Politics
Federal prison officer 'alarmed' about 'inhumane' handling of migrants; 2 U.S. senators want hearing
Two U.S. lawmakers have asked the Senate Judiciary Committee to hold an “urgent” hearing about the Trump administration’s decision to hold detained migrants — many of whom are seeking asylum — in federal prisons.
The request, sent Wednesday from California Democratic Sens. Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla, raised concerns about the treatment of the detainees, citing a letter from an unnamed prison employee who described conditions at the federal lockup in Los Angeles and blamed “fear of Donald Trump” for the “inhumane” situation.
“I am alarmed that the civil rights of these detainees are not being upheld,” the employee wrote in a two-page letter attached to the senators’ request. “They haven’t been charged or convicted and we are literally putting them in prison.”
A spokesman for Padilla’s office said the senator had not received any response from the Judiciary Committee.
A prison agency spokesman would confirm only that the Bureau of Prisons, or BOP, is housing some detained migrants, but did not address any of the concerns raised in the letter and directed all other questions to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE.
The senators’ request — and the prison worker’s letter — come amid a push by the Trump administration to house more migrants in the troubled federal prison system, which is already responsible for housing roughly 150,000 inmates across 122 facilities.
Earlier this month, a leaked copy of an agreement between immigration officials and the prison agency’s acting director showed that several facilities have been earmarked to hold migrants — including prisons in Atlanta, Philadelphia, Miami and Leavenworth, Kan.
As The Times previously reported, the understaffed federal prison in Berlin, N.H., is also expecting to receive 500 detainees. In response, prison agency officials emailed staff at other facilities in search of volunteers from across the country willing to work at the rural New England lockup.
Emails sent from prison union leaders also show the Trump administration may be considering a plan to sent immigrants to the recently shuttered “rape club” federal prison in Dublin, Calif.
Amid those changes, immigration officials first sent several detainees to the federal prison in downtown Los Angeles in early February. Initially, as The Times previously reported, prison staff were unsure where to house the detainees or how best to keep them separate from other prisoners.
Eventually they put the men in their own unit within the facility, creating added work for the staff, who one official with knowledge of the situation said had “no guidance” on how to handle migrants differently from typical federal prisoners. (The official asked not to be named, as they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.)
Last weekend, immigration officials sent 12 more migrants to the downtown L.A. facility after a much-anticipated ICE sweep across the county.
The prison employee’s letter this week described the first arrivals at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles on Feb. 2, when ICE agents “dropped off buses” of detainees. Because the detainees aren’t regular inmates, the prison worker said, they can’t be entered into the system to use the phones or contact their families.
“Employees have been told that they can’t turn them away and have to make room to house them. We have not been trained or employed for this purpose, and we don’t know what these individuals are being detained for,” the letter said. “BOP resources are being used to shuttle detainees, which is not where our limited resources should be going.”
The letter went on to detail problems that arose during the first Trump administration, when detainees were sent to a federal prison in Victorville.
“There were reports of detainees receiving insufficient medical care, employees stretched thin and working overtime, and instances of violence resulting from a lack of adequate staff resources,” the letter said. “There were threats of suicide by some detainees, several of whom were reportedly exercising their legal right to seek asylum in this country.”
This time around, the prison employee said, there was no reason to expect anything different, as the agency continues to struggle with staffing shortages.
“It seems like both fear of Donald Trump and the need for revenue are driving these decisions. But the bottom line is that BOP employees did not sign up for this,” the employee wrote. “This abuse of resources and of my colleagues seems to be for nothing more than political gain.”
Politics
Republicans light cigars, cigarettes on burning photos of Khamenei to show support for Iranian protesters
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Republican lawmakers are jumping on a social media trend to show their support for the anti-regime protesters in Iran.
Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., and Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., posted photos of themselves using burning photos of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to light up a cigarette and a cigar respectively. Both lawmakers used the caption “Smoke ’em if you got ’em.”
The lawmaker’s images mirror a social media trend in which people are using burning photos of Khamenei to light cigarettes and cigars. The trend emerged as the people of Iran hold increasingly intense protests against the Islamic regime. The movement against the regime has seen increasing support from abroad as world leaders back the people of Iran.
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People gather during a protest on Jan. 8, 2026, in Tehran, Iran. (Anonymous/Getty Images)
Khamenei’s regime has started to crack down on protests and even instituted a sweeping internet blackout to try to quell the unrest. Some have posited that the internet blackout was also meant to impede the spreading of information about and visuals of abuses committed against protesters by regime-backed forces.
Recently, exiled Iranian crown prince Reza Pahlavi has publicly urged President Donald Trump and the U.S. to back protesters in Iran as they fight the decades-old regime.
Sheehy told Fox News Digital that he takes the issue personally, saying that Iran has participated in the torturing, kidnapping and killing of Americans across the globe, “including friends of mine.”
“The Iranian regime are a bunch of murderous b——- who have been chanting ‘death to America’ for the past 46 years. They have backed up this chant by kidnapping, torturing, and killing thousands of Americans all over the world, including friends of mine. For me, it’s personal; it’s time to take out the trash,” Sheehy said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital via email.
Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., showed his solidarity with the people of Iran by hopping on a social media trend in which she used a burning photo of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to light a cigarette. (Courtesy of Sen. Tim Sheehy’s Office)
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The senator also expressed his solidarity with the people of Iran and encouraged them to keep fighting the regime.
“To the Iranian people — we applaud your courage, keep fighting, and know we fully support your brave efforts to topple this evil regime,” he added.
Tenney’s office also spoke with Fox News Digital about the congresswoman’s post, praising the bravery of the people of Iran for standing up to the regime. Additionally, Tenney’s office expressed the congresswoman’s solidarity with the Iranian people.
“The bravery of the Iranian people in the face of decades of oppression by a brutal, extremist regime is extraordinary. Men and women across Iran are risking their lives to stand up to authoritarian mullahs who have denied them basic freedoms for generations,” Tenney’s office said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., showed her solidarity with the people of Iran by hopping on a social media trend in which she used a burning photo of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to light a cigar. (Courtesy of Rep. Claudia Tenney’s Office)
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“The congresswoman stands firmly with the Iranian people and their demand for dignity and self-determination, and believes their courage must be recognized and amplified. Today, the Iranian people finally have an ally in the White House, President Trump, who has made clear that the United States stands with those fighting for freedom against tyranny,” Tenney’s office added.
Trump has been vocal about his support for the people of Iran and has warned that the U.S. would be ready to step in if the regime used violence against protesters.
“Iran is looking at FREEDOM, perhaps like never before,” the president wrote in a Truth Social post on Jan. 10. “The USA stands ready to help!!!”
SACRAMENTO — California announced an investigation into Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI on Wednesday, with Gov. Gavin Newsom saying that the social media site owned by the billionaire is a “breeding ground for predators to spread nonconsenual sexually explicit AI deepfakes.”
Grok, the xAI chatbot, includes image-generation features that allow users to morph existing photos into new images. The newly created images are then posted publicly on X.
In some cases, users have created sexually explicit or nonconsensual images based on real people, including altered depictions that appear to show individuals partially or fully undressed. Others have generated images that appear to show minors, prompting criticism that there are not sufficient guardrails to prohibit the creation of child pornography.
The social media site has previously said “we take action against illegal content on X, including Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), by removing it, permanently suspending accounts, and working with local governments and law enforcement as necessary. Anyone using or prompting Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content.”
Newsom called the sexualized images being created on the platform “vile.” Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta said his office will use “all tools at our disposal to keep Californians safe.”
“The avalanche of reports detailing the non-consensual, sexually explicit material that xAI has produced and posted online in recent weeks is shocking,” Bonta said in a statement Wednesday. “This material, which depicts women and children in nude and sexually explicit situations, has been used to harass people across the internet. I urge xAI to take immediate action to ensure this goes no further. We have zero tolerance for the AI-based creation and dissemination of nonconsensual intimate images or of child sexual abuse material.”
Newsom signed a pair of bills in 2024 that made it illegal to create, possess or distribute sexually charged images of minors even when they’re created with computers, not cameras. The measures took effect last year.
Assembly Bill 1831, authored by Assemblymember Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park), expanded the state’s child-porn prohibition to material that “contains a digitally altered or artificial-intelligence-generated depiction [of] what appears to be a person under 18 years of age” engaging in or simulating sexual conduct. Senate Bill 1381, authored by Sen. Aisha Wahab (D-Hayward), amended state law to more clearly prohibit using AI to create images of real children engaged in sexual conduct, or using children as models for digitally altered or AI-generated child pornography.
new video loaded: Supreme Court May Allow States to Bar Transgender Athletes
transcript
transcript
Supreme Court May Allow States to Bar Transgender Athletes
The Supreme Court heard two cases from West Virginia and Idaho on Tuesday. Both concerned barring the participation of transgender athletes in girls’ and women’s sports teams.
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“It is undisputed that states may separate their sports teams based on sex in light of the real biological differences between males and females. States may equally apply that valid sex-based rule to biological males who self-identify as female. Denying a special accommodation to trans-identifying individuals does not discriminate on the basis of sex or gender identity or deny equal protection.” “West Virginia argues that to protect these opportunities for cisgender girls, it has to deny them to B.P.J. But Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause protect everyone. And if the evidence shows there are no relevant physiological differences between B.P.J. and other girls, then there’s no basis to exclude her.” “Given that half the states are allowing it, allowing transgender girls and women to participate, about half are not, why would we at this point, just the role of this court, jump in and try to constitutionalize a rule for the whole country while there’s still, as you say, uncertainty and debate, while there’s still strong interest in other side?” “This court has held in cases like V.M.I. that in general, classification based on sex is impermissible because in general, men and women are simply situated. Where that’s not true is for the sorts of real, enduring, obvious differences that this court talked about in cases like V.M.I., the differences in reproductive biology. I don’t think the pseudoscience you’re suggesting has been baked.” “Well, it’s not pseudo. It’s good science.” “It’s not pseudoscience to say boys’ brain development happens at a different stage than girls does.” “Well, with all respect, I don’t think there’s any science anywhere that is suggested that these intellectual differences are traceable to biological differences.” “Can we avoid your whole similarly situated argument that you run because I don’t really like it that much either? And I’m not trying to prejudice anyone making that argument later. But I mean, I think it opens a huge can of worms that maybe we don’t need to get into here.”
By Meg Felling
January 13, 2026
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