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

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

The AP [1/30/2026 1:13 AM, Mary Clare Jalonick, 34146K] reports Senate leaders were scrambling to save a bipartisan spending deal and avert a partial government shutdown at midnight Friday as Democrats have demanded new restrictions on federal immigration raids across the country. Democrats struck a rare deal with President Donald Trump Thursday to separate funding for the Homeland Security Department from a broad government spending bill and fund it for two weeks while Congress debates curbs on the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. The deal came as irate Democrats had vowed to vote against the entire spending bill and trigger a shutdown in the wake of the deaths of two protesters at the hands of federal agents in Minneapolis. "Republicans and Democrats have come together to get the vast majority of the government funded until September" while extending current funding for Homeland Security, Trump said in a social media post Thursday evening. He encouraged members of both parties to cast a "much needed Bipartisan ‘YES’ vote.” Trump had said earlier in the day that "we don’t want a shutdown.” Still, passage of the agreement was delayed late Thursday as Senate leaders were still working to win enough support for the package. Leaving the Capitol just before midnight Thursday after hours of negotiations, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said there were "snags on both sides" as he and Democratic leader Chuck Schumer tried to work through any objections that could delay passage past the Friday deadline. "Hopefully people will be of the spirit to try and get this done tomorrow," Thune said as the Senate was scheduled to reconvene on Friday. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said late Thursday that he was one of the senators objecting. He said ICE agents were being treated unfairly and he opposed House language repealing a new law that gives senators the ability to sue the government for millions of dollars if their personal or office data is accessed without their knowledge. The unusual bipartisan talks between Trump and Schumer, his frequent adversary, came after the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Alex Pretti in Minnesota over the weekend and calls by senators in both parties for a full investigation. Schumer called it "a moment of truth.” "What ICE is doing, outside the law, is state-sanctioned thuggery and it must stop," Schumer said Thursday. "Congress has the authority — and the moral obligation — to act.” The standoff has threatened to plunge the country into another shutdown, just two months after Democrats blocked a spending bill over expiring federal health care subsidies. That dispute closed the government for 43 days as Republicans refused to negotiate. NPR [1/29/2026 7:40 PM, Barbara Sprunt, 28013K] reports that the Senate failed to advance a six-bill funding package Thursday, bringing the federal government one step closer to a partial shutdown. Democrats have refused to back the package without major reforms to the Department of Homeland Security and the ongoing immigration enforcement actions led by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. At one point, it seemed the memory of the historic 43-day shutdown last year would be put firmly in the rearview mirror, and senators would fairly easily fund the remaining appropriations bill for FY 2026. But after the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis by federal agents, Senate Democrats are demanding significant changes to the Homeland Security funding bill. Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has said Democrats will support the other five appropriations bills, but need to see substantive changes to the sixth. "Until ICE is properly reined in and overhauled legislatively, the DHS funding bill doesn’t have the votes to pass," Schumer said Wednesday. The measure needed to meet a 60-vote threshold in order to pass. The vote was 45-55. FOX News [1/29/2026 12:21 PM, Alex Miller, 40621K] reports that Senate Democrats stayed true to their threat by blocking a behemoth funding package, but in a surprising turn of events, they were joined by several Senate Republicans to derail the legislation. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and his caucus made it no secret that they would obstruct the government funding process over the last several days, demanding that Republicans strip the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill from the six-bill package. But the defection of seven GOP lawmakers – Sens. Ted Budd, R-N.C., Ron Johnson, R-Wis., Mike Lee, R- Utah, Ashley Moody, R-Fla., Rand Paul, R-Ky., Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala. – was an unexpected development on Thursday. Senate Democrats are willing to support the five other bills in the package, however, and have reiterated that bundle would easily pass if given the chance. "Democrats are ready to avert a shutdown," said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee. "We have five bills we all agree on. About 95% of the remaining budget. It is ready to go," she continued. "We can pass those five bills, no problem. All Leader Thune has to do is tee them up for a vote." But Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., sought to call their bluff and barreled forward with the key test vote, which would have opened up several hours of debate and eventually a final vote to send the package to President Donald Trump’s desk. The Daily Caller [1/29/2026 12:23 PM, Adam Pack, 835K] reports that lawmakers voted 45-55, falling well short of the 60-vote threshold necessary to advance the funding package. The decision of Senate Democrats — and some Republicans — to filibuster government funding is almost certain to trigger a partial government shutdown starting Saturday at 12:01 a.m. Republican Sens. Ted Budd of North Carolina, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Mike Lee of Utah, Ashley Moody and Rick Scott of Florida, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama also opposed advancing the funding package. The conservative group of lawmakers contains several leading fiscal hawks and opponents of abortion. Budd told reporters he voted "no" over concerns about "abortion funding" in the package. Senate Majority Leader John Thune also voted "no" during the failed procedural vote, so he can bring the package up for a vote at a later point in time. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s shutdown threat comes just three months after Democrats plunged the country into a record-breaking 43-day funding lapse in fall 2025 over Obamacare subsidies.

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Politico [1/29/2026 12:39 PM, Katherine Tully-McManus, Jordain Carney and Jennifer Scholtes, 21784K]

Bloomberg Government [1/29/2026 5:58 PM, Zach C. Cohen, 111K] reports Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) filed an amendment to a pending government funding package that would provide money to the Department of Homeland Security for the next two weeks. Senators have agreed to separate out from bipartisan funding legislation (H.R. 7148) the section related to DHS and replace it with the two-week stopgap, according to Ally Biasotti, a spokesperson for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). Collins’ amendment, if adopted and enacted, would give lawmakers time to negotiate full-year funding for the agency as Democrats demand restraints on immigration enforcement officials in the wake of shootings by officers in Minnesota. A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) cautioned leadership was still circulating the idea of a short-term extension of DHS funding with senators, who would need to unanimously agree to move forward before tomorrow’s shutdown deadline.

The New York Times [1/29/2026 6:30 PM, Carl Hulse and Catie Edmondson, 135475K] reports that Senate Democrats on Thursday struck a deal with President Trump and Republicans that could avert a government shutdown and buy more time to negotiate restrictions on the administration’s immigration crackdown. The agreement, if it holds, would allow the Senate to move before a Friday midnight deadline to fund a large portion of the government for the remainder of the fiscal year. It would also provide two weeks of funding for the Department of Homeland Security while lawmakers and White House officials negotiate over Democrats’ demands to rein in federal immigration agents. It still faced obstacles in a Congress where bipartisan consensus is elusive and progress is often slow, but the deal reflected an abrupt political shift that has taken hold at the White House and on Capitol Hill after the fatal shooting last weekend of Alex Pretti, an American citizen, by a federal agent in Minneapolis, the second such killing this month. Mr. Trump has rushed this week to change the face of his immigration operations in Minneapolis, and Republicans in Congress who rarely criticize him or his administration have vented their concern about the tactics being used and the goals of the operation, conceding that major changes are needed.CBS News [1/29/2026 6:44 PM, Kaia Hubbard, Caitlin Yilek, 51110K] reports that the deal includes removing a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security from a broader package of six spending bills covering other parts of the government, while extending funding for DHS at current levels for two weeks, the source says. Congress is facing a late Friday deadline to either pass the six spending bills or face a partial government shutdown. Since any deal that the Senate passes will need to return to the House, and the lower chamber is not set to return until Monday, lawmakers could narrowly miss that deadline. Still, the emerging deal could prevent a dispute over DHS funding from causing a longer-term shutdown. President Trump quickly announced his support for the agreement and called on lawmakers to pass it. FOX News [1/29/2026 6:20 PM, Alex Miller Fox, 37576K] reports Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and President Donald Trump labored over a deal from late night Wednesday until Thursday evening after the top Senate Democrat unleashed several funding demands and the White House accused Schumer of blocking a meeting with rank-and-file Democrats. "The separation of the five bipartisan bills the Democrats asked for, plus the two-week DHS [continuing resolution] has been agreed to," Schumer said in a statement. Trump, in a post on Truth Social, said the "only thing that can slow our Country down is another long and damaging Government Shutdown.” "I am working hard with Congress to ensure that we are able to fully fund the Government, without delay," Trump said. "Republicans and Democrats in Congress have come together to get the vast majority of the Government funded until September, while at the same time providing an extension to the Department of Homeland Security (including the very important Coast Guard, which we are expanding and rebuilding like never before). "Hopefully, both Republicans and Democrats will give a very much-needed Bipartisan "YES" Vote.” The deal brokered between the two would have the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill stripped from the broader six-bill package. Schumer and Democrats have been adamant that if the bill were sidelined, they’d vote for the remaining five, which includes funding for the Pentagon. Their agreement also tees up a short-term funding extension, known as a continuing resolution (CR), for two weeks to keep the agency funded while lawmakers negotiate restrictions on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).Roll Call [1/29/2026 12:10 PM, Staff, 673K] reports that exuberance over a bipartisan deal struck Thursday afternoon to punt final decisions on Homeland Security funding and pass the rest of this year’s spending bills gave way to the realities of Senate procedure later in the evening. The Senate adjourned late Thursday night without reaching a bipartisan time agreement on votes and a limited list of amendments. The “hotline” process requires all 100 senators to agree not to raise an objection, and that wasn’t happening quickly. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., called the agreement “a bad deal” and said he’s got a hold on the measure. “We’re not voting tonight,” he said. Graham was visibly upset about full-year Homeland Security funding falling by the wayside, at least for now, and the treatment of immigration enforcement officers he said were being “demonized” for the actions of a few. The bill would also repeal a provision of an earlier spending law that would allow Graham and other GOP senators whose phone records were collected during the Biden-era “Arctic Frost” investigation to sue for large payouts. The Senate’s continuing resolution that would be swapped in under the bipartisan agreement strikes all of that earlier text and would simply extend DHS funding for two weeks. But it retains a key provision from the discarded full-year bill to block payouts to GOP senators whose phone records were searched in a judicially sanctioned probe without their knowledge. The call records were collected as part of the Arctic Frost investigation, which lawmakers say formed the basis of former special counsel John L. “Jack” Smith’s investigation into Trump’s attempt to overturn his loss in the 2020 election. Graham characterized the since-dropped provision as critical to a much broader class of individuals and groups potentially under investigation. “What senator wouldn’t want notification that they’re looking at your phone?” he said. “I dare a House member to suggest that there shouldn’t be a private cause of action for Turning Point USA and the other groups that I think were abused by Jack Smith.” The deal reached earlier in the day involves passing a short-term DHS funding extension, through Feb. 13, as negotiations continue over how and whether to impose tighter restrictions on federal immigration agents. At the same time five other final fiscal 2026 spending bills that were caught in limbo by the partisan clash over immigration policy would be allowed to pass. Those bills — Defense, Labor-HHS-Education, Financial Services, National Security-State, and Transportation-HUD — are needed by Friday night to avoid a partial government shutdown when current funding runs out. Under the plan, the Senate would amend a House-passed six-bill funding package to strip out the existing Homeland Security Bill and replace it with the two-week continuing resolution in the hopes of buying time to hash out further immigration-enforcement restrictions. President Donald Trump publicly endorsed the deal Thursday night and called on both parties to support it. The chamber will reconvene at 11 a.m. Friday.

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Los Angeles Times [1/29/2026 7:18 PM, Gavin J. Quinton and Ana Ceballos, 12718K]
The Hill [1/29/2026 6:09 PM, Al Weaver, 18170K]
NBC News [1/29/2026 7:53 PM, Scott Wong, Sahil Kapur, Ryan Nobles, Frank Thorp V, and Julie Tsirkin, 34509K]
NewsMax [1/29/2026 6:55 PM, Staff, 3760K]

The Hill [1/29/2026 12:30 PM, Julia Manchester and Alexander Bolton, 12595K] reports that President Trump, in a rare move, said Thursday he’s working with Democrats on Capitol Hill in a bipartisan manner to avoid an impending government shutdown as the Senate works through appropriations bills being tied up over Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding. “Hopefully, we won’t have a shutdown. We’re working on that right now. I think we’re getting close. The Democrats, I don’t believe want to see it either. So we’ll work in a very bipartisan way, I believe, not to have a shutdown,” Trump said at his Cabinet meeting. A source familiar with the discussions told The Hill that Trump and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) are working together toward a deal to separate DHS funding from five other House-passed appropriations bills in hopes of avoiding a partial government shutdown this weekend. Schumer and Senate Democrats are demanding that the pending DHS funding bill be pulled out of the six-bill appropriations package. Shortly after Trump’s remarks, Senate Democrats and a few Republicans blocked a major government funding package that needs to pass by 11:59 p.m. Friday to avoid a government shutdown, signaling that negotiations between Trump and Senate Democrats still have a way to go before reaching a deal. NewsMax [1/29/2026 5:01 PM, Michael Katz, 3760K] reports President Donald Trump said Thursday that the White House and Senate Democrats are "getting close" to a deal before Friday’s midnight deadline to prevent a partial government shutdown. The sides have discussed passing five of the six spending bills that have cleared the House, which would fund most of the federal government for the rest of the fiscal year, The Wall Street Journal reported. They would then pass a short-term measure for the Department of Homeland Security, setting up negotiations over proposed restrictions by Democrats on immigration enforcement. A vote to advance the six-bill measure failed Thursday afternoon in the Senate, as some lawmakers voted no ahead of further talks. Talks were fluid and a resolution remained uncertain Thursday, according to the Journal. A sticking point involved how long lawmakers would temporarily extend DHS funding — with proposals ranging from several weeks to more than a month.

AP [1/29/2026 6:50 PM, Staff, 35287K] Video: HERE reports Democratic and Republicans senators react to likely lapse in funding for the Department of Homeland Security and several other agencies as they negotiate new restrictions for President Donald Trump’s surge of immigration enforcement.

Axios [1/29/2026 9:01 PM, Kate Santaliz, Andrew Solender, 17364K] reports that, as the Senate prepares to kick government funding back to the House, Speaker Mike Johnson is staring down another revolt from his right flank. While removing Department of Homeland Security funding from the overall package was not Johnson’s (R-La.) preferred approach, most members want to avoid a government shutdown. But on top of a lengthy list of demands from Democrats around ICE, expect an even longer one from the House Freedom Caucus, centering on sanctuary cities, immigration enforcement and border security. Conservatives would need to vote for a rule — a party-line procedural vote — to advance the bill. And President Trump’s urging everyone to help it pass. But House Freedom Caucus members have repeatedly shown a willingness to tank or threaten rules, using them as leverage to extract concessions from leadership. If it’s clear Johnson won’t be able to muscle the rule through, the speaker could bring it up under suspension, but that would require significant backing from House Democrats, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.). Predicted one House Democrat: "If Hakeem says he is backing it, [it] will give enough people cover." For now, Johnson does not plan to call the House back into session over the weekend, citing attendance issues, a leadership source told Axios. "We may inevitably be in a short shutdown situation," Johnson told USA Today on Thursday at the "Melania" premiere. "But the House is going to do its job."

Bloomberg [1/29/2026 6:33 PM, Staff, 18082K] Video: HERE reports Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) states he wants to see changes made to the procedures and operations of ICE and the DHS when discussing what’s next on the DHS funding bill as conflicts with this legislation may lead to a partial government shutdown Friday. He also gives his thoughts on whether or not DHS Secretary Kristi Noem should be replaced and what’s left on Congress’ agenda as Midterm elections are later this year. Senator Durbin speaks with Joe Mathieu on the late edition of Bloomberg’s "Balance of Power."

Daily Signal [1/29/2026 6:20 PM, Pedro Rodriguez, 474K] reports Republicans accused Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., of "trying to handcuff" immigration enforcement as Democrats refused to advance a bill to keep government open on Thursday. "Chuck Schumer and Senate Democrats are trying to handcuff [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] because their party is committed to open borders," Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., told The Daily Signal. "We must hold the line and support ICE.” Schumer, motivated by the immigration enforcement-involved fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, laid out demands for keeping the government open on Wednesday. Schumer has demanded an end to roving immigration enforcement patrols, a universal code of conduct for federal officers, tightening the use of warrants, mandating the use of body cameras, and establishing use-of-force rules. Schumer also wants to bar these officers from wearing masks while performing their duties. ICE agents and other immigration enforcement officers wear masks due to efforts to dox ICE agents. Until those demands are met, Schumer has indicated that Democrats will continue to strike down funding legislation for the Department of Homeland Security. ICE, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Border Patrol, and the Transportation Security Administration are all under the department’s purview. The partial government shutdown deadline is Friday. In a statement to The Daily Signal, Rep. Mark Harris, R-N.C., described this as yet "another example of the radical Left prioritizing criminals over American citizens," and added that Schumer’s demands are "an absolute nonstarter.” "Republicans see through this and will not ignore the victims who have suffered and died due to the lack of immigration enforcement," Harris added.

CBS News [1/29/2026 7:46 PM, Patrick Maguire, 39474K] reports Senate Homeland Security Committee Democrats are calling on Secretary Kristi Noem to testify before the panel "without delay," following the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis this month. In a letter first obtained by CBS News and sent to Noem on Wednesday, Democrats on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee said actions by federal officials under her authority resulted in the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti and warrant immediate oversight by the Senate committee with jurisdiction over the Department of Homeland Security. Good was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer on Jan. 7 in Minneapolis. Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, was fatally shot by Customs and Border Protection agents on Jan. 24 during an enforcement operation in Minneapolis. Both incidents have drawn widespread attention, caused scrutiny of federal immigration enforcement tactics and led to heightened tensions in the Twin Cities. The Democrats’ request comes days after Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, announced that the heads of ICE, CBP and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will testify before the panel on Feb. 12. Paul publicly thanked Noem for helping arrange the hearing, but Democrats argue the secretary herself must testify. "However, as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, you are ultimately responsible for the Department’s actions," the lawmakers wrote, arguing that her response to the shootings has caused a "breakdown" in public trust in federal law enforcement. The senators cited Noem’s public comments following Pretti’s killing, when she said he "approached" agents with a gun and posed a lethal threat. Video footage and a CBP report later sent to Congress did not state that Pretti reached for his firearm, prompting criticism from lawmakers and renewed questions about DHS’s initial public statements.

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Washington Times [1/29/2026 1:27 PM, Mary McCue Bell, 852K]

The Hill [1/29/2026 1:59 PM, Julia Manchester, 12595K] reports that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem did not speak during President Trump’s Cabinet meeting on Thursday amid the administration’s shift in messaging on federal immigration operations in Minnesota. Noem was not the only Cabinet secretary to sit silently and not be called on during Thursday’s televised meeting, however the president has had each secretary speak in prior Cabinet gatherings. More attention was on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary for this meeting given scrutiny on the administration’s handling of two shootings in Minneapolis as well as negotiations playing out in Washington over DHS funding. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, Small Business Administrator Kelly Loeffler and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth all spoke during the meeting. Trump also gave Vice President Vance a chance to make brief remarks toward the end of the meeting. Trump also notably did not take any questions during the meeting, which ran for more than an hour. The president frequently lets reporters ask questions after speeches and other public events.

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Blaze [1/29/2026 6:00 PM, Rebeka Zeljko, 1556K]
Washington Examiner [1/29/2026 2:44 PM, Christian Datoc, 1394K]

New York Post [1/29/2026 6:38 PM, Josh Christenson, 40934K] reports more than 20,000 illegal migrants charged or convicted of crimes have been detained by the Trump administration since the Laken Riley Act was signed into law a year ago, according to officials. The bill — named after the Georgia nursing student murdered by an illegal Venezuelan migrant and gangbanger — was the first piece of legislation that President Trump signed into law after returning to the White House. The Department of Homeland Security announced on the anniversary of its enactment Thursday that over 21,400 illegal migrants had been taken off the streets by the feds in accordance with the act. The bill vastly expanded immigration detention, mandating that DHS detain illegal migrants accused of theft, burglary, assaulting a law enforcement officer, and other violent crimes. Previously, the feds were only required to detain migrants who were accused of specific serious crimes. One of the heinous criminal migrants nabbed within the first year of the Laken Riley Act includes Cuban national Sergio Luis Hernandez Gonzalez, who was convicted on two dozen charges of larceny, burglary, robbery, distributing cocaine, resisting an officer, vehicle theft, and fraud. Other criminal migrants — from Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Guatemala, Colombia, Venezuela, Iraq and India — were detained with convictions for child endangerment, aggravated assault with a weapon, selling heroin, rape and homicide, according to DHS officials. Riley’s killer, Tren de Aragua gangbanger Jose Ibarra, snuck across the border in September 2022, two years before he smashed in the 22-year-old’s head with a rock and asphyxiated her. "Thank you, President Trump, for signing the Laken Riley Act," Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement. "President Trump has empowered us to arrest and remove the millions of violent criminal illegal aliens unleashed on the United States by the previous administration," Noem added. "Now, these criminals will face justice and be removed from our country.” The DHS chief vowed to "do everything in our power to bring these heinous criminals to justice.” "I am so proud of what our brave men and women of ICE have done to remove these criminals from America’s streets," Noem said.

Breitbart [1/29/2026 10:40 AM, Frances Martel, 2416K] reports the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed this week that three men deported to Iran recently, found to have entered America illegally, were "known or suspected" members of the terrorist Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). At a time of heightened tensions between Washington and Tehran — President Donald Trump announced last week that a U.S. Navy "armada" was moving into the Middle East in response to a brutal crackdown on peaceful protesters believed to have killed tens of thousands of people — the two countries negotiated an agreement to repatriate Iranian nationals. The flight, which the Iranian government confirmed was carrying about 20 Iranians, left the United States this week. Some Democrat politicians condemned the deportations, claiming that they would endanger "LGBTQ Iranians." In reality, DHS identified three of those deported as having affiliations with a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, and the two known "LGBTQ Iranians" in the U.S. immigration process are reportedly engaged in the legal process to request legitimate political asylum. DHS identified the three known or suspected IRGC terrorists as Ehsan Khaledi, Mohammad Mehrani, and Morteza Nasirikakolaki. DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin applauded the expulsion of the known or suspected IRGC members. "Under President Trump and Secretary Noem, the Department of Homeland Security is getting the worst of the worst out of our country and keeping them out — including violent gang members, murderers, pedophiles, and, in this instance, known or suspected terrorists," McLaughlin said in a statement. "The Trump administration will not allow criminal illegal aliens who wish to inflict harm upon innocent Americans to walk the streets of our communities. They will be arrested, and they will be deported.”

Breitbart [1/29/2026 10:15 AM, Bob Price, 2416K] reports Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials released new details on arrests made one day this week during the continuing Operation Metro Surge. The DHS report identifies multiple criminal illegal aliens taken into custody on Tuesday in Minnesota for crimes ranging from homicide and rape to child abuse and domestic violence. The agency said sanctuary jurisdictions continue to obstruct efforts to remove dangerous offenders. In a statement released on Wednesday, DHS officials reported the success of the continuing law enforcement operations in and around Minneapolis. Officials said the single day of operations on Tuesday led to taking criminal illegal aliens accused of murder, rape, child sex crimes, and cruelty toward a child off the streets. "DHS law enforcement is on the ground in Minnesota, arresting criminal illegal aliens and removing these heinous monsters from Minnesota streets. Yesterday’s arrests included murderers, pedophiles, rapists, and child abusers," said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. "For years, sanctuary politicians allowed these criminals to roam free—even releasing violent criminals from their jails to terrorize more Americans. We need sanctuary jurisdictions to work with ICE and let us into their jails, so we can keep Americans safe."

CNN [1/29/2026 10:25 AM, Claire Eschricht, 18595K] reports CNN News Central’s Sara Sidner speaks with CNN’s Shimon Prokupecz following Tom Homan’s first news conference since the President deployed him to Minneapolis to take over immigration enforcement. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [1/29/2026 9:25 AM, Anders Hagstrom, 40621K] Video: HERE reports White House border czar Tom Homan vowed Thursday to remain in Minnesota leading Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations there "until the problem is gone." Homan made the statement during a Thursday morning news conference, his first since President Donald Trump sent him to the Twin Cities earlier this week. He said the administration is working on a "drawdown plan" to decrease presence of federal agents in the state. The border chief said he had a "very productive" meeting with Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison on Wednesday. Ellison agreed to notify ICE when local jails were releasing violent illegal aliens, a major request from federal law enforcement. "One ICE agent can arrest one bad guy when he’s behind the safety and security of a jail when he’s behind bars and we know he doesn’t have weapons," Homan said. "But when you release that public safety threat illegal alien back into the community--We have a job to do. We’re going to arrest him, so we’re going to find him.” "So now what happens is now we’ve got to arrest somebody on his turf where he has access to who knows what weapons. Now we’ve got to send a whole team out," Homan explained. [Editorial note: consult video at source link] The Daily Caller [1/29/2026 10:06 AM, Nicole Silverio, 835K] reports Border czar Tom Homan declared Thursday that federal immigration officials will not back down as tensions escalate in Minnesota. Homan held a press conference to brief the public on his meetings with state officials, including Democratic Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, and address the ongoing upheaval in Minnesota. He assured that immigration officials will not be "surrendering" their mission of arresting criminal illegal aliens. "We are not surrendering the president’s mission in immigration enforcement," Homan said. "Let’s make that clear. Prioritization of criminal amendments doesn’t mean we forget about everybody else. That’s just simply ridiculous. But when you have a criminal standing here and a non-criminal standing there, that criminal always should be targeted because he’s a significant concern to the safety and security of the community.” "By and large, for decades, ICE and [Customs and Border Protection] have carried out their duties with integrity, professionalism, and compassion. That remains the expectation under President Trump and we will, I will, hold our agents and officers to that standard," Homan continued. Homan also confirmed during the presser that he had a productive meeting with officials in Minnesota and expressed hope of a drawdown in personnel over time. Ellison also told Homan that county jails can notify ICE of the release dates of public safety threats so agents can track them down and take them into custody. Trump sent Homan to Minnesota on Monday night following the death of Alex Pretti, an armed anti-ICE protester who was shot and killed by a Border Patrol agent on Jan. 24. New footage showed Pretti spitting at immigration enforcement and breaking the taillight of their vehicle 11 days before his death. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem is facing scrutiny and impeachment threats 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. Breitbart [1/29/2026 10:50 AM, Staff, 2416K] reports Homan added that decreasing the number of federal agents on Minneapolis’ streets will require the local government and law enforcement entities to cooperate with the federal government to identify and detain immigrants. "We will conduct targeted enforcement operations. What we’ve done for decades," Homan said. "With a prioritization on public safety threats. We are not surrendering the president’s mission on immigration enforcement. Prioritization of criminal aliens does not mean we forget about everybody else. That’s just ridiculous." Homan took the reins of President Donald Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation in Minneapolis earlier this week. Before his arrival, federal agents had detained several children from an area school district. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison have met with Homan this week. Homan said he "did not agree with everything" the local officials have said but they did acknowledge ICE is a congressionally approved agency. "What we did agree on is the community’s safety is paramount," Homan said. "What we did agree upon is not to release public safety risks back into the community when they could be lawfully transferred to ICE."

The Hill [1/29/2026 9:41 AM, Julia Manchester, 12595K] reports President Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, on Thursday publicly acknowledged internal changes made to federal immigration operations in Minnesota following the shooting deaths of two U.S. citizens at the hands of federal officers, saying President Trump wants to “fix” immigration operations in the state. “President Trump wants this fixed, and I’m going to fix it, with your help,” Homan said, speaking at a press conference in Minneapolis. The event marked Homan’s first public remarks after Trump dispatched him to Minnesota on Monday, following the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti. The administration in the aftermath of the shooting has made changes to the operation in Minnesota, including pulling U.S. Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino from the operation. “I do not want to hear that everything that has been done here has been perfect. Nothing is ever perfect. Anything can be improved on. What we’ve been working on is making this operation safer, more efficient, by the book,” Homan said Thursday. “The mission is going to improve because of changes we’re making internally. No agency organization is perfect. President Trump and I, along with others in the administration, have recognized that certain improvements could and should be made,” he added. The border czar went on to say the administration is working to “draw down” the federal presence in Minnesota. “I have staff from CBP and from ICE working on a draw down plan,” he said, referring to Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “What does that look like based on the cooperation? What does that look like based on how many targets we have left to find.”

New York Times [1/30/2026 3:20 AM, Chelsia Rose Marcius, 330K] reports Tom Homan, the White House border czar, acknowledged on Thursday that federal deportation actions in Minneapolis have been flawed, but said there could be a “drawdown” if local officials allow his immigration agents access to local jails. The two-month federal crackdown, known as Operation Metro Surge, has seen thousands of ICE and Border Patrol officers descend on the city. The operation has led to protests and violent confrontations in the streets and the killings of two residents shot by federal agents. “I’m not here because the federal government has carried out this mission perfectly,” Mr. Homan said at a 7 a.m. news conference at the B.H. Whipple Building just outside of Minneapolis. “Certain improvements could and should be made.” President Trump sent Mr. Homan to Minnesota this week, days after the death of Alex Pretti, 37, a Veterans Affairs nurse who had been recording a woman being arrested by an immigration agent when he was shot multiple times. His death came about two weeks after the fatal shooting of another Minneapolis resident, Renee Good, 37. While Mr. Homan’s remarks were a rare acknowledgment of fallibility from the Trump administration, he refused to say how he felt about the killings. “Do I have an opinion? Yeah. A personal opinion. I’m not going to share that with you,” he said. “We’ll let the investigation play out,” he added. Mr. Homan said that targeted immigration enforcement operations in Minnesota would continue, but skirted questions about how many federal agents are still in the region. “There have been some rotations,” he said. He also defended his agents’ actions. “They are performing their duties in a challenging environment,” he said, “but they’re trying to do it professionally.” Since arriving in Minnesota, Mr. Homan said that he has held meetings with Democratic state officials including Tim Walz, the governor; Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis; and Keith Ellison, the state attorney general. Those meetings centered on ICE operations and access to local jails. That access, he said, would make arresting people safer and more efficient. Such an agreement with Minnesota officials would “allow us to draw down on the number of people we have here,” said Mr. Homan, who led ICE deportation efforts when the agency had access to many more correction facilities than it does now.

Wall Street Journal [1/29/2026 2:16 PM, Michelle Hackman and Joshua Chaffin, 646K] reports Tom Homan, the White House border czar who was dispatched to reset the Trump administration’s mission in the city, said the federal approach here hasn’t been perfect as he announced that he was working on a plan to begin drawing down the law-enforcement presence. “I do not want to hear that everything that’s been done here is perfect,” Homan said Thursday, in remarks that signaled a shift in tone and tactics from the administration after a surge of law enforcement officers and weeks of clashes with protesters on Minneapolis streets. Homan said the federal government could do more to make the operation “safer, more efficient, by the book,” and that increased cooperation with state and local officials would allow him to reduce the number of agents operating in the city. “I have staff from CBP and from ICE working on a drawdown plan,” Homan said, referring to Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which had rushed about 3,000 officials to the state in the administration’s largest immigration operation. He said the drawdown would depend on the ability to work more closely with local authorities. Since arriving in the state on Monday, Homan has met with officials including Democratic Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. The border czar said one meeting, with Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, yielded what he described as a new agreement to allow ICE to carry out arrests in the state’s jails of immigrants who are in the country illegally and facing criminal charges but haven’t been tried. Homan described it as a “very good” meeting. Ellison called it “cordial” in a statement. “While Mr. Homan and I agree no Minnesotan wants actual violent criminals on our streets, regardless of their citizenship or immigration status, I firmly expressed to him that right now, Minnesotans’ foremost concern for their and their neighbors’ safety is the overwhelming presence and brutal tactics of federal immigration agents on those streets that are disrupting everyday life in our communities and doing harm to our neighbors,” Ellison said. Homan signaled an overall shift in strategy, saying federal immigration officials will revert to conducting targeted operations against immigrants in the country illegally, giving priority to those with serious criminal histories. Before his arrival, the federal deployment had been characterized by large groups of roving patrols, sweeping streets looking for people to arrest. “We’re not surrendering our mission at all. We’re just doing it smarter,” Homan said, adding that large groups of agents on the streets cause “stress in the community.” He echoed other administration officials who have blamed broad hostility toward ICE as endangering officers’ safety and requiring them to send in reinforcements. “The hostile rhetoric must stop,” he said.

ABC News [1/29/2026 5:02 PM, Luke Barr and Bill Hutchinson, 34146K] reports saying "massive changes" are coming to Minneapolis, President Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan announced on Thursday that he has reached agreements with local and state officials that would eventually "draw down" the number of federal agents in the city. Homan, who Trump sent to Minneapolis on Monday to find a solution to the boiling tensions that have emerged in the wake of the fatal shootings by federal agents of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, said that immigration enforcement operations are going to be focused on targeting people who are threats to the safety of the community. Homan said that he and State Attorney Gen. Keith Ellison reached a breakthrough when Ellison "clarified" that county jails may notify U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials in advance of "criminal public safety risks" being released so ICE agents can take them into custody. Homan also said that Minnesota state prisons have already been notifying federal officials when undocumented immigrant inmates are about to be released and have agreed to expand on those protocols. In a statement to ABC News on Thursday afternoon, Ellison said he did not make any agreements with Homan during their meeting. NPR [1/29/2026 1:50 PM, Sergio Martínez-Beltrán and Liz Baker, 28013K] reports Homan’s announcement comes a few days after he arrived in the midwestern state to oversee Operation Metro Surge, an aggressive immigration crackdown that has brought about 3,000 federal agents to the state, led to the arrest of undocumented immigrants without a criminal record, and to the death of two U.S. citizens: Renee Macklin Good and Alex Pretti. "I do not want to hear that everything that’s been done here has been perfect," Homan said. "Nothing’s perfect, anything can be improved on, and what we’ve been working on is making this operation safer, more efficient, by the book. The mission is going to improve because of the changes we’re making internally." Homan said the plan to pull out federal agents depends on cooperation from Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. Homan said he wants federal agents to have "access to undocumented immigrants who are in state prisons and county jails. The Minnesota Department of Corrections has claimed all along that they already honor ICE detainer requests despite previous claims to the contrary made by other members of the Trump administration. An ICE official acknowledged this cooperation with state prisons earlier this month. Homan appeared to anticipate backlash from immigration enforcement hardliners. "We are not surrendering the president’s mission on immigration enforcement," he told reporters.

Reported similarly:
Washington Examiner [1/29/2026 9:15 AM, Anna Giaritelli, 1394K]
Washington Times [1/29/2026 12:12 PM, Staff, 852K]
Daily Wire [1/29/2026 8:04 AM, Jennie Taer, 2494K]

AP [1/29/2026 4:31 PM, Giovanna Dell’orto and Rebecca Santana, 31753K] Video: HERE reports the Trump administration could reduce the number of immigration enforcement officers in Minnesota, but only if state and local officials cooperate, the president’s border czar said Thursday, noting he has “zero tolerance” for protesters who assault federal officers or impede the ongoing Twin Cities operation. Tom Homan addressed reporters for the first time since the president sent him to Minneapolis following last weekend’s fatal shooting of protester Alex Pretti, the second this month by federal officers carrying out the operation. His comments came after President Donald Trump seemed to signal a willingness to ease tensions in the Minneapolis and St. Paul area and as the administration ended its “enhanced operations” in Maine. Homan, who said he wouldn’t address the shootings, emphasized that the administration isn’t relenting on its immigration crackdown and warned that protesters could face consequences if they interfere with federal officers. But he seemed to acknowledge there had been missteps. “I do not want to hear that everything that’s been done here has been perfect. Nothing’s ever perfect,” he said. Homan hinted at the prospect of pulling out many of the roughly 3,000 federal officers taking part in the operation, but he seemed to tie that to cooperation from state and local leaders and a reduction in protester interference. Homan doubled down on the need for jails to alert ICE to inmates who could be deported, saying transferring such inmates to the agency is safer because it means fewer officers have to be out looking for people in the country illegally. The White House has long blamed problems arresting criminal immigrants on so-called sanctuary jurisdictions, a term generally applied to state and local governments that limit law enforcement cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security. Homan reiterated that, saying, “Give us access to illegal aliens, public safety threats in the safety and security of a jail.” “At best, DHS fundamentally misunderstands Minnesota’s correctional system,” Paul Schnell, chief of the state Department of Corrections, told reporters last week, pushing back against the federal narrative. “At worst, it is pure propaganda.”

Reported similarly:
Los Angeles Times [1/29/2026 4:26 PM, Jenny Jarvie, 14862K]

FOX News [1/29/2026 8:26 PM, Greg Wehner, Matt Finn, 37576K] reports Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said Thursday there is no new agreement with the federal government allowing county jails to notify U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of inmate release dates, disputing claims made earlier by border czar Tom Homan. "I did not make, and could not have made, any agreement with him about how sheriffs share with ICE information about people in their county jails," Ellison said in a statement. Ellison’s office said Minnesota law requires state prisons — not county jails — to notify federal authorities when a person without legal status is convicted of a felony. County jails, by contrast, are independently operated by sheriffs and counties, which decide on their own whether to cooperate with ICE release notifications or detainer requests. Earlier Thursday, Homan said Ellison told him that county jails may alert ICE to the release dates of criminal public safety risks. Fox News Digital has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment on the matter. Homan was sent to Minnesota Monday and vowed to remain in the state while leading ICE operations "until the problem is gone," referring to increased unrest in Minneapolis. He made the statement during a news conference Thursday morning, his first since President Donald Trump sent him to the region. During that news conference, Homan also said he had a "very productive" meeting with Ellison, adding that the state’s top attorney agreed to notify ICE when local jails were releasing violent illegal aliens — a major request from federal law enforcement. "One ICE agent can arrest one bad guy when he’s behind the safety and security of a jail when he’s behind bars, and we know he doesn’t have weapons," Homan said. "But when you release that public safety threat illegal alien back into the community, we have a job to do. We’re going to arrest him, so we’re going to find him. "So, now what happens is now we’ve got to arrest somebody on his turf where he has access to who knows what weapons," Homan explained. "Now, we’ve got to send a whole team out.” He also demanded that the "hostile rhetoric" and threats against ICE officers stop, vowing that agents will remain in the Twin Cities to do their jobs. "President Trump wants this fixed, and I’m going to fix it with your help," Homan said. Trump deployed Homan to Minnesota after heated clashes between anti-ICE agitators and federal agents across the Twin Cities. The unrest resulted in the deaths of two U.S. citizens, Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, at the hands of law enforcement.

Wall Street Journal [1/29/2026 9:37 PM, Joshua Chaffin and John McCormick, 646K] reports on day 60, the tide appeared to turn, and many Minnesotans allowed themselves to feel some hope that a federal immigration force they view as an occupying army is, at last, set to taper—if not withdraw altogether. Their faint optimism was spurred by the Trump administration’s pivot in Operation Metro Surge, in which some 3,000 federal immigration agents and officers flooded the state in the Department of Homeland Security’s most ambitious campaign yet. On Thursday, Tom Homan, President Trump’s border czar, promised to move away from the wide-net tactics that have distressed many here for weeks and instead employ a more “targeted” approach that would allow him “to draw down” agents. “Yes, I said it,” Homan added. “Draw down the number of people here.” It is still early, but some were ready to cast the administration’s apparent flinch as a local victory of national importance—particularly for a left hungry for any win in the Trump era. “We realize we are unfortunately in a long-term war with the federal government, but it is important for us to declare victory in this battle,” said former Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak. “The president tried to make an example out of Minnesota, but we are showing how people united can stand up and beat brutal and often illegal force.” Homan said the drawdown—which followed two fatal shootings by federal officers—would depend on the ability to work more closely with local authorities. “I’m staying until the problem’s gone,” he added. “But we’ve made a lot of progress.” The administration dispatched Homan to take over for Greg Bovino, the Border Patrol commander whose forces met a countermovement of ordinary citizens armed with whistles and connected via neighborhood messaging apps. Mobile phones, used to record many of the actions of the federal force, spread images nationwide, helping to shape public opinion and challenge false claims.

Reuters [1/30/2026 2:49 AM, Freddie Joyner, 38315K] reports U.S. border czar Tom Homan, newly installed as commander of President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement surge in Minneapolis, said on Thursday (January 29) that federal agents would focus on targeted operations, shifting away from the broad street sweeps that have drawn widespread outrage. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Bloomberg [1/29/2026 10:01 AM, Staff, 18207K] reports Trump’s border czar Tom Homan told reporters that he is aiming to cut the number of federal immigration officers in Minnesota and conduct more targeted anti-immigration operations in the state as administration deals with the backlash to two killings by ICE agents in Minneapolis. Homan said that despite the issues, Trump remains committed to his anti-immigration policy and will not be backing away from a strong border. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Bloomberg [1/29/2026 9:13 AM, Staff, 18207K] reports US Border Czar Tom Homan says the Trump administration will scale down operations in Minnesota and conduct targeted anti-immigration actions. He spoke Thursday at a press conference. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

ABC News [1/29/2026 9:46 AM, Staff, 30493K] reports the Trump administration’s border czar Tom Homan addressed federal immigration activity and his meetings with officials in Minnesota after taking command. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

AP [1/29/2026 10:36 AM, Staff, 31753K] reports speaking to reporters in Minneapolis for the first time since President Donald Trump deployed him there, White House border czar Tom Homan said immigration enforcement will be “targeted” and “safer,” but insisted the administration is not surrendering its mission. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

NBC News [1/29/2026 9:06 AM, Staff, 34509K] Video: HERE reports during a news conference in Minneapolis, Border czar Tom Homan acknowledged that the ICE operation in the city “can be improved” and said that he plans to make the operation “safer, more efficient, by the book.” Homan was sent to Minneapolis after the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti.

FOX News [1/29/2026 10:10 AM, Staff, 40621K] Video: HERE reports Border czar Tom Homan speaks about the threat of illegal immigration during a press conference in Minneapolis.

CNN [1/29/2026 9:39 AM, Staff, 18595K] reports Border Czar Tom Homan refused to comment on the ICE shootings involving Alex Pretti and Renée Good at a press conference. Homan’s comments come three days after his deployment to Minneapolis. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

NewsMax [1/29/2026 10:53 AM, Sandy Fitzgerald, 4109K] reports Trump administration border czar Tom Homan said he will not comment on the fatal shooting of Minnesota man Alex Pretti, or "any shootings," while new video circulates showing Pretti confronting federal immigration agents in Minneapolis more than a week before his death. Asked by Newsmax during a Thursday morning press conference to react to the footage and whether local law enforcement could have played a role in de-escalating the situation, Homan said he would allow the investigation to proceed without offering public judgment. "I’m not going to comment on any shootings," Homan said. "As a career law enforcement officer, we’ll let the investigation play out, and let it go where it goes.” Homan acknowledged he has personal views on the matter but said he would not share them publicly. "Do I have an opinion? Yeah, my personal opinion," he said. "But I’m not going to share that with you.” The video in question shows a Jan. 13 confrontation during immigration enforcement protests in Minneapolis, in which a man identified as Pretti is seen shouting at a federal officer near an SUV and kicking the vehicle as it pulls away, shattering a taillight on the second kick. According to the report, an agent then got out of the SUV, grabbed Pretti, and pushed him to the ground as federal agents fired tear gas and pepper balls into the crowd. The footage also appears to show what looked like a gun in Pretti’s waistband. Another bystander video described in the report shows Pretti being tackled as onlookers shout while agents deploy pepper balls and smoke to push people back. Pretti later slipped out of his coat and ran away, and officers left without arresting him. Homan said President Donald Trump made clear to him that preventing loss of life remains a top priority. "One of the words he said to me when I came up here was he didn’t want to see anybody die," Homan said. Drawing on his decades in law enforcement, Homan said heightened rhetoric and interference can escalate already dangerous situations.

Daily Caller [1/29/2026 11:04 AM, Nicole Silverio, 835K] reports Border czar Tom Homan retorted to CNN’s Shimon Prokupecz’s accusations on Thursday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is instilling "fear" in American communities. During the press conference in Minnesota, Prokupecz asked Homan who in charge is responsible for the current unrest in the wake of the death of Alex Pretti by a Border Patrol agent in Minneapolis. Homan argued that the massive immigration enforcement operations are in response to the release of millions of illegal aliens by former President Joe Biden’s administration and the need for officers to be protected while arresting public safety threats. "And then finally, it really took the death of Alex Pretti for us to get here. How did that happen? Who made the decisions to allow this kind of operation to proceed in this way and to create such fear?" Prokupecz asked. “Well look, the border patrol, the last four years, Joe Biden, we have an open border or 10, 12,000 people a day are coming across the border, border patrol got overwhelmed, which means we sent thousands of ICE agents down there to help deal with that humanitarian crisis, to help secure the border. Now we have millions of people released in this nation, many unvetted. Now we got to find them. Before the big, beautiful bill, we had a total just under 5,000 deportation officers to look for millions of people, many in public safety threats.” “So yes, we needed more to come and help on our mission now,” Homan continued. “And the reason for the massive deployment is because of the stress, because of the violence. Our officers need to be protected. Homan added that there will be fewer personnel in Minnesota once the violence decreases and public safety threats are off the streets.

Breitbart [1/30/2026 3:12 AM, Neil Munro, 2238K] reports deportation advisor Tom Homan slammed Democrats who are now loudly mourning the tragic deaths of two Americans for their orchestrated silence amid the mass deaths of Americans and migrants during President Joe Biden’s tenure. Democratic "politicians are continuously attacking us," Homan told reporters at a January 29 press conference in Minneapolis. But he added: Where were they the last four years when the number of women [and] children [being] sex trafficked was an all-time high? Where were they when a quarter-million Americans died from fentanyl coming across the border? Where were they when women and children were dying making that journey? Where were they when over four thousand aliens making that journey died. A historic record! Where were they? Not a word. "President Trump promised to make this country safer, and that is what we are doing," Homan said. Breitbart News has tracked the huge number of migrants lured to their deaths as Biden and his deputies welcomed at least 10 million migrants into Americans’ communities, workplaces, schools, and politics. Hundreds of thousands of young Americans died from fentanyl and other drugs as Biden’s deputies directed border security units to help migrants cross the border and claim some form of legal tie to the United States. His deputies — including his pro-migration border chief Alejandro Mayorkas — spent billions of dollars guiding, feeding, sheltering, and training migrants while claiming they did not have the funds to deploy drug-detecting X-Ray machines at the U.S. border. But drug deaths have dropped 20 percent in Trump’s first year as his deputies blocked migrants and sank drug boats at sea. Many Americans — such as Georgia student Laken Riley– have been killed by migrant murderers or drivers, yet many Democrats denounce new laws that help Americans deport foreign criminals. Under Biden, thousands of child and adult migrants died on their way north, and many more were raped by bandits and cartels, yet Democrats insisted they were fleeing humanitarian crises. In 2025, Rolling Stone revisited the jungle paths and reported. In October [2024], it took Edinson almost four days to cross the Darién Gap by foot, passing four corpses during the last stretch of the jungle: the emaciated remains of a mother and daughter who died hugging; a woman who looked like she’d just been shot in the head; the decomposed body of what appeared to be an elderly man; and many, many human bones and skulls lined the edges of the swampy, overgrown paths. "Almost all of them [migrants] have seen someone die or disappear," Ivan Aguilar, who works for Oxfam, a pro-migration aid group, told Rolling Stone. "There were two images of his treacherous journey north that he couldn’t get out of his head," Albinson Linares from Telemundo.com said about a Venezuelan migrant named Johan Torres.

Bloomberg Law [1/29/2026 11:59 AM, Erik Larson and Zoe Tillman, 803K] reports a federal judge in Minnesota sharply criticized US Immigration and Customs Enforcement for violating court orders almost 100 times in 74 cases brought by immigrants so far this year, while saying the actual number is "almost certainly" far higher. "ICE has likely violated more court orders in January 2026 than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence," Chief US District Judge Patrick J. Schiltz, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, said in a court order Wednesday in Minneapolis. The judge issued the finding in one of dozens of lawsuits filed by individuals seeking to be released from detention amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants in Minnesota. Operation Metro Surge, as its known, has led to thousands of arrests and protests across the nation following the shooting deaths of two US citizens by federal agents. In a statement, Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said the government "will continue to enforce the laws of the United States within all applicable constitutional guidelines.” "We will not be deterred by activists either in the streets or on the bench," McLaughlin said. The judge’s criticism comes just as the Trump administration faces a separate challenge by Minnesota’s attorney general, who seeks to bring Operation Metro Surge to an end, as well as a separate suit by protesters seeking to restrict ICE’s aggressive crowd-control tactics. In both cases, federal immigration officials have been accused of widespread violations of Constitutional protections.

Reported similarly:
AP [1/29/2026 4:39 PM, Ed White, 35287K]

DailySignal [1/29/2026 5:15 PM, Tyler O’Neil, 474K] reports the Department of Homeland Security responded to criticism from a federal judge who claimed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement had violated 96 court orders in 74 cases. Patrick Schiltz, chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, had originally demanded that ICE give a detained immigrant a bond hearing within seven days. After the agency initially defied his order, he commanded acting Director Todd Lyons to appear before him to explain why he should not be held in contempt of court. The agency then released the detained immigrant and Schiltz dismissed his order, but not before issuing a scathing rebuke claiming that ICE had violated 96 court orders. DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin responded Thursday and did not contradict the list of allegedly violated orders. She did highlight that the judge dismissed his order that Lyons appear in court.

New York Times [1/29/2026 7:40 PM, Zach Montague, 148038K] reports until January, Patrick J. Schiltz, the chief judge of the District of Minnesota, had steadily managed one of the federal court system’s heavier workloads with little fanfare. He was more widely known in the legal community for penning a revered law journal article 27 years ago that advised young lawyers how to become ethical members of an “unhappy, unhealthy and unethical profession.” But starting this year, as federal agents surged into Minnesota, hundreds of immigration cases began to overwhelm the courtrooms of Judge Schiltz’s district. Since then, in increasingly sharp opinions, Judge Schiltz, 65, has flashed growing frustration and anger with the Trump administration, emerging as an unexpected new critic of the administration’s tactics in court. “The court’s patience has run out,” he wrote in an order on Monday, demanding that Todd Lyons, the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, appear in his courtroom to explain why scores of people arrested by immigration agents have been held without an opportunity to challenge their detentions. On Wednesday, he backed off that threat after one migrant at the heart of the standoff was released, as he had previously ordered. But he attached to his order a list of 96 court orders that he said ICE has violated across 74 cases. “This list should give pause to anyone — no matter his or her political beliefs — who cares about the rule of law,” he wrote, assessing that ICE has most likely violated more court orders in January alone than “some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence.” Reacting to Judge Schiltz’s Wednesday order, Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Homeland Security Department, dismissed his concerns about the violations as a “diatribe from this activist judge,” and noted his decision to relent on having Mr. Lyons appear. “We will not be deterred by activists either in the streets or on the bench,” she said in an emailed statement.

CNN [1/29/2026 11:00 AM, Elizabeth Wolfe, 18595K] reports "unreliable," "untethered to the facts" and "simply not credible.” As the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown moved from Los Angeles to Portland to Chicago last year, that is how federal judges described claims made by the government in court. Now, as the administration battles fresh lawsuits over its immigration operations in Minnesota and Illinois, it faces accusations of aggressive tactics, unlawful treatment of protesters and retaliatory detentions – all of which it has defended itself against before. In Chicago, the government will again face US District Court Judge Sara Ellis, who has already accused one of its top immigration officials of lying under oath. And in Minnesota, where lawsuits have been filed by protesters, residents and state officials, another judge said federal attorneys have yet to turn over "meaningful" evidence to support some of their claims. Justice Department lawyers have turned over hours of body camera footage and reams of incident reports in an effort to provide evidence of what they say are American cities plagued by criminal migrants and law enforcement targeted, threatened and injured by violent protesters. The disclosures have revealed a string of inconsistencies, misrepresentations and, in one instance, "outright lying," according to rulings against the administration written by federal judges. While several judges have acknowledged that parts of the Trump administration’s narratives may be true, a mounting pattern of unreliability appears to have made some reluctant to accept the government’s claims at face value. Ellis noted that the Trump administration "may argue that the Court identifies only minor inconsistencies" – a thrown rock, a scuffle with agents, a dismissed criminal charge.

Washington Post [1/29/2026 3:33 PM, Maria Sacchetti, Karen Tumulty, Amy B Wang, and Joanna Slater, 24149K] reports President Donald Trump’s border czar said Thursday his team is working on a plan to “draw down” the number of federal immigration enforcement agents in the Minneapolis area and admitted that “certain improvements” could be made.

But Tom Homan said any scaling back in immigration raids hinges on increased state and local cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security, and Minnesota’s attorney general said they reached no such accord. Attorney General Keith Ellison (D) said he had a “cordial” meeting with Homan on Wednesday to explain state law, to register the state’s outrage over the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renée Good, and to call for joint and transparent state and federal investigations into their deaths. State law already requires prisons to turn over felons, he said. “I did not negotiate with Mr. Homan, come to any agreement, or offer any compromise on the goal of keeping Minnesotans safe,” Ellison said in a statement. “I raised with him directly the rage Minnesotans feel at the unconstitutional tactics federal immigration agents have been using in Minneapolis, Saint Paul, and elsewhere in our state.” The more conciliatory tone from Homan came as the White House seeks to quiet a growing backlash against immigration crackdowns following Saturday’s fatal shooting of ICU nurse Pretti by federal immigration enforcement. Scenes of smashed car windows and people being dragged out of their cars and tear gassed have led to national outrage and calls from Democrats and some Republicans to rein in immigration enforcers.

New York Times [1/29/2026 6:37 PM, Chris Hippensteel, 148038K] reports a physician said that emergency room and clinic visits were down substantially as people were avoiding medical care because they feared being detained. A software developer recalled being arrested and threatened with deportation by ICE, even with a visa allowing legal residence in the country. Native American community organizers described how tribal members had been profiled and detained by ICE, who mistook them for immigrants based on appearance. In all, more than 20 speakers testified before a Minnesota State Senate committee on Thursday about the Trump administration’s deportation blitz in the Twin Cities, the first such hearing since the start of the crackdown late last year. Lawmakers heard from lawyers, organizers, local elected officials and Minnesota residents who had found themselves caught up in the federal immigration actions taking place in the Twin Cities. Those testifying recounted acts of violence and aggressive tactics used by federal agents against protesters and observers, as well as racial profiling and seemingly arbitrary detentions by immigration officers. Democrats and Republicans on the committee sparred over the course of the testimony. During one tense exchange, a Republican state senator pressed a pair of suburban mayors on whether they felt Hennepin County should honor ICE detainer requests, which asks the local authorities to hold a person for up to 48 hours beyond a scheduled release date so immigration agents can take custody. Senator Alice Mann, a Democrat on the committee, dismissed the possibility that the immigration authorities would engage with local leaders in good faith while the crackdown remained ongoing. “This has never been about a both-sides issue,” Ms. Mann said. “This is about racism. This is about a racist government who is hunting Black and brown people regardless of immigration status and regardless of criminal history.”

DailySignal [1/29/2026 4:55 PM, Virginia Allen, 474K] reports Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey accused the federal government of conducting a "siege" of his city. "The Operation Metro Surge needs to end. This kind of conduct and siege needs to stop, not just in Minneapolis; it needs to stop nationwide," Frey told a room of fellow elected leaders at the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. The Department of Homeland Security launched Operation Metro Surge, designed to target criminal illegal aliens in the Twin Cities area, in December, but has since expanded the operation to the rest of the state. The agency has deployed about 3,000 federal immigration officials to the area in recent weeks. Frey warned his fellow mayors that "if we do not speak up, if we do not step out, it will be your city that is next." The mayor has criticized the Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation for weeks, but his rhetoric against the operation sharpened after two recent fatal shootings of protesters by immigration enforcement agents.

Reported similarly:
The Hill [1/29/2026 12:49 PM, Staff, 12595K]

FOX News [1/29/2026 5:40 PM, Alexandra Koch, 37576K] reports amid rising anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) tensions nationwide, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey used the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Washington, D.C., on Thursday as an opportunity to urge other mayors to combat the Trump administration’s federal law enforcement efforts, cautioning violence could come to their cities "next." The mayor called on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to end "Operation Metro Surge" in Minneapolis, and immigration enforcement nationwide, alleging "never once" had he made the issue partisan. Frey’s comments come days after White House border czar Tom Homan visited the Twin Cities in an effort to develop a "drawdown plan," to decrease the presence of federal agents in the state.

Breitbart [1/29/2026 5:39 PM, Neil Munro, 2238K] reports Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is suggesting that federal enforcement of federal immigration law in his state may trigger another Civil War. "I mean, is this a Fort Sumter?" he suggested to a pro-migration writer from The Atlantic magazine, adding: "It’s an armed force that’s assaulting, that’s killing my constituents, my citizens." After invoking Fort Sumter, he brought up John Brown, the abolitionist who [earlier] stormed a federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, in 1859, fueling violent conflict over slavery that erupted in the Civil War. But Walz suggested he may escalate the conflict if the federal government does not let his city continue using illegal migrants in its economy.

CBS News [1/29/2026 5:31 PM, Sarah N. Lynch, Jonah Kaplan, 51110K] reports federal prosecutors in Minneapolis this week questioned the U.S. attorney over the lack of any civil rights investigations into two fatal shootings by immigration agents, and warned that more people could resign in protest if things don’t change, multiple sources told CBS News. In a somber meeting on Monday between Minnesota U.S. Attorney Dan Rosen and assistant U.S. attorneys in the criminal division, prosecutors expressed concern that they were not allowed to investigate the federal officers who shot and killed Renee Good or Alex Pretti, sources familiar with the meeting said. They also told Rosen they are worried about how President Trump’s immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota is being handled by the office, warning that they are facing pressure to rush to file criminal charges against people accused of assaulting federal officers without conducting a formal investigation, and that the intense focus on such cases is interfering with their ability to complete other important work. The FBI, meanwhile, has not launched any investigation into Pretti’s death, and is only assisting the Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations in a limited capacity. So far, the FBI’s involvement has only entailed analyzing Pretti’s firearm at one of its forensics labs.

The Hill [1/29/2026 3:23 PM, Rebecca Beitsch, 18170K] reports Senate Homeland Security Committee Democrats are demanding Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem appear before the panel amid scrutiny over the killing of two Minneapolis residents by immigration officers. Noem and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) leaders have been under growing pressure after the deaths of Good and Pretti, including for their claims defending the personnel who shot and killed them. Even before the two shootings, Noem faced grumbling from Democrats who have said they have had difficulty getting her to commit to appearances before Congress.

Breitbart [1/29/2026 6:32 PM, Jasmyn Jordan, 2238K] reports House Democrat leadership staff recommended officials not to travel to Minnesota this week, citing security concerns amid a heightened threat environment and recent attacks on lawmakers, as well as to avoid burdening local resources during ongoing anti-ICE demonstrations. According to an internal email obtained by Axios, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ staff privately advised Democratic members of Congress to avoid traveling to Minnesota. The message emphasized support for anti-ICE activism but urged lawmakers to show solidarity from their home districts rather than risk adding strain to law enforcement in Minneapolis. Axios confirmed the authenticity of the email with two congressional staffers. "In speaking with the [Minnesota] delegation offices and the Governor’s team it has become clear that the best thing for Members to do right now is to support their MN colleagues by participating in the Days of Action in their home district this week," the email noted. It warned that visiting Minnesota at this time "puts a burden on local resources and does not support our colleagues, the city and state government, local law enforcement and most importantly the people of Minneapolis.” The guidance follows an uptick in incidents targeting Democratic lawmakers. On January 27, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) was sprayed with an unknown substance by a man at a town hall event where she was calling for the abolition of ICE and the resignation or impeachment of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. Video from the event shows Omar being rushed off stage as attendees reacted to the incident. She later stated, "I’m a survivor so this small agitator isn’t going to intimidate me from doing my work.”

CNN [1/29/2026 7:00 PM, Isabelle Chapman, et al., 19874K] reports in the chaotic moments leading up to Alex Pretti’s death on Saturday, the aggressive actions of two federal agents transformed the encounter into a deadly shooting, a CNN analysis of video has found. While other agents helped restrain Pretti on a Minneapolis street and seized a handgun from his waistband, video shows these agents significantly escalated the confrontation — first by pepper spraying and striking Pretti repeatedly in the face and on the head, and then by drawing their weapons and firing at him, even after he was on the ground, unarmed. The conduct of those two agents, from the earliest moments interacting with demonstrators up through their decision to pull weapons and fire at Pretti, illustrate the dangers of flooding American cities with officers ill-equipped to deal with protesters in urban environments, experts told CNN. While major city police departments have embraced a philosophy of cooling down heated encounters with the public, the immigration officers in Minneapolis did the opposite – right up to the moment of Pretti’s death. "Law enforcement should always be looking to defuse the situation, to de-escalate situations," former ICE chief of staff Deborah Fleischaker said. "Instead of doing that, they’re leaning into the ways that they can escalate.” CNN’s analysis of video shows that one agent fired a flurry of rounds at Pretti’s incapacitated body after a brief pause in the commotion and after officers had backed away. These two agents appear to be the two officers identified as the shooters in an initial report by the Department of Homeland Security about the incident. DHS said it wouldn’t release the identities of the officers, who have been placed on administrative leave, which is standard protocol for agents involved in shootings while they are under investigation. A DHS spokesperson declined to provide details on what training these two agents had received, but said: "Many of our agents have backgrounds in the military or law enforcement and Border Patrol agents receive extensive federal law enforcement training … just as ICE officers do. The disgusting attempts by the media to say these agents are not trained to enforce the law is shameful and laughable.”

Daily Signal [1/29/2026 10:40 AM, Tyler O’Neil, 549K] reports state and federal authorities are investigating the shooting death of Alex Pretti, 37, at the hands of U.S. Border Patrol agents on Saturday, but newly released video confirms Pretti had a previous confrontation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement this month. The video, captured by The News Movement, shows Pretti shouting at federal agents before kicking and damaging their vehicle on Jan. 13 in Minneapolis. Agents then exited the vehicle, grabbed Pretti, and wrestled him to the ground. The BBC’s facial recognition software confirmed Pretti’s identity within 97% accuracy, and a Pretti family representative confirmed to CBS News that the man in the video was indeed Pretti. The representative said the family knew about the incident and that Pretti, an ICU nurse, sustained injuries but did not receive medical care for them. In the video, Pretti shouts at agents, then proceeds to kick and damage the taillight of a government SUV before agents tackle him to the ground. The footage also shows what appears to be a handgun in Pretti’s waistband. The video does not show whether agents detained Pretti after the incident. A Department of Homeland Security official told CBS News that Homeland Security Investigations officials are analyzing the video.

Reported similarly:
USA Today [1/29/2026 2:42 PM, Natalie Neysa Alund, 67103K]

NPR [1/29/2026 5:46 PM, Ryan Lucas, 28764K] Audio: HERE reports the Department of Justice and FBI are ceding their traditional role leading investigations in the wake of shootings in Minneapolis to the Department of Homeland Security.

NBC News [1/29/2026 4:03 PM, Daniel Arkin, 42967K] reports in the snow-covered streets of Minneapolis, smartphones are recording the first draft of modern American history. Everyday people have in recent weeks fanned out across the city to document protests and film tense interactions with federal immigration officers. They have also borne witness to tragedy. The fatal shootings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti were captured on shaky video by bystanders clutching smartphones in the bitter cold and standing within shouting distance of the victims. The cellphone recordings quickly ricocheted across social media. They were shared again and again, dissected and debated by journalists, politicians, lawyers, activists and millions of people. In a poll published Jan. 13, Quinnipiac University poll found 82% of registered voters have seen video of the Good shooting — and that number has likely grown. The raw videos do not answer every question, but they have become foundational to the public’s understanding of the killings. In capturing these fatal shootings, Minneapolis eyewitnesses have pushed the Trump administration’s controversial Operation Metro Surge to the center of the national conversation, fueling bipartisan pushback that led the White House to pull a key law enforcement official out of the city. The amateur videographers also provided raw material that news organizations have analyzed, resulting in reports that contradict some of the Trump administration’s claims. The very act of filming immigration agents is a contentious subject, viewed by some opponents of the Trump administration as a necessary civic duty and decried by some federal officials as an impediment to immigration enforcement.

Breitbart [1/29/2026 11:24 AM, Awr Hawkins, 2416K] reports that a video from 11 days before Alex Pretti was shot and killed in a confrontation with federal agents shows him yelling "f**k you" at agents and daring them to "assault" him. In the video Pretti can allegedly be heard calling the agents "f**king trash." He also appeared to spit at an agent as the agent got into a vehicle, then kicked at the vehicle. Breitbart News noted that Pretti was known to federal law enforcement before being shot and killed by an agent on Saturday. CNN cited unnamed sources indicating "federal immigration officers…had documented details about Alex Pretti before" the fatal shooting. By subscribing, you agree to our terms of use & privacy policy. You will receive email marketing messages from Breitbart News Network to the email you provide. You may unsubscribe at any time. He had been injured while protesting law enforcement efforts over "their attempt to detain other individuals" a week before his death. Pretti brought a gun with him on January 24, 2026–the day he was shot by an agent–and President Trump said, "No one knows when [the agents] saw the gun, how they saw the gun, everything else. Bottom line, it was terrible." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Washington Post [1/29/2026 10:52 AM, Perry Stein, 24149K] reports federal prosecutors in Minneapolis have told U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen, the Trump administration appointee leading the office, that they feel deeply frustrated by the Justice Department’s response to the fatal shootings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti by immigration officers and suggested that they could resign en masse, leaving the office unable to handle its current caseload, according to two officials familiar with the office. At least one prosecutor in the office’s criminal division has resigned since a meeting this week with Rosen during which the prosecutors aired their concerns, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel matter that has not been made public. The threat of further resignations is the latest sign of how the federal judicial system in Minnesota has begun to crack under the strain imposed by the administration’s immigration enforcement surge in the state. On Wednesday, the chief federal district judge in the state wrote that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials had violated 96 court orders since launching the crackdown in Minnesota, dubbed Operation Metro Surge. “ICE has likely violated more court orders in January 2026 than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence,” Chief U.S. District Judge Patrick J. Schiltz wrote. When asked for comment about the Minnesota prosecutors, a Justice Department spokesperson responded with Attorney General Pam Bondi’s February 2025 “zealous advocacy” memo that said attorneys would face discipline or termination if they are not “vigorously defending presidential policies.” The U.S. attorney’s office in Minnesota has been in turmoil since the administration sidelined the office in the investigations around the shootings of Good and Pretti, who were shot 2½ weeks apart during confrontations with immigration officers in Minneapolis. At least a half-dozen prosecutors in the office — including the second-in-command — resigned earlier this month after top Justice Department officials told prosecutors not to investigate the shooting of Good but instead try to build a case against her partner. In the aftermath of those resignations, the Justice Department sent prosecutors from other Midwestern states to help deal with the swelling caseload in Minnesota. The severe staffing shortage in the office is expected to worsen in the coming weeks as more prosecutors from the office’s criminal and civil divisions resign. The Minnesota U.S. attorney’s office is down to about half of its full staffing level of approximately 70 lawyers. At least some of the resignations occurred in the final months of the Biden administration before President Donald Trump took office.

Blaze [1/29/2026 10:00 AM, Staff, 1442K] reports life keeps getting crazier for 23-year-old YouTuber Nick Shirley — the overnight independent journalist who ripped the curtain back on Minnesota’s Somali-run fraud schemes, bringing the issue to national attention. Episode one, which has amassed over 141 million views, exposed Somali-run day cares in Minnesota as allegedly fraudulent operations. Shirley’s footage highlighted empty day-care centers, many with locked doors, blacked-out windows, and tight-lipped "staff members," despite receiving millions in federal and state funding. Episode two identified fraudulent nonemergency medical transportation companies as the "hub" of the fraud wheel that enables the schemes taking place in day-care centers and other welfare/social services programs. Shirley’s reporting has not only triggered widespread outrage across the nation but also immediate action from the Trump administration. Shortly after episode one dropped, the Department of Health and Human Services froze federal child-care funding to Minnesota and later expanded freezes to other states. The FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigations in Minnesota surged as well. On a recent episode of "Come & Take It," Sara interviews Shirley about his viral Minnesota fraud exposés, the government actions they sparked, the death threats and doxxing forcing 24/7 security, and his congressional testimony where Democrats were largely absent. "We always hear about the fraud taking place, but we’ve never actually been able to see it with our eyes. And so I think that’s why the video did so well ... because people were really actually able to see that fraud," says Shirley of his viral exposé.

NPR [1/29/2026 4:30 PM, Juana Summers, Matt Ozug, Megan Lim, Vincent Acovino, Patrick Jarenwattananon, Ashley Brown, 28764K] Audio: HERE reports NPR’s Juana Summers speaks with Edwin Torres DeSantiago, who conducts trainings for constitutional observation of immigration enforcement.

NewsMax [1/29/2026 2:39 PM, Staff, 3760K] reports the Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday that federal agents arrested several "criminal illegal aliens" in Minnesota as part of Operation Metro Surge, an ongoing enforcement effort targeting people with serious criminal convictions. DHS said the arrests were made Tuesday and included individuals convicted of second-degree criminal sexual conduct involving a minor, domestic abuse, and second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon. "We are in Minnesota to get the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens off the streets," Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. "Just yesterday, DHS law enforcement arrested pedophiles, domestic abusers, and armed assailants.” McLaughlin also urged state and local officials in Minnesota to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement, criticizing what she called "sanctuary politicians.” She said DHS wants access to local jails so federal officers can arrest individuals before their release. "We are calling on Minnesota sanctuary politicians to work with us, let us into their jails, so our officers can safely arrest these criminals before they are released onto the streets," McLaughlin said. "If we work together, we can make America safe again.” DHS listed several of the people arrested, along with criminal convictions the agency said were on record.

Washington Examiner [1/30/2026 2:28 AM, Staff, 1147K] reports Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem explained the reasoning behind her previous statements regarding the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, in which she referred to him as a "domestic terrorist," during an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity. Noem said she relied on the "best information" that was available at the time and sent to her from agents and officers who were present during the shooting. "That situation was very chaotic," said Noem. "We were being relayed information from on the ground from CBP agents and officers that were there. We were using the best information we had at the time, seeking to be transparent toward the American people and get them what we knew to be true on the ground.” Noem’s comments come as the Trump administration has altered its original tone and strategies in Minnesota after the fatal shooting. First, there was the revelation that border czar Tom Homan would now be leading illegal immigration enforcement operations in Minnesota. Then presidential adviser Stephen Miller revealed that agents in the state may have broken protocol during operations. Meanwhile, Noem said on Thursday the current FBI investigation of Pretti’s shooting would ensure "the American people know the truth of the situation.” "We will continue to follow the investigation that the FBI is leading and giving them all the information that they need to bring that to conclusion and make sure the American people know the truth of the situation and how we can go forward and continue to protect the American people," Noem said. Hannity pressed Noem on her past use of the phrase "domestic terrorism" when commenting on the shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. "People seem to be upset over the term ‘domestic terrorism.’ Why do you believe that’s appropriate because you used it in both cases?" Hannity asked. Noem mentioned the FBI investigation would be important in how the situation is discussed. She then pivoted to discussing the root of why ICE operations have occurred, mentioning the surge of "unvetted" illegal immigrants entering the country during the Biden administration. "We’re continuing to gather information and the FBI leading this investigation is important to make sure we talk about both these situations appropriately," Noem said. "In the Renee Good situation, we have more information as it happened previously and we’ll continue to get to the truth of all of this. But we can’t distract from the fact of how we got here, and we got here because we had a Biden administration that allowed an invasion over our southern border and allowed millions of people to come into our country unvetted.” "And we know for a fact that we had dangerous criminals and drug traffickers, murderers, terrorists, people on the suspected and known-terrorist watchlist, that are in this country, that these officers are working so hard to get off of our streets," Noem said. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Politico [1/29/2026 10:59 PM, Aaron Pellish, 21784K] reports Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has conceded she may have gotten some information wrong in her initial response to Border Patrol’s killing of Alex Pretti, the Minneapolis ICU nurse she labeled a domestic terrorist. Noem also dodged questions about her leadership of DHS amid widespread outrage, even among some Republicans, about the deaths of Pretti and Renee Good during an aggressive immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis. Noem, who said Pretti committed an “act of domestic terrorism” against immigration agents despite videos showing otherwise, told Fox News on Thursday that the situation immediately following the killing was “very chaotic,” and the details she presented to reporters came from initial reports from Customs and Border Protection agents in Minneapolis. “We were being relayed information from on the ground from CBP agents and officers that were there,” Noem said. “We were using the best information we had at the time.” Following the killing of the 37-year-old U.S. citizen, lawmakers from both parties, including Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Sen. Thom Tillis, have called for President Donald Trump to remove Noem from her position. The scrutiny comes as the Trump administration seeks to soften its messaging around Pretti’s death following Noem’s antagonistic response. The president sent border czar Tom Homan to Minneapolis, where he vowed on Thursday to oversee a more targeted campaign than the strategy that has been pursued in the city and elsewhere. Noem attended a Cabinet meeting at the White House on Thursday, but the president did not invite her to speak and she did not take any questions. Asked about Democrats calling for her removal, Noem dismissed the “radicals” seeking to force her out of her role while aligning herself closely with the president. “These radicals are attacking me, but I’m just doing my job. I’m following the law, enforcing the laws like President Trump promised he would do, to keep people safe in this country,” she said.

New York Post [1/29/2026 10:57 PM, Anna Young, 40934K] reports Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem stressed she is just doing her job as she faces growing calls to resign following two fatal Minneapolis shootings involving federal immigration agents — including one she initially defended before backtracking. Noem’s toned-down plea to Fox News host Sean Hannity on Thursday comes as she faces bipartisan outcry over the fatal shootings of two American anti-ICE protesters by federal agents in Minneapolis. "These radicals are attacking me, but I’m just doing my job," she insisted during an interview on "Hannity.” "I’m following the law, enforcing the laws, like President Trump promised that he would do to keep people safe in this country. We’re going to continue to go after these criminals, we’re going to remove them before they have the chance to murder more Americans.” Noem on Saturday rushed to defend Border Patrol agents when armed protester Alex Pretti was shot nearly 10 times by two federal immigration officers after he was pinned down and disarmed as tensions flared in Minneapolis. She claimed the 37-year-old ICU nurse confronted agents, who she said were in fear of their lives, with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun, causing them to open fire. But videos from the scene showed Pretti holding only his phone when he approached the agents. He was pepper-sprayed and wrestled to the ground by multiple agents in the confrontation before one officer removed his legally owed Sig Sauer pistol from his waistband just seconds before gunfire erupted. DHS investigators believe an errant round from Pretti’s pistol — after it was taken from him — may have prompted Border Patrol agents to open fire, killing him. Noem — who blasted Pretti as a domestic terrorist trying to "kill law enforcement" — said the information she quickly provided to the public after the fatal shooting came from officers on the ground. "I know you realize that situation was very chaotic, and that we were being relayed information from on the ground, from CBP agents and officers that were there," she told Hannity. "We were using the best information we had at the time, seeking to be transparent with the American people and get them what we knew to be true on the ground," the secretary continued. "We will continue to follow the investigation that the FBI is leading and giving them all the information that they need to bring that to the conclusion and make sure that the American people know the truth of the situation and how we can go forward and continue to protect the American people."

Breitbart [1/30/2026 4:42 AM, Ian Hanchett, 2416K]
reports on Thursday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Hannity,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem responded to a question on whether she made a premature statement on the Alex Pretti shooting by saying “that situation was very chaotic and that we were being relayed information from on the ground from CBP agents and officers that were there. We were using the best information we had at the time, seeking to be transparent with the American people and get them what we knew to be true on the ground.” Host Sean Hannity asked, “There [seem] to be two criticisms that have emerged, and I want to give you a chance to address them. One was an X post two-and-a-half hours after the Pretti shooting that an individual approached the officer with a 9 millimeter semiautomatic, officers feared for their safety, and that’s why the shooting occurred. It seems, as you look at videos, that the weapon may have been stripped, though, before that happened. And I guess my question is, was that statement premature?” Noem answered, “Well, Sean, I know you realize that that situation was very chaotic and that we were being relayed information from on the ground from CBP agents and officers that were there. We were using the best information we had at the time, seeking to be transparent with the American people and get them what we knew to be true on the ground. So, we will continue to follow the investigation that the FBI is leading and [give] them all the information that they need to bring that to a conclusion and make sure that the American people know the truth of the situation and how we can go forward and continue to protect the American people.” Later, Hannity asked, “[P]eople seem to be upset over the term domestic terrorism, why do you believe that’s appropriate?” Noem answered, “Well, Sean, we’re continuing to gather information, and the FBI leading this investigation is important to make sure that we talk about both these situations appropriately.” [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

The Hill [1/29/2026 1:16 PM, Mike Lillis, 12595K] reports House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said Thursday that House Democrats are poised to launch impeachment proceedings against Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem if President Trump doesn’t remove her from power “immediately.” “She’s got to go — we are dead serious,” Jeffries told reporters in the Capitol. “She needs to be put on ice permanently.” Jeffries did not put a date on the launch, but he said he spoke with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Wednesday to warn GOP leaders that the effort to topple Noem is imminent. “If Kristi Noem is not fired immediately, impeachment proceedings will commence,” Jeffries said. Jeffries also declared that Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff and a leading proponent of the administration’s deportation agenda, should also be removed. “Stephen Miller is the architect of Donald Trump’s toxic immigration policies,” Jeffries said. “He’s a stone-cold liar. He’s a bigot, he’s a hateful individual. He’s a malignant, unelected interloper. “He needs to go as well.” Noem has come under heavy scrutiny in recent weeks over the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) deportation operations in Minneapolis, where two American citizens were fatally shot by federal officers this month as they protested Trump’s immigration crackdown. The first incident, on Jan. 7, led to the death of Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, who was killed in her car by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer amid federal operations in a southern neighborhood of the city. The most recent incident occurred last Saturday, when Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, was fatally shot by at least two Borer Patrol agents during a similar street protest in the same city. In both cases, Noem defended the federal agents, characterizing both Good and Pretti as “domestic terrorists” who had threatened the lives of the officers. Miller delivered a similar message, calling Pretti “an assassin [who] tried to murder federal agents.” The administration’s narrative is contradicted by video footage of the shootings, and it has infuriated the Democrats, who are now calling for Noem’s impeachment. “She’s a disgrace, and on top of all that, she’s presided over the cold-blooded killings of American citizens,” Jeffries said Thursday.

Axios [1/29/2026 6:29 AM, Mary Helen Moore and Zachery Eanes, 12972K] reports North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis joined a growing chorus of Republicans calling for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to resign or be fired. It’s a rare break by congressional Republicans with President Trump over a Cabinet official, and comes after federal officers shot and killed two U.S. citizens this month in Minneapolis. Tillis, who voted to confirm Noem, said "she should be out of a job." "The execution is horrible. I have no problem with the deportations, but this is clearly a flawed and deadly" approach, he added.

Zoom out: Sen. Lisa Murkowski, of Alaska, also said Noem should step down, Axios’ Hans Nichols writes. Trump has stood by Noem and called Tillis and Murkowski "losers." "I am thrilled about that. That makes me qualified to be Homeland Security secretary and senior adviser to the president," Tillis responded on CNN.

The Hill [1/29/2026 12:10 PM, Ashleigh Fields, 12595K] reports Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) on Thursday commended border czar Tom Homan for conducting a news conference in Minnesota on immigration enforcement and told Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller to “take notes.” “This is what competent leadership looks like. Noem and Miller, take notes,” he wrote in a post on the social platform X. President Trump sent Homan in to quell outrage following the killing of two U.S. citizens at the hands of immigration authorities. Homan told reporters, “I didn’t come to Minnesota for photo-ops or headlines. You haven’t seen me. I came here to seek solutions, and that’s what we’re going to do.” “And we’ve come a long way, and we got some good wins for the people of Minnesota, I think, and for the administration and for the safety security of this city. One thing we did agree on, though, everybody I talked to agreed on, was that community safety is paramount,” he added.

The Hill [1/29/2026 10:12 AM, Max Rego, 12595K] reports Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) signaled Wednesday that he’s not at all bothered by President Trump labeling him a “loser.” “I am thrilled about that. That makes me qualified to be [Department of] Homeland Security secretary and senior adviser to the president,” Tillis told CNN’s Manu Raju on Capitol Hill, referring to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller. On Tuesday, Tillis slammed Noem and Miller for their handling of the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis. The North Carolina Republican also joined a chorus of lawmakers calling for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) chief to resign. Trump told ABC News later that day that Tillis and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R), who also called for Noem’s ouster, are “losers.” “They’re terrible senators. One is gone, and the other should be gone,” the president added. Tillis, a frequent critic of Trump and his administration during his second term, is not running for reelection in November. The senator voted against the GOP’s signature tax and spending bill last summer and questioned the Justice Department’s credibility amid its probe into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell earlier this month. His latest round of criticism centered on Noem and Miller. Hours after Pretti was shot and killed on Saturday, the two officials claimed — without evidence — that he intended to harm federal law enforcement. Miller, a chief proponent of the administration’s mass deportation agenda, called the ICU nurse “an assassin” who “tried to murder federal agents” on social platform X. Noem, meanwhile, told reporters over the weekend that the 37-year-old “committed an act of domestic terrorism.” On Wednesday, the GOP senator doubled down, telling CNN that Noem and Miller are making it harder for federal immigration enforcement personnel to do their jobs. “They’re discrediting even these officers,” Tillis said. “They’re going to make their job more difficult and more dangerous with this incompetence that I’m seeing.” He added to the argument Thursday, praising border czar Tom Homan’s vow to “fix” immigration enforcement operations in Minnesota. “This is what competent leadership looks like,” he wrote on X, sharing a clip from Homan’s press conference. “Noem and Miller, take notes.”

CNN [1/29/2026 5:00 AM, Kristen Holmes and Priscilla Alvarez, 18595K] reports Stephen Miller has sought this week to distance himself from the recent fatal shootings in Minneapolis and the administration’s miscalculated response. But more than anyone, Miller has been the overall architect of Trump’s aggressive deportation push, encouraging heavy-handed operations in blue cities and urging agencies to cast a wide net to meet hefty arrest quotas. Miller is one of multiple Trump administration officials who have sought to cast blame on each other in the aftermath of the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti in Minnesota as they have faced bipartisan criticism for the increasingly chaotic scenes there and for their seeming rush to blame Pretti for the confrontation. On Tuesday, Miller — who has long been reticent to admit to failure or weakness — took the rare step of acknowledging a possible mistake in the administration’s immigration effort, a sign of how much the Pretti shooting has shaken the White House. Miller said that Customs and Border Protection may not have followed protocols during the shooting, and he noted that the White House based its preliminary response on initial reports from CBP on the ground. Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff, is widely seen in the administration as the mastermind of the president’s immigration policy, relentlessly pushing officials to meet goals that he designates on behalf of the president. His power is evident in his daily 10 a.m. conference calls, including Saturdays, where he demands updates from agencies and exerts pressure on senior officials who deliver less-than-satisfactory results, according to a source familiar. Miller is also known to call Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem— who has taken significant heat for her handling of Minnesota — multiple times a day, according to sources, to provide guidance and direction on how Trump’s immigration agenda is being executed.

FOX News [1/29/2026 1:05 PM, Alex Nitzberg, 40621K] reports that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., called White House deputy chief of staff for policy and Homeland Security advisor Stephen Miller a "hateful bigot," but the White House fired back, labeling the lawmaker a "buffoon." "Stephen Miller is one of the malignant architects of the violence and brutality DHS has unleashed on the American people," Jeffries asserted in a Wednesday post on X. "He slandered hero nurse Alex Pretti as a would-be assassin. Why is this hateful bigot still Donald Trump’s chief immigration adviser?" Jeffries asked. In a statement provided to Fox News Digital, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson slammed Jeffries. "Hakeem Jeffries is a buffoon who has repeatedly lied about and smeared federal law enforcement officers, including inciting violence against them by encouraging his supporters to ‘fight’ President Trump’s agenda ‘in the streets.’ No one should take anything he says seriously," Jackson said in the statement. A senior DHS official told Fox News Digital that Miller "has been instrumental in delivering on the President’s agenda." "At neck-breaking speed, President Trump has achieved the most secure border in American history — Stephen has been a lynchpin in those efforts," the official added. The official went on to say that Miller’s "passion, patriotism and persistence helps fuel this administration in our efforts to carry out the largest deportation of criminal illegal aliens in the history of our republic."

Washington Examiner [1/29/2026 5:26 PM, Claire Carter, 1147K] reports Gov. Maura Healey (D-MA) on Thursday introduced legislation that would make it unlawful for another state’s National Guard to be deployed to Massachusetts. A news release from Healey’s office said the proposed restriction stems from President Donald Trump’s decision to send National Guard troops from other states into cities such as Chicago and Los Angeles despite opposition from local and state leaders. The restriction is part of a broader raft of measures aimed at curbing federal immigration enforcement in the state. The proposal also seeks to bar Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers from conducting certain civil enforcement actions in "protected spaces" such as schools, hospitals, courthouses, and places of worship. Healey framed her National Guard and ICE proposal as a part of a broader push to protect Massachusetts residents from federal immigration enforcement actions she views as heavy-handed. In addition to the National Guard provision, the legislation would prohibit ICE from making civil arrests in nonpublic areas of state facilities and prevent the state from entering the new agreements that deputize local law enforcement to enforce federal immigration law unless there is a public safety need.

The Hill [1/29/2026 4:59 PM, Sophie Brams, 18170K] reports Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) said Thursday that his administration is preparing should the commonwealth become the next target of President Trump’s immigration crackdown amid growing concerns about clashes between residents and federal law enforcement officers across the country. Shapiro declined to go into further detail, noting only that his government was “prepared on every level.” He did, however, acknowledge there may be some limitations to his ability to respond should Trump decide to move in.

Houston Chronicle [1/29/2026 4:02 PM, Julián Aguilar, 2493K] reports Houston Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia introduced legislation this week to repeal a federal requirement that local governments cooperate with immigration authorities. The legislation would not disrupt current state or local policies, she said, but would instead ensure that local governments aren’t at risk of losing millions in federal funding should they be deemed out of compliance by the White House. Garcia’s legislation would repeal a section of the Clinton-era Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 that Garcia said erodes trust in local law enforcement and forces police departments to act as de facto immigration agents. The current law says that local or state governments “may not prohibit, or in any way restrict, any government entity or official” from sending or receiving information about a person’s immigration status. Garcia called her legislation a state-rights and local-control bill that ensures policies are crafted without federal interference. Garcia also called for the resignation of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem following the deaths of U.S. citizens Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good, who were fatally shot by federal agents during protests earlier this month.

Los Angeles Times [1/29/2026 3:18 PM, Ruben Vives, Karen Garcia and Hailey Wang, 12718K] reports at a recent training session for 300 immigration activists in Los Angeles, the main topic was Minnesota and the changes to federal immigration tactics. For the last few months, federal law enforcement officers have intensified their efforts to locate and deport immigrants suspected of living in the country illegally. While the scope of the sweeps and the number of arrests in Los Angeles appear to be down overall compared with last summer, daily immigration operations are being documented across the city, from street corners in Boyle Heights to downtown L.A.’s Fashion District. Local immigration activists say they have noticed a change in immigration agents’ tactics. The change has forced activists to also adjust their tactics. Immigrant rights advocates say one thing that has not changed is federal officials continue to detain immigrants with no criminal history.

CNN [1/30/2026 4:10 AM, Devan Cole, 18595K] reports as President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown has whisked through major US cities, trial-level judges attempting to restrain the frenzied actions of federal agents have been repeatedly slapped down by higher courts – sometimes with the help of judges the president put on the bench in his first term. A series of rulings from the Supreme Court and federal appeals courts have overturned early victories secured by opponents of Trump’s immigration blitzes in California, Chicago and Minnesota. The administration’s latest win came Monday, when a three-judge federal appeals court panel indefinitely paused a Minneapolis judge’s decision to put tight guardrails on how agents can respond to individuals peacefully protesting Operation Metro Surge, which has sparked intense opposition in the Twin Cities and led to the fatal shooting of two US citizens by federal officers. The preliminary injunction issued earlier this month by US District Judge Katherine Menendez, the 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals concluded, was overbroad and vague and thus could not remain in effect for now. The two judges that voted to fully grant the administration’s request to shelve Menendez’s ruling were Trump-appointee David Stras and Bobby Shepherd, who was appointed by former President George W. Bush. Trump and his allies have long complained that lower court judges have acted out of bounds in cases challenging his agenda, particularly in the immigration context, over which they argue he has broad, unreviewable authority. Seizing on the appeals court ruling Monday, Attorney General Pam Bondi attacked Menendez, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, as a “liberal” judge who “tried to handcuff our federal law enforcement officers, restrict their actions, and put their safety at risk when responding to violent agitators.” “The 8th Circuit has fully agreed that this reckless attempt to undermine law enforcement cannot stand,” she said.

New York Times [1/29/2026 6:35 PM, Sonia A. Rao, 148038K] reports protests following the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti are scheduled in Minneapolis and coast to coast throughout the weekend, as the nation continues to grapple with an immigration crackdown that has roiled cities. There is a “national shutdown” planned for Friday that hopes to persuade people to stay home from school, work and shopping, and dozens of “ICE Out Everywhere” protests in towns large and small set for Saturday. Organizers hope that a sweeping show of resistance will convince the Trump administration to stop sending immigration agents to cities nationwide. The demonstrations follow a general strike on Jan. 23 in Minneapolis that saw hundreds of business shut down and thousands take to the streets. That was the day before Mr. Pretti was killed by a federal agent, setting off a new wave of fury at ICE and Homeland Security. On Friday, organizers are planning a protest at 8 a.m. outside the B.H. Whipple Federal Building, where immigrants caught in the dragnet have been detained. The building has seen countless protests over the past few weeks. There will also be a march and rally at the Government Plaza building at 2 p.m. On Saturday, advocacy groups, including Twin Cities Coalition for Justice and the Minnesota Immigration Rights Action Committee, are holding a march and rally at 1 p.m. at Bryant Square Park in Minneapolis. On Friday, University of Minnesota student groups have called for a national shutdown. Working with hundreds of organizations in 46 states, organizers said they are encouraging Americans to abstain from daily activities to grind the economy to a halt. “No work. No school. No shopping. Stop funding ICE,” their website reads.

Axios [1/29/2026 7:20 AM, Carrie Shepherd, 12972K] reports activists nationwide, including Chicago, are calling for no work, no school and no shopping on Friday, to protest ICE’s aggressive enforcement. Organizers of the national shutdown are pushing for the boycott as part of a larger protest movement against ICE in the wake of the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, as well as the killings of Silverio Villegas González in Franklin Park and Keith Porter Jr. in Los Angeles. Friday’s action falls on the same day Congress faces a partial government shutdown as Senate Democrats — and some Republicans — have said they’ll reject any spending bill that includes Department of Homeland Security funding. ICE is supported by last year’s massive funding bills, but Democrats are still pushing for reforms at DHS, including requiring warrants for arrests and banning agents from wearing masks.

State of play: Student groups, including the local Students for Justice in Palestine, as well as activists for immigrants’ rights and local labor unions, have endorsed Friday’s call to action. Some Chicagoans are zeroing in on specific companies to boycott, including Minneapolis-based Target. The People’s Lobby is planning to protest a West Loop Target on Thursday night because they say the company has allowed ICE access to its stores to carry out its operations. The action has not attracted a widespread closure of Chicago businesses, and it’s unclear how many individuals locally will opt in.

San Diego Union Tribune [1/29/2026 6:34 PM, Muri Assuncao, 1257K] reports hundreds of organizations from across the country are staging a nationwide economic shutdown on Friday to protest the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policies and demand an end to ICE operations. Activists are calling for a day of “no work, no school [and] no shopping” in response to the fatal shootings of at least four people by federal immigration officials in the past two months — including the high-profile shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis this month. “The people of the Twin Cities have shown the way for the whole country,” organizers of the ICE Out Nationwide Shutdown said in a press release. “To stop ICE’s reign of terror, we need to SHUT IT DOWN.” Participants in at least 46 states are expected to take part in the general strike — a “blackout day” modeled after last week’s “ICE Out” protest in Minneapolis, when hundreds of businesses closed their doors in a statewide general strike, which was followed by a protest march and rally despite a wind chill of 30 below zero. In the Jan. 23 demonstration, protesters were calling for justice for Good, a mother of three fatally shot by an ICE agent earlier this month. Less than 24 hours after the protest, federal agents shot and killed Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse at a VA hospital. “Enough is enough,” organizers of the national shutdown said. “Every day, ICE, Border Patrol and other enforcers of Trump’s racist agenda are going into our communities to kidnap our neighbors and sow fear. It is time for us to all stand up together in a nationwide shutdown.”

Daily Caller [1/29/2026 10:29 AM, Jack Cowhick, 835K] reports party leaders have warned House Democrats against travelling to Minnesota in support of anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) protesters, Axios reported Thursday. A senior staffer for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries reportedly wrote in a Monday email to Democrat congressional offices that visiting the state “puts a burden on local resources” and does not support Minneapolis residents. “Visiting the state right now, although well intentioned, puts a burden on local resources and does not support our colleagues, the city and state government and most importantly the people of Minneapolis,” the email read, according to Axios. The staffer wrote that “it has become clear that the best thing for Members to do right now is to support their MN colleagues by participating in the Days of Action in their home district this week,” the outlet reported. One House Democrat anonymously confirmed to Axios that the message has been conveyed informally as well, stating that public officials in Minnesota “cautioned members from going as it could strain and overwhelm local law enforcement.”

Axios [1/29/2026 7:20 AM, Shafaq Patel, 12972K] reports multiple anti-ICE protests are planned around Houston this weekend as fear grows and anger mounts against the agency. Tensions have escalated since federal agents killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis on Saturday — less than a month after the deadly shooting of Renee Good — and after a 5-year-old boy was detained there last week and sent to a family detention center in Texas. On Tuesday, dozens of anti-ICE protesters calling on Houston to cut ties with the agency were blocked from speaking during City Council public comment, and the mayor ended the meeting more than two hours early. Houston hasn’t seen the kind of large-scale street sweeps carried out in Democrat-led cities such as Minneapolis, Los Angeles or Chicago, but ICE enforcement here has been extensive, including raids last October and May. Between January and mid-October, ICE made over 17,500 arrests across the Houston field office region, which covers Southeast Texas and stretches north toward Waco, per the Deportation Data Project’s most recent figures. In 2024, ICE made about 10,000 arrests in the Houston field office region. About 1 in 4 ICE arrests nationwide was happening in Texas and more than half were made at local jails, per a Texas Tribune analysis.

NBC News [1/29/2026 3:07 PM, Ryan J. Reilly, Chloe Atkins, Dareh Gregorian and Joe Kottke, 34509K] reports the Justice Department filed charges Thursday against a man who allegedly tried to spray Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., with a substance from a syringe during a town hall in Minneapolis this week. Anthony Kazmierczak faces a count alleging that he "forcibly assaulted, opposed, impeded, intimidated and officer and employee of the United States" while she was engaged in official duties. The affidavit alleges that Kamierczak told a close associate years ago that he said, "Somebody should kill that b----," in reference to Omar. After Omar called for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to resign at the meeting Tuesday, Kamierczak appeared to say, "She’s not resigning. You’re splitting Minnesotans apart" after spraying her, according to the FBI. "According to Representative Omar, the liquid stained her clothes and may have reached her face and right eye," an affidavit the FBI filed in support of the criminal complaint said. Omar’s office said Wednesday that the substance was apple cider vinegar. "The town hall meeting was temporarily disrupted and delayed. Representative Omar, though visibly shaken, continued with the town hall and later posted on X that she was okay," the affidavit said. Omar on Wednesday blamed the attack on Trump’s frequent verbal attacks against her. "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," Omar said at a news conference. Trump said in an interview with ABC News that Omar "probably had herself sprayed, knowing her.” The New York Times [1/29/2026 5:03 PM, Mitch SmithNicholas Bogel-Burroughs and Chelsia Rose Marcius135475K] reports the man accused of using a syringe to squirt vinegar onto Representative Ilhan Omar at a community meeting in Minneapolis this week was charged with assault by federal prosecutors on Thursday. Hours later, the local prosecutor in Minneapolis said she was also charging the man, Anthony J. Kazmierczak, with assault and making a threat of violence, saying that she was doing so because of diminished trust in the federal government and because of concerns that the president might pardon the man of any federal charges if he were to be convicted. On Tuesday evening, Mr. Kazmierczak sprayed Ms. Omar with apple cider vinegar and water, an F.B.I. agent wrote in an affidavit filed in federal court. Ms. Omar, a Democrat who has repeatedly criticized the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota, had just finished calling for the resignation of Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, when Mr. Kazmierczak approached her and squirted her, the agent wrote. Afterward, Mr. Kazmierczak appeared to say, “You’re splitting Minnesotans apart.” the agent wrote. The account by the agent, Derek Fossi, said that the liquid stained the congresswoman’s clothes and may have reached her face and right eye. His affidavit included a photograph of the syringe that Mr. Kazmierczak, 55, is accused of using. In the moments after she was sprayed, Ms. Omar approached the man with one fist raised. He was then tackled by security guards. She was not injured, and she continued to speak at the event, waving off staff members who urged her to be evaluated medically. The criminal complaint filed by Mary Moriarty, the Hennepin County attorney, said it was Ms. Omar’s belief that the man had told her she should die before he was tackled. Mr. Fossi said in his affidavit that he had interviewed a “close associate” of Mr. Kazmierczak, who told him that Mr. Kazmierczak had said years ago that “somebody should kill” Ms. Omar.

Reported similarly:
ABC News [1/29/2026 1:28 PM, Luke Barr, 30493K]
CBS News [1/29/2026 5:24 PM, Aki Nace, 39474K]
Washington Examiner [1/29/2026 2:30 PM, Molly Parks, 1394K]

Bloomberg [1/29/2026 1:07 PM, Dina Katgara, 18207K] reports that Patagonia Inc. Chief Executive Officer Ryan Gellert urged U.S. lawmakers to vote against further funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and called for action to counteract the “militarization of our cities.” The outdoor apparel company, known for its environmental and political advocacy efforts, sent letters this week to senators in California, Colorado, Virginia and other states. ICE funding has enabled a “pattern of violence” that disproportionately harms vulnerable communities, Gellert wrote. [Editorial note: consult extended commentary at source link]

FedScoop [1/29/2026 4:45 PM, Lindsey Wilkinson, 56K] reports Democratic Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine of Virginia are asking the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general to look into the agency’s broad data collection and analysis processes, according to a letter sent to the DHS IG on Thursday. The duo tasked Inspector General Joseph Cuffari with investigating the methods of data storage and use for personally identifying information, whether DHS immigration enforcement activities are based on data coming from other agencies or third parties, and where DHS collects data from, among other topics. “We write to you to express our concern that the Department of Homeland Security is collecting sensitive personal data that can be used to circumvent civil liberty protections, including those guaranteed under the Fourth Amendment,” the senators said in the letter. “This matter deserves your office’s immediate attention, and we request that your office audit DHS’ immigration procurement activities to determine whether they have led to violations of federal law and other regulations that maintain privacy and defend against unlawful searches.” Lawmakers have kept their eyes on the use of technology within the department, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement in particular.

NewsMax [1/29/2026 10:40 AM, Staff, 4109K] reports that President Donald Trump said he had a "very productive" conversation with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Thursday that focused on the border, stopping drug trafficking, and trade. Trump, in a post on Truth Social, added that the two would speak again soon and ultimately set up meetings in their respective countries.

Washington Post [1/29/2026 7:12 PM, Staff, 24826K] reports cooler heads prevailed Thursday, as the Trump administration made significant concessions from Capitol Hill to Maine and Minnesota. To avoid another prolonged government shutdown, Senate Democrats and President Donald Trump agreed to fund every agency but the Department of Homeland Security through the end of September and to pass a two-week stopgap measure so DHS can continue to operate while negotiations for reform continue. For now, leaders on both sides appear to be negotiating in good faith around a set of demands outlined by Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) that could expand oversight and rein in the worst excesses of federal immigration enforcement. Republicans promise to offer a counterproposal. During a test vote on Thursday afternoon, eight Senate Republicans joined every Democrat in voting against the DHS funding bill that passed the House last week. That reflects the depth of bipartisan backlash following the unjust killing of Alex Pretti. The funding breakthrough came at the end of an eventful day that started with Senate Appropriations Chairman Susan Collins (R-Maine) announcing that ICE is ending enhanced operations in her state. ICE officers in Minnesota were directed to pivot “to targeted enforcement of aliens with a criminal history,” instead of dragnets that sweep up otherwise law-abiding illegal immigrants like gardeners and housekeepers. An email written by a top ICE official also discouraged agents from engaging with “agitators” who yell at them because “it serves no purpose other than inflaming the situation,” according to Reuters. Agents were also instructed to use megaphones to “verbalize every step of the arrest process.” All of those moves meaningfully reduce the risk of confrontations turning violent. Border czar Tom Homan, dispatched to oversee federal operations in Minneapolis, acknowledged during a news conference that ICE can do better. He said “certain improvements could and should be made” and conceded that the government had not “carried this mission out perfectly.” Homan acted like a professional when asked about Pretti. “I’m going to tell you to let the investigation play out and see where it goes,” he said. By leaning into dialogue instead of demonization, Homan has made it easier to persuade sanctuary jurisdictions to reexamine their policies. Minnesota has its own role to play in turning down the temperature. On Thursday, Homan said Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (D) “clarified for me that county jails may notify ICE of the release dates of criminal public safety risks so ICE can take custody of them upon the release from the jail.” Ellison denied making any concessions on “detainers,” but Homan suggested an improvement in relations between the state and the feds. Handing over criminal immigrants to ICE shouldn’t be controversial. When sanctuary jurisdictions ignore civil detainers, ICE agents are more likely to go into communities to search for targets, potentially raising the chance of collateral arrests and clashes with residents. Trump is yielding after public opinion turned sharply against his tactics on immigration, which has traditionally been an issue core to his political strength. About 3 in 4 Americans believe it’s unacceptable for immigration officers to “use people’s appearance or the language they speak as a reason to check their immigration status,” according to a Pew Research Center poll released Thursday. Another 61 percent are against agents wearing face coverings. By focusing on deporting true criminals, and respecting Congress’s authority to impose reasonable guardrails, immigration agencies can repair trust while continuing to do their jobs.

Wall Street Journal [1/29/2026 5:44 PM, Staff, 646K] reports President Trump’s border czar Tom Homan said Thursday in Minneapolis that he’s “working on a drawdown plan” for the federal immigration surge there, which will be possible “dependent upon cooperation.” It’s an invitation to Democrats to help calm tensions by handing over deportable criminals in state or local custody. Do Minnesotans really want their leaders to refuse? Mr. Homan’s deportation priority is “criminal aliens, public-safety threats, and national-security threats,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of them to keep us busy.” What the feds say they need, however, is better coordination from Minnesota officials, so that Immigration and Customs Enforcement can pick up illegal migrants who are already under arrest. “More agents in the jail,” Mr. Homan said, “means less agents in the street.” That’s safer for both ICE and Minneapolis residents, and it also means fewer “collateral arrests.” It’s a reasonable request, and the border czar credited the state prison system for honoring ICE detainers, as Gov. Tim Walz wrote Tuesday in these pages that Minnesota does. Yet the local jail in Minneapolis is run by the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office. “We do not assist with or comply with any civil immigration requests from ICE,” it says. “In our jail, we do not honor administrative detainers or administrative warrants.”

New York Times [1/29/2026 5:05 AM, Reece Jones, 135475K] reports the violence, racial profiling and disregard for the Constitution that have burst into public view in Minneapolis are not new or unusual for the Border Patrol. This is how the agency has operated since it was created, though for decades those activities have been hidden in the remote borderlands. If you are uncomfortable with what the Border Patrol is doing in Minneapolis, you are uncomfortable with the Border Patrol, full stop. While Immigration and Customs Enforcement has become the umbrella term for all immigration agents, the Border Patrol is the larger force with a longer history. ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations agents have the job of finding, detaining and deporting people. Border Patrol agents police areas in between ports of entry. Alex Pretti was shot by the Border Patrol; Renee Good was shot by ICE. The Trump administration’s decision this week to replace the Border Patrol commander in Minneapolis, Gregory Bovino, suggested the problem was limited to leadership mistakes. But this move, and other possible solutions offered by the Trump administration and Democrats alike, does not adequately address the depth of the problem. The tactics in Minneapolis have been used both on the border and beyond — against immigrants and citizens alike — during the Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden presidencies.

Wall Street Journal [1/29/2026 5:23 PM, Kimberley A. Strassel, 646K] reports in Washington’s Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium Wednesday stood the great and good of the Republican firmament—senators, representatives, governors, cabinet secretaries, the president himself. The occasion: the launch of the new Trump investment accounts for children. The look on participants’ faces: relief. Relief not to be talking about shootings in Minneapolis. Relief that Donald Trump delivered a whole speech with no mention of immigration (and only one of tariffs). Relief that they were finally—months late, possibly too late—talking about economic accomplishments. Alarm has gripped Washington’s GOP, as a White House never famed for focus has become obsessed with a few priorities—ones no longer doing Republicans any good. Poll after poll shows Americans are gloomy about the economy and want Washington to focus on growth, prices, affordability, jobs. Day after day, the Trump administration instead rides harder its hobby horses of immigration and tariffs. The word most frequently heard in private Republican griping is “overkill.” Mr. Trump came to office in 2016 promising GOP voters a tougher stance on immigration and trade deals. He delivered that in term one, from a travel ban and border wall to the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement and targeted tariffs. Along the way he shifted the national debate—both within his party and more broadly. If the goal was a reset, mission accomplished. That’s one reason his initial work this second term to close the border to Biden chaos was a political home run. America craved a return to Trumpian border security, just as it looked hopefully to a redux of Mr. Trump’s even bigger first-term accomplishment: economic vitality. Yet the lesson White House adviser Stephen Miller seems to have taken from border success is akin to Christopher Walken’s in the famous SNL skit: “I gotta have more cowbell.” Until a tinnitus-deranged America finally rebelled.

Washington Post [1/29/2026 6:15 AM, Jim Geraghty, 24149K] reports President Donald Trump has offered Minnesota a reasonable compromise: He will scale back ICE operations in the state if Minnesota officials agree to “turn over all incarcerated or active warrant criminal illegal aliens” and “assist federal authorities in detaining criminal illegal aliens wanted for crimes.” Nothing doing, says Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D). “Minneapolis does not and will not enforce federal immigration laws,” he said on X after meeting with White House border czar Tom Homan. After Trump warned he was “PLAYING WITH FIRE,” Frey doubled down, declaring that “the job of our police is to keep people safe, not enforce fed immigration laws.” In fact, his sanctuary policies have done the exact opposite — contributing to the deaths of two protesters, Renée Good and Alex Pretti, who would almost certainly be alive today were it not for Frey and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s (D) refusal to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in targeting illegal migrants with criminal records. When Trump took office a year ago, Homan made clear that the administration’s intention was not to carry out “a mass sweep of neighborhoods” but rather to “prioritize public safety threats” by detaining and deporting “the worst of the worst” — those charged with or convicted of serious crimes. Trump was elected with a mandate to do that. Over the past year, Homan has been true to his word: Nearly 70 percent ICE arrests nationwide have involved illegal migrants convicted or charged with crimes, according to the Department of Homeland Security. In states where local officials work with ICE, these arrests have taken place without chaos.

Chicago Tribune [1/29/2026 6:00 AM, Norine Hammond, 4829K] reports the way to fewer Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in neighborhoods is not through chaos, protests or citizen intervention into law enforcement actions. It is through policy change to decrease the need for immigration enforcement in neighborhoods. I’ve voted for policies to make that happen. If my Democratic colleagues in the Illinois House also want fewer ICE agents on the sidewalks of our communities, there is an immediate step they can take: Repeal the Illinois TRUST Act and the Illinois Way Forward Act. According to the Department of Homeland Security, in 2025 alone, Illinois released 1,768 criminal illegal immigrants with active detainers. Those allowed to go free included individuals accused of committing homicide, assault, burglaries and sexual crimes. What these Illinois laws have done is create legal barriers that push enforcement into street operations, where federal agents are left to track individuals without local support. Sanctuary policies are directly responsible for the headline-making public interactions with ICE. My colleagues are quick to blame President Donald Trump’s administration but will never admit their own role in creating this immigration enforcement mess. Actions at the state level have gotten us here, apart from the actions of former President Joe Biden’s administration. According to the Pew Research Center, an estimated 550,000 immigrants were living here illegally in 2023 thanks to Illinois’ sanctuary policies. Democratic elected officials were wholly unprepared to handle the tax these policies have had on our system. These laws have been costly for communities, taxpayers and families. For historical context, under President Barack Obama’s administration, America experienced a record number of deportations. Over those eight years, over 3 million people were removed with no widespread protests. It was peaceful, lawful and uncontroversial. It was allowed to happen through cooperation with local law enforcement. State- and city-level sanctuary policies broke that system.

Washington Examiner [1/29/2026 1:24 PM, Zachary Faria, 1394K] reports that video of Alex Pretti’s previous confrontation with federal immigration agents shows that he had allowed himself to become consumed by a deranged political ideology that legitimizes street violence, which explains how he found himself in the lethal position he did in his last confrontation. Newly released video from Jan. 13 in Minneapolis shows Pretti screaming and cursing at federal immigration agents while he stands in the middle of the street. He kicks a federal vehicle multiple times, kicking out a rear taillight. Pretti is thrown to the ground by agents, resisting the entire time, with his gun visible in his waistband. This is not to say that the shooting of Pretti on Saturday is justified because of this video from 11 days earlier. The shooting of Pretti stands on its merits thus far: The video from that incident shows he intervened in federal agents’ operations, got physical with officers, and frantically resisted them with a gun on his person. He was shot because he put officers in a split-second life-or-death situation. What the video from the first incident does show is that Pretti made the same series of stupid decisions that got him shot on more than one occasion. He twice stood in the middle of the road, instigated an altercation with federal law enforcement agents, fought frantically to resist arrest, and did it all while carrying a gun. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

USA Today [1/29/2026 6:05 AM, Harry Niska, 67103K] reports President Donald Trump was reelected in 2024 in large part due to his clear and straightforward promise to secure our borders and deport violent criminals who are in the country illegally. That message resonated with voters and helped build one of the most diverse coalitions seen in modern electoral history. Here in Minnesota, efforts to increase immigration enforcement have collided with local sanctuary policies in the Twin Cities, overheated political rhetoric and a breakdown in communication among local, state and federal officials. What began as a public safety effort to remove criminal illegal immigrants has instead devolved into divisive confusion and conflict. The result has been civil unrest and increasingly dangerous confrontations between federal authorities and the community, with tragic results, including the deaths of two Minnesotans: Renee Good and Alex Pretti. In our system of self-government, the right to peaceful protest and the protections guaranteed by the First Amendment are fundamental. Thousands of Minnesotans have exercised that right by demonstrating against federal immigration actions. Unfortunately, we have seen the line crossed from peaceful protest to confrontational tactics, including coordinated efforts (sometimes encouraged by elected officials) to interfere with lawful federal immigration enforcement operations. As elected officials, our words matter, especially during moments of crisis. In Minnesota, continued hateful rhetoric from public leaders has too often poured gasoline on an already volatile situation. Federal leaders have not been blameless, either. Officials at the Department of Homeland Security have also engaged in overheated rhetoric, most notably in the immediate aftermath of the tragic shooting of Alex Pretti. Statements that appear to contradict the evidence undermine public trust, weaken the credibility of law enforcement and make the jobs of all of our public servants (including federal immigration enforcement officers) more difficult. Our society depends on institutions that are credible, respected and trusted. When leaders inflame tensions rather than calm them, that foundation begins to crack, and the consequences are felt by everyone.

Houston Chronicle [1/29/2026 10:00 AM, Daniel Oppenheimer, 2983K] reports Dear Rep. Michael McCaul, I write to you as a near-constituent — my family and I live a few miles south of your district’s border — angry and worried about the abuses of state power in the Twin Cities and elsewhere. I also write as an older brother. My younger brother Jonathan lives in St. Paul, Minn., and is involved in organizing his neighbors to do what they can to protect each other against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agencies. I’m proud of Jonathan for standing up for the people around him and for all our constitutional principles. I’m also worried. He has always been a hothead, for good and ill. He has a hard time seeing injustice and not getting into a fight with the people who are perpetrating it. Maybe you can see where I’m going with this. Jonathan isn’t so different from Renee Good or Alex Pretti. Like Good, he’s a parent. Like Pretti, he’s a care worker (in Jonathan’s case, as a social worker at St. Paul Central High School). He’s just a few years older than both of them, and like both of them, he’s white, politically liberal and comfortable confronting authority. His neighborhood has seen a lot of ICE activity, as has the area where he works. He’s also really upset. Not because he wants open borders or to abolish all immigration enforcement, but because his city feels like it’s under siege, and because people are being hurt. “It wasn’t real to me until I was seeing it up close and personal,” he recently wrote in an email to friends and family. “Students of mine crying in my room because they’re scared to come to school. Students not showing up in the first place. Students getting pulled over for no reason and being told their car needed to be searched. Coming to work at a school every day where parents need to surround the premises in case they need to document a student or staff member being assaulted by a paramilitary force and whisked away to a detention center that our elected officials are not allowed to visit.” If there’s a confrontation between federal agents and Minnesotans near his home or work, in other words, I have little doubt that Jonathan will be out there filming, protecting his neighbors if they need protecting, and speaking bluntly to ICE agents, asking them to account for themselves and their actions.

Bloomberg [1/29/2026 7:30 AM, Justin Fox, 18207K] reports amid the shifting tone of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement campaign in Minnesota, it’s worth recalling that the original aim in early December was supposedly to deport people from Somalia. This should have been a pretty clear signal that sending thousands of federal agents to the state wasn’t truly about stopping illegal immigration, given how few unauthorized Somali immigrants are in Minnesota or anywhere else in the US. According to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, there were 76,320 people of Somali ancestry in Minnesota in 2024 and 193,061 nationwide. Both these numbers are misleadingly precise, with the Minnesota estimate subject to a margin of error of plus or minus 12,542, so for the chart below I’ve used three-year averages, which show more than 90% of Minnesota residents of Somali ancestry to be US citizens, most by birth. Of the noncitizens, immigration records indicate that almost all are probably either legal permanent residents or refugees, who are eligible for legal permanent status after a year in the country. The Minnesota campaign was, reportedly, originally intended to target “Somalis with final deportation orders who are living in the Twin Cities,” which can’t have been more than a couple hundred people and may have been dozens. The Trump administration has also announced the termination of temporary protected status for Somalis, but that applies to only 700 people nationwide and doesn’t take effect until March 17.

Houston Chronicle [1/29/2026 2:00 PM, Connor O’Brien, 2983K] reports that Texas is fast becoming one of the top states for biomedical research and cutting-edge medical care. But without an exemption for hospitals and medical centers, a new policy from Gov. Greg Abbott to pause new H-1B visa sponsorship at state agencies and public universities now threatens Texas’s leadership. The policy, announced in a letter earlier this week, directs state agencies and universities to pause all new H-1B visa sponsorships through May 2027. Unfortunately — and perhaps unwittingly — the ban covers some of the state’s top hospitals, medical schools, and research institutes, many of which are overseen by the state’s university system. Public hospitals and medical centers covered by the H-1B ban are a cornerstone of Texas’s healthcare system. Each year, there are more than 10 million outpatient visits to medical facilities in the University of Texas System alone. Texas patients spend more than 2 million nights per year in this system’s hospitals. Covered by the ban is Houston’s prestigious University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, which provides exceptional care to patients from across the country. Prohibiting Texas’s public hospitals, medical schools, and research institutes from sponsoring H-1B visas will undercut their ability to attract top scientists, researchers, and physicians. Some international candidates may find other visa routes. But many will simply choose other states to conduct their research or treat patients.

New York Times [1/29/2026 5:03 AM, Jean Guerrero, 135475K] reports this week, Honduras inaugurated a new president, Nasry Asfura, a construction magnate backed by seemingly strange bedfellows: members of the notorious MS-13 gang and President Trump. Mr. Trump had urged Hondurans to vote for Mr. Asfura days before MS-13 gang members posing as election observers threatened to kill anyone who didn’t vote for that candidate. Amid weeks of election uncertainty and protests, Mr. Trump warned Hondurans of “hell to pay” if they chose a different outcome. Mr. Asfura’s victory marks the success of Mr. Trump’s campaign to resuscitate a political party tainted by its widely known ties to cartels. The story of how Mr. Trump came to intervene in Honduran politics and align himself with a foreign terrorist organization is essential for understanding the world he is trying to build. He has been meddling in multiple elections in Latin America, and recently captured Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, in a military operation to have him face federal drug trafficking charges here. He’s now threatening to arrest the president of Colombia on suspicion of drug trafficking and to bomb cartels in Mexico. His actions may seem contradictory. But there is a coherent logic to them: They expand territorial power for a class of transnational elites who believe they’re above the law. Last month, Mr. Trump pardoned one of the country’s best-known convicted drug traffickers: Juan Orlando Hernández. Mr. Hernández was the president of Honduras from 2014 to 2022; in that time, there was a steep surge in migration from that country to the United States as families fled his narco-state. In 2024, he was sentenced to 45 years in prison for his role in what the U.S. Department of Justice called “one of the largest and most violent drug trafficking conspiracies in the world.” He was convicted of conspiring to distribute hundreds of tons of cocaine, reportedly boasting of plans to “stuff the drugs up the gringos’ noses.” In explaining his pardon, Mr. Trump relied on a conspiracy theory circulating in conservative circles: that Mr. Hernández was a political prisoner of former President Joe Biden’s. It was, in Mr. Trump’s words, a “witch hunt.” But Mr. Trump’s real motivations are hidden in plain sight. Not long after his second inauguration, the Claremont Institute, an influential conservative think tank in California, published a call for him to pardon Mr. Hernández. So did Mr. Trump’s longtime friend and fellow felon Roger Stone in a blog post, written with Shane Trejo. Both argued that the pardon would hurt President Xiomara Castro, a democratically elected progressive and the first woman to be president of Honduras. They wrote that it would re-empower the right-wing party, presumably by rehabilitating it.

New York Times [1/29/2026 2:08 PM, Christine Chung and Claire Fahy, 135475K] reports that at hotels from Minneapolis to Maine, crowds are gathering to blow whistles, bang pots and pans, and play drums, often late into the night, to protest ICE agents staying there. In New York, activists took over a Hilton Garden Inn’s lobby. At the same time, right-wing influencers have called out hotels that appear to refuse to rent rooms to ICE agents. Hotels have emerged as a front line in the conflict over President Trump’s immigration crackdown, with federal agents on one side and, on the other, activists who are trying to force hotels to turn away those agents by making noise, organizing boycotts and booking up rooms only to cancel them at the last minute. The protests have particularly affected budget hotels affiliated with chains like Hilton and Marriott, hitting the owners of these individual properties, who are typically franchisees and, often, immigrants themselves. Groups like the Sunrise Movement, a youth-led activist organization, aim to “force hotels into understanding that they have more to lose by supporting ICE than they have to gain,” said Aru Shiney-Ajay, 27, its executive director. The organization is encouraging people to make and then cancel reservations at the last minute at several Minneapolis-area hotels where activists believe ICE agents are staying. Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said that immigration agents were “facing a coordinated campaign of violence against them” that included their hotels being vandalized and “attacked by rioters.”

FOX News [1/29/2026 6:30 AM, Joshua Q. Nelson, 40621K] reports the Department of Homeland Security fired back at Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., on Wednesday for defending people who compare U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement with Nazis. "This is gross," Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News Digital. She continued, "Rep. Moulton is intentionally stoking the flames and turning the temperature up with this rhetoric. From comparisons to the modern-day Nazi gestapo to glorifying rioters, the vilification of ICE must stop." Moulton said Tuesday that it is not extreme to compare U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with Nazi Germany. "I don’t think that the comparisons with Nazi Germany are extreme," Moulton said in an interview with CNN. "Because that’s what happened too. That’s why ordinary German citizens began to accept the idea that certain members of their community would be singled out — I mean, they have ICE tip lines — would be directly targeted in violation of the laws of the land, and it would be done by agents of the state. But, that’s what’s happening today in Minneapolis.” He added that Massachusetts residents that he represents feel they could be next. Moulton did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

AP [1/30/2026 12:00 AM, Graham Lee Brewer, Savannah Peters and Stewart Huntington, 35287K] reports that, when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement flooded Minneapolis, Shane Mantz dug his Choctaw Nation citizenship card out of a box on his dresser and slid it into his wallet. Some strangers mistake the pest-control company manager for Latino, he said, and he fears getting caught up in ICE raids. Like Mantz, many Native Americans are carrying tribal documents proving their U.S. citizenship in case they are stopped or questioned by federal immigration agents. This is why dozens of the 575 federally recognized Native nations are making it easier to get tribal IDs. They’re waiving fees, lowering the age of eligibility — ranging from 5 to 18 nationwide — and printing the cards faster. It’s the first time tribal IDs have been widely used as proof of U.S. citizenship and protection against federal law enforcement, said David Wilkins, an expert on Native politics and governance at the University of Richmond. “I don’t think there’s anything historically comparable,” Wilkins said. “I find it terribly frustrating and disheartening.” As Native Americans around the country rush to secure documents proving their right to live in the United States, many see a bitter irony. “As the first people of this land, there’s no reason why Native Americans should have their citizenship questioned,” said Jaqueline De León, a senior staff attorney with the nonprofit Native American Rights Fund and member of Isleta Pueblo. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security didn’t respond to more than four requests for comment over a week. Since the mid- to late 1800s, the U.S. government has kept detailed genealogical records to estimate Native Americans’ fraction of “Indian blood” and determine their eligibility for health care, housing, education and other services owed under federal legal responsibilities. Those records were also used to aid federal assimilation efforts and chip away at tribal sovereignty, communal lands and identity. Beginning in the late 1960s, many tribal nations began issuing their own forms of identification. In the last two decades, tribal photo ID cards have become commonplace and can be used to vote in tribal elections, to prove U.S. work eligibility and for domestic air travel. About 70% of Native Americans today live in urban areas, including tens of thousands in the Twin Cities, one of the largest urban Native populations in the country. There, in early January, 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 Patrol officers were on the ground. Representatives from at least 10 tribes traveled hundreds of miles to Minneapolis — the birthplace of the American Indian Movement — to accept ID applications from members there. Among them were the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Ojibwe of Wisconsin, the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate of South Dakota and the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa of North Dakota.

USA Today [1/29/2026 1:36 PM, Rick Jervis, 67103K] reports that they stole a few hours sleep under glaring LED lights, crowded in by dozens of other detainees. They shivered through fevers and flus and prayed deadlier diseases weren’t stalking their confines. Then, just as they feared their confinement would linger indefinitely, they were released. Immigrant families detained by ICE, sometimes for months, were quietly driven to a nonprofit migrant shelter an hour away in recent days and set free. They spoke exclusively with USA TODAY about what they experienced at the South Texas Family Residential Center – an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Dilley, Texas. Paloma Marta Aguayo, 30, of Mexico, said the worst part was the sick children. She arrived at the Laredo shelter on a charter bus carrying 40 people from Dilley, including a mother and her child who had been diagnosed with tuberculosis, according to Joe Barron, director of the Holding Institute nonprofit shelter. "There were a lot of sick people in there," said Aguayo, who is eight months pregnant and spent more than a month at the detention center with her 5-year-old daughter, Amaya. "And no doctors." The immigrants said they were arrested and detained before they even realized what was happening. One moment they were attending their required immigration court hearing in California, picking up a child from school in Minnesota or having breakfast at a truck stop in Arizona. The next moment, they were being whisked away in handcuffs to a detention center in the brush country of South Texas, in the small town of Dilley – population 5,732.

Washington Post [1/30/2026 5:00 AM, Eva Dou, 24149K] reports ICE’s lead contractor for a new program to covertly surveil and photograph undocumented immigrants across the United States said after pressure from French officials that its contract is not being executed, in a rare rebuke of the agency by one of its own suppliers. In December, Immigration and Customs Enforcement quietly began a nationwide program to track 1.5 million undocumented immigrants through paid contractors using a combination of remote technologies and on-the-ground surveillance. The contracts ICE secured for what it calls “Skip Tracing Services” — a term commonly applied to finding people who have defaulted on loans — could run to hundreds of millions of dollars over two years, according to ICE procurement filings. The program creates a nationwide force of plainclothes, nongovernment monitors to track and photograph immigrants on behalf of ICE. According to the filings, the initiative is intended to serve as a force multiplier for ICE, potentially helping to accelerate the agency’s raids and deportations this year. A U.S. subsidiary of Paris-based Capgemini, one of Europe’s largest tech and consulting multinationals with more than 350,000 employees worldwide, signed a contract with ICE last month with an initial $4.8 million order for the first three months and a $365 million ceiling over two years, according to federal procurement records, making it the largest award among the 14 vendors — including defense contractors and local private-eye firms — selected for the program. But Capgemini said Thursday in a statement to The Washington Post that the contract is not currently being executed, two days after French Finance Minister Roland Lescure demanded that the company explain the contract. Capgemini CEO Aiman Ezzat said in a post on LinkedIn on Sunday that the independent board of directors of the U.S. subsidiary, Capgemini Government Solutions, was reviewing “the content and scope” of its work under the contract. “The nature and scope of this work has raised questions compared to what we typically do as a business and technology firm,” Ezzat wrote.

NPR [1/30/2026 4:47 AM, Jason DeRose, 34837K] reports protesters recently interrupted service at a Twin Cities church because one of the pastors works for ICE. That’s led some Christians to debate whether working for ICE aligns with their values. [Editorial note: consult audio at source link]

CNN [1/29/2026 12:58 PM, Jocelyn Contreras, 18595K] reports that FNTV captured the moment several people were detained by police during an anti-ICE protest at the Graduate Hilton hotel in Minneapolis. In recent weeks, noise protests occurred in several hotels believed to be housing federal immigration agents. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Daily Wire [1/29/2026 8:00 AM, Mary Margaret Olohan, 2494K] reports Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner spoke outside City Hall on a chilly Tuesday morning, flanked by activists holding signs that read in bold: "ICE OUT OF PHILADELPHIA.” "This is a small bunch of wannabe Nazis. In a country of 350 million, we outnumber them," said the George Soros-backed district attorney, holding his glasses in one gloved hand and gripping the podium with the other. "If we have to hunt you down the way they hunted down Nazis for decades, we will find your identities, we will find you, we will achieve justice.” This is far from the first time that a high-profile political figure has compared Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to Nazis or Gestapo, fanning the flames of the ongoing far-left agitation against these individuals. Amid the unrest over arrests and deportations in Minneapolis, top Democrats and commentators have repeatedly encouraged the public to view ICE as evil, malicious, and aligned with Adolf Hitler’s forces. In June 2025, Massachusetts Rep. Stephen Lynch compared the deportations to a "Gestapo operation," saying, "When you compare the old films of the Gestapo grabbing people off the streets of Poland and you compare them to those nondescript thugs who grabbed that graduate student, [it] does look like a Gestapo operation.” He added: "You know my dad served in the Second World War … I think he’s looking down right now and he’s happy that I’m fighting today’s Nazis.” At the time, Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons slammed Walz’s comparisons, saying that crimes against ICE had risen 400%, due partially to careless "politically motivated rhetoric." Since then, particularly in the wake of the shooting of Renee Good, a woman who was shot by an ICE agent as she rammed him with her car, violence against ICE has skyrocketed. As of January 24, the Department of Homeland Security reported that officers are facing an 8,000% increase in death threats and more than a 1,300% increase in assaults. Those numbers are directly correlated to the rhetoric of politicians comparing ICE to Nazis, according to Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin. "Threatening rhetoric and this unprecedented violence against our law enforcement is incited by sanctuary politicians through their repeated vilification and demonization of law enforcement," McLaughlin said earlier this month. "Comparing ICE day-in and day-out to the Nazi Gestapo, the Secret Police, and slave patrols has consequences.”

FOX News [1/29/2026 8:01 PM, Staff, 37576K] reports Fox News Digital explores the day of the killing of Alex Pretti. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Breitbart [1/29/2026 11:26 AM, Lucas Nolan, 2416K] reports that Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta has implemented restrictions preventing users on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads from sharing links to the "ICE List" database that purports to contain identifying information of thousands of ICE agents, the company confirmed this week. Politico reports that Meta has implemented restrictions preventing users on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads from sharing links to a database that purports to contain identifying information of thousands of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, the company confirmed this week. The social media giant cited privacy violations as the basis for blocking access to the website known as "ICE List." Users attempting to share the database on Facebook as of Tuesday afternoon received warnings that their posts violated the platform’s community standards. Those trying to share the links on Instagram and Threads encountered messages indicating their posts failed to upload. The blocking mechanism effectively prevents the spread of the website across Meta’s family of social media applications. Meta spokesperson Andy Stone referenced the company’s community standards regarding privacy violations, which explicitly prohibit the sharing or soliciting of personally identifiable information. The policy forms the foundation of Meta’s decision to restrict access to the database across its platforms.

Washington Post [1/29/2026 5:00 AM, Eva Dou, Artur Galocha. and Kevin Schaul, 24149K] reports federal immigration officers fanning out across Minnesota and other parts of the country are newly equipped with an array of state-of-the-art surveillance technologies, thanks to a bill passed last summer that transformed Immigration and Customs Enforcement into the country’s most highly funded law enforcement agency. ICE has wasted no time spending its war chest, buying new tools ranging from biometric trackers to mobile phone location databases, spyware and drones, while loosening restrictions on how it uses some of these technologies. These new surveillance powers come at a time when ICE is also pushing the bounds of its traditional role of immigration enforcement. In recent months, ICE leaders, backed by top Trump administration officials, have asserted the authority to use all available tools to monitor and investigate anti-ICE protester networks, including U.S. citizens. Democratic lawmakers and civil rights groups say the agency’s expanding use of its surveillance tools infringes on privacy and free speech rights of immigrants and U.S. citizens alike. The Department of Homeland Security, of which ICE is a part, disclosed in an annual report on Wednesday that the agency has significantly expanded the operational scope for its use of facial recognition, AI and other advanced technologies. In a statement to the Washington Post, DHS said ICE’s use of innovative technologies in investigations is “no different” than other law enforcement agencies. “We are not going to divulge law enforcement sensitive methods," it said.

The New York Times [1/29/2026 2:07 PM, Jenna Russell, 135475K] reports Democrats in Maine reacted with a mixture of surprise, relief and some confusion to the announcement by Senator Susan Collins early Thursday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement had ended its stepped-up enforcement in the state, after a weeklong operation focused in and around the cities of Portland and Lewiston. Residents who closely tracked the movements of federal agents last week had reported a steep drop-off in their presence in recent days, prompting speculation that federal officials were rethinking their aggressive approach after a second protester was killed in Minneapolis last weekend. “While the Department of Homeland Security does not confirm law enforcement operations, I can report that Secretary Noem has informed me that ICE has ended its enhanced activities in the State of Maine,” Senator Collins said in a statement. Ms. Collins, a Republican who is up for re-election this year in a competitive state, has faced repeated calls from Maine Democrats to forcefully oppose President Trump. Her Democratic challengers in the Senate race include Gov. Janet Mills and a progressive newcomer, Graham Platner, who had planned to lead protests on Thursday at Senator Collins’ offices in Portland and Bangor, calling for her to vote against increasing federal funding for ICE operations. The Department of Homeland Security said last week that it was targeting 1,400 “criminal illegal aliens” in Maine. On Thursday, ICE said that it had made 206 arrests in the state over five days, “despite the organized efforts from activist groups, radical politicians and protesters to thwart our activities.” Officials in Maine said some of those detained did not have criminal records. In a statement, the governor called on the federal government to release details about those arrested in Maine, including their identities, their whereabouts, and plans for resolving their cases. The AP [1/29/2026 4:31 PM, Patrick Whittle, Kimberlee Kruesi and Holly Ramer, 852K] reports “There are currently no ongoing or planned large-scale ICE operations here,” Collins said in a statement, referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “I have been urging Secretary Noem and others in the administration to get ICE to reconsider its approach to immigration enforcement in the state.” The announcement came after President Donald Trump seemed to signal a willingness to ease tensions in Minneapolis after a second deadly shooting there by federal immigration agents. Collins said ICE and Border Patrol officials “will continue their normal operations that have been ongoing here for many years.” The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that it would “continue to enforce the law across the country, as we do every day.” ICE, which is part of DHS, said in a statement that it performed its duties despite meeting resistance from demonstrators. Neither statement addressed whether ICE was drawing down in Maine. “The early success of this operation displays how effectively ICE officers can operate anywhere and in any environment,” said ICE Deputy Assistant Director Patricia Hyde. Collins’ announcement comes more than a week after ICE began an operation it dubbed “Catch of the Day.” Federal officials said about 50 arrests were made the first day and that roughly 1,400 people were operational targets in the mostly rural state of 1.4 million residents, 4% of whom are foreign-born. In Lewiston, one of the cities targeted by ICE, Mayor Carl Sheline called the scale-down welcome news, describing the agency’s operations as “disastrous” for the community. “ICE operations in Maine have failed to improve public safety and have caused lasting damage to our communities. We will continue working to ensure that those who were wrongfully detained by ICE are returned to us,” said Sheline, who leads a city where the mayoral position is required to be nonpartisan. ICE has also launched immigration operations in Minnesota, Chicago and other cities. While Trump has pushed to deploy National Guard troops to crack down on both immigration and crime, as of early January, the White House said it was backing down after facing several legal roadblocks.

Reported similarly:
Washington Examiner [1/29/2026 9:42 AM, Emily Hallas, 1394K]
Daily Wire [1/29/2026 3:04 AM, Leif Le Mahieu, 2494K]

CBS Boston [1/29/2026 5:42 PM, Louisa Moller, 51110K] reports Governor Maura Healey announced she is introducing legislation to prevent federal immigration officers from operating in so-called "sensitive places" in Massachusetts. The bill would prevent ICE agents from entering schools, daycares, child care centers, churches, healthcare facilities, and courthouses. Healey also announced executive action to keep ICE off state property and out of state buildings. Her action moves to prevent new state contracts with ICE without approval from Massachusetts Department of Public Safety. Currently, the Massachusetts Department of Corrections has a contract with ICE to house some of its detainees which will not be impacted. When asked how the legislation would be enforced, Healey did not provide specifics. Axios [1/29/2026 4:49 PM, Mike Deehan, 17364K] reports that Healey argues that unbridled ICE activity in the state caused school enrollment to drop and led immigrant families to skip medical care out of fear. Healey’s executive order bans new 287(g) enforcement agreements between Massachusetts executive entities and the federal government without a certified safety need. It also prohibits civil arrests in non-public state areas and bars state property from being used by ICE as staging grounds. The order doesn’t affect the state Department of Correction’s existing 287(g) agreement. Part two of Healey’s move, in the form of a bill that will need legislative approval, requires judicial warrants for ICE to enter schools or health care facilities. Healey would allow parents to pre-arrange "standby" guardianship for children if they are detained. The bill would make it illegal for another state to deploy National Guard troops to Massachusetts without the governor’s explicit permission.

New York Post [1/29/2026 3:19 PM, Carl Campanile, 40934K] reports Democrats in a New York suburb are rushing to pass a law blocking county workers from cooperating with ICE – as a Republican congressman blasted the effort as a campaign strategy. The Democrat-run Rockland County legislature is set to introduce an Immigration Protection Act to limit or bar county law enforcement and other workers from cooperating with federal immigration officials in the wake of federal agents fatally shooting two citizens during raucous protests in Minneapolis.

Washington Examiner [1/29/2026 12:57 PM, Molly Parks, 1394K] reports Gov. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) vowed her administration will create a database for New Jerseyans to upload videos of federal immigration officers conducting enforcement activities. The governor announced several initiatives to roll back the influence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in New Jersey on her ninth day in office. Sherrill has already met with her acting Attorney General, Jennifer Davenport, regarding the policy initiatives, she said during an appearance on The Daily Show. "We are putting out information on helping New Jerseyans know their rights. We are not going to allow any ICE raids to be staged from state properties. And we are also going to be standing up a portal so people can upload all their cellphone videos and alert people," Sherrill said. Sherrill made the announcement while sharply condemning the recent Minneapolis killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good at the hands of federal officers, each of which was documented on video and shared on social media platforms. "If you see an ICE agent in the street, get your phone out," Sherrill said. "We want to know. Because they have not been forthcoming. They will pick people up. They will not tell us who they are. They will not tell us if they are here legally. They won’t check. They’ll pick up American citizens — they picked up a five-year-old. We want documentation, and we are going to make sure we get it.” When asked when and how the governor would implement these policies, Sean Higgins, a spokesman for Sherrill’s office, said an announcement would be made "in the coming days.” "Keeping New Jerseyans safe is Governor Sherrill’s top priority and, in the coming days, she and acting Attorney General Davenport will announce additional actions to protect New Jerseyans from federal overreach," Higgins said.

Blaze [1/29/2026 2:40 PM, Dave Urbanski, 1442K] reports a criminal illegal alien accused of throwing a baseball-sized rock into a New Jersey school bus and fracturing the skull of an 8-year-old girl was placed on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer, the Department of Homeland Security said earlier this week. The DHS, citing local reports, said the school bus was traveling on the New Jersey Turnpike to Yeshivat Noam — a local Jewish day school — after a field trip at Liberty Science Center on Jan. 7. Officials said Hernando Garcia-Morales of Mexico threw a rock at the vehicle, breaking a window and hitting the third-grade student, who was forced to have surgery. The DHS said two days later — Jan. 9 — New Jersey Turnpike State Police arrested Garcia-Morales for aggravated assault, resisting arrest, and possession of a weapon. The Bogota (New Jersey) Police Department also charged him for aggravated assault, criminal trespassing-defiant, criminal trespassing-peering, and criminal mischief-damage property, DHS said. NJ.com added that Garcia-Morales was found in a self-made campsite within Old Croaker County Park in Bergen County. Garcia-Morales has had an extensive criminal history while living in sanctuary state New Jersey, the DHS said, noting that he was arrested for burglary in 2023 and for possession of a weapon and theft in 2006. In addition, the investigation also linked him to multiple rock-throwing incidents in Bogota Borough, NJ.com reported, citing state police. DHS said Garcia-Morales entered the United States on an unknown date. "Violently targeting a school bus full of children is extremely wicked and heinous," said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, who called the suspect a "monster.” "Hernando Garcia-Morales should have never been in this country, let alone released, after multiple arrests, into New Jersey communities," McLaughlin also said, adding that "we hope New Jersey’s sanctuary politicians will help us keep him off American streets for good. Under President Trump and Secretary Noem, criminal illegal aliens have no place in the U.S.”

FOX News [1/29/2026 1:24 PM, Peter Pinedo, 40621K] reports that newly minted New Jersey Democratic Gov. Mikie Sherrill ducked a question from Fox News Digital over an illegal alien in her state who allegedly fractured an 8-year-old girl’s skull by throwing a rock at a school bus. Sherrill, who was inaugurated on Jan. 20 and expressed support for sanctuary-type policies during her campaign, declined to comment on the attack or the girl’s injuries. Instead, a spokesperson for Sherrill’s office referred Fox News Digital to the office of Acting Attorney General Jennifer Davenport. In turn, a spokesperson for Davenport’s office told Fox News Digital that "nothing in New Jersey’s state laws would have prevented New Jersey law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration officials to deport Mr. Garcia-Morales" Though the spokesperson did not address the child’s injuries, they said "our office’s number one priority is keeping New Jerseyans safe." U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has lodged a detainer against the illegal immigrant allegedly behind the attack, 40-year-old Mexican national Hernando Garcia-Morales. The Department of Homeland Security said in a Monday statement that Garcia-Morales, whom the agency called a "monster," has an extensive criminal history. The agency said he entered the U.S. at an unknown date and location. DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin commented that "violently targeting a school bus full of children is extremely wicked and heinous."

Daily Caller [1/29/2026 1:36 PM, Derek VanBuskirk, 835K] reports that Democratic lawmakers in Maryland rushed emergency legislation to block local police from cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) immediately after a new ICE facility was announced in the state Wednesday. The Department of Homeland Security sent a letter to the Historic District Commission and Washington County Planning and Zoning Department in mid-January flagging a potential warehouse purchase for a "new ICE Baltimore Processing Facility," according to a Thursday statement from the county. The letter detailed plans for holding and processing spaces, offices, a public visitor area, cafeterias, bathrooms and health care facilities. Federal law requires DHS to notify local governments when projects may impact historic property, but the county has no legal authority to block the purchase — and DHS never notified the county directly that it had gone through. Maryland’s federal delegation has also weighed in. In a Jan. 20 letter to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, Democratic Sens. Chris Van Hollen and Angela Alsobrooks joined Reps. April Delaney, Steny Hoyer, Jamie Raskin, Kweisi Mfume, Johnny Olszewski, Sarah Elfreth, and Glenn Ivey in demanding details on the facility’s impact. The letter argues the Hagerstown warehouse "is not designed or outfitted to house, feed, or provide adequate care for detainees."

Politico [1/29/2026 3:52 PM, Josh Gerstein, 21784K] reports the Trump administration sued a Virginia woman for almost $1 million as part of an escalating drive to get undocumented immigrants to leave the U.S. by levying court-imposed fines. The lawsuit, filed last week in U.S. District Court in Richmond, seeks $941,114 plus interest from Marta Alicia Ramirez Veliz for allegedly failing to leave the U.S. for more than three years after a Justice Department appeals panel ruled against her in an immigration case in 2022. Officials appear to have arrived at the whopping sum by imposing a $998 daily fine for each of the 943 days that passed between the Board of Immigration Appeals dismissing Ramirez Veliz’s appeal and Immigration and Customs Enforcement sending her a formal bill last April. The Trump administration set up a new process last year to assess the fines. Lawyers challenging that system say the penalty for Ramirez Veliz appears to be the highest sought among dozens of similar lawsuits the administration has brought in recent months. “That does sound like the largest number we have heard when we were tracking this,” said Charles Moore, a lawyer with the public interest law group Public Justice. “We know that the amounts were as low as $3,000 and as high as several hundred thousand but, no, we hadn’t heard of anything close to $1 million.” Legal experts say they’ve strained to find any patterns in the new lawsuits or tens of thousands of bills ICE has sent out, although attorneys say the assessments often go to immigrants who have been fastidious about keeping their addresses updated in government files and checking in with immigration officials as directed. “They are people who have been interacting with the system attempting to obtain [legal] status through the proper procedure. It seems many people in this situation are folks who are getting these fines,” Moore said. Efforts to contact Ramirez Veliz for comment for this story were unsuccessful. The lawsuit against her describes her as “an individual and noncitizen residing in Chesterfield County, Virginia,” just south of Richmond. It does not provide her nationality or discuss any legal arguments she made against her deportation, which was ordered by an immigration court in 2019. A Justice Department official said the lawsuit appeared to be the first of its kind filed in the Eastern District of Virginia. POLITICO located one lawsuit filed last week against a man living in Florida that demands over $717,000 for failing to depart the country. Other lawsuits, filed in California and Texas, seek amounts ranging from $3,000 to over $292,000.

CBS News [1/29/2026 6:24 PM, Daniel Wilkerson, 51110K] Video: HERE reports students at Mill Creek High School walked out of class on Thursday over concerns tied to immigration enforcement, prompting a response from Gwinnett County Public Schools as similar protests unfolded at other campuses across the district. CBS News Atlanta captured video showing dozens of students chanting and holding signs as they gathered along the sidewalk during school hours. Students involved in the protest said they were given clear parameters by school leaders, including where they were allowed to stand. Officials required the students to remain on school property. "I think that this is important, especially because if you don’t say anything, then you let them get away with cruel behaviors, and it’s not OK to hurt people," said Kamilla Davis, a student at Mill Creek High School. "Everybody deserves a right in everything in America, and the fact that kids have to come out here and know what’s right from wrong speaks something." Students said the walkout was driven by concerns about immigration enforcement and the impact it is having on families and classmates. "I have Hispanic relatives that have been taken by ICE, and I just feel very strongly on the topic," said student Collin Barnes. "It’s just a shame." In a statement released by the district, Gwinnett County Public Schools said it supports student expression while also prioritizing safety and learning during the school day. The district stated that school leaders worked with students ahead of time to identify designated areas for student expression and to limit disruptions to instruction. GCPS also addressed immigration-related concerns raised by students, saying federal immigration officials are not permitted to enter non-public areas of schools without a valid judicial warrant. The district said it does not collect or maintain information about a student’s or family’s immigration status and that student records are protected under federal law.

AP [1/29/2026 5:19 PM, David Fischer, 35287K] reports detainees have been pepper-sprayed on at least two occasions at a Florida immigration detention center dubbed " Deportation Depot " since it opened last September. The Florida Division of Emergency Management confirmed Thursday that the most recent incident at the former Baker Correctional Institution in northeast Florida occurred on Christmas Eve. The confrontation came nearly two months after an Oct. 29 incident, when detainees attempted to barricade themselves inside their housing unit while inciting violence and causing significant damage, officials said. Guards eventually used pepper spray to regain control. No injuries were reported, and everyone involved was medically cleared in an abundance of caution, officials said. Three federal lawsuits in Florida have challenged practices at the Everglades facility.

Axios [1/29/2026 7:28 AM, Travis Meier, 12972K] reports Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said a possible Kansas City ICE detention center is "un-American" in an interview with CNN yesterday. The mayor warned against an increasing ICE presence, saying he’s opposed to a new facility and worried that more agents will lead to violence. We are fundamentally opposed. What they’re talking about is a facility between 5,000 and 10,000 humans who will be warehoused in something that was built as an Amazon distribution facility. And the attractiveness of the site is because it’s next to railroads. I don’t like big encampments next to train tracks and all of that. I think that is terribly un-American. — Mayor Lucas ICE did not respond to Axios’ requests for comment regarding the mayor’s interview.

Breitbart [1/29/2026 2:04 PM, John Binder, 2416K] reports that the Angel Mom of Megan Bos, the 37-year-old woman found dead and decapitated in a garbage can on an illegal alien’s property in the sanctuary state of Illinois, is defending Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents against attacks from the organized left. This week, Angel Mom Jennifer Bos appeared in a video from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) where she tells her daughter’s story and defends ICE agents. Last year, 52-year-old illegal alien Jose Luis Mendoza-Gonzalez of Mexico was charged with concealing a corpse, abusing a corpse, and obstruction of justice after police found Megan Bos’s dead body in a garbage can on his property. Bos was reported missing in March 2025 after having disappeared the month prior. Her decapitated body was later found on Mendoza-Gonzalez’s property, stuffed in a garbage can filled with bleach, seemingly in an attempt to conceal her remains. Public outrage ensued when an Illinois judge allowed Mendoza-Gonzalez to walk free rather than holding him in jail or turning him over to ICE agents, thanks to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s (D) sanctuary state policy. As a result, ICE agents located and arrested Mendoza-Gonzalez to take him off the streets.

The Hill [1/29/2026 10:25 AM, Ella Lee, 12595K] reports Minnesota’s chief federal judge backed off his threat to potentially hold the head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in contempt for violating court orders but scorched the agency’s conduct amid the Trump administration’s crackdown in the state. Chief U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz cancelled a hearing set for Friday where acting ICE director Todd Lyons would have been forced to take the stand to explain the agency’s aggressive surge. “That does not end the Court’s concerns, however,” the judge wrote in an order Wednesday. Schiltz pointed to a list of 96 orders he said ICE had violated across more than 70 cases since the crackdown, dubbed Operation Metro Surge, began in Minnesota. He said the list should “give pause to anyone — no matter his or her political beliefs — who cares about the rule of law.” “ICE has likely violated more court orders in January 2026 than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence,” the judge said. The Hill has requested comment from ICE. The chief judge’s breaking point came in the case of Juan Hugo Tobay Robles, who had informed the court that he remained detained despite a judge’s ruling that the Trump administration must afford him a bond hearing or release him. Schiltz said the court had been “extremely patient” with the administration, even as thousands of ICE officers descended on Minnesota to detain noncitizens without a plan for the hundreds of legal challenges that were “sure to result.” Despite assurances from the government that court orders would be honored, “the violations continue,” he said on Monday, scheduling the hearing and calling Lyons to testify under threat of contempt.

New York Times [1/29/2026 6:20 PM, Albert Sun, 148038K] reports the Trump administration has faulted the state of Minnesota for doing too little to help federal agents arrest undocumented immigrants, and senior Homeland Security officials have demanded the state turn over more unauthorized immigrants who have been arrested or convicted of a crime to face deportation. Minnesota officials claim they are cooperating. The Department of Corrections, which runs the state’s prisons, says that it already transfers people to Immigration and Customs Enforcement once they have finished serving their sentences. Federal data shows a complicated picture. About 30 percent of the people ICE detained in Minnesota last year were turned over by local jails and prisons, a New York Times analysis of federal data shows, but that number is a lower share than in 39 other states. In addition, no one was transferred from the state’s largest jail, in Hennepin County, which contains Minneapolis, the state’s largest city. Local jails in Minnesota have declined or ignored hundreds of the more than 2,000 detainers — requests to hold someone longer in detention until ICE can take custody of them — filed since President Trump took office last January. Still, there has been some cooperation. About 50 county jails and local law enforcement agencies in the state transferred inmates to ICE custody last year. In total, more than 600 people have been transferred into ICE custody from prisons and jails in Minnesota since the beginning of Mr. Trump’s second term in office.

Axios [1/29/2026 7:20 AM, Nick Halter, Torey Van Oot, and Kyle Stokes, 12972K] reports even if Mayor Jacob Frey wanted his city’s police officers to help the Trump administration with immigration enforcement, it’d be just about impossible to do it. Frey’s resistance to President Trump’s demand for local ICE support set the president off on Wednesday, threatening to disrupt what had been 48 hours of de-escalation between local and federal officials. After Trump criticized Frey and said he was "playing with fire" by not enforcing immigration law, the mayor shot back and posted on social media that he wants his police "preventing homicides, not hunting down a working dad who contributes to MPLS & is from Ecuador." Minneapolis has a separation ordinance that bars police from undertaking "any law enforcement action for the purpose of enforcing federal immigration laws." Minneapolis Police Department officers can control crowds at immigration raids, but coordinating this response with federal officials could be problematic under the ordinance. Frey and the council are unlikely to weaken an ordinance they updated just last month. Even without the ordinance, it wouldn’t be feasible for MPD to take on additional duties because it’s already stretched thin.

NewsMax [1/29/2026 12:28 PM, Charlie McCarthy, 4109K] reports that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Thursday said officers were unaware they had pursued a criminal illegal migrant to the Ecuadorian Consulate in Minneapolis. In a statement reported by CBS News, ICE said officers were conducting a targeted enforcement operation Jan. 27 when they identified Jorge Miguel Bravo Uriles, an illegal alien from Ecuador with a 2022 conviction for driving while intoxicated and prior arrests for sexual assault and assault in separate incidents. According to ICE, when officers approached and identified themselves as law enforcement, Bravo Uriles fled into a nearby building. Officers later learned the building housed the Ecuadorian consulate, but ICE said it was not clearly marked at the time. "Unknown to the ICE officers at the time, the building housed the Consulate of Ecuador," the agency said, adding that officers never entered the consulate and were focused on public safety. ICE accused consulate employees of shielding the suspect, who remains at large. The incident drew international attention after video footage circulated online showing federal agents attempting to enter the consulate before being physically blocked by staff. The video was verified by Reuters, which confirmed the equipment worn by the agent matched that of ICE officers operating in Minneapolis.

FOX News [1/29/2026 12:13 PM, Greg Norman-Diamond, 40621K] reports a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spokesperson pushed back Thursday after Ecuador’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs described an "attempted incursion" by an ICE agent at its consulate in Minneapolis this week. ICE said the caught-on-camera incident happened as agents were targeting an illegal alien convicted of a DUI and previously arrested for sexual assault. The suspect ran into an unmarked building, which was later learned to be the Ecuador consulate, and remains at large. The agency accused the consulate staffers of effectively shielding a public safety threat and stated ICE officers never entered the consulate. Ecuador’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs previously said it submitted a "note of protest" to the U.S. government following the reported incident on Tuesday. "On January 27, ICE officers were conducting a targeted enforcement operation when they positively identified Jorge Miguel Bravo Uriles, a criminal illegal alien from Ecuador who has a conviction for driving while intoxicated in 2022, and previous arrests for sexual assault and assault in two separate incidents," an ICE spokesperson told Fox News Digital. "When ICE officers approached Bravo Urgiles and identified themselves as law enforcement, the criminal illegal alien fled into a nearby building. Unknown to the ICE officers at the time, the building housed the Consulate of Ecuador, however, the building was not clearly marked as the Ecuadorian Consulate. The ICE officers were focused on arresting the criminal illegal alien, their own safety, and the safety of the public. At no time did the ICE officers enter the Consulate," the spokesperson added. "The Consulate employees protected this public safety threat illegal alien. He is still at large." In a post on X about the "attempted incursion" in Minneapolis on Tuesday, the ministry said, "Immediately, consular officials prevented the ICE officer from entering the consular headquarters, thereby guaranteeing the protection of the Ecuadorians who were at the consular headquarters at that time and activating the emergency protocols issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility," according to a translation. "In light of the above, the Chancellor of the Republic immediately presented a note of protest to the United States Embassy in Ecuador to ensure that acts of this nature are not repeated in any of the consular offices of Ecuador in the United States," the Ministry added.

Washington Examiner [1/29/2026 2:18 PM, Mia Cathell, 1394K] reports that Nekima Levy Armstrong, the self-identified ringleader of the Black Lives Matter coalition that took over a Christian church in St. Paul earlier this month, demanded that federal authorities hand back her cellphone, which investigators seized as evidence of the coalition’s alleged conspiracy to harass parishioners in their house of worship. In a five-page motion, Levy Armstrong asked that the court order the federal government to return her cellphone, quash any relevant seizure warrant that was issued, and prohibit the search, examination, or extraction of data from her cellphone. Levy Armstrong, head of the Minnesota-based Racial Justice Network, admittedly coordinated the shutdown of Cities Church, a Christian parish, during Sunday services in protest of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, based on the belief that one of the pastors was an ICE officer. In post-protest press appearances, Levy Armstrong acknowledged activating other organizations and activist leaders to take part in the "secret operation." Levy Armstrong issued a call to action across social media through an "ICE Out" flyer, which she posted on her Instagram account and on RJM’s page. Though the publicly posted details about the protest were vague, dozens of anti-ICE agitators mobilized to carry out the "clandestine mission," assembling in a parking lot close to the church before they barged into the sanctuary together, allegedly on Levy Armstrong’s orders.

AP [1/29/2026 5:39 AM, Staff, 31753K] reports AP journalists were in Minneapolis covering federal immigration enforcement actions and preparing to document the encounter. When the journalists got out of their car, officers pushed one of them, threatened them with arrest and told them to get back in their car despite their identifying themselves as media. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [1/29/2026 11:34 PM, Scott Thompson, 37576K] reports the Minnesota Timberwolves released a statement from its players regarding the rising anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) tensions in Minneapolis. There have been two fatal incidents in Minneapolis in recent weeks involving federal immigration agents amid heightened tensions over the operations as well as clashes with anti-ICE demonstrators. Like everyone in the Twin Cities, the Timberwolves have been impacted by the events, and they released a statement expressing their "sincere sympathies and love to everyone.” "We, the Minnesota Timberwolves players, extend our sincere sympathies and love to everyone across the Twin Cities and throughout Minnesota who has been affected by the recent tragic events impacting our communities," the statement read. "Minnesota is strongest when we uplift and support one another, and there is no room for hatred or division across our great state or among all who live here. "We mourn the lives lost and send strength, peace and compassion to all who are hurting. We believe in the resilience, unity and care that define Minnesotans, and bring our communities together in times of hardship and need.” The Timberwolves postponed their game on Saturday against the Golden State Warriors in the aftermath of the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old Department of Veteran Affairs ICU nurse, involving a Border Patrol agent. "The decision was made to prioritize the safety and security of the Minneapolis community," the NBA said, adding that the game would be played Sunday. The following day, NBA fans delivered anti-ICE messages at Target Center, with signs inside the arena reading, "ICE out now." A moment of silence was held for Pretti — the same protocol for the Timberwolves following the earlier death of Renee Good. The team held a moment of silence for Good, 37, who was killed while operating a vehicle that agents ordered her to exit, according to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Good, according to Noem, refused and "attempted to run them over and ram them with her vehicle.” "Our thoughts are with her family and everyone affected, and our hearts are with our community as we hope for healing and unity during this challenging time," the Target Center’s public address announcer said.

NPR [1/29/2026 4:31 PM, Alejandra Marquez Janse, Ailsa Chang, Christopher Intagliata, 28764K] Audio: HERE reports NPR’s Ailsa Chang speaks with Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, about his visit to the immigration facility where a 5-year-old and his father have been detained since last week.

Houston Chronicle [1/29/2026 6:50 PM, John Lomax V, 2493K] reports Harris County commissioners voted 4-1 Thursday to pass a motion condemning the Department of Homeland Security’s unprecedented deployment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in cities across the country. Republican Commissioner Tom Ramsey cast the lone dissenting vote. The move came after federal agents killed two U.S. citizens — Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse, and Renee Good, also 37, and a mother of three — in Minnesota in January, Their deaths have sparked nationwide outrage. “The brutal killings of Renee Nicole Good, Alex Pretti, and the many others who have been killed in ICE custody nationwide reflect a dangerous pattern of militarized enforcement that undermines public safety and constitutional rights,” said Commissioner Rodney Ellis in a statement. Customs and Border Patrol officers shot and killed Pretti after disarming him at a protest, while Good was killed by ICE agent Jonathan Ross. The motion, which simply clarified the court’s position on the ongoing immigration crackdown, came less than a week after Harris County joined a friend-of-the-court, or amicus, brief supporting a lawsuit filed by the State of Minnesota and the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul challenging the federal government’s authority to deploy masked ICE and CBP agents to the Twin Cities.

Daily Wire [1/29/2026 8:40 AM, Zach Jewell, 2494K] reports a group of protesters clashed with Texas Department of Public Safety troopers on Wednesday outside of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement family detention center, where a 5-year-old boy, who has made headlines, is being held with his suspected illegal immigrant father. At least two protesters were arrested as troopers attempted to clear the crowd of around 150 people who were blocking a road outside of the South Texas Family Residential Center near Dilley, Texas. Law enforcement officers deployed tear gas and shoved the crowd back, a video from ABC’s San Antonio affiliate KSAT shows. The Texas Department of Public Safety said that it sent troopers to the facility "at the request of the City of Dilley.” "During today’s response, after dispersal orders were given, approximately 150 demonstrators refused to leave and began to breach the established protest barrier and spit on officers," the department said. "Despite continued orders to disperse, the group remained and DPS took less-lethal action, deploying pepper ball grenades and pepper ball projectiles to ensure officer safety and maintain order. DPS personnel arrested two individuals on various charges, including resisting arrest and interfering with public duties.” The demonstrators showed up outside the ICE detention facility to protest federal authorities holding a 5-year-old Ecuadoran boy after his father was arrested during the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota. A picture of the boy standing with federal agents went viral last week, with many on the Left pointing to the incident as an example of ICE cruelty. The Department of Homeland Security said that the young child was "abandoned" by his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, when Conejo Arias allegedly attempted to flee from federal agents. "For the child’s safety, one of our ICE officers remained with the child while the other officers apprehended Conejo Arias," Homeland Security added. "Parents are asked if they want to be removed with their children, or ICE will place the children with a safe person the parent designates. This is consistent with past administration’s immigration enforcement.” A Minnesota pastor told CNN that the child’s mother feared going outside to get her child because of ICE’s presence. Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, however, said that federal agents "assured [the mother] she would NOT be taken into custody.” "The alleged mother refused to accept custody of the child. The father told officers he wanted the child to remain with him," McLaughlin added.

CNN [1/28/2026 12:14 PM, Ed Lavandera, Norma Galeana, and Holly Yan, 18595K] reports the 5-year-old boy who with his father was taken last week by immigration agents from their suburban Minneapolis driveway has appeared depressed and lethargic at the South Texas detention facility where the pair is being held, said a congressman concerned for Liam Conejo Ramos’ mental state. “Just visited with Liam and his father at Dilley detention center,” Rep. Joaquin Castro, a Democrat, said in an X post Wednesday. “I demanded his release and told him how much his family, his school, and our country loves him and is praying for him.” A federal judge blocked any immediate deportation of Liam and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, after the man sued. Since Liam arrived at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley – the site of tense demonstrations recently by detainees and protesters at its gates – the boy has slept a lot and not eaten well, Castro said, citing Conejo Arias. “His dad said that that he hasn’t been himself,” Castro said in an Instagram video after the visit, noting Liam was asleep during the visit. “I am concerned about his mental state.” Castro had “heard from some of the attorneys that their clients are having trouble – that they’re being locked in their room. They’re being kept on lockdown” at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Dilley, the congressman said in a video posted to Facebook. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson denied the claim. “The Dilley Immigration Processing Center is NOT on lockdown,” Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. “Additionally, ICE would NEVER deny any illegal alien medical care. These types of smears are leading to our officers facing a more than 1,300% increase in assaults against them.”

CBS News [1/29/2026 12:22 PM, Staff, 39474K] Video: HERE reports that the principal at a Minnesota elementary school where Liam Conejo Ramos was returning from when he and his father were detained by federal agents last week became emotional as he was shown a photo of the 5-year-old inside a detention center in Texas. "We got word that he was sick. That scares me," Jason Kuhlman, principal of Valley View Elementary School in Columbia Heights, told CBS News. "How is he being treated? What medical attention is he getting?" Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro on Wednesday posted the photo of Liam and his father taken during the Democratic congressman’s visit, saying in a video on social media: "The whole country’s been worried about him. His dad said that he hasn’t been himself. That he’s been sleeping a lot because he’s been depressed and sad." Liam and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Ramos, were taken into custody as part of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation while in their driveway after just arriving home from his preschool classroom on Jan. 20. A federal judge has temporarily barred their deportation or transfer from the Dilley ICE detention center in Texas, a facility designed to house immigrant families with underage children who have been accused of violating federal immigration law. Kuhlman said the judge’s decision "was a win for us ... knowing that he’s a step closer to coming back with us."

CNN [1/29/2026 2:00 PM Nicquel Terry Ellis, 18595K] reports Maher Tarabishi’s family had hoped he could be present to say his final goodbyes to his son, Wael. Maher, Wael’s primary caretaker, has been in federal detainment since October, separating him from his son as he battled severe health complications from a serious and rare inherited disorder. But despite the family’s public pleas for Maher’s temporary release, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials denied their request, his attorney said. Now the family is preparing to bury 30-year-old Wael without Maher. The son spent his life suffering from Pompe disease, which leads to severe muscle weakness and heart problems. “We are profoundly disappointed with ICE’s decision to deny Maher Tarabishi the opportunity to say his final goodbye to his beloved son, Wael,” Attorney Ali Elhorr said in a statement Tuesday. “Today’s decision to keep him from saying goodbye is a reflection of the tragic lack of humanity by those in charge.” In a separate statement, family members said preventing Maher from burying his son “would only deepen the wounds left by the pain of these past few months.” In the hours before he died, Wael’s wish was to see his father again. On the day he passed away, Elhorr went to meet with an ICE official to ask if Maher could come to the hospital to see his son, the family said in a statement. That request was denied, they said. Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, did not respond to questions about whether the family had requested his temporary release in two separate occasions and the reason why it was denied. “It’s unbelievable,” Arnaout said. “Our lives have been turned upside down.”

Bloomberg Law News [1/29/2026 5:57 PM, Quinn Wilson, 50K] reports California has seen an increase in federal immigration enforcement activity at state courthouses, California Supreme Court Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero said in a conversation with reporters Thursday, prompting the state to offer virtual appearances for those afraid to appear in court. Federal immigration activity has taken place at least at 17 California courthouses, Guerrero said, with the bulk of enforcement operations happening in Shasta County in Northern California. In addition to virtual appearances, state courts are also providing "know your rights" materials for the public in an effort to fight the "chilling effect" on courthouse appearances caused by immigration enforcement activities. Though it’s not the intent of state courts to interfere with federal immigration enforcement responsibilities, "they can do their work outside of the courtroom," she said. The federal government issued a guidance document noting that it would take "very limited" enforcement actions in courthouses, but Guerrero said federal authorities have since not followed that document. She acknowledged the state judiciary’s limitations when it comes to these issues though.

FOX News [1/29/2026 6:08 PM, Charles Creitz, 37576K] reports the Department of Homeland Security lodged a detainer Thursday in California in the case of an illegal immigrant accused of a crime that a top official there is calling the "most heinous one we’ve ever seen.” DHS has been pressing sanctuary states and sanctuary cities to respect and honor ICE detainers for public safety and national security reasons, with little headway from those jurisdictions, telling Fox News Digital they hope this is the case that will change their minds. A 20-year-old Mexican national, Enrique Bautista-Vasquez, was charged with rape, a sentence enhancement for sexual assault of a person unable to consent and sexual assault of a victim deemed to be "particularly vulnerable" and is being held in Indio after the alleged attack in nearby Cathedral City, according to NBC’s Palm Springs affiliate. The Trump administration alerted Fox News Digital to the detainer request being filed with Sacramento Thursday, with a top DHS official characterizing the alleged crimes as among the worst they’ve seen. On December 31, Bautista-Vasquez encountered the 14-year-old girl — who is autistic and who reports said habitually wanders from home due to her condition — on a nearby small college campus, where officials say he convinced her to follow him through a business park and eventually to his home, according to DHS. A top Noem deputy told Fox News Digital she hopes California Gov. Gavin Newsom will essentially break with tradition and honor the detainer her office is lodging against Bautista-Vasquez. "This depraved illegal alien raped and sodomized a child with autism. Under Secretary Noem’s leadership, ICE took swift action to lodge a detainer with authorities to ensure this child rapist is not released onto our streets," Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said. "Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee Governor Newsom and his California sanctuary politicians will cooperate and turn this scumbag over to ICE.” McLaughlin said California has released 3,700 violent criminal illegal immigrants from custody to "perpetrate more crimes and victimize more Americans.” She also noted that Bautista-Vasquez was released into the interior by the Biden administration after previously being deported at least once.

San Francisco Chronicle [1/29/2026 3:02 PM, Sara DiNatale, Susie Neilson, Alexei Koseff, 4722K] reports top Bay Area officials are attempting to assuage fears of an impending federal immigration crackdown tied to the upcoming Super Bowl, saying they don’t expect more federal agents present than standard for a massive sporting event. San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie told the Chronicle Thursday that recent conversations with officials from the NFL and federal agencies indicated there would be no surge of immigration agents. Santa Clara District Attorney Jeff Rosen told the Chronicle he has not heard any mention of enforcement operations tied to the Super Bowl by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. Rosen said he would expect to be notified in advance if such an operation was imminent. DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said earlier this week that the agency was committed to working with local and federal partners to ensure the safety of the Super Bowl as it does for “every major sporting event.” “Our mission remains unchanged,” McLaughlin said. “We will not disclose future operations or discuss personnel. Super Bowl security will entail a whole of government response conducted in-line with the U.S. Constitution.”

SFGate [1/29/2026 10:29 AM, Staff, 10094K] reports Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee signed two executive orders Thursday that outline the city’s response to immigration enforcement activity in the city. The first order sets up a task force to protect the city’s immigrant communities and establishes that the Oakland Police Department will function independently if federal troops are deployed to the city. The second order prohibits federal agencies from using any city property for civil immigration enforcement operations. Both orders are in effect as of Thursday. U.S. Rep. Lateefah Simon, D-Oakland, Alameda County Supervisor Nikki Fortunato Bas, Oakland city officials, and representatives from local immigrant support organizations joined Lee at Thursday’s signing ceremony at City Hall. "We’re not going to allow our streets to be turned into combat zones," said Lee before signing the executive orders. "Workers are afraid to go to their jobs, families are afraid in their own neighborhoods, and this fear is unacceptable." The first executive order that Lee signed calls for the formation of a "Protect The Town" task force to coordinate city departments’ response to immigration enforcement in the city, and to inform and educate residents about the same. The mayor’s office will also work with the city attorney’s office and the California attorney general’s office to pursue legal action if federal troops are unilaterally deployed to the city.

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Telemundo 48 [1/29/2026 2:51 PM, Marián Caraballo, 20K] r

FOX News [1/29/2026 7:00 PM, Rachel del Guidice Fox, 37576K] reports California Democratic lawmakers introduced a bill Wednesday that would ban U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from renting vehicles from car rental companies. The bill was introduced by Assembly Member Jessica Caloza, D-52, and lists Assembly Member Liz Ortega, D-20, as its principal coauthor. The bill text reads, "Existing law generally regulates the business of renting passenger vehicles to the public. The law prohibits a rental company from taking various actions, including requiring the purchase of a damage waiver, optional insurance, or another optional good or service, and using electronic surveillance technology to track a renter in order to impose fines or surcharges relating to the renter’s use of a rental vehicle.” The bill text also reads that it would "prohibit a rental company from renting a vehicle to the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement.” Tensions against ICE have increased following the death of Renee Nicole Good, who was shot and killed earlier this month by an ICE agent after she tried to ram an officer with her vehicle after refusing to get out, officials said. Protests against federal agents have continued to ramp up since the Border Patrol killing of Alex Pretti on Saturday.

USA Today [1/29/2026 6:48 PM, Jennifer Cortez, 70643K] reports students across the Coachella Valley are organizing peaceful school walkouts to protest the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement. They join a nationwide student movement that gained momentum following fatal shootings of U.S. citizens by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis. Some student-led actions are planned Friday, Jan. 30. At Indio High School, for example, a brief and school-supported demonstration is planned that morning. Students from La Quinta High School and Cathedral City High School are also expected to walk out. Meanwhile, high schoolers across Palm Springs Unified School District are planning a separate walkout at 2 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 9 to allow for more time to coordinate and plan for safety. Abriana Pelayo and Viandi Campos, juniors at Rancho Mirage High School, are helping to organize that districtwide effort. "We don’t want to spread any misinformation to anybody. It’s a big movement for a lot of people," Pelayo said. "This is the beginning of bringing attention to not just ICE, but the entire (Trump) administration and how it’s affecting our education system.” The effort began informally, they said, as students began sharing their fears and frustrations in a group chat on Instagram. As conversations grew, it expanded beyond a single campus, with students from multiple schools discussing how to respond collectively. Those conversations eventually coalesced around the idea of a coordinated walkout — one, they said, that is meant to be visible, intentional and grounded in care for one another.

The Hill [1/29/2026 12:23 PM, Rebecca Beitsch, 12595K] reports Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem acted unlawfully when she lifted deportation protections for Venezuela and Haiti, a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeal ruled late Wednesday. A concurring opinion noted that both Noem and President Trump repeatedly made statements that “were overtly founded on racist stereotyping based on country of origin,” agreeing with a lower court that the decision to do so was “preordained” and not based on need. The ruling will have little effect for Venezuelan citizens. A Supreme Court ruling in October allowed Noem’s bid to end temporary protected status (TPS) while the larger court battle continued. “The Secretary’s unlawful actions have had real and significant consequences for the hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans and Haitians in the United States who rely on TPS. The record is replete with examples of hard-working, contributing members of society—who are mothers, fathers, wives, husbands, and partners of U.S. citizens, pay taxes, and have no criminal records—who have been deported or detained after losing their TPS,” Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw wrote in the opinion. “The Secretary’s actions have left hundreds of thousands of people in a constant state of fear that they will be deported, detained, separated from their families, and returned to a country in which they were subjected to violence or any other number of harms.” The judges found Noem cannot simply “vacate” the earlier TPS designations for Venezuela and Haiti and instead must follow the process for doing so, including analyzing conditions in each country. A concurring opinion by Judge Salvador Mendoza also dug into Noem’s and Trump’s comments about citizens of both countries, arguing there was “ample evidence of racial and national origin animus in the record, which reinforces the district court’s conclusion that the Secretary’s actions were preordained and her reasoning pretextual.” “We cannot ignore the backdrop of extraordinary statements by direct decision-makers when assessing whether the agency’s proffered rationale was genuine or merely a pretext for an ulterior (and impermissible) motive. The record is replete with public statements by Secretary Noem and President Donald Trump that evince a hostility toward, and desire to rid the country of, TPS holders who are Venezuelan and Haitian,” he wrote.

AP [1/29/2026 12:54 PM, Sudhin Thanawala, 35287K] 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. In an email statement on Thursday, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security blasted the ruling as a “lawless and activist order from the federal judiciary” and said federal judges continue to “undermine our immigration laws.” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin also stressed that TPS was meant to be temporary. 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.

Reported similarly:
New York Times [1/29/2026 3:18 PM, Jazmine Ulloa, 135475K]
Reuters [1/29/2026 11:16 AM, Nate Raymond, 36480K]

NewsMax [1/29/2026 11:36 AM, Theodore Bunker, 4109K] reports that Rapper Nicki Minaj said publicly Wednesday that she received a "Gold Card" from President Donald Trump, hours after praising him during a U.S. Treasury Department event in Washington, D.C., promoting the administration’s new child investment accounts. Minaj posted a photo of the immigration card, featuring Trump’s face, on social media with the caption "Welp.” She later wrote that she is "finalizing that citizenship paperwork as we speak as per MY wonderful, gracious, charming President." Minaj added that she received the card free of charge, even though it typically costs $1 million. "I wouldn’t have done it without you. Oh CitizenNIKA you are thee moment," she wrote. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the card and Minaj’s posts. The Gold Card program was created by executive order in September 2025 and is billed by the administration as a fast track to lawful permanent residency for foreign nationals who make a large financial contribution and pass background checks. Public guidance on the program describes a $1 million payment to the U.S. Treasury, plus processing fees. Immigration lawyers have compared it to investor visa programs, including the EB-5 visa. Minaj, 43, was born in Trinidad and Tobago and was raised in Queens, New York. In 2018, she wrote on social media that she came to the United States when she was 5 years old and was in the country illegally at the time.

Breitbart [1/29/2026 1:49 PM, John Hayward, 2416K] reports that Chinese national Guan Heng, 38, was granted asylum in the United States at a hearing on Wednesday in Napanoch, New York. Guan was arrested in August during a deportation sweep, and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was at one point planning to deport him to Uganda, but his fears of facing retribution for exposing Chinese human rights abuses against the Uyghurs drew national attention to his case. Guan took photos in 2020 of China’s abusive practices at the massive concentration camps it constructed in the Uyghur homeland, East Turkistan, which China refers to as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) or Xinjiang province. He conducted his research by driving alone to Xinjiang and hunting for camps hidden in the wilderness. Guan said he was inspired to make the trip by American news coverage of the Uyghurs’ plight, which he viewed in defiance of Chinese censorship laws during the coronavirus lockdowns. He had visited scenic Xinjiang a year earlier as a motorcycle tourist and found the heavy security presence puzzling. After taking his photos, Guan fled China, made his way to South America, and then traveled from the Bahamas to Florida in a small boat in 2021. He published his photos of the Uyghur detention camps soon after arriving in the U.S. and applied for asylum, but his application was still pending – making him an illegal resident of the United States – when he was swept up in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid in August 2025.

CBS Miami [1/29/2026 4:53 PM, Staff, 51110K] reports a push by Gov. Ron DeSantis for Florida universities to pause hiring international faculty and staff members through what are known as H-1B visas moved forward Thursday. The state university system’s Board of Governors set up for final approval a proposed moratorium as part of rule changes involving powers and duties of university boards of trustees. With critics raising concerns that the proposal could hinder Florida’s standing educationally and financially, the measure would direct each board of trustees to "not utilize the H-1B program in its personnel program to hire any new employees through January 5, 2027." Board of Governors Chairman Alan Levine said the moratorium wouldn’t stop the use of other visa programs. When the pause is in effect, officials will study the cost of the H-1B program, along with how the program is used by the different universities, system Chancellor Ray Rodrigues said.

CBS News [1/29/2026 2:01 PM, Lana Zak, 39474K] reports that some American citizens have begun carrying their passports in Minneapolis, fearful that they’ll be mistaken for undocumented immigrants and detained amid a surge of federal agents to the city. CBS News spoke with several people of color, some from immigrant backgrounds, who said they weren’t leaving their homes without passports in the event they had to prove their citizenship. Dana, who did not want to use her last name, said she’s making her children carry their passports around because people don’t immediately know her background when they look at her. "I’ve been hiding in the house for the last two weeks, working from home," Dana, who is in the process of getting her own passport, told us. She said her oldest child was home from college and she wouldn’t let her go into the city. "Wrong place, wrong time, something could happen, and I worry about myself, and I worry about my children," she said. Dana said she’s getting a passport not for travel but because she worries something could happen to her. "I’m hearing people that are being detained for hours and hours that are U.S. citizens and that could be me," she said. "It feels really dark and scary" Alejandra, who did not want to share her last name, is a U.S. citizen who came from Mexico as a baby. "I bring this with me everywhere," she said, holding out her passport. While Alejandra said it’s "not unusual" for people to carry a passport amid the surge, this isn’t typically the norm for her.

NewsMax [1/29/2026 12:11 PM, Solange Reyner, 4109K] reports that former U.S. Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino on Wednesday voiced support for his colleagues in a video filmed in front of Mount Rushmore. "Team, behind me are a few individuals ... the ORIGINAL turn and burn — the folks that helped make America," he said in the video, posted to several reporters’ X accounts. "But you know what? I’m very proud of what you, the MEAN GREEN MACHINE, are doing in Minneapolis right now, just like you’ve done it across the United States over these past tough nine months. "And I want you to know that you’re the modern-day equivalent — turn and burn. Makes me very proud. Also want you to know that I’ve got your back, now and always — I love you, I support you, and I salute you," he added. Bovino, the former commander of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, has repeatedly used the phrase "turn and burn" on social media and in interviews to describe what he calls a fast, aggressive approach to immigration enforcement. He left the city Tuesday after federal agents fatally shot two people in less than three weeks.

CBS Philadelphia [1/29/2026 7:12 AM, Staff, 39474K] reports U.S. Customs and Border Protection has new facial recognition tech in place at Philadelphia International Airport, for American citizens returning from international trips. The cameras are expected to reduce wait times by up to 25%. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CBS News [1/29/2026 6:09 PM, Sabrina Franza and Sara Tenenbaum, 39474K] reports a judge scolded lawyers for the Trump administration and gave them until Monday to respond to Marimar Martinez’s demand to release bodycam video of her being shot by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent in Chicago during Operation Midway Blitz. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security claimed Martinez was in a car that blocked Border Patrol agents near 39th and Kedzie in the city’s Brighton Park neighborhood last October. They accused her of ramming her car into federal agents before one of them shot her five times while she was still inside the vehicle. But nearly two months later, federal prosecutors dropped criminal charges that had been filed against her, and a judge dismissed them with prejudice, which prevents the government from filing them against her again. Monday, Martinez’s attorneys filed a motion to force the release of body camera footage of the incident, citing the recent "executions" of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis. Martinez’s lawyer argued in the eight-page filing that evidence in Martinez’s case should be made public to shed light on how DHS "responds in cases where their agents use deadly force against U.S. citizens," noting the Trump administration has continued to describe her as a "domestic terrorist" who rammed agents even after the criminal case against her was dropped. "It’s really the other documents that are under the protective order that directly contradict these claims that they were boxed in," attorneys argued. On a previous post on X, FBI Director Kash Patel retweeted a video he claimed showed Martinez "ramming" a white DHS vehicle, and DHS Assistant Press Secretary Tricia McLaughlin later added Martinez wasn’t in that video at all, claiming instead it was from "another vehicular assault" and suggesting the ramming still happened. Both posts remain up on the social media site. But the government admitted Martinez was not "ramming" a DHS vehicle in court. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Blaze [1/29/2026 7:05 PM, Carlos Garcia, 1556K] reports while many on the left expressed outrage at the shooting reported near the U.S.-Mexico border by federal agents, the sister of the man shot says he’s "no victim.” Very few details were initially available when the shooting 10 miles from the border was reported on Tuesday. One person was shot at about 7:30 a.m. and was in serious but stable condition. The man was later identified as 34-year-old Patrick Gary Schlegel. Police said he had an active warrant for human trafficking when he was stopped and that two men rushed out of his truck after he drove away. He eventually ran out of the truck and fired gunshots in the direction of a police helicopter pursuing him, which led to his getting shot and being injured in the leg and head. Amber Schlegel, the man’s sister, told KOLD-TV Wednesday that he had placed many people in danger through his actions. "To hear that he’s back running illegals again didn’t surprise me, but to hear that he actually fired at federal agents — that took me by surprise," she said. "He is no victim. He is a violent person. That’s who he always has been.” She said that she had already sought a protection order against him when he threatened her for speaking out against him. "He’s where he should be," she added. "Whether he recovers or not, he needs to be locked up for a very long time.”

Univision [1/29/2026 5:38 PM, Staff, 4937K] reports U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) issued a withhold release order against coffee harvested by Finca Monte Grande, a Mexican coffee farm, due to alleged forced labor. CBP detailed that it will stop “with immediate effect” the coffee harvested by Finca Monte Grande at all ports of entry in the United States. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued this withholding order due to alleged “violations of 19 USC § 1307, the law that prohibits the entry into the United States of products made with forced labor.” CBP stated that this withhold release order is the result of an investigation and review it conducted of the supporting evidence. It said that, taken together, the evidence showed that “the employees of Finca Monte Grande are subject to six indicators of forced labor from the International Labour Organization: abuse of vulnerability, withholding of wages, withholding of identity documents, excessive overtime, debt bondage and abusive working and living conditions.”

FOX News [1/30/2026 12:35 AM, Bonny Chu, 37576K] reports newly released surveillance footage has captured the tense moment a suspect breached a TSA checkpoint at an Atlanta airport last year, only to be swiftly tackled by a bystander and subdued within seconds. Police released the footage through an open public records request, showing the incident unfolding on the morning of Oct. 30 at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Fox 5 Atlanta reported Thursday. The suspect was identified as 40-year-old Fabian Leon, who was later charged with simple battery and avoiding security measures, the outlet said. In the footage, Leon appears to rush through the airport before attempting to enter the TSA checkpoint. As he approached the initial screening area, Leon appeared to aggressively push past an agent, knocking the officer to the ground and stumbling over him in the process. A TSA officer then reacted and reportedly yelled "breach," prompting bystander Mark Thomas to turn around without hesitation. Thomas then appeared to quickly lunge at Leon, swiftly grabbing and lifting him up before bodyslamming the suspect to the ground. "I saw him knock over the first dude and then a TSA agent tried to grab him, and once he was going to get past me, I was just like, okay, I’ll just take over if I can," Thomas said, according to Fox 5. Immediately after the incident, the bystander recalled Leon acting oddly calm and "detached" from the situation, even appearing "soft-spoken" as he repeatedly told everyone he was okay and asked to be let up. "He was very soft-spoken. He just kept saying, ‘Oh, I’m okay, I’m okay, let me up, let me up, I’m okay’," Thomas said. "It’s like, kind of clear, that he was sort of detached from the entire situation.” Police said Leon later told officers that he had consumed alcohol and taken drugs shortly before the incident, the outlet reported. Authorities ultimately secured Leon by detaining him in a chair at the scene, according to the footage. During the scuffle, police said three of their officers were also assaulted. While Thomas said he would step in again if needed, the airport could benefit from additional police presence. "I think more police presence should have probably been there, it shouldn’t have taken me to take him down," Thomas said, according to Fox 5. "I don’t know how many checkpoints or people he got passed before that." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [1/29/2026 5:44 PM, Louis Casiano, 37576K] reports a group of anti-ICE agitators mistakenly heckled three federal air marshals who they thought were U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents eating dinner at a Los Angeles-area restaurant Wednesday night. The agents, who are part of the Transportation and Security Administration (TSA), protecting passengers and crew on U.S. aircraft, were dining when a group of people gathered outside Ten-Raku, a Korean BBQ restaurant in the Plaza Mexico shopping center in Lynwood. A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security told Fox News Digital that the TSA employees were "surrounded and viciously harassed by a frenzied mob." The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department was called to the scene to restore control. The TSA agents were escorted out of the restaurant and no one was arrested or harmed.

Reported similarly:
FOX News [1/29/2026 3:14 PM, Ashley Carnahan Fox, 40621K]

CNN [1/30/2026 5:01 AM, Gabe Cohen, 18595K] reports when Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem strode into the Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters last week, ahead of a monster winter storm that walloped much of the country, she caught staffers buzzing around the agency’s response center off guard. “I was shocked she showed up after all the sh*t we’ve been put through and what she’s said,” one FEMA official told CNN, adding that you could hear a pin drop in the center that day. For the past year, Noem has been one of FEMA’s loudest critics, calling the disaster response agency partisan, bloated and broken; vowing to “clean house”; and even threatening to eliminate it altogether. FEMA insiders say her reforms and rhetoric have tanked morale and driven out thousands of disaster workers, including dozens of experienced senior leaders. But on this day, she sounded more like a coach before a big game, rallying the staff to “lean forward” and help Americans weather the storm with a robust federal response, three sources with firsthand knowledge told CNN. For many inside FEMA, it was a jaw-dropping about-face from the combative and adversarial Noem they’ve come to know during President Donald Trump’s second term. It was also her first in-person briefing at FEMA since taking over the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the agency, according to several high-ranking FEMA officials. A week later, Noem is facing another moment with calls for her ouster over her handling of the department’s other major mission – immigration – and a possible bomb cyclone threatening the East Coast. So far, White House sources say Noem’s job is not at risk despite frustration over her handling of the crackdown in Minneapolis, Democrats seeking her impeachment and some Republicans saying they have lost confidence in her leadership. FEMA’s storm response was quickly overshadowed Saturday when immigration enforcement officers shot and killed a protester in Minneapolis. Noem and her team, already gathered at FEMA headquarters, pivoted to address both calamities at a press conference with the disaster agency’s logo displayed prominently behind her. Noem’s efforts to shine a spotlight on FEMA’s role were familiar in a way. Current and former agency officials say they have seen past administrations capitalize on their response to life-threatening hurricanes, wildfires and tornadoes to earn positive headlines and build goodwill. “They look to be able to say, here is part of the power of the federal government, and we’re able to deliver,” a senior FEMA official told CNN.

FOX News [1/29/2026 3:55 PM, Preston Mizell, 40621K] reports the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced a massive rollout of $2.2 billion in public assistance funding that will be dispersed to a number of states across the country. The move comes as a winter storm ripped across the U.S., spanning from the Southwest to Northeast, claiming dozens of lives and leaving hundreds of thousands without power. "This investment will repair and restore critical public infrastructure across the country, including schools, public safety facilities, utilities and community services," Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem told Fox News Digital in a statement. The relief dollars are not solely tied to the winter storm and will support 1,721 recovery projects for previous disasters. Sources at FEMA tell Fox News Digital the resources will be used for repairs to educational centers, restoration of critical infrastructure, debris removal and costs incurred during emergencies. The $2.2 billion will be distributed among 25 states, with the largest portion of the funding going to North Carolina Emergency Management for Hurricane Helene, which will provide temporary facilities and the mobilization of base camps. The total contribution to North Carolina surpasses $200 million. More than $114 million will be sent to the Kentucky Division of Emergency Management to remove debris caused by severe storms and flooding. The Office of Risk Management in Louisiana will receive over $84 million for costs to perform work on the West Belle Pass Barrier Headland Restoration project and more than $66 million for waterline replacement work in Grand Isle Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, as a result of the damages caused by Hurricane Ida.

The Hill [1/29/2026 3:13 PM, Max Rego, 18170K] reports Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) slammed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for delays in providing disaster recovery aid to his state while speaking on the Senate floor Thursday. “The data clearly shows that something is seriously wrong here,” Tillis said, pointing to a chart showing the federal government’s responses to hurricanes Helene, Matthew and Florence. “Under Secretary Noem’s lack of leadership, FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency] has invented an entirely new set of bureaucracies, the likes of which I’ve never seen. And I’m in a state that deals with a disaster almost every season.” In the fall of 2024, western North Carolina was devastated by Helene, with 108 verified storm-related deaths in the state, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services. As of earlier this month, FEMA, which is housed within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), said it has provided more than $1 billion in aid to the state. But The New York Times reported Tuesday that roughly $17 billion in disaster funding for states is subject to extra review by Noem, causing delays. The delay applies to funds that have already been approved by regional FEMA offices, the outlet noted.

FOX News [1/29/2026 3:44 PM, Amanda Macias, 37576K] reports the Trump administration will allow California wildfire survivors to bypass local permitting delays that have stalled rebuilding in Los Angeles for more than a year, allowing immediate access to $3.2 billion in Small Business Administration disaster relief funds. The new SBA guidance allows builders to self-certify compliance with state and local requirements after 60 days of permitting delays, enabling reconstruction to begin without final local approval. More than a year after a series of the most expensive and devastating wildfires tore through California, survivors are still stuck in limbo as red tape, rising costs and stalled aid slow recovery. California’s strict rebuilding regulations, combined with the scale of the devastation, help explain why rebuilding has barely begun. The Eaton and Palisades fires scorched a combined 37,728 acres, an area larger than California’s Disneyland, Knott’s Berry Farm and Universal Studios combined, destroying more than 16,200 buildings in their path. Construction has begun on fewer than 600 of the homes and businesses destroyed, leaving more than 96% still untouched. Loeffler said that less than 3,000 rebuild permits have been issued across Los Angeles, and fewer than 10 homes have been resurrected. California officials say the state is pursuing its own housing initiatives after the wildfires. Earlier this month, Newsom’s office announced $107.3 million in state housing funding for communities damaged by wildfires, supporting nine projects that will create 673 new affordable rental homes across Los Angeles County. The projects will not replace homes destroyed by fire.

DailySignal [1/29/2026 1:30 PM, Virginia Grace McKinnon, 549K] reports that marking one year since the devastating California Pacific Palisades fire, Congress is investigating the tragedy "thoroughly" as Gov. Gavin Newsom seeks $33 billion in federal funding to rebuild. "This was not a failure of effort by firefighters," Patrick Butler, California Fire Chief and Harbor Master testified, "It was a failure of leadership above them." The Palisades fire burned in California for nearly all of January 2025. The fire reportedly burned over 23,000 acers and 7,000 structures, leading to the death of 12 people. Butler is not alone in his frustrations. For months, California residence have called on the state government to do more to allow rebuilding efforts. Now, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, led by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., is looking into what has happened in the year after the fires. "We’ve gotten, according to staff, 34,000 pages of documents," Johnson said of the subcommittee’s efforts. "So we’ll start targeting our requests. And this is just to put everybody on notice." "We intend to investigate this thoroughly. We expect transparency, and if necessary, we will compel testimony, and compel document production," said Johnson. "When the fire broke out, the fire hydrants were dry. How in God’s green earth could that happen," asked Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla. Newsom has demanded that DHS and FEMA grant California $33.9 billion in disaster recovery. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CyberScoop [1/29/2026 4:30 PM, Tim Starks, 122K] reports the internet domain registration system is a major weakness that malicious hackers can exploit, but is often being overlooked, a senior Secret Service official said Thursday. “It is staggering to me that we live in a world where domain registrars and registrars will do bulk registration of various spellings of a major institution’s brand name to create URLs to then use in phishing campaigns or in fraudulent advertising,” the official, Matt Noyes, said at a conference in Washington, D.C. It was one of two areas Noyes identified as attack vectors that aren’t adequately being addressed during a panel at the 2026 Identity, Authentication and the Road Ahead Policy Forum, along with susceptibility to business email compromise scams. The problem is in how the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions, he said. A decade ago, the United States relinquished its control of that process.

CBS News [1/29/2026 12:19 PM, Staff, 39474K] reports that an Alabama man is in custody, accused of planning to sneak into the 2024 presidential debate in Atlanta and murder then-President Biden. Adam Benjamin Hall, 23, was arrested on Wednesday on a federal charge of interstate stalking. Additional charges are expected to come, officials say. According to prosecutors, Hall drove from Alabama to Atlanta on June 27, 2024, the day of the first debate between Mr. Biden and former President Trump. Prosecutors say Hall brought a firearm with him. Location data reportedly revealed that his phone was three blocks from the debate location less than half an hour before its scheduled start. Hall’s phone also allegedly contained a note that the Alabama man has termed his "manifesto," which officials say addressed Palestinian journalists and called for political upheaval. Our enemies are not in any other country but our own and Israel’s," an excerpt of the not released by authorities reads. "It’s time we overthrow these bastards and threaten to pull a f***ing D-Day on Tel Aviv." The note reportedly concludes with the phrase "Free Palestine" as well as an emoji of the Palestinian flag. "Our highest priority is protecting the President of the United States, and every potential threat is treated with the utmost seriousness," said Acting Special Agent in Charge Robert Donovan of the U.S. Secret Service’s Atlanta Field Office. "Our agents, working in close coordination with prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia, worked tirelessly to advance this investigation. Hall’s arrest is representative of the effectiveness of our combined efforts to safeguard our nation’s leadership."

AP [1/28/2026 7:57 PM, Staff, 16072K] reports a jury found a Wisconsin man guilty Thursday of forging threats against President Donald trump in an attempt to get the victim in a robbery case against him deported. Online court records show the Milwaukee County jury found 52-year-old Demetric Scott guilty of felony identity theft and witness intimidation after deliberating for most of the day. He represented himself during the three-day trial and was immediately taken into custody after the verdicts were read, leaving no way to reach him for comment on Thursday evening. According to court documents, Mexican immigrant Ramon Morales Reyes was riding his bike in Milwaukee in September 2023 when Scott approached him and kicked him off the bike. He stabbed Morales Reyes with a box cutter before stealing the bike and riding away. Scott was arrested hours later. While he was in jail, Scott wrote multiple letters posing as Morales Reyes to state and federal officials threatening to kill Trump at a rally. Federal immigration authorities took Morales Reyes into custody in May after he dropped his daughter off at school. U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem blasted his photo on social media, along with an excerpt of a letter he purportedly wrote in English promising to shoot Trump at a rally. The White House and Trump supporters played up his arrest as a major success in the administration’s crackdown on immigration. Investigators determined that Morales Reyes couldn’t have written the letters since he doesn’t speak English well, can’t write in the language and the handwriting in the letters didn’t match his. Meanwhile, Scott was making calls from jail in which he talked about letters that needed to be mailed and a plan to get U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities to pick someone up so his trial could get dismissed. He admitted to police that he wrote the letters.

FOX News [1/29/2026 1:00 PM, Staff, 3739K] reports that the Coast Guard Cutter Hawser, a 65-foot small harbor tug, got to work on Tuesday, successfully freeing an NYPD boat after it became stuck in the icy waters due to plummeting temperatures. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Reported similarly:
ABC News [1/29/2026 9:09 PM, Staff, 34146K]

CNN [1/29/2026 8:48 PM, Ellen Rittiner, 19874K] reports a Minnesota man was arrested and charged with impersonating an FBI agent after he tried to enter a federal jail and release suspected murderer Luigi Mangione, according to law enforcement sources. Kara Scannell reports. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Wall Street Journal [1/29/2026 3:42 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 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.”

Telemundo [1/29/2026 7:10 PM, Staff, 2524K] reports President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order that states that the United States will be able to impose tariffs on goods from countries that sell or provide oil to Cuba due to an alleged national emergency. The textotext of the order states that "the Cuban regime aligns with numerous hostile countries and evil actors, welcoming its military and intelligence capabilities. For example, Cuba is home to Russia’s largest overseas signal intelligence facility, dedicated to stealing sensitive information about U.S. national security.” "Cuba provides refuge to transnational terrorist groups, such as Hezbollah and Hamas, and supports adversaries in the Western Hemisphere, undermining U.S. sanctions and regional stability." The order states that "the regime pursues and tortures political opponents, denies freedom of expression and the press, benefits corruptly from the misery of the Cuban people and incites chaos by spreading communist ideology throughout the region." The Trump-signed document states that "these actions constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to U.S. national security and foreign policy, which requires an immediate response to protect American citizens and interests. Trump said he was declaring “a national emergency regarding that threat.”

Washington Post [1/29/2026 11:13 PM, Karen DeYoung, 24826K] reports President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order declaring Cuba an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to U.S. national security and said he would impose tariffs on all U.S. imports from any country that supplies the island nation with oil. Declaring a national emergency, Trump charged that Havana’s communist government “aligns itself — and provides support to numerous hostile countries, transnational terrorist groups and malign actors adverse to the United States,” including Russia, China and Iran, provides “defense, intelligence and security assistance to adversaries in the Western Hemisphere” and violates the human rights of its citizens. The order comes as the administration turns its attention to Cuba on the heels of a lightning military raid early this month that captured Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro. Subsequently, the Trump administration took control of Venezuela’s oil exports and blocked deliveries to Cuba, which has long relied on petroleum imports from its ideological ally in Caracas. Cuba “will be failing pretty soon,” Trump told reporters Tuesday during a visit to Iowa. “They got their oil from Venezuela. They’re not getting that anymore.” Mexico, which has also supplied oil to Cuba, canceled its latest scheduled delivery this month under U.S. pressure. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who is due to renegotiate a free-trade pact with the United States and Canada this year, said her government had made a “sovereign decision” to temporarily stop oil shipments to Cuba. The Cuban government did not immediately respond to Trump’s order, which was posted early Thursday evening on the White House website without announcement. In a social media post earlier in the day attempting to rally Latin American and Caribbean neighbors, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said that “the peace, security and stability of Our America are in danger” and denounced the administration for imposing “peace through force.” In a Wednesday news conference in Miami, Cuban American Rep. Carlos A. Gimenez (R-Florida) thanked Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio for pushing Cuba to the brink of deprivation. He said he had asked Trump to ban U.S.-Cuba remittances and flights to the island. Rubio, a Cuban American who was active in southern Florida politics and served 14 years as a senator from Florida before resigning to join the Trump administration, has long urged a tough line toward Havana. Asked in an appearance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday if he would rule out forcing “regime change” there, Rubio made no apologies. “I think we would like to see that regime change,” he said. “That doesn’t mean that we’re going to make a change,” he said, “but we would love to see a change. There’s no doubt about the fact that it would be of great benefit to the United States if Cuba was no longer governed by an autocratic regime.” Cuba produces little oil on its own and has long depended on Venezuelan supplies, for which it has exchanged security and medical personnel with Venezuela under Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chávez. Last year, imports averaged 37,000 barrels per day, the bulk of which came from Venezuela.

Telemundo [1/29/2026 6:35 PM, Staff, 162K] reports President Donald J. Trump declared a national emergency with respect to Cuba on Thursday, saying the Cuban government represents an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to U.S. national security and foreign policy. "I consider that the situation with respect to Cuba constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the U.S., and I hereby declare a national emergency with respect to that threat," the president argued in the executive order that the national emergency will take effect at 12:01 a.m. on January 30, 2026. The executive order signed on January 29, 2026, accuses the Cuban regime of taking measures that "harm and threaten" the United States, and of aligning itself with hostile countries and actors, including Russia, China and Iran, as well as transnational terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah. In addition, Cuba "pursues and tortures its political opponents, denies the Cuban people freedom of expression and the press, takes a chance of their misery and commits other human rights violations." According to the document, Cuba possesses foreign military and intelligence capabilities that, in Washington’s view, directly threaten the United States. As part of the announced measures, President Trump authorized the creation of a tariff system that would allow additional tariffs on products imported from countries that sell or supply oil to Cuba, either directly or indirectly.

Wall Street Journal [1/29/2026 9:00 PM, José de Córdoba, 646K] reports Mexican exports of oil to Cuba have slowed to a trickle as President Trump amps up the pressure on President Claudia Sheinbaum’s leftist government to stop its support for the island’s Communist regime. Trump on Thursday issued an executive order declaring a national emergency that he said allowed him to impose new tariffs on any country that exports oil to Cuba. Mexico is one of a handful of nations that have in the past provided Cuba with oil over the years, a longstanding gesture of solidarity with the Caribbean island. Before Trump’s order, Mexico paused oil shipments to Cuba after private discussions with the U.S. Havana’s other energy benefactor, Venezuela, stopped sending crude to Cuba after the Jan. 3 U.S. raid that captured autocrat Nicolás Maduro. Cuba lacks funds to buy much-needed fuel on world markets. Without oil from Mexico and Venezuela, Cuba is in danger of running out of fuel to power electricity, tractors and transport for its fewer than 10 million people, as the Caribbean nation hurtles toward economic collapse. Power outages are already a daily occurrence, with only a few hours of electricity a day for most people. “In the next four or eight weeks, it could be lights out,” said Jorge Piñón, an expert on Cuban energy at the University of Texas. Data shows that Mexican oil shipments have plummeted over the past few months and fallen to a trickle in January as Trump has publicly threatened to conduct land strikes against Mexican drug gangs, a move that set off alarms among senior Mexican officials. Mexico’s last shipment, 85,000 barrels on the tanker Ocean Mariner, was unloaded in Cuba on Jan 9. No other tankers have since left Mexico for Cuba, said Piñón. Cuba produces only about 40,000 of the 100,000 barrels of oil it needs daily. Since Maduro’s capture, about 35,000 barrels a day of Venezuelan shipments have been halted. Mexico last year sent an estimated 20,000 barrels a day to Cuba, Piñon said, but that has fallen to about 3,000 barrels a day this year. With shipments essentially ended from Venezuela and dwindling from Mexico, it isn’t clear what practical effect Trump’s executive order will have. In recent years, Russia and Algeria have exported oil to Cuba, but infrequently. There is little public information about how much oil Cuba has in storage.

Washington Examiner [1/29/2026 10:08 AM, Brady Knox, 1394K] reports Gov. Jeff Landry (R-LA), U.S. special envoy to Greenland, divulged some new details on Thursday about the deal that brought the United States and Europe from the brink of hostilities. After a week of European fears that the trans-Atlantic alliance could permanently split, President Donald Trump backed down from his demands to annex Greenland, instead touting a new deal. The exact details of the deal still haven’t been divulged, in Landry’s op-ed for the New York Times and elsewhere. However, the special envoy did give a general outline and explain how it would benefit the U.S. "I cannot divulge the details, as they are being worked out, but the framework builds on the 1941 and 1951 defense agreements between the United States and Denmark and would enhance American, NATO and Greenlandic security and reaffirm longstanding trans-Atlantic defense obligations," he wrote. The new deal would expand the U.S.’s "operational freedom, support new bases and infrastructure, facilitate deployment of advanced missile-defense systems like the Golden Dome and crowd out hostile Chinese and Russian influence," he added. "These measures are not provocative — they are preventive," Landry stressed, cognizant of the controversy surrounding the island. In Landry’s telling, the core purpose of the deal is to signal that it will no longer outsource key national security needs to other parties.

Reuters [1/30/2026 2:49 AM, Cara Angeline Oliver, 38315K] reports the United States on Thursday (January 29) officially broke ground on a major expansion of the Manda Bay military airstrip, deepening its security ties with Kenya in a strategically vital region.

New York Times [1/29/2026 8:24 PM, Tyler Pager, Julian E. Barnes, Eric Schmitt, David E. Sanger and Helene Cooper, 148038K] reports President Trump has been presented in recent days with an expanded list of potential military options against Iran aimed at doing further damage to the country’s nuclear and missile facilities or weakening Iran’s supreme leader, according to multiple U.S. officials. The options go beyond the proposals that Mr. Trump was considering two weeks ago as a means of following through on his promise to stop the killing of protesters by Iranian government security forces and affiliated militias, the officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss potential military plans. The current set of options even includes the potential for American forces to carry out raids on sites inside Iran, and it comes in a different context, now that the protests have been brutally quashed, at least for the time being. Mr. Trump has been demanding that Iran take further steps to end its push to build a nuclear weapon and halt its support for proxies that have long targeted Israel and destabilized the Middle East. He and his top aides are weighing whether to make good on his threats of military action to achieve those goals and possibly bring about a change in government. Mr. Trump has not yet authorized military action or chosen among the options presented by the Pentagon, officials said. The president remains open to finding a diplomatic solution and some officials acknowledged that telegraphing the threats of military action was intended to drive the Iranians into a negotiation. In recent days, he has mulled over whether regime change would be a viable option. “As the commander in chief of the world’s most powerful military, President Trump has many options at his disposal with regard to Iran,” Anna Kelly, a White House spokeswoman, said in a statement. “The president has stated he hopes that no action will be necessary, but the Iranian regime should make a deal before it is too late.” Amid the protests that swept Iran weeks ago, the Trump administration weighed strikes against Iran’s nuclear program as well as hitting more symbolic targets, like the headquarters of the militia responsible for much of the crackdown on protests. Mr. Trump then abruptly ruled out military action at that point after Iranian authorities said they canceled hundreds of scheduled executions, and Israel and Arab nations asked the president to postpone any strikes. Mr. Trump, officials say, is taking a similar approach to Iran as he did to Venezuela, where the United States amassed forces just off its coast for months as part of a pressure campaign to oust Nicolás Maduro, the country’s leader. Efforts to convince Mr. Maduro to leave Venezuela failed in that case, leading U.S. forces to attack the country and capture him. He and his wife are now being held for trial in a federal detention center in Brooklyn. With Iran, officials remain skeptical that Tehran would accept the conditions the United States has outlined. They include a permanent end to all enrichment of uranium and giving up all of its current nuclear stockpiles, starting with the more than 960 pounds of uranium that has been enriched to near-bomb-grade levels. Most of that material, however, remains buried under the rubble created by the strikes in June.

FOX News [1/29/2026 1:08 PM, Ashley J. DiMella, 40621K] reports that the U.S. State Department has updated its travel advisory for Pakistan, keeping the country at a Level 3: Reconsider Travel status, but with an additional warning for tourists. Officials added an "unrest" indicator due to possible "armed conflict" — also adding a crime risk indicator as well. There are three areas of the country that have a Level 4: Do Not Travel advisory, to which a "kidnapping" advisory was added. In 2023, there were about 3.95 million inbound arrivals, according to government data. Officials lowered the area between the Pakistan-India border from a Level 4 status to a Level 3. Terrorism is listed in the advisory, with a warning that violent extremist groups have carried out attacks in Pakistan. "Terrorist attacks typically happen in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, including the former FATA, but they have also occurred in major cities such as Karachi and Islamabad," the advisory says. Balochistan in the southwest is Pakistan’s largest province by land area; it borders Afghanistan, Iran and the Arabian Sea. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is located in the northwest. The advisory levels are: Level 1 – Exercise Normal Precautions; Level 2 – Exercise Increased Caution; Level 3 – Reconsider Travel; and Level 4 – Do Not Travel.

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