ICE never stopped working with the Iranian government.
The United States bombed Iran in 2025 and went to war with it in February. Through all of it, two ICE officials testified last month, they kept dealing with Iranian diplomats to arrange passports and flights for the people they wanted to deport.
Before dawn today, ICE loaded at least nine jailed Iranians onto a charter jet in Mesa, Arizona, for a flight to Pakistan and a handoff to Iran. The plane turned back after 30 minutes, ending ICE’s second failed try in three days. A lawyer for the jailed Iranians says some of the nine belong to groups targeted by their government, which killed thousands of protesters in January.
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ICE’s investigative arm estimates in a court filing it has issued at least 185,000 subpoenas without a judge’s sign-off since Trump took office, WIRED reports.
Today’s GovBrief News
Defense Secretary Hegseth claims “a historic military victory” over Iran the same day an attack damages a UAE state oil company vessel in Emirati waters.
Source: ABC News
November 10, 2026Details
Treasury Secretary Bessent, who leads the sanctions campaign against Iran, moves onto a military base after Iranian threats on his life, the New York Times reports.
Source: Newsweek
November 10, 2026Details
House Oversight Republicans’ Epstein report says Trump is not implicated, faults his Justice Department for exposing survivors’ personal information, and urges it to reinterview witnesses.
Source: NPR
November 10, 2026Details
Trump nominates an aide to departed Justice Department civil rights chief Dhillon to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which would lock in Republican control through mid-2029.
Source: HR Dive
November 10, 2026Details
Trump administration taps the Housing Department’s fair housing chief, Craig Trainor, as acting head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, replacing Dhillon, POLITICO reports.
Source: Politico
November 10, 2026Details
Appeals court blocks firing of Voice of America’s director, ruling only the advisory board Trump stripped of six of seven members can remove him.
Source: Courthouse News Service
November 10, 2026Details
Trump-appointed federal judge lets Trump’s $10B defamation suit against the BBC proceed, saying its splice of remarks nearly 55 minutes apart was “creating something different.”
Source: The Guardian
November 10, 2026Details
ICE flight deporting Iranians to Iran through Pakistan during the war turns back to Arizona midair after Pakistan refuses them, the New York Times reports.
Source: The New York Times [gift link]
November 10, 2026Details
ICE hired at least 19 officers with past misconduct allegations, criminal charges, or other red flags, a Washington Post review of about 300 hires finds.
Source: The Washington Post
November 10, 2026Details
House Minority Leader Jeffries, the likely next speaker, calls Trump’s new chief of staff, Stephen Miller, a “stone-cold racist” and rules out working with him.
Source: The Washington Post [gift link]
November 10, 2026Details
House Republicans shelve the impeachment of Defense Secretary Hegseth 211-204 as 11 Democrats miss the vote, with sponsor Rep. Massie the only Republican opposed.
Source: Axios
November 10, 2026Details
Republicans elect Senate Majority Leader Thune and House Judiciary Chairman Jordan minority leaders a week after losing Congress, with Jordan defeating House Majority Leader Scalise.
Source: Reuters
November 10, 2026Details
Family firm of a pardoned Venezuelan billionaire fires former Trump lawyer Alina Habba after Trump calls her $10M-a-year deal “not acceptable,” the New York Times reports.
Source: The Independent
November 10, 2026Details
Anne Arundel County, Maryland, puts vending machines in two social services lobbies offering free overdose-reversal drug naloxone, fentanyl test strips, masks, and COVID-19 tests.
Source: Report Annapolis
November 10, 2026Details
Nine Kennedy family members ask a federal judge to block Trump’s 250-foot arch, saying its shadow would fall on their relatives’ graves at Arlington Cemetery.
Source: ARLnow
November 10, 2026Details