ICE expands power of agents to arrest people without warrants
nytimes.com
nytimes.com
Heres coffee with senator slotkin or coffee with senator peters for michiganders who want to schlep to washington or happen to be there
Theres people are not as inaccessible as you would think so if you want to give them a piece of your mind do it in person.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=SenGaryPeters&set...
https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=14534019961714...
I don’t know if this means zero DHS funding until the piecemeal bill passes or something less dramatic but I fully expect they will break all previous records for funding DHS shortly after.
What does this do?
Any suggestions? Term limits might well be the least-bad of the feasible alternatives.
For the House, using a multimember ranked ballots system like Single Transferrable Vote in districts capped at a size of 5 members in states with more than one rep would work tolerably well (especially if combined with increasing the total number of seats beyond the currently-legislated fixed 435.) This does all of support more parties, reduce or eliminate [depending on the exact method chosen] spoiler effects for voting first choice for parties that don't win seats reducing the need for tactical voting, reduce incumbent protection without removing voter choice [because parties are encouraged to run more candidates than they are likely to win], and produce a body that better represents the preferences of the electorate.
The Senate is more complicated because of the 1/3 per class rule, but it can be made slightly better (in order from smallest to largest changes), by:
1. Adopting a single-winner ranked choice method instead of first-past-the-post for Senate elections.
2. Increasing the size of the Senate to three seats per state (electing one Senator from each stare in each of the three two-year classes), combined with #1.
3. Increase the size of the Senate to six (2/state/class) or nine (3/state/class), using a ranked ballots multiwinner proportional system like STV for elections. (3/state/class keeps the majority a significant threshold.
Because of the Constitutional manner of apportioning electors, increasing the size of the House makes Presidential election voting power more equal by population while increasing the size of the Senate makes it less; for this reason, if doing the fixes for Congress discussed above, I would favor not increasing the size of the Senate by a greater multiple than thet of the house, so three per state in the Senate would go with at least a 50% increase in the size of the House, 2/state/class would go with at least tripling the House, 3/class/state would go with at least a 4.5× on the size of the House.
A good start might be to just triple the size of the House to approximately match the Repr.-to-population ratio when the present 435 number was legislated.
And sadly
The courts could also use term limits.
Also the cap on members of the house should be removed.
Also the electoral college should be removed or reworked.
... the list of impossible* things goes on.
This is being done right now and has been done for weeks. It continues to be done at the same rate as a week ago.
It was already ruled unconstitutional about 2 weeks ago:
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/26503916-ice-mn-garr...
If you think the courts are going to keep letting it happen anyway without any consequences... have some faith. Justice moves slowly but hope is not lost.
> Also on January 12, 2026, the Court ordered Respondents to respond to the Petition by January 15, 2026 at 11:00 a.m., certifying the true cause and proper duration of Petitioner’s confinement and showing cause as to why the writ should not be granted in this case. Respondents entered an appearance that day but have not filed any response to the Petition.
The government didn't even bother responding to the habeas petition because they knew what they were doing was unconstitutional, but it still successfully sows fear.
Worse, ICE detained the man again less than 24 hours after he was released on the judge's orders and called it a "mistake": https://youtu.be/jmoF63Msk0Y
I know who the domestic terrorists are, and it sure as hell isn't Renee Good or Alex Pretti.
Sorry if I'm skeptical.
The Department of Justice Ignores Court Orders Because It Knows It Can https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46832063
https://www.americanmuckrakers.com/p/the-department-of-justi...
points out a current trend.
Except in Maine, where GOP Senator Susan Collins is up for re-election, so Trump ended ICE operation Catch-of-the-Day there and let her take credit.
https://www.pressherald.com/2026/01/29/how-donald-trump-hand...
Great way to lower turnout in specific areas.
The people whose votes are being blocked get pissed and get off the couch on election day.
The groups that would normally support the side that’s loudly suppressing the vote lose enthusiasm, and are less likely to bother voting.
Hopefully, we’ll see the biggest example of this effect in recent memory this November.
[1] https://www.techdirt.com/2026/01/30/tom-homan-to-minneapolis...
[2] https://bsky.app/profile/radleybalko.bsky.social/post/3mdl4b...