The idea of a “border crisis” has long been used by both Republicans and Democrats to justify harsh immigration policies. From Biden’s sweeping asylum processing restrictions intended to gain “control of our border,” to Trump’s near-total suspension of asylum processing predicated on a proclaimed “invasion” at the southern border, the playbook is nothing new. Whether you have believed that…
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Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey is warning that the Trump administration has crossed a “terrifying line” with its use of federal immigration enforcement agents to brutalize and abduct people in his city. In an interview with the New York Times published Saturday, Frey described operations that have taken place in his city as “marauding gangs of guys just walking down the street indiscriminately…
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This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on Jan. 30, 2026. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.
Journalist Don Lemon was taken into custody by federal law enforcement agents on Friday morning in Los Angeles, the latest escalation against the free press by the Justice Department under the control of President Donald Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi, both of whom have repeatedly targeted journalists for doing their jobs.
The former CNN anchor had been accused of misconduct by Trump following his coverage of an anti-ICE protest that took place inside a Minneapolis church on Jan. 18. While organizers and participants of that protest—aimed at the pastor of the congregation who is also a federal immigration enforcement official—chanted and disrupted the service, Lemon later interviewed the pastor and covered the events as they took place.
According to the Associated Press:
Lemon was taken into custody by federal agents in Los Angeles, where had been covering the Grammy Awards, his attorney Abbe Lowell said.
It is unclear what charge or charges Lemon is facing in the Jan. 18 protest. The arrest came after a magistrate judge last week rejected prosecutors’ initial bid to charge the journalist.
Lemon, who was fired from CNN in 2023, has said he has no affiliation to the organization that went into the church and that he was there as a journalist chronicling protesters.
Fellow journalists and free-press advocates swiftly came to Lemon’s defense and condemned the Trump DOJ over the arrest.
“Reporters in America are free to view, document, and share information with the public. This arrest is a constitutional violation, an outrage, an authoritarian breach, and utterly appalling.” —Lisa Gilbert, Public Citizen
“They arrested Don Lemon. This is horrifying,” said Jemele Hill,
Fifteen years ago this month, a mass movement in Tunisia overthrew the 24-year reign of U.S.-backed despot Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. What seemed impossible merely weeks prior became real. Today, living in the United States, things feel daunting, hopeless, terrifying: It is hard to imagine how to reverse the intensification of the police state, the erosion of whatever pretenses of democracy…
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Liam Conejo Ramos, a 5-year-old boy abducted by immigration agents in Minneapolis last week, is now in poor health after being sent to languish in a Texas facility with “absolutely abysmal” conditions, according to his family. HuffPost reports that “Ramos and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, are being held at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas.
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A federal judge has issued an order blocking the Trump administration from deporting Liam Conejo Ramos, a 5-year-old Minneapolis resident and Ecuadorian immigrant, and his father, who are both being detained in a Texas prison by immigration authorities. Liam and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, were arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents earlier this month…
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