This week at Unbreaking, January 14
This week, we have a briefing on Immigration and quick updates from our Data Security, Federal Workforce, and Medical Research Funding teams.
Immigration briefing
Beginning in late November and escalating through early January, the Trump administration has sent 3,000 ICE and CBP agents into Minneapolis–St. Paul. For comparison, the “Operation Midway Blitz” surge in Chicago deployed about 300 federal immigration agents. The Chicago metro area’s population is roughly 2.5 times the size of the Twin Cities’, so the Minneapolis–St. Paul operation has sent about 10 times as many enforcers into a much smaller population center.
On January 7, an ICE agent shot and killed US citizen Renee Good in Minneapolis. Good is the fourth person shot and killed by immigration enforcement since Trump took office. Protests and community defense efforts have grown in the aftermath of her killing. In response to the safety threat posed by ICE and CBP, Minneapolis Public Schools closed until January 12 and then extended remote learning options for an additional month. Violent, arbitrary, race-based arrests and attacks on protesters continue in the region; the administration claims to have arrested more than 2,400 people in the Twin Cities so far. ICE and CBP officers also shot and wounded one person in Maryland, two in Oregon, and another person in Minnesota. At least 32 people died in immigration custody in 2025; that number may rise as more deaths are reported.
We track dozens of lawsuits in our Immigration timeline, which you can now filter by legal case. In this round of updates, the Trump administration lost in almost every ruling we tracked, from an order requiring due process for the Venezuelan men sent to CECOT last March to a rapid block on the recent termination of family reunification processes for Central American immigrants. In a surreal crossover event, the judge overseeing the CECOT case granted the administration more time to arrange due process for the immigrants it sent to CECOT because those men are now in Venezuela — and the US government had just complicated the situation on the ground by abducting Venezuela’s president. And in new legal challenges to authoritarian actions back at home, Minnesota and Illinois have both filed suit against immigration enforcement activities in their states.
Updates from our other teams
The Federal Workforce team added 7 new event entries. We’re seeing continued back-and-forth in court over both layoffs and collective bargaining rights for federal employees. And we got the final picture on federal job losses for last year: The Trump administration cut 308,167 government jobs, a 703% increase from 2024’s figure. (Meanwhile, total federal spending was up significantly (PDF) from 2024.) You can find all the job numbers and links to coverage on our timeline and get context about what it means for equality in the workplace in our explainer.
The Data Security team added 11 new entries. The federal government continues to misuse license plate data — currently, to intimidate immigration enforcement observers in Minnesota — and sue states to obtain their voter rolls. We’re also tracking multiple lawsuits challenging the administration’s targeting of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which works to safeguard personal financial data. You’ll find all the suits we follow and lots of federal actions on the Data Security timeline.
The Medical Research Funding team added 5 new entries. We are seeing further chaos in leadership at the National Institutes of Health, with multiple forced resignations. In more positive news, various legal battles appear to be paying off, and the Senate has released a bipartisan bill that largely preserves biomedical research funding for the coming year. Get the details and links to trustworthy sources in our timeline, plus our breakdown of what it all means in our explainer.
How to help
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