Politics
An old Scalia dissent is driving Texas' immigration dispute with Biden
For more than a century, immigration and border enforcement have been seen as falling exclusively under federal control, and when states tried to exert a greater role, courts shut them down.
Texas is now moving to challenge that legal interpretation before the U.S. Supreme Court’s current conservative majority. And the outcome may turn on a lone 2012 dissent by the late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia.
Scalia insisted it was a myth that the Constitution gave the federal government exclusive power over immigration. He noted that most federal immigration laws did not come into existence until the 1880s, and that before that, states put their own limits on who could enter.
He referred to the U.S. as “an indivisible union of sovereign states” and said lax federal enforcement of immigration laws deprives “sovereign” states like Texas and Arizona of “the power to exclude … people who have no right to be there. … The states have the right to protect their borders against foreign nationals.”
Moreover, he argued that even when federal law supersedes state law, that shouldn’t prevent states from participating in enforcement of the federal law.
No other justice signed on to Scalia’s opinion; his view of “sovereign” states was seen by many as extreme and outdated.
But that dissent is now fueling the immigration and border control dispute between Texas and the Biden administration.
And if today’s more conservative Supreme Court adopts Scalia’s view, it could redefine the balance of power between federal government and the states, and clear the way for aggressive state enforcement of immigration laws.
Last week offered a preview. In a 5-4 vote, the justices sided with President Biden’s Homeland Security Department and set aside an appeals court order that prohibited U.S. Border Patrol agents from cutting through razor wire that had been installed by the state of Texas along the Rio Grande and that was blocking federal agents from patrolling the area.
But the one-line order was limited, and said nothing about Texas’ authority to block migrants from entering the state, including with razor wire along the river.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, citing Scalia’s 2012 dissent, vowed to press the legal fight.
“The federal government has broken the compact between the United States and the States,” the Republican governor said in a statement released after last week’s Supreme Court order. “The Executive Branch of the United States has a constitutional duty to enforce federal laws protecting states, including immigration laws on the books right now. President Biden has refused to enforce those laws and has even violated them.”
A day later, 25 Republican governors released a statement saying that they “stand in solidarity” with Abbott and Texas in using “every tool and strategy, including razor wire fences, to secure the border.”
Next week, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans will hear arguments in the dispute over razor wire. If Texas wins there, the case will likely return to the Supreme Court.
But a far more significant case is headed there soon.
In December, Abbott signed into law SB 4, a measure authorizing police and judges in Texas to arrest,detain and deport migrants who are suspected of crossing the border illegally.
The measure is seen as a direct challenge to the 2012 Supreme Court decision that struck down a similar law in the case of Arizona vs. United States. It was that decision that prompted Scalia’s dissent.
“This is a frontal assault on the federal primacy in immigration enforcement, and it’s definitely going to the Supreme Court,” said Cornell law professor Stephen Yale-Loehr.
Thomas Saenz, president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, called the Texas measure “the most extreme encroachment on exclusive federal authority that we have seen in at least 50 years,” saying that “it goes beyond California’s Prop. 187 and Arizona’s SB 1070 by seeking to set up the state’s own system of immigration courts and enforced deportation orders.”
He warned: “If that were the law, we could have 50 different immigration systems in this country.”
But he predicted that not even a Supreme Court as conservative as today’s would uphold the Texas law.
“This is essentially political theater for Abbott. It will get attention for him and inspire the base,” he said.
In early January, the Biden administration filed a lawsuit in Austin, the state’s capital, seeking to block the Texas law from taking effect on March 5 as planned.
“SB 4 is clearly unconstitutional,” outgoing Associate U.S. Atty. Gen. Vanita Gupta said at the time. “Under the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution and longstanding Supreme Court precedent, states cannot adopt immigration laws that interfere with the framework enacted by Congress.”
The lawsuit says that it seeks to preserve the U.S. government’s “exclusive authority … to regulate the entry and removal of non-citizens,” and that the nation “must speak with one voice in immigration matters.”
Immigration rights advocates have also voiced alarm about the Texas measure, saying it could be used against vast numbers of noncitizens who live far from the border.
“This law will rupture Texas communities,” said Adriana Piñon, legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, which has also sued to block the law. “It will strip people of their rights under federal law with devastating consequences: Families may be separated, more people may live in fear of law enforcement, and migrants may have a harder time fully integrating into our communities.”
The Constitution establishes U.S. laws as “the supreme law of the land,” which states are bound to follow.
Scalia did not contest that principle, and agreed states that may not adopt or enforce laws that directly conflict with immigration laws adopted by Congress.
“I accept as a given that state regulation is excluded by the Constitution when (1) it has been prohibited by a valid federal law, or (2) it conflicts with federal regulation — when, for example, it admits those whom federal regulation would exclude, or excludes those whom federal regulation would admit,” he wrote.
But he disagreed with the court’s majority, which held that states like Arizona may not use their police to enforce immigration laws in ways that go beyond federal policy.
Writing for the court, then-Justice Anthony M. Kennedy said that the “national government has significant power to regulate immigration,” and that the “states may not pursue policies that undermine federal law.”
The justices blocked three parts of the Arizona law, including provisions that made it a state offense for an “unauthorized alien” to apply for work or to fail to carry registration documents.
But the court stopped short of blocking a fourth provision, seen as highly controversial at the time, that said police may seek to “determine the immigration status” of any person they stop, detain or arrest if there is reason to believe the person is “unlawfully present in the United States.”
To many, the ruling on Arizona’s law stood as a warning that conservative states may not pursue immigration enforcement that goes beyond the policies and priorities set by the administration in Washington.
That understanding is now being put to the test.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., whose votes are largely conservative, joined Kennedy in the Arizona case, and sided last week with the Biden administration in the Texas dispute over razor wire.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a conservative, cast a key vote for the majority in the Texas case, along with liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr., both conservatives, dissented in the 2012 Arizona case — though they did not join Scalia’s statement of dissent — and did the same last week in the Texas case, along with fellow conservative Justices Neil M. Gorsuch and Brett M. Kavanaugh.
If a federal judge in Austin or the 5th Circuit refuses to block SB 4, the justices are likely to face another emergency appeal from the Biden administration by the end of this month.
new video loaded: Federal Agent Fatally Shoots Woman in Minneapolis
transcript
transcript
Federal Agent Fatally Shoots Woman in Minneapolis
Federal officials claimed that the 37-year-old woman was trying to kill agents with a car in Minneapolis, while city and state officials disputed their account.
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“No! No! Shame — shame! What did you do?” “It was an act of domestic terrorism, what happened. It was — our ICE officers were out in an enforcement action. They got stuck in the snow because of the adverse weather that is in Minneapolis. They were attempting to push out their vehicle, and a woman attacked them and those surrounding them, and attempted to run them over and ram them with her vehicle. An officer of ours acted quickly and defensively shot to protect himself and the people around him.” “We’ve been warning for weeks that the Trump administration’s dangerous, sensationalized operations are a threat to our public safety.” “They are already trying to spin this as an action of self-defense. Having seen the video of myself, I want to tell everybody directly: That is bullshit. This was an agent recklessly using power that resulted in somebody dying — getting killed.” “Get out of the fucking car.” “No! No! Shame! [gunshots] Shame! Oh, my fucking God. What the fuck? What the fuck? You just fucking — what the fuck did you do?” “There is nothing to indicate that this woman was the target of any law enforcement investigation or activity. This woman was in her car, and it appears, then blocking the street because of the presence of federal law enforcement, which is obviously something that has been happening not just in Minneapolis, but around the country.”
By Jamie Leventhal and Devon Lum
January 7, 2026
Politics
Trump greenlights Russian sanctions bill, paving way for 500% tariff on countries supporting Moscow: Graham
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Sen. Lindsey Graham announced Wednesday that President Donald Trump has approved a Russian sanctions bill designed to pressure Moscow to end its war with Ukraine.
Graham revealed the development in a post on X, describing it as a pivotal shift in the U.S. approach to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
“After a very productive meeting today with President Trump on a variety of issues, he greenlit the bipartisan Russia sanctions bill that I have been working on for months with Senator Blumenthal and many others,” Graham said.
“This will be well-timed, as Ukraine is making concessions for peace and Putin is all talk, continuing to kill the innocent.”
TRUMP TOUTS ‘TREMENDOUS PROGRESS’ BUT SAYS HE’LL MEET PUTIN AND ZELENSKYY ‘ONLY WHEN’ PEACE DEAL IS FINAL
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol July 31, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
According to the Sanctioning Russia Act of 2025, the bipartisan legislation is designed to grant Trump sweeping, almost unprecedented, authority to economically isolate Russia and penalize major global economies that continue to trade with Moscow and finance its war against Ukraine.
Most notably, the bill would require the United States to impose a 500% tariff on all goods imported from any country that continues to purchase Russian oil, petroleum products or uranium. The measure would effectively squeeze Russia financially while deterring foreign governments from undermining U.S. sanctions.
TRUMP CASTS MADURO’S OUSTER AS ‘SMART’ MOVE AS RUSSIA, CHINA ENTER THE FRAY
President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting at the White House Oct. 14, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
“This bill will allow President Trump to punish those countries who buy cheap Russian oil fueling Putin’s war machine,” Graham said.
“This bill would give President Trump tremendous leverage against countries like China, India and Brazil to incentivize them to stop buying the cheap Russian oil that provides the financing for Putin’s bloodbath against Ukraine.”
Graham said voting could take place as early as next week and that he is looking forward to a strong bipartisan vote.
US MILITARY SEIZES TWO SANCTIONED TANKERS IN ATLANTIC OCEAN
The vessel tanker Bella 1 was spotted in Singapore Strait after U.S. officials say the U.S. Coast Guard pursued an oil tanker in international waters near Venezuela. (Hakon Rimmereid/via Reuters)
The move on the Russian sanctions bill follows another sharp escalation in America’s clampdown on Moscow. Earlier Wednesday, U.S. forces reportedly seized an oil tanker attempting to transport sanctioned Venezuelan oil to Russia.
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Graham publicly celebrated the seizure in another post on X, describing it as part of a broader winning streak of U.S. intervention aimed at Venezuela and Cuba.
In the post, he also took aim at critics such as Sen. Rand Paul, who has opposed the bill, arguing that it would damage America’s trade relations with much of the world.
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment.
Politics
ICE officer kills a Minneapolis driver in a deadly start to Trump’s latest immigration operation
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a Minneapolis driver on Wednesday during the Trump administration’s latest crackdown on a major American city — a shooting that federal officials said was an act of self-defense but that the mayor described as reckless and unnecessary.
The 37-year-old woman was shot in front of a family member during a traffic stop in a snowy residential neighborhood south of downtown Minneapolis, just a few blocks from some of the oldest immigrant markets and about a mile from where George Floyd was killed by police in 2020. Her killing quickly drew a crowd of hundreds of angry protesters.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, while visiting Texas, described the incident as an “act of domestic terrorism” carried out against ICE officers by a woman who “attempted to run them over and rammed them with her vehicle. An officer of ours acted quickly and defensively, shot, to protect himself and the people around him.”
Emergency medical technicians carry a person on a stretcher at the scene of a shooting in Minneapolis on Wednesday.
(Ellen Schmidt / Associated Press)
But Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey blasted that characterization as “garbage” and criticized the federal deployment of more than 2,000 officers to the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul as part of the immigration crackdown.
“What they are doing is not to provide safety in America. What they are doing is causing chaos and distrust,” Frey said, calling on the immigration agents to leave. “They’re ripping families apart. They’re sowing chaos on our streets, and in this case, quite literally killing people.
“They are already trying to spin this as an action of self-defense. Having seen the video myself, I wanna tell everybody directly, that is bullshit,” the mayor said.
Frey said he had a message for ICE: “Get the f— out of Minneapolis.”
Police tape surrounds a vehicle believed to be involved in a shooting by an ICE agent on Wednesday.
(Stephen Maturen / Getty Images)
A shooting caught on video
Videos taken by bystanders with different vantage points and posted to social media show an officer approaching an SUV stopped across the middle of the road, demanding the driver open the door and grabbing the handle. The Honda Pilot begins to pull forward, and a different ICE officer standing in front of the vehicle pulls his weapon and immediately fires at least two shots into the vehicle at close range, jumping back as the vehicle moves toward him.
It was not clear from the videos whether the vehicle made contact with the officer. The SUV then sped into two cars parked on a curb nearby before crashing to a stop. Witnesses screamed obscenities, expressing shock at what they’d seen.
After the shooting, emergency medical technicians tried to administer aid to the woman.
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“She was driving away and they killed her,” said resident Lynette Reini-Grandell, who was outdoors recording video on her phone.
The shooting marked a dramatic escalation of the latest in a series of immigration enforcement operations in major cities under the Trump administration. The death of the Minneapolis driver, whose name wasn’t immediately released, was at least the fifth linked to immigration crackdowns.
The Twin Cities have been on edge since DHS announced Tuesday that it had launched the operation, which is at least partly tied to allegations of fraud involving Somali residents. Noem confirmed Wednesday that DHS had deployed more than 2,000 officers to the area and said they had already made “hundreds and hundreds” of arrests.
Protesters react after being hit with chemical spray at the scene of a shooting in Minneapolis.
(Alex Kormann / Minnesota Star Tribune via AP)
A large throng of protesters gathered at the scene after the shooting, where they vented their anger at the local and federal officers who were there, including Gregory Bovino, a senior U.S. Customs and Border Patrol official who has been the face of crackdowns in Los Angeles, Chicago and elsewhere.
In a scene that hearkened back to the Los Angeles and Chicago crackdowns, bystanders heckled the officers, chanting “Shame! Shame! Shame!” and “ICE out of Minnesota,” and blew whistles that have become ubiquitous during the operations.
Shootings involving drivers during immigration actions have been an issue since the raids began in Southern California.
In August, masked U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents in San Bernardino opened fire on a truck they had stopped on a street. A video showed an agent demanding the driver roll down his window. When he refused, an agent shattered the window, the truck drove off and gunfire rang out.
When the driver got home, the family reported the incident to police. Federal authorities alleged an agent had been injured when the driver tried to “run them down.” But witnesses and video disputed some aspects of the official account.
In October, a well-known TikTok figure was shot by an agent during a standoff in Los Angeles. The U.S. attorney said the man rammed his vehicle into the law enforcement vehicles in front of and behind him, “spun the tires, spewing smoke and debris into the air, causing the car to fishtail and causing agents to worry for their safety.” But videos showed a much more complicated view of the situation. A federal judge recently dismissed the case against the driver, finding that he had been denied access to counsel while in immigration detention.
Governor calls for calm
In Minnesota on Wednesday, Gov. Tim Walz said he was prepared to deploy the National Guard if necessary. He said a family member of the driver was there to witness the killing, which he described as “predictable” and “avoidable.” He also said that, like many, he was outraged by the shooting but called on people to keep protests peaceful.
“They want a show. We can’t give it to them. We cannot,” the governor said during a news conference. “If you protest and express your 1st Amendment rights, please do so peacefully, as you always do. We can’t give them what they want.”
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara briefly described the shooting to reporters but, unlike federal officials, gave no indication that the driver was trying to harm anyone. He said she had been shot in the head.
“This woman was in her vehicle and was blocking the roadway on Portland Avenue. … At some point a federal law enforcement officer approached her on foot and the vehicle began to drive off,” the chief said. “At least two shots were fired. The vehicle then crashed on the side of the roadway.”
There were calls on social media to prosecute the officer who shot the driver. Commissioner Bob Jacobson of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety said state authorities would investigate the shooting with federal authorities.
“Keep in mind that this is an investigation that is also in its infancy. So any speculation about what has happened would be just that,” Jacobson told reporters.
The shooting happened in the district of Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, who called it “state violence,” not law enforcement.
For nearly a year, migrant rights advocates and neighborhood activists across the Twin Cities have been preparing to mobilize in the event of an immigration enforcement surge. From houses of worship to mobile home parks, they have set up active online networks, scanned license plates for possible federal vehicles and bought whistles and other noise-making devices to alert neighborhoods of any enforcement presence.
Sullivan and Dell’Orto write for the Associated Press. Dell’Orto reported from St. Paul, Minn. AP writers Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis, Ed White in Detroit, Valerie Gonzalez in Brownsville, Texas, and Mark Vancleave in Las Vegas and Times staff contributed to this report.
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