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No clear path to ending the partial government shutdown as lawmakers dig in over DHS oversight

(AP) A partial government shutdown began Saturday after congressional Democrats and President Donald Trump’s team failed to reach a deal on legislation to fund the department through September. Democrats are demanding changes to how immigration operations are conducted after the fatal shootings of U.S. citizens Alex Pretti and Renee Good by federal officers in Minneapolis last month. Congress is on recess until Feb. 23, and both sides appear dug into their positions.

Crimes Against Humanity: Tens of Thousands Under Mass Internment, Many with No Criminal History

(Mother Jones) The Trump administration’s immense increase in detainments rests, in part, on their decision to detain people while their immigration cases are moving through the system—a departure from previous administrations’ interpretation of immigration law. This has led to a steep increase in immigrants petitioning the courts to be released, as Reuters reports, and the thousands of rulings finding that these prolonged detainments were unlawful. According to a recent report from the American Immigration Council, the Trump administration’s arrest practices have led to a 2,450 percent increase in people with no criminal record being held in ICE detention on any given day.

Lawyers urge federal court to stop Trump's latest 'chill on voting rights'

(Raww Story) Earlier this month, the Trump administration dispatched FBI agents accompanied by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard to raid the Fulton County, Georgia, election office. Agents took around 700 boxes of material related to the 2020 general election, including ballots, voting data, and the county's voter rolls. Lawyers from the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the NAACP argued in a court filing before the federal court in the Northern District of Atlanta that the raid violated their clients' civil rights. They also argued that Trump's repeated attempts to undermine U.S. elections are only "heightening the chill on registration and voting."

ICE Is Expanding Across the US at Breakneck Speed. Here's Where It's Going Next.

(Wired) Federal records obtained by WIRED show that over the past several months, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have carried out a secret campaign to expand ICE’s physical presence across the US. Documents show that more than 150 leases and office expansions have or would place new facilities in nearly every state, many of them in or just outside of the country’s largest metropolitan areas. In many cases, these facilities, which are to be used by street-level agents and ICE attorneys, are located near elementary schools, medical offices, places of worship, and other sensitive locations.

Monday's Condensed News Cartoons

Fury as Trump's policies 'force' giant car factory in Kentucky to shut at cost of 1,600 jobs

(Daily Mail) Ford and South Korean battery manufacturer SK On opened the sprawling 1,500-acre site in Glendale in summer 2025, and it was hailed as a game changer for the region. By December, that optimism had evaporated when the companies ended their joint venture at the site. Soon after, Ford said it would idle the facility for roughly 18 months while shifting production toward energy storage systems instead of car batteries. Ford says the slowdown in EV demand - blamed in part with changes in federal policy under President Donald Trump - upended the company’s original plans.

Kristi Noem snaps back amid anger over her claim she'll ensure the 'right people' elect the 'right leaders' in midterms

(The Independent) Over the weekend, lawmakers, democracy advocates and political commentators raised alarm bells at Noem’s claim that her department, which oversees domestic security and immigration, played a role in safeguarding elections “to make sure we have the right people voting, electing the right leaders.” But Noem brushed off those concerns, telling CNN anchor Jake Tapper and ABC News’s White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl: “It must be exhausting to regularly manufacture outrage even over the most commonsense statement.”

'South Texas will never be red again': Home builders warn GOP over Trump's immigration raids

(Politico) Construction executives have held multiple meetings over the last month with the White House and Congress to discuss how immigration busts on job sites and in communities are scaring away employees, making it more expensive to build homes in a market desperate for new supply. Beyond the affordability issue, the executives made an electability argument, raising concerns to GOP leaders that support among Hispanic voters is eroding, particularly in regions that swung to Trump in 2024.

Tillis won't support Fed nominee confirmation before DOJ investigation of Powell is done

(The Hill) Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) reiterated Sunday that he will not support Kevin Warsh, President Trump’s nominee to chair the Federal Reserve, until the Department of Justice (DOJ) concludes its probe into Fed Chair Jerome Powell. “I’ve tried to make it very clear that I have no intention of supporting any confirmation of any Fed board member, chair or otherwise … until this is resolved,” Tillis told host Ed O’Keefe on CBS News’s “Face the Nation.”

Bad Bunny Super Bowl halftime show did not violate any rules following investigation

(Euronews) US Conservative lawmakers called for a federal investigation into Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show... And they should have kept quiet. An investigation by the Federal Communications Commission has proved that the Puerto Rican superstar’s show did not violate any rules. Following Donald Trump’s bellyaching on the matter, a number of Republican congressmen called for a probe accusing the Puerto Rican superstar of potentially violating broadcast decency standards - despite the fact he censored or omitted his most explicit lyrics from the show.