President Donald Trump has come under scrutiny for claiming that former President Joe Biden had FBI agents present during the January 6, 2021, insurrection, despite the fact that Trump was in office at the time. Critics have argued the claim wrongly shifts responsibility for the U.S. Capitol attack from Trump’s administration. Analysts warned the misstatement could further legitimize debunked conspiracy theories on the matter. Numerous outlets have fact-checked Trump’s false claim.
Cook County Courts Chief Judge Timothy Evans has barred Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from making courthouse arrests, citing concerns that detention has discouraged court appearances. The order has prohibited civil detention of parties, witnesses, and visitors. Immigrant groups claimed prior arrests have undermined trust in the justice system.
Since July, ICE has arrested at least a dozen people outside Cook County courthouses. Advocacy groups said fear has kept residents from hearings, including one woman detained outside a domestic violence court.
Cook County Public Defender Cruz Rodriguez said, “I have had numerous conversations with clients who are presented with a difficult decision of either missing court and receiving an arrest warrant or coming to court and risk being arrested by ICE.”
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Illinois House Speaker Chris Welch (D) urged statewide limits on federal arrests near public institutions, while Gov. JB Pritzker suggested agents may have violated prior court restrictions. Welch stated, “We won’t sit back and let our democracy be taken from us.” He added, “If we can do something similar statewide, I’d love to get that done, because what’s happening with these ICE agents and courthouses and territories around courthouses is unacceptable.”
A Chicago woman has told Newsweek she was “forcibly removed” from her vehicle by immigration agents. Dayanne Figueroa, a U.S. citizen and paralegal, said her car was struck by an unmarked government vehicle at the 1600 block of West Hubbard Street in Chicago on the morning of Friday, October 10, while she was on her way to get coffee before work.
A Chicago woman has told Newsweek she was “forcibly removed” from her vehicle by federal immigration agents.
Dayanne Figueroa, a U.S. citizen and paralegal, said an unmarked government vehicle struck her car at the 1600 block of West Hubbard Street in Chicago on the morning of October 10, while she was on her way to get coffee before going to work.
“I was in shock and terrified,” Figueroa told Newsweek. “Instead of handling the situation as a routine traffic incident, the masked agents, armed in hands, forcibly removed me from my car without questions and without informing me that I was under arrest.”
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told Newsweek that Border Patrol was making a targeted arrest when Figueroa’s vehicle blocked agents and struck an unmarked government vehicle.
Footage obtained by Newsweek appears to show armed federal agents detaining Figueroa, dragging her by the legs to remove her from her vehicle. Some agents brandish guns, and bystanders can be heard shouting, “You hit her,” as the situation unfolds.
Additional video obtained by Figueroa’s family from another witness provides a different angle of the encounter. The bystander who is filming tells federal agents: “You hit her. We all saw it.”
“You guys are f*****g scumbags, f*****g Nazis. They hit her car. You guys hit her, and you f*****g know it,” the bystander is heard saying.
“As agents were departing, the driver, a U.S. citizen, struck an unmarked government vehicle,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Newsweek.
“In fear of public safety and of law enforcement, officers attempted to remove her from the vehicle. She violently resisted, kicking two agents and causing injuries. This agitator was arrested for assault on a federal agent,” McLaughlin added.
Figueroa disputes DHS’s account, denying that she crashed into agents and accusing the immigration enforcers of using excessive force.
“The video evidence is clear: Agents crashed into me. I was not involved in any protest or related activity, and I intend to seek justice for how I was treated. I am confident the facts will speak for themselves,” she said.
Chicago has emerged as a focal point in the national conversation over immigration enforcement as federal authorities step up operations under the Trump administration’s Operation Midway Blitz. The initiative has included increased ICE activity across the city, with arrests and targeted actions in neighborhoods with large immigrant populations. Critics say the operations have heightened fear among residents and strained community relations, while federal officials maintain that the measures are necessary to enforce immigration laws and detain individuals with criminal records.
Amid the Trump administration’s hard-line mass deportation push, there have been dozens of reports of U.S. citizens being questioned or detained by immigration authorities, raising concerns over racial profiling, the agencies’ practices and enforcement criteria. Multiple federal agencies—including Border Patrol, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives—are being mobilized to carry out coordinated immigration operations as the administration pursues its goal of removing millions of migrants without legal status.
Figueroa described the experience as physically and emotionally distressing, saying the manner in which she was removed from her vehicle left her traumatized and injured. She said she was treated “like cattle.”
The paralegal said she was transported to multiple undisclosed locations and was not allowed to contact her family or legal counsel. She said she was never charged with a crime or informed of a legal reason for her detention.
“These actions constitute serious violations of federal civil rights law and multiple provisions of the United States Constitution,” Figueroa said.
She said she had recently undergone kidney surgery. “I am presently receiving ongoing medical treatment and attending numerous appointments to rehabilitate from recent kidney surgeries and from multiple new injuries directly caused by this assault,” Figueroa said.
Her family is now raising money on GoFundMe for legal and medical fees following the incident.
US Citizen dragged from car by Border Patrol in Chicago
“I was in shock and terrified,” Dayanne Figueroa told Newsweek.
The deputy chief of staff’s power at the White House appears to know no bounds, and his voice is one of the most influential in the President’s ear
If civil war begins in the US – and with Donald Trump’s commitment to deploying troops on the country’s streets, there is every possibility that it might – Stephen Miller will probably view it as his own personal, signature achievement.
No figure in Trump’s inner circle exhibits more zealotry than Miller – the White House deputy chief of staff for policy – about the revolutionary ambitions of the “Make America Great Again” movement. Nor more of a willingness to lay waste the country’s constitutional guardrails in an effort to supercharge the President’s powers, disregard Congress, and ignore court rulings that fail to go the administration’s way.
Last week, even Trump acknowledged the extremism of the Rottweiler in his midst.
Stephen Miller is Trump’s Rottweiler. Now he wants to dismantle the Democrats
The deputy chief of staff’s power at the White House appears to know no bounds, and his voice is one of the most influential in the President’s ear
Lindsey Halligan, who brought cases against James Comey and Letitia James, allegedly violated records-retention laws
A top federal prosecutor’s use of an encrypted messaging application with messages set to be automatically deleted after eight hours was potentially illegal, two watchdog groups said.
Lindsey Halligan, the interim US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia, used Signal earlier this month to communicate with Anna Bower, a journalist for Lawfare, about the criminal case she is pursuing against the New York attorney general, Letitia James. Bower published the full conversation on Monday evening and said Halligan had set messages to auto-delete after eight hours.
Top US prosecutor’s use of text message auto-delete could be illegal, watchdog groups warn
Lindsey Halligan, who brought cases against James Comey and Letitia James, allegedly violated records-retention laws
Heather Honey’s statements follow president’s aggressive effort to radically reshape elections before 2026
Trump says FBI and Tulsi Gabbard ‘working on’ elections plan as he repeats bogus claims
It was clear from the outset that Donald Trump’s administration would include high-ranking government officials who either endorsed his false claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him, or refused to publicly admit he lost.
The president continues to hammer a baseless narrative that the election was rigged against him, vowing publicly that it must never “happen again” as he deploys officials to prepare for midterm elections with the balance of power in Congress — and his agenda — at stake.
Before she was tapped as Trump’s “election integrity” official at the Department of Homeland Security, Heather Honey reportedly told a group of right-wing activists in March that the president could declare a “national emergency” to effectively take control of local election administration.
She said the move would follow an “actual investigation” of the 2020 election, if it revealed “manipulation” of the results, according to The New York Times, which had a recording of the call.
“We have some additional powers that don’t exist right now,” she said. “[W]e can take these other steps without Congress and we can mandate that states do things and so on.”
Trump’s ‘election integrity’ chief claimed he could declare voting emergency
Heather Honey’s statements follow president’s aggressive effort to radically reshape elections before 2026
A local immigration lawyer said three of her clients who were legal residents of the U.S. were taken in Wilder on Sunday.
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Nikki Ramirez-Smith, a Nampa-based immigration lawyer, told the Idaho Statesman the people detained included at least three who legally resided in the United States. They have not been charged with any crimes in connection with the gambling, she said.
ICE detained immigrants with work visas in Wilder raid, attorney says
The Canyon County Sheriff’s Office and Caldwell Police Department released a joint statement Wednesday saying they wanted to clarify the situation around Sunday’s raid in Wilder, which was not an ICE-led operation, despite what the Department of Homeland Security indicated.
In a statement to the media Tuesday, Homeland Security said that “ICE dismantled an illegal horse-racing, animal fighting, and a gambling enterprise operation” and that “as part of the operation ICE law enforcement officers arrested 105 illegal aliens.”
The raid at La Catedral Arena, where four people were arrested as part of an FBI criminal investigation on alleged illegal gambling, was in fact led by the FBI’s Treasure Valley Metro Violent Crime and Gang Task Force, according to Canyon County Sheriff Kieran Donahue and Caldwell Police Chief Rex Ingram.
The FBI has said several times that it was the lead agency and that ICE was there “as part of the broader federal team to process individuals who were found to have potential immigration violations.”
Canyon sheriff, Caldwell police chief: DHS statement on raid ‘deeply misleading’ – East Idaho News
Agents stand at La Catedral Arena in Wilder, Idaho, on the evening of Oct. 19, 2025. Multiple law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and the Canyon County Sheriff’s Office, were there as part of an investigation into alleged illegal horse betting. | Sally Krutzig, Idaho Statesman WILDER (Idaho Statesman) — The Canyon County Sheriff’s Office […]
‘You’re not a journalist so it’s weird saying that but just letting you know,’ Halligan wrote
Lindsey Halligan, Trump’s hand-picked prosecutor, reached out to a reporter about her coverage of New York Attorney General Letitia James’ indictment in what became a 33-hour exchange — and then insisted the conversation was “off the record.”
Last month, Trump tapped Halligan to serve as the interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia after her predecessor resigned and reportedly found insufficient evidence to criminally prosecute James. Overseen by Halligan, James was accused earlier this month of making false statements to a financial institution in connection with a loan for a property she purchased in 2020. She has denied any wrongdoing.
The New York Times then published an expose about James’ Norfolk, Virginia, home in question. Lawfare reporter Anna Bower tweeted screenshots of the article, which seemed to poke holes in the James indictment, and added her own commentary.
In an unusual move, Halligan reached out to Bower through the encrypted app Signal. Prosecutors rarely discuss ongoing cases. Still, the pair went back-and-forth and at the end, Halligan insisted everything was “off record.”
Trump-picked prosecutor contacted reporter – then tried to claim it was ‘off record’
‘You’re not a journalist so it’s weird saying that but just letting you know,’ Halligan wrote
The president has called for indictments of some of his political enemies.
Fear is spreading among some who’ve run afoul of President Donald Trump.
A foreboding that grew out of Trump’s election victory last November has deepened, several people told NBC News, after the Justice Department secured indictments against two public figures who’ve long been in his crosshairs: New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey.
Some said they worry that the Trump administration will target them for prosecution, draining their life savings and potentially landing them in jail. In a time of heightened political violence, others said they fear that the president’s most zealous followers may try to do them harm.
Some Trump critics fear they could be the president’s next target for prosecution
The president has called for indictments of some of his political enemies.
