The Latest: Judge orders senior Border Patrol official to meet her daily to discuss use of force

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U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis on Tuesday ordered a senior U.S. Border Patrol official to meet her daily “to hear about how the day went” after weeks of confrontations between immigration agents and the public in the Chicago area.

The immigration sweeps from Operation Midway Blitz have produced more than 1,800 arrests and complaints of excessive force.

Ellis also asked Border Patrol’s Greg Bovino to submit by Friday all use-of-force reports from Border Patrol agents involved in the operation from Sept. 2 through Tuesday.

The courtroom on Tuesday gave the feeling of a principal’s office as Ellis detailed examples of incidents where she felt her previous order restricting the use of force, including tear gas, was not being followed.

Here's the latest:

That was the word from California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who told supporters in an email this week that his campaign has met its budget to approve revamped districts to favor Democrats in the fight to control the U.S House.

“We have hit our budget goals and raised what we need” to pass so-called Proposition 50, Newsom wrote, saying he’d raised $38 million in online small-dollar donations for the push to erase up to five Republican House seats in the state. “You can stop donating.”

Voting concludes Nov. 4, but there was a hitch. Newsom signaled that he’d be appealing for money to funnel to House political battles in other states, after President Donald Trump’s call for Republicans to redraw districts ahead of next year’s elections set off an outbreak of unexpected jerrymandering in state legislatures.

Indeed, the email was followed a day later by a solicitation for donations to help Democrats in Indiana, where Republican Gov. Mike Braun has called for a special legislative session on congressional redistricting to begin Nov. 3.

“If Democrats take back the House, we effectively end the Trump presidency in November of next year,” Newsom wrote.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer says Democrats will introduce a bill that would extend funding during the government shutdown for two food assistance programs used by millions of low-income Americans.

The Department of Agriculture has announced that no SNAP benefits, formerly food stamps, will be issued Saturday. Money is also set to run out early next month for another aid program known as WIC that supports millions of low-income mothers and young children.

The legislation is unlikely to get the unanimous consent needed to pass the Senate on an expedited basis.

Schumer said the focus of the bill is “to make sure no child goes hungry, no family goes without food.”

He said SNAP was funded during a lengthy shutdown in Trump’s first term and questioned why it was different now, saying Trump was “choosing to have kids go hungry.”

The Senate Democratic leader showed no signs of ending the government shutdown without a fix for the skyrocketing premium rates.

Americans will be “aghast, aghast” once they see the new insurance rates at the start of open enrollment Saturday.

That, he believes, will put pressure on Trump and the Republicans to negotiate with Democrats.

The vice president didn’t bring up the funding cliff for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, during a closed-door luncheon, according to Ohio Sen. Jon Husted.

The Trump administration has said funds will run out for the program Friday, potentially leaving millions of Americans struggling to cover their grocery bills.

After the meeting, Vance told reporters that “we are trying as much as possible to ensure that critical food benefits get paid,” but did not offer assurances that the administration would actually reconfigure funding to cover the program. The administration has already rejected the use of more than $5 billion in contingency funds to keep benefits flowing into November.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz emerged from a Senate GOP lunch saying that “beef was a major topic of discussion” with Vice President JD Vance.

“There was unanimity in the room that we should be standing strongly with our cattle ranchers,” said Cruz. He said it was a “vigorous discussion” and that Vance listened to the “strenuous views” from senators.

Trump’s plan to bring down record-high beef prices by boosting imports from Argentina has seen pushback from GOP lawmakers.

Asked if the topic was discussed at the lunch, Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley chuckled and said that “there were thoughts on it.” Hawley said that in response, Vance “just reiterated what the president has said.”

“Which is that they’re big supporters of farmers,” said Hawley.

A federal judge in San Francisco has indefinitely blocked the Trump administration from firing federal workers during the government shutdown.

U.S. District Judge Susan Illston on Tuesday granted a preliminary injunction that bars the firings while a lawsuit challenging them plays out. She had previously issued a temporary restraining order against the job cuts that was set to expire Wednesday. Illston, who was nominated by Democratic President Bill Clinton, has said she believes the evidence will ultimately show the mass firings were illegal and in excess of authority.

The Republican administration has been slashing jobs in education, health and other areas it says are favored by Democrats. Lawyers for the government argued personnel issues should be heard in a separate venue.

Vice President JD Vance said Tuesday he believes U.S. military members will be paid at the end of the week, but did not specify how the Trump administration will reconfigure funding in the second-longest government shutdown.

The funding fight in Washington gained new urgency this week as millions of Americans face the prospect of losing food assistance, more federal workers miss their first full paycheck and recurring delays at airports snarl travel plans.

“We do think that we can continue paying the troops, at least for now,” Vance told reporters after lunch with Senate Republicans at the Capitol. “We’ve got food stamp benefits that are set to run out in a week. We’re trying to keep as much open as possible. We just need the Democrats to actually help us out.”

Vice President JD Vance’s comments were the first from the Trump administration after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered strikes in Gaza Tuesday.

“The president achieved a historic peace in the Middle East. The ceasefire is holding,” Vance told reporters on Capitol Hill after he left a meeting with Senate Republicans. “That’s doesn’t mean there aren’t going to be little skirmishes here and there,” he said.

That was the vice president’s message behind closed door at the Senate Republicans’ weekly lunch, on day 28 of the government shutdown.

Senators said the message was well received as the GOP tries to hold the line and Democrats push for healthcare funds.

Lunch was the standard Senate fare of fish, vegetables and dessert.

The administration says it will appeal a ruling that it must release millions of dollars in grants meant to address a shortage of mental health workers in schools.

The Education Department said in a statement Tuesday that it is working with the Justice Department to appeal the Monday ruling by a federal judge in Seattle.

U.S. District Judge Kymberly K. Evanson ruled the administration’s move in April to cancel school mental health grants starting in December 2025 was arbitrary and capricious. The ruling applies only to some grantees in the 16 Democratic-led states that challenged the decision. Congress funded the mental health program after the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.

The administration opposed aspects of the grant programs that touched on race, saying they were harmful to students. The department said in its statement Tuesday the grants, which were first awarded under the Biden administration, were used “to promote divisive ideologies based on race and sex.”

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum sharply criticized the strikes on Tuesday, and Mexico’s government said that a rescue operation is underway in search of a survivor of the strike around 400 miles southwest of the Pacific city of Acapulco.

The Mexican Navy said in a statement they were carrying out the operation with an ocean patrol vessel and a maritime patrol aircraft “in compliance” with an international human rights convention “with the aim of safeguarding human life at sea.”

Sheinbaum has asked her foreign affairs secretary and the Navy to meet with the U.S. ambassador in Mexico to discuss the issue because “we do not agree with these attacks.”

“We want all international treaties to be respected,” she said.

Mexican security analyst David Saucedo said Sheinbaum frequently invokes sovereignty saying there will be no American intervention.

“That’s the discourse, the narrative, but in reality Mexico’s government has aligned with the interests of Washington,” he said. “What I see is a total and complete collaboration between the Mexican and American government in this.”

Arriving for a lunch with Senate Republicans, Vice President JD Vance ignored shouted questions from reporters about what could end the shutdown standoff between the parties.

Vance is expected to discuss tariffs during the meeting, ahead of votes on the issue later this week. His visit to the Capitol comes as the shutdown stretches on and Trump remains abroad in Asia.

Nvidia will partner with the Department of Energy to build seven AI-powered supercomputers, its CEO Jensen Huang announced Tuesday in the nation’s capital city.

Huang, speaking at Nvidia’s developer’s conference, said the partnership will help advance the country’s science and technology research.

The United States and China are chief rivals in an economic race that bets on tech innovations as a chief driver of growth. An AI supercomputer can be used to train large and complicated models needed in developing artificial intelligence capabilities.

Democratic officials across the U.S. filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking to force the Trump administration to replenish benefits in the SNAP food assistance program.

The Department of Agriculture said last week that the debit cards used by beneficiaries won’t be loaded in November due to the government shutdown.

A group of attorneys general and governors for 25 states and the District of Columbia contend in the filing in federal court in Massachusetts that the administration is legally required to use a contingency fund to pay for continuing benefits. They focus on a contingency fund with roughly $5 billion — enough to pay the benefits for more than half a month.

About 1 in 8 Americans use SNAP to help buy groceries. Beneficiaries, food banks and states have been scrambling to figure out how to make sure they’ll have access to food even if the program is paused.

U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis on Tuesday ordered a senior U.S. Border Patrol official to meet with her daily “to hear about how the day went” after weeks of confrontations between immigration agents and the public in the Chicago area. Ellis also asked Greg Bovino to submit by Friday all use of force reports from Border Patrol agents involved in Operation Midway Blitz from Sept. 2 through Tuesday.

The courtroom Tuesday gave the feeling of a principal’s office as Ellis detailed examples of incidents where she felt her previous order restricting use of force, including tear gas, was not being followed.

She spoke intensely about weekend reports that Border Patrol agents disrupted a children’s Halloween parade with tear gas on the city’s Northwest side, saying one of the reasons she called Bovino to court is “so that kids can feel safe walking to the store or walking to school.”

“These kids, you can imagine, their sense of safety was shattered on Saturday,” Ellis said. “And it’s going to take a long time for that to come back, if ever.”

▶ Read more about developments from the court hearing

Democrats insist that before they agree to fund the government, Republicans must agree to extend federal subsidies for health care plans offered through the Affordable Care Act marketplace — otherwise health insurance costs will soar for millions of Americans next year.

The window for enrolling in ACA health plans begins Saturday. In past years, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has allowed Americans to preview their options about a week before open enrollment.

As of Monday, Healthcare.gov appeared to show 2025 health insurance plans and estimated prices, instead of next year’s options. CMS was expected to temporarily bring back all its workers furloughed during the shutdown, in part to manage the ACA open enrollment period.

Twenty-eight senators, mostly Democrats, signed a letter urging Trump’s administration to let ACA enrollees start previewing their options.

American Federation of Government Employees National President Everett Kelley wants lawmakers to vote for closure on H.R. 5371, which would end the federal government shutdown for roughly three weeks.

“As president of the largest federal employee union, I cannot countenance the sight of workers I represent standing in food lines. It should trouble the conscience of every member of Congress and indeed every American,” Kelley said in his letter to lawmakers.

“Whether they are declared excepted workers or are furloughed – a designation they do not choose – federal workers are for the most part not being paid. Yet their obligations remain to pay mortgages and monthly rents, credit card bills and childcare, and gasoline and automobile loans.”

A federal judge in Chicago began her questioning of Bovino on Tuesday by detailing examples of what she called excessive use of force in recent weeks, including during a weekend children’s Halloween parade on Chicago’s Northwest side.

Ellis said she has seen video recordings of agents using force without giving proper warnings to protesters beforehand, and carrying out operations without wearing badges.

Bovino said he has “instructed all agents under my command to place an identifier conspicuously on their uniform.”

Bovino also said that he himself has not received a body worn camera or received the four-hour training for using them.

“I suspect if you asked for one, you could probably get one easily,” the judge told him. She asked him to get a camera and complete the training by Friday.

A federal judge in Chicago on Tuesday morning began her questioning of the senior Border Patrol official who has become the face of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown by reading aloud her own oath, and his, before they each took their positions.

“Even though the words of the oath we each took is different, it’s the same oath,” U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis said. “We both agree to support and uphold the Constitution.”

Bovino took the stand Tuesday to answer questions about the federal enforcement operation in the Chicago area, which has produced more than 1,800 arrests and complaints of excessive force. Bovino himself is accused of throwing tear gas canisters at protesters.

Congressional leaders are pointing to the shutdown’s impact on many Americans, but there’s no movement toward negotiations as they try to blame the other side.

“This week, more than any other week, the consequences become impossible to ignore,” said Rep. Lisa McClain, chair of the House Republican Conference.

“Now government workers and every other American affected by this shutdown have become nothing more than pawns in the Democrats’ political games,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said the Trump administration made an intentional choice to pause Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, calling it an “act of cruelty.”