'Flood' of ICE agents is coming to cities run by Democrats, according to the White House
On Tuesday’s episode of The Excerpt podcast: Paste BN National Correspondent Trevor Hughes breaks down what the White House is saying about ICE agents heading to 'sanctuary cities.' A former Louisville police officer has been sentenced to 33 months in prison for violating the civil rights of Breonna Taylor. Harvard and the Trump administration face off in court. The administration releases files related to the MLK assassination. Paste BN NFL Reporter Chris Bumbaca discusses President Trump's comments about reverting to the former name of the Washington Commanders football team. Plus, how are Indigenous groups and Commanders fans responding?
Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
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Taylor Wilson:
Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Tuesday, July 22nd, 2025. This is Paste BN's The Excerpt. Today what the White House is saying about ICE agents coming to sanctuary cities. Plus Trump-Harvard tensions play out in court, and how the president is pushing for a return to the former name of the Washington Commander's football team.
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The White House is warning that a flood of ICE agents is coming to cities run by Democrats. I spoke with Paste BN national correspondent, Trevor Hughes, to learn more. Trevor, thanks for joining me.
Trevor Hughes:
You bet.
Taylor Wilson:
All right, so what did we hear from White House Borders czar, Tom Homan, about plans for Democrat-run cities and Trevor, why does he feel this is necessary?
Trevor Hughes:
Tom Homan is basically saying they're going to flood the zone. Cities like Denver or Los Angeles, Boston, they have a reputation as sanctuary cities where, in particular, jails do not help ICE agents when they have someone who has been detained, who is accused of an immigration violation. And the administration has been pushing for a long time to say these people should be kept in custody until ICE can come and collect them. They're instead being released. And so ICE says, fine, we will send more people onto the streets in these so-called sanctuary cities.
Taylor Wilson:
Trevor, what role has Congress had recently in expanding immigration enforcement?
Trevor Hughes:
Congress has given the Homeland Security just billions and billions of dollars in additional funding. I mean, there is funding for 100,000 detention beds, 10,000 new ICE agents, bonuses for ICE agents. Really, we are looking at a significant transformation in how immigration enforcement is conducted in this country because of the money given by Congress to Homeland Security and ICE.
Taylor Wilson:
And can you help us just put the size of the current ICE budget in context for us a little bit, Trevor?
Trevor Hughes:
You've probably seen this on your social media feeds. There's a question about who calculates it and how. We're really talking about a law enforcement agency that now has a budget bigger than the FBI, bigger than the Bureau of Prisons, bigger than the US Marshals service, all combined. ICE is going to be an absolutely enormous law enforcement agency with powers all over the country.
Taylor Wilson:
Well, as for these plans for some of these sanctuary cities, what are migrant rights groups worried about here, Trevor?
Trevor Hughes:
There is an increasing concern about the sort of due process and civil rights of folks who are being detained. And we've all seen the videos of ICE agents running across farm fields, running through car washes, running through parking lots at Home Depot, grabbing people sort of willy-nilly. Now, the administration would argue that those sort of extreme tactics are necessary to detain the people that President Trump accuses of invading America. But there are a lot of concerns from civil rights advocates that the way it's being done is extremely dangerous and very unfair.
Taylor Wilson:
We've seen some recent polling numbers showing an apparent shift among at least some Americans on immigration issues. Trevor. How so? Can you break some of those numbers down?
Trevor Hughes:
Absolutely. We're seeing Americans less and less enamored with how President Trump is conducting these immigration raids. It's important to remember that the president swept into office promising this very, very harsh immigration crackdown, and he's making good on those promises. And I'll tell you, the folks that I've talked to who supported him, they are really, really excited to see that. But the polls are showing that the sort of middle ground, the Americans who wanted to see tougher immigration enforcement, are a little concerned that things are too extreme, too aggressive, right? We keep hearing, "Well, I thought that they were going to deport criminals, not my neighbor." That's sort of what we're seeing a trend happening in the country now.
Taylor Wilson:
Trevor Hughes is a national correspondent with Paste BN. Thank you, Trevor.
Trevor Hughes:
You bet.
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Taylor Wilson:
A former Louisville police officer has been sentenced to 33 months in prison for violating the civil rights of Breonna Taylor, the 26-year-old black woman who was killed during a botched raid on her home and whose death sparked nationwide demonstrations for equality. The sentence defied a last minute request from federal prosecutors that Brett Hankison received only a one-day sentence. In March of 2020, the then officer fired 10 rounds into Taylor's apartment, three of which traveled into an adjacent unit. None of the rounds fired by Hankison hit Taylor or any neighbors, but he was charged with violating their civil rights in 2022. His first trial on those charges ended in a mistrial, but in November, a second federal jury convicted him of violating Taylor's civil rights while acquitting him of violating the rights of her neighbors.
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Harvard and the Trump administration faced off in court yesterday. The school urged a federal judge to order the administration to restore about $2.5 billion dollars in canceled federal grants and stop efforts to cut off research funding to the prestigious Ivy League institution. But a lawyer for the Trump administration told the judge the canceled grants reflect a government priority not to send money to institutions that practice anti-Semitism. The hearing ended without a ruling, but marked a crucial moment in the White House's escalating conflict with Harvard, which has been in the administration's crosshairs after it rejected a list of demands to make changes to its governance, hiring, and admissions practices in April. The university says that hundreds of research projects, including some related to cancer treatment, infectious diseases, and Parkinson's would be in jeopardy unless the judge declares the grant cancellations unlawful. You can read more with the link in today's show notes.
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The Trump administration yesterday released a trove of records surrounding the 1968 assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Over 240,000 pages of records have been made available on the website of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. The D.C.-based agency says the release is in response to an executive order from Trump's White House dating back to January. King's family objected to the release saying the FBI's surveillance of the progressive leader was tainted by the agency's political bent at the time. Documents related to the King assassination are the latest materials to be made public through that January executive order that also called for the release of materials related to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy. Files related to the JFK assassination were released in March.
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President Trump is threatening to derail the Washington Commander's pending football stadium deal unless the team restores its old name. He posted on Truth Social Sunday writing "I may put a restriction on them that if they don't change the name back to the original Washington Redskins and get rid of their ridiculous moniker, Washington Commanders. I won't make a deal for them to build a stadium in Washington." I caught up with Paste BN NFL reporter, Chris Bumbaca, to put those comments in context. Chris, thanks for hopping on.
Chris Bumbaca:
Yeah, thanks so much for having me.
Taylor Wilson:
All right, so what is President Trump saying here about the Washington Commander's name and even these stadium plans?
Chris Bumbaca:
What has become a bit of a talking point for the president throughout the month of July has been this idea that the commanders have to change their name back to the former, what is considered to be racist one pre-2020, before they spent two years as the Washington Football Team and then prior to the '22 season became re-branded formally as the Washington Commanders. President Trump is saying that they should return to that former-former nickname in order for the deal that they have agreed to with parts of the local D.C. government to move back to what was their former stadium home from 1961 to 1996 at RFK Stadium along the Anacostia River in D.C. And there's a large economic plan to revitalize what has become a barren area of the city.
Taylor Wilson:
Chris, does he actually have the power to influence this?
Chris Bumbaca:
That is one of the questions being considered right now because Congress passed the law earlier this year, signed into law by President Biden, after both parties of Congress worked throughout 2024 to pass what allowed the local D.C government to gain control of the lands over a 99-year lease because that land was formerly owned by the federal government and the National Park Service. But that transfer was completed formally earlier this year. So it's a question of how much power the federal government still has in a place where the federal government is technically in charge.
Taylor Wilson:
Have we heard from the Commander's team itself or the National Football League as it pertains to this?
Chris Bumbaca:
As of Monday evening, both the commanders and the league have remained quiet on this issue. This is something that they definitely don't want to be dealing with as training camp opens this week for many teams across the league, including the Commanders. But it's a definite surprise to them, I would say, because just two-and-a-half months ago, managing partner of the Commanders, Josh Harris and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell are standing in the Oval Office with Donald Trump as he's announcing that the NFL Draft is going to take place in the nation's capitol in 2027. So what was seen as a marriage between the NFL and Trump, which was definitely not the case during his first term, is already taking a turn here. So it's an interesting thing to monitor because how much this president tries to insert himself into the culture of sports in this country.
Taylor Wilson:
Chris, how is all this landing within the Commander's fan base?
Chris Bumbaca:
It's an interesting question because Paste BN had sent reporters out into the field Monday, and for the most part, the name change is one thing. The nickname is so ancillary to the community that sports builds for all of us. That's why we're okay when our team names are called silly things like Badgers or Bangles or things like that. It doesn't really matter what the name is. What matters is that it brings us together. So the message from people that we spoke to is that the name is the name, but President Trump stay out of the business that does not involve you anymore because this is a local D.C. issue.
Taylor Wilson:
Well, Chris, there was so much pushback against the former team name. I mean, have we heard from indigenous advocates about any of this this week?
Chris Bumbaca:
Yes, we have. Jacqueline De León, the senior staff attorney for the Native American Rights Fund, said Native Americans are being used as tools for a distraction. That's very disrespectful to the pain and suffering imposed on native people by inaccurately depicting our culture. So I think once again, Donald Trump is trying to find something to rile up his base, to score points with his base, as he faces some political pushback from the Jeffrey Epstein files release fiasco that he's found himself embroiled in. So I think this is a thing where Trump considers himself a master of distraction and how to use people's attention spans for good or for worse, depending on one's viewpoint. But I think that's kind of how this has all gone down.
Taylor Wilson:
Chris, you follow this lead closely. Where do you see this conversation going next?
Chris Bumbaca:
The team name is never going to change back to what it was. I think that's really important for people to understand. There are fans of a certain age who have such an affinity to it and such great memories attached to it, but the name is never going back. But in 2020 because of the financial pressures placed on the team by corporate partners, it became the necessary thing and the forward-thinking thing.
Taylor Wilson:
Chris Bumbaca covers the NFL for Paste BN Sports. Thanks for the insight, Chris.
Chris Bumbaca:
Thank you.
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Taylor Wilson:
Thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your audio, and as always, you can email us at podcasts@usatoday.com. We have a link to that email address in today's show notes. I'll be back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from Paste BN.