How CBP revoked one legal observer's Global Entry status

Good morning and Happy Monday. Thanks for reading today.

I’ve been having trouble sleeping lately, and I was still snoozing Saturday morning when my husband woke me up to tell me that ICE had killed another protester in Minneapolis. This time, it was Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old VA nurse who worked in the intensive care unit and committed the fatal “crime” of attempting to help a woman ICE agents had shoved to the ground.

By now, you’ve likely seen the video of Pretti’s murder and heard all the lies from Kristi Noem, CBP head Greg Bovino, and the rest of the Trump administration — and I won’t repeat them here. But I did want to share this video of Pretti that is making the rounds.

I, like you, have spent the last several weeks racking my brain to come up with other ways to help push back against the American Gestapo sweeping our country. I spent a good part of my day on Sunday putting together this guide, which I’m calling An Anti-ICE Playbook for Regular Americans, which includes info on a variety of topics — from what to wear to a protest to how to find activist groups in your area to your rights to document federal agents. I hope you’ll check it out, share it with your friends and family, and let me know if you think there are any changes or additions I should make. You can shoot me an email at [email protected].

CBP revokes a legal observer’s Global Entry status

Last night, I spent some time chatting with Nicole Cleland, the Richfield, Minnesota woman who had her Global Entry status revoked three days after she was confronted by a CBP agent in her community.

Cleland is hardly a radical antifa activist, as Kristi Noem and Greg Bovino have branded those stepping up to fight fascism in Minnesota. Cleland, who works in retail, described herself to me as a “56-year-old white woman who just wants the world to be a better place.” To that end, Cleland has been protesting in her suburban Minneapolis community each Saturday, as well as volunteering as a legal observer for her town’s ICE Watch. Since ICE and CBP have invaded communities in Portland, Chicago, Minneapolis, and Maine, Americans across the country have signed up to bear witness to ICE’s actions, often following and documenting what ICE and CBP are doing in their communities, a right protected by the First Amendment.

That’s what Cleland was doing on the morning of January 10, 2026, when she found herself, along with another car, behind a truck that she was certain belonged to either ICE or CBP. She told me she backed off from following the truck closely, and was “several blocks” back, even losing track of the truck, before she saw it stopped at the end of a street. Seeing another car carrying observers pulled over, she pulled in behind them.

That’s when a CBP agent exited his truck and approached her car, saying, “Hi Nicole,” when she rolled down her window.

The CBP agent, who Cleland said was dressed in full battle fatigues, combat boots, and wore a gun, told her that he believed she was following his truck, that she would get one warning. The next time CBP or ICE caught her “impeding” their activities, he said, she would be arrested. ICE and CBP agents in the field have taken an expansive, and almost certainly unconstitutional, view of 18 USC § 111, which prohibits “forcibly assaulting, resisting, opposing, impeding, intimidating, or interfering” with federal law enforcement.

More disturbing was what the CBP agent told Cleland about how he knew her identity. “He told me, ‘We have facial recognition, and we know who you are,’” she recalls, even though she never exited her car and the agent wasn’t holding a cell phone or camera. Was the agent able to use facial recognition on Cleland while she followed the truck at a distance? Or did he simply have help from local law enforcement in running her plates? Cleland doesn’t know, but ICE (and presumably CBP) does have technology that aids agents in identifying individuals via facial recognition technology.

“I was a little numb, afterwards,” Cleland remembers. “I thought, if I keep following them, I’m going to wind up in Whipple,” she said, referring to the B.H. Whipple federal building, where protesters and suspected immigrants are being held by DHS.

After the encounter with the CBP agent, Cleland said she was “frazzled,” but still made her way to an apartment complex where ICE vehicles had been circling, sitting with the building's residents until it was time for her group’s weekly protest.

It wasn’t until January 13, three days later, that Cleland started to grasp the influence the CBP incident could have on her life.

“I got an email from Global Entry,” Cleland said, “telling me my status had changed.” When she clicked through to a letter, she was informed that her Global Entry status was “revoked effective immediately.”

Per US Customs and Border Patrol’s website, “Global Entry is a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Trusted Traveler Program that allows expedited clearance for pre-approved, low-risk travelers upon arrival in the United States.” Cleland, who submitted to a background check as required, has been a member of Global Entry since 2014.

“The letter said that they didn’t have to give me a reason for revoking my status,” Cleland explained. “It listed several reasons that it could be revoked, and the only one that seemed to apply to me was the one that said ‘The applicant has been found in violation of any customs, immigration, or agriculture regulations, procedures, or laws in any country.’” Cleland says she’s submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to CBP to uncover the specific reason for the change in her status, though CBP has asked her to fill out additional paperwork.

In addition to the impact CBP has had on Cleland’s travel status, it’s also had a chilling effect on her activism in the community. Cleland told me she hasn’t gone out on any “commutes” (ie, looking for ICE/CBP vehicles) since she got notice of her change in status. “Because they know my name, my car, I’m hesitant to even bring groceries to someone who needs it or needs medication, because I don’t want to lead (ICE/CBP) to someone.”

Cleland may not be alone. A woman in California who goes by the name “Rose” on TikTok and describes herself as a “pro-trans activist,” says that her passport history was deleted without her knowledge or consent.

While Cleland waits for answers, she tries to figure out how she got here. “I didn’t do anything wrong,” Cleland points out. “I was legally following a truck, which, as a legal observer, I am entitled to do. (CBP’s) ability to just go and fuck with you is unbelievable.”

Worse, Cleland doesn’t know if her traveling status is the worst of what CBP has done to her life, or if something more damning awaits her discovery. “I don’t care if I have to wait in a longer line when traveling,” she said. “But I have no clarity on how deeply this has impacted me. I go back and forth between being really, really pissed and being scared.”

So far, Cleland has had no legal help investigating her case, nor any guidance on how to proceed to get her status reversed. But her focus, for now, is on how DHS is impacting her community.

“The extent of the lies and misinformation is horrifying, the unlawful manner in which (ICE/CBP) operate is unimaginable,” Cleland says. “What they are doing right now is bad enough, but if they are able to cross over into territory that is not theirs, like TSA Precheck and Global Entry, that’s not supposed to be their area. How (Kristi) Noem and (Greg) Bovino can twist what people can see with their own eyes is astonishing.”

Cleland also wants Americans to understand how deeply “Operation Metro Surge” is affecting Minnesota communities financially. “A new taco place opened up on the corner where we protest each Saturday. We would go in and eat there after we were done. After one of our protests, the place was raided, and it’s been closed ever since.”

“For people to be afraid to exist,” she said, “It impacts everything.”

If you or anyone you know is able to assist Nicole Cleland in challenging the revocation of her Global Entry status, please reach out to me at [email protected].

Pam Bondi tries to extort Minnesota

Just when you thought Attorney General Pam Bondi couldn’t sink much lower, she sends a letter to Gov. Tim Walz, offering to “restore law and order” to Minnesota in exchange for turning over information on MN’s SNAP (food stamp) recipients, repealing MN’s status as a sanctuary state, and providing the DOJ with voter rolls.

I believe the word for “give us a bunch of information we can use against your state or we’ll keep sending in the Gestapo” is “extortion.”

Minnesota has filed an emergency motion for a temporary restraining order and the Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul have written a letter to Judge Kate Menendez, asking her to act as quickly as possible. Here’s part of what they wrote:

Now is a great time to call your reps and demand the impeachment of Pam Bondi and Kristi Noem.

Little Greg and his very big coat

I mean to share this piece on Friday, but other news got in the way. Here’s a gift link to the NYT piece on Greg Bovino’s SS cosplay coat.

He’s such an ass.

The High Note

Each Day, I do my best to leave you with a smile on your face, a song in your heart, and the will to fight another day.

Let’s all take a deep breath and listen to the Mountain Goats for a bit.

Hey, survive and advance out there today, kids. Don’t let the bastards get you down.

Follow Julie on Bluesky and Instagram so she can get another book contract.