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Trump’s ICE crackdown returns to the spotlight as the midterms loom: From the Politics Desk

Updated 8/12/2026, 1:00:18 PM
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NBCUnited States

Trump’s ICE crackdown returns to the spotlight as the midterms loom: From the Politics Desk

Goldstein: —Tone: —

Welcome to From the Politics Desk, a daily newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign trail. In today’s edition, Natasha Korecki digs into the perilous immigration politics facing the Trump administration and the GOP. Plus, we preview the key races to watch as primary results roll in this evening. Sign up to receive this newsletter in your inbox every weekday here. — Adam Wollner Trump’s ICE crackdown returns to the spotlight as the midterms loom Analysis by Natasha Korecki President Donald Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency is revving up its operations across the country — a move fraught with political risk as the midterm elections draw closer. While the Department of Homeland Security is under new direction with Secretary Markwayne Mullin at the helm, many of the past controversies that have loomed over the administration’s immigration agenda are back at the fore: questions over whom ICE is targeting for arrest, fatal shootings after vehicle stops and the conditions and deaths of those in detention. Negative headlines in cities big and small — including in battleground states — have returned in full force. So, too, has public outcry over it all. There’s evidence of the political peril of bringing the country back to the height of immigration clashes. In the wake of two shootings of U.S. citizens in Minnesota by federal immigration agents earlier this year, an NBC News poll found that 60% of adults disapproved of Trump’s handling of immigration and border security. It was a sizable shift from earlier polls in which immigration was one of Trump’s strongest issues. Not much has changed. A July Economist/YouGov poll found that 54% of Americans disapproved of Trump’s handling of immigration, while the same proportion said they had little or no confidence in ICE. And 58% of those surveyed, including 63% of independents, said ICE has used too much force. In Maine, the uproar over the shooting death of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero by an ICE agent last month has put GOP Sen. Susan Collins under scrutiny for her June vote to fund the agency without including a series of policy restrictions. Earlier today, protesters gathered outside Collins’ office in Biddeford, Maine. Democrats see her seat as critical to winning back the Senate. While she has proved resilient to challenges over her decades in office, Collins — like other Republicans in tough races this fall — is already trying to message around an unpopular president, a protracted war in Iran and the high cost of gas and groceries. Last week in Texas, where another Senate race is fiercely playing out between Republican state Attorney General Ken Paxton and Democratic state Rep. James Talarico, a Trump voter’s tale of his fiancée’s arrest at an airport drew national television coverage and millions of views across social media. “They’re destroying families. Jobs,” John Gannon, who described himself as a lifelong Republican, told CBS News. “They didn’t tell us why.” Gannon said that if he were given the choice, he wouldn’t vote for Trump again. Elsewhere in Texas, the fatal shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo by immigration agents is under investigation. Under Mullin, ICE has reported a record number of arrests. But the tragedies are again piling up, as are questions about agent training and the legality of many of the arrests. Images of new tactics, like targeting immigrants in airports, are spreading across social media. While the White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, Trump isn’t showing signs of letting up on the crackdown. When DHS said last month that it would suspend vehicle stops after two fatal shootings, Trump made it clear that wasn’t what he wanted. “We CANNOT give up one of ICE’s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in July. “THE TRAFFIC STOP!” What to watch for in tonight’s primaries By Bridget Bowman, Ben Kamisar and Adam Edelman The Democratic Party’s ideological and generational divides are on full display in today’s primaries across several states. As we highlighted yesterday, the Wisconsin Democratic primary for governor has boiled down to a two-person race between state Rep. Francesca Hong, a democratic socialist, and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, who got a late endorsement from outgoing Gov. Tony Evers. Minnesota’s Democratic Senate primary also features a progressive-versus-moderate battle between Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and Rep. Angie Craig. While those contests are sure to dominate the headlines tonight — along with the special Republican primary in South Carolina after Sen. Lindsey Graham’s death — yet another House Democrat faces a tough race against a younger challenger in Connecticut’s 1st District. Democratic Rep. John Larson, 78, is fighting for his political career against former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin, 47. Larson, who first won his House seat in 1998, was endorsed by the state’s entire congressional delegation and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. But Bronin is calling for generational change in Congress, outraising Larson and winning the support of party delegates at the state Democratic convention. He also has the endorsement of former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, a potential 2028 presidential contender. Larson told NBC News recently that Bronin threatened that he was “going to turn me into Joe Biden” at a meeting where he asked Larson to step aside, comments Bronin denies making. Larson is looking to avoid joining the growing list of sitting lawmakers who have been denied renomination this election cycle. As Annelise Hanson recently noted, nine House members — six Democrats and three Republicans — have lost their primaries in 2026, the most outside a national redistricting year since 1970. Read more on tonight’s primaries → 📩The Data Dive: And make sure to check out Steve Kornacki’s new weekly newsletter for NBC News subscribers about the numbers and trends shaping the biggest stories heading into the midterms. In today’s edition, he digs further into the establishment’s late scramble to stop Hong in Wisconsin. 📽️Tune in to the Kornacki Cam at 7 p.m. ET to watch Steve break down all of tonight’s results. 🗞️ Today's other top stories - ✈️ Covert departure: Trump was whisked out of Turkey last month on a military aircraft in an elaborate plot to keep his location secret amid security fears from the war with neighboring Iran, according to a U.S. official with knowledge of the plan. The Washington Post was first to report the details of the operation. Read more → - 🔀 Crossing the aisle: Arizona Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs chose John Giles, the former Republican mayor of Mesa, as her running mate. Read more → - 🔴 On the ballot: Republican officials in North Carolina selected state Rep. Jennifer Balkcom to replace Rep. Chuck Edwards, who dropped his re-election bid following sexual harassment allegations, as the party’s nominee in the 11th District. Read more → - 📺 On air: Democrat Josh Turek is kicking off the Iowa Senate race with a bipartisan pitch, touting his Paralympic experience in the first TV ad of his race against GOP Rep. Ashley Hinson. Read more → - 🗳️ Primary flashback: A recount in a contested Indiana state Senate primary in May has put Republican Paula Copenhaver, who was backed by Trump, ahead of incumbent Spencer Deery by three votes. Read more → That’s all From the Politics Desk for now. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner and Lauren Zola. If you have feedback — likes or dislikes — email us at politicsnewsletter@nbcuni.com And if you’re a fan, please share with everyone and anyone. They can sign up here.

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Politics chat: Progressive candidates in primaries, Trump's influence on midterms

Goldstein: —Tone: —

Politics chat: Progressive candidates in primaries, Trump's influence on midterms Politics chat: Progressive candidates in primaries, Trump's influence on midterms Republicans are trying to hang fringe positions on Democrats but may not be able to withstand the economic headwinds in November's midterms. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: If I don't run, will those people go out and vote? And that's the one thing I can't tell. I'm going to ask them to. AYESHA RASCOE, HOST: That's President Trump speaking with Punchbowl News in a video posted Friday. Him not being on the midterm ballot may mean his supporters stay home. But for Democrats and voters unhappy with his performance so far, he is very much on the ballot. NPR senior national political correspondent Mara Liasson joins us now. Good morning, Mara. MARA LIASSON, BYLINE: Good morning, Ayesha. RASCOE: We'll get to the president and Republicans in a moment. But let's start with a couple of primaries in the headlines. We've got Michigan from this past week and Wisconsin coming up in a couple of days. Let's start with Michigan first. LIASSON: That's right. The Democrats are engaged in this very big experiment to see if a progressive candidate can win in a swing state. Michigan is not like New York City, where some democratic socialists that were endorsed by Mayor Mamdani won in very blue districts. Whoever won the primary in those districts was going to end up winning the general election. But Michigan is a swing state, and the person who won the Democratic Senate primary there, Abdul El-Sayed, won because he did very well among young people and white college-educated voters. He didn't win among other important parts of the Democratic base, like African American voters. And to win in November, when white college-educated voters are not as large a percentage of the electorate, he's going to have to widen his coalition. General election voters are older, whiter, less college educated, more moderate. He's going to have to bring in some independents. And does that mean that he has to change his views on some social issues like Israel, things that worked really well in the primary, but might be a turn-off to more moderate, independent voters in the general? That's what we're waiting to see. RASCOE: And who's the Republican Senate nominee in Michigan? LIASSON: Mike Rogers, former Republican representative, was unopposed in the Republican Senate primary there. Republicans say they got the Democrat they wanted to run against, and they are clearly trying to make El-Sayed's Muslim heritage an issue. RASCOE: OK. Now let's talk about Wisconsin. What's going on there? LIASSON: Wisconsin's primary is on Tuesday, and the race for governor there is very similar to what we just saw in Michigan. You have a progressive candidate, Francesca Hong, who is polling way ahead. She is trying to make taxing the rich a part of her campaign, free childcare, very similar to what you've seen with other progressive candidates. She wants to raise state income taxes by 1% on couples making at least $431,000. But the reason why the stakes are so high in the Wisconsin governor's race for Democrats is not only that Wisconsin is a swing state - actually, it was the closest swing state in 2024 - but the likely Republican nominee for governor, Tom Tiffany, who's a member of Congress, voted to overturn the 2020 election back in January of 2021. He denied the 2020 presidential election. So Democrats want to be the party of working-class voters. They're running on issues like affordability and making it easier to buy healthcare and housing and education. But they're not doing better with working-class voters. So they have to figure out how they can do better with that group of voters who like some of the Democrats' economic positions, but they're turned off by a whole bunch of social issues that Democrats have taken currently or in the past, like abolishing ICE or defunding the police, trans rights. RASCOE: But, Mara, I mean, at this point, who's calling to defund the police? LIASSON: Very few Democrats. But Republicans have been very good in the past at taking positions that are held by just a few members of the Democratic Party and trying to turn them into a whole Democratic Party position. That isn't unique to Republicans. In the past, Democrats have tried to do this to Republican candidates, too, trying to tie them to the most extreme elements in their party. So Democrats are confident that their economic agenda will help them make inroads with white noncollege voters. Republicans are confident that the cultural issues will work for them. RASCOE: Affordability and the economy bring us back to the president and how voters feel about how he and Republicans have done so far with control of the White House, the Senate and the House. LIASSON: That's right. Despite all the troubles that Democrats are having, Republicans have a lot of problems too. The latest jobs report was not good for the president and his party. It showed that the American economy lost jobs, not gained them. We also still have inflation. That's leaving the president's project of trying to get the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates in trouble. As a matter of fact, the latest talk from the Fed is that they might have to raise interest rates to choke off inflation. But what is interesting is that Donald Trump has changed his attitude toward the Federal Reserve a little bit. He browbeat the former chairman, Jerome Powell, over and over again. He's not doing the same thing to Kevin Warsh, his new pick to be the Fed chairman, but he is continuing to pressure the Fed in other ways. Despite losing at the Supreme Court, the White House told Fed Governor Lisa Cook in a letter that it is considering trying to fire her again from the Central Bank for allegedly committing mortgage fraud. They haven't found any support for that in the courts, and the White House hasn't filed any charges, but they are saying they are considering trying to fire her again. RASCOE: That's NPR's Mara Liasson. Mara, thank you so much for joining us. LIASSON: You're welcome. Copyright © 2026 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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