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Dear Friends,
We are saddened to inform you that our dear comrade Nellie Wong passed away on January 2 from ovarian cancer.
She was diagnosed in mid-December and chose to forgo chemotherapy so that her quality of life would be on the level she was used to — spending time conversing with comrades, friends and family, writing poetry, enjoying good food, and consistently fighting for a better world. Nellie lived life the way she chose and that’s also how she left the world.
Nellie found her voice when she found the feminist movement. She was one of the first to call herself an Asian American feminist back in the mid-1970s. She embraced all of herself as a Chinese American woman, revolutionary, worker, poet, activist. She inspired many generations with her courage to stand by her beliefs and her willingness to fight for them.
Nellie was a prolific writer and she published five books of poetry and her writings were included in over 200 publications. She wrote for the Freedom Socialist newspaper and also penned the introductions to the anthologies Voices of Color and Talking Back. Her writings were a result of both her experiences and her socialist feminist politics. They were inseparable.
Nellie was a leader, the organizer of the San Francisco Bay Area FSP branch for 20 years. She was always proud to let people know of her involvement with the party and Radical Women. In every interaction, she weaved in her Marxist feminism, her belief that socialism is needed, and her conviction that the working class will make revolution.
FSP and RW will be holding a memorial for Nellie in the near future to celebrate her life and accomplishments, and we’ll let you know the details as soon as they are set.
Nellie Wong, ¡presente!
Nancy Reiko Kato
Bay Area FSP Organizer
Make a Donation:
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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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Help World-Outlook Win New Subscribers
(the subscription is free of charge)
Dear reader,
Over the last month, World-Outlook and its sister publication in Spanish Panorama-Mundial have published unique coverage of U.S. and world events.
This includes the three-part interview with Cuban historian and writer Ernesto Limia Díaz, ‘Cuba Is the Moral and Political Compass of the World.’ A related article by Mark Satinoff, World Votes with Cuba to Demand an End to U.S. Blockade, included information on the campaign to send medical aid to Cuba in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa and was shared widely by the Los Angeles Hands Off Cuba Committee and other Cuba solidarity groups.
A number of readers sent their appreciation for Cathleen Gutekanst’s article Chicago Residents Fight ICE Abductions, Deportations, which provided a compelling, eyewitness account of this example of working-class resistance to the Trump administration’s war on undocumented immigrants. Some readers shared it widely on social media platforms.
The news analysis Bigotry, Jew Hatred Take Center Stage in GOP Mainstream also generated interest. It is part of World-Outlook’s consistent analysis of the danger of the rise of incipient fascism that Trumpism has posed for the working class and its allies in the U.S. and the world.
Most recently, another article by Mark Satinoff, ‘From Ceasefire to a Just Peace’ in Israel and Occupied Territories, was promoted by Friends of Standing Together (FOST NY/NJ) on the group’s website. Alon-Lee Green and Sally Abed — the two Standing Together leaders featured at the November 12 event in Brooklyn, New York, that Mark’s article covered — and Israelis for Peace sent their thanks to Mark for his accurate reporting.
This is a small sample of the news coverage and political analysis World-Outlook offers.
We ask you to use this information to try to convince at least one of your acquaintances, colleagues, friends, fellow students, neighbors, or relatives to subscribe to World-Outlook. As you know, the subscription is free of charge. Increasing World-Outlook’s subscription base will widen the site’s reach. It will also provide new impetus to improve our coverage. Comments and reactions from subscribers, or initiatives from readers to cover events in their areas, often result in unexpectedly invaluable articles or opinion columns clarifying important political questions.
Feel free to share this letter, or part of its contents, with those you are asking to subscribe. And keep World-Outlookinformed about the reactions you get from potential new readers.
In solidarity,
World-Outlook editors
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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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Stop Cop City Bay Area
Did you know about a proposed $47 million regional police training facility in San Pablo—designed for departments across the Bay Area?
We are Stop Cop City Bay Area (Tours & Teach-Ins), a QT+ Black-led grassroots collective raising awareness about this project. This would be the city’s second police training facility, built without voter approval and financed through a $32 million, 30-year loan.
We’re organizing to repurpose the facility into a community resource hub and youth center. To build people power, we’re taking this conversation on the road—visiting Bay Area campuses, classrooms, cafes, and community spaces via our Fall 2025 Tour.
We’d love to collaborate with you and/or co-create an event. Here’s what we offer:
Guest Speaker Presentations—5-minute visits (team meetings, classrooms, co-ops, etc.), panels, or deep dives into:
· the facility’s origins & regional impacts
· finding your role in activism
· reimagining the floorplan (micro-workshops)
· and more
· Interactive Art & Vendor/Tabling Pop-Ups — free zines, stickers, and live linocut printing with hand-carved stamps + artivism.
· Collaborations with Classrooms — project partnerships, research integration, or creative assignments.
· Film Screenings + Discussion — e.g., Power (Yance Ford, 2024) or Riotsville, U.S.A. (Sierra Pettengill, 2022), or a film of your choice.
👉 If you’re interested in hosting a stop, open to co-creating something else, or curious about the intersections of our work: simply reply to this email or visit: stopcopcitybayarea.com/tour
Thank you for your time and consideration. We look forward to connecting.
In solidarity,
Stop Cop City Bay Area
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Dear Organization Coordinator
I hope this message finds you well. I’m reaching out to invite your organization to consider co-sponsoring a regional proposal to implement Free Public Transit throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.
This initiative directly supports low-income families, working people, seniors, youth, and others who rely on public transportation. It would eliminate fare barriers while helping to address climate justice, congestion, and air pollution—issues that disproportionately affect disadvantaged communities.
We believe your organization’s mission and values align strongly with this proposal. We are seeking endorsements, co-sponsorship, and coalition-building with groups that advocate for economic and racial equity.
I would love the opportunity to share a brief proposal or speak further if you're interested. Please let me know if there’s a staff member or program director I should connect with.
A description of our proposal is below:
sharethemoneyinstitute@gmail.com
Opinion: San Francisco Bay Area Should Provide Free Public Transportation
The San Francisco Bay Area is beautiful, with fantastic weather, food, diversity and culture. We’re also internationally famous for our progressiveness, creativity, and innovation.
I believe the next amazing world-leading feature we can add to our cornucopia of attractions is Free Public Transportation. Imagine how wonderful it would be if Muni, BART, Caltrain, AC Transit, SamTrans, SF Bay Ferries, and all the other transportation services were absolutely free?
Providing this convenience would deliver enormous, varied benefits to the 7.6 million SF Bay Area residents, and would make us a lovable destination for tourists.
This goal - Free Public Transportation - is ambitious, but it isn’t impossible, or even original. Truth is, many people world-wide already enjoy free rides in their smart municipalities.
New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is promoting free transit, with a plan that’s gained the endorsement of economists from Chile, United Kingdom, Greece, and the USA.
The entire nation of Luxembourg has offered free public transportation to both its citizens and visitors since 2020. Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, has given free transit to its residents since 2013. In France, thirty-five cities provide free public transportation. Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, offers free rides to seniors, disabled, and students. In Maricá (Brazil) – the entire municipal bus system is free. Delhi (India) – offers free metro and bus travel for women. Madrid & Barcelona (Spain) offer free (or heavily discounted) passes to youth and seniors.
Even in the USA, free public transit is already here. Kansas City, Missouri, has enjoyed a free bus system free since 2020. Olympia, Washington, has fully fare-free intercity transit. Missoula, Montana, is free for all riders. Columbia, South Carolina, has free buses, and Chapel Hill, North Carolina, has enjoyed free transit for over a decade. Ithaca, New York, and Madison, Wisconsin, offer free transit to students.
But if the San Francisco Bay Area offered free transit, we’d be the LARGEST municipality in the world to offer universal Free Transit to everyone, resident and visitor alike. (Population of Luxembourg is 666,430. Kansas City 510,704. Population of San Francisco Bay Area is 7.6 million in the nine-county area)
Providing free transit would be tremendously beneficial to millions of people, for three major reasons:
1. Combat Climate Change - increased public ridership would reduce harmful CO2 fossil fuel emissions. Estimates from Kansas City and Tallinn Estonia’s suggest an increase in ridership of 15 percent. Another estimate from a pilot project in New York City suggests a ridership increase of 30 percent. These increases in people taking public transportation instead of driving their own cars indicates a total reduction of 5.4 - 10.8 tons of emissions would be eliminated, leading to better air quality, improved public health, and long-term climate gains.
2. Reduce Traffic Congestion & Parking Difficulty - Estimates suggest public transit would decrease traffic congestion in dense urban areas and choke points like the Bay Bridge by up to 15 percent. Car ownership would also be reduced. Traffic in San Francisco is the second-slowest in the USA (NYC is #1) and getting worse every year. Parking costs in San Francisco are also the second-worst in the USA (NYC #1), and again, it is continually getting worse.
3. Promote Social Equity - Free transit removes a financial cost that hits low-income residents hard. Transportation is the second-biggest expense after housing for many Americans. In the Bay Area, a monthly Clipper pass can cost $86–$98 per system, and much more for multi-agency commuters. For people living paycheck-to-paycheck, this is a significant cost. People of color, immigrants, youth, seniors, and people with disabilities rely more heavily on public transit. 55–70% of frequent transit riders in the Bay Area are from low-to moderate-income households, but these riders usually pay more per mile of transit than wealthy drivers. Free fares equalize access regardless of income or geography.
Free transit would help people 1) take jobs they couldn’t otherwise afford to commute to, thus improving the economy, 2) Stay in school without worrying about bus fare, 3) Get to appointments, child care, or grocery stores without skipping meals to afford transit.
To conclude: Free Public Transit should be seen as a civil rights and economic justice intervention.
The Cost? How can San Francisco Bay Area pay for Free Transit throughout our large region?
ShareTheMoney.Institute estimates the cost as $1.5 billion annually. This sum can acquired via multiple strategies. Corvallis, Oregon, has had free public bus service since 2011, paid for by a $3.63 monthly fee added to each utility bill. Missoula, Montana, funds their fare-free Mountain Line transit system, via a property tax mill levy. Madison, Wisconsin’s transit is supported by general fund revenues, state and federal grants, and partnerships/sponsorships from local businesses and organizations.
Ideally, we’d like the funds to be obtained from the 37 local billionaires who, combined, have an approximate wealth of $885 billion. The $1.5 billion for free transit is only 0.17% of the local billionaire's wealth. Sponsorship from the ultra-wealthy would be ideal. Billionaires can view the “fair transit donation” they are asked to contribute not as punishment or an “envy tax”, but as their investment to create a municipality that is better for everyone, themselves included. They can pride themselves on instigating a world-leading, legacy-defining reform that will etch their names in history as leaders of a bold utopian reform.
Our motto: “we want to move freely around our beautiful bay”
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Hank Pellissier - Share The Money Institute
Reverend Gregory Stevens - Unitarian Universalist EcoSocialist Network
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........* *..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*  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 authorities of the Russian Federation to reverse their growing repression of dissent and respect their citizens' freedom of speech and right to protest. Sign to Demand the Release of Boris Kagarlitskyhttps://freeboris.infoThe petition is also available on Change.org *..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........* *..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........* |
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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) F.B.I. Inquiry Into ICE Shooting Is Examining Victim’s Possible Ties to Activist Groups
Former department officials warned that such a broad inquiry raised the specter that forms of political protests could be criminalized.
By Alan Feuer, Glenn Thrush and Devlin Barrett, Jan. 12, 2026
“Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a memo that greatly expanded the traditional definition of domestic terrorism. Ms. Bondi’s memo classified as domestic terrorism not only recognizably violent crimes like rioting and looting, but also things like impeding law enforcement officers or even simply doxxing them. The memo also asserted that domestic terrorists use violence or the threat of violence to advance certain ‘political and social agendas’ — all of them traditionally associated with left-wing activism. Among the causes listed were opposition to immigration enforcement, anticapitalism and ‘hostility towards traditional views on family, religion and morality.’”
Alan Feuer reported from New York, and Glenn Thrush and Devlin Barrett from Washington.
A memorial for Renee Good on Jan. 7 close to where she had been shot and killed by a federal agent hours earlier. David Guttenfelder/The New York Times
Federal investigators assigned to the fatal shooting of a 37-year-old Minneapolis woman are looking into her possible connections to activist groups protesting the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement, in addition to the actions of the federal agent who killed her, people familiar with the situation said.
It seems increasingly unlikely that the agent who fired three times at the unarmed woman, Renee Nicole Good, will face criminal charges, although that could change as investigators collect new evidence, the people added.
On Sunday, President Trump described Ms. Good and her wife, Becca Good, as being “professional agitators,” adding that the authorities would “find out who’s paying for it.” He offered no evidence to support his claims.
The decision by the F.B.I. and the Justice Department to scrutinize Ms. Good’s activities and her potential connections to local activists is in line with the White House’s strategy of deflecting blame for the shooting away from federal law enforcement and toward opponents they have described as domestic terrorists, often without providing evidence.
Justice Department officials under Mr. Trump have long maintained that investigating and punishing protesters who organized efforts to physically obstruct or disrupt immigration enforcement is a legitimate subject of federal inquiries. But casting a broad net over the activist community in Minneapolis, former department officials and critics of the administration said, raises the specter that forms of political protest traditionally protected by the First Amendment could be criminalized.
Federal officials, who have blocked local investigators from reviewing the evidence they are collecting, have said that they are conducting a thorough inquiry that includes an analysis of the actions of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jonathan Ross and of physical evidence, including the handgun he used to kill Ms. Good.
Mr. Trump and his adviser Stephen Miller have repeatedly described those protesting the administration’s immigration crackdown as a shadowy and violent cabal.
In recent months, Trump administration officials have repeatedly vowed to crack down on left-wing activists. They have filed criminal charges against the purported members of what prosecutors described as an “antifa cell” in Texas who fired at immigration officers and activists in California accused of plotting to set off homemade bombs outside two companies near Los Angeles on New Year’s Eve.
But the investigation into protesters in Minneapolis might be different, if only because it has the potential to involve people not accused of committing any violence or even those without a close connection to Ms. Good.
Mr. Trump and many in his administration — particularly Vice President JD Vance — have already made clear that they believe Ms. Good, who was shot at three times at close range, was unambiguously responsible for her own death.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday, when the inquiry was less than one week old, Mr. Trump called Ms. Good “very violent” and “very radical” even though a video analysis by The New York Times suggested it was likely that she was trying to drive away from officers, not to intentionally harm them.
The civil rights division of the Justice Department, which has investigated law enforcement officials for killing or injuring citizens in the past, has not opened an investigation into whether the agent violated Ms. Good’s rights under federal law, according to a federal law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. The official added that the division was not expected to initiate a case.
It is unclear how deeply Ms. Good was involved in activism in Minneapolis beyond participating with her wife in the protest against immigration officers on the day she was killed. In a group chat used by local residents to monitor ICE movements, her wife was described as a “helper” in that action.
In a statement issued to The Associated Press, Becca Good suggested that the two women took part in some sort of protest on the day of the shooting.
“On Wednesday, Jan. 7, we stopped to support our neighbors,” she said. “We had whistles. They had guns.”
But even though investigators have not made public a specific allegation that anyone aside from Ms. Good and her wife were involved in an encounter with federal agents that day, the Justice Department is still planning to examine a wide group of activists who took part in the neighborhood watch activities, believing they were “instigators” of the shooting, the people familiar with the inquiry said.
Complicating matters further, some senior administration officials immediately labeled Ms. Good a “domestic terrorist” after she was killed — even though investigators barely had time to collect and assess the facts about the case.
On Thursday, for example, Mr. Vance said that Ms. Good had interfered with a law enforcement operation, likening her actions to other acts of violence against immigration officers.
“This is classic terrorism,” Mr. Vance said.
Over the weekend, Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, echoed Mr. Vance’s remarks, asserting that Ms. Good had “weaponized” her vehicle and that the ICE agent, Mr. Ross, had “defended his life.”
“If you look at what the definition of domestic terrorism is,” Ms. Noem said, “it completely fits the situation on the ground.”
Experts in domestic terrorism cases said the administration had jumped the gun in lodging accusations like that and failed to follow the traditional procedures for determining whether a case should be classified as domestic terrorism.
“It’s not appropriate for officials to characterize this incident as domestic terrorism before the investigation is complete,” said Thomas E. Brzozowski, the former counsel for domestic terrorism in the Justice Department’s national security division. “There used to be a process, deliberate and considered, to figure out if behavior could be legitimately described as domestic terrorism.”
“And when it’s not followed,” Mr. Brzozowski said, “then the term becomes little more than a political cudgel to bash one’s enemies.”
Mr. Brzozowski raised concerns that the inquiry in Minneapolis was coming a little more than a month after Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a memo that greatly expanded the traditional definition of domestic terrorism. Ms. Bondi’s memo classified as domestic terrorism not only recognizably violent crimes like rioting and looting, but also things like impeding law enforcement officers or even simply doxxing them.
The memo also asserted that domestic terrorists use violence or the threat of violence to advance certain “political and social agendas” — all of them traditionally associated with left-wing activism. Among the causes listed were opposition to immigration enforcement, anticapitalism and “hostility towards traditional views on family, religion and morality.”
It remains unclear whether the inquiry in Minnesota will include allegations of domestic terrorism. But if it does, Ms. Bondi’s memo could give investigators latitude to move beyond the customary practice of focusing such investigations only on people engaged in or plotting violence.
“When you have a memo like this, it complicates things because it builds in a set of assumptions about what domestic terrorism is and what it is not,” Mr. Brzozowski said. “If you’re an investigator in the field, you can’t simply run away from this new definition. You have to deal with it.”
Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs contributed reporting from Minneapolis.
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2) Trump Has Another Justification for the Shooting of Renee Good: Disrespect
President Trump suggested that Renee Good’s “highly disrespectful” attitude toward law enforcement played a role in her fatal shooting by an ICE agent.
By Luke Broadwater and Katie Rogers, Jan. 12, 2026
Luke Broadwater and Katie Rogers are White House correspondents. They reported from Washington.
“President Trump has added another justification for the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an ICE agent in Minnesota: She behaved badly. ‘At a very minimum, that woman was very, very disrespectful to law enforcement,’ Mr. Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday evening.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in the Capitol last week. Kenny Holston/The New York Times
President Trump has added another justification for the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an ICE agent in Minnesota: She behaved badly.
“At a very minimum, that woman was very, very disrespectful to law enforcement,” Mr. Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday evening.
In the days since Ms. Good, 37, was shot and killed by Jonathan Ross, an ICE agent, Trump administration officials have used a variety of arguments as they have tried to justify the episode. They have called it an act of self-defense, and Mr. Trump has falsely claimed Ms. Good “ran over” the agent. JD Vance, the vice president, has argued that Mr. Ross has “absolute immunity.”
While Mr. Trump still says the ICE agent was acting in self-defense, his latest comments suggest that disrespecting law enforcement could help to justify the killing. The comments raise serious questions about the use of force by those carrying out Mr. Trump’s crackdown on immigration, and they underscore the extent to which Mr. Trump’s impulse is to condemn anything done by his critics and to defend the actions of his supporters.
Asked by a reporter if he believed deadly force was necessary in this case, Mr. Trump said: “It was highly disrespectful of law enforcement. The woman and her friend were highly disrespectful of law enforcement.”
The federal government has defended the shooting as lawful and necessary, while local officials have dismissed that narrative. Mr. Trump referred to a “crunch” he heard in footage of the shooting to buttress his claim that the ICE agent was in danger.
“It seems like the big picture is to control the narrative and suggest to the public that she was in the wrong, and they were in the right,” said Barbara L. McQuade, a former U.S. attorney and a law professor at the University of Michigan. “And also, I think, to send a message that the public needs to obey law enforcement on the streets, and to intimidate protesters.”
She added: “If people are afraid they’re going to be shot or arrested for observing or peacefully protesting, or even for mouthing off, I think the thought is that will cause people to self-censor or chill their behavior, cause them to stay home.”
Mike Fox, a legal fellow at the Cato Institute’s Project on Criminal Justice, said that even if Mr. Trump’s allegation that Ms. Good was a “professional agitator” were true, that would not justify her killing.
“As far as I can tell, they’re not professional agitators,” Mr. Fox said. “She’s just a local woman who lived in the community. But it doesn’t really matter, right? You don’t get to kill someone because they engage in conduct that you disagree with or find distasteful or deplorable. If cops could just kill people any time they get annoyed or frustrated, my God, we would be in trouble.”
In the moments before the shooting Wednesday in Minneapolis, Ms. Good tells the agent that she isn’t mad at him, and Mr. Ross begins to circle her vehicle. She reverses as he crosses in front of her S.U.V., then she starts to move forward, and turns to the right. Mr. Ross is near her left headlight when he opens fire three times, killing her.
A Wall Street Journal investigation found that Ms. Good’s killing was one of 13 episodes in which federal immigration agents have used deadly force against civilians in vehicles since July.
Aboard Air Force One, Mr. Trump said ICE agents have faced their own hardships.
“These people have been harassed and threatened every day,” the president said. “They had bands out playing so they couldn’t sleep at the hotel. I see what they’re doing to them. They’re threatening them constantly.”
Like Mr. Trump, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, defended the actions of ICE on Monday, denigrating the protesters who oppose the agents’ actions.
“This administration will continue to stand wholeheartedly by the brave men and women of ICE, including that officer in Minneapolis who was absolutely justified in using self-defense against a lunatic who is part of a group, an organized group, to interject and to impede on law enforcement operations,” Ms. Leavitt said.
Vanita Gupta, a former associate attorney general who oversaw both the civil rights division that can prosecute federal agents and the civil division that can defend them, called the administration’s rush to disparage Ms. Good “unprecedented.”
“Being ‘disrespectful’ does not warrant the use of deadly force,” Ms. Gupta said. “The immediate public efforts by the White House to spin the facts, including denigrating the victim, does not change federal law.”
Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, contrasted Mr. Trump’s treatment of Ms. Good with his praise and support for the hundreds of pro-Trump rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and attacked the police.
On Jan. 6 this year, the Trump administration made a page on its website that accused the Capitol Police of instigating the riot, and said a pro-Trump rioter whom the police killed during the mayhem was “murdered.”
“Trump just pardoned nearly 1,600 insurrectionists,” Mr. Raskin said, “hundreds of whom violently attacked police officers and called them everything from traitors to pigs to racial epithets, and ruthlessly taunted them and maligned them for hours.” He added that “Donald Trump’s very dubious characterization of Renee Good as having been disrespectful is not only factually suspect, but it’s legally irrelevant.”
“The police do not have the right to shoot people in the head because they consider them having acted in a disrespectful way,” Mr. Raskin said. “That legal standard would have led to a slaughter on Jan. 6.”
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3) U.S. Attacked Boat With Aircraft That Looked Like a Civilian Plane
Even accepting the Trump administration’s claim that there is an armed conflict with suspected drug runners, the laws of war bar “perfidy.”
By Charlie Savage, Eric Schmitt, John Ismay, Julian E. Barnes, Riley Mellen and Christiaan Triebert, Jan. 12, 2026
Charlie Savage, Eric Schmitt, John Ismay and Julian E. Barnes reported from Washington; Riley Mellen and Christiaan Triebert reported from New York.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in the Capitol last week. Kenny Holston/The New York Times
The Pentagon used a secret aircraft painted to look like a civilian plane in its first attack on a boat that the Trump administration said was smuggling drugs, killing 11 people last September, according to officials briefed on the matter. The aircraft also carried its munitions inside the fuselage, rather than visibly under its wings, they said.
The nonmilitary appearance is significant, according to legal specialists, because the administration has argued its lethal boat attacks are lawful — not murders — because President Trump “determined” the United States is in an armed conflict with drug cartels.
But the laws of armed conflict prohibit combatants from feigning civilian status to fool adversaries into dropping their guard, then attacking and killing them. That is a war crime called “perfidy.”
Retired Maj. Gen. Steven J. Lepper, a former deputy judge advocate general for the United States Air Force, said that if the aircraft had been painted in a way that disguised its military nature and got close enough for the people on the boat to see it — tricking them into failing to realize they should take evasive action or surrender to survive — that was a war crime under armed-conflict standards.
“Shielding your identity is an element of perfidy,” he said. “If the aircraft flying above is not identifiable as a combatant aircraft, it should not be engaged in combatant activity.”
The aircraft swooped in low enough for the people aboard the boat to see it, according to officials who have seen or been briefed on surveillance video from the attack. The boat had turned back toward Venezuela, apparently after seeing the plane, before the first strike.
Two survivors of the initial attack later appeared to wave at the aircraft after clambering aboard an overturned piece of the hull, before the military killed them in a follow-up strike that also sank the wreckage. It is not clear whether the initial survivors knew that the explosion on their vessel had been caused by a missile attack.
The military has since switched to using recognizably military aircraft for boat strikes, including MQ-9 Reaper drones, although it is not clear whether those aircraft got low enough to be seen. In a boat attack in October, two survivors of an initial strike swam away from the wreckage and so avoided being killed by a follow-up strike on the remnants of their vessel. The military rescued them and returned them to their home countries, Colombia and Ecuador.
U.S. military manuals about the law of war discuss perfidy at length, saying it includes when a combatant feigns civilian status so the adversary “neglects to take precautions which are otherwise necessary.” A U.S. Navy handbook says lawful combatants at sea use offensive force “within the bounds of military honor, particularly without resort to perfidy,” and stresses that commanders have a “duty” to “distinguish their own forces from the civilian population.”
Questions about perfidy have arisen in closed-door briefings of Congress by military leaders, according to people familiar with the matter, but have not been publicly discussed because the aircraft is classified. The public debate has focused on a follow-up strike that killed the two initial survivors, despite a war-law prohibition on targeting the shipwrecked.
The press office for the U.S. Special Operations Command, whose leader, Adm. Frank M. Bradley, ran the operation on Sept. 2, declined to comment on the nature of the aircraft used in the attack. But the Pentagon insisted in a statement that its arsenal has undergone legal review for compliance with the laws of armed conflict.
“The U.S. military utilizes a wide array of standard and nonstandard aircraft depending on mission requirements,” Kingsley Wilson, the Pentagon press secretary, said in response to questions from The New York Times. “Prior to the fielding and employment of each aircraft, they go through a rigorous procurement process to ensure compliance with domestic law, department policies and regulations, and applicable international standards, including the law of armed conflict.”
A White House spokeswoman, Anna Kelly, issued a statement that did not specifically engage with the perfidy issues but defended the strike as having been directed by Mr. Trump to go after “narcotics trafficking and violent cartel activities.” She added: “The strike was fully consistent with the law of armed conflict.”
It is not clear what the aircraft was. While multiple officials confirmed that it was not painted in a classic military style, they declined to specify exactly what it looked like.
Amateur plane-spotting enthusiasts posted pictures on Reddit in early September of what appeared to be one of the military’s modified 737s, painted white with a blue stripe and with no military markings, at the St. Croix airport in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Regardless of the specific aircraft at issue, three people familiar with the matter acknowledged that it was not painted in the usual military gray and lacked military markings. But they said its transponder was transmitting a military tail number, meaning broadcasting or “squawking” its military identity via radio signals.
Several law-of-war experts said that would not make the use of such an aircraft lawful in these circumstances since the people on the boat probably lacked equipment to pick up the signal.
Among the legal specialists who said the use of a military transponder signal would not solve a perfidy problem was Todd Huntley, a retired Navy captain who formerly deployed with the Joint Special Operations Command as a judge advocate general, or JAG, and directed the Navy’s national security law division.
Captain Huntley said he could think of legitimate uses for such an aircraft that would make it lawful to have in the arsenal for other contexts, including a hostage rescue scenario in which munitions might be needed for self-defense but were not intended for launching offensive attacks.
The Trump administration kept planning for the boat attacks operation closely held, excluding many military lawyers and operational experts who would normally be involved. Moreover, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has sought to undercut the role of military lawyers as an internal check, including by firing the top service JAGs in February.
The U.S. military operates several aircraft that are built on civilian airframes — including modified Boeing 737s and Cessna turboprops — and can launch munitions from internal weapons bays without visible external armaments. Such aircraft are usually painted gray and have military markings, but military and plane-spotting websites show that a few are painted white and have minimal markings.
The U.S. military has killed at least 123 people in 35 attacks on boats, including the Sept. 2 strike.
A broad range of specialists in laws governing the use of force have said the orders by Mr. Trump and Mr. Hegseth to attack the boats have been illegal and the killings have been murders. The military is not allowed to target civilians who pose no imminent threat, even if they are suspected of crimes.
The administration has argued that the strikes are lawful and the people on the boats are “combatants” because Mr. Trump decided the situation was a so-called noninternational armed conflict — meaning a war against a nonstate actor — between the United States and a secret list of 24 criminal gangs and drug cartels he has deemed terrorists.
The legitimacy of that claim is widely disputed. Still, it has put attention on ways particular attacks might have violated the laws of war.
Like General Lepper and Captain Huntley, Geoffrey Corn, a retired lieutenant colonel JAG officer who was the Army’s senior adviser for law-of-war issues, said he does not believe that the Sept. 2 attack took place in an armed conflict. He is now a law professor at Texas Tech University.
But he noted that the United States considers perfidy to be a crime in noninternational armed conflicts: It charged a Guantánamo detainee before a military commission with that offense over Al Qaeda’s 2000 attack on the U.S.S. Cole, in which militants in a small boat floated a hidden bomb up to the side of the warship while waving in a friendly manner.
Professor Corn said an assessment of whether the Sept. 2 attack counted as perfidy would turn on whether the military was trying to make the people on the boat think the aircraft was civilian to “get the jump” on them.
“The critical question is whether there is a credible alternative reason for using an unmarked aircraft to conduct the attack other than exploiting apparent civilian status to gain some tactical advantage,” he said.
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4) Newsom Vows to Stop Proposed Billionaire Tax in California
Gov. Gavin Newsom said he was working behind the scenes to block a proposed tax on billionaires’ wealth and was committed to defeating the measure if it reached the ballot.
By Laurel Rosenhall, Reporting from Sacramento, Jan. 13, 2026
“This will be defeated — there’s no question in my mind,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said of the proposal. Credit...Max Whittaker for The New York Times
Gov. Gavin Newsom vowed on Monday to stop a proposed wealth tax in California, saying that its mere introduction had already hurt the state by driving some billionaires to relocate and take their tax dollars with them.
Mr. Newsom, a Democrat, said in an interview with The New York Times that he had been relentlessly working behind the scenes against the proposal, and that he would fight the measure if it reached the November ballot.
“This will be defeated — there’s no question in my mind,” Mr. Newsom said.
“I’ll do what I have to do to protect the state,” he added.
The governor has long opposed a wealth tax because of concerns that it would stifle innovation in California, where the booming tech industry has sent state revenues soaring and driven the economy for years. Despite his opposition, tech influencers and conservatives have tried to pin the latest idea on Mr. Newsom, taking aim at a leading potential Democratic candidate for president in 2028.
In past years, he has quashed legislative wealth tax proposals by making it clear that he would not sign them into law. The issue has urgency now, though, because a large health care union is trying to place a new billionaire tax on the ballot.
The initiative would require Californians with a net worth beyond $1 billion to pay a one-time tax equal to 5 percent of their assets. It would apply retroactively to anyone who was living in California as of Jan. 1, and taxpayers could spread their payments across five years starting in 2027.
While Mr. Newsom helped stop past wealth tax bills in the State Capitol, the new proposal is being driven by the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West through the initiative process and beyond the reach of his veto pen.
The union argues that the tax is necessary to make up for the deep cuts to health care that President Trump signed into law last year, including reductions in Medicaid, Affordable Care Act subsidies and food assistance. The union’s proposal calls for the state to spend 90 percent of the new tax money on health care, with the rest devoted to food assistance and education. The funding would help to keep hospitals open and preserve Californians’ access to health care, said Suzanne Jimenez, the chief of staff for the labor union.
“The governor is focused on the wrong problem here,” she said. “The problem is not just about the preferences of 200 ultrawealthy individuals. The problem is millions will lose health care, and that’s really the problem we’re trying to solve.”
California’s nonpartisan legislative analyst and the governor’s Department of Finance said in a joint review that the tax would probably deliver tens of billions of dollars in one-time money for the state, but that it could lead to hundreds of millions or more in continuing losses from billionaires leaving California to avoid the tax.
Evidence suggests that has already begun to happen, even though the proposal is a long way from becoming law. Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who together founded Google in a friend’s garage in Silicon Valley, have begun cutting ties with California. So has the tech venture capitalist Peter Thiel.
“This is what I feared, and it’s come true,” Mr. Newsom said in the interview.
As a former mayor of San Francisco, Mr. Newsom has longstanding relationships with many of the Silicon Valley leaders who would be forced to pay the new tax. Marc Benioff, the chief executive of Salesforce, is a close friend and the godfather of the governor’s eldest child. Mr. Brin and Mr. Page were guests at Mr. Newsom’s wedding in 2008.
Business leaders in California are raising money to oppose the wealth tax, setting the stage for an expensive showdown if it reaches the ballot. Rob Lapsley, the president of the California Business Roundtable, said the proposal “would undermine our economy, decimate the state budget, drive investment out of the state and ultimately make everyday life more expensive for working families.”
Supporters of the wealth tax proposal have begun collecting the nearly 900,000 signatures that are necessary to place the measure on the ballot, Ms. Jimenez said. Interest groups in California often use the threat of ballot initiatives as leverage to pressure the Legislature into passing a new law, sometimes reaching an agreement in the State Capitol to ward off a ballot fight. Ms. Jimenez, whose union has a history of using ballot measures to squeeze employers in labor negotiations, said that was not her union’s intention with this proposal.
“I want to be adamant and very clear: This is a ballot measure we are putting on the ballot,” she said. “We’re going to have voters vote on it in November.”
California’s state budget relies heavily on high earners, who, under the state’s progressive tax structure, pay most of the state’s income taxes.
Not every billionaire is angry. Jensen Huang, the chief executive of Nvidia, who is among the world’s wealthiest people, told Bloomberg Television this month that he was “perfectly fine” with the wealth tax proposal.
“We chose to live in Silicon Valley,” he said, “and whatever taxes they would like to apply, so be it.”
Still, losing tax revenue from wealthy residents would have ramifications for the state budget, Mr. Newsom said — ones that would last longer than the windfall from the proposed tax.
The governor defended the state’s progressive income tax as a righteous approach. But he said a wealth tax, which taxes assets instead of income, was “something very, very different.”
California has more billionaires than any other state, and Mr. Newsom has long said that taxing their wealth would put the state at a competitive disadvantage. While he opposes a California-based wealth tax, the governor said he might feel differently about an approach that was national in scope.
“It’s one thing to have a prism of the nation, and you can talk about 50 states,” he said. “It’s another when you’re competing against 49 other states.”
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5) U.S. Emissions Jumped in 2025 as Coal Power Rebounded
The increase in planet-warming emissions came after two years of decline as demand for electricity has been surging.
By Brad Plumer, Reporting from Washington, Jan. 13, 2026
A coal-fired power plant near Emmett, Kan. Demand for power has started surging in recent years amid a boom in data centers, an upswing of domestic manufacturing and the spread of electric vehicles. Credit...Charlie Riedel/Associated Press
America’s greenhouse gas emissions increased by 2.4 percent in 2025 after two years of decline amid a resurgence of coal power, according to estimates published Tuesday by the Rhodium Group, a research firm.
The researchers identified two main reasons for the uptick. U.S. electricity demand grew at an unusually fast pace, driven in part by an expansion of power-hungry data centers for artificial intelligence. To meet that demand, electric utilities burned about 13 percent more coal last year than they did in 2024.
At the same time, colder winter temperatures led many buildings and homes to burn more natural gas and fuel oil for heating last year.
U.S. greenhouse gas emissions increased in 2025
The jump in emissions came as President Trump returned to office and moved to dismantle policies to tackle climate change while promoting fossil fuels. But the researchers said Mr. Trump’s policies would take time to have an effect and they mostly weren’t responsible for last year’s rise in emissions.
“We don’t see a large emissions impact in 2025 from the Trump administration’s actions, although we obviously expect those to have an increasing impact as we go forward,” said Michael Gaffney, a research analyst at the Rhodium Group. “The main story here was partly weather and partly a growing power sector that’s burning more coal.”
That growing demand for electricity is itself a new shift. For much of 2000s and 2010s, America’s overall electricity use stayed roughly flat. But in recent years, demand for power has started surging amid a boom in data centers, an upswing of domestic manufacturing and the spread of electric vehicles.
Last year, electricity demand grew by 2.4 percent nationwide, with the biggest increases in Texas, the Mid-Atlantic and the Ohio Valley.
To keep up with demand, electric utilities turned to a fuel that had fallen out of favor: coal. For two decades, America’s electric utilities have been switching away from coal, the most polluting of fossil fuels, in favor of cleaner and often cheaper gas, wind and solar power.
U.S. electricity generation by source
Yet natural gas prices bounced back from record lows last year as producers exported more of the fuel overseas and demand for home heating spiked. That, in turn, made it economic for utilities to burn more coal at existing power plants. Some utilities also postponed planned retirements of coal plants. And, in a contentious series of moves last year, the Energy Department ordered eight coal-burning units to stay open beyond their planned closure dates.
Solar power generation grew by 34 percent last year, while wind power increased modestly.
“If it weren’t for the growth of solar, we’d probably be in an even worse spot this year than we already are, emissions-wise,” said Ben King, a director at the Rhodium Group.
The Trump administration, for its part, is trying to push the power sector away from renewable energy. Mr. Trump’s domestic policy bill, passed in July, repealed most federal subsidies for wind and solar power, while the Interior Department has stalled federal approvals for wind and solar projects around the country. The administration is also rolling back pollution regulations on coal and gas plants, giving fossil fuels a larger boost.
Other sectors could also see major changes in the years ahead.
U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by sector
Transportation, the nation’s largest source of greenhouse gases, saw little increase in emissions in 2025 despite record travel activity. The researchers attributed that to growing sales of hybrid and electric vehicles, which emit far less than gasoline-burning cars.
Yet this year the Trump administration repealed federal subsidies for electric cars while loosening federal fuel-efficiency standards.
Emissions from oil and gas drilling stayed nearly flat last year, increasing only 0.5 percent even as production increased significantly. That’s in large part because many producers have managed to curb leaks of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
Between 2015 and 2026, U.S. companies appear to have reduced the amount of methane that escaped, per barrel of oil they produced, by 62 percent, according to the Rhodium Group.
Yet it is unclear whether this trend will continue, as the Environmental Protection Agency has delayed rules requiring producers to curtail methane leaks.
The full effects on emissions of the Trump administration’s policies remain to be seen. America’s greenhouse gas emissions have fallen roughly 18 percent since 2005 and the nation is far off-track from meeting the Biden administration’s goal of halving emissions by 2030. Mr. Trump has dropped that goal entirely.
Over the next decade, the Rhodium Group has separately estimated, U.S. emissions are projected to decline more slowly than previously thought as a result of Mr. Trump’s policies.
Researchers are also likely to have a tougher time making precise emissions estimates. The E.P.A. has stopped publishing its official inventory on greenhouse gas emissions, which the Rhodium Group and others rely on to make projections. While that did not affect this year’s report, it could make future estimates harder.
“It will be something we deal with next year,” said Mr. Gaffney. “We’re going to have to figure out how to fill that gap.”
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6) Three Prosecutors Quit After Push to Investigate ICE Shooting Victim’s Widow
Joseph H. Thompson, a career federal prosecutor who was the acting U.S. attorney for Minnesota last year, quit after the Justice Department sought to examine the woman’s supposed ties to activist groups.
By Ernesto Londoño, Jan. 13, 2026
Joseph H. Thompson, a federal prosecutor, has led the prosecution of fraud in social services programs in Minnesota. Ben Brewer for The New York Times
Three Minnesota federal prosecutors resigned over the Justice Department’s push to investigate the widow of a woman killed by an ICE agent and its reluctance to investigate the shooter, according to people with knowledge of their decision.
Joseph H. Thompson, who was second in command at the U.S. attorney’s office and oversaw a sprawling fraud investigation that has roiled Minnesota’s political landscape, was among those who quit Tuesday, according to three people with knowledge of the decision.
Mr. Thompson’s resignation came after senior Justice Department officials pressed for a criminal investigation into the actions of the widow of Renee Nicole Good, the Minneapolis woman killed by an ICE agent last Wednesday.
Mr. Thompson, 47, a career prosecutor, objected to that approach as well as to the Justice Department’s refusal to include state officials in investigating whether the shooting itself was lawful, the people familiar with his decision said.
Two other senior career prosecutors, Harry Jacobs and Melinda Williams, also resigned on Tuesday. Mr. Jacobs had been Mr. Thompson’s deputy overseeing the fraud investigation, which began in 2022. Mr. Thompson, Mr. Jacobs and Ms. Williams declined to discuss the reasons they resigned.
The fraud cases — which involve schemes to defraud safety net programs managed by state agencies — were the chief reason the Trump administration launched an immigration crackdown in the state. The vast majority of defendants charged in the cases are of Somali origin.
Tuesday’s resignations followed tumultuous days at the U.S. attorney’s office in Minnesota as prosecutors struggled to manage the outrage over Ms. Good’s killing, which set off angry protests in Minnesota and across the nation.
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7) New York Punishes 12-Year-Olds With Solitary Confinement, Lawsuit Claims
The lawsuit, filed last week in federal court in Manhattan, claims that state officials use solitary confinement for minor misbehavior and as a way to mitigate low staffing.
By Hurubie Meko, Jan. 13, 2026
A picture of a cell at Industry Residential Center, taken in June 2025. Credit...United States District Court, Southern District of New York
Garrett, a 16-year-old boy from Brooklyn, loves fantasy novels and video games. And since April, according to a lawsuit, he has been left alone in a juvenile detention cell for weeks or months at time, despite New York state regulations prohibiting solitary confinement for minors.
According to the suit, filed last week in the Southern District of New York, Garrett was confined to his cell for 22 to 24 hours nearly ever day of his first month at the Industry Residential Center, near Rochester in upstate New York, “due to the perception that he posed behavioral problems.” He was denied access to education and interaction with his peers, and he often did not have use of a bathroom, according to the lawsuit.
In total, he has spent about four months in solitary confinement; as a result, he feels “anxious and depressed and often acts out to get attention and to mitigate the loneliness and isolation he suffers daily,” the lawsuit said. Garrett is still at the facility, according to the lawsuit, which did not specify why he was first detained.
The lawsuit, which seeks class action status, was filed by the Legal Aid Society and Jenner & Block LLP on behalf of Garrett and three other detainees, all of whom are Black males ranging in age from 16 to 20. They are currently being held in detention at facilities run by the New York State Office of Children and Family Services.
The facilities are for youth up to 21 years old who are convicted of a crime in family or the youth part of criminal court. The system is intended to be rehabilitative, but youth are often held in solitary confinement as a form of punishment for “alleged rule infractions and, at times, minor misbehavior, including manifestations of youth’s disabilities,” according to the suit.
Children as young as 12 are regularly held in small, barren rooms for weeks and months on end across five facilities, according to the suit. The lawyers claim that youth are often held in solitary conditions to alleviate “dangerously low” staffing levels, and are forced to go to the bathroom in trash cans in their cells and then eat meals there.
State regulations prohibit holding minors in solitary confinement. But the agency uses loopholes, such as calling the practice by other names, to justify its use, the lawyers said.
On Monday, a spokeswoman for the Office of Children and Family Services said it was aware of the lawsuit. She did not answer questions about staffing, but said that the agency does not endorse or condone the use of isolation for punishment.
The lawsuit names as defendants DaMia Harris-Madden, commissioner of the state agency, and Norman Hall, deputy commissioner for the Division of Juvenile Justice and Opportunities for Youth.
Prolonged isolation, which United Nations officials have called torture, has been linked to brain damage, increased risk of self-harm and suicide.
Emma-Lee Clinger, a staff attorney with Legal Aid, said that young people are expected to come out of these situations unharmed, and “yet the state is responsible for inflicting this most serious harm upon them.”
Issac, a 17-year-old boy and plaintiff in the lawsuit, was exceeding academically before his detention at Goshen Secure Center in Orange County. It was his mother who noticed in phone calls that he was not doing well. She said she had to help him mitigate the mental and emotional impact, telling him to read his Bible and the letters she sent him.
At one point, his mother, who declined to be identified since her son is a minor and anonymized in the lawsuit, said she became so concerned about her son’s mental health that she called the facility to request he at least have an opportunity to meet with a clinician.
Former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo signed the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement Act, known as the HALT law, in 2021, which does not apply to juvenile detention centers. It restricts prisons and jails from holding people in solitary confinement for more than 15 consecutive days. The policy also bars the use of solitary confinement for several groups, including minors and people with certain disabilities.
In 2024, a judge found that New York State prisons had been illegally holding prisoners too long in solitary confinement, despite the law. Last year, a court filing said the state was still holding prisoners in solitary confinement illegally.
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8) ICE Arrested Dozens of Refugees in Minnesota and Sent Them to Texas, Lawyers Say
The refugees, many of them from Somalia, had passed security screenings before coming to the United States. The Trump administration has vowed to “re-examine thousands of refugee cases.”
By Miriam Jordan, Jan. 13, 2026
Miriam Jordan is a national immigration correspondent.
U.S. Border Patrol agents clashed with community members after federal immigration officers crashed into a vehicle in south Minneapolis to ask about the driver’s immigration status on Monday. Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York Times
Federal immigration agents in recent days have arrested dozens of refugees in Minnesota who had passed security screenings before being admitted to the United States, according to their lawyers and immigrant rights advocates.
The arrests of the refugees, who are mainly from Somalia and include children, come after an announcement last Friday that the Trump administration would “re-examine thousands of refugee cases through new background checks,” focusing on people who have yet to obtain green cards after arriving in the United States. But that announcement, by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, did not say that the refugees would be subject to arrest and transfer to immigrant detention facilities.
Citizenship and Immigration Services did not respond to emailed questions on Tuesday. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency that detained the refugees, according to the lawyers, also did not respond.
Michele Garnett McKenzie, executive director at the Advocates for Human Rights in Minneapolis, said most of the detainees were being transferred to facilities in Texas. She estimated that at least 100 people had been detained.
“It’s happening very fast,” she said, adding, “It’s devastating the community.”
Among the cases she cited was one of a Somali mother who was detained, leaving behind a toddler, and another family in which a mother and two adult children were detained.
President Trump closed the United States to refugees from around the world on his first day in office. In November, he began targeting refugees in Minnesota, a blue state with the country’s largest Somali population, amid reports that some Somalis there had defrauded the state, collecting millions of dollars in social services that were never provided.
Last week, his administration said that it was starting a “sweeping initiative” to conduct new background checks and intensive verification of refugees to check for fraud and other crimes.
“The initial focus is on Minnesota’s 5,600 refugees who have not yet been given lawful permanent resident status,” said the announcement from Citizenship and Immigration Services.
On Tuesday, the Trump administration separately moved to end Temporary Protected Status for a small number of Somalis who entered the country without first obtaining humanitarian protection as refugees.
The detained refugees, like all people admitted through the U.S. Refugee Program of 1980, entered lawfully.
Before the U.S. government extends an invitation for someone to receive safe haven, the applicants must undergo rigorous vetting abroad by the Department of State, the Department of Homeland Security and other government agencies. They must prove that they have a well-founded fear of persecution on account of their race, religion, political opinion, nationality or membership in a particular group.
Once admitted to the United States, refugees must apply for green cards within a year. They have sometimes delayed doing so because of cost and red tape, but they have never been arrested or threatened with deportation.
“This has never happened, that you arrive as a refugee, and that on day 366, if you are still not a green card holder, you are deportable,” said Tracy Roy, legal director at the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota. “That has never been the way the statute has been interpreted.” She added that none of the cases she had been contacted about involved a refugee who had committed a crime beyond traffic violations.
Ms. Roy noted that aside from Somali refugees, people from Myanmar and Eritrea had also been detained.
Elsa Zerai said her friend, an Eritrean mother of three children, had been arrested at her home in St. Paul, Minn., on Tuesday morning. “I told the ICE agent that she came here legally and was working and taking care of her kids,” Ms. Zerai said, referring to her friend. “He told me that she was supposed to adjust her status a year ago. He did not have any other details.”
A daughter of the detained mother said the family had proof that she had already filed documents to obtain permanent residency.
The Trump administration has suspended the processing of green cards for refugees. Many have pending applications that will not be adjudicated based on current policy.
The refugee arrests follow days of unrest in Minneapolis fueled by the deadly shooting of an American citizen by an ICE agent this month. The Trump administration has said that the woman, Renee Nicole Good, 37, was trying to ram her vehicle into the agent, but state and local officials, including Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota and Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis, have disputed the government’s account.
Since the shooting, the Trump administration has escalated its immigration crackdown in the state, having sent about 2,000 federal agents to the Minneapolis and St. Paul areas.
Federal prosecutors in Minnesota have described a brazen and sprawling fraud scandal in which people stole millions and possibly billions of dollars from state social service organizations. Of the 98 people who have been charged in connection with the fraud so far, 85 are of Somali descent, according to the White House.
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9) How ICE Crackdowns Set Off a Resistance in American Cities
In Minneapolis and other cities where federal agents have led immigration crackdowns, residents have formed loose networks to track and protest them.
By Julie Bosman, Jan. 14, 2026
Activists in Minneapolis have been following federal agents as they carry out the Trump administration’s immigration operation. David Guttenfelder/The New York Times
It began in Los Angeles, in Signal chats and strategy sessions on Zoom. Last year, as immigration raids proliferated throughout the city, Latino activists and neighbors began organizing a response, monitoring for Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents along sidewalks and in Home Depot parking lots and texting their networks when they spotted an arrest underway.
By late summer, activists in Chicago were trained and ready. Before the Trump administration had announced a crackdown called Operation Midway Blitz, immigrant rights organizations had handed out orange whistles for volunteers to use as a public warning system, formed “rapid-response” groups and advised people to report sightings of ICE agents and memorize their own legal rights. Chicagoans, even many without formal ties to protest groups, showed defiance against ICE with “Hands Off Chicago” signs adorned with the city’s beloved starred-and-striped flag, placed prominently in windows of restaurants and bungalows.
And in recent weeks in Minneapolis, the latest focus for a Trump administration surge of immigration enforcement, a loose but growing network of neighborhood volunteers has shown up near reported arrests, yelling at agents and recording them on iPhone cameras. Some gathered near hotels where agents were believed to be staying, pounding drums and making noise.
President Trump’s sweeping effort to tamp down illegal immigration, using masked federal agents who film their interactions with cellphones and often question American citizens about their legal status, has set off a surge in confrontational activism fueled by both large liberal advocacy groups and hyperlocal neighborhood networks.
In Los Angeles, Chicago and Minneapolis, established groups representing labor and immigrant rights have provided funding and organized downtown rallies against the Trump administration. But fierce opposition to ICE and the Border Patrol has also sprung up through block clubs, neighborhood group chats, school Facebook groups and Catholic parishes, stretching beyond the typical Democratic voter base.
Demonstrators have confronted federal agents by yelling and recording them as they attempt to detain people. Some activists have handed out resource cards to advise undocumented immigrants.
Participants say they have been propelled into action with two goals in mind: an urge to protect their neighbors, many of whom are in the country without authorization but have no criminal backgrounds, and also to push back against what they see as a violent and overreaching federal government.
“It’s a lot of people who wouldn’t normally involve themselves in politics, but at the same time don’t like what’s happening in their community,” said Sandra Trevino, a Chicago resident who works in sales but spends her weekends patrolling the city for immigration agents and texting her networks with updates.
Kristi Noem, the Homeland Security secretary, has called the actions of such activists dangerous, part of “a coordinated campaign of violence against our law enforcement.”
In Minnesota, where an ICE agent fatally shot a 37-year-old woman, Renee Nicole Good, last week, tensions have mounted since an immigration crackdown began there in early December. Some Minnesota residents have thrown icy snowballs or other objects at agents, called them Nazis and fascists and trailed them in their cars, honking their horns, a practice frequently used in Chicago last year.
“Secretary Noem has been clear: Anyone who obstructs or assaults law enforcement will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” the department said in a statement on Tuesday.
Federal investigators are looking into Ms. Good’s possible connections to activist groups, and Mr. Trump has described Ms. Good and her wife, Becca Good, as being “professional agitators,” though he offered no evidence to support his claims.
It is not yet clear how deeply the Goods were connected to anti-ICE efforts in Minneapolis. Becca Good was wearing an orange whistle around her neck as she confronted federal agents while filming them with her cellphone, videos show, moments before Renee Good was fatally shot in her car.
In a statement issued to Minnesota Public Radio, Becca Good suggested that the two women had taken part in a protest on the day of the shooting, but their involvement beyond that day is unknown.
“On Wednesday, Jan. 7, we stopped to support our neighbors,” Becca Good said. “We had whistles. They had guns.”
Anti-ICE tactics by volunteers and so-called patrollers who track and follow immigration agents in caravans have only intensified in the Twin Cities in the last week, despite Ms. Good’s death, activists and officials said in interviews.
Some people wondered if Ms. Good’s death would lead to a broader reckoning by organizers about the risks of confronting ICE agents, and the safety of pursuing them in cars. But group chats on WhatsApp have proliferated, as neighbors watched for signs of immigration agents and rushed outside to confront them.
Ashley Lopez, who works in education and lives in the city of West St. Paul, has become active in anti-ICE neighborhood groups only in the week since Ms. Good’s death.
“Because of what happened to Renee, I felt like we had nothing to lose anymore,” said Ms. Lopez, who has joined patrols that blow whistles and set off their own car alarms if they see ICE agents. “Why should she be the only one who put herself in danger?”
Activists have followed federal agents in their vehicles. During tense confrontations, agents have sometimes used tear gas to disperse people who surrounded them.
Tensions between federal agents and Minnesotans are intensifying on sidewalks, in parking lots and on the streets. Some activists said they have also observed increasingly forceful responses by ICE and Border Patrol agents since Ms. Good’s death, with agents chasing patrollers through parking lots and spraying their vehicles with chemical agents.
Dieu Do, an immigrant rights activist, said that before the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, her organization received dozens of emails a day from people asking how they could get involved. That has now grown to hundreds daily.
“People are still showing up and defending their community despite seeing such a violent act,” she said. “They’re calling for justice, even though there is a chance they could be hurt in the process.”
Patrollers in Chicago said this week that they were still roaming around the city looking for ICE agents. But many of their Signal chats and Facebook groups have gone quiet, a sign that the Trump administration’s focus has shifted squarely to Minneapolis — at least for now.
That feels far different from how it did in Chicago last fall, when masked federal agents walked down the Magnificent Mile downtown, startling residents and tourists. As residents began protesting their presence in neighborhoods, agents used aggressive methods to disperse crowds, releasing tear gas and pepper spray along blocks around the city.
“In a way, it really galvanized local support against them everywhere they went,” said Brandon Lee, a coordinator for the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. “When they release tear gas in a neighborhood, it doesn’t matter if you support ICE or not. You’re going to get tear-gassed.”
Organizers in Chicago said that during Operation Midway Blitz, they had been able to hone practices borrowed from Los Angeles activists as hundreds of Border Patrol and ICE agents made arrests around the Chicago region.
“The Border Patrol and the Trump administration used Chicago as a testing ground, and we in turn used them as a testing ground right back for certain organizing tactics,” said Joanna Klonsky, a media strategist in Chicago.
That included rapid response networks, the tactic of following ICE and C.B.P. vehicles with whistles and being as loud as possible to warn people nearby.
“We’re now at a point where there is a playbook for peaceful, legal opposition,” Ms. Klonsky said.
Organizers in Los Angeles and Chicago said they were watching Minneapolis closely and anticipating where Mr. Trump would plan his next surge of immigration agents. Groups in New York City have passed out thousands of whistles so far, bracing for a high-profile surge of immigration enforcement.
“Folks are realizing that the only way to respond is quickly, and in person,” said Alida Garcia, a political consultant who has been organizing in Los Angeles. “What is interesting about this moment is, if it’s your employee you’re protecting, or your kid’s teacher that you’re protecting, or the street vendor you buy tacos from once a month, that feels very personal.”
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10) Trump Makes Obscene Gesture at Heckler in Ford Factory Tour
A White House spokesman said the president “gave an appropriate and unambiguous response.”
By Shawn McCreesh, Published Jan. 13, 2026, Updated Jan. 14, 2026
Reporting from the Ford factory in Dearborn, Mich.
President Trump touring a Ford factory in Dearborn, Mich., on Tuesday. Kenny Holston/The New York Times
President Trump raised his middle finger at a heckler who accused him of being a “pedophile protector” while touring a Ford factory in Dearborn, Mich., on Tuesday afternoon.
It was a fleeting interaction that happened while the president was out of sight of the small group of reporters that travels by his side as part of the press pool. Footage of the moment, which looked like it was filmed on a cellphone, appeared on the celebrity gossip website TMZ shortly after Mr. Trump had left the factory.
The White House’s communications director, Steven Cheung, said in a statement that a “lunatic was wildly screaming expletives in a complete fit of rage, and the president gave an appropriate and unambiguous response.”
Ford did not immediately respond to questions about the encounter.
It had all been going so nicely until the president was called a pedophile protector. Mr. Trump was walking the factory floor, taking selfies with adoring Ford workers in safety vests as F-150 trucks moved along assembly lines overhead. Ford executives including Jim Farley, the company’s chief executive, accompanied Mr. Trump as he watched the trucks come to life.
The president had traveled to Michigan on Tuesday to talk about his handling of the economy, which his aides have been desperate for him to focus on since Americans’ concerns about affordability seem to be growing more acute. (After the Ford plant, he spoke to a room of business people in Detroit.)
There were, of course, other issues pressing in on the day. On the factory floor, Mr. Trump fielded questions from reporters about his administration’s investigation of Jerome H. Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve, and about the crisis in Iran and whether his administration might strike to topple the ayatollah.
For once, one topic that did not come up was the life and death of Jeffrey Epstein.
But as Mr. Trump walked along an upper floor of the factory, one of the men below began to shout that the president was “a pedophile protector.” Mr. Trump looked over in the direction of the shouting and twice mouthed a two-word response. It was difficult to make out what he said in the clip published by TMZ, though it sure looked like something beginning with the letter “F” and it wasn’t “Ford.”
What was a little easier to decipher was what came next. Mr. Trump turned away from the heckler below and took a few more steps, but then seemed to decide he was not done. He looked back, quickly raised his arm and flipped the bird.
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11) Initial Review Finds No Widespread Illegal Voting by Migrants, Puncturing a Trump Claim
Republican election officials welcome the review, which relies on a federal verification tool, but they say they have not discovered a major problem when it comes to noncitizen voters.
By Alexandra Berzon and Nick Corasaniti, Jan. 14, 2026
People vote during the 2024 presidential election in Detroit. Mr. Trump and his allies have claimed for the past decade that elections are riddled with illegal votes cast by undocumented immigrants. Sylvia Jarrus for The New York Times
It was a common refrain for Donald J. Trump and his allies during the 2024 campaign: The Biden administration was purposely encouraging mass numbers of immigrants to cross the border in order to vote illegally.
As president, Mr. Trump has pushed his administration to address the alleged crimes, including prompting many states to upload tens of millions of voter records through a federal immigration verification tool run out of the Department of Homeland Security.
But with the review underway, the results so far indicate there is no evidence of widespread fraud, according to interviews with government officials and documents reviewed by The New York Times.
Out of 49.5 million voter registrations that have been checked, the department referred around 10,000 cases to Homeland Security Investigations for further investigation of noncitizenship, or roughly .02 percent of the names processed, according to Matthew Tragesser, a spokesman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the D.H.S. agency that oversees the program. A Justice Department spokeswoman also said the administration believed around 10,000 registered noncitizen voters had been found.
They did not specify how many of those people had voted.
Even that number could be inflated. The verification tool has mistakenly flagged some people who appear to actually be citizens, according to some local election officials.
In Charlotte County, Fla., for instance, the elections supervisor Leah Valenti, an appointee of Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor, said she found that just 15 out of 176,000 names she uploaded to D.H.S. came back as noncitizens. Of those, she found that three were people mistakenly added to the rolls who never intended to register to vote; they have since been removed. Two others already sent in documentation to prove their naturalized citizenship, she said.
“We didn’t get a mass onslaught of people,” said Ms. Valenti, who is a proponent of using the D.H.S. system to verify voters’ eligibility. “We have clean voter rolls.”
Mr. Tragesser said the program was “doing exactly what it is supposed to do — providing states with an easy-to-use tool to stop aliens from hijacking our elections.”
While the findings affirm that noncitizens do sometimes wind up on the voter rolls, the small numbers so far puncture the claims that Mr. Trump and his allies have made for the past decade that elections are riddled with illegal votes cast by undocumented immigrants. Studies consistently show little if any evidence for such crimes on a large scale.
The review, which is voluntary for states or local election departments, has prompted complaints from officials in Democratic-run states who have declined to participate. They have warned that the system could effectively create a federal database containing personal information on some 200 million people — with a risk of erroneously flagging legal voters and impeding their access to the ballot box.
“We’re talking about a system here that is unproven, untested and therefore unreliable,” said Steve Simon, the Democratic secretary of state in Minnesota and former president of the nonpartisan National Association of Secretaries of State.
Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, suggested that the newly expanded verification program might identify more noncitizen voters if it were used by Democratic states, many of which have voter ID laws and other voter restrictions that are less strict than those in some Republican states.
“This process takes time, especially given strong opposition from blue states, with notoriously bad voter roll maintenance, that have refused to check their rolls” against the D.H.S. system, Ms. Jackson said.
Election officials in Democratic-run states say they already have effective ways to ensure only citizens are voting in federal elections.
The D.H.S.-run program has long been used primarily to help government officials verify citizenship status for people applying for drivers licenses or trying to gain access to health care or Social Security benefits.
For years, some local election officials have had arrangements with D.H.S. to use the tool to verify the citizenship of voters. But the program, called the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, was not designed for the mass uploads that would be needed to fully vet voter rolls.
Under the first Trump administration, officials explored the idea of expanding the tool by making it easier for election officials to use. But some homeland security officials worried that doing so would lead to mistakes and could potentially disenfranchise voters based on faulty matches or determinations.
Yet last year, the administration moved to expand the use of the SAVE system for voter records in response to an executive order from Mr. Trump. It began sending invites to state election officials that would allow them to upload voter data on a mass scale — including full name, date of birth and social security numbers — to check for anyone who was not a citizen on their voter rolls. The administration has also, for the first time, brought in data from the Social Security Administration that had previously been kept separate.
At least 14 states — all with Republican secretaries of state — publicly indicated last year that they would use the revamped D.H.S. system to upload voter information, according to an analysis of public statements, records and interviews with people involved.
Eleven Democratic secretaries of state wrote a letter to D.H.S. in December, raising alarms about the potential impact on eligible voters, warning that the expanded version of SAVE “will introduce unnecessary and unwarranted reliability, privacy and security issues into the sensitive voter information data we are entrusted to protect.”
Many Democratic states have also refused to provide similar information to the Department of Justice, which is suing at least 24 states that have refused to turn over data.
Even if the data does not show widespread illegal voting, some Trump allies say that weeding out any cases is worthwhile.
“I would say a single illegal ballot is one too many,” said Jason Snead, who leads the Honest Elections Project, a conservative elections group.
Phil McGrane, the Idaho secretary of state, said in an interview that his spot checks using SAVE had found small numbers of noncitizens on the voter rolls. But he appreciated that D.H.S. had made the tool easier to use.
“The cases are rare, but it can happen and tools make it less burdensome and less work,” Mr. McGrane said. “I think upgrades have been really beneficial to the system overall.”
In some cases, the reviews are identifying voters who appear to be citizens, inviting more confusion, election officials say.
In Missouri, 70 county clerks in December signed a letter sent to state House and Senate leadership describing the system as flawed, saying it regularly included “individuals we know to be U.S. citizens — our neighbors, colleagues and even voters we have personally registered at naturalization ceremonies.”
St. Louis County, Mo., found that around 35 percent of roughly 690 people initially flagged by the SAVE tool were registered at naturalization ceremonies, said Rick Stream, the Republican election director for the county.
A spokeswoman for the Missouri secretary of state’s office said that the state’s review using the SAVE tool was still in the early stages and that it would not be based solely on the tool itself. “Any potential issues identified through this process must be researched, verified and resolved at the local level in accordance with Missouri law and due process,” she said.
In South Carolina, a top election official emailed a wide array of federal agencies, expressing confusion over the tool after seeing preliminary results in July.
“Unfortunately, the information has raised more questions than it answered,” she wrote, according to emails obtained by American Oversight, a watchdog group.
In Louisiana, the system found 403 noncitizens out of 3 million registered voters, or .01 percent, with 83 having voted, according to a November memo obtained by The Times through a public records request. The memo also identified that some of the people were eligible for prosecution. “I want to be clear: Noncitizens illegally registering or voting is not a systemic problem in Louisiana,” Secretary of State Nancy Landry, a Republican, said in a public statement in September.
Hamed Aleaziz contributed reporting.
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12) Where Did All the American-Born Roofers Go?
The real story of how immigrant labor came to define the construction industry.
By Ronda Kaysen and Robert Gebeloff, Jan. 14, 2026
Ronda Kaysen interviewed 60 laborers, industry leaders and academics, and Robert Gebeloff analyzed current and historical census data.
In 1976, Matthew Moore marched into the roofers’ union hall in Orange County, Calif., signed his card and, at 19, found his calling. Within hours, he put on a pair of hot boots, climbed a ladder and became one of the many union men laying the roofs of tract homes spreading out across Southern California.
Only two years later, Mr. Moore, a native of the state who never went to college, bought a three-bedroom house of his own in Whittier.
“That kind of work suited me right down to my soul,” said Mr. Moore, now 68 and retired. “I worked outside in the sun every day. Nothing better.”
It was also the kind of well-paying blue-collar job that once helped drive a strong middle-class economy, and has largely vanished. It’s work that many Americans want to see restored.
In the decades since Mr. Moore walked into that union hall, an enormous demographic shift has transformed his industry. In the 1970s and 1980s, the share of foreign-born workers in construction was the same as in other industries. But that quickly changed. Today that share is nearly twice as high as in other jobs.
An oft-repeated explanation for this sea change is that immigrants took jobs from Americans while, somewhat paradoxically, Americans no longer wanted to do the backbreaking work required to build a house. But a review of data and historical records, as well as interviews with many people who work in or study construction, tell a different story: First, construction jobs became less desirable, as eroding wages and working conditions diminished the quality and job security of the profession. Only then did immigrants, with the encouragement of the political and business class, fill a gap that was already opening.
Most of those foreign-born workers are not naturalized citizens, and many are undocumented. That leaves an industry of 6.8 million workers particularly vulnerable to President Trump’s mass deportation effort: Builders are reporting labor shortages as some workers are detained or deported and others stay home amid immigration raids.
And without workers, an already strained housing market will only grow more so, driving up historically high home prices and slowing the production of new homes.
‘A pickup truck and a ladder’
When Mr. Moore started his career, unionized construction was a good living, especially for workers without a college degree. In 1973, a quarter of workers were unionized, and in construction it was 40 percent. But those numbers were already starting to decline.
The leaders of some of the country’s largest corporations had recently formed a lobbying group, the Business Roundtable, to push back against the strength of unions and for weaker labor laws. The unions, which were also dealing with internal tensions, were unable to stem a tide that only swelled with the pro-business election of Ronald Reagan.
But Mr. Moore was young and happy to have a good-paying job out in the California sunshine. He spent his 20s laying roofs on houses and driving to the beach after work, a surfboard strapped to the top of his Volkswagen bus.
In Southern California, the national labor fight came to a head in 1983 when the carpenters union went on a four-month strike to block builders from using nonunion labor. The effort largely failed, opening the door to a nonunion work force and marking a tipping of a big domino for California’s construction unions.
“They lost all their power,” said Richard Denger, president of a residential framing company that closed in 2014. His father-in-law, Ray Cook, had negotiated on behalf of the builders in the strike.
After the strike, Mr. Moore started seeing two worker gates: one for the union crews and the other for the nonunion ones. So did Mr. Denger. Across the state, according to reports at the time, builders started bringing in nonunion crews, leaving only commercial work for the union workers.
Mr. Denger, whose company framed tract homes, said that after the strike builders offered him less money for jobs, and that translated to lower wages for his crews. “The builders will only pay you so much, so you go along with it or you’re out of business,” he said. “The prices of houses never went down even though all the wages went down. Somebody made the money.”
What was happening in California was happening across the country, both in states with a strong union presence, like Illinois, Massachusetts and New York, and those that prohibited mandatory union membership — “right to work” states like Arizona, Florida and Texas where the population, and housing production, was booming.
The share of construction workers in a union began to decline precipitously, and even an effort to recruit foreign-born members could not stave off the losses. As of 2024, nine of 10 workers in the construction industry are nonunion.
And with that decline in union strength came a decline in the economic standing for both union and nonunion workers. In 1973, the average union construction worker made $1.71 for every $1 the average American worker earned hourly. Today, unionized construction workers earn $1.15 for every $1 an American worker earns. And nonunion construction workers make just 86 cents for every dollar earned by the average American worker, often without health or retirement benefits.
“By us opening the door to the nonunion sector, basically we shot ourselves in the foot,” said James A. Hadel, international president of the United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers. “All it takes is a pickup truck and a ladder and that’s what we’re competing against.”
‘No other way to survive’
After one week of tearing roofs off houses in San Diego in 1991, Mariano Martinez was so sore he didn’t think he could do the work. “I said, ‘I want to quit; I don’t think I’m going to make it,’” Mr. Martinez, now 54, recalled. Then 19 years old and originally from Oaxaca, Mexico, he spoke almost no English and knew nothing about construction.
After three months, he learned how to lay a roof, and his pay jumped to $100 a day in cash, without benefits. Mr. Martinez never looked for a union job. He’d heard that the pay was better but that you weren’t always sure when you would have work. He stayed so busy that by 1999, he bought a three-bedroom home in Oceanside, for $180,000. After his son joined the army, Mr. Martinez became a citizen in 2024.
Mr. Martinez had arrived in the United States on the cusp of a major immigration boom. Workers interviewed for this article who crossed illegally during that period described a southern border that was more porous, even as barriers were going up. With the help of smugglers, many managed to get across on foot or in vehicles. In a common practice that continues today, builders avoided knowingly hiring undocumented workers by keeping laborers off their payrolls and instead hiring subcontractors or labor brokers who employed the workers.
In the 1990s and early 2000s, residential construction was booming in places like Atlanta, Phoenix and Houston. Many immigrants, often from Mexico, slipped across the border and headed straight to those fast-growing cities as demand for workers soared. While the number of American-born construction workers rose, the number of immigrant workers increased much more — all against the backdrop of falling union membership.
In Orange County, Mr. Moore began to see his generation of American-born unionized roofers leave the industry. “They all just disappeared,” he said. One day in 2000, he looked out at his job site and realized he was the only worker on the roof who wasn’t an immigrant.
By then, the high demand for housing and fewer worker protections had led to tough working conditions. For Mario, 47, who first came to the United States in 1997 from Morelia, Mexico, as a teenager, roofing paid better than picking cucumbers and bell peppers, but it wasn’t easy. Mario was an adult by the time he started roofing, but many undocumented roofers are minors, doing one of the deadliest jobs in the country usually without health insurance.
Mario, who requested to use only his first name and not to disclose his employer because he is in the country under temporary protected status, worked from dawn to dusk, sometimes seven days a week. He was earning $800 a week, not much more than what Mr. Martinez had earned a decade earlier. But he had recently moved in with his girlfriend (now his wife) and wanted to start a family. “There was no other way to survive,” Mario said in Spanish.
Unlike Mr. Martinez, who owns a home and has U.S. citizenship, Mario still rents and has a precarious legal status. Mario and Mr. Martinez were lucky enough to keep working through the Great Recession. From 2008 to 2011, the industry lost 1.7 million jobs, or a quarter of its work force.
Mario, who by then had two children, saw his income fall by a third. Mr. Martinez watched friends lose their jobs and their homes, but as a foreman who had been with the same company for years, he had enough work to weather the downturn. Mr. Moore, who had sustained several serious injuries from falls, including a broken back and pelvis, retired, like thousands of other American-born workers of his generation. “My back finally blew out,” he said. But thanks to his decades spent working union jobs, “I had more than enough hours for a pension.”
Immigrants who held onto their jobs say they have seen no meaningful wage gains in decades, and are still making today what they made before the Great Recession.
A shortage of workers and houses
The share of immigrants in the construction sector was last as high as it is today in the 1920s, when there were strong anti-immigrant policies.
The Great Depression followed, accelerating the labor movement that would transform American work for half a century. Critics of permissive immigration policies argue that the supply of underpaid workers suppresses wages. But unlike in America after the Great Depression, it’s unclear who would fill the gap in the construction industry should those workers leave.
Today, the industry is short 300,000 workers, according to the National Association of Homebuilders. Estimates put the national housing shortage somewhere between 1.5 million and five million homes. Without enough workers, building and repairing homes could take longer and cost more, driving up prices for home buyers and owners. A mass deportation policy that isn’t paired with a way to expand the domestic work force, or to make the jobs appealing again to American-born workers, could leave the industry hollowed out.
Adam Cook, who owns the roofing company in San Diego where Mr. Martinez works, says American-born workers, including the grown children of his longtime immigrant employees, may spend a summer or a few days roofing for extra money, but generally do not stay on the job long, often leaving for college or other opportunities.
Decades ago, strong unions trained generations of workers through on-the-job apprentice programs that provided young workers with job security and benefits. With unions decimated, there are far fewer apprenticeships available, and builders have not filled the void with a robust alternative. Instead, young Americans have increasingly gone to college, moving into white-collar jobs. And among those without a degree, millions fewer are working in manufacturing and construction, and more are working in service and sales jobs.
Supporters of stricter immigration policies argue that deportations would open up new jobs for Americans, and drive up wages. But research has shown that aggressive deportation policies don’t increase jobs for citizens, but instead lead to fewer construction jobs across the industry, simply because work slows as fewer homes are built.
“The idea that there are American workers waiting in the wings means you don’t understand the demographics of the construction workers,” said Natasha Iskander, a professor of urban planning and public service at N.Y.U.
As immigration crackdowns expand, builders and workers are feeling the pressure. Immigrants interviewed for this article, including Mario, said some workers are skipping work, fearing a raid. Without a full crew, projects are taking longer to complete, he said. Mr. Cook, 54, said some of his workers, regardless of their immigration status, refuse to take jobs near the Mexican border, fearing being detained, and his safety training sessions focus on immigration raids. “They’re basically moving targets,” he said.
A survey conducted last summer by the Associated General Contractors of America, a trade group, found that labor shortages are the leading cause of construction delays and that the overwhelming majority of contractors were struggling to find qualified workers.
Mr. Cook’s customers, mainly San Diego homeowners, have been paying more for their roofs since the pandemic drove up the cost of materials. A labor shortage could continue that trend. A roof that costs $19,000 this year might cost $21,000 next year, he said. “It’s just going to keep going up and up.”
Additional graphics work by Ani Matevosian. Ana Facio-Krajcer and Miriam Jordan contributed reporting.
Methodology
To assess the characteristics of construction workers in the U.S. through history, The Times analyzed anonymized individual census records obtained from IPUMS.
The Times included only workers who were currently employed when surveyed, worked in the construction industry and practiced a construction-related occupation, like a roofer or cement mason. They were considered U.S.-born unless the census record indicated they were foreign-born naturalized citizens or noncitizens.
For statistics on union membership and wages, The Times incorporated census figures compiled by Barry Hirsch, David Macpherson and William Even, available at unionstats.com.
Those figures include all workers in the private sector of the construction industry regardless of occupation. The Times’s analysis compares, by year, average hourly wages for these construction workers (union and nonunion) with the overall average wage of all workers.
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13) Supreme Court Backs Police Entry Without Warrant in Emergencies
Montana officials defended the actions of law enforcement officers who did not have a warrant when they responded to a possibly suicidal Army veteran.
By Ann E. Marimow, Reporting from Washington, Jan. 14, 2026
The Fourth Amendment of the Constitution prohibits unreasonable searches and provides protections for a person’s home by generally prohibiting law enforcement from entering without a warrant. Janie Osborne for The New York Times
The Supreme Court on Wednesday said law enforcement officials had flexibility to enter a home without a warrant based on reports that someone inside might need emergency help, a decision with implications for police tactics and the expectation of privacy in one’s home.
In a unanimous decision, the justices said that the police in Montana had acted appropriately when they entered an Army veteran’s home without a warrant because they had an “‘objectively reasonable basis for believing’ that a homeowner intended to take his own life and, indeed, may already have shot himself,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the court.
The Fourth Amendment of the Constitution prohibits unreasonable searches and provides protections for a person’s home by generally prohibiting law enforcement from entering without a warrant.
The Supreme Court has carved out several exceptions, including for when police believe an occupant is seriously injured or facing an imminent threat of injury.
The question in the Montana case was what level of certainty police must have that an emergency is underway before they can enter a home without a warrant.
Police were called to the home of William Trevor Case in September 2021 by his ex-girlfriend, who feared he was suicidal. The Army veteran had a loaded handgun, she told police, and he had previously threatened to kill himself.
Mr. Case was well known to law enforcement officers who went to check on him at his home near Butte, Mont. Mr. Case had “tried this suicide by cop” stuff before, one of the officers said, using profanity, according to a body-cam recording of the police response.
The offices knocked on Mr. Case’s door, yelled and shined flashlights through the windows. They could see empty beer cans, an empty handgun holster and a notepad with handwriting, which the officers thought was a possible suicide note, court records show. After about 40 minutes, they entered through the unlocked front door without a warrant.
When Mr. Case suddenly emerged from a closet, he stretched out his arm with what appeared to be a gun, and an officer shot him in the abdomen. The veteran, who survived, was convicted of assaulting the officer.
He appealed that conviction, arguing that a gun and other evidence from his home should not have been allowed to be presented at trial because the officers had violated the Fourth Amendment by coming into his home without a warrant.
Mr. Case’s lawyer told the court that police should have met a high bar of “probable cause” for the intrusion — a standard his lawyer said would provide “a level of certainty that avoids needless and dangerous confrontations, and enables police and emergency medical workers to provide aid when occupants urgently need it.”
But the court on Wednesday declined to adopt that higher standard, which would have been borrowed from the criminal context. Instead, it reaffirmed a 2006 decision: that it is not a violation of the Fourth Amendment when the police make a warrantless entry, if officers have an “objectively reasonable” basis to believe that an occupant is “seriously injured or threatened with such injury.”
The court said it was reasonable for the police to believe Mr. Case needed emergency aid, based on the phone call with Mr. Case’s ex-girlfriend and what the officers could observe at the Army veteran’s home.
“If Case had already shot himself, he could have been severely injured and in need of immediate medical care. And if he had not, the risk of suicide remained acute, given all the facts then known to the officers,” Justice Kagan wrote.
Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Neil M. Gorsuch joined the majority but wrote separately, with Justice Sotomayor cautioning that it may not always be “objectively reasonable” for police responding to a mental health crisis to make a warrantless entry.
She cited studies showing that people with serious mental health conditions were disproportionately likely to be injured and killed during police interactions compared to the general population. The justice also warned that the presence of law enforcement could escalate such situations, “putting both the occupant and the officers in danger.”
The “objectively reasonable basis” test affirmed by the court, Justice Sotomayor wrote, “demands careful attention to the case-specific risks that attend mental health crises, and requires officers to act reasonably in response.”
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