memeorandum: Accountability for ICE and CBP (Garrett M. Graff/Doomsday Scenario)

2:20 PM ET, February 1, 2026

Top Items:

Democrat Taylor Rehmet wins a reliably Republican Texas state Senate seat, stunning GOP — Democrat Taylor Rehmet won a special election for the Texas state Senate on Saturday, flipping a reliably Republican district that President Donald Trump won by 17 points in 2024.

Discussion: CNN, Washington Post, The Message Box, The Hill, Breitbart, New York Post, Salon, Daily Mail, Reuters, Raw Story, The Independent, Fox News, CBS News, Associated Press, MS NOW and Washington Examiner

J. David Goodman / New York Times:

Democratic Upset in Deep Red Texas District Rattles Republicans — A Democrat won a state legislative special election in a district that President Trump carried by 17 percentage points, unnerving Republicans in Texas and beyond. — In an upset that rattled Republicans in Texas and beyond …

Discussion: Bloomberg, The Daily Caller, RedState, Washington Examiner, NewsMax.com and Fox News

Owen Auston-Babcock / NBC News:

Democrat Christian Menefee wins special election for vacant, deep-blue House seat in Texas — Menefee will serve the remainder of the term won in 2024 by the late Rep. Sylvester Turner, who died almost a year ago. — Listen to this article with a free account

Discussion: NOTUS, HuffPost, New York Times, Axios, Associated Press, Lone Star Left, Fox News, The Hill, Politico, Roll Call, CNN and The Texas Tribune

G. Elliott Morris / Strength In Numbers:
Blue wave watch: Democrat flips Trump +17 Texas Senate seat in 32-point swing

Discussion: The Status Kuo, Blue Virginia, Good Politics/Bad Politics, Raw Story and Political Wire

David Nir / The Downballot:
Texas Democrats score landslide upset in race Trump badly wanted to win

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Raw Story, KERA News and The Hill

Garrett M. Graff / Doomsday Scenario:

Accountability for ICE and CBP — However bad you think the corruption and misconduct at ICE and CBP is — the reality is far far worse. … On Friday, I testified in front of Governor J.B. Pritzker's “Illinois Accountability Commission,” the state government body he set up after the Trump administration's …

Timothy Snyder / Thinking about:

Ethnic Cleansing in Ohio? — In the schools and churches of Springfield, Ohio, people are making hasty preparations for a “large deportation” promised by the president. To all appearances, and according to local sources, the city is two or three days away from a federal ethnic cleansing …

Discussion: DeLong's Grasping Reality and Blaze Media

Will Bunch / The Philadelphia Inquirer:

A not-'toned down' Trump regime prepares for ethnic cleansing in Ohio — The headline was catnip to a Washington press corps that has spent much of the last decade desperately trying to normalize the mad, mad, mad, mad world of Donald Trump. With his poll numbers reeling after two Minneapolis killings …

Rachel Leingang / The Guardian:
'We're fighting for the soul of the country': how Minnesota residents came together to face ICE

Discussion: The Atlantic

Sophie Brams / The Hill: Ernst calls to ‘bring the temperature down’ amid ICE surge in Minnesota

Annie Gowen / Washington Post:
Thousands of new ICE watchers hit the streets after two killings

Discussion: The Guardian

Associated Press:

5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and father return to Minnesota from Texas detention facility — A 5-year-old boy and his father detained by immigration officers in Minnesota and held in Texas have been released following a judge's order. They have returned to Minnesota, according to the office of Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro.

Discussion: MPR News, New York Times, The Hill, Salon, The Independent, Associated Press, The Guardian, KSAT-TV, CBS News, KSTP-TV, twitchy.com and WAGA-TV

Doha Madani / NBC News:

5-year-old boy and father return to Minnesota after release from immigration custody — Liam Conejo Ramos was taken into custody with his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, on Jan. 20, but a judge ordered their release on Saturday. — Add NBC News to Google — Listen to this article with a free account

Discussion: Washington Times, Associated Press and New York Times

Elora Mukherjee / New York Times:

Liam Ramos Was Just One of Hundreds of Children at This Detention Center. Release Them All. — The arrest and detention of Liam Conejo Ramos, the Minnesota 5-year-old in a blue bunny hat and a Spider-Man backpack, has drawn the attention — and the ire — of the nation.

Discussion: Washington Post and No More Mister Nice Blog

CNN:
Judge orders 5-year-old Liam Ramos and his father be released from immigration detention

Nicholas Riccardi / Associated Press:

What a swing House district in Colorado shows about Republicans' immigration fallout in the midterms — Like many Donald Trump voters, Miranda Niedermeier is not opposed to immigration enforcement. She was heartened by initial moves from the Republican president in his second term that she saw …

Madison Fernandez / Politico: Immigration takes center stage in New Jersey special election

Ali Bianco / Politico: The issue Democrats have been scared to run on

Nathan Heller / New Yorker:
Gavin Newsom Is Playing the Long Game

Discussion: Politico

David French / New York Times:
This Is Not a Drill — It's only February, and the November elections are already in peril.

Discussion: Raw Story and CNN

Carl Hulse / New York Times: Facing Immigration Backlash, Trump Called Schumer to Cut a Deal

Wall Street Journal:

‘Spy Sheikh’ Bought Secret Stake in Trump Company — $500 million investment for 49% of World Liberty came months before U.A.E. won access to tightly guarded American AI chips — Four days before Donald Trump's inauguration last year, lieutenants to an Abu Dhabi royal secretly signed …

Discussion: Raw Story, The Parnas Perspective and To the Contrary, more at Techmeme »

Madeleine Moore / Salem Reporter:

U.S. citizen injured by federal agents in Salem who demanded to see “papers,” union says — A woman who's a U.S. citizen needed medical help Thursday, Jan. 29, after federal agents pulled her from her car after demanding to see her “papers,” one of the state's largest unions said Saturday.

G. Elliott Morris / Strength In Numbers:

Democrats hit historic high in Fox News Poll as GOP loses ground on key issues — Plus: Trump's approval among independents falls to a record low, and the issue landscape shifts ahead of 2026. Your weekly political data roundup for February 1, 2026. — This is my weekly roundup …

Julia Manchester / The Hill: Trump questions if GOP can overcome voters' ‘psychological’ midterms hurdle

Ford McCracken / Reuters:

Jeffries: DHS should be ‘dramatically reformed’ after Democrats delay government funding bill — House Democrats to meet on how to proceed as they seek to reform ICE operation. — A view of the U.S. Capitol on Day 2 of a partial government shutdown in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 1, 2026.

Discussion: Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, NewsMax.com and HuffPost

Alexandra Marquez / NBC News:
Rep. Ro Khanna says he's a ‘firm no’ on reopening the federal government amid ICE funding dispute

Discussion: Associated Press, Politico, Axios, Florida Politics and Washington Examiner

Nicholas Confessore / New York Times:

They Said They Weren't Close to Epstein. New Documents Show Otherwise. — Materials released by the Justice Department revealed that leading business and political figures had enduring relationships with the disgraced financier. — They said they didn't really know Jeffrey Epstein that well.

Discussion: HuffPost, Associated Press, Al Jazeera, Agence France-Presse and NBC News

Heather Cox Richardson / Letters from an American:

White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller posted on social media this morning: — “Plenty of countries in history have experimented with importing a foreign labor class. The West is the first and only civilization to import a foreign labor class that is granted full political rights, including welfare & the right to vote.

New York Times:

Despite ‘Wrong’ Comments, Gun Rights Groups Say Trump Has Their Back — Activists criticized the president after he blamed Alex Pretti for carrying a gun in Minneapolis before federal agents killed him. But there is little sign of a lasting rupture. — In 1980, 19 states did not allow residents to carry concealed firearms.

Discussion: NewsMax.com and Politico

Meg Anderson / NPR:

Minnesota citizens detained by ICE are left rattled, even weeks later — It's a video many saw on social media soon after it happened: Officers with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, dragging a woman out of her car and forcing her to the ground. — The woman in the video is Aliya Rahman …

Amanda Chu / Politico:

RFK Jr. is now a wellness guru for Republicans in Washington … Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has turned GOP policy orthodoxy on its head with his attacks on food and pharma. — He's also turning Republicans into advocates of eating more vegetables, drinking raw milk and eschewing pharmaceuticals.