West

Washington Dem pushes bill to bar recent ICE hires from future police jobs, slamming Trump’s ‘occupying force’

Published

2 weeks ago

January 24, 2026

Washington Dem pushes bill to bar recent ICE hires from future police jobs, slamming Trump’s ‘occupying force’

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A Democratic lawmaker in Washington state introduced a bill this week called the ICE Out Act of 2026, which would prohibit state law enforcement agencies from hiring anyone that has taken a job as a sworn U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term.

The legislation was introduced by state Rep. Tarra Simmons, who served time for three felony convictions for possession of controlled substances and retail theft in 2011 before having her criminal record cleared.

“In this Washington, we have worked incredibly hard to build trust between law enforcement and community,” Simmons said in a press release. “In most Washington agencies, the men and women who step up to serve have developed a culture of holding each other accountable to the highest professional standards. The last thing we need is infiltration of ICE agents trained during the Trump Administration to send us backwards.”

“Law enforcement recruitment is paramount, we need more officers,” she added. “However, we expect those officers to earn the trust and respect of the communities they live in, not act as an occupying force. This bill is designed to prevent those sorts of dangerous tactics from becoming part of the culture of policing in Washington state.”

DEM SENATOR WARNER ADMITS BIDEN ‘SCREWED UP’ THE BORDER, BUT CLAIMS ICE NOW TARGETING NON-CRIMINALS

Federal law enforcement agents outside a private residence in St. Paul, Minn., on Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026. (Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told Fox News Digital on Thursday that, “Anyone pointing the finger at law enforcement officers instead of the criminals is simply doing the bidding of criminal illegal aliens.”

“ICE officers are facing a 1,300% increase in assaults against them because of dangerous, untrue smears from elected Democrats. ICE officers act heroically to enforce the law and protect American communities with the utmost professionalism,” she added.

KTTH radio host Jason Rantz slammed Simmons’s bill on X.

“This shows the stunning hypocrisy of Democrats. Simmons is a convicted felon who has repeatedly pushed to force people to hire felons or offer them housing. She openly advocates for hardened criminals. Yet when it comes to law enforcement — hardworking Americans who don’t break the law — they should be shamed and discriminated against? It’s absolutely shameful,” he told Fox News Digital in a statement Thursday.

A campaign website for Simmons, who was re-elected in 2024, describes her as “a lawyer, a civil rights activist, and a national leader in the fight for criminal justice reform.”

CALIFORNIA DEMOCRAT APPEARS TO CALL TO DEFUND ICE, RESTART IT FROM SCRATCH

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents walk down a street during a multi-agency targeted enforcement operation in Chicago, Ill., on Jan. 26, 2025. (Christopher Dilts/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“After her incarceration, she experienced firsthand the challenges of re-entry — economic insecurity, housing affordability, and lack of access to healthcare, education, and job skills training,” it said.

“Tarra is also a co-founder and consultant for several nonprofits that serve formerly incarcerated people with direct reentry supports, develop leadership capacity and build political power,” the website added.

Simmons’ office said HB 2641 “prohibits all Washington state law enforcement agencies from hiring anyone who was hired as a sworn officer of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on or after January 20, 2025.”

If passed, it would go into effect on Oct. 1.

Demonstrators protest U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in St. Paul, Minn., on Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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“Headlines, citizen-captured video, and stories from community-members have documented the inhumane and violent tactics ICE agents use to carry out a sinister dragnet operation,” Simmons’ press release added. “Agents have been seen breaking the windows of people’s vehicles, snatching individuals off our streets and out of our communities, accessing state data to track people down, detaining undocumented folks, student visa holders, legal green-card residents and U.S. citizens alike without cause, and even shooting and killing legal observers in broad daylight.”

Fox News Digital’s Landon Mion contributed to this report.

Greg Norman is a reporter at Fox News Digital.

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Montana

Montana Republicans gather for kickoff event in Great Falls

Published

1 hour ago

February 6, 2026

Press Room

Montana Republicans gather for kickoff event in Great Falls

Republicans from across Montana gathered in Great Falls on Friday to kick off the 2026 campaign cycle, highlighting taxes and judicial reform as issues the party is looking to address.

The Montana GOP Winter Kickoff is a two-day event and includes campaign training, networking opportunities and discussion. An inter-party debate over property taxes is set for Saturday afternoon, an issue that has divided Republicans in the state.

Multiple guest speakers, including U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke and Robert Natelson, a constitutional scholar at the Federalist Society, spoke on Friday afternoon. Gov. Greg Gianforte and Judge Dan Wilson, running for a Supreme Court seat, are expected to speak on Friday night.

Natelson, appearing remotely, spoke about Constitutional Initiative 132, which would change the state’s constitution to protect a nonpartisan judiciary. He is a former University of Montana law professor and twice ran for governor.

The state supreme court has been partisan in favor of Democrats, Natelson said, echoing a Republican theme in the Montana Legislature.

“The fault here is not with the legislature,” Natelson said Friday. “Republican legislators have not been deliberately or inadvertently passing unconstitutional bills. The problem arises because the courts are both misinterpreting the state constitution and because they are ignoring their own rule that democratically adopted laws must be sustained unless they’re proved unconstitutional beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Natelson then launched into examples of overturned bills, several of which dealt with LGBTQ+ issues and others regarding voting laws.

Republicans have tried to legislate bathroom use, transgender athletes and medical treatment for minors with the bills, saying they’re protecting women, but human rights activists have decried some legislation as “devastating” to that community.

Courts have overturned or paused some of the bills, calling several — including SB 99, a ban on gender-affirming care, and another, House Bill 121, dealing with who can go in what bathroom — “discriminatory.”

However, Republicans have also praised certain decisions by state courts, including recently when Judge Christopher Abbott, a Lewis and Clark County District Court judge, ruled for the state party in a decision that said it had the right to strip voting rights from more moderate members of the party.

Montana GOP Chairman Art Wittich spoke on that during Friday remarks.

“It’s not very often you get a district court judge from Helena, Montana, to rule for Republicans,” Wittich said.

As a rule, Republicans see a judiciary stacked against their agenda.

“The attack of the Montana Legislature by leftist litigators and the state judiciary is unprecedented in its scope and audacity anywhere in the United States, anytime in history,” Natelson said.

Natelson went on to point to North Carolina as an example for Montana Republicans. The state switched to partisan judge races, and that state’s supreme court flipped to a Republican majority in two election cycles, he said.

“I urge you to consider CI-132, against that backdrop,” Natelson said.

Zinke, meanwhile, spoke of what President Donald Trump has done during his first year back in office, speaking about immigration, gas prices and decried “fraud, waste and abuse” while pointing to Minnesota.

He also signaled his support for the SAVE Act, which would require some form of proof of citizenship to vote, which could include a birth certificate or passport.

Zinke pointed to a California policy that allows those without proof of legal presence to obtain a driver’s licence.

“You can’t vote twice, and you have to show an ID, a Real ID, in order to vote,” Zinke said of the SAVE Act. “Now in California, you can get a California driver’s license, and you can be illegal. So that’s why you have to show the US citizen ID. You have to show that you’re actually a citizen.”

Advocates of the California policy have pointed to its impacts helping immigrants find better jobs, helping the economy and less criminalization of their daily lives.

Zinke said he is a supporter of NATO, but wants other countries to “pay their share.” He also said progressives are angry, going on to say he hoped differences could be settled over “a beer or a root beer.”

“Sometimes we go across Montana and the other side is angry,” Zinke said. “They’re angry because their world that they thought was being created, DEI and men playing women’s sports, and everyone equal, not on the basis of hard work and merit, but just equal in checks in the mail. You know it’s being crushed under Trump, and I’m happy it’s being crushed.”

The Montana Republican Legislative Campaign Committee also held a brief press conference to introduce candidates, with Wittich, Sen. Greg Hertz, of Polson, and House Speaker Brandon Ler, from Savage, all speaking.

“There’s some crazy ideology that the Democrats are pushing, and so the Republicans have responded to that, but as far as general themes, it’s taxing and spending,” Wittich said. “It’s the same old thing.”

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Nevada

Korean students visit the University

Published

1 hour ago

February 6, 2026

Press Room

Fourteen students from South Korea’s National University of Education (KNUE) visited the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Nevada, Reno at the start of the Spring 2026 semester. They visited several local schools and institutions to learn about the U.S. educational system and culture during the weeklong program. These students are studying in teacher preparation programs in South Korea.

KNUE students learned about the U.S. education system during a visit to Doral Academy.

During the week, the students visited several local public schools, including Doral Academy, Hug High School, Debbie Smith Academy and Herz Middle School. Students had a chance to tour each school and visit classrooms to get a firsthand look at how U.S. students learn. On the University campus, students sat in on several College of Education and Human Development courses throughout the week and visited the Child and Family Research Center. The students also visited the University’s Lake Tahoe campus.

South Korean students roasting marshmallows at the Lake Tahoe campus.

For both universities, this program gives students and faculty the opportunity to collaboratively build a global perspective on education. By learning from each other’s ideas, both cultures can strengthen and grow their own education systems. And for KNUE, building this globalized, interconnected culture is a top priority.

“I want our students to be interconnected with the University of Nevada, Reno,” said Joosang Lee, a KNUE faculty member who accompanied the students on the trip. “And then they will have an open mind about other people, other cultures and other countries.”

“I went on this trip because I wanted to learn more about diversity around the world,” said Chaeyun Lee, a student studying music education at KNUE. “I wanted to meet people from all over the world and have conversations with them. And I wanted to learn how the U.S. education system works and how students communicate with their teachers and professors.”

Cultivating connections among students has been an important part of the program. Several events throughout the week were held for both University of Nevada, Reno and KNUE students, where they had a chance to mingle while learning about each other’s cultures. The event organizers wanted to create opportunities for students to learn about each other’s broader cultures in a curious, inclusive space.

“That’s something I really admire about our environment here,” said doctoral student Hanine Haidar, who helped coordinate this year’s program. “The way we don’t minimize people to just food, or singular elements of their culture, but we maximize them by accepting them for who they are.”

The program was first established by an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) signed between University of Nevada, Reno President Brian Sandoval and Korea National University of Education President Kim Jongwoo in late 2023, and the first visit by South Korean students was held in January 2024. Each year since, students from both universities have visited each other’s countries and institutions.

In May, several University of Nevada, Reno students will visit KNUE. This program gives an opportunity for this year’s cohort of University of Nevada, Reno students to meet the South Korean students now, so they will already have connections when they visit South Korea in March 2026.

“This program has provided excellent opportunities for our future teachers to experience diverse educational settings and cultures, enhance their understanding of different educational approaches and build friendships through interactions with pre-service teachers from two different countries,” said Hyun-Joo Jeon, Ph.D., professor of Human Development and Family Science, who developed and led the short-term exchange program.

Leaders from South Korean with University of Nevada, Reno leaders and faculty.

“It was very important for us to create events where these students would get to interact a lot over this week, so that when our students go to South Korea, they have some connections that they made from their visit here,” said Ramya Fernandez, CPA, MPH, assistant dean of operations, who helped coordinate this year’s program.

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