Christine Fernando, Author at The Rapid City Post

FILE - This image provided by the U.S. Department of State shows Joaquín Guzmán López after he was arrested by U.S. authorities in Texas. (U.S. Department of State via AP, File)

Son of drug kingpin ‘El Chapo’ pleads guilty in US drug trafficking case in a plea deal

December 1, 2025

One of the sons of imprisoned Mexican drug kingpin “El Chapo” has pleaded guilty to U.S. drug trafficking charges. He is the second of El Chapo’s sons facing similar charges to enter a plea deal. Prosecutors allege Joaquín Guzmán López Joaquin, along with his brother, Ovidio Guzmán López ran a faction of the Sinaloa cartel that illegally trafficked large quantities of fentanyl and other drugs into the United States. Joaquín Guzmán López previously pleaded not guilty, but on Monday pleaded guilty to two counts of drug trafficking and continuing criminal enterprise. With the plea deal, he is expected to avoid life in prison.

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Gregory Bovino arrives outside federal court in Chicago, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Court transcripts show Border Patrol official Greg Bovino dodging questions about use of force

November 26, 2025

Newly released transcripts of private interviews with a senior U.S. Border Patrol official and other authorities leading the immigration crackdown in the Chicago area reveal tense exchanges. The transcripts show leaders dodged questions about high-profile uses of force noted in a federal judge’s blistering opinion earlier this month. Greg Bovino, the Border Patrol leader behind the operation that has netted more than 3,000 arrests since September, sat for the sworn deposition over three days in late October and early November. He left Chicago this month to oversee a similar operation in North Carolina.

A bicyclist receives food from a street vendor Yulisa Robles, right, at Gage Park during Street Vendor Bike Tour Series, in Chicago, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

‘A day without fear’: Chicagoans buy out street vendors amid immigration crackdown

November 12, 2025

Across Chicago’s Latino neighborhoods, fear of a federal immigration crackdown has emptied the streets. More than 3,200 arrests have been made in the Chicago metropolitan area since the start of Operation Midway Blitz. Sales have plummeted and street corners that once bustled with paleteros, tamale vendors and fruit sellers now sit quiet. But as fear spread, so did something else — neighbors stepping up to find creative ways to help vendors and restaurant owners. One grassroots effort involves organized buyouts of every last item at shops in areas where federal agents are operating.

Law enforcement standoff with protesters outside an ICE processing facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview, Ill., Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Excessive force allegations will be the focus of a Chicago court hearing

November 4, 2025

A judge will consider how to respond to allegations that federal immigration agents in the Chicago area have used excessive force. A hearing Wednesday will follow a surge of recent court filings detailing tense encounters between agents and local residents. The preliminary injunction hearing stems from a lawsuit filed by news outlets and protesters who say agents have used too much force, including tear gas, during demonstrations. U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis has already ordered agents to wear badges and banned them from using certain riot control techniques, such as tear gas, against peaceful protesters and journalists.

A demonstrator holds a sign reading "STOP BEATING PEOPLE" near a line of law enforcement as protesters gather outside an ICE processing facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview, Ill., Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Judge hears testimony about crowded cells and overflowing toilets at Chicago-area immigration site

November 4, 2025

A judge has heard testimony about overflowing toilets, crowded cells, no beds and water that “tasted like sewer” at a Chicago-area immigration building. The building serves as a key detention spot for people rounded up in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. People who were held at Broadview testified in federal court Tuesday. Attorneys say detainees have been denied proper access to food, water and medical care. They also say people have been coerced into signing deportation papers. The government says operations are improving and conditions are not as serious as portrayed.

Protesters gather outside an ICE processing facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview, Ill., Friday, Oct. 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Court says Border Patrol official won’t have to brief judge on Chicago-area immigration sweeps

October 31, 2025

An appeals court has ruled in favor of the Trump administration and stopped a judge from trying to get daily updates from a Border Patrol official about the government’s immigration crackdown in the Chicago area. The court says the order from federal Judge Sara Ellis violated the separation of powers. Meanwhile, advocates are suing federal authorities over conditions at a Chicago-area immigration facility. The lawsuit says people held in Broadview are being denied access to lawyers and facing “inhumane” conditions. The Department of Homeland Security denies the allegations.

Chicago father of child fighting cancer released on bond by immigration judge

October 30, 2025

A Chicago man whose 16-year-old daughter is undergoing treatment for advanced cancer will be released on bond and return home, an immigration judge ruled Thursday. Attorneys for Ruben Torres Maldonado, a 40-year-old painter and home renovator who was detained Oct. 18 at a suburban Home Depot store, have petitioned for his release as his deportation case goes through the system. Judge Eva S. Saltzman on Thursday cited Torres Maldonado’s lack of criminal history while calling for his release on a $2,000 bond.

Border Patrol’s Bovino due in court for first check-in on Chicago immigration crackdown

October 29, 2025

A senior Border Patrol official is due in court for the second day in a row in the first of his daily court-mandated check-ins about the Chicago area immigration enforcement operation, which has produced more than 1,800 arrests and complaints of excessive force. A federal judge took the rare step Tuesday of ordering Greg Bovino to brief her every evening on how his agents are enforcing the law and whether they are staying within constitutional bounds. It is an unprecedented bid to impose real-time oversight on the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. Bovino is chief of the Border Patrol sector in El Centro, California, and is leading efforts in Chicago.

Greg Bovino, the chief patrol agent for the U.S. Border Patrol El Centro sector, center, walks with federal immigration agents near an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Ill., Friday, Oct. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)

Border Patrol official Bovino due in court to answer questions about Chicago immigration crackdown

October 27, 2025

Border Patrol official Greg Bovino is due in court Tuesday to take questions about a federal immigration crackdown in the Chicago area, which has produced more than 1,800 arrests and complaints of excessive force. The hearing comes after a judge this month ordered uniformed immigration agents to wear body cameras, the latest step in a lawsuit by news outlets and protesters who say federal agents used excessive force, including using tear gas, during protests. A judge last week extended questioning of Bovino to hear about agents’ recent use of force in the city’s Mexican enclave of Little Village.

A Illinois State Police officer stands outside an ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) processing facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview, Ill., Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

What to know about efforts to block National Guard deployments in Chicago, Portland, other US cities

October 21, 2025

President Donald Trump’s attempts to deploy the military in Democratic-led cities _ over the objections of mayors and governors _ has brought a head-spinning array of court challenges and overlapping rulings. As the U.S. Supreme Court ponders whether to clear the way for the National Guard in Chicago, a federal appeals court is hearing arguments in California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s challenge to the deployment of troops in Los Angeles. Guard troops could also soon be on the ground in Portland, Oregon — pending legal developments there.

A DePaul University student carries a bag of contraceptive supplies at Oz Park in Chicago on Sunday, Sept. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Heidi Zeiger)

At Catholic colleges, student activists go underground to boost access to contraception

September 29, 2025

At DePaul University, a Catholic school in Chicago, students have created a covert contraceptive delivery network called “the womb service.” The group has continued after the university banned their Planned Parenthood Generation Action chapter. Many Catholic universities restrict contraceptive access, citing religious values. Student activists who have stepped in to provide contraception argue they fill gaps in reproductive health care. DePaul prohibits the distribution of any kind of birth control on its campus and says it reserves the right to restrict the distribution of health supplies it “deems to be inappropriate from the perspective of the institution’s mission and values.”

Immigration agent who shot man in Chicago-area traffic stop says injuries were ‘nothing major’

September 23, 2025

A federal immigration agent called his injuries “nothing major” in police body camera footage released Tuesday, showing the moments after the agent shot and killed a Mexican immigrant during a traffic stop this month. Immigration officials had previously said the agent was “seriously injured” by being dragged behind a car. The local police footage was released as Chicago-area advocates and officials including Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker have called for more transparency and accountability in the case, which escalated tensions in the country’s third-largest city amid a federal immigration crackdown.

FILE - President Donald Trump holds up a signed executive order relating to clemency for anti-abortion protesters as he signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House, Jan. 23, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)

What to know about how Trump’s judicial picks could reshape abortion rights for decades

August 10, 2025

A review by The Associated Press shows that several of President Donald Trump’s nominees to the federal courts have revealed anti-abortion views, been associated with anti-abortion groups or defended abortion restrictions. Some have helped defend their state’s abortion restrictions in court and some have been involved in cases with national impact, including on access to medication abortion. Legal experts and abortion rights advocates warn of a remaking of the federal courts in a way that could pose enduring threats to abortion access nationwide.

FILE - Protesters hold competing signs outside Manhattan federal court during an abortion-rights demonstration in New York, May 14, 2022. (AP Photo/Jeenah Moon, File)

Trump has said abortion is a state issue. His judicial picks could shape it nationally for decades

August 10, 2025

Many of President Donald Trump’s picks to be federal judges have revealed anti-abortion views, been associated with anti-abortion groups or defended abortion restrictions. With Senate confirmation, they’d have lifetime appointments and be in position to roll back abortion access long after the Republican president leaves the White House. Of the 17 judicial nominees so far in Trump’s second term, an Associated Press review finds at least eight have argued in favor of abortion restrictions or against expanded abortion access. No such records could be found for the other nine, nor did the AP review find evidence that any nominees support increased access to abortion.

FILE - This frame grab from video, provided by the Mexican government, shows Ovidio Guzman Lopez being detained in Culiacan, Mexico, Oct. 17, 2019. (CEPROPIE via AP File)

Son of ‘El Chapo’ expected to plead guilty in drug trafficking case in rescheduled hearing

July 10, 2025

A son of drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is expected to plead guilty in a U.S. drug trafficking case. Court records show Ovidio Guzman Lopez plans to change his not guilty plea during a Friday hearing. Guzman Lopez was arrested in early 2023 and extradited to the U.S. He faces charges of drug trafficking, money laundering and firearms offenses. Prosecutors say he and his brother led a Sinaloa cartel faction responsible for large-scale fentanyl trafficking into the U.S. If finalized, the plea deal would make him the first of El Chapo’s sons to reach such an agreement with federal prosecutors.

Los Angeles County Sheriffs arrest a demonstrator during a protest Saturday, June 14, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)

What to know about debate over protesters and ICE agents wearing masks amid immigration crackdowns

June 23, 2025

People fearful of being arrested for wearing masks while protesting immigration raids in Los Angeles and other cities have voiced anger over Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents covering their faces. The protesters and First Amendment advocates say it’s a double standard. A senior legal adviser with the International Center for Not-For-Profit Law says at least 18 states and Washington, D.C., have laws that restrict face coverings. The center says since October 2023 at least 16 bills have been introduced in eight states and Congress to restrict masks at protests. Democratic lawmakers in California have introduced legislation aiming to stop federal agents from wearing face masks. Republican federal officials maintain masks protect agents from doxing.

FILE - Protesters confront police on the 101 Freeway near the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles, Sunday, June 8, 2025, following last night's immigration raid protest. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

How covering your face became a constitutional matter: Mask debate tests free speech rights

June 23, 2025

President Donald Trump and his Republican allies have repeatedly called for masks at protests to be banned and for protesters wearing masks to be arrested. Meanwhile, legal experts and First Amendment advocates are warning of a rising number of laws banning masks being wielded against protesters and their impacts on people’s rights to protest and privacy amid mounting surveillance. Images of protesters wearing masks alongside footage of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents covering their faces have sparked anger among protesters claiming there’s a double standard. One legal scholar says the rationale for the officers wearing masks should apply to the protesters.

Christine Fernando.