Beyond the Border: More death in ICE custody, an AI failure in ICE training and a round-up of anti-ICE songs
Here's what happened this week in immigration news.
Written by Kate Morrissey, Edited by Lauren J. Mapp
Welcome to another edition of Beyond the Border, which summarizes immigration news from across the country in a weekly roundup. Did I miss something? Message me via kate@daylightsandiego.org or on Instagram.
It's been one year since President Donald Trump took office for a second time. I looked back at the immigration-related plans in Project 2025 to figure out what's already been done and what may be coming this year.
Deaths in immigration custody
The total number of deaths in immigration custody in 2026 has risen to at least six. That includes a Nicaraguan man who was detained in Minnesota and who died at Camp East Montana in Fort Bliss in Texas, MPR News reported. The Minnesota Star Tribune reported that state leaders are calling for an investigation.
This is the third death at Camp East Montana since it opened last year, El Paso Times reported. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has said that two were suicides, but, as I reported in last week's newsletter, the Washington Post broke the news that a medical examiner has said that one was a homicide. Now, the Washington Post is reporting in a follow up that ICE is trying to deport the witnesses to that homicide.
El Paso Matters reported that the facility has turned away visitors for people held there who were detained in Minnesota.
I wrote about a Honduran man who died in custody in California. His family is concerned that facility medical staff didn't move fast enough to address the symptoms he'd been having for weeks.
ICE training and surveillance
The New Yorker did a Q&A with a former ICE official from the Biden administration about what the agency can and cannot do legally. The New York Times analyzed training documents and policies for the agency to analyze whether the officer who shot and killed a Minnesota woman was following ICE rules, despite Trump administration claims of “absolute immunity.”
Ken Klippenstein posted a leaked memo on his Substack that shows Customs and Border Protection sent a memo in November advising agents to de-escalate in situations involving arresting people in cars.
The Federal Aviation Administration created a no fly zone for drones near areas where Department of Homeland Security officials, including ICE, are working, 404 Media reported.
An AI tool mistakenly sent new ICE recruits through a shortened training process, NBC News reported.
404 Media has more information about a Palantir-created app that helps ICE determine which neighborhoods to raid.
ICE arrests, detentions and violence
The New York Times reported that Renee Good had an irregular pulse when emergency medical staff arrived after an ICE officer shot her. A video from the scene shows a witness who claims to be a doctor who was trying to get access to her to check her pulse, but ICE wouldn't let the doctor through. The emergency medical staff arrived about 3 or 4 minutes after the first 911 call, the New York Times reported.
The Los Angeles Times identified the off-duty ICE officer who shot and killed Keith Porter and found court records accusing the officer of child abuse.
The Minnesota Newspaper and Communications Guild posted that one of its members had been detained by ICE.
The Arizona Republic reported that ICE detained a Diné (Navajo Nation) man despite him telling them where to find documents that proved his identity.
Mother Jones reported that a 6-month-old child received CPR and several family members, including the baby, were hospitalized after immigration officials detonated tear gas by the family's car. CNN posted footage of what happened on its Instagram.
The Intercept reported that immigration officials in Minnesota are referencing Good's killing in threats to people documenting their activity.
The Minnesota Star Tribune reported that ICE has made arrests at daycare centers and schools. According to the Pioneer Press, that includes a special education teacher who was held for about 12 hours.
At a protest over Good's killing in Santa Ana, California, federal officials blinded two demonstrators, the Los Angeles Times reported.
ICE held a U.S. citizen for two days after detaining her in the parking lot of an apartment complex where many of the residents are Somali American, the Pioneer Press reported.
The Sahan Journal reported that ICE detained a couple on their way to a hospital in Minnesota, sending the husband to Texas while the wife went in government custody to a hospital, where multiple people trying to assist her, including a lawyer, were told that she was not there. Healthcare workers told MPR News that they are concerned about ICE's presence in local hospitals. One man told Sahan Journal that ICE is interfering with his medical care while he's hospitalized and in its custody.
Popular Information reported that ICE has stopped paying medical bills for people in its custody, and that the decision is affecting people's ability to get treatment.
CNN posted a video to its Instagram of immigration officials detaining a U.S. citizen outside his Minnesota home because of his accent.
The San Gabriel Valley Tribune reported that immigration officials racially profiled and physically assaulted two Latino Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation employees.
After a federal judge ordered the release of a Liberian man whose door was battered down by ICE, agency officials briefly redetained him, the Sahan Journal reported.
ICE arrested a naturalized U.S. citizen inside his home and forced him into the cold and snow of Minnesota with little clothing on, Reuters reported.
A St. Paul toy store owner told ABC News that she was handing out free ICE alert whistles, and within hours, ICE served her business with a Notice of Inspection, the Pioneer Press reported.
CNN posted a video on its Instagram of an interview with a disabled woman who was detained by immigration officials last week while she was on the way to a doctor's appointment. (I included initial information about her arrest in last week's newsletter.)
St. Paul's mayor told members of Congress that ICE officers have gone door to door asking where Asian people live in her city and that as a Hmong American, she's been advised to carry her passport with her at all times, KARE11 reported.
The 19th pointed out the increasing number of documented instances of ICE violence against women.
Protests and pushback
The Boston Globe reported that a local bakery is facing both a surge in demand and death threats after creating an anti-ICE cookie.
Instagram account @melodyinminneapolis shared footage of an art sled rally in Minneapolis that included anti-ICE sleds.
The Guardian reported that the American Civil Liberties Union has sued ICE, alleging racial profiling in Minnesota. Among the plaintiffs is Mubashir Khalif Hussen, who recently gave testimony in a Congressional field hearing. Rep. Pramila Jayapal shared clips of his remarks on her Instagram account.
L.A. Taco posted a ranked roundup of anti-ICE songs, which includes tunes by Zach Bryan and Los Jornaleros Del Norte.
Other stories to watch
A federal judge has blocked immigration officials from retaliating against, tear gassing or detaining peaceful protesters in Minnesota, the Minnesota Star Tribune reported.
The New York Times reported that federal prosecutors issued subpoenas for several Democratic leaders in Minnesota relating to their disapproval of the Trump administration's immigration enforcement in the region.
In a hearing for a lawsuit regarding students being detained last year over their support of Palestinians, a federal judge said Trump administration officials have violated the Constitution and called the president authoritarian, The Washington Post reported.
The Minnesota National Guard posted on X that its troops are on standby to assist local law enforcement and public safety agencies. The account advised that troops would wear neon vests to distinguish themselves from “other agencies in similar uniforms.”
A judge allowed the Trump administration to require members of Congress to give a week's notice before inspecting ICE facilities, The Guardian reported.
The Border Chronicle published a podcast episode interviewing a former immigration judge fired by the Trump administration.
The U.S. government is pressuring Mexico to allow U.S. troops to fight cartels on Mexican soil, the New York Times reported.
Data analyst Austin Kocher wrote on his Substack about incongruencies in the Trump administration's immigration data.
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