By CHRISTINE FERNANDO, Associated Press

CHICAGO (AP) — Cook County’s top judge on Tuesday night signed an order barring ICE from arresting people at court. Cook County includes Chicago, which has seen a federal immigration crackdown in recent months.

Detaining residents outside courthouses has been a common tactic for federal agents, who have been stationed outside county courthouses for weeks, making arrests and drawing crowds of protesters.

The order, which took effect Wednesday, bars the civil arrest of any “party, witness, or potential witness” while going to court proceedings. It includes arrests inside courthouses and in parking lots, surrounding sidewalks and entryways.

“The fair administration of justice requires that courts remain open and accessible, and that litigants and witnesses may appear without fear of civil arrest,” the order states.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security defended the practice of making arrests at courthouses, calling it “common sense.”

“We aren’t some medieval kingdom; there are no legal sanctuaries where you can hide and avoid the consequences for breaking the law,” DHS said in a Wednesday statement. “Nothing in the constitution prohibits arresting a lawbreaker where you find them.”

Local immigration and legal advocates, including the county’s public defender’s office, have called for an order like this, saying clients were avoiding court out of fear of being detained. The office has confirmed at least a dozen immigration arrests at or near county courthouses since the end of July, when representatives said they’ve seen U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s presence outside courthouses increase.

“I have had numerous conversations with clients who are presented with a difficult decision of either missing court and receiving an arrest warrant or coming to court and risk being arrested by ICE,” Cruz Rodriguez, an assistant public defender with the office’s immigration division, said at a news conference earlier this month.

Domestic violence advocacy organizations also signed on to a petition earlier this month calling for Cook County Circuit Chief Judge Timothy Evans to issue the order. This comes after advocates said a woman was was arrested by ICE last month while entering the domestic violence courthouse.

Alexa Van Brunt, director of MacArthur Justice Center’s Illinois office, which filed the petition, said she was “gratified” by Evans’ order.

“This is a necessary and overdue action to ensure that the people of Cook County can access the courts without fear,” she said in a Wednesday statement to The Associated Press.

Evans said justice “depends on every individual’s ability to appear in court without fear or obstruction.”

“Our courthouses remain places where all people — regardless of their background or circumstance — should be able to safely and confidently participate in the judicial process,” Evans said in a statement.

The tactic of detaining people at courthouses in the Chicago area is part of a larger jump in courthouse immigration arrests across the country. The flurry of immigration enforcement operations at courthouses has been condemned by judicial officials and legal organizations, and has drawn lawsuits from some states and the adoption of bills seeking to block the practice.

In June, President Donald Trump’s administration sued the state of New York over a 2020 law barring federal immigration agents from making arrests at state, city and other municipal courthouses.

Related Articles

This family visit to a military base ended with ICE deporting a Marine’s dad

Feds seize $15 billion in bitcoin, indict crypto fraud kingpin who ran Cambodian forced labor camps

State Department adviser charged with illegally retaining classified records

Stocks remain unsteady on Wall Street amid trade disputes, corporate profit reports

Storm decimates 2 Alaskan villages and drives more than 1,500 people from their homes

Meanwhile, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker suggested federal agents may have violated a ruling by a federal judge last week that said they could not use tear gas, pepper spray and other weapons on journalists and peaceful protesters after a coalition of news outlets and protesters sued over the actions of federal agents during protests outside a Chicago-area ICE facility. Pritzker said he expected the attorneys involved to “go back to court to make sure that is enforced against ICE”

“ICE is causing this mayhem,” he said. “They’re the ones throwing tear gas when people are peacefully protesting.”

The comments also come after Pritzker denounced Border Patrol agents for using tear gas on protesters who gathered Tuesday after a high-speed chase on a residential street on Chicago’s South Side.

Community efforts to oppose ICE have also ramped up in the nation’s third-largest city, where neighborhood groups have assembled to monitor ICE activity and film any incidents involving federal agents in their areas.

On Tuesday, hundreds of people attended “Whistlemania” events across the city and made thousands of “whistle kits” with whistles, “Know Your Rights” flyers and instructions on how to use them to alert neighbors of when immigration enforcement agents are nearby.

An increasing number of GoFundMe pages have also been launched to pay for legal costs for community members detained by ICE, most recently a landscaper and father of three children detained earlier this month.

Authors, readers and publishing industry experts lament the underrepresentation of Hispanic stories in the mainstream world of books, but have found new ways to elevate the literature and resolve misunderstandings.

Related Articles

Fall book preview: 34 new titles you’ll want to read in 2025

Literary calendar for week of Oct. 12

Readers and writers: Don’t miss these two novels, including a Minnesotan’s debut

Hungarian writer László Krasznahorkai wins the Nobel Prize in literature

Poking around the scary, horrible, disgusting, excellent cauldron of new horror lit

“The stories now are more diverse than they were ten years ago,” said Carmen Alvarez, a book influencer on Instagram and TikTok.

Some publishers, independent bookstores and book influencers are pushing past the perception of monolithic experience by making Hispanic stories more visible and discoverable for book lovers.

The rise of online book retailers and limited marketing budgets for stories about people of color have been major hurdles for increasing that representation, despite annual celebrations of Hispanic Heritage Month from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 in the U.S. There’s been a push for ethnically authentic stories about Latinos, beyond the immigrant experience.

“I feel like we are getting away from the immigration story, the struggle story,” said Alvarez, who is best known as “tomesandtextiles” on bookstagram and booktok, the Instagram and TikTok social media communities. “I feel like my content is to push back against the lack of representation.”

Latinos in the publishing industry

Latinos currently make up roughly 20% of the U.S. population, according to Census data.

However, the National Hispanic Media Coalition estimates Latinos only represent 8% of employees in publishing, according to its Latino Representation in Publishing Coalition created in 2023.

Book are on display at Palabras Bilingual Bookstore Monday, Oct. 6, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Brenda Castillo, NHMC president and CEO, said the coalition works directly with publishing houses to highlight Latino voices and promote their existing Latino employees.

The publishing houses “are the ones that have the power to make the changes,” Castillo said.

Some Hispanic authors are creating spaces for their work to find interested readers. Award-winning children authors Mayra Cuevas and Alex Villasante co-founded a book festival and storytellers conference in 2024 to showcase writers and illustrators from their communities.

“We were very intentional in creating programming around upleveling craft and professional development,” Cuevas said. “And giving attendees access to the publishing industry, and most importantly, creating a space for community connection and belonging.”

Villasante said the festival and conference allowed them to sustain themselves within the publishing industry, while giving others a road map for success in an industry that isn’t always looking to mass produce their work.

“We are not getting the representation of ourselves,” Villasante said. “I believe that is changing, but it is a slow change so we have to continue to push for that change.”

Breaking into the mainstream

New York Times bestselling author Silvia Moreno-Garcia, a Mexican-Canadian novelist known for the novels “Mexican Gothic” and “The Daughter of Doctor Moreau,” is one of few Hispanic authors that has been able to break to mainstream. But she said it wasn’t easy.

A free books trolley sits in front of Palabras Bilingual Bookstore, Monday, Oct. 6, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Moreno-Garcia recalled one of her first publisher rejections: The editor complimented the quality of the story but said it would not sell because it was set in Mexico.

“There are systems built within publishing that make it very difficult to achieve the regular distributions that other books naturally have built into them,” Moreno-Garcia said. “There is sometimes resistance to sharing some of these books.”

Cynthia Pelayo, an award-winning author and poet, said the marketing campaign is often the difference maker in terms of a book’s success. Authors of color are often left wanting more promotional support from their publishers, she said.

“I’ve seen exceptional Latino novels that have not received nearly the amount of marketing, publicity that some of their white colleagues have received,” Pelayo said. “What happens in that situation (is) their books get put somewhere else in the bookstore when these white colleagues, their books will get put in the front.”

Hispanic Heritage Month, however, helps bring some attention to Hispanic authors, she added.

Independent bookstores

Independent bookstores remain persistent in elevating Hispanic stories. A 2024 report by the American Booksellers Association found that 60 of the 323 new independent bookstores were owned by people of color. According to Latinx in Publishing, a network of publishing industry professionals, there are 46 Hispanic-owned bookstores in the U.S.

The back reading room of Palabras Bilingual Bookstore is seen Monday, Oct. 6, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Online book retailer Bookshop.org has highlighted Hispanic books and provided discounts for readers during Hispanic Heritage Month. A representative for the site, Ellington McKenzie, said the site has been able to provide financial support for about 70 Latino bookstores.

“People are always looking to support those minority owned bookstores which we are happy to be the liaison between them,” McKenzie said.

Chawa Magaña, the owner of Palabras Bilingual Bookstore in Phoenix, said she was inspired to open the store because of what she felt was a lack of diversity and representation in the books that are taught in Arizona schools.

The main entrance of Palabras Bilingual Bookstore shows off colorful artwork, a theme throughout the bookstore, Monday, Oct. 6, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

“Growing up, I didn’t experience a lot of diversity in literature in schools.” Magaña said. “I wasn’t seeing myself in the stories that I was reading.”

Of the books for sale at Palabras Bilingual, between 30% to 40% of the books are Latino stories, she said.

Magaña said having heard people say they have never seen that much representation in a bookstore has made her cry.

“What has been the most fulfilling to me is able to see how it impacts other people’s lives,” she said. “What motivates me is seeing other people get inspired to do things, seeing people moved when they see the store itself having diverse books.”

By MUNIR AHMED, Associated Press

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan and Afghanistan on Wednesday announced a ceasefire following days of the deadliest clashes in years that killed dozens of people on both sides of the border.

The pause came after appeals from major regional powers, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar, as the violence threatened to further destabilize a region where groups, including the Islamic State group and al-Qaida, are trying to resurface.

Pakistan accuses Afghanistan of harboring armed groups, a charge rejected by the country’s Taliban rulers. Pakistan is grappling with militant attacks that have increased since 2021, when the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan.

Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry described the ceasefire as a 48-hour one and said the ceasefire was at Afghanistan’s request. Key border crossings remained closed.

Moments later, the Taliban government’s chief spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said the truce was at the “insistence” of the Pakistani side. His social media post did not mention a 48-hour time frame.

Earlier Wednesday, Pakistan said its troops killed dozens of Afghan security forces and militants in overnight fighting.

Humanitarian group Emergency NGO, which runs a surgical center in the Afghan capital of Kabul, said it received five dead and 40 wounded following explosions in the capital.

Dejan Panic, Emergency NGO’s country director in Afghanistan, said the victims had “shrapnel wounds, blunt force trauma and burns.” In a statement, he said 10 were in critical condition.

It was unclear what caused the blasts. There was an oil tanker explosion, confirmed by the Taliban. And two Pakistani security officials said their army had hit militant hideouts. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak with the media.

This map shows several provinces and cities along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border that have been impacted by recent clashes between the two countries. (AP Digital Embed)

Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman, earlier said that Pakistani forces used light and heavy weapons in assaults on Spin Boldak in southern Kandahar province, with more than a dozen people killed and over 100 wounded. Afghan forces returned fire and killed several Pakistani soldiers, Mujahid said.

Pakistan maintains it has repelled “unprovoked” assaults, but denies targeting civilians during the fighting.

Meanwhile, people in the Pakistani border town of Chaman reported mortars falling near villages.

Related Articles

Russia makes more precise drones and is using them to attack Ukraine’s vital rail network

UN’s World Food Program warns donor cuts are pushing millions more into hunger

After months in chains and darkness, freed Hamas hostages begin their long road to recovery

Leader of Madagascar’s military coup tells AP he is ‘taking the position of president’

Germany pledges big military aid package to Ukraine as Kyiv puts 2026 defense needs at $120 billion

“People who live close to the border are leaving the area,” said resident Najibullah Khan, who urged the countries to end the fighting for good.

Pakistan’s border regions have experienced violence since 1979, when it became a frontline state in the U.S.-backed war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.

“After the Sept. 11 attacks, Pakistan’s tribal belt descended into chaos as the Afghan Taliban, al-Qaida and other groups operated from both sides of the border for attacks on NATO forces and Pakistani security forces,” said Abdullah Khan, a defense analyst and managing director of the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies.

Associated Press writers Abdul Qahar Afghan in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, Riaz Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan, and Abdul Sattar in Quetta, Pakistan, contributed to this report.

By TOM MURPHY, AP Health Writer

CVS has finished buying customer prescription files from hundreds of closed Rite Aid drugstores and is now running 63 of the defunct chain’s locations.

The company said Wednesday that it is operating former Rite Aid and Bartell Drugs stores in Idaho, Oregon and Washington. It also has transferred customer prescription files from 626 pharmacies in 15 states to nearby CVS locations.

CVS Health did not say how much it spent on the stores and prescription files.

Rite Aid recently announced on its website that its stores have closed. The company said in May that it was seeking bankruptcy protection and would look to sell substantially all of its assets.

Philadelphia-based Rite Aid once ran more than 4,000 stores mostly on the East Coast. It initially filed for bankruptcy protection in October 2023 after struggling with debt and posting annual losses for several years.

The chain emerged from that Chapter 11 reorganization in 2024 as a private company. It said then that it had less debt, was more efficient and now operated a “rightsized store footprint.”

But the recovery didn’t stick with Rite Aid down to around 1,200 stores. The chain was attempting to turn around its business in a tough environment.

Related Articles

Forget stock options. Some employers are handing out down payments

Wall Street rises as banks and tech companies help lead the way

Meta removes ICE-tracking Facebook page in Chicago at the request of the Justice Department

Minnesota Commerce Department kicks unlicensed insurance seller out of state

Beyond Meat shares drop below $1 on investor concerns

Major chains and independent pharmacies have been closing stores and struggling with challenges like increased theft and customers who are drifting more to online shopping and discount retailers.

Walgreens, which has more than six times as many stores as Rite Aid, agreed in March to be acquired by the private equity firm Sycamore Partners.

Woonsocket, Rhode Island-based CVS Health Corp. runs several thousand drugstores. It also operates a large pharmacy benefits management business, and its Aetna health insurance segment covers nearly 27 million people.