Priest carried by fellow ICE detainees out of prison and more news from the states

Good evening. In Colorado, an elderly priest was released from an immigration detention center after more than a year — but had to be carried from the facility by fellow detainees, because he became wheelchair-bound during his confinement. A new analysis found that the second Trump administration had deported nearly a million people as of July 31. 

In West Virginia, public school enrollment is on the decline, as private school vouchers increase — but some officials question whether that’s the primary reason for the losses. In New Jersey, lawmakers want to consider allowing micro-hospitals to maintain healthcare access in rural and underserved areas. 

On Capitol Hill, top Democrats are concerned about — and preparing for — the possibility that President Donald Trump will blame foreign interference for any unfavorable election results. 

New Hampshire is the latest state working to squash the spotted lanternfly scourge. 

After 13 months in an Aurora immigrant detention center, where he became reliant on a wheelchair as his health deteriorated, a Ugandan priest who has lived in Colorado for more than 25 years was released by federal immigration officials Tuesday, Colorado Newsline reports. 

A judge ordered Rev. Edward Nalwamba’s release earlier this week. Two fellow detainees on Tuesday carried Nalwamba, who will be 79 in November, out of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility because it did not provide him with a wheelchair when he left. Private prison company The GEO Group operates the detention center.

“Everyone was so happy that he was being released, but … watching these other detainees, who are also being released, volunteer to carry him all that way and carry all of his possessions — it was heartbreaking, and it was infuriating,” Joy Athanasiou, one of his immigration attorneys, said.

More immigration coverage: 

New Jersey could join a growing national trend under new legislation that would allow for micro-hospitals, small emergency care facilities with limited space for inpatients and lower operating costs than traditional hospitals, New Jersey Monitor reports.  

A handful of Democratic lawmakers recently introduced a bill to enable licensed New Jersey hospitals to establish micro-hospitals with up to 50 patient beds, as long as they are more than five miles from any competing acute care facility. The bill would also allow existing hospitals to convert or restructure an existing site as a micro-facility, with no restrictions on location. Under the proposal, micro-hospitals could offer primary and emergency care, lab, X-ray, and other hospital services, but would not be forced to support an operating room or surgical team, something that is required for acute care facilities in New Jersey. 

“We don’t want to lose hospitals in rural and underserved communities. That’s a big focus of the bill,” said bill sponsor Sen. Joe Vitale (D-Middlesex), chairman of the Senate health committee.

West Virginia public school enrollment experienced one of the steepest drops since COVID, and local superintendents in the hardest hit counties are pointing to population loss and private school vouchers as causes, West Virginia Watch reports. 

The state Department of Education announced this week an enrollment decline of more than 8,200 students, representing a loss of 3.5% of the total public school population. 

Earlier this year, state Treasurer Larry Pack, who oversees the Hope Scholarship program, the state’s voucher program, announced more than 26,000 students had applied for it, an increase of 11,000 from the year prior.

“We are not aware of any significant increase in private school or homeschool enrollment in recent years that would account for the broader decline in public school enrollment. Rather than blaming the Hope Scholarship, we should be focused on addressing the underlying challenges facing our education system,” Pack said.

On Thursday, despite losing more than 900 students this new school year, the superintendent of the state’s largest school district was reluctant to blame the Hope Scholarship and school choice options for enrollment decline.

Related: Congressional Democrats warn federal voucher credit would spread Arizona’s problems nationwide

Missouri: Child welfare workers said they are increasingly cutting safety assessments short as they scramble to respond to reports of suspected child abuse and neglect within statutory deadlines. And caseloads are rising as they postpone tasks needed to close outstanding cases and inherit cases from colleagues who quit.

South Carolina: The state charged at least 381 women with crimes related to their pregnancy over the past three years, far more than any other state, a national advocacy nonprofit found in a report released this week.

New Mexico: Democratic Attorney General Raúl Torrez filed a lawsuit against the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime personal attorney and accountant, alleging that the two helped to facilitate and conceal his sex trafficking operation.

Virginia: State Sen. Louise Lucas, one of the state’s most powerful Democrats and a critic of President Donald Trump, was indicted on federal racketeering, marijuana distribution and money laundering conspiracy charges. 

Tennessee: A Nashville judge temporarily blocked state health officials from requiring immigration status checks of HIV-positive individuals enrolled in a healthcare safety-net program. 

North Carolina: President Donald Trump said his administration would settle remaining claims from people sickened by contaminated water at Camp Lejeune, but only if Republicans retained control of Congress, angering survivors. 

Colorado: A judge in Denver dismissed a last-minute attempt by conservative opponents of a graduated income tax proposal to invalidate the measure on the ballots already in voters’ hands.

North Dakota: A coalition of advocacy groups has formed to oppose Measure 1, which would require 60% approval for future constitutional measures to become law. 

Kansas: A national campaign finance watchdog group requested the U.S. Senate Ethics Committee investigate Republican Sen. Roger Marshall for using taxpayer funds to travel to political events and pay staff who work for both his office and campaign. 

Maryland: A new ad that urges residents to vote against a constitutional amendment that would loosen standards for congressional redistricting has drawn the attention of — and a cease and desist demand from — Democratic Gov. Wes Moore.

Karen Hirai Olen, who was born in 1943 at the Minidoka War Relocation Center, a Japanese-American internment camp, toured historic restoration efforts at the Minidoka National Historic Site in southern Idaho this week. (Photo by Clark Corbin/Idaho Capital Sun)

Olen, who spent the first year and a half of her life incarcerated with her parents, grandparents and other family members at Minidoka, said she didn’t understand what Minidoka was until she was an adult. 

During World War II, from 1942 to 1945, more than 13,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated – after being forcibly removed from their homes without due process and without being charged with a crime – at the Minidoka War Relocation Center. 

“My parents never talked about it,” Olen said. “My mother called it the lost years.”

A multimillion-dollar restoration project at the site will add interpretive exhibits to preserve the history and lessons from the site. 

Read more from Idaho Capital Sun. 

As Election Day approaches, top Democrats on the intelligence committees in Congress are preparing for the possibility that President Donald Trump will allege foreign interference to discredit unfavorable results, States Newsroom’s D.C. Bureau reports. 

And they want leading U.S. intelligence officials to be immediately reachable if he does.

Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia and Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top Democrats on the Senate and House intelligence committees, outlined the scenario — one of among 50 they say they’ve considered — with reporters on Wednesday, less than two weeks before voting ends in the midterm elections.

In recent weeks, the Trump administration has ramped up efforts targeting noncitizen voters, with arrests across the country, and is attempting to block suspected noncitizen voters from having their ballots counted in California. Democrats and voting rights advocates have warned for months that Trump could try to interfere in voting in the midterms.

All of it comes as Trump stares down the possibility that voters will place Democrats in control of Congress — an outcome that could doom his legislative agenda and mire him in investigations.

Related coverage: 

A record number of women are running for state legislative seats this November, more than two-thirds of whom are Democrats, Stateline reports. 

Across the 46 states with legislative seats on the ballot, a total of 3,824 women are running — up from 2022’s previous record of 3,621 women candidates, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. Women make up 35.5% of all state legislative candidates this cycle.

Currently, women hold about one-third of state legislative seats across the country — a record level of representation but nowhere near parity. 

The New Hampshire Executive Council on Wednesday approved nearly $25,000 in federal funding for “emergency” work targeting invasive spotted lanternflies near the Massachusetts border, New Hampshire Bulletin reports. 

The flies, which can damage crops, forests and other plants, were first detected in New Hampshire this August. It is possible the invasive pest, which is already found in Massachusetts, is becoming established in New Hampshire, Department of Agriculture, Markets, and Food Commissioner Shawn Jasper wrote in a letter to Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte and the Executive Council. 

Spotted lanternflies lay eggs in autumn that hatch in spring and feed on a variety of plants — though they have a preference for the “tree of heaven,” which is also invasive in New Hampshire. The flies’ indiscriminate taste means they could threaten farms, nurseries, vineyards and forests, Jasper wrote in the letter. 

The New Hampshire Department of Agriculture, Markets, and Food calls for individuals to report sightings of spotted lanternflies on nhbugs.org.