Today in one sentence: Congressional Democrats sent the White House a new counterproposal to reopen the Department of Homeland Security after the agency’s funding lapsed Saturday; an 18-year-old man was arrested near the U.S. Capitol after exiting a white Mercedes SUV and running toward the building carrying a loaded shotgun; Senate Republicans have lined up at least 50 votes for the Trump-backed SAVE America Act, which would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote and mandate photo ID nationwide; the U.S. military destroyed three small boats in the Eastern Pacific and Caribbean, killing all 11 people aboard; Stephen Colbert said CBS lawyers stopped him from airing an interview with Texas state Rep. James Talarico, a Democrat running for U.S. Senate; a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to restore slavery-related exhibits that the National Park Service removed from the site in Philadelphia where George Washington lived as president; Rev. Jesse Jackson, the civil rights leader who helped define Black political power after Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination and twice ran for president, died; 39% of Americans approve of Trump’s job performance with 56% disapproving; and 38% of Americans approve Trump’s immigration policies – the lowest level since his return to the White House and down from 50% from a year ago.

1/ Congressional Democrats sent the White House a new counterproposal to reopen the Department of Homeland Security after the agency’s funding lapsed Saturday. Democrats have demanded new limits on ICE and Customs and Border Protection, including a ban on agents wearing masks, mandatory body cameras, and stricter judicial warrant requirements. The White House, however, said the sides remained “pretty far apart.” Even with DHS currently unfunded, operations tied to immigration enforcement, however, are expected to continue largely unaffected because ICE has separate funding from last year’s “One Big Beautiful Bill.” (CNBC / New York Times / The Hill / Politico)

  • The Department of Homeland Security’s assistant secretary for public affairs and one of the Trump administration’s biggest defenders of its immigration crackdown is leaving the agency. Tricia McLaughlin said the administration’s DHS work produced “historic accomplishments” and that she looked forward to “continuing the fight ahead,” while Hakeem Jeffries welcomed her departure, calling her a “MAGA extremist.” Lauren Bis, McLaughlin’s deputy, will replace her, and Katie Zacharia is expected to join the public affairs office in a senior role. (Politico / Axios / New York Times / NPR)

  • Internal ICE emails showed top officials were warned last spring that reported use of force had spiked nationwide, months before the Minneapolis shootings. The records, released through a FOIA request, described 67 force incidents in Trump’s first two months in office – up from 17 a year earlier. DHS still said agents show “incredible restraint.” (Politico)

  • Federal judges have ruled at least 4,421 times since October that ICE detained immigrants unlawfully, yet the Trump administration kept many locked up anyway. Detainees have filed more than 20,200 habeas lawsuits since Trump took office, flooding courts and forcing the Justice Department to deploy more than 700 lawyers, with some judges saying release orders were ignored. (Reuters)

  • A federal judge barred ICE from re-detaining Kilmar Abrego Garcia, saying the government had no lawful basis to hold him while it keeps shopping for a deportation destination. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis said the 90-day detention window had expired and the government had shown no “good reason to believe” removal was likely “in the reasonably foreseeable future.” (CNN / Associated Press)

2/ An 18-year-old man was arrested near the U.S. Capitol after exiting a white Mercedes SUV and running toward the building carrying a loaded shotgun. Officers drew their weapons, ordered him to drop the gun, and took him into custody after he complied. Police said the man was wearing a “tactical” vest and gloves, and extra ammunition on him. Officers also found a Kevlar helmet and a gas mask in his vehicle, which wasn’t registered to him. Investigators have not identified a motive and are trying to determine where the suspect came from. (Axios / Associated Press / Reuters / CNN / CNBC)

3/ Senate Republicans have lined up at least 50 votes for the Trump-backed SAVE America Act, which would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote and mandate photo ID nationwide. The measure passed the House last week, but still needs 60 votes in the Senate to clear a filibuster. Democrats have vowed to block it, and Republican leaders have said they don’t have the votes to eliminate the filibuster. Trump, meanwhile, warned he would act without Congress, writing: “There will be Voter I.D. for the Midterm Elections, whether approved by Congress or not!” He added, “If we can’t get it through Congress […] I will be presenting them shortly, in the form of an Executive Order.” He claimed he had “searched the depths of Legal Arguments” for an “irrefutable” case. Legal scholars, however, said such an order would likely be struck down, citing a federal judge’s recent injunction against a similar Trump election order. (NBC News / Politico / Democracy Docket / ABC News / CNBC / The Hill / New York Times)

4/ The U.S. military destroyed three small boats in the Eastern Pacific and Caribbean, killing all 11 people aboard. U.S. Southern Command said “intelligence confirmed” the boats operated by “designated terrorist organizations,” and called those killed as “male narco-terrorists,” but it didn’t release evidence supporting the claims. The five-month campaign of air strikes on boats has killed at least 135 people. Some lawmakers have questioned the campaign’s legality because the U.S. is not in a congressionally authorized war with drug cartels. (NBC News / New York Times / The Hill / CNN)

  • Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the Army to remove Col. Dave Butler, a veteran public affairs officer who previously served as Gen. Mark Milley’s spokesman. Butler chose retirement instead. (Washington Post / New York Times

5/ Stephen Colbert said CBS lawyers stopped him from airing an interview with Texas state Rep. James Talarico, a Democrat running for U.S. Senate, warning “in no uncertain terms” that the guest “could not have him on the broadcast.” CBS, however, said it didn’t ban the segment, but advised that airing it on air could trigger FCC equal-time obligations for at least two other candidates and offered “options” to satisfy them. Colbert instead posted the interview on “The Late Show” YouTube channel, telling viewers, “I decided to take [FCC Chair] Brendan Carr’s advice,” because the rule “applies only to broadcast TV.” Meanwhile, the FCC’s only Democratic commissioner, Anna Gomez, called CBS’s move “corporate capitulation” as Paramount, CBS’s parent, “has regulatory matters before the government.” (The Hollywood Reporter / Deadline / New York Times / Axios / CNBC / Associated Press / Mother Jones)

6/ A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to restore slavery-related exhibits that the National Park Service removed from the site in Philadelphia where George Washington lived as president. U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe issued a preliminary injunction requiring the President’s House be returned to its physical status as of January 21, rejecting the government’s claim that it could unilaterally alter the displays under Trump’s executive order, “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” Rufe said the removals likely violated federal law and cooperative agreements requiring consultation with the city, comparing the administration’s position to Orwell’s “1984” and writing that the government couldn’t “dissemble and disassemble historical truths” simply because it has power. The ruling keeps the panels in place while litigation brought by Philadelphia proceeds.(Philadelphia Inquirer / Washington Post / CNN / Associated Press / Politico)

7/ Rev. Jesse Jackson, the civil rights leader who helped define Black political power after Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination and twice ran for president, died Tuesday at 84. He had lived for years with Parkinson’s disease and later progressive supranuclear palsy, a rare neurodegenerative disorder. He built a national profile through Operation Breadbasket, Operation PUSH and the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, mixing voter-registration drives, corporate pressure campaigns and high-profile appearances during unrest where he urged nonviolence. (New York Times / Wall Street Journal / Washington Post)

poll/ 39% of Americans approve of Trump’s job performance with 56% disapproving. 49% called Trump “corrupt,” 47% called him “racist,” and 46% called him “cruel,” while roughly 23% rejected those labels and about 30% had no opinion. (Axios)

poll/ 38% of Americans approve Trump’s immigration policies – the lowest level since his return to the White House and down from 50% from a year ago. (Reuters)

The 2026 midterms are in 259 days; the 2028 presidential election is in 994 days.