ICE SCREAM MAN

ICE is determined to continue its extreme immigration crackdown, the agency’s leader said. He wants Americans to stop complaining about it.

• Acting ICE chief Todd Lyons wants you to know that he’s all fed up, and he’s not going to take it anymore. How dare Americans compare his ICE agents on the streets of Minneapolis to a “secret police,” or to Nazi Germany’s “Gestapo”? That sort of thing must stop, he told a contentious congressional hearing today.

• “If you don’t want to be called a fascist regime or a secret police, then stop acting like one,” Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) fired back. “People are simply making valid observations about your tactics, which are un-American and outright fascist.”

• Lyons doesn’t seem interested in that advice. He and CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott struck a defiant tone in today’s appearance, their first before Congress since ICU Nurse Alex Pretti and Renee Good, mother of three, were gunned down on the streets of Minneapolis. Lyons and Scott shrugged off criticism, and vowed to continue their crackdown.

• “Let me send a message to anyone who thinks they can intimidate us: You will fail,” Lyons said. “Our officers continue to execute the ambition with unwavering resolve. We are only getting started.”

• “If ICE is only getting started, then the bodies will pile up. That’s what the concern is,” Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), who grilled the officials today, told What A Day after the event. “These ICE and border patrol agents and their leadership think they’re invincible.”

• Lyons and Scott also peddled baseless claims about agents’ tactics, protestors’ behavior, and MAGA’s favorite bogeyman: “Antifa.” President Donald Trump and his allies often claim that organizers are part of a massive left-wing conspiracy — aka, “Antifa” — without evidence. Scott repeated this accusation today, describing protestors as part of a “coordinated and well-funded” effort.

• I asked one Minneapolis organizer about this claim. “My kneejerk reaction was just Logan Roy saying, ‘You are not serious people,’” they responded.

• Lyons tried to justify ICE’s actions as “targeted, intelligence-driven” operations. Democratic lawmakers were perplexed, noting several incidents in which agents seemed to randomly target people. In the past month alone, ICE agents boxed in an off-duty police officer, detained a 5-year-old boy, tear gassed a 6-month-old baby, and killed two American citizens. It’s difficult to believe these are carefully planned, or “inteligence-driven.”

Both the numbers, and the observable facts on the ground, reveal what Scott and Lyons are missing.

• The Trump administration says that it targets “the worst of the worst.” But 86 percent of detainees over the past year don’t have a dangerous criminal record. More than 170 American citizens were detained and held by ICE over the course of nine months last year, ProPublica reported. Just yesterday, news broke that an Irish man with a valid U.S. work permit has spent five months in ICE detention. He’s facing deportation.

• ICE isn’t easing its operations. Officers have detained hundreds of activists in recent months for “interfering” in federal agents’ operations — a catch-all violation that could be as benign as following agents in a car to observe their actions. Meanwhile, agents aren’t being held accountable for their actions.

• “I was floored when I asked how many people have been fired for their conduct, for dragging women by their hair through the streets, for chasing people through the fields where they work, for deporting a 6-year-old child battling Stage 4 cancer,” Swalwell told me. “It sounds like zero is the number of people who have been fired. Two people have been killed. Bodies are piling up. But these guys are strangers to accountability, and our job is to change that.”

I found this piece by Politico’s Kyle Cheney to be incredibly helpful in understanding how ICE is thwarting judges’ efforts to stop them: “How ICE defies judges’ orders to release detainees, step by step.”

LUNCH MEET

Memory can be such a fickle thing. Who among us has never struggled to recall basic questions, like:

Where are my glasses?

When is my uncle’s birthday?

And did I ever have lunch with Jeffrey Epstein on his notorious private island in the Caribbean, with my entire family?

And if I did… why?

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is still struggling with that last one, despite finally remembering that, yes, now that you mention it, he did meet up for a chill lunch with the notorious sex offender years after he claimed to have stopped talking to Epstein… once fresh files jogged his memory.

Unfortunately for Lutnick (but amusingly for the rest of us), the commerce secretary was grilled about this regrettable event during a congressional hearing about, of all things, broadband deployment funding.

“Did you in fact make the visit to Jeffrey Epstein’s private island?” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) asked.

“I did have lunch with him as I was on a boat going across on a family vacation,” Lutnick responded. “My wife was with me as were my four children and nannies. I had another couple with their children. And we had lunch on the island. That is true. For an hour.” He added: “I don’t recall why we did it.”

“You realize that this visit took place after he’d been convicted, right?” Van Hollen followed up.

Lawmakers from both parties are now calling on Lutnick to resign. Meanwhile, Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA) are working to uncover more people in the Epstein files, whose names were redacted by Donald Trump’s officials. Their efforts are winning over once-skeptical colleagues.

“Initially, my reaction to all this was, ‘I don’t care,’” Sen. Cynthia Loomis (R-WY) said. “But now, I see what the big deal is.”

WHAT ELSE? 👀

Kurt Olsen, Trump’s former “Stop the Steal” campaign lawyer, prompted the recent FBI raid on the Fulton County, Georgia election hub, according to an unsealed affidavit. Olsen has been working in the White House, probing unfounded 2020 election fraud. Nothing to see here!

John Bolton, Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, bashed his old boss for “global buccaneering” in Venezuela, the Gaza Strip, and Greenland. “Trump doesn’t do ‘policy.’ Or philosophy. Or grand strategy. He does Donald Trump,” Bolton writes. And he’s not even doing such a bang-up job at that, I might add.

Billionaires, including Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, predict that data centers will be put into space within a few years, the Financial Times reports. Many space industry experts claim this is a realistic goal, but one former Musk employee told the outlet that the idea “seems to have come out of nowhere and is totally unproven.” But when has Elon ever over-promised?

Kid Rock isn’t cool with all the criticism of his faux Super Bowl halftime show: “My halftime performance was pre recorded but performed live,” he tweeted. “No lipsycing like the haters and fake news are trying to report. When they synced the cameras to my performance on Bawitdaba, it did not line up as I explain in this video.” Cool, whatever you say. Any comment on that lyric about liking underage girls?

LIGHT AT THE END… ☀️

An immigration court dismissed the Trump administration’s case against Tufts student Rumeysa Ozturk, who was detained in broad daylight after writing an op-ed in her school paper expressing pro-Palestinian views. “I breathe a sigh of relief knowing that despite the justice system’s flaws, my case may give hope to those who have also been wronged by the U.S. government,” Ozturk said.

Meta, TikTok and Snap have agreed to undergo an independent review of how their platforms affect teens’ mental health. The companies will be graded on many measures, including whether they encourage social media breaks and endless scrolling, and will receive a blue shield badge if they’re rated highly. Hey, it’s a start!

Pop star Chappell Roan dropped her talent agency, which was led by Casey Wasserman, who was cited numerous times in the Epstein files. “Artists deserve representation that aligns with their values and supports their safety and dignity,” she said in a statement. “This decision reflects my belief that meaningful change in our industry requires accountability and leadership that earns trust.”

GOP lawmakers are still hilariously butthurt by Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show. Rep Andy Ogles (R-TN) described the performance as “pure smut,” noting the “explicit displays of gay sexual acts, women gyrating provocatively, and Bad Bunny shamelessly grabbing his crotch while dry-humping the air.” He called for an investigation into the NFL’s approval of the performance. Call out the chief inspector!

A group of monks completed their walk from Texas to Washington, D.C. today, delivering a message advocating for peace and unity. “This walk is very meaningful. This walk could change our life. How many of us are willing to walk to bring world peace?” the group’s leader told thousands of onlookers in D.C.

Octogenarian hockey players started a league to compete against each other. During a USA 80+ Hockey Hall of Fame game last fall, former NHL defender Terry Harper, 86 beat Fred Merchant, 88, who still managed to score two goals. “It’s amazing the number of family members that show up from all across the country to pay tribute to Grandpa or pay tribute to Dad,” Merchant told the Washington Post. “And they get very emotional when the time comes when they’re inducted.”

An Australian artist used fossils from Kangaroo Island to create new illustrations of ancient sea creatures, which were turned into stamps across the country. The drawings are awesome.

More than 5,000 Stanford students are using DateDrop, a new dating app started by a graduate student. Here’s how it works: Students answer dozens of questions about their lifestyle and social views. An algorithm then matches people every Tuesday. Many pairs meet at a local cafe, which gives students free drinks if they show up with a match. Other college campuses are using the app now, which seems like a much more wholesome version of Facebook.