By McKenzie Romero | Editor
While court filings have confirmed the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is looking to sell the high-priced warehouse it bought in Salt Lake City rather than turn it into an immigrant detention facility, immigration authorities are still at work in Utah.
New data shows U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested at least 613 people in Utah in June, more than any other month in President Donald Trump’s second term. Immigration attorneys are raising alarms about where those encounters are happening.
In today’s Dispatch we update you on recent ICE actions in the state, why the national debate over voting by mail isn’t expected to impact Utah this November, and how Americans feel about new Canadian tariffs.
“The ICE officers gave him the chance to kind of stick his head out to the curb to let his wife know he was being detained, right? And then they took him in.” — Utah immigration attorney Christopher Vizcardo on a client’s arrest at the airport as he returned from a business trip.
Travelers move through Salt Lake International Airport in Salt Lake City on Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
By Annie Knox
As it tries to hit a goal of 2,000 arrests per day, the Trump administration is using new tactics, such as detaining more people at airports, including immigrants whose visas expired while their applications for legal status were still pending.
They include one of attorney Christopher Vizcardo’s clients, detained at the baggage claim at Salt Lake City International Airport after returning from a business trip. A client of another attorney was arrested after ICE officers attempted to stop him at a gas station, then followed him into his garage in Salt Lake City’s Rose Park neighborhood, seemingly without a warrant.
Ballots await processing at the Salt Lake County Government Center in Salt Lake City on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
By Katie McKellar
Though recent federal rulings have cast uncertainty over voting by mail with Utah’s November general elections around the corner, clerks in the state — at least for now — are preparing for business as usual.
An executive order from President Donald Trump and a U.S. Postal Service rule would restrict delivery or collection of by-mail ballots from people who haven’t been confirmed as eligible voters, along with other regulations. Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson said on social media that allowing the rule to take effect would be an “unmitigated disaster.”
Shipping containers sit at Malcolm Transfer Station in Minneapolis on March 21, 2026. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)
DC BUREAU
By Ashley Murray
A developing trade war with Canada could bite Republicans ahead of the upcoming midterm elections as voters worry about rising prices and industries in states with competitive races could suffer.
Maine’s lobster industry dodged what officials had warned could be economic havoc when Canada reversed its decision to tax lobster imports at 25%. But states including Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Michigan and Wisconsin could see effects if Canada follows through on retaliatory tariffs on alcohol, automobiles, dairy, home appliances, steel and other goods.
RECENT DISPATCHES
MORE UTAH NEWS
Thanks for reading Your Daily Dispatch. Did you know our weekend digest is also free? Sign up here. And if you enjoyed today’s edition, please forward to a friend. Increasing our readership helps us cover more news.