Politics and views in the United States

Lawmakers slam the killings of two men by ICE agents. Senate Democrats use Pentagon policy bill as leverage to reign in the president on Iran, and SCOTUS justices ask for more security.

Transcript

Welcome to 2026 Talks, where we're following our democracy in historic times.

We have to disband ICE in this Congress.

We have to freeze their hiring.

We should give them no more money.

Congress has to use every leverage that it can to change ICE's behavior.

Otherwise, these killings will continue.

Democratic Representative Joaquin Castro says the killings of two men by ICE in a week requires Congress to act. 52-year-old Mexican national Lorenzo Salgado Ararujo lived and worked in the U.S. for decades before being shot in Houston.

ICE agents later opened fire on a vehicle in Maine, killing 26-year-old Colombian national Gian Sebastian Guerrero, who had work authorization and a social security number.

ICE claims the shootings were in self-defense, but video and witness testimony contradicts that.

The agency is pausing most vehicle stops.

Immigration agents have killed seven since President Donald Trump returned to office.

One of the few bipartisan bills still routinely passed has stalled in the Senate.

Democrats blocked the trillion-dollar-plus National Defense Authorization Act in an effort to curb Trump's war with Iran.

Minority Leader Chuck Schumer argues the bill spends too much at the cost of urgent domestic needs.

And he says Congress can't fund a damaging, unpopular conflict without a clear exit strategy.

The NDAA cannot become a permission slip for that recklessness that we see occurring in Iran.

Donald Trump does not get to drag the American people deeper into a war he cannot explain and does not know how to end, and then demand Congress look the other way.

It would be the largest defense budget in history.

The U.S. continues to strike Iran and has reimposed the blockade, but Trump is backing away from demanding tolls on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche faces tough Senate vote math in his bid to be confirmed in his job.

Kentucky's Mitch McConnell is out sick, and several other Republicans are expressing doubts.

A federal judge is making it easier for Arkansas to pass ballot initiatives.

The court struck down laws limiting paid canvassers, requiring petition signers to have photo ID, listen to a warning against petition fraud, and read the initiative's title out loud.

In the past decade, Arkansas voters have approved raising the minimum wage and legalizing medical marijuana.

Socialists and progressive Democrats who won in New York City and Denver are now looking at Michigan.

The retirement of Senator Gary Peters is yielding a tight race between progressive former public health official Abdul Al-Sayed and moderate representative Haley Stevens.

Candids endorsed by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders may also do well in next month's primary.

Supreme Court justices appealed to Congress for more security as the nation's highest court becomes the target of threats.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett testified that it has become an unpleasant surprise.

Maybe I lack imagination, but I didn't expect that performing this service was going to put me in the position of explaining to my children what a bulletproof vest was and why I had to wear one.

Recent decisions granting presidential immunity and allowing states to ban abortion have sharply eroded trust in the court. while the nation's polarized politics is even dragging the justices into the mud.

According to the New York Times, a Korean company facing a trade investigation paid Trump $2 million for an unnamed golf course development project.

I'm Zamone Perez for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

Find our trust indicators at publicnewsservice.org.