Court appears poised to uphold state bans on transgender youth participating in school sports. In this moment, in so many halls of power, it feels like people are debating whether or not transgender people exist, whether or not we deserve protections under our Constitution and in our civil rights statutes. And today, in the Supreme Court, we were able to remind the nine justices that we do exist.

All that and more. Coming up. Welcome to Democracy Now. Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. In Iran, over 2,500 people have died in anti-government protests

over the collapsing economy. This, according to the U.S.-based human rights activist news agency. CBS's reporting sources inside Iran, say, between 12 and 20,000 protesters have been killed. A 26-year-old protester, Airfan Soltani, who is detained last week, is reportedly set to be executed today. An ophthalmologist in Tehran told the guardian that a single hospital documented more than 400 eye injuries from gunshots. Meanwhile, Iranian authorities

claim to have regained control of the country after two weeks of mass protests. Funerals for security forces killed during the protests have turned into large pro-government rallies. Iranian authorities have imposed an internet blackout across Iran. Meanwhile, President Trump vowed to intervene in Iran saying, quote, help is on the way and urge the protesters to, quote, take over your institutions if you can, unquote. This comes, as the Washington Post reports top officials at the White House are weighing military options against Iran. This is an Iranian an activist in Rome who cautioned against foreign military intervention. We don't need any, any, any foreign country to give us any support except be our voice

and don't support our governor because that is totally enough for us. We just need that the politician abroad don't support our governor and don't give voice to them, despite of that, give the voice to the population. And that's enough for us because our population is doing their part. And I'm super sure that they can succeed. In the United States, the Justice Department has released a memo to the public stating President Trump had the constitutional power to deploy a U.S. military attack on Venezuela and kidnap President Nicolas Medellos and his wife without congressional authorization.

The memo, released Tuesday, is dated December 23rd, just days ahead of the military strike in Venezuela, and which at least 80 people were killed, including civilians. The U.S. attack has been widely condemned as a violation of international law. The interim Venezuelan government, led by Delci Rodriguez, has released at least four U.S. citizens who were imprisoned in Venezuela. A number of other prisoners have also been released, including Venezuelan opposition figures and activists. The Venezuela human rights group photo Penal said as of Tuesday, at least 56 people detained in Venezuela reportedly for political reasons have been released in recent days.

In more related news, oil imports from Venezuela to China are expected to plummet starting in February as the U.S. has claimed control of Venezuela's reserves and imposed a naval blockade on Venezuela. Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel has said his government's not currently in talks with Washington, remaining defiant as the Trump administration attempts to pressure Cuba into making a deal with the U.S. after the military strike on Venezuela. In a series of posts on X, Diaz Canel said, quote, as history demonstrates relations between the U.S. and Cuba in order to advance, must be based on international law rather than on hostility, threats, and economic coercion, unquote, Diaz Canel said. His comments came after Trump announced Sunday, Cuba will no longer be

receiving Venezuela oil, which has been a lifeline for the island that's been devastated by decades of U.S. economic sanctions. Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubie are expected to meet with the leaders of Denmark and Greenland at the White House today ahead of the visit. President Trump again called for the U.S. to militarily take over Greenland, posting on truth social, quote, NATO becomes far more formidable and effective with Greenland in the hands of the United States. Anything less than that is unacceptable, Trump wrote. Six federal prosecutors in the Minneapolis U.S. Attorney's Office resigned Tuesday over the Justice Department's criminal probe into the death of Becca Good, the widow of Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an ICE officer last week.

Former acting U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson resigned along with senior career prosecutors, Harry Jacobs, Melinda Williams, Thomas Calhoun Lopez, Ruth Schneider, and Tom Holenhurst. In Washington, D.C., five senior prosecutors in the criminal wing of the Justice Department Civil Rights Division also said they're leaving after the Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said, quote, there's currently no basis for a criminal civil rights investigation into the fatal shooting of Renee Good. Instead, the DOJ launched an investigation to examine ties between Renee Good and her wife, Becca Good, and several Minneapolis groups that have been monitoring and protesting ICE raids. Their child's school sent a message to parents saying, quote, thank you to families who've been on Ice Watch, helping to protect their names. neighbors, unquote. We'll have more on that story later in the broadcast. The Trump administration

suspending federal funding for sanctuary cities and states starting in February as part of an escalating crackdown on immigration. In remarks Tuesday at the Detroit Economic Club, President Trump falsely claimed without any evidence that sanctuary policies lead to fraud and crime. Data, including by the American Immigration Council, has repeatedly shown immigrants are less likely to commit crimes. The states, of California, New York, and Illinois are among those considered sanctuary jurisdictions with policies in place that limit local law enforcement collaborating with federal immigration agencies. In more immigration news, the Trump administration's ending temporary protected status,

TPS for people from Somalia, putting over 2,000 Somalis at risk of deportation. The Homeland Security Department is given Somalis living in the U.S. with TPS until March to leave the U.S. or face removal. As part of his escalating racist attacks on the Somali immigrant community, President Trump doubled down on his threats Tuesday. We're also going to revoke the citizenship of any naturalized immigrant from Somalia or anywhere else who is convicted of defrauding our citizens. We're going to get them the hell out of here, Fas.

And if you come to America to rob Americans, we're throwing you in jail and we're sending you back to the place from where you can. We're throwing you right in jail. And they know it, too. The Council on American Islamic Relations Care condemned this as, quote, a bigoted attack, saying in a statement, quote, this decision does not reflect

change conditions in Somalia. By dismantling protections for one of the most vulnerable black and Muslim communities, this decision exposes an agenda rooted in exclusion, not public safety care set. the conservative majority Supreme Court signaled Tuesday. It'll rule to uphold state laws in Idaho and West Virginia that bar transgender girls from participating in school sports, two transgender girls, one in college in Idaho, the other

in fifth grade in West Virginia, wanted to be part of their school's track teams, but state laws prevented them from participating. Soon after taking office, President Trump had signed an executive order to direct federal agencies to withdraw funding from schools that allow transgender girls to compete in women's sports. On Tuesday, protesters gathered outside the Supreme Court as justices heard oral arguments. This is Kim Villeneuve, the president of the National Organization of Women. We are always trying to fight back against patriarchy and the fact that people are trying to confine women and girls into one role. And we want women and girls to have the full expression that they are able to have.

And that includes if you're being trans. Again, we think trans rights are human rights. We'll have more in this story later in the broadcast. In New York, the far right pro-Israel group, Batar U.S. will end its operations in New York following an investigation by Attorney General Leticia James that found the Zionist group engaged in a widespread campaign of persecution, physical intimidation, assault, threats, and harassment against Muslim, Arab, Palestinian, and Jewish New Yorkers involved in pro-Palestine activism.

In a statement, Attorney General James said, quote, My Office's investigation uncovered an alarming and illegal pattern of bias-motivated harassment and violence designed to terrorize communities and shut down lawful protest. New York will not tolerate organizations that use fear, violence, and intimidation to silence, free expression, or target people because of who they are, unquote. Attorney General James said in the statement, New York City mayor, Zoran Mamdani, celebrated the announcement saying Batar had, quote, sode a campaign of hatred across New York, unquote. Batar referred to Mamdani, the city's first Muslim mayor, as Jihad Mamdani. The state of Louisiana is seeking to extradite a California doctor for providing abortion pills.

The extradition order came after Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrell, a national. the indictment against the doctor who's been identified as Rame Coyto. This is the second time Louisiana's Republican leadership has sought to criminally prosecute an extradite an out-of-state doctor over the prescription of abortion pills. Last year, Louisiana indicted a New York doctor, Margaret Carpenter. And Claudette Colvin, a pioneer in the civil rights movement, has died at the age of 86. as a 15-year-old. Claudette refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama, nine months before Rosa Parks made history. Claudette Colvin was charged with assault and disorderly conduct in addition to violating segregation laws.

She later spent her life as a nurse's aide caring for elderly patients. This is Claudette Colvin on Democracy Now in 2013, recounting what inspired her to challenge Jim Crow. Then you get up when the bus driver asked you and the policeman. I said I could not move because history had me glued to the seat. And they say, how is that? I say because it felt like sojourner truth, hands were pushing me down on one shoulder and Harriet Tubman hands were pushing me down on another shoulder. our full interview on with Claudette Colvin and our interviews about her over the years,

go to DemocracyNow.org. And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the war and peace report. I'm Amy Goodman. We begin today's show in Minnesota, where protests continue as the Trump administration sends more federal immigration agents into the region and what local officials have likened to an invasion. It was a week ago today when an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three and an award-winning poet. This is a brief snippet of the scene outside the Whipple Federal Building in St. Paul Tuesday, where masked, armed agents repeatedly attacked protesters. You're not going to say anything?

You're not going to say anything. Get back. Get back. Get back. The Minnesota Star Tribune reports the number of federal agents now in the Twin Cities dwarfs the size of local police. The size of the federal force is expected to soon reach 3,000 officers. That's bigger than the 10 largest metro police departments combined in the Twin Cities. On Monday, the state of Minnesota and the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul sued the federal government. This is Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison. Deployment of thousands of armed, mass DHS agents to Minnesota has done our state serious harm.

This is, in essence, a federal invasion of the Twin Cities and Minnesota, and it must stop. DHS agents have shown chaos and terror across the metropolitan area and in cities across the state of Minnesota. To see our interview with Attorney General Ellison, go to Democracy Now.org. There is also growing opposition from within the federal government to the Trump administration's tactics in Minnesota. Six federal prosecutors in the Minneapolis U.S. Attorney's Office have resigned over the Justice Department pushed to investigate the widow of Renee Good. That's Becca Good. In Washington, D.C., five senior prosecutors in the criminal wing of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division have resigned in protest over the DOJ's decision not to investigate the ICE agent Jonathan Ross who fatally shot Renee Good.

We're joined now by Hua Jung Kim, Vice President of the St. Paul City Council, also member of the Immigrant Defense Network. Thank you so much for being with us. First off, can you talk about the lawsuit that's being heard in court? The significance of what St. Paul and Minneapolis, called the Twin Cities for our global audience, is demanding right now, the ICE force dwarfing the number of police in the Twin Cities. Yeah, I think what we're seeing is that our constitutional observers

and the firsthand accounts of our neighbors is working. We are providing evidence that shows just indiscriminate, unconstitutional violence coming from federal agents in the Twin Cities. So what exactly, Hua Jun Kim, is the St. Paul City Council calling for now? We just heard that last clip of protest when people are saying, take off your masks. I mean, the issue of everything from the Minneapolis mayor saying, get the F out of Minneapolis to ICE, to talking about what they're allowed to do in the city. And what is your sense of the level of cooperation or not of the local police departments,

Minneapolis and St. Paul being sanctuary cities? Yeah, I mean, we have a separation ordinance that's been in place. for many years, and the St. Paul City Council is looking at strengthening that language, just like the Minneapolis Council passed in their city recently. We unfortunately had an incident on Rose Street where residents and myself witnessed what we believe to be cooperation, where our St. Paul police officers helped secure a scene and help escort ICE agents out. So there is always opportunities to strengthen our laws and use every lever that we can to continue to protect our residents. And I think the lawsuit is very, very clear. We don't want ice in our neighborhoods.

They are violent. They are creating chaos and terrorizing our immigrant neighbors. And they are not keeping anyone safe. And in fact, they are bringing danger on our streets every single day. Earlier this week, you wrote on Facebook, quote, to my North Enders, we're seeing a continuous presence of federal agents in our neighborhood. We've had additional community observers present throughout our neighborhood. And vulnerable folks should be very careful. Our neighborhood eyes and protection is working. It's working. We had several of our neighbors kidnapped today. Take precautions. Can you elaborate on why you're using the word kidnap and what precautions people can take? They're racially profiling neighbors and just taking them off the street. We have accounts of folks walking down the

sidewalk getting scooped up. Neighbors getting pulled out of vehicles. And so it is not about whether or not they have a warrant that that has never been the case. It's always been about violent racial profiling in our streets. And so right now we're encouraging our neighbors to be really careful. I myself am carrying around two forms of ID. I'm a naturalized citizen. Neighbors are also considering not going to work, not sending their kids to school, not going grocery shopping, not going to the laundromat, the very simple things that just keep families going. Lack of child care is incredibly important right now for families. So we're really hoping to tap into those mutual aid networks to support families in this time.

And it is, it's difficult as someone that's watching and hearing and is very tapped into rapid response to hear the number of people that are taken every hour here in the Twin Cities and good conscience to tell folks that it feels safe to walk out on your street today. In addition to the massive influx of ICE agents, you have now, President Trump said they're revoking TPS status for Somalis. You have a large Somali community in the Twin Cities and that they will also denaturalize Somali citizens. And they're going to do mass deportation? What do you understand is going on here? They would have to leave by February, he said.

So many of our Somali neighbors are citizens. And so I think this is an incredibly dangerous tactic as we see them attempt to strip away TPS statuses for many communities. And many folks know here in the Twin Cities, Somali folks are incredibly important to the fabric of our neighborhoods and not just because of the value that they bring, but because they are humans and that deserve dignity and protection. And the vast majority of our Smalley neighbors are citizens. Can you tell us about the St. Paul Mayer, recently saying I wasn't born here. I'm carrying my passport card and my ID with me all the time because I don't know when I'm going to be detained. Her family fled Laos for the United States when she was three. Your response? Yeah, Mayor Collieher is a close friend of mine. I myself, my partner is trans. We've been

carrying around two firms of ID for many, many months. And it was a conversation that I personally had with her as well. Folks that look like us and look like our communities that we serve and our neighbors are very afraid right now. And even if you are a citizen and you are not white, it is an incredibly fearful event leaving the house every single day and stepping it under the streets of our city. And yet, we see a lot of our neighbors stepping up to make sure that we're protected, that we have eyes on each other and that we're supporting each other to the best of our abilities

in this really difficult time. Faith and labor leaders and groups in Minneapolis are calling for a general strike January 23rd. Are you supporting this? Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

So much great organizing is coming from our labor unions. And even with SPFE, our teachers unions stood up an incredible program to help protect our students. So yes, I'm incredibly supportive. I'm signed on and I plan on participating.

Final comment on the loss of the six experienced attorneys in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Minneapolis, who have all just quit, followed by five attorneys in the Civil Rights Division in Washington, D.C., because President Trump's former personal lawyer, Todd Blanche, has said they won't be doing a civil rights investigation into the death of Renee Good. If you can talk about the loss of this experience and these attorneys who would be involved with an investigation into Renee's death? Yeah, I think a lot of folks are putting everything on the line to do what's right. I think what's resonating with me in this moment is seeing those resignations, knowing that there's a line in the sand that folks are unwilling to cross, because the bottom line that a lot of us feels that there's no one coming to save us.

And that feels really scary, but also empowering because if it's up to us, and we draw the line in the sand and we have the ability to follow through and be accountable to our constituents to protect them and ensure that immigrant communities and families are safe, we should absolutely do everything within our power and everything within our privilege to do that. And so seeing them stepping down, I think, is an incredible sign of where the value set and the moral line is for folks right now that are attempting to keep our communities safe. And then we're not going to... Go ahead. we're not going to just step down. We're not just going to turn a blind eye, but we're doing everything in our power. Hua Jun Kim, vice president to the St. Paul City Council, also a member of Immigrant Defense Network.

When we come back, what happens when ICE hires agents with minimal or no screening, then sends them into the streets armed and masked? We'll speak to a journalist who applied for a nice job and was offered it without a even a background check. And we'll look at the rapid expansion of ICE detention in Trump's first year and office. Stay with us. Rise up. Here on Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the Warren Peace Report.

I'm Amy Goodman. What happens when ICE hires agents with minimal screening and sends them into the streets, masked and armed? We look now at the agency's hiring practices as it surges agents to Minneapolis and other cities. We begin with an independent journalist who applied for an ICE job and was offered it without even a background check. Laura Jaddeed wrote about her experience in a piece published Tuesday by Slate Magazine headlined, You've heard about who ICE is recruiting. The truth is far worse.

I'm the proof was the headline. She begins her piece. The plan was never to become an ICE agent. The plan when I went to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Career Expo in Texas last August was to learn what it was like to apply to be an ICE agent. Who wouldn't be curious, she said. Laura Jede joins us now from Portland, Oregon. Laura, would you take it from there? Explain what exactly you did, what this fair was, and then how you applied to work for ice and what happened? Absolutely. So the hiring event, basically, you brought your resume in. You handed it over. They were going to do an interview,

and they were promising on-the-spot hiring to where you could, in fact, walk out with your $50,000 bonus that day possibly. I went in, I handed in my resume, which is I did a skills-based resume. I'm a veteran. I served two tours in Afghanistan. So on the surface, their resume looked pretty good, had a very brief interview, took all of six minutes. They didn't ask very many questions. And then I left, assuming I would never hear back, because I'm a very Googledable person. I have an unusual name. I'm the only Laura Judy on the internet. And I make no secret of how I feel about ICE and Trump and all of it. So I was not expecting several days later. to receive a tentative offer.

I missed it in my inbox and it sunk to the bottom, which means that I never filled out the paperwork they requested. I never accepted the tentative offer. I never filled out my background check paperwork. I never signed the affidavit saying I'd committed no domestic violence crimes, none of it. A few weeks later, I got a message from Lab Corps saying that ICE wanted me to do a drug test. And I went ahead and did that. I was pretty sure I wouldn't pass.

I'd partake it in legal cannabis six days before the test, but why not waste some of their money, right? And the nine days after that, I decided I wanted to, you know, I was curious, had they processed the drug test yet. So I logged onto the ICE hiring portal. And what I found was that not only did the drug test not seem to be relevant, I was listed as having joined ICE as of three days earlier. I had listed that I had accepted the offer.

They had offered me a final position as a deportation officer. My background check was listed as completed three days in the future for when I was looking at it. So it seems like the answer to the question, who are they hiring is they don't know. Wow. Can you write in the piece at first glance my resume has enough to tantalize a recruiter for America's Gestapo when waiting? You're likening ice to the Gestapo? Absolutely.

And I don't think that's in any way hyperbole. We have armed masked thugs on our street right now who are brutalizing, detaining, and murdering people with apparent impunity. a carte blanche, a license to kill from our government. And they can't even keep track of who's behind the masks. I don't believe for a second they're keeping track of who's a U.S. citizen, who needs to be deported. Where these people even are, these disappearances where people vanish into the system, is it on purpose or are they really that sloppy with paperwork? Ultimately, it doesn't matter.

This constitutes a national emergency. We have unknown armed thugs in masks who are terrorizing citizens. So you have served in the military. You deployed twice. Can you talk about what that experience taught you? And also, you did do an interview with an agent. And I'm wondering if you could tell us what that agent said to you and where that went. Absolutely. So I joined the military right out of high school. I really believed in the whole war on terror thing. I really thought we were going over to spread freedom and democracy and what have you. And when I got there, it became very evident very quickly that that was not the case and that we were doing very, it was a bad war and we should not have been there telling people what to do. I was in eastern Afghanistan for the first deployment, Western Afghanistan for the second. So I did not see combat, but as a military intelligence collector, I saw, plenty of the decisions that got people killed on both sides that didn't need to happen. So I came back, very disillusioned, like a lot of people, and actually like the ICE agent that I spoke to, which, by the way, this interview wasn't actually part of the hiring process. It was an optional step to see if I wanted to join up. But he told me that he was also joined right out of high school. He also deployed. And when he got back,

he also got out as soon as he could. He didn't want anything to do with the military. But he had a lot of trouble assimilating, as a lot of veterans do. And so about six months later, he decided to go for law enforcement and the rest is history. He's been an ice agent. He said for about a decade he likes the work. He feels like he's getting instant results. And this is very sad to me and also emblematic of a problem we have where we use this language of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction and freedom and democracy at the barrel of a gun. We did this overseas and it's come home in every conceivable way. Talk about your concerns about them not doing a background check. I mean, And what does this mean for people who are documented to, well, wife beaters, people kill women?

Yeah, I mean, it's very funny that they hired a lefty journalist with a profile on an antipal watch. That's hilarious. But what's not funny is they didn't make me sign a domestic violence waiver. So how many people with domestic violence convictions are running around with guns in our cities terrorizing people? How many people who have been committed of sex crimes or crimes against children are in charge of detention centers where people, there's no oversight where people won't be missed and won't be believed. The horror, it just boggles the mind how bad this really is. And you were hired to be a deportation officer. What exactly is that? Where would you serve? Yeah. So yes, deportation officer. Basically, the agent was very keen on

letting me know that I wouldn't be given a badge and a gun right away. I wouldn't be out in the street messing people up. I would probably have to push paperwork for about six months before I got there. And when I expressed that that was fine with me, my analyst background, he, he, he, We actually, the atmosphere changed. He was like, no, listen, we want everyone on the street with guns eventually. And I had to reassure him that that was also fine. It seems like the focus is very much getting people out on the street with guns. And the focus of the people applying, apparently, is to get out on the street as quickly as possible to brutalize people.

I'll just end by asking you. You said you signed up to fight the war on terror and you served twice in Afghanistan. and you call what's happening here in the United States, the war on terror come home. Yes. This is, it is very sad. It is not surprising, but it is very sad. This is a national emergency. This is a state emergency.

And frankly, it's past time that governors called up the National Guard to protect the citizens who elected them to keep them safe from the people actually terrorizing us in the streets. Laura Judita, I want to thank you for being with us. Freelance journalist who writes regularly on her substack at fire. wirewalledmedia.com. We'll link to your new piece for Slate, which is headlined. You've heard about who ICE is recruiting. The truth is far worse. I'm the proof. We'll link to it at DemocracyNow.org. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. I'm Amy Goodman. We look now more at how ICE is recruiting thousands of new deportation officers. A report by the Washington Post shows ICE plans to spend $100 million for a quote, wartime recruitment strategy that targets gun rights supporters, military enthusiasts through online influencers, along with people who've attended UFC fights, listened to far-right podcasts or shown interest in guns and tactical gear. It uses the ad industry technique known as geo-fencing to send ads to people near

military bases, NASCAR races, college campuses, or gun shows. Some of ICE's recruitment ads appear to refer to white nationalist slogans or openly quote them after ICE agent Jonathan Ross killed Renee Good in Minneapolis. An ad on ICE's Instagram account claimed, quote, we'll have our home again and featured a song popular among white nationalists with lyrics about reclaiming our home by blood or sweat. Our next guest is investigative reporter Ken Klippenstein. He has a new report headlined immigration agents terrified of ICE backlash after shooting that includes leaked documents showing ICE and Border Patrol or seeking volunteers for the surge in operations in Minneapolis. With one agent saying, quote, key word is it's on a voluntary basis. If no experience senior agents step up, they send the new guys straight out of the academy, not a good idea, unquote.

Welcome back, Ken. Lay out what you found. Hi, Amy. Thanks for having me. Well, one of the most surprising parts of reporting on this was seeing the disjunct between the Department of Homeland Security's public-facing description of the shooting. This bravado they had Homeland Secretary Christine Noeem immediately labeling her a terrorist and pretty much dragging her corpse through the streets as she, you know, solided her name in the public consciousness. Again, within just a couple of hours of shooting. and then you talk to people that work for Homeland Security privately in a very different picture emerges. They're very conscious of the protests that are taking place in Minneapolis. They're very concerned about it.

And there are splits within the agency about the shooting itself and the general mission. The reason they are going to these volunteers is because they're worried about sending more experienced agents there who might not agree with the mission. And none of that is stuff you hear when you look at the public-facing officials in the Trump administration describing these incidents and the department. Talk about the budget, the massive increase in the budget, that, by the way, could lead to another government shutdown by the end of the month, right? Because you have people like Chris Murphy, the Democratic Senator, who heads the subcommittee on Homeland Security, saying they're not going to endorse this budget.

On Tuesday, the Congressional Progressive Caucus vowed to oppose new funding for the Department of Homeland Security. security unless it includes new reforms. This is Congressmember Ilhan Omar of Minneapolis. We cannot and we should not continue to fund agencies that operate with impunity, that escalate violence, and that undermine the very freedoms this country claims to uphold. And meanwhile, Tuesday evening, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut and others join hundreds of protesters outside D.C. headquarters of Customs and Border. protection said he supports the appropriations bill to push for changes at ICE.

The United States Congress should not fund a Department of Homeland Security that is not obeying the laws of the United States of America. Ken Klippenstein, are we seeing some changes in Democrats' positions here? Absolutely. Among Democratic voters, among Congress, there is some opposition, but among congressional leadership, they've made it very clear that they're not willing to shut down the government over this. They asked Senator Cory Booker this, for instance, yesterday on MS Now, and he said, no, the last shutdown didn't work. Chuck Schumer had to be dragged kicking and screaming to even do the shutdown earlier this year to play hardball with the Republicans after he folded instantly at the

beginning of the second Trump administration. So there are definitely splits within the caucus, but among leadership, there's opposition to the idea. That being said, among the public, there's been a sea change an opinion with respect to ICE and the deportations. Where there was more openness to it when Trump first came to an office, that picture has completely flipped, and it's a deeply unpopular proposition. And that's what the opposition among the Homeland Security officials that I interviewed for my story are reflective of. They're part of the public, too, to some extent, and they also are seeing all the same videos that we're watching, seeing the same protests, seeing the same public sentiment. And they have a lot of the same feelings about it, particularly

the older, more experienced agents who are not the beneficiaries of this title wave of funding. I mean, they have more money than they know what to do with. They have tripled ICE's law enforcement budget. And the reason they're doing all of the, you know, you described in the previous segment, the lengths to which they're going to try to staff up. The reason for that is, again, they have more money than they know what to do with, and they need to fill those roles. And they're doing everything they can to create them so that the actual personnel headcount

can match the resources that they now have. Ken, you've also read ICE's deadly force documents that you say, quote, are bureaucratically dense and elastic to the extreme offering every possible excuse for ICE's killing of Renee Good. But they're also stark in their failure to address any aspect of the dramatically new environment created by ICE's expanded mission. What do they reveal these documents? This is maybe the most alarming part of this entire story for me, was seeing that they have not changed the use of force policies for ICE whatsoever since Trump came into office, despite the fact that, again, they have tripled the budget for the enforcement part of it. And in addition to that, just militarized the entire thing. They're wearing masks.

They're being deployed in states where the majority of the state population doesn't support them. They're being used in a far more aggressive, sweeping, and ambitious manner than ever before. So you would think that there would be some kind of reflection of that in policy. at the very least, not just to protect the public, but to protect them as well. There's nothing in its use of force documents, which you can go on my newsletter and read in full, that addresses protesters, civil unrest, even rioters, which Trump is always talking about. There's absolute, you can search for those words. None of those words appear in the document. And what's more, we only know what the document says because it was accidentally uploaded by the Trump administration

over the course of a federal court litigation. The entire thing was, was blacked out, redacted until December of last year. And that's a failure on Congress's part for not compelling ICE to release these things and make them public, especially with an administration that made very clear that this is going to be its signature policy, these mass deportations. Last question. You've done a lot of reporting on Trump's new presidential directive NSPM 7, National Security Presidential Memorandum 7, a sweeping order. that directs federal agencies to treat political dissent as a form of domestic terrorism, a term that Christy Knoem is throwing around right and left, accusing also the deceased,

accusing Renee Good of domestic terrorism. Can you put these latest developments in perspective? Yeah, so there's a straight through line from the shooting of Renee Good to NSPM 7, this presidential memorandum, that as you said, redefined terrorism around a number of what are called indicators because you have to try to, terrorism is about pre-crime. You're trying to predict a crime before it has happened. That's what the word terrorism is for. And so how do you predict a crime? Well, you've got to look at speech. And what are the speech indicators you're looking for? If you go and read the actual presidential directive, it literally says things like anti-Christian sentiment,

anti-Christian sentiment, anti-traditional family sentiment, anti-capitalist sentiment. And it describes one of the things it describes is anti-ice protesters in sentiment, which is exactly what we saw. Moreover, the Justice Department released a sort of follow-on memo, citing NSPM 7, and one of the things that it was concerned with was, quote, impeding or interfering with ICE operations, which is exactly what Homeland Secretary Christine Noim and the Trump administration accused Renee Good of doing

by having her car parked in the middle of the road. So there is a straight line from NSPM 7, to the tragedy that we saw unfold last week. And finally, you say ICE is okay with Renee Goods killing. Why? Because its policy all but allows its ICE agents to carry these things out, and the only thing restraining them is their own perceived sense of being in danger. That is not a policy you have in place if you want them to carry out their responsibilities in a circumspect way.

because not only can they say whatever they feel they perceived, because we obviously can't, we don't have a window into their mind, but in addition to that, all the propaganda you've been describing earlier about them being deployed to war zones, and literally that's how they're recruiting ice agents at that point, that creates a psychological environment in which they genuinely believe that. And that has been another aspect of reporting on this that surprised me. They don't see it as rhetoric.

They think that that's actually describing the conditions on the ground, a war zone, as your previous guest described it, you know, the war and terror come home. That is overwhelmingly believed by the younger cohort that's joining ICE now, and they need to be restrained by firmer policies then that their own perception was that they were in danger. Ken Clippenstein, I want to thank you so much for being with us. Investigative reporter will link to your recent articles at DemocracyNow.org. This is Democracy Now. Democer. We turn out to look at immigration detention expansion in Trump's second term.

That's the focus of a new report released today by the American Immigration Council. For more, we go to Washington, D.C., where we're joined by the council's senior fellow, Aaron Reiklin-Melnick. Aaron, welcome back to Democracy Now. Lay out your findings on who's being arrested, who's being detained, where they're being detained, and the size of these jails. Yeah, what we are seeing and what we lay out in this report is that ICE detention has expanded dramatically in Trump's first year back in office. It is the entire system is 75% larger today than it was when he took office, with as of this week, 70,000 people being held in detention on any given day, up from 40,000 when President Trump took office. And that is driven by the new arrest policies, which are leading to the mass. detention of people with no criminal record whatsoever. In fact, the single largest increase in

ICE detention usage is among people who have had no interactions with the criminal justice system at all, who are being arrested in these brand new sweeping policies such as the use of roving patrols, work site raids, and the arrest of people at courthouses and immigration check-ins. You note that changes in ICE's arrest practices have led to a well over 2,000 percent increase in the number of people with no criminal records being held in ICE jails on any given day, Aaron. That's right. In fact, if you look at just the last few months since the start of fiscal year 2026, so October 1st, 92 percent of the, of the U.S. growth in ICE detention has been among people who have no interaction with the criminal justice system. The system in general expanded by about 5,000 beds over that period, and almost all of that increase came among people who have no criminal record, no prior convictions, or pending

criminal charges, an unprecedented situation for immigration detention. Can you talk about the unprecedented scale of federal funding for ICE in Trump's new term? With the funding provided by what he calls, and many deride, the one big beautiful bill act, ICE has enough money to operate upwards of 135,000 detention beds through the end of 2029. Congress voted to give ICE a total of $45 billion for ICE immigration detention through the end of the fiscal year, 2029. That's right. So when Trump took office, ICE's budget was for detention. was $3.4 billion.

That is a staggering sum of money already, and it let ICE detain on average 41,500 people on any given day. But thanks to the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act, ICE now has an average annual budget of $15 billion over the next four years. By comparison, the entire Federal Bureau of Prisons, their budget is less than $9 billion. So ICE's detention budget alone, is larger than the entire budget of the federal prison system.

And that puts ICE on track by the end of Trump's second term in office to rival the federal prison system in sheer size. So does this rapid expansion of immigration detention also lead to more deaths? Let's remember most of the people in these jails have not committed any crime. Yes. And we have already seen 2025, be the deadliest year on record for iced detention, and four people have died in ICE detention just in the first two weeks of 2026. So we are on track for another deadlier year.

And that's because they are rushing people through the system and expanding too quickly. When they put a new tent camp online in Texas on Fort Bliss, that's set to hold 5,000 people called Camp East Montana, in the first month that it was open, internal government watchdogs found dozens of violations because they were throwing together the facility so fast that they couldn't have it fully prepared and safe for the people in it. And indeed, one of the four deaths this year did occur at that facility. And can you also talk about just overall the overcrowding and the state detention methods under Trump's second term? with jails like alligator alcatraz, which is entirely run by Florida.

And also, can you talk about the targeting of people with DACA, with green cards? I mean, people who are legally here and working. Yeah, so one of the biggest things that we document in this report is changes in policies that have led to people being detained who would not have previously been detained or would have been at least only temporarily detained and then released on bond. And that includes many people with sympathetic factors, people with green cards, people with DACA, who may have had a minor interaction with a criminal justice system, but not enough to justify long-term detention.

But this administration on day one saw President Trump issue an executive order mandating that ICE used detention to the maximum extent possible. And that means that they are not releasing people. and that's led to severe overcrowding as they arrest people more quickly than they can hold them in detention. That's led to people being shuttled around the country from place to place, sometimes being sent to a dozen different detention facilities as ICE moves people around to free up beds in one place so that they can put another detainee there. And so the result of that is a system where overcrowding is going on.

The conditions are getting worse. Add to that, the Trump administration worked. with Florida to create a brand new model of immigration detention, one run entirely by the state and barely supervised whatsoever by the federal government. This is the infamous so-called alligator Alcatraz, the Everglades detention camp where hundreds of people are held. And that tent camp in Florida is the model for Trump's new expansion of ICE detention with Camp East Montana on Fort Bliss, 5,000 people to be detained there, and they are looking at more military bases to hold people, and even potentially looking at warehouses, converting them into facilities to hold maybe upwards

of 10,000 people at a single place. But crucially, all of this has been slower than they wanted. Their hope was to have over 100,000 people in detention by today. They've hit 70,000. The number keeps going up, but they have not yet been able to fully expand to the extent that they want. And I think that's a good thing because the situation is going to get worse. Erin Reckling-Melnick, thanks so much for being with us. Senior Fellow at the American Immigration Council will link to your new report out today. Immigration detention, expansion in Trump's second term. Next up, the Supreme Court appears poised to uphold state bans on transgender youth participating in school sports.

Back in 20 seconds. We don't need. Bad news in the foreground. We don't need to stay home while feeling down. We don't need to wait and see what's going on. We don't have a vacation. We don't need by Laurent Michelle Alambard. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org.

I'm Amy Goodman. The conservative majority Supreme Court signaled Tuesday. It'll rule to uphold state laws in Idaho and West Virginia that ban transgender girls. from participating in school sports. Two transgender girls, one in Idaho, the other in West Virginia, wanted to be part of their school's track teams. But state laws prevented them from participating. Soon after taking office, President Trump signed an executive order

to direct federal agencies to withdraw funding from schools that allow transgender youth to compete in women's sports. This is ACLU Attorney Chase Strangeo. In this moment, in so many halls of power, It feels like people are debating whether or not transgender people exist, whether or not we deserve protections under our Constitution and our civil rights statutes. And today, in the Supreme Court, we were able to remind the nine justices that we do exist, that we deserve protections just like everybody else, and that there has been a history of discrimination against us that warrants the court to take a closer look at the type of government targeting that we've seen over and over again from states and now from the federal government. We're joined now by Karen Lowy, Senior Counsel and Director of Constitutional Law Practice at Lambda Legal in the Supreme Court yesterday, part of the legal team representing the trans student athletes. Can you tell us their stories and what do you think the Supreme Court signaled with their questions yesterday, Karen?

Sure. So Becky Pepper Jackson was 11 years old when she tried to join her school's track and field team. She was starting middle school. She was excited for the opportunity to be part of the team and make new friends and have all the experiences that team participation brings for a young person. Becky is a trans girl. She comes from a family of runners and athletes and was excited to be part of it. And to our knowledge is the only trans girl who wants to participate in school athletics

in the entire state. West Virginia. I want to turn to Becky Pepper Jackson in her own words when she first filed the lawsuit at the time she was 11 years old. I first tried out for a school sport my sixth grade year for cross country. Everyone in my family is runners. So it was nice to get like help from them. I originally wanted to try out for the long distance team because that's what I had known and love from cross country and running with my family. But my coach told me that if I were to just go for a long distance, I want to have made the team because it was much more competitive

during track season. So she encouraged me to try shot put in viscous, which as it turned out, I really loved. Being able to compete alongside my peers was really fun for me because it taught me teamwork. I made a lot of friends, but most of all, I just had fun,

and that's all I wanted to do. When my mom told me about the fact that I wouldn't be able to play the sports that I love, I was devastated. I asked my mom what my options were. And they said that we could talk to the ACOU and land illegal. And that's when we filed our lawsuit with them. So that's Becky Pepper Jackson. And can you tell us, Karen Lowy, about the other girl? Sure. So Lindsay Hickox is a college student and she wanted also to try out for the track team. And Idaho, similar to West Virginia, passed a law excluding all trans athletes from participation on women's sports teams.

And the states have attempted to justify these things in terms of some sort of alleged sex-based athletic advantage. That's the reason. Well, for Lindsay, who had been on hormone therapy for over a year, there were findings in the district court that she had no athletic advantage because of the hormone therapy she had undergone. And for Becky, it's the same. She tried out for the track team and didn't make it. She wasn't good enough. But she also then had the opportunity because of the injunction to participate in club sports, club running, club soccer. And she is on track to graduate in the next year and a half or so. And we are, you know, fighting for these young people to be able to participate equally in their school programs.

Karen, let me ask you about Justice Amy Coney Barrett raising a hypothetical about, I think she said, boys who didn't make the boys team switching to girls' teams. We only have a minute to go. So can you talk about this fundamental misunderstanding of, of trans identity. And also, given the court 6.3 conservative majority, seeming poised to uphold the bans, what immediate national implications are there? You know, that does fundamentally misunderstand the nature of who a trans girl is, but it also misses the point. This isn't about the girls' teams being worse and the boys' teams being better. Title IX was about equal educational opportunity,

including in sports. You know, there are lots of ways that the court could rule. I think there are ways that this could be a very narrow, limited ruling about sports in particular. But we will see. It's really about whether the court is going to uphold the trans people's equal opportunity in all aspects of public life. Well, I want to thank you so much for being with us, Karen Lowy, senior counsel,

Director of Constitutional Law Practice at Ler. Lambda legal, was in the Supreme Court yesterday for oral arguments. Will the Supreme Court uphold bans on transgender girls participating in girls' sports? That does it for our show tomorrow on Democracy Now. We'll be joined by the acclaimed Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panache. Tune in then. Democracy Now is produced with Mike Burke, Renee Feldstein, Agenda Messiah, Rhodes, Nermineshseye, Maria Teresar, Sarah Nassar,

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Anna Osbe, Emily Anderson, Dante Torieri, and Buffy St. Marie Hernandez. Also, tune in for our special Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. special on Monday, Martin Luther King Day. I'm Amy Goodman. Thanks so much for joining us.