The immigration crackdown in Minnesota that led to mass detentions, protests and two deaths is coming to an end, border czar Tom Homan said Thursday.
“As a result of our efforts here Minnesota is now less of a sanctuary state for criminals,” Homan said at a news conference.
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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement launched Operation Metro Surge on Dec. 1.
Federal authorities say the sweeps focused on the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area have led to the arrest of more than 4,000 people. While the Trump administration has called those arrested “dangerous criminal illegal aliens,” many people with no criminal records, including children and U.S. citizens, have also been detained.
About 6 in 10 U.S. adults say President Donald Trump has “gone too far” in sending federal immigration agents into U.S. cities, according to a new AP-NORC poll.
Here's the latest:
Minnesota officials post initial reactions to the immigration crackdown’s end on X
— Gov. Tim Walz: “The long road to recovery starts now. The impact on our economy, our schools, and people’s lives won’t be reversed overnight. That work starts today.”
— Sen. Amy Klobuchar: “Minnesotans stood together, stared down ICE, and never blinked.”
— Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey: “They thought they could break us, but a love for our neighbors and a resolve to endure can outlast an occupation.”
Minnesota’s attorney general says still no cooperation with feds on investigations into shootings
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison says it’s highly unusual for the state to be shut out of investigations of shootings like they have in the aftermath of the deaths of two Americans.
Ellison is appearing at a Senate hearing to look at immigration enforcement in the state.
He was asked by Democratic Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan about what type of cooperation the state has had with the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department on investigations into the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
“We haven’t had any cooperation up until now which is really unusual,” Ellison said.
Peters also asked whether the federal government was stonewalling the state and Ellison agreed.
Independents largely disapprove of Trump’s immigration approach
Despite their strong support for Trump, Republicans are increasingly alone in supporting Trump on his immigration enforcement tactics, a new AP-NORC poll finds.
About 6 in 10 independents now say Trump has “gone too far” in deporting immigrants living in the U.S. illegally, an apparent increase from 46% in an AP-NORC poll in April.
Only about 2 in 10 independents have a positive view of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“Having the border shut, that’s OK. But what Trump is doing with ICE and Homeland Security? You don’t go yanking people out of cars. You don’t go shooting people,” said independent Rick Kinnett, a 60-year-old Navy veteran from Crawfordsville, Indiana.
Agriculture secretary says US schools to receive new rules on school lunches in coming weeks
Brooke Rollins and HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy, Jr., last month unveiled new dietary guidelines, which back away from long-standing advice to limit saturated fats and urge Americans to choose whole-food sources of saturated fat — such as meat, whole-fat dairy or avocados — while continuing to limit saturated fat consumption to no more than 10% of daily calories.
Those guidelines could have a big impact on U.S. schools districts that receive federal funding for school meals and must follow rules set by the Agriculture Department.
“We expect the actual rules to come out probably in four to six weeks, but we are working very diligently on that right now,” Rollins said Thursday. “We want to ensure that we can move very quickly as we’re working to get better, more nutritious, more wholesome foods into our schools.”
Homan said last week that 700 federal officers would leave Minnesota immediately
But that still left more than 2,000 on Minnesota’s streets. The border czar said Thursday that the drawdown began this week and will continue next week.
He also said he plans to stay in Minnesota to oversee the drawdown.
Homan took over the Minnesota operation in late January after the second fatal shooting by federal immigration agents and amid growing political backlash and questions about how the operation was being run.
US judge says Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the BBC can go to trial next year
Judge Roy K. Altman of the federal court for the Southern District of Florida rejected an attempt by Britain’s national broadcaster to delay proceedings. He set a February 2027 trial date.
Trump filed a lawsuit in December over the way the BBC edited a speech he gave on Jan. 6, 2021. The claim seeks $5 billion in damages for defamation and $5 billion for unfair trade practices.
The speech took place before some of Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol as Congress was poised to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election that Trump falsely alleged was stolen from him.
The BBC had broadcast the documentary — titled “Trump: A Second Chance?” — days before the 2024 U.S. presidential election. It spliced together three quotes from two sections of the 2021 speech, delivered almost an hour apart, into what appeared to be one quote in which Trump urged supporters to march with him and “fight like hell.” Among the parts cut out was a section where Trump said he wanted supporters to demonstrate peacefully.
The broadcaster has apologized to Trump over the edit of the Jan. 6 speech. But the publicly funded BBC rejects claims it defamed him.
Sen. Rand Paul says ICE must restore public trust
The Republican Kentucky senator says he called an oversight hearing to evaluate “the facts” around immigration enforcement in Minnesota and across the country.
Paul said during his opening statement that any time an American citizen is killed is a “tragedy” but made clear that filming government officials in a free society is a “constitutional right” and not “an act of aggression.”
Paul criticized what he called a “rush to judgment” after the shootings and said while he supports Immigration and Customs Enforcement that they had work to do to “restore public trust.”
Federal authorities announce an end to the immigration crackdown in Minnesota
The immigration crackdown in Minnesota that led to mass detentions, protests and two deaths is coming to an end, border czar Tom Homan said Thursday.
“As a result of our efforts here Minnesota is now less of a sanctuary state for criminals,” Homan said at a news conference.
“I have proposed and President Trump has concurred, that this surge operation conclude,” he continued.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement launched Operation Metro Surge on Dec. 1.
Federal authorities say the sweeps focused on the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area have led to the arrest of more than 4,000 people. While the Trump administration has called those arrested “dangerous criminal illegal aliens,” many people with no criminal records, including children and U.S. citizens, have also been detained.
Republicans strongly support Trump on immigration
While most U.S. adults think Trump has overstepped on immigration enforcement in cities, only about one-quarter of Republicans agree, according to a new AP-NORC poll.
About half of Republicans say Trump’s actions have been “about right,” while about one-quarter of Republicans say he hasn’t gone far enough.
Teviss Crawford, a 20-year-old student from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, said he’s pleased with Trump’s leadership on immigration, although he wishes the president could find a way to deport more immigrants who are in the country illegally.
“I don’t think the deportations have been enough, to be honest. I think it’s much too lax,” he said of Trump’s crackdown.
Europe warily awaits Rubio at Munich Security Conference as Trump roils transatlantic ties
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is leading a large U.S. delegation this week to the Munich Security Conference where increasingly nervous European leaders are hoping for at least a brief reprieve from President Trump’s often inconsistent policies and threats that have roiled transatlantic relations and the post-World War II international order.
A year after Vice President JD Vance stunned assembled dignitaries at the same venue with a verbal assault on many of America’s closest allies in Europe, accusing them of imperiling Western civilization with left-leaning domestic programs and not taking responsibility for their own defense, Rubio plans to take a less contentious but philosophically similar approach when he addresses the annual gathering of world leaders and national security officials Saturday, U.S. officials say.
The State Department’s formal announcement of Rubio’s trip offered no details about his two-day stop in Munich, after which he will visit Slovakia and Hungary. But the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to preview the trip, said America’s top diplomat intends to focus on areas of cooperation on shared global and regional concerns, including in the Middle East and Ukraine as well as China, an economic powerhouse seeking to take advantage of the uncertainty in U.S.-European ties.
— Matthew Lee
Only part of the money to celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary has been distributed
The Interior Department has distributed only a fraction of the $150 million Congress set aside in last year’s sprawling spending bill for the celebration of the nation’s 250th anniversary.
A spokesperson for the department said Wednesday that the single biggest recipient of funding is America250, which has gotten $25 million of the money set aside in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act for celebrations and commemorations of America 250. The money went to Interior to distribute but did not specify recipients or amounts. The spokesperson said decisions are being made on how to disperse the money.
The acknowledgement comes one day after a congressional subcommittee hearing where Democrats raised questions about how much public funding Freedom 250, created by President Donald Trump, has received and whether that was to the detriment of America250.
Freedom 250 has received less than $4 million from the pool, said someone with knowledge of the money that organization has received.
Four members of Idaho’s congressional delegation sent a joint letter to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum last September requesting money be dispersed to A250 commissions in all 56 states and territories to support local history organizations. The congressional delegation hasn’t received a response.
— Gary Fields
Venezuela’s acting president says Maduro remains country’s ‘legitimate’ leader
“I can tell you President Nicolás Maduro is the legitimate president,” Venezuela’s Delcy Rodriguez said in an NBC News interview.
With the comments, Rodriguez is continuing to make the case that last month’s U.S. operation to capture Maduro last was a violation of Venezuelan sovereignty even as the Trump administration says she’s cooperating with their effort to overhaul Venezuela’s vast oil industry.
U.S. forces whisked Maduro and his wife to New York to face drug conspiracy charges. Rodriguez in the interview said the Maduros are “innocent.”
Rodriguez met with Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Wednesday in Caracas.
GOP loses its advantage on immigration in new AP-NORC poll
A new AP-NORC poll also finds the Republican Party’s advantage on Trump’s signature political issue has shrunk since October.
About 3 in 10 U.S. adults trust Republicans to do a better job handling immigration, while a similar share say the same of Democrats. An additional 3 in 10, roughly, don’t think either party would do a better job handling the issue, and about 1 in 10 say both parties would handle it equally well.
In October, 39% of U.S. adults said they trusted the Republicans to better handle immigration, while 26% said that about the Democrats, giving the GOP a 13-point edge. In the new poll, the difference between the parties is only 4 points.
Most think Trump has ‘gone too far’ on immigration enforcement in cities, AP-NORC poll finds
About 6 in 10 U.S. adults say President Donald Trump has “gone too far” in sending federal immigration agents into U.S. cities, according to a new AP-NORC poll.
The new polling comes as the nation watches the human impact of Trump’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota, where thousands of heavily armed masked agents have descended upon the capital city to find and remove immigrants in the country illegally.
There have also been numerous violent clashes with protesters, including two U.S. citizens were killed by federal agents in recent weeks.
About 6 in 10 Americans also believe Trump has “gone too far” when it using federal law enforcement at public protests in U.S. cities, the poll found.