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NEWS ROUNDUP

Minnesota protests | Farmworkers | Marching for immigrant rights

Friday, January 23, 2026

 

LOCAL

► From the Spokesman Review — Border patrol detains 10-year-old Spokane girl and her dad, sends them to Texas detention center — After seeing 10-year-old Karla Tiul Baltazar off to her class, Tiul Caal didn’t make it back to their nearby apartment before he was stopped by federal immigration agents, detained and taken to a Border Patrol office in North Spokane…He has an active asylum case and a court date for 2027, a valid work permit and a Social Security number, Herrera said…Agents allowed Tiul Caal to pick Karla up from school and told him to come back the next day, Herrera said. He signed papers saying he would leave the country voluntarily. But Herrera said he was coerced. “He says, ‘They’re going to come and get me and they threatened me, they said they would separate me from my daughter if I didn’t go,’ ” Herrera said.

► From Oregon Live — ICE detains family seeking emergency care for child at Portland hospital — The arrest at Adventist Health hospital Jan. 16 took place less than 1,000 feet from the medical office parking lot where a Border Patrol agent shot and wounded a couple from Venezuela two weeks ago. It appears to be the first time in Oregon that Trump administration immigration authorities have detained an entire family unit, and is one of a few rare cases of immigrants being detained while seeking medical care.

 

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From SEIU Local 925:

► From Capital & Main — On Eve of Strike, Kaiser Nurses Sound Alarm on Patient Care — A stinging new report from a union stuck in going-nowhere labor negotiations with health giant Kaiser Permanente makes clear the union’s position: Kaiser, sitting on $67 billion in reserves, can well afford to address glaring staffing shortages and close pay gaps that the union says were years in the making. Will the report move the needle in negotiations? Not likely. And that almost certainly means that a massive employee walkout against Kaiser, the second such job strike in four months, will go off as planned on Jan. 26.

 

NATIONAL

► From the AP — Minnesota gears up for a mass anti-immigration enforcement protest despite the dangerous cold — Organizers said Friday morning that more than 700 businesses across the state have closed for the day in solidarity with the protest — from a bookstore in tiny Grand Marais near the Canadian border to the landmark Guthrie Theater in downtown Minneapolis.

► From the Guardian — ICE protests: Minnesotans urged not to work or shop in economic blackout over surge of immigration agents – live — A “no work, no school, no shopping” blackout day of protest was kicked off by community leaders, faith leaders and labor unions on Friday in protest against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) surge in the state…“We are going to be having dangerously cold weather on Friday – -10F with wind chills. Like the high is going to be -10F with wind chills of up to -20F,” Chelsie Glaubitz Gabiou, president of the Minnesota Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, told the Guardian. “We are a northern state, and we are built for the cold, and we are going to show up, but folks are going to need to pay attention to not just the march, but what people are doing, the individual stories of solidarity that people are going to be doing.”

► From the AFL-CIO:

► From SEIU:

 

POLITICS & POLICY

► From the Stranger — State Bills Bring Farmworkers to the Table –President of the Washington State Labor Council April Sims led off Tuesday’s Senate testimony with a history lesson. She reminded the crowd that while the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 gave nearly all workers in the US the right to organize and collectively bargain for better working conditions, it specifically excluded agricultural work that was typically performed by Black, Latino, and Asian American workers. “You have a chance to both empower the farm families who supply our food and to correct this historic injustice,” Sims said.

Editor’s note: Read more labor reporting from Conor Kelley on his Substack

► From KOMO — Hundreds march on Capitol Steps in Olympia demanding immigrant protections — More than 500 people marched to the Capitol Steps in Olympia on Thursday to support Washington’s immigrant communities and demand more protections from the Washington State Legislature…”Yes, there’s fear. Yes, there’s anxiety. Yes, there’s uncertainty. And our communities are also hungry to take action,” said Brenda Rodriguez, one of WAISN’s executive directors.

► From KUOW — The Trump administration admits even more ways DOGE accessed sensitive personal data — DOGE team members also circumvented IT rules to improperly share data on outside servers, sent a password-protected file of private records to DOGE affiliates outside the agency and had the ability to see data even after a judge temporarily halted access. In acknowledging the breaches, the Social Security Administration also repeatedly indicated it still has little knowledge of what data was shared and offers little insight into how those incidents occurred.

► From the Spokesman Review — Spokane officials look for grace from Washington lawmakers on energy-generating trash incinerator — “We’re asking for time to work on solutions to ensure that our ratepayers are not burdened with increased costs,” state rep. Natasha Hill, D-Spokane, told The Spokesman-Review Tuesday. “At the same time, we want to work with our environmental groups to make more commitments in terms of having a little bit more certainty in terms of where we’re going by 2050.” The facility is the only of its kind in the state, burning the city’s garbage and using the heat produced to generate enough electricity to power 11,000 homes.

► From KGW — Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez one of 7 House Democrats to vote yes on DHS funding bill — Along with Gluesenkamp Perez, the seven Democrats who voted to fund DHS included Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez of Texas; Jared Golden of Maine; Don Davis of North Carolina; and Laura Gillen and Tom Suozzi of New York. Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky was the only Republican to vote no.

► From the Washington State Standard — State senator is latest Republican to join central WA congressional race — Republican state Sen. Matt Boehnke announced Thursday he is forgoing reelection and entering this year’s race to succeed retiring Republican Congressman Dan Newhouse in central Washington…Boehnke said if he gets through this year’s primary in August, he will reach out to the president. “I voted for the man three times,” he said. And, Boehnke said Trump deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for his influential role in the change in power in Syria and cessation of violence in Gaza between Israel and Hamas. One Democrat is mounting a bid for the 4th District seat so far: John Duresky, a retired Air Force officer who also worked at the Hanford nuclear cleanup site. Devin Poore, a tech consultant, has launched a campaign as an independent.

► From the Seattle Times — Seattle Mayor Wilson shakes up department leadership — Wilson has already received some pushback for her early staffing decisions, particularly at Seattle City Light. On Tuesday, employees of the department and members of the unions representing city and electrical workers testified before City Council expressing frustration with Wilson’s decision to fire Dawn Lindell. Wilson named Dennis McLerran, former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator for the Pacific Northwest region, as Lindell’s replacement. Nevertheless, MLK Labor, the coalition of King County unions, is expected to take up a resolution this week calling on Wilson to conduct an open search and to include union members.

 

JOLT OF JOY (& JUSTICE)

There’s nothing like a well-told story. Josh Johnson is a talented comic and even more powerful storyteller: “It’s important to remember you can choose family, you can choose the people you stick your neck out for, you can choose the people you protect…As much as you can do, you do it and you make a better world.”

Put this video on while you’re cooking dinner tonight. It’s a slow burn, but I promise it’s worth it.

The Stand posts links to local, national and international labor news every weekday morning. Subscribe to get daily news in your inbox. 

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