February 5

Bipartisan bill would ban ICE and CBP from using facial recognition technology

Representatives Jimmy Gomez (D-CA) and Warren Davidson (R-OH) introduce the Facial Recognition Act — bipartisan legislation that would prohibit ICE and CBP from using facial recognition technology in enforcement operations. The bill responds to documented cases of false arrests from Clearview AI misidentifications and CBP's warrantless deployment of facial recognition at all US ports of entry. The bill would require agencies to obtain a warrant before running a facial recognition query in any non-consensual context. Law enforcement groups oppose the measure; ACLU and libertarian groups support it.

Bannon calls for ICE to "surround the polls" in 2026 midterms as Trump calls for nationalizing elections

Steve Bannon said on his War Room podcast on February 4, 2026, that ICE agents should "surround the polls" during the November 2026 midterm elections and called for deploying the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions under the Insurrection Act to monitor voting. His comments came one day after President Trump told The Dan Bongino Show that Republicans should "nationalize the voting" and "take over" elections in at least 15 places. Federal law at 18 U.S.C. § 592 makes deploying "troops or armed men" to polling locations a felony punishable by up to five years in prison. The Brennan Center for Justice confirmed that voter intimidation by federal agents violates multiple federal criminal statutes. Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Sen. Rand Paul distanced themselves from the nationalization proposal.

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EPA enforcement actions drop 87% to record low of 16 in Trump second term

A report by the Environmental Integrity Project found that the EPA referred just 16 legal actions against alleged polluters to the Department of Justice in 2025 — 87% below Obama's second-term first year, 76% below Biden's first year, and 81% below the first year of Trump's own first term in 2017. Administrative penalties through September totaled $41 million, $8 million less than Biden's comparable period after adjusting for inflation. The EPA disputed the findings, while EPA staff cuts included hundreds of employees who monitored pollution threatening human health.

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Leavitt refuses to rule out ICE deployment to polling locations

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt refuses to guarantee the Trump administration will not deploy ICE to polling locations in November when directly asked about Bannon's ICE-at-polls call. Leavitt states: \"That's not something I've ever heard the president consider... [but she would not rule it out].\"

OPM finalizes Schedule Policy/Career rule, exposing 50,000 federal workers to at-will firing

The Office of Personnel Management published its final Schedule Policy/Career regulation on February 5, 2026, implementing the framework for reclassifying approximately 50,000 career federal employees — about 2 percent of the federal workforce — into an at-will employment category. OPM Acting Director Charles Ezell described the rule as strengthening accountability by allowing agencies to remove employees who subvert presidential directives without the lengthy procedural protections that apply to competitive service employees. Under the final rule, agencies can remove Schedule Policy/Career employees without providing advance notice or the right to respond, and workers lose the ability to appeal dismissals to the Merit Systems Protection Board. The regulation described existing civil service protections as unconstitutional overcorrections.

January 2026 layoffs hit 108,435, worst since 2009 Great Recession

U.S. employers announced 108,435 job cuts in January 2026, the highest January total since 2009's Great Recession peak, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas — up 118% from January 2025. Transportation led with 31,243 cuts as UPS eliminated 30,000 jobs after CEO Carol Tome ended Amazon's low-margin delivery contract; technology added 22,291 cuts led by Amazon's 16,000 corporate layoffs. Health care announced 17,107 cuts, its worst month since April 2020, as hospitals cited lower Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements, while job openings fell to 0.87 per unemployed worker.

Federal judge blocks IRS from sharing taxpayer addresses with ICE

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani of Massachusetts granted a preliminary injunction blocking a memorandum of understanding authorizing IRS to transfer taxpayer addresses and return information to DHS and ICE for immigration enforcement. The ruling barred DHS and ICE from inspecting, using, or distributing any return information obtained through the MOU. A later ruling found the IRS had already illegally shared taxpayer data with ICE approximately 42,695 times in violation of 26 U.S.C. 6103, which strictly limits disclosure of tax return information.

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Argentina and U.S. sign ARTI trade deal, slashing tariffs on 1,675 products

Argentine Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer signed the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade and Investment (ARTI) in Washington on February 5, 2026. The US eliminated reciprocal tariffs on 1,675 Argentine products and quadrupled its beef import quota to 100,000 tons per year at a lower rate; Argentina scrapped trade barriers on more than 200 categories of US goods including chemicals, machinery, and medical devices. The deal formalized a framework signed the previous year under Javier Milei's alignment with the Trump administration.

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Congress rescinds $41.8B from IRS while $625B tax gap persists

Congress rescinded $41.8 billion of the $79.6 billion the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act provided to the IRS in three rounds: $1.4 billion under the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, $20.2 billion in FY2024 appropriations, and $20.2 billion in FY2025 appropriations. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that a $20 billion enforcement rescission would reduce federal revenues by $44 billion over a decade — more than two dollars lost per dollar cut. In February 2026, 11 percent of IRS workers accepted buyouts or were laid off, with 18 percent total staff cuts planned through mid-May.

Democrats introduce bill to ban ICE and CBP use of facial recognition

Senators Edward Markey, Jeff Merkley, and Ron Wyden, along with Representative Pramila Jayapal, introduced the ICE Out of Our Faces Act on February 5, bicameral legislation that would prohibit ICE and CBP from acquiring or using facial recognition technology and other biometric surveillance systems. The bill required deletion of all existing biometric data collected for identification purposes and allowed individuals and state attorneys general to seek civil penalties for violations. Civil liberties groups including EPIC and the Electronic Frontier Foundation endorsed the legislation.

ICE uses Trump donor private jet to deport Palestinians to West Bank

ICE used a Gulfstream jet owned by Gil Dezer — son of Florida real estate billionaire Michael Dezer, who donated more than $1.3 million to Trump campaigns — to deport Palestinian men from an ICE hub in Phoenix to a West Bank checkpoint near Modiin Illit on January 21 and February 1. Eight Palestinian men, shackled at wrists and ankles for the journey, were handed to the Israel Prison Service and transferred to the Civil Administration at the West Bank checkpoint. The deportations raised questions about the use of private donor aircraft for federal law enforcement operations.

Trump rescinds $1.5B in CDC and EV funds from four blue states

The Trump administration directed the Transportation Department to rescind $943 million from Colorado, Illinois, California, and Minnesota — primarily for electric vehicle charger infrastructure — and directed the CDC to rescind $602 million in state and local health grants from the same four states. OMB cited waste and mismanagement, but a federal judge in Illinois noted that recent statements suggested the real reason was hostility to sanctuary jurisdictions. A restraining order was quickly issued blocking the CDC rescissions.

OPM rule leaves 50,000 federal workers vulnerable to political dismissal

The Office of Personnel Management's Schedule Policy/Career final rule, published in early February 2026, reclassified approximately 50,000 federal career civil servants into a new at-will employment category. Workers affected included senior policy analysts, agency counsels, and program directors whose positions involved policy-related duties. Under the new rule, these employees could be dismissed without the procedural protections that have governed federal career employment since the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978.

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Trump attacks Rep. Massie at National Prayer Breakfast and endorses primary challenger

President Trump called Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) a "moron" and "Rand Paul Jr." at the 74th National Prayer Breakfast on Feb. 5, 2026, a traditionally bipartisan faith event. Trump cited Massie's vote against the spending bill ending a four-day partial government shutdown and his opposition to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and endorsed retired Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein to challenge Massie in the Kentucky Republican primary. Massie responded on X that he was fighting for what Trump originally promised: reduced spending, no new wars, ending foreign aid, and defending constitutional rights.

DHS attorney fired after telling judge about impossible ICE caseload in Minnesota

DHS attorney Julie T. Le was removed from her temporary detail and fired from her DHS position on February 5, 2026, one day after telling U.S. District Judge Jerry Blackwell in Minneapolis that managing 88 immigration cases in less than a month meant "this job sucks" and she wished he would hold her in contempt for "24 hours of sleep." Judge Blackwell had convened the hearing after ICE repeatedly defied his orders to release five detainees he ruled were illegally held. Chief Federal Judge Patrick Schiltz, a George W. Bush appointee, separately documented 96 instances of ICE defying court orders in 74 cases, while Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen told the Eighth Circuit his office had canceled all civil and criminal enforcement work and was "operating in a reactive mode" due to Operation Metro Surge's caseload.

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Trump sends Cuba humanitarian aid while enforcing oil embargo under EO 14380

On Feb. 5, 2026, the Trump administration announced $6 million in humanitarian aid for Cuba through the Catholic Church and Caritas, the same day the UN warned of humanitarian collapse. On Jan. 29, Trump signed Executive Order 14380 under IEEPA, threatening tariffs against any country selling oil to Cuba. Combined with his Dec. 2025 Venezuelan tanker blockade, the orders eliminated roughly 77% of Cuba's oil supply, triggering blackouts up to 20 hours daily — while the administration simultaneously distributed food aid the island lacked fuel to refrigerate or deliver.

Vought embeds DOGE staff permanently inside federal agencies

OMB Director Russell Vought announced in February 2026 that DOGE affiliates had been permanently institutionalized within federal agencies as in-house consultants, funded at $45 million for 30 dedicated employees plus 120 more reimbursed through agency budgets. Vought directed agencies to freeze upward of $30 billion in spending beyond the $9.4 billion rescissions package Congress reviewed, targeting EPA, NSF, and other agencies. He simultaneously floated using impoundment to make cuts permanent without a vote — a power the 1974 Impoundment Control Act explicitly bars.

Oregon federal judge blocks ICE warrantless arrests and finds pattern of constitutional violations

U.S. District Judge Mustafa Kasubhai issued a preliminary injunction on February 5, 2026, blocking ICE from making warrantless arrests in Oregon unless agents could show an individualized flight risk assessment for each person. The ruling came in Innovation Law Lab v. DHS, a class-action filed on behalf of people detained without warrants including Victor Cruz Gamez, a 56-year-old grandfather with valid work authorization who was held for three weeks after ICE told him his work permit "meant nothing." Judge Kasubhai found "ample evidence" of a "pattern of practice" of warrantless arrests, called agents' tactics "violent and brutal," and concluded plaintiffs were likely to prevail on Fourth and Fifth Amendment claims. Evidence showed ICE operated under per-team quotas of eight arrests per day and created administrative warrants after detaining people. Oregon became the third jurisdiction to block warrantless ICE arrests, joining Colorado and Washington, D.C.

Minnesota schools sue to block ICE enforcement near campuses after Operation Metro Surge

Fridley Public Schools, Duluth Public Schools, and Education Minnesota — the state's 89,000-member teachers union — filed a federal lawsuit on February 4, 2026, seeking an injunction barring ICE from conducting enforcement within 1,000 feet of school property. The suit challenged the Trump administration's January 2025 revocation of a decades-long "sensitive locations" policy that had protected schools, hospitals, and churches from immigration enforcement under both Republican and Democratic administrations. Since Operation Metro Surge launched in December 2025, Border Patrol agents had fired chemical irritants outside Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis while classes were dismissing, ICE agents had pulled over two school vans in St. Paul, and five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos was detained on his walk home from school and allegedly used as "bait" to lure his father — both were sent to a Texas detention center before a judge ordered their return. Attendance had dropped by nearly one-third in some districts.

Brad Karp resigns as Paul Weiss chair after Epstein emails surface

Brad Karp resigned as chair of Paul Weiss after released Epstein files showed extensive correspondence. The firm said Karp would remain focused on client work, but the resignation made the file release a major governance event for one of the country most prominent law firms.