Beyond the Border: An ICE killing in Minnesota, a blocked documentary and efforts to fight back
Here's what happened during the change from 2025 to 2026 in immigration news.
Written by Kate Morrissey, Edited by Lauren J. Mapp and Maya Srikrishnan
Hello and welcome to a new Daylight San Diego offering from me, your friendly, neighborhood immigration reporter. I've been writing these news roundups for my Substack newsletter Beyond the Border, and we've decided to publish them here as well. You can expect a weekly summary of what has happened across the country in immigration news. Most will not be as long as this, but there's a lot to catch up on since the holiday break.
If you have any comments, questions or feedback, please contact kate@daylightsandiego.org or message me on Instagram.
— Kate Morrissey
A killing in Minnesota
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a woman on Wednesday morning in Minneapolis. The Department of Homeland Security confirmed the killing on X and claimed the officer fired in self-defense, but video footage of the incident has caused many to question that claim. Sahan Journal, which covers immigrants and communities of color in Minnesota, had a photographer present at the scene and spoke with witnesses.
The woman's mother identified her to The Minnesota Star Tribune as Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother and poet. According to the newspaper, she leaves behind three children, including a 6-year-old son whose father died in 2023.
The fatal shooting prompted demonstrations across the country, including one in downtown San Diego on Wednesday night.
The Minnesota Star Tribune identified the shooter as ICE officer Jonathan Ross.
The news reminded me of Valeria Tachiquín, a 32-year-old U.S. citizen and mother, whom a Border Patrol agent shot and killed while she was in her car in Chula Vista in 2012. In that case, local journalists found signs of a cover-up by the agency. The current head of Customs and Border Protection, Rodney Scott, was deputy chief of the San Diego sector at the time.
The Marshall Project looked at other incidents of deadly force from immigration officials.
Updates on immigration enforcement activity
ICE has hired bounty hunters from a subsidiary of private prison company GEO Group to track down immigrants for detention and deportation, The Intercept reported. In a follow-up, the outlet identified 10 companies making money from such contracts.
ICE arrested a U.S. citizen woman in Maryland and held her in custody in Louisiana before transferring her to Texas, according to CBS News.
KPBS reported that ICE arrested a surfer after he accidentally ended up on the shores of Camp Pendleton.
ICE deported a single father of six even though he had a pending application for a visa through a special program that allows immigrants to sponsor themselves if they were victims of spousal abuse, The Dallas Morning News reported.
ICE brought a Tennessee man back from El Salvador after deporting him there, claiming in a legal case over the man's ability to stay in the U.S. that it had removed him “inadvertently,” the Knoxville News Sentinel reported.
A high school senior held for months by ICE missed most of the fall semester at school, the Los Angeles Times reported.
NBC7 profiled a Venezuelan asylum seeker who has been held for months away from his wife and children after ICE arrested him when he got home from work and went outside to get his family's dog.
Hellgate reported that ICE attorneys in New York are asking judges to dismiss asylum claims because the government intends to send those asylum seekers to other countries to make their requests there instead. According to KTVU, this is also happening in San Francisco. POLITICO reported that Palau, an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean, recently signed a deal to receive migrants from the U.S.
POLITICO reported that a federal judge is allowing the Trump administration to go ahead with a plan to share Medicaid data with ICE. 404 Media reported on the details of that data-sharing agreement.
The New York Times took a deep dive into data about ICE detention and deportations in 2025 and created several interactive graphics that allow you to see the number of transfers as well as removals to different countries. The Marshall Project reported that private prison stocks grew and then shrank last year despite the Trump administration's detention and deportation efforts.
At least 32 people died in ICE custody in 2025, The Guardian reported, the highest number of deaths recorded in a single year since the agency was created. The same number died in 2004.
The Bulwark reported that ICE is planning to ramp up its detention efforts in Phoenix.
The New York Times conducted an investigation via video into Border Patrol raids.
The National Immigration Law Center made a guide to alert community members about ICE arrests in airports.
Imprisoned at CECOT
CBS News director Bari Weiss pulled a 60 Minutes episode about torturous conditions for Venezuelan men sent by the Trump administration to the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo — CECOT — prison in El Salvador shortly before it was supposed to air, NPR reported. Washington Post journalist Liam Scott shared on X the email that 60 Minutes reporter Sharyn Alfonsi sent her team when she found out about the decision. 404 Media noted that archivists found, saved and uploaded the documentary in various places for the public to watch.
PBS Frontline and ProPublica released a 10-minute documentary about conditions at CECOT.
A federal judge ordered that the federal government must provide some kind of legal relief to the Venezuelan men who were deported to El Salvador and imprisoned at CECOT, POLITICO reported.
Fighting back
The Guardian spoke with people in cities across the U.S. about what they're doing to fight back against the federal government's immigration enforcement tactics.
Sahan Journal profiled towing companies owned by immigrants and people of color that are helping families recover cars left behind when ICE makes arrests in Minnesota.
A hotel in Minneapolis refused service to ICE officers, the New York Times reported. After the federal government pushed back, the company that owned the hotel apologized.
Shortly before Christmas, a federal judge blocked immigration officials from making arrests at immigration courts in Northern California, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in San Diego is opening a center to help immigrants affected by Trump's deportation campaign, KPBS reported.
Talking Points Memo reported that a member of Congress in New York has made his office a headquarters for trying to get immigrants released from custody.
L.A. Taco reported that there is now a national website to track license plates used by ICE.
Other stories to watch
NPR reported that the State Department has instructed staff to deny visas to people who worked as fact-checkers or content moderators.
California has lost more than 25% of its immigration judges this year due to retirement and firings, the Los Angeles Times reported.
NPR analyzed court records and found that the number of no-shows has increased dramatically since ICE began arresting people who came for their hearings.
The Intercept reported that the federal government is losing or dropping cases in which immigration officials have claimed someone assaulted them, often while the person was documenting immigration enforcement activities. The National Lawyers Guild posted a guide on its Instagram about immigration officials charging people who document them with assaulting federal agents.
The Department of Homeland Security added 20 countries, most in Africa, to its travel ban, NPR reported.
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