Democracy Now!

In the wake of deadly mass protests that have shaken the ruling Iranian government, and with U.S. leaders publicly weighing the idea of military intervention and potential regime change in Iran, American and Iranian officials are beginning renewed talks over Iran's nuclear program today. We speak to two guests, reporter Nilo Tabrizy and scholar Arang Keshavarzian, about the very strange and contradictory situation" facing the country. For both the Iranian state, but more importantly for Iranian people, it's very unclear what all of this portends, especially since it doesn't seem like these negotiations will go beyond the question of the nuclear program," says Keshavarzian.

The Washington Post has laid off more than 300 journalists, dismantling its sports, local news and international coverage. Everybody is grieving, and it's a loss for our readers," says Nilo Tabrizy, one of the paper's recently laid-off staff, who describes a robotic" meeting announcing the cuts. They didn't have the dignity to look us in the eye." The shocking staff culling has been widely attributed to the paper's leadership under Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who bought the nearly 150-year-old institution in 2013. Karen Attiah, the former global opinion editor at the Post, was hired soon after Bezos's arrival. She recounts how the arrival of a billionaire backer initially revitalized the paper with resources and creative freedom, before souring over the next decade. We thought [he] shared the same values that we had," says Attiah, who was fired from the Post last fall over comments she made about the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Journalism deserves better than a billionaire owner who decides that partying in Europe is more important than people's lives."

The September 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center in New York City was a major polluting event. Debris from the collapse of the buildings spread toxic substances, including asbestos, lead, mercury and more, throughout the disaster zone. As New York City leaders issue new calls for the release of files detailing the extent of this pollution, we revisit the reporting of Democracy Now! co-host Juan Gonzalez, the author of Fallout: The Environmental Consequences of the World Trade Center Collapse. What I tried to warn about in the series of articles that I wrote about the dangers, the health dangers, in the future for people who were living in or working at ground zero have proven to be true," he says about his reporting on political leaders' early denials of post-9/11 health risks. More people have died as a result of illnesses contracted after the collapse of the World Trade Center than died on that day."

DHS Funding Is Set to Lapse as Top Senate Republican Rejects Restrictions on Immigration Agents, Protesters from New York to Milan Decry Trump's Immigration Crackdown, U.K. Opposition Parties Call for Vote of No Confidence in PM Starmer over Epstein-Linked Ambassador, Brad Karp, Chair of Paul Weiss Law Firm, Resigns over Ties to Jeffrey Epstein, Global Sumud Flotilla Plans Largest Humanitarian Mission Yet to Gaza, Cuban President Open to Talks with U.S. Amid Warnings of Humanitarian Collapse" Due to Oil Blockade, Sudan's RSF Bombs Hospital as Famine Spreads in Darfur, Nigerian Army Deploys to Kwara State After Massacre Leaves 170 Dead, Bombing at Islamabad Mosque Kills 31 and Injures Scores, U.S. Economy Shed 108,435 Jobs in January, Worst Month Since 2009 Recession

French prosecutors have asked Elon Musk to appear for questioning following a police raid on the offices of the social media network X in Paris. The French probe comes on the heels of a U.K. investigation into Musk's AI tool Grok over its potential to produce harmful sexualized image and video content." Last month, the European Union also launched an investigation into sexual deepfakes created by Grok. It's a part of a kind of a pushback that we're seeing now against Musk that's probably more forceful than anything we've seen to date," says Quinn Slobodian, professor of international history at Boston University and author of the upcoming book Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed.

U.S. citizens who have had violent encounters with federal immigration agents deployed in cities across the U.S. testified before Congress on Tuesday. Amid harrowing testimony by three victims and the brothers of Renee Good, congressional Democrats offered apologies and promises of accountability. Not a single Republican lawmaker showed up to the hearing.Renee Good's brothers Brent and Luke Ganger both testified at the hearing, with Brent Ganger calling Good unapologetically hopeful."Marimar Martinez was shot multiple times by Border Patrol agents. The mental scars will always be there as a reminder of the time my own government attempted to execute me - and when they failed, they chose to vilify me," Martinez said.Daniel Rascon described how federal immigration agents pointed rifles at him and shot at his car. They shattered the windows, and in that moment the whole world felt like it was the size of the inside of our pickup, and we were sitting in harm's way with nothing to do but record the horrifying experience," he said.Aliya Rahman was stopped by federal agents and violently pulled from her vehicle - despite telling the agents that she is disabled and has a traumatic brain injury. I now cannot lift my arms normally," said Rahman. I was never asked for ID, never told I was under arrest, never read my rights and never charged with a crime."

We continue our conversation with Congressmember Ro Khanna, who urges Democrats to demand legislation that reins in President Trump's anti-immigration raids ahead of the congressional vote on the spending bill. Khanna says the U.S. should tear down ICE," replacing it with a new agency that has oversight with human rights to enforce immigration law."He also comments on Trump's multimillion-dollar cryptocurrency deal with the United Arab Emirates. We really need a new moral vision in this country. I mean, the decline in ethics and transparency has eroded public trust," Khanna says.

Democratic Congressmember Ro Khanna has called for Congress to investigate associates of Jeffrey Epstein named in the files and for the full release of the remaining documents. This comes as Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the review of Epstein files is over and that no further prosecutions are expected. Blanche, who was formerly President Trump's personal lawyer, told Fox News that it isn't a crime to party with Mr. Epstein."Meanwhile, Epstein survivors have criticized the Department of Justice for failing to redact personal information, including some of their identities, as well as email addresses and even nude photos. They were cavalier, at best, when it comes to the survivors, and they took great lengths to protect some of the rich and powerful people who actually committed the crimes and morally heinous acts," Khanna tells Democracy Now!

Minnesota Officials Demand All Federal Agents Leave as Trump Administration Announces Drawdown, 10-Year-Old Girl Seized by Federal Agents in Minnesota Freed from Texas ICE Jail, ACLU Calls for U.N. Probe into Trump's Immigration Crackdown over Human Rights Abuses, Have ICE Surround the Polls": Steve Bannon Adds to Fears Trump Will Disrupt Midterm Elections, Supreme Court Clears Congressional Map Gerrymandered to Benefit California Democrats, Palestinians Returning to Gaza Through Rafah Crossing Report Severe Restrictions by Israel, Chuck Schumer Defends U.S. Arming Israel as Trump Admin Approves $6.7 Billion Weapons Sale, Six Palestine Action Protesters Found Not Guilty of Aggravated Burglary, Nuclear Arms Control Treaty Between U.S. and Russia Expires, Drop Site News: U.S. Military Officials Informed Middle East Ally That Trump Could Soon Attack Iran, WSJ: Abu Dhabi Royal Purchased 49% Stake in Trump Family's Cryptocurrency Firm, Washington Post Lays Off More Than 300 Journalists, Human Rights Watch: Three-Quarters of the World's Population Living Under Autocracy"

After several months of rising tension between them, Colombian President Gustavo Petro sat down with U.S. President Donald Trump in a closed-door meeting that lasted approximately two hours at the White House on Tuesday. The two leaders have exchanged threats and insults since Trump returned to office in 2025, with Petro harshly criticizing the U.S. bombing of boats at sea and for threatening the sovereignty of countries in Latin America. Both leaders took a much more conciliatory tone after their meeting, with Petro sharing a photo of them shaking hands alongside a handwritten note from Trump calling it an honor" and adding, I love Colombia."Colombian Senator Clara Lopez Obregon, speaking to Democracy Now! from Bogota, says the White House meeting was an important repositioning" of the relationship, and cautions that the region needs a more coordinated response to coercion" from the U.S. Latin America, unfortunately, has been unable to structure meaningful and permanent instruments of collective action, so each country has to negotiate on its own from a position of weakness."

As the last major nuclear arms treaty between the United States and Russia expires this week, we speak with arms control expert Dr. Ira Helfand, a steering committee member of Back from the Brink, a national coalition organizing communities across the United States to call for the abolition of nuclear weapons. Helfand is a longtime member of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, or ICAN, which received the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize. He is also the immediate past president of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, awarded the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize, and a co-founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility.We are in a very, very dangerous moment," says Helfand, who urges major powers to reduce their nuclear arsenals rather than potentially starting a new arms race. Strength and safety are not the same thing. ... If you allow these weapons to continue to exist, it is not a question of if we have a nuclear war - it's just a question of when."

President Donald Trump has called to nationalize" voting in the United States, alarming state leaders who oversee the process, as well as legal experts who say his takeover demand violates the Constitution. This comes as he continues to falsely claim he won the 2020 election, with Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard overseeing an FBI raid last week to seize ballot boxes and other voting records in Fulton County, Georgia.Gabbard, as spy chief, has no statutory authority to be involved in a domestic election investigation," says David Becker, director of the Center for Election Innovation & Research. He says that since the failed effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election, an ecosystem of grift" has grown around Trump that profits from continuing to spread election denial even as courts have repeatedly thrown out their claims.

As President Trump suggests the federal government should nationalize" and take over the elections process from the states, we speak with Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes. He is the former county recorder for Maricopa County, Arizona, and oversaw elections there in 2020. The Justice Department has sued Arizona and over 20 other states for their full voter registration lists. No means no," Fontes says in response to the Trump administration's encroachment on state authority. We should not be handing over any of our personal identifying information to the president. Not only should we not be doing it, but it's against the law for me to fulfill the request from the Department of Justice."

Trump Doubles Down on Calls for GOP to Nationalize" Voting in the U.S., Renee Good's Brothers Urge Congress to Restrain Federal Immigration Crackdown, New York Attorney General James Announces Legal Observers to Document Federal Immigration Raids, Trump Signs Consolidated Funding Bill, Ending Partial Government Shutdown, Colombian President Gustavo Petro Meets with Trump at the White House, U.S. Military Announces It Shot Down Iranian Drone in the Arabian Sea, Israeli Airstrikes Kill at Least 21 Palestinians in Gaza, Trump Insults CNN Reporter Kaitlan Collins for Not Smiling as She Asked About Epstein Survivors, Hearst Magazines Union Stages Walkout Calling for a Fair Contract

ProPublica has identified the two Border Patrol agents who shot Alex Pretti, the Minneapolis man killed January 24 while observing immigration enforcement in the city. The outlet says the agents are Jesus Ochoa, 43, and Raymundo Gutierrez, 35. This is in the public interest," says reporter J. David McSwane. This country has a tradition and norm of being able to identify law enforcement officers, both for their safety and the safety of the public."

Activists in Maine are resisting ICE immigration raids in Portland and Lewiston that the Trump administration dubbed Operation Catch of the Day." The immigrant community in Maine has grown in recent years, with an influx of asylum seekers and Somali immigrants in particular. As a small state, community means a lot," says Mufalo Chitam, executive director of the Maine Immigrants' Rights Coalition, adding that her organization has received thousands of phone calls to their immigrant support hotline in recent weeks.

At least 15 Philadelphia city councilmembers have backed a package of "ICE Out" legislation aimed at combating ICE and federal immigration enforcement operations in Philadelphia, including codifying sanctuary protections and prohibiting federal immigration agents from concealing their identities or covering their faces. We heard the cries from the community calling for something to be done," says Kendra Brooks, a member of the Philadelphia City Council, where she serves as minority leader. Our goal was to make sure that something is in place to prevent any undue harm." Councilmembers will vote on the legislation in the coming weeks, and it is expected to pass with a veto-proof majority.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has signed an executive order directing Chicago police to investigate reports of illegal activity conducted by ICE and other federal immigration agents. The move came in the aftermath of Trump's so-called Operation Midway Blitz in Chicago late last year, when masked agents flooded neighborhoods, snatching residents off the streets as part of Trump's mass deportation campaign. What this executive order is doing is showing up for the people of Chicago, ... creating a model for the rest of the country," Johnson tells Democracy Now!

Fulton County to Sue over FBI Ballot Seizures as Trump Says GOP Should Nationalize" Elections, Tulsi Gabbard Arranges Call Between Trump and FBI Agents Who Seized Ballots from Atlanta, Measles Cases Confirmed at Texas ICE Jail Housing Hundreds of Children, Pentagon Quietly Takes Active-Duty Troops Off Standby to Deploy to Minnesota, Federal Court Blocks Trump Administration Bid to End Protected Status for Haitian Immigrants, Israeli Strikes on Gaza Kill 4 Palestinians, Including 30-Month-Old Child, U.S. Firm Seeks 300% Profits from Monopoly Over Gaza Trucking and Logistics, Biden Admin Officials Killed Memo Warning Israeli Attacks Turned Gaza into Apocalyptic Wasteland", Trump Envoy Plans Talks in Istanbul with Iranian Officials over Nuclear Program, Russian Drones and Missiles Strike Ukraine's Cities and Infrastructure Ahead of Peace Talks, Right-Wing Populist Laura Fernandez Elected President of Costa Rica, Bill and Hillary Clinton Agree to Testify in House Investigation of Epstein, Paris Prosecutor Raids French Offices of Social Media Platform X, Civil Liberties Groups Sue NYPD for Targeting Black and Latino Drivers

We speak with Mother Jones voting rights correspondent Ari Berman about the shocking FBI raid on an elections hub in Fulton County, Georgia. Federal agents were seeking records related to the 2020 presidential election, which President Donald Trump continues to falsely claim he won despite his loss to Joe Biden that year. During his efforts to overturn the election results, Trump pressured local officials to find" him an additional 11,780 votes. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was on the scene Friday despite having no domestic law enforcement authority. The raid comes amid an ongoing federal probe into the 2020 election.The fact that they seized 700 boxes of ballots was incredibly disturbing and sets a chilling precedent for how Trump might try to interfere in the 2026 election," says Berman, who ties the raid in Georgia to the administration's pressure on Minnesota to hand over voter rolls. This is now a multifront, concerted effort to try to interfere in the midterm elections."

The Justice Department on Friday released an additional 3 million pages of documents related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The Trump administration says it was the final release of Epstein files, even though some 2 million more documents remain unreleased. The latest batch reveals new details about Epstein's connections to the rich and powerful, including Hollywood figures, tech billionaires, public officials and more. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said it is unlikely anyone else would be prosecuted.Attorney Arick Fudali, who represents 11 Epstein survivors, says the release of the files has been a perfect storm" of incompetency and an active cover-up" by the Trump administration. It's so mind-boggling, because they're withholding documents that they shouldn't be withholding ... but, on the other hand, they're showing documents that they shouldn't be showing because they contain unredacted names of survivors," says Fudali.Investigative journalist Vicky Ward, who has covered the Epstein case for many years, says despite the flawed release of the files, they continue to shine light on a world of elite impunity and excess. We just see over and over again in these documents, this was just one big billionaires boys club that treated women like objects," says Ward.

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in hundreds of demonstrations across the United States this weekend as protests continue against the Trump administration's anti-immigrant crackdown. Democracy Now! was in the streets of Minneapolis on Friday speaking with protesters who marched in subzero temperatures.

As protests continue in Minnesota over the federal government's immigration crackdown, former CNN anchor Don Lemon and independent journalist Georgia Fort now face federal charges stemming from their reporting on a January 18 demonstration at a St. Paul church, where a senior ICE official works as a pastor. The two journalists were released Friday without bail following initial court hearings and could face fines or prison time if convicted. Their charges stem from the FACE Act, a 1994 law intended to protect access to abortion clinics which also prohibits interference with religious worship. Seven activists who took part in the demonstration also face charges.We're having a constitutional crisis," Fort tells Democracy Now! What we're seeing here in Minnesota is the people are continuing to stand. They are continuing to demand that our Constitution be upheld. I believe that journalism is not a crime."

Federal Judge Denies Request by Minnesota Officials to Temporarily Block Surge of Immigration Agents, Former CNN Anchor Don Lemon and Independent Journalist Georgia Fort Released from Federal Custody, 5-Year-Old Liam Conejo Ramos and His Father Reunited with Family Members in Minnesota, More Than 300 Anti-ICE Protests Held Across the Country, NYT: Former Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino Said to Have Mocked Prosecutor's Jewish Faith, Chicago Orders Local Law Enforcement to Probe Illegal Activity by Federal Immigration Agents, Justice Department Release Over 3 Million Pages of the Epstein Files, Israeli Forces Partially Reopen Gaza's Rafah Crossing into Egypt, Iranian Authorities Arrest Oscar-Nominated Screenwriter Mehdi Mahmoudian, Democrats Flip State Senate Seat and Pick Up Congressional Seat in Texas, President Trump Announces Kennedy Center Will Close for Two Years for Renovations, Bad Bunny Denounces ICE During Grammy Awards Acceptance Speech

The latest reliable estimates of the death toll in Iran's recent nationwide protests are growing, potentially reaching the tens of thousands. Some estimates place the number of civilians killed by government forces at 30,000 or more. We play a rare eyewitness account of the deadly massacre of protesters in Rasht, Iran, and speak to the Iranian filmmaker and political dissident Sepideh Farsi, who says U.S. military intervention would only worsen the situation." She warns that President Trump's interest in U.S. military action on the country is for business," and not for Iranian people."

An estimated 350,000 Haitian immigrants are set to lose their temporary protected status, or TPS, on February 3, 2026, after President Trump signed an executive order to revoke their TPS shortly after coming into office. TPS holders live and work in the United States legally. During the 2024 presidential election, candidates Donald Trump and JD Vance spread racist invective about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio. Now ICE is reportedly planning to begin extensive raids on Haitian American communities like Springfield. We are living under a cloud of terror," says Guerline Jozef, the co-founder and executive director of Haitian Bridge Alliance. Her organization is mounting a legal challenge against the Trump administration's revocation of TPS.I'm anxious every day," says Maryse Balthazar, a former journalist in Haiti who fled the country after its devastating 2010 earthquake. She now works as an elder care nurse in Florida. She worries about being separated from her U.S. citizen daughter, and for the safety of her son, also a TPS holder, if he were deported to Haiti, a country currently struggling with organized crime and political unrest. Balthazar says that if she were to lose her TPS, it will be like another earthquake to me."

The families of two men from Trinidad killed in an October U.S. missile strike in the Caribbean are suing the Trump administration for wrongful death and extrajudicial killing. The families of 26-year-old Chad Joseph and 41-year-old Rishi Samaroo say the two men were returning home from fishing and farming in Venezuela, not smuggling drugs as the Trump administration has claimed without evidence. Four others on the same boat were also killed. In all, at least 125 people have been killed in the unprecedented U.S. bombings of civilian boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean. It's the latest example of the Trump administration's total mockery of, contempt for the post-World World II human rights consensus, where nations are constrained by law and not mere might," says attorney Baher Azmy, who is representing the Joseph and Samaroo families in their lawsuit. He calls their deaths killings for sport and spectacle," adding that they are part of a wider pattern of federal overreach that can be seen in the administration's domestic crackdown on protesters and journalists. Azmy warns that the excessive use of force by federal agents in Minneapolis may be a dry run" for deployment of troops during elections."

In the aftermath of the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, Venezuela has agreed to submit a monthly budget to the Trump administration, which will release money from an account funded by oil sales. It's a deal for the interim government led by Delcy Rodriguez that historian Greg Grandin calls governing under the blade." In a further shift away from the nation-building foreign policy of the past several decades of U.S. power, what the United States is planning for Venezuela is basically to run the country as a vassal state," he says. This is an arrangement with transactional details that we've never seen before."

Senate Democrats & Trump Reach Deal to Split Off Funding DHS to Avert Shutdown, Minneapolis Mayor Calls for Nationwide End to "ICE Siege", No, No. Not at All": Trump Denies He Plans to Pull Back Federal Agents from Minnesota, Protesters Call for National Shutdown Today to Protest ICE, Sen. Collins Claims DHS Has Paused Operation Catch of the Day, Financial Times: Private Companies Reaped $22B in Contracts with ICE & CBP Last Year, Iran's Top Diplomat in Turkey as Trump Keeps Threatening to Attack Iran, U.S. Lifts Some Sanctions on Venezuela After Interim Leader Signs Bill Opening Door for Private Oil Firms, Trump Threatens to Impose Tariffs on Nations Who Provide Oil to Cuba, Trump Claims Russia Will Pause Attacks on Ukrainian Cities, Illinois Sheriff's Deputy Sentenced to 20 Years in Prison for Shooting Sonya Massey, Trump Taps Kevin Warsh to Be Federal Reserve Chair, Trump & Sons Sue IRS & Treasury for $10B over Tax Return Leaks, Journalists Don Lemon & Georgia Fort Arrested for Covering Church Protest in St. Paul

ICE and CBP are using facial recognition technology to facilitate President Trump's mass deportation campaign. With a smartphone app, immigration officers can scan faces of people they encounter and quickly search those faces against 200 million images stored in several government databases that are notoriously error-filled," according to Nathan Freed Wessler, deputy director of the ACLU's Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. It's being used on the street in ways that are dangerous, that are totally unprecedented in this country, and that are, frankly, blatantly illegal," he adds.

Democracy Now! speaks with Congressmember LaMonica McIver of New Jersey, who is facing up to 17 years in prison stemming from an incident last May when she and two other Democratic congressmembers sought to inspect Delaney Hall, a private prison run by the GEO Group under contract with ICE. The federal government claims McIver assaulted an immigration officer. I'm not going to let them bully me out of doing my job. I'm just not," says McIver, who describes conditions at the prison as dismal. There was an entire riot at the same detention center because detainees were not getting food."

Liam Ramos, the 5-year-old from Minnesota who was detained last week after coming home from preschool, is being held in the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas. Congressmembers who visited Liam report that has been depressed and hasn't been eating well. Javier Hidalgo, legal director at RAICES, has worked with families at the detention center for years. We often hear about food with bugs or worms in it, half-frozen food being given, guards yelling at parents if their kids are making too much noise or they're asking for an extra apple," says Hidalgo. Reform is inadequate. It just needs to be shut down."When attorney Eric Lee visited the detention center, he observed immigrant families holding a protest to demand the release of immigrant children. The Democratic Party is as equally responsible as Trump for creating the infrastructure of mass family and adult detention in this country, and it is necessary that this protest movement stay a hundred miles away from the Democratic Party and develop its orientation to the working class," says Lee, whose clients have been detained at the ICE jail since June.

DHS Places Two Agents Who Killed Alex Pretti on Administrative Leave, Trump Claims Congressmember Omar Staged Attack Against Herself, Congressmember Castro Meets with 5-Year-Old Liam Ramos and His Father at Dilley Detention Center, Autopsy Finds Cuban Immigrant in ICE Custody Died of Homicide, DHS Urges FEMA Staff to Avoid Phrases Like Watch Out for ICE" to Prevent Memes, Senate Democrats Threaten to Block Funding for DHS, FBI Raids Election Office in Georgia's Fulton County, Federal Reserve Leaves Interest Rates Unchanged, Resisting Trump's Pressure to Lower Them, Secretary of State Rubio Refuses to Rule Out Further U.S. Attacks on Venezuela, Trump Threatens Another U.S. Military Strike on Iran, Bulletin of Atomic Scientists Sets Doomsday Clock to 85 Seconds to Midnight, Russia Launches Wave of Attacks Across Ukraine, Spain Announces Amnesty for Nearly 500,000 Undocumented Immigrants, Dozens Confirmed Dead Due to Extreme Cold Weather Conditions Across the U.S., Bruce Springsteen Releases New Song Streets of Minneapolis"

We speak with Congressmember Delia Ramirez following an attack on her colleague, Congressmember Ilhan Omar, who was sprayed with an unknown foul-smelling liquid while speaking at a town hall event in Minneapolis on Tuesday. This is a direct influence of what you're seeing from this president," Ramirez says, criticizing Trump's policies and his long history of attacking Omar in particular.Ramirez also discusses her efforts in Congress to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Ramirez says Noem's agency is rotten from the inside out" and must be completely dismantled. You have an agency killing people, executing them, lying about it, and then talking about investigating themselves while operating with impunity."

As President Trump shakes up the leadership of his immigration crackdown in Minnesota following the killing of ICU nurse Alex Pretti by Border Patrol agents, we examine the expanding role of the agency in interior enforcement.Independent journalist Todd Miller says the Trump administration's immigration operations in U.S. cities are an extension" of policies and practices that we've been seeing in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands now for decades," characterizing Border Patrol culture as one of rampant abuse and impunity.We also speak with Jenn Budd, a former Border Patrol agent who quit in 2001 and is now an immigrant rights activist. She disputes the claim that recent violence by CBP staff is a result of insufficient training. The management of the Border Patrol has been corrupt for many generations, and then after 9/11 we just gave them money with little accountability and let them design their own accountability systems," says Budd.

Minnesota Congressmember Ilhan Omar was sprayed with an unknown liquid Tuesday during a town hall event in Minneapolis. Omar has long been a favorite target of President Donald Trump and his supporters, and the attack on her comes just days after Florida Congressmember Maxwell Frost was punched by a Trump supporter while attending the Sundance Film Festival.It's truly heartbreaking, this moment we find ourselves in," Omar said when she resumed her remarks, discussing the Trump administration's violent immigration crackdown. But if we know anything about U.S. history, it's that everything is temporary, and we will find our way out of this."

As outrage grows across the country over the Trump administration's deadly immigration crackdown in Minnesota, we speak with reporter Drew Harwell, who recently reported on the government's effort to hire thousands more ICE agents. According to an internal strategy document uncovered by The Washington Post, the federal government plans to spend $100 million over a one-year period in a wartime recruitment" push, including online targeting of UFC fans, gun-rights supporters, military enthusiasts and more. Meanwhile, the administration's online messaging has repeatedly echoed white nationalist slogans.They're spending a lot of money on it, so you're just seeing it everywhere on social media now. And the question is: Who are they trying to attract?" says Harwell.

Congressmember Ilhan Omar Attacked at Town Hall in Minneapolis, CBP Report: Two Federal Officials Fired Weapons at Alex Pretti in Fatal Shooting, Federal Judge Temporarily Blocks Trump Admin from Deporting Liam Ramos and His Father, 5-Year-Old Girl Deported to Honduras Despite Being U.S. Citizen, Dozens of Anti-ICE Protesters Arrested in Manhattan After Occupying Lobby of Hilton Hotel, ICE Agents to Join U.S. Delegation to the Winter Olympics in Italy, CNN: Trump Admin Planning to Establish a CIA Presence in Venezuela, Families of Two Trinidadian Men Killed in U.S. Strikes Sue Trump Administration, Trump: Cuba Will Be Failing Pretty Soon", Justice Department to Finish Releasing Epstein Files Soon, South Carolina Measles Outbreak Reaches Nearly 800 Cases

As calls grow to defund and abolish ICE, author Alec Karakatsanis warns that activists should take care to not fall for copaganda," which takes ordinary people who are outraged over what's happening and converts them into supporting meaningless reforms that actually don't reduce the size or power or budget of these bureaucracies." Karakatsanis is the author of Copaganda: How Police and the Media Manipulate Our News. He breaks down many of the myths about crime and policing that arose in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests over the past decade, including the reformist myth of police body cameras and the so-called crime wave. Police-tracked crime, contrary to what you have been told in the news every single day for the last several years, is actually down," says Karakatsanis, but fearmongering mainstream media narratives are designed to make people so afraid that they support repressive institutions that infringe on their own liberty, that don't make them safer, but that give people in power in our society more ability to control and manipulate."

ICE is asserting federal immigration officers have the power to forcibly enter homes without a judicial warrant. That's just not true," says legal scholar Stephen Vladeck, who says the claim directly violates the Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure. What we're really seeing here is an effort to twist a handful of old cases that have recognized circumstances in which the government doesn't need a judicial warrant to enter a home." Vladeck also encourages witnesses to share video evidence of federal agents' abuses to support future prosecution efforts.

A federal judge in Minnesota heard arguments Monday in a lawsuit filed by city and state officials to halt Trump's deployment of thousands of federal immigration agents to Minnesota. The federal government cannot coerce us into doing it their way," says Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who is part of the group that brought the lawsuit. As the Trump administration continues to obstruct local investigations into the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minnesota this month, we speak to Ellison and Georgetown University law professor Stephen Vladeck to discuss state and federal jurisdiction over investigations and potential prosecutions. Ellison also responds to the announcement that border czar" Tom Homan is headed to Minnesota to replace U.S. Border Patrol commander-at-large" Gregory Bovino as the public face of Trump's immigration enforcement surge.

Trump Admin Removes Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino from Minnesota, Minnesota GOP Gubernatorial Candidate Drops Out of Race, Citing Trump's Immigration Crackdown, Partial Government Shutdown Likely as Senate Dems Refuse to Back Funding Bill over DHS Funding, Immigrant Families Protest Inside ICE's Detention Facility in Dilley, Texas, Immigration Agents Detain 2-Year-Old Girl in Minnesota and Her Father, Israel Recovers Remains of Last Hostage Held in Gaza, U.N. Says 37,000 Palestinians Forcibly Displaced in the Occupied West Bank in 2025, Human Rights Activists News Agency: Iranian Security Forces Killed 5,777 Protesters in Anti-Gov't Protests, ICC Rules Former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte Can Stand Trial, South Sudan's Military Orders All Civilians and U.N. Personnel to Evacuate Jonglei State, Over 30,000 Kaiser Permanente Healthcare Workers Go on Strike

Tens of thousands of Minnesotans braved the bitter cold in Minneapolis on Friday to demand "ICE out." The march was organized by faith and labor leaders and was accompanied by calls for an economic blackout. Seven hundred businesses reportedly closed in solidarity. Democracy Now!'s John Hamilton filed a report from the streets. John Reuss, an English teacher, said his students are afraid. The fear is so tangible," said Reuss. If we do not shut it down right now, your city is next."

Civil rights attorney, minister and activist Nekima Levy Armstrong, who was arrested by federal officials for participating in an anti-ICE demonstration at Cities Church in St. Paul, was released from federal custody on Friday. They have altered the facts, just as they altered my image as a way of trying to criminalize nonviolent, peaceful protests and lawful dissent against their unlawful and unjust actions," says Armstrong, noting images posted by the Trump administration that digitally altered her to make it appear as if she was sobbing during her arrest.

Democracy Now! speaks with a former colleague of Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old ICU nurse shot dead by federal agents in Minneapolis on Saturday. Dr. Aasma Shaukat, who hired Pretti for a research job over a decade ago, says he lived with kindness, compassion and a strong sense of civic duty to help his fellow citizens."

Protests have intensified in Minnesota after federal immigration agents killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse who worked in the Minneapolis Veterans Health Care System, on Saturday. Democracy Now!'s John Hamilton reports from the scene of Pretti's killing, where protesters clashed with federal agents. We've seen everything from people that are unconscious, that have fainted, tear-gassed, bruised, bloody noses, can't breathe," said Melissa, a local resident. State Senator Omar Fateh responded to the killing with outrage: He had a camera on his hand. He was tackled, he was pummeled, and he was executed."

Federal Immigration Agents Fatally Shoot 37-Year-Old ICU Nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, Attorney General Bondi Demands Access to Minnesota's Voter Rolls and Welfare Data, FBI Agent Resigns After Unsuccessfully Trying to Probe ICE Agent Who Killed Renee Good, Israel Kills Three Palestinians in Gaza, Violating U.S.-Brokered Ceasefire, U.K. Authorities Arrest 86 Protesters Demanding the Release of Palestine Action Prisoners, Venezuela Releases Dozens of Political Prisoners, Vaccine Panel Chair Says Polio and Measles Shots Should Be Optional, Marxist Scholar Michael Parenti Dies at 92

Today marks the 50th anniversary of Paul Robeson's death on January 23, 1976. The actor, singer, athlete and scholar was once famous around the world, but he was attacked, blacklisted and hounded by the government for his political beliefs. Jackie Robinson, the Brooklyn Dodgers star who had integrated the all-white major baseball leagues, was hailed as a national hero in 1949 for testifying against Robeson before the House Un-American Activities Committee associated with Senator Joseph McCarthy. For more, we speak with sports journalist Howard Bryant, author of the new book Kings and Pawns that looks at how Robeson and Robinson's paths intertwined at the height of the McCarthy era.History writes people out of the story, and it's our job to write them back in," Bryant says. Fifty years after Paul Robeson's death, it's time for a reappraisal of one of the great Americans."

Hundreds of businesses in Minnesota have closed for the day as part of an economic blackout to protest the surge of ICE agents into the state. Organizers of the strike include faith leaders and unions, who are encouraging people to stay home from work, school and shopping.Kieran Knutson, president of the Communications Workers of America Local 7250, says the strike comes after weeks of living under the heavy weight of this racist campaign of terror by ICE agents" in the Twin Cities area. Nothing runs without the working class in this country, and today we're going to show our power."

The Justice Department said Thursday that it had arrested three people in Minnesota who interrupted a church service in St. Paul to protest a pastor's role as a local ICE official. The activists involved in the protest now face charges under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, a law written to protect abortion clinics.One of the arrestees, civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong, had her appearance digitally altered in a photo posted online by the White House to make it look like she was crying while handcuffed. Her attorney, Jordan Kushner, tells Democracy Now! that Justice Department officials refused to let Levy Armstrong turn herself in, instead demanding an arrest at the hotel where she was staying. This was their trophy," says Kushner, who adds that the government used more manipulative tactics to keep her in jail" even though no one is detained in a case like this."