Congress

DHS raids are the stuff of Rand Paul’s nightmares. What will he do about it?

Published

5 months ago

January 29, 2026

Rand Paul made his name as a gadfly preaching about the dangers of a tyrannical federal government. Now, after the killings of two Minnesota residents at the hands of Homeland Security agents, the Kentucky Republican has a chance to do something about it.

The 63-year-old, who spent years on the outskirts of the party, is now at the center of the Senate’s response to the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, which have sparked new criticism of the administration’s immigration enforcement policies and raised many of the same civil liberties questions Paul has long been asking.

As chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, he’s already forced a trio of top immigration officials to agree to testify, publicly criticized the administration’s response to the Pretti shooting and even raised the possibility Congress might step in if the administration refuses to conduct an independent investigation of that incident.

“For people to have confidence in government and confidence in law enforcement … we have to be very honest,” Paul told reporters. “I don’t think anybody in America believes he was assaulting those officers, so we have to tell the truth.”

But Paul — who is already in President Donald Trump’s doghouse as an inconsistent GOP ally — is still walking a fine line.

He repeatedly refused this week to weigh in on if Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem should leave the administration, saying he was “reserving judgment for now.” And he has also taken pains to separate himself from some of DHS’s most aggressive Democratic critics, telling reporters he is “for restoring trust in ICE” — not abolishing it.

Were Noem to depart, Paul could find himself in an especially precarious position. As chair of the Homeland Security panel, he would essentially serve as gatekeeper for the confirmation of any replacement. A single Republican defection on the committee could block any Trump nominee who does not have Democratic support.

Speaking to reporters, he connected his skepticism about the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement practices to his longstanding ideological crusade.

“I mean, it’s something I’ve been concerned with the whole time I’ve been here,” he said. “What are the rights of individuals? Who can you kill? When can you kill them? What is war? What is not war? What is due process? When do you have Fourth Amendment protections? So all these things are incredibly important.”

For now, it’s an open question as to how far he is willing to risk his political career to push back against Trump’s historically aggressive agenda — with GOP colleagues skeptical he would block a Cabinet pick.

He might not have to go to such extremes. After Paul publicly questioned why the DHS agents involved in the Pretti shooting were still on the job Tuesday, the department announced Wednesday they had been placed on leave — though no steps have been publicly taken toward the independent probe the senator is seeking.

While Paul’s skepticism of federal power, both domestically and abroad, has long made him suspect in the eyes of Trump loyalists, his decision to use his committee gavel to seek answers from DHS is earning support from fellow Republicans — many of whom are uneasy over the administration’s enforcement surge in Minnesota, even if they aren’t willing to go as far as Paul.

“Terrible — I mean, this is why there needs to be a full investigation as the president said,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), a member of the Homeland Security panel, told reporters earlier this week. “I’m a firm believer in qualified immunity for law enforcement, but qualified immunity isn’t total immunity.”

Hawley added that the Feb. 12 hearing, under Paul’s direction, would be “thorough.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who has disagreed plenty with his libertarian-leaning GOP colleague, also backed up Paul’s decision to have the hearing with the heads of ICE, Customs and Border Protection, and Citizenship and Immigration Services.

“I think it’s important,” Thune said.

Underscoring the unusual role Paul occupies in the Senate, Democrats also view him as a potential ally who might help them force answers out of top administration leaders. While the Kentucky Republican frequently clashes with Democrats, especially on fiscal matters, he’s teamed up in recent weeks on bipartisan efforts to check the president’s war and tariff powers.

Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.), another member of the Homeland panel, praised Paul’s decision to call in the administration officials to testify.

“We’ve had a number of other experiences where there have been issues that are very much on the people’s minds, and Congress and colleagues have not called in the administration,” he said in an interview. “This is a good sign from his proactive nature.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer also praised Paul as an example of a Republican who understands that “the American people demand truth and accountability right now.”

Paul, however, is making clear his concerns about the administration’s response to Saturday’s shooting aren’t personal against Trump. And there are signs his orbit is treading lightly around the Minnesota crisis.

After Pretti’s killing Saturday, Doug Stafford — Paul’s longtime chief strategist — posted on X, questioning why Border Patrol officers were in a city nowhere near the border and “when did it become illegal to carry a gun in America.”

He later deleted the post. A spokesperson for Paul’s office did not respond to a request for comment on that decision.

“[Paul is] not a partisan voice,” said Brian Darling, a lobbyist who previously worked for Paul in the Senate. “He’s somebody who is going to look at the issue and look at it from a conservative perspective. And look at it from the perspective of preserving liberty. That’s the way he analyzes issues.”

In the case of the Minnesota shooting, Darling said Paul would not simply look the other way because of his Republican colleagues.

“He’s not going to play team ball on an issue where he sees important issues like the Fourth Amendment, the Second Amendment at risk,” he added.

Often a maverick among the Senate GOP, Paul was cast aside as the party crafted Trump’s landmark domestic policy bill last year. As Homeland chair, Paul had jurisdiction over one of the legislation’s central pillars — a surge in new spending on border security.

But he clashed with the Trump administration and Senate leadership over how much to give the agencies in question. Members of his panel, at the time, suggested Paul was operating without consulting his peers.

His legislative text was rejected. Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who has a history of butting heads with Paul, instead led the drafting of the language.

As the fury mounted over Pretti’s killing Monday and Democrats started uniting around blocking funding for ICE, Paul offered a public reminder of how much funding the agency already had.

“The Senate is debating another $10B for ICE. But Congress already locked in nearly $19B a year for four years,” he wrote on X. “Even if this fails, ICE will still have about 87% more funding than last year.”

Jennifer Scholtes contributed to this report.

Congress

Congressional Black Caucus blasts Slotkin over her calls for new leadership in the House

Published

4 hours ago

June 27, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The Congressional Black Caucus is emphatically declaring its support for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries — and denouncing Sen. Elissa Slotkin’s call for new leadership in Congress.

In a statement posted to social media on Friday, the entirely Democratic CBC declared that it stands united behind the nation’s first Black minority leader of the House. The caucus accused the Michigan senator of “posturing for higher office in 2028” and called attention to her votes to approve multiple members of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet.

“House Democrats don’t need a lesson on reading the political moment from someone who handed Donald Trump one of the most corrupt Cabinets in American history,” the CBC said. “Voting to confirm Kristi Noem, Pam Bondi, and five other Trump Cabinet secretaries is not the posture of someone who understood the moment’ after 2024.”

The CBC closed its defense of Jeffries with a sharp parting shot of remaining focused on providing for Americans rather than “engaging in distractions that only serve to divide Democrats at a moment when unity and resolve are essential.”

A spokesperson for Slotkin, who has repeatedly called for a new generation of leadership in Congress, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Congress

Key Democrats urge House to reject kids’ safety proposal

Published

7 hours ago

June 26, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The Commerce Committee’s top Democrat Maria Cantwell (Wash.) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) warned House lawmakers against advancing their chamber’s version of the Kids Online Safety Act, arguing it would face intense lobbying from tech companies in the Senate and risk unraveling years of bipartisan work.

“If it is passed by the House it will come to the Senate,” Blumenthal, the bill’s Senate cosponsor, told reporters at a Friday press briefing. The Connecticut Democrat said he is concerned senators will be influenced by the tech industry’s “armies of lawyers and lobbyists” who may “confuse and exploit” misunderstandings about a House bill with the same name as a Senate version but excludes key provisions, such as the “duty of care.” (This concept requires online companies to design social media platforms with an eye for children’s safety.)

“We’re not going to let bad legislation with a good title just get across and think somebody’s done something,” Cantwell said.

The House version of KOSA — which is included in the KIDS Act, a revised bipartisan package that the Energy and Commerce Committee advanced along party lines in March — is scheduled to be considered on the House floor next week under suspension of the rules.

“We need to stop this bill in the House, and we need to prevent the White House from forming an alliance with Big Tech on this issue,” said Blumenthal, who characterized the version of KOSA that House leadership is pushing as a “sham.”

Both Democratic lawmakers also expressed concern that Senate Commerce Committee Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas) could adopt the House version of KOSA in a kids’ safety package he has yet to publicly release but has pledged to markup by August recess. Cruz said “negotiations are ongoing” earlier this week when asked by Blue Light News whether he would be open to incorporating such changes put forward in the House.

Cruz’s package is expected to include KOSA as well legislation barring companies from using minors’ personal data for targeted advertising, banning kids under age 13 from social media, and providing greater oversight for how children interact with AI chatbots.

Although Blumenthal remains hopeful that Cruz will “stay true to his first vote in favor of KOSA,” which overwhelmingly passed in the Senate last Congress, the Connecticut Democrat said Friday he’s worried Cruz and others may be tempted to “take the bait” and abandon the bill’s basic principles.

Congress

Moderates beware: Mamdani coalition portends a dramatically different Democratic Party in NYC

Published

11 hours ago

June 26, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

NEW YORK — A coalition powered by Mayor Zohran Mamdani expanded the left’s reach Tuesday, winning younger voters across racial and ethnic lines and once again upending conventional wisdom about elections in New York City.

A series of hotly contested congressional and state elections pit a slate of Mamdani-backed democratic socialists and progressives against establishment candidates who, in several cases, differed little on policy aside from U.S.-Israel relations.

The results were staggering.

Midterm election cycles in deep-blue New York City tend to be sleepy affairs. Both this year and in 2022, just over 500,000 people cast ballots, less than 20 percent of eligible voters. But turnout within a congressional district spanning Upper Manhattan and the Bronx increased by roughly 50 percent between 2022 and Tuesday, with more than 66,000 voters heading to the polls.

In another seat covering parts of Brooklyn and Queens, turnout more than doubled from 2022, though state and federal elections were held on different days that year and the seat was not competitive, which would have reduced the number of voters going to the polls.

Congressional candidates backed by the Democratic Socialists of America were able to replicate the mayor’s success by winning younger Latino voters in Brooklyn and a majority of Black voters in Harlem. Combined with the DSA’s base in relatively wealthy neighborhoods, the result charted the far left’s broadening appeal and a potential reorientation of the electorate that will influence races for years to come.

“This was a big wave for DSA and they did a good job capitalizing on it,” said Evan Roth Smith, a pollster with Slingshot Strategies. “The question now is: Was this a wave cycle that will abate, or is it the start of the takeover?”

Much of Mamdani’s base is concentrated in the so-called “commie-corridor,” a series of neighborhoods along the Brooklyn-Queens waterfront filled with young, educated and affluent voters who’ve propelled several DSA candidates into office. They went gaga over Mamdani’s candidacy and, as Tuesday’s results show, will turn out for candidates he supports.

The area was crucial to Assemblymember Claire Valdez’s crushing 56-38 defeat of Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso.

“The factor that felt most significant to me were all of these New Yorkers who got activated and politicized in the mayor’s race last year who were looking for the next fight,” said Andrew Epstein, a political adviser to Mamdani who worked on Valdez’ campaign. “Those people didn’t go away. And they want to keep going.”

Valdez also won several heavily Latino areas that were expected to break for her opponent.

Reynoso was born in Brooklyn to Dominican parents and just a few years ago was a City Council member representing Bushwick, a long-gentrifying Brooklyn neighborhood that’s home to Latino families and young hipsters. Valdez was born in Texas, moved to New York City in 2015 and served in the state Assembly for just one term before launching her Mamdani-backed bid for retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez’s seat.

She ended up winning areas of Bushwick by even greater margins than the total results — in some election districts winning upwards of 80 percent of the vote.

“You don’t win the district by 35 points if you don’t have broad advantages across age and demographic groups,” said Michael Lange, an election analyst and Mamdani supporter who has tracked several contested races with extreme granularity. “Is she blowing him out of the water with Hispanic voters under 50? I see tons of evidence that the answer is yes.”

The age advantage was the common thread across several other races.

In Upper Manhattan and the Bronx, for example, younger Black voters in Harlem were key to Darializa Avila Chevalier’s win over Rep. Adriano Espaillat, the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus who had built a small political empire in the district.

While gentrifying, the neighborhood remains a seat of Black political power and is home to younger households who tend to rent. That particular demographic is a strong indicator of why Mamdani won the area in 2025, even as he lost the Black vote overall to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, whose support was concentrated among older Black homeowners in Brooklyn and Queens.

While Espaillat never healed a rift with the Black community in upper Manhattan opened during his election in 2016, which contributed to his weak performance, Avila Chevalier demonstrated Tuesday that a significant share of voters there were not just supportive of Mamdani the person, but of the broader political movement he’s now leading.

Overall, she edged out Espaillat with Black voters 48-46, according to an analysis from The New York Times, which charted demographic breakdowns for several contested races.

Three winning congressional candidates endorsed by Mamdani — including former city Comptroller Brad Lander in Brooklyn, who unseated incumbent Dan Goldman — share several similarities. They won younger, college-educated and wealthier voters by huge margins, in several cases by 30 points or more, and lost lower-income voters to incumbents or candidates affiliated with incumbents — a sign that the movement seeking to boost struggling New Yorkers has not won them over.

While the DSA was able to win three state races without the support of Mamdani — a testament to the organizing prowess of the left that was essential to reactivating the mayor’s coalition — there were limits to the city’s leftward shift.

Rep. Grace Meng won her reelection race, though she only vanquished challenger Chuck Park by 14 points, an uncomfortable margin for an incumbent of her stature. Park, who ran to Meng’s left, was boosted by a huge turnout in Woodside, Queens, a multiethnic neighborhood that went heavily for Mamdani in last year’s mayoral race.

Elsewhere in the Bronx, however, incumbents remained strong. Rep. Ritchie Torres handily won reelection with 72 percent of the vote, though it was a low-turnout affair more consistent with an uncompetitive midterm. Nevertheless, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries touted the results — even as he watched a series of his endorsed candidates fall to the DSA in Brooklyn, his home borough, in a preview of the intraparty battles to come.

“In some higher-income districts, there was an outsized focus on the Middle East. In other districts, for instance, in the South Bronx, Ritchie Torres ran against somebody who was heavily critical of his position on Israel, and he won by fifty points,” Jeffries told MS NOW on Wednesday.