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End Texas Torture of Revolutionary Elder Xinachtli
Organization Support Letter
Letter to demand the immediate medical treatment and release of Chicano political prisoner Xinachtli (Alvaro Hernandez #00255735)
To the Texas Department of Criminal Justice,
We, the undersigned organizations, write to urge immediate action to protect the life, health, and human rights of Xinachtli (legal name Alvaro Hernandez). Xinachtli is 73-year-old Chicano community organizer from Texas who has spent 23 years in solitary confinement and 30 years incarcerated as part of a 50-year sentence. His health is now in a critical and life-threatening state and requires prompt and comprehensive medical intervention.
Since his conviction in 1997, Xinachtli has spent decades in conditions that have caused significant physical and psychological harm. As an elder in worsening health, these conditions have effectively become a de facto death sentence.
Xinachtli’s current medical condition is severe. His physical, mental, and overall well-being have declined rapidly in recent weeks. He now requires both a wheelchair and a walker, has experienced multiple falls, and is suffering from rapid weight loss. He is currently housed in the McConnell Unit infirmary, where he is receiving only palliative measures and is being denied a medical diagnosis, access to his medical records, and adequate diagnostic testing or treatment.
A virtual clinical visit with licensed medical doctor Dr. Dona Kim Murphey underscores the severity of his condition. In her report of the visit, she wrote: "Given the history of recent neck/back trauma and recurrent urinary tract infections with numbness, weakness, and bowel and bladder incontinence, I am concerned about nerve root or spinal cord injury and/or abscesses that can lead to permanent sensorimotor dysfunction."
Despite his age and visible disabilities, he remains in solitary confinement under the Security Threat Group designation as a 73-year-old. During his time in the infirmary, prison staff threw away all of his belongings and “lost” his commissary card, leaving him completely without basic necessities. He is experiencing hunger, and the lack of consistent nutrition is worsening his medical condition. McConnell Unit staff have also consistently given him incorrect forms, including forms for medical records and medical visitation, creating further barriers to care and communication.
A family visit on November 29 confirmed the seriousness of his condition. Xinachtli, who was once able to walk on his own, can no longer stand without assistance. He struggled to breathe, has lost more than 30 pounds, relied heavily on his wheelchair, and was in severe pain throughout the visit.
In light of these conditions, we, the undersigned organizations, demand that TDCJ take immediate action to save Xinachtli’s life and comply with its legal and ethical obligations.
We urge the immediate implementation of the following actions:
Immediate re-instatement of his access to commissary to buy hygiene, food, and other critical items. Immediate transfer to the TDCJ hospital in Galveston for a full medical evaluation and treatment, including complete access to his medical records and full transparency regarding all procedures. Transfer to a geriatric and medical unit that is fully accessible under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Xinachtli requests placement at the Richard P LeBlanc Unit in Beaumont, Texas. Approval of Medical Recommended Intensive Supervision, the release program for individuals with serious medical conditions and disabilities, in recognition of the severity and progression of his current health issues. Failure to act will result in the continued and foreseeable deterioration of Xinachtli’s health, amounting to state-sanctioned death. We urge TDCJ to take swift and decisive action to meet these requests and to fulfill its responsibility to safeguard his life and well-being.
We stand united in calling for immediate and decisive action. Xinachtli’s life depends on it.
Signed, Xinachtli Freedom Campaign and supporting organizations
Endorsing Organizations:
Al-Awda Houston; All African People’s Revolutionary Party; Anakbayan Houston; Anti-Imperialist Solidarity; Artists for Black Lives' Equality; Black Alliance for Peace - Solidarity Network; Columbia University Students for a Democratic Society; Community Liberation Programs; Community Powered ATX; Contra Gentrificación; Diaspora Pa’lante Collective; Down South; DSA Emerge; Entre nos kc; Fighting Racism Workshops; Frontera Water Protectors; GC Harm Reductionists; JERICHO MOVEMENT; Jericho Movement Providence; Montrose Anarchist Collective; NYC Jericho Movement; OC Focus; Palestine Solidarity TX; Partisan Defense Committee; Partido Nacional de la Raza Unida; PDX Anti-Repression; Red Star Texas; Root Cause; San Francisco Solidarity Collective; Shine White Support Team; Sunrise Columbia; UC San Diego Faculty for Justice in Palestine; Viva Palestina, EPTX; Water Justice and Technology Studio; Workshops4Gaza.
Sign the endorsement letter for your organization here:
https://cryptpad.fr/form/#/2/form/view/MiR1f+iLiRBJC7gSTyfhyxJoLIDhThxRafPatxdbMWI/
IMPORTANT LINKS TO MATERIALS FOR XINACHTLI FREEDOM CAMPAIGN:
PHONE BLAST: Your community can sign up for a 15-minute-long call shift here: bit.ly/xphoneblast
FUNDRAISER: Here is the link to Jericho's fundraiser for Xinachtli: http://givebutter.com/jerichomovement
CASE HISTORY: Learn more about Xinachtli and his case through our website: https://freealvaro.net
CONTACT INFO:
Follow us on Instagram: @freexinachtlinow
Email us:
xinachtlifreedomcampaign@protonmail.com
COALITION FOLDER:
https://drive.proton.me/urls/SP3KTC1RK4#KARGiPQVYIvR
In the folder you will find: Two pictures of Xinachtli from 2024; The latest updated graphics for the phone blast; The original TRO emergency motion filing; Maria Salazar's declaration; Dr. Murphy's report from her Dec. 9 medical visit; Letter from Amnesty International declaring Xinachtli's situation a human rights violation; Free Xinachtli zine (which gives background on him and his case); and The most recent press release detailing who Xinachtli is as well as his medical situation.
Write to:
Alvaro Hernandez CID #00255735
TDCJ-W.G. McConnell Unit
PO Box 660400
Dallas, TX 75266-0400
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Funds for Kevin Cooper
Kevin was transferred out of San Quentin and is now at a healthcare facility in Stockton. He has received some long overdue healthcare. The art program is very different from the one at San Quentin but we are hopeful that Kevin can get back to painting soon.
For 41 years, an innocent man has been on death row in California.
Kevin Cooper was wrongfully convicted of the brutal 1983 murders of the Ryen family and houseguest. The case has a long history of police and prosecutorial misconduct, evidence tampering, and numerous constitutional violations including many incidences of the prosecution withholding evidence of innocence from the defense. You can learn more here .
In December 2018 Gov. Brown ordered limited DNA testing and in February 2019, Gov. Newsom ordered additional DNA testing. Meanwhile, Kevin remains on Death Row at San Quentin Prison.
The funds raised will be used to help Kevin purchase art supplies for his paintings . Additionally, being in prison is expensive, and this money would help Kevin pay for stamps, books, paper, toiletries, supplies, supplementary food, printing materials to educate the public about his case and/or video calls.
Please help ease the daily struggle of an innocent man on death row!
An immediate act of solidarity we can all do right now is to write to Kevin and assure him of our continuing support in his fight for justice. Here’s his address:
Kevin Cooper #C65304
Cell 107, Unit E1C
California Health Care Facility, Stockton (CHCF)
P.O. Box 213040
Stockton, CA 95213
www.freekevincooper.org
Call California Governor Newsom:
1-(916) 445-2841
Press 1 for English or 2 for Spanish,
press 6 to speak with a representative and
wait for someone to answer
(Monday-Friday, 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. PST—12:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M. EST)
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Dr. Atler Still Needs Our Help!
Please sign the petition today!
https://www.change.org/p/texas-state-university-give-tom-alter-his-job-back
What you can do to support:
—Donate to help Tom Alter and his family with living and legal expenses: https://gofund.me/27c72f26d
—Sign and share this petition demanding Tom Alter be given his job back: https://www.change.org/p/texas-state-university-give-tom-alter-his-job-back
—Write to and call the President and Provost at Texas State University demanding that Tom Alter be given his job back:
President Kelly Damphousse: president@txstate.edu
President’s Office Phone: 512-245-2121
Provost Pranesh Aswath: xrk25@txstate.edu
Provost Office Phone: 512-245-2205
For more information about the reason for the firing of Dr. Tom Alter, read:
"Fired for Advocating Socialism: Professor Tom Alter Speaks Out"
Ashley Smith Interviews Dr. Tom Alter
—CounterPunch, September 24, 2025
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 Russia Confirms Jailing of Antiwar Leader Boris Kagarlitsky In a secret trial on June 5, 2024, the Russian Supreme Court’s Military Chamber confirmed a sentence of five years in a penal colony for left-wing sociologist and online journalist Boris Kagarlitsky. His crime? “Justifying terrorism” — a sham charge used to silence opponents of Putin’s war on Ukraine. The court disregarded a plea for freedom sent by thirty-seven international luminaries. Kagarlitsky, a leading Marxist thinker in Russia’s post-Soviet period, recently addressed socialists who won’t criticize Putin: “To my Western colleagues, who…call for an understanding of Putin and his regime, I would like to ask a very simple question. [Would] you want to live in a country where there is no free press or independent courts? In a country where the police have the right to break into your house without a warrant? …In a country which…broadcasts appeals on TV to destroy Paris, London, Warsaw, with a nuclear strike?” Thousands of antiwar critics have been forced to flee Russia or are behind bars, swept up in Putin’s vicious crackdown on dissidents. Opposition to the war is consistently highest among the poorest workers. Recently, RusNews journalists Roman Ivanov and Maria Ponomarenko were sentenced to seven, and six years respectively, for reporting the military’s brutal assault on Ukraine. A massive global solidarity campaign that garnered support from thousands was launched at Kagarlitsky’s arrest. Now, it has been revived. This internationalism will bolster the repressed Russian left and Ukrainian resistance to Putin’s imperialism. To sign the online petition at freeboris.info —Freedom Socialist Party, August 2024 https://socialism.com/fs-article/russia-jails-prominent-antiwar-leader-boris-kagarlitsky/#:~:text=In%20a%20secret%20trial%20on,of%20Putin's%20war%20on%20Ukraine. Petition in Support of Boris KagarlitskyWe, the undersigned, were deeply shocked to learn that on February 13 the leading Russian socialist intellectual and antiwar activist Dr. Boris Kagarlitsky (65) was sentenced to five years in prison. Dr. Kagarlitsky was arrested on the absurd charge of 'justifying terrorism' in July last year. After a global campaign reflecting his worldwide reputation as a writer and critic of capitalism and imperialism, his trial ended on December 12 with a guilty verdict and a fine of 609,000 roubles. The prosecution then appealed against the fine as 'unjust due to its excessive leniency' and claimed falsely that Dr. Kagarlitsky was unable to pay the fine and had failed to cooperate with the court. In fact, he had paid the fine in full and provided the court with everything it requested. On February 13 a military court of appeal sent him to prison for five years and banned him from running a website for two years after his release. The reversal of the original court decision is a deliberate insult to the many thousands of activists, academics, and artists around the world who respect Dr. Kagarlitsky and took part in the global campaign for his release. The section of Russian law used against Dr. Kagarlitsky effectively prohibits free expression. The decision to replace the fine with imprisonment was made under a completely trumped-up pretext. Undoubtedly, the court's action represents an attempt to silence criticism in the Russian Federation of the government's war in Ukraine, which is turning the country into a prison. The sham trial of Dr. Kagarlitsky is the latest in a wave of brutal repression against the left-wing movements in Russia. Organizations that have consistently criticized imperialism, Western and otherwise, are now under direct attack, many of them banned. Dozens of activists are already serving long terms simply because they disagree with the policies of the Russian government and have the courage to speak up. Many of them are tortured and subjected to life-threatening conditions in Russian penal colonies, deprived of basic medical care. Left-wing politicians are forced to flee Russia, facing criminal charges. International trade unions such as IndustriALL and the International Transport Federation are banned and any contact with them will result in long prison sentences. There is a clear reason for this crackdown on the Russian left. The heavy toll of the war gives rise to growing discontent among the mass of working people. The poor pay for this massacre with their lives and wellbeing, and opposition to war is consistently highest among the poorest. The left has the message and resolve to expose the connection between imperialist war and human suffering. Dr. Kagarlitsky has responded to the court's outrageous decision with calm and dignity: “We just need to live a little longer and survive this dark period for our country,” he said. Russia is nearing a period of radical change and upheaval, and freedom for Dr. Kagarlitsky and other activists is a condition for these changes to take a progressive course. We demand that Boris Kagarlitsky and all other antiwar prisoners be released immediately and unconditionally. We also call on the auth *..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........* *..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........* |
Mumia Abu-Jamal is Innocent!
FREE HIM NOW!
Write to Mumia at:
Smart Communications/PADOC
Mumia Abu-Jamal #AM-8335
SCI Mahanoy
P.O. Box 33028
St. Petersburg, FL 33733
Join the Fight for Mumia's Life
Since September, Mumia Abu-Jamal's health has been declining at a concerning rate. He has lost weight, is anemic, has high blood pressure and an extreme flair up of his psoriasis, and his hair has fallen out. In April 2021 Mumia underwent open heart surgery. Since then, he has been denied cardiac rehabilitation care including a healthy diet and exercise.
He still needs more complicated treatment from a retinal specialist for his right eye if his eyesight is to be saved:
Donate to Mumia Abu-Jamal's Emergency Legal and Medical
Defense Fund
Mumia has instructed PrisonRadio to set up this fund. Gifts donated here are designated for the Mumia Abu-Jamal Medical and Legal Defense Fund. If you are writing a check or making a donation in another way, note this in the memo line.
Send to:
Mumia Medical and Legal Fund c/o Prison Radio
P.O. Box 411074, San Francisco, CA 94103
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Resources for Resisting Federal Repression
https://www.nlg.org/federalrepressionresources/
Since June of 2020, activists have been subjected to an increasingly aggressive crackdown on protests by federal law enforcement. The federal response to the movement for Black Lives has included federal criminal charges for activists, door knocks by federal law enforcement agents, and increased use of federal troops to violently police protests.
The NLG National Office is releasing this resource page for activists who are resisting federal repression. It includes a link to our emergency hotline numbers, as well as our library of Know-Your-Rights materials, our recent federal repression webinar, and a list of some of our recommended resources for activists. We will continue to update this page.
Please visit the NLG Mass Defense Program page for general protest-related legal support hotlines run by NLG chapters.
Emergency Hotlines
If you are contacted by federal law enforcement, you should exercise all of your rights. It is always advisable to speak to an attorney before responding to federal authorities.
State and Local Hotlines
If you have been contacted by the FBI or other federal law enforcement, in one of the following areas, you may be able to get help or information from one of these local NLG hotlines for:
Portland, Oregon: (833) 680-1312
San Francisco, California: (415) 285-1041 or fbi_hotline@nlgsf.org
Seattle, Washington: (206) 658-7963
National Hotline
If you are located in an area with no hotline, you can call the following number:
National NLG Federal Defense Hotline: (212) 679-2811
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Articles
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1) A Legal Tool for Holding ICE Agents to Account, Hiding in Plain Sight
A proposal in a 1987 law review article could address a gap that makes it all but impossible to sue federal officials for violating the Constitution.
By Adam Liptak, Feb. 2, 2026
Adam Liptak writes The Docket, a new weekly newsletter on legal developments.
Federal agents confronting protesters in Minneapolis last month. Illinois recently adopted a law tailored to address the conduct of ICE agents. Credit...David Guttenfelder/The New York Times
The key to holding Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents accountable for constitutional violations may lie in a 1987 law review article by a young law professor named Akhil Reed Amar.
“I think it was a good idea then,” he said last week, “and it’s only taken more than half a lifetime for people to actually read the thing.”
The article has, in truth, been quite influential. It has been cited, for instance, in seven Supreme Court opinions. But it was also 96 pages long and touched on many issues.
“I was actually trying to do a bunch of different things — and get tenure,” Professor Amar, now a leading constitutional scholar at Yale Law School, said of the article, “Of Sovereignty and Federalism.”
His central point for present purposes was that state legislatures can authorize lawsuits against federal officials for violating the Constitution. If that is right, such state laws would close an odd gap in federal law that — broadly speaking — allows such suits against state and local officials, like police officers, but not against federal ones, like ICE agents.
Congress authorized the first kind of lawsuit in an 1871 law that most people call Section 1983. But Congress has not enacted legislation allowing suits against federal officials for violating the Constitution.
“It’s an enormous problem that federal officials are in some ways the hardest people to hold accountable for violating people’s constitutional rights, even harder than state and local officials,” said Carolyn Shapiro, a professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law and a former solicitor general of Illinois.
The Supreme Court tried to address the gap in 1971 in Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents, allowing the victim of an unconstitutional search by federal agents to sue them. But the court has essentially abandoned that approach, saying instead that Congress must act if suits against federal officials are to be allowed.
That is where state lawmakers come in, Professor Amar said.
“Sometimes the federal government will misbehave,” he said, “and you can’t count on Congress always to rein the federal government in.”
His article drew on two principles often associated with conservatives: federalism and originalism.
“This is exactly what the framers imagined: state law protecting us against federal abuses,” Professor Amar said.
Over the years, some states — including California, Maine, Massachusetts and New Jersey — have enacted laws along the lines that Professor Amar proposed, though they are largely untested, and Illinois recently adopted one tailored to address the conduct of ICE agents.
The Illinois law says that lawsuits may be filed “against any person who, while conducting civil immigration enforcement, knowingly engages in conduct that violates the Illinois Constitution or the United States Constitution.”
The Trump administration promptly sued, saying the law violated the Constitution’s supremacy clause, which generally prohibits states from enacting measures at odds with federal law. Whether to allow lawsuits against federal agents for violating the federal Constitution, the administration’s complaint said, “is a policy choice for Congress.”
Professor Amar said aspects of the Illinois law might be problematic. But its core idea, he said, is sound.
“States can’t just generally regulate ICE conduct, because the federal government gets to regulate that,” he said. “But states can provide remedies against federal officials when federal officials violate federal constitutional rights.”
Whether that is correct is a complicated question in light of another federal statute, and it has not yet gotten sustained judicial attention. But Judge Justin Walker, who was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit by President Trump, did consider the matter in a 2023 concurring opinion in a case arising from a protest outside the White House in 2020.
Citing Professor Amar’s article, Judge Walker concluded that “nothing would stop a state from creating a new cause of action allowing plaintiffs to directly allege federal constitutional violations.”
The Illinois law did that, but in imperfect fashion, according to a critique from Vikram David Amar, a law professor at the University of California, Davis (and Akhil Amar’s brother), and Jason Mazzone, a law professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
The law is “important and innovative,” they wrote, and “in keeping with the proudest tradition of federalism.”
But it is, they added, both too narrow and too broad. It allows suits against only a subset of federal officials, those engaged in civil immigration enforcement.
“It suggests that what you’re trying to do is influence federal enforcement in an area of policy that you disagree with, rather than trying to make sure everyone stays within the Constitution,” Vikram Amar said in an interview.
As for the part of the law that lets people sue federal agents for violations of the Illinois Constitution, the two professors wrote, “that provision won’t stand” under the supremacy clause.
Still, Vikram Amar said, such state laws can serve a larger purpose.
“In the spirit of federalism,” he said, “not only can states experiment in this way, but doing so would likely lead Congress to address the problem, because it’s unlikely that Congress would want to leave a patchwork of different state regulations and different remedies.”
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2) Small Businesses in Minneapolis Serve a City in Crisis. ‘This Is Our New Normal.’
In Minneapolis and St. Paul, business owners work to lift up a community that has been roiled by the presence of thousands of immigration agents.
By Talya Minsberg, Reporting in St. Paul and Minneapolis, Feb. 2, 2026
Businesses near the site where Alex Pretti was shot are serving as warming shelters and resource centers for the Minneapolis community. Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York Times
Customers were ordering doughnuts with names like Flirty Frenchie and Vanilla Darling when an employee at Glam Doll Donuts called Teresa Fox, the co-owner, with a chilling report: ICE agents were on Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis, just outside the shop.
Another call came soon after. “They just killed someone on the street,” an employee told her. Outside the pink-framed windows of the doughnut shop, Alex Pretti lay on the ground, shot multiple times by immigration agents.
In the aftermath of the shooting on Jan. 24, the employees of Glam Doll opened their doors and began giving away doughnuts and coffee as clouds of tear gas spread through the streets. A medical station was set up in moments.
Allison Bross, the owner of b. Resale, next to Glam Doll, did much the same. Medical gear was quickly brought in, food was delivered, hand warmers appeared at the front of the door and personal protective gear came soon thereafter.
Businesses across the city have fundamentally changed their mission in the weeks since immigration agents descended on Minnesota. That new mission — to care for those too afraid to leave their homes and for those protesting on their behalf — has only intensified in the days since Mr. Pretti was killed.
For the business owners, the return has been twofold. There is pride in helping your community, they say, that goes beyond serving those who walk through their doors. And that sense of duty has resulted in overwhelming support from strangers and customers alike, expressed in emails, orders placed from around the world and donations to help keep the businesses afloat.
Never have they been prouder to be Minnesotan, they said.
“This is what Minneapolis does: It shows up,” Ms. Bross said. “I mean, we’ve done it for decades.”
Restaurants Take the Lead
It’s hard to drive far in Minneapolis or St. Paul without seeing signs that protest the presence of immigration agents. Highway overhangs have “ICE OUT” signs, lampposts display “Protect our neighbors” placards and restaurants have “Know your rights” pamphlets pasted on the windows and “Everyone welcome here, EXCEPT ICE” signs in the doors.
Restaurants have been squarely on the front lines since immigration agents began arriving in the Twin Cities in droves in December. Some employees called in to say they did not feel safe going to work or even going outside. The same was true for customers.
After Renee Good was killed on Jan. 7, the immediate reaction of some business owners, like Breanna Evans and Jeff Rogers of Wrecktangle Pizza, was to close their shops and find their footing: What could they do to help their community and their employees?
The answer came to Mr. Rogers on the evening of Ms. Good’s death, he said. The employees knew how to cook and knew how to feed people, so they mobilized to feed what he called high-risk employees from Wrecktangle and other local restaurants and to run a “pizza for pizza” promotion: one pizza donated for every pizza bought.
They were immediately overwhelmed with support. People ordered pizzas from all over the world with notes like “Don’t make this, just donate it.” Orders came in from China, Canada, Sweden, Alaska and California. The restaurant began making pasta salads too, to feed more people, and started coordinating with various local organizations for meal deliveries and pickups.
Wrecktangle opened a Venmo account to help facilitate the donations. After a few days, the account hit $80,000. Days later, it was at $200,000. The restaurant began accepting physical donations, too, coordinating with local mutual aid groups and businesses. The basement of the Wrecktangle’s Lyn-Lake location was filled to the brim with groceries, toiletries, and games for kids. The sheer volume was unsustainable, and it had to stop accepting physical donations.
“It’s everybody, everywhere, trying to do anything,” Elizabeth Klimenko, the director of sales and marketing, said as she assembled meal kits.
The attitude in Minnesota, said Ms. Evans, a Wrecktangle co-owner, is “Give me a task, tell me what to do, let’s go.”
Volunteers have raised their hands to help assemble pizzas and meal kits. Delivery people restocking the restaurant’s beer have asked if they could help deliver food. And person-to-person organizing has helped to get a steady stream of meals to after-school programs, families, and organizations coordinating a rapid response in the Twin Cities.
Ms. Evans and Mr. Rogers said they have lost track of exactly how much they have donated, but that they are keeping track of inventory as if they ran a stadium. They also said they have no intention of slowing down.
Feeding the Twin Cities
Some businesses have changed their approach altogether, including Modern Times, a diner that sits just blocks from where Ms. Good was killed.
The day after Mr. Pretti was killed, Dylan Alverson decided his diner would be renamed “Post Modern Times” and would transform into a donation-based restaurant until immigration agents leave the city. The diner would continue to work with local grocery stores and organizations to help with food and meal deliveries, he said, while also serving community members who come in.
“We’re in a conflict zone. We are in a crisis,” Mr. Alverson said. He’s fielded calls and donations from around the world since making his announcement, and while he was speaking with The New York Times, he accepted an unannounced delivery from Wisconsin farmers: pounds of carrots and maple syrup. All free.
“I think it’s giving people hope in this dark time, and I’m so happy that I can be a part of doing that,” he said.
A few miles away, Stephanie Ayala and Peter Elton, co-owners of Easy Day Cafe, decided to start a food drive. They put up a list of items needed by families, and by the end of the day, the entire front of the coffee shop had turned into a makeshift food pantry.
“We were just getting our legs underneath us, and then this happens, and we put business second,” Mr. Elton said, noting that the shop had opened just four months ago. “We’re just like, ‘Well, we are not going to be focusing on our seasonal drinks. That’s going to be at the bottom of the list.’”
They decided to accept food donations twice a week, on Fridays and Saturdays, and sort and deliver products on Sundays. Supporting families across the Twin Cities would be a marathon, not a sprint, they thought, and they also needed to make sure their employees could handle the constant stream of donations.
Over the course of a 30-minute conversation on a recent Saturday morning, more than two dozen people came in to drop off donations. Some of them asked if they could stay to help organize, including Sofie Holub, 25.
“Everyone wants to help. That’s how Minnesota is,” Ms. Holub said.
“Oh yeah, if you need help, we got you,” Kimberley Schuler, another volunteer, echoed.
The shop was overflowing with donations. The area outside the cafe became a makeshift freezer (at 20 degrees, it worked out well), and Ms. Ayala began putting some products in her car to help handle the overflow.
“As a business owner, you have a platform, and you can do what you want,” Ms. Ayala said, adding, “This is our new normal now.”
A New Nicollet
On Nicollet Avenue, most local businesses now act as warming spaces for those coming to visit the memorial for Mr. Pretti.
Black Forest Inn, a German restaurant, has provided warm drinks and soup, and has shared messages of support on its windows. “Cleveland, Ohio V.A. Hospital nurses are with you. They send love and support,” one reads. “Rhode Island stands with Minnesota” says another.
Pimento Kitchen, a Jamaican restaurant, has offered free food and a place to get warm. My Huong Kitchen has kept its doors open for warm pho and hand warmers.
Ms. Fox shook her head as customers were flooding into her shop on Jan. 27 for doughnuts and coffee. She repeated a sentiment she shared the day Mr. Pretti was shot.
“We’re just a dumb doughnut shop,” she said, with a mix of awe and exhaustion.
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3) Gaza Crossing to Egypt Reopens in Step Forward for Fragile Cease-Fire
Israel and Egypt had disagreed for months about how to resume operations at the Rafah border crossing, which has been largely closed since May 2024.
By Isabel Kershner and Bilal Shbair, Feb. 2, 2026
Isabel Kershner reported from Jerusalem, and Bilal Shbair from Khan Younis, Gaza.
A medical convoy carrying patients in Khan Younis, Gaza, heading for the Rafah crossing on Monday. The opening of the crossing is expected to expedite the exit of thousands of sick and wounded people waiting for treatment abroad. Saher Alghorra for The New York Times
The sole border crossing between Gaza and Egypt reopened on Monday after being largely closed for 20 months, a step forward in Israel’s cease-fire with Hamas.
The reopening of the crossing, in the Rafah area of southern Gaza, will for the first time allow some Gazans who fled during the two-year war to return, but only in limited numbers for now. It is also expected to expedite the exit of thousands of sick and wounded people waiting for medical treatment abroad.
The hope is that the reopening of the Rafah crossing will be a move toward gradually improving conditions for Palestinians in Gaza.
The first groups of Palestinians started passing through the crossing on Monday morning in both directions, according to Israeli officials, who said that they would have final numbers of how many crossed by the end of the day.
At a Palestinian Red Crescent Society hospital in Khan Younis, a city in southern Gaza, a minibus departed for the Rafah crossing shortly after 1 p.m. with five patients, each accompanied by two caregivers.
Mohammed Mahdi, 25, was escorting his father, Akram Mahdi, 61, a mechanical engineer. The elder Mr. Mahdi was wounded in April 2024 in an Israeli airstrike near their home, in a refugee camp in central Gaza, according to his son. Shrapnel tore into his face, blinding him in his right eye and damaging his left one. Doctors in Gaza could do little more than stabilize him, his son said.
“Finally, we can get advanced treatment abroad,” Mohammed Mahdi said before boarding the minibus.
It was unclear by midday how many Palestinians had actually crossed the border in either direction. No returnees appeared to have arrived in Gaza as of early afternoon.
Israel and Egypt disagreed for months over the terms of the reopening, which is part of President Trump’s plan for ending the Gaza war. A shaky cease-fire took effect in October, but Israel kept the crossing closed as leverage until the last of the hostages seized in the Hamas-led attack of Oct. 7, 2023, were returned to Israel, alive or dead.
A week ago, the Israeli military said it had retrieved the remains of the last remaining captive, Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, a police officer who was shot during the Oct. 7 attack, which set off the war.
Underscoring the fragility of the cease-fire, the Israeli military launched a series of airstrikes on Saturday in Gaza that killed at least 26 people, including several children, according to local health officials.
The Israeli military said it had targeted militants and weapons facilities in response to what it called a violation of the cease-fire by Hamas fighters in the Rafah area the day before.
Before Israel seized the Rafah crossing in May 2024, it was a lifeline and a pressure valve for Gaza’s roughly two million residents. Israel and Egypt have tightly controlled the territory’s land borders for years, and Israel has long maintained a naval blockade on the enclave, citing a need to stop weapons smuggling. The passage opened briefly during a temporary cease-fire last winter, but only to allow some Gazans to leave the enclave to obtain medical treatment abroad.
Now that it has been opened again, the crossing will be strictly supervised and operated in a limited capacity, with dozens of people allowed at first to enter or exit each day, according to officials.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week that Israel would be in charge of overall security, though Israeli forces would not be present at the crossing. He suggested that about 50 people might be let in daily, and that more would be allowed to leave.
“We are not going to prevent anyone from leaving,” he said.
At least initially, truckloads of goods will not be allowed in via the Rafah crossing.
A daily list of people planning to enter or leave Gaza will be submitted by Egypt to the Israeli authorities for vetting, according to officials familiar with the details of the arrangements.
They said a civilian security team from the European Union would monitor the crossing with the help of employees of the Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. That is a system similar to the one used in the past.
Because the Gaza side of the crossing is in the half of the enclave that Israel now controls, travel to and from the border on the Gaza side will be closely coordinated with the Israeli authorities. There will be an additional screening and identification process for people entering, they said, to take place in a designated corridor operated by Israeli security personnel in the area under Israeli military control.
The National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, a group of Palestinian technocrats charged with helping govern the territory, was still in Cairo on Monday. Members of the committee hoped to enter Gaza soon, but a specific date for their arrival had not been set as of Monday morning, according to four people briefed on the committee’s work who insisted on anonymity to describe it.
In the Egyptian capital, the committee has been putting together plans for aiding and rebuilding Gaza, participating in governance training, and meeting with officials, three of the people said.
Ali Shaath, the committee’s leader, posted a statement on social media on Monday calling the crossing’s reopening the “beginning of a long process that will reconnect what has been severed and open a genuine window of hope for our people in the Gaza Strip.”
For those wanting to leave Gaza, priority will be given to the sick and the wounded who have been approved for treatment abroad, said a member of the European border monitoring mission, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the delicate talks about the reopening.
Roughly 18,500 people, including 4,000 children, are on the list of patients to be evacuated, according to the United Nations. Patients are usually accompanied by at least one relative or caregiver.
Other Gazans are in Egypt, waiting to return. Manal Abu Ammouna left Gaza with her daughter, Hiba, 25, who was severely wounded in an Israeli airstrike near their home in February 2024. They went to Egypt to seek medical treatment. Ms. Abu Ammouna’s husband and their nine other children stayed behind.
“For two years, I’ve been alone with my daughter,” she said by telephone. She said they had been living on charity in Cairo, where they felt “like strangers.”
During their absence, she said, one of her sons, Mohannad, was critically injured in another Israeli strike.
“I want to go back to Gaza, even with all the rubble there,” Ms. Abu Ammouna said.
About 80 percent of the buildings in Gaza were damaged or destroyed in the war, according to the United Nations, and many civilians are living in tents among the debris. Mr. Netanyahu has said that Gaza will not be rebuilt until it has been demilitarized.
The next stage of the cease-fire agreement is fraught with uncertainties. It calls for Hamas to disarm, but the militants are reluctant to do so.
For the first nine months of the war, tens of thousands of Palestinians were able to flee to Egypt through the Rafah crossing. Many paid bribes to secure exit papers, using intermediaries connected with the Egyptian government, while others were sponsored by international aid groups.
After Israel seized the crossing, as part of a military campaign to seal off Gaza’s southern border, all traffic came to a halt. Operations at the crossing resumed briefly in January 2025, under the terms of a temporary cease-fire, but only for a limited amount of traffic out of Gaza. When Israel resumed fighting in March 2025, the crossing closed again.
Gaza has not been hermetically sealed. In September, the Israeli military unit responsible for coordinating with Palestinian officials over civilian affairs said that hundreds of Gazans in need of medical treatment, along with caregivers, had left the enclave, as well as some Gaza residents with dual citizenship. They passed through another land crossing at the juncture of the borders of Israel, Egypt and Gaza, then traveled overland to Jordan or flew out of an airport in southern Israel.
The World Health Organization says it has helped facilitate nearly 2,700 medical evacuations since the Rafah crossing closed in May 2024.
But the closure of the Rafah crossing cut off a key pipeline.
During the talks, Egypt insisted that the crossing reopen for traffic in both directions. Israel’s right-wing government has made no secret of its desire to see as many Gazans as possible leave and not return.
Abu Bakr Bashir contributed reporting from London, Iyad Abuheweila from Cairo, Adam Rasgon from Tel Aviv and David M. Halbfinger from Jerusalem.
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4) ‘They Couldn’t Break Me’: A Protester, the White House and a Doctored Photo
President Trump and the White House regularly circulate imagery that has been manipulated by A.I. But the photo of Nekima Levy Armstrong was different.
By Erica L. Green, Feb. 3, 2026
Erica L. Green is a White House correspondent. She reported from Washington.
Nekima Levy Armstrong was arrested for protesting in St. Paul, Minn. She said she learned about the doctored photograph of her while she was in jail, during a phone call with her husband. Victor J. Blue for The New York Times
When Nekima Levy Armstrong was transported from the federal courthouse in St. Paul, Minn., to the Sherburne County Jail with three layers of shackles on her body — around her wrists, waist and feet — it was the closest, she said, that she had ever felt to slavery.
Still, she walked calmly, her face resolute, her head held high.
But if you saw a photograph that the White House disseminated of Ms. Levy Armstrong, who was arrested for protesting at a church service, you would not know it.
The White House posted a manipulated photo of her arrest to its official social media account, depicting Ms. Levy Armstrong, a civil rights attorney and activist, as hysterical — tears streaming down her face, her hair disheveled, appearing to cry out in despair. “ARRESTED” was emblazoned across the photo, along with a misleading description of Ms. Levy Armstrong as a “far-left agitator” who was “orchestrating church riots in Minnesota.”
While President Trump and the White House regularly circulate imagery altered by artificial intelligence, including demeaning and racist deepfakes, it is usually so over the top that the goal seems more about cartoonish mockery than outright deceit.
The photograph of Ms. Levy Armstrong was different. It has the hallmarks of brazen disinformation from the top level of government: smearing and humiliating one citizen in order to influence public opinion, while sending a warning to other critics to beware of crossing the administration. And it adds a new, social media-era dimension to Mr. Trump’s long record of distortions and lies in the service of his policies and political standing.
Ms. Levy Armstrong, a 49-year-old mother of four, said she learned about the photo while she was in jail, during a phone call with her husband. When she saw it for herself after she was released the next day, she said, she was “disgusted.”
The exaggerated features and the darkened skin, she said, reminded her of when the bodies of enslaved people were left disfigured to deter uprisings on plantations, or during Jim Crow when racist propaganda would depict Black people as caricatures. She said she remained “cool, calm and collected” during both her arrest and the transport to jail.
“They couldn’t break me by arresting me,” Ms. Levy Armstrong said, “so they doctored an image to show the world a false iteration of that time to make me look weak.”
“Reducing my image to some scared crying woman was just so degrading, and it just shows how far the office of the president has fallen,” Ms. Levy Armstrong said. “The presidency, the White House is supposed to symbolize the world’s greatest superpower, but instead they acted like a $2 tabloid.”
When asked about the doctored image, which The New York Times independently confirmed had been manipulated, the White House was unapologetic. Kaelan Dorr, the deputy communications director, brushed it off last week as a “meme.”
“Enforcement of the law will continue,” Mr. Dorr wrote on social media, reposting the doctored photograph. “The memes will continue.”
‘A Trophy for MAGA’
The Justice Department sought to prosecute Ms. Levy Armstrong under a law that bars using or threatening force and physical obstruction to interfere with or intimidate someone worshiping at a religious institution. But she now faces charges of “conspiracy against rights,” which had been used to protect Black people from harassment by the Ku Klux Klan.
Six other protesters and two journalists, including Don Lemon, also face charges for their roles in the protests, alarming First Amendment experts. Attorney General Pam Bondi has pointed to the cases as evidence that the administration does “not tolerate attacks on places of worship.”
Ms. Levy Armstrong, who is an ordained pastor, said that she led the protest on Jan. 18 at Cities Church to stand up for immigrants’ right to worship without fear of arrest. A leader at the church, David Easterwood, is the acting director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office for enforcement and removal operations in St. Paul. Mr. Easterwood, who was not present at the time of the protest, has been named in a lawsuit challenging aggressive enforcement tactics.
Protesters interrupted the church service with chants of “ICE out” and “Hands up, don’t shoot.” When the pastor yelled, “Shame!” at her from the pulpit, Ms. Levy Armstrong began to lead a chant of “Justice for Renee Good,” referring to the 37-year-old woman who was killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis in early January.
Videos posted on social media show the protest bringing the service to a halt and congregants moving to leave, as the chants continue and worship music begins to play.
The protest lasted about 20 minutes, Ms. Levy Armstrong said.
Four days later, on Jan. 22, federal officers arrested Ms. Levy Armstrong at a downtown Minneapolis hotel, just minutes from the federal courthouse. While her husband filmed the encounter, she asked the agents to treat her with “dignity and respect.”
She asked one of the agents why he was filming the arrest.
“It’s not going to be on Twitter,” the agent assured her.
“We don’t want to create a false narrative,” the agent added.
She said she responded that she did not want to be a “trophy for MAGA.”
But soon after her arrest, an image of Ms. Levy Armstrong was on Twitter. Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, posted an arrest picture of Ms. Levy Armstrong, apparently without digital manipulation. But within hours, the doctored photo that the White House posted had ricocheted around the country. It has been viewed more than six million times.
In a social media post 48 hours before her arrest, Mr. Trump called the church protesters “agitators and insurrectionists” who should be “thrown in jail, or thrown out of the Country.”
Legal experts said that the fake image could hurt the Justice Department’s case against Ms. Levy Armstrong. Her lawyers could use it to accuse the Trump administration of making what are known as improper extrajudicial statements.
In a court filing, Ms. Levy Armstrong’s lawyer pointed to the doctored photo as an example of political persecution and what he called an effort to “defame her” as part of the government’s “fascist offensive against the American people.”
But even if the case is not airtight legally, the social media campaign is a potent signal to protesters that they will pay a very public price for standing up to the administration.
‘We Don’t Know What to Believe’
Hany Farid, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley who researches digital forensics, deepfake imagery and misinformation, said that the White House response was a troubling escalation in its use of artificial intelligence.
“I think reasonable people can say that this one was really different, because the photo was real, and it was A.I.-modified to change her facial expression, and it was not labeled such, and it wasn’t at all obvious from the context that it was a meme, as the White House wanted to say,” he said.
Mr. Farid, who is also the co-founder and chief science officer at GetReal Security, a firm that identifies A.I. misinformation, added that posting fake content alongside official business not only risked eroding the public trust — it could also backfire.
“If you are so seamlessly intermixing real and fake, why should I believe anything you do?” he asked. “Where are we as an electorate when we don’t know what to believe anymore?”
Some scholars said the doctored photo was the latest example of a history of racialized propaganda that has been weaponized against Black people, especially in eras in which they are challenging the government.
“It goes back to the images of slavery, but also of Jim Crow abuse by law enforcement, and that abuse with impunity to send a message to the Black community as a whole that we are going to not only assault but humiliate Black people who join in protest effort across the country,” said Gloria J. Browne-Marshall, a law professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.
‘A Wake-Up Call’
Ms. Levy Armstrong, who spent more than a decade as a law professor, has had prominent roles in protests over the last decade.
She went to Ferguson, Mo., in 2014 as a legal observer after the shooting death of Mike Brown, and went on to help organize Black Lives Matter protests after his death. She also led protests against police killings of Black men by the police, including Philando Castile, Jamar Clark and George Floyd.
She has been arrested before for leading demonstrations, including in 2015 when she and others were accused of shutting down an interstate after the killing of Mr. Clark.
Ms. Levy Armstrong served as president of the Minneapolis chapter of the N.A.A.C.P. from 2015 to 2016, and in 2017 ran for mayor of Minneapolis on a platform of police accountability and racial equity. She lost to the current mayor, Jacob Frey.
Born in Jackson, Miss., Ms. Levy Armstrong moved to South Central Los Angeles when she was 8 and knew early on that she wanted to be a lawyer after witnessing the injustices faced by the Black community, including the beating of Rodney King.
When she was 14, Ms. Levy Armstrong was accepted to boarding school at the Brooks School in North Andover, Mass., and went on to attend the University of Southern California, where she studied African American history. She got her law degree from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and taught for 13 years at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis, where she was a full and tenured law professor.
“I’ve been in it — 10 toes down, in the fight for justice,” she said.
Now, she sees a silver lining in the White House’s release of the doctored photo.
“It was a wake-up call for the nation in terms of really understanding political persecution,” she said, “and that people are being targeted and penalized for speaking out against the tyranny and fascism of the federal government.”
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5) In Under 500 Words, a Judge Weaponized Wit to Free the Child Detained by ICE
Our critic annotates the barbed wordplay of a decision challenging the Trump administration’s theory of executive power.
By A.O. Scott, Feb. 3, 2026
A.O. Scott is a critic at large for the Book Review.
OPINION AND ORDER OF THE COURT
Before the Court is the petition of asylum seeker Adrian Conejo Arias and his five-year-old son for protection of the Great Writ1 of habeas corpus. They seek nothing more than some modicum of due process and the rule of law. The government has responded.
He starts by juxtaposing the grandeur of habeas corpus with the modesty of the father and son’s claims, implying that what makes the writ “Great” is precisely its ability to protect the basic right of ordinary people not to be locked up arbitrarily. It does this by requiring that the government either provide reasons for holding them in custody or else let them go.
1. Ex parte Bollman, 8 U.S. (4 Cranch) 75 (1807); Sir William W. Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765-1769); see also Magna Carta, Article 39.
Judge Biery’s footnote directing readers to Blackstone’s commentaries and Magna Carta may be intended to give a remedial lesson to members of the administration. His larger point, though, is that to flout the guarantee of habeas corpus — as he insists the current deportation policy has done — is to threaten the integrity of the American constitutional order itself.
The case has its genesis in the ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children. This Court and others regularly send undocumented people to prison and orders them deported but do so by proper legal procedures.
He calls attention to the grandiosity and sloppiness of the administration’s position while suggesting that its overreach reflects a more sinister intention.
Apparent also is the government’s ignorance of an American historical document called the Declaration of Independence. Thirty-three-year-old Thomas Jefferson enumerated grievances against a would-be authoritarian king over our nascent nation. Among others were:
1. “He has sent hither Swarms of Officers to harass our People.”
2. “He has excited domestic Insurrection among us.”
3. “For quartering large Bodies of Armed Troops among us.”
4. “He has kept among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our Legislatures.”
As the 250th birthday of American independence approaches, the president is being cast as King George III. The federal government’s indifference to habeas claims places it on the wrong side of the historical divide between individual liberty and unchecked state power, and thus at odds with the founding documents of the Republic.
“We the people” are hearing echos of that history.
And then there is that pesky inconvenience called the Fourth Amendment:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and persons or things to be seized.
U.S. CONST. amend. IV.
Civics lesson to the government: Administrative warrants issued by the executive branch to itself do not pass probable cause muster.
In constitutional terms, the judge finds that the administration has defied the Fourth Amendment and disregarded the separation of powers.
That is called the fox guarding the henhouse. The Constitution requires an independent judicial officer.
A barnyard metaphor puts the matter in plainer language: Because executive authority has the potential to be predatory, it needs to be checked by the judiciary branch. Judge Biery might also be sending a sly message to his colleagues on the U.S. Supreme Court, who have looked favorably on many of Mr. Trump’s expansive claims of executive branch power.
Accordingly, the Court finds that the Constitution of these United States trumps this administration’s detention of petitioner Adrian Conejo Arias and his minor son, L.C.R. The Great Writ and release from detention are GRANTED pursuant to the attached Judgment.
The language in which the judge renders his decision also sends a message, in this case to the president himself. Capitalization is a hallmark of Mr. Trump’s style, as it is of American legalese. The paragraph granting the petition bristles with uppercase nouns, which makes it all the more striking that the president’s name, otherwise absent from the ruling, is rendered in lowercase, as a card-table verb.
This may be a subtextual swipe at the president’s ego, but it’s consistent with the decision’s fundamental argument, which is that the president — any president — is ultimately smaller than the law.
Observing human behavior confirms that for some among us, the perfidious lust for unbridled power and the imposition of cruelty in its quest know no bounds and are bereft of human decency. And the rule of law be damned.
For Judge Biery, the case involves procedure, and morality too. When he allows himself to express his disapproval — to write judgmentally, rather than judicially — he is in effect arguing that these principles can’t be separated. Due process and human decency are two sides of the same coin.
Ultimately, Petitioners may, because of the arcane United States immigration system, return to their home country, involuntarily or by self-deportation. But that result should occur through a more orderly and humane policy than currently in place.
Philadelphia, September 17, 1787: “Well, Dr. Franklin, what do we have?” “A republic, if you can keep it.”
With a judicial finger in the constitutional dike,
It is so ORDERED.
Benjamin Franklin famously (and perhaps apocryphally) pointed out the fragility of orderly self-government, while the Dutch boy immortalized in the 19th-century novel “Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates” did what he could to protect his neighbors from the fury of the unchecked sea.
That Judge Biery puts himself in their company suggests that he sees this decision less as a final judgment than as a warning.
SIGNED this 31st day of January, 2026.
FRED BIERY
UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE
After his cautionary conclusion, the judge still has something extra to say, something that shifts the focus away from the rational, secular domain of jurisprudence.
Below his signature, he attaches the widely seen photograph of Liam. Underneath that — after an eloquently anonymous photo credit — are references to two verses from the New Testament. The judge doesn’t quote them, but they speak for him all the same.
Matthew 19:14
The Matthew verse — “But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: For of such is the kingdom of heaven” — is a well-known statement of compassion and care.
John 11:35
So, in its way, is John 11:35, the shortest verse in the English Bible. It is often quoted when things are so terrible that all other words fail:
“Jesus wept.”
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6) Trump, in an Escalation, Calls for Republicans to ‘Nationalize’ Elections
The comments, made on a conservative podcast, follow a string of moves from his administration to try to exert more control over American elections.
By Reid J. Epstein and Nick Corasaniti, Published Feb. 2, 2026, Updated Feb. 3, 2026
Reid J. Epstein reported from Washington, and Nick Corasaniti from New York.
President Trump has long been fixated on the false claim that voter fraud is rampant in the United States. Credit...Caroline Yang for The New York Times
President Trump called in a new interview for the Republican Party to “nationalize” voting in the United States, an aggressive rhetorical step that was likely to raise new worries about his administration’s efforts to involve itself in election matters.
During an extended monologue about immigration on a podcast released on Monday by Dan Bongino, his former deputy F.B.I. director, Mr. Trump called for Republican officials to “take over” voting procedures in 15 states, though he did not name them.
“The Republicans should say, ‘We want to take over,’” he said. “We should take over the voting, the voting in at least many — 15 places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.”
Under the Constitution, American elections are governed primarily by state law, leading to a decentralized process in which voting is administered by county and municipal officials in thousands of precincts across the country. Mr. Trump, however, has long been fixated on the false claims that U.S. elections are rife with fraud and that Democrats are perpetrating a vast conspiracy to have undocumented immigrants vote and lift the party’s turnout.
Mr. Trump’s remarkable call for a political party to seize the mechanisms of voting follows a string of moves from his administration to try to exert more control over American elections, as he and his allies continue to make false claims about his 2020 defeat.
Last week, F.B.I. agents seized ballots and other voting records from the 2020 election from an election center in Fulton County, Ga., where his allies have for years pursued false claims of election fraud. The New York Times reported on Monday that Mr. Trump had spoken on the phone to the F.B.I. agents involved in the Fulton County raid, praising and thanking them.
The Justice Department, which has been newly politicized under Mr. Trump, is demanding that numerous states, including Minnesota, turn over their full voter rolls as the Trump administration tries to build a national voter file.
In March, Mr. Trump signed an executive order that tried to make significant changes to the electoral process, including requiring documentary proof of citizenship and demanding that all mail ballots be received by the time polls close on Election Day. But that effort has largely been rebuffed by courts.
On social media, Mr. Trump has pushed for even more drastic changes. In August, he wrote that he wanted to end the use of mail-in ballots and potentially the use of voting machines.
The president’s claims of election fraud have been debunked over and over, by both independent reviews and Republican officials. A review of the 2024 election by the Trump administration that began last year had found little evidence of widespread voting fraud by noncitizens as of last month, The Times reported.
Mr. Trump’s escalated remarks about elections come at a moment when Democrats have outperformed the G.O.P. in a series of contests. New Jersey and Virginia elected Democratic governors in landslides in November, and on Saturday, a Democrat won a special election for a Texas State Senate seat by 14 percentage points in a district Mr. Trump had carried by 17 points in 2024, an enormous swing.
Sensing that Republicans were vulnerable to the traditional midterm backlash against the party in power, Mr. Trump last year kick-started an extraordinary effort to gerrymander congressional maps to give his party an edge. The push, which started in Texas but has since expanded to both Democratic- and Republican-controlled states, became a central part of the president’s midterm strategy.
Mr. Trump has made little secret of his interest in expanding the federal government’s role in administering American elections. Last month, he told The Times that he regretted not dispatching the National Guard to seize voting machinery after the 2020 election.
During his interview with Mr. Bongino, Mr. Trump tied his desire for partisan control of voting mechanisms to his administration’s agenda to find and deport undocumented immigrants from American cities.
“If Republicans don’t get them out, you will never win another election as a Republican,” he said, referring to undocumented immigrants. “It’s crazy how you can get these people to vote. If we don’t get them out, look, Republicans will never win another election.”
There is no evidence that a significant number of noncitizens have voted in any American election. A 2024 audit by Georgia’s secretary of state found that just 20 of the 8.2 million people registered to vote in Georgia were not citizens, and only nine had ever voted.
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7) ICE Is Watching You
By Tressie McMillan Cottom, Opinion Columnist, Feb. 3, 2026
“You don’t need to understand how digital tracking works or have a degree in constitutional law to grasp what is happening to your privacy. You need only know this: Whatever is happening with your data, it is important enough to the most egregiously lawless administration in American history that it be collected and consolidated. It is important enough that a federal cowboy kept one hand on his phone even as his other hand reached for his gun. A militarized federal police force that acts out of loyalty on the whim of a political leader who relishes retribution and adulation is the tip of an iceberg. You don’t build a nuclear bomb for peace any more than you build a national surveillance apparatus just to manage a border wall. This kind of weaponry could effectively nullify our Fourth Amendment right to protection from unreasonable search and seizure. It also could more easily enable the government to trample on your free speech. And, it could do all of this without meaningful transparency or oversight.”
Photo Illustration by Stephanie Syjuco
In the latest stop in Donald Trump’s war on liberal democracy, federal agents in Minnesota have shot and killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti. It was difficult to avoid the videos of what I can only think of as their executions. The images captured by bystanders and immigrant agents were reminiscent of the lynching postcards that white spectators once bought and traded — reproductions of retributive violence, tailor-made to titillate and intimidate.
Alex Pretti’s killing, in particular, struck a chord of dismay with a cross section of Americans. There is some small measure of comfort that our public conscience can still be shocked. One may wish that it had happened sooner — when other people died in ICE custody this past year or immigrants were rounded up into camps. But whichever abuse convinced you, whichever needless death shocked you, you are here now. You need to pay attention to the guns ICE agents are pointing at all of us. You also need to pay attention to everything happening around the guns.
Just before Jonathan Ross, an ICE agent, pulled the gun that he discharged into Good’s minivan, he was shooting video of the incident on his cellphone.
The gun and the phone are both weapons, one a tool for violence and the other a tool of control.
We understand what the gun is intended to do. That’s why, finally, opposition to the Trump administration seems to be coalescing around a rallying cry: “Abolish ICE!” It’s another way of saying, control the hand that holds the gun. It is the gun that produces the spectacle of violence from which we cannot, in good conscience, look away. Yes, we must pay attention to the gun.
But, we must also pay attention to the phone.
That phone represents a greater power, one that could outlast Trumpism. ICE knows that it cannot shoot us all. But the Department of Homeland Security is close to being able to track us all.
Trump’s signature domestic policy bill gave ICE $75 billion in new funding and four years to spend it, making ICE the highest funded federal law enforcement agency. The agency is spending big on signing bonuses — 12,000 new officers and agents have been hired with One Big Beautiful Bill money — and cutting-edge military weaponry to use on American streets. The Department of Homeland Security also has been, reportedly, spending some of its budget to collect data on people like you.
The federal government, whether Democratic- or Republican-controlled, has repeatedly failed to institute meaningful, urgently needed regulation of or legislation about data privacy that matches the scale of our risk. For decades, Americans have treated their data like a cheap externality. We trade crumbs of ourselves — our name, phone number, location data — for discounts, convenience and the illusion of safety. Democratic administrations, in particular, thought Silicon Valley chief executives were the good guys. So, they enabled their sci-fi aspirations, invited them into the White House inner circle and consulted them on best practices for consumer data. Then, many chiefs turned heel, helping this administration aggressively scale a data dragnet that will eat our civil liberties for lunch, if we let it.
Many of us have come to believe that our data is something outside of ourselves, when, in fact, data is our self. Through our purchasing patterns and our digital habits, we have produced reams of details about how we live, think, vote and spend. And there is an entire industry of data brokers that collect and package our data to be bought. Consequently, we live in a world where our data is valuable and our power to protect it is negligible.
The companies that already use our data — to target us with advertisements, to assess our eligibility for loans or insurance — are limited largely by the concerns of business: for the most part, a company wants your wallet, not your liberty. The same cannot be said of this administration.
Imagine what our country would look like if a federal agency compiled everything it could find about you on the open market, and then paired it with your most sensitive personal data and the full weight of the federal surveillance apparatus. The result would be a system that could not only track you but pretty accurately predict your choices, behaviors and vulnerabilities. The agency might decline to tell you how the database would be used, or, worse, deny that such a database exists at all. In these times, we ought to assume the worst-case scenario: that every technological layer added to our democratic institutions has the potential to be hostile to civil liberties.
Already, there are signs that this future may come to pass.
In a citizen video from Maine that has been widely shared online, an ICE agent told a legal observer that he was taking a picture of her license plate to add her to a “nice little database” that will label her a “domestic terrorist.” (A spoke person for the Department of Homeland Security, Tricia McLaughlin, later told CNN that “there is no database of ‘domestic terrorists’ run by D.H.S.”) In any case, the Department of Homeland Security has issued broad internal guidance for ICE agents in Minneapolis to collect “images, license plates, identifications and general information on hotels, agitators, protesters.” And then on Friday, The Times reported that ICE was exploring ways to integrate advertising technologies and the data associated with them into its operations, specifically asking potential vendors the extent to which data could be collected on “people, businesses, devices, locations, transactions, public records.” There’s no word on ICE having a special decoder ring that tracks only the criminals.
Emily Tucker, the director of Georgetown University’s Center on Privacy and Technology, suggested the agency could be constructing a surveillance system that, in my estimation, would make “Minority Report” look like child’s play. Homeland Security, she said, “is increasingly emphasizing ‘interoperability’ in its contracting.” That is a strong sign that the agency wants to connect a range of databases, which could include those with your biometric data, employment data, driving records, credit reports, tax data, social media data, cellphone location data and automated license plate reader data. “They are seeking data about every aspect of the lives of everyone,” she said.
If combined with the facial recognition and social media monitoring commonly deployed by the Department of Homeland Security, those reams of data would turbocharge ICE’s terror campaign in the short term and destroy American civil liberties in the long term. Should this surveillance infrastructure live up to its technical potential, it would be a leviathan that our 250-year-old Constitution almost certainly cannot restrain.
I spoke on the phone last week to Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, who has been trying, futilely, for years to pass legislation to protect Americans’ data from federal overreach. One such bill passed in the House in 2024 but languished in the Senate. He told me that the federal government is “weaponizing private data” against citizens and noncitizens. Of particular concern, he said, was not simply the data about all of us that is available for purchase, but how states are allowing for the federal government’s data smash-and-grab. What this administration cannot buy, it will simply take.
Your state and federal data is the stuff you are compelled to provide, the data whose accuracy you worry about because a mistake can disrupt your Social Security benefits or put you at odds with the I.R.S. The Trump administration has been taking advantage of state-level data that has been aggregated by a third party nonprofit data clearinghouse called Nlets. It was established to help local, national and international agencies share data, including D.M.V. data, about known criminal activity. In practice, there are far too few restrictions on who can use that data, and how they can use it. A handful of states have enacted restrictions on ICE’s access to the D.M.V. data stored with Nlets, but the vast majority effectively give federal agencies self-service, direct access to it. So a tool meant to make D.M.V. data sharing frictionless for law enforcement agencies also acts like a privacy Trojan horse, because agencies don’t need just cause or a warrant to look at it.
You don’t need to understand how digital tracking works or have a degree in constitutional law to grasp what is happening to your privacy. You need only know this: Whatever is happening with your data, it is important enough to the most egregiously lawless administration in American history that it be collected and consolidated. It is important enough that a federal cowboy kept one hand on his phone even as his other hand reached for his gun.
A militarized federal police force that acts out of loyalty on the whim of a political leader who relishes retribution and adulation is the tip of an iceberg. You don’t build a nuclear bomb for peace any more than you build a national surveillance apparatus just to manage a border wall. This kind of weaponry could effectively nullify our Fourth Amendment right to protection from unreasonable search and seizure. It also could more easily enable the government to trample on your free speech. And, it could do all of this without meaningful transparency or oversight.
The federal government may have abdicated its responsibility to protect our civil liberties by regulating who can use our data and to what ends. Some states are stepping in, creating their own data privacy laws. But there is still much more to be done, in state legislatures and in Congress. And it all starts with the American people understanding that our freedoms are now bound up in who controls our data.
End the spectacle of vicarious violence. Abolish ICE.
But to end the structure of violence that has ensnared our civil liberties, we will also have to finally, finally turn our attention to who is controlling the damn phones.
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8) Palestinians Return to Gaza for First Time in Nearly Two Years
Only 12 returnees reunited with families. Some said their arrival carried larger weight, defying any notion of permanently displacing Gazans.
By Adam Rasgon and Bilal Shbair, Feb. 3, 2026
Rasgon reported from Jerusalem and Shbair reported from Khan Younis, Gaza
Palestinians embraced people who returned to Gaza late on Monday after the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza was reopened. Saher Alghorra for The New York Times
For nearly two years, Palestinians have been barred from returning to Gaza, watching in anguish as Israel’s bombing campaign against Hamas left whole neighborhoods in ruin and killed tens of thousands of people.
But late Monday night, 12 Gaza residents were allowed back home after Israel and Egypt opened the Rafah border crossing, according to the Hamas-run interior ministry in Gaza.
The small number of returnees reunited with their families. Coming home, several returnees said, was a rejection of any notions of permanently displacing them outside of the territory.
“No to expulsion,” said Huda Abu Abed, 56, who returned after leaving in March for medical treatment. “Nobody wants to leave their country.”
For Palestinians who left Gaza during the two-year war, uncertainty has loomed over their return.
In February 2025, President Trump proposed resettling Palestinians outside Gaza. But he unveiled a 20-point plan for ending the war in the territory in October that says “no one will be forced to leave.”
Still, right-wing members of the Israeli government have advocated for relocating Palestinians.
The opening of the Rafah crossing was part of a cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas in October. Israel had refused to open the crossing in both directions until all living hostages held by Hamas and all bodies of the deceased had been returned to Israel.
The last remains, those of Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, a member of the Israeli police, were recovered by Israel last week.
In the initial months of the war, the Rafah crossing was a lifeline for Palestinians trying to escape the war or seeking medical treatment abroad. But Israel took it over in May 2024 when its forces moved into Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza.
For most of the 21 months since Israel took over, the crossing had been kept closed. The last time it temporarily opened was at the beginning of 2025, during a monthslong cease-fire.
On Monday, some ill Palestinians were allowed to leave Gaza through the Rafah crossing for treatment. Eight people left, including their caregivers, the interior ministry said.
About 20,000 people need to be evacuated for medical treatment, the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said last week.
Returnees told The New York Times that they had received phone calls from the Palestinian embassy in Cairo on Sunday, telling them to gather at a meeting point in the Egyptian port city of El-Arish at 2 a.m. the next day.
The drive from El-Arish to the Rafah crossing is only about an hour. But the travelers did not reach their families waiting for them at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis until 11 p.m.
Ms. Abu Abed, who was returning with her daughter, said she sat idly on the Egyptian side of the crossing for long hours before being transferred to the Gaza side. There, she was greeted by employees of the internationally-backed Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
After her passport was stamped, European Union monitors confiscated some of her belongings, including a phone charger, she said.
Sabah al-Riqib, 41, who also returned to Gaza on Monday, shared a similar account, saying the monitors took away children’s toys. The E.U. Border Assistance Mission at the Rafah crossing did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ms. Abu Abed and Ms. Riqib said they then encountered members of a local Palestinian militia which rivals Hamas and is supported by Israel.The militia members searched their belongings and escorted them to Israeli security officers, who took their phones away for an hour and asked them whether their families were tied to Hamas.
“It was totally intrusive and exhausting,” Ms. Abu Abed said.
Israel has been supporting members of the militia, known as the Popular Forces, hoping they can undercut Hamas’s power over Gaza. The militia is based in southeastern Rafah and has been accused of looting aid trucks.Ghassan Duhine, the leader of the militia, did not respond to a request for comment.
Asked whether the Popular Forces were present at the crossing, an Israeli security official, who requested anonymity to discuss operational details, said “local Palestinians” were only involved in helping transport the returnees.
Abu Bakr Bashir, Natan Odenheimer, and Iyad Abuheweila contributed reporting to this article.
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9) New York Attorney General to Deploy Observers to Document ICE Raids
Letitia James, the state’s top law official, said staffers from her office would serve as “neutral witnesses” amid recent backlash to President Trump’s deportation campaign.
By Luis Ferré-Sadurní, Feb. 3, 2026
The initiative is aimed at collecting real-time information on immigration enforcement activity and identifying whether federal agents are acting lawfully, the office of Attorney General Letitia James said. Credit...James Estrin/The New York Times
Letitia James, the New York attorney general, announced on Tuesday that her office would deploy legal observers to document raids conducted by federal immigration authorities across the state.
The observers, outfitted with purple vests, could be sent to where immigration raids are unfolding to serve as “neutral witnesses on the ground,” her office said in a release, adding that they would be instructed not to interfere with enforcement activity.
The initiative, after criticism over the aggressive tactics used by immigration officers in Minneapolis, is aimed at collecting real-time information on immigration enforcement activity and identifying whether federal agents are acting lawfully, her office said.
The effort, which will be staffed by lawyers and other state employees, is the first of its kind by an attorney general’s office, according to Sophie Hamlin, a spokeswoman for Ms. James.
“We have seen in Minnesota how quickly and tragically federal operations can escalate in the absence of transparency and accountability,” Ms. James, a Democrat, said in a statement. “My office is launching the Legal Observation Project to examine federal enforcement activity in New York and whether it remains within the bounds of the law.”
After the fatal shootings in January of two American citizens in Minneapolis, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, the Trump administration has come under scrutiny — from lawmakers, judges and voters — over the use of excessive force by its immigration officers.
Democrats in Congress have pressed President Trump to rein in his mass deportation operation and to impose restrictions on immigration agents, demanding that they stop wearing masks and cease searches and arrests without warrants.
Responding to the outcry, Mr. Trump sent his border czar, Tom Homan, to try to de-escalate tensions in Minneapolis, where he announced a shift to more targeted arrests, rather than random sweeps. And on Monday, Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, announced that agents in Minneapolis would begin to wear body cameras, a change that she said would eventually be enacted nationwide.
In New York and elsewhere, federal agents have clashed with citizens and activists showing up to record, protest and, at times, confront Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers carrying out raids. And officials across the country have been seeking to preserve evidence of misconduct by agents after the Trump administration shut out local and state officials in Minnesota from investigations into the shootings in Minneapolis.
During the past year, cellphone footage taken by bystanders has become one of the main ways that the Trump administration’s deportation drive has come into focus, at times contradicting official accounts from the federal government. Trump officials have broadly cast cellphone-wielding protesters as agitators intent on interfering with the enforcement of federal immigration laws.
In New York, volunteers and activists have regularly fanned out in the city’s immigration courts to record the arrests of migrants who were showing up for routine hearings. And in recent months, residents and organizers have sought to document a scaling up of early morning arrests in immigrant-rich neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens, posting the videos on social media.
While ICE has detained thousands of undocumented immigrants in New York, the city has not been subjected to the large-scale operations that have taken hold in other Democratic cities, though local officials have been preparing for that possibility since last year.
Aside from filing immigration-related lawsuits, Democratic state attorneys general have started other initiatives meant to shed transparency on ICE activity.
Late last year, California and New York unveiled online portals for residents to upload photos and videos of misconduct by federal agents that could be used in state lawsuits against the federal government.
In January, amid a surge of ICE operations in Maine, Aaron M. Frey, the state’s attorney general, opened an email tip line to field reports about “intimidating or excessive behavior used by federal agents.”
Last week, Mikie Sherrill, the Democratic governor of New Jersey, urged residents to use their cellphones to record immigration officers, saying that the state would soon create a portal to upload the footage.
“If you see an ICE agent in the street, get your phone out,” Ms. Sherrill, who was sworn in last month, said during a television interview. “We want to know.”
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