update - USSC strikes down CO's conversion therapy ban 8 - 1

Federal judge threatens to haul Trump officials in for violating court orders


Politico legal reporterKyle Cheney wrote on X that the Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security may get hauled into court if an angry New Jersey Judge has anything to say about it.

Over the past months, news outlets have reported that judges at the magistrate and federal levels have reached their limits with ill-prepared or inexperienced DOJ lawyers, lies by prosecutors, and Homeland Security staff who refuse to follow their court orders.



Such was the case in New Jersey on Thursday when U.S. District Court Judge Zahid N. Quraishi demanded the immediate release of a 29-year-old native and citizen of El Salvador

"Arguably worse, while the procedures for the Government's immigration arrests and detention may have had the initial appearance of negligence, they have since slid downward into manifest recklessness," the judge wrote in the ruling.

"Immigrants are swept up into custody and shifted repeatedly around the country without warning or explanation. Efforts by the Court in this District to protect detainees' rights have been largely frustrated by the Government. Earlier this month, the U.S. Attorney's Office conceded to violating 72 orders issued in immigration habeas corpus cases in this District alone," the judge continued. 'That number by itself is objectively appalling, but at least one judge has indicated that it was underreported. The U.S. Attorney's Office couched these violations as unintentional."


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The second Cheney pointed out ended by saying, "Sadly, the well-deserved credibility once attached to that distinguished Office is now a presumption that 'has been undeniably eroded.' The Government's continued actions after being called to task can now only be deemed intentional. The Undersigned will not stand idly by and allow this intentional misconduct to go on. It ends today."

ICE arrests Columbia student inside residential building


Federal immigration officers misrepresented themselves to gain access to a dormitory on the Columbia University campus to arrest a student, according to university officials.

Department of Homeland Security officers entered the residential building at 6:30 a.m. Thursday, the New York City university’s acting president Claire Shipman said in a statement.



“We are working to gather more information, working to reach the family, and providing legal support. Our understanding at this time is that the federal agents made misrepresentations to gain entry to the building to search for a ‘missing person,” the statement said. “We are working to gather more details.”

In a brief video on Instagram from the back of a vehicle, Columbia neuroscience student Ellie Aghayeva wrote “Dhs illegally arrested me. Please help.”

Thursday’s arrest is not the first immigration enforcement action on Columbia property; graduate student Mahmoud Khalil was arrested in the lobby of his university-owned building last March, igniting a legal battle at the center of the Trump administration’s campaign to arrest and deport international students.

School of General Studies Dean Lisa Rosen-Mestch announced the student’s arrest in an email to General Studies students Thursday morning.



The school is “working in close collaboration with University administration to support our student and their family during this very difficult situation,” according to the email from Rosen-Metsch, which was obtained by The Columbia Spectator.

She described the arrest as “upsetting and unsettling for our community.”

Aghayeva is originally from Azerbaijan.

Her student visa was terminated in 2016, according to a statement from Homeland Security.

The building manager and her roommate allowed officers into the apartment, a spokesperson told The Independent.

Thursday’s arrest follows campus protests demanding the university maintain stronger protections for international students against federal immigration agents at the university.

Columbia has stressed that “all law enforcement agents must have a judicial warrant or judicial subpoena” access nonpublic areas of the university, including housing and classrooms and other buildings that require a university ID. Administrative warrants – which are issued internally by federal agencies — are not sufficient, Shipman wrote.



“Do not allow them to enter or accept service of a warrant or subpoena,” she said.

New York City Council members were briefed on the incident.

“ICE has no place in our schools and universities,” Speaker Julie Menin said in a joint statement with City Councilman Shaun Abreu.

“These activities do not make our city or country safer, but rather drive mistrust and danger,” they added. “As Columbia College alumni, our hearts are with the community there, and we have been in contact with the University to offer our assistance.”


Khalil continues to fight the Trump administration’s attempts to remove him from the country after his release from an immigration detention center in Louisiana last year.

Khalil, a legal permanent resident of the United States and a prominent student activist against Israel’s war in Gaza, was stripped of his green card and arrested last March after Secretary of State Marco Rubio personally signed off on his removal, baselessly alleging Khalil and others promoted antisemitism and provided material support for terrorist groups, according to documents submitted in court filings.


He was jailed for more than 100 days while his legal team fought for his release, and federal judges have lambasted the administration’s “unconstitutional conspiracy” to violate the First Amendment rights of international students and faculty.

An immigration court judge has ordered his removal to Syria or Algeria over allegations that he omitted information from a green card application, which his legal team called meritless.

Mohsen Mahdawi, another Columbia student targeted by Rubio, was also granted release from federal custody after he was arrested during a citizenship interview last year. An immigration court judge has terminated his removal proceedings, finding no basis to deport him.
ss the world, pluralism, reason, a progressive and humanitarian agenda, and internationalism – Independent values – are under threat. Yet we, The Independent, continue to grow.

Man arrested by ICE agent after reporting his car stolen sues


Last November, Jose Argueta of Maryland reported his car stolen to Washington, D.C., police.

The following month, he thought he was getting good news. A call from someone claiming to be with the police informed him his car had been found and asked him to pick it up at a station in northeast D.C.



Upon arrival, he was put in handcuffs by a group of officers, including one with the word “ICE” on his shirt, Argueta, 37, alleges in a lawsuit obtained by The Washington Post.

“They tricked me into coming to the station to arrest me,” he told the paper. “I was just trying to get my car back, but it was all a lie.”

Argueta was then put in the immigration detention system and held over Christmas until he was released on bond in January.

The allegations raise questions about the extent of cooperation between federal officials and the Washington Metropolitan Police Department, which is regulated by a local sanctuary city policy known as the Sanctuary Values Amendment Act.

During a city council meeting on Wednesday, lawmakers questioned D.C. Interim Police Chief Jeffrey Carroll about the alleged arrest.

"We're not working with ICE removal operations," Carroll said, adding that officers follow the sanctuary law and do not share information once someone is in custody.

"How did ICE know, but for you all?" council member Christina Henderson asked.

The chief said he needed to investigate the man’s allegations about his arrest.

The Independent has contacted the police department and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for comment.



Last year the Trump administration surged federal agents to Washington, D.C., for anti-crime and immigration enforcement (Getty Images)
Federal officials and local police regularly cooperate in the capital.

The Trump administration has pushed this relationship to new extremes, temporarily taking control of local police and surging federal agents in response to a crime emergency he declared in Washington.

The emergency has expired, but federal agents remain active in the capital.



Residents have raised questions about the use of force by such agents, including the family of Julian Bailey, 43, who was killed by U.S. Marshals earlier this month.

Bailey was killed on February 11, as law enforcement responded to reports of someone making threats with a gun. No D.C. police were present at the scene when the Marshal fired his weapon.

"You guys can go to sleep at night, and I can't,” his wife, Trenise Wells-Bailey, said during Wednesday’s council meeting. “I am tired, but I can't sleep because my husband is not there with me.”

In October, meanwhile, a federal agent allegedly shot an unarmed man during a traffic stop while working alongside D.C. police.



The Trump administration has used unorthodox tactics to carry out its deportation campaign including making arrests at legal check-ins (Reuters)
Federal agents have been accused of resorting to deceptive tactics and boundary-pushing legal strategies to carry out immigration arrests.

On Thursday, Homeland Security agents allegedly “misrepresented” themselves and claimed to be searching for a missing person to enter a campus apartment and arrest a student at Columbia University in New York.



Earlier this month in Minnesota, agents allegedly faked having car trouble to lure a man out of his home and arrest him.

Under the Trump administration, agents have also ramped up arrests when immigrants are arriving for legal check-ins with authorities, appointments that had previously allowed them to remain in the country as their cases worked their way through the system.

Agents are also accused of carrying out warrantless arrests across the country.

Immigration officials claim they have the authority to enter private residences without a judicial warrant, according to an internal memo obtained in January by the Associated Press.

Judge berates Trump admin over 'illegal' detention of immigrant


U.S. District Court Judge Zahid N. Quraishi blasted President Donald Trump's administration and Attorney General Pam Bondi's Department of Justice for the illegal detention of a 29-year-old immigrant who had been released into the United States in 2016.

According to Quraishi's ruling on Thursday, Diana Elizabeth Cartagena Hueso was first taken into custody in 2016 after crossing the border. She was released after she was "found to have a credible fear of returning to her home country, and was therefore referred for removal and asylum proceedings."



Although the woman had no criminal record and was married with a 5-year-old child, "she and her husband were arrested by immigration officials in Elizabeth, New Jersey on their way to a doctor's appointment" on Jan. 26, 2026.

The government then repeatedly moved her to different detention centers as she struggled to challenge her situation in court.



"Where an alien is released outright, even where he is later paroled, he cannot be returned to mandatory detention under the statute because the Government has effectively abandoned its mandatory detention authority by releasing the alien into the United States without parole," the judge explained. "In this matter, the Government released Petitioner on her own recognizance in 2016, and left her at large in the United States for nearly a decade before returning her to custody."


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"The Government's handling of Petitioner's detention is emblematic of its approach to immigration enforcement in this state. On the merits, its detentions are illegal. The Government knows this," Quraishi said, noting the government's refusal to release Cartagena Hueso. "Arguably worse, while the procedures for the Government's immigration arrest and detention may have had the initial appearance of negligence, they have since slid downward into manifest recklessness."

"Efforts by the Court in this District to protect detainees' rights have been largely frustrated by the Government," the judge added. "The undersigned will not stand idly by and allow this intentional misconduct to go on. It ends today."

Quraishi cautioned the Department of Justice prosecutors that similar arrests could result in consequences. The judge ordered the woman "released immediately."

Judge denies bid to block Trump’s massive $400M White House ballroom on site of demolished East Wing | The Independent


A federal judge in Washington has rejected a preservation group’s lawsuit to block President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom project but left room for the group to revive its bid under a different legal theory.

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon on Thursday issued an opinion denying the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s request for an injunction to stop construction of the White House ballroom, which is currently being built with private funds sans congressional approval on the site where the East Wing stood until it was demolished on Trump’s orders this past October.

Leon wrote that the group had incorrectly based their lawsuit on what he called “a ragtag group of theories under the Administrative Procedure Act” as well as the U.S. Constitution and said the request for an injunction had to be denied because the White House Office of the Executive Residence was not an “agency” for the purposes of the APA.



He also said the National Trust had incorrectly failed to allege in its complaint that the entire ballroom project — including its use of private donations and shirking of Congressional oversight — was ultra vires, a Latin legal term meaning beyond one’s authority.

“Unless and until Plaintiff amends its existing complaint to include the necessary ultra vires claim, the Court cannot address the merits of the novel and weighty issues raised by this statutory challenge, and Plaintiff's motion for a preliminary injunction must therefore be denied,” he said.


The judge added that the National Trust had mischaracterized the dispute over the ballroom as a constitutional claim rather than one over whether statutes cited by the White House to justify the ballroom project gave Trump the authority to demolish the East Wing and build an entirely new structure without input from Congress.

He also left room for the lawsuit to be revived if the Trust makes the proper legal claims going forward.
“If Plaintiff is inclined to amend its complaint with the necessary ultra vires cause of action to test the President's statutory authority, the Court will expeditiously consider it and, if viable, address the merits of the novel and weighty issues presented,” he said.

“Until then, however, I have no choice but to deny Plaintiff's motion for a preliminary injunction for lack of likelihood of success on the merits.”
In a post on Truth Social, Trump hailed the ruling as “great news for America and our wonderful White House” and boasted that the project was being completed only with donations from “patriot donors and contributors.”

“The Ballroom construction, which is anticipated to also handle future Inaugurations and large State Visits, is ahead of schedule, and under budget. It will stand long into the future as a symbol to the Greatness of America,” he added.
The new White House ballroom is expected to be a massive addition to the People’s House, capable of holding up to 1,000 guests for state dinners and other large events. Trump has said the space is necessary for hosting large events.

Trump lawyer torn apart over 'abrupt flip-flop' in new filing


Lawyers representing Fulton County, Georgia, in the ballot seizure case ripped into the U.S. Attorney appointed by the Trump administration, per a new filing released Wednesday evening, accusing him of an "abrupt flip-flop" and other shifts that have impeded the flow of the case.



The filing was submitted to the U.S. District Court of Northern Georgia's Atlanta division by Fulton County's legal team. Among other things, it accused U.S. Attorney Thomas Albus, a St. Louis-based prosecutor tipped to handle the case by Donald Trump's Justice Department, of reversing his promises about returning the original ballots seized and allowing an FBI agent to testify, as explained by Josh Gerstein, a senior legal reporter for Politico.

"Fulton County lawyers claim 'abrupt flip-flop' by specially-designated prosecutor Tom Albus in 2020-ballot-seizure case, including whether FBI agent would testify and whether original ballots could be returned to local officials," Gerstein wrote in a post to X.

Fulton County is suing the federal government for the return of 2020 ballots seized from an election center in Atlanta last month in an FBI raid. The Trump administration claimed that the seizures were part of an investigation into Trump's debunked claims of election fraud.



The filing primarily revolved around the Fulton County lawyers objecting to Albus's reversal on a promise to "expeditiously make copies of the seized election records, return the originals and a copy to Fulton County, and voluntarily stay its review of the copied records pending the Court’s final decision in this matter." Albus later "inexplicably withdrew that offer," which then required the court to "to set the matter down for an expedited hearing." He is now willing to turn over copies of the ballots, in exchange for Fulton County's case against the federal government getting dismissed.

"Respondent has since represented to the Court that returning the originals to [Fulton County]—and even allowing testimony in the very hearing it originally agreed to—would somehow compromise 'an ongoing criminal investigation,' despite its prior representations. Given [Albus's] prior stances, it is hard to make sense of its recent 'offer' to 'discuss' a 'copy.'"



This troublesome shift from Albus, the filing added, "came in the context of its abrupt flip-flop regarding the testimony of [FBI] Special Agent [Hugh] Evans." The Fulton County legal team had earlier this month asked Albus if Evans could give testimony at an evidentiary hearing, to which they claim Albus responded, "I can’t imagine that will be an issue and will give you a firm answer as soon as I can."

The lawyers claim they followed up multiple times about the matter over the course of days, but did not hear back. Albus then moved to quash Evans' giving testimony, "without conferring or notifying" them.

The lawyers suggested that Albus's move to go back on his previous offer about handing over the ballots is part of an effort to avoid a judicial review.

"To the extent that Respondent suggests it is now willing to 'discuss' giving Petitioners a copy of their own records (on the condition that they dismiss this action), it appears to be doing so in an effort to avoid judicial review of an unconstitutional seizure wholly lacking in probable cause," the filing explained. "If Respondent is willing to provide a copy to Petitioners (as it claims), it is evident that doing so will not compromise an ongoing investigation. Respondent’s remaining arguments are meritless..."

White House 'circulating' 17-page executive order draft to declare emergency over voting


President Donald Trump, who has insisted on federalizing voting and who issued an executive order last March to pressure states to require proof of citizenship to register voters, is reportedly now being urged to declare an emergency over voting.

“Pro-Trump activists who say they are in coordination with the White House are circulating a 17-page draft executive order that claims China interfered in the 2020 election as a basis to declare a national emergency that would unlock extraordinary presidential power over voting,” The Washington Post reported in an exclusive.



“President Donald Trump has repeatedly previewed a plan to mandate voter ID and ban mail ballots in November’s midterm elections, and the activists expect their draft will figure into Trump’s promised executive order on the issue.”

According to Florida lawyer Peter Ticktin, who is advocating for a presidential order on voting, “we have a situation where the president is aware that there are foreign interests that are interfering in our election processes.”

“That causes a national emergency where the president has to be able to deal with it,” Ticktin told the Post.

Claiming there is an emergency would allow the president to ban voting by mail and voting machines “as the vectors of foreign interference, Ticktin argued.”

Trump has repeatedly urged Republicans to pass the SAVE Act, which critics say could disenfranchise millions of American citizens who do not currently have a passport or access to their birth certificates. It could also disenfranchise people who have married and changed their names but did not do so on all their legal documents.



“Trump has said that if the bill fails, he will act unilaterally to impose the changes for the midterms,” the Post reported.

Irate judge threatens criminal contempt against ICE for repeatedly defying court orders


A Minnesota judge threatened the Trump administration with criminal contempt on Thursday over repeated ignoring of court orders.

Judge Patrick Schiltz issued a scathing order Thursday, warning that he may pursue criminal contempt charges against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after finding a pattern of defiance he called unprecedented in American history. The order was flagged on Bluesky by Law Dork's Chris Geidner.



The judge said ICE had violated 97 court orders in 66 cases, and that an additional 113 violations across 77 more cases occurred largely after the government promised to improve compliance.

The ruling rebuked Daniel Rosen, the U.S. Attorney for Minnesota, who emailed the judge directly, accusing his Jan. 28 order of being "far beyond the pale of accuracy." After directing his clerks to independently verify every case, Schiltz concluded his original findings were essentially correct, and said Rosen's "statistically strong sample" was just the first 12 cases on a list of 75.



Schiltz noted that several government attorneys who had worked in good faith to achieve compliance — including civil division attorney Ana Voss — had since resigned.


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"If anything is 'beyond the pale,' it is ICE’s continued violation of the orders of this Court. Increasingly, this Court has had to resort to using the threat of civil contempt to force ICE to comply with orders. The Court is not aware of another occasion in the history of the United States in which a federal court has had to threaten contempt—again and again and again—to force the United States government to comply with court orders," wrote Schiltz.

He added: "This Court will continue to do whatever is required to protect the rule of law, including, if necessary, moving to the use of criminal contempt. One way or another, ICE will comply with this Court’s orders."

ICE 'posed as police looking for missing child'


Immigration officials reportedly employed a deceptive tactic, posing as police officers searching for a missing child, to gain entry to a Columbia University residential building in an attempt to apprehend an international student.

The operation unfolded on Thursday after a 911 call reported two "suspicious" men in dark clothing inside the building. When New York Police Department officers arrived, they discovered US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents already present.



According to a statement from Columbia University, the agents presented a "missing child" flyer to a campus safety officer, falsely claiming to be police. This ruse allowed them access to the apartment of Ellie Aghayeva, an international student from Azerbaijan, who immigration officials allege had overstayed her visa.

A spokesperson for the NYPD confirmed that their officers arrived after the agents had entered Ms Aghayeva's apartment. Upon verifying the men were federal agents, the NYPD officers promptly left the premises.

The arrest has prompted widespread censure and calls for investigation by Democrats, as well as a surprising intervention by President Donald Trump. The Republican informed New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani that Aghayeva was being released shortly after meeting with the Democratic mayor Thursday.

As new details emerge, the operation has also threatened to open a rift between the city’s police department and ICE, whose agents have increasingly donned the disguises of utility workers, delivery drivers and other uniformed professionals to carry out Trump's sweeping deportation campaign.



While such tactics are not illegal, former police officers said the apparent misrepresentation at Columbia represented a startling escalation, one that could gravely undermine public trust during the next emergency.

“If the police are actually looking for a child in danger, people are now going to be more hesitant to help,” said Michael Alcazar, a retired hostage negotiator with the NYPD. “Almost immediately, this sort of ICE subterfuge is going to make the job of police officers more difficult.”


A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, Tricia McLaughlin, has disputed portions of the university’s narrative, claiming the federal agents “verbally identified themselves and visibly wore badges around their necks” and were allowed into the building by a property manager.



McLaughlin did not respond to repeated questions about whether the agents had used the guise of a missing child to enter the apartment.

Claire Shipman, the university's acting president, said on Thursday that security cameras had “captured the agents in the hallway showing pictures of the alleged missing child,” adding that the situation was “utterly unacceptable.”

Columbia has so far declined to release that footage.

The NYPD also declined to share body camera footage of their response. A department spokesperson said the officers had followed the law by not interfering in an active federal investigation.

Aghayeva's arrest has prompted protests at Columbia, along with fear and confusion.

Her friends said that she was in her final semester on an international student visa, studying neuroscience and politics. In an emergency petition filed Thursday, her attorneys wrote she was not given a reason for the arrest.


A spokesperson for DHS said Aghayeva’s visa had been terminated in 2016 for failing to attend classes. She remains in removal proceedings despite her release, the spokesperson said.

Jeffrey Fagan, a law professor at Columbia who studies policing, said research has shown that deceptive tactics by police are especially likely to hurt law enforcement legitimacy when they resulted in an arrest “perceived to be unjustified.”

“Anybody looking at this is going to immediately think it's unjustified,” he said. “So that will erode trust in a relevant community the next time officers need cooperation.”

Peter Moskos, a professor of criminal justice at John Jay University and former Baltimore City police officer, agreed. He noted that sanctuary policies were originally meant to enhance public safety by building trust between immigrant communities and police.


“The idea is that you would trust the cops and call the cops when you need them and know you wouldn’t be deported,” he said. “But ICE seems to be doing everything they can to break down trust.”

The FBI has fired at least 10 agents and support staff over allegations that they obtained phone records connected to FBI Director Kash Patel and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles as part of the investigation into Donald Trump’s mishandling of classified documents, four people briefed on the matter told MS NOW.
An FBI spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the terminations.
In a statement widely circulating online, Patel called it “outrageous and deeply alarming that the previous FBI leadership secretly subpoenaed my own phone records — along with those of now White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles — using flimsy pretexts and burying the entire process in prohibited case files designed to evade all oversight.”
The FBI did not make public any evidence to buttress the claim, though toll records — which list the phone numbers called and the times and durations of those calls, but not their content — are routinely and legally obtained in a criminal investigation.

As part of the Trump classified documents probe, the Justice Department and FBI investigated Patel’s public claim that Trump, while president, had declassified large numbers of records en masse, and that therefore no laws had been broken when the documents were transferred to Mar-a-Lago.

Patel ultimately testified before a grand jury under a grant of immunity, and investigators concluded the records had not been declassified, court documents show.


The FBI also looked into an allegation that Trump had shown a highly classified document to Wiles while traveling with her on a private plane after he left the White House in 2021, according to multiple former officials and public records.

The firings were the latest in an ongoing purge by Patel of FBI employees who participated in investigations of Trump or otherwise have displeased the White House. They came as Patel is under fire for his use of the FBI jet, including a trip to Milan last week where he watched the U.S. men’s hockey team win the gold medal at the Winter Olympics and was filmed drinking a beer during celebrations in the locker room afterward.

The FBI Agents Association condemned the firings Wednesday evening.

“The FBIAA condemns today’s unlawful termination of FBI Special Agents, which — like other firings by Director Patel — violates the due process rights of those who risk their lives to protect our country,” the FBI Agents Association said in a statement. “These actions weaken the Bureau by stripping away critical expertise and destabilizing the workforce, undermining trust in leadership and jeopardizing the Bureau’s ability to meet its recruitment goals — ultimately putting the nation at greater risk.”