Contributing Writers

When Becky Pepper-Jackson started middle school, she wanted to join her school’s track and field team. Like many girls her age, she was excited to make new friends and cultivate a passion for a sport. But unlike the other girls on her school’s track and field team, Pepper-Jackson is trans.

A new report finds the number of people in ICE detention has nearly doubled in Trump’s first year back in office, driven by indiscriminate arrest policies that have locked up more and more people without criminal records, “an unprecedented situation for immigration detention.” We break down the numbers with Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, which published the report.

Reporter Ken Klippenstein’s latest investigation into the inner workings of the Trump regime finds that immigration enforcement agencies ICE and Border Patrol have relaxed recruitment and deployment guidelines in an effort to fill the administration’s sweeping deportation goals.

“They didn’t ask very many questions.” Independent journalist and U.S. military veteran Laura Jedeed recounts how she was hired as a deportation officer by Immigration and Customs Enforcement after a six-minute interview at a job fair in Texas, despite never signing any paperwork, not having completed a background check, likely failing a drug test, and publicly sharing her opposition to the Trump administration and its anti-immigrant crackdown.

Trump’s immigration enforcement surge continues to rock Minnesota, just a week after the ICE shooting of Renee Good, a mother of three and U.S. citizen in Minneapolis. The Minnesota Star Tribune reports that the number of federal agents now in Minneapolis and Saint Paul outstrips the 10 largest Twin Cities metro police departments combined. “We don’t want ICE in our neighborhoods.

We look at All the Walls Came Down, a new short documentary directed by filmmaker Ondi Timoner that looks back at the devastating 2025 fires in Los Angeles, which destroyed Timoner’s home and left the historically Black community of Altadena in ruins. The film, which has been shortlisted for an Academy Award, follows community organizer Heavenly Hughes as residents confront the aftermath of the fires and organize to rebuild their town.

As President Trump threatens Iran, Venezuela, Mexico, Greenland and more, renowned historian Alfred McCoy says the United States is “an empire in decline,” following a predictable pattern of militarism abroad and political instability at home as it loses power and influence on the world stage. “American politics become increasingly contorted and irrational,” says McCoy.

Iran has said it’s ready for “war” or dialogue after President Trump said the U.S. was considering “very strong options” to intervene if Iran’s security forces kill anti-government protesters in an ongoing crackdown. Vali Nasr, professor at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, says the U.S. “can wage full-scale war on Iran — which President Trump does not seem to be eager to do — or it can hope to squeeze Iran economically in order to create political unrest in Iran.

Activists in Los Angeles are demanding justice for Keith Porter Jr., an African American 43-year-old father of two, who was fatally shot by an off-duty ICE agent on New Year’s Eve. His family is demanding transparency in the investigation into his killing. “When he walked in, he brought joy,” says Porter’s cousin Jsané Tyler. “He always had a laugh, a joke, a smile.

Israeli American Liat Beinin Atzili was taken captive during the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack. Over the next two months, her family members, including film director Brandon Kramer, tirelessly advocated for her release, an endeavor now documented in Kramer’s new film, Holding Liat. We speak to Atzili and Kramer about their family’s ordeal and Atzili’s captivity in Gaza, where she was held in isolation alongside another Israeli woman by members of Hamas until November 2023.

We look at All the Walls Came Down, a new short documentary directed by filmmaker Ondi Timoner that looks back at the devastating 2025 fires in Los Angeles, which destroyed Timoner’s home and left the historically Black community of Altadena in ruins. The film, which has been shortlisted for an Academy Award, follows community organizer Heavenly Hughes as residents confront the aftermath of the fires and organize to rebuild their town.

We speak with civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong in Minneapolis as protests continue in the city following the killing of activist Renee Good last week. The ICE agent who fatally shot Good in her car has been identified as Jonathan Ross, an Iraq War veteran described by family and friends as a hardcore conservative Christian and MAGA supporter. This comes as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem continues to claim Good was engaged in “domestic terrorism.

Hundreds of people have reportedly been killed in Iran as authorities crack down on protests against inflation and the government’s handling of the economic crisis, with thousands more arrested amid a nationwide communications blackout. The protests started in late December and quickly spread across the country, marking the strongest internal challenge to the Iranian government in years. Meanwhile, U.S.

Israeli American Liat Beinin Atzili was taken captive during the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack. Over the next two months, her family members, including film director Brandon Kramer, tirelessly advocated for her release, an endeavor now documented in Kramer’s new film, Holding Liat. We speak to Atzili and Kramer about their family’s ordeal and Atzili’s captivity in Gaza, where she was held in isolation alongside another Israeli woman by members of Hamas until November 2023.

Two years ago this month, the world was gripped by a series of shocking recordings of a 6-year-old girl in Gaza pleading for help as she sat trapped in a car riddled with bullets alongside the bodies of her cousins, aunt and uncle, who had just been killed by Israeli forces as the family attempted to flee the Israeli ground invasion of Gaza City.

Minnesota state investigators say the FBI is blocking them from investigating the ICE shooting of Renee Good, a mother of three and award-winning poet who was killed in her car on January 7.

U.S. forces have seized two more oil tankers with links to Venezuela, days after the U.S. attacked Venezuela and abducted President Nicolás Maduro along with his wife, making former Vice President Delcy Rodríguez the new leader of the country. “This is a decapitation without regime change,” says Venezuelan economist Francisco Rodríguez. “The political system in Venezuela remains intact.

Israeli American Liat Beinin Atzili was taken captive during the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack. Over the next two months, her family members, including film director Brandon Kramer, tirelessly advocated for her release, an endeavor now documented in Kramer’s new film, Holding Liat. We speak to Atzili and Kramer about their family’s ordeal and Atzili’s captivity in Gaza, where she was held in isolation alongside another Israeli woman by members of Hamas until November 2023.

Two years ago this month, the world was gripped by a series of shocking recordings of a 6-year-old girl in Gaza pleading for help as she sat trapped in a car riddled with bullets alongside the bodies of her cousins, aunt and uncle, who had just been killed by Israeli forces as the family attempted to flee the Israeli ground invasion of Gaza City.

Minnesota state investigators say the FBI is blocking them from investigating the ICE shooting of Renee Good, a mother of three and award-winning poet who was killed in her car on January 7.