CHICAGO — Thanks to U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis, we’ve finally learned something about what Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the U.S. Border Patrol are doing in the Chicago area from the perspective of ICE and the U.S. Border Patrol, which is helpful even if you don’t like what’s going on.

Todd Lyons, acting director, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Greg Bovino, chief patrol agent, El Centro Sector, U.S. Border Patrol, did write to this newspaper last month to take issue with one of our editorials and offer their view of events, which we duly published, but beyond that ICE has said little or nothing to reporters as it upends life as we knew it in Chicago. Local officials also tell us they are being kept in the dark.

To say that both ICE and the Border Patrol lack a commitment to transparency is to understate.

But Ellis, a persistent jurist, has managed to extract the information that the Border Patrol has 232 agents in the area, working on “Operation Midway Blitz,” all of whom are equipped with cameras. She also heard from Deputy Field Office Director Shawn Byers that there are approximately 300 ICE agents assigned to the Midwest, with only about 75-80 total in the Chicago area, somewhat fewer than many people think. Apparently ICE agents mostly are not equipped with cameras; a lack of funding was cited as a reason in court. That should be corrected.

If there is a viable argument against the use of cameras by federal agents enforcing immigration law in our communities, we have not heard it. And we’re not sympathetic to the line that the use of cameras takes a ton of training. In essence, agents attach a camera to their bodies and turn it on. Chicago’s police officers have been doing it for years in compliance with both departmental policy and state law.

Federal agents have claimed in court and elsewhere that some citizens aren’t just peacefully protesting but are interfering with their duties. Cameras, surely, would be helpful in sorting out what really has been happening. If ICE and the Border Patrol are telling the truth about these incidents, they should have nothing to fear from making the footage available to the American public, ideally under the supervision of a court, not as a judiciously edited propaganda tool.

These agents are acting with the authority of the U.S. government and their actions should be recorded and viewed in the clear light of day, albeit with all of the appropriate safeguards and protections that go into the release of video from other law enforcement agencies whose work routinely involves conflict. It is not “judicial activism” to insist that ICE and the Border Patrol be subject to the same levels of transparency as the Chicago police.

— The Chicago Tribune

By JENNIFER PELTZ and JAKE OFFENHARTZ, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — A day after a mass of federal agents questioned street vendors and sparked protests on Manhattan’s Canal Street, sellers were noticeably scarce Wednesday on the busy strip. Some who did venture out, though, were disheartened or riled by a sweep in which they said people including U.S. citizens were pressed to show their papers.

Federal authorities said 14 people, including immigrants and demonstrators, were arrested in Tuesday’s operation. The Department of Homeland Security called the operation “a targeted, intelligence-driven” operation “focused on criminal activity relating to selling counterfeit goods.”

But some vendors saw it as an indiscriminate and heavy-handed crackdown by masked agents who queried a wide swath of sellers.

Awa Ngam was selling sweaters Wednesday from a table at a Canal Street intersection where at least one of her fellow vendors was taken away the previous afternoon.

She said she also was asked for ID, showed it, and then for her passport, which she doesn’t carry around. Agents quizzed her about how she had come to the U.S., but they eventually backed off after her husband explained that she’s an American citizen, she said.

“They asked every African that was here for their status,” Ngam said.

She returned to the spot Wednesday unafraid but upset.

“I’m saddened because they should not walk around and ask people for their passport in America,” said Ngam, who said she came to the U.S. from Mauritania in 2009. She added that if not for her legal immigration status, she would be fearful: “What if they took me? What would happen to my kids?”

Some other sellers decried the sweep as harassment. Others were keeping a low-profile and shied from speaking with journalists.

Signs freshly posted on streetlights mentioned Tuesday’s sweep and urged people at risk of detention to call an immigration law group’s helpline.

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Law enforcement raids aimed at combating counterfeiting are relatively frequent on Canal Street, which is known for its stalls and shops where some vendors hawk knock-off designer goods and bootlegged wares. Federal authorities often team up with the New York Police Department and luxury brands on crackdowns aimed at shutting down illicit trade.

But the sight of dozens of masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agents making arrests drew instant protests.

Bystanders and activists converged at the scene and shouted at the agents, at one point blocking their vehicle. ICE, Border Patrol and other federal agents tried to clear the streets, sometimes shoving protesters to the ground and threatening them with stun guns or pepper spray before detaining them.

Nine people were arrested in the initial immigration sweep, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said. Four more people were arrested on charges of assaulting federal law enforcement officers, she said, adding that a fifth was arrested and accused of obstructing law enforcement by blocking a driveway.

McLaughlin said some of the people arrested had previously been accused of crimes, including robbery, domestic violence, assaulting law enforcement, counterfeiting and drug offenses.

The sweep came after at least two conservative influencers shared video on X of men selling bags on Canal Street’s sidewalks.

While clashes between immigration authorities and protesters have played out in Los Angeles and other cities, such scenes have been rarer on New York City streets, which Mayor Eric Adams has attributed in part to his working relationship with President Donald Trump’s administration.

Adams, a Democrat, said city police had no involvement in Tuesday’s immigration sweep.

“Our administration has been clear that undocumented New Yorkers trying to pursue their American Dreams should not be the target of law enforcement, and resources should instead be focused on violent criminals,” he said.

All throughout the day that Thursday, his teammates’ phones were vibrating, letting them know, one after another, that their time with the Twins had come to a conclusion.

Never, when he was sitting with his Twins teammates at their downtown Cleveland hotel that day, did Louie Varland expect he would get a call, too.

Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Louis Varland reacts to a strikeout against the Seattle Mariners during the seventh inning in Game 5 of baseball’s American League Championship Series, Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

But just minutes before the afternoon July 31 trade deadline, Varland got news that he was being sent to Toronto and away from his hometown team, the one that drafted him in the 15th round years earlier and oversaw his development from starter to dominant reliever.

What had been a “dream come true,” Varland said, was suddenly over.

“The trade caught me off guard. I’m sure it caught everybody off guard,” Varland said Wednesday by phone. “But it all happened for a reason. I kept telling myself that and trusted it. … At the end of the day, it’s what happened and you can either be sad about it, sulk about it or look at it with an optimistic view and … that’s what I did.”

Varland, 27, described himself as initially “blindsided” by the trade. But the North St. Paul and Concordia-St. Paul alumnus — like older brother Gus, 28, currently on the Diamondbacks’ roster — adapted quickly to his new team and now finds himself just four wins away from earning a World Series ring.

When the Series begins on Friday night, the Toronto Blue Jays will be searching for their first trophy since 1993, when St. Paul native Paul Molitor led them to their second consecutive title. This time around, the Los Angeles Dodgers are the ones looking to repeat, and Varland and the Blue Jays are the only team left standing in their way.

Should Toronto come away victorious, Varland figures to be a big part of the reason why.

In the Blue Jays’ 11 playoff games thus far, Varland has been called upon 10 times, the most used reliever out of the Jays’ bullpen. In the seven-game American League Championship Series against Seattle, Varland pitched in six of those games.

“I wouldn’t say it’s what I expected, but it is what I wanted,” he said. “To be used and trusted like that, it feels great. I’m glad I’m in a position to pitch every day. … I’ve been available every day, and they love using me. So, it’s a great feeling.”

Varland has a 3.27 earned-run average with 13 strikeouts in 11 innings this postseason. All four of the runs he has given up have come on home runs, including one to former teammate Jorge Polanco in the ALCS against Seattle. Varland has been called upon in all kinds of situations this October, from starting a bullpen game one day to entering in the eighth inning on another. He has often been called upon to get four outs.

Pitching against the Yankees, he said, was the “peak” of the pressure he has felt this offseason, though the intensity will ratchet up again once the Fall Classic begins.

“It’s been just crazy, fun, extremely exciting,” Varland said. “We’re still playing baseball. It’s Oct. 22 now. I’m not used to it, that’s for sure.”

While he has never pitched this late into October, Varland did get a little taste of the playoffs while he was with the Twins, pitching in two games during the 2023 season, both, as it turns out, in victories over his current team.

That came at the end of a season in which he was up and down between the majors and the minors, primarily as a starting pitcher. That September, the Twins, believing he could be a postseason weapon, put him in the bullpen. The 2024 season followed a similar trajectory for Varland, who transitioned to the bullpen at the end of the season once more before the Twins finally converted him to a relief role full-time this year.

The results couldn’t have been much better.

Varland had a 2.02 ERA across 51 games before he was dealt at the deadline. He pitched in 74 regular-season games, a sign of his durability, and has pitched in 10 more during the playoffs. Now come the most important games of the right-hander’s career — and he’s ready for the challenge.

“I’m blessed to be in this position,” Varland said. “It’s been a crazy, fun ride. I never thought I’d be pitching in the World Series, but here we are.”

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Grammy-winning singer/songwriter and Twin Cities favorite Brandi Carlile will headline Target Center in downtown Minneapolis on Feb. 21.

Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Oct. 31 through Axs. American Express cardholders have access to a presale that starts at 1 p.m. Oct. 28.

A native of rural Washington state, Carlile claims some of her strongest supporters in the Twin Cities, thanks in part to airplay from Cities 97 early in her career. Over the past two decades, Carlile has performed locally more than 30 times in venues ranging from the Fine Line and Varsity Theater to the Basilica Block Party and the Minnesota State Fair Grandstand.

In April, Carlile released her eighth album, “Who Believes in Angels?,” a collaboration with Elton John. The pair wrote the music with John’s longtime collaborator Bernie Taupin and producer Andrew Watt. It earned warm reviews and hit No. 9 on the Billboard 200 chart. Their single “Never Too Late” served as the lead single for the documentary “Elton John: Never Too Late” and was nominated for a best original song Oscar.

Carlile will issue the follow-up, “Returning to Myself,” on Friday. It sees her “looking inward, reflecting backward and, ultimately, returning home after spending the last few years pouring herself into collaborations with musical icons and legends,” according to a news release. She produced it with Watt, the National’s Aaron Dessner and Justin “Bon Iver” Vernon.

Over the course of her career, Carlile has earned 26 Grammy nominations and 11 wins. In 2019, she co-founded the country music supergroup the Highwomen with Amanda Shires, Maren Morris and Natalie Hemby. The band’s self-titled debut was a commercial and critical hit.

She also worked with Tanya Tucker on two albums, including 2023’s “Sweet Western Sound” and 2019’s Grammy-winning “While I’m Livin’.” In 2022, she backed Joni Mitchell at the Newport Folk Festival. It was Mitchell’s first live performance since suffering a brain aneurysm in 2015.

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