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Immigration street sweeps led to more ‘collateral’ arrests of noncriminals

ICE agents search the passenger of a truck as they arrest both him and the driver during a traffic stop in February in Robbinsdale, Minn. Almost a quarter of ICE arrests in recent months have been "collateral," a category that has raised legal questions, rather than "targeted" arrests based on preexisting warrants or removal orders. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer) A quarter of immigration arrests since August were labeled by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as “collateral,” a type of arrest and detention that’s been challenged in court as an end run around civil rights. Public outrage and lawsuits over the arrests may be tamping down the large-scale sweeps that foster them, but tens of thousands were arrested this way between August and early March. Immigration arrests are usually based on warrants obtained ahead of time, showing either a removal order from immigration court or evidence of a crime or charge that makes the person subject to deport...

Democrats renew calls for US Supreme Court overhaul after voting rights decision

The U.S. Supreme Court, pictured April 9, 2026. Some progressives are seeking to restructure the court after seeing decisions in recent years they believe have provided political support to President Donald Trump and Republicans. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom) After the U.S. Supreme Court severely weakened the federal Voting Rights Act in an April 29 decision, a furious U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries condemned what he called an “illegitimate” conservative majority on the court. “This isn’t even the Roberts Court,” Jeffries said, referring to Chief Justice John Roberts. “It’s the Trump Court.” Democrats are renewing their calls to overhaul the Supreme Court in the wake of the court’s decision, which empowers states to gerrymander congressional maps in ways that will break apart districts where a majority of residents are Black, Hispanic or belong to other minority groups. The momentous opinion overturned the reasoning behind decades of court cases that relied...

Americans’ air conditioning costs expected to rise again this summer

After facing costly heating bills this winter, a new report says consumers shouldn’t expect relief for the summer months, as electric prices and temperatures continue to rise. (Photo by Dave Cummings/New Hampshire Bulletin) After facing costly heating bills this winter, consumers shouldn’t expect relief for the summer months, according to new projections for household utility costs. The National Energy Assistance Directors Association projects the average electricity cost to cool homes between June and September will reach $778 this summer. That’s a $61 — or 8.5% — increase from last year and nearly 37% higher than in 2020. The association, which represents state employees administering federal energy assistance programs, attributes the increase to warmer temperatures and higher electric prices. “Families are squeezed from both directions,” Mark Wolfe, the association’s executive director, said in a news release. “They are paying more for electricity, and they need more of it to s...

A US Supreme Court ruling hammered voting rights. What does it mean and what happens now?

“I voted” stickers rest on a counter at the Pennington County Administration Building during early voting on Jan. 19, 2026, for a municipal election in Rapid City, South Dakota. (Photo by Seth Tupper/South Dakota Searchlight) The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision gutting the federal Voting Rights Act could upend American politics and trigger a new rush to redraw congressional districts. The opinion released on Wednesday, in a case called Louisiana v. Callais, holds sweeping consequences for how states and local governments draw district lines at all levels of government, from Congress to school boards. Louisiana, whose congressional map is at the center of the case, may even suspend an upcoming primary election so state lawmakers can pass a new map. Other states are also weighing new gerrymanders, either this year or before the 2028 election. Gerrymandering refers to drawing political maps for the purpose of gaining some form of unfair advantage — whether partisan or racial or to ...

Three shutdowns later, Congress finishes funding the government with passage of DHS bill

Federal immigration officers were at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on March 23, 2026 during the Department of Homeland Security shutdown to help with airport security. On April 30, 2026, Congress finally passed a bill funding most of the department for the rest of the year. (Photo by Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder) WASHINGTON — The U.S. House approved a bill Thursday that will fund almost every agency in the Department of Homeland Security for the next five months, sending the measure to President Donald Trump weeks after the Senate unanimously approved it. Once the bill becomes law, it will end the shutdown that began in mid-February and has at times stalled paychecks for federal employees throughout much of the department, including those at the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Transportation Security Administration. The voice vote to pass the DHS appropriations bill finally marks an end to the annual government funding proce...

The Supreme Court’s endless war on southern democracy and voting rights

A crowd gathering at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, on March 9, 2025. The U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday gutted a key portion of the Voting Rights Act, passed after law enforcement attacked civil rights marchers on the bridge on March 7, 1965, an event known as Bloody Sunday. (Anna Barrett/Alabama Reflector) Think of the millions of Alabamians who lived, loved and died under an apartheid government, a regime that lasted nearly a century, presiding over lynchings and mass disenfranchisement. And now think of the thousands of men and women who fought, who spent decades battling to bring democracy to Alabama. It’s a long list. There’s Jackson Giles , a postal worker making $500 a year who in 1903 took Alabama’s disenfranchisement all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. There’s Amelia Boynton Robinson , who registered Black voters in Selma in the 1930s. There’s Arthur Madison , who had his law license stripped for daring to organize voter registration efforts i...