Trump Has Dystopian New Idea to Find More Undocumented Immigrants

The Trump administration is considering requiring banks to track clients’ citizenship status in order to find more people to deport.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the White House is looking at signing an executive order or some other means to compel financial institutions to gather the data. Banks would likely have to ask for identifying documents, such as passports, from both new and existing customers who want a bank account in the U.S.

Banks are reportedly alarmed at such an executive order, according to the Journal. They already have legal requirements to collect certain information for law enforcement to fight against financial crimes, including money laundering. But those requirements don’t specifically include gathering citizenship information, and there’s no law against noncitizens opening bank accounts in the U.S.

A White House official told the publication that the new requirement hasn’t been approved and is only being discussed within the Treasury. A division of the Treasury department that enforces laws against money laundering and counterterrorism financing could be used to collect the information, an unnamed source told the Journal.

Last year, the Department of Homeland Security forced the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to turn over the personal information of immigrants enrolled in Medicaid, and the U.S. Postal Service has also been enlisted to identify targets. The goal seems to be not only increasing the number of deportations, but also to forcing all immigrants, even those with legal status, to the fringes of American society by making them afraid that basic services, government or otherwise, can be used against them.

The Department of Homeland Security is threatening to put legal observers monitoring ICE activity on a domestic terrorist watchlist, according to a new lawsuit. 

Politico, citing the lawsuit, reports that DHS agents used facial recognition technology and license plate readers to monitor observers in Maine who were keeping tabs on federal immigration agents. The federal law enforcement officers would then threaten protesters. 

The lawsuit against the department and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was filed Monday by two of those observers, Colleen Fagan and Elinor Hilton, who are hoping for an injunction that would stop the department from using the technology to threaten legal observers.

Hilton and Fagan allege that agents scanned their faces and license plates in two separate instances last month while they were recording ICE in Portland. In one occurrence, the lawsuit states that an agent told Hilton, “I hope you know that if you keep coming to things like this, you are going to be on a domestic terrorist watchlist. Then we’re going to come to your house later tonight.”

The lawsuit cited other Maine incidents documented in news articles, such as one ICE agent driving to a legal observer’s home and repeatedly honking their horn. Another time, a federal agent drove to the home of a protester and told her, “This is a warning. We know you live right here.”

The federal government is resorting to Orwellian means not just to identify people for deportation, but also to surveil protesters and legal observers who oppose the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda. Companies specializing in surveillance, such as Flock, are being used to gather data, and the recent purchase of TikTok by Trump-friendly owner Skydance has ensured that the social video platform’s data is now in government hands too. 

ICE is currently using an app developed by Palantir that provides agents with a digital map containing potential deportation targets. That company also happens to be creating a master database in order to collect data on every single American. It seems the Trump administration is not above creating a police state to accomplish its goals.  

The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit Monday against New Jersey Governor “Mikie Sherill”—only no such person actually exists.

In a 21-page filing, the government misspelled the newly elected Democrat’s name five times. The government spelled it correctly only thrice, with two of those times being in quotes from other sources.

Earlier this month, Sherrill, with two r’s, signed an executive order barring Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from entering, accessing, or using nonpublic areas of state-owned property without first receiving a judicial warrant. Examples of nonpublic state property include government offices, childcare centers, residential medical facilities, and state university residence halls.

“Given ICE’s willingness to flout the Constitution and violently endanger communities—detaining children, arresting citizens, and even killing several innocent civilians—I will stand up for New Jerseyans’ right to be safe,” Sherrill said in a statement at the time.

In its lawsuit, the DOJ calls Sherrill’s executive order an “intolerable obstacle” to federal immigration enforcement, which “facially discriminates” against federal agents in violation of the Constitution’s supremacy clause, which prohibits a state from usurping Congress.

The mistake-laden filing is part of a wider trend of unprecedented prosecutorial missteps by Donald Trump’s Department of Justice, undermining numerous civil and criminal cases.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is considering suing billionaire Elon Musk for his assertion that she is actually under the thumb of the cartels she’s fighting.

Musk made the comment Monday while responding to a post on Sheinbaum denouncing all-out war against the cartels.

“Returning to the war against the narco is not an option,” Sheinbaum said in the clip from last year. “First, because it is outside the framework of the law. All of the right wing that fill their mouths [with] the words ‘rule of law’ and defend the war against the narco, the war against the narco is outside the law, because as I said or have said on several occasions, it is permission to kill without any trial.”

“She’s a cartel plant right?” a user replied to the clip, without providing any information about when or where it was from.

“She’s just saying what her cartel bosses tell her to say,” Musk said to the user. “Let’s just say that their punishment for disobedience is a little worse than a ‘performance improvement plan.’”

Sheinbaum told reporters in a press conference Tuesday that she was “considering whether to take legal action.”

Musk is making a massive accusation all while pushing misinformation—on the massive platform that he owns.

“Context matters: the video being used is an old clip on legal theory, while yesterday’s operation was a massive strategic win,” the Mexican Embassy in the U.S. posted in response to the video. “Recycling outdated clips to distract from a major blow to organized crime is how misinformation spreads. Don’t let them spin a victory into a conspiracy.”

This comes as recent cartel violence in Mexico has slowed after government security forces killed Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, or “El Mencho,” the country’s most wanted drug kingpin. Mexican Defense Minister Ricardo Trevilla Trejo claimed on Monday that 80 percent of the nearly 25,000 weapons seized from cartels since October 2024 were from the United States—something Musk’s assertion completely ignores.

The president is expected to address economic growth, foreign policy, and immigration enforcement during his State of the Union address Tuesday evening—but his congressional allies are planning to tackle a whole lot more with the guests they’ve invited to witness the annual speech.

Republican lawmakers have so far invited:

• YouTuber Nick Shirley and independent journalist David Hoch

Both Shirley and Hoch worked on a YouTube video that inspired the conservative caucus to politically scapegoat Somali immigrants late last year.

In the widely circulated “investigation,” the pair visited a slew of Somali-run day care centers in Minnesota, arguing that closed sites had fraudulently accepted federal funding. It would later emerge that elements of Shirley’s report were incorrect or inadequately reported: At least two of the centers featured in his video had been closed for several years, according to Minnesota’s Department of Children, Youth and Families.

More than a dozen schemes have popped up in Minnesota’s safety net programs in recent years, many of them involving members of the state’s Somali population. But they haven’t gone unchecked: More than 90 Minnesotans were charged in federal fraud investigations that began under the Biden administration, at least 60 of which have resulted in convictions.

Regardless, the fallout of Shirley and Hoch’s work resulted in the loss of millions of dollars in child care funding, including a suspended $185 million from the Department of Health and Human Services. It also stirred a national services controversy in which predominantly blue states were accused of abusing federal funds for programs focused on child care and local poverty. In truth, states of all stripes across the nation have participated in benefits abuse, but not everyone shouldered the federal cuts. Instead, Donald Trump axed $10 billion from five Democratic states, including Minnesota.

• The entirety of the U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team

Trump reportedly called House Leader Mike Johnson after the team’s incredible gold medal win on Sunday, urging the senior Republican to figure out how to squeeze the 25-player roster into the joint session of Congress.

Fascinatingly, the hockey players have already been involved in a MAGA world scandal in the two days since they won. Hours after they beat Canada, locker room videos leaked to ProPublica revealed that FBI Director Kash Patel participated in their post-game party, spurring questions about the ex-podcaster’s flagrant use of public funds.

Meanwhile, the U.S. women’s Olympic hockey team—which similarly took home gold after a dominant tournament run—rejected a similar offer. (Probably because Trump and the entire men’s hockey team insulted them.) Instead, the women will be partying in Las Vegas with Flavor Flav.

In his invite to the men’s team, Trump commented that he would “probably be impeached” if he didn’t extend the same offer to the women’s team.

• Seven-year-old Dalilah Coleman

Coleman was critically injured in a six-car pileup in southern California on June 20, 2024. She was 5 years old when a commercial 18-wheeler crashed into the car she was in. Coleman suffered a fractured skull, a broken femur, and a severe traumatic brain injury that left her in a coma for nearly a month, her parents told Fox News.

But Coleman’s story has since been used by far-right conservatives to illustrate the supposedly unsafe presence of undocumented immigrants due to the fact that the man behind the wheel of the semi truck, Partap Singh, was undocumented at the time of the collision. However, Singh was on the road with a valid driver’s license, issued to him by the state of California.

Ultimately, it was not local authorities who charged Singh. ICE agents arrested him in Fresno on August 29, 2025, and have since held him in the agency’s custody.

Coleman will be at the State of the Union address Tuesday evening, reported CBS News, though she will not be able to speak for herself.

“She has a TBI [traumatic brain injury],” Ileana Krause, Dalilah’s mother, told Fox News in September. “She is now diagnosed with cerebral palsy and global developmental delay. She doesn’t walk. She receives nutrition through a G-tube.”

Other Republican guests include:

• Evalea and Gary Beckstrom, the parents of Sarah Beckstrom, the 20-year-old National Guard member killed in Washington in December
• Claire Lai, the daughter of pro-democracy advocate Jimmy Lai (invited by Republican Representative Chris Smith)
• Two sheriffs (from Alabama and Ohio)

Meanwhile, Democrats are planning to bring their own assortment of guests to the evening’s speech. In attendance with the liberal caucus will be:

• Numerous Epstein victims/survivors
• Jesse Jackson’s family
• Mubashir Hussen and Aliya Rahman, two Minneapolis residents who were brutalized by federal agents (invited by Representative Ilhan Omar)
• Rick Woldenberg, Billy Walkowiak, and Sandy Washington, three CEOs whose businesses have been severely affected by the tariffs. Woldenberg was also a plaintiff in the Supreme Court tariffs case.
• Vonetta Rougier, a 71-year-old mother of three, whom Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries invited to highlight the reality of the country’s economic woes

More than 100 immigrants detained by ICE were stuck in a plane on the tarmac at Portsmouth International Airport in New Hampshire for more than 12 hours Monday in the midst of a heavy blizzard.

The plane, which took off from Harlingen, Texas, Sunday night, landed in Pease, New Hampshire, at 1 a.m., but couldn’t get to its terminal due to the weather. Officials at the Portsmouth airport told local TV station WMUR that they were only given 15 minutes notice that the flight, Omni Air International 4065, was arriving.

“Had we been informed in advance of their intent to land at PSM during the blizzard, we would have strongly advised against it and encouraged them to divert to another airport not being impacted by this severe winter storm,” Portsmouth officials said in a statement.

The officials said that the airport’s operator, Port City Air, is responsible for planning “for weather-related contingencies and required facilities and accommodations.” Port City Air said that the decision was not up to them, but rather ICE and the Department of Homeland Security.

“ICE-flight decisions are made by the US Department of Homeland Security. It is our legal obligation to safely service any flights into or out of the airport. Our operations remain open throughout this storm,” the company said in a statement.

The detainees were reportedly fed while the plane was stuck, with strong winds preventing the plane from even being towed. Finally, at 2:45 p.m. Monday, the plane was towed to its terminal. Detainees were taken off of the plane and into the terminal, which was closed to the public, and were again given food. But the plane had been sitting at the airport for so long that a new flight crew had to take over.

“Detainees are being provided catered meals, continuous access to drinking water, and appropriate restroom facilities for the duration of the delay,” a DHS spokesperson told the Boston Globe. “All required prescription medications are being supplied at no cost, and medical personnel are available to provide proper medical care. ICE personnel are conducting regular welfare checks to ensure everyone’s well-being, comfort, and dignity while awaiting departure.”

Passengers were held at the terminal until 9 a.m. Tuesday morning, when the plane took off again to head to its final destination, which has not been made public. That means that the passengers’ long journey is still not over. In past ICE deportation flights, passengers have been kept in shackles.

It appears that Trump administration officials have embarked on a spree of interviews with major publications in order to talk their boss out of a military strike against Iran.

In the last 72 hours, several stories were published undermining narratives that the U.S. is ready for war, observed Ali Ahmadi, an executive fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, in a post on X Tuesday.

Indeed, several stories cited anonymous sources familiar with Trump’s plans for Iran who warned about the potential for the United States to be dragged into a protracted conflict in the Middle East.

Two sources told Axios Monday that Joint Chiefs Chairman General Dan Caine warned Trump and other top officials about the risks of launching a military campaign against Iran. The Washington Post cited people familiar with discussions who’d told them the same thing. CBS News cited multiple sources who said that Trump was warned that military strikes against Iran wouldn’t guarantee a diplomatic deal. And The Wall Street Journal reported on the prolonged misery of sailors traveling aboard the U.S.S. Gerald Ford, after the Navy’s top admiral pushed back on the ship’s deployment earlier this month.

Either the Pentagon was hoping to provide an off-ramp for Trump’s massive military build-up in the Middle East, or it was trying to establish some scraps of plausible deniability before the bombs started to drop. Or perhaps the narrative wasn’t intended for the public at all.

“To be clear, the Pentagon has its own press people who go behind the White House’s back all the time to shape media narratives. [It’s] often done to manipulate the President by having the press describe [him] as weak or indecisive,” Ahmadi wrote in another post, noting that this kind of strategy was not without precedent.

Trump has already pushed back on reporting that the U.S. isn’t ready to strike. In a lengthy Truth Social post Monday, the president claimed that “numerous stories” about Caine’s broad caution toward the Middle East situation were “100 percent incorrect.”

As President Trump makes his State of the Union address Tuesday night, he will have at least six Epstein survivors staring back at him.

Multiple congressional Democrats announced that they’d be inviting women who were abused by convicted sex offender and former Trump confidant Jeffrey Epstein.

Epstein Transparency Act co-sponsor Ro Khanna is bringing survivor Haley Robson, who said she was trafficked by Epstein at the age of 16. Robson voted for Trump but has since called for him to be impeached.

Sky and Amanda Roberts, the brother and sister-in-law of Virginia Giuffre, will arrive with Representatives Jamie Raskin and Suhas Subramanyam. Giuffre had alleged that she was approached in 2000 by Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, where she worked at the time as a pool attendant, and was subsequently abused for the next two years. Giuffre committed suicide last April.

Representative Robert Garcia will bring survivor Annie Farmer, while Representative Maxine Dexter invited Epstein survivor Lisa Phillips to take her place at the speech. Senator Chuck Schumer will be joined by survivor Danielle Bensky.

This comes as NPR reported that the Justice Department willfully obscured documents containing allegations against President Donald Trump in its recent files—all while claiming transparency.

The State of the Union will be at 9 p.m. EST on Tuesday.

The Department of Homeland Security went back on its decision to suspend TSA PreCheck as part of the partial government shutdown after the White House got involved.

The Washington Post reported Monday night that the idea to pause the program, which allows travelers who pay a fee and complete a background check to get through airport security faster, was hatched by Secretary Kristi Noem and her chief aide (and rumored boyfriend) Corey Lewandowski. DHS announced the suspension Saturday, but then the Trump administration told them to pull back. Otherwise, the pause would have gone into effect on Sunday at 6 a.m.

In a statement, a DHS spokesperson told the Post, “We decided to handle TSA pre-check on an airport-by-airport basis depending on workforce and resource strain instead of a blanket policy. If the government stays shutdown, we will be forced to implement these emergency measures nationwide to mitigate resource and workforce strain. This political game by the Democrats is putting strain on our TSA workers who are working without pay.”

The back-and-forth caused confusion at airports on Sunday, and is yet another example of chaotic decisions from Noem and Lewandowski at DHS. Noem’s decision to demolish historic buildings at DHS headquarters in Washington, D.C. has exposed DHS employees to asbestos, and a new tool to help federal agents identify noncitizens is full of bugs.

ICE, which is overseen by the department, has been exposed for drastically reducing the amount of training its agents are required to get, and the immigration agency may have also ignored warnings about the reckless use of force before two U.S. citizens were killed in Minnesota last month. Coast Guard officials are reportedly upset at how DHS is using their resources for deportations, and the agency has lost the support of most Americans, according to polls.

Noem’s personal conduct has also made the news, from her alleged relationship with Lewandowski to the fact that she fired and rehired a pilot over a missing blanket. She’s pulled P.R. stunts at a notorious prison in El Salvador and made up a crazy story about deporting a cannibal. It’s little wonder that Democrats, including Trump-friendly Senator John Fetterman, want her impeached.

Years before the FBI and the New York district attorney opened probes into Jeffrey Epstein’s child sex trafficking ring, the Drug Enforcement Administration was reportedly examining the glitterati socialite for suspicious money transfers they believed could be linked to illegal drug purchases.

Recently discovered documents from the DEA reveal that Epstein was a part of a sprawling investigation, referred to internally as “Operation Chain Reaction,” examining the wire transfers of 15 individuals.

“DEA reporting indicates the above individuals are involved in illegitimate wire transfers which are tied to illicit drug and/or prostitution activities occurring in the U.S. Virgin Islands and New York City,” reads a 69-page memo dated from 2015.

The document was marked “sensitive” for law enforcement, and was a component of a request from the DEA to a drug enforcement fusion center in Virginia for more information on the investigation’s targets, the names of whom—beside Epstein—were mostly redacted.

All in all, the report depicts approximately $50 million in suspicious wire transfers between the 15 individuals. Epstein was suspected of transferring more than $5.6 million for the purpose of acquiring narcotics. The document was released by the Justice Department as part of its rollout of the Epstein files.

Just one other individual was named as a target in the memo: Mariana Idźkowska, a Polish fashion model who allegedly made $2 million in transfers, according to the DEA memo. Her name has appeared elsewhere in the Epstein files, outlining her travels through dozens of emails between herself and Epstein between 2014 and 2015. Idźkowska was 28 years old at the time, frequently called him on Skype, flew to New York on Epstein’s dime, and visited his island, according to Polish Radio.

The DEA file indicates that the drug enforcement bureau opened its investigation on December 17, 2010. At the time of its drafting, the investigation was still “judicial pending,” indicating that it was still underway five years later.

An unidentified law enforcement official told CBS News that the status could have meant agents were waiting on court approval for search warrants to proceed. Another unidentified law enforcement official told the network that it could indicate someone was arrested.