The performance at Lincoln Memorial was orchestrated by the advocacy wing of Hungryman Productions, spearheaded by Bryan Buckley, aimed to honour the memory of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Photo: Screengrab/ Instagram @firstamendmenttroop

The U.S. government entered a partial shutdown Saturday (January 31, 2026) as a midnight funding deadline passed without Congress approving a 2026 Budget, though disruption was expected to be limited with the House set to move early next week to ratify a Senate-backed deal.

The funding lapse followed a breakdown in negotiations driven by Democratic anger over the killing of two protesters in Minneapolis by federal immigration agents, which derailed talks over new money for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

“Instead of going after drug smugglers, child predators, and human traffickers, the Trump administration is wasting valuable resources targeting peaceful protestors in Chicago and Minneapolis,” Senate Democratic Minority Whip Dick Durbin posted on social media.

“This Administration continues to make Americans less safe.”

Roughly three-quarters of federal operations are affected, potentially triggering shutdown procedures across a wide range of agencies and operations, from education and health to housing and defense.

Federal departments were expected to begin implementing shutdown plans overnight, but congressional leaders in both parties said the Senate’s action made a short disruption far more likely than a prolonged impasse.

If the House approves the package as expected early next week, funding would be restored within days, limiting the practical impact of the shutdown on government services, contractors and federal workers.

If the shutdown extended more than a few days, however, tens of thousands of federal workers would risk being put on unpaid leave or working without their money until funding is restored.

Late Friday (January 30, 2026), the Senate passed a package clearing five outstanding funding bills to cover most federal agencies through September, along with a two-week stopgap measure to keep DHS operating while lawmakers continue negotiations over immigration enforcement policy.

The House of Representatives was out of session as the deadline expired and is not scheduled to return until Monday (February 2, 2026).

U.S. President Donald Trump backed the Senate deal and urged swift House action, signaling he wanted to avoid a prolonged shutdown — the second of his second term — after a record-length stoppage last fall disrupted federal services for more than a month.

Political backlash

The Senate breakthrough came only after Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina lifted a procedural block that had stalled the package late Thursday (January 29, 2026).

Mr. Graham had objected to provisions in the DHS stopgap and to House-passed language repealing an earlier measure that allowed senators to sue the Justice Department if their phone records were seized during past investigations.

Mr. Graham agreed to release his hold after Senate leaders committed to holding future votes on legislation he is sponsoring to crack down on so-called “sanctuary cities” that refuse to cooperate with federal deportation operations.

Democrats, meanwhile, have remained united in opposing new DHS funding without changes to immigration enforcement following the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis.

Their deaths intensified scrutiny of federal agents’ conduct and hardened opposition to approving money for immigration agencies without new guardrails.

Party leaders have accused immigration authorities of operating with insufficient oversight and have demanded reforms including tighter warrant requirements, limits on certain enforcement tactics and greater accountability for agents in the field.

Much of the U.S. media interpreted the White House’s willingness to split DHS funding from the broader Budget package as a recognition that the administration needed to recalibrate its deportation strategy after the political backlash over the Minneapolis deaths.

Republicans are divided over that approach.

While some lawmakers have acknowledged the need for changes following the shootings, conservatives have warned against concessions they say could weaken immigration enforcement.

Several have signaled they will push their own priorities during the upcoming DHS negotiations, including measures targeting states and cities that limit cooperation with federal authorities.

Although Congress has already approved six of the 12 annual funding bills, those measures account for only a minority of discretionary spending. The remaining bills fund large swaths of the federal government, making the lapse significant if it ends up being prolonged.

The Office of Management and Budget on Friday (January 30, 2026) night issued a memo ordering agencies to prepare for an “orderly shutdown,” saying: “It is our hope that this lapse will be short.”

Published – January 31, 2026 11:54 am IST

U.S. President Donald Trump is preparing for a more aggressive immigration crackdown in 2026 with billions in new ‍funding, including by raiding more workplaces — even as backlash builds ahead of next year’s midterm elections. Mr. Trump has already surged immigration agents into major U.S. cities, where they swept through neighborhoods ​and clashed with residents.

While federal agents this year conducted some high-profile raids on businesses, they largely avoided raiding farms, factories and ‌other businesses that are economically important but known to employ immigrants without legal status.

ICE and Border Patrol will get $170 billion in ​additional funds through September 2029 — a huge surge of funding over their existing annual budgets of about $19 billion after the Republican-controlled Congress passed a massive spending package in July. Administration officials say they plan to hire thousands more agents, open new detention centres, pick up more immigrants in local jails and partner with outside companies to track down people without legal status.

The expanded deportation plans come despite growing signs of political backlash ahead of next year’s midterm elections.

Miami, one of the cities most affected by Mr. Trump’s crackdown because of its large immigrant population, elected its first Democratic mayor in nearly three decades last week in what the mayor-elect said was, in part, a reaction to the President.

Other local elections and polling have suggested rising concern among voters wary of aggressive immigration ​tactics. “People are beginning to see this not as an immigration question anymore as much as it is a violation of rights, a ⁠violation of due process and militarising neighborhoods extraconstitutionally,” said Mike Madrid, a moderate Republican political strategist. “There is no question that is a problem for the President and Republicans.”

Mr. Trump’s overall approval rating on immigration policy fell from 50% in March, before he launched crackdowns in several major U.S. cities, to 41% in mid-December, for what had been his strongest issue. Rising public unease has focused on masked federal agents ​using aggressive tactics such as deploying tear gas in residential neighborhoods and ⁠detaining U.S. citizens.

‘Numbers will explode’

In addition to expanding enforcement actions, Mr. Trump has stripped hundreds of thousands of Haitian, Venezuelan and Afghan immigrants of temporary legal status, expanding the pool of people who could be deported as the President promises to remove 1 million immigrants each year — a goal he almost certainly will miss this year. So far, some 622,000 immigrants have been deported since Mr. Trump took office in January.

White House border czar Tom Homan ‌told Reuters that Mr. Trump had delivered on his promise of a historic deportation operation and removing criminals while shutting down illegal immigration across the U.S.-Mexico border. ‌Mr. Homan said the number of arrests will increase sharply as ICE hires more officers and expands detention capacity with the new funding.

“I think you’re going to see the numbers explode greatly next year,” Mr. Homan said.

Mr. Homan said the plans “absolutely” include more enforcement actions at ‍workplaces.

Sarah Pierce, director of social policy at the center-left group Third Way, said U.S. businesses have been reluctant to push back on Mr. Trump’s immigration crackdown in the past year but could be prompted to speak up if the focus turns to employers.

Ms. Pierce said it will be interesting to see “whether or not businesses finally stand ‍up to this administration”.

Mr. Trump, a Republican, recaptured the White House promising record levels of deportations, saying it was needed after years of high levels of illegal immigration under his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden. He kicked off a campaign that dispatched federal agents to U.S. cities in search of possible immigration offenders, sparking protests and lawsuits over racial profiling and violent tactics.

Some businesses shut down to avoid raids or because of a lack of customers. Parents vulnerable to arrest kept their children home from school or had neighbors walk them. Some U.S. citizens started carrying passports.

Despite the focus on criminals in its public statements, government data shows that the Mr. Trump administration has been arresting more people who have not been charged with any crimes beyond their alleged immigration violations than previous administrations.

Some 41% of the roughly 54,000 people arrested by ICE and detained by late November had no criminal record beyond a suspected immigration violation, agency figures show. In the first few weeks in January, before Mr. Trump took office, ⁠just 6% of those arrested and detained by ICE were not facing charges for other crimes or previously convicted.

The Trump administration has taken aim at legal immigrants as well. Agents have arrested spouses of U.S. citizens at their green card interviews, pulled people from ​certain countries out of their naturalisation ceremonies, moments before they were to become citizens, and revoked thousands of student visas.

Plans to target employers

The administration’s planned focus on ⁠job sites in the coming year could generate many more arrests and affect the U.S. economy and Republican-leaning business owners.

Replacing immigrants arrested during workplace raids could lead to higher labour costs, undermining Mr. Trump’s fight against inflation, which analysts expect to be a major issue in the closely watched November elections, determining control of Congress. Administration officials earlier this year exempted such businesses from enforcement on Mr. Trump’s orders, then quickly reversed, Reuters reported at the time.

Some immigration hardliners have called for more workplace enforcement.

“Eventually you’re going to have to go after these employers,” said Jessica Vaughan, policy director for the Centre for ⁠Immigration Studies, which backs lower levels of immigration. “When that starts happening the employers will start cleaning up their acts on their own.”

Published – December 21, 2025 06:40 pm IST

U.S. President Donald Trump’s zero-tolerance immigration policy split more than 5,000 children from their families at the Mexico border during his first term.

Border crossings sit at a record low nearly a year into his second administration and a new wave of immigration enforcement is dividing families inside the U.S.

Federal officials and their local law enforcement partners are detaining tens of thousands of asylum-seekers and migrants. Detainees are moved repeatedly, then deported, or held in poor conditions for weeks or months before asking to go home.

The federal government was holding an average of more than 66,000 people in November, the highest on record.

‘We don’t want them’: Trump rages against Somali immigrants

During the first Trump administration, families were forcibly separated at the border and authorities struggled to find children in a vast shelter system because government computer systems weren’t linked. Now parents inside the United States are being arrested by immigration authorities and separated from their families during prolonged detention. Or, they choose to have their children remain in the U.S. after an adult is deported, many after years or decades here.

The Trump administration and its anti-immigration backers see “unprecedented success” and Mr. Trump’s top border adviser Tom Homan told reporters in April that “we’re going to keep doing it, full speed ahead”. Three families separated by migration enforcement in recent months told The Associated Press that their dreams of better, freer lives had clashed with Washington’s new immigration policy and their existence is anguished without knowing if they will see their loved ones again.

For them, migration marked the possible start of permanent separation between parents and children, the source of deep pain and uncertainty.

A family divided between Florida and Venezuela

Antonio Laverde left Venezuela for the U.S. in 2022 and crossed the border illegally, then requested asylum. He got a work permit and a driver’s license and worked as an Uber driver in Miami, sharing homes with other immigrants so he could send money to relatives in Venezuela and Florida.

Mr. Laverde’s wife Jakelin Pasedo and their sons followed him from Venezuela to Miami in December 2024. Ms. Pasedo focussed on caring for her sons while her husband earned enough to support the family. Ms. Pasedo and the kids got refugee status but Mr. Laverde, 39, never obtained it and as he left for work one early June morning, he was arrested by federal agents.

Ms. Pasedo says it was a case of mistaken identity by agents hunting for a suspect in their shared housing. In the end, she and her children, then 3 and 5, remember the agents cuffing Mr. Laverde at gunpoint.

“They got sick with fever, crying for their father, asking for him,” Ms. Pasedo said.

Mr. Laverde was held at Broward Transitional Center, a detention facility in Pompano Beach, Florida. In September, after three months detention, he asked to return to Venezuela.

Ms. Pasedo, 39, however, has no plans to go back. She fears she could be arrested or kidnapped for criticising the socialist government and belonging to the political opposition.

She works at cleaning offices and, despite all the obstacles, hopes to reunify with her husband someday in the U.S.

They followed the law..

Ms. Yaoska’s husband was a political activist in Nicaragua, a country tight in the grasp of autocratic married co-presidents Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.

She remembers her husband getting death threats and being beaten by police when he refused to participate in a pro-government march. She spoke on condition of anonymity, and requested the same for her husband to protect him from the Nicaraguan government.

The couple fled Nicaragua for the U.S. with their 10-year-old son in 2022, crossing the border and getting immigration parole. Settling down in Miami, they applied for asylum and had a second son, who has U.S. citizenship. Ms. Yaoska is now five months pregnant with their third child.

In late August, Ms. Yaoska, 32, went to an appointment at the South Florida office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Her family accompanied her. Her husband, 35, was detained and failed his credible fear interview, according to a court document.

Ms. Yaoska was released under 24-hour supervision by a GPS (Global Positioning System) watch that she cannot remove. Her husband was deported to Nicaragua after three months at the Krome Detention Center, the United States’ oldest immigration detention facility and one with a long history of abuse.

She now shares family news with her husband by phone. “The children are struggling without their father,” she said.

“It’s so hard to see my children like this. They arrested him right in front of them,” Ms. Yaoska said, her voice trembling. “They don’t want to eat and are often sick. The youngest wakes up at night asking for him,” she said.

“I’m afraid in Nicaragua. But I’m scared here too,” Ms. Yaoska said her work authorisation is valid until 2028 but the future is frightening and uncertain.

“I’ve applied to several job agencies, but nobody calls me back,” she said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen to me”, Ms. Yaoska added.

He was detained by local police, then deported..

Edgar left Guatemala more than two decades ago. Working in construction, he started a family in South Florida with Amavilia, a fellow undocumented Guatemalan migrant. The arrival of their son brought them joy.

“He was so happy with the baby — he loved him,” said Amavilia. “He told me he was going to see him grow up and walk.”

But within a few days, Mr. Edgar was detained on a 2016 warrant for driving without a license in Homestead, the small agricultural city where he lived in South Florida.

She and her husband declined to provide their last names because they are worried about repercussion from U.S. immigration officials.

Amavilia expected his release within 48 hours. Instead, Mr. Edgar, who declined to be interviewed, was turned over to immigration officials and moved to Krome.

“I fell into despair. I didn’t know what to do,” Amavilia said. “I can’t go.” Mr. Edgar, 45, was deported to Guatemala on June 8.

After Mr. Edgar’s detention, Amavilia couldn’t pay the $950 rent for the two-bedroom apartment she shares with another immigrant. For the first three months, she received donations from immigration advocates.

Today, breastfeeding and caring for two children, she wakes up at 3 a.m. to cook lunches she sells for $10 each.

She walks with her son in a stroller to take her daughter to school, then spends afternoons selling homemade ice cream and chocolate-covered bananas door to door with her two children.

Amavilia crossed the border in September 2023 and did not seek asylum or any type of legal status. She said her daughter grows anxious around police. She urges her to stay calm, smile and walk with confidence.

“I’m afraid to go out, but I always go out entrusting myself to God,” she said. “Every time I return home, I feel happy and grateful.”

Kateryna Golizdra has survived six months in legal limbo – so far. She thinks she can hold out another six months, waiting for Donald Trump’s administration to decide the fate of a humanitarian program that allowed some 260,000 people who fled the war in Ukraine to live and work in the United States.

When her legal status lapsed in May, Ms. Golizdra, 35, automatically became vulnerable to deportation. She lost her work permit and was forced to leave a job earning over $50,000 a year as a manager at the Ritz-Carlton in Fort Lauderdale. Ms. Golizdra also lost the health insurance that she used to cover check-ups for a liver condition. And she can no longer send money to her mother, who was also displaced and lives in Germany, she said.

The Trump administration’s processing delays on the humanitarian program for Ukrainians launched by former Democratic President Joe Biden left nearly 200,000 people at risk of losing their legal status as of March 31, according to internal U.S. government data reviewed by Reuters. The number of Ukrainians affected by the delays has not been previously reported.

The humanitarian program, introduced in April 2022, allowed nearly 260,000 Ukrainians into the U.S. for an initial two-year period. That’s a small share of the 5.9 million Ukrainian refugees worldwide, 5.3 million of whom are in Europe, according to United Nations refugee figures.

Ms. Golizdra said she has no idea when – or if – her permission to stay in the United States might be renewed, threatening her short-lived sense of security in America. While she waits for an update on her application, she could potentially be arrested by federal immigration authorities, three former immigration officials said.

‘CONSTANT STRESS’

The last six months have felt like she is on a “hamster wheel,” Ms. Golizdra said.

“It’s a constant stress, anxiety,” she said. “If I will need to leave the States, then I will have to build something again.”

Reuters spoke with two dozen Ukrainians who lost their work permits – and their jobs – due to delays in processing renewals, including tech workers, a preschool teacher, a financial planner, an interior designer and a college student. They described digging into their savings, seeking out community support and taking on debt to support themselves while they wait for a decision on their status.

Some of the people interviewed by Reuters said they were worried they could be arrested by U.S. immigration authorities.

Others said they were staying indoors, or had left the U.S. for Canada, Europe and South America.

Returning to Ukraine is not an option. Ms. Golizdra’s home in Bucha, a Kyiv suburb, was set ablaze in March 2022 when Russian troops stormed the city. After Ukrainian forces retook the town, they found hundreds of bodies, including of civilians who were victims of extrajudicial killings.

TRUMP’S SHIFTING UKRAINE POLICY

The Trump administration paused processing applications and renewals of the Ukrainian humanitarian program in January, citing security reasons.

After a contentious Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Mr. Trump said in March that he was weighing whether to revoke the Ukrainians’ legal status entirely – a plan first reported by Reuters.

Mr. Trump ultimately did not end the program and in May, a federal judge ordered officials to resume processing renewals.

But U.S. immigration officials have processed only 1,900 renewal applications for Ukrainians and other nationalities since then, a fraction of those with expiring status, according to U.S. government data released last week as part of a lawsuit.

Meanwhile, a spending package Mr. Trump signed into law in July added a $1,000 fee to such humanitarian applications – on top of a fee of $1,325 per individual.

The White House referred questions about the Ukrainian humanitarian program to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which did not respond to requests for comment.

U.S. Representative Mike Quigley, a Democrat in the Chicago area, said his office has received requests for assistance from more than 200 Ukrainians in limbo.

“There’s a fear that if they haven’t completed their application, if they haven’t gone through the whole process, they’re vulnerable for deportation,” Quigley said.

Anne Smith, the executive director and regulatory counsel of the Ukraine Immigration Task Force, a legal coalition formed to aid those who fled the war to the U.S., said her attorney network was receiving multiple calls per week from Ukrainians saying they have family members detained by immigration authorities.

She said Ukrainians have been arrested at construction sites, while doing food delivery or working as Uber or truck drivers, as well as in broader sweeps in Chicago and greater Cleveland.

Brian Snyder, a product marketing manager in Raleigh, North Carolina, who has sponsored three Ukrainian families, said people who followed the rules are being treated unfairly.

One Ukrainian woman recently asked if he would serve as her emergency contact if she was picked up by immigration officers, he said. He knew of another family where a teenage son’s parole was renewed while the parents and two younger children were left waiting, he said.

“All of this dysfunction and uncertainty is just introducing a tremendous amount of stress in these families’ lives,” he said.

SOME UKRAINIANS ‘SELF DEPORT’

Six of 24 Ukrainians interviewed by Reuters have left the U.S. rather than risk ending up in immigration jail or being sent to Latin America or Africa, as the Trump administration has done with other hard-to-deport immigrants.

Yevhenii Padafa, a 31-year-old software engineer who moved to Brooklyn in September 2023, applied to renew his status in March. His application sat pending until it expired in September. Worried that he could be barred from the U.S. in the future if he remained without legal status, he tried to “self deport” using a government app known as CBP One.

The Trump administration in May promised a free outbound plane ticket and $1,000 “exit bonus” for those using the app.

Mr. Padafa decided to go to Argentina, which has a lower cost of living than other countries and offers a humanitarian program for Ukrainians. But the app would not book him a ticket there. A U.S. border official told him the flight would need to be booked to Ukraine, he said.

He was counting on the free flight and $1,000 bonus. Arriving in Buenos Aires in mid-November with little money, he planned to sell a laptop to cover initial rent for an apartment. “If I return to Ukraine, I’ll just go to the frontline,” he said. “I’d rather be homeless somewhere than go to Ukraine.”

A 73-year old “undocumented” Sikh woman, who lived in the United States for more than 30 years, was deported to India earlier this week after being detained by immigration authorities in California without being given the chance to even say goodbye to her relatives, her advocate said.

In an Instagram post on Wednesday, Deepak Ahluwalia, the advocate, said, “Bibi ji (Harjit Kaur) is on her way back to Punjab. She has already landed in India.”

Ms. Kaur was detained by immigration authorities in California after she went for a routine check, triggering protests and concerns among her family and community members. The resident of East Bay in northern California for more than 30 years was detained by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials during a routine check, a report in Berkeleyside, a nonprofit news portal, said earlier.

Her family along with hundreds of community members organised a protest, demanding the immediate release of Ms. Kaur, who was detained after the ICE officials asked her to come to its San Francisco office for additional paperwork.

She was then taken to a detention centre in Bakersfield, Advocate Ahluwalia said.

In the post, Ms. Ahluwalia claimed Ms. Kaur was taken from Bakersfield to Los Angeles where she was put on a flight to Georgia and thereafter to New Delhi.

He also claimed that her family members urged the authorities to give her a chance to say final goodbye to her relatives before she was sent back, but permission was denied.

“We were able to get her travel documents. We were trying to negotiate with the ICE attorney and the government for her to depart on a commercial flight. We booked a ticket for Monday (September 22). We also asked the authorities to release her for 24-48 hours, even under ankle monitoring, to give her a chance to say final goodbye,” Mr. Ahluwalia said.

“But around 2 a.m. on Saturday (September 20), they took her from Bakersfield, drove her to Los Angeles in handcuffs, and put her on a flight to Georgia without even notifying the attorney, or giving any prior notice,” Mr. Ahluwalia claimed.

In Georgia, Ms. Kaur was kept at a temporary facility for detainees, he said.

“She was not even given a bed for nearly 60-70 hours, and made to sleep on the floor with a blanket. She was unable to get up as she had a double knee replacement surgery,” he said.

“She was also denied a shower the entire time. Prior to the flight on Monday (September 22), she and some other detainees were given wet wipes and told to just clean up before boarding the plane from Georgia to Armenia. From Armenia, she came to Delhi on an ICE chartered plane,” he said.

“Thankfully, they did not cuff her, a process followed earlier. One officer was apparently trying to cuff her but another said to avoid the process considering her age,” Mr. Ahluwalia said.

Ms. Kaur was reportedly undocumented, according to an earlier report in ABC7News.

She reached the US in 1992 as a single mother with two sons. Her asylum case was denied in 2012, but since then she “faithfully reported” to the ICE in San Francisco every six months for more than 13 years, her daughter-in-law Manji Kaur earlier said.

The Berkeleyside report claimed the “ICE assured her that she could remain in the United States under supervision with a work permit until her travel documents were received”.

Following her detention, there were protests in California with demonstrators demanding her release with placards reading “Hands off our grandma” and “Bring grandma home”.

Ms. Kaur, who has two grandsons and three granddaughters in the U.S., among other relatives, worked at an Indian garment store for more than two decades, the report said.

One of her granddaughters, Sukhdeep Kaur, described Harjit Kaur as an “independent, selfless, and hardworking woman”, who was like a “mother figure” (to the community).

The family members also voiced concern over her health, claiming that placing a woman of her age with serious health issues such as thyroid, migraine, knee pain and anxiety under detention could put her life at risk.

Published – September 26, 2025 11:20 am IST

Washington DC:

US President Donald Trump’s billionaire adviser Elon Musk a video posted by the White House showing immigrants in shackles being prepared to board a deportation flight from Seattle. The footage shared by the White House on social media showed illegal immigrants being put in cuffs and shackles while being prepared to board a deportation flight.

It showed the law enforcement officials lifting heavy chains attached to handcuffs and shackles chains from a basket and arranged on the airport tarmac alongside four additional sets of restraints before they were put on the migrants as they boarded the plane.

The White House labelled the footage as an autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) video. ASMR refers to a tingly feeling some people experience when watching videos featuring unusual sounds, like whispering or fingernails tapping on a surface.

The video was later reposted by Elon Musk on his X handle with the caption “Haha wow”.

Haha wow https://t.co/PXFXpiGU0U

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 18, 2025

The post caught further flak from netizens who dubbed Musk’s reaction as “disgusting” and “dehumanising.”

“This is disgusting. The fact that you think this is funny speaks volumes,” commented an X user on Musk’s post. 

“You are pathetic, @elonmusk. A small man who laughs at a video of undocumented immigrants in shackles boarding a plan for being deported,” wrote another.

Another X user pointed out that the treatment of deportees by the US government was not just sad but also “dehumanising”.

US President Donald Trump has launched a massive crackdown on immigration, with illegal migrants, including Indians, being deported to their homelands. Thousands of undocumented immigrants have already been sent back, including those from Guatemala, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and China among other countries.

However, questions have been raised over the treatment mated to these deported immigrants as they are being hackled and handcuffed on their way back home. 

When faced with difficulty directly deporting some migrants to their homelands, the US is also using Panama as a “stopover”, with Costa Rica expected to receive a similar flight of third-country deportees later today (February 19).

San Jose:

Following in the footsteps of Panama and Guatemala, Costa Rica also announced on Monday it was willing to receive illegal migrants deported from the United States, who are nationals of other countries. The Central American nation’s presidential office said in a statement that 200 migrants from central Asia and India would be arriving in a commercial flight from the US on Wednesday. 

“The Government of Costa Rica agreed to collaborate with the United States in the repatriation of 200 illegal immigrants to their country,” the Costa Rican president’s office said in a statement, adding that “these are people originating from… Central Asia and India.”

Costa Rica’s Plan

The first set of US deportees will reach Costa Rica on Wednesday aboard a commercial flight, whereupon they will be transported to a Temporary Migrant Care Center near the border with Panama. 

The migrants will then be moved to the countries of their origin.

Costa Rica specified that “the process will be completely financed” by the US government under the supervision of the International Organization for Migration (IOM). 

Following Panama and Guatemala’s Footsteps

Costa Rica is the third country in Central America to collaborate on repatriating deported migrants from the United States since President Donald Trump assumed office in Washington on January 20. Panama and Guatemala had previously agreed to a similar arrangement when US Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited on a recent tour of Latin America. 

Panama received its first repatriation flight with 119 migrants aboard last week, originating from China, Pakistan, Afghanistan and elsewhere, according to Panamanian officials. None have arrived in Guatemala yet.

Latin America is the original home of most of the United States’ estimated 11 million undocumented migrants, according to a report by AFP. Many had made dangerous journeys, braving treacherous terrain, wild animals and criminal gangs for a chance at a better life.

Trump, however, took a hard line against undocumented migrants during last year’s US election campaign, describing some as “monsters” and “animals.” On his first day in office last month, Trump declared a national emergency at the southern US border and vowed to deport “millions and millions” of migrants.

One of two documented immigrants with prior convictions detained by U.S. Immigrations and Customs (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents, walks handcuffed as an agent holds his arm, at a Home Depot parking lot in Tucson, Arizona, U.S., January 26, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Top Trump administration officials, including “border czar” Tom Homan and the acting deputy attorney general, visited Chicago on Sunday (January 27, 2025) to witness the start of ramped-up immigration enforcement in the nation’s third-largest city as federal agencies touted arrests around the country.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it made 956 arrests nationwide on Sunday and 286 on Saturday. While some of the operations may not have been unusual, ICE averaged 311 daily arrests in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30.

Federal law enforcement on immigration crackdown

Few details of the operation were immediately made public, including the number of arrests. But the sheer number of federal agencies involved showed President Donald Trump’s willingness to use federal law enforcement beyond the Department of Homeland Security to carry out his long-promised mass deportations.

Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove said he observed immigration agents from the DHS along with agents from the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. He didn’t offer details on the operation, which came days after DHS expanded immigration authority to agencies in the Department of Justice, including the DEA and ATF.

Operation targets members of Venezuelan gang in Colorado

The DEA posted pictures Sunday on social media of an operation at a location in the Denver area, where roughly 50 people were taken into custody.

Jonathan Pullen, special agent in charge for the DEA Rocky Mountain field division, said the Colorado operation targeted drug trafficking by Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang. He said about 100 agents and officers, including from the DEA, ICE, ATF and Homeland Security Investigations, carried out a federal search warrant for drug trafficking around 5 am Sunday at a location where Tren de Aragua members were having a party.

ICE detained nearly 50 people and transported them on a bus to one of its processing centers in nearby Aurora, Pullen said. As of Sunday afternoon, about 40 people remained in ICE custody, he said.

“They ran all of the information while they were on scene and they determined, ICE determined, that they were here illegally or they had some other violation in the immigration system, and they detained and arrested them,” Pullen said.

Immigrant rights groups

Immigrant rights groups have tried to prepare for the aggressive crackdown with campaigns for immigrants to know their rights in case of an arrest. City officials have done the same, publishing similar information at public bus and train stations.

On Friday, Chicago Public Schools officials mistakenly believed ICE agents had come to a city elementary school and put out statements to that effect before learning the agents were from the Secret Service. Word of immigration agents at a school — which have long been off limits to immigration agents until Trump ended the policy last week — drew swift criticism from community groups and Gov. JB Pritzker.

The Democratic governor, a frequent Trump critic, questioned the aggressive approach of the operations and the chilling effect for others, particularly for law-abiding immigrants who have been in the country for years.