The heads of the agencies carrying out President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda will testify in Congress at 10 a.m. ET and face questions over how they are prosecuting immigration enforcement inside American cities.
Todd Lyons, the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Rodney Scott, who leads Customs and Border Protection, and Joseph Edlow, who is the director of Citizenship and Immigration Services, were called to appear Tuesday before the House Committee on Homeland Security amid falling public support for immigration enforcement.
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Their agencies are flush with cash from Trump's big tax-and-spending law, but Democrats are threatening to shut down DHS Friday night if Republicans don't agree on new limits aimed at forcing agents to follow the law and the Constitution following killings in the streets and expanding detentions.
Trump’s immigration campaign has been heavily scrutinized in recent weeks after Homeland Security officers killed Alex Pretti and Renee Good. The agencies have also faced criticism for a wave of policies that critics say trample on the rights of both immigrants facing arrest and Americans protesting the enforcement actions.
ICE has undergone a massive hiring boom, deploying immigration officers across the country. Lyons is likely to face questioning over a memo he signed last year telling ICE officers that they didn’t need a judge’s warrant to forcibly enter a house to arrest a deportee, a memo that went against years of ICE practice and Fourth Amendment protections against illegal searches.
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Top Democrat calls Homeland Security ‘reckless’
Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi said “every American should be outraged” at Homeland Security’s actions, and that both the agency and its secretary Kristi Noem “must be held accountable.”
Thompson then displaying Good and Pretti’s photos and held a moment of silence.
Demanding answers in the aftermath of the Minneapolis shootings, Thompson said the department has blocked lawmakers from visiting detention facilities and needs to be more responsive to questions.
Transparency Index raises concerns about US anti-corruption efforts
The annual survey released Tuesday serves as a barometer of perceived corruption worldwide. Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index for 2025 gave top place to Denmark, with 89 points out of 100, followed by Finland and Singapore. At the bottom were South Sudan and Somalia with nine points apiece, followed by Venezuela.
The U.S. moved down one point from 2024 for its worst showing yet under the methodology Transparency started using for its global ranking in 2012, putting it in 29th place in the first year of Trump’s second term.
“The use of public office to target and restrict independent voices such as NGOs and journalists, the normalization of conflicted and transactional politics, the politicization of prosecutorial decision making, and actions that undermine judicial independence, among many others, all send a dangerous signal that corrupt practices are acceptable,” the report said.
Transparency International also argued that the Trump administration’s freezing of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act “sends a dangerous signal that bribery and other corrupt practices are acceptable.”
Chairman reminds crowded hearing room against making offensive comments
Opening the hearing, Rep. Andrew Garbarino, chairman of the committee, called the moment an “inflection point” but warned those in attendance against making any comments offensive to Trump or Vice President JD Vance.
The New York Republican called the increase in rhetoric and lack of cohesion between state and local law jurisdictions — along with the deaths of U.S. citizens Alex Pretti and Renee Good by federal officers — “unacceptable and preventable.”
In a stark move, Garbarino denied the opportunity for Democratic Rep. Veronica Escobar of Texas, who represents the border community of El Paso, to join the panel for the hearing.
Ahead of the hearing, Escobar spoke privately with Todd Lyons, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as the Trump officials took their seats at the witness table.
VP’s X account refers to ‘Armenian genocide’ before deleting it
JD Vance’s team posted — and then deleted — a message on social media that referred to the “Armenian genocide,” using language about the early 20th century atrocities that the Trump administration has sought to avoid.
The vice president’s office said that message was posted in error by staff who were not part of Vance’s delegation. The vice president on Tuesday visited the Armenian Genocide Memorial.
Joe Biden in 2021 formally recognized that the systematic killings and deportations of hundreds of thousands of Armenians by Ottoman Empire forces was “genocide.” American presidents have avoided the term for decades over concerns of alienating Turkey.
Asked by reporters before departing Yerevan why he visited the memorial, Vance responded, “Obviously, it’s a very terrible thing that happened, little over 100 years ago, and something that’s just very, very important to them culturally.”
Top Navy admiral sees a smaller Caribbean presence in the future
The Navy’s top officer told The Associated Press that he envisions a much smaller and more tailored presence of ships in the Caribbean if the mission there keeps going. The Navy has had 11 ships, including the world’s largest aircraft carrier and several amphibious assault ships with thousands of Marines, in the region for months.
Speaking “generically,” Adm. Daryl Caudle said recently that he envisions a future focus more on interdictions and keeping an eye on merchant shipping and “that doesn’t really require a carrier strike group to do that.”
Caudle says he believes the mission could be done with some smaller littoral combat ships, Navy helicopters and close coordination with the Coast Guard.
“I don’t want a lot of destroyers there driving around just to actually operate the radar to get awareness on motor vessels and other tankers coming out of port,” he added.
Congressional testimony from Trump’s immigration chiefs getting underway
Sharp questions particularly from House Democrats are expected for the heads of the agencies carrying out Trump’s mass deportation agenda as they begin their testimony in front of the House Committee on Homeland Security.
The testimony comes as scrutiny for Trump’s immigration campaign continues. Already heightened tensions ratcheted up after the shooting deaths in Minneapolis of two protesters at the hands of Homeland Security officers, and calls have mounted for Secretary Kristi Noem — who isn’t testifying at Tuesday’s hearing — to step aside.
It also comes as lawmakers are locked in a battle over whether DHS should be funded without restraints placed over its officers’ conduct.
Wall Street stalls as retail sales come in weaker than expected
The report, issued by the Commerce Department on Tuesday, shows shoppers pulled back the pace of their spending in December from November, closing out the holiday shopping season and the year on a lackluster tone. Retail sales were flat in December from November. Economists were expecting a 0.4% increase for December.
The report, delayed more than a month because of the 43-day government shutdown, raises questions about consumers’ ability to spend this year as Americans worry about a slowing job market amid uncertainty around the Trump tariffs ’ impact on prices.
The snapshot offers only a partial look at consumer spending. The lone services category — restaurants — registered a dip of 0.1%.
Economists will be closely monitoring a slew of economic reports on jobs and prices due out later this week.
JD Vance is meeting with Azerbaijan’s president in Baku
The American vice president arrived in the country’s capital of Baku after a stop in Armenia.
Vance and President Ilham Aliyev are currently meeting. In brief public remarks before they went behind closed doors, Aliyev said Vance’s visit demonstrates “mutual interest” between their countries. Vance said he looks forward to “great conversations.”
Trump’s immigration agenda roils opening days of Winter Olympics
Vice President JD Vance hailed the Olympic competition as “one of the few things that unites the entire country.” That unity didn’t last long.
The Milan Cortina Games are already roiled by the tumultuous political debate in the U.S. as American athletes face persistent questions about their comfort with Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement and other controversial policies.
The spotlight on the U.S. that comes with global sports will only intensify as the U.S., Canada and Mexico host this year’s World Cup and the 2028 Summer Olympics will be held in Los Angeles.
Some are hoping sports will help people process their disagreements and ultimately come together.
“There’s this really magical thing that sport can do,” said Ashleigh Huffman, who was the chief of sports diplomacy at the State Department during the Biden and first Trump administrations. “It can lower the temperature of the room.”
Buddhist monks’ ‘Walk for Peace’ reaches Washington, DC
A group of Buddhist monks whose 15-week trek from Texas captivated Americans reached Washington, D.C., on foot Tuesday, walking single file across a bridge over the Potomac River.
The monks in their saffron robes became social media fixtures as they walked with their rescue dog Aloka to advocate for peace — a simple message that has resonated as a welcome respite from conflict and political divisions across the U.S. Thousands gathered along Southern roadsides in unusually chilly weather to engage with their quiet procession, which began in late October.
Large crowds are expected to greet them at Washington National Cathedral on Tuesday and the Lincoln Memorial on Wednesday.
“My hope is, when this walk ends, the people we met will continue practicing mindfulness and find peace,” said the Venerable Bhikkhu Pannakara, the group’s soft-spoken leader, who has taught about mindfulness at stops along the way.
Tufts graduate student wins her case in immigration court, her lawyers say
“Today, I breathe a sigh of relief knowing that despite the justice system’s flaws, my case may give hope to those who have also been wronged by the U.S. government,” Rümeysa Öztürk said in a statement.
A judge said the Turkish graduate student raised serious concerns about her First Amendment and due process rights, as well as her health. The court found on Jan. 29 that the Department of Homeland Security hasn’t proved Öztürk should be deported, and so terminated her removal proceedings, her attorneys told the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday.
The PhD student studying children and social media was arrested last March after co-authoring an op-ed criticizing her university’s response to the war in Gaza. She’s been out of a Louisiana immigrant detention center since May.
DHS can keep appealing, her lawyers noted. The agency didn’t immediately return an email message seeking comment.
Americans’ optimism has slumped: Gallup poll
Americans’ hope for their future has fallen to a new low, according to new polling. In 2025, only about 59% of Americans gave high ratings when asked to evaluate how good their life will be in 5 years, the lowest measure since Gallup began asking this question.
It’s a sign of the gloom that has fallen over the country over the past few years. In the data, Gallup’s “current” and “future” lines tend to move together — when Americans are feeling good about the present, they tend to feel optimistic about the future.
But the most recent measures show that while current life satisfaction has declined over the last decade, future optimism has dropped even more.
Masks emerge as a symbol of Trump’s ICE crackdown
Beyond the car windows being smashed, people tackled on city streets — or even a little child with a floppy bunny ears snowcap detained — the images of masked federal officers has become a flashpoint in the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operations.
Not in recent U.S. memory has an American policing operation so consistently masked its thousands of officers from the public, a development that the Department of Homeland Security believes is important to safeguard employees from online harassment. But experts warn masking serves another purpose, inciting fear in communities, and risks shattering norms, accountability and trust between the police and its citizenry.
Whether to ban the masks — or allow the masking to continue — has emerged as a central question in the debate in Congress over funding Homeland Security ahead of Friday’s midnight deadline, when it faces a partial agency shutdown.
Democrats say White House offer is ‘insufficient’ as Homeland Security funding is set to expire
Democratic leaders say a proposal from the White House is “incomplete and insufficient” as they are demanding new restrictions on President Trump’s immigration crackdown and threatening a shutdown of the Homeland Security Department.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a statement late Monday that a White House counterproposal to the list of demands they transmitted over the weekend “included neither details nor legislative text” and does not address “the concerns Americans have about ICE’s lawless conduct.” The White House proposal was not released publicly.
The Democrats’ statement comes as time is running short, with another partial government shutdown threatening to begin Saturday. Among the Democrats’ demands are a requirement for judicial warrants, better identification of DHS officers, new use-of-force standards and a stop to racial profiling. They say such changes are necessary after two protesters were fatally shot by federal agents in Minneapolis last month.
Earlier Monday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., had expressed optimism about the rare negotiations between Democrats and the White House, saying there was “forward progress.”