By Alyssa Chen | Reporter
Good morning, Reformers.
For four months, my colleague Max Nesterak has been covering the detention and journey back to Minnesota of Andrea Pedro-Francisco, a woman arrested during Operation Metro Surge who was denied necessary surgery for a painful, large ovarian cyst.
She was detained at Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas, which has been beset by widespread reports of inhumane conditions, and then at the El Paso Processing Center.
As Max writes, “Her account provides a rare glimpse into the Trump administration’s deportation machine, which currently holds more than 60,000 people in detention, about 70% of whom have no criminal convictions. Few whose fate remains in limbo have shared their stories publicly, fearing reprisals from the federal government against themselves or their family. Others who vanished overnight from their communities have remained invisible to the outside world.”
Read this compelling story of a young woman who escaped violence and repression in Guatemala and is now fighting illness and hoping for a chance to stay in her adopted home country.
Andrea Pedro-Francisco talks about her experiences in migrant detention in Texas and her sudden release back home to Minnesota in the Burnsville apartment she lives in with her mother and young siblings Wednesday, July 1, 2026. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)
By Anna Claire Vollers
John Connolly, temporary commissioner and state Medicaid director for the Minnesota Department of Human Services, said in a statement that Tuesday’s deferral reflects the federal government’s “unprecedented and punitive ways as part of their war on Medicaid and its recipients.”
“CMS touts their new fraud-detection capabilities, yet has not provided data or explanation on how the deferral amount was calculated or what it was based on. I respectfully ask the federal government to partner with us and share any information about their methods to identify potentially fraudulent providers in Minnesota,” Connolly said.
By Tim Henderson
Immigration arrests reached 1,593 per day in early July in a new push to detain and deport immigrants that has led to deaths in traffic stops. There were more than 43,000 arrests in June, the highest recorded by the Trump administration, according to statistics released Monday by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement reflecting new bookings into detention facilities.
The June monthly total surpassed the 42,000 arrests in December, which included Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis. If the rate for the first 11 days of July continues for a month it could be even higher, about 49,000 arrests.
By Kimberly Soenen
A single payer advocate educates us on the business model:
“The problem with the singular fight to reduce prior authorizations? Prior authorization is but one of countless denial of care tools commercial health insurance companies use to deploy what’s known as the float.
This is how the denial of care business model works: The commercial health insurance float is the cash a company holds onto during the time gap between collecting premium payments from customers, denying medical care and actually paying out medical claims to healthcare providers. Insurers are highly motivated to artificially widen the gap between receiving a premium and paying a doctor. The industry uses an arsenal of chaotic administrative barriers and lengthy review processes to slow down reimbursements while patients in need wait for medical care. On a hospital’s balance sheet, this delayed money sits as accounts receivable, but on the commercial insurer’s balance sheet, it remains part of the float while generating millions of dollars in interest before it is paid out — if ever.”
IN OTHER NEWS
$37 billion for the war in Iran | Reformer via States Newsroom
Thousands of immigrant kids risk losing legal aid after Trump administration delays funds | Reformer via States Newsroom
Feds have a new teen pregnancy prevention plan: Fertility and ‘reproductive goals’ | Reformer via Stateline
Brennan Center report predicts mass voter challenges likely in midterm elections | Reformer via States Newsroom
OpenAI says AI model went rogue, attacked a digital library | New York Times gift link
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