Immigration enforcement and alleged defamation on Behind the Headlines

By Tom Williams

Published August 21, 2026 at 2:37 PM MDT

A crowd of people gather outside the ICE warehouse in Salt Lake City. Someone holds up an American flag. — An American flag flies during a protest at the ICE warehouse in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, March 18, 2026.

Salt Lake Tribune reporters Brooke Larsen and Robert Gehrke join Tom Williams to talk about the week’s top stories, including ICE arrests quadrupling in southwest Utah under President Trump with most arrestees having no criminal convictions, the Utah Senate president threatening to sue four critics for alleged defamation, and ICE scrapping plans for a detention center in Salt Lake City.

Every Friday at 9 a.m., stream “Behind the Headlines” at upr.org. Join the ongoing conversation by email to upraccess@gmail.com.

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Tom Williams

Tom Williams worked as a part-time UPR announcer for a few years and joined Utah Public Radio full-time in 1996. He is a proud graduate of Uintah High School in Vernal and Utah State University (B. A. in Liberal Arts and Master of Business Administration.) He grew up in a family that regularly discussed everything from opera to religion to politics. He is interested in just about everything and loves to engage people in conversation, so you could say he has found the perfect job as host “Access Utah.” He and his wife Becky, live in Logan.

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