department of homeland security

February 3, 2021 - Right-wing extremists who believe the fall of American society has begun and should be hastened through racial polarization and violence played a key role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Documents filed as part of recent criminal prosecutions of accelerationists, many active in the South, reveal disturbing trends, including ties to foreign intelligence services and penetration of the U.S. military.

January 29, 2021 - Following the riot at the U.S. Capitol, the president has ordered a threat assessment on domestic terrorism, and his defense secretary has promised to purge the military of extremists. Experts who monitor hate groups say it's also critical for political leaders across the ideological spectrum to speak out against colleagues who spread falsehoods.

November 19, 2020 - A whistleblower complaint has alleged that nonconsensual hysterectomies were being performed on women held at an ICE detention facility in Georgia — and ICE is responding to the allegations by deporting the women. The mistreatment is part of a long history of medical abuses of reproductive rights in the South.

August 14, 2019 - In 2009, the Department of Homeland Security produced a report that tried to focus the nation's attention on the growing threat of right-wing domestic terrorism. Members of Congress, including several representing Southern states that have suffered domestic terror attacks, worked to bury it.

June 7, 2018 - Two Southern communities that once embraced a federal program that lets local police enforce federal immigration law signaled their rejection of it in recent sheriff elections. To see which communities have been involved in the program, we mapped state and local participants nationwide and over time.

June 1, 2017 - As the Trump administration locks up growing numbers of undocumented immigrants, they are being held in detention centers across the South where conditions are horrendous — and even deadly.

March 31, 2017 - Immigrant-welcoming local governments in the South are navigating a challenging political terrain as states in the region adopt bans on so-called "sanctuary" policies and as the federal government also moves to crack down on sanctuary communities.