Prepared for the Office of Public Affairs (OPA)
U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Editorial Note: The DHS Daily Briefing is a collection of news articles related to Department’s mission. The inclusion of particular stories is not intended to reflect their importance, nor is it intended to endorse the political viewpoints or affiliations included in news coverage.

The New York Times [1/26/2026 10:16 AM, Hamed Aleaziz, 135475K] reports President Trump said he was sending Tom Homan, his border czar, to Minnesota to run immigration enforcement operations in the state on Monday, two days after a man was fatally shot there by Department of Homeland Security officers. The decision to send Mr. Homan, a longtime veteran of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, came amid increased criticism of the D.H.S. operation in the state and its rushed response to the shooting of the man, Alex Pretti, who was pinned down by agents when he was killed. “I am sending Tom Homan to Minnesota tonight,” Mr. Trump wrote on social media on Monday. “He has not been involved in that area, but knows and likes many of the people there. Tom is tough but fair, and will report directly to me.” ABC News [1/26/2026 12:54 PM, Hannah Demissie, Nicholas Kerr, and Alexandra Hutzler, 30493K] reports that Trump, in another social media post, wrote Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, called him to "request to work together with respect to Minnesota. It was a very good call, and we, actually, seemed to be on a similar wavelength.” Trump said that he would have Homan call Walz and that Walz was "happy" that Homan was going to Minnesota. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who will hold a press briefing on Monday afternoon, said Homan "will be managing ICE Operations on the ground in Minnesota to continue arresting the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens." By putting Homan in charge of ICE operations in Minneapolis, Trump is bypassing the normal chain of command -- where Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino have been overseeing ICE operations. Trump said Homan would be reporting directly to him. The administration is facing criticism from both Democrats and some Republicans for blaming the victim of the shooting, with some Republican lawmakers calling for an independent investigation into what happened. Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy said the credibility of ICE and DHS was "at stake" and there "must be a full joint federal and state investigation." Moderate Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen has called for Noem’s impeachment. Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, responding to the impeachment call, said "DHS enforces the laws Congress passes, period. If certain members don’t like those laws, changing them is literally their job.” CNN [1/26/2026 3:36 PM, Michael Williams, Priscilla Alvarez, Kristen Holmes, 18595K] reports that the move to send Homan to Minnesota was met with some relief by Republican lawmakers and Homeland Security officials as the 64-year-old border czar has decades worth of law enforcement experience, beginning his career as a police officer in New York before becoming a Border Patrol agent in California in 1984. Homan also led Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s deportation efforts during the Obama administration. But the president sending Homan to Minnesota also suggests a potential sidelining of the more heavy-handed tactics used by top Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino and underscores the ongoing internal dispute within the administration over how they’re carrying out the president’s immigration agenda. CNN reported Monday that Bovino and some of his agents are expected to leave Minneapolis on Tuesday and return to their respective sectors, according to three sources familiar the discussions. The White House has said Homan is expected to manage ICE operations in the city. One official said it was a "mutual decision" to have Bovino depart. USA Today [1/26/2026 4:15 PM, Joey Garrison, 67103K] reports Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has overseen the surge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in Minnesota, which began after Trump attacked Somali-Americans in the state for a massive fraud scheme involving state and federal welfare assistance programs. Greg Bovino, head of the U.S. Border Patrol, has led the Minnesota operations on the ground. But Leavitt indicated Bovino’s role in Minnesota will end, telling reporters in a briefing that he is "going to very much continue to lead Customs and Border Control throughout and across the country" but that "Mr. Homan will be the main point of contact" in the state. Noem called Trump sending Homan to Minnesota "good news for peace, safety and accountability in Minneapolis," in a statement, adding that he will "help us to remove even more public safety threats and violent criminal illegal aliens off the of streets of Minneapolis." Homan’s presence in Minnesota could further embolden Senate Democrats to block legislation to keep the federal government open if it means funding ICE.

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Breitbart [1/26/2026 11:59 AM, Staff, 2416K]
AP [1/26/2026 3:58 PM, Safiyah Riddle, 31753K]
Daily Caller [1/26/2026 11:50 AM, Jack Cowhick, 835K]

NewsMax [1/26/2026 12:46 PM, Jim Mishler, 4109K] reports Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Monday applauded the decision by President Donald Trump to send border czar Tom Homan to troubled Minneapolis. "This is good news for peace, safety, and accountability in Minneapolis," Noem wrote on X. Trump’s announcement followed the death of a second protester in the region during an encounter with federal immigration enforcement agents. Noem agreed Homan is a good fit for what is needed in Minneapolis. "I have worked closely with Tom over the last year and he has been a major asset to our team — his experience and insight will help us in our wide-scale fraud investigations, which have robbed Americans, and will help us to remove even more public safety threats and violent criminal illegal aliens off the streets of Minneapolis," her social media post added. Homan had called for toning down the rhetoric by state and local leaders in Minnesota who have been calling for pushback against immigration enforcement. Noem wrote that Homan’s request needs to be followed. "We continue to call on the leadership in Minnesota to allow for state and local partnership in our public safety mission," she posted. Trump wrote in a Truth Social announcement about sending Homan to Minnesota that the border czar has a direct line to the Oval Office. "Tom is tough but fair, and will report directly to me." White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt posted on X that, along with handling immigration enforcement issues, Homan will be involved in the fraud investigations.

Reuters [1/26/2026 9:12 PM, Ismail Shakil, 36480K] reports Gregory Bovino has been removed from his role as the "commander at large" for the U.S. Border Patrol and will return to his former job in California, where he is expected to retire soon, the Atlantic reported on Monday, citing a Homeland Security official and two people with knowledge of the change. The U.S. DHS, Customs and Border Protection and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Earlier on Monday, President Donald Trump and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz each struck a conciliatory tone after a private phone call about immigration enforcement, a sign the two sides were seeking a way to end their standoff over a deportation drive that has claimed the lives of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. The Washington Examiner [1/26/2026 6:48 PM, Anna Giaritelli, 1394K] reports Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol’s commander of at-large operations, has been demoted from his post overseeing embeds with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement following an agent-involved shooting in Minneapolis over the weekend, according to six federal sources. Bovino was notified that he would be headed back to his job overseeing Border Patrol operations in El Centro, California, effective Tuesday. The move comes two days after a Border Patrol agent fatally shot protester Alex Pretti while carrying out immigration enforcement. President Donald Trump sent White House border czar Tom Homan and other senior advisers across the Department of Homeland Security to Minneapolis on Monday and spoke by phone with Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) in an effort to find an off-ramp to the tense situation. Bovino was tapped last June to oversee a temporary surge of agents into Los Angeles. Five people previously told the Washington Examiner that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem made that decision and had told Bovino he would report directly to her, an unprecedented move to have Bovino go around U.S. CNN [1/26/2026 4:44 PM, Priscilla Alvarez, Kristen Holmes, Kaitlan Collins, Michael Williams, 18595K] reports top Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino and some of his agents are expected to leave Minneapolis on Tuesday and return to their respective sectors, according to three sources familiar the discussions, sidelining a key player in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. The move comes after President Donald Trump announced he was dispatching White House border czar Tom Homan to Minneapolis in the wake of Saturday’s fatal shooting of a US citizen. The White House has said Homan is expected to manage Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in the city. One official said it was a “mutual decision” to have Bovino depart. Administration officials were left deeply frustrated this weekend over how Bovino and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem handled the fallout over the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, sources said. According to one official, Trump spent several hours Sunday and Monday watching news coverage and was unhappy by how his administration was coming across. CNN previously reported that Noem was in touch with the White House throughout the day Saturday. Others say that Bovino, who became the face of Trump’s immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota, made matters worse by claiming Pretti intended to “massacre” federal agents. He sat for an interview with CNN and held a news conference Sunday, but neither appearance tamped down criticism of the administration’s response and contradictions, officials told CNN. Aides were also irked after Noem labeled Pretti a “domestic terrorist” and accused him of brandishing his legally owned firearm, a claim that wasn’t backed up by video evidence. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt distanced the White House from the domestic terrorist label during Monday’s briefing, arguing it was not a position Trump himself has personally taken. She did not say specifically that Bovino was departing Minnesota, but she said Homan would be the “main point of contact on the ground in Minneapolis” and that Bovino would “continue to lead” agency operations nationwide.

New York Post [1/26/2026 4:27 PM, Alex Oliveira, 42219K] reports the US Border Patrol’s chief Greg Bovino and some agents have been ordered out of Minneapolis in a stunning turnaround after a second US citizen was killed by federal agents in the city this month, sources told The Post. The order does not extend to ICE and it does not include all Border Patrol agents. However, Bovino will be joining the agents marching out of the state, according to sources. Chaos has reigned in the Minnesota city since Jan. 7 when anti-ICE protestor and mother-of-three Renee Good, 37, was shot dead by an ICE agent after she accelerated her SUV at him. A second American, armed ICU nurse Pretti, was shot Saturday, and authorities believe that an errant shot from his pistol — after it was removed from him — may have caused agents to open fire. Tensions reached a fever pitch after Pretti’s death – with even some Republicans publicly suggesting that the Department of Homeland Security withdraw its agents in a rare break from President Trump’s agenda. Bovino spent the weekend calling Pretti a "domestic terrorist" who was planning to "massacre" immigration officers, while blaming Democrats like Gov. Tim Walz for "inciting" the chaos. But President Trump seemed to dial that rhetoric back on Monday, saying he and the governor had a productive conversation about the situation. Other signs that change might be coming to the White House’s Minnesota campaign emerged Monday after "border czar" Tom Homan was dispatched to take over immigration operations in the state – replacing DHS sec. Kristi Noem.

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San Francisco Chronicle [1/26/2026 8:31 PM, Aidin Vaziri, 4722K] reports the Department of Homeland Security said Monday that Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino has not been relieved of his duties, pushing back on reports that he had been removed from his role following a fatal shooting in Minneapolis that has intensified scrutiny of federal immigration enforcement. Earlier Monday, The Atlantic reported that Bovino had been removed from his position as Border Patrol “commander at large” and reassigned to his former post in El Centro, California, where he was expected to retire soon, citing a DHS official and two people with knowledge of the decision. “Chief Gregory Bovino has NOT been relieved of his duties,” Tricia McLaughlin, the DHS assistant secretary for public affairs, wrote in a post on X. She added that he “is a key part of the President’s team and a great American.” The administration’s clarification came as it adjusts leadership of its federal immigration operation in Minnesota following the killing Saturday of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive-care nurse and U.S. citizen who was shot during an encounter with federal agents. Bovino, who has served as a highly visible spokesperson for the Minnesota operation, is expected to leave Minneapolis as soon as Tuesday, according to a CNN report. Some agents working under him are also expected to depart and return to their home sectors. President Donald Trump said he is sending Tom Homan, his “border czar” and a former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, to take over management of operations in Minneapolis. Administration officials have emphasized that the shift does not amount to Bovino being removed from his duties. “I am sending Tom Homan to Minnesota tonight,” Trump wrote on social media. “He has not been involved in that area, but knows and likes many of the people there. Tom is tough but fair, and will report directly to me.” Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said some of Bovino’s actions in the city “have not been helpful,” citing what he described as a highly visible federal presence that added to local tensions. Bovino has been a central figure in the administration’s immigration enforcement strategy, appearing regularly at press conferences and engaging critics online during the Minnesota deployment. “When politicians, community leaders and some journalists engage in that heated rhetoric we keep talking about, when they make the choice to vilify law enforcement, calling law enforcement names like Gestapo or using the term kidnapping, that is a choice that has made their actions and consequences that come from those choices,” Bovino said Sunday. The Minneapolis shooting followed the Jan. 7 killing of Renee Nicole Good, who was shot by an ICE agent during a protest in the city. The two deaths have fueled protests and heightened tensions between federal agents, local officials and residents. O’Hara said he hopes Bovino’s departure signals a de-escalation. “Nobody in law enforcement is saying federal law enforcement should not be enforcing federal law,” O’Hara told CNN. “But I don’t think it’s unreasonable to think that federal law enforcement should operate by the same standards and professionalism that the rest of law enforcement in the state does.” Trump said Monday that he also spoke separately with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, describing both conversations as productive. “Lots of progress is being made!” the president wrote.

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ABC News [1/26/2026 11:51 PM, Luke Barr, 30493K] reports Customs and Border Protection commander-at-large Greg Bovino is returning to El Centro, California, to resume his duties as chief of that sector, multiple sources told ABC News. The position of commander-at-large was a temporary position. Dept. of Homeland Security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement on Monday that Bovino "has NOT been relieved of his duties," referring to him as a "key part of the President’s team and a great American.” It comes as Bovino and some Border Patrol agents are leaving Minneapolis, just as Border Czar Tom Homan arrives in the city. President Donald Trump on Monday announced he is dispatching Homan -- bypassing the normal chain of command -- where Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Bovino have been overseeing ICE operations. "He has not been involved in that area, but knows and likes many of the people there. Tom is tough but fair, and will report directly to me," Trump wrote in a social media post.

The Hill [1/26/2026 6:51 PM, Sarah Fortinsky, 12595K] reports Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem agreed to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee in early March, a spokesperson for the committee’s chair, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), confirmed to The Hill on Monday. Noem is expected to testify on March 3, according to Grassley’s office, for one round of questioning, and senators will each be allotted 10 minutes for questions. The confirmation comes amid fresh scrutiny of Noem’s handling of her post after federal officials fatally shot Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both 37-year-old Minneapolis residents, during demonstrations against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations just this month. The top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, ranking member Dick Durbin (Ill.), nodded to the growing calls for Noem’s impeachment, in a statement responding to Grassley’s announcement of her upcoming testimony. “Secretary Noem refused to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee last year and now tells us that she will be available in five weeks—should she still be DHS [Department of Homeland Security] Secretary at that time,” Durbin said in a statement. “With all of the violence and deaths involving DHS, the Secretary is apparently in no hurry to account for her mismanagement of this national crisis. And she expects us to rubber stamp her record-breaking budget in the meantime,” he continued. NewsMax [1/26/2026 9:11 PM, Sam Barron, 4109K] reports that a White House official pushed back Monday on speculation about leadership changes at the Department of Homeland Security, stressing that Noem continues to have the full backing of President Donald Trump. Noem has come under fire for her response to the deadly shooting of Alex Pretti by Border Patrol agents, with many Democrats calling for her impeachment and Senate Democrats vowing not to fund DHS. The clarification followed Trump’s announcement that border czar Tom Homan would take charge of immigration enforcement operations in Minnesota. "Secretary Noem will continue to lead the Department of Homeland Security with the full trust and confidence of the president," a White House official told CNN. The official emphasized that Homan’s deployment was driven by operational urgency, not internal disagreement. "Tom Homan is uniquely positioned to drop everything and focus solely on Minnesota to solve the problems that have been created by a lack of cooperation from state and local officials," the official added.

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New York Times [1/26/2026 11:15 PM, Tyler Pager and Hamed Aleaziz., 135475K] reports President Trump met Monday evening in the Oval Office with Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, and Corey Lewandowski, her top aide, for nearly two hours, as his administration tries to shift its strategy after federal agents killed a second Minneapolis resident over the weekend, according to two people briefed on the meeting. The meeting came after Ms. Noem requested to see the president, the people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a private meeting. Mr. Trump did not suggest during the meeting that either Ms. Noem’s or Mr. Lewandowski’s jobs were at risk, the people said. But it was the latest sign the president is concerned about the bipartisan criticism of the administration’s response to the killing of Alex Pretti, who was shot at roughly 10 times by immigration agents on Saturday after he was apparently filming them with his phone camera. Ms. Noem has been the face of the administration’s immigration crackdown, and she has been among the most vocal in spreading false accusations against Mr. Pretti, including labeling him a “domestic terrorist.” The Oval Office meeting also included several of Mr. Trump’s top aides, including Susie Wiles, his chief of staff, Karoline Leavitt, his press secretary, and Steven Cheung, his communications director. Stephen Miller, a top aide to Mr. Trump who oversees the administration’s immigration strategy, was not part of the meeting. The meeting came the same day Mr. Trump announced he was sending Tom Homan, his border czar, to oversee the operation in Minneapolis. The move was seen as a way to elevate an official who is steeped in Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s longstanding practice of prioritizing targeted arrests, rather than the kinds of sweeping raids that the Trump administration has carried out in cities across the country. At the same time, the administration was planning to move Gregory Bovino, a Border Patrol official whose harsh tactics have drawn sharp criticism, out of the city, according to two officials with knowledge of the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Daily Wire [1/26/2026 12:12 PM, Tim Pearce, 2494K] reports Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino will reportedly leave Minnesota immediately as the Trump administration handles fallout from a fatal agent-involved shooting. Bovino will exit the state along with a portion of Border Patrol agents, according to The Wall Street Journal. President Donald Trump has said that he will recall all Border Patrol agents from Minnesota if the state agrees to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday that if Minnesota and local authorities change their approach to ICE and agree to assist federal authorities in apprehending illegal aliens, the president would withdraw Border Patrol from the state. "If Governor [Tim Walz] and Mayor [Jacob Frey] implement these common sense cooperative measures that, I will add, have already been implemented in nearly every single other state across the country, Customs and Border Patrol will not be needed to support ICE on the ground in Minnesota," said Leavitt. "ICE and local law enforcement can peacefully work together as they are effectively doing in so many other states and jurisdictions.” Tensions in Minneapolis have exploded after two immigration enforcement-involved shootings this month. On Saturday, a Customs and Border Protection agent shot and killed Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse at a VA hospital, who was allegedly interfering with immigration operations in the city. Pretti’s death came just weeks after Renee Good was shot and killed in her vehicle after appearing to drive in the direction of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis. As Bovino withdraws from the state, border czar Tom Homan is traveling to Minnesota to take the lead in mediating between state and local authorities and federal immigration authorities, the White House announced on Monday. "Mr. Homan is the point-person in cooperating with state and local authorities and corresponding with them, again, to achieve this level of cooperation to subdue the chaos on the streets of Minneapolis," said Leavitt.

NBC News [1/26/2026 7:09 PM, Camila Bernal, 34509K] reports the Trump administration is planning to reduce the number of Border Patrol officers in Minneapolis sometime next week, according to an administration official and a law enforcement official. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Reuters [1/26/2026 3:54 PM, Brad Brooks, Jack Queen, and Andy Sullivan, 36480K] Video: HERE reports President Donald Trump and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said on Monday they had a productive discussion on immigration enforcement, in a possible sign that Trump might consider de-escalating a surge of agents who have killed two U.S. citizens in the state. Trump said he was "on a similar wavelength" with the Democratic governor, weeks after ordering thousands of federal immigration agents to the state in an operation that Walz and other local leaders have characterized as a lawless invasion. Trump, for his part, has spent the past month accusing Walz of incompetence for failing to stop a welfare-fraud scandal in the state. The fatal shooting of a 37-year-old nurse, Alex Pretti, on Saturday by immigration agents - the second U.S. citizen killed in the state by federal officers this month - has prompted a sharp public backlash and opinion polls show waning support for Trump’s approach to immigration. Walz’s office said the two men had a "productive call" in which Trump said he would consider reducing the number of immigration agents in the state. He said Trump also agreed to talk with the Department of Homeland Security to ensure the state could conduct its own investigation into the shooting. Trump said he would dispatch the White House border czar, Tom Homan, to work with local officials following Saturday’s shooting by immigration agents during a confrontation with protesters in Minneapolis. While other top Trump officials have characterized Pretti as a "domestic terrorist," Homan has not publicly spoken about the incident. In a statement, Trump said Homan "has not been involved" in the Minnesota crackdown "but knows and likes many of the people there."

New York Times [1/26/2026 5:57 PM, Hamed Aleaziz, 135475K] reports the Trump administration is planning to move Gregory Bovino, a Border Patrol official whose tactics in major American cities have drawn controversy, out of Minneapolis, according to two officials with knowledge of the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to share the information publicly. The decision to move Mr. Bovino was the latest signal that the Trump administration is attempting to scale back its aggressive immigration enforcement effort in Minnesota. It came hours after President Trump said he was sending his border czar, Tom Homan, to oversee ICE operations in the state. Several other Border Patrol agents are expected to leave with Mr. Bovino. As of this weekend, there were more than 1,000 U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers and agents in the city. That’s along with a force of up to 2,000 from ICE. On Monday, Mr. Trump changed course on his operation in Minneapolis, announcing on social media that he was deploying Mr. Homan to the state. White House officials said that Mr. Homan would take the lead on the immigration operation in the state.

Washington Examiner [1/26/2026 5:18 PM, Molly Parks, 1394K] reports Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) said Trump administration officials are wrong about how Minnesota enforces immigration policies, insisting the state honors all federal and local immigration detainers. Walz’s comments targeted the basis for why the Department of Homeland Security has increased immigration enforcement efforts in his state, claiming the "Trump administration has its facts wrong about Minnesota." Walz, who has been a vocal advocate against the administration’s surge of immigration officials to his state, wrote the stern words for federal officials in a Wall Street Journal op-ed published just hours after President Donald Trump and Walz shared what Trump called a "very good call." The op-ed and phone call between the two leaders followed a weekend of flaring tensions in Minneapolis as anti-ICE protesters took to the streets and a Border Patrol agent fatally shot 37-year-old Alex Pretti.

FOX News [1/26/2026 12:05 PM, Emma Colton, 40621K] reports President Donald Trump said he had a "very good call" with Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz Monday as tensions in Minneapolis flared following the shooting of Alex Pretti by a federal immigration officer Saturday. "Governor Tim Walz called me with the request to work together with respect to Minnesota," Trump posted to Truth Social Monday. "It was a very good call, and we, actually, seemed to be on a similar wavelength. I told Governor Walz that I would have Tom Homan call him, and that what we are looking for are any and all Criminals that they have in their possession.” Chaos has continued in Minnesota over the weekend, including agitators confronting law enforcement at a hotel Sunday evening. Protests and tensions heightened Saturday after Border Patrol agents in Minnesota fatally shot Pretti. Federal officials say Pretti approached agents with a 9 mm handgun and resisted disarmament, while witnesses have cast doubt on if Pretti, an ICU nurse, posed a threat to agents. "The Governor, very respectfully, understood that, and I will be speaking to him in the near future. He was happy that Tom Homan was going to Minnesota, and so am I! We have had such tremendous SUCCESS in Washington, D.C., Memphis, Tennessee, and New Orleans, Louisiana, and virtually every other place that we have ‘touched’ and, even in Minnesota, Crime is way down, but both Governor Walz and I want to make it better!" Trump continued in his post. Walz’s office told Fox Digital Monday that the governor held a "productive" call with Trump while making the "case that we need impartial investigations of the Minneapolis shootings involving federal agents, and that we need to reduce the number of federal agents in Minnesota.” "The President agreed that he would talk to his Department of Homeland Security about ensuring the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is able to conduct an independent investigation, as would ordinarily be the case. The President also agreed to look into reducing the number of federal agents in Minnesota and working with the state in a more coordinated fashion on immigration enforcement regarding violent criminals," Walz’s office continued. Trump announced Monday that he was deploying White House border czar Tom Homan to Minnesota and that he will report directly to the president. "Tom Homan will be managing ICE operations on the ground in Minnesota and coordinating with others on the ongoing fraud investigations," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Digital Monday, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations. Homan is expected to arrive in Minnesota Monday evening.

New York Post [1/26/2026 7:17 PM, Victor Nava, 42219K] reports President Trump announced Monday that he had a “very good” phone call with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who will meet with the commander-in-chief’s “border czar” on Tuesday after two deadly federal agent shootings and violent protests roiled his state. “I just had a very good telephone conversation with Mayor Jacob Frey, of Minneapolis,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Lots of progress is being made! “Tom Homan will be meeting with him tomorrow in order to continue the discussion.” Frey, a Democrat, said he “appreciated the conversation” with Trump. “I expressed how much Minneapolis has benefited from our immigrant communities and was clear that my main ask is that Operation Metro Surge needs to end,” the mayor wrote on X. “The president agreed the present situation can’t continue,” Frey said. “Some federal agents will begin leaving the area tomorrow, and I will continue pushing for the rest involved in this operation to go,” he continued. The US Border Patrol’s chief Greg Bovino and some agents have been ordered out of Minneapolis in the wake of the killing of a second US citizen by federal agents, sources told The Post. The order does not extend to ICE, and it does not include all Border Patrol agents. Homan has also been dispatched to take over immigration operations in Minnesota — replacing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Anti-ICE protester Renee Good, 37, was shot dead by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent after she accelerated her SUV in his direction on Jan. 7. ICU nurse Alex Pretti was shot and killed on Saturday during a scuffle with Border Patrol agents. Pretti, 37, was carrying a pistol but appeared to be disarmed by Border Patrol agents before being shot dead.

Blaze [1/26/2026 7:30 PM, Carlos Garcia, 1442K] reports President Donald Trump and Democratic Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey apparently agreed on de-escalating the situation that led to the lethal shooting of an anti-ICE protester. The president said on social media that he had spoken via phone with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), before adding that he had a positive phone call with Frey as well. "I just had a very good telephone conversation with Mayor Jacob Frey, of Minneapolis," Trump said. "Lots of progress is being made!" he added. "[Border czar] Tom Homan will be meeting with him tomorrow in order to continue the discussion." Frey posted about the call on his account soon after. "I spoke with President Trump today and appreciated the conversation. I expressed how much Minneapolis has benefited from our immigrant communities and was clear that my main ask is that Operation Metro Surge needs to end. The president agreed the present situation can’t continue," the mayor said. "Some federal agents will begin leaving the area tomorrow, and I will continue pushing for the rest involved in this operation to go," he added. Frey could be referring to reports that top Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino and some other agents agreed to leave Minneapolis. The mayor went on to say that the city would continue to cooperate with federal investigations but not with "unconstitutional arrests of our neighbors" or to help enforce federal immigration law.

FOX News [1/26/2026 10:23 PM, Staff, 40621K] reports Fox News senior White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich has the latest on the fallout over Border Patrol’s fatal shooting of a protester on ‘Special Report.’[Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Bloomberg [1/26/2026 5:07 PM, Hadriana Lowenkron and Jennifer A Dlouhy, 18207K] reports President Donald Trump indicated he’ll make changes to his administration’s deportation crackdown in Minnesota after the killing of two US citizens during immigration raids sparked nationwide uproar. The president said he was sending US border czar Tom Homan — who is seen as relatively measured compared to rivals, including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem — to Minneapolis in a bid to deescalate tensions. Trump also spoke with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, telling the Democrat who he has derided as “grossly incompetent” that he would consider independent investigations into the shootings and reducing the number of federal agents in his state. Later, the White House suggested it could remove US Customs and Border Protection personnel from Minnesota if state and local law enforcement adopted additional “cooperative measures” to assist in the apprehension of undocumented migrants. Greg Bovino, the US Border Patrol commander who has become the face of the latest operation, is expected to leave to Minneapolis on Tuesday, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Taken together, the comments indicated that Trump might recognize that his maximum pressure deportation campaign has eroded public faith in immigration officials as well as his own political standing. That poses a risk for Republicans heading into November’s midterm elections.

AP [1/26/2026 6:10 PM, Steve Karnowski, 14862K] reports President Donald Trump softened his tone Monday on the immigration crackdown in Minnesota, touting productive conversations with the governor and Minneapolis mayor as he sent the border czar to take charge of much of the enforcement effort. Some federal agents were expected to leave as soon as Tuesday. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said he spoke by phone with Trump, who praised the discussion that declared that “lots of progress is being made.” Frey said he asked Trump in a phone call to end the immigration enforcement surge and that Trump agreed the present situation cannot continue. The mayor said some agents would soon leave and that he would keep pushing for others involved in Operation Metro Surge to go. Among those who are expected to depart was senior Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. The person was not authorized to publicly discuss details of the operation and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity. Bovino has been at the center of the administration’s aggressive enforcement surge in cities nationwide. His departure marks a significant public shift in federal law enforcement posture amid mounting outrage over the fatal shooting of 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti by Border Patrol agents. Bovino’s leadership of highly visible federal crackdowns, including operations that sparked mass demonstrations in Los Angeles, Chicago, Charlotte and Minneapolis, has drawn fierce criticism from local officials, civil rights advocates and congressional Democrats. The border czar, Tom Homan, will take charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in Minnesota. Trump and Democratic Gov. Tim Walz spoke in a phone call and later offered comments that were a marked change from the critical statements they have exchanged in the past. Their conversation happened on the same day a federal judge heard arguments in a lawsuit aimed at halting the federal immigration enforcement surge in the state. “We, actually, seemed to be on a similar wavelength,” the president wrote in a social media post. Walz, in a statement, said the call was “productive” and that impartial investigations into the shootings were needed. Trump said his administration was looking for “any and all” criminals the state has in their custody. Walz said the state Department of Corrections honors federal requests for people in its custody. Meanwhile, attorneys for the administration, the state and the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul appeared Monday before U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez, who is considering whether to grant requests to temporarily halt the immigration operation.

Reported similarly:
Breitbart [1/26/2026 10:36 AM, Staff, 2416K]

NBC News [1/26/2026 6:51 PM, Matt Dixon and Peter Nicholas, 34509K] reports the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by a Border Patrol agent over the weekend has Donald Trump "concerned" about the sustainability of his administration’s ongoing Minneapolis operations, according to Trump administration officials and allies. These individuals acknowledged to NBC News that they needed a strategic shift amid a public uproar over Pretti’s killing, though the White House is still very much focused on its original agenda of cracking down on immigration and fraud. Still, the changes made Monday are noticeable. Saturday’s shooting has prompted a leadership shakeup, a reduction of agents in the city, a reset with key Democratic officials in the state and an attempt to distance the president from some of the more extreme comments from some of his top advisers. "The visuals were not playing well. He understands TV. … He saw it for himself," said a Republican lawmaker who, like others in this article, were granted anonymity to speak candidly. Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse and U.S. citizen, was fatally shot Saturday morning during a heated confrontation between federal agents and individuals protesting the federal government’s immigration crackdown in the city. Multiple videos of the shooting and eyewitness accounts contradict the initial response from Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. They depicted Pretti as someone who was "brandishing" a firearm and trying to "massacre law enforcement. Top White House official Stephen Miller said Pretti was a "domestic terrorist" who tried to "assassinate federal law enforcement.” Trump on Monday morning announced he was sending border czar Tom Homan to Minneapolis to lead the administration’s efforts following the second fatal shooting in that city by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. He’ll be replacing Bovino, who has been the face of the hard-edged enforcement operation. Bovino is set to leave Minneapolis on Tuesday, and there is an expectation that the number of federal agents in that city will be reduced, administration and law enforcement officials told NBC News. It was unclear how many federal agents would be departing. During a White House briefing Monday, press secretary Karoline Leavitt distanced Trump from some of the more extreme comments coming from his top officials. When a reporter asked if he agreed that Pretti was a "domestic terrorist" — a term that Noem, as well as Miller, used — Leavitt declined to support their remarks. "I have not heard the president characterize Mr. Pretti in that way," she said. "However, I have heard the president say he wants to let the facts and the investigation lead itself.” The decision to send Homan to Minneapolis is being seen by some as Trump pushing Noem to the sidelines, since Homan does not report to her as Bovino does.

Wall Street Journal [1/26/2026 10:12 PM, Annie Linskey, Alex Leary, and Michelle Hackman, 646K] reports the videos were splashed across cable news—and President Trump was paying attention. Working from the Oval Office as a winter storm barreled toward the nation’s capital, Trump watched as footage of a federal immigration agent shooting Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive-care nurse and U.S. citizen, played on repeat from Minneapolis. Within hours of the shooting, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem alleged Pretti had attacked officers and was brandishing a gun, labeling the actions domestic terrorism. Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino said Pretti wanted to massacre law enforcement. And Stephen Miller, the architect of Trump’s aggressive immigration strategy, called Pretti a “would-be assassin.” It wasn’t long before that narrative started to fall apart—and Trump started to get frustrated, according to administration officials. Roughly 48 hours after the shooting, Trump decided to change course, moving to pull back one of his administration’s most high-profile and divisive immigration-enforcement campaigns. By the end of the day Monday, Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar who advocated for a more targeted approach to deportations, was en route to Minneapolis to take charge. Bovino, the face of the hard-edge approach employed in Minnesota, was leaving the state. Trump’s pivot came after Republican lawmakers and other allies raised concerns that he was squandering public support for his signature campaign issue and senior administration officials increasingly saw the chaotic scenes in Minneapolis as a political liability. Gun rights advocates, normally steadfast allies of Trump, publicly criticized administration officials for criticizing Pretti for carrying a gun during protest activity. State officials said Pretti had a permit to carry the weapon. In the process, Trump appeared to take sides—for now—in a simmering debate that has been playing out quietly in the administration. Over the past year, Trump’s more hard-line aides, including Noem and her top adviser Corey Lewandowski, have pushed for missions that include roving patrols doing street sweeps in large liberal cities. Homan and others have favored a more methodical but slower approach to go after immigrants with criminal histories or final deportation orders, according to people familiar with the matter. As Washington was being pummeled by snow and sleet on Sunday and many senior staff stayed home, Trump fielded calls from anxious Republicans, including Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who delivered a message that Trump was already starting to internalize: The White House needed to find a way to pivot the narrative away from the shootings.

Breitbart [1/26/2026 4:54 PM, Nick Gilbertson, 2416K] reports White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Monday, following President Donald Trump’s phone call with Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), that Trump wants the "resistance and chaos" in Minnesota to end immediately. Before Leavitt laid out the president’s demand and his four-point plan to return to "law and order" in Minnesota during Monday’s White House press briefing, she said that Democrat leaders in the state, "with sanctuary city policies, have actively defied federal immigration law and the will of the people." Secondly, she noted Trump’s insistence that local authorities turn over to federal authorities all illegal aliens they arrest. Third, she emphasized that local police must coordinate with federal authorities in bringing into custody "illegal aliens who are wanted for crimes, especially violent crimes." On top of this, Trump is calling for Congress to pass legislation to put an end to sanctuary cities.

FOX News [1/26/2026 3:09 PM, Charles Creitz, 40621K] reports the Department of Homeland Security on Monday released an expletive-laden, sexually-explicit voicemail that a Minnesota-based ICE agent received from an apparent agitator amid unrest in Minneapolis. In response, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin blamed local "sanctuary politicians" for inciting such "threatening rhetoric and unprecedented violence" through their "repeated vilification" of federal law enforcement. McLaughlin said ICE has faced an 8,000% increase in death threats and 1,300% increase in assaults during the second Trump administration despite the fact that they are conducting operations to remove "rapists, terrorists and gang members from American neighborhoods." She added that Secretary Kristi Noem’s message to agitators and people who threaten violence on ICE remains that "you will not stop us or slow us down." The agency said that assaulting and obstructing law enforcement is not only dangerous but is a federal crime and a felony. "And if you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer or dox our officers, you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," it said in a statement. In light of the voicemail, the agency urged the public to report threats, doxxing, harassment and other infractions against ICE agents by calling 1-866-DHS-2-ICE.

San Francisco Chronicle [1/26/2026 3:14 PM, Matthias Gafni, 4722K] reports in what could be a sign of President Donald Trump’s Minnesota immigration siege digging in, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth approved a request Monday by the Department of Homeland Security to further support its efforts in the Twin Cities. In an email obtained by the Chronicle, U.S. Customs and Border Protection asked for space at Fort Snelling, a decommissioned military base in an unincorporated area next to the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, to house federal immigration agents, weapons, vehicles and aircraft. Fort Snelling is already the site of a U.S. Immigrations and Custom Enforcement field office and a DHS immigration enforcement and detention processing center. CBP will use land on a U.S. Army Reserve base there. On Monday morning, Hegseth approved the request, according to correspondence obtained by the Chronicle. It is unclear, though, whether the administration intends to bolster its aggressive enforcement in Minneapolis in coming days or draw it down.

Roll Call [1/26/2026 6:13 PM, Jacob Fulton and Aris Folley, 548K] reports the Senate inched closer to triggering a partial government shutdown Monday as GOP leaders pushed forward with a $1.33 trillion funding package that includes a Homeland Security bill Democrats vowed to oppose. With only four days left before current funding for most federal agencies runs out, both parties sought to find an exit ramp from the road to a shutdown that neither side wants. The best hope for a quick resolution appeared to be some immediate change in policy from the administration, at least when it comes to the DHS presence in Minneapolis which has led to two fatal shootings of U.S. citizens. But there was no obvious compromise in sight as of Monday, as Democrats continued to demand new legislative restraints on the Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. And any changes made to the six-bill spending package for the current fiscal year would require another vote in the House, which is in recess this week. "Republicans and the White House have reached out but have not yet raised any realistic solutions," a Senate Democratic leadership aide said. President Donald Trump and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, discussed the situation on a call on Monday. The president agreed to talk to DHS about ensuring the state is "able to conduct an independent investigation" and "look into reducing the number of federal agents," the governor’s office said. Trump struck an optimistic tone in the wake of the conversation, which he described as "very good.” "I told Governor Walz that I would have [White House Border Czar] Tom Homan call him, and that what we are looking for are any and all Criminals that they have in their possession," Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform. "The Governor, very respectfully, understood that, and I will be speaking to him in the near future.” Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said he hopes the call and Trump’s decision to send Homan to Minneapolis lead to "turning down the temperature and restoring order.” Trump also spoke with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey on Monday and said Homan would be meeting with the mayor Tuesday. "Lots of progress is being made!" Trump wrote. Senate Homeland Security Chairman Rand Paul, R-Ky., has also called for the heads of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to testify before his panel in an open hearing by Feb. 12. And the Senate Judiciary Committee will hear testimony from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on March 3.

Washington Examiner [1/26/2026 6:12 PM, Samantha-Jo Roth, 1394K] reports President Donald Trump’s decision Monday to dispatch border czar Tom Homan to Minnesota was welcomed by a growing number of Republicans on Capitol Hill who say the federal government must work to lower tensions following the fatal shooting of another civilian during an immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis. Trump’s move came after Border Patrol agents fatally shot 37-year-old Alex Pretti, an intensive care nurse, during an altercation Saturday as he recorded a federal immigration operation. Pretti was taken to the ground by agents and shot, according to accounts of the incident, prompting protests and renewed scrutiny of federal enforcement tactics in the state. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) praised the administration’s decision to deploy Homan to Minnesota, calling it a constructive step at a volatile moment. "This is a positive development, one that I hope leads to turning down the temperature and restoring order in Minnesota," Thune said. Privately, some Republicans say sending Homan signals a course correction. They see him as a steadier hand to carry out Trump’s deportation plans, even as concerns have grown on Capitol Hill about how Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino have managed the rollout, according to two GOP aides familiar with the discussions. "This has not been going well, everybody knows it," said one aide, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly. "We needed a change of direction immediately.” Calls for de-escalation have also been accompanied by formal oversight actions. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), chairman of the Homeland Security Committee,​​ on Monday requested testimony from senior DHS leaders as part of a broader investigation into immigration enforcement operations and the Minneapolis shooting. In letters dated Jan. 26, Paul asked CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott, ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Joseph Edlow to appear before the committee at an open hearing scheduled for Feb. 12, saying lawmakers need to ensure DHS is spending its money wisely and carrying out enforcement in a way that protects public safety and maintains trust.

FOX News [1/26/2026 12:26 PM, Charles Creitz, 40621K] reports the illegal immigrant being sought during the operation that resulted in the death of a 37-year-old U.S. citizen had a violent rap sheet that included domestic assault involving intentional bodily harm, according to federal officials. Jose Huerta-Chuma ultimately escaped capture during the chaos, Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino told reporters Sunday, as he condemned characterizations of his agents as "Gestapo" — referencing the Nazi Geheime Staatspolizei — in the media and in public discourse. Huerta-Chuma, reportedly an Ecuadorian national, also had other convictions, including driving without a valid license and disorderly conduct, when agents attempted to take him into custody at a Minneapolis donut shop. "This individual walks the streets today because of those choices made by politicians and those, perhaps, weaker-minded constituents that chose to follow directions of those politicians," Bovino said. The Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) later criticized Bovino in a statement, claiming "federal statements have repeatedly included inaccurate information about Minnesota custody and criminal records." In the aftermath of Pretti’s death, further chaos erupted, and a federal agent was critically injured when an agitator bit off the end of his finger, according to DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, said a "log of evidence" is being created for potential future prosecutions of agents involved in the situation.

CBS News [1/26/2026 10:10 AM, Camilo Montoya-Galvez, 39474K] reports soon after Minneapolis ICU nurse Alex Pretti was shot and killed by a U.S. Border Patrol agent, top Trump administration officials made sweeping, categorical statements about the deadly shooting before a full investigation had begun. The Department of Homeland Security said the Border Patrol agent fired "defensive shots," fearing for his life because Pretti had a 9mm semiautomatic handgun. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem claimed Pretti intended to "kill" and "inflict maximum damage." Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino said Pretti planned to "massacre" federal agents. White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller called Pretti a "would-be assassin." These statements by senior administration officials, many of which have been directly contradicted by videos of the incident and witness accounts, have caused internal frustration among some at DHS who are increasingly concerned about the agency’s reputation, multiple sources with direct knowledge of the situation told CBS News. One U.S. government official, who requested anonymity to speak candidly, said top DHS officials were mishandling the public messaging around the deadly incident, making statements that were not supported by concrete evidence, before any investigative findings came out. "It’s unclear who at DHS thought it would be a good idea to make such claims before any facts were established, but it was a terrible miscalculation," the U.S. official said. A Homeland Security official who works on immigration enforcement expressed concern about the possibility of "self-inflicted reputational harm" being caused by the "strong language" used by top officials following Pretti’s killing. "When we gaslight and contradict what the public can plainly see with their own eyes, we lose all credibility and it’s going to damage our reputation for generations," the DHS official said, also requesting anonymity because this official is not authorized to talk to the press. In a statement to CBS News, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, "Nobody, including President Trump, wants to see people get shot or hurt.”

Daily Wire [1/26/2026 12:16 PM, Jennie Taer, 2494K] reports as Americans debate the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, an even bigger battle is brewing in Washington, as the Trump administration splits over how to handle mass deportation raids. The dividing lines have been drawn: on one side, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino, and Corey Lewandowski, a top Trump adviser and temporary government employee. On the other side are Border Czar Tom Homan and acting ICE Director Todd Lyons. Noem’s camp is focused on aggressive and showy tactics — fiery press conferences and Bovino marching through town with a squad of Border Patrol agents in tow — and is fixated on increasing arrest numbers. Homan’s side, however, is focused on the quality of arrests and getting the worst criminals off the streets, which they feel is a job best suited for ICE. The fractures between the camps only became more evident after a Border Patrol agent shot and killed Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse who officials say was armed while he was interacting with law enforcement on Saturday in Minneapolis. His death comes just weeks after an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Good, igniting a wave of unrest in Minneapolis, the site of Homeland Security’s Operation Metro Surge. In a press conference after the shooting, Noem asserted that Pretti was a "domestic terrorist" who appeared to have shown up "to inflict maximum damage on individuals and to kill law enforcement." Noem’s claims were met with scorn by Democrats and Republicans alike. "This is a violent riot when you have someone showing up with weapons," Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said during a press conference following the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Alex Jeffrey Pretti by a federal immigration agent. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted the commander-in-chief remains confident in Noem’s ability to lead. "Secretary Noem will continue to lead the Department of Homeland Security with the full trust and confidence of the president," Leavitt told Reuters Monday. "Tom Homan is uniquely positioned to drop everything and focus solely on Minnesota to solve the problems that have been created by the lack of cooperation from state and local officials.”

DailySignal [1/26/2026 3:10 PM, Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell, 549K] reports multiple Trump administration agencies are investigating the circumstances surrounding the shooting of 37-year-old nurse Alex Pretti by Border Patrol agents in Minnesota, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. President Donald Trump had previously told The Wall Street Journal his administration is "reviewing everything" about the shooting. U.S. Border Patrol agents shot and killed Pretti while he was filming federal officers during a Minneapolis immigration enforcement operation. The agents were seeking to arrest illegal immigrant Jose Huerta-Chuma, whose criminal history includes domestic assault for intentional conflict bodily harm, driving without a valid license, and disorderly conduct. White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller referred to the nurse as "an assassin" who "tried to murder federal agents." Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said Pretti attacked law enforcement while "brandishing" a gun. However, Pretti’s family claims that he was "clearly not holding a gun" when he was "attacked" by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The shooting has sparked bipartisan calls for congressional oversight.

NewsMax [1/26/2026 3:59 PM, Staff, 4109K] reports White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday that "three distinct inquiries" were underway into fatal shootings in Minnesota, urging patience as investigators sort out what happened after federal officers shot and killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. "This incident remains under investigation," Leavitt told reporters at a press conference. She said there were "three distinct inquiries examining what happened," but she did not identify the agencies involved. Leavitt’s comments came as the White House sought to distance Trump from rhetoric used by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, who called Pretti a "would-be assassin" soon after he was killed by federal law enforcement. Asked directly whether Trump shared those characterizations, Leavitt said she had not heard the president describe Pretti in those terms and reiterated the administration’s position that investigators should complete their work before blame is assigned.

New York Times [1/26/2026 6:00 PM, Devlin Barrett, Alan Feuer and Hamed Aleaziz, 135475K] reports the Trump administration appeared to acknowledge on Monday that its investigation into the killing of a Veterans Affairs nurse, Alex Pretti, by federal agents this weekend was limited to a “use of force” review meant to establish whether government employees had violated training standards. Such a move, disclosed in court filings, would represent a much narrower inquiry focused on tactics and conduct than one that would examine whether federal agents should face criminal charges. As part of the administration’s efforts to block a judge from ordering it to preserve evidence, Mark Zito, who leads the Homeland Security Investigations office in St. Paul, Minnesota, provided the court with a sworn statement that noted that his agency, which belongs to the Department of Homeland Security, is investigating the shooting. “H.S.I. is the lead investigatory entity reviewing the use-of-force encounter at issue in this case,” Mr. Zito’s declaration said. “H.S.I. agents tasked with this investigation are required to preserve all evidence collected, including physical evidence collected by other federal agencies, which are then properly transferred to the custody of H.S.I.” Minnesota state officials have sought a court order to preserve evidence for their own investigation of the killing of Mr. Pretti, who was repeatedly shot by Border Patrol agents on Saturday. The Trump administration is fighting such an order, claiming that it is already preserving the relevant evidence. The critical terms in Mr. Zito’s statement are “use of force” and “reviewing.” Among federal law enforcement agencies, a use of force review is focused on whether law enforcement personnel followed agency rules and regulations and where and when to use force, and how much force. That is distinct from a criminal investigation. F.B.I. agents could, for example, investigate to determine if Mr. Pretti’s civil rights were violated by federal agents acting under color of law, a crime that carries the possibility of a death sentence. The F.B.I. could also investigate whether Mr. Pretti assaulted or impeded a federal law enforcement officer, although there is limited practical use to such an investigation, given that Mr. Pretti is dead and cannot be charged. There is no indication yet that the F.B.I. is doing either. Whatever the Trump administration investigates, their determinations may not be the last word, since there is no statute of limitations on murder. An F.B.I. spokesman declined to comment. A D.H.S. spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.

Wall Street Journal [1/26/2026 8:00 PM, Sadie Gurman, 646K] reports the Department of Homeland Security is leading an investigation into the Saturday killing of 37-year-old Alex Pretti by a Border Patrol agent, amid objections from Minnesota officials who say they are being shut out. The Trump administration’s approach marks a departure from past federal practices, prompting bipartisan calls for a thorough and impartial probe into how the shooting unfolded. It also comes on the heels of a similar clash over the fatal shooting of Renee Good by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer. U.S. officials said Homeland Security Investigations, an agency within DHS, is leading a probe into the shooting, with the Federal Bureau of Investigation serving in an assisting role. Usually, the FBI takes the lead. U.S. Customs and Border Protection, another Homeland Security agency, is separately doing its own internal review to see if agents complied with agency policy and training. In a declaration filed in court on Monday, the head of HSI’s Minneapolis field office said the agency was “the lead investigatory entity reviewing the use-of-force encounter at issue in this case.” HSI is the primary investigative branch of DHS, but its mission isn’t to probe the circumstances of shootings by federal agents. Most shootings by officers involve local police, rather than federal agents. Federal authorities, usually the FBI and Justice Department’s civil-rights division, will work alongside local investigators to determine whether an officer engaged in obstruction of justice or violated someone’s civil rights. U.S. officials will look at footage from body cameras worn by the agents involved in the shooting. Officials said the cameras produced footage of the shooting from several angles. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has said the agency would also examine other video footage, including that taken by a number of bystanders and posted to social media. The FBI is also examining the legally permitted 9mm handgun Pretti had been carrying. It will be studied in the bureau’s laboratory in Quantico, Va., for any fingerprints and to see whether it fired at any point, Director Kash Patel said. The investigation will also look at shell casings found at the scene. Usually officers involved in shootings will be put on paid leave while an agency investigates their conduct. That isn’t what has happened here. The Border Patrol agents who confronted Pretti remain on the job but are no longer working in Minneapolis, for their safety, Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino said.

FOX News [1/26/2026 6:29 PM, Louis Casiano, 40621K] reports the Department of Homeland Security is investigating whether U.S. Border Patrol agents thought they were being fired upon when one fatally shot Alex Pretti on a Minneapolis street over the weekend. The New York Post reported that an accidental discharge of Pretti’s Sig Sauer P320 pistol, which was being held by an agent after it was taken away from him, may have made authorities believe their lives were in danger. Pretti, a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs ICU nurse, who was legally permitted to carry the weapon, was fired upon around 10 times and died at the scene. Officials initially said Pretti was brandishing the weapon as federal officers were conducting immigration enforcement operations. "It was 100% an accidental discharge by the agent that relieved that person of their weapon. Because everyone’s guns were out, they think that there’s a shooting," one source told the Post. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Pretti "violently resisted" arrest and that a federal agent fired his weapon "fearing for his life.” Footage of the incident shows an agent disarm Pretti shortly before he was killed. He entered into the initial scuffle with agents as he tried to assist another protester who had been pushed by law enforcement. Sources familiar with the investigation told the newspaper that the agents involved were overworked and not trained to deal with protesters or types of confrontation they have endured while going about their duties. "None of those agents should’ve had their gun out. It’s a confluence of them being asked to do enforcement work that they are not trained for," one source said.

Reported similarly:
New York Post [1/26/2026 5:53 PM, Reuven Fenton, Chris Nesi and Anthony Blair, 42219K]

AP [1/27/2026 12:03 AM, Steven Sloan, 31753K] reports Sen. Bill Cassidy didn’t simply criticize the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis. Following the killing of Alex Jeffrey Pretti by a U.S. Border Patrol officer, the Louisiana Republican warned of broader implications for the federal government. "The credibility of ICE and DHS are at stake," Cassidy wrote in a social media post, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security. "There must be a full joint federal and state investigation. We can trust the American people with the truth." Trust is one of a president’s most valuable currencies, especially in a time of crisis. During his second term, President Donald Trump has persistently undermined the trust and credibility of major universities, national law firms and media and taken punitive actions against them. His supporters largely either endorsed those actions or stayed mum. Now the credibility question is aimed at his administration. While the criticism is not directly aimed at the president by his supporters, it is a sign that trust is eroding over some of his most important policies. Administration officials gave one account of the shooting in Minneapolis and contemporaneous video provided a decidedly different one. In the hours after Pretti’s killing, top Trump officials including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem were quick to cast Pretti as an instigator who "approached" officers with a gun and acted violently. But videos from the scene show Pretti being pushed by an officer before a half-dozen agents descend on him. During the scuffle, he held a phone but is never seen brandishing the 9mm semiautomatic handgun police say he was licensed to carry. The administration has said investigations are ongoing, though information hasn’t yet emerged to support some of the provocative initial claims.

NBC News [1/26/2026 1:34 PM, Julia Ainsley and Daniel Arkin, 34509K] reports investigators are reviewing body-camera videos from immigration agents in the fatal shooting of Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed to NBC News. Homeland Security investigators have videos recorded by cameras worn by multiple agents, department spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said. The agents involved in the Pretti shooting were part of the Border Patrol Tactical Unit, a specialized force, McLaughlin said. Two law enforcement officials told NBC News that unit has more body-worn cameras. Pretti was shot and killed by a Border Patrol agent in Minneapolis on Saturday, the city’s second fatal shooting by a federal officer this month amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration in Minnesota. The encounter was recorded by eyewitnesses, and videos circulated widely on social media throughout the weekend. DHS has said an agent shot Pretti in self-defense after he violently resisted attempts to disarm him. But eyewitness videos taken from various angles appear to contradict elements of the department’s account of events. The existence of body-camera video could help clarify some of the basic facts of the shooting and potentially serve as evidence in legal proceedings related to the weekend violence. Pretti’s killing intensified debate over the federal government’s aggressive tactics and led to sharply contrasting accounts of what led up to it. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz blamed "untrained" federal agents, while Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino faulted local protesters and officials for "vilifying" agents and causing a "preventable tragedy." Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has said "every video will be analyzed, everything will be looked at" as part of the investigation into Pretti’s death. President Donald Trump said his administration is "reviewing everything" about the shooting. Trump announced Monday morning he is sending border czar Tom Homan to Minnesota, where he will manage ICE operations on the ground.

Reported similarly:
Washington Examiner [1/26/2026 3:43 PM, Emily Hallas, 1394K]

Washington Post [1/26/2026 7:14 PM, Maria Sacchetti and Jeremy Roebuck, 24149K] reports a Trump administration lawyer assured a federal judge Monday that investigators have preserved body-camera footage and other evidence from the fatal shooting of Minnesota resident Alex Pretti, but he stopped short of promising to share that evidence with state investigators. State officials have asked U.S. District Judge Eric C. Tostrud to extend an emergency order he issued Saturday prohibiting the government from destroying or altering evidence after the Border Patrol shot Pretti. Justice Department lawyer Friedrich A.P. Siekert said the Trump administration opposes extending the order. “We don’t have to worry” about the evidence being compromised, Siekert told the judge. “We’re preserving it,” he said. “We don’t want the court to get involved in micromanaging an ongoing federal matter at this point.” Body-camera footage had been uploaded to Customs and Border Protection, whose rules call for the footage to be secure for 75 years, Siekert said. He did not say how many agents were wearing cameras. Other evidence also was preserved, he said, as it would have been in any criminal or immigration investigation. Siekert said, however, that he did not know if the federal government would preserve evidence once the federal investigation ended so that officials could share it with Minnesota investigators. “I don’t know the answer to that,” he told the judge. “Seems like that’s the most important question,” Tostrud said. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (D) and other officials have alleged “serious irregularities” with the evidence-gathering process in Pretti’s death. Ellison has said the state has not ruled out filing criminal charges against the agents involved. Before the court hearing Monday, he said federal officials “haven’t told us anything” about the evidence. The hearing in Tostrud’s courtroom was one of two Monday in which federal judges wrestled with the turbulent events that have roiled the Twin Cities since federal officials launched their biggest immigration enforcement operation yet in a state with far fewer immigrants than previous targets such as Chicago and Los Angeles. In the other hearing, in Minneapolis, state lawyers urged U.S. District Judge Kate Menendez to order the federal government to dramatically curtail its operations. “We’ve had the National Guard activated. We’ve had another person killed. We’ve had local law enforcement resources that are exhausted … and we’ve had continuing statements by the administration of coercion and pressure,” Minnesota Deputy Attorney General Brian Carter told the judge. “Relief is appropriate now, and it should be granted now.” Administration officials say they are making street arrests because state officials will not aid their mass deportation effort and have blamed local leaders for fanning protests against their efforts. Critics say the enforcement is sweeping up law-abiding residents and frightening and harming the community. “If this is not stopped right here, right now, I don’t think anybody who is seriously looking at this problem can have much faith in how our republic is going to go in the future,” Carter said. Menendez did not immediately rule Monday on the state’s request to effectively end the actions, dubbed “Operation Metro Surge,” and gave Justice Department attorneys until Wednesday to further respond in writing to the state’s requests.

The Hill [1/26/2026 3:13 PM, Alix Martichoux, 12595K] reports within hours of two fatal shootings by federal agents in Minneapolis in the past three weeks, multiple cellphone videos surfaced, showing the killings from different angles. But in both cases – the deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good – no body camera footage has been released. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers are not all required to have body cameras as they engage with the public or make arrests. It appears a minority of ICE officers have even been issued a camera. According to figures from June 2025 reviewed by the Washington Post, ICE had 4,400 cameras, but the number of agents has rapidly grown to 22,000. ICE’s official policy states the use of cameras “may be beneficial to the execution of many of ICE’s operations and may also promote public trust.” Following the death of Renee Good, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said equipping agents with cameras was a “priority” and blamed the lack of cameras on the Biden administration. However, in its initial budget proposal for the fiscal year, DHS moved to cut funding and staffing from the program that would equip all officers with body-worn cameras. The Department has also placed a majority of staffers who work for internal watchdogs on leave, Reuters reports. A budget bill ultimately passed by the House last week sets aside $20 million for the purchase and operations of body cameras for ICE and CBP officers. That bill has since become a flashpoint in a debate over ICE funding in the Senate, putting the government at risk of another shutdown if an agreement isn’t reached by the end of the month. An unnamed DHS official told NewsNation that officers in the area were wearing cameras and the footage was being reviewed. NewsNation reporter Kellie Meyer asked White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt if the footage would be released to the public. Leavitt said the president had not committed to releasing the video.

Reported similarly:
USA Today [1/26/2026 6:18 PM, Michael Loria, 67103K]

CBS News [1/26/2026 12:26 PM, Staff, 39474K] reports just two hours after Pretti was shot and killed, a statement issued by the Department of Homeland Security claimed that he had "approached US Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun." The statement said agents tried to disarm him, but he "violently resisted." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CBS News [1/26/2026 12:34 PM, Staff, 39474K] reports Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Alex Pretti approached federal agents with a handgun before he was shot and killed in Minneapolis on Saturday. However, a bystander video shows a different version of events. Here’s a side-by-side comparison of Noem’s description and video of the moment leading up to the shooting. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

AP [1/26/2026 5:48 PM, Lisa Mascaro, Joey Cappelletti and Mary Clare Jalonick, 31753K] reports the shooting deaths of two American citizens during the Trump administration’s deportation operations in Minneapolis have upended the politics of immigration in Congress, plunging the country toward another government shutdown. Democrats have awakened to what they see as a moral moment for the country, refusing funds for the Department of Homeland Security’s military-style immigration enforcement operations unless there are new restraints. At the same time, Republicans who have championed President Donald Trump’s tough approach to immigration are signaling second thoughts. A growing number of Republicans want a full investigation into the shooting death of Alex Pretti and congressional hearings about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations. The result is a rapidly changing political environment as the nation considers the reach of the Trump administration’s well-funded immigration enforcement machinery and Congress spirals toward a partial federal shutdown if no resolution is reached by midnight Friday.

New York Times [1/26/2026 5:41 PM, Mark Scheffler, 135475K] reports the first viral video from Minneapolis last Saturday morning told only a partial story: Federal agents skirmish in the street with several civilians. Officers bring a man to the ground. Gunshots go off. Mr. Pretti was filming with his cellphone before he was taken to the ground by several officers. Officials for the Trump administration had a different take: Mr. Pretti had attacked officers, said Kristi Noem, the Homeland Security secretary. Gregory Bovino, the official in charge of Border Patrol operations, said Mr. Pretti had wanted to “massacre law enforcement.” These claims echoed Ms. Noem’s characterization of Renee Good, who was shot dead by an ICE agent in Minneapolis in early January. Court papers filed on Monday by Trump administration officials said investigators would be assessing body-camera footage of the Border Patrol agents involved in the shooting.

Washington Examiner [1/26/2026 2:13 PM, David Zimmermann, 1394K] reports that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is one of many Trump administration officials who have called the victims of recent officer-involved shootings in Minnesota domestic terrorists, but the jury is still out on whether Renee Good and Alex Pretti fit that definition. The two high-profile shootings have come amid heightened tensions between immigration enforcement and local protesters, whose actions often provoke federal officers into taking lethal action. Whether their actions were justified remains up for debate pending investigations into the incidents, but the Trump administration is doubling down on its immigration operation in the blue state. After being asked if President Donald Trump agrees with Noem’s description of 37-year-old Pretti, killed by Border Patrol agents Saturday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, "I have not heard the president characterize Mr. Pretti in that way." Joining Noem in labeling Good and Pretti "domestic terrorists" is White House official Stephen Miller, who caught flak from lawmakers for ascribing malicious intent to Pretti’s actions prior to his death. Pretti, an ICU nurse, carried a registered handgun during the incident and "violently resisted" law enforcement, according to the Department of Homeland Security. A Border Patrol agent, who allegedly feared for his own life and the lives of his fellow officers, then fatally shot the man. The DHS chief is using the anti-government violent extremist definition for domestic terrorism, according to University of New Haven criminal justice professor Kenneth Gray.

New York Times [1/26/2026 6:50 PM, Luke Broadwater and David E. Sanger, 135475K] reports faced with broad outcry over the killing of a protester on Saturday in Minneapolis, the White House on Monday pulled a top border official from Minneapolis and tried to distance President Trump from the response of his most senior officials, who had immediately characterized the man fatally shot by federal agents as a “domestic terrorist” who was “brandishing” a gun, before video evidence undercut their charges. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, notably did not defend the rhetoric of White House officials, including Stephen Miller, the deputy chief of staff, and Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, who were the most vocal in spreading false accusations against the victim, Alex Pretti. Mr. Pretti was shot roughly 10 times by immigration agents after he was apparently filming them with his camera. He was licensed to carry a gun in Minnesota, but video from several angles shows he never pulled one, and his hands were visible as he was shot in the back. White House officials clearly understood that the killing, the second of an American citizen protesting the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Minneapolis, posed one of the gravest political threats to Mr. Trump since his inauguration just a little over a year ago. Yet they seemed frozen in place, unwilling to walk back the statements by Mr. Miller and Ms. Noem, which were widely repeated throughout the administration, while sending Ms. Leavitt out to insist that “we will let the facts lead and we will let the facts play out in this investigation.” They provided no evidence to back up the statements by the two officials, who have become the face of Mr. Trump’s efforts to deport undocumented immigrants. And while Ms. Leavitt would not contradict the two officials, she insisted to reporters that “nobody in the White House, including President Trump, wants to see people getting hurt or killed in America’s streets.” She also declined to defend the attacks on Mr. Pretti.

NewsMax [1/26/2026 8:34 PM, Michael Katz, 4109K] reports a Republican senator who succeeded Mitt Romney in the upper chamber criticized Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, saying she undermined public trust in the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts in Minnesota following the shooting death of Alex Pretti on Saturday. "We must have a transparent, independent investigation into the Minnesota shooting, and those responsible — no matter their title — must be held accountable," Sen. John Curtis, R-Utah, wrote Monday in a post on X. "Officials who rush to judgment before all the facts are known undermine public trust and the law enforcement mission. "I disagree with Secretary Noem’s premature DHS response, which came before all the facts were known and weakened confidence," he continued. "I will be working with a bipartisan group of senators to demand real oversight and transparency, including supporting calls from @RandPaul for leaders of these operations to testify, so trust can be restored and justice served." Pretti’s death was the second fatal shooting this month in Minnesota involving a federal law enforcement officer and an individual protesting the administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration. Noem said during a news conference Saturday that immigration officers were targeting an illegal alien with a criminal history that included domestic assault with intentionally inflicting bodily harm, disorderly conduct, and driving without a valid license when the situation escalated. She said an individual approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9mm semiautomatic handgun. "The officers attempted to disarm this individual, but the armed suspect reacted violently," Noem said. "Fearing for his life and for the lives of his fellow officers around him, an agent fired defensive shots." Pretti was pronounced dead at the scene. Noem said that in addition to the firearm, he possessed "two magazines with ammunition in them that held dozens of rounds" and no identification. "When you perpetuate violence against a government because of ideological reasons and for reasons to resist and perpetuate violence, that is the definition of domestic terrorism," she said. "This individual who came with weapons and ammunition to stop a law enforcement operation of federal law enforcement officers committed an act of domestic terrorism. That’s the facts." Curtis joins a growing number of Republicans calling for more information on the shooting, as several reports have contradicted Noem’s assertion that Pretti brandished a weapon as he approached federal officers. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, has summoned the heads of Customs and Border Protection, Citizenship and Immigration Services, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement to testify at a hearing on Feb. 12. House Homeland Security Committee Chair Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., also is seeking testimony from the three agency heads. "My top priority remains keeping Americans safe," Garbarino said. Other congressional Republicans, including Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas and Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, also are pressing for additional information.

The Hill [1/26/2026 12:29 PM, Lindsey Granger, 12595K] reports what happened to Alex Pretti forces us to confront a very uncomfortable truth: when the official story collapses under the weight of video evidence, accountability becomes the real test of democracy. Alex Pretti was an intensive care nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital. Born in Illinois, raised in Green Bay, a University of Minnesota graduate. A research scientist who chose nursing. A neighbor. An outdoorsman and competitive cyclist, according to friends. According to records, he legally owned a handgun and had a permit to carry in Minnesota. On Saturday, Alex Pretti was holding a phone, recording federal immigration agents, when officers escalated the encounter. Multiple videos show him pepper-sprayed, pulled into the street, pinned to the ground, and struck. One officer appears to remove a gun from Pretti’s waist before shots are fired. Ten shots in less than five seconds. Yet within minutes, federal officials labeled him a “domestic terrorist,” claiming he intended to “massacre” officers. That narrative unraveled almost as quickly as it was issued. Pretti’s parents put it plainly, saying: “Alex was a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital. Alex wanted to make a difference in this world. Unfortunately he will not be with us to see his impact. I do not throw around the hero term lightly. However his last thought and act was to protect a woman.” The problem is that once a person is smeared, even evidence struggles to catch up. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz addressed that directly. “The most powerful people in the world, president, VP, Greg Bovino, Kristi Noem narrate to you what you were looking at—that this was a domestic terrorist, crazed, running at law enforcement, with the intent to kill massive numbers of them, sullying his name within minutes of this event happening and then closing the crime scene, sweeping away the evidence, defying a court order and not allowing anyone to look at it.”

Politico [1/26/2026 11:36 PM, Eric Bazail-Eimil, 13586K] reports White House allies are increasingly blaming one person for the chaotic fallout of the Trump administration’s crackdown in Minneapolis: Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. The thrusts of the criticism are familiar, that Noem rushed to the cameras too quickly and sabotaged any independent probe into Saturday’s fatal shooting of 37-year-old Alex Pretti by Border Patrol agents. But this time, they’re occurring more publicly, as the White House takes steps to revisit its strategy in Minneapolis. In one of the most high-profile public rebukes of the DHS chief, Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah) wrote on social media that Noem’s actions around the shooting “undermine public trust and the law-enforcement mission.” “I disagree with Secretary Noem’s premature DHS response, which came before all the facts were known and weakened confidence,” Curtis wrote. Noem is also now expected to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee after maneuvering from the panel’s chair, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). Conservative radio host Erick Erickson, an influential voice with evangelical voters central to the MAGA base, has jabbed Noem in social media posts since Saturday’s shooting, accusing her of “driving tensions” in the name of “great coverage.” Frustrations with Noem are palpable among immigration hawks as well. Mark Krikorian, who leads the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors restrictions on legal immigration and crackdowns on unauthorized migration, said when asked about Noem’s standing in the administration that Noem has “made herself a lightning rod” for criticism. Publicly, the White House is standing by Noem. White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said Monday that she enjoys “the utmost confidence and trust of the president of the United States.” But the White House’s decision Monday to dispatch border czar Tom Homan to oversee ICE operations in Minneapolis suggests that Trump wants changes from the approach Noem has championed to date. A White House official told POLITICO on Monday that “Homan going is not a vote of confidence for” Noem. Noem has butted heads previously with Homan on how to approach enforcement. Homan, who spent most of his career working as an immigration officer, has pushed to protect ICE as an institution and focus efforts on deporting unauthorized immigrants with criminal records. Noem, meanwhile, has focused on using social media to project an image of exceedingly aggressive immigration enforcement. Noem also elevated Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino to serve as the essential head of operations in Minneapolis. Leavitt told reporters Monday that Homan, not Bovino, would be the “main point of contact” going forward in Minneapolis. Bovino is also being moved out of Minneapolis, an administration official told POLITICO.

The Hill [1/26/2026 11:01 AM, Max Rego, 12595K] reports Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said Monday that the actions of Alex Pretti before he was fatally shot by a Border Patrol agent in Minneapolis on Saturday did not constitute domestic terrorism. “I don’t think anybody thinks that they were comparing what happened on Saturday to the legal definition of domestic terrorism,” Blanche said on Fox News’s “Fox & Friends.” “What we saw was a very violent altercation, and I am not going to prejudge the facts,” he added. In the aftermath of the shooting, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Pretti, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen, committed domestic terrorism and brandished a weapon at Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents. “When you perpetuate violence against a government because of ideological reasons and for reasons to resist and perpetuate violence, that is the definition of domestic terrorism,” Noem told reporters Saturday. “This individual who came with weapons and ammunition to stop a law enforcement operation of federal law enforcement officers committed an act of domestic terrorism.” But video of the incident shows Pretti recording agents with his phone as they pushed a woman to the ground, and he responded by attempting to assist her. CBP personnel then surrounded him, with one appearing to remove a firearm from Pretti’s beltline before an agent fired multiple rounds at him.

New York Post [1/26/2026 10:35 PM, Reuven Fenton and Anthony Blair, 42219K] reports ICU nurse Alex Pretti was part of an ad-hoc group of local protesters who turned out to confront Border Patrol agents as they arrested an illegal migrant in Minneapolis before he was gunned down Saturday, activists and residents said. "It was quiet. It was Saturday, and people weren’t working. Word got around that a bunch of ICE agents had shown up and were making rounds, so folks mobilized," a woman named Blair in a coffee shop around the corner before the shooting told The Post. "It wasn’t that many people — maybe 50 altogether, which sounds like a lot, but it isn’t. "At about 8:30 I heard a bunch of gunshots, and we knew something bad had happened. The next thing we knew, ambulances showed up," she added. During the barrage of gunshots, Pretti, 37, was tackled and shot dead by federal agents. Pretti — who treated the most ill veterans at the Minneapolis VA Health Care System — was a registered Democratic voter who had taken to the streets before during the wave of protests following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020, which happened close to his home, according to his ex-wife. He was someone who might shout at law enforcement officers at a protest, she told the Associated Press but added that she had never known him to by physically confrontational. In recent months, the nurse was known as a regular in the area around the New American Development Center, outside which he was killed, an employee, Emma, told The Post."For whatever reason, this is the area ICE chooses to come, so I would see him sometimes. He was a nice guy. He would talk about how he wanted to protect his community," Emma said. Footage showing the 60 seconds before Pretti was fatally shot appears to contradict parts of the official narrative from the Department of Homeland Security about his death. Video appears to show Pretti filming the scene on his phone as he walks toward the federal agents during Saturday’s confrontation in south Minneapolis. Officials claimed Pretti intended to "massacre" law enforcement or "inflict maximum damage," when federal agents shot him. They also stated that he "reacted violently" during attempts to disarm him, and that the agent who shot Pretti did so out of fear for their life and the lives of their fellow officers. Pretti was a lawful gun owner with no criminal record, and had a permit to carry a firearm in public, according to Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara. He got his permit to carry a concealed firearm about three years ago, Pretti’s ex wife said. She said Pretti owned at least one semiautomatic handgun at the time of their separation.

FOX News [1/26/2026 8:52 AM, Staff, 40621K] reports Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem joins ‘The Sunday Briefing’ to discuss why she believes the Minneapolis riots are actually a reaction to federal agents uncovering massive fraud under state leadership. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Daily Wire [1/26/2026 5:55 AM, Hank Berrien, 2494K] reports the Department of Homeland Security revealed new details about last weekend’s invasion of Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, including an account from one victim who broke her arm while fleeing the building, reportedly telling local police, "they were terrorized, our children were weeping, college students and young women were sobbing, it was impactful and it will take time to work through." Three people were arrested over the incident: activists Nekima Levy Armstrong and Chauntyll Louisa Allen, who reportedly organized the invasion, along with William Kelly, an anti-ICE activist. All three were released from custody on Friday. Another church member said congregants tried to reach their children in a downstairs childcare area but were blocked from using the stairs by agitators, preventing parents from getting to their children, according to a report from DHS special agent Timothy M. Gerber. The report adds that "Victim 4 recalled one agitator was threatening, aggressive, and intimidating towards parishioners. Additionally, this agitator was screaming and getting in people’s faces, to include women and young children."

Daily Caller [1/26/2026 6:54 AM, Thomas Phippen, 835K] reports rioters violently attacked a Minneapolis hotel where they believed federal immigration agents were staying Sunday night. A crowd of protesters swarmed the hotel around 11 p.m. local time, smashed windows and destroyed parts of the lobby as rage over the killing of Alex Pretti and the presence of immigration enforcement boiled over. The aftermath of the attack was captured by Jorge Ventura, reporting for the Daily Caller News Foundation. "Where is the local PD?" said a federal agent who was bleeding from the face and hands as he stood guarding an entrance to the Home2 Suites in downtown Minneapolis following the mayhem. It’s unclear how the agent, wearing a Bureau of Prisons uniform, was injured in the attack. It’s unclear whether any Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) officers were staying at the hotel. Rioters apparently smashed windows and vandalized the lobby of the hotel in the attack, painted "ICE OUT," "ICE KILLS," and "KYS [kill yourself] ICE" on the building. Demonstrators also appeared to set up makeshift barricades, banged on trash cans and blew whistles while shouting at federal agents during the demonstration. At least one Minneapolis police officer was seen guarding the entrance of the hotel. Minneapolis Department of Public Safety said Minnesota state troopers and other state officers had been deployed to the scene, but were later withdrawn.

FOX News [1/26/2026 9:53 AM, Staff, 40621K] reports the Minnesota National Guard was seen handing out coffee and donuts to anti-ICE protesters in St. Paul on Sunday. Video captured guardsmen in yellow vests offering donuts and coffee out the back of a vehicle. One National Guard member told WCCO-TV that this was a "demonstration of safety and security.” The Minnesota National Guard posted on X earlier this month that if troops were deployed to the Twin Cities, they would wear reflective vests "to help distinguish them from other agencies in similar uniforms.” The guardsmen in the video were seen one day after a Border Patrol agent shot and killed 37-year-old Minneapolis resident Alex J. Pretti after he allegedly confronted officers during a Department of Homeland Security operation in south Minneapolis. Federal officials initially claimed Pretti approached agents with a handgun and resisted disarmament. Bystander video and eyewitness accounts circulating online raised questions about that version of events and whether Pretti was threatening officers when he was shot. Pretti’s death happened just weeks after an ICE officer fatally shot 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good while she allegedly blocked an operation in Minneapolis and drove toward the officer. After the shooting of Good, Democratic officials, including Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, encouraged anti-ICE protesters to assemble, prompting a probe by federal prosecutors for the alleged impeding of law enforcement efforts. Walz on Sunday called for President Donald Trump to pull out "his 3,000 untrained agents" from Minnesota "before they kill another American in the street" following Pretti’s death.

AP [1/27/2026 12:02 AM, Staff, 31753K] reports Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino is expected to leave Minneapolis on Tuesday, according a person familiar with the matter. Dozens of protesters assembled in the freezing cold Monday night to make noise outside of the hotel where they believe Bovino is staying. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [1/27/2026 3:13 AM, Landon Mion, 40621K] reports police in Minnesota began arresting anti-ICE agitators outside a hotel Monday after authorities said the demonstration escalated and was "no longer considered peaceful," prompting officers to declare an unlawful assembly. The demonstrators were outside the SpringHill Suites by Marriott in Maple Grove, Minnesota, where they believed U.S. Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino was staying. President Donald Trump announced Bovino and many of his agents would be leaving Minneapolis as part of a reshuffling of leadership in carrying out his immigration crackdown amid bipartisan scrutiny over the immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis that intensified after agents killed an American recording Border Patrol activity over the weekend. Border Czar Tom Homan is expected to now lead the effort in the state. Some reports stated Bovino was removed from his role as Border Patrol "commander-at-large" and will return to his former job as chief patrol agent in El Centro, California, but Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said he has "NOT been relieved of his duties" and remains a "key part of the President’s team." The White House also sought to distance itself from comments by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who called Pretti a "domestic terrorist," and Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller, who labeled the man as a "would-be assassin," with White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt saying she has "not heard the president characterize" Pretti that way.

Free Beacon [1/26/2026 6:17 PM, Jessica Costescu, 411K] reports the Minneapolis hotel smashed up overnight by anti-ICE rioters was on a target list created by the Twin Cities chapter of Sunrise Movement, a radical group funded by some of the country’s most prominent nonprofit organizations, including George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, the Ford Foundation, and the MacArthur Foundation. Video footage shows dozens of anti-ICE rioters descending on Home2 Suites by Hilton near the University of Minnesota late Sunday night. The group used noisemakers and pounded on trash bins before turning violent—the rioters hurled items at people, smashed windows, destroyed the hotel’s facade, lit fireworks, and graffitied the building. As they attempted to force their way in, those inside were forced to use two vending machines to block the hotel’s entrance. Sunrise’s list, reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon, catalogs nearly 70 hotels across the Twin Cities area that the group claims are housing ICE agents. It was updated Saturday—well before the attack on Home2 Suites—and includes hotel names, addresses, phone numbers, and even the "suspected" number of ICE agents staying at each location. While the Minnesota Department of Public Safety said state officers responded to the hotel riot, it added they were "no longer on scene" after federal agents "deployed chemical irritants, clearing the group." One federal officer, bloodied by a rioter who threw an object at him, asked reporters on the scene, "Where is the local PD? That’s my question for the press." Customs and Border Protection commissioner Rodney Scott confirmed Monday afternoon that federal officers were in the building, calling it "an attack on law enforcement.”

Washington Examiner [1/26/2026 11:01 AM, Jenny Goldsberry, 1394K] reports Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry noted an "amazing" turnout in what he described as "peaceful protests" in Minneapolis over the weekend. Curry commented on the protests Sunday night after the Warriors beat the Minnesota Timberwolves by 26 points. The Warriors arrived in Minnesota on Friday in preparation for the Sunday game. On Saturday, a Border Patrol agent shot and killed Alex Pretti, 37, after Pretti allegedly got involved during a federal operation. Pretti’s death marked the second fatal shooting by federal law enforcement in Minneapolis since Renee Good’s shooting death on Jan. 7. This shooting and the subsequent uproar resulted in the NBA game, originally slated for Saturday, being postponed to Sunday. Before Sunday’s game, the Target Center held a moment of silence while displaying Pretti’s image on the jumbotron. "We are heartbroken by the tragic loss of Alex Pretti that occurred yesterday in Minneapolis. We extend our love, support, and heartfelt sympathies to Alex’s family, friends, and our community during this difficult time," an announcer said before the moment of silence. Curry welcomed the postponement and said after Sunday’s game, "Obviously, there was no need and no place to have a game yesterday.” "I know there’s a lot of heavy hearts and a lot of things, especially from the Minneapolis community. Yesterday was rough," Curry said. "It was amazing to watch the turnout and peaceful protests, the unified voice that was here.” "It was like three straight hours in negative 10-degree weather. It was beautiful to see that turnout," Curry added. "That speaks to how important people felt to have their voice heard in those elements and on the streets right outside our hotel; they were out, and it was amazing to watch.” Curry’s characterization ran in contrast to Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara’s, who alerted the public that it was an "unlawful assembly." Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin posted on X that a Homeland Security Investigations officer had his finger bitten off by rioters in the area.

New York Times [1/26/2026 4:11 PM, Mitch Smith, 135475K] reports a federal judge in Minnesota asked a lawyer for the Trump administration on Monday whether the surge of federal officers to the state was really just about immigration enforcement, or whether it might also be motivated by political retribution and coercion. But the judge, Kate M. Menendez of the Federal District Court, also had pointed questions about the state government’s request that she issue a sweeping order blocking the surge of agents. Minnesota, along with the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, filed a lawsuit two weeks ago claiming that the Trump administration’s campaign, called Operation Metro Surge, violates state sovereignty under the 10th Amendment and should be blocked. The surge has brought some 3,000 federal agents to Minnesota, resulting in thousands of arrests, three shootings and tense protests. Judge Menendez, who was nominated to the bench by former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., did not rule from the bench on Monday and did not provide a timeline for issuing a written decision. She indicated that she would move quickly.

Reported similarly:
Univision [1/26/2026 5:39 PM, Staff, 5004K]

Bloomberg [1/26/2026 5:38 PM, Peter Blumberg and Zoe Tillman, 18207K] reports the Trump administration won an appeals court order blocking a judge’s restrictions on Immigration and Customs Enforcement tactics for dealing with protesters in Minnesota. The 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday put an indefinite hold on a lower-court judge’s Jan. 16 order that prevented officers from arresting, detaining, pepper-spraying or retaliating against peaceful protesters in Minneapolis. The ruling will remain paused while the government’s appeal plays out. A lawsuit filed in December alleged that federal officers violated the constitutional rights of six protesters, including boxing in a civilian’s car and pointing a rifle inside. Protests have continued across Minneapolis, where ICE agents fatally shot Renee Good on Jan. 7 and Alex Pretti on Jan. 24. President Donald Trump has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act and placed 1,500 US troops on standby to assist federal agents in Minnesota. US District Judge Katherine Menendez said in her Jan. 16 order that the protesters had shown “an ongoing, persistent pattern” of intimidating conduct by ICE officers. She said she could not “ignore the almost-nonstop press reporting of continuing protest activity met with continuing aggressive responses by immigration officers operating in the Twin Cities.” Menendez, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden, is also weighing a request by Minnesota state officials for an order pausing the deployment of thousands of immigration enforcement officers in the state. Menendez told lawyers at a hearing Monday that she was wrestling with the broad scope of the state’s request to pause Operation Metro Surge and order officers off the street while the legal fight continues. US officials have “a lot of power” to carry out immigration laws, she noted. But the judge also questioned the Justice Department’s assertion that the goal of the surge isn’t to force Minnesota to change its policies limiting cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, highlighting a disconnect between US officials’ public statements and the government’s arguments in court. Minnesota is alleging that the deployment of officers from ICE and other federal agencies unconstitutionally interferes with the state’s authority to manage its affairs and is hurting the safety and health of residents.

Washington Times [1/26/2026 6:15 PM, Stephen Dinan, 852K] reports federal judges have ordered the government to release migrants suspected of being violent gang members, drawing a rebuke from Trump officials who say the judges are endangering Americans.

Both cases involve “habeas corpus” petitions, which are limited but powerful challenges to the government’s authority to arrest and detain. The Washington Times has reported that the popularity of habeas corpus petitions has soared among attorneys of migrants snared in President Trump’s deportation surge. Across the country, judges are freeing migrants after ruling that the government has stretched the laws governing immigration detention. The gang members represent special cases. Government officials say illegal immigrants who are deemed risks to public safety should — and can — be held until they are deported. One government source said the gang releases aren’t isolated incidents.

Breitbart [1/26/2026 6:41 PM, Neil Munro, 2416K] reports the FBI has begun investigating the sprawling, Antifa-connected networks of Minneapolis activists that are impeding federal agents from enforcing Americans’ civil right to fair enforcement of immigration and welfare laws. The investigation follows a report showing that activists were trading information about agency automobiles via an encrypted Signal network. "As soon as [Cam] Higby put that post out, I opened an investigation on it," FBI director Kath Patel told online host Benny Johnson. He continued: Just like any other case, when we say, "Hey, there was an attack in downtown Seattle. Does the public have information? We, the FBI, are looking to the public for information on these events." We immediately opened up that investigation because that sort of signal chat being coordinated with individuals, not just locally in Minnesota, but maybe even around the country. If that leads to a break in the federal statute or a violation of some law, then we are going to arrest people. You cannot create a scenario that illegally entraps and puts law enforcement in harm’s way.

NewsMax [1/26/2026 1:15 PM, Charlie McCarthy, 4109K] reports FBI Director Kash Patel said Monday the bureau has identified people and groups who are funding leftist protests aimed at Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Minnesota. During an appearance on conservative commentator Benny Johnson’s podcast, Patel confirmed that the FBI’s investigation into the unrest is active and expanding. "We’ve got … investigations ongoing into the funding of this," Patel told Johnson, stressing that the protests are "not happening organically" and that investigators have made "substantial progress" in uncovering groups and individuals financially backing them. Patel also asserted that federal authorities are examining encrypted left-wing chats connected to protest organizers in Minnesota — warning those involved that they "should be worried" if they have violated federal statutes. The revelations come as Minnesota remains a flashpoint in national debates over immigration enforcement. Federal immigration operations in the Twin Cities, including "Operation Metro Surge," which has seen thousands of arrests, have drawn fierce criticism from local officials and left-leaning groups. Protests intensified after the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Alex Pretti by Border Patrol agents during an immigration enforcement action in Minneapolis over the weekend. Videos widely circulated online depicting the incident sparked nationwide demonstrations and solidarity protests in cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City.

NBC News [1/26/2026 6:58 PM, David Ingram, 34509K] reports FBI Director Kash Patel said Monday that he had opened an investigation into the Signal group text chats that Minnesota residents are using to share information about federal immigration agents’ movements, launching a new front in the Trump administration’s conflict there with potential free speech implications. Patel said in an interview with conservative podcaster Benny Johnson that he wanted to know whether any Minnesota residents had put federal agents "in harm’s way" with activities such as sharing agents’ license plate numbers and locations. "You cannot create a scenario that illegally entraps and puts law enforcement in harm’s way," he said in the interview, which was posted to YouTube. The investigation quickly drew skepticism from free speech advocates who said the First Amendment protects members of the public who share legally obtained information, such as the names of federal agents or where they are conducting enforcement operations. "There are legitimate reasons to share such information, including enabling members of the public to observe and document law enforcement activity and to hold officials accountable for misconduct," Aaron Terr, director of public advocacy at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, said in an email. "Given this administration’s poor track record of distinguishing protected speech from criminal conduct, any investigation like this deserves very close scrutiny," he said. For months, digital tools have been at the center of how people have pushed back against immigration enforcement efforts in Minnesota and across the country. The administration’s opponents have used group text chats to track Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations, share photos of suspected ICE vehicles and raise awareness for neighbors. In June, administration officials criticized ICEBlock, an app designed to share information about ICE sightings. Apple removed the app from its app store in October, prompting a lawsuit from the app’s developer alleging the administration unlawfully pressured Apple to remove it. In the past few days, the group text chats — especially those on the encrypted messaging app Signal — have drawn attention from right-wing media. On Saturday, Cam Higby, a conservative journalist based near Seattle, said in a thread on X that he had "infiltrated" Signal groups from around Minneapolis that he alleged were obstructing law enforcement. His thread, which got 20 million views, focused on how the groups share such information as the license plate numbers of suspected federal vehicles. NBC News has not verified Higby’s claims.

Reported similarly:
New York Post [1/27/2026 1:09 AM, Victor Nava, 42219K]

FOX News [1/26/2026 12:10 PM, Stephen Sorace, 40621K] reports FBI Director Kash Patel on Sunday announced the arrest of another suspect in connection with the theft of government property from an FBI vehicle vandalized in Minneapolis earlier this month. Patel said the individual arrested allegedly used some of the stolen ID material in the vehicle to threaten an FBI Minneapolis agent, along with the agent’s wife and their child. "Threatening law enforcement will never be tolerated," Patel said in a post on X. "Nor will destroying and looting government property paid for by taxpayers." The FBI director said more details about the arrest will be released later. The incident happened on Jan. 14 in Minneapolis, where Patel said "rioters destroyed and stole equipment from an FBI vehicle." Attorney General Pam Bondi said at the time that the suspected gang member allegedly stole FBI body armor and weaponry, and has a history of violent crimes. White House border czar Tom Homan said he allegedly stole a firearm from the FBI. The alleged theft came as protests erupted in Minneapolis on Jan. 14 following an Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation, and after the Department of Homeland Security said an ICE agent shot an illegal immigrant from Venezuela in the leg after allegedly ambushing agents and attacking them with a shovel.

FOX News [1/26/2026 6:17 PM, Greg Wehner, 40621K] reports federal authorities in Spokane, Washington, arrested a woman who allegedly threatened to kill a federal law enforcement officer and the officer’s immediate family after prosecutors say she used identification material stolen during a January riot that damaged an FBI vehicle in Minneapolis. "Threatening an FBI employee and their family WILL NOT BE TOLERATED," FBI Minneapolis wrote on X on Monday. "Yesterday, FBI Agents in Spokane, Washington at the request of FBI Minneapolis arrested a woman after she left 3 disturbing voicemails threatening to kill an FBI agent, his wife, and child because of the agent’s employment in MN. IF you threaten to harm law enforcement officers or their families, the FBI will find you and hold you accountable.” Prosecutors allege in a federal criminal complaint unsealed Monday that on or about Jan. 16, 2026, Brenna Marie Doyle threatened to kill a federal law enforcement officer in Minnesota, intending to intimidate or retaliate against the officer for carrying out official duties. Authorities also allege Doyle threatened to kill members of the officer’s immediate family – specifically the officer’s spouse and child – with the same intent to intimidate or retaliate over the officer’s work. In addition, prosecutors say Doyle left three threatening voicemails sent across state lines that targeted the officer and the officer’s family, knowing the messages would be perceived as threats. Doyle was arrested in connection with the Jan. 14 incident in Minneapolis, where rioters destroyed and stole equipment from an FBI vehicle, FBI Director Kash Patel said on X on Sunday. "This is nearly a dozen public arrests the FBI and our partners have made in connection with the January 14 incident, where rioters destroyed a taxpayer-funded FBI vehicle and stole government property, including weapons," Patel told Fox News Digital on Monday. "Our teams have responded quickly and professionally in the days since despite a significant number of challenges. Authorities said the thefts happened amid protests that erupted in Minneapolis on January 14 following an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said an ICE agent shot a Venezuelan national in the leg after agents were allegedly ambushed and attacked with a shovel.

FOX News [1/26/2026 1:59 PM, Adam Sabes, 40621K] reports that a self-described "Antifa" member in Minneapolis called for "armed" men to get their "boots on the ground" to stop immigration officials, who he calls "mass murderers" and "fascist occupiers." Kyle Wagner, who says he’s a "master-hate-baiter," made the comments in a series of Instagram videos following the death of Alex Pretti, who was killed by a Border Patrol agent on Saturday. The former Minneapolis GOP chair called him a "wannabe influencer" who’s "exacerbating" issues that the city is facing. "I’m Kyle, I’m Antifa, and everybody in my DMs and calling me and blowing me up, I love all of you," Wagner said in an Instagram video. "I understand that the women who see this are really scared that their husbands are gonna go and not come back, and that’s real, and I am very sorry ladies that that is what is happening, but I don’t understand how you’re struggling to follow that they’re gonna keep killing us if we don’t end this. And we can’t end this without good men in the streets, armed and ready to protect innocent people from being gunned down by these massed murderers, these fascist occupiers." "I need boots on the ground and I need them prepared to do what needs to be done so that this does not cost more innocent lives. We do not have any more time to let this drag out. I know it sucks, but this is the iron front," he added. Wagner acknowledged in a separate video that he cannot legally possess a firearm and encouraged those who have guns to "show up." "You are killing people in the streets for waving cameras in your faces and calling you little b----es like you are," Wagner said, referring to immigration officials. "So, gloves off then, right?" Fox News Digital reached out to Wagner for comment.

Washington Examiner [1/27/2026 5:00 AM, Robert Schmad, 1394K] reports efforts to disrupt federal law enforcement in Minnesota have united individuals and organizations associated with the mainstream Democratic Party with self-described “communist” and “socialist” activists, a Washington Examiner review of political emails and social media posts has found. In recent weeks, mainstream Democrats have sent messages to their supporters via email and social media, enticing them to either donate money to groups staging protests in Minneapolis or to join them personally in challenging law enforcement. Far-left groups, including avowed communists, are taking a leading role in organizing these same demonstrations. Democrats such as former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-CA), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-NY), and Rep. Lizzie Fletcher (D-TX), as well as a host of state lawmakers and congressional candidates, have all called on their supporters to use StandWithMinnesota.com, a webpage purportedly maintained by local activists, to donate to “organizations doing the work on the ground” in Minneapolis. The Arlington Young Democrats, a club of young liberals living just outside D.C. — many of whom work as staffers in the capital — endorsed StandWithMinnesota.com as well.

Blaze [1/26/2026 11:15 AM, Candace Hathaway, 1442K] reports Attorney General Pam Bondi demanded that Minnesota leaders share detailed records on the state’s federally funded welfare programs, repeal its sanctuary policies, and grant access to voter rolls. The Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party responded with a sharp, dismissive rejection. On Saturday, Bondi sent a letter to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (DFL) describing how the Trump administration’s efforts to enforce immigration laws have been hindered by local leaders. She noted that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and agents are facing a 1,300% increase in violence, including a 3,200% increase in vehicular attacks. “The lawlessness in the streets is matched by the unprecedented financial fraud occurring on your watch,” Bondi told Walz. “And the out of control fraud in your state also implicates election security.” Bondi made three requests. First she demanded that Walz provide the federal government with all of the state’s records on Medicaid and Food and Nutrition Service programs to allow for an investigation. She pressed Walz to repeal Minnesota’s sanctuary policies, blaming them for an increase in crime and violence by preventing the state’s detention facilities from cooperating with ICE. Lastly she demanded that Walz allow the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division to access the state’s voter rolls to confirm they comply with federal law. “Do not obstruct federal immigration enforcement; do not allow rioters to take over the streets and houses of worship; do not hinder federal officials from investigating financial fraud and violations of election laws,” Bondi stated. “Whether state and local politicians stand in the way or not, we will work every day to protect Americans and make Minnesota Safe Again. I request that you join us in that effort.” The DFL Party issued a statement on Sunday responding to Bondi, accusing the attorney general and President Donald Trump of attempting to “extort our state voter rolls.” “Donald Trump and Pam Bondi are demanding access to Minnesotans’ voter rolls in exchange for relieving us from the federal siege we are under,” DFL Party Chair Richard Carlbom said. “Let us be direct: F**k off,” Carlbom remarked.

Daily Wire [1/26/2026 5:56 AM, Mary Margaret Olohan, 2494K] reports President Donald Trump on Monday announced on social media that the Justice Department is investigating Minnesota Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. "The DOJ and Congress are looking at ‘Congresswoman’ Illhan [sic] Omar, who left Somalia with NOTHING, and is now reportedly worth more than 44 Million Dollars," Trump shared. "Time will tell all. Thank you for your attention to this matter!" Trump dropped the news first thing Monday morning as chaos continued in Minneapolis following a federal immigration agent fatally shooting an armed anti-ICE protester over the weekend. The president also said he is sending border czar Tom Homan to Minnesota. The Truth Social post from Trump added that a major investigation into the "massive 20 Billion Dollar, Plus, Welfare Fraud that has taken place in Minnesota" has been launched, saying that it is "at least partially responsible for the violent organized protests going on in the streets." In response, Omar posted on social media: "Sorry, Trump, your support is collapsing and you’re panicking. Right on cue, you’re deflecting from your failures with lies and conspiracy theories about me. Years of ‘investigations’ have found nothing." DHS Secretary Kristi Noem reacted on Monday morning via X to news that Homan is heading to Minnesota, saying: "This is good news for peace, safety, and accountability in Minneapolis."

Reported similarly:
Politico [1/26/2026 1:25 AM, Cheyanne M. Daniels, 13586K]
New York Post [1/26/2026 12:14 PM, Josh Christenson, 42219K]

Blaze [1/26/2026 8:15 PM, Carlos Garcia, 1442K] reports Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota claimed that President Donald Trump’s true aim with the surge in Minnesota had to do with rigging elections, and Vice President JD Vance issued a brutal rebuke. Omar said that Trump was trying to gain possession of voter rolls in order to rig the upcoming midterm election that could stall the president’s agenda for the rest of his term. "‘ICE will leave Minnesota if you hand over your voter rolls’ tells you everything you need to know. This was never about immigration or fraud. It was always about rigging elections," Omar posted on social media. She was referring to reports that U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi had included in her demands from the state the requirement that they hand over voter rolls. Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon responded on Sunday with an unequivocal "no." Vance reposted Omar’s message and offered a satirical translation of what she really meant, according to his estimation. "‘We really want illegal aliens to vote in elections and will riot to ensure that it is so,’" he posted. Trump said Monday that he had a phone call with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D), and the mayor laid out the agreements they made. He said that some of the federal agents would leave Minneapolis and that he would continue to seek for all of them to leave. The White House said that border czar Tom Homan would be sent to Minneapolis to look over the operations after Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino agreed to leave the city.

Politico [1/26/2026 2:01 PM, Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney, 13586K] reports President Donald Trump’s threat of “retribution” and Attorney General Pam Bondi’s explicit policy demands may be undercutting the federal government’s legal arguments defending its immigration crackdown in Minnesota. A judge hearing a lawsuit seeking to halt the ongoing surge of thousands of federal immigration agents in the Twin Cities repeatedly cited Trump’s and Bondi’s statements Monday as evidence that the massive “Operation Metro Surge” in the Twin Cities isn’t aimed solely at enforcing immigration laws. Rather, their comments appear to suggest it is intended to strongarm Minnesota officials into complying with administration policy demands. “Is the executive trying to achieve a goal through force that it can’t achieve through the courts?” U.S. District Judge Kate Menendez wondered as she weighed a push by Minnesota officials to call off the operation altogether. Menendez declined to rule on the matter immediately and seemed to agonize over how to draw a line between legitimate federal law enforcement and an unconstitutional incursion on Minnesota’s sovereignty. Complicating the matter were signals of deescalation by Trump, who spoke Monday with Democratic Gov. Tim Walz and suggested they were on the same “wavelength” about the way forward. “Not all crises have a fix from a district court injunction,” the Biden-appointed judge said. “It must be that work is being done elsewhere … not just counting on a single district court issuing a single injunction.” But the judge faced demands from Minnesota’s leaders to act quickly, in light of the killing Friday of VA nurse Alex Pretti by a federal agent, amid an escalating federal presence. “We ask the court to issue a [restraining order] today,” said Lindsey Middlecamp, a lawyer for the state. “Not tomorrow. Not next week, but today.” During the nearly three-hour hearing in Minneapolis federal court, the judge repeatedly focused on Trump’s vow on social media earlier this month to bring “a day of reckoning and retribution” to Minnesota, and on a Saturday letter from Bondi to Walz that appeared to set conditions for the administration to wind down the surge. Lawyers for the state described Bondi’s missive as a “shakedown” and a “ransom note.” While one of Bondi’s demands involved access to immigrants being released from state jails and prisons, two others seemed to link the surge to issues not related directly to immigration enforcement such as fraud in the SNAP program, better known as food stamps, and a dispute over the Trump administration’s demand for access to Minnesota’s voter rolls. Lawyers for Minnesota and the governments of the Twin Cities argued that the surge is violating the 10th Amendment, which protects states from encroachment by the federal government. The provision has been held both to prevent the federal government from “commandeering” local officials and from using coercion to force a state to comply with federal demands. “They’re trying to hijack the state’s legislative process,” Brian Carter, a lawyer with the Minnesota Attorney General’s office, said of the Trump administration. “They’re trying to get us to turn over voter rolls. What does that have to do [with immigration?] The federal government is attempting to bend the state’s will to its own and that is not allowed under the Constitution.”

CNN [1/27/2026 4:07 AM, Tierney Sneed and Fredreka Schouten, 18595K] reports Attorney General Pam Bondi’s demand that Minnesota hand over sensitive voter registration records to the federal government amid tensions over ICE and immigration enforcement underscores the importance of the administration’s nationwide data grab that is facing resistance in multiple states and has stumbled in the courts. The Justice Department has already sued Minnesota and 23 other states for the voter data, but Bondi on Saturday urged Gov. Tim Walz to help “bring an end to the chaos,” by turning over the records, among other requests. The administration has said it wants the full registration records so that they can “help” states “clean” their rolls of ineligible voters. Voter advocates, former DOJ attorneys and at least one federal judge are dubious that’s the administration’s only goal with the data collection. As courts review the DOJ’s rationale for needing the data, a separate judge – handling a challenge to the administration’s immigration tactics – expressed concerns with how Bondi raised the demand in the context of the unrest. “Is the executive trying to achieve a goal through force that it cannot achieve through the courts?” district Judge Kate Menendez asked the Justice Department directly during a hearing Monday. An attorney for the DOJ replied that the administration was simply “trying to enforce federal law.” Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon, like many other state officials, has declined to provide the data because he says doing so would violate state and federal privacy laws. Simon told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Monday that it was “deeply disturbing” to receive Bondi’s letter.

NPR [1/26/2026 3:02 PM, Miles Parks, 28013K] reports Minnesota officials are rebuffing a series of demands from U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, as the state continues its clash with the Trump administration over the surge of federal immigration enforcement in the North Star state. In a letter to Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Bondi wrote: "You and your office must restore the rule of law, support ICE officers, and bring an end to the chaos in Minnesota." The letter — which NPR has not obtained but which has been published by other media outlets — was dated Saturday. That’s the same day Alex Pretti, a nurse and U.S. citizen, was shot and killed by immigration officers — the second fatal shooting by federal agents this month. Bondi urged Walz to embrace what she called "common sense solutions," including repealing what the Trump administration terms "sanctuary policies" and cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Minnesota state officials say the Trump administration is making false claims about its cooperation with ICE. Walz, who’s called on the Trump administration to end its operation in Minnesota, dismissed the letter in a news conference Sunday. The letter also calls on the state to "share all of Minnesota’s records" relating to Medicaid and food assistance programs, including SNAP, with the federal government. The Trump administration has cited allegations of fraud, especially relating to immigrants of Somali descent, in its immigration crackdown. Bondi also made a seemingly unrelated request: for Minnesota’s voter data.

FOX News [1/26/2026 12:06 PM, Ashley Oliver, 40621K] reports the Department of Justice is pushing back on claims from prominent Democrats that a demand letter Attorney General Pam Bondi sent to Minnesota this weekend amounted to a quid pro quo — ending immigration enforcement in exchange for access to voter rolls. A DOJ spokesperson told Fox News Digital that Democrats were "shamelessly lying" about the contents of Bondi’s letter, which was addressed to Democratic Gov. Tim Walz. Bondi’s letter came as unrest has plagued the state, spurred by an immigration crackdown there and multiple destructive and violent incidents, including two incidents involving immigration officials shooting and killing two U.S. citizens during chaotic, heated altercations. "You and your office must restore the rule of law, support ICE officers, and bring an end to the chaos in Minnesota," Bondi wrote. "Fortunately, there are common sense solutions to these problems that I hope we can accomplish together.” Bondi made three requests, which she said would improve cooperation between Walz and the DOJ and "help bring back law and order.” Democrats framed her letter as a nefarious bargain designed to affect the battleground state’s elections. One of Bondi’s requests was that Minnesota state officials give the DOJ Civil Rights Division access to voter registration lists. Basic voter registration lists, also known as voter rolls, are typically publicly accessible, but the DOJ has demanded from Minnesota and many other states a wealth of sensitive data associated with the voter rolls that Minnesota has resisted giving up. Disputes over voter rolls between states and the federal government are now the subject of lawsuits across the country. "‘ICE will leave Minnesota if you hand over your voter rolls’ tells you everything you need to know. … It was always about rigging elections," Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., wrote on X. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., misstated on X that Bondi’s letter said ICE would "leave if the state turns over its voter database to Trump.” Murphy said the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota was a "pretext for Trump to take over elections in swing states.”

Washington Examiner [1/26/2026 3:26 PM, Kaelan Deese, 1394K] reports a senior Justice Department official struck a notably more cautious tone on Monday than the Department of Homeland Security had one day earlier over the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old Minneapolis resident and U.S. citizen who was killed by a Border Patrol agent during an enforcement operation in Minnesota. One day after the shooting of Pretti, who was armed during a physical confrontation with Customs and Border Protection agents Saturday morning, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche emphasized the need for restraint even as other Trump administration officials publicly assigned blame to Pretti and framed the shooting as necessary to stop a broader deadly attack on federal agents. Blanche notably contradicted the words of DHS officials, including Secretary Kristi Noem, who said Saturday that Pretti’s actions mirrored those of "domestic terrorism."

FOX News [1/26/2026 9:00 AM, Alex Miller, 40621K] reports a cohort of Senate Republicans plans to launch a targeted task force aimed at tackling fraudsters in the wake of the Minnesota fraud scandal. Republican members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee announced that they would form a task force dedicated to rooting out fraudsters abusing federal funding. The seven-member panel will be led by HELP Committee Chair Bill Cassidy, R-La., who has cranked up efforts in recent weeks to crack down on fraud, particularly in Minnesota. "Our tax dollars are supposed to help American families, not line the pockets of fraudsters," Cassidy said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "HELP Committee Republicans are committed to rooting out this fraud and ensuring Americans’ tax dollars are used responsibly." The long-running, nearly six-year-long investigation into alleged fraud in Minnesota gained new attention and traction among Republicans and the White House earlier this year. The scandal, in which federal prosecutors estimate that up to $9 billion was stolen through a network of fraudulent fronts posing as daycare centers, food programs and health clinics, has dominated the bandwidth of many in the GOP and spurred the Trump administration’s deployment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents into Minneapolis. The majority of those charged, so far, in the ongoing investigation are part of Minnesota’s Somali population. The Trump administration has taken steps outside the deploying of ICE agents to target Somalis in the area, too, including ending protected status for the population and launching investigations into whether the fraudulent activity is connected to al-Shabab, a terrorist organization based in Somalia. The task force will delineate its focus into three prongs: health, education and labor and pensions.

FOX News [1/26/2026 6:35 AM, Staff, 40621K] reports Jonathan Fahey, former DHS deputy assistant secretary and former federal prosecutor, discusses a Minneapolis judge’s order for DHS to preserve evidence in the shooting of Alex Pretti. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Politico [1/26/2026 2:58 PM, Alex Gangitano, 13586K] reports the White House on Monday urged the Senate to pass the six-bill appropriations package to avert a partial government shutdown and signaled it doesn’t want Department of Homeland Security money separated out. “At this point, the White House supports the bipartisan work that was done to advance the bipartisan appropriations package and we want to see that passed,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a White House briefing when asked if the administration would be willing to separate DHS funding. Leavitt said that “policy discussions on immigration in Minnesota are happening,” pointing to President Donald Trump’s call with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz earlier Monday. She said the discussions “should not be at the expense of government funding for the American people.” The press secretary also pointed to the winter storms across the country and the effect a lapse in FEMA funding could have on the response effort. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has pressed Republicans to rewrite the DHS funding legislation in the wake of the killing of Alex Pretti in Minnesota and signaled that the other five appropriations bills could move forward without it. Senate Republican leadership want to move forward all six bills, including DHS funding, and the first votes are expected Thursday.

Roll Call [1/26/2026 8:16 PM, Chris Johnson, 548K] reports a compromise spending package would solidify the Trump administration’s drastic cuts to oversight components at the Department of Homeland Security at a time when clashes with the public have raised concerns about the policies involved in massively expanded immigration enforcement. The Homeland Security portion of the measure would reduce congressionally allocated funding from $43 million to $10 million for the DHS Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, which Congress included as an internal safeguard when DHS was created in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The spending package also would eliminate $28.6 million in stand-alone funding for the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman, which oversaw complaints about immigrant detention and aided those who might have been mistreated. And it would cut from $11.6 million to $5 million the Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman, which helps on issues related to legal immigration. The Trump administration essentially gutted those offices in March, and an earlier House GOP proposal sought even steeper cuts. The compromise measure does include a $20 million increase earmarked for immigration detention oversight in funds for the DHS Office of Inspector General, the internal watchdog for the department. The Senate plans to take up the roughly $1.33 trillion spending package this week to meet a deadline Friday, when current funding for many federal agencies is set to run out. But Senate Democrats now say they will seek to block it if funding for the Homeland Security Department remains part of it, increasing the risk of another partial government shutdown. Spending for those three DHS oversight offices is dwarfed by the resources that would go to Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the bill, on top of funds already provided in the reconciliation law President Donald Trump signed on July 4. But the spending bill would keep Trump administration cuts on entities that could be a check on DHS actions amid reports of immigration agents detaining U.S. citizens and asserting authority to enter homes with an administrative warrant, along with an estimated 53 deaths in immigration detention facilities. DHS in March terminated swaths of staff from the oversight offices. A DHS spokesperson in a statement at the time said the cuts would "streamline oversight" and the offices "have obstructed immigration enforcement by adding bureaucratic hurdles and undermining DHS’s mission.” The Trump administration’s fiscal 2026 budget requests sought steep cuts to the three entities, and House Republicans highlighted the reductions in a summary of the Homeland Security portion of the spending package. Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, had pointed to restrictions under the measure that would restrict Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s ability to reprogram money as she did under fiscal 2025 funding to slash resources for DHS oversight offices. After federal immigration agents fatally shot a Minnesota man this weekend, Murray posted on Sunday that she would not support the DHS portion of the bill as it stands, noting the reconciliation funds and that "Americans must be eyes wide open that blocking the DHS funding bill will not shut down ICE.” "But we all saw another American shot and killed in broad daylight," Murray said. "There must be accountability, and we must keep pushing Republicans to work with us to rein in DHS.”

Federal News Network [1/26/2026 6:17 PM, Jory Heckman, 986K] reports senators are divided on how to proceed with a spending bill for the Department of Homeland Security, after federal immigration officials fatally shot a Department of Veterans Affairs nurse over the weekend. Last Saturday in Minneapolis, a Border Patrol agent fatally shot Alex Pretti, an intensive care unit nurse at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center, during an altercation between federal immigration officials and protestors. In a statement immediately following the shooting, the Department of Homeland Security said Pretti was shot after he "approached" Border Patrol officers with a handgun. Bystander videos of the shooting show Pretti holding a phone in his hand, but none appear to show him holding a gun. Videos show federal law enforcement personnel shouting, "he’s got a gun," and removing a handgun from Pretti’s waistband moments before the fatal shooting. He was licensed to carry a concealed weapon. According to the Associated Press, Pretti is the sixth person to die during the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement campaign in the U.S. VA Secretary Doug Collins confirmed on Sunday that Pretti was a nurse at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center. "As President Trump has said, nobody wants to see chaos and death in American cities, and we send our condolences to the Pretti family. Such tragedies are unfortunately happening in Minnesota because of state and local officials’ refusal to cooperate with the federal government to enforce the law and deport dangerous illegal criminals," Collins wrote. VA employees expressed outrage over Pretti’s death. Coworkers remembered him as someone who cared for his patients. Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins (R-Maine) urged her colleagues on Monday to vote for the full six-bill package that includes DHS funding, to "show that we can work together in a bipartisan manner to finish the job.” "It is so important that we do so, because looming is a government shutdown — another harmful, unnecessary and disastrous government shutdown if we do not complete our work," Collins said on the Senate floor. Collins said more than 80% of the DHS spending bill covers non-immigration and non-border security functions — such as cybersecurity and funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Transportation Security Administration.

Washington Examiner [1/26/2026 5:58 PM, Ramsey Touchberry, 1394K] reports Senate Democrats dug in Monday with fresh demands for restrictions against federal immigration officers in exchange for passing a tranche of government funding bills following a second deadly shooting in Minnesota by agents. Stipulations from Democrats were abundant, as Congress barrels toward a Friday partial shutdown deadline and Republican leaders rebuffed calls for additional legal guardrails for agencies carrying out President Donald Trump’s sweeping deportation agenda. Democrats are seeking to prohibit federal agents from conducting warrantless raids, racial profiling, and wearing masks, in addition to conditions that the administration drop its immigration operations in Minneapolis and conduct investigations into the deaths of protesters Renee Good and Alex Pretti at the hands of federal agents. But Democrats have yet to coalesce around a comprehensive list of official demands, even as they unified around the call for the funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement, to be stripped from the government funding package that includes other government agencies and operations. Several senior officials are also expected to be grilled by Congress in the coming weeks and months amid the heightened scrutiny. Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rand Paul (R-KY) has requested public testimony from the heads of ICE, CBP, and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services by Feb. 12. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is expected to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 3, according to the office of panel chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA).

NewsMax [1/26/2026 4:40 PM, Michael Katz, 4109K] reports Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Monday his party is committed to fast-tracking five appropriations bills before Friday’s deadline to avoid a partial government shutdown. But he said Senate Democrats are unwilling to pass funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which is central to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts. A second fatal shooting this month involving a federal law enforcement officer and a protester occurred Saturday in Minneapolis, heightening concerns among congressional Democrats about funding DHS. "Senate Democrats have made clear we are ready to quickly advance the five appropriations bills separately from the DHS funding bill before the January 30th deadline," Schumer said in a statement, according to The Hill. "The responsibility to prevent a partial government shutdown is on Leader [John] Thune [R-S.D.] and Senate Republicans. "If Leader Thune puts those five bills on the floor this week, we can pass them right away. If not, Republicans will again be responsible for another government shutdown.” Senate GOP leaders, however, expect to move forward as planned with a six-bill funding package that includes DHS. Republicans and the White House have reached out to Senate Democrats about how to proceed, but a Senate Democratic leadership aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told Politico they have not proposed "realistic solutions.” "Look, at this point, the White House supports the bipartisan work that was done to advance the bipartisan appropriations package, and we want to see that passed," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in Monday’s briefing, which aired live on Newsmax and the free Newsmax2 streaming platform. "Policy discussions on immigration and Minnesota are happening. Look, the president is leading those discussions, as evidenced by his correspondence with Gov. [Tim] Walz this morning. But that should not be at the expense of government funding for the American people, which would include, as you know, FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency] funding. "We are in the midst of the storm that took place over the weekend, and many Americans are still being impacted by that. So, we absolutely do not want to see that funding lapse. "And we want the Senate to move forward with passing the bipartisan appropriations package that was negotiated on a bipartisan basis.”

Reuters [1/26/2026 7:02 PM, David Morgan and Nolan D. McCaskill, 36480K] reports the federal government appeared headed for a partial government shutdown this week, with Republicans and Democrats at odds over funding for President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security after the fatal shooting of a second U.S. citizen by federal immigration officers in Minnesota. Senate Democrats said they would not provide the votes needed to pass a $64.4 billion DHS bill and called on Republicans to strip the legislation from a larger package that would also fund programs in five other areas through September 30, including defense, health, transportation, education and housing. Current funding for those programs expires after midnight on Friday. Senate Republicans, who control the chamber by a 53-47 seat majority, showed no sign of heeding Democrats, while the White House called on lawmakers to pass the full package to avoid the shuttering of federal agencies barely three months after the longest shutdown in U.S. history ended in November. “Senate Democrats have made clear we are ready to quickly advance the five appropriations bills separately from the DHS funding bill," Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement. "If not, Republicans will again be responsible for another government shutdown.” On Monday, Republicans put the full funding package on the legislative calendar for consideration later in the week, as the two sides sought to reach agreement behind closed doors. "The White House supports the bipartisan work that was done to advance the bipartisan appropriations package, and we want to see that passed," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters. "We absolutely do not want to see that funding lapse." A Senate Democratic leadership aide said later that Republicans and the White House had reached out but did not raise any "realistic solutions." The funding package, which passed the Republican-controlled House of Representatives last week, had appeared to be on track for passage in the Senate until Saturday, when federal immigration agents in Minneapolis shot and killed 37-year-old Alex Pretti. Pretti is the second U.S. citizen to be fatally shot by federal immigration officers this month in Minneapolis, where Trump, a Republican, has deployed thousands of armed, masked agents for a deportation effort. Senate Democrats, including moderates who broke party ranks to end the shutdown last year, said they could not support further funding for DHS without reforms to better safeguard Americans.

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NPR [1/26/2026 5:07 PM, Claudia Grisales, 28013K] Audio: HERE
CNN [1/26/2026 5:21 PM, Ted Barrett, Lauren Fox, Manu Raju, 18595K] r

Breitbart [1/26/2026 9:29 PM, Ian Hanchett, 2416K] reports on Monday’s edition of NBC’s “Meet the Press NOW,” Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-VA) said that he is worried that failing to pass the DHS funding bill will harm agencies unrelated to border enforcement, “But the situation that we are in right now is unsustainable.” Host Ryan Nobles asked, “If we go back to the conversation around government funding and the possibility, even as you suggest, that the DHS budget is pulled out — the DHS spending plan, I should say, is pulled out, and everything else gets passed. That would still mean that DHS would go a period of time without funding. Right now, they oversee really important agencies, like FEMA. You’re right smack dab in the middle of this massive winter storm that grips much of the East Coast. Are you concerned that these agencies that have nothing to do with these border enforcement policies could be in trouble and could face hardship if this DHS package is not passed?” Walkinshaw answered, “Well, you mentioned FEMA, we have to point out that, as we speak, the Trump administration is effectively dismantling FEMA. But, set that aside. Yes, I’m concerned about that. But the situation that we are in right now is unsustainable.”

Axios [1/26/2026 3:35 PM, Stephen Neukam, 12972K] reports most Senate Democrats seem prepared to shut down the federal government over funding for DHS. But internally, they’re facing a debate over how hard a line to draw in negotiations with the White House. A group of around 10 Senate Democrats is coalescing around a list of demands for changes at DHS, including requiring warrants for arrests and mandating that federal agents identify themselves, multiple sources said. The group also wants to demand that DHS cooperate with state and local investigations into incidents like the shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota. But some moderate Democrats might not be willing to go that far, a repeat of the dynamic that fractured Democrats in last year’s government shutdown battle. Senate Democrats left a nearly hour-and-a-half virtual meeting on Sunday evening mostly unified around the idea of rejecting government funding if it meant that funding for DHS was included, sources said. On that call, Schumer said that Democrats would be able to pass all other remaining government funding bills, just not the current DHS package, the sources said. Schumer said publicly Sunday that Democrats would not vote to advance a broader government funding package if the current bill funding DHS was included.

Roll Call [1/26/2026 5:39 PM, John M. Donnelly, 548K] reports even as the Trump administration has increasingly militarized the job of enforcing drug and immigration laws, Congress last week took a quiet, bipartisan step to restrain that trend. House and Senate negotiators writing a compromise Homeland Security spending bill were concerned enough about the possibility the department might consider arming a new fleet of Coast Guard drones with missiles that the negotiators wrote into the bill a provision to bar such a move. Outrage about the killing of Alex Pretti by Homeland Security Department personnel in Minneapolis on Jan. 24 has all but doomed the chances the Senate will clear the final DHS spending bill this week — or possibly at all. Still, if a rewritten version of the bill does move forward, the language on armed drones would probably not change. The Coast Guard operates smaller drones and, thanks to a new injection of money from Congress, is in the process of buying its first models of the larger, long-range MQ-9Bs to assist with maritime border protection. Congressional aides said the Coast Guard has shared no plans to put missiles on any of these MQ-9Bs of the sort that the U.S. military has fired from similar aircraft against alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean since September. Negotiators writing the compromise DHS funding bill wanted to keep it that way. They inserted into the measure a prohibition on the Coast Guard buying missile-bearing drones, or armaments for them, "to reflect a desire to keep the status quo," one aide said. But first, the House had to fix a drafting error that could have prevented not just the Coast Guard, but all the military services from buying combat drones and weapons for those aircraft — something neither party’s leadership wanted to see happen.

AP [1/26/2026 5:43 PM, Ben Finley, Konstantin Toropin] reports the death toll from the Trump administration’s strikes on alleged drug boats is up to 126 people, with the inclusion of those presumed dead after being lost at sea, the U.S. military confirmed Monday. The figure includes 116 people who were killed immediately in at least 36 attacks carried out since early September in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, U.S. Southern Command said. Ten others are believed dead because searchers did not locate them following a strike. Eight of the presumed dead had jumped off boats when American forces attacked a trio of vessels accused of trafficking drugs on Dec. 30, the military said. The number was not released previously, though the military said when announcing those strikes that the U.S. Coast Guard had searched for survivors. The two other people presumed dead were on boats that were attacked on Oct. 27 and last Friday. President Donald Trump has said the U.S. is in “armed conflict” with cartels in Latin America and has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs. But his administration has offered little evidence to support its claims of killing “narcoterrorists.”

The Hill [1/26/2026 12:30 PM, Tara Suter, 12595K] reports Gregory Bovino, commander-at-large of the U.S. Border Patrol, tangled with Democrats and Republicans alike online in the wake of another fatal shooting in Minneapolis by federal immigration authorities. In a Saturday post on the social platform X, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) expressed concern about Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) reputation and called for “a full joint federal and state investigation” into the recent shooting. “The same state that refuses to work with ICE is now going to ‘investigate’? How about investigating a certain mayor who told cops to fight ICE in the streets. You don’t seem concerned about that – how come, senator?” Bovino said in a response to Cassidy’s post on X. In response to an X post on Saturday from Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif) encouraging ICE officers to “Walk off the job,” Bovino replied that he “was thinking the same for” the California representative. Bovino’s posts came in the wake of Saturday’s fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse who lived in Minneapolis, by a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent. Pretti’s shooting was justified, according to authorities, with the 37-year-old allegedly coming up to them with a “9mm semi-automatic” handgun. Eyewitness videos from the scene of the shooting show Pretti holding a phone. Pretti’s death came only a few weeks after the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an ICE officer in the same city. There has been criticism of President Trump’s immigration agenda throughout his second term, but both shootings have sparked mass outrage toward the administration over how it handles immigration.

ABC News [1/26/2026 5:02 PM, Lauren Peller, John Parkinson, and Allison Pecorin, 30493K] reports Congressional Republicans appeared split Monday in their responses to the deadly shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis on Saturday -- from calling for an investigation to remaining silent or backing the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operation. More than two dozen congressional Republicans have called for a thorough investigation, according to ABC News’ count. At least nine GOP senators said they support an investigation into the shooting, including Pennsylvania Sen. Dave McCormick -- a Trump ally. Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy called for a joint state and federal investigation into the shooting -- warning "the credibility of ICE and DHS are at stake." More than a dozen House GOP lawmakers echoed similar sentiments, including House Homeland Security Chairman Andrew Garbarino, who expects a "full investigation" into the shooting. Despite this, several Republicans have also rushed to the Trump administration’s defense.

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CNN [1/26/2026 3:18 PM, Aaron Blake, 18595K]

Federal News Network [1/26/2026 3:18 PM, Michele Sandiford, 986K] reports a top House Republican is calling on Department of Homeland Security officials to testify in front of Congress. Homeland Security Committee Chairman Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.) formally requested testimony from the heads of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Garbarino said he wants to make sure those agencies are effectively using their resources. His letter comes in the aftermath of another deadly shooting by a federal agent in Minnesota as part of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

NewsMax [1/26/2026 4:13 PM, Brian Freeman, 4109K] reports Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chair Rand Paul, R-Ky., summoned three top immigration enforcement officials to testify before his panel following Saturday’s killing of a Minneapolis man by federal agents, Politico reported. Paul sent letters on Monday to Rodney Scott, the commissioner of Customs and Border Protection; Joseph Edlow, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services; and Todd Lyons, who is serving as ICE acting director, requesting that the three men testify at a hearing on Feb. 12. Paul’s letters don’t mention this past weekend’s killing of 37-year-old Alex Pretti, which has sparked a wave of new scrutiny of the immigration enforcement actions in Minnesota. But the hearing would be the first opportunity senators will have to question Trump administration officials about the shooting and the president’s broader immigration and Homeland Security agenda. In addition, Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., joined the growing number of GOP lawmakers raising questions about the shooting, saying he backs a "full and transparent investigation into the tragic event in Minneapolis." Young, who is not a member of Paul’s committee, said in a statement to Politico that "Congress has requested testimony from ICE, CBP, and USCIS leaders in an open hearing, and they should testify soon."

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The Hill [1/26/2026 5:03 PM, Alexander Bolton, 12595K]
NBC News [1/26/2026 5:20 PM, Raquel Coronell Uribe and Frank Thorp V, 34509K]

NewsMax [1/26/2026 9:06 AM, Charlie McCarthy, 4109K] reports Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., said President Donald Trump should consider removing Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers from Minnesota to let residents decide whether criminal illegal aliens should be allowed to remain in the state. Comer, the chair of the House Oversight Committee, made the comments as Minneapolis remained engulfed in unrest following the fatal shooting of protester Alex Pretti during an ICE-related operation over the weekend. The incident has intensified criticism of Minnesota’s Democrat leadership and raised questions about coordination, public safety, and accountability. Speaking Sunday on Fox News’ "Sunday Morning Futures," Comer warned the situation could deteriorate further if state and local leaders continue what he described as reckless rhetoric toward federal law enforcement. "If I were President Trump, I would almost think about, OK, if the mayor and the governor are going to put our ICE officials in harm’s way and there’s a chance of losing more innocent lives, then maybe go to another city," Comer said. "Let the people of Minneapolis decide, ‘Do we want to continue to have all of these illegals?’" Comer contrasted Minneapolis with Washington, D.C., where he said cooperation between the Trump administration and local officials helped restore order and reduce crime. In Minnesota, he argued, Democrat Gov. Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey have instead inflamed tensions by portraying ICE enforcement actions as illegal raids. "We’ve got white liberals coming in trying to run over ICE, spray them, and disrupt them," Comer told Fox News in a separate interview. "That’s because state and local officials are getting people fired up." Comer called for de-escalation in the wake of Pretti’s death, saying the chaos would "only get worse" if leadership continues to undermine federal agents.

NewsMax [1/26/2026 8:28 AM, Charlie McCarthy, 4109K] reports Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and other Democrat state lawmakers have been "incentivizing" anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protesters to help change the narrative centering on government fraud in the North Star State, state Rep. Drew Roach told Newsmax on Monday. Roach, a Republican, made the remarks during an appearance on "Wake Up America Early" with host Alex Kraemer, as Minnesota continues to face national scrutiny over protests targeting ICE, violent incidents tied to those demonstrations, and mounting questions about billions of dollars in alleged taxpayer fraud. "It’s frustrating to see the continued back-and-forth between Walz and ICE," Roach said. "Walz has not helped the situation at all. He’s continuing to fester this animosity with the protesters, kind of incentivizing them to continue with this anti-ICE rhetoric and making law enforcement’s jobs more and more difficult." According to Roach, the chaos surrounding ICE operations is no accident. He argued that Democrat leadership is deliberately stoking tensions to divert attention from what he described as massive fraud involving Minnesota tax dollars. "Just weeks ago, we were talking about $9 billion in stolen tax money and fraud," Roach said. "Now, we’re talking about ICE in our streets. He’s stoking the flames along with Mayor Jacob Frey and Attorney General Keith Ellison." "We’re looking to bring impeachment articles when we get back into session on Feb. 17 against Tim Walz," Roach said. "This is just the tip of the iceberg. We’re going to continue to find more fraud, and Minnesotans deserve to know where their money went." The unrest escalated further after a weekend shooting connected to ICE-related activity. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem placed much of the blame on local and state leaders, saying Walz and Frey should "take a long, hard look in the mirror" over their rhetoric toward law enforcement.

ABC News [1/26/2026 12:08 PM, Benjamin Siegel, 30493K] reports Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro on Monday called for the Trump administration to terminate its immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis, following the killing of Alex Pretti by federal agents. "A fundamental responsibility for government is to keep people safe, and part of the way you keep people safe is by building trust between law enforcement and the community," Shapiro said in an interview on "Good Morning America." "What Donald Trump and the federal government are doing is eroding that trust, is making people less safe, and it is time to terminate this mission," he said. The Pennsylvania Democrat called for an independent investigation into the killings of Pretti and Rene Good to be led by the state of Minnesota. "This mission in Minnesota is compromised. It’s been directed by Donald Trump and [Vice President] JD Vance and [Homeland Security Secretary] Kristi Noem in a way to wreak havoc on a community, in a way that is very clearly violating people’s constitutional rights each and every day, and has led to two tragic killings in the streets of people who were not a threat, I believe, to law enforcement," Shapiro said. Americans cannot bring a loaded firearm to protests, according to FBI Director Kash Patel.

Univision [1/26/2026 11:20 PM, Staff, 5004K] reports Texas Governor Greg Abbott publicly requested that the White House review and adjust the operational strategy of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) following the shooting that left one protester dead during a demonstration in Minneapolis, Minnesota . The Republican governor stated that the immigration agency needs to regain public respect and insisted that the federal administration must "recalibrate" ICE’s approach to strengthen public trust in its functions. “In general, we need to have respect for law enforcement in this country. ICE, they are law enforcement. And so they, being the White House, need to recalibrate what needs to be done to ensure that respect is restored,” Abbott said Monday during an interview on the conservative program The Mark Davis Show . The request comes as national attention grows over the death of Alex Pretti , a protester who was shot and killed by federal agents during a protest in Minneapolis, an incident that has sparked protests and debates about the practices of immigration forces. Abbott asserted that restoring respect for ICE agents is essential , and emphasized that operations must focus on the agency’s original objective: removing undocumented immigrants from the country without creating tensions with communities. In addition, the governor of Texas partly blamed Minnesota state and local authorities, noting that open criticism of the federal government’s immigration policies has contributed to heightened tensions in that city.

Breitbart [1/26/2026 11:53 PM, Ian Hanchett, 2416K] reports on Monday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s "Hannity," Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) said that there need to be reforms to ICE, but he can’t vote for a government shutdown. Fetterman said, "[W]e should all agree to deport all of the criminals now that are here in our nation right now. And…for me, as a…pro-immigration Democrat, I do think we need to develop a way for citizenship for the very hardworking migrants that are amidst us [as] well now, too." He added, "I have to give credit to the president for securing our border." Fetterman further stated, "I was one of the Democrats that led the pushback about the government shutdown last year…and if the Democrats vote to shut it down, now, our entire military won’t be paid again. I can’t ever support that. I absolutely hope we can engage in a debate, and make some of the kinds of commonsense reforms on ICE and make it more safe, more humane and more effective and just focus exclusively on the criminals. I hope that’s possible. But, for me, I remain the one Democrat, at least, that refused to shut our government down. And, now, if this happens, our military won’t be paid because a significant part of our government would shut down again.”

The Hill [1/26/2026 4:04 PM, Al Weaver, 12595K] reports Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah) on Monday criticized Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem’s reaction to the killing of Alex Pretti by a federal agent as “premature” and argued that she “weakened confidence” among the public as the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown comes under fire. The statement notably adds a GOP voice to the growing criticism of Noem, whom Democrats have panned since she likened Pretti to a “domestic terrorist” in the immediate aftermath of Saturday’s shooting. There is no evidence Pretti brandished a gun, for which he had a valid concealed carry permit. Democratic calls to oust Noem have also spiked, with the list of co-sponsors on articles of impeachment against her growing to 140. Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) also indicated that she supports that push, with others calling on her to resign.

Bloomberg [1/26/2026 6:17 PM, Staff, 18207K] Video: HERE reports Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-MD) discusses whether or not he thinks there will be a partial government shutdown by the end of the week . He also voices his frustrations following the most recent events in Minnesota stating Kristi Noem needs to be removed, and critiques the Trump Administration’s immigration tactics. Rep. Ivey speaks with Joe Mathieu on the late edition of Bloomberg’s "Balance of Power."

NewsMax [1/26/2026 4:25 PM, Jim Mishler, 4109K] reports Americans should withhold judgment and allow investigators to fully examine the facts surrounding two fatal shootings involving federal immigration agents in Minnesota, Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, told Newsmax. Renee Good and Alex Pretti were shot and killed in separate incidents involving federal law enforcement during confrontations tied to immigration enforcement activity in Minneapolis this month. "The thing you’ve got to do is follow the truth wherever it may lead," Roy told "The Record With Greta Van Susteren.” He said it can be a slow process. "You’ve got to go follow the facts and have a full investigation of this. And, you know, people are jumping [to] conclusions.” Roy cautioned that arriving at quick decisions on critically important matters creates more problems than are being solved. "Everybody needs to slow the roll a little bit. We’re 48 hours in.” As a former prosecutor, Roy said those involved can say they don’t have all the answers.

NewsMax [1/26/2026 5:10 PM, Sam Barron, 4109K] reports Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., said Monday he regretted voting last week for a Department of Homeland Security funding bill after the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis on Saturday. "I failed to view the DHS funding vote as a referendum on the illegal and immoral conduct of ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] in Minneapolis," Suozzi said in a statement. "I hear the anger from my constituents, and I take responsibility for that," he continued. "I have long been critical of ICE’s unlawful behavior, and I must do a better job demonstrating that.” Suozzi called the shooting of Pretti, 37, by Border Patrol agents a "senseless and tragic murder.” "President [Donald] Trump must immediately end Operation Metro Surge and ICE’s occupation of Minneapolis that has sown chaos, led to tragedy, and undermined experienced local law enforcement," Suozzi said. The Long Island congressman was one of seven Democrats who joined with Republicans in voting to fund the Department of Homeland Security. Earlier this month in Minneapolis, an ICE agent fatally shot 37-year-old Renee Good during a federal immigration enforcement action. Besides ICE, the bill funded agencies like the Coast Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which are under the department’s purview. Rep. Laura Gillen, D-N.Y., who also represents Long Island and voted to fund DHS, said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem should be impeached. "Another U.S. citizen has been killed at the hands of ICE and there must be accountability, which is why Secretary Noem must be impeached immediately," Gillen said.

CBS News [1/26/2026 12:59 PM, Christopher Harris, 39474K] reports a fatal shooting by a federal immigration agent in Minneapolis over the weekend is drawing sharp reactions from Georgia lawmakers. Their responses come as the national debate over Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the growing federal presence in U.S. cities continues. Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse at the Department of Veterans Affairs, was shot and killed around 9 a.m. Saturday in south Minneapolis by a U.S. Border Patrol agent. The shooting comes less than three weeks after Renee Good was fatally shot in the same city by an ICE agent. The Department of Homeland Security said the agent acted in self-defense while attempting to disarm Pretti, but local officials disputed that account and criticized what they described as a federal immigration surge. A bystander video showed Pretti holding a cellphone, not a gun, before the shooting. The incident prompted immediate and forceful responses from members of Georgia’s congressional delegation, who are sharply divided over the role of ICE and federal immigration enforcement.

Breitbart [1/26/2026 6:55 PM, Elizabeth Weibel, 2416K] reports Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s (D) daughter, Hope Walz, criticized U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Saturday, labeling the agency as being a “horrible Gestapo” that “cannot be funded.” In a TikTok video, Hope spoke about a recent Border Patrol agent-involved shooting, which left Alex Pretti, 37, dead. Hope expressed that she was feeling “profound sadness” and “a lot of anger.” “ICE brutally beat and murdered, executed may be a better word, a resident of the Twin Cities,” Hope said. “A nurse at the Veterans Hospital — in broad daylight, and then they proceeded to lie about it.” Walz continued to encourage people to call their senators and “tell them not to vote to fund ICE.” “This horrible Gestapo, essentially, should not be funded, cannot be funded,” Hope added. “So, call your senators — call all the senators, and tell them not to fund ICE, because it is deplorable at this point.” Breitbart News’s AWR Hawkins reported that in a statement, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) explained that Border Patrol agents had been “conducting a targeted operation in Minneapolis against an illegal alien wanted for violent assault,” when the man — identified as Pretti, approached them “with a 9mm semiautomatic handgun”: The statement says agents were “conducting a targeted operation in Minneapolis against an illegal alien wanted for violent assault.” While conducting the operation, a man approached “U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9mm semiautomatic handgun.” Officers tried to disarm the man but he “violently resisted.”

Washington Examiner [1/26/2026 6:14 AM, Staff, 1394K] reports dozens of CEOs have called for the lowering of tensions in Minneapolis, pleading for a return to normalcy in the aftermath of anti-ICE protester Alex Pretti being fatally shot by a Border Patrol agent. The 60 business leaders called for cooperation between Mayor Jacob Frey, Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), and the Trump administration. The letter was published by the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce and signed by the CEOs of companies and organizations such as Target, UnitedHealth Group, U.S. Bancorp, Minnesota’s professional sports teams, the Mayo Clinic, and Land O’Lakes, among others. "The business community in Minnesota prides itself in providing leadership and solving problems to ensure a strong and vibrant state," read the letter. "The recent challenges facing our state have created widespread disruption and tragic loss of life. For the past several weeks, representatives of Minnesota’s business community have been working every day behind the scenes with federal, state, and local officials to advance real solutions." "These efforts have included close communication with the Governor, the White House, the Vice President, and local mayors," the CEOs wrote. "There are ways for us to come together to foster progress.” The CEOs encouraged all parties to work together to find "real solutions" in the aftermath of the shooting. They each called for peace and expressed their desire to "build a bright and prosperous future."

New York Post [1/26/2026 3:51 PM, Ariel Zilber, 42219K] reports a bloc of Minnesota’s biggest companies and professional sports teams demanded an "immediate de-escalation" of tensions Sunday after the fatal shooting of Alex Jeffrey Pretti by federal agents rocked Minneapolis and plunged the state into crisis. More than 60 chief executives — including leaders of Target, Best Buy, 3M, General Mills, Medtronic, UnitedHealth Group and every major Minnesota sports franchise — signed an open letter released by the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce hours after Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, was killed during immigration enforcement operations. The business leaders said the state has suffered "widespread disruption and tragic loss of life" and warned that the ongoing turmoil is threatening communities, workers and the broader economy. "With yesterday’s tragic news, we are calling for an immediate de-escalation of tensions and for state, local and federal officials to work together to find real solutions," the letter said. The Chamber of Commerce letter acknowledged weeks of behind-the-scenes engagement with top officials, including Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the White House, the vice president and local mayors, but signaled that private diplomacy was no longer enough. "For the past several weeks, representatives of Minnesota’s business community have been working every day behind the scenes with federal, state and local officials to advance real solutions," the letter said. "There are ways for us to come together to foster progress.” The signatories urged peace and cooperation to allow "families, businesses, our employees, and communities across Minnesota to resume our work to build a bright and prosperous future.” President Trump said his administration is "reviewing everything" about the fatal shooting of Pretti but stopped short of saying whether the federal agent who fired the shots acted appropriately.

Washington Examiner [1/26/2026 12:30 PM, Claire Carter, 1394K] reports Republican attorney Chris Madel, a GOP gubernatorial candidate in Minnesota, announced Monday that he is ending his campaign. Madel said his decision to resign is because he can no longer align himself with the national party’s approach to federal immigration enforcement in the state through Operation Metro Surge, calling it “an unmitigated disaster.” “I support the originally stated goals of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s operation, locating and deporting the ‘worst of the worst,’” Madel said in a video on X. “But Operation Metro Surge has expanded far beyond its stated focus on true public safety threats.” His resignation comes after news that a Border Patrol agent fatally shot Alex Pretti. Pretti died in a physical confrontation that began when he intervened in an immigration operation he had been recording on his phone. Madel condemned federal immigration tactics, calling them “unconstitutional,” and said U.S. citizens, particularly people of color, are living in fear and carrying paperwork to prove their citizenship. “That’s wrong,” he said. Madel, a Minneapolis trial lawyer, rose quickly in GOP straw polls since launching his campaign in December. He positioned himself as a staunch defender of law enforcement and conservative views. Madel drew attention for providing legal counsel to ICE officer Jonathan Ross, who fatally shot Renee Good earlier this month. In addition to his criticism of immigration operations in Minnesota, Madel said his second reason for resigning is that the national Republican Party has made it impossible for a GOP candidate to win in the state. “The reality is that the national Republicans have made it nearly impossible for a Republican to win a state-wide election in Minnesota,” Madel said Monday.

Politico [1/26/2026 12:30 PM, Jonathan Martin, 13586K] reports that, to cover the Republican Party in the age of President Donald Trump requires a grasp of cryptology. Because of the unflinching personal loyalty he demands, and punishment he’ll administer on public dissenters, leading GOP officials speak in rhetorical code. And in the aftermath of the second killing by federal agents of a protester in Minnesota, there’s been a stream of statements, comments and sound bites from party lawmakers that beg for translation. Before we get to the private and public messages being transmitted, however, a word on what top Republicans actually believe about what has become a deepening crisis for the White House, based on my conversations over the last two days. They are concerned more protests to the bloodshed may beget additional incidents, have little faith in DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and, from a raw political standpoint, worry the party has squandered the best issues it had when voters were otherwise frustrated with the cost of living: the border and public order. Immigration, broadly, as one veteran senator granted anonymity to speak candidly told me over the weekend, is for the GOP what health care is for Democrats — a “home game.” Yet with viral images of Americans being shot in broad daylight replacing migrants stampeding across the country’s border, that advantage is quickly dissipating. So what are Republican elected officials doing to address what could prove calamitous, for the country and their political fortunes? To date, it’s the usual approach. They plead with Trump and his advisers in private to calm tensions, as a handful did this weekend. However, most officials hope one of their colleagues can do that work so they don’t have to play the heavy. “You can talk to them” or “Can you talk to them?” are phrases I don’t need access to text chains to know are being relayed between top Republicans. When lawmakers do reach Trump, the dialogue is similar to those private messages he posted last week from European leaders eager to get him off his Greenland fetish: Start with praise and flattery before moving to the heart of the matter., Jonathan Martin, 13586K]
To cover the Republican Party in the age of President Donald Trump requires a grasp of cryptology. Because of the unflinching personal loyalty he demands, and punishment he’ll administer on public dissenters, leading GOP officials speak in rhetorical code. And while hope may not be a strategy, as the saying goes, there’s a whole lot of hope among Republican officials — mostly that they don’t have to go public with their true feelings, because if they wait for a few days the president will consume so much media coverage he’ll recognize the depth of the crisis. The first signs of that shift emerged Sunday night. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal’s Josh Dawsey, Trump declined to say the officer who killed Alex Pretti had done the right thing and pronounced that “we’re reviewing everything and will come out with a determination.” That came, it barely requires noting, all of one day after Trump justified the killing and his lieutenants did as well, in even starker terms. Monday morning, Trump took concrete steps to marginalize Noem and Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino, who have become the face of the feds in Minnesota, appointing a new point person in the state and new chain of command. “I am sending Tom Homan to Minnesota tonight,” the president announced about his border czar. “He has not been involved in that area, but knows and likes many of the people there. Tom is tough but fair, and will report directly to me.”

AP [1/27/2026 3:04 AM, Bill Barrow and Nicholas Riccardi, 31753K] reports prominent Republicans and gun rights advocates helped elicit a White House turnabout this week after bristling over the administration’s characterization of Alex Pretti, the second person killed this month by a federal officer in Minneapolis, as responsible for his own death because he lawfully possessed a weapon. The death produced no clear shifts in U.S. gun politics or policies, even as President Donald Trump shuffles the lieutenants in charge of his militarized immigration crackdown. But important voices in Trump’s coalition have called for a thorough investigation of Pretti’s death while also criticizing inconsistencies in some Republicans’ Second Amendment stances. If the dynamic persists, it could give Republicans problems as Trump heads into a midterm election year with voters already growing skeptical of his overall immigration approach. The concern is acute enough that Trump’s top spokeswoman sought Monday to reassert his brand as a staunch gun rights supporter. "The president supports the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding American citizens, absolutely," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters. Leavitt qualified that "when you are bearing arms and confronted by law enforcement, you are raising … the risk of force being used against you." Videos contradict early statements from administration. That still marked a retreat from the administration’s previous messages about the shooting of Pretti. It came the same day the president dispatched border czar Tom Homan to Minnesota, seemingly elevating him over Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino, who had been in charge in Minneapolis.

The Hill [1/26/2026 12:20 PM, Robby Soave, 12595K] reports Customs and Border Protection agents shot and killed a U.S. citizen in Minneapolis outside a restaurant on Saturday. The victim, 37-year-old Alex Pretti, was licensed to carry a firearm, and he had one with him. The available footage does not show every detail of what happened, but Pretti was holding a cellphone — not his gun — when the officers initiated contact and began wrestling him to the ground. Trump administration officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller, have already declared the killing completely justified, claiming that Pretti had intended to murder law enforcement agents. There is no evidence of this — none whatsoever — which makes it difficult to avoid the conclusion that the administration is prepared to brazenly lie about what happened. Regular viewers will know that I don’t say that lightly. I am not generally prone to hyperbole. I think these clashes between law enforcement and protesters are difficult to scrutinize, and have brought out a lot of confident, bold and wrong claims from people on all sides of the political spectrum. I think it’s perfectly plausible that the officer who shot Renee Good was justified because he reasonably feared for his life. And maybe that’s the case here, with Alex Pretti, as well. But that does not excuse members of our government saying things about his death that are verifiably false. This is becoming a pattern, and I’m frankly sick of it. Now Republican officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and FBI Director Kash Patel, are taking the position that merely bringing a gun to a protest is a violation of the law or an indication of murderous intent. They are completely wrong. You can bring a gun to a protest. Of course you can. You can vigorously exercise your Second Amendment Rights and your First Amendment rights at the same time.

Breitbart [1/26/2026 5:49 PM, AWR Hawkins, 2416K] reports on Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt made clear President Donald Trump supports the right to bear arms but rejects claims to any right to impede ICE operations. A reporter at the White House presser asked, "Does the President believe that Second Amendment rights remain in effect even when protesting." Leavitt responded, "The President supports the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding American citizens—absolutely. There has no greater supporter or defender of the right to bear arms that President Donald J. Trump." She added, "While Americans have a constitutional right to bear arms, Americans do not have a constitutional right to impede lawful immigration enforcement operations." DHS Sec. Kristi Noem made a similar point Sunday on FOX News’s The Sunday Briefing, when host Peter Doocy asked, "Is your message to people who [have] concealed carry permits, that if they’re going to go to a protest, they should leave their gun in the car?" Noem responded, "No, my message to individuals is don’t go impede law enforcement operations. That’s not legal, you’re breaking the law when you do that."

USA Today [1/26/2026 5:04 PM, Kinsey Crowley, 67103K] reports a screenshot of President Donald Trump saying "only criminals carry guns" on Truth Social is an apparent fake. The Trump administration drew criticism over the weekend after a protester in Minneapolis was shot and killed by a Border Patrol agent. Federal officials have defended the shooting of the protester, ICU nurse Alex Pretti, saying he brought a gun to the protest to "kill law enforcement." Bystander footage shows Pretti holding his phone, not a gun, before being wrestled to the ground. The screenshot shared on social media shows Trump saying, "He had a gun, only criminals carry guns on our streets, we need law and order. Thank you for your attention to this matter. President Donald J. Trump." USA TODAY found no evidence that the message was actually posted. The post is not on Trump’s Truth Social profile and is not shown in an archived capture of his profile on the afternoon of the shooting. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for confirmation. But Trump has commented on the fact that Pretti had a gun. What did he say? What did Trump say about guns after Pretti’s death? Pretti had a license to carry a concealed weapon and had a gun on him when he joined protesters on Jan. 24. Immigration enforcement in Minneapolis has faced backlash, intensified by the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good weeks before Pretti’s death. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said at a news conference that Pretti "approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun." She did not specify if he was brandishing the weapon. Trump also posted on Jan. 24 a photo of what he called "the gunman’s gun," saying, "what is that all about?". Noem and other federal officials called Pretti a "domestic terrorist.” "I don’t know of any peaceful protesters that shows up with a gun and ammunition rather than a sign," Noem said. "This is a violent riot when you have someone showing up with weapons.” Trump also criticized Pretti for bringing a gun in an interview with the Wall Street Journal published Jan. 25.

Washington Examiner [1/26/2026 7:10 PM, David Sivak, 1394K] reports the death of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis is opening a new fault line between President Donald Trump and his conservative base as gun rights groups denounce what they say are a series of anti-Second Amendment statements justifying the shooting. The Trump administration has faced withering GOP criticism after officials argued that Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, presented a threat to immigration agents because he brought a lawfully obtained firearm to an ICE protest. "We have talked to a number of people in the administration and asked them, WTF?" said Dudley Brown, the president of the National Association for Gun Rights. Bystander footage of the shooting appears to show Pretti’s gun was not visible or drawn at a Saturday protest on the streets of Minneapolis and that an agent removed the weapon before the series of shots that killed him. But the early response from the administration has been to claim that Pretti was brandishing the weapon, while FBI Director Kash Patel went so far as to suggest the presence of a gun at a rally could be evidence of malicious intent. Brown called it "flabbergastingly stupid" that Patel would bring up the magazines Pretti allegedly had on his person, arguing it was common to carry extra rounds, and suggested the administration was holding him to a different standard because he was protesting a Republican president. "Do you have the right to self-defense in public while you’re practicing your First Amendment? Absolutely," Brown said. "And there should be no political test, whether it’s right or left.” The administration’s handling of the shooting has sparked a rare break between the White House and congressional Republicans, many of whom have called for oversight and an "objective" investigation. But the White House is also risking a wider fracture over an issue that rarely polarizes the GOP. Gun rights groups are not only contesting what they see as misrepresented facts — they are also raising concern that the administration is setting a standard for firearm owners that runs counter to the Second Amendment and decades of GOP orthodoxy.

NewsMax [1/26/2026 12:26 PM, Nicole Weatherholtz, 4109K] reports a White House official pushed back Monday on speculation about leadership changes at the Department of Homeland Security, stressing that Secretary Kristi Noem continues to have the full backing of President Donald Trump. The clarification followed Trump’s announcement that border czar Tom Homan would take charge of immigration enforcement operations in Minnesota. Some observers interpreted the move as a shift away from Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino, whose tough enforcement posture was supported by Noem but drew criticism from opponents of stricter border policies. "Secretary Noem will continue to lead the Department of Homeland Security with the full trust and confidence of the president," a White House official told CNN. The official emphasized that Homan’s deployment was driven by operational urgency, not internal disagreement. "Tom Homan is uniquely positioned to drop everything and focus solely on Minnesota to solve the problems that have been created by a lack of cooperation from state and local officials," the official added. Homan is widely known for prioritizing enforcement actions tied to public safety and national security, while addressing undocumented immigrants encountered during targeted operations.

Washington Post [1/26/2026 7:17 PM, Marianna Sotomayor, 24149K] reports House Democrats are set to open an investigation into Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem as early as next week, laying the groundwork for a push to impeach her. Unlike a typical congressional impeachment inquiry, Democrats plan to conduct their investigation without Republicans, citing the majority’s reticence to conduct robust oversight of the Trump administration and the unlikelihood of GOP support for impeaching a Cabinet official. Democrats acknowledge they are unlikely to remove Noem in the short term, but they believe launching an official investigation will signal they are taking seriously concerns about what has transpired during a deadly immigration crackdown in Minnesota in recent weeks. “We understand Democrats are in a minority, but that doesn’t mean that we have to sit on our thumbs and do nothing,” Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Mississippi), the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, said in an interview. He said the investigation, and possibly an impeachment vote, is “a step in the process of letting people know that we don’t like what we see.” DHS officials have been dismissive of calls by Democrats to impeach Noem. In a statement this week, spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said the party is “more focused on showmanship and fundraising clicks than actually removing criminals from our streets.” “We hope these members get serious about doing their job to protect American people, which is what this Department is doing under Secretary Noem,” McLaughlin added. Calls from Democrats to hold Noem accountable have rapidly accelerated following the death of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen, at the hands of Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis on Saturday. The death has amplified outrage expressed by the party since Renée Good, another 37-year-old U.S. citizen, was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent earlier this month. Several Democrats expressed their desire to impeach Noem on a caucus call on Sunday, a demand that received no pushback, according to multiple people familiar with the call who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a private conversation. At least 145 House Democrats have now signed onto a resolution by Rep. Robin Kelly (D-Illinois) calling for Noem’s impeachment. That number has jumped by nearly 40 since Saturday’s fatal shooting. While Democratic leaders have cautioned against forcing an immediate vote on the resolution, the support underscores the party’s lack of confidence in Noem’s ability to continue to do her job — and willingness to publicly speak out about her potential removal. Most notably to leadership, several House Democrats representing swing districts who supported a bill funding the Department of Homeland Security last week have called for Noem to leave her post. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Washington) said this week that Noem “needs to step down,” while Rep. Laura Gillen (D-New York) forcefully demanded that she be “impeached immediately.” In an email sent to his campaign list, Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-New York) expressed regret over his funding vote, stating that he “failed to view the DHS funding vote as a referendum on the illegal and immoral conduct of ICE in Minneapolis.” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York), who has spent several weeks strongly criticizing Noem’s leadership, ended Sunday’s call by telling Democrats he would have more to say on the path forward to hold Noem accountable when the House returns to Washington next week.

FOX News [1/26/2026 11:41 AM, Elizabeth Elkind and Alex Miller, 40621K] reports more than half of all Democrats in the House of Representatives are now backing a resolution to impeach Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem in the wake of another federal law enforcement-involved shooting in Minneapolis. The push to impeach Noem, led by Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Ill., has 133 Democrats as co-sponsors endorsing the effort as of Monday morning, her office told Fox News Digital. That’s out of 213 total lawmakers in the House Democratic Caucus. It’s gaining steam among both progressive and moderate Democrats, like Rep. Laura Gillen, D-N.Y., who announced on Sunday that she too would support impeaching Noem amid the chaos in Minneapolis. "Another U.S. citizen has been killed at the hands of ICE and there must be accountability, which is why Secretary Noem must be impeached immediately," Gillen posted on X. It’s a notable expression of support; Gillen was one of only seven House Democrats to vote in favor of funding DHS last week as part of Congress’ yearly federal appropriations process. The lawmaker argued that Noem’s usage of ICE in Minnesota was the "latest proof" of her losing control over her own agency. "Kristi Noem and her department’s latest attempt to mislead the American public regarding the brutal and unjustified killing of Alex Pretti is deeply shameful, and she must be impeached and removed from office immediately," Rosen said. DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News Digital of Democrats’ efforts, "DHS enforces the laws Congress passes, period. If certain members don’t like those laws, changing them is literally their job." "While ICE officers are facing a staggering 1,300% spike in assaults, too many politicians would rather defend criminals and attack the men and women who are enforcing our laws and did nothing while Joe Biden facilitated an invasion of tens of millions of illegal aliens into our country," McLaughlin said. "It’s time they focus on protecting the American people, the work this Department is doing every day under Secretary Noem’s leadership."

Reported similarly:
The Hill [1/26/2026 12:46 PM, Tara Suter, 12595K]

The Hill [1/26/2026 11:16 PM, Sarah Fortinsky, 12595K] reports Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said Congress should move to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem if she does not resign from office. In a video posted Monday to the social platform X, the Democratic senator joined growing calls for Noem’s impeachment amid growing concern over her handling of the administration’s crackdown on immigration in Minnesota and across the country. “Kristi Noem should resign, and if she doesn’t, Congress should impeach her and remove her from office. In America, we still believe in accountability, not lies,” Warren said in the video. The senator accused the secretary of lying to the American people about details of the fatal shooting by a Border Patrol agent of 37-year-old Alex Pretti, a Minneapolis resident and intensive care nurse at the city’s Veterans Affairs hospital, during a demonstration protesting the government’s immigration enforcement efforts. Shortly after the incident, DHS officials were quick to accuse Pretti of wanting to “massacre law enforcement” and “murder federal agents.” Video footage from bystanders, however, appeared to dispute that version of events. Pretti, who was licensed to carry a concealed weapon, was not seen holding his weapon at any point in the interaction in available footage. Instead, an agent appeared to take a concealed weapon from Pretti’s waistband moments before another agent shot him in the back. “Donald Trump and Kristi Noem think that they can tell you what to believe. They think you will believe them instead of your own eyes. Don’t roll over for a lie. These lies have to stop,” Warren said. “We cannot allow this shooting and ICE’s blatant violations of law to be covered up. It’s time to rein in the federal agents who think they can swagger through our streets, throw people to the ground, shoot American citizens, and then count on protection from Trump and Noem.” “We need a full, independent investigation and all wrongdoing held to account to the fullest extent of the law, the victims of this violence deserve justice,” she continued. In response to growing calls for Noem’s impeachment, DHS assistant secretary Tricia Laughlin said in a statement to The Hill, “DHS enforces the laws Congress passes, period. If certain members don’t like those laws, changing them is literally their job.” “While ICE officers are facing a staggering 1,300% spike in assaults, too many politicians would rather defend criminals and attack the men and women who are enforcing our laws and did nothing while Joe Biden facilitated an invasion of tens of millions of illegal aliens into our country. It’s time they focus on protecting the American people, the work this Department is doing every day under Secretary Noem’s leadership,” the statement continued.

The Hill [1/26/2026 5:43 PM, Sarah Fortinsky, 12595K] reports Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) called for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to be removed as the leader of the government agency that oversees immigration enforcement operations, saying he would support her impeachment if she doesn’t resign. In an interview Monday on MS NOW’s “Ana Cabrera Reports,” the Democratic senator called Noem “the real problem” as he criticized her handling of the fatal federal officer-involved shootings this month of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both 37-year-old Minneapolis residents who died while protesting immigration operations in their city.

New York Times [1/26/2026 9:21 AM, Sam Sifton, 135475K] reports state and federal authorities faced off in Minnesota yesterday, after Border Patrol agents killed a U.S. citizen on Saturday. The state wants to investigate the shooting, in which officials tackled Pretti, a registered nurse from the city’s Veterans Affairs hospital who had been filming them on his phone. Then they stripped him of a handgun, for which he had a permit, and shot him again and again. The federal government does not want that inquiry to happen. Agents have refused to give state investigators access to the crime scene, even though they had a search warrant. Late on Saturday night, a judge barred federal officials from destroying evidence in the case. Then, yesterday, the Trump administration pushed groundless accusations against the victim. Gregory Bovino, the official in charge of President Trump’s Border Patrol operations, told CNN that Pretti wanted to “perpetrate violence, obstruct, delay or obfuscate Border Patrol in the performance of their duties in an active crime scene.” The agents were the victims, he said. Videos analyzed by The Times contradict those claims. Brian O’Hara, the Minneapolis police chief, said on CBS that Pretti appeared to be “exercising his First Amendment rights to record law enforcement activity, and also exercising his Second Amendment rights to lawfully be armed in a public space in the city.” He described the city and his department as being at a breaking point. “People have had enough,” he said.

New York Times [1/26/2026 3:22 PM, Nicholas Nehamas, Hamed Aleaziz, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, and Alexandra Berzon, 135475K] reports Oscar Hagelsieb spent nearly 25 years as an immigration officer and special agent, proud of his work enforcing federal laws. But watching the chaos unfolding in Minneapolis, and the fatal shooting of a U.S. citizen there on Saturday, Mr. Hagelsieb said he felt anger and despair at how the Trump administration was deploying his former agency. “You’re not addressing the problem by throwing a 500-pound gorilla into these inner cities,” said Mr. Hagelsieb, 52, who said he voted three times for President Trump and retired from the Department of Homeland Security in 2023. “It’s completely unfair to the agents who have been put in this position.” “They’re causing chaos, and unfortunately it’s costing lives,” he added. “There’s only so much they can handle before bad things start to happen.” Mr. Hagelsieb’s comments reflect a growing sense of fear, frustration and disillusionment among some current and former immigration officials at the department, which is leading Mr. Trump’s push to arrest and deport millions of people. In interviews with The New York Times, more than 20 of them expressed anxieties that the administration was sending federal agents into situations in Minneapolis and other major cities that were increasingly dangerous both for them and civilians they encountered. They said that long hours, arrest quotas and public vitriol were taking a significant toll on morale. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, blamed Democrats for the violence and chaos in Minnesota. “Nobody, including President Trump, wants to see people get shot or hurt,” Ms. Leavitt said in a statement. “That’s exactly why Governor Walz and Mayor Frey need to allow local police to work with federal law enforcement to remove illegal alien criminals, murderers and pedophiles from Minnesota,” she added, referring to Tim Walz of Minnesota and Jacob Frey of Minneapolis. Mr. Trump on Sunday posted on social media asking Democratic leaders to “formally cooperate with the Trump Administration” rather than “resist and stoke the flames of Division, Chaos, and Violence.” Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Homeland Security Department, said in a statement on Monday that ICE and Border Patrol agents were “fathers and mothers, sons and daughters” who were trying to “make our communities safer.”

Politico [1/26/2026 1:22 PM, Myah Ward and Dasha Burns, 13586K] reports the Trump administration is rushing to contain the political fallout after a second person was killed by a federal immigration agent in Minneapolis. Republicans across the spectrum have for weeks warned the White House that its implementation of the president’s immigration agenda had Americans increasingly anxious about the federal government’s heavy-handed role. The backlash exploded this weekend following the shooting of 37-year-old Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. Federal officials said Pretti “approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun.” Video verified and analyzed by several media outlets, including New York Times, show the item Pretti appeared to be holding was a phone he was using to film the scene before he attempted to help a woman pushed to the ground by Border Patrol agents. Normally loyal Republicans criticized the president, a partial-government shutdown over Immigration and Customs Enforcement tactics seems possible, and polling shows that the president is losing ground on immigration — including among voters who backed him in 2024. On Monday, President Donald Trump offered the first hint that the political crisis engulfing his administration would lead to changes on the ground. He deployed border czar Tom Homan to Minneapolis, a move viewed by some administration officials and Trump allies as a recognition that the president needed to change course. Homan, Trump said, will report “directly to me.” Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino, who has led a series of aggressive raids in multiple blue cities, will also leave Minneapolis, though it’s unclear how many agents will depart with him, said an administration official, granted anonymity to discuss internal planning. “That is intentional,” said a second administration official, granted anonymity to speak candidly. “Tom needs to be in charge.” Trump also spoke to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, on Monday and said they “seemed to be on a similar wavelength,” the latest sign that the president may be looking to deescalate tensions. It was a notable change in tone from late Sunday when he asked the governor to “cooperate with the Trump Administration to enforce our Nation’s Laws, rather than resist and stoke the flames of Division, Chaos, and Violence.” Walz’ office said the call was “productive,” and that the president agreed to consider reducing the federal government’s presence in the state. The president later said he had a “good telephone conversation” with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, adding that Homan will be meeting with the mayor on Tuesday. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Walz asked the president to scale down federal presence during the call, and that Trump reiterated his request for cooperation. She added that Border Patrol would not be needed in Minneapolis if the administration had cooperation from state and local officials and law enforcement. Still, the moves underscore the degree to which the administration is looking to change conditions on the ground and could prove to be a turning point for how the White House implements Trump’s promise to deport the millions of unauthorized immigrants living in the country. A White House official, granted anonymity to share internal thinking said, “Homan going is not a vote of confidence for” Noem.

Wall Street Journal [1/26/2026 5:41 PM, Staff, 646K] reports President Trump and Gov. Tim Walz may be stepping back from the political brink after a phone call Monday that both called constructive. The best result would be for Minnesota and the Twin Cities to cooperate with immigration enforcement, and the feds to reduce their footprint. Meanwhile, let’s look at how the Trump Administration’s deportation policy is being implemented by the numbers. Mr. Trump campaigned on a promise to deport criminal migrants, “the worst of the worst,” as the Department of Homeland Security put it. That policy has public support, but the migrant roundup has become far broader. Last week Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem posted on social media, “We have arrested over 10,000 criminal illegal aliens who were killing Americans, hurting children and reigning terror in Minneapolis.” Overall, Ms. Noem says Immigration and Customs Enforcement has removed “murderers, pedophiles, rapists, gang members, and terrorists.” She told CBS that “70% of them have committed or have charges against them on violent crimes.” It started out that way. At the beginning of 2025, 87% of ICE arrests were immigrants with either a prior conviction or a criminal charge pending, according to ICE data obtained by the Deportation Data Project. Only 13% of those arrested at the beginning of 2025 didn’t have either a conviction or a pending charge. But the criminal share of apprehensions has declined as the months have gone on. By October 2025, the percentage of arrested immigrants with a prior conviction or criminal charge had fallen to 55%. Since October, 73% taken into ICE custody had no criminal conviction and only 5% had a violent criminal conviction, according to a Cato Institute review of ICE data.

Wall Street Journal [1/26/2026 12:54 PM, Gerard Baker, 646K] reports inevitably, limited as we are by an entirely binary political discourse, the people who dominate our national stage have given us their verdicts on the deaths of two people at the hands of immigration enforcement agents. They were, in one account, a terrifying example of the police-state tyranny to which President Trump and his Republican Party have subjected America: first a young mother, then an intensive-care nurse gunned down on the streets of one of our cities merely for exercising their precious right to protest. The killing of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis on Saturday “appears to be an execution by immigration enforcement,” declared Rep. Ilhan Omar. Alternatively, the two killings were the justifiable response of federal officers to existential threats from domestic terrorists as they went about their vital job of enforcing the law. “An assassin tried to murder federal agents,” said Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff, after Saturday’s incident, echoing the language he and others in the administration used after the killing of Renee Nicole Good in her car earlier this month. The rush to judgment on the basis of online video is tempting but perilous, and I am reluctant to join it. But from what we have seen, the killing of Mr. Pretti is especially troubling. I suspect most Americans are deeply uneasy about it. But I suspect also that most don’t think that what has been going on in Minneapolis is evidence of either police-state repression or domestic terrorism. Instead it seems the killings are an inevitable tragic consequence of the tension that has arisen between federal law enforcement’s aggressive tactics and the resistance from citizens and local governments. It is time for urgent de-escalation—on both sides.

New York Post [1/26/2026 6:28 PM, Staff, 42219K] reports with Border Czar Tom Homan headed to take charge of Homeland Security efforts in Minneapolis and President Donald Trump finding some common ground with Gov. Tim Walz, a rapid reduction in tensions is thankfully well under way. Alex Pretti’s death plainly prompted a sobering all around, as it should. We’re glad to see Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem elbowed aside. Her performance in recent weeks as the situation in Minnesota escalated out of control did not serve the president or the country well. Without anyone backing off on matters of principle, state and federal leaders now can find some accommodation to avoid the lunatic faceoffs between federal agents and crowds of protesters and agitators. That’s in everyone’s interest. Walz acknowledged as much by finally calling in the National Guard on Saturday to separate the two sides. Then Trump, declared "we’re reviewing everything" in his Sunday night Wall Street Journal interview. Their call Monday by all accounts continued the de-escalation. Let’s hope some lessons were learned all around: Neither state nor federal leader seemed prepared for how quickly a covert lefty network turned protests into riots. Walz insists his state was already complying with some of Trump’s reasonable four points for eliminating any need for an elevated federal presence; perhaps Minnesota can quietly move ahead on the rest. Washington, meanwhile, is on notice that its rapid staffing up of ICE and the Border Patrol brought in a lot of guys who’ve not yet had full training — and that normal training covers making arrests, not dealing with crowds of protesters actively trying to interfere with enforcement.

USA Today [1/26/2026 2:55 PM, Patty O’Keefe, 67103K] reports I live smack dab in the middle of an ordinary block in Minneapolis. I borrow occasional eggs or vanilla from the neighbor on my right when I get caught short baking. My partner shovels our elderly neighbor’s sidewalk; she knit him a hat in gratitude. The folks down the street watch our cats when we’re away. In other words, a pretty typical American neighborhood, perhaps not unlike your own. Imagine if you heard that heavily armed, masked agents were going door-to-door where you live, violently grabbing people from gardeners to grandparents – no questions asked, no warrants offered. What would you do? Especially if you knew that having more community members as observers decreases the likelihood those masked agents will use violence. That’s what my friend Brandon and I were doing on Jan. 11. We heard reports of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents pepper spraying the car of an observer blocks from my house and went to warn others. I am a U.S. citizen and resident of Minneapolis for more than 14 years; this is a place where treating others as you wish to be treated is more than a saying. When we drove to the scene, Brandon and I saw several ICE agents getting back into two unmarked vehicles. They turned down a side street and we followed for about 40 seconds, blowing our whistles and honking our horns – to warn our neighbors that ICE had come. We did so knowing that monitoring and sounding the alarm about actions undertaken by government agents is our legally protected right. And any government that claims to be of, by and for the people must protect this right, not attack people of good conscience who exercise it. But attack us is what ICE did. The agents got out of their vehicle, surrounded our car and yelled at us to stop following. On their way back to their vehicles, one of the agents suddenly turned around, as if deciding, "Hey, why not," and walked back to my car and pepper sprayed into the vents near the front windshield. ‘You guys gotta stop obstructing us – that’s why that lesbian b---- is dead’. Brandon and I were paralyzed with shock, as our eyes and throats started to burn. When we did not immediately turn the car around, the ICE agents returned and, without warning or asking us to exit the vehicle, smashed the front windows of my car, dragged us out and arrested us.

FOX News [1/27/2026 5:00 AM, Steve Marshall, 40621K] reports in February 2024, an Antifa radical, consumed with hatred for my conservative policies and Christian faith, detonated an improvised explosive device (IED) outside my attorney general’s office in Montgomery, Ala. The IED was packed with nails and metal shrapnel, projectiles designed to tear through flesh, shatter bone and kill anyone within the blast radius. Had the device been placed just a few feet closer, or had staff been arriving for work at that moment, we would have been planning funerals instead of counting blessings. Thankfully, no one was injured that day and the perpetrator was caught, but the attack represented something larger and more dangerous that is rapidly becoming normalized: a culture where political violence masquerades as legitimate political speech. Sadly, civic leaders who are called to emulate a higher societal standard have implicitly condoned this new brand of impassioned activism. In many cases, they’re quite pleased to see it, convinced that the sincerity of their feelings justifies whatever actions their allies take, regardless of lawfulness. Unrestrained by ethical guardrails or even common sense, these political mercenaries soldier on to the next melodrama, eager to throw themselves into the fray to secure media attention for a cause they’re convinced is noble and the public affirmation that scratches their itch for attention. In recent weeks, that means they’re focused squarely on Minneapolis, where federal officials are investigating a widespread network of taxpayer fraud in a scheme conducted primarily by Somali immigrants who obtained millions in government contracts to operate nonexistent childcare centers. When ICE began enforcement actions related to the investigation, including a raid that resulted in the death of Renee Good when she drove her car into a law enforcement officer, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey told ICE to "get the f--- out of Minneapolis." And Sunday, on ABC’s "This Week," Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., responded to the death of Alex Pretti by proclaiming, "My message is simple: [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] is making us not more safe, they’re making us less safe, and they need to get out of our state." The combustible rhetoric, which frames law enforcement as the enemy rather than those breaking the law or interfering with its enforcement, clearly inflames an already tense situation.

Bloomberg [1/27/2026 5:00 AM, Noah Feldman, 18207K] reports if ICE agents can shoot civilians at point-blank range and never be held accountable, then we aren’t living under the rule of law. We’re living in a police state. The law on the books is extremely clear that Minnesota prosecutors and law enforcement have the authority to investigate and criminally charge Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who have not acted in a way that is “necessary and proper” to carry out their official duties. That certainly includes unjustified shootings. Legal immunity from state prosecution for federal officials arises only if they are found to have been carrying out their duties in that manner. The problem is the law on the ground. In practice, the federal government is doing everything it can to impede those investigations. We are therefore at a crucial juncture for the rule of law in the US. Minnesota officials can commence investigations and thereby preserve the rule of law — without waiting for coordination with the federal government, which hasn’t been forthcoming. The straightforward answer for Minnesota law enforcement is: Just get started. Formally announce that you are opening investigations. Interview witnesses. Gather information. If the federal government tries to stop witness interviews, go to court and have state judges issue subpoenas ordering those witnesses to appear. Rely on video evidence, if necessary. There are highly sophisticated techniques for identifying suspects from visual images. Use them. If the feds have already corrupted the crime scene, work around it — cases are routinely prosecuted without a pristine crime scene. The goal should be to gather enough evidence to present to a grand jury and actually indict the officers in question, provided there is sufficient evidence to charge them with crimes — as appears extremely likely based on the publicly available videos. Failure to do so will erode confidence in the justice system, effectively putting ICE above the law, where it is not supposed to be.

FOX News [1/26/2026 5:00 AM, Staff, 40621K] reports the State Department’s recent decision to freeze visa processing for nationals from more than 75 countries — including Somalia, Iran and Russia — reflects a growing recognition in Washington: large-scale migration is no longer viewed solely as a humanitarian matter. It has become inseparable from questions of national security, economic stability and state capacity. In today’s era of hybrid warfare and gray-zone conflicts, population movements can function as instruments of state influence, economic survival and political leverage — even when they are not formally declared or centrally coordinated. These dynamics often operate below the threshold of overt conflict while producing long-term, asymmetric effects on receiving countries. For some origin states struggling with corruption, weak institutions or limited domestic opportunity, exporting labor has become a de facto economic lifeline. Rather than pursuing difficult internal reforms, these governments often tolerate or quietly incentivize outward migration. Foreign nationals abroad then become a steady source of income through remittances: predictable, recurring and largely sanction-resistant flows that support both households and governments without requiring transparency or structural change. Importantly, no single remittance transfer is hostile. No individual immigrant constitutes an act of aggression. Many immigrants are seeking better lives for themselves and their families, and remittances often provide support to vulnerable communities abroad. But modern conflict is not defined by individual intent. It is defined by aggregate effects. When mass migration and financial flows reach industrial scale and persist over time, they can impose real strategic pressures on host nations regardless of motivation.

Wall Street Journal [1/26/2026 12:53 PM, Tim Walz, 646K] reports the Trump administration’s assault on Minnesota long ago stopped being a matter of immigration enforcement. It is a campaign of organized brutality against the people of our state. It isn’t just. It isn’t legal. And, critically, it isn’t making anyone any safer. Quite the opposite: Immigration agents have now shot and killed two of our neighbors: Renee Good and Alex Pretti. And there are countless other stories of protesters and bystanders being physically attacked by federal agents, to say nothing of the chaos and violence being unleashed against the targets of these raids, many of whom have done nothing wrong except exist as a person of color. The pretext for all this is the Trump administration’s insistence that our immigration laws would otherwise go unenforced. This federal occupation of Minnesota is, administration officials insist, about our predilection for releasing “violent criminal illegal aliens” from state custody. I can’t stress this enough: The Trump administration has its facts wrong about Minnesota. The administration claims that Minnesota jails release “the worst of the worst.” In reality, the Minnesota Department of Corrections honors all federal and local detainers by notifying Immigration and Customs Enforcement when a person committed to its custody isn’t a U.S. citizen. There is not a single documented case of the department’s releasing someone from state prison without offering to ensure a smooth transfer of custody. Yet the lies persist.

USA Today [1/27/2026 5:04 AM, Nicole Russell, 67103K] reports the great comedian Dave Chappelle once said, "The First Amendment is first for a reason. Second Amendment is just in case the first one doesn’t work out." There’s nothing funny about what’s happening in Minneapolis right now, where on Jan. 24, a Border Patrol officer shot and killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen and registered Department of Veterans Affairs nurse, and a legally armed protester. But Chappelle is right about the importance and authority of the Second Amendment as a means of protection against government tyranny and for self-defense. It’s disappointing to see both the killing of Pretti and the Trump administration’s knee-jerk, defensive, illogical − and frankly unconstitutional − response, making this tragic event even worse. Immediately following Pretti’s death, the Trump administration made several concerning, sweeping statements about him and the fact that he was carrying a firearm among federal officers. On X, the Department of Homeland Security said the Border Patrol agent fired "defensive shots" because he was afraid for his life, saying Pretti had a 9mm semiautomatic handgun, two magazines and no ID on him. DHS concluded, "This looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement." I don’t know Pretti’s motive now, even days later, and there is no way the agents would have known or verified this in the moment. Video footage of the incident does show Pretti interfering with federal officers, which I don’t recommend, and seems like poor judgment, but Pretti is also outnumbered by agents and nearly pinned on the ground. It’s hard to tell exactly, but it doesn’t appear that Pretti even brandished the firearm at all, as an agent had already disarmed him before he’s shot. Perhaps the officer who shot him didn’t know he was disarmed. It’s hard to say. I still cannot see how the shooting is justified.

New York Post [1/26/2026 7:17 PM, Daniel McCarthy, 42219K] reports Donald Trump’s Arctic strategy has been 500 years in the making. When Christopher Columbus set sail across the Atlantic in 1492, he intended to find a direct connection between Europe and Asia. He didn’t, of course — but the first transatlantic explorer to sail under an English flag, John Cabot, tried again a few years later and became the first modern explorer to reach what is now Canada. The commercial potential of the Northwest Passage was obvious from the start, but even once explorers at last figured out how to thread their way through the Arctic waters, there was no possibility of developing the route: The sea ice was just too dense. Until now, that is. Warmer Arctic temperatures and 21st-century technology put a trade route the world has sought for centuries within reach — but whose? Canada claims the passage as its own internal territorial waters. The United States, like most of the world, has never accepted that assertion. The future of what may one day be the planet’s most important shipping lane is being decided today. China is already literally testing the waters — in 2017 the Chinese used a research vessel to confirm that cargo ships can now make it through the passage. Talk of a “Polar Silk Road” and the prospect of reducing shipping times from Asia to America’s east coast and Europe by 20 percent has been rife since the Xue Long made its trek. “It opened up a new sea lane for China,” the state news agency, Xinhua, boasted: “From Shanghai to New York, the traditional route that passes through the Panama Canal is 10,500 nautical miles, while the route that passes through the Northwest Passage is 8,600 nautical miles, which saves 7 days of time.” Canada granted the ship permission to make the crossing, but didn’t know its “research” had a commercial component until China announced its triumph. Since then, Beijing has focused most of its Arctic attentions on its relationship with Russia, whose northeastern sea routes are already well developed — the Arctic’s overall economic activity is still small, but Moscow is the dominant player. Yet there’s no doubt whatsoever about China’s long-range intentions. Stephanie Carvin, a former Canadian security official, told the Canadian Broadcasting Company last September that China “has an ambitious plan to basically control a lot of the rare-earth elements and mining and wants to invest in the Canadian Arctic.” President Donald Trump recognizes the dangers here. Canada is heavily reliant on America’s intelligence capabilities and military strength — but Canadian security also depends on Canadian politics, and that’s the weak link for us as well as for them. Successive governments in Ottawa have failed to meet Canada’s commitment to NATO to spend at least 2% of GDP on defense. They’ve also been complacent about Chinese and Russian activities in the waters Canada claims as its own. Prime Minister Mark Carney’s courtship of Chinese trade in recent weeks highlights how economically vulnerable America’s northern neighbor is. Carney quickly backed off after Trump threatened to impose 100% tariffs if Canada sought a major trade deal with Beijing. On Sunday, the PM said he has never intended to strike a free-trade bargain with China, despite recent bilateral agreements. The Northwest Passage and the Arctic’s mineral resources are vital to the economic security and military defense of America, Europe and Canada alike. National pride — the claim of exclusive dominion over the Northwest Passage — will lead to national disaster, and a global crisis, if Ottawa doesn’t get serious soon.

FOX News [1/26/2026 7:00 PM, Scott Thompson, 40621K] reports the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed that ICE agents will conduct enforcement at Super Bowl LX in Santa Clara, California, on Feb. 8. Tricia McLaughlin Yoho, Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs for the DHS, told TMZ Sports, "DHS is committed to working with our local and federal partners to ensure the Super Bowl is safe for everyone involved, as we do with every major sporting event, including the World Cup. "Our mission remains unchanged.” Thus, ICE will be a visible presence around Levi’s Stadium before the game between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks, winners of their respective conferences, after Sunday’s contests. DHS adviser Corey Lewandowski said back in October that enforcement is a "directive from the president," and will not be paused for the Super Bowl. "There is nowhere you can provide safe haven to people who are in this country illegally," Lewandowski said on "The Benny Show" podcast. "Not the Super Bowl and nowhere else. We will find and deport you. That is a very real situation.” This directive from President Donald Trump comes after he recently said he would be boycotting the Super Bowl, while slamming the halftime show choice of Bad Bunny and now Green Day. Trump attended last year’s game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs in New Orleans, Louisiana. "It’s just too far away," Trump told told the New York Post. "I would, I’ve [gotten] great hands [at] the Super Bowl. They like me. "I would go if, you know, it was a little bit shorter.”

AP [1/27/2026 5:13 AM, Staff, 31753K] reports U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will have a security role during the upcoming Milan Cortina Winter Games, according to sources at the U.S. embassy in Rome. The sources who confirmed ICE participation on Tuesday said that federal ICE agents would support diplomatic security details and not run any immigration enforcement operations.

Yahoo News [1/26/2026 1:44 PM, Janna Brancolini, 49624K] reports President Donald Trump’s administration has sparked outrage over a secret plot to send ICE agents to provide security to the U.S. delegation at the Winter Olympics next month. Italian government officials originally denied, then confirmed, then denied again a Saturday report from the left-leaning Italian daily Il Fatto Quotidiano that ICE would support local law enforcement at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics and Paralympics from Feb. 6 to March 15. The plan comes after an ICE agent shot and killed Minneapolis mother of three Renee Nicole Good and a Border Patrol officer shot and killed Veterans Affairs nurse Alex Pretti, both 37. ICE has instructed its agents to break into homes without warrants, stopped off-duty police officers of color, and arrested a 5-year-old boy. The Italian newspaper report has led to anger, confusion, petitions, and demands that Trump’s "thugs" not be allowed to set foot in Italy. In a statement to the Daily Beast, Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin confirmed that ICE would be assisting Italy during the Olympic Games. "Obviously, ICE does not conduct immigration enforcement operations in foreign countries," McLaughlin said. "At the Olympics, ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations is supporting the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service and host nation to vet and mitigate risks from transnational criminal organizations. All security operations remain under Italian authority.” Originally Italy’s conservative government, which is led by Trump’s close ally Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, denied knowing anything about ICE’s involvement in the Olympic Games. "We are not aware of that at this stage," Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi told reporters Sunday, adding that even if it were true, it’s normal for Olympic delegations to choose their own security. Then on Monday, Attilio Fontana, president of the region of Lombardy where Milan is located, told reporters that ICE would be part of Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s security team. The two 2028 rivals will represent the U.S. at the games’ opening ceremony on Feb. 6 at Milan’s San Siro stadium. "It’s a whole other issue that doesn’t concern our country," Fontana insisted, saying that ICE’s mission would be limited to protecting Vance and Rubio. "I’m convinced nothing will happen," he added. Other members of Parliament described ICE as a lawless militia. "ICE is an unprepared, violent, and out-of-control militia," Italian Senator Carlo Calenda wrote on Facebook, "It must not set foot in Italy.” Italian Member of Parliament Nicola Fratoianni, a progressive member of the House of Deputies, also demanded that Trump’s "thugs" be denied entry to Italy. "We cannot allow heavily armed murderers, who have also threatened Italian journalists, to act as law enforcement on Italian soil, without knowing how and where they should operate, with what powers or jurisdiction," Fratoianni said in a statement.

Washington Examiner [1/26/2026 11:50 AM, Anna Giaritelli, 1394K] reports federal law enforcement carrying out immigration operations in cities across the United States face nationwide pushback from activists determined to “out” them while in public. Since employees of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a federal agency, began ramping up arrests of primarily criminal illegal immigrants in early 2025, the Trump administration has sent in thousands more federal agents and officers from across the departments of Homeland Security and Justice to supplement ICE. But as ICE and other federal police have surged personnel to arrest more illegal immigrants, some private citizens and illegal immigrants have equally stepped up their fight against the feds, debuting and expanding websites that claim to track ICE and others in real time. Federal police face serious blowback that government officials have warned could put their lives at risk. In some instances, police have resorted to swapping permanent and paper license plates on vehicles to confuse activists. Some blue states have taken action to bar federal authorities from doing so, forcing the courts to weigh in on the matter. Federal immigration personnel were deployed in large numbers to Portland, Oregon, in the fall to assist ICE already there. However, federal police are being moved frequently to different cities for weekslong operations targeting specific new areas. Since last June, ICE and Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Field Operations officers and Border Patrol agents have also sent large teams into Los Angeles; Washington; Chicago; Charlotte, North Carolina; Memphis, Tennessee; and Minneapolis-St. Paul. It is during publicized deployments to certain cities that activists are using these websites to report suspected undercover government vehicles and federal police. In Minneapolis, the “ICE Watch” surveillance network is particularly sophisticated, regularly deploying activists to the locations where ICE officers are operating. The ICE Activity Tracker claims to be the “most reliable way to track ICE activity near you,” with roughly 300 user reports on its website. The website states that it is developing a phone app for users to get real-time notifications in selected cities. Users can report notes and pictures of ICE vehicles, road checkpoints, and people detained by police, as well as the location and time. All reports to the site are anonymous.

Washington Post [1/26/2026 12:12 PM, Eva Dou and Naomi Nix, 24149K] reports throngs of TikTok users say the social media platform suppressed or delayed videos about the fatal shooting of a Minneapolis man by federal immigration personnel, alleging that posts tied to the incident drew few views or were stalled amid broader technical issues on the site. Some said their posts about the deadly encounter stalled, while others complained their videos received a fraction of their normal viewership. Many accused the tech company of silencing them under a #TikTokCensorship hashtag on X — formerly known as Twitter — Bluesky and Facebook. The critics included singer Billie Eilish, who posted “tiktok is silencing people btw” on her Instagram account, after her brother Finneas O’Connell posted a TikTok video about Alex Pretti’s death that reached fewer viewers than usual. “You’ve spent 30 years straight telling us that children have to die so that we’re allowed to legally carry weapons everywhere in the United States,” O’Connell said in the video. “This guy was being beaten to a pulp on the ground. He didn’t draw his weapon.” As of Monday morning, the video had 42,000 views, compared with more than 10 times that number for many of his other videos. Another TikTok user with the username @necie28 accused the platform of “full-on censorship” after videos she uploaded that were critical of Immigration and Customs Enforcement logged zero views, despite her having 35,700 followers. Her post about the alleged censorship had 15 views on Monday morning, compared with 1.1 million views for her pinned post. But the problems on TikTok appeared to extend beyond political content focusing on ICE’s Minneapolis encounter. Thousands of TikTok users reported outages Sunday on the viral video-sharing site, including trouble posting videos, not being able to see follower-count changes, and videos showing no views, according to Downdetector, which tracks outages based on user input. The complaints about TikTok, which ramped up over the weekend, arrive days after the company announced it had finalized a deal to spin off its U.S. business to non-Chinese investors to avoid a ban in the country. TikTok has some 200 million U.S. users. David Leavitt, a freelance writer, said that two of the three videos he posted on TikTok the day after the change of ownership received an “ineligible for recommendation” label. One of them poked fun at President Donald Trump, while the other showed footage of anti-ICE protesters filling the streets of Minneapolis. “The only way to view the videos is to have a direct link or visit my profile, then click them,” he said. “Neither followers or people on the For You page would see them from normal scrolling.”

Breitbart [1/26/2026 4:29 PM, John Binder, 2416K] reports amid organized rioting in cities like Minneapolis, Minnesota, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are continuing to arrest illegal aliens convicted of murder, sex crimes against children, drug trafficking, and burglary. "While millions of Americans hunkered down during the historic winter storm, the heroic men and women of ICE did not let the cold or snow stop them from arresting the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens terrorizing our communities," a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson said in a statement.

AP [1/26/2026 8:16 AM, OPE ADETAY0, 31753K] reports a global crackdown on human traffickers and migrant smugglers coordinated by Interpol led to the arrest of more than 3,700 suspects and aided over 4,400 potential trafficking victims around the world, the law enforcement organization said Monday. Interpol said 14,000 officers carried out Operation Liberterra III between Nov. 10 and Nov. 21. The operation across 119 countries resulted in 3,744 arrests, the protection of 4,414 potential victims and the detection of 12,992 people caught in illegal migration schemes. Authorities opened at least 720 new investigations, according to the agency headquartered in France that helps police in 196 member countries collaborate to fight international crime. "Criminal networks are evolving, exploiting new routes, digital platforms and vulnerable populations," Interpol Secretary General Valdecy Urquiza said in a statement. "Identifying these patterns allows law enforcement to anticipate threats, disrupt networks earlier and better protect victims. Interpol highlighted cases involving South Americans and Asians in Africa, saying there appeared to be an emerging change in human trafficking that contrasts with past patterns of African victims being trafficked abroad.

Breitbart [1/26/2026 6:20 PM, John Binder, 2416K] reports an illegal alien has been sentenced in federal court after violently attacking Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents last year in the sanctuary state of Massachusetts. Guido Andres Alexander Cuellar-Batres, an illegal alien from Guatemala, was sentenced on January 12 to eight months in federal prison and one year of supervised release for the attack. On May 4, 2025, ICE agents were conducting a targeted operation when they approached Cuellar’s vehicle and asked him to step out of the car. Cuellar refused and did not keep his hands visible for agents to see. ICE agents then pulled Cuellar out of the vehicle, to which the illegal alien began violently resisting arrest, biting an agent and attempting to bite another before striking an agent several times. When ICE agents handcuffed Cuellar, he continued resisting arrest and, as agents tried putting the illegal alien into their vehicle, Cuellar head-butted an agent and spat into another agent’s eyes. On October 30, 2025, Cuellar pleaded guilty to forcibly assaulting, resisting, opposing, impeding, intimidating, or interfering with federal officers engaged in the performance of official duties.

NewsMax [1/26/2026 11:12 AM, Staff, 4109K] reports U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement filed an arrest detainer on Monday asking New Jersey to hold Hernando Garcia-Morales, who is accused of throwing a "baseball-sized rock" into a school bus, hitting an 8-year-old Jewish girl and fracturing her skull on the New Jersey Turnpike in Teaneck. The federal agency, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, referred to Garcia-Morales as a "criminal illegal alien from Mexico.” According to Yeshivat Noam, a Modern Orthodox day school, the third grader was recovering after undergoing surgery. New Jersey Turnpike State Police arrested Garcia-Morales on Jan. 9 for aggravated assault, resisting arrest, and possessing a weapon. The Bogota Police Department in New Jersey also charged him with aggravated assault, criminal trespassing-defiant, criminal trespassing peering, and criminal mischief-damage property, per the DHS. "Garcia-Morales has had an extensive criminal history while living in sanctuary state New Jersey," the department said. "In 2023, he was arrested for burglary. "In 2006, he was arrested for possession of a weapon and theft. "This illegal alien entered the country at an unknown date and time.” Tricia McLaughlin, DHS assistant secretary for public affairs, stated that "violently targeting a school bus full of children is extremely wicked and heinous.”

Federal Newswire [1/26/2026 7:45 AM, C. M. Ingle] reports U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has issued detainers for three individuals accused of murdering a 14-year-old boy in College Park, Maryland. The suspects, Alam Josai Garcia Padilla, Jose Vladimir Merlos-Majano, and William Ariel Cuellar Guiterrez, are described as criminal illegal aliens from El Salvador and alleged members of the MS-13 gang. All three face murder charges. Local authorities discovered human remains in Indian Creek Stream Valley Park during a search. The remains were identified as those of Jefferson Amaya-Ayala, age 14. Investigators believe the victim was lured to the park and killed on August 2, 2025. Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin commented on the case: “This heinous murder of a child by MS-13 gang members is reprehensible. This murder was completely preventable. All three of these gang members had prior run ins with law enforcement. ICE should have been notified following their arrests,” said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. “Joe Biden and sanctuary politicians allowed gang members to terrorize our communities and RELEASED them from jails following their arrests. Under President Trump and Secretary Noem, we’ve already arrested 7,000 gang members.”

Univision [1/26/2026 2:36 PM, Staff, 5004K] reports Alba Oneida Andrade Reyes, a 68-year-old Hispanic woman, was detained by ICE agents during an immigration court hearing. She spent months “missing” until she managed to contact someone at her church and report that she was in a detention center in Georgia. Now, after five months in detention, she has been deported. Alba was deported in the third week of January 2026, after her asylum application was denied at two hearings: on November 17 and December 2. She did not have a lawyer present at either hearing. During her time in detention, the Honduran immigrant described her health deteriorating. Among the reports filed by her church in Georgia were that she lost hearing in her left ear, fainted, and contracted meningitis.

NewsMax [1/26/2026 6:54 PM, Jim Mishler, 4109K] reports Democrat lawmakers and local leaders criticized the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement tactics during a field hearing Monday in New Orleans focused on federal operations in Southeast Louisiana. Axios reported that the hearing was scheduled before the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis over the weekend, an event that has since intensified scrutiny of DHS and ICE actions nationwide. Some Republicans, including Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., have publicly raised concerns about DHS enforcement tactics, while House Democrats have increased calls to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Rep. Troy Carter, D-La., who requested the hearing and is a cosponsor of the impeachment resolution, said, "Under her direction, DHS and ICE have systematically violated the rights and privacy of Americans, terrorized our cities, and obstructed Congress.” New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno, City Council President JP Morrell, and immigration advocates presented testimony and materials to a four-member Democrat delegation led by Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee. No representatives from DHS or ICE attended the hearing. "If Minneapolis is the tip of the spear, New Orleans is the hand, a blue city in a red state being used as a test case," Morrell said. "So goes New Orleans, so goes the South.” Moreno said she never received a response to a December request for information about federal immigration operations in the New Orleans area. "What we saw here, and now in much more severe fashion in Minneapolis, is no longer an issue of immigration, public safety, or even politics," Moreno said. "This is a cruel, divisive agenda lacking humanity," she said.

Reported similarly:
Axios [1/26/2026 2:13 PM, Chelsea Brasted, 12972K]

Bloomberg Law [1/26/2026 6:54 PM, Zoe Tillman and Madlin Mekelburg, 803K] reports the Trump administration won an appeals court order blocking a judge’s restrictions on Immigration and Customs Enforcement tactics for dealing with protesters in Minnesota. A three-judge panel of the 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday put an indefinite hold on a lower-court judge’s Jan. 16 order that prevented officers from arresting, detaining, pepper-spraying or retaliating against peaceful protesters in Minneapolis. The ruling will remain paused while the government’s appeal plays out. The panel said the lower court order was too broad and vague, given the variations in protests and the actions of law enforcement. “We accessed and viewed the same videos the district court did,” the appeals court said in the ruling. “What they show is observers and protestors engaging in a wide range of conduct, some of it peaceful but much of it not. They also show federal agents responding in various ways.” A lawsuit filed in December alleged that federal officers violated the constitutional rights of six protesters, including boxing in a civilian’s car and pointing a rifle inside. Protests have continued across Minneapolis, where ICE agents fatally shot US citizens Renee Good on Jan. 7 and Alex Pretti on Jan. 24. President Donald Trump has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act and placed 1,500 US troops on standby to assist federal agents in Minnesota. US District Judge Katherine Menendez said in her Jan. 16 order that the protesters had shown “an ongoing, persistent pattern” of intimidating conduct by ICE officers. Menendez, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden, said she could not “ignore the almost-nonstop press reporting of continuing protest activity met with continuing aggressive responses by immigration officers operating in the Twin Cities.”

AP [1/26/2026 4:48 PM, Wyatte Grantham-Philips, 1538K] reports from family-run cafes to retail giants, businesses are increasingly coming into the crosshairs of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign, whether it’s public pressure for them to speak out against aggressive immigration enforcement or becoming the sites for such arrests themselves. In Minneapolis, where the Department of Homeland Security says it’s carrying out its largest operation ever, hotels, restaurants and other businesses have temporarily closed their doors or stopped accepting reservations amid widespread protests. On Sunday, after the U.S. Border Patrol shot and killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, more than 60 CEOs of Minnesota-based companies including Target, Best Buy and UnitedHealth signed an open letter calling for “an immediate deescalation of tensions and for state, local and federal officials to work together to find real solutions.” Still, that letter didn’t name immigration enforcement directly, or point to recent arrests at businesses. Earlier this month, widely-circulated videos showed federal agents detaining two Target employees in Minnesota. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has rounded up day laborers in Home Depot parking lots and delivery workers on the street nationwide. And last year, federal agents detained 475 people during a raid at a Hyundai plant in Georgia. Anyone — including ICE — can enter public areas of a business as they wish. This can include restaurant dining sections, open parking lots, office lobbies and shopping aisles. “The general public can go into a store for purposes of shopping, right? And so can law enforcement agents — without a warrant,” said Jessie Hahn, senior counsel for labor and employment policy at the National Immigration Law Center, an advocacy nonprofit. As a result, immigration officials may try to question people, seize information and even make arrests in public-facing parts of a business. But to enter areas with a reasonable expectation of privacy — like a back office or a closed-off kitchen — ICE is supposed to have a judicial warrant, which must be signed by a judge from a specified court, and can be limited to certain days or parts of the business. Judicial warrants should not be confused with administrative warrants, which are signed by immigration officers. But in an internal memo obtained by The Associated Press, ICE leadership stated administrative warrants were sufficient for federal officers to forcibly enter people’s homes if there’s a final order of removal. Hahn and other immigration rights lawyers say this upends years of precedent for federal agents’ authority in private spaces — and violates “bedrock principles” of the U.S. Constitution.

Univision [1/26/2026 5:17 PM, Staff, 5004K] reports one of the cases that has moved the Hispanic community regarding the arrests of minors by agents of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) is that of the Ecuadorian girl, only 2 years old, Chloe Renata Tipan Villacis. The girl’s arrest occurred when Elvis Joel Tipan-Echeverria and the minor were detained in South Minneapolis while returning home from the supermarket on January 22, 2026, according to a post on Instagram by Jason Chavez, a member of the Minneapolis City Council. According to Kira Kelley, the family’s lawyer, ICE did not allow the father to hand his daughter over to the mother and instead both were taken to Texas, The Guardian reported. For its part, the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) asserted that Chloe ‘s mother refused to receive the minor, although this version contradicts what the family’s defense reported. In light of these events, the Ecuadorian government confirmed that Chloe was detained by the Immigration Service, although she is now with her mother in Minneapolis.

Axios [1/26/2026 5:00 PM, Kyle Stokes, 12972K] reports St. Paul’s rapid response network spotted the known ICE vehicle as soon as it entered the neighborhood. Just before 3:45pm last Tuesday, the volunteers who track federal agents — and warn immigrants of their movements — reported it in an encrypted group call. By 4pm, rapid responders had radioed the agents’ destination: Sherburne and Western avenues. Several on the call offered to go observe. Within a half hour, more than 40 people were on the scene — with warning whistles screeching and cameras rolling. This scene — which Axios witnessed a week before federal agents killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis — demonstrated how large and efficient the Twin Cities’ anti-ICE watch groups have grown, especially since the fatal shooting of Renee Good. Video shows Pretti was shot while filming agents with his phone, and his killing has focused new attention on constitutional observers and the unofficial rapid response groups coordinating residents’ response to Operation Metro Surge. Thousands of volunteers have joined these groups, covering every neighborhood in Minneapolis and St. Paul, plus several suburbs.

Washington Examiner [1/26/2026 4:47 PM, Samantha-Jo Roth, 1394K] reports Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) is calling for a federal investigation into what he describes as organized left-wing groups operating in Minnesota, arguing they played a central role in unrest surrounding federal immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis. In an interview with the Washington Examiner, Fine said the demonstrations that followed the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, coming just weeks after another Immigration and Customs Enforcement-related killing in the city, were not spontaneous protests but the result of coordinated activist networks that he believes warrant further scrutiny. Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse, was fatally shot during an altercation with Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis on Saturday. At the time of the incident, Pretti was recording a federal immigration operation and intervened before being taken to the ground by agents and repeatedly shot. Pretti’s death came amid rising tensions between federal authorities and protesters who have been tracking immigration raids, after an ICE agent earlier this month fatally shot 37-year-old Minneapolis resident Renee Good during a similar encounter. Despite freezing temperatures, hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets in the days following Pretti’s death, intensifying a standoff between Minnesota officials, federal agents, and activists opposed to the administration’s immigration crackdown. Fine pointed to reports that protesters were communicating through encrypted platforms and mobilizing rapidly at enforcement sites as evidence of broader coordination rather than organic demonstrations.

USA Today [1/26/2026 9:29 PM, Aaron Martinez and Thao Nguyen, 67103K] reports a federal judge is set to hear arguments over whether the Trump administration can deport detainees reportedly present when a Cuban migrant died inside a Texas detention facility earlier this month. The family of Geraldo Lunas Campos, a 55-year-old Cuban migrant, has filed a "petition to perpetuate testimony" requesting that Santos Jesus Flores, Antonio Ascon Frometa, and several other migrants remain in the United States as the family plans to file a wrongful death lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The migrants would be called to testify in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the Lunas Campos’ family. Senior U.S. District Judge David Briones will preside over the hearing at 1:30 p.m. local time on Jan. 27, at the Albert Armendariz Sr. U.S. Courthouse in downtown El Paso. Lunas Campos died in custody on Jan. 3 at the Camp East Montana detention center, the largest U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in the country. The facility is located on Fort Bliss property in East El Paso near the U.S.-Mexico border. On Jan. 21, the El Paso County Medical Examiner ruled Lunas Campos’ Jan. 3 death a homicide, the El Paso Times, part of the USA TODAY Network, reported. The autopsy report showed his cause of death as "asphyxia due to neck and torso compression.” The same day as the autopsy report’s release, Briones temporarily blocked federal immigration officials from removing two detainees who said they saw guards choking Lunas Campos. "There is very strong evidence that the guards at this detention center killed Mr. Lunas Campos," Max Schoening, a lawyer for Lunas Campos’ family, said in an interview with USA TODAY. Lunas Campos’ three children — Jasmarie Lunas Pagan, Jeraldo Lunas Pagan, and Kary Lunas — filed the petition on Jan. 20. The petition states the family "anticipate bringing, at a minimum, wrongful death and survival actions for negligence, battery, and assault.” Lawyers Max Schoening, Christopher Benoit, and Will Horowitz are representing Lunas Campos’ family. The other "interested party" in the case is the Department of Homeland Security, Akima Global Services, LLC, and Acquisition Logistics, LLC, Briones’ calendar filed in the Western District of Texas in El Paso states. Akima Global Services is a federal contractor that "provides the people, equipment, and processes that safeguard federal buildings, military bases, and detention centers," according to the company’s website. They are providing services at the Camp East Montana detention center. Acquisition Logistics, LLC, was awarded a $1.26 billion contract to construct and operate the El Paso detention facility for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Houston Chronicle [1/26/2026 3:10 PM, Benjamin Wermund, 2983K] reports the detention of a 5-year-old boy and his father in a South Texas immigration facility has sparked fresh scrutiny of the Trump administration’s renewed practice of detaining families — most of whom are being held in Texas, even if they are picked up by immigration enforcement in other states. Immigrant advocates say the Trump administration is holding families in those facilities — which have long faced accusations of poor conditions and medical care — for long periods, apparently in an effort to get them to give up their cases and self deport. The Department of Homeland Security would not respond to questions about how many families it is currently detaining. In a statement, the agency said adults with children are “housed in facilities that provide for their safety, security, and medical needs.”

CBS Colorado [1/26/2026 8:14 PM, Anna Alejo, 39474K] Video: HERE reports an immigration judge last week denied bond to the wife and children of accused Boulder terror attack suspect Mohamed Soliman. They have been in custody in Dilley, Texas for more than seven months. ICE detained Soliman’s wife and their five children after the attack. The agency says it intends to deport them. The family is from Egypt, and applied for asylum after their visas expired. They were living in Colorado Springs, attending local schools. The children range in age from 5 to 18. A woman from Boulder died after the terror attack on Pearl Street last June, and others suffered burns, with a total of 15 people injured. The marchers were part of a group of Jewish Coloradans raising awareness for the hostages in Gaza. Colorado Springs advocates said Soliman’s wife, Hayam El Gamal, and their children knew nothing about the attack, and they deserve due process. Eric Lee, the family’s attorney said that in September, Immigration Judge Justin Adams declared the family eligible for bond on the grounds they were not a danger to the community, and not a flight risk. "Now this same immigration judge has reversed his previous decision and determined that the family is likely to abscond from justice if they’re released," said Lee. Lee added that what he called "kin punishment" had no place in a civilized society, and that the family should be freed pending their application for asylum. Lee said El Gamal and her children cooperated fully with the FBI’s investigation. But, in his view, this could now put them at risk if the whole family were deported to Egypt. After the attack, the White House posted on social media that the family had been arrested. "They could be deported as early as tonight," read a June 3, 2025, post on X. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem posted a video and wrote, "We are taking the family of alleged Boulder, Colorado terrorist and illegal alien Mohamed Soliman into ICE custody." "We are investigating to what extent his family knew about this heinous attack, if they had knowledge of it, or if they provided support to it," Noem continued.

Los Angeles Times [1/26/2026 3:32 PM, Katerina Portela, 14862K] reports as law enforcement and federal agents searched for an armed man in Fullerton one morning last week, students were arriving at the elementary school just around the corner. Campus officials said they were unaware of the threat. They and members of their tight-knit Orange County community — on edge over recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in the nearby city of Anaheim and school shootings elsewhere — are asking why the school was not warned. It was early Thursday morning when the Fullerton Police Department received a startling call: A man, described as wearing a white shirt, was seen jumping over fences at the Highland Pinetree Apartment Homes with a handgun. Officers arrived at 6:46 a.m., where they discovered that agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations, were also in pursuit, a department official said. The search that unfolded over the next hour has sparked controversy in the Fullerton community. Residents say that police officers opened the gates for the federal immigration agents to enter the apartment property, which police officials denied. Instead, Fullerton police said that ICE cut the lock to the apartment complex.

Los Angeles Times [1/27/2026 12:19 AM, Salvador Hernandez and Ruben Vives, 14672K] reports immigration detainees are subjected to mold on walls, contagious diseases, a lack of medical care and a lack of clean water and food at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in San Bernardino County, a lawsuit filed Monday against federal officials alleges. Two people detained at the facility have died since October, and attorneys and immigrant rights groups who filed the lawsuit allege conditions at the facility have been deteriorating as the Trump administration continues its efforts to detain and deport thousands of immigrants. The conditions “are designed to make people give up their legal cases,” said Alvaro M. Huerta, director of litigation and advocacy at Immigrant Defenders Law Center, a nonprofit that provides legal services to immigrants and one of the groups suing the federal agencies. “It is a system built to make people break down.” The complaint alleges that the “government’s abuses at Adelanto are a core part of its broader scheme to harass, intimidate, punish, and deport immigrants.” A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security called the allegations about conditions at the Adelanto facility in the federal complaint false. Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, said detainees are provided three meals a day, clean water, clothing, bedding, showers, toiletries, and access to phones. “ICE has higher detention standards than most US prisons that hold actual US citizens,” said McLaughlin in an email. “ICE is regularly audited and inspected by external agencies to ensure that all ICE facilities comply with performance-based national detention standards.” But the Adelanto facility has for years faced scrutiny about conditions at the facility and the treatment of immigrants inside.

Telemundo52 [1/26/2026 6:30 PM, Guadalupe Venegas and Elizabeth Chavolla, 76K]
reports a group of immigrant rights lawyers filed a lawsuit Monday against the ICE detention center in Adelanto over what they call cruel and inhumane conditions. The lawsuit was filed by lawyers and immigrant advocacy organizations on behalf of four detainees who remain in ICE custody. The lawsuit accuses the ICE Detention Center in Advance of subjecting migrants to inhumane and unconstitutional conditions. This new legal action was presented by Public Council, CHIRLA and other organizations representing detainees. “Clients describe the center of Adelanto as a prison where they treat them like dogs,” said Álvaro Huerta, director of the IMMDEF litigation. The lawsuit mentions the lack of medical care, insufficient food, limited water, unhealthy conditions and prolonged isolation. “Right now at the Advancement Detention Center, our brothers and sisters are being abused, denied medical care, forced to live in horrible conditions, and locked them alone in cells for days or weeks,” said Gina Amanto, Immigrant Rights Public Council.

SFGate [1/26/2026 4:55 PM, Stephen Council, 13945K] reports several prominent Bay Area tech CEOs spent the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term buddying up with the administration. But the violence from Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Minneapolis this month is prompting a backlash from workers inside the industry — and CEOs are a primary target. Even before federal officers killed 37-year-old Alex Pretti on video in Minneapolis on Saturday, current and former tech workers were circulating a petition protesting ICE and demanding that tech CEOs use their clout against the agency. As of Monday morning, more than 400 had signed the petition, including workers from the likes of Google, Meta, OpenAI, Intel, Salesforce, Adobe and Amazon. The petition asks CEOs to cancel any contracts with ICE, speak out against the agency’s violence and demand that the Trump administration pull officers from cities.

San Diego Union Tribune [1/26/2026 6:53 PM, Alex Riggins, 1538K] reports law enforcement personnel in California arrested 120 people, including 105 in San Diego County, during a six-day operation last week targeting suspected commercial sex buyers and alleged human traffickers in four counties, California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Monday during a San Diego news conference. Dubbed "Operation Stand on Demand," the focused effort began Jan. 19 and ran through Saturday, resulting in 25 arrests on suspicion of solicitation and eight on suspicion of pimping and pandering, Bonta said. The other 87 arrests were made on suspicion of loitering under a new state law that went into effect Jan. 1 and makes it a crime to loiter for the purpose of purchasing sex. "The operation relied on targeted enforcement, surveillance of identified locations and the deployment of undercover officers, all with the goal of identifying sex buyers, traffickers and those exploiting people for profit," Bonta said. "This work isn’t just about arrests, it’s about intervention, it’s about accountability and it’s about helping survivors begin the path to safety, recovery and healing.” District Attorney Summer Stephan said members of the San Diego County Regional Human Trafficking Task Force made 105 arrests and citations locally at known trafficking "hot spots" in San Diego, National City, Santee and San Marcos. Those individuals "thought that they were going to go out and buy a human being like they’re a hamburger or a slice of pizza," Stephan said. "Instead they were faced by the power of (the task force) … to make sure that their plans did not go that way and that the message was clear that human beings are not for sale.” In a statement, Stephan called the loitering law that went into effect on New Year’s Day a fresh tool for law enforcement officials to use to "hold individuals more accountable for these crimes than ever.”

CNN [1/26/2026 3:21 PM, Jennifer Hansler, 18595K] reports the Trump administration sent about a dozen Iranians back on a deportation flight Sunday, a source familiar with the matter told CNN. It was the first known deportation flight since sweeping anti-government protests broke out in Iran, in which thousands have been killed. President Donald Trump has threatened retaliation against Iran if it executes protesters, and although he has claimed his government with talk with Tehran, he has not taken the threat of military action off the table. According to one source, 14 Iranians were on board the flight that left Sunday. CNN reported Friday that dozens of Iranians were expected to be deported as soon as Sunday. However, it appears a number of Iranians who were told that they would be on the flight were not on it because of measles exposure.

Bloomberg [1/26/2026 11:19 AM, Sam Skolnik, 803K] reports the Trump administration can’t immediately terminate family reunification parole programs that allowed thousands of family members of citizens or green-card holders seeking permanent status to stay in the United States. The Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and other federal officials acted in an "arbitrary and capricious" manner, Judge Indira Talwani of the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts said as she granted a request for preliminary injunction in an order entered Sunday. The ruling stops the termination of family reunification parole processes for Colombians, Cubans, Ecuadorians, Guatemalans, Haitians, Hondurans, and Salvadorans whose work authorizations had been issued while they were noncitizens. The extension comes two weeks after Talwani granted a request for a temporary restraining order against the administration. The federal notice issued last Dec. 15 said all parolees “without a lawful basis to remain in the United States” following the termination of their parole must leave the country before their parole termination date. The notice added that DHS “generally intends to promptly remove aliens” who entered the US under the family reunification parole programs and who stay in the country beyond their parole termination date. Though the government argues the migrants weren’t vetted sufficiently and pose a security risk, the parolees say DHS failed to consider the move’s human impacts, especially given that more than a quarter of them are children. The parolees argued that the termination of parole granted under the programs exceeded Noem’s statutory authority. But it was sufficient that she determined that family reunification no longer warranted the parolees’ presence in the US, Talwani said.

Reported similarly:
Washington Examiner [1/26/2026 5:32 PM, Jack Birle, 1394K]

FOX News [1/26/2026 10:33 PM, Staff, 40621K] reports a former CIA operative told Fox News Digital that a recent Chinese ‘sham marriage’ scheme exposes national security concerns. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

NewsNation [1/27/2026 12:42 AM, Julian Resendiz, 8017K] reports it was five years ago that Congress passed a law requiring border officers to use cutting-edge technology to inspect every vehicle coming into the U.S. The law came at a time 93,000 Americans were dying from drug overdoses, many involving deadly fentanyl pills smuggled at Southwest ports of entry. Federal officials submitted a plan to put in place the required non-intrusive inspection portals by 2027. “As cartels and other smuggling organizations develop more sophisticated means of concealing drugs and contraband, the government must adapt to stay ahead of these evolving threats. The expansion of the NII program will play a critical role in that effort,” said U.S. Rep. Michael Guest, R-Mississippi. But at a recent hearing of the U.S. House Homeland Security subcommittee headed by Guest, it became clear the goal will not be met by 2027. The problem with installing non-intrusive inspection systems at every border crossing is money, space constraints and plans that did not include nine of the biggest land ports to begin with, said Hilary Benedict, acting director of the Government Accountability Office, or GAO. “These nine crossings together account for 40 percent of passenger vehicle crossings at the Southwest border,” Benedict told members of the Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement. Three – San Ysidro and Otay Mesa in California and Nogales in Arizona – as of last September hadn’t found room to accommodate the additional X-ray portals (they already have some in secondary and commercial inspection areas) to look for hidden compartments in cars and contraband in cargo trucks, she said. Space and other challenges also exist at the Gateway to the Americas Bridge in Laredo; B&M and Gateway International bridges in Brownsville, Texas; the Lukeville and Naco crossings in Arizona; and at the Andrade port in California. Ports of entry, as in the case of San Ysidro, California, and El Paso, Texas, for instance, are surrounded by long-established commercial properties. Port expansion would be difficult. Cost issues are another obstacle. “CBP developed cost estimates, but costs have exceeded estimates” because of the space challenges and the exclusion of the nine ports from the planning, Benedict said. Other delays have to do with government contractors taking longer than anticipated to install the X-ray machines, in part because of static interference from other CBP monitoring and inspection devices at the port. CBP told Congress it would deploy 435 of the portals but as of last September had acquired 153 and of those 52 were working, according to GAO. The agency may not have achieved that 100 percent non-intrusive inspection goal, but it has made measurable progress, CBP Acting Executive Assistant Commissioner Diana Sabatino told the subcommittee. Currently, 1 in 8 passenger vehicles and 37 percent of trucks are getting NII scans; 400 units including hand-held and mobile scanners are in use at ports of entry; and 89 fixed systems are operational with 44 in “active planning,” she said. Hand-held scanners could be used at the nine ports of entry where it’s difficult to install fixed portals, she said.

NPR [1/26/2026 5:29 PM, Martin Kaste, 28013K] Audio: HERE reports people who study the Border Patrol say it continues to be less well prepared than big city police for handling crowds and situations involving protesters, some of whom are legally armed.

CBS Chicago [1/26/2026 5:24 PM, Todd Feurer, 39474K] reports the attorney for a woman who was shot by a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agent in Chicago’s Brighton Park neighborhood last year is seeking to force the release of body camera footage of the incident, two months after federal prosecutors dropped criminal charges against her. Citing the recent "executions" of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minnesota, Marimar Martinez’s lawyer argues the evidence in her case should be made public to shed light on how the Department of Homeland Security "responds in cases where their agents use deadly force against U.S. citizens." Martinez’s attorney, Christopher Parente, argued in an eight-page motion on Monday that the Trump administration has continued to describe her as a "domestic terrorist" who rammed federal agents with her car, even after prosecutors dropped the criminal case against her. On Monday, Parente filed a motion seeking to release "body camera footage, photographs, electronic communications, and other evidentiary materials" from the case. The Chicago Sun-Times [1/26/2026 5:50 PM, Jon Seidel, 3300K] reports Marimar Martinez’s lawyer argued Monday that top Trump administration officials continue to smear her name, and that the White House’s false narrative about her arrest has even seeped into writings by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito. All the while, a standard court order bars Martinez from sharing records in her case, such as body-camera footage and electronic communications. Designed to protect against the improper disclosure of evidence, attorney Chris Parente said the order has instead become “a prophylactic to countering a pernicious misinformation campaign mounted by the United States.” “They are forcing the public, and Supreme Court justices, to have to rely solely on the government’s inaccurate version of events,” Parente wrote. “This court has the power to shed light on the truth of what happened on October 4.” Federal prosecutors filed an assault charge against Martinez but moved to dismiss it Nov. 20. She is among 32 known federal defendants charged with nonimmigration crimes tied to Operation Midway Blitz. Fifteen of those defendants have been cleared. No member of the group has been convicted. Even though charges were dropped against Martinez, she is described “to this day” on the Homeland Security website as a “domestic terrorist,” Parente wrote. The news program “60 Minutes” aired a piece this month about the incident involving Martinez, and DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told CBS “Border Patrol law enforcement officers were ambushed by domestic terrorists that rammed federal agents with their vehicles,” Parente said.

Reported similarly:
Chicago Tribune [1/26/2026 4:08 PM, Jason Meisner, 4829K]

SFGate [1/26/2026 5:59 PM, Farley Elliott, 13945K] reports the California city of San Clemente will officially allow Customs and Border Patrol to begin a controversial new surveillance project within its city limits. The plan, which involves installing cameras on a hill to overlook the Orange County city and its famous coastline, is moving ahead despite a torrent of pushback from locals, including many who attended a fiery, hours-long San Clemente City Council meeting on Jan. 20. Under the new agreement, which passed 3-1 in a city council vote (with one member abstaining), San Clemente will allow CBP to install a collection of cameras to monitor for incoming panga boats off the coast. These narrow skiffs have reportedly been used in the past to deliver immigrants and occasionally contraband items to the shore quickly from Mexico. While the boats are fast, small and nimble, they can also be dangerous for those onboard; last November, four people were killed and five were rescued when a panga-style boat capsized in the waters off San Diego. San Clemente, the southernmost city in Orange County, has agreed to lease the land to CBP for at least five years to more closely surveil the coastline and deter future panga boat arrivals. The approved lease, once signed by all parties, runs for five years, with five-year renewals thereafter for a total of 20 years. CBP will, surprisingly, only pay the city a one-time $10 fee for the land use, and will pay for any electricity or maintenance needs, but San Clemente will have no oversight on the video data collected or its use.

Washington Post [1/26/2026 11:11 AM, Natalie B. Compton, 24149K] reports a faster way to get through airport security may be coming to an airport near you. TSA PreCheck Touchless ID, a new program that uses facial recognition, is expanding to 65 airports this spring. The expansion will prioritize 2026 World Cup host cities, where travel is expected to surge, said Transportation Security Administration spokesperson R. Carter Langston. “Passengers seem to absolutely appreciate it — the speed, the efficiency,” Langston said. “All they show is their face, and the officer just waves them right into the checkpoint. No hassling with passports or IDs or phones.” TSA launched the first iteration of the program in 2021 in partnership with Delta Air Lines at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. It’s now available for five airlines across 22 airports. Critics worry that the program raises privacy concerns. It is voluntary, and travelers can opt out at any time and use a standard ID verification instead. TSA said in an email that the initiative is a joint effort from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, airports and airlines that allows travelers “to move through dedicated lanes with ease, enjoying a smoother and more convenient airport experience.” To use the program, fliers must be a current TSA PreCheck member with a valid known traveler number and an active airline profile (such as being enrolled in a loyalty program). They must also have a valid passport uploaded to their airline profile.

CBS News [1/26/2026 5:23 PM, Staff, 39474K] reports hundreds of thousands of power outages were reported across the U.S. as a monster, deadly storm hit huge sections of the country, snarling roadways with dangerous ice and forcing mass flight cancellations. CBS News has confirmed at least 19 storm-related deaths, including in Pennsylvania, Kansas, Texas, Louisiana, Tennessee and New York City. As dangerous conditions persist, many power outages were reported Monday morning across Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky. At one point, widespread heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain threatened nearly 180 million people — more than half the U.S. population — in a path stretching from the southern Rocky Mountains to New England, the National Weather Service said. It warned people to brace for a string of frigid days. "The snow and the ice will be very, very slow to melt and won’t be going away anytime soon, and that’s going to hinder any recovery efforts," said Allison Santorelli, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. CBS News meteorologist Nikki Nolan said the storm "will linger in the New England region through Monday morning before finally exiting the U.S. later in the day," followed by "frigid cold temperatures well below average for this time of year." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Reported similarly:
Daily Caller [1/26/2026 11:19 AM, Mark Tanos, 835K]

FOX News [1/26/2026 12:14 PM, Taylor Penley, 40621K] reports Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman blasted New York Gov. Kathy Hochul for rejecting federal assistance over the weekend, arguing that "unhelpful" politics are interfering with public safety as snow and ice blanket the Empire State. "We need the federal government’s help when we have a major emergency event like we do now," Blakeman said Sunday, referring to the winter blast that began slamming New York over the weekend. "I think that’s very foolish on the part of Governor Hochul.” Hochul wrote on X Saturday that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had offered federal assistance to New York ahead of the major winter blitz, noting: "I shared that the fastest way to help is for ICE to back off so people feel safe accessing warming centers, shelters, hospitals, and houses of worship.” Blakeman criticized the move as "irresponsible" shortly after, insisting the government should be focused on "public safety, not partisan rhetoric.” Gov. Hochul’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. New York City is investigating seven deaths that are potentially weather-related.

AP [1/26/2026 6:29 PM, Jeff Amy and Sophie Bates, 31753K] reports residents in a iced-over swath of Mississippi began to confront the ugly truth Monday as they shivered in ever-colder and darkened houses: Recovery from the state’s worst ice storm in more than 30 years could take a week or more. While the weekend’s winter storm impacted tens of millions of Americans, the most lingering effects are concentrated in a band from far eastern Texas across north Louisiana, Mississippi and into Nashville, Tennessee. Power outages dropped below 150,000 Monday afternoon, but Mississippi still had the largest share of outages of any state. At Alcorn County Electric Power Association in Corinth, all 19,000 customers were dark at midday Monday. Tennessee Valley Authority high voltage lines were down, and General Manager and CEO Sean McGrath said the cooperative couldn’t fully evaluate damage until TVA restores power to substations. Republican Gov. Tate Reeves said Monday that he’s deploying 500 National Guard soldiers by Wednesday to remove debris and control traffic. He said 61 shelters and warming centers were operating in 30 counties, and the state had doubled its request for generators from the Federal Emergency Management Agency from 30 to 60 to provide power to shelters, nursing homes, hospitals and water systems. The state is also distributing cots, blankets, prepackaged meals and bottled water.

Univision [1/26/2026 4:29 PM, Staff, 5004K] reports Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has announced an expansion of the winter storm disaster declaration to include 85 counties, up from 219 included under this emergency measure. On Sunday, the Texas Division of Emergency Management issued the statement expanding the disaster declaration because low temperatures, road ice and dangerous conditions have affected 219 of the 254 counties across Texas since the weekend. “Communities across the state have been impacted by winter weather this weekend,” said Abbott, who urged families to monitor local weather and road conditions to maintain safety. The disaster declaration is a formal action that enables the use of emergency management plans, state resources and inter-agency coordination to respond more quickly and effectively to severe events like this storm. It allows to deploy personnel, vehicles and specialized equipment, as well as technical and logistics assistance in the most affected counties. The move also facilitates local governments accessing additional support and strengthens the response of services such as road treatment, temporary shelters, medical care and ice-routed patrolling.

FOX News [1/26/2026 4:50 PM, Sarah Rumpf-Whitten, 40621K] reports a West Virginia librarian has been charged after she allegedly posted videos seeking to recruit assassins targeting President Donald Trump. The Jackson County Sheriff’s Department in West Virginia announced Sunday evening that Morgan L. Morrow of Ripley, West Virginia, was charged with one count of making a terroristic threat. The sheriff’s department said that Morrow, a librarian at the Jackson County Public Library, used "social media recruitment of individuals to pursue and assassinate President Trump." In the comments of Morrow’s Instagram video, others also proposed the assassinations of White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller as well as tech CEO Larry Ellison and Silicon Valley entrepreneur Peter Thiel.

FOX News [1/26/2026 9:20 PM, Bonny Chu, 40621K] reports at least 87 individuals connected to the Venezuelan terrorist organization Tren de Aragua (TdA) have been indicted for a massive scheme in which members allegedly stole millions of dollars from ATMs nationwide, a crime commonly known as "ATM jackpotting.” The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Nebraska announced Monday 31 new defendants, joining 56 others previously charged in a major Homeland Security Task Force operation. The criminal ring, largely composed of Venezuelan and Colombian nationals and TdA members, used the stolen funds to fuel its terrorist activity, including human trafficking, sex trafficking of children, kidnapping, murder and "other unspeakably evil and violent acts," according to U.S. Attorney Lesley A. Woods for the District of Nebraska. "Tren de Aragua is a complex terrorist organization that commits serious financial crimes in addition to horrific rapes, murders, and drug trafficking," Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement. "This Department of Justice has already prosecuted more than 290 members of Tren de Aragua and will continue working tirelessly to put these vicious terrorists behind bars after the prior administration let them infiltrate our country," she added. January’s indictment alleges 32 counts involving bank fraud, bank burglary, computer fraud and damage to computers.

Roll Call [1/26/2026 8:23 PM, John M. Donnelly, 548K] reports a proposed 5 percent raise in Coast Guard discretionary funding in fiscal 2026 hangs in the balance amid a congressional fight over funding for the Department of Homeland Security. Last week, the House passed the six fiscal 2026 spending bills that cover most federal spending but have yet to become law. These include the Defense and DHS money measures. The House combined the six bills into a single $1.33 trillion package. Yet Senate Democrats appear united in their opposition to clearing the bills in one piece for the president’s signature with the DHS funds included. Some Republicans may join Democrats in resisting new DHS spending for now. That is because the Jan. 24 killing of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis has hardened many senators’ determination to hold out for policy and funding changes in the DHS bill. The funding fight may last beyond the Jan. 30 expiration of the current continuing resolution, which is keeping major portions of the federal government operating. If the Jan. 30 deadline passes without a new funding bill for DHS, a CR of as yet undetermined length for that department may be the most the Trump administration can hope for in the near term. A shutdown remains a possibility for DHS as well as other departments and agencies with spending bills before the Senate this week. Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who chairs the Appropriations Committee, noted on the Senate floor Monday that 80 percent of the DHS funding bill is for "non-immigration and non-border security" functions. "Looming is a government shutdown — another harmful, unnecessary disastrous government shutdown — if we do not complete our work," Collins said. A CR would fund most programs at the fiscal 2025 level unless specified otherwise in law. Flat funding would appear to prevent the Coast Guard from advancing on a number of priorities. The Coast Guard is flush with cash because of the $25 billion it got in last year’s budget reconciliation law. But the additional $12.7 billion in discretionary funds in the Coast Guard’s portion of the fiscal 2026 DHS spending bill is still significant for a military and law enforcement service that is increasingly busy supporting a growing number of missions near U.S. shores, from counter-narcotics operations to maritime interdiction. The $12.7 billion in proposed fiscal 2026 discretionary Coast Guard appropriations would pay for new cutter and icebreaker ships, plus new helicopters and drones, not to mention higher spending on day-to-day missions. The Coast Guard has been active in recent weeks in pursuing and seizing control of tanker ships suspected of violating sanctions against transporting oil from Venezuela. In at least one instance, Coast Guard and Navy personnel dropped onto a merchant ship from helicopters. What’s more, with each of the U.S. military’s lethal strikes on suspected drug-running boats, the Coast Guard deploys search and rescue units to look for survivors of the attacks. At least 36 strikes have been conducted since early September, killing an estimated 125 people whom the Trump administration has dubbed "narco-terrorists.” The latest strike came on Jan. 23 in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, when the U.S. military blew up a boat carrying three people. One person in the targeted vessel survived, and the Coast Guard was dispatched to find the survivor, according to the U.S. Southern Command. The fiscal 2026 DHS spending measure would also include $116 million to pay for "increased operations" in the Indo-Pacific region.

The Hill [1/26/2026 4:51 PM, Filip Timotija, 12595K] reports the U.S. Coast Guard suspended the search Sunday evening for the lone survivor of the U.S. military’s strike on an alleged drug boat in the eastern Pacific on Friday, an operation during which two suspected “narco-terrorists” were killed on impact. The Coast Guard ended its effort at 7:46 p.m. PST after 56 hours of searching, during which personnel covered a total of 1,055 nautical miles with “no signs of survivors or debris,” Lt. Cmdr. Lauren Giancola, the spokesperson for the U.S. Coast Guard Southwest District, told The Hill in a statement Monday. Giancola said the Coast Guard’s HC-130J Super Hercules aircraft from the Air Station Barbers Point in Kalaeloa, Hawaii, which was “conducting missions” in support of the Southwest District at the time of the attack, was directed to the “scene to assist” in the search for the person. Officials said U.S. forces notified the Coast Guard to activate the search and rescue operation shortly after carrying out the strike and identifying a survivor.

USA Today [1/26/2026 12:29 PM, Nathan Diller, 67103K] reports the U.S. Coast Guard responded to a cruise ship after it became "beset" in ice during an Antarctica voyage. Scenic Eclipse II contacted Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star for help, authorities said in a Jan. 23 news release. The vessel was about eight nautical miles from McMurdo Sound at the time of the Jan. 17 incident. "Polar Star’s crew conducted two close passes to break the vessel free, then escorted it approximately four nautical miles to open water," the Coast Guard said. Scenic Group told USA TODAY that changes in the pack ice slowed the ship’s progress. The captain called for assistance from Polar Star "to clear the area together and avoid a longer sailing period at reduced speed," the company said in an emailed statement. The cruise ship served champagne on its Observation Deck, where guests could view the operation, and conditions had normalized by the following day. "We were grateful for the professionalism and cooperation of the crew of USCG Polar Star during our operations in the Ross Sea," Captain James Griffiths, Scenic Group’s General Manager Ocean Operations, said. "While Scenic Eclipse II was never in need of rescue services, the coordination between both vessels ensured we could navigate the changing pack ice safely and efficiently. This is a great example of the practical, respectful co-operation that exists in the polar regions, where safety, seamanship, and shared responsibility always come first.”

CyberScoop [1/26/2026 7:20 PM, Derek B. Johnson, 122K] reports the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is hoping to guide federal agencies through the murky process of updating their technology stack with quantum-resistant encryption. On Jan. 23, the agency released a list of different IT software and hardware products that are commonly purchased by the federal government and use cryptographic algorithms for encryption or authentication. The guidance covers cloud services like Platform-as-a-Service and Infrastructure-as-a-Service, collaboration software, web software like browsers and servers, and endpoint security tools that provide full disk and at-rest data encryption. CISA pointed to these products as examples where hardware and software post-quantum cryptography standards are “widely available” and designed “to protect sensitive information…including after the advent of a cryptographically relevant quantum computer (CRQC).” Federal agencies and the private sector are preparing for the long-term threat posed by quantum computers, which many cryptographers believe will one day be able to break through some forms of classical encryption.

ExecutiveGov [1/26/2026 4:30 PM, Elodie Collins] reports the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has released a new resource to guide the development of post-quantum cryptography, or PQC, adoption strategies across government and industry. The Product Categories for Technologies That Use Post-Quantum Cryptography Standards list identifies hardware and software categories that currently support or are likely to support PQC standards, CISA said Friday. CISA developed the product categories list with the National Security Agency in compliance with the executive order President Donald Trump signed in June 2025 directing the Department of Homeland Security to publish guidance on PQC-ready technologies. “The advent of quantum computing poses a real and urgent threat to the confidentiality, integrity, and accessibility of sensitive data — especially systems that rely on public-key cryptography,” acting CISA Director Madhu Gottumukkala stated. “To stay ahead of these emerging risks, organizations must prioritize the procurement of PQC-capable technologies. This product categories list will support organizations making that critical transition.”

CyberScoop [1/26/2026 5:20 PM, Tim Starks, 122K] reports the Trump administration is rescinding a Biden-era memo that was intended to help agencies buy secure software, with the current Office of Management and Budget saying it relied on “unproven and burdensome” processes. A former Biden administration official said the move is “the first major policy step back that I have seen in the administration on a cybersecurity front.” At issue is the 2022 OMB memo titled “Enhancing the Security of the Software Supply Chain through Secure Software Development Practices,” M-22-18. The administration rescinded the memo Friday. That memo led to the creation of a common “Secure Software Development Attestation Form” for government agencies that contractors had to use to vouch that their software adheres to a set of security practices. Agencies couldn’t buy from software vendors that couldn’t attest to the security of their products. “Each agency head is ultimately responsible for assuring the security of software and hardware that is permitted to operate on the agency’s network,” OMB Director Russell Vought wrote in a brief memo Friday to agency heads. “There is no universal, one-size-fits-all method of achieving that result. Each agency should validate provider security utilizing secure development principles and based on a comprehensive risk assessment.”

StateScoop [1/26/2026 5:50 PM, Sophia Fox-Sowell, 37K] reports Texas is tightening its cybersecurity defenses by expanding the list of technologies that state employees are barred from using on government devices, a move aimed at preventing foreign actors from accessing sensitive state data or exploiting government systems. Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday announced the state is adding new restrictions on certain hardware, software and artificial intelligence tools tied to the People’s Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party. The expanded list includes a range of companies involved in AI, surveillance technology, networking equipment, consumer electronics and e-commerce platforms, including Alibaba, Moonshot AI, Xiaomi and TCL. Cybersecurity analysts have said these products pose potential risks because some Chinese companies are legally required under foreign law to share data with their government, raising concerns about espionage and data misuse. The move comes after Texas established a “hostile foreign adversaries unit” in September to stop the growing influence of the CCP in the United States. “Rogue actors across the globe who wish harm on Texans should not be allowed to infiltrate our state’s network and devices,” Abbott said in a press release. “Hostile adversaries harvest user data through AI and other applications and hardware to exploit, manipulate, and violate users and put them at extreme risk.”

FOX News [1/26/2026 6:53 PM, Emma Bussey, 40621K] reports Chinese state-linked hackers breached mobile phones at "the heart of Downing Street" amid a global cyber-espionage campaign over several years targeting telecommunication networks, according to reports. U.S. officials first alerted its allies in 2024 after finding out that hacking groups had gained access to telecom companies around the world, according to The Associated Press. The campaign reportedly targeted multiple countries, including the U.S. and the other members of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance: Australia, Canada and New Zealand. The breaches allegedly gave China access to the phone data of millions and the possible ability to eavesdrop on calls, read text messages and track users’ locations. The hackers also had the ability to record calls "at will" according to Anne Neuberger, who was a deputy U.S. national security adviser between January 2021 and January 2025, The Telegraph reported. Neuberger said that the "Chinese gained access to networks and essentially had broad and full access," giving them the capability to "geolocate millions of individuals, to record phone calls at will.” U.S. intelligence agencies believe the breaches date back to at least 2021, but they were only identified and disclosed by U.S. authorities in 2024. In 2024, The Associated Press reported that U.S. federal authorities urged telecommunication companies to boost network security. The guidance, issued by the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, was to help root out the hackers and prevent similar attacks in the future.

DailySignal [1/26/2026 5:12 PM, Virginia Allen, 549K] reports the Department of Homeland Security in the past year has arrested multiple illegal aliens it says have known ties to terrorist organizations including ISIS and Al-Qaeda. According to the agency, the illegal aliens include members of Al-Qaeda, ISIS, the Islamic Republic Guard Corps of Iran, and MS-13, which Trump designated a foreign terrorist organization when he returned to office. Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have "unleashed" Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents "to target the worst of the worst, including national security threats," McLaughlin said, adding that the Trump administration is "delivering on the American people’s mandate to make America safe again, and we’re just getting started."

ABC News [1/26/2026 6:00 AM, Luke Barr, 30493K] reports the Justice Department announced Monday it has charged 31 more individuals in a scheme that allegedly stole millions from ATMs in the United States. Many of those charged are allegedly members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, according to the Justice Department. More than 50 people have been charged in the case so far. Court documents filed in Nebraska allege that members of the group scammed ATMs by deploying a malware known as Ploutus. Members of the conspiracy allegedly recruited members of Tren de Arauga to deploy the malware in ATMs around the country. "A large ring of criminal aliens allegedly engaged in a nationwide conspiracy to enrich themselves and the TdA terrorist organization by ripping off American citizens. After committing bank robbery, fraud, and other serious crimes, they will be vigorously prosecuted and held accountable for their crimes," Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said. "The Justice Department’s Joint Task Force Vulcan will not stop until it completely dismantles and destroys TdA and other foreign terrorists that import chaos to America." The case was made by the Homeland Security Task Force in coordination with state and local authorities around the country.

AP [1/26/2026 7:19 PM, Megan Janetsky, 4722K] reports a group of lawyers and family members of important cartel figures accused Mexico’s government on Monday of breaking the law by sending nearly a hundred Mexican citizens to the United States without an extradition order. It comes less than a week after the administration of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum sent 37 detained cartel members to the U.S. in what observers have described as an offering by Mexican authorities to offset mounting threats by U.S. President Donald Trump to take military action against cartels. Since last February, Mexico has sent a total of 92 cartel members in three separate transfers to the U.S. requested by the Trump administration. It’s part of a larger strategy by Sheinbaum to crack down on cartels and maintain a positive relationship with the Trump. The transfers have been at the center of a legal debate that has only gained more traction after last week’s hand over. Mexico’s government has maintained the transfers were legal, carried out in the name of national security. The Trump administration said the capos were wanted for crimes in the U.S. and many of them had outstanding extradition requests by the U.S. In a press conference on Monday, lawyers for the cartel members asserted they were denied due process because they were sent to the U.S. without an extradition order, which requires a lengthy legal process in Mexico. “Mexico is currently under intense pressure from the United States,” said Yarey Sánchez Lagunas, the lawyer of two people transferred to the U.S. in the last year. “This forces us to seriously question if these decisions are being used to show political results, even if it comes at the expense of due process or the rule of law.”

Breitbart [1/26/2026 12:20 PM, Ildefonso Ortiz and Brandon Darby, 2416K] reports pressure is mounting in Mexico for the government to begin using the term "terrorism" when referring to the hyper-violent attacks carried out by drug cartels in that country. The move goes against the wishes of the country’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, who has repeatedly claimed that cartel violence is not terrorism. The most recent call for the use of the term took place this weekend in the state of Guanajuato, when a group of cartel gunmen stormed a soccer field, killing 11 victims and injuring 12 others in an attack where they fired indiscriminately into the crowd. Soon after the attack, Carlos Bautista, a state congressman from Michoacan, made several public comments and posted on social media that the attack was the definition of terrorism. "If it’s not terrorism when 11 people are murdered while playing soccer today in Salamanca, THEN WHAT THE HELL IS IT?!" Bautista said in a prepared statement on social media. "If it’s not terrorism when young suicide bombers are used as kamikazes, willing to lose their lives to attack someone, THEN WHAT DO YOU CALL THAT? "If car bombs and bombs planted on dirt roads aren’t terrorism, then what do you call that?" he continued. "TERRORISM! WE HAVE TO CALL IT BY ITS NAME!". Bautista is an independent politician who is a member of the Hat Movement, a political group that claims to represent farm workers, and has been calling for stronger government action to protect them from criminal organizations. He is described as a close friend of the late Carlos Manzo, the mayor of Uruapan. As Breitbart Texas reported, Manzo became the target of a cartel assassination after taking a hard line against them and repeatedly criticizing the federal government for protecting cartels. Mexico’s President, Claudia Sheinbaum, has a long history of trying to downplay cartel violence in her country, going as far as denouncing the war on drugs and claiming that fighting cartels head-on was not an option because it would violate the human rights of cartel members, Breitbart Texas reported. Sheinbaum’s approach has put her under immense pressure from the U.S. government, which has designated some cartels as terrorist organizations and has called for their eradication.

FOX News [1/26/2026 8:11 AM, Ashley Carnahan, 40621K] reports Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that a long-anticipated document on U.S. security guarantees is "100% ready" for signing, with Kyiv now waiting for its American partners to confirm the date and place before the agreement moves to ratification in both the U.S. Congress and the Ukrainian parliament. "For us, security guarantees are first and foremost guarantees of security from the United States. The document is 100% ready," Zelenskyy said Sunday at a joint press conference in Vilnius, Lithuania, with the presidents of Lithuania and Poland, according to a translation of his remarks from Reuters. Zelenskyy reiterated at the press conference that Ukraine views membership in the European Union as another core security guarantee and is aiming to join the bloc by 2027, the Ukrainian president’s office said in a statement on its website. His remarks come after Ukraine, Russia and the United States held trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi for two days over the weekend.

Washington Post [1/26/2026 5:00 AM, Loveday Morris and Mustafa Salim, 24149K] reports over the past year, Iraqi spy chief Hamid al-Shatri says, he has been warily tracking the growing numbers of Islamic State militants over the border in Syria. From an estimated 2,000 fighters, the ranks of the Islamic State in Syria have swelled in little more than a year to 10,000, according to Shatri, the head of Iraqi intelligence, speaking in a rare interview in Baghdad this month. His figure could not be confirmed elsewhere, for instance with the U.S. military, and the latest U.N. Security Council report pointed to a far less precipitous rise, with an estimated 3,000 Islamic State members in Syria and Iraq combined as of August. “This certainly does pose a danger to Iraq, because ISIS — whether it’s in Syria or Iraq or anywhere in the world — is one organization, and it will certainly try and find ground once more in order to launch attacks,” he said. As Iraq’s point person for Syrian security issues, Shatri has traveled to Damascus three times over the past year for discussions with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa. Dramatic developments in northeastern Syria, where Syrian government troops pushed last week to retake territory long held by Kurdish-led forces, have sharpened concerns over a renewed Islamic State threat. During the fighting, chaos broke out at prisons in the region, where thousands of the group’s members had been held, and sent escaped militants fleeing into the desert. Many were rearrested. But the Iraqi government quickly deployed thousands of troops and militia members to reinforce its border with Syria.

Washington Post [1/26/2026 5:00 PM, Dan Lamothe and Susannah George, 24149K] reports a U.S. aircraft carrier and several additional warships reached the Middle East on Monday, defense officials said, as President Donald Trump and his advisers weigh potential military strikes on Iran following the recent killing of thousands of Iranian civilians in protests. The Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group arrived in the U.S. Central Command area of operations, said a U.S. official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing operations. Central Command later acknowledged the move on social media, saying the warship was in the Indian Ocean and “currently deployed to the Middle East to promote regional security and stability.” The vessel and three escorting destroyers were still too far away to easily strike Iran, but were expected to pull closer in coming days — moving to either the Gulf of Oman or the North Arabian Sea. The move came as Trump said in an interview with Axios that the situation with Iran is “in flux.” While military firepower continues to arrive in the region, he said he thinks Tehran wants to make a deal. The Lincoln’s arrival had been anticipated for days, after Trump administration officials this month redirected the carrier and several other warships escorting it from the South China Sea. Trump nearly approved strikes against Iran earlier this month, only to cool to the idea on Jan. 14, as some of his advisers and Middle East partners warned that it could be difficult to manage subsequent counterstrikes from Iran and other violence without more combat power in the region. One current and one former U.S. official said that additional military assets also are moving into the region. The current official said they won’t all be there for at least another week, providing Trump with a full range of options. The former official said that deliberations could go on even longer, and it’s not clear yet if any strikes will occur. Asked Monday if the administration has had any recent contacts with Iran, another U.S. official said, “We are open for business. ... If they want to contact us, and they know what the terms are, then we’re going to have the conversation.”

New York Times [1/26/2026 6:44 PM, Tyler Pager, Julian E. Barnes and Eric Schmitt, 135475K] reports President Trump has received multiple U.S. intelligence reports indicating that the Iranian government’s position is weakening, according to several people familiar with the information. The reports signal that the Iranian government’s hold on power is at its weakest point since the shah was overthrown in the 1979 revolution. Protests that erupted late last year, according to the reports, shook elements of the Iranian government, especially as they reached into areas of the country that officials thought were strongholds of support for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader. While the protests have died down, the government remains in a difficult position. Intelligence reports have repeatedly highlighted that in addition to the protests, Iran’s economy is historically weak. Economic hardship ignited sporadic protests in late December. As the demonstrations spread in January, the Iranian government found it had few options to ease the financial difficulties families were feeling. Officials resorted to a heavy handed crackdown that further alienated wide swaths of the population. The U.S. military has been building up its forces in the region, but it is not clear what steps the Trump administration may be considering. “President Trump is consistently briefed on intelligence matters around the world,” Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said in a statement. “It would be a dereliction of duty as commander in chief if he were not regularly briefed on these matters. With respect to Iran, President Trump continues to closely monitor the situation.” Mr. Trump warned that he could strike Iran as the government’s bloody crackdown on the protests expanded. Still, his advisers have been divided on the benefits of strikes, particularly if they were simply symbolic strikes against elements of the government involved in the crackdown.

Reuters [1/27/2026 2:08 AM, Colleen Howe, 36480K] reports China’s President Xi Jinping told Finland’s Prime Minister Petteri Orpo on Tuesday that Beijing was ready to work with Helsinki to uphold a U.N.-centred international system and advance a multipolar world based on economic globalisation, according to state news agency Xinhua. Xi also said Beijing hoped Finland would play a constructive role in promoting the healthy and stable development of China-EU relations, Xinhua reported. Orpo’s visit to China comes as U.S. President Donald Trump’s volatile foreign policy decisions and confrontational approach toward allies push European countries to diversify their foreign relations. It also comes amid heightened attention on Arctic security at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week, after Trump’s threat to seize Greenland and prevent China and Russia from expanding their influence in the region. Those threats appeared to have eased after Trump said the U.S. had secured permanent access to the Danish territory, but Arctic security remains a growing strategic concern for Finland, its NATO partners and China. The Arctic is becoming increasingly important to international trade as shrinking ice packs open up new and faster shipping routes, cutting transit times between Asia and Europe nearly in half. Speaking on the sidelines of Davos last week, Finland’s President Alexander Stubb said he wanted NATO to agree to an Arctic security deal at its July summit, similar to the big increase in defence spending that it committed to last year. One-third of Finland’s territory lies above the Arctic Circle, while China calls itself a "near-Arctic state" and has ambitions to build a "Polar Silk Road". Xi also called on Tuesday for the two sides to collaborate more in areas including energy transition, agriculture, and forestry, and welcomed Finnish enterprises to "swim freely" in the "vast ocean" of China’s market. Orpo, who is in Beijing from January 25 to 28, told Xi that he looked forward to continued discussions on bilateral cooperation and international issues. Orpo referenced the "candid and constructive talks" Xi had with President Stubb during a 2024 state visit to Beijing. In talks with Xi then, Stubb raised an ongoing string of incidents involving damage to undersea power cables, gas pipelines and telecoms in which Chinese-registered ships have been implicated. A Chinese ship captain is facing allegations of criminal damage in a Hong Kong court in one of the cases. Stubb in 2024 also raised the issue of North Korean support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which he said NATO and the EU considered a provocation. As Stubb had in the earlier meeting, Orpo invited Xi to visit Finland at a mutually convenient time, and said Finland’s speaker of parliament, Jussi Halla-aho, had invited top lawmaker Zhao Leji to visit.

Bloomberg [1/27/2026 3:36 AM, Soo-hyang Choi, 18207K] reports North Korea fired what appeared to be ballistic missiles off its east coast days after the US released a new defense strategy signaling a reduction in American military support to deter Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions. Multiple ballistic missiles were launched on Tuesday from north of Pyongyang toward waters off its east coast, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said. Japan’s Coast Guard said an object suspected of being a ballistic missile likely already fell into the sea. “Our military is maintaining a firm readiness posture while closely sharing information related to North Korea’s ballistic missiles with the US and Japan,” the JCS said in a statement. It would be Pyongyang’s second ballistic missile launch of the year and comes after North Korea accused the South earlier this month of having violated its airspace with drones. The South Korean government has denied involvement in the alleged incident and launched an investigation into suspicions that the unmanned vehicle was sent by civilians. After the first launch in early January, the North said it had tested a hypersonic missile. The latest show of force comes after Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby visited Seoul earlier this week and praised South Korea as a model ally ready to take a greater role for its own defense.

Reuters [1/27/2026 1:19 AM, Mikhail Flores, 36480K] reports the militaries of the Philippine and the United States sailed together this week at a disputed shoal in the South China Sea, Manila’s armed forces said on Tuesday, in joint exercises aimed at easing cooperation between the treaty allies. Military engagements between them have soared under Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who has pivoted closer to Washington in response to China’s growing presence in the South China Sea. The 11th such drill between the United States and the Philippines since November 2023 was held in the Scarborough Shoal in South China Sea waters in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, which China also claims as part of its territory. "The successful conduct of these activities enhanced coordination, tactical proficiency, and mutual understanding between allied forces," the Philippine armed forces said in a statement. The event showcased the Philippines’ frigate Antonio Luna, a Philippine coast guard offshore patrol vessel, as well as two military planes and a helicopter. The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command deployed the John Finn, an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer that transited the Taiwan Strait two weeks ago, and an MH-60R Seahawk helicopter. On Tuesday, the Southern Theater Command of the Chinese military said it held a routine patrol in the South China Sea from Sunday to Monday, without specifying the location. "The Philippines co-opted countries outside the region to organise the so-called ‘joint patrols’, disrupting peace and stability in the South China Sea," it said in a statement. "The theatre command forces will resolutely safeguard national territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests, and firmly uphold regional peace and stability.” China claims sovereignty over nearly all the South China Sea, including parts of the exclusive economic zones of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.

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