ICE Gets Wildly Conflicting Orders Ahead of Midterms

Donald Trump appears to have no clue what to do about the deeply unpopular agency.

The Trump administration is flip-flopping on how to manage its mass deportation policy ahead of the midterm elections.

Sources at ICE told CBS News’s Camilo Montoya-Galvez that officers had received guidance to limit arrests to individuals with criminal histories—but that policy was quickly rolled back.

“The backdrop here is important,” Montoya-Galvez wrote on X. “Ahead of the midterms, some GOP lawmakers and business leaders have been expressing concerns about the political and economic consequences of ICE’s crackdown.”

It appears that some Republicans are finally seeing how ICE’s operations in their home states might hurt them on Election Day. Last week, Kansas Senator Roger Marshall issued a rare rebuke of ICE after a series of surprise raids in his state sparked protests and business closures.

Marshall was among the majority of Republicans who spent months blocking even the most modest reforms for ICE but saw a dip in the polls ahead of his statement.

This isn’t the first time that cracks have appeared in enforcement at the Department of Homeland Security.

After two deadly incidents in July, the Trump administration issued a temporary pause on traffic stops, and then rescinded that policy just one day later.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin reportedly never received the White House’s blessing before announcing the sudden policy change—leaving President Donald Trump and border czar Tom Homan in the dark. Trump was reportedly furious, believing that it signaled the administration was softening on immigration enforcement.

But increasingly, voters are finding that Trump’s immigration policies have gone too far.

John Fetterman Mistakenly Calls Himself a “Lifelong Republican”

The Pennsylvania senator made an embarrassing Freudian slip while trying to defend his politics.

Senator John Fetterman seemed to forget where he stands politically over the weekend.

At the Texas Tribune Festival Saturday, the Pennsylvania Democrat was asked why he wouldn’t become an independent considering the stances and votes he has taken in defiance of the Democratic Party. 

“Because I’m a lifelong Republican,” Fetterman responded. 

“Democrat,” CBS News correspondent Major Garrett corrected him as the audience gasped and laughed. “That’s a moment right there, that’s clippable, ladies and gentlemen!”

“Yeah, I’m a lifelong Democrat, though,” Fetterman said sheepishly as some in the audience jeered. 

Q: Why not become an independent? Fetterman: Because I’m a lifelong Republican.Garrett: You mean a Democrat.Fetterman: A Democrat. pic.twitter.com/HD92TVceVr— Acyn (@Acyn) September 27, 2026

Q: Why not become an independent? Fetterman: Because I’m a lifelong Republican.Garrett: You mean a Democrat.Fetterman: A Democrat. pic.twitter.com/HD92TVceVr

It was quite the revelatory........

© New Republic