The Washington Pretzel

One. Rodney Taylor. Double amputee. 473 days. His pardon didn't count.

Rodney Taylor was two years old when his mother brought him from Liberia to the United States for medical treatment. Born with birth defects, he required multiple surgeries as a child. Those surgeries led to amputations. He grew up in Gwinnett County, Georgia, became a barber, got engaged, and built a life.

In January 2025, ICE agents emerged from unmarked vehicles outside his family's car as he was preparing to take his children to school, and arrested him.

The basis for his detention was a burglary conviction from 1997 — when Rodney Taylor was sixteen years old. He was later pardoned by the state parole board in 2010. Under federal immigration law, however, that pardon does not carry the weight it would in state court. ICE detained him anyway.

He was held for 473 days at the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia — a facility operated by CoreCivic, the for-profit private prison company. His family says his health deteriorated significantly during that time. He was diagnosed with bone spurs and neuropathy caused by ill-fitted prosthetics that were not properly provided to him in custody. Advocates and lawmakers warned that continued detention was a "death sentence" for a man with his medical vulnerabilities.

He had a pending green card application at the time of his arrest.

A pressure campaign mounted over more than a year eventually reached 21 members of Congress — including Senator Raphael Warnock, Representatives Lucy McBath and Pramila Jayapal — plus six members of the Georgia Legislature and a broad coalition of organizations including El Refugio, the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, and AAAJ-Atlanta.

Rodney Taylor was released on May 4. He is speaking publicly for the first time today, May 11, at a press conference at the Asian Americans Advancing Justice organization in Norcross, Georgia.

In a statement after his release, he said: "There were moments when I wasn't sure I would survive the neglect I faced in detention, but knowing there was a community outside those walls fighting for me kept me going. I am so relieved to be back with my family where I can finally receive the medical care and dignity I deserve. I am proof that when people organize and refuse to look away, we can win. I am home. I am free."

ICE told Atlanta News First that claims Taylor or any detainees were experiencing "subprime conditions" are false.

Two. For every 6 ICE arrests, one US-born man loses his job.

The National Bureau of Economic Research published a study on May 4 — the first national assessment of the Trump administration's immigration enforcement impact on the labor market — and its findings directly contradict the administration's core economic argument for the crackdown.

In regions that experienced a surge in ICE arrests between January and October 2025, roughly 7,574 undocumented male workers stopped working per surged area. That works out to approximately one US-born man losing employment for every six ICE arrests.

The mechanism is not that immigrants "took" US jobs that Americans can now fill. It's the opposite. Many industries — construction, manufacturing, agriculture — rely on immigrant workers and US-born workers filling complementary roles. When a construction company loses its laborers to ICE, it builds fewer homes. When it builds fewer homes, it hires fewer electricians. Fewer roofers. Fewer project managers. Those are jobs that are typically held by US-born workers.

On top of that, ICE activity produces what economists call a "chilling effect." Among immigrants who were not arrested, employment fell by 4% in surged areas — workers staying home out of fear that leaving the house means getting caught.

The White House said the administration believes there is "sufficient labor potential among US-born workers." The study authors say the data shows the opposite.

Three. Call 911. Get detained.

In December, Axel Sanchez Toledo called 911 from his home in Palm Beach County, Florida, to request a welfare check on his 4-year-old daughter who he heard was sick while staying with her mother. Two officers from the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office arrived. One took Sanchez Toledo's ID. When he returned, he told Sanchez Toledo he was undocumented and would be detained for ICE. Sanchez Toledo ran.

This pattern — immigrant calls for help, immigrant ends up in federal detention — is happening across the country. And awareness of the pattern is now preventing people from calling for help at all.

The Tahirih Justice Center, a nonprofit that supports immigrants fleeing gender-based violence, reports that 76% of its clients are now afraid to go to the police. A Virginia woman reportedly died after an alleged assault by her partner because she was too afraid to call law enforcement over fears about her immigration status, according to her family and NBC Washington. Another asylum seeker told The Washington Post she had been contacted by a man who previously assaulted her at work — and she would not consider calling police, because ICE had already raided her workplace and neighborhood.

The message that law enforcement's cooperation with immigration authorities has sent to immigrant communities is clear: calling for help could be the last thing you do.

Four. Fifty-three South Carolina lawmakers. Not one would answer.

WPDE, an ABC affiliate in South Carolina, tracked down and questioned all 53 state lawmakers who co-sponsored a bill to authorize cooperation between local law enforcement and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Not one of them answered questions about the bill.

53 lawmakers. 53 co-sponsors. Zero explanations.

The Washington Pretzel | US PoliTickle

One. The Vatican published gay men's testimonies for the first time ever. And called conversion therapy "devastating."

On May 5, 2026, the Vatican's General Secretariat of the Synod's Study Group 9 released a report that made history. For the first time in any official Vatican publication, the document includes detailed personal testimonies from married gay Catholic men — one from the United States, one from Portugal.

The American man's testimony focuses on his experience with Courage, a Catholic organization that encourages chastity for those who experience same-sex attraction. The Vatican report calls Courage membership "problematic." The Portuguese man writes of "wounds from the Christian community" and the "devastating effects of conversion therapies." He also writes of living "in profound peace with God" with his husband.

The report — written by a group of theologians to advise the Pope following the Synod on Synodality — does not change Catholic doctrine on homosexuality or marriage equality. But it acknowledges that the Church's efforts to "repair" LGBTQ+ Catholics' sexual orientations have contributed to "profound suffering, personal lacerations, and experiences of marginalisation or 'double lives' for believers with same-sex attractions."

Father James Martin, founder of Outreach, an LGBTQ+ Catholic ministry: "As far as I know, it's the first time that in any official publication of the Vatican, they've included witnesses and testimonies and stories from LGBTQ Catholics in any kind of detailed way."

The timing is striking. Just weeks before this report was released, the US Supreme Court struck down Colorado's conversion therapy ban for minors in an 8-1 ruling — a decision that cast serious doubt on similar protective laws across the country. The Vatican is calling the practice "devastating." The US Supreme Court just reopened the door to it.

Two. Allan Marrero. 150 days. 6 states. Chained. No criminal history. Free.

On November 5, 2025, Allan Dabrio Marrero arrived at what was supposed to be a routine green card interview. He had immigrated from the Cayman Islands and, two years earlier, had married his husband Matthew in the United States. He was doing exactly what the legal immigration system asked him to do.

ICE detained him.

What followed was 150 days in federal immigration custody, transferred across six states: from a federal building in New York City to New Jersey; from New Jersey to Arizona; to Texas; to the facility in Florida known as "Alligator Alcatraz"; to Natchez, Mississippi.

During those transfers, Marrero was chained at the ankles, connected to his waist, connected to his wrists — for up to eight hours at a time.

"I was terrified every night," he told the crowd at a press conference after his release.

His attorney, Alex Rizio, made the point clearly: "Allan has absolutely no criminal history."

He was freed on May 5, 2026 — welcomed home at an event organized by NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and supported by Rep. Dan Goldman. His husband Matthew spoke: "Love has brought him home. But justice still has work to do."

They vowed to continue advocating for others still in detention.

Three. The Trump administration is investigating Smith College for admitting trans women.

On May 4, the US Department of Education announced it had launched a Title IX investigation into Smith College, one of the Seven Sisters — a consortium of historically prestigious women's institutions — for its policy of enrolling transgender women.

Smith has admitted trans students since 2015. Its home city of Northampton, Massachusetts is widely considered one of the most queer-friendly communities in the United States. The College has been a meaningful symbol: that trans women are women, and belong in women's spaces.

The administration's position: the Title IX single-sex exception applies to "biological sex difference, not subjective gender identity." If the administration moves to enforce that interpretation against Smith, federal funding — including student financial aid and research grants — is potentially at risk.

Legal observers note the investigation could have ripple effects across comparable women's colleges that have adopted similar trans-inclusive policies: Wellesley, Bryn Mawr, Barnard, Mount Holyoke.

On Wednesday — the day after the investigation was announced — chalk messages began appearing on Smith's sidewalks: "You belong here." "Trans women belong here."

Four. 1 in 3 LGBTQ+ candidates received death threats in 2026.

A new report from the LGBTQ+ Victory Institute, based on a survey of over 200 LGBTQ+ candidates running in races from school board to governor across more than 40 states, Washington DC, and Puerto Rico, found that one in three received death threats in 2026.

Evan Low, President and CEO of the LGBTQ+ Victory Institute: "This report makes clear that political violence is not just increasing — it is reshaping who feels able to run for office in the first place. No one should have to choose between serving their community and protecting their own safety. When LGBTQ+ candidates are driven out by threats and intimidation, our democracy loses the representation it depends on."

The report notes that mental health support for candidates "is not a peripheral need — it is a form of democratic infrastructure." The Victory Institute is expanding safety training and mental health programming in 2026, but acknowledges that "the need far exceeds the programs available."

The Washington Pretzel | US PoliTickle

One. Jeury Concepcion, 19, Bronx.

It was the night before his 20th birthday. Jeury Concepcion was standing in front of a barber shop on Hull Avenue in the Bronx when multiple ICE agents approached him, ordered him to stop, and tackled him to the ground. His head split open. Blood poured down his face as they handcuffed him, pressed him against a car, and put him in a vehicle. Bystanders shouted "He's from here!" Nobody intervened.

In the car, the agents asked for his ID. That is when they realized they had the wrong person. They drove him to a park he had never seen and left him there, still bleeding and alone.

Jeury found his mother, who rushed him to the hospital. Seven stitches. A concussion. He spent his 20th birthday recovering.

The Department of Homeland Security said agents were looking for someone who matched his description, and that he was "aggressive." His family denies he had any prior trouble with law. They plan to file a formal complaint.

Two. Jero Phamakao. Ohio since 1980. Deported to Laos.

Jero Phamakao came to the United States in 1980 at age 6. His parents were sponsored by a local church. He grew up in Findlay, Ohio. He met his wife Jennifer in the mid-1990s. He had a removal order since 2004 following a domestic violence case.

He was placed on an order of supervision. He complied. He checked in with ICE every year. He never missed an appointment.

In late 2025, he was asked to report early for his check-in at an ICE office in Cleveland. He was detained, held at Mahoning County Jail, and placed on a deportation flight from Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport to Laos — a country he had not been to in over 45 years.

"He went back to nothing," his wife Jennifer told 3News. "He doesn't have anyone there. He doesn't know anyone there."

Jennifer is now working multiple jobs, seven days a week.

Three. ICE hasn't paid its medical contractors since October 2025.

Reporting from Popular Information and the Arizona Daily Star reveals that ICE abruptly stopped paying its off-site medical contractors in October 2025, following the termination of its long-running contract with the Department of Veterans Affairs for claims processing.

The new contractor, Acentra Health, updated its website to say payments would not begin until the second quarter of 2026.

The real-world consequences are showing. Alexander Hernández, 45, a Cuban asylum seeker held at Eloy Detention Center in Arizona — operated by CoreCivic, a for-profit company — had been suffering debilitating back pain for 8 months and was using ibuprofen so heavily his liver became inflamed. His wheelchair was taken away in late April. On April 25, he went to Eloy's medical unit and told staff he wouldn't leave until he received emergency care. Instead, he was sent to solitary confinement as punishment. Two days later, he attempted suicide.

ICE has not responded to the Arizona Daily Star, to Hernández's family, or to his attorney.

Four. CoreCivic and GEO Group are posting record profits.

The two largest for-profit private detention operators reported major revenue gains this week. CoreCivic is up 25% year-over-year. GEO Group is up 17%. Both expect their detained population — which dipped slightly during the government shutdown — to bounce back within months.

GEO Group received a new $60 million government contract to conduct "skip tracing" — finding undocumented immigrants. ICE has more than doubled its use of GEO's ankle monitoring technology. ICE is now in talks to purchase rather than lease ten detention centers. GEO's CEO said the move to buy is designed to "insulate ICE from oversight in blue states and a growing number of lawsuits."

Deaths of detainees in ICE custody have reached a record high.

Five. Courts are pushing back.

The 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 this week that immigrants arrested in the interior of the United States are entitled to bond hearings. The Trump administration had applied a border-entry statute nationwide to impose mandatory indefinite detention without any hearing. The court called the government's interpretation "overly broad." 425 district court judges — many appointed by Trump — have now rejected ICE's detention authority. A Supreme Court showdown is likely.

In Washington DC, Judge Beryl Howell issued a 45-page opinion finding ICE has violated her December order barring warrantless arrests, committing 33 documented violations. The DC Circuit separately blocked ICE's attempt to require Congress to give 7 days' notice before conducting oversight inspections at detention facilities.

Six. The legislative battleground.

287(g) agreements — which deputize local police as ICE agents — have grown 13-fold since Trump took office, from approximately 137 to 1,784 nationwide. The program is funded by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

California's Senate voted 38-0 to pass SB 941, capping commissary markups at private ICE facilities at 35% above vendor cost. Currently, corporations mark up items 300% above cost. UCLA researchers found detainee wages cover only 7.2% of their expenses.

Hawaii's legislature passed three anti-ICE bills to the governor's desk. New York is moving forward with legislation to ban 287(g) agreements and bar ICE from schools and hospitals, despite Tom Homan's threat to "flood the zone." Baltimore signed its law limiting ICE cooperation. Tucson voted unanimously to block ICE from city property.

Seven. Olivia Andre is home.

Nineteen-year-old Olivia Mabiala Andre, a nursing student from Portland, Maine, landed at the Portland Jetport just after 11 p.m. Friday after spending six months at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas. A federal judge ordered her release hours after Rep. Chellie Pingree's oversight visit. Her family and friends met her at the gate.

DHS called the judge's ruling an "activist" decision and called Olivia "an adult illegal alien with no right to remain in the United States."

She said: "When I was leaving Dilley in the morning, most of the others were crying and excited for me too because we have been there together helping each other."

The Washington Pretzel | US PoliTickle

Trump promised he would "defeat inflation." That was the centerpiece of his second campaign. Once in office, as grocery prices continued rising through 2025, he called affordability a "con job." Then in late February 2026, he launched a war in Iran. This is what has happened since.

The gas pump.

On February 26, 2026 — two days before the US-Israel attacks on Iran began — the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline in the United States was $2.98, according to AAA data.

As of May 6, the national average is $4.54 per gallon — a 52% increase. That is $1.56 more for every single gallon of gas.

The cause is direct. The Strait of Hormuz — the narrow waterway off the coast of Iran through which roughly one-fifth of the world's crude oil normally passes — has been effectively closed since the war began. Oil tankers are stranded. Supply is constrained. The International Energy Agency described the resulting disruption as the largest in the history of oil markets. Crude oil hit $112 per barrel in early April.

A brief respite came in mid-April, when prices fell daily for almost two weeks amid signs the conflict might wind down. But prices surged again, climbing 31 cents in a single week.

"Even if there was a true and lasting resolution of the conflict — both sides agree to play nice and truly do commit to keeping Hormuz open — it will still take months to get back to what it was pre-war, if not even longer," Kevin Smith of AAA said. "There will still be a risk premium associated with going through that region."

The state-by-state picture is even grimmer. California drivers are paying $6.06 per gallon — the highest in the nation. Hawaii ($5.64), Washington ($5.61), Oregon ($5.21), and Nevada ($5.15) round out the top five. Ohio has seen the largest state-level increase at $2.06 per gallon above pre-war prices; over 100 counties — mostly in Ohio and Indiana — have seen increases of $2 or more. In Kenton County, Kentucky, prices have nearly doubled. Georgia has the lowest state increase, partly because the state suspended its 33-cent gas tax in mid-March for 60 days.

Beyond gas, jet fuel prices have surged. Airlines have raised fares. Spirit Airlines has shut down.

The grocery store.

The food supply chain is energy-intensive at every step. Tractors run on diesel. Transport trucks run on diesel. Refrigeration uses electricity generated by fuel. Feed for livestock costs more when fuel costs more. Packaging and processing are both affected.

According to the Independent Grocers Alliance, fuel-related costs make up 15 to 30 percent of the total cost of food. A sustained 10-15% increase in fuel prices can lead to a 2-4% increase in retail food prices.

But there is a lag. The food supply chain typically takes three to six months to fully pass commodity and energy price shocks through to retail shelf prices. Meaning: much of the pain from the Iran war has not yet arrived at checkout.

The USDA revised its 2026 food price forecast to 3.1% growth — nearly double its January projection. Food-at-home prices are already 2.7% higher than March 2025. Beef prices in March 2026 were 12.1% above March 2025, and are forecast to increase another 6.3% over the rest of the year.

The USDA identified seven food categories expected to rise faster than their 20-year historical averages: beef and veal, fish and seafood, fresh vegetables, processed fruits and vegetables, sugar and sweets, nonalcoholic beverages, and a catch-all "other foods" category.

Fertilizer costs have risen 30-40% for some farmers since the war began. A Purdue University analysis projects that a sustained Iran war could add three to six percentage points to grocery inflation over the next 12-18 months.

The Commerce Department's March Personal Consumption Expenditure report found overall US inflation hit a monthly rate of 0.7% and an annual rate of 3.5% — a three-year high.

The bigger picture.

Michigan State food economist David Ortega noted that COVID-19, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, years of bird flu, and Trump's first-term tariffs were all shocks to the system. Each time, he said, prices went up. "Very rarely do food prices fall, and when they do, it's very short lived."

The US dollar depreciated roughly 10% from early January 2025 to the end of April 2026 — making imported goods more expensive on top of everything else.

The USDA announced $12 billion in one-time payments to farmers to help offset losses. CoBank analysts said that translates to roughly $44 per corn acre — significantly short of what many farmers need.

Trump has expressed confidence that when the war ends, gas prices will "drop like a rock." Experts say that even under the most optimistic scenario, the road back will be long. And the road forward, for now, leads to higher prices at every stop.

The Washington Pretzel | US PoliTickle

Published during Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

One. Trevor Project. 1 in 10 LGBTQ+ Youth Attempted Suicide in 2025.

On May 6, The Trevor Project released its 2025 U.S. National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ+ Young People — the seventh annual iteration, surveying more than 16,000 LGBTQ+ young people ages 13 to 24 across the United States.

The headline finding: 1 in 10 LGBTQ+ young people attempted suicide in 2025. Forty-one percent seriously considered it.

The survey covers the first full year of Trump's second administration — a period in which the federal government has amplified hostile rhetoric toward LGBTQ+ youth and no longer officially recognizes trans people at the federal level. Anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, policies, and political rhetoric are identified as a significant driver of these outcomes, not background noise.

The data on victimization is staggering. Twenty-four percent of LGBTQ+ youth reported being physically threatened or harmed in the past year due to their sexual orientation or gender identity — those youth reported triple the rate of suicide attempts compared to those who were not threatened. Sixty percent reported experiencing discrimination in the past year.

Fifteen percent were threatened with or subjected to conversion therapy. Of those who attempted suicide in the past year, 21% had been threatened with conversion therapy and 25% had been subjected to it.

And yet the data also shows, with equal clarity, what works.

LGBTQ+ youth who reported living in very accepting communities attempted suicide at less than a third of the rate of those in very unaccepting communities. Access to affirming homes, schools, community events, and online spaces was associated with lower rates of suicide attempts across every demographic group. Transgender and nonbinary youth who had all the people they live with respect their pronouns reported lower attempt rates than those who did not.

The message is not complicated: affirming spaces save lives. Anti-LGBTQ+ politics kill.

If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline). LGBTQ+ youth can also reach The Trevor Project's TrevorLifeline at 1-866-488-7386, or text START to 678-678.

Two. Botswana Formally Repealed Its Colonial-Era Anti-Gay Law in March 2026.

In March 2026, the Attorney General of Botswana published the Rectification of the Laws (Penal Code) Order, formally deleting paragraphs (a) and (c) of Section 164 of the Penal Code — the colonial-era "unnatural offences" provision that had criminalized consensual same-sex intimacy between adults with penalties of up to seven years' imprisonment.

The High Court of Botswana had declared the law unconstitutional in 2019. Judge Michael Leburu wrote at the time: "Human dignity is harmed when minority groups are marginalised." The Court of Appeal upheld the ruling in 2021. What happened in March 2026 is the formal statutory completion of what the courts began seven years ago — finally aligning the written law with constitutional reality.

LEGABIBO (Lesbians, Gays and Bisexuals of Botswana), which challenged the law with the support of the Southern Africa Litigation Center, welcomed the repeal as a clear signal that queer people "are not criminals and deserve protection."

Botswana now joins South Africa as one of Africa's most progressive nations on LGBTQ+ rights. Across the continent, decriminalization has come gradually since the 21st century began — Cape Verde in 2004, Lesotho and São Tomé and Príncipe in 2012, Mozambique in 2015, Seychelles in 2016, Angola in 2021, Mauritius in 2023, and Namibia in 2024.

The colonial powers that imposed these laws on their colonies often revised their own laws before insisting those former colonies were obligated to as well — a pointed irony that advocates and scholars have repeatedly noted.

The fight in Botswana is not over. A same-sex couple — Bonolo Selelo and Tsholofelo Kumile — is currently challenging the country's Marriage Act before the High Court, arguing it is unconstitutional to deny them the right to marry. The case is scheduled for July 14-15, 2026 before a full bench.

As the CEO of LEGABIBO, Nozizwe, wrote: "Lorato ke lorato. Love is love."

Three. Denver Just Got Its First LGBTQIA+-Affirming Intensive Outpatient Program.

On May 7, 2026, Guidelight Health launched Prism — a specially developed LGBTQIA+-affirming Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) for adults in Denver, Colorado. The program is now available at Guidelight's Central Park and Cherry Creek clinics, with additional Colorado locations planned.

The timing is not incidental. The Trevor Project's survey, released the day before, documents the crisis in clinical terms. Prism is a response to that crisis on the ground.

The program is led by LGBTQIA+-affirming licensed clinicians and addresses identity and self-expression, gender affirmation, anxiety, depression, trauma recovery, emotional regulation, and relationship patterns. Average length of stay is approximately four weeks; the program combines individual and group therapy in a trauma-informed environment. Most clients can be assessed within days of referral.

Guidelight also operates in Massachusetts, North Carolina, and California. To reach Prism: (720) 730-2523 or guidelighthealth.com/prism.

The Washington Pretzel | US PoliTickle

May is Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. It is a month designated to celebrate the contributions, cultures, and histories of communities that span the Pacific, Southeast Asia, East Asia, the Indian subcontinent, and the Pacific Islands. It is a month when American institutions post graphics and issue statements about diversity, belonging, and the richness that immigrant communities bring to this country.

This is also what is happening this week.

One. Portland, Maine. Olivia Mabiala Andre, 19. Six months. Ordered released. No lawful basis.

Olivia Andre is a 19-year-old nursing student from Portland, Maine. Her family is originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In November 2025, Olivia, her mother Carine Balenda Mbizi, and her two younger siblings were detained at the port of entry in Champlain, New York, after they attempted to seek asylum in Canada.

All four were taken to the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Dilley, Texas. In March 2026, after four months in custody, the mother and two younger siblings were released — protected by the Flores Settlement Agreement, which limits how long minors can be held in federal immigration detention. Olivia, now 19, was kept.

She was separated from her family. She lost 20 pounds. She did not have access to clean drinking water. ICE said she had a final order of removal and "no right to remain in the U.S." They never explained why the rest of the family was freed and she was not.

On May 6, 2026, a federal district court judge ordered ICE to release her by no later than May 8. Her lawyer, Elora Mukherjee: "The federal court ordered her release because the Trump administration had no lawful basis for detaining her. Olivia and her family should never have been detained."

Rep. Chellie Pingree, who traveled to Dilley this week to visit Olivia and demand her release: "Olivia's release is a testament to the power of public pressure, persistent advocacy, and the simple truth that no one seeking safety should be subjected to this kind of needless cruelty."

Olivia is going home to Maine.

Two. Franklin Park, Illinois. Silverio Villegas-González, 38. Shot in the neck by ICE. Dead. Eight months of silence.

On September 12, 2025 — just days after the Trump administration launched Operation Midway Blitz, its mass deportation campaign targeting the Chicago area — Silverio Villegas-González dropped his two children off at school and daycare. Shortly after, ICE agents pulled him over in Franklin Park, a near-west suburb of Chicago. In the altercation that followed, an ICE agent shot him in the neck. He died.

DHS issued a public statement claiming Silverio had tried to ram agents with his car, that the agent who fired had been dragged "a significant distance," and had suffered "severe injuries." Two weeks later, body cam footage obtained from the Franklin Park Police Department through a FOIA request told a different story. On the footage, the agent described his own injuries as "nothing major" — a minor knee injury and some lacerations to his hands.

The FBI was designated the "primary investigating agency." Eight months later — as of May 6, 2026 — the FBI has not released any public findings.

That same week, the Illinois Accountability Commission, a state panel appointed by Governor Pritzker, released a 204-page report on Operation Midway Blitz that found federal agents engaged in "extreme physical force," "routinely lied to the public," and "created an environment of occupation that terrorized immigrants." On the killing of Silverio Villegas-González specifically, the commission determined there was "reasonable cause to believe that federal agents shot and killed Villegas González without apparent justification."

Following the report's release, Franklin Park Police asked the Illinois State Police's Public Integrity Task Force to open an investigation. ISP confirmed the probe on May 6.

DHS's response: "This is nothing more than a political stunt by Illinois sanctuary politicians. Federal officers acting in the course of their duties can only be investigated by other Federal agencies. The states do not have the authority to run an investigation."

The agent who shot Silverio Villegas-González has been an ICE officer since 2021. It was the first time he had fired his weapon in a use-of-force incident.

Franklin Park Mayor Barrett Pedersen: "As of today, we still have not received the results of their investigation from either the FBI or DHS."

Three. Youngstown, Ohio. One thousand flights. Hidden in plain sight.

Far from the southern border, far from the coastal cities that dominate immigration headlines, Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport in Northeast Ohio has been operating as a major ICE deportation hub — largely out of public view.

A WKYC 3News investigation independently verified more than 1,000 ICE flights through Youngstown from April 2025 through the first quarter of 2026: 514 outbound deportation flights, 522 arrivals. At Mahoning County jail, 2,572 ICE detainees were booked between April 2025 and April 2026 — some processed in hours, others held for months.

Almost every day, at least one group of detainees is transported through the airport. Hands shackled. Feet shackled. Loaded onto planes. Flown across the country and then out of it.

Human rights advocate Chris Harris, who has been tracking and photographing the flights for more than a year: "It's demoralizing. It's so sad."

Jennifer Phamakao, whose husband was deported through the Youngstown pipeline: "They just said we're going to detain you. They wouldn't give us anything. They just said we're going to detain you. And they took everything… That was the last time I've—"

The Washington Pretzel | US PoliTickle

Between April 19 and May 5, 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement quietly sent an email directive to hundreds of participating law enforcement agencies across Florida and Texas. The directive — never publicly announced by ICE — told local police departments and sheriff's offices that any information generated through their immigration enforcement partnerships is now "under the control of ICE" and cannot be released to the public without federal approval.

The memo was obtained by investigative journalist Monique O. Madan through The Florida Trib and her newsletter, Two Can Be True. Multiple law enforcement agencies confirmed receiving it but would not release it to reporters, citing — somewhat recursively — the very directive that had instructed them to seek federal clearance before doing so.

What the memo says.

The directive is specific about its reach. It covers press conferences. It covers press releases. It covers media ride-alongs. It covers social media posts. And it covers responses to public records requests — including Florida's Sunshine Law, which is one of the strongest open government frameworks in the country.

"If your agency receives FOIA requests, Sunshine Law requests, or other similar requests," the memo states, "you should immediately consult with the ICE FOIA office… or your local Field Office Director."

In practice, this means a Florida resident asking their local sheriff how many officers have been deputized by ICE, or how many immigration arrests have been made in their community, may be told: we have to check with the federal government before answering.

Why this is legally contested.

Florida law presumes that government records are public unless a specific statutory exemption applies. Federal agencies cannot override state public records laws simply by issuing internal memos.

Adam Marshall, director of national litigation at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, was direct: "The general rule is that state entities cannot contract out of their obligations under state public records laws. If a state entity is refusing to respond to a records request simply by citing a DHS policy, I do not think that is going to pass legal muster."

The problem, he noted, is what happens in the meantime. Agencies delay. Requests get closed out. And the financial and legal consequences of litigation fall on local taxpayers.

Lauren Harper of the Freedom of the Press Foundation called it "a prime example of ICE-ification of local records" and noted that ICE's stated excuse — limited funding during the partial government shutdown — makes no sense given the recent $70 billion spending surge for immigration enforcement. She described it as a "deliberate policy decision, not a resource constraint."

The numbers are already staggering.

The Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office — one of the largest law enforcement agencies in the United States — surged from approximately 100 ICE-certified officers to 971 in under four months. When Two Can Be True sought records to document that expansion, the department responded with a $48,394 cost estimate to fulfill the request. The department then ignored messages aimed at narrowing the scope and closed the request out entirely.

Florida as a whole now has 345 local ICE enforcement agreements — second only to Texas, which has 376. Nationally, there are 1,744 such agreements, and the number grows nearly every day.

What the former ICE director says.

John Sandweg, who served as acting ICE director from 2013 to 2014, reviewed the memo and described it as "unusual." He said he could not identify any operational justification.

"I can't think of any operational reason why the department would assert control over any data," he said. "There are no law enforcement safety reasons or operational security reasons why you would need to keep that data confidential."

He added: "Generalized restrictions of data can increase the risk of wrongdoing. Transparency is an important tool toward combating misconduct."

The human cost.

For those caught inside the enforcement machinery, the secrecy compounds existing fear.

An undocumented South American woman in her 40s, identified only as Carla because she fears detention, follows immigration enforcement news closely. Several of her friends have been deported after routine traffic stops. The idea that those encounters — and the rules governing them — are now harder to scrutinize hits close to home.

"It makes me feel more invisible. More vulnerable, like I could just slip through the cracks and nobody would ever know," she said in Spanish.

Immigration attorney Katie Blankenship of Sanctuary of the South said her firm has clients who were picked up by Florida law enforcement "without due process, never charged, and with no paper trail, but were taken to jail and held for ICE to pick up."

She described the directive as "as unconstitutional as it gets."

Carla grew up in Venezuela, she said, where information was controlled and the media could not be trusted. She moved to the United States in part because she believed it was different here.

"In the U.S., the media is here to protect us," she said. "There are laws that are supposed to protect that freedom. That's what makes people like me feel safe."

Without that, she said: "It's hard not to spiral."

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On the morning of February 25, 2026, the Gámez-Cuéllar family drove to their scheduled immigration check-in in McAllen, Texas. They did what the system asked of them. They showed up.

ICE detained all of them.

Antonio, eighteen years old. Caleb, fourteen. Joshua, twelve. Their parents. All taken. Antonio was separated from his family and transported to a facility in Raymondville. Caleb and Joshua went with their parents to the South Texas Residential Center in Dilley — the same detention center that has appeared in headlines throughout this administration's immigration crackdown.

The family had come to the United States in 2023. They had fled cartel violence in Mexico. They applied for asylum. They settled in McAllen. They followed every rule and honored every requirement the immigration system placed on them. They showed up.

ICE took them anyway.

Who they are.

Antonio and Caleb Gámez-Cuéllar are members of Mariachi Oro, the mariachi ensemble at McAllen High School. The group is not a casual school club. Mariachi Oro has won the state championship eight times. It has performed at Carnegie Hall in New York City. It has performed at the US Capitol in Washington, DC. Antonio Gámez-Cuéllar is recognized as the top mariachi trumpet player in the entire state of Texas.

Joshua, the youngest, is twelve.

All three will perform together as The Mariachi Brothers.

The release. The invitation.

The family's detention sparked immediate and widespread outrage, locally and nationally. They were released in early March.

About two weeks after their release, Kacey Musgraves reached out.

Musgraves — a Grammy-winning country artist, a Texas native, and a vocal critic of the Trump administration — was preparing to release her new album, Middle of Nowhere, and to launch a supporting tour. She had been speaking publicly about her desire to honor Mexican culture and its influence on her music and her identity.

"In this modern time that we're in, I really want to go an extra mile to really show the Mexican culture that I really deeply appreciate it, that I see it, and that it matters," she told NPR in March. "And that it's ultimately, in ways that I wasn't even aware of, influenced me as a person, who I am and the music that I make today."

She invited the Gámez-Cuéllar brothers to open three shows on her tour. She announced the booking on Instagram, putting them on the poster. Official. Public. Deliberate.

The shows.

Gruene Hall, New Braunfels, Texas. One of the oldest continuously operating dance halls in the state. May 3rd. May 4th. May 5th. All three shows sold out. The final performance falls on Cinco de Mayo.

Antonio Gámez-Cuéllar put it simply: "Me and Caleb, we already have gone to Carnegie Hall in New York City and the Capitol in Washington, D.C. But this is something else. It's another one that we can add to our collection, but it's one of the biggest ones that we ever played."

Caleb: "I feel so grateful for her and God for this opportunity that they have given me, given us, me and my brothers and my family."

What they want people to understand.

Beyond the music, the brothers said they hope their story encourages other immigrant families and young musicians facing adversity.

Antonio, on those who have criticized them: "I think that most of the people that is criticizing us — it's because they don't look at us like as humans."

Representative Vicente Gonzalez, Democrat of McAllen, said in a statement: "Let's not forget that this family followed the law and did everything it asked of them. They should have never been detained in the first place, and their situation speaks to the grave injustices this Administration is inflicting on families in South Texas and across the country."

Three brothers. A guitar. A trumpet. A violin. Gruene Hall. A sold-out crowd. The last show on Cinco de Mayo.

ICE detained them. Kacey Musgraves put them on her stage.

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Denny Adan Gonzalez was 33 years old. He was a Cuban national. He died on April 28, 2026 at the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, while in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

ICE says the suspected cause of death is suicide. The official cause remains under investigation.

He was found unresponsive in his cell at approximately 10:25 p.m. by staff employed by CoreCivic — the private, for-profit company that operates Stewart under contract with the federal government. CoreCivic employees began CPR. Webster County Emergency Medical Services arrived and continued resuscitation efforts. At 11:11 p.m., Denny Adan Gonzalez was pronounced dead.

ICE notified the Department of Homeland Security, the DHS Office of Inspector General, the ICE Office of Professional Responsibility, the Embassy of Cuba, and Gonzalez's next of kin.

Who he was. How he got there.

Gonzalez first entered the United States in May 2019, near Hidalgo, Texas. He was apprehended by US Customs and Border Protection and deemed inadmissible. He went through a credible fear screening. He was issued a Notice to Appear and ordered removed to Cuba by an immigration judge in December 2019. He was deported in January 2020.

He came back.

He was encountered by US Border Patrol in El Paso, Texas in April 2022. He was released under an order of supervision.

After that, he did what the immigration system asked of him. He reported regularly to ICE in Charlotte, North Carolina. Month after month. Until September 2025.

On December 12, 2025, he was arrested by the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office on charges of assault on a female and domestic violence. ICE lodged a detainer. He was transferred to Stewart Detention Center in January 2026.

He had been there roughly three months when he died.

Stewart Detention Center. CoreCivic.

Stewart Detention Center is not a government-run facility. It is operated by CoreCivic — one of the largest for-profit private prison companies in the United States, paid by the federal government on a per-detainee basis. The more people locked inside, the more money CoreCivic makes.

The facility has a documented history of complaints about conditions, inadequate medical care, and the treatment of people in its custody. It is one of the largest immigration detention centers in the country, located in a rural Georgia county far from most legal resources and family connections.

ICE states that individuals in its custody receive medical, dental, and mental health screenings within 12 hours of arrival, followed by a full health assessment within 14 days. ICE maintains it is committed to "safe, secure, and humane conditions" for all individuals in its custody.

Denny Adan Gonzalez was found unresponsive in his cell.

The number.

Through March 2026, 46 people had died in ICE custody — the highest figure in twenty years, according to a KFF report. That number was already a record before April ended.

Denny Adan Gonzalez is number 47.

His death will be reported to Congress within 90 days, as required by the DHS Appropriations Act of 2018. A public notice will be issued. The investigation will continue.

And the detention centers will keep running.

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One. Consumer sentiment hit an all-time low.

The University of Michigan's April consumer sentiment index came in at 49.8 — the lowest reading since the survey began in 1952. That number is worse than every recession in the post-war era, worse than the stagflation of the 1970s, worse than the original Iran crisis, worse than 1987, worse than the Gulf Wars, worse than the dot-com bust, worse than the 2008 financial crisis, and worse than COVID.

The decline is "pervasive across political party, income, age, and education."

And yet the actual economic data shows no comparable distress. Real GDP grew 2% last year. Unemployment is 4.3%. One independent analyst's summary: "A lot of noise, little effect."

Two. Meta. Microsoft. Oracle. Snap. They're cutting because they won't need those workers.

Meta is cutting 8,000 jobs — 10% of its workforce — starting May 20, while quietly shelving 6,000 open positions. True headcount reduction: closer to 14,000. Microsoft confirmed voluntary buyouts for approximately 8,750 employees — the first such program in the company's 51-year history. Oracle is cutting around 10,000 positions, with analysts warning the number could reach 30,000; the company is carrying $100 billion in debt from its $300 billion OpenAI data center deal. Snap cut 1,000 employees (16% of full-time staff) — AI now generates over 65% of all its new code.

These are not distressed companies. They are profitable. They are cutting because they believe they will not need those people going forward. That's what's unsettling workers who are watching from the sidelines.

Eighty tech companies cut 71,440 jobs so far this year.

Three. March added 178,000 jobs — but 396,000 people left the labor force.

The March jobs report came in at three times what economists expected, reversing February's loss of 133,000. Healthcare led (+76,400, boosted by the return of Kaiser Permanente strikers). Construction and transportation also contributed.

But 396,000 people dropped out of the labor force entirely in March — meaning fewer people were competing for jobs, which is partly why the unemployment rate ticked down. The labor force participation rate fell to 61.9%, the lowest since November 2021.

Wages grew just 0.2% monthly and 3.5% annually — the smallest annual gain since May 2021.

The full-year 2025 monthly average: 9,700 new jobs. The weakest hiring trend outside a recession since 2002.

Four. Forty-three percent of college graduates are underemployed.

As of December 2025, nearly 43% of US graduates age 22-27 were working jobs that don't require their degree — the highest rate since the pandemic, per the New York Federal Reserve. Entry-level job postings made up just 38.6% of all postings in March, down from 44% in 2023. Applications per opening rose nearly 22% year over year.

From 2004 to 2024, college completions rose 54% while entry-level jobs grew just 42%. Computer science graduates soared 110%; entry-level CS openings grew just 6%. Healthcare is a bright spot with nearly 1.9 million entry-level openings — but college completions in health-related fields grew only 5%.

Twenty-nine percent of workers are actively sabotaging their company's AI rollout. Among Gen Z workers, that number jumps to 44%.

Five. Legal immigration is being gutted. The last US population decline was 1918.

Travel bans cover nationals of 39 countries. Permanent visa issuance is suspended for 75 countries (46% of all immigrant visas issued in FY2024). Refugee admissions: 3,664 between February 2025 and February 2026 — down from 100,034 in FY2024. Student visa issuance fell nearly in half. The diversity visa lottery is suspended. The H-1B application fee is now $100,000. H-1B holders from India expecting to renew their visas found their appointments pushed to spring 2027 — some are stranded, separated from their families.

Without immigration, US natural population growth is roughly 500,000 per year and falling toward zero. A major drop in legal immigration could tip the country into population decline as soon as this year.

The last time the US population declined was 1918, when World War I and the influenza pandemic coincided.

Six. The federal workforce is 12 percent smaller than it was in 2024.

272,000 federal workers are gone since Trump took office. The federal workforce is 12% smaller than it was when 2.3 million people held US government jobs. In the Philadelphia metro area alone, 3,906 federal jobs were lost — a 16.7% decline. Treasury, the VA, and Social Security accounted for 61% of regional losses. Across Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, roughly 8,300 federal jobs were cut. No agency with 50 or more employees saw its headcount increase.

DOGE's verdict from independent analysts: it didn't actually save much money. Which raises the question of what its main purpose was.

Seven. Half of workers are using substances to cope. ICE fear is a cited cause.

Fifty-three percent of employees report being stressed at work. Fifty percent use substances — alcohol, cannabis, nicotine, or others — after work to recover from the day. Thirty percent use before they start work. Eighty-four percent say money problems affect their substance use decisions.

ICE fears and lack of affordable healthcare are also cited as stress factors — not just economic uncertainty.

Thirty-nine percent of employees have cried at work at least once. Nearly half of those who have cried cite fear of losing their job as the reason.

Eight. Steel tariffs: 3,200 jobs in. 75,000 out. Today's tariffs are double.

In Trump's first term, steel tariffs at 25% added 3,200 jobs in the steel industry while eliminating an estimated 75,000 jobs in industries that buy and use steel. Ford and GM each reported over $1 billion in additional operating costs.

Today's steel tariffs are 50%. There are 80 workers in steel-consuming industries for every steelworker. The US-born worker unemployment rate: 4.3%. Unchanged from January 2025. Wage growth has slowed, especially in industries that historically relied on immigrant labor.

The promise was that the crackdown would free up jobs and raise wages. Neither has happened.

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One. The pastor who called Heartstopper "grooming" pleaded guilty to child sex crimes.

In 2023, Silas Shelton stood at a Little Miami School District board meeting and delivered a passionate, viral rant against Alice Oseman's graphic novel series Heartstopper at a school book fair. He said he didn't think "kids should ever question their sexuality." He warned the books were grooming children. The school district temporarily halted book fairs and restricted future ones.

On April 20, 2026, Shelton pleaded guilty to three counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor and one count of menacing by stalking.

The victim was 14 years old when the abuse began in September 2019. He had met her through his church and his son. He offered her a job at his construction business and picked her up most weekdays when her parents were not home. The abuse occurred at his home, at Cowan Lake, and in hotel rooms at the Holiday Inn. In 2025, nearly six years after last contact, he began harassing her at her workplace.

The original indictment included rape, arson, and 12 counts total. He faces up to 15 years. He will be a Tier II sex offender for 25 years if sentenced to prison.

He is scheduled to be sentenced on June 22.

The books did not groom anyone. He did.

Two. The EU court struck Hungary's LGBTQ media ban.

The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that Hungary's 2021 law banning LGBTQ content in schools and primetime television violates EU law and must be repealed. This is the first time in EU history that a member state has been found in violation of Article 2 of the EU Treaty — the clause establishing the union's foundational values of human dignity, freedom, equality, and respect for minorities.

The court: the law is "contrary to the very identity of the Union."

Viktor Orbán, who championed the law as an "anti-pedophilia" measure, was voted out of office earlier this month. His successor, Péter Magyar, campaigned on closer EU alignment. Compliance with this ruling — and the potential repeal of Hungary's other anti-LGBTQ laws — is now directly tied to Hungary regaining access to billions in EU funding that were frozen over these violations.

Magyar has made no specific promises on LGBTQ rights. He now has a financial reason to act.

Three. 2,000 New Yorkers re-raised the Pride flag at Stonewall.

On Monday, the National Park Service removed the Pride flag from the Stonewall National Monument — the first national monument to honor the LGBTQ rights movement — in compliance with a January Trump administration guidance requiring only the US flag on NPS flagpoles.

On Thursday, more than 2,000 people gathered in Christopher Park, across from the Stonewall Inn, to watch the flag be restored. New York City Mayor Mamdani, Manhattan Borough President Hoylman-Sigal, and state Sen. Bottcher organized the event. The NYC Council passed a resolution urging Congress to respect the monument's history. The original 8-stripe Gilbert Baker Pride flag was raised.

The US Department of the Interior called it a "political stunt" and a "distraction."

A New Yorker watching the ceremony: "They're probably gonna take it down again, maybe. But it'll just go back up."

Four. Trans golfer Hailey Davidson is suing the USGA and LPGA.

Davidson filed suit in New Jersey alleging that the USGA and LPGA used her medical records to craft a policy specifically designed to ban her from competing. The policy, announced in late 2024, prohibits trans women who went through "male puberty" from elite women's competitions. Davidson alleges the organizations "preyed on Hailey's love of the game and desire to play" to get the medical information they needed to exclude her.

She is the first trans woman to win a professional golf tournament, taking a May 2021 mini-tour event. She is separately suing the NXXT Women's Pro Golf Tour for changing its eligibility rules mid-season while she was ranked second in the Player of the Year standings.

Five. Boston LGBTQ migrant group received death threats over a $7,500 wellness grant.

OUTnewcomers, a Boston grassroots group supporting LGBTQ migrants, received death threats and threats to report staff to ICE after right-wing media framed their planned "Belonging Matters" program — which would have offered $250-$500 need-based allowances for yoga, peer support, gym memberships, and similar non-clinical mental health services — as "spa perks for migrants." The story went national. Organizers paused the program and returned the city grant. No funds had been spent. The city confirmed the award was for community mental health work.

Six. A UK LGBTQ nightclub was set on fire.

Pink Punters, a 20-year-old LGBTQ nightclub in Milton Keynes, UK, caught fire around 2am on April 26 while a large crowd was inside. Twelve fire crews responded. Everyone was evacuated safely. No injuries. A 51-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of arson with intent to endanger life.

Police stated it was too early to comment on motivation and asked the public not to speculate. We are reporting what has been confirmed. Hate crime motivation has not been officially established.

Seven. The NYC subway gay hate crime suspect spent three months on the loose. A fare evasion stop caught him.

In January, a man on the L train in Brooklyn called a 24-year-old man a homophobic slur, followed him off the train at the Lorimer Street station in Williamsburg, displayed a knife, and struck his head and body. The suspect — Yeshayahu Carraway, 41 — fled and was not caught for three months.

On April 17, transit police stopped Carraway at a Bronx station for fare evasion. They recognized him from the earlier assault. He was found with illegal drugs. He has a prior criminal record including a 2013 domestic violence charge.

Eight. Royce White defended Jaden Ivey with homophobic slurs. He is running for Congress.

Former NBA player Royce White posted to X in support of Jaden Ivey — who was cut by the Chicago Bulls after anti-LGBTQ social media posts — using explicit homophobic language. White acknowledged he was seeking votes for his congressional campaign in November's midterms.

Nine. Meryl Streep.

In an interview with Out magazine about the upcoming Devil Wears Prada 2, Meryl Streep said: "Would we have fashion without gay people? Forgive me, would we have anything? I wouldn't know how to put together anything." She said the film was made "with [the LGBTQ+ community] in mind. Top of mind."

After everything else in this roundup, she gets the last word.

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One. An ICE agent was charged with assault.

Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr. is the first federal agent to be criminally charged for conduct during Operation Metro Surge, the Trump administration's 10-week immigration crackdown in Minneapolis. On February 5, Morgan was driving on the shoulder of a state highway in a rented, unmarked SUV with no ICE markings — apparently bypassing slower traffic. When another vehicle moved into the shoulder to slow him down, Morgan matched its pace, opened his window, and pointed his duty weapon directly at the driver and passenger.

Two counts of second-degree assault. A nationwide warrant.

Hennepin County prosecutor Mary Moriarty: "We will not rest until accountability is delivered wherever appropriate." The killings of US citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti during Operation Metro Surge remain under investigation.

Two. Arizona is suing over an ICE detention warehouse built next to a chemical plant.

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes filed suit against DHS and ICE to block a 418,400-square-foot warehouse in Surprise, Arizona from becoming a detention facility housing 500 to 1,500 people. ICE purchased the building for $70 million in January 2026. A $313 million contract was awarded to GardaWorld Federal Services without public bidding and without the environmental review required by the National Environmental Policy Act.

The warehouse sits directly across the street from a facility storing thousands of gallons of hazardous chemicals used in semiconductor manufacturing. It is approximately one mile from two schools. It lacks adequate water, sewage, and HVAC infrastructure.

Mayes: "The Trump administration is not exempt from following the law."

Three. Camp East Montana: one detainee killed, 49 violations, and a new contractor with 112 of its own.

Camp East Montana, the hastily built tent farm on Fort Bliss in El Paso capable of holding 5,000 people, has had three detainees die. One of those deaths was ruled a homicide by a local medical examiner — guards attempting to stop a suicide attempt killed the man. A government inspection found 49 violations of national detention standards.

DHS replaced the original contractor, Acquisition Logistics — which listed a home address as its headquarters — by awarding the contract to Amentum Services, without any public bidding. Amentum's various companies carry 112 federal regulatory violations, including a 2024 fatal workplace accident and a 2023 OSHA citation for exposing workers to toxic vapors at CIA headquarters. The company has no experience running a civilian detention camp.

DHS called it an upgrade.

Four. ICE is using AI to track more than one million immigrants. GEO Group profits from finding them and then jailing them.

ICE contractors receive up to 50,000 names per month with instructions to locate the individuals as quickly as possible — a practice called skip tracing. The American Immigration Council describes the operation as "a massive AI-assisted surveillance system targeting more than one million immigrants." Contractors photograph homes and workplaces and receive speed bonuses for fast verification.

One contractor, BI Inc., is a subsidiary of the GEO Group — the for-profit prison company that also operates ICE detention facilities. GEO Group profits from locating the immigrants and then jailing them.

Five. Pennsylvania's ICE police partnerships surged 70 percent. ICE is now paying the officers.

Seventy-eight local police agencies in Pennsylvania now cooperate with ICE — up from 45, a more than 70% increase. Seventy-four of those agreements are the most expansive type, authorizing local officers to conduct immigration enforcement during routine patrols. ICE now pays participating officers: up to 25% of salary and benefits, plus $1,000 quarterly bonuses. Under Biden, these partnerships nationally produced 261 monthly arrests. Under Trump, the monthly average is 1,422 — five times higher.

Six. A Brazilian father was reunited with his daughter after two months in ICE detention. She has cancer.

Bruno Guedes da Silva was held at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center for two months on a firearms charge — allegedly lying about his immigration status when he tried to buy a handgun. He was told his paperwork was legal. He was denied the gun and didn't know he had a warrant. The Allegheny County District Attorney dropped the charges last week. A judge released him on $5,000 bond Tuesday.

He went directly to the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, where his six-year-old daughter Maria Paula is being treated for Hodgkin's lymphoma. A GoFundMe has raised more than $101,000.

Seven. San Francisco wants a law after an ICE arrest went viral at SFO.

A mother was detained at San Francisco International Airport by two plain-clothed agents. Her nine-year-old daughter stood watching, sobbing. Bystanders asked to see the agents' credentials. The agents did not comply. SF Supervisors Bilal Mahmood and Chyanne Chen are now proposing legislation that would require police to request credential verification from federal agents and capture the attempt on body camera.

Eight. 46 deaths. A 20-year high.

Forty-six people have died in ICE custody through March 2026, the highest figure in twenty years according to a KFF report. Thirty-two died in all of 2025. Three-quarters of those detained in the past year had no criminal conviction. Student absences jumped 22% in California's Central Valley during ICE surges. Test scores fell for Spanish-speaking students in Florida. The American Academy of Pediatrics issued guidance to help parents talk to children about immigration enforcement.

Nine. Berks County, Pennsylvania: 75 empty shoes for 75 people taken.

Seventy-five pairs of shoes were placed along the altar at a church in Reading, Pennsylvania — one for each person handed from Berks County Jail to ICE between March 2025 and March 2026. One of those people: Carlos Gonzalo Zhunio, who tried to buy a gun to protect his family's chicken coop from predators. He has been married for decades. Three of his children are US citizens. He has paid taxes. He operates his own business. He has been shuffled between Pennsylvania, Texas, and Louisiana.

His wife Gladis Garzon wrote to Governor Shapiro: "What hurts most is not the financial strain. It's the silence left by his absence."

Ten and Eleven. Two more.

The Greene County, Missouri, jail — which houses 175 ICE detainees and has received 3,000 people for ICE since June 2025 — is blocking community oversight visits that ICE's own detention standards require. A 21-year-old woman is being held using an expired status number despite having valid current documentation.

ICE's smart glasses program (biometric AR for agents, targeting a 2027 deployment) is still in development — while agents in six states are already using unauthorized Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses during operations, with no retention policies and no oversight.

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One. Trump used "gay" as a weapon against an enemy.

On Fox News, Trump said the CIA told him Iran's new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is gay — and used it as a taunt. "Which puts him off to a bad start in that particular country."

Iran executes LGBTQ people. Same-sex activity is criminalized. There are no legal protections. The country that Trump is using this information to mock is the same country that throws people off buildings for being gay.

Trump then pivoted to boasting that he "polled very well" with the LGBTQ community and called YMCA "the gay national anthem."

NBC News exit polls showed Kamala Harris led Trump 86% to 12% among LGBTQ voters in 2024.

The man who uses gay identity as a slur against enemies is the same man who has spent his second term gutting every legal protection LGBTQ Americans have.

Two. The Supreme Court wiped out conversion therapy bans in twenty-plus states.

The Supreme Court ruled 8-1 that Colorado's ban on conversion therapy for minors violates free speech rights. The decision is expected to render similar laws in more than twenty states legally unenforceable. Medical boards and civil litigants may still be able to challenge the practice as malpractice or fraud, but the legislative protection is gone.

Three. The Supreme Court will also decide whether religious preschools can turn away children of LGBTQ parents.

The Court agreed to hear St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy, a challenge to Colorado's universal preschool program requiring participating providers — including religious schools — to follow nondiscrimination rules covering sexual orientation and gender identity. Arguments in October. Decision by June 2027.

Mardi Moore, Rocky Mountain Equality: "When a preschool uses taxpayer funding to turn away a four-year-old because of who their parents love, it isn't exercising religious freedom. It's using public money to teach discrimination."

Four. The ACLU and NAACP issued a travel advisory for LGBTQ World Cup fans.

Less than two months before the 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off in the United States, the ACLU, NAACP, and dozens of allied organizations warned LGBTQ visitors, immigrants, and racial and ethnic minorities to exercise caution and have an emergency contingency plan. Approximately 1,000 arrests per day were carried out in the six weeks following the ICE killing of Minneapolis resident Alex Pretti in January; 42% of those detained had no prior criminal record. FIFA has issued boilerplate responses. The White House has said nothing specific.

The United States is also hosting the 2028 Summer Olympics and the 2034 Winter Games.

Five. A gay Canadian model was banned from the United States for ten years. No crime.

Milo Miles arrived at Toronto Pearson Airport on January 20 to travel to the GayVN Awards in Las Vegas — he had six nominations. He is a NEXUS member with no criminal record who had crossed the border many times before. He was pulled into secondary screening, subjected to eight hours of interrogation that fixated on his sexual orientation, had his medications questioned because CBP agents didn't know what PrEP was, and was asked about his "gay clothes."

After missing his flight and returning the following day, he was detained for another six hours — without food, a standard documented coercion tactic per Maggie's Toronto, a sex worker justice organization. CBP found escort text messages on a second phone, pressured him into confessing to their definition of "prostitution," and banned him from the United States for ten years.

His advice: "Avoid the United States at all costs."

Six. Brazil's trans congresswoman refuses to enter the United States.

Erika Hilton, one of Brazil's first out trans elected officials and chair of the Chamber's Commission on the Defense of Women's Rights, will not travel to the US while Trump is in power. In April 2025, she received a US visa listing her gender as "male." She canceled her Harvard/MIT trip.

"When a government with the reach and power of the United States uses state institutions to roll back rights, it creates a ripple effect that fuels violence worldwide."

Brazil is the deadliest country in the world for trans people. Hilton says Trump's rhetoric has directly inspired far-right attacks on trans Brazilians.

Seven. Buttigieg on Trump's Iran threat: "gradual, then suddenly."

Pete Buttigieg appeared on Morning Joe to discuss Trump's post declaring "A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again" — directed at Iran. He quoted Hemingway's description of going bankrupt — "gradually, then suddenly" — and applied it to Trump's mental decline since 2015.

"For the leader of the free world to make a nakedly genocidal threat against another civilization, as if the United States of America was a death star that was going around blowing up civilizations — of course that crosses a new line. Long after he has departed the scene, the collapse in trust — not just affection, but trust in the United States — the whole country is being judged, even though most Americans don't support him anyway."

Eight. A volleyball announcer said a gay athlete should be punched.

During a Cal State Northridge/UC-Irvine broadcast, announcer Charlie Brande said gay volleyball player Jordan Lucas "hasn't been popped by somebody" — referring to his celebrations after good plays. Lucas is one of CSUN's top performers: second-most kills on the team, 90%+ serve percentage, nationally ranked in the top 25.

Brande apologized. Coach Arielle Houlihan called the comment a hate crime suggestion. Lucas confirmed he is gay and declined further comment.

Nine. The Chicago Bulls cut Jaden Ivey.

The Bulls released guard Jaden Ivey, 24, after he posted Instagram videos calling NBA Pride Night celebrations "unrighteous." Ivey had just joined the team in a three-team trade from Detroit and Minnesota. He had been openly religious in the locker room throughout his career. The team did not comment on the reasons publicly. Online debate followed.

Ten through Thirteen. Briefly.

NYC Mayor Mamdani appointed Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz — Black, lesbian, 20-year coordinator of the Lesbian Herstory Archives — as Commissioner of the city's Department of Records and Information Services. Pope Leo XIV ruled out changes to the Church's LGBTQ doctrine "at least in the near future," while affirming that "Todos, todos" — everyone — is welcome. A gay Bolivian man who fled his country after being assaulted for his sexuality, who has valid US work authorization and a pending asylum application, remains in an ICE detention facility in Virginia anyway.

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