Dr. Feroze Sidhwa dives deep into what scientific studies, plus his own experiences in Gaza's hospitals, tell us about how many people Israel has actually killed in the Strip since Oct. 7, 2023.
It’s rough working for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota these days. Many of the office’s lawyers and staff have quit over the Justice Department’s handling of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in the state, specifically the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. In federal court Tuesday, the stress apparently got to a lawyer volunteering to help the short-staffed office. Attorney Julie Le was representing the government at a hearing over ICE’s failure to follow court orders and immediately release people that it had wrongfully detained. When Judge Jerry Blackwell asked why the agency is not complying, Le said that the government was “overwhelmed” by the legal challenges to Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota, and that trying to get ICE to comply with court orders has required nonstop work for an office depleted by resignations. “I wish you would just hold me in contempt of court so I can get 24 hours of sleep,” Le said. “The system sucks, this job sucks, I am trying with every breath I have to get you what I need.” Blackwell said that he called the hearing to stress that ICE and other government agencies are not above the law.“Some of this is of your own making because of non-compliance with orders,” Blackwell said.Le normally doesn’t work for the U.S. Attorney’s Office. She used to work as an attorney for ICE in immigration court, and last month volunteered to help prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office deal with the many habeas petitions from immigrants in ICE detention seeking their release. But Le admitted to Blackwell that ICE is out of its depth, and was not prepared to argue cases in federal court. “We have no guidance or direction on what we need to do,” Le said. President Trump’s Minnesota crackdown has proceeded with little regard for the law, drawing a backlash from local residents who have scrambled to protest against the massive deployment of federal agents and their violent tactics. Since the deaths of Good and Pretti, those protests have only intensified, and Trump’s response has been to double down. The U.S. attorneys who haven’t quit in protest now have to deal with the legal fallout.
A federal agent used his cell phone to take a picture of Marimar Martinez after she was shot five times by Border Patrol in Chicago—a chilling image that haunts her to this day.Martinez testified in Congress Tuesday about how she was shot after she followed an agent’s car in Chicago while trying to warn her neighbors. DHS initially claimed that when the officers exited their vehicle, Martinez tried to run them over, “forcing the officers to fire defensively.” She was charged with felony assault of a federal officer despite ending up in the hospital herself.In her testimony, Martinez revealed a new detail about what happened after she was shot.“After being at the hospital for less than three hours, I was discharged from the hospital into custody of the FBI. As we left the hospital, I was escorted out through the back in a wheelchair. I observed over dozens of Border Patrol agents waiting outside the hospital,” Martinez said. “One of the agents came up to me with his cell phone and took a photograph of me. It was the same agent who had previously kept coming in and out [of my hospital] room, and I had to repeatedly tell him to leave. I told him I did not consent … but he did not care. It still haunts me that this agent has my photo on his phone. Was this the agent that shot me? Was this a trophy for him?”Marimar Martinez: I was escorted out through the back in a https://t.co/HBG9JTEKDG of the agents came up to me with his cell phone and took a photograph of me. It still haunts me that this agent has my photo on his phone. Was this the agent that shot me? Was this a trophy for… pic.twitter.com/dloJrYmqc8— Acyn (@Acyn) February 3, 2026Why did a federal agent keep coming into Martinez’s room while she lay in her hospital bed? And why did he have to take her picture if she had already been arrested, if not to keep a “trophy” for himself as Martinez suggested? Recall that Charles Exum, the agent who shot Martinez, bragged in text messages afterward, “I fired 5 rounds and she had 7 holes. Put that in your book, boys.”While ICE has reportedly been scanning protesters’ faces, this instance feels much more personal.