Explore how Idaho is reshaping immigration policy and community ties
Stories by Idaho Statesman journalists, with AI summarization
This collection of stories explores Idaho's recent moves to change immigration enforcement and the effects on communities.
Avelo Airlines will end its Boise flights to begin operating deportation flights for ICE. Idaho State Police are joining a federal program to transport undocumented people convicted of crimes to ICE detention. A Twin Falls refugee was deported to Bhutan, marking the first time that country accepted such a return. Lawmakers advanced bills targeting undocumented immigrants' access to health care, and Gov. Brad Little signed an executive order reinforcing federal immigration cooperation. Rumors and fear about ICE raids have led to confusion among businesses and community members. Boise was controversially listed as a "sanctuary city" by federal officials, drawing criticism from local sheriffs and immigrant advocates, while the Trump administration also revoked student visas for some Idaho university students.
Read the stories below.
'It's really challenging,' one official said. | Published February 1, 2025 | Read Full Story by Carolyn Komatsoulis
Since taking office in January, President Donald Trump has issued a variety of immigration initiatives. | Published February 28, 2025 | Read Full Story by Carolyn Komatsoulis
'We are a Christian nation,' one lawmaker said. 'These are people who need help when they need help.' | Published March 11, 2025 | Read Full Story by Carolyn Komatsoulis
'We realize this is a sensitive and complicated topic,' Avelo CEO Andrew Levy said in a statement. | Published April 9, 2025 | Read Full Story by Kevin Fixler
'We are monitoring information that is available to us,' a Boise State University spokesperson said. | Published April 11, 2025 | Read Full Story by Carolyn Komatsoulis
The sheriff said no political appointee could tell him who compiled the list. | Published June 3, 2025 | Read Full Story by Carolyn Komatsoulis
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Sunday deported Twin Falls resident and refugee Binod Sh... | Published June 3, 2025 | Read Full Story by SEAN DOLAN, The Times-News, Twin Falls, Idaho
State police, under a new federal agreement, will hand over undocumented people convicted of a crime to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Little announced Thursday. | Published June 5, 2025 | Read Full Story by Sarah Cutler Carolyn Komatsoulis
The summary above was drafted with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists in our News division. All stories listed were reported, written and edited by McClatchy journalists.
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CNN
20 minutes ago
- CNN
LA protesters and police in standoff as Trump doubles National Guard deployment
Update: Date: 18 min ago Title: Protesters outside US Embassy in Mexico City call for end to immigration raids across the border Content: Protesters in Mexico City staged a demonstration outside the US Embassy on Monday, calling for an end to sweeping immigration raids across the border. Video captured by Reuters showed people waving Mexican and US flags and burning an effigy resembling US President Donald Trump. 'We cannot remain silent as the Trump administration escalates its war on our communities in the United States,' said activist Alejandro Marinero from Migrant Organization Aztlan. 'Immigration policy is not a party issue, but a class issue. It is the tool of a system that seeks to divide us, exploit us and keep us in the shadows to ensure its profits at the expense of our humanity,' he told Reuters. Update: Date: 42 min ago Title: Thousands rally in San Francisco against ICE raids Content: Thousands of people marched through San Francisco's Civic Center and Mission neighborhoods on Monday night in protests that were 'overwhelmingly peaceful,' police said. Demonstrators rallied against Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids across the country and expressed solidarity with immigrant communities, CNN affiliate KGO reported. 'At the very end of the night, two small groups broke off and committed vandalism and other criminal acts,' the San Francisco Police Department said. Police said they detained multiple people who refused to comply with orders, made arrests, and are currently addressing one unresolved situation. 'I'm deeply concerned about what's going on in Los Angeles and all around the country. California, we are better because of our diversity, and for people to be torn away from school graduations, torn away from their children, that's not right. We have to come out here and tell people that's not right,' Holly Minch, who marched with a sign that read 'MELT ICE,' told KGO. The police said they coordinated with public safety agencies under the leadership of San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie to 'protect numerous First Amendment actions' in the affected neighborhoods. On Sunday, about 150 people, including some under the age of 18, were arrested near the Immigration Services building. Police said the arrests were made after protesters ignored dispersal orders and engaged in acts of violence and vandalism. Anti-ICE protests have popped up around the country, including in New York, Atlanta, Seattle, Dallas and Louisville. Update: Date: 57 min ago Title: Law enforcement helicopters have been circling above protests, flight tracker shows Content: Helicopters from the LAPD and Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department circled the areas of Boyle Heights and Little Tokyo throughout the day on Monday, according to data from Flightradar24. Earlier in the night, several police helicopters and a plane deployed by the California Highway Patrol were flying over the downtown area. By midnight, only two police helicopters remained airborne. Since protests erupted over the weekend, authorities have maintained a consistent presence in the air, with multiple helicopters sighted above protest zones all day yesterday. Update: Date: 1 hr 23 min ago Title: In pictures: Protesters clash with police in Downtown Los Angeles on Monday Content: Update: Date: 1 hr 23 min ago Title: Who is protesting in LA? Content: The protests appear divided into separate groups: progressive citizens who felt called to defend the rights of the undocumented, and protesters who appeared determined to drag the city into violent chaos. A senior law enforcement source told CNN that intelligence analysts have been conducting assessments on the crowds that gathered Sunday night. They found the many of the protesters were motivated by the recent immigration raids and disdain for the federal government's deployment of National Guard troops in Los Angeles. But some protesters, the intelligence source said, fit law enforcement profiles of so-called 'professional rioters,' who continually seek out confrontation with law enforcement. Defending 'La Raza': Unión del Barrio, an organization whose members are dedicated to defending the rights of 'la raza' — or Mexican and indigenous people — within the US, praised the efforts to fight back against ICE and other agencies. The Los Angeles community has 'the moral authority and universal right to defend our people from kidnappings and family separation,' a spokesman said. Toll on vulnerable communities: After being informed ICE agents were questioning workers at a Pasadena hotel, Pablo Alvarado, the co-executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, began calling for protests to protect vulnerable immigrant communities throughout the city. 'The Pasadena community showed up in large numbers and the message was loud and clear, we don't want to see your armored vehicles, men in masks coming to our communities to pick people up to rip families apart.' But, Alvarado added, he felt the violence that spread throughout the city in response to the raids was tainting their cause. Read the full story. Update: Date: 1 hr 23 min ago Title: Analysis: LA's crisis rests on what Trump does next Content: Donald Trump is talking and acting like an authoritarian as he escalates a constitutional clash with California over his migration crackdown. Much now depends on whether he's simply talking tough or if he's ready to take an already-tense nation across a fateful line in his zeal for strongman rule. On Monday, the president of the United States — the country seen as the world's top steward of democracy for 80 years — endorsed the arrest of the Democratic governor of the nation's most populous state. 'I think it would be a great thing,' Trump said. Trump's decision to deploy troops despite the opposition of California Gov. Gavin Newsom represented the latest example of his willingness to flex extraordinary executive power and marked a break with a first term when he was often talked out of his extreme impulses by establishment officials. For all Trump's multiple previous challenges to the rule of law and democracy, a grave new chapter may be opening. The trajectory of the crisis could now turn on whether Trump follows through on his dictator's theatrics by crossing lines not approached by modern presidents — notably on the use of troops in a law enforcement capacity. It may also rely on the restraint of protesters, who would play into Trump's hands by taking part in more unrest that creates alarming television pictures that can fuel Trump's dystopian rhetoric. Creating or escalating a law-and-order crisis or threat to public security and then using it to justify the use of the military on domestic soil would mirror the methodology of tyrannical leaders throughout history. Read the full analysis. Update: Date: 1 hr 23 min ago Title: Newsom hasn't done anything to warrant arrest, Trump's border czar says Content: White House border czar Tom Homan joined CNN's Kaitlan Collins to discuss comments President Donald Trump made suggesting Homan arrest California Governor Gavin Newsom.
Yahoo
20 minutes ago
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Editorial: Misusing the National Guard — Trump's LA interference with local policing
Always looking to provoke a crisis, Donald Trump has federalized 2,000 soldiers of the California National Guard against the wishes of the state's governor to put down a rebellion in Los Angeles that doesn't exist. And Trump is acting counter to federal law in doing so, which is no surprise for him. After demonstrators gathered in L.A. to protest ICE raids, some idiots in the crowd threw rocks at the immigration law enforcement officers. That's a crime and is not free speech. But the president used the sporadic violence, which was quickly quelled, to overstep his legal authority. On Saturday, he issued a directive claiming: 'To the extent that protests or acts of violence directly inhibit the execution of the laws, they constitute a form of rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States.' Then, latching on to his own word 'rebellion,' he invoked a federal statute, 10 U.S. Code § 12406, covering the National Guard. The law is brief. It says that 'Whenever 1) the United States is invaded or is in danger of invasion by a foreign nation; 2) there is a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States; or 3) the President is unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States; the President may call into Federal service members and units of the National Guard of any State in such numbers as he considers necessary to repel the invasion, suppress the rebellion, or execute those laws.' There's no invasion, there's no rebellion and ICE is able to carry out its functions. And there is no lawlessness in the streets of L.A. that can't be contained by the local L.A. County sheriff's department, which has almost 10,000 sworn and armed deputies and the LAPD, which has almost 9,000 sworn and armed cops. If those law enforcement professionals need help, California Gov. Gavin Newsom could activate the National Guard. But Newsom didn't call up the Guard for backup because the soldiers weren't needed. That Trump went around Newsom, who he 'cleverly' calls 'Newscum,' is something that hasn't been done in 60 years, when Lyndon Johnson federalized the Alabama National Guard in 1965 because segregationist Gov. George Wallace wouldn't protect civil rights demonstrators. There, Wallace was trying to defy the federal courts and the federal government. This is nothing like that. Trump says 'It's about law and order,' but he's the one who is going against the law and against regular order. And he's also talking about bringing in active duty Marines from nearby Camp Pendleton. That is also against the law, 18 U.S. Code § 1385. This statue is just a single sentence: 'Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army, the Navy, the Marine Corps, the Air Force, or the Space Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.' 'Posse comitatus,' or 'posse' for short, are non-law enforcement persons acting as such. The military cannot be so used on the word of even the president. Trump should relent and demobilize the Guardsmen he wrongly brought into L.A. and let local and state officials secure the streets. _____
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Judge says man held by ICE at Cumberland County Jail to stay in US pending deportation appeal
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