A Surge of Children in ICE Detention, and Meta’s Plans for Facial Recognition

Summary

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Podcast Summary: The Headlines – February 13, 2026

Podcast: The Headlines
Host: Tracy Mumford (The New York Times)
Episode Title: A Surge of Children in ICE Detention, and Meta’s Plans for Facial Recognition
Date: February 13, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode delivers a fast-paced roundup of top news stories, focusing especially on sweeping immigration enforcement actions in Minnesota, the rise of children in ICE detention, and controversy around Meta’s plans to introduce facial recognition technology into its smart glasses. Other highlights include President Trump’s major environmental rollback, the removal and restoration of a Pride flag at Stonewall, new dementia research linked to coffee, and lighter news about enhanced sporting events and love songs.

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Key Stories and Insights

1. ICE Immigration Operations in Minnesota and Across the Nation

• Aggressive Federal Enforcement in Minnesota:
  The Trump Administration, led by border czar Tom Homan, announced a wind-down of a "surge operation" in Minnesota involving thousands of ICE officers, resulting in widespread fear, disruption, and two fatal shootings by agents.

  • [00:41] Tracy Mumford: “The unprecedented deployment ... led to widespread clashes with residents and two fatal shootings by federal agents.”

• Impact on Local Communities:
  Times reporter Talia Minsberg describes the tense atmosphere and coping mechanisms in Twin Cities neighborhoods.

  • [01:33] Talia Minsberg:
    • “You could see people volunteering to stand outside of daycares and elementary schools and high schools in neon vests, looking out for ICE.”
    • “You would hear these incessant whistles anytime ICE vehicles drove by.”
    • “A lot of people are grocery shopping for friends, neighbors, people who may be hiding in their homes…”
    • “I talked to a lot of people who ... felt that they were looking in their rearview mirror a whole lot.”

• Effects and Uncertainty:
  Minnesota Governor Tim Walz urges continued vigilance even as the White House claims to be ending large-scale deployments.

  • [02:29] Tracy Mumford: “Walls said the state was in a trust but verify phase, waiting to see if the operations do actually end. He told residents ... to remain, quote, hypervigilant.”

• Ongoing Detentions Nationwide:
  ICE “surge teams” arrested more than 600 people in small towns in West Virginia; a federal agent incident in Oregon sparked alarm.

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2. Conditions in ICE Detention Centers—Children and Families

• Rising Number of Children Detained:
  Hundreds of children, typically detained with family, are being held for days or months at Texas’s Dilley detention center, often with inadequate education and medical care.

  • [03:15] Tracy Mumford: “Children often lose weight and get sick. Some have had panic attacks and even become suicidal.”

• Federal Response:
  Homeland Security defends living conditions and offers cash and free flights for voluntary departure—but many families refuse due to pending immigration cases or fear of return.

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3. Looming Government Shutdown Over Immigration Policy Deadlock

• Funding Crisis:
  Congressional failure to reach a deal means a limited government shutdown of DHS and related agencies is imminent, with ICE and border agents expected to continue without pay if it happens.
  • [04:27] Tracy Mumford: “The lapsed funding will affect several agencies that fall under DHS ... Though during the last government shutdown in the fall, many federal employees ... continued to work without pay.”

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4. Trump Administration Rolls Back Federal Authority on Climate Change

• Repeal of Endangerment Finding:
  The administration nullified the Obama-era Endangerment Finding, slashing federal legal authority to regulate greenhouse gases and enabling rollbacks in emissions standards.

  • [05:17] Tracy Mumford: “Getting rid of that finding basically ends the federal government’s legal authority to cap pollution that’s heating the planet.”
  • [05:01] Trump Administration Official: “This is a big one. If you’re into the environment, this is about as big as it gets, they tell me.”

• Industry Wins, Environmental Setbacks:
  The rollback is celebrated by fossil fuel interests, which have heavily funded Trump’s campaign; expected savings for manufacturers trumpeted by the EPA.

  • [05:45] Tracy Mumford: “It also marks a major success for the oil and gas industry, which has spent years trying to stop the country from transitioning to renewable energy.”

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5. Pride Flag Re-Raised at Stonewall Monument After Federal Removal

• Context:
  Trump-era Interior Department guidance led to the removal of the rainbow flag at Stonewall; local officials restored it amid broader federal efforts to police language and symbols at national sites.
  • [06:53] Tracy Mumford: “A crowd gathered at Stonewall National Monument to put a pride flag back up after it was removed following a directive from the Trump administration.”

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6. Meta Plans Facial Recognition for Smart Glasses

• Quiet Resurgence of Facial Recognition:
  Meta (formerly Facebook) is preparing to introduce facial recognition to its Ray-Ban and Oakley smart glasses, sparking privacy concerns.
  • [08:24] Tracy Mumford: “The Times has learned that Meta ... is planning to add a facial recognition feature to its smart glasses after scrapping previous plans amid privacy concerns.”
  • Internal docs suggest the timing is influenced by political distraction, anticipating less scrutiny from civil society groups.
  • [09:12] Leaked Internal Document (via Tracy Mumford): "We will launch during a dynamic political environment where many civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns."
  • Meta responds that it will “take a thoughtful approach” if/when rolling out the feature.

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7. New Study Links Coffee/Tea Consumption to Lower Dementia Risk

• Research Findings:
  A large, decades-long study links moderate coffee (2-3 cups) or tea (1-2 cups) consumption to lower dementia risk—though the effect plateaus and causality is not proven.
  • [09:45] Tracy Mumford: “People who drank two to three cups of coffee a day or one to two cups of tea had lower chances of developing dementia than people who drank little to no caffeine.”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• [01:22] Talia Minsberg (on ICE impact):
  "The way that life has been impacted in Minnesota, it can't be overstated."

• [03:15] Tracy Mumford (on detention centers):
  "Children often lose weight and get sick. Some have had panic attacks and even become suicidal."

• [05:17] Tracy Mumford (on Endangerment Finding repeal):
  "Getting rid of that finding basically ends the federal government’s legal authority to cap pollution that’s heating the planet."

• [09:12] Leaked Internal Document via Tracy Mumford (on Meta smart glasses):
  "We will launch during a dynamic political environment where many civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns."

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Important Timestamps

• 00:30 – 03:14: ICE surge in Minnesota and local impacts
• 03:15 – 05:01: Surge in children held in ICE detention, conditions, and federal response
• 05:01 – 06:53: Trump administration’s major climate policy rollback
• 06:53 – 08:24: Stonewall Pride flag controversy and federal policy
• 08:24 – 09:40: Meta’s facial recognition plans for smart glasses
• 09:45 – 10:43: Coffee and tea study on cognitive health

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Additional Highlights

• Quiz Segment (10:43–15:59):
  -- Lighthearted news quiz on recent stories: Trump awarded "champion of beautiful clean coal," details on the "Enhanced Games" (where PEDs are allowed), and an AI-led love song trivia challenge.

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Summary

This episode delivers hard-hitting updates on the intersection of federal immigration policy and community life, sheds light on poor conditions for detained children, tracks high-stakes policy shifts on climate and civil liberties, exposes the timing behind Silicon Valley’s AI ambitions, and sprinkles in wellness news and pop culture for a well-rounded morning briefing. The tone is urgent, sometimes dismayed, always informative—a snapshot of American life at a tense political moment.

Transcript

[Commercial Narrator]

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[Tracy Mumford]

From the New York Times, it's the Headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Friday, February 13th. Here's what we're covering.

[Government Official / Trump Administration Representative]

I have proposed and President Trump has concurred that this surge operation conclude a significant drawdown has already been underway this week and will continue to the next week.

[Tracy Mumford]

In Minnesota, President Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, has announced that the administration is winding down its aggressive immigration operations there. The unprecedented deployment, which started late last year, involved thousands of immigration officers and led to widespread clashes with residents and two fatal shootings by federal agents.

[Government Official / Trump Administration Representative]

The Twin Cities of Minnesota in general are and will continue to be much safer for the communities here because of what we have accomplished under President Trump's leadership.

[Tracy Mumford]

In a press conference, Homan framed the surge as a success, saying 4,000 undocumented immigrants had been arrested, some of whom had been convicted of serious crimes.

[Talia Minsberg]

The way that life has been impacted in Minnesota, it can't be overstated.

[Tracy Mumford]

My colleague Talia Minsberg has been part of the team of Times reporters on the ground in the Twin Cities over the past few months.

[Talia Minsberg]

You could see people volunteering to stand outside of daycares and elementary schools and high schools in neon vests looking out for ice. You would hear these incessant whistles anytime ICE vehicles drove by. Sometimes you would see abandoned cars if ICE had taken someone very abruptly. And when you go to the grocery store, you see a lot of people with really full carts because a lot of people are grocery shopping for friends, neighbors, people who may be hiding in their homes, who may not feel safe going out to the grocery store themselves. I talked to a lot of people who, just as they drove, they just felt that they were looking in their rear view mirror a whole lot. So it's both something you saw visually and something that was really felt for a lot of people for months now.

[Government Official / Trump Administration Representative]

We are cautiously optimistic, but the fact of the matter is they left us with deep damage, generational trauma. They left us with economic ruin in some cases.

[Tracy Mumford]

In response to Homan's announcement yesterday, Minnesota Governor Tim Walls said the state was in a trust but verify phase, waiting to see if the operations do actually end. He told residents that in the meantime, they should remain, quote, hypervigilant, even as the White House says it's ending the large scale deployment In Minnesota, the government's mass deportation efforts are continuing across the country. A few weeks ago, so called ICE surge teams fanned out across small towns in West Virginia and said they arrested more than 600 people. In Hillsboro, Oregon, local police responded to multiple 911 calls, reporting that a group of masked men with weapons drawn had approached a car filled with high school students at a drive through. Police later determined the men were federal agents. And at a sprawling detention center in Dilly, Texas, the Times has been tracking how the number of children in federal custody has climbed sharply. Hundreds of kids, usually with a parent, have been detained there in the past year. Some are held for only a few days, but others spend months amid the jumble of trailers and tents. Families and lawyers tell the Times that there's little education and inadequate medical care. Children often lose weight and get sick. Some have had panic attacks and even become suicidal. The Department of Homeland Security has defended living conditions and education access at the facility and said that families are being offered $2,600 and a free flight to leave the US voluntarily. But many families have refused the offer. Some may have pending cases in immigration court, giving them hope they might be allowed to stay in the US and others fear returning to their home countries. Meanwhile in Washington, the fight over Trump's immigration policies will all but certainly trigger a limited government shutdown. Starting at midnight. Democrats have refused to fund the Department of Homeland Security unless Republicans agree to new restrictions on federal immigration agents. The two sides failed to reach a deal yesterday, and lawmakers are now on recess for the next week. The lapsed funding will affect several agencies that fall under dhs, from FEMA to the tsa. Though during the last government shutdown in the fall, many federal employees, including ICE and Border Patrol agents, continued to work without pay.

[Government Official / Trump Administration Representative]

This is a big one. If you're into environment, this is about as big as it gets, they tell me.

[Tracy Mumford]

President Trump announced a major policy change yesterday that effectively erases the federal government's authority to fight climate change.

[Government Official / Trump Administration Representative]

This radical rule became the legal foundation for the Green New Scam, one of the greatest scams in history, probably.

[Tracy Mumford]

The move repeals what's called the Endangerment Finding. It's a scientific determination made under the Obama administration that states that greenhouse gases are a threat to human health. Getting rid of that finding basically ends the federal government's legal authority to cap pollution that's heating the planet. For climate change deniers, this repeal has been seen as a kind of holy Grail because it has the potential to stop even future administrations from regulating some pollutants. For now, it clears the way for the White House to roll back limits on emissions from cars and power plants. The head of the epa, who joined Trump for the announcement said scrapping the finding will stop the American economy from being quote, strangled by regulations, and the administration has claimed it will save auto manufacturers and other businesses over a trillion dollars. The change flies in the face of decades of scientific consensus around climate change that emissions have supercharged heat waves, droughts, wildfires and other extreme weather events. It also marks a major success for the oil and gas industry, which has spent years trying to stop the country from transitioning to renewable energy. During Trump's latest presidential campaign, he received as much as $450 million from those industries. We need everybody here to make space.

[Government Official / Trump Administration Representative]

So that our elected officials can get.

[Tracy Mumford]

Through with the flag they are going to raise. In Manhattan yesterday, a crowd gathered at the Stonewall National Monument to put a pride flag back up after it was removed following a directive from the Trump administration. The Interior Department recently issued guidance addressing the display of, quote, non agency flags in the National Park System. And earlier this week, people who work near Stonewall noticed the rainbow flag was gone. Local officials vowed to put it back up. Stonewall was designated a national monument almost a decade ago in recognition of the protests and riots that happened there in 1969 between LGBTQ activists and police after police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar. Under Trump, the federal government has carried out a widespread effort to police the language and symbols displayed at parks and monuments. In the last year, the Park Service has ordered multiple sites to take down materials related to slavery and Native Americans. The Times has learned that Meta, the parent company of Facebook, is planning to add a facial recognition feature to its smart glasses after scrapping previous plans amid privacy concerns. The glasses have been around for a few years. They're made with Ray Ban and Oakley and have a camera built into the frame. According to four people involved with the plans who were not authorized to speak publicly. The glasses would be able to identify people and provide information about them via Meta's AI assistant. The company's still exploring what pool of people the glasses would identify. Options include only IDing people you're connected with on Meta platforms like Instagram, or IDing everyone who has a public account on those sites. This isn't the first time Meta has experimented with this technology. Five years ago, Facebook shut down a facial recognition system for tagging people in photos after it fueled privacy concerns, government investigations and a class action lawsuit. It also considered putting the tech in one of its first versions of smart glasses back in 2021, but nixed that over technical challenges and ethical questions. Now the company's looking to try again. The Times reviewed an internal document from May which said that the current political turmoil in the US Was good timing for releasing the feature. It said, quote, we will launch during a dynamic political environment where many civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns. In response to questions from the Times, Mehta said it's building products that will help enrich people's lives and wrote that it will take a thoughtful approach if and before we roll anything out. And finally, if you are having your morning cup of coffee right now, drink up. It might be sharpening your mind and not just in a making sure you're not a blear eyed zombie kind of way, but in the long term. A large new study published this week provides evidence of cognitive benefits from caffeinated coffee and tea. It followed over 100,000 participants for a long time, in some cases more than 40 years, and found that people who drank two to three cups of coffee a day or one to two cups of tea had lower chances of developing dementia than people who drank little to no caffeine. To be clear, it doesn't prove caffeine is what causes those beneficial effects, but scientists say it can reduce inflammation, which might protect brain health. And research also suggests caffeine improves insulin sensitivity, helping protect against diabetes, which is a dementia risk factor. In terms of drinking a lot of coffee, the study found the results pretty much plateau at a certain point. No need to chug more than about two and a half cups a day overall. This may be one of those rare moments where you learn something you do every day might not be terrible for you. So enjoy it. Those are the headlines. If you'd like to play the Friday News Quiz, it is right after these credits. This show is made by Will Jarvis, Yon Stewart and me, Tracy Mumford. Original theme by Dan Powell. Special thanks to Isabella Anderson, larissa Anderson, Miles McKinley, Zoe Murphy and Paula Schuman. Now time for the quiz. Got a few questions for you about stories the Times has been covering. Can you get them all? Here we go. At the White House this week, President Trump rolled out the red carpet for a group from a specific industry, some executives in suits, some workers in their safety gear and helmets. At one point we are going to.

[Government Official / Trump Administration Representative]

Present you an award, sir. Thank you very much.

[Tracy Mumford]

One of the execs got up on stage to give the President a trophy, celebrating his commitment to their Industry, sir.

[Government Official / Trump Administration Representative]

To show our appreciation, the trophy says the undisputed champion.

[Tracy Mumford]

What did they say Trump is the champion of? If you need a hint, they said he's the champ of beautiful clean What? The answer.

[Government Official / Trump Administration Representative]

The undisputed champion of beautiful clean coal. We have to.

[Tracy Mumford]

The Trump administration has been focused on boosting fossil fuels, including coal. This year, the Interior Department's even been promoting a mascot, an illustrated lump of coal they say will be the, quote, spokespiece of coal for their energy policy. It is named Coaly. Really dug deep for that one. Next question. It may be all about the Winter Games right now, but in just a few months in Las Vegas, our goal is not to break a world record. Our goal is actually to break all the world records. A different competition called the Enhanced Games will pit athletes from all over the world against each other with one major twist.

[Government Official / Trump Administration Representative]

Human potential. What is that potential? Where is the max? Where's the limit?

[Tracy Mumford]

Your question. What makes it the Enhanced Games? The answer. The competitors are allowed to use performance enhancing drugs. The organizers say they're working closely with doctors to keep athletes safe. But it has sparked widespread condemnation over health concerns. Still, that hasn't stopped dozens of athletes from signing up. They've been promised up to a million dollars for every world record they break. We'll just say branding wise. Enhanced Games is descriptive, I guess, but let me throw this one out there. The Swolympics Foreign. Tomorrow is Valentine's Day. Don't worry. You absolutely still have time to pretend that you remembered. In honor of the holiday, we're going to test your love song knowledge. But there's a catch.

[AI Bot]

I, an AI bot, will read the lyrics. Because I cannot feel love.

[Tracy Mumford]

Can you name these famous songs?

[AI Bot]

If I should stay, I would only be in your way so I'll go, But I know I'll think of you every step of the way.

[Tracy Mumford]

I will help you out here. The answer. Whitney Houston. I will always love you. Okay, next song. Take it away.

[AI Bot]

Bottom like a river flows surely to the sea Darling, so it goes Some things you know are meant to be your clue.

[Tracy Mumford]

The answer? Wise men say that's Can't Help Falling in Love by Elvis Presley. And last one, which is from this century.

[AI Bot]

Yellow diamonds in the light now we're standing side by side as your shadow crosses mine what it takes to come alive.

[Tracy Mumford]

A few notes to help you out. That is Rihanna's mega hit, We Found Love.

[AI Bot]

Wait, maybe. Maybe I'm starting to feel something.

[Tracy Mumford]

That's it for the news quiz. Our email, as always, is the headlinesytimes.com I'm Tracy Mumford. The show will be back on Monday.

[Commercial Narrator]

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