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.

Axios [1/28/2026 6:24 PM, Julianna Bragg, 12972K] reports a contempt hearing for acting ICE director Todd Lyons scheduled for Friday has been canceled by the court, after the immigrant at the center of the case was released from custody on Wednesday. While the hearing is off, the judge said the release does "not end the Court’s concerns," citing 96 court orders ICE is accused of violating across 74 cases. "This list should give pause to anyone—no matter his or her political beliefs—who cares about the rule of law," U.S. District Chief Judge Patrick Schiltz said in Wednesday’s order. "ICE has likely violated more court orders in January 2026 than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence." "The Court warns ICE that future noncompliance with court orders may result in future show‐cause orders requiring the personal appearances of Lyons or other government officials," he added. The Washington Post [1/28/2026 7:20 PM, Jeremy Roebuck, 24149K] reports “ICE is not a law unto itself,” Chief U.S. District Judge Patrick J. Schiltz wrote in an order canceling a hearing scheduled for Friday at which he had summoned acting ICE director Todd M. Lyons to appear. Though Schiltz said he would no longer take the extraordinary step of requiring Lyons to answer in court for what the judge described as repeated violations of instructions from judges, he added: “That does not end the court’s concerns.” A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, of which ICE is a part, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Schiltz’s threat this week to potentially hold Lyons in contempt threatened to set up a remarkable showdown between the Trump administration and the federal judiciary in Minnesota, which has been inundated with pleas from detained migrants and government attempts to charge protesters since the enhanced enforcement operations began. Court dockets have swelled with hundreds of cases involving migrants seeking release from ICE detention. Amid that crush, Schiltz and the district’s other judges have repeatedly expressed exasperation over what they have described as the administration’s failure to comply with the law and unusual conduct by prosecutors. Schiltz’s order Monday summoning Lyons to court arose out of a case involving an Ecuadorian man who remained in ICE custody two weeks after the judge had ordered his release. The judge said he would cancel Friday’s hearing — and the summons of Lyons — if the agency could prove before then that the detained migrant has been released. The man was released Tuesday afternoon, his attorney Graham Ojala-Barbour said in a court filing Wednesday. The Washington Examiner [1/28/2026 7:09 PM, Claire Carter, 1394K] reports Schlitz’s critique reflects mounting frustration in the federal judiciary over what some judges describe as lax compliance by ICE with basic procedural protections, particularly the timely provision of bond hearings and adherence to orders to release individuals unlawfully detained. ICE’s decision to release Tobay Robles follows an eruption of protests in Minnesota calling to abolish ICE and remove its operations from Minnesota streets. The protests stem from the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal immigration officers this month. Minnesota leadership has had an on-again, off-again path forward with President Donald Trump and his administration. Trump and border czar Tom Homan had "productive" phone calls and meetings with Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. Politico [1/28/2026 6:24 PM, Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein, 13586K] reports that many of Schiltz’s colleagues on the federal bench in Minnesota have similarly vented about ICE’s recalcitrance in recent orders. Minutes after Schiltz’s order, one of his colleagues — Clinton appointee John Tunheim — backed an emergency effort to block ICE from targeting thousands of refugees residing lawfully in Minnesota but who are still awaiting permanent residency status. Tunheim ordered the Trump administration to release anyone detained on this basis and to return to Minnesota any who had been transported out of state. A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Despite the judge’s fury, his order amounted to a reprieve of sorts for ICE’s acting director Todd Lyons, whom Schiltz had previously ordered to appear before him Friday to address potential contempt of court. Schiltz’s initial order came in the case of an Ecuadorian man, Juan Tobay Robles, whose release from ICE detention the judge ordered earlier this month. Schiltz lit into the agency for violating the order after officials failed to release the man for days despite the court directive. But on Wednesday, Robles’ attorney confirmed that his client had been released, mooting the need for Friday’s hearing. The attorney, Graham Ojala-Barbour, said despite the cancellation, he would welcome another opportunity to seek “accountability for ICE.” “Many of my colleagues and the people we represent are also interested in accountability for ICE and knowing that we can still count on the rule of law in Minnesota,” he said.

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NewsMax [1/28/2026 4:59 PM, Theodore Bunker, 4109K]
Univision [1/28/2026 10:02 PM, Staff, 5004K]
Daily Caller [1/28/2026 4:37 PM, John Loftus, 835K]

New York Times [1/28/2026 2:26 AM, Alan Feuer, 135475K] reports the chief federal judge in Minnesota excoriated Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Wednesday, saying it had violated nearly 100 court orders stemming from its aggressive crackdown in the state and had disobeyed more judicial directives in January alone than “some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence.” The extraordinary broadside by the judge, Patrick J. Schiltz, came in a ruling in which he temporarily rescinded an order he had issued on Tuesday, summoning Todd Lyons, the acting director of ICE, to appear in front of him to explain why he should not be held in contempt for violating so many orders arising from the Trump administration’s hard-line immigration actions in Minnesota. While Judge Schiltz, a conservative jurist appointed by President George W. Bush, let Mr. Lyons off the hook for the moment, he cautioned that he might change his mind and order him to appear again to answer questions if ICE continues to violate court orders. “ICE is not a law unto itself,” the judge wrote. “ICE has every right to challenge the orders of this court, but, like any litigant, ICE must follow those orders unless and until they are overturned or vacated.” Judge Schiltz attached to his ruling a list of 96 court orders from 74 different immigration cases that ICE has failed to follow since Jan. 1. He noted that his tally was “almost certainly substantially understated” because it had been “hurriedly compiled by extraordinarily busy judges.” “This list should give pause to anyone — no matter his or her political beliefs — who cares about the rule of law,” Judge Schiltz added. The federal courts in Minnesota have been deluged this month by legal cases filed by immigrants swept up in the administration’s dragnet. Some of the immigrants have sought to avoid being sent out of the state by federal agents, while others have complained they were wrongfully detained. Judge Schiltz’s initial order demanding that Mr. Lyons appear in front of him on Friday arose in the case of Juan Hugo Tobay Robles, an Ecuadorean man who entered the United States illegally nearly 30 years ago and was taken into custody by immigration agents on Jan. 6. Judge Schiltz determined that ICE had detained Mr. Tobay Robles under an improper reading of federal law and two weeks ago instructed federal officials either to let him challenge his detention or release him. After that failed to happen, the judge told Mr. Lyons to appear in front of him. But he provided a way out. He said that if Mr. Tobay Robles were quickly released, he would cancel the hearing with Mr. Lyons. Mr. Tobay Robles was, in fact, released from ICE custody in Texas on Tuesday afternoon, his lawyer, Graham Ojala-Barbour, wrote in a letter to Judge Schiltz on Wednesday. But even though his client was free, Mr. Ojala-Barbour asked Judge Schiltz to hold a contempt proceeding with Mr. Lyons, saying the administration’s “failures to comply with this court’s orders” had led to “significant hardships” for the immigrants involved.

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Washington Times [1/28/2026 5:48 PM, Stephen Dinan, 852K]

Reuters [1/28/2026 9:29 PM, Jan Wolfe, 36480K] reports a U.S. judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked a recently announced Trump administration policy targeting the roughly 5,600 lawful refugees in Minnesota who are awaiting green cards. In a written ruling, U.S. District Judge John Tunheim in Minneapolis said federal agents likely violated multiple federal statutes by arresting some of these refugees to subject them to additional vetting. "At its best, America serves as a haven of individual liberties in a world too often full of tyranny and cruelty," Tunheim wrote. "We abandon that ideal when we subject our neighbors to fear and chaos." Tunheim issued a temporary restraining order blocking federal agents from arresting lawful refugees in Minnesota who have not been charged with immigration violations. The judge said the ruling would remain in place until he can hear additional legal arguments by civil rights groups challenging the policy. The Trump administration sent thousands of immigration agents to Minneapolis and Saint Paul beginning in December in what officials described as an operation to enforce immigration laws and stop fraud. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, the architect of President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda, criticized Tunheim’s ruling on X, saying: "The judicial sabotage of democracy is unending.". The order was a major setback to "Operation PARRIS," a program announced by the Department of Homeland Security earlier this month and billed as "a sweeping initiative reexamining thousands of refugee cases through new background checks.". Tunheim said his order does not affect DHS’s ability to reexamine refugee applicants and that it "does not impact DHS’s lawful enforcement of immigration laws." The Wall Street Journal [1/28/2026 9:32 PM, Alyssa Lukpat, 646K] reports that a group of refugees and the Minnesota-based organization Advocates for Human Rights petitioned the federal court earlier this month to stop the government from seizing refugees. The suit named as defendants Attorney General Pam Bondi, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and other top officials. The Justice Department didn’t immediately return a request for comment Wednesday. Advocates for Human Rights said it hopes the government will immediately comply with the order. Tunheim, an appointee of then-President Bill Clinton, ordered the Trump administration to immediately release any refugees who were arrested or detained under the re-examination program. The Washington Times [1/28/2026 8:32 PM, Stephen Dinan, 852K] reports that reports of fraud among the Somali community in Minnesota helped fuel the current immigration enforcement surge, and to spur U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to announce its re-reviews of refugees. Those arrested under the policy, though, stretch well beyond Somalis. They include Andrei Colesnic, a Moldovan admitted as a refugee in 2023, who a judge said has “no criminal history,” and Aleksander Blizniukov, a refugee from Russia who came in 2024 and also has not been arrested or charged with any crime. Judges in both of those cases faulted the government’s arrests and ordered that DHS either release them or finalize the new fraud review immediately. Judge Tunheim, a Clinton appointee, delivered relief on a much broader scale. DHS has defended its policy by pointing to immigration law, which says a year after a refugee has been admitted, he is supposed to undergo a second round of vetting, when the government can initiate deportation proceedings. But Judge Tunheim said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s longstanding policy was not to detain migrants at that point, until it had affirmatively decided to remove them. If a refugee is arrested, the ICE policy sets a 48-hour clock for a decision to either carry out a deportation or else release them. Judge Tunheim said the new detention policy is actually interfering with DHS enforcing more “serious violations of immigration laws.”

NewsNation [1/28/2026 8:51 PM, Kellie Meyer, Justin Walker, 8017K] reports President Donald Trump will hold a Cabinet meeting Thursday, a senior White House official told NewsNation. The Cabinet meeting will be the first of 2026. It was confirmed that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem would attend amid calls for her resignation from Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill. On Tuesday, Trump said Noem would not be stepping down, saying the two have “a very good relationship.” After 37-year-old Renee Good was fatally shot by a federal officer, Noem and others at DHS said Good was trying to run over agents and that the agents acted in self-defense. The calls for Noem’s ouster follow a second fatal shooting in Minneapolis and come as immigration efforts face increasing scrutiny. NewsNation reported Trump met with Noem privately for nearly two hours in the Oval Office on Monday following the shooting. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

The Wall Street Journal [1/28/2026 2:53 PM, Jack Morphet, 646K] reports two Border Patrol agents who fired shots at Alex Pretti in a fatal encounter in Minneapolis last weekend have been placed on administrative leave. The decision to relieve the immigration officials was “standard protocol,” according to a Customs and Border Protection spokesperson. Tricia McLaughlin, Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman, also confirmed that Jonathan Ross, an ICE officer who shot and killed Renee Good, has been placed on administrative leave. The agency and Secretary Kristi Noem had declined to answer questions about Ross before now. The investigation into Pretti’s death is being led by DHS with the support of the FBI. Democrats and some Republicans called for a full investigation around the fatal shooting of Pretti, who had been filming immigration officers. Lawmakers have also called for Noem to step down. Witness footage of the episode showed a federal officer pull a handgun away from Pretti before he was shot at least 10 times, according to a Wall Street Journal video analysis. A preliminary Homeland Security report sent to Congress Tuesday doesn’t say how many shots were fired or which shots killed Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive-care nurse. The report, which came from the review of bodycam footage and documentation, said officers tried to move Pretti off a roadway but he wouldn’t move. After being pepper sprayed, Pretti still resisted custody, according to the report, and a struggle ensued. The New York Times [1/28/2026 3:07 PM, Madeleine Ngo and Hamed Aleaziz, 135475K] reports Gregory Bovino, a Border Patrol chief who had been deployed to Minnesota, said on Sunday that the officers involved in the shooting were still working but had been transferred to other cities, adding that they would “more than likely be on administrative duty.” It is unclear whether the other federal officers who pinned Mr. Pretti to the ground and restrained him were also placed on leave. Two federal officers discharged their weapons during the encounter, according to a preliminary review by Customs and Border Protection’s internal watchdog office that was sent to Congress on Tuesday. It provided a detailed timeline of the events based on body camera footage and agency documentation. The Wall Street Journal [1/28/2026 2:10 PM, Alyssa Lukpat, 646K] reports two federal immigration officials fired shots at Alex Pretti in a fatal encounter in Minneapolis last weekend, the Department of Homeland Security said in a preliminary report sent to Congress Tuesday. Democrats and some Republicans called for a full investigation around Saturday’s fatal shooting of the 37-year-old intensive-care nurse who had been filming immigration officers. Lawmakers have also called for DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to step down. Witness footage of the episode showed at least 10 shots fired, according to a Wall Street Journal video analysis. The government’s report doesn’t say how many were fired or which shots killed Pretti. The Customs and Border Protection report—which came from the review of bodycam footage and documentation—said that an officer was confronted by two women blowing whistles at around 9 a.m. Saturday. The officer asked the women to move out of the roadway, but the women didn’t comply, the report said. The officer pushed them both away, and one of the women ran to a man who was later identified as Pretti, according to the report. The officer tried to move Pretti and the woman out of the roadway and deployed pepper spray toward them, the report said. CBP personnel tried to take Pretti into custody, but the report said he resisted those efforts and a struggle ensued. The CBP report differs from what Homeland Security initially said after the fatal shooting Saturday. At the time, Homeland Security said “an individual approached US Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun. … The officers attempted to disarm the suspect but the armed suspect violently resisted.” The agency initially said one agent fired defensive shots.

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CBS News [1/28/2026 6:26 PM, Staff, 39474K] Video: HERE
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New York Times [1/28/2026 9:01 PM, Ernesto Londoño and Pooja Salhotra, 135475K] reports federal officials said Border Patrol agents had been searching for a dangerous criminal when they fatally shot Alex Pretti on a Minneapolis sidewalk. Four days later, that man still has not been arrested, said Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security. Gregory Bovino, who headed Border Patrol operations in the city until he was reassigned this week, said Sunday that the target was an Ecuadorean named Jose Huerta-Chuma. Mr. Bovino said that Mr. Huerta-Chuma had a significant criminal history. Court records indicate that Mr. Huerta-Chuma has had traffic violations and one misdemeanor related to domestic abuse, but has never been convicted of a felony. At least eight federal agents in tactical gear were involved in the Saturday operation to apprehend him that ended in the killing of Mr. Pretti, a U.S. citizen and nurse, according to a Times video analysis. Federal officials have said their operation in Minnesota is meant to deport “the worst of the worst,” but the display of force to target a man with a relatively low-level criminal record has alarmed observers who say their tactics are disproportionate. “They are literally murdering our neighbors to catch people with misdemeanors,” said Mike Berger, Hennepin County’s chief public defender, whose office represented Mr. Huerta-Chuma in several cases. Mr. Bovino said that Mr. Huerta-Chuma was not captured because “agitators” had harassed and disrupted federal agents.

The New York Times [1/28/2026 9:46 AM, Max Kim, 135475K] reports Stephen Miller, a top aide to President Trump, has suggested that federal agents “may not have been following” protocol before the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, after days in which he and other Trump administration officials portrayed the shooting as justified. Mr. Miller said in a statement that the White House had provided “clear guidance” to the Department of Homeland Security that federal agents deployed to Minnesota as part of the administration’s immigration crackdown be used to protect “arrest teams” from people he described as “disruptors.” “We are evaluating why the CBP team may not have been following that protocol,” Mr. Miller said in the statement, referring to agents from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, a law enforcement agency under the department. The statement was provided to The New York Times on Wednesday by a White House spokesperson and was reported earlier by CNN. While Mr. Miller did not elaborate, his comments came as the Trump administration faces escalating blowback for Mr. Pretti’s killing. Shortly after the shooting, Mr. Miller, the highly influential deputy White House chief of staff, characterized the 37-year-old Minneapolis resident in a social media post as a “domestic terrorist” and an “assassin” who had “tried to murder federal agents,” without providing evidence. He accused Democratic leaders who had condemned the killing of inciting insurrection. Other Trump administration officials offered similar accounts. The homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, claimed that Mr. Pretti had brandished a gun and appeared intent on inflicting “maximum damage on individuals and to kill law enforcement.” ABC News [1/28/2026 4:46 PM, Rachel Scott and Luke Barr, 30493K] reports Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called Pretti’s conduct "the definition of domestic terrorism" -- also without evidence -- which sparked backlash. Miller’s comments come as the Trump administration grapples with the fallout of Pretti’s shooting -- as well as the death of Renee Good, a mother of three, who was shot and killed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Jan. 7. "The initial statement from DHS was based on reports from CBP on the ground," Miller said in a statement. "Additionally, the White House provided clear guidance to DHS that the extra personnel that had been sent to Minnesota for force protection should be used for conducting fugitive operations to create a physical barrier between the arrest teams and the disruptors. We are evaluating why the CBP team may not have been following that protocol," Miller told ABC News. The administration has sought to create some distance from Miller and Noem’s earlier characterization of the shooting. Earlier this week, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, walked back the comments that Pretti was a "domestic terrorist." Asked by ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce if the president agreed with the characterization of Pretti as a "domestic terrorist," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt distanced the president from those comments.

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New York Post [1/28/2026 7:03 AM, Samuel Chamberlain, 42219K]
Washington Examiner [1/28/2026 6:30 AM, Staff, 1394K]
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Reuters [1/28/2026 1:25 PM, Ted Hesson, 36480K] reports an initial U.S. government review of the fatal shooting of U.S. citizen Alex Pretti by immigration agents in Minneapolis made no mention of him brandishing a firearm, despite initial statements by Trump officials highlighting the weapon. A preliminary review by U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Pretti, 37, was shot by two federal officers, a Border Patrol agent and a customs officer, after he refused to move out of the street following an order from a customs officer. In the hours after Pretti was killed on Saturday, top Trump administration officials portrayed the ICU nurse as an aggressor, assertions that were quickly contradicted by video from the scene. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said he "approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun," but did not mention that the weapon was holstered. White House aide Stephen Miller - the driver of Trump’s immigration agenda - called Pretti a "domestic terrorist" and "would-be assassin" without presenting evidence to support the claims. The killing of Pretti, an ICU nurse at a hospital for veterans, sparked a national uproar and led Trump to adopt a more conciliatory tone this week. The CBP review, conducted by the agency’s Office of Professional Responsibility and shared with lawmakers on Tuesday, reinforced the disconnect between how Trump officials portrayed the shooting and the video evidence.

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The Hill [1/28/2026 2:05 PM, Ashleigh Fields, 12595K]

CNN [1/28/2026 4:01 PM, Shimon Prokupecz, Holmes Lybrand, Evan Perez, 18595K] reports investigators tasked with running the internal Customs and Border Protection probe into the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti have had limited access to information and evidence obtained by the Department of Homeland Security’s investigative agency (HSI) and the FBI, a law enforcement official briefed on the matter told CNN. According to the report, a border protection agent and officer fired their government-issued pistols during the incident seconds after a different agent yelled, "He’s got a gun" multiple times. The internal investigation, led by Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Professional Responsibility, sent the first official report on the shooting to Congress on Tuesday. But the law enforcement official told CNN the Office of Professional Responsibility has been unable to access evidence requested from HSI, an agency that normally assists in these internal investigations — marking another sharp departure from past investigations. Investigators were, however, able to view footage from body cameras worn by officers involved in the incident that day prior to the initial report to Congress. Separate from both the federal investigation and the internal CBP probe, local law enforcement officials also say DHS and the FBI have not shared any evidence they collected in the case so far. A federal judge in Minnesota had granted a temporary restraining order blocking federal agencies from destroying or altering evidence related to the shooting. Following a call with President Donald Trump on Monday, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz wrote in a statement that Trump had agreed to allow the state’s investigation to continue.

The AP [1/29/2026 12:43 AM, Michael Biesecker and Jesse Bedayn, 19051K] reports Alex Pretti was forcefully taken to the ground by federal immigration agents after kicking out the tail light of their vehicle during a Minneapolis protest 11 days before he was shot and killed by Border Patrol officers, videos that emerged Wednesday show. The Jan. 13 scuffle was captured in a pair of videos that show Pretti shouting an expletive at the federal officers and struggling with them. His winter coat comes off when he’s on the ground and he either breaks free or the officers let him go and he scurries away. When he turns his back to the camera, what appears to be a handgun is visible in his waistband. At no point do the videos show Pretti reaching for the gun and it is unclear whether the federal agents saw it. A person with knowledge of the incident confirmed to The Associated Press that the man in the videos is Pretti and that he had told his family of the confrontation. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss matters sensitive to the family. The new videos immediately rekindled the national debate about the death of Pretti, 37, an intensive care nurse at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center. Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, posted one of the videos on X and commented, “Just a peaceful legal observer.” Steve Schleicher, a Minneapolis-based attorney representing Pretti’s parents, said the earlier altercation in no way justified the officers fatally shooting Pretti on Saturday. “A week before Alex was gunned down in the street — despite posing no threat to anyone — he was violently assaulted by a group of (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents,” Schleicher said in a written statement. “Nothing that happened a full week before could possibly have justified Alex’s killing at the hands of ICE on Jan 24.” Homeland Security Investigations is reviewing the new videos and incident, a spokesperson with the department said. It’s not known if any of the officers involved were also there when Pretti was killed. Last weekend’s fatal shooting occurred on a sidewalk next to the street where Pretti had been videoing immigration officers. In video taken by bystanders, one officer pushes him, then Pretti is taken to the ground and a half-dozen officers try to subdue him. One spots Pretti’s weapon, which he was licensed to carry, and shouts, “He’s got a gun.” Two officers then open fire and Pretti is killed. Trump administration officials quickly reacted, saying Pretti had approached officers with a gun and attacked them. The altercation and shooting was captured in multiple videos and showed Pretti never brandished his gun and didn’t assault any officer. He was holding his phone when he was shot in the back while on the ground. The new videos from the week prior to the shooting came from two sources. One, published by the Minnesota Star Tribune and later obtained by the AP, was taken by Max Shapiro, a witness who filmed the interaction. The second was by a crew for The News Movement, an online media outlet. Shapiro, an attorney in Minneapolis, recounted in an interview Wednesday that he saw over a Signal chat that immigration enforcement was in the area. Driving over, Shapiro parked half a block from officers and got out. “The observers were pretty distraught and screaming,” he said, adding that the officers began trying to get the crowd back, but their directives were largely drowned out in whistles and shouts. The video from The News Movement shows Pretti wearing glasses, a dark baseball cap and a winter coat yelling at federal vehicles, at one point appearing to spit and yell “trash” toward the driver’s side of a dark Ford Expedition with flashing red and blue lights. CBS News [1/28/2026 7:23 PM, Faris Tanyos, 39474K] reports a newly released video appears to show 37-year-old Alex Pretti confronting federal immigration officers on a Minneapolis street 11 days before he was fatally shot in another encounter with Customs and Border Protection agents. The video was recorded on Jan. 13 and posted Wednesday by The News Movement, a digital media outlet. It shows a man, believed to be Pretti, confronting federal agents along with other protesters. The video was verified by CBS News partner BBC News, and CBS News has confirmed the footage was filmed in Minneapolis. In the video, the man is seen kicking and damaging the taillight of a government SUV. The vehicle then stops, and federal agents emerge and tackle him to the ground. There appears to be a handgun in his waistband — as was also seen in footage from the day Pretti was killed. The video does not indicate whether the man was detained by federal officers following the Jan. 13 incident. Later in the video, officers deploy chemical irritants in the street as a number of other people shout, honk their horns or stand around filming the scene on their phones. A Department of Homeland Security official told CBS News investigators with Homeland Security Investigations were aware of the video and are analyzing it. The Daily Caller [1/28/2026 6:08 PM, Nicole Silverio, 835K] reports Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation that the video was "under review" by HSI. Ming claimed in the video that the BBC confirmed Pretti’s identity to a 97% degree of accuracy. The BBC has not yet confirmed to the DCNF whether they had analyzed the video. The footage further showed agents body slamming and holding the man down to the ground. A firearm appeared to be visible above his waistband and he wore a similar outfit to the one Pretti wore the day he died. A Border Patrol agent shot Pretti on Saturday during an anti-ICE protest. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem faced scrutiny after she alleged that Pretti acted as a domestic terrorist by approaching Border Patrol agents with a firearm. Noem’s accusations against Pretti reportedly came from top officials in the White House, specifically White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, who called Pretti an "assassin" in a statement on X, sources told Axios. President Donald Trump on Tuesday called for there to be a complete investigation into the matter, and two agents were put on administrative leave on Wednesday.

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New York Post [1/28/2026 5:56 PM, Anna Young, 42219K]

Daily Caller [1/28/2026 10:53 PM, Mariane Angela, 835K] reports Democratic Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey on Wednesday downplayed a video that allegedly shows Alex Pretti spitting on and confronting federal agents days before his fatal shooting. Homeland Security Investigations is looking into the authenticity of a video, shared by The News Movement’s Dan Ming, that appears to show Pretti spitting on law enforcement officers and damaging a federal vehicle days before Border Patrol agents fatally shot him, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told the Daily Caller News Foundation. CNN anchor Anderson Cooper pressed Frey on the clip and asked whether it alters the public’s understanding of what happened. "Some people are going to see it as in one way, other people are going to see it in another way. Do you think it changes at all? To you, what does this video say," Cooper asked Frey. "I actually haven’t yet seen the video, but are we actually making the argument that Alex Pretti should be killed for something that happened like 11 days prior to the shooting itself?" Frey asked. The mayor insisted that attention remain fixed on the moments surrounding the shooting rather than on an earlier encounter that occurred more than a week beforehand. "I think we should be talking about the circumstances that actually led to the killing and what took place. And those circumstances, I mean, you can believe your own two eyes," Frey added. A Border Patrol agent fatally shot Pretti on Saturday during an anti-ICE protest, prompting scrutiny of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. Noem accused him of acting as a domestic terrorist for allegedly approaching agents with a firearm. Sources said Noem’s claims traced back to senior White House officials, including Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, who called Pretti an "assassin" in an X post, while President Donald Trump later ordered a full investigation. Officials placed two agents on administrative leave Wednesday.

Daily Caller [1/28/2026 9:56 PM, Mariane Angela, 835K] reports that, days following Alex Pretti’s death, his family hired high-profile attorneys with direct ties to the prosecution of Derek Chauvin in the George Floyd case. The parents of the 37-year-old intensive care nurse retained Steve Schleicher, a veteran litigator and former federal prosecutor. Schleicher helped Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison convict former police officer Chauvin for the death of Floyd. Schleicher, now a partner at the Minneapolis law firm Maslon, is representing Michael and Susan Pretti pro bono, a family spokesman confirmed, as reported by Newsweek. Schleicher spent more than a decade in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota, where he handled cases ranging from murder to civil rights violations, and also served as a special prosecutor during the Chauvin trial. Before entering private practice, he acted as a state prosecutor and served as a reserve officer in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps. Separately, Pretti’s younger sister, Micayla Pretti, hired attorney Anthony Cotton of the Milwaukee firm Kuchler & Cotton, the family said, as reported by the Associated Press. A family spokesman said the attorneys were brought in to "protect the family’s interests in the aftermath of this horrific tragedy.” Border Patrol agents shot and killed 37-year-old Pretti on Saturday during a confrontation as they carried out a targeted enforcement operation in Minneapolis. Following the incident, members of President Donald Trump’s administration accused Pretti of being a domestic terrorist, an accusation Trump rejected when asked, saying he had not heard those claims and would not endorse them. "Well I haven’t heard that. But certainly he shouldn’t have been carrying a gun. And look, bottom line, everybody in this room, we view that as a very unfortunate incident, OK? Everyone, unless you’re a stupid person. Very, very unfortunate incident," Trump said. Meanwhile, the family of Renee Nicole Good, another Minneapolis resident fatally shot by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in early January, also retained high-profile legal representation. Good’s family hired the Chicago-based firm Romanucci & Blandin — the same team that represented Floyd’s family in their civil case — to investigate the circumstances of her death and pursue accountability.

USA Today [1/28/2026 5:01 PM, Liam Rappleye, 67103K] reports United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain issued a statement condemning the killing of Alex Pretti in Minnesota. Pretti was shot and killed during a controversial crackdown on immigration taking place in Minneapolis. Fain noted that Pretti was a union-represented nurse with the American Federation of Government Employees and criticized the killing of protesters by federal agents. United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain has condemned the killing of Alex Pretti — a U.S. citizen and union worker — during a protest against the deluge of immigration enforcement operations sweeping the country. Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs hospital, was shot and killed by border patrol agents on Saturday. He was the second U.S. citizen federal agents shot and killed during skirmishes among protesters and federal immigration agents in Minneapolis. In a statement released Jan. 28, Fain noted Pretti was a union member of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 3669. "The UAW stands in solidarity with the family and loved ones of our fallen union brother Alex Pretti and all those standing up for justice in Minneapolis and beyond," Fain wrote, adding that Pretti was "a fellow union member doing what UAW members do all the time — heeding a call for solidarity and exercising his Constitutional rights. For that, he was killed in the street.". In the aftermath of Pretti’s killing, the Department of Homeland Security and the Trump administration were quick to cast the shooting as an act of self-defense by the officers, with DHS Secretary Kristi Noem alleging that Pretti was brandishing a gun. Video accounts of the incident contradict the administration’s narrative, showing Pretti holding only a cell phone while being tackled, sprayed with pepper spray, struck with the cannister and then disarmed by the federal officers before being shot. Pretti was a licensed gun owner. "This looks like a situation where an individual arrived at the scene to inflict maximum damage on individuals and kill law enforcement," Noem said in a news conference the day of the shooting.

The Hill [1/28/2026 10:58 AM, Ashleigh Fields, 12595K] reports Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) and Thomas Souzzi (D-N.Y.) sent a Tuesday letter to President Trump requesting a meeting to address the public’s growing “rejection” of immigration enforcement efforts taking place across the country. The letter from Fitzpatrick and Souzzi, who co-chair the bipartisan Problem Solver Caucus that works across party lines to resolve political issues, comes amid an uproar in Congress over the killing of a protestor on Saturday in Minneapolis by a Border Patrol agent. “The tragedy in Minneapolis and the looming federal government shutdown demand that Congress and the White House, Democrats and Republicans, finally work together to address the immigration and border security issues that have festered for too long,” the co-chairs wrote in their letter to Trump. “Decades of legislative branch gridlock and executive branch missteps have contributed to anxiety, fear, and now anger and mistrust. Let’s seize this moment to act together, in a bipartisan manner, for the good of our nation,” they added. Both of the lawmakers touted the president’s “success in securing our border” but said the work he’s done is being “overshadowed” by a disdain for interior immigration enforcement. Their letter follows the death of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, at the hands of federal law enforcement personnel sent to Minnesota as part of a deportation crackdown. Local leaders and elected officials in Washington have called for independent investigations into the shootings. On Tuesday, Fitzpatrick and Souzzi urged the president to require that all federal law enforcement-involved shooting incidents be subject to an independent investigation.

Axios [1/28/2026 7:20 AM, Nick Halter, 12972K] reports the White House’s new point person on the immigration crackdown in Minnesota met with Gov. Tim Walz and Mayor Jacob Frey yesterday, as widespread raids and arrests continued in the state. While the meetings with border czar Tom Homan appear to be another step toward de-escalation, a quick and large-scale pullback of agents doesn’t appear to be imminent. What they’re saying: Frey, who met with Homan alongside Police Chief Brian O’Hara, described the conversation as productive. Friction point: Frey said he made it clear that the city police will not enforce federal immigration laws despite President Trump’s demand that local police help ICE. Walz said after his meeting that he wants impartial investigations into the shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Both Walz and Frey said they told Homan they want a quick end to the surge. Homan said on X that all parties "agree that we need to support our law enforcement officers and get criminals off the streets." "While we don’t agree on everything, these meetings were a productive starting point and I look forward to more conversations with key stakeholders in the days ahead," he said.

The Hill [1/28/2026 12:18 PM, Tara Suter, 12595K] reports White House border czar Tom Homan said recent meetings with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D) have gone well in the wake of recent tension over President Trump’s immigration agenda in the state. “Today I met with Governor Walz, Mayor Frey, and top law enforcement officials to discuss the issues on the ground in Minnesota. We all agree that we need to support our law enforcement officers and get criminals off the streets,” Homan said Tuesday in a post on social platform X. “While we don’t agree on everything, these meetings were a productive starting point and I look forward to more conversations with key stakeholders in the days ahead,” he added. Homan’s comments follow weeks of tension in Minnesota over Trump’s immigration agenda. The recent fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis by federal immigration authorities have sparked widespread backlash toward the administration. Frey said he and Minneapolis Police Department Chief Brian O’Hara “met with Border Czar Homan and had a productive conversation.” “I reiterated that my main ask is for Operation Metro Surge to end as quickly as possible. Public safety works best when it’s built on community trust, not tactics that create fear or division,” he added in a Tuesday post on X. Trump announced Monday that Homan was headed to Minnesota following Saturday’s fatal shooting of Pretti.

NBC News [1/28/2026 5:58 PM, Julia Ainsley, 34509K] reports President Donald Trump’s decision to shake up the leadership of his immigration enforcement operations in Minnesota is the latest twist in a monthslong power struggle inside his administration over one of his top policy priorities, according to two law enforcement officials, one administration official and a person familiar with the situation. It marks a triumph for one camp of immigration enforcement officials — namely border czar Tom Homan and Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott — who have publicly advocated for a targeted approach focused on arresting criminals who are in the country illegally. And it is a comedown for the other faction, led by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, her top adviser Corey Lewandowski and Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino, who pushed for large sweeps of immigrants and aggressive tactics such as using chemical agents and rappelling into apartment buildings from Black Hawk helicopters. How long the shift in fortunes will last is unclear. Trump’s shake-up in Minnesota suggests he’s cooling to the enforcement tactics that have shaped Americans’ view of his immigration agenda for most of his term, with polls showing many voters think it’s gone too far. At the same time, the president’s aides have said he’s still committed to his deportations policy — Trump polls better on the question of border security — even if he’s for now pivoting away from the strategy led by Bovino following the deadly shooting of ICU nurse Alex Pretti on Saturday and of Renee Good earlier this month.

ABC News [1/28/2026 8:48 AM, Rachel Scott and David Brennan, 30493K] reports President Donald Trump previewed a "more relaxed" approach from federal agents operating in Minnesota following two deadly shootings in Minneapolis in recent weeks, during an exclusive interview with ABC News’ Senior Political Correspondent Rachel Scott on Tuesday. Trump has assigned White House "border czar" Tom Homan to lead the operation in Minnesota following fierce local and national backlash to violent incidents involving federal agents there. Asked what would change with Homan now in charge, the president said "we can start doing maybe a little bit more relaxed" and "we’d like to finish the job and finish it well, and I think we can do it in a de-escalated form.". The remarks appear to signal a shift in tone for Trump, who said just months ago that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids "haven’t gone far enough." Trump and members of his administration had previously criticized both of the protesters who were killed -- with the White House describing one as a "‘would-be assassin" -- while also expressing sympathy for their families. Trump also praised Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who is facing calls to resign after the series of violent incidents involving DHS personnel. "I think she’s done a fantastic job, she’s strong," the president said.

AP [1/28/2026 3:56 PM, Steve Karnowski, 4722K] reports President Donald Trump seemed to signal a willingness to ease tensions in Minneapolis after a second deadly shooting by federal immigration agents, but there was little evidence Wednesday of any significant changes following weeks of harsh rhetoric and clashes with protesters. The strain was evident when Trump made a leadership change by sending his top border adviser to Minnesota to take charge of the immigration crackdown. That was followed by seemingly conciliatory remarks about the Democratic governor and mayor. Trump said he and Gov. Tim Walz, whom he criticized for weeks, were on “a similar wavelength” following a phone call. After a conversation with Mayor Jacob Frey, the president praised the discussion and declared that “lots of progress is being made.” But on city streets, there were few signs of a shift. Immigration enforcement operations and confrontations with activists continued Wednesday in Minneapolis and St. Paul. A group of protesters blew whistles and pointed out federal officers in a vehicle on a north Minneapolis street. When the officers’ vehicle moved, a small convoy of activists followed in their cars for a few blocks until the officers stopped again. Associated Press journalists were in the neighborhood covering the enforcement actions. When the journalists got out of their car to document the encounter, officers with the federal Bureau of Prisons pushed one of them, threatened them with arrest and told them to get back in their car despite the reporters’ identifying themselves as media. Officers from multiple federal agencies have been involved in the enforcement operations. From their car, the AP journalists saw at least one person being pepper sprayed and one detained, though it was unclear if that person was the target of the operation or a protester. Agents also broke car windows. Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is visiting Minnesota, said 16 people were arrested Wednesday on charges of assaulting, resisting or impeding law enforcement in the state. She said more arrests were expected. “NOTHING will stop President Trump and this Department of Justice from enforcing the law,” Bondi said in a social media post. Messages seeking comment were left with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol.

Washington Examiner [1/28/2026 10:35 AM, David Zimmermann, 1394K] reports President Donald Trump on Wednesday warned that Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey is walking on thin ice for refusing to enforce federal immigration laws. Recounting his conversation with White House border czar Tom Homan on Tuesday, Frey said, “Minneapolis does not and will not enforce federal immigration laws.” Trump took aim at the Democratic mayor over the statement despite having had a "very good conversation with him" this week. "Could somebody in his inner sanctum please explain that this statement is a very serious violation of the Law, and that he is PLAYING WITH FIRE!" the president posted on Truth Social Wednesday morning. Frey fired back at the president in a post on X. "The job of our police is to keep people safe, not enforce fed immigration laws," he said. "I want them preventing homicides, not hunting down a working dad who contributes to MPLS & is from Ecuador.". He added, "It’s similar to the policy your guy [former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani] had in NYC. Everyone should feel safe calling 911.". Vice President JD Vance responded in a post, "How about federal law enforcement. Should they feel safe calling 911? Right now, they don’t, because you’ve told your police officers not to help them.". Trump dispatched Homan to Minnesota on Monday to speak with Frey and Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) about the out-of-control situation in the state between local protesters and federal immigration enforcement. A day later, Homan said the meeting with state officials was "productive.". Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem is facing resignation calls from many Democrats and some Republicans over the two high-profile shootings precipitated by the state’s massive immigration enforcement operation. Impeachment was floated by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) as an alternative possibility.

FOX Business [1/28/2026 7:35 PM, Staff, 10085K] reports DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin discusses Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey’s refusal to enforce federal immigration laws and more on ‘Varney & Co.’ [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

New York Post [1/28/2026 6:00 AM, Reuven Fenton and Anthony Blair, 42219K] reports the head of a major Twin Cities police union slammed local officials for blocking cooperation between local cops and ICE and Border Patrol agents – saying if they had been involved, "there would be no loss of life." It comes as Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz agreed to have his top cop work with President Trump’s border czar Tom Homan after he rushed to Minneapolis Monday — after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was sidelined. St. Paul Police Federation President Mark Ross blamed state and local officials for the anti-ICE protest violence — saying that if highly trained cops were allowed to work with the feds, it likely would have prevented the killing of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. "Since the Republican National Convention was held in St. Paul back in 2008, Minnesota law enforcement has undergone extensive training in mobile field force configurations and crowd management for major events. And because of that, I think we’re in the best position to deal with that," Ross said. "Unfortunately, our local politicians would not allow us to do that," he added. As a result ICE and Border Patrol agents — who are not trained to deal with civilian protests in the same way — have been all on their own to deal with angry locals. He said that such cooperation didn’t even require changing Minnesota’s sanctuary laws — or helping ICE make immigration arrests. "Had we been allowed just a little bit of coordination – not in terms of what ICE is doing, but if they say, ‘Hey, we need to go to this place to serve a warrant, we’re going to be out there a couple hours. We’re nervous that crowds are going to form and give us trouble. Can you come out and help?’ That’s something we can easily coordinate with a little bit of notice, and sometimes with hardly any notice, we can get out there quickly," Ross said. "I believe, had we been able to do that, that there would be no loss of life at this point," he said.

AP [1/28/2026 6:23 PM, Steven Sloan, 1538K] reports Elizabeth Kautz says she now carries her passport around the Minneapolis suburb where she’s been the mayor since 1995. “Those ICE agents don’t know that I’m the mayor of the city of Burnsville,” Kautz, a Republican who has occasionally diverted from the Trump administration’s views, said Wednesday as the United States Conference of Mayors opened its meeting in Washington. “I could be coming out of a store and be harassed so I need to make sure that I have credentials on me.” Her comments reflected a sense of frustration and exasperation hanging over the gathering of mayors, which would typically be a venue for leaders to strategize over issues ranging from affordable housing and transit to climate change and addressing urban violence. But much of that was overshadowed by the fallout from the killing of Alex Jeffrey Pretti by two federal agents in Minneapolis on Saturday, reigniting a national debate over the Trump administration’s aggressive law enforcement tactics, which have often focused on cities. “There has been no more urgent challenge facing all Americans these past few weeks than the chaos in Minnesota stemming from an unprecedented surge in immigration enforcement,” said Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt, a Republican who is the conference’s president this year. Multiple mayors said they appreciated President Donald Trump’s nod this week toward deescalating the federal government’s operation in Minnesota, adding that they agreed with the administration’s goal of deporting undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes. But they also described a dynamic in which they’re facing pressure from constituents to evict federal agents from their cities — something they can’t do — while struggling to align with federal counterparts. The surge has had a notable impact even in cities that haven’t faced the brunt of the federal government’s pressure like Minneapolis.

NewsMax [1/28/2026 10:39 AM, Eric Mack, 4109K] reports Minneapolis Democrat Mayor Jacob Frey’s defiance of President Donald Trump’s calls for Frey’s sanctuary city to "enforce federal immigration laws" drew a rebuke Wednesday morning. "Surprisingly, Mayor Jacob Frey just stated that, ‘Minneapolis does not, and will not, enforce Federal Immigration Laws,’" Trump wrote on Truth Social. "This is after having had a very good conversation with him. "Could somebody in his inner sanctum please explain that this statement is a very serious violation of the Law, and that he is PLAYING WITH FIRE!" Trump’s rebuke came one day after Frey posted on X rejecting some terms discussed with border czar Tom Homan during calls with state and city leaders about Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations. "I also made it clear that Minneapolis does not and will not enforce federal immigration laws, and that we will remain focused on keeping our neighbors and streets safe," Frey concluded in a three-post X thread Tuesday night. "City leaders will continue to stay in conversation with Mr. Homan and his team." Frey initially struck a conciliatory tone before reiterating his support for the city’s sanctuary policies.

New York Post [1/28/2026 6:55 PM, Emily Goodin, 42219K] reports the fallout over the Minnesota immigration crackdown has reached the blame-game stage — and everyone involved is trying to pass the buck. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is claiming that her controversial decision to label the two Minneapolis residents killed by federal immigration agents as "domestic terrorists" came straight from Stephen Miller. Deputy White House chief of staff Miller, meanwhile, suggested the Border Patrol agents involved in the killing of Alex Pretti were not following protocols. He also blamed his own controversial statements on intel he got from Customs and Border Patrol brass on the ground in Minneapolis. President Trump, meanwhile, is standing by his officials, and he blasted two Republican senators who called for Noem to lose her job. Democrats, meanwhile, are trying to stoke the flames by calling for Miller’s firing. The White House said the team is solid and on the same page. "The President’s entire immigration enforcement team are on the same page. They are working together seamlessly to implement the President’s agenda, protect the American people, and deport criminal illegal aliens," spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told The Post. No one appears to be in imminent danger of losing their jobs, allies close to the White House say. However, it’s rare for this kind of internal conflict to become public in the second term. "That’s why this instance is more interesting, because normally you don’t see people arguing with each other. There’s generally consensus, or generally everyone’s getting along with one another, until, you know, this incident," David Urban, a former Trump campaign adviser, told The Post. But the cleanup continues. Attorney General Pam Bondi was in Minnesota on Wednesday to aid border czar Tom Homan in handling the situation on the ground. While Homan has met with state leaders, Bondi was there to defend federal agents and arrest protesters. "Federal agents have arrested 16 Minnesota rioters for allegedly assaulting federal law enforcement — people who have been resisting and impeding our federal law enforcement agents," she announced on social media. "We expect more arrests to come.". "[T]he White House provided clear guidance to [the Department of Homeland Security] that the extra personnel that had been sent to Minnesota for force protection should be used for conducting fugitive operations to create a physical barrier between the arrest teams and the disruptors," Miller told The Post in a statement. "We are evaluating why the [Customs and Border Protection] team may not have been following that protocol.". The Department of Homeland Security also blamed "chaos" on the ground. "Initial statements were made after reports from CBP on the ground," spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told Fox’s Stuart Varney on Wednesday. "It was a very chaotic scene. We know that our ICE law enforcement are facing rampant threats against them.".

New York Times [1/28/2026 8:25 PM, Mitch Smith, 135475K] reports lawyers for the Trump administration told a federal judge on Wednesday that the surge of federal agents in Minnesota was a legitimate exercise of law enforcement power, not an illegal attempt to coerce policy changes. In a court filing, the administration again urged the judge to deny a request from state and city officials to block the deployment, which has led to thousands of arrests, three shootings and weeks of protests. The Minnesota officials have argued that the surge is a violation of state sovereignty under the 10th Amendment. “The point — and the only point relevant for purposes of the 10th Amendment — is that federal law enforcement officers are in Minnesota enforcing validly enacted federal law,” the Trump administration’s lawyers wrote in their filing. The federal government spoke dismissively of the legal theories put forward by the state government and the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, whose lawyers have described the deployment of 3,000 federal agents to Minnesota as unconstitutional and dangerous. Brian Carter, a lawyer for the state, said in court on Monday that “it is personal animosity, it is retribution” that was motivating the Trump administration’s campaign in Minnesota. He also accused the administration of trying to strong-arm the state into changing policies that limit cooperation on civil immigration enforcement. “The federal government is attempting to bend the state’s will to its own,” Mr. Carter said, “and that is not allowed under the Constitution.” After that hearing, Judge Kate M. Menendez of the Federal District Court in Minnesota asked the Trump administration to more fully respond to the coercion claims before she ruled on the request to block the deployment, which the federal government has named Operation Metro Surge. “Assuming plaintiffs are correct that the 10th Amendment provides them with the freedom to enact their sanctuary policies,” the Trump administration’s lawyers wrote, “then more federal officers may be needed in Minnesota to fill the gap. This is a natural consequence of plaintiffs’ policy decisions, not a punishment for them.”

AP [1/29/2026 12:02 AM, Tim Sullivan, 31753K] reports that, if there’s been a soundtrack to life in Minneapolis in recent weeks, it’s the shrieking whistles and honking horns of thousands of people following immigration agents across the city. They are the ever-moving shadow of the Trump administration’s Operation Metro Surge. They are teachers, scientists and stay-at-home parents. They own small businesses and wait tables. Their network is sprawling, often anonymous and with few overall objectives beyond helping immigrants, warning of approaching agents or filming videos to show the world what is happening. And it’s clear they will continue despite the White House striking a more conciliatory tone after the weekend killing of Alex Pretti, including the transfer of Gregory Bovino, the senior Border Patrol official who was the public face of the immigration crackdown. "I think that everyone slept a little better knowing that Bovino had been kicked out of Minneapolis," said Andrew Fahlstrom, who helps run Defend the 612, a hub for volunteer networks. "But I don’t think the threat that we’re under will change because they change out the local puppets.” What started with scattered arrests in December ramped up dramatically in early January, when a top ICE official announced the "largest immigration operation ever.” Masked, heavily armed agents traveling in convoys of unmarked SUVs became commonplace in some neighborhoods. By this week, more than 3,400 people had been arrested, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. At least 2,000 ICE officers and 1,000 Border patrols officers were on the ground. Administration officials insist they are focusing on criminals in the U.S. illegally, but the reality in the streets has been far more aggressive. Agents have stopped people, seemingly randomly, to demand citizenship papers, including off-duty Latino and Black police officers and city workers, area officials say. They smashed through the front door of a Liberian man and detained him without a proper warrant, even though he’d been checking in regularly with immigration officials. They have detained children along with their parents and used tear gas outside a high school in an altercation with protesters after detaining someone. To be sure, federal agents are barely a presence in many areas, and most people have never smelled a whiff of tear gas. But the crackdown rippled quickly through immigrant-heavy neighborhoods. Patients are avoiding life-saving medical care, doctors said. Thousands of immigrant children are staying home. Immigrant businesses shut down, cut their hours or kept their doors locked to everyone but regular customers.

AP [1/28/2026 11:33 AM, Staff, 19051K] reports a group of local prosecutors concerned about recent immigration enforcement operations launched a project Wednesday to strategize and seek accountability for what they consider federal overreach and unconstitutional behavior. The program is called Fight Against Federal Overreach, a tongue-in-cheek reference to an obscene acronym that is popular in memes and has been used by members of the Trump administration to taunt opponents. Officials in Minnesota, along with criminal justice experts and former federal prosecutors, are increasingly critical of the federal response to the aggressive tactics being used by immigration officers in Minneapolis and the surrounding area. The killing of two civilians by federal officers, including the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti on Saturday, has drawn increasing criticism from public officials, including Republicans, and massive protests. Larry Krasner, Philadelphia District Attorney and one of the founding members of the group, said he’s never before seen the law enforcement tactics and attitude recently apparent in U.S. cities. He said the officers who conceal their faces and badge numbers are unprofessional and that they have been given bad orders from authorities with a poor understanding of the law. He cited a declaration by Vice President JD Vance that the officers have immunity from prosecution for any of their actions. “A functional Department of Justice, gone. Functional United States attorneys offices applying the law in an even handed way, gone. Good, qualified officials within those organizations, they’re retiring, resigning or leaving,” Krasner said. “It used to be, you could rely on the federal government to rein in rogue sheriffs who are killing people on the side of the road ... but now the federal government are the rogue sheriffs.” Local officials must fill the gap where federal authorities are failing, partly because there’s no federal pardon power for state level convictions, he said.

CBS Chicago [1/28/2026 4:33 PM, Adam Harrington and Beth Godvik, 39474K] reports Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson headed to Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to speak at the National Press Club luncheon. The mayor talked about the challenges of leading Chicago this past year, and what city officials learned about resisting federal overreach and responding to federal immigration raids in the city. The topics the mayor addressed included public safety, cuts to federal funding, and what the mayor called "defending civil liberties in the midst of militarized immigration enforcement." Johnson listed the actions Chicago took in response to federal actions in Chicago, from formal legal action to "know your rights" education efforts. "By the time [Border Czar] Tom Homan came to Chicago, he complained that Chicagoans were, and I quote, ‘too well educated on their rights for ICE to be effective.’" But the mayor said informing people of their rights was insufficient, and "concrete actions" were required. With that in mind, his office enacted a series of "Protecting Chicago" executive orders — one setting out guidance for city departments in the event of a deployment of federal troops or agents, another establishing a right to protest and setting guidelines for how local law enforcement would handle protests, and a third establishing "ICE-free zones, essentially prohibiting ICE and Border Patrol from staging on city properties and entering city properties without a judicial warrant." Such an "ICE-free zone" order had not been enacted anywhere else in the country, the mayor said. "I’m obviously very much still concerned about the private, masked, terrorizing police force that the Trump administration continues to sic on working people across this country," said Mayor Johnson said Tuesday ahead of the visit to D.C. "It’s why I’ve used every single tool available that’s available to me, and many mayors have looked to those tools that we’ve used, whether it’s through the ICE-free zones, and even the litigation around ICE-free zones, so that we can strengthen and codify our ability to enforce it." Mayor Johnson said the next step has to be "real organized resistance, as what we saw organized and prepared during the Civil Rights Movement." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Chicago Tribune [1/28/2026 6:41 PM, Daniel C. Vock, 4829K] reports at a speech just blocks from the White House Wednesday, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said he would prepare the city for the future prosecution of Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino for creating “chaos” during the Trump administration’s surge of immigration agents in Chicago last year. Bovino, who was the public face of Operation Midway Blitz, became a symbol of the incursion that led to the detention of 4,500 people in the Chicago area. As one of the few unmasked agents in the operation, Bovino chided area Democratic elected officials, angered a federal judge for his over-the-top tactics and threw tear gas canisters at protesters while cameras recorded him. Bovino also became a fixture in the federal action in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area this month, before President Donald Trump sidelined him this week following the shooting deaths of two civilians at the hands of federal agents. “It’s unfortunate,” Johnson said, “that it will take time for people to understand what a nasty individual he is.” “Whether it’s litigation, whether it’s press conferences or whether it’s legislation, the next step that we’re going to have to try — and I’m committed to doing this — is how to set up a pathway for someone like Gregory Bovino to be prosecuted,” the Democratic mayor said at a National Press Club luncheon. “Their behavior is hypocritical and contradictory to their rhetoric,” Johnson said. “How do you call for law and order while at the same time literally ignoring the rule of law, creating more chaos than this country has seen in a generation? And so yes, prosecution has to be the next step for full accountability.” Johnson also rebutted Republican complaints, often heard on Capitol Hill, that Trump is sending Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents into U.S. cities to enforce immigration laws that the Biden administration did not enforce aggressively enough. The mayor recounted the tactics of ICE and the Border Patrol in Chicago, including putting a man, who was a legal resident, in a chokehold on the West Side and storming a South Shore apartment building in the middle of the night with the aid of a Black Hawk helicopter. “That’s not enforcement, that’s terror. Both parties know there is a broken immigration system. But there’s one party that doesn’t want to fix the broken immigration system,” Johnson said, implying that Republicans are blocking reforms. He urged officials in other cities to take steps to limit federal overreach. Johnson argued a Chicago policy barring ICE and Border Patrol agents from using city property for their deployments sent a message to residents that the city objected to the federal actions. It also inspired private businesses to adopt similar policies, he said.

Wall Street Journal [1/28/2026 9:00 PM, Joshua Chaffin and Michelle Hackman, 646K] reports for six months, Gregory Bovino was the tip of the Trump administration’s deportation spear, a spiky-haired Border Patrol agent from the John Wayne school of law-and-order who commanded the rolling immigration raids in Los Angeles, Chicago and other Democratic-run cities that netted thousands of arrests. They also prompted public backlash and complaints from terrified immigrant communities. On Monday, nearly a month into Bovino’s Minneapolis campaign, he was pulled from the field less than 48 hours after referring to border agents who killed a 37-year-old nurse as “victims.” “Operation Metro Surge” was supposed to be Bovino’s most ambitious mission yet, a new kind of urban takeover by federal law enforcement. Instead, it descended into scenes of tear gas, pepper spray and civil unrest on the streets of a proudly progressive Midwestern city. It culminated on Saturday with the shooting death of Alex Pretti that shook much of the nation. It has also provoked a clash in the White House over the future of President Trump’s signature policy. With Bovino’s removal, some are anticipating an end to the maximalist enforcement strategy he championed alongside his boss, Kristi Noem, the Department of Homeland Security chief. Rather than targeted raids on known criminals, they favored a wide net and aggressive tactics to catch and deport as many immigrants in the country illegally as possible. Minneapolitans cheered the departure of a man some top Democrats described as a “cartoon villain.” One indelible image of Metro Surge was of Bovino, emerging from an SUV into a wintry melee, like a general stepping onto a battlefield, and launching a canister that released green smoke at protesters. Bovino didn’t respond to a request to be interviewed for this story. Tricia McLaughlin, a DHS spokeswoman, said Bovino would remain with the government, and called him “a key part of the President’s team and a great American.” Trump said on Fox News on Tuesday, “Bovino is very good, but he’s a pretty out-there kind of a guy, and in some cases, that’s good, maybe it wasn’t good here.”

The Wall Street Journal [1/28/2026 5:26 PM, Lindsay Wise, Anvee Bhutani, and Siobhan Hughes, 646K] reports Senate Democrats publicly laid out their demands for an overhaul of immigration enforcement—including mandating the use of body cameras and ending roving patrols—days ahead of a deadline to pass a $1.3 trillion package of spending bills that would avert a partial government shutdown. Democrats say they are willing to provide the votes needed to pass five of the six bills included in the package, thereby funding most of the federal government, but only if Republicans agree to rework the one funding the Department of Homeland Security and enshrine the new restrictions into law. While some Republicans have expressed interest in new guardrails for immigration agents and breaking off the DHS bill, GOP leaders warn it would be hard to pass any changes quickly. In a press conference Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) said his colleagues had united around three objectives, seen as a critical step in talks with the White House and congressional Republicans. Funding expires at 12:01 a.m. Saturday. “Our caucus is passionate about this,” Schumer said. “The federal government is supporting a large force of thuggery, and we really worry about its consequences for America if we don’t rein them in.” First, he said, Democrats want to end roving patrols, tighten the rules governing warrants, and require that Immigration and Customs Enforcement coordinate with state and local law enforcement. Second, federal agents should be held to the same use-of-force policies that apply to other police forces and be held accountable for violations, including through independent investigations, Schumer said. Finally, federal agents must be prohibited from wearing masks and required to use body cameras and carry proper identification, he said. “No more anonymous agents, no more secret operators,” Schumer said. Democrats are refusing to advance the DHS bill without revisions—even at the risk of another shutdown after last year’s record-setting funding lapse—in the wake of the deadly shooting Saturday of 37-year-old Alex Pretti by U.S. Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis. Pretti’s death was the second fatal shooting by federal immigration agents this month in the city. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R., S.D.) and Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R., Maine) have said they would prefer to bring all six bills for a vote together. But at Thune’s weekly press conference on Wednesday, he didn’t rule out the possibility that senators could pass the five other bills alongside a stopgap bill to fund DHS while negotiations continue. CBS News [1/28/2026 3:53 PM, Kaia Hubbard, 39474K] reports Congress has passed six of 12 funding measures so far, and with funding set to expire Saturday, the Senate was poised this week to approve the remaining six bills — including a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security — after they were sent over from the House as one package. But the deadly shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis last weekend, amid the ongoing immigration crackdown in Minnesota, prompted widespread scrutiny among Democrats, who pledged to oppose the funding package as it stands. Democrats have advocated for stripping the bill funding DHS, which oversees ICE and Customs and Border Protection, from the broader funding package. They argue that the bulk of the package would receive widespread support, while the DHS bill could be renegotiated. But any changes to the package would require the House’s approval. And the lower chamber isn’t set to return to Washington until Monday — after the funding is set to expire. After a lengthy Democratic lunch meeting Wednesday, Schumer outlined his caucus’ demands, which he said include ending roving patrols — tightening rules governing the use of warrants and requiring ICE coordination with state and local law enforcement. He said Democrats also want to enforce accountability, demanding a uniform code of conduct and accountability to hold federal agents to the same use-of-force policies as state and local law enforcement. Finally, Schumer said Democrats want a "masks off, body cameras on" policy for federal agents. Schumer said the demands represent policy areas that Democrats believe must be addressed. But he indicated that they’re willing to negotiate with Republicans on a proposal. The New York Times [1/28/2026 7:46 PM, Carl Hulse and Catie Edmondson, 135475K] reports Mr. Schumer said after a closed-door meeting in which Senate Democrats hashed out their demands before making them public. “These are common sense reforms, ones that Americans know and expect from law enforcement. If Republicans refuse to support them, they are choosing chaos over order.” He laid out the demands the day before the Senate was scheduled on Thursday to take its first procedural vote on a spending package that includes funding for the Department of Homeland Security, as well as for the Pentagon, State Department and Treasury. If Republicans cannot muster 60 votes to advance the legislation — which would require the support of at least seven Democrats — it will stall, with little more than 24 hours to go before the shutdown deadline. Mr. Schumer urged Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota and the majority leader, to separate the measure funding the Department of Homeland Security from a six-bill spending package for much of the rest of the government to allow lawmakers time to rework it before the deadline. He pledged that Democrats would support the other five bills, which also include money for health, education, labor and transportation programs, and keep much of the government operating while an agreement is worked out on immigration enforcement policy. Mr. Thune has so far resisted that approach, even though many Republicans have begun to express unease about Mr. Trump’s immigration crackdown and some have expressed a willingness to break off the homeland funding from the underlying bill. Citing the difficulty of rapidly moving new legislation, Republicans have instead urged Democrats to reach an agreement with the White House on new policies rather than try to put them into law. Democrats have balked at that idea, saying they do not trust the Trump administration to follow through once the funding has been approved. Mr. Thune reiterated on Wednesday that his preference would be to keep the broader spending package unchanged. “If the bill changes much from what the House already passed, then you’ve got another steep hill to climb over there,” he told reporters, acknowledging “the narrow margins in the House and the Senate.”

Reported similarly:
Bloomberg [1/28/2026 3:09 PM, Erik Wasson and Steven T. Dennis, 18207K]
Reuters [1/28/2026 6:31 PM, Richard Cowan and David Morgan, 36480K]
CNN [1/28/2026 5:34 PM, Lauren Fox, Sarah Ferris, Alayna Treene, 18595K]
FOX News [1/28/2026 4:07 PM, Alex Miller, 40621K]
Daily Caller [1/28/2026 6:11 PM, Andi Shae Napier, 835K] r

Roll Call [1/28/2026 12:25 PM, Staff, 548K] reports the White House promptly rejected a Senate Democratic proposal for restraints on federal immigration agents Wednesday, saying those talks should occur on a separate track from negotiations on a $1.3 trillion fiscal 2026 spending package hung up in the Senate. The administration’s stance throws a wrench into bipartisan talks to try to get the huge appropriations bill unstuck before Friday night’s deadline when stopgap funding for several Cabinet departments, including Homeland Security, runs out. "The White House is committed to avoiding a shutdown, and to productive dialogue with the Congress," a White House official said Wednesday afternoon. "A demand for agreement on legislative reforms as a condition of funding the Department of Homeland Security with a government funding deadline just 48 hours away is a demand for a partial government shutdown.". After his caucus’s Wednesday policy lunch, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., said his party has coalesced around three demands: Further restrictions on federal agent patrols, including tighter warrant requirements and collaboration with state and local law enforcement. Accountability through a uniform code of conduct and review including independent investigations. A ban on masked agents that also requires officers to carry identification and wear body cameras. "Congress has the authority and the moral obligation to act," Schumer said at a news conference where he announced Democrats’ policy priorities. "What’s missing is Republican will to act.".

The Hill [1/28/2026 4:25 PM, Alexander Bolton, 12595K] reports a group of Republican senators is open to splitting the Homeland Security appropriations measure off from a six-bill government funding package that needs to pass by Friday to avoid a partial government shutdown that would affect the Pentagon and other major departments. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said “a bunch” of Republican senators would be willing to set aside the Homeland Security appropriations bill in hopes of saving five other appropriations bills covering the departments of Defense, Health and Human Services, Labor, Education, Transportation, State and financial services-related agencies. A senior Republican senator who requested anonymity to discuss the standoff over funding said Senate Republicans would prefer to move all six spending bills as one package but would probably agree to leave the Homeland Security funding measure behind if Democrats dig in their heels. But the Senate Republican leader didn’t rule out the possibility of moving five of the appropriations bills along with a continuing resolution to cover the Department of Homeland Security if Democrats block the six-bill package Thursday.

New York Times [1/28/2026 5:08 PM, Michael Gold, 135475K] reports when Republicans muscled President Trump’s signature domestic policy bill through Congress last year, they gave a windfall to the Department of Homeland Security — including for Immigration and Customs Enforcement — with effectively no strings attached. Republicans allocated a total of $190 billion over four years, including $75 billion for ICE alone, making it the highest-funded federal law enforcement agency. At the time, Democrats warned that the money would supercharge the department without any checks on its operations. But Republicans used a special maneuver to shield the measure from a filibuster and get it to Mr. Trump’s desk on a simple majority vote, leaving Democrats powerless to block it. Now, in the middle of an aggressive immigration crackdown that has resulted in the deaths of two American citizens, Democrats are trying to exert their limited leverage. Facing a government funding deadline on Friday, they are seeking to use annual spending bills, which require congressional approval, to add at least some restrictions to the blank check the Republican Congress delivered to ICE last year. Senate Democrats are threatening not to vote for a spending package needed to fund the government past Friday, which would result in a partial shutdown starting on Saturday, unless Republicans agree to add limitations on funding for the Department of Homeland Security to constrain its immigration enforcement operations. They cannot act alone. Making any changes to the spending measure would require buy-in from Republicans, whose votes would be needed to scale procedural hurdles in the Senate and push a revised bill back through the House. After the two shootings this month in Minneapolis, there are signs that at least some Republicans have grown uncomfortable with the slush fund that a majority of them approved and are open to discussing new guardrails.

CNN [1/28/2026 6:09 PM, Tami Luhby, 606K] reports the federal government is on the verge of partially shutting down, with Senate Republicans and Democrats at an impasse over funding the Department of Homeland Security after the recent fatal shooting of a US citizen during a protest in Minneapolis. It would come less than three months after a record-long, full government shutdown ended. Now, federal funding for many — but not all — government agencies is set to run out after January 30, which would force them to shut down if lawmakers don’t reach an agreement. Several agencies, including the departments of Agriculture, Veterans Affairs, Interior, Energy, Justice and Commerce, will not be affected since Congress has passed legislation fully funding them for the rest of the fiscal year. Still, even a partial government shutdown could cause a lot of pain. Travelers could face delays at airports; many federal workers could miss paychecks, and people may not be able to obtain certain federal loans to buy homes or operate small businesses. Although Republicans control Capitol Hill and the White House, they need at least seven Democrats in the Senate to join them to pass a spending package under the chamber’s rules. The House last week approved legislation to fund the government for the rest of the fiscal year. But Senate Democrats are now vowing to block the House-passed bill unless several reforms are made to DHS or unless DHS funding is spun off separately — changes that would require another vote in the House. Senate Republicans, however, want to avoid amending the spending bill and hope that the Trump administration’s recent actions to calm tensions between DHS and Minnesota could stave off a shutdown. On the other hand, nearly all DHS personnel will continue working. Most employees in Customs and Border Patrol will be retained, as well as those who work for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Transportation Security Administration, the Secret Service, Citizenship and Immigration Services and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Breitbart [1/28/2026 5:42 AM, Neil Munro, 2416K] reports Senate Democrats are using the uproar over the Antifa-style resistance in Minneapolis to push a bureaucratic amnesty into the pending legislation that funds the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Multiple GOP Senators are walking in lockstep with Democrats by urging President Donald Trump to deport only violent migrants. The "criminal migrant" plan would allow business donors to sideline millions of Americans while hiring millions of non-violent, low-wage, illegal-migrant workers. Politico reported that Democrats will refuse to fund the agency’s annual bill unless the GOP agrees to cripple ICE enforcement with a series of bureaucratic curbs on deportations: Those include requiring judicial [judge-signed] warrants for immigration arrests, overruling a recently disclosed ICE memo asserting they are not required. Other potential Democratic amendments would mandate federal agents identify themselves, require DHS to cooperate with state and local investigations and limit the "mission creep of federal agencies." "My options are to do nothing or to recognize that two U.S. citizens were recently … executed by federal agents," Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) told reporters Monday. "We need to at least bring some level of pressure on DHS or on our Republican colleagues to explain to the American public why we are going to continue funding this without any changes." The Democrats’ rules would subordinate the federal ICE agency to the Democratic Party bosses, despite growing evidence that the Democrats’ political machines in major cities gain from large-scale embezzlement of federal welfare funding.

Roll Call [1/28/2026 6:22 PM, Mary Ellen McIntire and Daniela Altimari, 548K] reports the fallout from the fatal weekend shooting of Alex Pretti by federal immigration agents in Minnesota is reverberating in Senate races around the country. Democratic candidates in contested primaries have called for abolishing or overhauling the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and the resignation or impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, while Republican Senate hopefuls seeking President Donald Trump’s support have largely backed his policies. Protests over the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operations have erupted around the nation, with polling pointing to growing support for abolishing ICE and rising disapproval of the president’s handling of immigration. The backlash has also jeopardized the effort to fund the government by Friday night, with Senate Democrats demanding new restrictions on the administration. The debate hits closest to home in Minnesota, where Pretti’s death marked the second killing this month of a U.S. citizen by a federal immigration agent. Rep. Angie Craig and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan have been locked in an increasingly tense Democratic primary in the race to succeed retiring Sen. Tina Smith. While Craig has pitched herself as a Democrat who’s won tough races in a swing district, Flanagan is running to her left. She has criticized the congresswoman’s 2025 vote for a measure known as the Laken Riley Act, which targeted undocumented immigrants who commit crimes in the U.S. Craig has pushed back on those attacks and stressed her support for impeaching Noem. Illinois Rep. Robin Kelly, who is running for the deep-blue state’s open Senate seat, introduced articles of impeachment against Noem earlier this month, and her office announced Tuesday that more than three-fourths of House Democrats have signed on as co-sponsors. They include Craig and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, one of Kelly’s rivals for the Democratic nomination. ICE was a focal point of a Senate debate in Illinois this week that also included Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton. All three expressed opposition to the Trump administration’s handling of the agency, to varying degrees. Stratton said the agency should be abolished and "cannot be reformed." Krishnamoorthi, who highlighted his own status as an immigrant, said he believed "we have to abolish Trump’s ICE" and called for a slate of legislative reforms for the agency, while Kelly called for building "an agency that people can trust," saying the Department of Homeland Security has gotten too big. In Maine, where a recent increase in ICE presence has led to the arrest of more than 200 people, Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, who is challenging GOP Sen. Susan Collins, addressed the presence of federal agents in a speech to state lawmakers Tuesday. "Tonight, I say to the people of Maine: We will not be intimidated. We will not be silenced," Mills said. "And to anyone outside these halls, including any federal officials, I say: If you seek to harm Maine people, you will have to go through me first.” Mills’ leading opponent in the Democratic primary, oyster farmer Graham Platner, has criticized her over a delay in the enactment of state legislation that limits local law enforcement’s collaboration with federal immigration officials. As the measure, which Mills called "imperfect," became law without her signature, it won’t take effect until the current legislative session ends. "It does us no help currently. It won’t even be able to actually be enforced for several more months," Platner said.

Roll Call [1/28/2026 6:47 PM, Chris Johnson, 548K] reports Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem already had weathered missteps in the past year pressing the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement policy and changes to federal disaster relief — and then came her response to immigration agents fatally shooting two Minnesotans. The former South Dakota governor claimed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive-care-unit nurse, attacked immigration officers and was "brandishing" a gun, two claims that appear to have no evidence and to even be refuted by multiple videos of the shooting, and helped fuel concerns about escalating clashes with the public. Now Noem is in the middle of blowback from Congress and the public about the Department of Homeland Security approach to public safety, which has reignited a debate over DHS funding and sparked calls for her to lose her job. On Monday, Trump held a two-hour meeting with Noem about her response to the Pretti shooting. On Tuesday, the president sent "border czar" Tom Homan to Minnesota and sent U.S. Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino out of the state, moves widely seen as sidelining Noem from the operation. But Trump defended Noem the same day, pointing to a secure U.S.-Mexico border. "We have a very good relationship," Trump told reporters. Some Senate Republicans have backed Noem as well. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., told reporters on Tuesday that Noem has done a "very good job in her capacity," and referred to the shooting of Pretti as a "tough situation.” "It’s hard to watch that video and not see that you need a thorough investigation on what the facts are," Daines said. But calls for Noem’s resignation or her removal include those from Sen. Lisa Murkowksi, R-Alaska, and Sen. Thom Tills, R-N.C., who said in an interview with reporters that Noem’s approach to her job has undercut Republicans on immigration and disaster aid issues they should be winning with the public. "I think if Noem looks at her body of work, if I were in her position, I can’t think of any point of pride over the last year," Tillis said. "She’s got to make her own decision, or the president does, but she has taken this administration into the ground on an issue that we should own.” Tillis also looped White House adviser Stephen Miller into his criticism. "We should own the issue of border security and immigration, but they have destroyed that for Republicans, something that got the president elected," Tillis said. "They have destroyed it through their incompetence.” Murkowski, a member of the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, said Wednesday she agrees with Tillis’ assessment. "If you were to look at the success that this administration has seen on the southern border, in really not only choking off but really stopping the flow of illegal immigration across the border — resounding win, resounding win," Murkowski said. "And instead, the focus has not been on the successes, but really on what people are seeing every single day with repeat views of videos the shooting, shootings in Minnesota, and the very, very aggressive tactics that they’re seeing deployed there in that city, and all of the good, all of the focus that had been demonstrated on the southern border is just lost," Murkowski said.

The Hill [1/28/2026 9:56 AM, Ashleigh Fields, 12595K] reports Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) on Tuesday said it was “absolutely outrageous” for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to still have a job after two fatal shootings in Minnesota involving immigration authorities. Both Democrats and Republicans have called on President Trump to fire Noem for backing immigration officials who shot and killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti, calling each a “domestic terrorist,” ahead of an investigation. “It’s insane. And I appreciate all the news media here telling it and tell the rest of the country, ‘Stand with us on this.’ This is a stand we have to hold on. They have to leave here,” Walz said during a Tuesday appearance on CNN’s “AC360.” “They have to bring these folks to justice. And there has to be some accountability to the top levels. Kristi Noem still having a job today is absolutely outrageous,” he added. Amid the clamor, the president has defended Noem for her work at the border. “I think she’s doing a very good job. The border is totally secure. You know, you forget we had a border that I inherited where millions of people were coming through. Now we have a border where no one is coming through. They come into our country only legally,” Trump told reporters Tuesday. “As soon as you accomplish something, it goes into history and nobody ever wants to talk about it,” he continued.

NewsMax [1/28/2026 11:14 AM, Staff, 4109K] reports Sen. James Lankford said on Newsmax Wednesday that he continues to support Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem amid an investigation into the federal law enforcement-involved shooting death of ICU nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. However, the Oklahoma Republican told Newsmax’s "National Report" that the situation is "unfortunate" and that he backs President Donald Trump’s demand for full investigation. "I still maintain confidence in Kristi Noem and what she’s doing there," Lankford said. "It’s an incredibly complicated, difficult situation for the agents on the ground and for leadership as well.". Lankford, who serves on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said Trump’s public stance on the investigation is the right approach. "I do like President Trump’s statement. He wants an honest and honorable investigation on this," he said. "I think that is one of the best things that we can actually do.". He said the circumstances warrant scrutiny, particularly when a weapon is drawn and discharged. "We’ve had two shootings of Americans with federal law enforcement," Lankford said. "Every time law enforcement pulls a weapon out and actually pulls it out of a holster to be able to stop and say, ‘OK, let’s talk about this,’ what that actually looks like, especially when one is discharged, and then especially on top of that, when someone is killed in the process," he added.

Axios [1/28/2026 6:07 PM, Kate Santaliz, 12972K] reports frustration with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is mounting among House Republicans over her response to the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti. They soon could soon be forced to go on the record about whether they still support Noem if Democrats move to force a vote on impeachment. For vulnerable Republicans, the prospect of an impeachment vote tied to immigration enforcement efforts would be particularly painful. Dozens of House Republicans are publicly pushing for more oversight and answers about Pretti’s shooting. Privately, frustration with Noem has been building for months. Saturday’s killing, and the botched messaging that followed, was a breaking point for some lawmakers, multiple aides told Axios. When President Trump dispatched White House Border Czar Tom Homan to Minnesota on Monday, droves of Republicans went out of their way to praise the move — a subtle rebuke of Noem. While no House Republicans have publicly called for her resignation, Sens. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) called on Noem to resign on Tuesday.

FOX News [1/28/2026 11:57 AM, Marc Tamasco Fox, 40621K] Video: HERE reports House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem being fired is "not enough" for Democrats to back the Republican’s proposed funding bill for the agency, which he referred to as a "killing machine.". During an appearance on "CNN News Central" Wednesday, Jeffries was asked by host Kate Bolduan which specific changes would have to be made to the funding bill for Democrats to get on board, and whether Noem being fired would be enough. "Noem being fired or removed from office is, of course, not enough," Jeffries responded, adding that "it’s a start." Bolduan followed up by again asking Jeffries what changes would be needed for Democrats to support and pass the bill. "First of all, there’s the basic value and principle that taxpayer dollars can’t be used to kill American citizens, to brutalize American communities and to target violently law-abiding—" Jeffries said before being interrupted by Bolduan. Pushing back on the minority leader’s assertion, Bolduan said, "Currently, that’s not a policy that says you can use taxpayer dollars to kill American citizens.". Despite the host’s pushback, Jeffries doubled down on his claim, citing the recent fatal shootings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis as evidence. "That’s clearly what’s happening. We have a DHS killing machine. The American people have seen it. That’s the reality of what happened to Alex Pretti. It’s the reality of what happened to Renee Nicole Good. It’s the reality to the fact that dozens of people have actually died in ICE detention over the last year," he argued. Fox News Digital has reached out to DHS for comment. Senate Democrats have threatened to sink a massive government spending bill — which would impact the Department of War, Department of Transportation, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and other offices — over its provisions on ICE. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Reported similarly:
The Hill [1/28/2026 12:17 PM, Sarah Davis, 12595K]

Daily Caller [1/28/2026 10:47 AM, Nicole Silverio, 835K] reports political analyst Mark Halperin reported on Tuesday that first lady Melania Trump supports Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, making it less likely she would be fired by President Donald Trump. Sources told Halperin that Melania was a close friend of Noem and continues to support her, which likely gives Noem a boost in her hopes of keeping her job following her response to a Border Patrol shooting Saturday in Minneapolis, Halperin said on "2Way Tonight." Noem has faced intense scrutiny for her handling of the fallout in Minnesota and for accusing Alex Pretti, who was shot by a Border Patrol agent, of domestic terrorism before the investigation concluded. "If you want to know why I’m relatively certain that the president is not going to fire Secretary Noem or that she’s going to be forced out, despite a lot of speculation about that, she has the support, I’m told, of a friend of hers who’s very influential with the president," Halperin said. "Her name is Melania Trump. Melania Trump, I’m told, fully supports her friend, Kristi Noem, and the president does too." Noem said during a press conference on Saturday that Pretti "violently resisted" officers as they attempted to disarm him, adding that the agent fired defensive shots while he feared for his life. Police confirmed that Pretti legally carried the handgun with a permit and that the firearm was removed before the agent shot him.

New York Times [1/28/2026 10:14 PM, Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Hamed Aleaziz, 135475K] reports the emerging blame game over the Trump administration’s handling of the deadly shooting by border authorities in Minneapolis this week has exposed the internal jockeying for power within the Homeland Security Department over President Trump’s expansive federal immigration crackdown, and left the department in what current and former officials say is a severe crisis. In the days since federal agents fatally shot a Veterans Affairs nurse, a bellicose Border Patrol agent leading the operation in the city was cast aside. The embattled homeland security secretary scrambled to get face time with Mr. Trump amid calls to step down. And a top White House official who designed Mr. Trump’s immigration agenda said the administration was examining whether border agents had violated protocol. The situation has engulfed the department in turmoil and prompted widespread concern among the rank and file and members of Congress over the future of an agency tasked with protecting the United States from threats at home and abroad. Current and former homeland security officials have already described a growing sense of frustration and disillusionment at the agency leading Mr. Trump’s push to arrest and deport millions of immigrants. “It appears to be chaos,” Deborah Fleischaker, who was the assistant director for policy for ICE during the Biden administration, said of the leadership of the Homeland Security Department. “Immigration has been politicized for a long time. But what we’re seeing is such an escalation of that and such an embrace of power as the ultimate tool.” “The morale inside the department has got to be suffering,” she added. “It’s got to be hurting. They see what’s happening.” None of the top immigration officials appeared at imminent risk of losing their jobs. After Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, met with Mr. Trump for nearly two hours this week, he said she had done a “very good job.” And Stephen Miller, the deputy White House chief of staff who has played an outsize role in shaping and directing the immigration crackdown, remains one of the administration’s more influential figures. Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol chief whose tactics in immigration operations in American cities have garnered lawsuits and protests, was pulled out of Minneapolis. But White House officials maintained he was not at risk of losing his position. The White House has directed Tom Homan, the president’s border czar, to replace Mr. Bovino in Minnesota and meet with local authorities to “de-escalate” the situation in Minneapolis, in Mr. Trump’s words. And amid all the finger-pointing and pushing to overcome the political fallout of the shooting, neither Mr. Trump or any of his advisers have explained why they falsely said the man the agents killed, Alex Pretti, had been brandishing a gun before he was shot, or why administration officials labeled him as a domestic terrorist before any investigation.

The Hill [1/28/2026 12:08 PM, Sophie Brams, 12595K] reports organizers behind the massive “No Kings” demonstrations that swept across the U.S. last year are planning another round of rallies this spring as furor grows over the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens by federal law enforcement authorities. The next day of protests is scheduled for March 28, with a flagship event in Twin Cities, Minn., the center of the Trump administration’s latest immigration crackdown. “In 2025, millions of Americans came together in nonviolent protest to oppose the growing authoritarian actions of the Trump administration and affirm that this nation belongs to its people, not to kings,” a message on the No Kings website stated. “Since then, people have continued to rise up nonviolently against the Trump administration’s ongoing brutality and abuses of power, including the latest escalation in Minnesota,” it continued. Ezra Levin, the co-executive director of the nonprofit Indivisible, told The Associated Press that organizers expect it to be “the largest protest in American history,” predicting that as many as 9 million people would participate. Levin told the outlet that plans for another round of protests had already been in progress, but the deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good this month prompted them to shift focus toward Minneapolis. Pretti, an intensive care nurse, was shot and killed Saturday during what the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) called an “armed struggle” with U.S. Border Patrol agents. Federal authorities said Pretti had approached agents with a gun, but video evidence disputed that narrative, showing Pretti holding a cellphone in his hand when the incident began. It also appeared to show Pretti’s firearm, which he was legally permitted to carry, being removed from his waist by one agent before another fires shots.

Reported similarly:
Washington Examiner [1/28/2026 11:54 AM, David Zimmermann, 1394K]

Bloomberg Law [1/28/2026 6:24 PM, Celine Castronuovo, 803K] reports US Attorney General Pam Bondi announced from Minnesota 16 additional arrests in connection with clashes between protesters and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, the latest escalation in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in the state. Bondi said Wednesday in a series of posts on X that she is "on the ground in Minneapolis today," and shared the names and some photos of individuals she said face charges of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers or employees. Some in custody are shown with their feet restrained at the ankles while standing next to federal officers, who are photographed with their backs to the camera. Bondi highlighted her latest trip to Minneapolis and arrests there on social media as President Donald Trump has signaled a possible deescalation between his administration and anti-ICE protesters. US Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino and some Border Patrol agents have departed while the White House has dispatched border czar Tom Homan to report directly to Trump on the situation.

Breitbart [1/28/2026 4:01 PM, John Binder, 2416K] reports the Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced the arrests of 16 individuals in Minnesota for allegedly rioting and assaulting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, including a Somali immigrant who recently went viral for saying that "being Somali isn’t just eating bananas with rice." "I am on the ground in Minneapolis today. Federal agents have arrested 16 Minnesota rioters for allegedly assaulting federal law enforcement — people who have been resisting and impeding our federal law enforcement agents," Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote on X.

The New York Post [1/28/2026 8:55 AM, Emily Crane, 42219K] reports a sicko who once beat up a pregnant woman and a notorious thief were among the scores of anti-ICE agitators arrested when a protest outside a Minneapolis hotel where federal agents were staying descended into chaos. The rap sheets of those involved emerged after at least 26 protesters were cuffed at the SpringHill Suites in Maple Grove on Monday night when demonstrators started destroying property and hurling objects at law enforcement. Among them was 37-year-old Justin Neal Shelton, of St. Paul, who was nabbed on charges of obstructing legal process. His prior run-ins with the law date back to 2007 when he pleaded guilty to bashing a pregnant woman as he tried to steal her car, Fox News reported. During the savage attack, Shelton and another perp knocked the soon-to-be mom to the ground, kicked her and struck her with a bottle. Shelton, who ended up being slapped with a five-year prison sentence for the savage beatdown, was also convicted of possessing a firearm or ammunition after committing a violent crime in 2020.

Univision [1/28/2026 5:47 PM, Staff, 5004K] reports the protest against ICE at the Dilley Family Detention Center escalated Wednesday after a large mobilization of demonstrators and the arrival of multiple law enforcement agencies. From the scene, a large presence of activists and community members is reported, joined by members of the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), the Border Patrol and ICE agents, who reinforced access to the detention center. During the protest, ICE agents used pepper spray against demonstrators and media representatives in the area, causing tense moments. The deployment of authorities at the site was significant, as was the number of protesters who gathered to demand the release of the child Liam Conejo Ramos, detained along with his father, as well as other migrant families held at the center. So far there have been no official reports of arrests or injuries, and federal authorities have not issued a public statement regarding the use of pepper spray during the demonstration. The protest comes after several days of complaints from lawyers and activists about restrictions within the center, cell searches, and a police presence that some describe as a "militarization" of the place.

Washington Post [1/28/2026 6:54 PM, Mariana Alfaro, 24149K] reports President Donald Trump’s deployment of National Guard and active-duty Marine personnel to U.S. cities cost approximately $496 million between June and December last year, according to an estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Continuing the deployment for the next year could cost the nation over $1 billion, the estimate found. The data was released Wednesday in response to a request from Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon), the top Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee. The estimate covers the troops’ deployment over the last six months of 2025, though it excludes a late dispatch to New Orleans. “Thanks to the Trump Administration’s highly successful efforts to drive down violent crime, cities like Memphis and D.C. are much safer for residents and visitors — with crime dropping across all major categories,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement. “The media should talk to individuals who are able to go about their daily lives without fear of being assaulted, carjacked, or robbed thanks to the Trump Administration.” The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the estimates. Since June, the Trump administration has sent thousands of National Guard members or active-duty Marine Corps to Los Angeles, D.C., Memphis, Portland, Oregon, and New Orleans. Trump has repeatedly said his deployments are necessary because local leaders have not done enough to combat crime in major cities. The deployments, however, have been repeatedly challenged in court, and legal experts have warned that Trump may be exceeding his authority. The budget office estimated that it would cost the government about $93 million a month to maintain deployments nationwide if they continue at the same capacity and size as the ones at the end of 2025. Deploying 1,000 National Guard members to another U.S. city in 2026 would cost between $18 million to $21 million per month, CBO estimated, depending largely on local cost-of-living. The office said it is difficult to predict further costs because of variations in deployment size, duration, location and legal or policy changes. “The American people deserve to know how many hundreds of millions of their hard-earned dollars have been and are being wasted on Trump’s reckless and haphazard deployment of National Guard troops to Portland and cities across the country,” Merkley said in a statement Wednesday. “Trump is weaponizing taxpayer funds to illegally tighten his authoritarian grip on our communities. It must end.”

Reported similarly:
CNN [1/29/2026 2:07 AM, Aleena Fayaz, 18595K]

Politico [1/28/2026 7:29 PM, Myah Ward and Alex Gangitano, 13586K] reports the finger-pointing within the president’s inner circle over the administration’s response to the killing of a second person in Minneapolis is in full force. The Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday said the two agents who fatally shot Alex Pretti have been on leave since Saturday — contradicting insistence by now-sidelined Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino that the agents were working in other cities. Tellingly, key administration officials are also distancing themselves from the narrative they used in the immediate aftermath of Pretti’s killing when they accused the 37-year-old ICU nurse of being a “domestic terrorist” who wanted to “massacre” federal agents. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, who said Pretti was there to “perpetuate violence,” was following deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller’s lead, according to a report in Axios. Miller in turn, blamed Customs and Border Protection for faulty information and potentially not following White House instructions. The growing list of attempts to shift liability show that people close to President Donald Trump recognize the latest shooting as a major political vulnerability for the White House. “Mistakes probably were made, political ones and some tactical ones,” said a DHS official, granted anonymity to speak about internal dynamics. The official pointed to the mounting pressure on the immigration agencies, and the intense situation on the ground as protesters and agents clash. “Eventually under the stress, things are going to break, and people are going to make mistakes, and then that gets used in the media coverage on both sides — and everybody gets to fighting,” the person added.

The New York Post [1/28/2026 2:27 PM, Reuven Fenton, Patrick Reilly, and Emily CraneStaff, 42219K] reports the maniac who allegedly attacked Rep. Ilhan Omar with a mystery liquid at a Minnesota town hall meeting had hinted in a cryptic text to a neighbor that he "might get arrested" at the event. Anthony Kazmierczak, 55, allegedly charged at the lefty congresswoman Tuesday night as she stood at the podium and called for abolishing ICE, spraying an amber-colored, foul-smelling liquid from a syringe in her direction. Days before the chaotic town hall, Kazmierczak’s neighbor Brian Kelley recalled that Kazmierczak asked if Kelley could watch his dog when he went to see Omar speak — and hinted that something would happen at the event. "He said, ‘I’m going to this Omar thing.’ I’m like, Omar what? He said, ‘This town hall thing.’ And he said, ‘I might get arrested,’" Kelley told The Post. "I figured it was nonsense. He wasn’t going to do anything stupid. I said, ‘Sure, I’ll walk her.’ But then the next day he said, ‘Don’t worry about it, I’ve got it covered.’ I figured he blew that off.". After Kazmierczak allegedly sprayed Omar, she chased him down before he was grabbed and removed from the Urban League Twin Cities facility in Minneapolis. Kazmierczak was arrested by Minneapolis Police Department officers and booked into Hennepin County Jail for third-degree assault, according to a department spokesman. [Editorial note: consult video at source link] NewsMax [1/28/2026 10:38 AM, Nicole Weatherholtz, 4109K] reports Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., told Newsmax on Wednesday that he’s "very glad" Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., was not seriously harmed after a protester sprayed a liquid on her during a public event, calling for the suspect to be prosecuted "to the full extent of the law.". NewsMax [1/28/2026 11:10 AM, Staff, 4109K] reports Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., on Newsmax Wednesday condemned an attack on Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., while also blaming Omar and other Democrats for rhetoric he said has contributed to escalating tensions as protests and federal agents clash in Minneapolis over immigration enforcement. "I want Ilhan Omar to be deported and denaturalized," Fine said on "Wake Up America" on Wednesday. "But I don’t want her to be attacked or hurt.".

AP [1/28/2026 7:24 PM, Michael Biesecker, Farnoush Amiri, Matt Brown, and Jack Brook, 31753K] reports Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar blamed President Donald Trump for threats to her safety on Wednesday, one day after she was accosted and squirted with liquid at an event in Minneapolis. The man arrested for Tuesday’s attack has posted online in support of the Republican president. “Every time the president of the United States has chosen to use hateful rhetoric to talk about me and the community that I represent, my death threats skyrocket,” Omar said during a press conference. Asked if she was nervous about appearing in public, she said, “Fear and intimidation doesn’t work on me.” The attack came during a perilous political moment in Minneapolis, where two people have been fatally shot by federal agents during the White House’s aggressive immigration crackdown. Omar, a refugee from Somalia, has long been a fixture of Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric. After she was elected seven years ago, Trump said she should “go back” to her country. He recently described her as “garbage” and said she should be investigated. During a speech in Iowa on Tuesday, shortly before Omar was attacked, he said immigrants need to be proud of the United States — “not like Ilhan Omar.”

Washington Examiner [1/28/2026 11:26 AM, Jenny Goldsberry, 1394K] reports Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) had some support among Republican lawmakers despite President Donald Trump suggesting Omar "had herself sprayed" in an alleged attack during her town hall Tuesday. Omar was in Minneapolis Tuesday evening, addressing questions from constituents when a man stood up and sprayed her with an unknown substance from a syringe. At the time of the disruption, Omar was recommending that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem resign when the man, Anthony James Kazmierczak, 55, stood up to shout that Noem is "not resigning," then emptied his syringe. This incident was captured on multiple cameras from multiple angles. It elicited sympathetic responses from across the aisle Tuesday and Wednesday. "I am deeply disturbed to learn that Rep. Ilhan Omar was attacked at a town hall today," Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) wrote on X Tuesday. "Regardless of how vehemently I disagree with her rhetoric – and I do – no elected official should face physical attacks. This is not who we are.". Mace not only disagrees with Omar’s "rhetoric," but previously alleged that Omar is married to her brother and accused Omar of "aiding terrorism.". "I condemn the assault on Congresswoman Ilhan Omar in the strongest possible terms," Rep. Mark Alford (R-MO) wrote on X Tuesday. "This must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.". "I disagree with her on almost everything politically and on policy. But these type of disagreements should NEVER result in assault," Alford wrote. "Members of Congress should be able to have public meetings with their constituents, as we’ve done more than 120 times, without fear for their safety.".

FOX News [1/28/2026 12:03 PM, Adam Sabes, 40621K] Video: HERE reports the man accused of attacking Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., has a criminal record, according to records reviewed by Fox News Digital. During a town hall event hosted by Omar on Tuesday, a man later identified as 55-year-old Anthony James Kazmierczak allegedly attacked the congresswoman with an unknown chemical spray that had a foul odor. Kazmierczak was charged with third-degree assault and was booked at the Hennepin County Jail. People around Omar pressured her to leave, but she continued the town hall. "Please don’t let them have the show," Omar said. "We will continue! These f----ing a--holes are not going to get away with this.". Criminal records reviewed by Fox News Digital show that Kazmierczak was convicted of driving while intoxicated both in 2009 and 2010. The records indicate he served one day in jail followed by five years supervised probation for the 2010 conviction and was put on home detention for 30 days in relation to his 2009 conviction. During the town hall, Omar referred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as a "rogue agency" that "escalates violence.". She also called for the resignation or impeachment of United States Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [1/28/2026 8:09 PM, Louis Casiano, 40621K] reports Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., on Wednesday blamed President Donald Trump for an attack in which she was sprayed with a substance by a man during a news conference, saying the commander in chief was "obsessed" with her. Speaking at the Karmel Mall in Minneapolis, Omar reiterated calls to abolish U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement the day after 55-year-old Anthony James Kazmierczak allegedly attacked the congresswoman with an unknown chemical spray. "I think my presence here should tell you that the fear and intimidation doesn’t work on me," Omar told reporters and her supporters during a news conference. "What the facts have shown since I’ve gotten into elected office is that every time the president of the United States has chosen to use hateful rhetoric to talk about me and the community that I represent, my death threats skyrocket.” The progressive lawmaker said the attacks from Trump began almost immediately upon her taking office in 2019 during his first term in the White House. "I became a freshman who nobody should have actually known I existed because I wielded no power to having the most death threats of any member of Congress," she said. "To the point where I had to have six Capitol Police officers providing 24-hour detail to me and my family. And then Biden got elected, and for four years it almost plummeted. Then he came back into office, and he resumed his vitriol. "And now my death threats are the highest of the members of Congress.” Trump has repeatedly criticized Omar and other progressive lawmakers over a number of their policy positions and their opposition to his agenda. Omar then recalled Tuesday’s incident in which Kazmierczak used a syringe to squirt liquid on Omar after she called for the abolition of ICE and the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem after the fatal shootings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis by federal agents conducting immigration enforcement operations. Kazmierczak was immediately tackled by security and remains jailed on a preliminary third-degree assault charge, authorities said. When asked about the attack on Omar, Trump suggested it may have been staged. "No. I don’t think about her," he reportedly told ABC News. "I think she’s a fraud. I really don’t think about that. She probably had herself sprayed, knowing her.” Omar said her alleged attacker was "upset that Trump’s order to deport Somalis was not yielding enough deportations of Somalis.” "I wouldn’t be where I am at today, having to pay for security, having the government to think about providing me security if Donald Trump wasn’t in office and if he wasn’t so obsessed with me," she said. "It is ironic that just last night he was on stage moments before I was attacked talking about me, and then when asked about my attack, he said, ‘I don’t think about her.’". [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [1/28/2026 8:23 PM, Staff, 40621K] reports Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., held a press conference one day after she was sprayed with a foreign substance at a town hall the congresswoman hosted in her district Tuesday evening. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Bloomberg [1/28/2026 1:33 PM, Margi Murphy, 18207K] reports that the Department of Homeland Security has been quietly trying to force Meta Platforms Inc. to hand over the identity of anonymous accounts that post videos and locations of ICE agents on social media. Most recently they’ve been after the details of Instagram account, @montcowatch, which is one of several “community watch” projects that have cropped up around the country amid an expanded federal immigration crackdown under Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem. These projects say their goal is to crowdsource and share information about where ICE agents are active in their neighborhoods. Government lawyers sent a subpoena to Meta demanding the personal information behind the account, which stands for Montco Community Watch. Meta declined to comment on a legal matter. In court filings, DHS lawyers said they had received information suggesting ICE agents were being stalked, citing an employee who said he received a tip about the account. The American Civil Liberties Union, which represented the account holder, countered that there was no evidence of wrongdoing in any of the posts. The agent who received the tip, the ACLU said, wasn’t employed by the DHS office that sent the request to Meta at the time. DHS declined to comment.

CBS News [1/28/2026 12:27 PM, Megan Cerullo, 39474K] reports Apple CEO Tim Cook told employees in an internal memo that he is "heartbroken" and urged "de-escalation" following the killing of 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, joining other prominent corporate executives weighing in on immigration enforcement. "I believe America is strongest when we live up to our highest ideals, when we treat everyone with dignity and respect no matter who they are or where they’re from, and when we embrace our shared humanity," Cook said, according to the internal memo obtained by Bloomberg News and confirmed by CBS News. "This is something Apple has always advocated for.". The chief executive added that he had also shared his views with President Trump this week in what he characterized as a "good conversation." "I appreciate his openness to engaging on issues that matter to us all," Cook said. Cook’s statement comes after the CEOs of dozens of Minnesota-based companies, including 3M, UnitedHealth Group and Target, signed an open letter from the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce addressing Pretti’s killing by Border Patrol agents. The CEOs demanded the "immediate de-escalation of tensions.". However, the letter from Minnesota-based CEOs stopped short of condemning federal immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis or calling on the White House to take any specific steps, such as pulling ICE agents out of the city.

Los Angeles Times [1/28/2026 11:31 AM, Annie Bang and Alicia Tang, 14862K] reports OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman joined a growing chorus of Silicon Valley leaders expressing outrage in the aftermath of the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, aligning with tech industry workers who’ve urged CEOs to take a stronger stand against the violent immigration crackdown in Minneapolis. "What’s happening with ICE is going too far," Altman wrote in a note Monday shared with all employees, according to a person familiar with the matter. "There is a big difference between deporting violent criminals and what’s happening now, and we need to get the distinction right.". With his remarks, Altman became the latest tech leader to address the politically charged issue in recent days. Others who’ve objected to the violence in Minnesota include Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, Reddit Inc. co-founder Alexis Ohanian, former Meta Platforms Inc. AI chief scientist Yann LeCun and venture capitalist Vinod Khosla.

The Hill [1/28/2026 9:00 AM, Max Burns, 12595K] reports the last photo of Alex Pretti shows the 37-year-old shoved to his hands and knees, his face pointed down to the cold Minneapolis street. A masked federal agent stands directly behind Pretti, a pistol pointed directly at the back of his head. A few moments later, Pretti would be dead. Instead of providing any first aid, the agents instead are said to have counted the bullet holes in his body and applauded his executioner. I say executioner, because what else can so brazen a slaying be called? The mere threat of similar executions in Tehran was enough to lead President Trump to weigh military strikes against Iran’s totalitarian regime. Yet in Minneapolis, where Trump’s ICE and Border Patrol thugs have spent weeks sowing chaos and violence in a once-peaceful city, the president’s allies raced to pile blame on Pretti for his own assassination. This is the brutal government Trump promised Americans on the campaign trail last year, and it remains one of the few promises he has actually kept. Once broadly popular, ICE, along with its sister agency, Customs and Border Protection, is now among the most reviled organizations in America. Even Republicans and local police departments, once the agency’s staunchest supporters, are growing skittish at its willingness to soak American streets in American blood. Whatever purpose ICE once served, its evolution into a radicalized paramilitary group now puts the health of our republic in danger. For the good of the nation and its people, it’s time to dismantle the organization that has become Trump’s personal Revolutionary Guard. It can’t happen soon enough.

Wall Street Journal [1/28/2026 1:02 PM, James Freeman, 646K] reports one can only imagine how the recent tragic events might have been avoided if Minneapolis were not afflicted with reckless politicians who encourage interference with the enforcement of federal law. Now a local police union official is not just imagining, but stating plainly his informed opinion. Reuven Fenton and Anthony Blair report this morning from Minneapolis for the New York Post: The head of a major Twin Cities police union slammed local officials for blocking cooperation between local cops and ICE and Border Patrol agents – saying if they had been involved, “there would be no loss of life.”…St. Paul Police Federation President Mark Ross blamed state and local officials for the anti-ICE protest violence — saying that if highly trained cops were allowed to work with the feds, it likely would have prevented the killing of Renee Good and Alex Pretti… “Had we been allowed just a little bit of coordination – not in terms of what ICE is doing, but if they say, ‘Hey, we need to go to this place to serve a warrant, we’re going to be out there a couple hours. We’re nervous that crowds are going to form and give us trouble. Can you come out and help?’ That’s something we can easily coordinate with a little bit of notice, and sometimes with hardly any notice, we can get out there quickly,” Ross said. This underlines that even if Minnesota’s politicians don’t want their police directly helping to enforce federal immigration law, the pols at least ought to allow local cops to protect federal officers who are lawfully engaged in the enforcement of such laws. The Post report continues: “Part of it is leadership, because the leadership in our cities doesn’t want us communicating with the federal folks. And that disconnect has created some problems for everybody, and we’re stuck in the middle of it, and public safety is everybody’s responsibility,” he said. “We want to be out there. We want to be keeping people safe, and it’s been really tough. We really feel like we’re in the middle of this, obviously, not by choice,” Ross added. Apart from radicals like Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, this will strike many people as common sense. Even people like your humble correspondent who favor increasing legal migration should appreciate that defiance of federal law is not the answer.

The Hill [1/28/2026 12:30 PM, Brad Bannon, 12595K] reports two innocent civilians are dead and the Bill of Rights is on life support. Renee Good and Alex Pretti were killed in Minneapolis by federal agents. The mother and the intensive care nurse were peaceful protestors exercising their First Amendment constitutional freedoms. They weren’t domestic terrorists. The dramatic video of Pretti’s killing is outrageous and not for the faint of heart. Border Patrol agents shot him after he courageously tried to protect a woman shoved to the ground by President Trump’s shock troops. So far, the only casualty in the Trump administration is Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino, whose ham-handed response to Pretti’s brutal shooting cost him his job. Will his boss, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem lose her job, too? Inquiring minds want to know. There’s no mystery in the killings of Good and Pretti. Americans have seen the videotape, ignored the Trump spin about domestic terrorists and rendered judgement. The verdict is, “Enough is enough!” A national survey conducted for The New York Times by Siena College through Friday, Jan. 23 indicates that Americans want federal immigration enforcement on a short leash. Six in ten voters believe the agency has gone too far. This survey was conducted after Good was killed, but before it could fully measure the impact of the death of Pretti. Things will only get worse for Trump and Noem when the public has time to digest the awful taste of the Pretti killing. Concern about the extreme actions in Minnesota extends to just about every Democrat, seven of every ten Independents and even one in five Republicans. The most pro-Trump Democratic senator, John Fetterman (D-Pa.), has called for Noem’s resignation. Several congressional Republicans have also seen the videotape and the handwriting on the wall and called for hearings on ICE tactics.

Washington Times [1/28/2026 9:13 AM, Cheryl K. Chumley, 852K] reports Secretary Kristi Noem has been an effective, strong, determined and unrelenting leader at the Department of Homeland Security — and this is why Democrats want her gone. And this is why Republicans need to coalesce around her and refuse to bow to pressures from Democrats to have her ousted. Yes, Noem serves at the pleasure of President Trump. But Trump is not immune to pressures from his own party; to pressures from the political world. This is no time for politics, petty or otherwise. The future of our nation’s national security is at stake. If Democrats win on Noem — if Republicans cave on Noem — then Democrats will use and exploit her ouster as fuel to the fire they’ve lit to burn the entire MAGA and America First movement. Remember: Democrats don’t quit. They only dig in deeper. To them, existence is all about politics; they are the party of anti-God. They are the party of rebellion and wickedness and mayhem and deceit and death. They are the party of collectivists; they oppose all-things-individualist, which sets them in direct opposition to America’s founding principles. “GOP on defense over Noem’s future as Congress nears shutdown deadline,” The Hill wrote in a headline. “A growing number of Senate Democrats are calling for Noem to be ousted,” casting doubts on the prospect that they would agree to any concessions from President Trump to avoid a shutdown at the end of this week if Noem remains in charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” The Hill wrote. Democrats say it’s because of the fatal shootings by ICE of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. But that’s just the cover.

FOX News [1/28/2026 1:43 PM, David Marcus, 40621K] reports that after protest, agitation and chaos rocked Minneapolis over the weekend, President Donald Trump has offered leaders there an olive branch, and placed the political ball squarely in their court. Trump’s offer to Mayor Jacob Frey and Gov. Tim Walz began with a very real concession, by replacing Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and gung-ho Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino with the arguably more moderate Border Czar Tom Homan on the ground. The move angered many border hawks in his own party. There are some who legitimately fear that if the hardcore agitators, who have been harassing and impeding federal agents, see this as a win, it could spread like wildfire across blue cities. But Trump didn’t only offer carrots to the hapless leadership in the Gopher State, he also included some sticks. They came in the form of very basic demands to hand over illegal immigrants in Minnesota’s criminal justice system. Here are Trump’s four demands: Turn over illegals in local jails or subject to arrest warrants to the feds. Have state and local law enforcement commit to turning illegal immigrants over to the feds. Make local police help the feds track down and detain illegal immigrants wanted for crimes. Partner with the feds to "protect American Citizens in the rapid removal of all Criminal Illegal Aliens in our Country." For Trump’s part, if these demands are met, he promises to reduce the federal footprint in Minnesota, because, frankly, many agents wouldn’t be needed anymore with cooperation from local police.

New York Times [1/28/2026 5:36 AM, Omar Wasow, 135475K] reports I study the political consequences of protest and state violence. So when federal immigration agents killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis this month, I was reminded of Jimmie Lee Jackson. On the night of Feb. 18, 1965, police officers and state troopers attacked civil rights demonstrators in Marion, Ala. Jackson, a 26-year-old woodcutter, fled with his mother and grandfather into a cafe. Troopers followed them inside and began beating his mother; Jackson tried to protect her. A state trooper, James Bonard Fowler, shot him in the stomach. Eight days later, Jackson died. His killing incited the march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala., and his death helped pass the Voting Rights Act. Sixty years later in Minneapolis, we had two civilians (one, like Jackson in 1965, trying to protect someone else) killed in the same month and a militarized occupation of an American city. What we are seeing is the weakness of strong states. Regimes that rely on repression face a challenge: The more force they deploy, the more they risk exposing their own brutality to politically persuadable observers. Overreach doesn’t just project strength; it also undermines legitimacy.

Washington Examiner [1/28/2026 9:33 AM, Christopher Tremoglie, 1394K] reports the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti have led to increased calls to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other illegal immigration enforcement operations. Liberals, Democrats, and others on the Left, combined with the socialist and communist organizations organizing and funding anti-ICE protests nationwide, have escalated their attacks on ICE — verbally and physically, calling them murderers, among other insults. And while criticism continues to mount, it is important to recognize truth and fact because while Good’s and Pretti’s deaths were unfortunate, Democrats’ immigration policies have caused more violence and murders than anything ICE has done. The Biden administration allowed a record number of illegal immigrants to enter the country. With this increase in illegal immigration came a significant rise in those entering the country with criminal records, many of whom had a history of violent crime. Former President Joe Biden and his Democratic accomplices in Congress opened the floodgates to a litany of problems and violent crime due to the refusal to enforce immigration law. And, unfortunately, many Americans paid the price for it, with illegal immigrants murdering innocent women such as Laken Riley and Rachel Morin, among others. For example, consider the surge of encounters of illegal immigrants at the border each year by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection after Biden became president. In 2020, the last year of President Donald Trump’s first term in office, CBP reported 646,822 nationwide encounters. In 2021, that total soared to 1,956,519. In 2022, the number of encounters increased again to 2,766,582, and in 2023, that number jumped again to 3,201,144, representing an approximately 495% increase in nationwide encounters by CBP between Trump’s last year of his first term and 2023. That total dropped slightly in 2024 to 2,901,142 encounters, but it was still significantly higher than when Trump was in office and reflected the damage Democrats did.

New York Post [1/28/2026 6:08 PM, Ben Domenech, 42219K] reports Capitol Hill Republicans are nervously chattering amongst themselves about whether Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem could be the first member of President Donald Trump’s second-term Cabinet headed for the exit. They’re looking in the wrong direction: They should be focused on whether they’re headed for the exits, too. The big question facing Republicans in Washington and across the country isn’t who should run DHS, but how they can respond to the obvious questions about how Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents are doing their jobs. Coming up with an answer that satisfies voters could decide whether November’s midterm elections allows Trump to continue his transformative agenda — or whether a Democratic tidal wave sweeps a generation of leftist radicals into both houses of Congress. If that happens, it won’t matter who is serving as DHS secretary after November: Whoever it is will be targeted by incoming Democrat radicals for impeachment. All the arguments Democrats used under Joe Biden against the removal of then-DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who purposefully avoided doing his job and repeatedly lied to Congress about it, will be cast aside. They will hate anyone who actually attempts to enforce this nation’s immigration laws, because they don’t believe these laws, duly passed by Congress and signed by presidents of both parties, should even exist. They’re already pushing their predictable attacks on immigration enforcement — highlighting exaggerated sob stories, ignoring the truth about the massive number of very bad people arrested, and framing the whole effort as a fascist assault on "our neighbors.". No matter how many child rapists and convicted murderers ICE arrests, the media writ large will ignore them. Meanwhile spineless Capitol Hill Republicans are backing away from the very reason many of them got elected. Republicans have to find the testicular fortitude to defend what their voters want, and what the law requires, if they are to change direction from here to November. They must elevate the families of those hurt by Biden’s illegal immigration explosion. Without the technology to clone skillful spokespeople like DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, the administration must flood the zone with more voices who can capably defend what the president is doing.

Washington Post [1/28/2026 1:59 PM, Staff, 24149K] reports that in 2009, I was a Marine in Helmand province during the height of the shift to counterinsurgency operations. We were heavily armed and trained for violence, as Marines are expected to be. But when we encountered local Afghans, we took off our helmets. We removed our sunglasses. We put a hand over our hearts, we looked the Afghans in the eye and said Salaam Alekum, or “peace be upon you.” If the situation allowed, we sat down. We drank tea. We talked. This wasn’t weakness or wokeness. It was strength, discipline and strategy. We were still Marines. When it was time to fight, we did so decisively. But we also understood something essential: You cannot intimidate your way into lasting security. You cannot terrorize a population into cooperation. And you cannot claim moral authority if your posture communicates only contempt or fear. That approach was a reflection of guidance from the strategic and operational levels. Our senior leaders understood that how we looked, spoke and behaved at the tactical level mattered enormously. Tone was policy. Posture was strategy. I reflect on those lessons as I watch an anti-immigration agenda in the United States that has gone badly off course. Masked officers in military-style gear, conducting raids with theatrical dominance rather than measured authority. Communities treated as hostile terrain rather than neighborhoods. I find this not only disturbing but also strategically incoherent.

USA Today [1/29/2026 4:31 AM, Rex Huppke, 67103K] reports the latest bit of political wish-casting is that, in the wake of the killing of two U.S. citizens on the streets of Minneapolis, President Donald Trump and his bands of masked federal agents are “pulling back” or “lowering the temperature.” PBS News fell for the ruse with this headline: “Trump softens stance on Minnesota crackdown as some federal agents prepare to leave.” The Washington Post did likewise: “Trump softens tone on Minneapolis violence amid calls for accountability.” Referring to Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse gunned down by federal agents and then nonsensically defamed as an “assassin” and a “domestic terrorist” by administration officials, CNBC carried this headline: “White House eases tone on Pretti killing.” How many times are news organizations going to fall for the utter claptrap of Donald Trump, his administration or the Republican Party at large changing tone? Collectively, they have one tone: rage. It’s their oxygen, and it’s what has led to this violent, chaotic moment in our nation’s history, where seemingly lawless agents of the federal government are rounding up immigrants and U.S. citizens while responding to peaceful protesters with chemical agents and, at times, lethal force. The administration first responded to the killing of Pretti by labeling him a domestic terrorist and saying protesters shouldn’t carry guns, even though Pretti had a legal permit, and there are approximately 18 billion photos of Trump supporters carrying guns to protests. The public revulsion to that initial reaction was palpable, so Trump and Co. removed Greg Bovino, the annoying little dude who was the Border Patrol commander and the sneering, own-the-libs face of violent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids, and shipped him to parts unknown. In his place, they sent Tom Homan, architect of the evil child-separation policy featured in Trump’s first presidential term. In 2023, Homan spoke of separating migrant children from their parents like a proud big boy, saying: “I’m sick and tired hearing about the family separation. You know, I’m still being sued over that, so come get me. I don’t give a sh--, right.” Swapping one villain for another doesn’t help anything.

The Hill [1/28/2026 9:30 AM, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), 12595K] reports President Trump says modern U.S. ships are “ugly” — not ugly in the damage they can do to the enemy, but aesthetically ugly to what he believes is an expert eye. Hence, the commander-in-chief has directed design and construction of a whole new fleet battleships named — you guessed it — the “Trump Class.” This idea would be laughable if it weren’t so costly and dangerous. In announcing his huge battleship initiative, surrounded by the gold trappings of Mar-a-Lago, Trump said he would help design the ships himself because he is a “very aesthetic person.” This emphasis on aesthetics over stealth, survivability and strength in new ship construction surely made eyes roll at the Pentagon. But a more fundamental and important question is whether battleships make sense any longer as a national defense investment. And make no mistake, this investment would cost American taxpayers hundreds of billions, siphon resources away from the Navy’s most urgent needs, and preoccupy America’s shipbuilding capacity. Aesthetics are not a military strategy when deterrence, national security and sailors’ lives are at stake.

Axios [1/28/2026 3:25 PM, Stephen Neukam, Hans Nichols, Brittany Gibson, 12972K] reports Senate Democrats are demanding that federal agents be barred from donning masks and that they wear body cameras as part of sweeping changes to DHS that also include a ban on roving patrols and tighter use of warrants. Democrats are pledging to tank a broader funding package aimed at staving off a partial government shutdown at midnight Friday if Republicans don’t agree to new constraints on ICE and other federal law enforcement. Schumer called on Republicans to either change the DHS spending bill to incorporate the Democrats’ demands or strip it from the larger funding package. The Senate is scheduled to take a procedural vote on the funding package on Thursday, and Republicans need at least six Democratic votes to pass it before the deadline. Democrats, from moderates to progressives, seem dug in on forcing changes at ICE. Republicans this week have floated the idea of securing some of the changes Democrats want via executive action and not changing the funding bills.

FOX News [1/28/2026 3:23 PM, Andrew Mark Miller, 40621K] reports despite mounting criticism from immigration activists and Democratic officials, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) continues to arrest violent offenders, including some of the "worst of the worst" highlighted by the agency from Tuesday. In a 24-hour period this week, ICE arrested five illegal immigrants charged with violent crimes, including Jesus Acosta-Ichaurrondo, a Mexican national convicted in California of rape by force or fear, sodomy of a minor, threatening a witness, soliciting criminal acts while on bail, and violating a protection order.

Reuters [1/28/2026 2:56 PM, Staff, 36480K] reports U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has complied with a Minnesota federal judge’s order to release a wrongly detained Ecuadorean man, likely averting an in-person contempt of court hearing for its acting director. The release means acting ICE director Todd Lyons is no longer required to make an extraordinary appearance in Minnesota federal court to explain his agency’s failure to comply with dozens of court orders during President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement surge, which has led to the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens. As acting ICE director, Lyons oversees an agency with more than 27,400 people, an annual budget of nearly $10 billion and more than $74 billion in funding from the "One Big Beautiful Bill" that Trump signed into law last year, according to the ICE website. The bill funds Trump’s immigration crackdown, among other measures. Before being appointed acting chief of ICE in March 2025, Lyons served as the executive associate director of the agency’s Enforcement and Removal Operations directorate. In that role, he led efforts to arrest and remove migrants who came to the U.S. illegally, according to his official biography. Lyons held other roles at the Enforcement and Removal Operations directorate, including assistant director of field operations and deputy assistant director of western operations and the southwest border, among other positions. He started with the directorate as an immigration enforcement agent in Dallas.

New York Times [1/28/2026 5:18 AM, David W. Chen, 135475K] reports after the deaths of two American citizens in Minneapolis at the hands of federal agents, Democratic legislators across the country, aided by libertarian groups, are redoubling their efforts to restrict and challenge federal immigration tactics in their states. A Colorado bill that was introduced in mid-January would enable individuals to sue federal law enforcement officials for civil rights violations. In Delaware, a bill similar to one that was filed in New York last spring would prevent commercial airlines from receiving jet fuel tax exemptions if they transport people detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement without warrants and due process. And in the wake of the killing on Saturday of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, a California lawmaker said he would sponsor two bills, one to require that any shooting by ICE agents be subject to an independent state investigation, and another to bar ICE from using state properties as a staging area for federal operations.

AP [1/29/2026 10:09 PM, Steve Peoples, 31753K] reports no longer confined to the partisans and activists, the fierce backlash against Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown has begun to break out across American culture, spanning the worlds of business, sports and entertainment. Bruce Springsteen released a new song Wednesday that slammed "Trump’s federal thugs." OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman told employees that "what’s happening with ICE is going too far," referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. And lifestyle icon Martha Stewart lamented that "we can be attacked and even killed." "Things must and have to change quickly and peacefully," Stewart wrote to her 2.9 million Instagram followers this week. A little more than one year into his second term, Trump is facing a broad cultural revolt that threatens to undermine his signature domestic priority, the Republican Party’s grip on power and his own political strength ahead of the midterm elections. Trump, a former reality television star often attuned to changes in public opinion, tried to shift the conversation this week by dispatching border czar Tom Homan to Minnesota to replace Greg Bovino, a Border Patrol commander who has been a lightning rod. But it’s unclear if the move will change anything on the ground.

FOX News [1/28/2026 9:04 AM, Staff, 40621K] reports ICE arrested more than 200 illegal immigrants in Maine during a one-week deployment. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CBS News [1/28/2026 10:55 AM, Neal Riley, 39474K] reports police arrested nine people who were protesting against Immigration and Customs Enforcement at Sen. Susan Collins’ Portland, Maine office on Tuesday afternoon. The Portland Police Department said there were about 50 protesters on the eighth floor of One Canal Plaza, a downtown office building. "The group was repeatedly told if they did not disperse, individuals would be charged with Criminal Trespass," the department said in a statement. "After several warnings, many of the protesters left the building, while nine remained and asked to be arrested." The ages of the arrested protesters ranged from 31 to 65. They sang "we shall overcome" in the hallway outside the office and called on Collins to use her position as the Senate’s top appropriator to end funding for ICE. One of the protesters was Christine Dyke, lead minister of the Gorham First Parish Congregational Church. She told WGME-TV that ICE should end its latest deportation operation in Maine because it’s creating fear in the immigrant community.

New York Times [1/29/2026 3:20 AM, Ed Shanahan and Olivia Bensimon, 330K] reports dozens of demonstrators were arrested in Manhattan on Tuesday evening after occupying the lobby of a TriBeCa hotel where, they said, federal immigration agents were staying while carrying out the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. More than 100 people crammed into the hotel, a Hilton Garden Inn on Sixth Avenue near Canal Street, at about 6 p.m., condemning the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency with chants and anti-ICE slogans on their black T-shirts. The protesters also directed their ire at Hilton for, they claimed, providing lodging to ICE agents. A hotel worker checking in guests, and guests themselves, seemed confused by the protest. It could not immediately be determined whether ICE agents were staying at the hotel. The Manhattan protest followed a similar action on Sunday in Minneapolis, where the killings by federal agents of Renee Good and Alex Pretti this month have further inflamed residents angry about the crackdown and the methods employed to enforce it. The Minneapolis protest, which began as a peaceful, if noisy, demonstration outside a Home2Suites by Hilton hotel, grew heated after some people in the crowd began to vandalize the building and federal agents used tear gas. Tricia McLaughlin, a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman, declined to respond to a request for comment about protesters’ targeting of hotels where they believe ICE agents are staying. Hilton did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Mayor Zohran Mamdani, through a spokesman, praised the protesters for exercising their rights and the police for their response, and he said he was glad the demonstration had ended peacefully. The spokesman, Sam Raskin, said in a statement that Mr. Mamdani believes “ICE is a rogue agency that has repeatedly carried out cruel, inhumane and lawless raids and arrests of American citizens.” Just after 6:35 p.m. Tuesday, police officers entered the Hilton lobby and warned that those who did not leave faced arrest. “They want you guys out of the hotel,” one officer said. Many people soon left, and the police forced reporters out as well. About 50 people remained. The Rev. Micah Bucey, the senior minister at Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich Village, was among those who stayed put. He said he was unfazed by the prospect of being arrested. “I know that my God is telling me that I have to be here,” he said. “I am in solidarity with all of the people in Minneapolis. All of the people in Chicago, all of the people across the country, especially with my immigrant neighbors.”

Blaze [1/28/2026 6:05 PM, Carlos Garcia, 1442K] reports Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner is getting fierce backlash after he made a threat to "hunt down" Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in a speech outside city hall. Krasner, who was propelled into office with the financial aid of left-wing billionaire George Soros, compared the federal agents to Nazis before making his threat. "This is a small bunch of wannabe Nazis. That’s what they are," Krasner said to a cheering crowd. "In a country of 350 million, we outnumber them.". He said that he and other prosecutors were backing efforts to prosecute federal agents involved in two lethal shootings in Minnesota and another shooting in Arizona. "If we have to hunt you down the way they hunted down Nazis for decades, we will find your identities," he added. "We will find you. We will achieve justice, and we will do so under the Constitution and the laws of the United States.". Krasner was at the rally to support proposed legislation that would ban ICE from utilizing property owned by the city and implement other restrictions on federal operations without a judicial warrant. The White House responded to Krasner and called him a "seriously deranged individual" in a post on social media Wednesday. Others responded on social media to a video that cut out Krasner’s appeal to the Constitution. "Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, vowing to ‘hunt down’ ICE agents, is the behavior of a psychopath with a badge," responded Rep. Dan Meuser (R-Penn.) in part. "Year after year, he fails to prosecute the criminals who continue to plague the City of Brotherly Love.".

USA Today [1/28/2026 2:59 PM, Irene Wright, 67103K] reports that following the killing of an American citizen by immigration enforcement agents in Minneapolis over the weekend, cities and communities across the country are on edge wondering if their home could see an increase in ICE presence. Various online trackers of ICE activity show raids have taken place in nearly all 50 states, including raids in Georgia in 2025, though very few have been as contentious as those in Minnesota in recent weeks. Immigration enforcement, however, is not new, despite being under a new spotlight during the Trump Administration under the direction of Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem. In a statement to WABE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson Lindsay Williams confirmed more officials with the agency would soon be working out of an office in College Park, on the south side of Atlanta. The exact location of the office was not disclosed, or a timeline for when officials may begin operating there. Williams specified that the new office is not part of the coordinated DHS operation, like Minneapolis and Chicago, but is part of a larger initiative to expand the number of ICE agents under the Trump administration. College Park mayor, Bianca Motley Broom, said in a statement that local officials had not been contacted about the new presence.

Breitbart [1/28/2026 2:01 PM, John Binder, 2416K] reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is seeking custody of an illegal alien accused of violently raping an 11-year-old girl at knifepoint in front of her younger sister in Georgia. As Breitbart News reported last week, 26-year-old illegal alien Kenneth Moreno Guzman of Mexico, was arrested by the Bulloch County Sheriff’s Office and charged with rape, statutory rape, aggravated child molestation, aggravated sodomy, first-degree cruelty to children, first-degree home invasion, false imprisonment, burglary, aggravated assault with a knife, and possession of a knife during the commission of a crime. On January 12, police allege, Guzman broke into an 11-year-old girl’s home and raped her at knifepoint in front of her 10-year-old sister. Guzman allegedly threatened the victim’s sister with the knife as well. Now, ICE officials say they want to take custody of Guzman should he get released from local police custody. Officials also revealed that Guzman had been arrested in Statesboro, Georgia, in March 2023 for driving without a license and registration. "Another horrific tragedy for two innocent children by the hands of a criminal illegal alien. This monster should have never been in our country in the first place," the Department of Homeland Security’s Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. "These are the victims President Trump and Secretary Noem are fighting for and the media and sanctuary politicians ignore," McLaughlin said. "We have lodged an arrest detainer to ensure ICE is notified to arrest this creep before he can prey on more innocent children."

Univision [1/28/2026 4:31 PM, Staff, 5004K] reports federal authorities confirmed to Univision 34 Atlanta the opening of a new Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in College Park, south of the Atlanta metropolitan area. Local officials say they have not been informed about the facility. ICE spokesman Lindsay Williams in Atlanta confirmed that it would be a new office that is part of the funds approved in the Trump Tax Act, also called the Big Beautiful Bill, passed in 2025. Williams indicated that more agents are also being considered for the new facilities. Regarding the office, the ICE spokesperson clarified that it will be an administrative office and is not intended to operate like the office in Atlanta. ICE did not provide information on future operations or a specific increase in immigration enforcement actions in the area.

CBS Miami [1/28/2026 3:45 PM, Staff, 39474K] reports lawmakers started moving forward Tuesday with a proposal crafted in response to a deadly crash involving an undocumented-immigrant truck driver on Florida’s Turnpike. The Republican-dominated Senate Transportation Committee voted 6-3 along party lines to approve a bill (SB 86) that would require law-enforcement officers to take into custody truck drivers who are determined to be undocumented immigrants and help transfer them to federal immigration officials. Also, it would require impounding trucks driven by undocumented immigrants taken into custody and imposing a $50,000 fine on the vehicles’ owners. The bill came after a semi-tractor trailer driver, Harjinder Singh, a native of India, was arrested in August following a crash that allegedly stemmed from him attempting a U-Turn on the turnpike in St. Lucie County. Three people died in the crash. Rep. Jason Shoaf, R-Port St. Joe has filed a House version of the bill, named HB 1247.

NewsMax [1/28/2026 6:28 PM, Staff, 4109K] reports two former detainees at an immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades known as "Alligator Alcatraz" testified Wednesday that they could be punished for seeking legal advice and had to write down phone numbers for attorneys on walls and beds using soap because they had no access to pen and paper. The two men, one who was deported to Colombia and another who was sent back to Haiti, testified via video in a federal court in Fort Myers, Florida, that their monitored calls to people outside the detention center would be dropped whenever they talked about seeking legal advice or trying to get an attorney. During a two-day hearing that started Wednesday, civil rights attorneys representing the detainees were seeking a temporary injunction from U.S. District Judge Sheri Polster Chappell that would ensure that detainees at the state-run Everglades facility get the same access to their attorneys as they do at federally-run detention centers. The Everglades facility was built last summer at a remote airstrip by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration. The detainees’ lawsuit claims that their First Amendment rights are being violated. They say their attorneys have to make an appointment to visit three days in advance, unlike at other immigration detention facilities where lawyers can just show up during visiting hours; that detainees often are transferred to other facilities after their attorneys had made an appointment to see them; and that scheduling delays have been so lengthy that detainees were unable to meet with attorneys before key deadlines. During Wednesday morning’s hearing, the former detainees testified remotely from their home countries using translators and only their initials to protect their identities. While at the facility, the former detainee from Haiti said he was asked to sign documents he didn’t understand, which ended up being papers to self-deport to Haiti where he feared going back to. He had asked for asylum in the United States. He then was presented with a second-set of papers which someone explained to him would get him self-deported to Mexico, which he signed because of his fear of returning to Haiti. In the end, he was sent back to Haiti, he said. State officials who are defendants in the lawsuit denied restricting the detainees’ access to their attorneys and said any protocols were in place for security reasons and to make sure there was sufficient staffing. Federal officials who also are defendants said that no First Amendment rights were being violated. "Moreover, any Alligator Alcatraz policy regarding attorney-detainee communications is valid so long as it reasonably relates to legitimate penological interest," they wrote.

Daily Caller [1/28/2026 4:39 PM, Harold Hutchison, 835K] reports Democratic Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson admitted Wednesday he was "in regular communication" with other mayors leading so-called "sanctuary cities" in efforts to impede enforcement of federal immigration laws. President Donald Trump called for an end to "sanctuary cities" in a post on Truth Social Monday, following a series of shootings, two of them fatal, that took place in Minneapolis involving Department of Homeland Security personnel engaged in immigration enforcement operations. Johnson said during a press conference at the National Press Club he’d been talking with Democratic Mayors Jacob Frey of Minneapolis and Michelle Wu of Boston about how to combat United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). During the event, Johnson also threatened to charge ICE agents after boasting of previous measures he had ordered to impede their operations to arrest illegal immigrants.

FOX News [1/28/2026 3:29 PM, Louis Casiano, 40621K] reports the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has released a video honoring the life of an Illinois woman whose body was allegedly stuffed in a storage container and doused with bleach by an illegal immigrant who walked free until he was arrested by federal authorities. The body of Megan Bos was discovered in April 2025 by officers with the Waukegan Police Department. The 37-year-old, who was reported missing a month earlier, was found in a container in a backyard belonging to Luis Mendoza-Gonzalez, a Mexican citizen, DHS said. Bos was allegedly visiting Mendoza, 52, who claimed that she was under the influence of drugs. He told investigators that he found Bos unresponsive at one point, believing she died from an overdose. Mendoza was charged with concealing the body, abusing a corpse, two counts of concealing the death of a person and obstructing justice, all felonies, but none were detainable offenses under Illinois sanctuary laws, DHS said. After a court hearing, Lake County Judge Randie Bruno released Mendoza from custody. He was eventually arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in Chicago on July 19, 2025. McLaughlin noted that 70% of ICE arrests are of illegal immigrants charged with or convicted of crimes in the United States.

Breitbart [1/28/2026 4:06 PM, John Binder, 2416K] reports the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is continuing to arrest illegal aliens, many with criminal convictions and final deportation orders, across Minnesota despite opposition from Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D) and Gov. Tim Walz (D). "Just yesterday, Department of Homeland Security law enforcement arrested several repeat offenders, including a criminal illegal alien convicted of kidnapping, robbery, felony larceny, and assault on a law enforcement officer with a firearm," DHS’s Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.

Reuters [1/28/2026 10:00 PM, Staff, 67103K] Video: HERE reports ICE officers in Minnesota on Jan. 28 were directed to avoid engaging with "agitators" as they carry out President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement orders, according to internal guidance reviewed by Reuters. The new guidance, offering the most detailed look so far at how operations would change after two fatal shootings of U.S. citizens protesting in Minneapolis, also orders U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers only to target immigrants who have criminal charges or convictions. That would mark a departure from the broad sweeps that have provoked backlash and legal challenges in Minneapolis and other U.S. cities. "DO NOT COMMUNICATE OR ENGAGE WITH AGITATORS," said an email disseminated by a top ICE official. "It serves no purpose other than inflaming the situation. No one is going to convince the other. The only communication should be the officers issuing commands.” The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The operational shift comes after Trump said this week that he aimed to "de-escalate" tension in Minneapolis and St. Paul after federal immigration officers killed two U.S. citizens there this month. In both cases, Trump officials swiftly portrayed the deceased as aggressors, an assertion undercut by video evidence. Trump tasked border czar Tom Homan to take over operations in Minnesota, in what a senior official told Reuters would be a shift to a more "targeted" approach to enforcement. Border Patrol commander-at-large Gregory Bovino - who led confrontational sweeps in Los Angeles, Chicago and other cities - was demoted and will soon retire, Reuters reported. Under the new guidance outlined in the email, ICE officers will receive megaphones so that they can issue commands to the public and "need to verbalize every step of the arrest process.” The guidance does not describe what sort of actions would trigger commands or what officers should do if commands were not followed. ‘Targeted’ arrests, Border Patrol moved to support role. The updated guidance came from Marcos Charles, the top official in ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division, the email said. It said officers could only target immigration offenders who had a previous criminal history. "We are moving to targeted enforcement of aliens with a criminal history," it read. "This includes arrests, not just convictions. ALL TARGETS MUST HAVE A CRIMINAL NEXUS.” Under former President Joe Biden, ICE officers were required to focus on serious criminals, but the Trump administration rescinded that policy, allowing officers to arrest non-criminals without restrictions. ICE officers can run license plate checks for possible targets and should make an arrest if the registered owner of the vehicle is an immigrant with a criminal history, the guidance said. ICE will run the Minnesota operation with Border Patrol in a support role, it said, a reversal after months of Bovino-led clashes in city streets. The guidance states that ICE has been getting more cooperation from state and local officials in Minnesota, and that the agency could have more opportunities to pick up immigrants released on parole or probation.

New York Times [1/28/2026 8:45 AM, Max Bearak and Ali Watkins, 135475K] reports Ecuador’s foreign ministry said it lodged a formal diplomatic protest with the United States after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent attempted to enter the country’s consulate in Minneapolis without permission on Tuesday morning. Employees of the consulate stopped the agent from entering, the Ecuadorean foreign ministry said in a statement Tuesday night. Under the Vienna Conventions, to which the United States is a party, foreign consular buildings are off-limits to law enforcement from the host country without authorization from consular officials. The incident comes amid an aggressive federal immigration crackdown in Minnesota that has prompted an outpouring of anger in the state and across the country. Video footage verified by The New York Times shows a member of staff rushing to an entrance to the consulate, where an agent appears to have opened the door. The employee can be heard saying, “This is the Ecuadorean consulate, you’re not allowed to enter.” The agent responds by saying, “If you touch me, I’ll grab you.” The consulate, in Northeast Minneapolis, has a clearly marked facade emblazoned with Ecuador’s national seal. The Ecuadorean foreign ministry said it had lodged its complaint with the American Embassy in Ecuador “so that acts of this nature don’t happen again.” The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment.

Reported similarly:
The Hill [1/28/2026 10:21 AM, Max Rego, 12595K]

Reuters [1/28/2026 5:28 PM, Jack Queen, 36480K] reports U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has complied with a Minnesota federal judge’s order to release a wrongly detained Ecuadorean man, averting an in-person contempt of court hearing for its acting director. Ecuadorean citizen Juan Tobay Robles was released on Tuesday, his lawyer said. His release means that acting ICE director Todd Lyons is no longer required to make an extraordinary appearance in Minnesota federal court to explain his agency’s failure to comply with dozens of court orders during President Donald Trump’s controversial immigration enforcement surge. Chief U.S. District Judge Patrick J. Schiltz of Minnesota on Monday ordered Lyons to appear in court on Friday unless ICE released Robles. Schiltz criticized ICE for repeatedly flouting court orders and sending thousands of immigration agents to Minnesota "without making any provision for dealing with" the hundreds of legal actions that were sure to result. Schiltz on Wednesday canceled the hearing, which could have been damaging to ICE and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as they grapple with lawsuits and the fallout of two fatal shootings of U.S. citizens by ICE agents in Minnesota.

USA Today [1/28/2026 3:41 PM, Trevor Hughes, 67103K] repots bookstore owner Greg Ketter is mad as hell and he’s not going to take it anymore. And if that leads to more departures of federal immigration agents from his beloved city, well, good. Ketter, the longtime and otherwise mild-mannered owner of Dream Haven Books & Comics on E. 38th St, went viral after a Jan. 24 video captured him swearing angrily after walking through a billowing cloud of tear gas deployed by federal immigration agents shortly after they shot and killed Minneapolis ICU nurse Alex Pretti. Ketter didn’t know Pretti, but he’d previously attended anti-ICE demonstrations around the city, and when he heard about the shooting, he drove down to Nicollet Avenue to join the growing crowd. "I’m just angry," Ketter blurted after a bystander asked him if he was OK after walking through the tear gas. "I’m 70 years old and I’m f******* angry.". In a beanie and plaid jacket, black scarf wrapped around his neck, Ketter for an instant embodied the frustration and sadness and anger felt by many Twin City residents ‒ and millions more Americans ‒ at the aggressive immigration enforcement unleashed by President Donald Trump. (For the record, Ketter is actually 69 but got so flustered he said 70.). "They just killed him," Ketter said to the camera, his voice caught in his throat, speaking of Pretti. Two days after immigration enforcers killed Pretti and tear-gassed the subsequent assembly, Ketter included, Trump replaced the leader of Operation Metro Surge, Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino. Speaking to reporters on Jan. 27, Trump called Bovino "pretty out there" and said he wants to deescalate the conflicts. Tens of thousands of Minnesotans have been demonstrating and protesting across the city for weeks, and Pretti’s killing inflamed a city already angry at the Jan. 7 killing of mother Renee Good under similar circumstances.

The Hill [1/28/2026 12:34 PM, Ryan Mancini, 12595K] reports a federal judge has temporarily blocked the removal of a 5-year-old boy and his father detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Minnesota last week, when the boy was claimed to have been used as “bait” to detain his father. U.S. Judge Fred Biery’s Monday ruling to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem, Attorney General Pam Bondi and other officials also ordered they cannot transfer 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father Adrian Conejo Arias “outside of this judicial district during the pendency of this litigation and until further Order of this Court.” Both are being held at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Dilley, Texas. The father and son came home in Columbia Heights, Minn., from Ramos’s preschool when masked officers approached them in their driveway, Columbia Heights Public School District Superintendent Zena Stenvik told Minnesota Public Radio last week. “Another adult living in the home was outside and begged the agents to let him take care of the small child, and was refused,” Stenvik said. “Instead, the agent took the child out of the still-running car, led him to the door and directed him to knock on the door asking to be let in in order to see if anyone else was home, essentially using a 5-year-old as bait.” The DHS claimed Arias tried to run before he was arrested. “For the child’s safety, one of our ICE officers remained with the child while the other officers apprehended Conejo Arias,” DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. She said Arias was from Ecuador and “RELEASED into the U.S. by the Biden administration,” adding that officers “did NOT target a child.” Stenvik told Minnesota Public Radio the family had no orders for deportation due to an “active asylum case,” with paperwork that she said she has seen “with my own eyes.”

ABC News [1/28/2026 5:44 PM, Leah Sarnoff, 30493K] reports law enforcement deployed tear gas during a clash with protesters outside a Texas detention facility on Wednesday, where a 5-year-old boy and his father are being held. At least two protesters were detained, according to ABC News’ San Antonio affiliate KSAT. Both U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents and Texas Department of Public Safety troopers were on the scene during the protest, according to KSAT. The protest took place on the same day that Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, met with 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Alexander, at the center. The father and son were detained on Jan. 20 as part of the federal government’s ongoing immigration crackdown in Minnesota. The Department of Homeland Security said at the time that "ICE conducted a targeted operation to arrest Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, an illegal alien from Ecuador who was RELEASED into the U.S. by the Biden administration." DHS’ account differed from what the family’s attorney and school officials said occurred. A federal judge in Texas on Monday temporarily blocked the removal of Alexander and Ramos, saying that the father and son cannot be removed from the district in Texas pending the habeas case challenging their detention. At the time of their detention, they had a pending asylum case but no order of deportation directing that they be removed from the United States.

Reported similarly:
AP [1/28/2026 3:31 PM, Valerie Gonzalez, Eric Gay and Bill Barrow, 31753K]
CBS News [1/28/2026 6:29 PM, Staff, 39474K] Video: HERE

AP [1/28/2026 6:15 PM, Eric Gay, 19051K] reports Texas state police deployed pepper balls to disperse protesters outside the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, where 5-year-old Ecuadorian Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, are being held. Demonstrators against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown rallied outside the facility, banging drums, chanting and holding signs reading “Children are not criminals!” [Editorial note: consult photos at source link]

FOX News [1/28/2026 2:39 PM, Ashley Carnahan, 40621K] reports an Ecuadoran man was released by immigration authorities on Tuesday, one day after a federal judge said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had failed to comply with a court order requiring a bond hearing. Graham Ojala-Barbour, an attorney for Juan Hugo Tobay Robles, told Fox News Digital that Robles was released from detention in Texas. Chief U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz said in a three-page ruling on Monday that ICE had failed to comply with a Jan. 14 court order requiring a bond hearing for Robles within seven days. The order also stated that Robles must be immediately released if ICE failed to provide the hearing. Schiltz wrote that the failure was part of a broader pattern, saying the agency had disregarded dozens of court orders in recent weeks, causing significant hardship for detainees, including prolonged detention and forced transfers. He said the court’s patience was "at an end," and ordered Todd Lyons, the acting ICE director, to appear in person and explain why he should not be held in contempt. "The Court acknowledges that ordering the head of a federal agency to personally appear is an extraordinary step, but the extent of ICE’s violation of court orders is likewise extraordinary, and lesser measures have been tried and failed," the judge wrote. Because Robles has since been released, the court said Lyons will no longer be required to appear.

FOX News [1/28/2026 6:20 PM, Staff, 40621K] Video: HERE reports Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, discusses ongoing protests against I.C.E., the political rhetoric surrounding immigration and shows a video of an I.C.E. facility for children, refuting claims of poor conditions on ‘The Will Cain Show.’

CNN [1/28/2026 2:57 PM, Alisha Ebrahimji, 18595K] reports June 1 began as an ordinary day for Habiba Soliman: Her mother was doing some work in a cafe, her brother Omar was on an afternoon hike with friends, and she was babysitting her 8-year-old sister and 4-year-old twin siblings at home. Then the teenager, 17 at the time, saw police cars swarm her neighborhood, she wrote in a statement. Confusion grew as her father’s phone rang at home, even though he was supposed to be at work, Habiba wrote. When her mother, Hayam El Gamal, arrived home, she was escorted by authorities to the police station. According to her statement, Habiba and her brother Omar, alarmed by the seriousness of the situation, dug through local news headlines until they found one about their father and they couldn’t believe their eyes. Mohamed Sabry Soliman had allegedly attacked demonstrators in Boulder, Colorado at a Jewish event supporting Israeli hostages in Gaza with a homemade flamethrower and Molotov cocktails, according to federal prosecutors. The attack wounded at least 29 people and an 82-year-old woman later died from her injuries. He’s facing more than 100 charges related to the incident, including murder. Soliman pleaded not guilty to state charges, and his attorney asked for a jury trial slated to begin in the summer. He also pleaded not guilty to the federal hate crime charges. The Egyptian man told detectives after he was arrested that “no one” knew about his attack plans and that “he never talked to his wife or family about it,” according to the affidavit for his arrest. El Gamal also said she and her children were unaware of his plans. Despite that declaration, Soliman’s wife and children were detained and transferred to the South Texas Family Residential Center, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Dilley, Texas. El Gamal previously said immigration officers told them they were “being punished” with detainment for the crimes of which her husband is accused. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told CNN last week the agency is “investigating to what extent his family knew about this heinous attack, if they had knowledge of it, or if they provided support to it,” echoing the same message DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said shortly after the June attack. Now, the family, including four minors, is fighting a difficult and complex battle both in immigration court and inside the detention center. In a phone interview with CNN from the facility, the family described what they call grim conditions: despondent children, denial of critical medical care, and inadequate nutrition – concerns also raised by other families at the Dilley center.

CNN [1/28/2026 5:35 PM, Jacqueline Howard, 18595K] reports the US Department of Homeland Security says a person in detention at an Arizona Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility has measles, a highly contagious virus that can cause high fevers and a distinctive rash. Earlier this month, "the Arizona Public Health Department confirmed an active measles infection of a Mexican national detainee housed at the Florence Detention Center," a DHS spokesperson said in an email Wednesday. "ICE Health Services Corp immediately took steps to quarantine and control further spread and infection, ceasing all movement within the facility and quarantining all individuals suspected of making contact with the infected," the email said. The Florence Detention Center is located in Pinal County, Arizona, and since that initial case, two additional measles cases have been identified in the county. Since the start of this year, 25 measles cases have been reported across the state of Arizona.

Axios [1/28/2026 1:43 PM, Kale Williams, 12972K] reports that two city councilors are pressing Mayor Keith Wilson to take more urgent action to penalize federal immigration agencies for violating city codes. Driving the news: Councilors Angelita Morillo and Mitch Green called on Wilson to enforce a new law that imposes fees on entities like U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement when they deploy chemical agents that impact surrounding neighborhoods. The agency has used tear gas on protesters multiple times at its South Portland facility since the law went into effect this month, per the Oregonian. State of play: Morillo and Green wrote in a letter that ICE was in clear violation of the code and asked Wilson to develop the mechanisms necessary to enforce the new law. They asked Wilson to make sure the city is investigating and documenting all uses of chemical munitions at the facility, using existing nuisance codes to "act on harmful conduct" at the facility and publicize ways the public can lodge complaints. Between the lines: The facility has seen near-nightly protests for months, with an uptick since federal agents killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis and wounded two people in Portland this month.

AP [1/28/2026 1:54 PM, Cayla Mihalovich and Maya C. Miller, 31753K] reports that California Democratic senators advanced a measure Tuesday that would make it easier for people to sue federal agents over civil rights violations, a bill shaped by fears of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement practices. The bill from Sens. Scott Wiener and Aisha Wahab, both Bay Area Democrats, took on additional significance after federal agents gunned down Alex Pretti, a U.S. citizen and ICU nurse, in Minnesota last weekend. Senators discussed the measure on the floor for more than 90 minutes before voting along party lines, 30 to 10, to send it to the Assembly. "It’s a sad statement on where we are in this country that this has to be a partisan issue," Wiener said just before the vote on his bill, which is also known as the "No Kings Act". "Red, blue, everyone has constitutional rights. And everyone should have the ability to hold people accountable when they violate those rights." It’s among several bills lawmakers are moving forward in the new year to confront an escalation of aggressive immigration enforcement tactics and to protect immigrant communities. They include bills that would tax for-profit detention companies, prohibit law enforcement officers from moonlighting as federal agents and attempt to curb courthouse arrests. Those efforts follow a slate of legislation signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom last year to resist the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign in California, including a first-in-the nation measure to prohibit officers from wearing masks and others that limit their access to schools and hospitals.

Yahoo News [1/28/2026 2:37 PM, Dani Anguiano, 49624K] reports US Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) agents are expected to conduct immigration enforcement operations during next month’s Super Bowl game in Santa Clara, California. Local officials confirmed to media that ICE is expected to deploy for the game between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots. ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations team has long worked the Super Bowl and other major sporting events, largely focused on preventing human trafficking and stopping the sale of counterfeit goods, but immigration operations would be unusual. "We have heard from the administration that they intend to have ICE at the Super Bowl. I don’t know how much of that is rhetoric," Matt Mahan, the San Jose mayor, told KTVU. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) declined to confirm reports about operations around Levi’s Stadium on 8 February, writing in a statement that the agency does "not disclose future operations or discuss personnel". "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," said DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin, adding that security for the event would include a response "conducted in-line with the US constitution". "Those who are here legally and are not breaking other laws have nothing to fear.". Corey Lewandowski, an adviser to the DHS secretary, Kristi Noem, announced last fall that agents would conduct operations during the Super Bowl. "There is nowhere that you can provide safe haven to people who are in this country illegally, not the Super Bowl, and nowhere else," Lewandowski said on the Benny Johnson podcast. "We will find you, we will apprehend you, we will put you in a detention facility and we will deport you.". Noem also confirmed ICE operations at the game during an interview with that same podcaster. "We’ll be all over that place," she said. "We’re gonna enforce the law so I think people should not be coming to the Super Bowl unless they are law-abiding Americans who love this country.". The agency has collaborated with the NFL for two decades, according to a DHS statement, and sent nearly 700 employees to New Orleans last year to aid in security for the event, and "intellectual property enforcement".

Telemundo52 [1/28/2026 5:13 PM, Elizabeth Chavolla, 76K] reports authorities were investigating an altercation Wednesday in Santa Barbara between community members and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents that resulted in one person being pepper-sprayed, police said. The incident was reported around 7:17 a.m. in the area of ​​Salinas Street and Carpinteria Street, where it was confirmed that the group consisted of community members and ICE agents, according to the Santa Barbara Police Department. During the investigation, police were informed that a subject was allegedly pushed by an ICE agent and that another person was pepper-sprayed before the officers arrived. The officers attempted to de-escalate the situation, and subsequently, the ICE agents withdrew from the area. The person exposed to the pepper spray was treated at the scene by the city’s Fire Department, authorities said. The Santa Barbara Police Department reported that no arrests were made and that their involvement was limited to coordinating medical assistance, gathering information, and managing traffic.

Univision [1/28/2026 3:06 PM, Staff, 5004K] reports fear and outrage gripped the Lynwood community after a series of ICE raids on Tuesday morning, January 27, at various locations throughout the city. According to reports, at least two interventions by federal agents occurred less than two hours apart, generating alarm among residents who claim not to have seen operations of this type in years. The first confirmed raid occurred around 10:00 a.m., at the intersection of Atlantic Avenue and McMillan Street. Images recorded by witnesses show federal agents taking a man away, although the identity of the person detained has not yet been confirmed, nor whether he was a resident of the area. However, that wasn’t the only incident. At approximately 8:40 a.m., about two miles away, another raid was recorded and captured by a surveillance camera at an apartment complex. So far, no official details have been released regarding the number of people arrested or the specific reasons for the operations.

San Diego Union Tribune [1/28/2026 6:46 PM, Alexandra Mendoza, 1538K] reports the county Board of Supervisors approved an ordinance Tuesday that restricts federal immigration agents from accessing non-public areas on county property — such as offices, construction sites and storage facilities — without a judicial warrant or court order. The Civil Liberties Enforcement and Accountability Rules, or CLEAR, ordinance passed 3-1, its final vote after being first proposed in October. Supervisors Terra Lawson-Remer, Paloma Aguirre and Monica Montgomery Steppe were in favor, while Jim Desmond voted no and Joel Anderson was absent. The ordinance, which officials said will take effect in 30 days, is based on one that the San Diego City Council unanimously approved in October, introduced by Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera. Board Chair Lawson-Remer, who spearheaded the county ordinance, acknowledged Elo-Rivera’s partnership in bringing “an ordinance across our community that could protect residents at a time when fear is rising.” “We all want law enforcement to keep our community safe,” she said. “But when families are afraid to go into a clinic, or report a crime, or walk into a county office, that makes everyone less safe and weakens public health, and it makes our entire community feel under threat.” The ordinance clarifies existing rules and ensures they are upheld by county contractors, grantees and leaseholders. To inform visitors of these rights, the ordinance requires that signage be posted in multiple languages at the entrances to county facilities. “NOTICE: This facility is protected by the San Diego Due Process and Safety Ordinance. Non-public areas may not be accessed by federal agents, out-of-state law enforcement, or private enforcement actors unless they present a judicially issued warrant or court order. You have the constitutional right to decline to speak with any such individuals without legal representation,” the signage will read.

AP [1/28/2026 5:40 PM, Jeremy Hay, 31753K] reports in the wake of two killings of protesters by federal agents and amid bitter national debate over immigration enforcement, Gov. Josh Green said Tuesday he’d welcome action by the state Legislature to fast-track legislation protecting immigrants. Green said he’d "love to have bills come to me as fast as can be" and added that seeing much of the Legislature’s leadership together at the rally gave him hope that it could happen. Leading state lawmakers were caught off guard by Green’s remarks when asked about them a few hours later at a public Civil Beat forum previewing the 2026 legislative session. The previous day, following his state of the state address, Green had struck a different tone, saying he could "stand up" for Hawaii values without taking too adversarial an approach. Among bills introduced again this session are one that would essentially prohibit local law enforcement officers from cooperating with immigration authorities. Another would limit agents’ access to so-called "safe places" such as schools, medical facilities, courthouses and libraries.

New York Times [1/28/2026 10:01 PM, Carol Rosenberg, 135475K] reports dozens of Cuban men designated for deportation from the United States have been stranded at the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, since before Christmas in one of the most puzzling episodes in the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration. The men were rounded up in the United States last year and in some instances thought they were being sent to the capital, Havana. Instead, they wound up at the U.S. military base in southeast Cuba. But in a cruel twist of fate, their arrival brought them no closer to being released. Cuba restricts air travel between the base and the rest of the island, so U.S. immigration agents will have to shuttle the men back to the United States before turning them over to Cuban authorities. The Cubans — about 50 men who range in age from their 20s to about 50 — were being housed in a prison that previously held suspected members of Al Qaeda, according to people familiar with the operation who were not authorized to discuss it publicly. “Some of the Cubans there now thought they were agreeing to be deported and were shocked when they landed at Guantánamo,” said Lee Gelernt of the American Civil Liberties Union, which has been challenging the deportation detention operation. Officials did not respond to questions about why the administration chose these men in particular to be held at Guantánamo from among the tens of thousands in the United States awaiting deportation. The tale of the Cubans who are trapped in the U.S. controlled corner of their homeland illustrates the Trump administration’s inefficient and expensive operation that emerged from President Trump’s order on Jan. 29, 2025, his ninth day in office, to prepare Guantánamo to hold up to 30,000 “criminal aliens” being removed from the United States. In response, the military hastily put up rows of tents, then tore them down months later, never occupied, and has since developed a plan to hold at most 300 Immigration and Customs Enforcement prisoners in two secure buildings. Now, a year later, about 780 men have been held at base — not the 30,000 Mr. Trump imagined, according to a timeline maintained by New York Times. The administration has not provided proof that most of them had criminal records. The Pentagon and Homeland Security Department have spent undisclosed millions of dollars establishing the deportation center, chartering planes, retrofitting facilities and deploying hundreds of troops and ICE agents for an operation that periodically housed no migrants. In fact, the ICE facilities at Guantánamo had been empty for weeks when agents suddenly transferred 22 Cubans there on Dec. 14 from a holding site in Alexandria, La. Government officials were saying the plan was to load those men onto a plane, fly them to a U.S. airport, probably in Puerto Rico, then on to Havana, a workaround from the ban on direct flights. Mysteriously, that never happened.

Washington Post [1/28/2026 4:04 PM, Anthony Faiola, Tobi Raji and Rick Maese, 24149K] reports a routine deployment of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to Italy to assist with security around next month’s Winter Olympics has raised the ire of locals, including the mayor of Milan, a key host city. “ICE’s image is terrible,” Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala said in an interview with The Washington Post on Wednesday. The agents in Italy for the Milan-Cortina Winter Games are not set to conduct immigration enforcement operations, Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. They are part of Homeland Security Investigations, meant to help Italian security and the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service “vet and mitigate risks from transnational criminal organizations,” she said. But President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown — including a wide-scale federal immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis that has drawn sharp backlash, especially in recent weeks after federal agents fatally shot two U.S. citizens — has evoked outrage among critics in Italy and around the globe. The presence of ICE under any circumstances, however routine, no longer passes without notice. On Saturday, Italy’s interior minister, Matteo Piantedosi, said he was unaware of any impending arrival of ICE agents, though he said ICE “will never operate in Italy.” On Tuesday, however, and after a conversation with U.S. Ambassador Tilman J. Fertitta, Piantedosi said that if ICE agents were present, they would “solely be responsible for risk assessment and information exchange with the Italian police; they won’t be operational.” Sala said ICE posed a political “problem.” “I’m sure that the Milanese are unhappy with having this sort of militia” here, “which kills people in the U.S., entering houses without permission,” he said, referring to recent events in Minneapolis. Of the Italian government, he asked: “Is it possible that you could say ‘no’ once to Mr. Trump? Once! Quite simply.” The Winter Olympics are a sprawling affair that typically involve a variety of law enforcement agencies, sent in from countries around the world. The Milan-Cortina Games are a logistical puzzle, as competitions are being staged primarily in three distinct clusters — one in Milan, one in Cortina d’Ampezzo in the northeast part of the country, and a third in the mountains around Bormio and Livigno in northern Italy. “All security operations on Italian territory remain under the exclusive responsibility and direction of the Italian authorities,” the organizing committee for the Milan-Cortina Games said in a statement Wednesday. The committee helps facilitate coordination and “needs identified by the competent authorities.”.

AP [1/29/2026 1:35 AM, Sudhin Thanawala, 31753K] reports a federal appeals court ruled late Wednesday that the Trump administration acted illegally when it ended legal protections that gave hundreds of thousands of people from Venezuela permission to live and work in the United States. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling that found Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem exceeded her authority when she ended temporary protected status for Venezuelans. The decision, however, will not have any immediate practical effect after the U.S. Supreme Court in October allowed Noem’s decision to take effect pending a final decision by the justices. An email late Wednesday night to the Department of Homeland Security was not immediately returned. The 9th Circuit panel also upheld the lower court’s finding that Noem exceeded her authority when she decided to end TPS early for hundreds of thousands of people from Haiti. A federal judge in Washington is expected to rule any day now on a request to pause the termination of TPS for Haiti while a separate lawsuit challenging it proceeds. The country’s TPS designation is scheduled to end on February 3. Ninth Circuit Judges Kim Wardlaw, Salvador Mendoza, Jr. and Anthony Johnstone said in Wednesday’s ruling that the TPS legislation passed by Congress did not give the secretary the power to vacate an existing TPS designation. All three judges were nominated by Democratic presidents. “The statute contains numerous procedural safeguards that ensure individuals with TPS enjoy predictability and stability during periods of extraordinary and temporary conditions in their home country,” Wardlaw, who was nominated by President Bill Clinton, wrote for the panel. Wardlaw said Noem’s “unlawful actions have had real and significant consequences” for Venezuelans and Haitians in the United States who rely on TPS.

FOX News [1/28/2026 3:29 PM, Charles Creitz, 40621K] reports the United States is experiencing negative net migration, according to figures released by the Census Bureau on Wednesday, to the approval of the Trump administration. The Department of Homeland Security jumped on the news, saying in a statement that its mass deportation efforts had helped achieve that apparent administration goal. The White House celebrated the goal of "negative net migration" in an official statement in August. Like DHS, Trump credited his ultimately correct projection to the end of the "migrant invasion" and to mass deportation operations commenced under Secretary Kristi Noem. Around that time, Noem boasted of 1.6 million illegal immigrants who "left" the U.S. within the first 200 days of Trump’s term. Supporters have said the mass deportation agenda has led to self-deportation, which could account for that particular prose. During a visit to Arizona last year, border czar Tom Homan said 90% of asylum seekers will end up with an order of removal because of a fraudulent claim.

New York Post [1/29/2026 12:48 AM, Victor Nava, 42219K] reports rap queen Nicki Minaj revealed Wednesday that she has acquired President Trump’s immigration "gold card" and is on her way to obtaining US citizenship. Minaj flashed the "Trump Gold Card," which is emblazoned with the president’s face, a bald eagle and the Statue of Liberty, in a post on X with the caption, "Welp…". "Residency? Residency? The cope is coping," the "Super Bass" singer elaborated in a subsequent post. "Finalizing that citizenship paperwork as we speak as per MY wonderful, gracious, charming President.” "Gold Trump card free of charge," Minaj added, suggesting the Treasury Department waived the $1 million price tag for the card. The card allows foreigners to become instantly eligible for permanent residency status. After five years, card-carrying residents can apply for full citizenship. Several years ago, Minaj revealed that she was brought to the US illegally as a child. "I came to this country as an illegal immigrant @ 5 years old," the Trinidad-born hip hop star wrote in a 2018 Facebook post. Minaj flaunted her gold card just hours after she proclaimed herself to be Trump’s "number one fan" at a Treasury Department event, which the president also attended. "I am probably the president’s number one fan, and that’s not going to change," she said at the summit, touting Trump’s new investment accounts for children, which Minaj has pledged to help fund. "And the hate or what people have to say, it does not affect me at all," the Grammy-nominated "Anaconda" hitmaker continued. "It actually motivates me to support him more." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CBS Miami [1/28/2026 6:12 PM, Marybel Rodriguez, 39474K] Video: HERE reports faith leaders, nursing home workers, and hotel employees holding signs and chanting joined airport staff at Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport on Wednesday, all with one common goal. They are asking the Trump administration to extend Haitian Temporary Protected Status, which is set to expire Feb. 3. The group marched outside the airport and ended with a prayer and candlelight vigil for the 350,000 Haitian nationals affected across the country. More than 100,000 of them live in South Florida. "I wanted to live the American dream, and now they’re stripping it away from me. That is unfair," said Farah Larrieux, a Haitian TPS recipient. Larrieux is also a business owner who has been in the United States since 2005. Before the march, the group gathered for a rally. "This is unjust to tell people to go back to a country," Larrieux said. "It is so hard for them to leave, and for some of them it is a death sentence to go back to Haiti." Congresswomen Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Sheila Cherfilus‑McCormick were also there to show their support. "I come here today to beg not because I don’t have pride, but because the Haitian people are suffering so much they have asked me to," Cherfilus‑McCormick said.

CBS News [1/28/2026 5:48 PM, Ken Molestina, 39474K] reports Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is sending a strong directive to all state agencies, including public universities: stop petitioning for H-1B visas for foreign-born workers. The governor’s directive is re-igniting debate over whether Texas is welcoming to those from abroad. U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) data shows at least 2,400 visas were approved in 2025 for educational services employees of publicly funded institutions. That number doesn’t just include teachers; it also includes other school employees, as well as employees of science and health research centers. The other part of the directive is that all H-1B visa programs in the state be reviewed for possible misuse.

Wall Street Journal [1/28/2026 7:10 PM, James T. Areddy, 646K] reports a federal immigration judge on Wednesday granted U.S. asylum to a Chinese citizen who fled his homeland after gathering evidence of alleged human-rights violations against China’s Uyghur population. News last month that Heng Guan had been detained in upstate New York by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement sparked an outcry of support for him from members of Congress, human-rights groups and the State Department. Beijing denies widespread evidence of abuses against the mostly Muslim ethnic Uyghur population and takes a hard line on critics of its policies, which raised fears that Guan could face severe punishment by China for his citizen-journalism if forced out of the U.S. The Department of Homeland Security has the right to appeal the decision within 30 days so Guan remains in a New York detention center for now, said his lawyer, Chuangchuang Chen. An email to ICE requesting comment on the decision wasn’t immediately answered.

Reported similarly:
Breitbart [1/28/2026 10:29 PM, Staff, 2416K]

The Hill [1/28/2026 10:11 AM, Sophie Brams, 12595K] reports a man accused of being involved in a human trafficking operation was shot and injured by a U.S. Border Patrol agent Tuesday near the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona, according to authorities. Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said agents attempted to stop a truck near Arivaca, Ariz., about 10 miles north of the border, around 7:20 a.m. MST but the driver instead fled. “The agent, the Border Patrol agent chased after him on foot. Shortly thereafter, shots were fired from the suspect and the agent returned fire,” Nanos said during a news conference. The FBI identified the suspect as Patrick Gary Schlegel, a 34-year-old Arizona resident. As agents were pursuing him, Schlegel fired at a crewed Customs and Border Protection (CBP) helicopter that was flying above, said Heith Janke, the special agent in charge of the FBI Phoenix field office. Schlegel was injured and taken to the hospital, where officials said Tuesday he was in “serious and stable condition.” No injuries to law enforcement were reported. He was taken into federal custody and is expected to face three criminal charges, according to Janke: assault on a federal officer, alien smuggling, and felon in possession of a firearm. Officials said Schlegel has a “significant criminal history,” including an active federal arrest warrant issued last year for escape related to a previous “federal alien smuggling conviction.” The Department of Homeland Security confirmed in a statement to The Hill’s partner outlet, NewsNation, that Tuesday’s shooting is being investigated by the CBP Office of Professional Responsibility, the FBI and Pima County Sheriff’s Department.

AP [1/28/2026 1:19 PM, Deborah Brennan, 31753K] reports that the city of San Diego is suing the federal government for building razor wire fencing on city land near the Mexican border, arguing that the fence damages sensitive habitat and trespasses on city property. The lawsuit, filed with the federal Southern District Court on Jan. 5, names the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Defense, along with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other federal officials. It argues that U.S. Marines illegally entered city land in December and built fences in Marron Valley, east of Otay Mountain. The fences caused "irreparable harm to protected plant and wildlife habitats, riparian areas, and vernal pools" the city argued, saying the fence blocks city access to the site and jeopardizes conservation programs designed to protect that habitat. The city is asking the court to halt any more fence construction and declare the city’s right to ownership and use of the land. "The City of San Diego will not allow federal agencies to disregard the law and damage city property," City Attorney Heather Ferbert said in a statement. "We are taking decisive action to protect sensitive habitats, uphold environmental commitments, and ensure that the rights and resources of our community are respected." The Department of Defense declined to comment, citing pending litigation. The Department of Homeland Security didn’t respond to questions from CalMatters, and neither agency has filed responses to the lawsuit yet.

The New York Times [1/28/2026 3:08 PM, Scott Dance, 135475K] reports a coalition of unions, scientific groups and local governments filed a lawsuit on Tuesday seeking to block the Federal Emergency Management Agency from cutting its staff, arguing that, by doing so, agency leaders are violating laws mandating that FEMA maintain capabilities to respond to disasters. The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, seeks to block the dismissals of hundreds of contract workers at FEMA that began at the start of the year. About 1,000 employees were expected to lose their jobs this month, although the agency paused the cuts last week in anticipation of a winter storm that raged across the country, according to internal FEMA emails reviewed by The New York Times. The lawsuit also asks a judge to prevent FEMA leaders from carrying out plans to eliminate about half of the agency’s work force, which this month stood at about 23,000. Documents reviewed by The Times detailed potential cuts of more than 11,500 jobs, but Daniel Llargués, a FEMA spokesman, said it was part of “a routine, pre-decisional work force planning exercise” and that there was no “percentage-based work force reduction plan.” The suit was filed as an amendment to one of a series of earlier complaints about broad cuts to the federal work force last spring. The Hill [1/28/2026 11:01 AM, Rachel Frazin, 12595K] reports that the court filing said that FEMA management was directed to plan for a 50 percent staffing cut and that a spreadsheet attached to the email called for a 15 percent cut for “Permanent Fulltime” staff, a 41 percent for “Disaster Fulltime” staff and an 85 percent cut in “Surge Workforce.” CNN previously reported on the spreadsheet. At that time, a spokesperson for the DHS said the target numbers were included in error and that “numerical assumptions reflected in that draft were not approved, were not adopted, and do not represent FEMA policy or leadership direction.” The Hill has reached out to DHS and FEMA for comment. The court filing, meanwhile, alleges that staffing reductions are already underway at FEMA. It said that on New Year’s Eve, some employees who are part of FEMA’s Cadre of On-Call Response/Recovery Employees (CORE) received notices that their positions would not be renewed. While just 65 people received these notices, between 900 and 1,000 employees have renewal dates in January. It said that nonrenewals of these employees are not routine. The groups ask the court to block DHS from imposing the 50 percent reduction target and prevent it from taking away FEMA’s authority not to renew the workforce.

Federal News Network [1/28/2026 4:51 PM, Justin Doubleday, 986K] reports the new suit alleges the staffing cuts violate laws that restrict DHS’s authority to make sweeping overhauls and staff reductions at FEMA. A coalition of unions and nonprofits is challenging cuts to staff at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, alleging they violate laws that restrict the Department of Homeland Security’s ability to make sweeping changes at FEMA. Their court challenge filed Tuesday evening alleges DHS and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem are breaking the law by directing the termination of hundreds of FEMA employees. The complaint alleges those actions violate the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006, which gave FEMA more autonomy and restricts the DHS secretary’s ability to make sweeping overhauls and staff reductions at the emergency management agency. FEMA earlier this month began shedding staff by not renewing the contracts of hundreds of Cadre of On-Call Emergency Response, Recovery Employees (CORE). Multiple sources have indicated that DHS headquarters and Noem herself are now in charge of approving CORE renewals. FEMA reportedly paused those non-renewals temporarily last week in response to Winter Storm Fern.

AP [1/29/2026 12:06 AM, Gabriela Aoun Angueira, 19051K] reports the Federal Emergency Management Agency would have enough money to respond to the massive winter storm still impacting large swaths of the U.S. even if a partial government shutdown begins at midnight Friday, experts and former FEMA officials said, despite Trump administration warnings to the contrary. FEMA would have about $7 billion to $8 billion in its Disaster Relief Fund, even if the money Congress appropriated for the fund in the November spending bill that ended the longest-ever government shutdown were to expire Friday at midnight, according to two people familiar with the matter. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss FEMA funding with the media. Experts said the remaining balance should be enough to limit impacts on the winter storm response, at least in the short term. “They have enough money for winter storm recovery and anything else likely to come up in the next few weeks,” said Sarah Labowitz, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and author of the Disaster Dollar Database, which tracks federal disaster spending. FEMA falls under the Department of Homeland Security, one of several departments whose funding for fiscal year 2026 depends on the Senate passing a spending package that the House already approved. After federal immigration officers killed a Minneapolis man Saturday, some Senate Democrats are demanding restrictions on the administration’s mass deportations agenda in any DHS funding bill, a stand that increases the prospect of a partial government shutdown by the end of the week. Trump administration officials have cited the storm and FEMA’s response to it as a reason to avoid a shutdown. “We are in the midst of the winter 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,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Monday. DHS did not respond to requests for comment. The Disaster Relief Fund pays for FEMA’s disaster response and recovery efforts and the staff who work on them. That work can continue unless the fund is in danger of running out. FEMA is supporting state-led responses to last weekend’s gigantic winter storm, which left hundreds of thousands of residents across multiple states without power and is tied to at least 70 deaths. President Donald Trump approved emergency declarations for 12 states, unlocking federal support for emergency measures and debris removal. The agency pre-positioned generators in states like Louisiana and Texas and is coordinating federal assistance for tasks like clearing fallen trees from roads in Mississippi and Tennessee. It’s unclear how many states if any will request major disaster declarations after they assess damages, which can help pay for repairs to critical infrastructure and financial assistance for impacted households through the Disaster Relief Fund. “The winter storm at this time is well within the capability of local communities and states,” said Michael Coen, former FEMA chief of staff in the Obama and Biden administrations.

The Hill [1/28/2026 6:04 PM, Ryan Mancini, 12595K] reports Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) on Wednesday called on President Trump to authorize $34 billion in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) aid to help the California communities ravaged by the Palisades fire recover more than one year after the disaster struck. Blumenthal, a ranking member of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, along with Chair Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and members Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), held a hearing focused on details surrounding the fire. He called on Johnson “to join me in asking the Trump administration to release that additional federal aid.” The chair later replied that the state’s FEMA request was only necessary “because of the utter incompetence and failure of Los Angeles and California elected officials,” and he argued the FEMA aid “should not be needed.” Republican members continued to point the blame at Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) and California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), asking the witnesses about where the disconnect occurred between fire officials and city leaders. The Palisades and Eaton fires killed 31 people and destroyed around 13,000 residential properties after it burned for more than three weeks. As of Jan. 7, one year after ashes from the Lachman fire lit up what became the Palisades fire, less than a dozen homes have been rebuilt in Los Angeles County, with around 900 under construction.

FOX Weather [1/28/2026 1:34 PM, Julian Atienza, 3739K] reports that U.S. Coast Guard cutters are busy trying to keep New York’s iced-over waterways moving, including freeing an NYPD Harbor Unit vessel that was beset by ice floes Tuesday. A displaced polar vortex parked over the eastern U.S. has helped usher in days of subfreezing temperatures and caused many parts of the Hudson River and New York Harbor — one of the busiest in the country — to freeze over. The Coast Guard Cutter Hawser broke the ice around a NYPD harbor vessel Tuesday, just off Pier 86 on the west side of Midtown Manhattan, the Coast Guard’s Northeast District wrote on a social media post. Ice could be heard crunching against the reinforced hull of the 65-foot-long Cutter Hawser. Thanks to the USCG Cutter Hawser’s small size, it is one of very few Coast Guard cutters capable of traveling through inland waterways from New York Harbor north to Lake Champlain near the Canadian border. The Coast Guard received a request from the NYPD to break the ice around the police department’s Hudson River facilities that were iced in, U.S. Coast Guard Captain Johnathan Andrechik told FOX Weather Meteorologists Marissa Torrres and Stephen Morgan on Weather Command Wednesday. Captain Andrechik said the Coast Guard was prepared for increased icing as temperatures are expected to stay at or below freezing for the next few weeks. "It’s certainly more ice than we saw last year, and it is a dynamic situation," Captain Andrechik said. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Reuters [1/28/2026 5:09 PM, Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart, 36480K] reports the United States is handing over a tanker to Venezuela that it seized this month, two U.S. officials told Reuters on Wednesday, the first known instance in which President Donald Trump’s administration has returned such a tanker. The United States has been carrying out a months-long effort to seize oil tankers linked to Venezuela - carrying out seven apprehensions since late last year. The officials, who were speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the tanker that is being handed to Venezuelan authorities was the Panama-flagged supertanker M/T Sophia. They did not say why the tanker was returned. The Sophia was interdicted on January 7 by the Coast Guard and U.S. military forces. At the time, the administration said the Sophia, which is under sanctions, was a "stateless, sanctioned dark fleet motor tanker."

Reported similarly:
NewsMax [1/28/2026 6:12 PM, Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart, 4109K]

FOX News [1/28/2026 7:30 AM, Kelly McGreal, 40621K] reports a cruise ship was trapped in thick sea ice on Saturday while sailing near Antarctica. The Scenic Eclipse II became stuck while sailing through the Ross Sea. It requested assistance after it was unable to break through the surrounding pack ice, the U.S. Coast Guard said in a press release. In footage shared by a member of the Coast Guard, USCGC Polar Star is seen breaking apart thick ice as it approaches the stranded vessel. After reaching the ship’s location, the Coast Guard icebreaker made multiple close passes through the surrounding ice to loosen the frozen pack. The Coast Guard said the Scenic Eclipse II contacted the icebreaker late Friday night after becoming trapped roughly eight miles from McMurdo Sound. Once freed, the cruise ship was escorted several miles to open water to ensure it could safely continue its voyage.

Daily Caller [1/28/2026 7:46 PM, Mariane Angela, 835K] reports the interim chief of the country’s cyber defense agency reportedly uploaded sensitive government records into a publicly accessible artificial intelligence platform last summer. Madhu Gottumukkala, who currently serves as interim director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), reportedly uploaded the material into a commercial version of ChatGPT despite the application being broadly restricted across Department of Homeland Security (DHS) systems at the time, according to Politico. The incident drew attention inside the department because Gottumukkala personally sought an exception to use the tool shortly after joining the agency in May, officials told Politico. The records were not classified, but they included agency contracting files designated for official use only, a label applied to sensitive information meant to remain within government channels, according to officials who requested anonymity due to fear of retaliation. Automated monitoring tools inside CISA detected the uploads in early August and issued repeated alerts intended to catch unauthorized disclosures of federal data, the officials said. Senior DHS leadership initiated an internal assessment to determine whether the exposure posed any risk to government operations. Officials said they were not informed of the review’s final determination. CISA spokesperson Marci McCarthy said in a statement that Gottumukkala received approval to access ChatGPT under specific DHS safeguards and described the usage as temporary and limited in scope. She added that the agency continues to pursue artificial intelligence adoption consistent with President Donald Trump’s directive to accelerate U.S. leadership in AI development. McCarthy said Gottumukkala last accessed ChatGPT in mid-July 2025 under a short-term authorization available to select personnel. She said DHS policy continues to restrict the platform by default unless officials grant an exception.

Bloomberg [1/28/2026 6:15 PM, Margi Murphy, 18207K] reports a wave of cyberattacks has hit Bumble Inc., Panera Bread Co., Match Group Inc., and CrunchBase Inc., as cybersecurity experts warn about a new round of social engineering attacks targeting US companies. Bumble Inc., the parent company of dating apps Bumble, Badoo and BFF, contacted law enforcement after one of its contractor’s accounts “was recently compromised in a phishing incident,” a spokesperson said. The hacker made “a brief unauthorized access to a small portion of our network,” the spokesperson said, adding that the company believes the access had ended. The hackers didn’t get into the company’s member database, member accounts, the Bumble application, direct messages or profiles, the spokesperson said. Similarly, Panera Bread said it had alerted law enforcement after identifying a cybersecurity incident and took steps to address it. A hacker accessed a software application Panera was using to store data, a spokesperson said. “The data involved is contact information,” the spokesperson said, without elaborating. Match also confirmed on Wednesday that it had suffered a cybersecurity incident affecting a “limited amount of user data,” and that it was in the process of notifying customers. A spokesperson said there was no indication that user log-in credentials, financial information or private communications were accessed.

CyberScoop [1/28/2026 5:30 PM, Matt Kapko, 122K] reports Fortinet customers are confronting another actively exploited zero-day vulnerability that allows attackers to bypass authentication in the single sign-on flow for FortiCloud and gain privileged access to multiple Fortinet firewall products and related services. The vendor issued a security advisory for the vulnerability — CVE-2026-24858 — warning that some instances of exploitation already occurred earlier this month. Fortinet has yet to release patches to address the critical vulnerability across multiple versions of its products, including FortiAnalyzer, FortiManager, FortiOS, FortiProxy and FortiWeb. Defects in Fortinet products are a recurring problem for the vendor’s customers and defenders, making 24 appearances on the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s known exploited vulnerabilities catalog since late 2021. One-third of those vulnerabilities made the list last year and 13 are known to be used in ransomware campaigns. The agency added the latest Fortinet defect, which has a CVSS rating of 9.8, to its known exploited vulnerabilities catalog Tuesday and shared Fortinet’s guidance in a subsequent alert Wednesday. The vulnerability, which allows attackers with a FortiCloud account and a registered device to log into devices registered to other accounts, was exploited by two malicious FortiCloud accounts that Fortinet said it blocked Jan. 22. Attackers have reconfigured firewall settings on FortiGate devices, created unauthorized accounts and changed virtual private network configurations to gain access to new accounts. The vendor said it disabled FortiCloud SSO Monday and re-enabled the service Tuesday with controls in place to prevent logins to devices running vulnerable software versions.

DefenseScoop [1/28/2026 5:30 PM, Jon Harper, 150K] reports Senior officials at the Defense Department say the Pentagon’s new cyber force generation model will help the military boot out Chinese threats from America’s critical infrastructure networks. A digital tactic known as “living off the land” has been a concern for U.S. officials in recent years as actors linked to China, such as Volt Typhoon, have infiltrated networks in the United States. “The Chinese have executed a deliberate campaign in order to compromise U.S. networks and then use native commands and native features inside those networks to move around to look like legitimate traffic. That makes it difficult for us to define those,” Army Lt. Gen. William Hartman, acting commander of U.S. Cyber Command and director of the National Security Agency, told lawmakers during a Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Cybersecurity hearing. “We have seen them in telecommunication systems. We’ve seen them in critical infrastructure. That’s the bad news. The good news is we see them and we report them, and we execute operations to get them out of those networks. And increasingly, as we build expertise under the Cybercom 2.0 program, it will allow us to do that more effectively,” Hartman said.

Wall Street Journal [1/28/2026 4:53 PM, Robert McMillan, 646K] reports Google has aimed a knockout blow at a massive cyber weapon that researchers say is running silently on millions of devices in the homes of consumers. On Wednesday, Google used a federal court order to get dozens of domains belonging to Ipidea removed from the internet, said Google, a unit of Alphabet. Google and security researchers say the mysterious Chinese company is an unsavory enterprise that sneaks unwanted and dangerous software on millions of phones, home computers and Android devices. Control of the domains allowed Google to both shut down the public websites and technical back-end of the company, which operates using more than a dozen brand names. Google has also taken steps to remove hundreds of apps affiliated with the company from Android devices, it said. The actions are expected to knock more than nine million Android devices off Ipidea’s network. They target a little known but important part of the internet that has increasingly worried cybersecurity experts. Called “residential proxy” networks, these online services are built out of apps that are installed on virtually any type of internet-connected device—among them media players, PCs and mobile phones. Companies such as Ipidea then rent out access to the devices to paying customers who want to use the internet anonymously. The businesses operate like Airbnbs for network bandwidth, except the people whose devices are being rented out often don’t realize what is happening.

NewsMax [1/28/2026 10:30 AM, Charlie McCarthy, 4109K] reports the Palestinian Authority (PA) attempted to hide payments to terrorists and their families last year despite its president’s claim that such transactions had ended, according to the U.S. State Department. A nonpublic State Department notice provided to Congress and obtained by The Washington Free Beacon determined that the PA paid more than $200 million to terrorists and their families in 2025, the same year PA President Mahmoud Abbas publicly claimed he had dismantled the long-criticized "pay-to-slay" program. Rather than ending the payments, U.S. officials concluded the PA quietly shifted them to a newly branded system designed to evade donor scrutiny as the Ramallah-based government sought influence in postwar Gaza. Israeli intelligence assessed that $144 million was funneled to terrorists and their families in 2024, with at least $214 million committed through 2025. The State Department confirmed payments continued from March through August 2025 under what the PA portrayed as a reformed welfare structure. According to the notice, the PA transferred responsibility for payments to the Palestinian National Foundation for Economic Empowerment, framing the program as social assistance. "Despite changing the mechanism for doing so, the PA continued the payments to Palestinian terrorists and their families during the reporting period," the State Department wrote, according to the Free Beacon on Wednesday.

FOX News [1/28/2026 5:19 PM, Stepheny Price, 40621K] reports a Southern California man who funneled money to ISIS fighters and stockpiled a homemade bomb pleaded guilty to federal terrorism charges Tuesday, according to the Justice Department. Mark Lorenzo Villanueva, 29, pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and one count of being a felon in possession of a gun. He has remained in federal custody since his arrest in August 2025. According to his plea agreement, Villanueva began communicating in February 2025 on social media with an individual who claimed to be an ISIS fighter living in Syria and provided instructions on how to send money overseas. Federal prosecutors say Villanueva sent more than $1,600 over several months with the understanding the funds would be used to purchase weapons, ammunition and other supplies to support ISIS operations. He also discussed carrying out operations for ISIS inside the United States. Villanueva faces up to 20 years in federal prison for attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organization and up to 15 years for the gun charge. U.S. District Judge Anne Hwang scheduled his sentencing for June 17. The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force investigated the case.

Wall Street Journal [1/28/2026 9:07 PM, Steve Fisher, Alexander Ward, and Santiago Pérez, 646K] reports Ryan Wedding was on the run. Mexican security forces were closing in on the 44-year-old Canadian—a snowboarder who once competed for Canada in the Olympics but has since landed on America’s most-wanted list for allegedly running a vast cocaine-trafficking network—said Mexican and U.S. officials familiar with the operation. Long protected by Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, Wedding suddenly had no options. By the time security forces caught up with him in Mexico last week, the officials said, members of the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team were also involved. Weeks earlier, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s elite, combat-trained unit participated in the capture of Venezuelan autocrat Nicolás Maduro in his heavily fortified Caracas compound. Law-enforcement officials made contact with Wedding—presumed to be armed and dangerous—and, in an intense negotiation, reminded him that his associates had been captured and millions of dollars of his assets had been seized, some of the officials said. Eventually, said his lawyer, Anthony Colombo, FBI agents handcuffed Wedding, who was then transported to California and pleaded not guilty in federal court to 17 felony charges, including murder. The FBI’s involvement in the Jan. 22 operation was intended to be a closely guarded secret, a U.S. official said. Mexico’s laws ban foreign agents from being physically present in law-enforcement operations on its soil and taking part in detentions or raids. The nationalist ruling party in Mexico is particularly sensitive to foreign interference. But on Friday, FBI Director Kash Patel dropped a bombshell on X. “Our FBI HRT teams executed with precision, discipline, and total professionalism alongside our Mexican partners to bring Ryan James Wedding back to face justice,” he said, using his elite squad’s initials. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum tried to defuse a potentially explosive situation at her morning news conference on Tuesday. She challenged Patel’s description of events, noting that there was no U.S. involvement in the operation and that U.S. agents in Mexico have clear limitations defined by law. “I’m not going to get into a debate with the FBI director, nor do I want there to be a conflict,” Sheinbaum said at her daily news conference on Tuesday. “What they, the U.S. authorities, told the Mexican authorities is that it was a voluntary surrender.”

Breitbart [1/28/2026 1:42 PM, Christian K. Caruzo, 2416K] reports that leftist President of Mexico Claudia Sheinbaum confirmed on Tuesday that her country halted an oil shipment to Cuba’s communist Castro regime slated for the end of this month — but claimed that it was a "sovereign decision" and not as a result of "pressure" from the United States. Sheinbaum then "clarified" on Wednesday morning that Mexico supplies oil to Cuba as both contractual transactions and "humanitarian aid" but abstained from confirming to reporters if shipments would resume through either method. Mexico, through state-owned oil company Pemex, has supplied the Castro regime with regular oil shipments since 2023 during the administration of former leftist President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Pemex reportedly shipped an average of one ship per month to Cuba in 2025, at an average rate of 20,000 barrels per day. The oil is mainly used by the rogue communists to keep Cuba’s barely functional power grid working after more than six decades’ worth of disastrous communist policies left all of the nation’s infrastructure on the brink of complete ruin. By January, Mexico had reportedly become Cuba’s top oil supplier as a direct result of President Donald Trump’s pressure campaign on Venezuela’s socialist regime – which, under the auspices of Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro, supplied the Castro regime with oil for over two decades. In December, President Trump ordered a still-active blockade on all sanctioned oil tankers entering or leaving Venezuela. Over the past days, President Trump has explicitly stated that U.S. foreign policy would also soon target Cuba, a longtime U.S.-designated State Sponsor of Terrorism.

Breitbart [1/28/2026 1:37 PM, Staff, 2416K] reports that Secretary of State Marco Rubio voiced hope Wednesday for cooperation with Venezuela after the US toppling of Nicolas Maduro and expected a reopening soon of the US embassy there, but brandished force if the interim leader is defiant. In prepared testimony for a Senate hearing, Rubio had written that Delcy Rodriguez, who was vice president and now acting president, "is well aware of the fate of Maduro." "Make no mistake, as the president has stated, we are prepared to use force to ensure maximum cooperation if other methods fail," read the prepared testimony, referring to President Donald Trump. Asked about his prepared testimony during his appearance, Rubio took a more measured tone. "I can tell you right now with full certainty we are not postured to, nor do we intend or expect to, have to take any military action in Venezuela," Rubio told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "The only military presence you’ll see in Venezuela is our Marine guards at an embassy," he said. Trump has demanded that Venezuela, which has the world’s largest proven oil reserves, cooperate with US oil companies. The State Department last week named a senior diplomat, Laura Dogu, as top diplomat for Venezuela, and earlier sent a mission to assess the embassy in Caracas. "We think very quickly we’ll be able to open a US diplomatic presence on the ground," Rubio told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

NewsMax [1/28/2026 11:27 AM, Staff, 4109K] reports Nicolas Maduro was never the legitimate leader of Venezuela and will now "face justice" in the United States following a "surgical operation" authorized by President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio planned to tell the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday. The opening statement was shared ahead of the hearing, where Rubio was expected to face intense questioning from senators about the legality, long-term strategy, and next steps in Venezuela’s transition. "On Jan. 3, the United States carried out a surgical operation facilitated by our military against two indicted fugitives from American justice, Nicolas Maduro and his coconspirator Cilia Flores," Rubio’s statement, shared with Newsmax before delivery, read. Notably, Rubio did not read the statement and delivered opening remarks off the cuff – briefly interrupted by an ejected protesters claiming "war crime.". But, in the statement prepared for delivery, Rubio credited Trump and the U.S. armed forces for bringing down what he called a criminal regime without launching a war or occupying the country. "Thanks to the leadership of President Trump and the professionalism of the United States armed forces, a man who built his power on drugs, corruption, and repression will now face justice," Rubio said. Rubio pushed back forcefully against critics suggesting the U.S. was entering another foreign conflict, insisting the mission was a narrowly targeted law enforcement action. "There is no war against Venezuela, and we did not occupy a country," he continued. "There are no U.S. troops on the ground.".

NewsMax [1/28/2026 12:29 PM, Eric Mack, 4109K] reports Secretary of State Marco Rubio spent much of his testimony Wednesday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee reassuring senators that the United States is not at war with Venezuela and is committed to what he described as three pillars: stability, recovery, and a transition to democracy. That, he said, includes no long-term plan to leave the remnants of the "corrupt" Nicolas Maduro regime — namely sworn-in successor Delcy Rodriguez — in place without a new democratic process. "In the long term, by no means is our policy to leave in place something permanent that’s as corrupt as you’ve described," Rubio told Ranking Member Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., in his hearing. Rubio left open the possibility of future military action in Venezuela if Rodriguez does not act responsibly but stopped short of committing to a timetable for the regime to work toward a new democratic election in the next "three, four, five" months. "We are not postured to, nor do we intend or expect to, have to take any military action in Venezuela at any time," Rubio told the Senate committee on which he previously served as a senior member. Shaheen pressed Rubio on whether interim Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez is under criminal investigation in the United States. The Associated Press reported this month that Rodriguez has been on the Drug Enforcement Administration’s radar since at least 2018. Internal DEA records reviewed by the AP show Rodriguez’s name appeared in multiple investigations into crimes including drug trafficking, money laundering and gold smuggling.

USA Today [1/28/2026 2:19 PM, Cybele Mayes-Osterman, Francesca Chambers and Josh Meyer, 67103K] reports Secretary of State Marco Rubio told senators at a Jan. 28 hearing that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was an "impediment to progress" and had refused to make a deal with the Trump administration before it captured him in a surprise military operation on Jan. 3. "This was one option that was available to the president after exhausting every other option," Rubio told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee less than a month after Maduro’s ouster. Rubio said that Maduro had broken so many deals that "not even the Vatican" wanted to deal with him. "What he wanted to do was tap us along and buy three years of time until he could deal with a new administration that he thought may be more favorable," he added. Since Maduro was captured, the Trump administration has unveiled a $2 billion deal to sell Venezuela’s oil. Since then, Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s vice president who took over after his capture, has introduced legal reforms to comply with the administration’s plans to sell the country’s oil. Rodríguez has made increasingly combative remarks towards the United States in recent days, even as she is moving to cooperate with the Trump administration’s plans to sell Venezuela’s oil for billions of dollars. "Enough already of Washington’s orders to politicians in Venezuela," she told oil workers on Jan. 25. Rubio said Rodriguez and the U.S. had a "respectful and productive line of communication." But the Trump administration would "judge actions, not words," he added.

Breitbart [1/28/2026 7:45 PM, Staff, 2416K] reports Venezuela’s military and police pledged loyalty Wednesday to interim president Delcy Rodriguez, whom the United States kept in power after ousting Nicolas Maduro. The pledge signifies the support of a key bastion behind Maduro — the military — as he braved US pressure and sanctions against his leftwing regime since succeeding Hugo Chavez in 2013. As Rodriguez tries to shore up support for her leadership, the 56-year-old is walking a tight wire, seeking to please both Maduro loyalists and US President Donald Trump. "We swear absolute loyalty and subordination," said Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino, who presented Rodriguez with the ceremonial baton and sword of independence hero Simon Bolivar. Venezuela’s powerful interior minister, Diosdado Cabello, pledged loyalty on behalf of police forces. The pledge came as more than 3,000 troops and police in uniform filed past Venezuela’s first female leader and commander in chief. "This is an unprecedented moment in our republic," said Padrino.

New York Times [1/28/2026 5:02 AM, John Eligon and Zimasa Matiwane, 135475K] reports naval exercises held off the coast of South Africa have led to a new round of hostility between the country and the United States. The exercises, held this month, were led by China and joined by members of the BRICS group of emerging economies, including South Africa, Russia and the United Arab Emirates. Two of the group’s original members, Brazil and India, did not participate. As the weeklong exercises approached on Jan. 9, President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa ordered his defense officials to ensure that Iran, which was scheduled to participate, was downgraded to observer status, according to his office. But Tehran participated in the drills anyway, including in live-fire exercises that took place at the height of the mass demonstrations in Iran this month, during which thousands of protesters were killed. Now, what allies of Mr. Ramaphosa had thought was an attempt to avoid agitating President Trump has become another setback in his country’s strained relationship with Washington. After the exercises, the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria strongly rebuked the South African government, accusing it of “choosing to stand with a regime that brutally represses its people and engages in terrorism.” The South African government has said that China organized the drills and handled the invitations, and that South Africa simply hosted them in its waters. The Chinese government did not respond to requests for comment. That explanation has done little to quell the uproar.

Washington Examiner [1/28/2026 8:39 AM, Emily Hallas, 1394K] reports President Donald Trump warned Iran on Wednesday that the United States will launch a huge attack against the country if it does not negotiate a nuclear weapons deal swiftly. The president said the Pentagon is preparing to launch a "massive" military operation against Iran with a naval fleet comparable to the one used earlier this month in Venezuela, when special forces toppled former dictator Nicolas Maduro. Trump said that such an attack would be "far worse" than the strikes the U.S. carried out against Iran last summer, when "Operation Midnight Hammer" sought to eradicate the country’s nuclear facilities. "A massive Armada is heading to Iran. It is moving quickly, with great power, enthusiasm, and purpose. It is a larger fleet, headed by the great Aircraft Carrier Abraham Lincoln, than that sent to Venezuela. Like with Venezuela, it is, ready, willing, and able to rapidly fulfill its mission, with speed and violence, if necessary," Trump wrote in a message to Truth Social. Ahead of the Venezuela operation that led to Maduro’s arrest, the U.S. sent a fleet of warships to the region, including the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier. "Hopefully Iran will quickly ‘Come to the Table’ and negotiate a fair and equitable deal – NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS – one that is good for all parties. Time is running out, it is truly of the essence! As I told Iran once before, MAKE A DEAL! They didn’t, and there was Operation Midnight Hammer,’ a major destruction of Iran. The next attack will be far worse! Don’t make that happen again," he continued.

CNN [1/28/2026 6:19 PM, Natasha Bertrand, et al., 606K] reports President Donald Trump is weighing a major new strike on Iran after preliminary discussions between Washington and Tehran over limiting the country’s nuclear program and ballistic missile production failed to make progress, according to people familiar with the matter. It’s a rapid refocusing of the administration’s publicly framed objectives for Iran and comes only weeks after Trump seriously considered military action he framed as potential aid for nationwide protests in Iran. Protesters had faced violent crackdowns by security forces leading to hundreds of killings. Trump on Wednesday posted on Truth Social demanding that Iran come to the table to negotiate "a fair and equitable deal – NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS." He warned the next US attack on the country "will be far worse" than the one it carried out last summer, when the US military attacked three of Iran’s nuclear sites. Options he is now considering include US military airstrikes aimed at Iran’s leaders and the security officials believed to be responsible for the killings, as well as strikes on Iranian nuclear sites and government institutions, the sources said. Trump has not made a final decision on how to proceed, sources said, but he believes his military options have been expanded from earlier this month now that a US carrier strike group is in the region. The USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group entered the Indian Ocean on Monday and is continuing to move closer to Iran where it could support any potential operations against the country, both in terms of aiding in strikes and in protecting regional allies from potential Iranian retaliation. The US and Iran had been exchanging messages — including through Omani diplomats and between Trump’s foreign envoy Steve Witkoff and Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi — earlier this month about a possible meeting to ward off a US attack, which Trump had been threatening in response to protesters’ deaths, the sources said. There was a brief discussion of an in-person meeting, but that never came to fruition, one source said. There have been no serious direct negotiations between the US and Iran as Trump has ramped up his threats of military action in recent days, according to another person familiar with the matter. It’s not clear why Trump has since shifted his focus back to Iran’s nuclear program, which he said last summer had been "obliterated" by US strikes. But Iran has been trying to rebuild its nuclear sites even deeper underground, according to a person familiar with recent US intelligence on the issue, and has long resisted US pressure to halt its uranium enrichment. The regime has also barred the UN’s nuclear watchdog from inspecting its nuclear sites.

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