The Marshall Project news digest

Donate Edited by Andrew Cohen View in browser 2026 2026 Community Survey Will you help shape our future reporting and strategies? Give your feedback and help make The Marshall Project better → TAKE THE SURVEY NOW Pick of the News Third-country deportations can continue for now. The six Republican-nominated justices on the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday rescued, at least for now, the Trump administration’s third-country deportation program. The Associated Press Citing due process concerns, two lower courts had tried to halt a contentious Homeland Security policy in which people in the U.S. are deported to countries to which they have no prior ties. The Guardian The Supreme Court will allow the program to continue while it considers the case, which the justices set for a December oral argument. The court’s three liberal justices dissented from the order. CBS News A temporary victory that sets up one of the biggest cases of the new term. The New York Times Jack Smith returns fire in damning Capitol Hill for testimony. The former special counsel who twice charged Donald Trump with crimes defended his work and the Biden-era Justice Department during contentious testimony on Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee. "Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in serious crimes against our nation," Smith told lawmakers. PBS “If asked whether to prosecute a former president today based on the same facts, I would do so regardless of whether the president was a Republican or a Democrat,” Smith said. The Washington Post With basketball gaffe, Republicans get caught in their own “gotcha” trap. Politico Insult to injury for ICE shooting victim. Federal prosecutors in Texas have charged a Venezuelan man with assault for allegedly using his car to try to strike the ICE agents trying to arrest him for an immigration violation. Wilber Rafeal Garces-Perez was shot in the back during the encounter. The Associated Press The federal complaint references body camera video of the incident that has not been made public. The New York Times More: A federal judge in San Antonio holds a hearing later today in the case. He’s told federal immigration officials to make sure that Garces-Perez appears in person in court. Defense attorneys say their client should be released — and that he still has a bullet lodged in his back. Houston Public Media Family separation II. During the first Trump administration, federal immigration agents separated parents from their children mostly at the border. During the current Trump era, ICE agents are uprooting families by detaining and deporting the parents of children who have lived in the U.S. for years. A report this spring calculated that there are more than 200,000 children now living in the U.S. who have “likely experienced a parental detention” since the start of 2025. The majority of these children are U.S. citizens. The Atlantic More: Scenes from an immigration court in Texas, where children fight to stay in the U.S. Many appear before immigration judges without an attorney, some are as young as 2 years old. Many leave crying. CNN Immigration nation. Three men. Three states. Three casualties of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operations within a 24-hour period. The Guardian On the streets of El Paso, Texas, at the intersection of detention and deportation, a community suffers, and endures, and a city splits into those who support the administration’s policies and those who detest it. Selected Passages ICE operations in Republican-led states like Kansas, Florida and Texas are making it harder for Republican candidates in the run-up to the midterm elections. Politico ICE operations around healthcare facilities in Pennsylvania raise new worries about immigrants being fearful of getting the medical care they need. States Newsroom N/S/E/W Florida executioners killed Curtis Beasley by lethal injection on Tuesday. It was the state’s 16th execu