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

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

The New York Times [1/8/2026 3:59 AM, Anna Griffin, Hamed Aleaziz and Thomas Fuller, 135475K] reports federal agents shot two people in Portland on Thursday during a traffic stop, a day after the fatal shooting of a woman in Minneapolis stoked outrage over the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. A Homeland Security Department spokeswoman said in a statement that U.S. Border Patrol agents were conducting a “targeted vehicle stop,” and that an agent fired a shot after the driver tried to run them over. The spokeswoman, Tricia McLaughlin, described the agents’ target as an undocumented immigrant and member of Tren de Aragua, a gang with roots in a Venezuelan prison that has been a frequent target of President Trump. She provided no immediate evidence that the person who was targeted was affiliated with the gang. Bob Day, Portland’s police chief, said at an evening news conference that he had no information on the identity of the two people who were shot, a man and a woman. He said that the federal officials involved in the shooting were no longer on the scene when local officers arrived. The police were alerted to the shooting when the injured man called 911, Chief Day said. The chief’s comments appeared to underscore the limited cooperation between federal and local officials. Chief Day said local officials knew little about the shooting and that the investigation would be led by the F.B.I. “We do not know if this is an immigration-related event,” he said. “We do not know which federal agencies were involved.” Gov. Tina Kotek of Oregon called for a full and transparent federal investigation. “Trust is essential to maintain community safety and uphold the law,” she said. “Federal agents at the direction of the Department of Homeland Security are shattering trust. They are destroying day by day what we hold dear.” The shooting occurred around 2:15 p.m. Pacific near Adventist Health Portland, a hospital and collection of health clinics in the Hazelwood neighborhood, about eight miles from the city center, officials said. The driver of the vehicle that federal officials fired into drove off after the shooting, local officials said, and the victims were found by the police more than two miles away, with gunshot wounds. Emergency medical technicians who rushed the victims to hospitals described both as Spanish speakers in conversations captured by emergency radio broadcasts. The woman had a gunshot wound to the chest, an E.M.T. told a dispatcher. The man was described as having two gunshot wounds. Elana Pirtle-Guiney, Portland’s City Council president, said during a council meeting Thursday afternoon that she believed the two people who had been shot were still alive, though local officials later said they did not know their condition. Teddy Jay, 20, a resident of the Bria apartment complex in Hazelwood, said he believed the two people who were shot lived in the complex but that he did not know their names. He said he saw them arrive by truck earlier in the afternoon. “Basically, I was sitting in the house. I heard complete chaos. A whole lot of police sirens,” he said. Mr. Jay said there was a bloody footprint on the sidewalk outside his building. He said he later saw an official providing medical aid and loading the two people into an ambulance. Residents said the neighborhood has a high crime rate. A former resident at the complex, Debbie Rembert, 60, said the area “was so horrible — the shootings and the robberies and the drugs.” CBS News [1/9/2026 4:39 AM, Jordan Freiman, Faris Tanyos, 39474K] reports DHS said Border Patrol agents stopped a car searching for a Venezuelan they claim is in the country illegally and a member of the Tren de Aragua gang. DHS said after the agents identified themselves, the driver "weaponized his vehicle and attempted to run over the law enforcement agents." "Fearing for his life and safety, an agent fired a defensive shot," DHS said. The department said the man drove off with his passenger. The shooting occurred at around 2:18 p.m. local time in the Hazelwood neighborhood in East Portland. Portland police officers responded to a 911 call and "confirmed federal agents were involved in a shooting," Day said. About six minutes later, Day explained, officers responded to a separate location about three miles away on a 911 call, where they found a man and woman with gunshot wounds. "Officers determined that the two people who were injured in the shooting involving the federal agents in the earlier call," Day said. The two victims were then rushed to a hospital. "There were federal officers both at the original scene, and federal officers met us out at the scene farther away," Day said. Day said that local authorities had not confirmed which federal agency was involved in the shooting, and said he could not comment on the statement from DHS. He also said he did not know how many federal officers were involved in the shooting. "We at this time do not know if this is an immigration-related event. We do not know which federal agencies involved," Day said. Day added that "it’s early on, we do not know the cause." The police chief told reporters the FBI was investigating the shooting. "This is a federal investigation being led by the FBI," Day said, noting that Portland police were providing "investigative support and perimeter support" that was "minimal." Later, Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield announced on social media that his office is "opening a formal investigation into the shooting. "Our office will take every step necessary to ensure the rights and security of Oregonians are protected," he said, adding that the investigation "will look into whether any federal officer acted outside the scope of their lawful authority and will include witness interviews, video evidence, and other relevant materials." Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek said during the news conference that, "We are all shaken and outraged by another terrible, unnecessary violent event instigated by a reckless agenda of the Trump administration." She said her "message to the federal government" was that "we demand transparency, we demand cooperation with Portland police and the Multnomah County DA." Kotek said she has not spoken to any White House officials about the incident. [Editorial note: consult video at source link] Politico [1/8/2026 8:24 PM, Aaron Pellish and Natalie Fertig, 2100K] reports that the mayor, at a Thursday evening press conference, called on the federal government to stop immigration enforcement actions in Portland until the circumstances of the shooting are clarified. Portland police chief Bob Day said he’s spoken to FBI officials about the investigation but Gov. Tina Kotek told reporters she’s hadn’t had any discussions with the federal government about the incident. She has been in contact with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who earlier demanded that state authorities be allowed to take part in the investigation into the killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis by the ICE agent.

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CNN [1/9/2026 2:39 AM, Lex Harvey, 18595K] reports Oregon officials are opening an investigation into a shooting by federal agents in Portland that left a married couple wounded and sparked renewed outrage in the city over the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown there and across the US. The shooting inflamed tensions a day after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot a woman in Minneapolis, prompting protests and condemnation from state and city officials there. Following Wednesday’s killing, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey told agents to "get the fuck out" of the city. Oregon state Sen. Kayse Jama took a similar tone during a news conference after the Portland shooting, telling ICE agents to "get the hell out of our community.” The Portland shooting unfolded Thursday afternoon as US Border Patrol agents were conducting a "targeted vehicle stop" and one of the agents "fired defensive shots" after the driver tried to run the agents over, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. "The driver drove off with the passenger, fleeing the scene," she added. No agents were injured in the shooting, a federal law enforcement source told CNN. McLaughlin said the driver and passenger are believed to be linked to Tren de Aragua, the notorious Venezuelan gang President Donald Trump has long targeted amid accusations of drug trafficking, murder and other violence, though she did not provide evidence. Portland Police Chief Bob Day said local officers weren’t involved in the incident, but responded to reports of a shooting involving federal agents just after 2:15 p.m. Thursday. Minutes later, police received a call from a different location from a man who said he’d been shot by federal officers and was requesting help, according to Day and dispatch audio. When officers arrived, they found a man and a woman with gunshot wounds and emergency responders transported them to a hospital, Day said. The conditions of the patients weren’t known Thursday night, he added. The chief said his department didn’t know if the vehicle involved in the shooting had been weaponized against the agents. The two people who were shot are married, a senior law enforcement told CNN. Portland Mayor Keith Wilson linked Thursday’s shooting to the killing of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis, the circumstances of which has been disputed by federal and local officials. Wilson said he had spoken to the Minneapolis mayor earlier in the day to offer condolences and called Good’s death "entirely preventable" in a statement Thursday morning. Hours after the mayors spoke, Wilson was similarly casting doubt on the Trump administration’s characterization of what took place in Portland. "We know what the federal government says happened here. There was a time when we could take them at their word. That time has long passed," he said.

NewsMax [1/8/2026 12:20 PM, James Morley III, 4109K] reports that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced Thursday that federal authorities have arrested 54 alleged members of the Trinitarios gang in New York City as part of "Operation Salvo," a coordinated crackdown targeting one of the region’s most violent criminal organizations. Speaking at a press conference, Noem said the gang with Dominican origins was responsible for a string of violent crimes, including the brutal shooting of an off-duty U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer in July. Noem said the officer, who wishes to remain anonymous, had "his life forever altered by this heinous crime," after he was shot in the face while sitting in a park with a friend. She described the operation as a direct response to that attack and a warning to gangs targeting law enforcement and American communities. "But those individuals would have never been in this country if they hadn’t been allowed in by the Biden administration when they ignored our federal laws," Noem noted. According to Noem, "Operation Salvo" involved multiple federal and local agencies and focused on dismantling the Trinitarios’ leadership and street-level operations. Noem said the takedown reflects a broader effort by the Department of Homeland Security to aggressively pursue transnational gangs and hold them accountable. "This operation sends a clear message," Noem said. "If you attack our officers or terrorize our neighborhoods, we will find you, arrest you, and put you behind bars." The Daily Wire [1/8/2026 8:03 AM, Jennie Taer, 2494K] reports that "During our investigation, we learned that these scumbags were affiliated with the transnational criminal organization, the notorious Trinitarios gang in New York. We began to target every single last person that is affiliated with them and recognized that they needed to be brought to justice," Noem said. "These arrests and these removals represent a significant blow to the criminal network that has been terrorizing communities right here in New York City and throughout the United States," she added. Among the gangbangers were individuals accused of weapons trafficking, human smuggling, narcotics distribution, and armed robberies, Noem said. More than 60% of them have already been deported. Authorities discovered that the illegal migrant men responsible for shooting an off-duty Customs and Border Protection officer in New York City in July were part of a notorious criminal gang, and immediately took to the streets to disrupt the criminal organization’s activities in what’s been dubbed "Operation Salvo." CBS New York [1/8/2026 1:41 PM, Jessica Moore, 39474K] reports Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was in New York City on Thursday, a day after a U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement agent shot and killed 37-year-old mother of three Renee Good in Minneapolis. Noem’s visit to the city was planned before the incident in Minneapolis, but what happened there raised the stakes for her message. She focused her remarks on ICE enforcement in New York City. Noem was flanked by photos of accused criminals arrested by immigration agents, and touted previous ICE enforcement in New York City as a huge success. She lauded Operation Salvo, which she said targeted members of the Trinitarios gang, saying it has led to 54 arrests. That includes the men accused of attacking a Customs and Border Patrol officer in Manhattan six months ago. "Those arrested are violent transnational gang members and affiliates associated with Trinitarios, who are responsible for weapons trafficking, for human smuggling, for narcotics distribution, and for armed robberies," Noem said. "Over 60% of them have been returned back to their home countries to face justice for their crimes there as well. These arrests and these removals represent a significant blow to the criminal network that has been terrorizing communities.” Noem blasted sanctuary city policies which she said allowed the alleged gang members to live in New York City undetected. "Sanctuary policies, whether they’re here in New York City, or California, or Illinois, or Minneapolis, if you are a criminal illegal alien, we are coming to get you. We’ll arrest you. We will bring justice, and we will also bring safety, to the American people," Noem said.

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New York Post [1/8/2026 3:43 PM, Kevin Sheehan an Jorge Fitz-Gibbon, 42219K] r

NewsNation [1/8/2026 12:43 PM, Erin Pflaumer, 8017K] reports that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem came to New York City on Thursday to discuss ICE operations. Her visit came after an ICE agent shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Good during immigration raids in Minneapolis. Noem defended the officer’s actions on Wednesday, saying that Good "attempted to run them over and rammed them with her vehicle. An officer of ours acted quickly and defensively, shot, to protect himself and the people around him." Lawmakers and witnesses criticized Noem’s response, with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey saying, "What they are doing is not to provide safety in America. What they are doing is causing chaos and distrust. They’re ripping families apart. They’re sowing chaos on our streets, and in this case, quite literally killing people.” Two protests were held near 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan – which is where ICE is headquartered – on Thursday during Noem’s visit. "They have threatened and terrorized our communities, separated families, and killed our people," the group wrote. "New Yorkers will take the streets to make it heard loud and clear: we won’t stand for ICE to invade our cities and murder our people. ICE OUT OF NEW YORK, ICE OUT OF EVERYWHERE!"

FOX News [1/8/2026 2:57 PM, Staff, 40621K] Video: HERE reports Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announces results of Operation Salvo, launched in New York City.

CBS New York [1/8/2026 7:27 PM, Staff, 39474K] Video: HERE reports Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced dozens of arrests in New York City while criticizing local leaders and policies Thursday. CBS News New York’s Ali Bauman reports.

Breitbart [1/8/2026 1:05 PM, AWR Hawkins, 2416K] reports Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem held a press conference Thursday morning and warned that anyone who "lays a finger on one of our officers" will be caught and prosecuted. The press conference was held to announce success in pursuing criminal elements in New York, but the comments broadened to include and foreshadow the work of DHS agents across the country. Forbes posted Noem’s presser, in which she touted the work of DHS officers and agents around the country and said, "If you are a criminal illegal alien we are coming to get you, we will arrest you, we will bring justice and we will also bring safety to the American people.” She noted, "We are warning anyone, if you think you can harm an individual–a citizen of the United States or a law enforcement officer–we will find you and bring you justice.” "If you lay a finger on one of our officers we will catch you, we will prosecute you, and you will feel the full extent of the law," she added. Noem’s comments came one day after leftists across the country whipped up opposition to law enforcement personnel after an ICE agent shot and killed a woman who allegedly drove her car into him in Minneapolis.

FOX News [1/8/2026 2:04 PM, Rachel Wolf and Bryan Llenas, 40621K] reports that talks involving New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the NYPD and the Department of Homeland Security are reportedly not going well. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told reporters Thursday that while Mamdani and President Donald Trump had a "productive conversation," the same could not be said for the mayor’s interactions with the Department of Homeland Security. "We’re hoping the mayor will work with us to get these criminal elements, and especially gang members and terrorist organizations, out of New York City," Noem said during a news conference Thursday. "I know he and the president had a productive conversation. "You know, our communication at the Department of Homeland Security has not been productive with the mayor’s office or with the NYPD, but we want to continue those conversations so we can work together on success." Following a fatal ICE-involved shooting in Minneapolis, Mamdani accused the officer of committing murder, while the administration has said the officer acted in self-defense. While the shooting took place multiple states away, it sparked anti-ICE protests in New York City. "This morning, an ICE agent murdered a woman in Minneapolis — only the latest horror in a year full of cruelty," Mamdani wrote from his official mayoral X account. "As ICE attacks our neighbors across America, it is an attack on us all. New York stands with immigrants today, and every day that follows." Fox News’ Bryan Llenas asked Noem about Mamdani’s comments and remarks made by New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who said the Trump administration was doing "the devil’s work," and statements made by other Democrats after the shooting of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [1/8/2026 3:00 PM, Greg Norman-Diamond, 40621K] reports that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Thursday that "we are on offense," adding the Trump administration "is using every single tool that we have to protect the American people.” Noem made the remark in New York City after hailing the results of Operation Salvo, which was launched in the wake of an attack on an off-duty U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent there in July. Noem said an investigation into that incident revealed that the "scumbags" behind it are linked to the "notorious" Trinitarios criminal gang in New York and were "protected up until that point by sanctuary city policies." "Operation Salvo is just the beginning of a broader and a much more sustained effort to go after not only transnational criminal organizations and networks, but also illegal criminal aliens throughout the country," Noem declared. "We are on offense. The Trump administration is using every single tool that we have to protect the American people. Sanctuary policies, whether they’re here in New York City, whether they’re in California, Illinois or Minneapolis, if you are a criminal illegal alien, we are coming to get you," she added. "We will arrest you, we will bring justice, and we will also bring safety to the American people. We are warning anyone if you think you can harm an individual, a citizen of the United States, or a law enforcement officer, we will find you and bring you to justice. "If you lay a finger on one of our officers, we will catch you, we will prosecute you, and you will feel the full extent of the law. In every single thing the Trump administration does, we put the American people first." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CBS New York [1/8/2026 12:11 PM, Staff, 39474K] Video: HERE reports Protesters marched from Foley Square to 1 World Trade Center, where Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem is held a news conference to discuss "Operation Salvo." CBS News New York’s Doug Williams, Jessica Moore and Ash-har Quraishi have team coverage.

FOX News [1/8/2026 10:55 AM, Charles Creitz, 40621K] reports Department of Homeland Security officials said agents were out tracking down and arresting hundreds of criminal illegal immigrants, including domestic abusers, drug proliferators and robbers over the holidays. ICE and the U.S. Border Patrol have routinely conducted geographically targeted raids, beginning earlier this year in Los Angeles and Chicago; as the latest roundup focused on Ohio and California, officials told Fox News Digital. Emanuel Guijosa-Nonato, a Mexican national with a criminal record who illegally entered the U.S. multiple times, was nabbed following convictions for aggravated assault against a police officer, disorderly conduct, driving under the influence, and illegal re-entry. Guijosa-Nonato was one of at least 280 criminal illegals who were captured during the Ohio piece of the law enforcement surge, dubbed "Operation Buckeye.” Another illegal immigrant arrested in Buckeye was Andres Blanco-Hernandez, who was wanted on assault and domestic violence charges. "Operation Buckeye resulted in the arrest of more than 280 criminal illegal aliens convicted of assaulting a police officer, criminal firearm possession, and drug trafficking," Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said. During the operation, agents also captured Wilmar Edgardo Lozano-Alcantara, a criminal illegal immigrant from El Salvador convicted of drug possession, robbery, and trespassing.

Breitbart [1/8/2026 6:30 PM, Jasmyn Jordan, 2416K] reports Vice President JD Vance unveiled the creation of a new Assistant Attorney General position within the Department of Justice to lead a national effort against fraud affecting federal programs, starting in Minnesota and extending to other states where similar fraud is suspected. During a White House press briefing, Vice President JD Vance announced: We are creating a new assistant attorney general position who will have nationwide jurisdiction over the issue of fraud. That person’s efforts will start and focus primarily in Minnesota, but it is going to be a nationwide effort, because, unfortunately, the American people have been defrauded in a very nationwide way. According to a White House fact sheet, the DOJ’s new division for national fraud enforcement will enforce federal criminal and civil laws against fraud targeting federal government programs, federally funded benefits, businesses, nonprofits, and private citizens. The new Assistant Attorney General will lead investigations and prosecutions, oversee interagency fraud initiatives, and advise top DOJ officials on policy reforms to address systemic abuse. The administration has already mobilized extensive federal resources in response to widespread fraud, particularly in Minnesota. The DOJ has charged 98 defendants in fraud-related cases in the state, 85 of whom are of Somali descent, and secured 64 convictions. More than 1,750 subpoenas have been issued, over 130 search warrants executed, and 1,000 witness interviews conducted. Federal agencies including the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Department of Agriculture, and the Small Business Administration (SBA) are contributing to the coordinated effort. DHS has deployed roughly 2,000 agents to Minnesota and arrested over 1,000 criminal illegal aliens in recent weeks. As part of Operation Twin Shield, DHS identified over 1,300 instances of fraud in Minneapolis and Saint Paul. HHS has frozen payments to 14 Medicaid programs in the state and launched investigations into Head Start and childcare services. The SBA has suspended 6,900 borrowers in Minnesota and halted all grant payments to the state.

Bloomberg [1/8/2026 2:11 PM, Staff, 18207K] reports the investigation into the killing of a US citizen by an ICE agent in Minneapolis this week is being complicated by clashes between federal and local officials, with the FBI taking control over the objections of Governor Tim Walz. State authorities questioned whether a federal probe could be trusted, especially given comments by Trump administration officials that seemed to exonerate the officer. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said that after it was invited to participate in the probe of Wednesday’s shooting, federal officials later decided the state wouldn’t get access to evidence or interviews. “Now that Minnesota has been taken out of the investigation, it feels very, very difficult that we will get a fair outcome,” Walz said at a press conference Thursday. As tense protests continued for a second day, Walz said he ordered the state National Guard to be “staged and ready” to assist with protecting infrastructure and aiding local law enforcement if needed. It’s unusual for federal law enforcement officials to take sole control of an investigation in which both state and federal laws may have been violated. Federal agents typically conduct joint probes with state and local law enforcement and cooperate in the sharing of evidence, as was initially the case in the Minneapolis shooting before the FBI changed course. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told reporters in New York that Minnesota doesn’t have jurisdiction over the investigation. She portrayed Renee Nicole Good, the 37-year-old US citizen who was killed by an ICE agent on Wednesday, as a domestic terrorist — and said the officer who shot her was acting in line with established protocols. “This is an experienced officer who followed his training, and we will continue to let the investigation unfold,” Noem said. “These individuals had followed our officers all day, had harassed them, had blocked them in. They were impeding our law-enforcement operations, which is against the law.” She said the agent who shot Good was treated at a hospital and released, and was now spending time with his family. The Minnesota Star Tribune identified him as Jonathan Ross. Court records show that the same agent was previously injured during an arrest in June in which he was dragged by a vehicle for 100 yards. On Thursday, Vice President JD Vance defended the decision to cut out Minnesota officials from the investigation.

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Breitbart [1/8/2026 7:13 PM, Nick Gilbertson, 2416K]
Breitbart [1/8/2026 12:18 PM, Staff, 2416K]
ABC News [1/8/2026 2:52 PM, Staff, 30493K] Video: HERE
Daily Caller [1/8/2026 3:29 PM, Nicole Silverio, 835K]

NewsMax [1/8/2026 2:49 PM, Staff, 4109K] reports that Vice President JD Vance, while defending an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer’s shooting of a Minneapolis woman as an act of self-defense, vowed that the White House will not tolerate political violence of any kind. He also promised that the White House will fight domestic terrorism while intensifying efforts to identify financing and organizing networks it believes are behind the growing actions against federal immigration officers. "These people should not feel emboldened because they have, for the first time, maybe in American history, an administration that is not going to tolerate political violence of any kind from anywhere," Vance told reporters at the press conference, shown live on Newsmax. Vance spoke as federal authorities investigate the shooting of Renee Nicole Good during an immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis. He repeatedly said the officer acted in self-defense and rejected claims that the shooting amounted to murder. "She was trying to ram this guy with her car. He shot back. He defended himself," Vance said. Vance sharply criticized media coverage of the incident, saying it endangered officers and distorted what occurred. "The way that the media, by and large, has reported this story has been an absolute disgrace," he said. "And it puts our law enforcement officers at risk every single day.” "And I say attack very, very intentionally because this was an attack on federal law enforcement. This was an attack on law and order. This was an attack on the American people," he said.

AP [1/8/2026 6:20 PM, Michelle L. Price, 31753K] reports Vice President JD Vance on Thursday blamed a federal immigration officer’s fatal shooting of a Minneapolis woman on "a left-wing network," Democrats, the news media and the woman who was killed as protests related to her death expanded to cities across the country. The vice president, who made his critiques in a rare appearance in the White House briefing room and on social media, was the most prominent example yet of the Trump administration quickly assigning culpability for the death of 37-year-old Renee Good while the investigation is still underway. Good was shot and killed by an ICE officer while she tried to drive away on a snowy residential street as officers were carrying out an operation related to the administration’s immigration crackdown. Vance said at the White House that he wasn’t worried about prejudging the investigation into Good’s killing, saying of the videos he’d seen of the Wednesday incident, "What you see is what you get in this case." Vance said he was certain that Good accelerated her car into the officer and hit him. It isn’t clear from the videos if the vehicle makes contact with the officer. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said Wednesday that video of the shooting shows arguments that the officer was acting in self-defense were "garbage." His defense of the officer, at times fiery, came as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and President Donald Trump likewise said the officer’s actions were a justified act of self-defense. Trump said Good "viciously ran over" the ICE officer, though video footage of the event contradicts that claim.

Washington Examiner [1/8/2026 4:07 PM, Christian Datoc, 1394K] reports Vice President JD Vance vociferously defended the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who shot and killed Renee Good in Minnesota on Wednesday, stating that federal agents are protected by "absolute immunity" when carrying out law enforcement operations. The vice president joined White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt for an impromptu briefing, where he shamed the media for accusing the officer of "murder." Vance told reporters that the officer in question had, six months prior, "nearly had his life ended" after being hit and dragged by a car while attempting to arrest an illegal immigrant in the state, requiring him to receive 33 stitches in his leg. The vice president did face a number of questions about how many videos of the incident do not back up the administration’s claim that Good sought to ram the agent with her car before being killed, a disconnect which the vice president did recognize. Vance reiterated that both the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security are investigating the incident, but would not say whether the officer has been placed on leave while the inquiry proceeds. As for reports that Minnesota officials have been blocked from taking part in the investigation, the vice president countered that "a federal law enforcement official engaging in a federal law enforcement action" has "absolute immunity.

The Hill [1/8/2026 10:30 AM, Sarah Davis, 12595K] reports Vice President Vance condemned public scrutiny as “gaslighting” after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis on Wednesday. The shooting, which was captured from multiple angles on video and shared across social media, has elicited mixed reactions, with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) maintaining that the officer was acting in self-defense. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) and other Democrats, however, have called that explanation “propaganda.” Vance defended the ICE officer in a post on the social platform X early Thursday, in response to a user who described herself as a former defense attorney. “This is preposterous,” he wrote, outlining several issues he had with the user’s analysis. “This guy was doing his job,” the vice president continued later. “She tried to stop him from doing his job. When he approached her car, she tried to hit him.” “A tragedy? Absolutely,” Vance added. “But a tragedy that falls on this woman and all of the radicals who teach people that immigration is the one type of law that rioters are allowed to interfere with.” His comments echo assertions President Trump and other administration officials have made in the aftermath of the shooting. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, at a press conference Wednesday, said the victim, 37-year-old Renee Nicole Macklin Good, was attempting to use her car as a weapon against the ICE official. The explanation prompted a fiery response from Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D), who called the claims “bulls‑‑‑” and argued the woman’s death was the result of “an agent recklessly using power.” Frey added that ICE needed to “get the f‑‑‑ out of our city.” Some Democrats are also now calling for the immigration officer involved in the shooting to face legal action, and Walz has the Minnesota National Guard on standby as protests arise.

USA Today [1/8/2026 5:56 PM, Trevor Hughes, 67103K] reports federal officials say Americans can expect to see even more muscular immigration enforcement in the coming months, with over 10,000 new ICE agents hitting the streets, armed with personal data harvested by private contractors. Speaking on a Jan. 7 FOX NEWS broadcast, Vice President JD Vance said ICE would be going "door to door" in the coming months as agents carry out President Donald Trump’s plans for the largest mass deportation in history. Federal officials say they’ve now got about 22,000 agents and investigators, up from 10,000 a year ago. Without providing specific details, White House officials say 2.5 million people living illegally in the United States have already been deported or left under pressure, and promise far more will be leaving one way or another. Vance’s comments were broadcast hours after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis shot and killed a woman inside her car during a chaotic confrontation. Vance said the more aggressive enforcement that began in 2025 will ramp up this year.

DailySignal [1/8/2026 10:45 AM, Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell, 549K] reports Vice President JD Vance said Democrats want to jail law-abiding law enforcement officers, after many Democrats expressed outrage over an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shooting and killing a protester in her vehicle on Wednesday. "Every congressional democrat and every democrat who’s running for president should be asked a simple question: Do you think this officer was wrong in defending his life against a deranged leftist who tried to run him over?" Vance wrote on X on Thursday. "These people are going to try to arrest our law enforcement for doing their jobs. The least the media could do is ask them about it.” Thousands of people gathered in Minneapolis on Wednesday to protest the shooting of Renee Nicole Good, 37, by an ICE agent, Reuters reported. Videos of the incident posted online show Good was in her vehicle and partially blocking street traffic when she was approached by several agents. According to the Department of Homeland Security, the woman moved to run over the agents with her car "in an attempt to kill them," and an officer fired shots in self-defense at the vehicle, killing Good.

FOX News [1/8/2026 2:26 PM, Staff, 40621K] reports that Fox News senior White House correspondent Peter Doocy asks Vice President JD Vance about the ICE-related shooting in Minnesota during a press briefing. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [1/8/2026 2:49 PM, Diana Stancy, 40621K] reports that Vice President JD Vance unleashed on Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz Thursday, calling him "a joke." Vance made his comments after Walz reminisced about Minnesota’s contribution to the Union during the Civil War after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, 37. Walz, who announced Monday he wouldn’t run for re-election, already has faced increased scrutiny in recent weeks as Minnesota faces investigations into multiple alleged fraud schemes plaguing the state’s social services system. "Look, Tim Walz is a joke. His entire administration has been a joke," Vance told reporters Thursday. "The idea that he’s some sort of freedom fighter, he’s not. He’s the guy who has enabled fraud and maybe, in fact, has participated in fraud. "I don’t care what Tim Walz says," Vance said. "I care about getting to the bottom of this fraud for the American people." Walz’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. On Wednesday, Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said Good "weaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them." Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Good "hit" the ICE agent involved with a vehicle and described the incident as an act of "domestic terrorism.” However, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey later challenged the administration’s description of events and claimed the shooting wasn’t an act of self-defense like the administration was trying to "spin" it. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

New York Times [1/8/2026 4:22 PM, Luis Ferré-Sadurní and Ana Ley, 135475K] reports a day after a federal immigration officer shot and killed a woman in Minnesota, Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, defended the officer’s actions, traveling to New York City on Thursday to vow that President Trump’s immigration crackdown would continue unabated. On her first trip to the city since Zohran Mamdani took office as mayor last week, Ms. Noem, who oversees the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, accused Mr. Mamdani and city officials of protecting “violent transnational gang members” at the expense of New Yorkers. Ms. Noem railed against the city’s so-called sanctuary laws, which limit most cooperation between ICE and city agencies, but stopped short of calling for an escalation of ICE activity in New York City, a possibility local leaders have been preparing for. The purpose of her visit was to announce the arrest of 54 people accused of being affiliated with a Dominican street gang, after an investigation into the shooting of an off-duty customs officer in Manhattan last summer. Two men from the Dominican Republic were charged in the attack on the officer, who survived, and the incident prompted Trump officials to respond with a broader crackdown focused on people associated with the Trinitarios gang, Ms. Noem said. But the news conference at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection offices in Lower Manhattan was quickly overshadowed by the fallout from the death on Wednesday of Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen who was shot at three times by an officer while in her car in Minneapolis. Ms. Noem has argued that the officer was acting in self-defense, accusing Ms. Good of trying to use her S.U.V. as a weapon to run over immigration officers and calling her actions domestic terrorism. City and state officials in Minnesota have described Ms. Noem’s version of events as false, calling it “propaganda.” Video analysis has shown that Ms. Good appeared to be turning the car away from the officer as he opened fire. Ms. Noem said that the officer, who has not been identified, was experienced and had “followed his training,” adding that an investigation into his use of deadly force was continuing. She also had sharp words for Mr. Mamdani, a vocal critic of ICE who on Wednesday accused the officer of murdering Ms. Good and said that New York would stand “with immigrants today, and every day that follows.”

Reported similarly:
CBS News [1/8/2026 1:22 PM, Kathryn Watson, 39474K]
Univision [1/8/2026 3:54 PM, Patricia Clarembaux, 5004K]
Washington Times [1/8/2026 12:38 PM, Stephen Dinan, 852K]

ABC News [1/8/2026 12:19 PM, Staff, 30493K] Video: HERE reports DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said the agent who shot a 37-year-old woman "acted in defense of his life and those around him."

NewsMax [1/8/2026 12:31 PM, Charlie McCarthy, 4109K] reports that U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Thursday repeated that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer involved in the fatal Minneapolis shooting the day before "feels as though his life was in jeopardy.” Noem spoke at a press conference in New York City one day after an ICE officer shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis during a Department of Homeland Security operation in the Twin Cities. The DHS secretary forcefully defended the officer’s actions while blaming escalating protests and anti-law enforcement agitation for creating what she described as a volatile and dangerous environment for federal agents. "This vehicle was used to hit this officer," Noem said. "It was used as a weapon and the officer feels as though his life was in jeopardy.” She added that the officer acted "to protect himself and to protect his fellow law enforcement officers." "Our officers were out trying to get a car stuck out of the snow when they were surrounded and assaulted and blocked in by protesters that were inciting," she said. Noem claimed those involved had followed officers "all day," harassed them, and blocked them from carrying out their duties — actions she emphasized are illegal. "When they demanded and commanded her to get out of her vehicle several times, she did not," Noem said, adding that her department will continue following standard protocols used in any use-of-force review while the investigation unfolds.

The Hill [1/8/2026 1:24 PM, Max Rego, 12595K] reports Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem reiterated her stance that the woman fatally shot by a federal immigration officer in Minneapolis on Wednesday was committing an act of “domestic terrorism.” Noem said at a press conference Thursday that the woman, 37-year-old Renee Nicole Macklin Good, was part of a group of people who “followed” and “harassed” Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers throughout the day. Video of the incident shows masked officers approaching Macklin Good’s car and asking her to exit the vehicle, with one grabbing the driver’s side door handle. At the time, Macklin Good backed up the car. When she began driving forward, an ICE officer standing in front of the car fired multiple shots at her. Noem said Thursday that the woman was “impeding our law enforcement operations, which is against the law.” DHS surged federal immigration enforcement to Minneapolis earlier this week, amid the Trump administration’s probe into fraud within Minnesota’s social services programs. “This was an act of domestic terrorism,” the DHS secretary added later. The U.S. code defines domestic terrorism as activities that “involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State” and are intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population, to influence government policy by intimidation or coercion or to affect government conduct by mass destruction, assassination or kidnapping. Individuals cannot be charged with domestic terrorism at the federal level, with 32 states and Washington, D.C., criminalizing such activity as of March 2024, according to the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law.

FOX News [1/8/2026 1:57 PM, Staff, 40621K] reports that DHS Secretary Kristi Noem sounds off on Minnesota during a press conference, blaming Democrats for the state being a ‘train wreck.’ [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

AP [1/8/2026 1:47 PM, Staff, 31753K] reports Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem continued to forcefully defend an ICE officer who fatally shot a woman in Minneapolis, calling the woman’s actions “domestic terrorism.” She said an investigation is underway but insisted the officer followed his training. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

NPR [1/8/2026 5:26 PM, Matt Sepic, 28013K] Audio: HERE reports protests continue in Minneapolis over the death of a woman shot by an ICE agent. The head of Minnesota’s investigative agency says federal officials have blocked it from conducting an investigation.

CBS News [1/8/2026 1:10 PM, Staff, 39474K] Video: HERE reports Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem took questions from reporters Thursday, a day after an ICE officer shot and killed Renee Good near protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota. CBS News’ Ash-har Quraishi reports.

FOX News [1/8/2026 3:08 PM, Emma Colton, 40621K] reports that President Donald Trump defended the fatal shooting of a Minnesota woman by a federal immigration officer, running footage of the scene to a group of New York Times reporters amid an hours long interview that was held shortly after news broke of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) shooting. "I’ll play the tape for you right now," Trump told The New York Times from the Oval Office amid a sweeping interview Wednesday. "I want to see nobody get shot. I want to see nobody screaming and trying to run over policemen either," Trump said as the reporters began pressing him on the issue, the outlet reported. Renee Nicole Good was fatally shot by an ICE agent Wednesday in Minnesota as federal agents converged on the city as a massive fraud scandal unfolds in the state. The scandal has exposed alleged money laundering operations run through phony meal and housing programs, daycare centers and Medicaid services, according to investigators. Dozens of arrests have been made since 2022, mostly from the state’s large Somali community. The administration has defended the shooting, with Department of Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem saying Good was in the midst of carrying out an "act of domestic terrorism" targeting federal law enforcement officers.

NewsMax [1/8/2026 5:00 PM, Staff, 4109K] reports the White House said Thursday that U.S. federal law enforcement is under an "organized attack," a day after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot a Minnesota woman and protests erupted across the Minneapolis area. White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told reporters the administration believes the confrontation and the unrest reflect what she described as "a larger, sinister left-wing movement," and she said federal officers are being targeted for enforcing immigration law, according to reporting distributed by AFP and carried by Yahoo News. The protests were sparked by the Wednesday death of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, who was shot in the head during a tense encounter with masked federal agents as she sat behind the wheel of a Honda SUV in south Minneapolis, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune and the Associated Press. Vice President JD Vance told a briefing Thursday that Good was part of what he called a "broader left-wing network" opposed to ICE and claimed the shooting was justified as self-defense, according to the AFP account published by Yahoo News. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called the incident "domestic terrorism" and said she was not opposed to deploying additional federal resources to Minneapolis, according to Time and other national coverage summarizing her remarks. Local officials rejected the administration’s description of Good as an attacker and demanded transparency about the federal operation, with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey disputing claims that Good tried to kill agents, according to AFP coverage carried by multiple outlets.

FOX Business [1/8/2026 7:45 PM, Staff, 10085K] reports DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin details the events leading up to an I.C.E.-involved shooting in Minneapolis on ‘The Bottom Line.’ [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

The Hill [1/8/2026 2:10 PM, Rebecca Beitsch, 12595K] reports that House Homeland Security Committee Democrats are demanding the panel’s Republican majority call Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem before Congress after the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) shooting that killed a Minneapolis woman Wednesday. Noem has defended the killing of Renee Nicole Macklin Good, saying the officer was justified in shooting her because he feared for his life. Critics have said there was no need to fire at the woman, arguing the video shows she was trying to turn away from officers and noting the man who fired the weapon continued to shoot through the side of her car. In a letter from Rep. Bennie Thompson (Miss.), the top Democrat on the panel, to Chair Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.), the Mississippi lawmaker said Republican inaction would make the GOP complicit. “Contrary to Secretary Noem’s press statements, there has been no evidence shared that would justify Ms. Good’s killing. The perpetrator must be held accountable, and Secretary Noem must answer for this shooting as well as other recent acts of violence by her officers and agents. The Trump administration’s out-of-control and unconstitutional invasion of our communities must be stopped before another American is injured or killed at the hands of their own government,” Thompson wrote. “Republicans who continue to sit idly by as the Trump administration violates our communities and hurts Americans are as culpable as President Trump himself for the harm he is causing our great country. We look forward to you bringing Secretary Noem before the Committee without delay.”

Washington Post [1/8/2026 1:47 PM, Patrick Marley and Mark Berman, 24149K] reports Minnesota authorities said Thursday that the FBI was taking over the investigation into an immigration officer’s deadly shooting of a woman in Minneapolis, freezing them out of the inquiry and blocking them from accessing evidence. Because of the federal move, “it feels very, very difficult that we will get a fair outcome,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) said. “And I say that only because people in positions of power have already passed judgment,” he added. A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good on Wednesday, setting off protests in Minneapolis that continued into Thursday. Trump administration officials have defended the shooting as appropriate, with Vice President JD Vance on Thursday praising the ICE officer, criticizing Good and calling her death “a tragedy of her own making.” Authorities initially said the investigation into what happened would be conducted by the Minneapolis Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA), a state agency, and the FBI. The Minneapolis Police Department described them both as “leading the investigation.” On Thursday morning, however, the BCA said in a statement that it had been told by the FBI that the U.S. attorney’s office in Minneapolis “had reversed course: the investigation would now be led solely by the FBI, and the BCA would no longer have access to the case materials, scene evidence or investigative interviews necessary to complete a thorough and independent investigation.” As a result, the BCA said, the agency “reluctantly” pulled out of the investigation. Trump administration officials, including President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem, have defended the Minneapolis shooting, saying the ICE officer, who has not been publicly identified, feared for his life and was acting in self-defense when Good threatened him with her car. Good “attempted to run a law enforcement officer over,” Noem said Wednesday evening. Speaking Thursday morning, Noem said the investigation into the shooting was continuing but repeated her defenses of the ICE officer, calling him “an experienced officer who followed his training.” Video from the scene raises doubts about some parts of the administration’s defense of the shooting. Footage showed that while the vehicle moved toward the ICE agent while he stood in front of it, the agent was able to move aside and fire at least two of his three shots from the side of the vehicle, a Washington Post analysis found. Emily Heller, who witnessed the shooting, also told The Post that the ICE agents appeared to give conflicting instructions to Good, indicating they wanted her to move her car before advancing on the vehicle. Video from Heller’s phone, which she shared with The Post, showed a neighbor who identified himself as a doctor trying to approach Good’s car to provide aid, only to be rebuffed by officers, one of whom said: “Give us a second. We have medics” en route. While many federal officials and some Republicans in Congress defended the ICE agent’s actions, Tom Homan, the administration’s border czar, struck a more cautious note in an interview with CBS News on Wednesday. “It’d be unprofessional to comment on what I think happened in that situation,” Homan said. “Let the investigation play out and hold people accountable based on the investigation.”

Reported similarly:
Wall Street Journal [1/8/2026 8:30 PM, Joseph De Avila, Joe Barrett, and Michelle Hackman, 646K] Video: HERE
AP [1/8/2026 2:39 PM, Curtis Yee, et al., 31753K]
CBS News [1/8/2026 12:57 PM, Staff, 39474K] Video: HERE
(B) NBC News Daily [1/8/2026 3:53 PM, Staff]
Daily Caller [1/8/2026 12:50 PM, Hudson Crozier, 835K]

Politico [1/8/2026 8:20 PM, Cheyanne M. Daniels and Gregory Svirnovskiy, 13586K] reports Minnesota officials said Thursday that federal law enforcement are freezing out state investigators from the investigation into the deadly ICE-related shooting of a 37-year-old woman. Drew Evans, superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, said in a statement that BCA was originally set to jointly investigate the shooting, after consultation with the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI. But, according to Evans, federal officials soon “reversed course” and said the investigation would be led solely by the FBI. That decision meant the Minnesota BCA “would no longer have access to the case materials, scene evidence or investigative interviews necessary to complete a thorough and independent investigation,” Evans said. “Without complete access to the evidence, witnesses and information collected, we cannot meet the investigative standards that Minnesota law and the public demands,” he said. “We expect the FBI to conduct a thorough and complete investigation and that the full investigative file will be shared with the appropriate prosecutorial authorities at both the state and federal levels.” Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, a Democrat, on Thursday called the news “very concerning.” “We’ve been trying to figure out how can we get somebody at the FBI, somebody to understand the damage that they’re doing with this kind of decision,” Ellison told CNN. “Hopefully they’ll reverse it.” Deputy Attorney Todd Blanche told POLITICO that after any officer-involved shooting, “standard protocols ensure that evidence is collected and preserved.” He also defended officers’ rights to use deadly force when necessary. “Federal agents risk their lives each day to safeguard our communities,” Blanche said in a statement. “They must make decisions, under dynamic and chaotic circumstances, in less time that it took to read this sentence. The law does not require police to gamble with their lives in the face of a serious threat of harm. Rather, they may use deadly force when they face an immediate threat of significant physical harm.” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem defended the move in a press conference Thursday, saying the ICE agent followed his training and that Minnesota officials “have not been cut out. They don’t have any jurisdiction in this investigation.”

NPR [1/8/2026 3:09 PM, Alana Wise, 28013K] reports that in two different press conferences on Thursday, the White House and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz disagreed on the details of Wednesday’s fatal shooting in Minneapolis and how to investigate it. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on Thursday told the federal government to "leave Minnesota alone," and allow state officials to conduct the investigation into the immigration enforcement agent shooting that left one woman dead and Minneapolis residents on edge. Walz repeatedly expressed concerns with the federal government leading the investigation without Minnesota officials. "It feels very, very difficult that we will get a fair outcome, and I say that only because people in positions of power have already passed judgment, from the president, to the vice president, to [Secretary of Homeland Security] Kristi Noem," Walz said. Officials within the Trump administration quickly defended the ICE agent’s actions as justifiable use of force, after civilian footage taken at the scene seemed to show Good’s SUV attempting to drive away from masked ICE agents, one of whom subsequently fired three shots into the driver’s window, killing the 37-year-old wife and mother. During Thursday’s White House press conference, Vice President JD Vance said "I don’t care what Tim Walz says" and added that the ICE agent’s life was in danger during the incident.

CNN [1/9/2026 5:07 AM, Hannah Rabinowitz, Evan Perez, and Kristen Holmes, 18595K] reports Mutual distrust between federal and state authorities derailed plans for a joint FBI and state criminal investigation into Wednesday’s shooting of a Minneapolis woman by an ICE officer, leading to the highly unusual move by the Justice Department to block state investigators from participating in the probe. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said Thursday that after an initial agreement for the FBI to work with the state agency, as well as prosecutors from the US Attorney’s office in Minneapolis and the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, to investigate the shooting, federal authorities reversed course and the FBI blocked the BCA from participating in the investigation. Behind the move to sever ties were concerns in the Trump administration that state officials couldn’t be trusted with information that emerges from the probe, and that ICE agents’ safety would be put at risk, including with potential doxxing of agents involved, two people familiar with the matter told CNN. The mistrust goes both ways, as state officials attacked the conduct of ICE agents and raised concerns that federal authorities can’t be trusted to fairly investigate given public statements from President Donald Trump and other administration officials accusing the woman killed of being a domestic terrorist. Minnesota officials have lambasted ICE as "reckless," calling comments defending the officers who fired the shot as "bullsh*t," and calling the deployment of ICE in Minnesota a threat to the "endurance of our republic." Comments like these, the sources said, have fueled the distrust. In a press conference Thursday, Vice President JD Vance blamed the "far left" for attacks on law enforcement and said the killing of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good was a "tragedy of her own making." "If you just look at the eyewitness accounts, they were saying she was there to prevent the enforcement of the law, she was trying to obstruct a legitimate law enforcement operation. That much is obviously clear," Vance said. Uncovering whether Good was part of an organized group, he said, "is part of the reason why we investigate this stuff." Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said that the agent "acted according to his training" while Good tried to "weaponize her vehicle" in an "an act of domestic terrorism." The Department of Homeland Security has opened an internal investigation into whether the agent followed department procedures. Minnesota law enforcement has now "reluctantly withdrawn" from the investigation, Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said in a statement.

AP [1/8/2026 6:24 PM, Rebecca Santana, Tim Sullivan, 31753K] reports Minnesota must play a role in investigating the fatal shooting of a Minneapolis woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, Gov. Tim Walz insisted Thursday, pushing back against the Trump administration’s decision to keep the investigation solely in federal hands. A day after the ICE officer shot Renee Good in the head as she tried to drive away on a snowy Minneapolis street, tensions remained high, with dozens of protesters venting their outrage outside of a federal facility that’s serving as a hub for the administration’s latest immigration crackdown on a major city. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, President Donald Trump and others in his administration characterized the shooting as an act of self-defense and cast Good as a villain, suggesting she used her vehicle as a weapon to attack the officer who shot her. Vice President JD Vance weighed in Thursday, saying the shooting was justified and that Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was a "victim of left-wing ideology." But state and local officials and protesters rejected that characterization, with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey saying video of the shooting shows the self-defense argument was "garbage." Good’s death — at least the fifth tied to immigration sweeps since Trump took office — has resonated far beyond Minneapolis, as protests took place or were expected this week in many large U.S. cities. On Thursday, the Minnesota agency that investigates officer-involved shootings said it was informed that the FBI and U.S. Justice Department would not work with the department, effectively ending any role for the state to determine if crimes were committed. Noem said the state has no jurisdiction. Walz publicly demanded that the state be allowed to take part, repeatedly emphasizing that it would be "very difficult for Minnesotans" to accept that an investigation that excludes the state could be fair. Several bystanders captured footage of Good’s killing, which happened in a neighborhood south of downtown.

Reported similarly:
AP [1/8/2026 1:57 PM, Staff, 31753K] Video: HERE

Daily Caller [1/8/2026 7:02 PM, Mariane Angela, 835K] reports Minnesota’s criminal investigations agency said Thursday that the U.S. attorney’s office barred it from participating in the probe into the fatal shooting of Minneapolis resident Renee Nicole Good during a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation. An ICE agent fatally shot 37-year-old Good during an enforcement operation Wednesday, drawing angry responses from Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Democratic Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) said Thursday that the U.S. attorney’s office blocked the agency from participating in the investigation, cutting state investigators off from evidence, case files and interviews they said were necessary to conduct a full and independent review, the Associated Press reported. BCA Superintendent Drew Evans said federal prosecutors reversed an earlier plan that would have allowed the BCA to investigate alongside the FBI. The announcement came as demonstrators and police clashed outside a Minneapolis immigration court Thursday morning. When asked about the dispute, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Minnesota officials lack jurisdiction over the investigation.

CBS News [1/8/2026 12:19 PM, Kelsie Hoffman, 39474K] reports Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said "this was entirely predictable" in the wake of an ICE agent fatally shooting a woman in Minneapolis on Wednesday. "We recognize quite obviously that this has been building over the course of several weeks," O’Hara said in an interview with "CBS Mornings" on Thursday. The shooting took place as the Trump administration began deploying 2,000 federal agents to the area earlier this week. Videos show the woman, who has been identified as 37-year-old Renee Good, appearing to back up her SUV as one agent attempts to open the driver’s side door. As she begins to pull forward, another officer fires through the windshield. "I would hope no matter what side of politics people are on we can recognize that the loss of a human life is a tragedy and that we do not want to compound that by having a situation which can result in destruction or further harms this community, which has been through so much over the last five years," O’Hara said. The shooting happened blocks away from where George Floyd was murdered in 2020. O’Hara is calling for peace and said Minneapolis police officers have been put in the middle of a "very, very tense situation on the ground" and are trying to de-escalate. "Our officers yesterday, by the end of it, were the ones that were getting pelted … with projectiles thrown at them. At least one window from one of our cars was damaged. And just standing on the line, not only dealing with people’s frustrations but also dealing with a lot of hate and vitriol, quite frankly, that they have absolutely nothing to do with creating here," he said. When asked about his assessment of what happened, O’Hara said in his experience in law enforcement spanning 25 years, there has been a strong emphasis on de-escalating situations when possible. "I think the overwhelming majority of city police departments in this country have been training to try and avoid putting officers in situations where deadly force may be necessary, particularly when there is no underlying serious criminal threat," he said. The shooting is being investigated by the FBI. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem characterized Good’s actions as an "act of domestic terrorism." Noem and President Trump described the shooting as self-defense by the ICE agent.

FOX News [1/8/2026 1:29 PM, Greg Norman-Diamond, 40621K] reports that the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) announced Thursday that it has "reluctantly withdrawn" from the investigation into the shooting of a woman by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer. The state investigative bureau said it was informed by the FBI that it would no longer have access to materials required for a "thorough and independent" review. Minnesota BCA Superintendent Drew Evans issued a statement on Thursday morning saying on Wednesday, "after consultation with the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI, it was decided that the BCA Force Investigations Unit would conduct a joint investigation with the FBI" into the death of Renee Nicole Good during an ICE operation in south Minneapolis. "Later that afternoon, the FBI informed the BCA that the U.S. Attorney’s Office had reversed course: the investigation would now be led solely by the FBI, and the BCA would no longer have access to the case materials, scene evidence or investigative interviews necessary to complete a thorough and independent investigation," Evans continued. When asked about the matter on Thursday, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem told reporters in New York City, "I’d like to know where they’ve been and why they’re not out on the streets investigating all of these people that are harassing and inciting violence on law enforcement officers right now."

The Hill [1/8/2026 2:38 PM, Tara Suter, 12595K] reports Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) on Thursday pushed the Trump administration to work with his state on an investigation into the fatal shooting of a woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer. "Yesterday, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension — the BCA — spent the day yesterday attempting to get that accountability," Walz said during a midday Thursday press conference. "We have learned that the Trump administration has now denied the state that ability to participate in the investigation. And I just want to make this as clear as possible to everyone: Minnesota must be part of this investigation.” Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem on Thursday raised her position again that the woman who was shot had been committing an act of "domestic terrorism.” Renee Nicole Macklin Good, the woman who was killed, was involved with a group that "followed" and "harassed" ICE officers on Wednesday, according to Noem. In recent weeks, the Trump administration has targeted Minnesota over a fraud scandal involving its social services programs. Federal authorities this week launched an expansive immigration operation there in the wake of right-wing ire zeroing in on the Midwestern state. Walz also said Thursday that he had questioned Noem about "how she would have felt if President Biden had sent 2,000 troops into Rapid City, South Dakota, and she said she would have welcomed them.” "I leave that for the folks of South Dakota to determine. I’ve not spoken to the president, I would ask him first of all to — the goal here is to make America safe is what he said," Walz added. "There is no verifiable evidence that any of this is making America safer.” Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee have also pressed the panel’s Republican majority to call Noem before Congress in the wake of the ICE shooting. The Hill has reached out to DHS for comment. When reached for comment, the White House noted remarks from Vice President Vance in a Thursday press briefing. "This was an attack on federal law enforcement, this was an attack on law and order, this was an attack on the American people," Vance said during the briefing.

Reported similarly:
CBS News [1/8/2026 1:32 PM, Staff, 39474K] Video: HERE

CBS News [1/8/2026 1:10 PM, Staff, 39474K] Video: HERE reports Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz criticized the FBI for restricting Minnesota investigators’ access to evidence in the fatal ICE shooting case. "Minnesota must be part of this investigation," Walz said. An ICE agent shot and killed a 37-year-old woman during an immigration operation in Minneapolis on Wednesday. The state agency tasked with the investigation said they have withdrawn from the case.

The Hill [1/8/2026 6:13 PM, Ashleigh Fields, 12595K] reports Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty on Thursday said Minneapolis officials will launch an independent probe into the fatal shooting of a local woman while she was in her car. On Wednesday, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer shot and killed Renee Nicole Macklin Good. Bystander footage has sparked pushback from local leaders and Democratic politicians nationwide who say the shooting was unwarranted, while the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other members of the Trump administration allege shots were fired in self-defense. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) on Wednesday urged the public not to “believe this propaganda machine” in reference to DHS statements about the shooting. White House officials have bucked Democrats’ comments and have defended the officer.

Roll Call [1/8/2026 4:29 PM, Chris Johnson, 548K] reports Democratic members of Congress on Thursday called for oversight hearings and independent probes into the fatal shooting of Renee Good by a federal immigration agent as well as the wider Trump administration approach to immigration enforcement. The lawmakers raised concerns about whether the American people would have doubts about a federal investigation into the shooting in Minneapolis, pointing to the quick defenses of the agent from President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem that included descriptions of what happened that didn’t appear to match with videos of the incident. And Sen. Christopher S. Murphy of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, suggested a DHS appropriations bill might address Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection operations. Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington was among Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee who on Thursday called for investigations into the shooting and to bring Attorney General Pamela Bondi and Noem to testify at oversight hearings.

AP [1/8/2026 5:47 PM, Nicholas Riccardi and Steve Karnowski, 31753K] reports federal officers have encountered opposition in nearly all of the cities targeted by President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement campaign. But it was in Minnesota — a state that’s been in daily conflict with the Trump administration in 2026 — that a 37-year-old woman was shot and killed by an immigration officer. Trump has focused on several blue states in the divide-and-conquer campaign that has characterized his second term, and now he has turned to Minnesota, where the killing of George Floyd and the protests it sparked stained his first presidency. Trump last month called the state’s Somali population "garbage" in the wake of a massive federal investigation into COVID-19 and medical aid fraud tied to organizations serving Somali immigrants, among others. The fraud cases led Minnesota’s Democratic governor, Tim Walz — former Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 running mate — to announce this week he will not run for reelection. In June, a Democratic state lawmaker and her husband were assassinated by a Trump supporter, although conservatives insist the gunman was actually a leftist working at Walz’s behest. On Sunday, the victims’ family begged Trump to take down a social media post echoing those conspiracy theories. Amid that mounting tension, the Trump administration announced Tuesday that it was sending more than 2,000 federal officers to the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul in what it claimed would be the biggest immigration enforcement operation in history. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who killed Renee Good during a protest Wednesday against the immigration raids opened fire just blocks from where, in 2020, a Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd. The parallels were painful and frightening for many in the area, including Stephanie Abel, a 56-year-old Minneapolis nurse, who is keeping her gas tank full and cash handy in memory of the chaos that followed that slaying. "I thought the federal government would realize that now is not the time to be toying with people," Abel said. "What are they going to try to do to get Minneapolis to ignite?".

Reported similarly:
Washington Examiner [1/8/2026 1:33 PM, David Zimmermann, 1394K]
AP [1/8/2026 6:14 PM, Russ Bynum, 31753K]
CNN [1/8/2026 12:45 PM, Michael Williams, 606K]

Wall Street Journal [1/8/2026 8:39 PM, Joe Barrett, 646K] reports for months, crisis after crisis has battered this Midwestern city and state. The killing of a state legislator and her husband. A mass shooting of Catholic school children. A sprawling fraud scandal that scuttled the governor’s re-election hopes and made the area the new center of President Trump’s immigration crackdown. On Thursday, residents awoke to the aftermath of another painful—and polarizing—event that is drawing worldwide attention: an ICE agent’s fatal shooting Wednesday of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, a mother of three, in a middle-class neighborhood. For many here, an overwhelming sense of déjà vu took hold as media and law enforcement again flooded the city. Schools closed. Vigils and protests erupted, with demonstrators standing on snowbanks throughout an unusually temperate January day. Local clergy and others gathered at the site of the shooting, struggling to make sense of the tragedy. The incident played out just a few blocks from where George Floyd was killed in May 2020, a flashpoint that sparked unrest Minneapolis has spent years overcoming. “It feels like there’s some PTSD because there’s a similar trauma that comes with this,” said Rev. Nathan Melcher, a United Methodist Pastor whose parish is nearby. He stood in the wide street near where Good was killed. That street, Portland Avenue, is lined with typical Minneapolis homes with screened-in front porches and decorations in the front yard. Now it has become a memorial for Good. Impromptu barricades block off both ends of the block. People play music and stoke fires for warmth. Flowers and candles lay in front of the telephone poll where her Honda Pilot crashed. As in the rest of America, questions are pulsing through the community over who bears blame, who should investigate and what comes next.

The AP [1/8/2026 11:50 PM, Claire Galofaro, 31753K] reports the federal officer steps in front of the Honda SUV, parked nearly perpendicular across a one-way residential street in Minneapolis, with snow piled up on the curb. Within seconds, he would shoot and kill the driver, Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three. Federal officials said the officer acted in self-defense, that the driver of the Honda was engaging in “an act of domestic terrorism” when she pulled forward toward him and that he was lucky to escape alive. Policing experts say some of the choices the officer made in that moment defy practices nearly every law enforcement agency have followed for decades. Videos filmed by bystanders from several angles show the Honda stopped on Portland Avenue just before the shooting. It’s straddling multiple lanes, but not entirely blocking traffic: the driver-side window is open, the driver waving their left arm as if to signal cars to go around. One large SUV drives around the front of the Honda and down the street. Multiple unmarked federal vehicles are idling on the road nearby. Some bystanders heckle officers: “Go home to Texas,” one woman shouts from the sidewalk. “Why won’t you let your faces be seen?” shouts another. Some blow whistles to alert neighbors immigration agents are in the area, others honk. A gray four-door Titan truck comes to a stop facing the driver’s side of the Honda. Two officers climb out and approach the Honda. Both officers wear what appear to be wool hats and black masks covering their noses and mouths. A woman can be heard saying “go around.” One officer says, “Get out of the car. Out of the car. Get out of the f---ing car.” The Honda’s reverse lights come on, and it begins to roll slowly backward as one of the officers grabs the driver-side door handle and tries to pull it twice, then puts his arm into the open driver’s window. A third officer, who had been out of the way on the passenger side of the car then walks around the Honda’s hood, stands just in front of the driver and appears to be holding his phone up like he’s filming. “Why would he do that? Why would he put himself in a more dangerous position than he was already in?” asked Geoffrey P. Alpert, an expert on policing at the University of South Carolina, who called it “absurd” for an officer to use his body to try to block a 4,000-pound SUV. NBC News [1/8/2026 9:37 PM, Jon Schuppe, Frank Matt and Marshall Crook, 34509K] reports Trump, in a social media post hours after the Wednesday morning shooting, said the driver — later identified as Renee Nicole Good — "violently, willfully and viciously ran over the ICE Officer." Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem accused the driver of trying to run the officer over, saying "she hit him" in "an act of domestic terrorism." The agency called her a violent rioter. All said the officer fired in self-defense. "It is hard to believe he is alive," Trump said. A close look at the videos shows that Good’s car did not knock down the officer, whose legs were to the side of the SUV as it moved by him while he fired. The officer walked away from the scene unassisted. Noem said he was treated at a hospital and released. In the videos, the confrontation, which is under investigation by the FBI, begins with Good’s Honda Pilot SUV partially blocking traffic on a residential street in south Minneapolis with several federal vehicles in her path. Bystanders are shouting and blowing whistles. Next to the SUV, a woman, who later identified herself as Good’s wife, and an ICE officer, later identified as Jonathan Ross, are recording each other with their phones. Good, in the driver’s seat, waves cars past her. Ross begins walking around her SUV. Two more federal officers pull up, get out of their car and approach Good, telling her to get out. One grabs the driver’s door handle and reaches inside the open driver’s side window. As he does that, Good reverses, then moves forward, turning her wheels to the right, away from the officers. By then, Ross has come around to the driver’s side of the SUV, and he draws his gun. At the moment he fires his first shot, the car’s wheels are directed away from him. His legs appear to be clear of the car. He fires the second and third shots into the open driver’s side window as the car is moving. Good, struck in the head, loses control of the SUV, which accelerates and crashes into a parked car about 140 feet away. After the shooting, the woman who identified herself as Good’s wife runs to the crashed car. Ross walks over, as well, then asks for someone to call 911. Less than 30 seconds later, he gets into a car and is driven away.

New York Times [1/8/2026 1:40 PM, Staff, 153395K] reports an analysis of footage from three camera angles show that the vehicle appears to be turning away from a federal officer as he opened fire. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

New York Times [1/8/2026 5:40 PM, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, 153395K] reports President Trump wanted to run the tape. Just hours after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot a 37-year-old woman in Minneapolis on Wednesday, Mr. Trump told a group of New York Times reporters that the woman was at fault because she had tried to “run over” the officer. We were in the Oval Office for an interview with the president, and the unfolding situation in Minneapolis was high on our list of questions. As soon as we started asking him about the incident, he said: “I want to see nobody get shot. I want to see nobody screaming and trying to run over policemen either.” When we pressed Mr. Trump on his conclusion that the victim, Renee Nicole Good, tried to run over the agent, he asked an aide to pull up the video on a laptop in an effort to prove his point. “That was a vicious situation that took place,” Mr. Trump said, apparently referring to what federal officials have said was an effort by Ms. Good to run down an ICE agent. The exchange was a glimpse into Mr. Trump’s reflexive defense of what has become a sometimes violent federal crackdown on immigration, which in this case claimed the life of an American citizen who was protesting ICE’s presence in Minneapolis. On Thursday, after our interview with the president, a Times analysis of footage from three camera angles showed the motorist was driving away from — not toward — a federal officer when he opened fire. But on Wednesday night, Mr. Trump stuck to his position even as we pointed out the inconsistencies in his account and the lack of clarity in videos circulating on social media. We asked if, in his mind, firing into a vehicle like that was acceptable. “She behaved horribly,” Mr. Trump said. “And then she ran him over. She didn’t try to run him over. She ran him over.” We told the president that the early videos circulating online were unclear. “I’ll play the tape for you right now,” Mr. Trump said. Mr. Trump’s aide Natalie Harp brought a laptop over to the Resolute Desk to show us what he said would be evidence of the woman’s wrongdoing. Before the video began, Mr. Trump acknowledged the tragic nature of the shooting. “With all of it being said, no, I don’t like that happening,” he said, before pivoting to his common refrain of criticizing illegal immigration. As a slow-motion surveillance video of the shooting played on the laptop, we told him that this angle did not appear to show that an ICE officer had been run over. “Well,” Mr. Trump said. “I — the way I look at it … “ “It’s a terrible scene,” Mr. Trump said at the end of the video. “I think it’s horrible to watch. No, I hate to see it.” But did this fatal shooting mean his ICE operation had gone too far? Mr. Trump sidestepped the question, instead blaming his predecessor’s immigration policies.

CNN [1/8/2026 6:47 PM, Dakin Andone and John Miller, 18595K] reports a number of questions remain unanswered more than a day after the fatal shooting of a woman in Minneapolis by a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, potentially undermining official accounts of what led up to the gunfire and fueling tension in the Twin Cities. Federal officials, including President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, were quick Wednesday to accuse the victim, 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, of trying to use her vehicle to kill or harm the ICE agents. But footage from the scene is nuanced. And with Minnesota officials alleging they have been effectively barred from investigating, it’s unclear whether a robust, public accounting will ever take place. One of the critical gaps in our understanding of what happened is what, if any, prior contact occurred between Good and the ICE agents. "We don’t see the beginning, we don’t see sort of how we got to this moment," CNN Senior National Security Analyst Juliette Kayyem said Thursday. The Department of Homeland Security has said agents were performing a "targeted operation" Wednesday when one of their vehicles got stuck in the snow. As officers worked to push out the vehicle, Noem said, a "mob of agitators" who had been antagonizing agents throughout the day tried to impede their efforts. Videos of the shooting show much of what unfolded during the subsequent deadly encounter: In one, the vehicle driven by Good is seen parked in the roadway, almost perpendicular to the lane of traffic, for about three minutes. Another that starts shortly before the gunfire shows Good wave a vehicle past her. She then waves at a second vehicle, a gray pickup truck. Rather than driving around her, two ICE agents get out. Officials have not publicly identified the agent involved. On Thursday, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin confirmed he had more than 10 years of experience as an ICE deportation officer. Noem said he was "an experienced officer who has served a number of years" and that he acted according to his training. A decade of service would indicate this officer is not among the legion of inexperienced agents recently brought on as part of a DHS hiring blitz to realize the president’s immigration policy. But the breadth of his experience also raises questions about choices made prior to the shooting, and whether his actions indeed comport with DHS policy, training and commonly held law enforcement practice.

NBC News [1/8/2026 4:48 PM, Rebecca Cohen, Matt Lavietes and Julia Ainsley, 34509K] reports the ICE officer who fatally shot a Minnesota woman Wednesday was previously dragged by a car during an immigration enforcement operation in June, DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said. During the June incident, ICE officers in Minneapolis attempted to arrest Roberto Carlos Muñoz-Guatemala during a traffic stop. The officer suffered multiple lacerations and needed 33 stitches to close his wounds, according to court documents from the June incident, which identified the agent as Jonathan Ross. McLaughlin responded with a statement saying that DHS would not "expose the name of this officer," noting that he "acted according to his training" and has more than 10 years of experience as an ICE deportation officer. The June dragging incident involving Ross came seven months before Wednesday’s shooting, in which Ross opened fire on a SUV, killing driver Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother and U.S. citizen. Witnesses told NBC News that it appeared Good was attempting to flee ICE as they approached her vehicle. Noem claimed during a press conference Wednesday that Good hit Ross, and Vice President JD Vance said the officer was acting in self-defense. And President Donald Trump claimed she "violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer." Minneapolis officials, including Mayor Jacob Frey, called DHS’ claims "bulls---." Publicly available video contradicts Trump’s claim Ross was run over. As the driver shifts from reverse to drive, Ross appears to take out his gun and shoot, the videos show. The officer continues to shoot as the SUV accelerates away. In a second video from a different angle, the officer appears to be knocked back as the SUV drives forward before the crash, but it does not show him being run over. The New York Times [1/8/2026 6:24 PM, Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, 135475K] reports that now that same agent is at the center of a growing backlash over the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts, after he shot and killed Renee Good, 37, in the driver’s seat of her car on Wednesday. Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, said at a news conference on Wednesday that the agent, whom she did not name, had feared for his life during the encounter, and noted that he had been dragged by a car in June. Two law enforcement officers with knowledge of the matter, who were not authorized to speak publicly, identified the ICE agent as Jonathan Ross. It is unclear when the agent, who is part of a division called Enforcement and Removal Operations, returned to work following the June incident, which took place in Bloomington, a Minneapolis suburb. The Wednesday shooting of Ms. Good, an American citizen, in South Minneapolis has resulted in sharply different interpretations of the event from local and federal officials. President Trump and other federal officials have said that the agent acted in self-defense, while state and local officials described those accounts with terms like “propaganda” and “garbage.” Tricia McLaughlin, the homeland security spokeswoman, said in a statement that the agent who killed Ms. Good, whom she also did not name, had extensive experience, including in marksmanship and as a member of ICE’s special response team, and that he had “acted according to his training” on Wednesday. Minnesota law enforcement officials said on Thursday that they were being denied access to evidence from the shooting by federal agencies, and could no longer participate in the investigation as a result. Footage of the shooting shows one federal agent grabbing the handle of Ms. Good’s vehicle, which is partially blocking a street in South Minneapolis, while Mr. Ross walks around the front of her car. Ms. Good reverses slightly, then shifts into drive, moving the car toward the agent before turning the wheels to the right, away from him. Mr. Ross fires one shot, then continues firing as the vehicle moves past him. It appears from the videos that he fired once through the front windshield and twice through the driver’s side window, killing Ms. Good.

Reported similarly:
CBS News [1/8/2026 5:18 PM, Nicole Sganga and Daniel Ruetenik, 39474K
CNN [1/8/2026 7:26 PM, Holmes Lybrand, 18595K]
Blaze [1/8/2026 2:46 PM, Joseph MacKinnon, 1442K]
NewsMax [1/8/2026 4:34 PM, Nicole Weatherholtz, 4109K]

NBC News [1/8/2026 8:52 PM, Camila Bernal, 34509K] Video: HERE reports the Department of Homeland Security is saying the federal agent who fired shots in Portland, Oregon, "feared for his life." Two people were hospitalized in the shooting.

USA Today [1/8/2026 6:27 PM, Nick Penzenstadler, 67103K] reports Homeland Security officials said the immigration officer involved in this week’s fatal shooting in Minneapolis is the same officer who was injured in June 2025 in another vehicle incident. That Enforcement Operations Officer is identified in court documents as Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Jonathan Ross. Officials declined to independently name Ross, but said he had at least 10 years of experience as an ICE officer and served on the agency’s Special Response Team. Vice President JD Vance noted at the White House that this week’s shooting incident echoed the agent’s previous case that put him in the hospital. The incident he spoke of coincides with an incident in Bloomington, Minnesota on June 17 where the officer, Ross, was injured apprehending Roberto Carlos Munoz-Guatemala, 39, a citizen of Mexico.

New York Times [1/8/2026 5:22 PM, Julie Bosman, 135475K] reports multiple legal and practical obstacles stand in the way of Minnesota officials who could file criminal charges against the immigration agent who shot and killed a motorist in Minneapolis, legal experts said on Thursday. A state investigative agency said that federal agencies denied it access to evidence in the shooting and that it was withdrawing from the investigation. That leaves the Hennepin County attorney, Mary Moriarty, without crucial information about the shooting that would help her determine whether to pursue charges against the agent from Immigration and Customs Enforcement. There is also legal precedent, in previous cases in Michigan and Idaho, that suggests federal law enforcement officers are shielded from state charges by the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution. That means any case that brings charges against the agent is likely to face scrutiny from a judge. And on the state level, despite the successful prosecution of Derek Chauvin, the police officer who was convicted in 2021 of murdering George Floyd in Minneapolis, prosecutors across the country are often reluctant to charge law enforcement officers with serious crimes because juries are historically unwilling to convict. Prosecuting the ICE officer who shot and killed the woman, identified as Renee Nicole Good, “is a very challenging scenario,” Ms. Sweasy said. In tense phone calls on Thursday, state officials discussed the fallout from their exclusion from the investigation. They are under considerable pressure from many residents of Minnesota who are outraged over the killing and called for state prosecution of the agent on social media. Two law enforcement officers with knowledge of the matter, who were not authorized to speak publicly, identified the agent as Jonathan Ross. If state officials decide to file criminal charges against Mr. Ross, there would almost certainly be an effort to remove the case from state court to federal court, legal experts said, and extensive pretrial motions to have the case dismissed. Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, said that the state does not have jurisdiction in the matter.

FOX News [1/8/2026 6:30 PM, Staff, 40621K] Video: HERE reports senior White House correspondent Peter Doocy reports on the current standing of the I.C.E. officer regarding the shooting in Minneapolis and the alleged Minnesota fraud on ‘Special Report.’

CNN [1/8/2026 6:08 PM, Devan Cole, 18595K] reports Vice President JD Vance’s claim Thursday that an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who fatally shot Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis is "protected by absolute immunity" drew immediate pushback from experts who said the legal landscape around a potential prosecution is far more complicated. Speaking at the White House, Vance appeared to try to stymie any efforts by Minnesota prosecutors to pursue a criminal case against the agent. That assessment was quickly met with skepticism by experts who said the vice president was overstating the law around immunity for federal officials. Vance’s comments come amid nationwide protests of ICE officials and criticism of the agency’s efforts to carry out a historic deportation campaign with little to no oversight. But, prosecuting the shooter or another ICE officer in a similar position would not be simple.

CBS News [1/8/2026 2:45 PM, Staff, 39474K] Video: HERE reports protests are continuing in Minneapolis after a woman was shot and killed by an ICE agent on Wednesday. CBS News homeland security correspondent Nicole Sganga has more. Warning: This report contains disturbing video.

USA Today [1/8/2026 6:25 PM, Christopher Cann, 67103K] reports an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed a 37-year-old woman in Minneapolis, sparking protests as the Trump administration claimed self-defense and local and state authorities said the agent acted recklessly. The Jan. 7 fatal shooting, which occurred less than a mile from where George Floyd was killed by a police officer in 2020, has spurred questions around the use of force by federal agents, especially as the Trump administration expands its deportation efforts. Video circulating online shows multiple law enforcement officers approaching Renee Nicole Good’s SUV, which was stopped in the middle of a street, where demonstrators had gathered that morning to protest heightened immigration enforcement. Footage shows one officer attempting to open the driver’s side door, as someone is heard saying, "Get out of the (expletive) car." Good briefly reverses before driving forward, beginning to turn right, away from the agents. As the vehicle moves ahead, another officer standing near the front driver’s side draws his gun and fires three times at close range. At the moment the shots were fired, the wheels of Good’s vehicle are turned to the right, angled away from the agents. It is unclear whether the officer was struck by the SUV, as President Donald Trump has said. The agent can be seen on his feet and walking away immediately after the shooting. Following the gunfire, the vehicle headed down the road and crashed into a line of parked cars, videos show. Good was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Federal officials said the agent was treated at a hospital and later released. Diane Goldstein, a former police lieutenant and executive director of the nonprofit Law Enforcement Action Partnership, reviewed footage of the shooting and described the agent’s tactics as “aggressive.” “Law enforcement policy should always be about using the least amount of force and preserving people’s lives,” Goldstein told USA TODAY. She added that the footage suggests “a lack of supervision, a lack of training and a lack of understanding of what other tactics are available to deescalate these types of situations.” Aggressive enforcement tactics can make officers less safe rather than more, she previously told USA TODAY. Experts pointed to the Department of Homeland Security’s policies, which state that agents should minimize risk and “avoid placing themselves into positions in which they have no alternative to using deadly force.” “It clearly looks like she was driving away,” said Geoffrey Alpert, a professor of criminology at the University of South Carolina who specializes in the use of deadly force. “She turned her wheel and looked like she was trying to escape.”

AP [1/8/2026 2:02 PM, Staff, 31753K] reports a federal immigration operation in Minneapolis turned deadly this week when a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good during a confrontation involving her vehicle. Cellphone video captured the shooting, which federal officials claimed was an act of self-defense but that the city’s mayor described as "reckless" and unnecessary. Video shows an ICE officer approaching Goode’s SUV stopped in the road as the vehicle begins to move forward. Another ICE officer standing in front of it draws his gun and fires at close range as he jumps out of the way. There is no universal training standard for law enforcement. But most police departments and federal guidance bar shooting at a moving vehicle unless the driver poses an imminent threat of deadly force beyond the car itself. Experts say firing at a moving car is one of the riskiest forms of lethal force, increasing the chance of stray gunfire or a loss of vehicle control that can endanger bystanders. Yes. Justice Department policy says deadly force is allowed only when no reasonable alternative exists, including stepping out of the vehicle’s path. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, allows deadly force only when an officer reasonably believes someone poses an imminent threat of death or serious injury.

Reported similarly:
Axios [1/8/2026 5:54 PM, Brittany Gibson, 12972K]

ABC News [1/8/2026 2:54 PM, Emily Shapiro, Ivan Pereira, and Jared Kofsky, 30493K] reports Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother and Minneapolis resident, has been identified by officials as the woman fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis on Wednesday. Videos of the incident where Good is seen in her maroon Honda SUV as ICE agents confronted her have gone viral and sparked outcry from people around the country who say that Good was unnecessarily killed. According to Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin, Good was allegedly "attempting to run over our law enforcement officers" with her car when an ICE officer fatally shot her. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz have disputed the federal government’s claims surrounding what led up to the shooting, saying video of the incident shows the agent’s actions were not self-defense. Information about Good, along with messages of sympathy, has been pouring out since the shooting. ``Good was a 2020 graduate from Old Dominion University in Virginia, according to the school’s president, Brian Hemphill, who said it is "with great sadness that Old Dominion University mourns the loss of one of our own.” DHS, along with President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, has called the agent’s actions "self-defense" and said he followed ICE training. Noem said during a press conference on Wednesday that Good was using her car as a "deadly weapon" and said it was an "act of domestic terrorism.”

Reported similarly:
CBS News [1/8/2026 2:17 PM, Emily Mae Czachor, 39474K] Video: HERE

CBS News [1/8/2026 9:04 AM, Staff, 39474K] Video: HERE reports Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem claimed Renee Good, the woman fatally shot by an ICE officer in Minneapolis during heated protests, had been harassing officers before the incident. CBS News’ Nicole Sganga reports.

FOX News Radio [1/8/2026 4:40 PM, Staff, 40621K] Audio: HERE reports Tricia McLaughlin, Assistant Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, joined us on the Guy Benson Show today to discuss the continued unfolding of the aftermath following an I.C.E.-involved shooting in Minneapolis. McLaughlin brought the Guy Benson Show new details about the deceased woman, Renee Good, and how she was “stalking” ICE throughout the day in a “chronic” manner, and McLaughlin wholly rejected the “categorically false” narrative that Good was the victim of a “wrong place, wrong time” coincidence. [Editorial note: consult audio at source link]

The New York Post [1/8/2026 5:53 PM, Steven Vago, Chris Nesi and Natalie O’Neill, 42219K] reports Renee Nicole Good, the mom who was killed by a federal agent after veering her car toward him, was an anti-ICE "warrior" and was part of a group of activists who worked to "document and resist" the federal immigration crackdown in Minnesota, The Post can reveal. It was through her involvement in the school community that Good became involved in "ICE Watch" — a loose coalition of activists dedicated to disrupting ICE raids in the sanctuary city. Similar coalitions have cropped up all over the country — with activists using phone apps, whistles and car horns to warn neighborhoods when ICE shows up. ICE Watch activists can also turn confrontational — with numerous instances of activists ramming agents with their cars in the past. ICE agents have faced an unprecedented spike in car attacks, surging by some 3,200% over the last year, shocking data released by the Department of Homeland Security revealed to The Post. Federal officials said violent "radical rhetoric from sanctuary politicians" is to blame for vehicular attacks targeting ICE agents skyrocketing between Jan. 21, 2025, and Jan. 7, 2026, which jumped to 66 attacks compared to just two the year before. Good, a 37 mother of three, was shot in the head and killed as she sped her SUV in the direction of two immigration officers who were conducting an enforcement operation just south of the city’s central business district. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said the shooting, which remains under investigation, was an act of self-defense and that the Goods had been "stalking and harassing" ICE agents in Minneapolis throughout the day. The Daily Wire [1/8/2026 1:29 PM, Jennie Taer, 2494K] reports Renee Nicole Good, 37, was identified by family who said she didn’t have any involvement with ant-ICE activities. The Trump administration identified her as a "domestic terrorist.” Some local residents attending a vigil for Good, however, identified her as a "warrior" who participated in an "ICE watch" group to "document and resist" the agency, according to the New York Post. Good first learned of the group through her 6-year-old son’s leftist charter school, which prides itself on "involving kids in political and social activism," the outlet reported. "She was a warrior. She died doing what was right," a mother named Leesa, whose child attends the same school, told the New York Post. Leesa went on to say that Good "was trained against these ICE agents" on "what to do, what not to do, it’s a very thorough training," adding that the training included how "to listen to commands, to know your rights, to whistle when you see an ICE agent.” County worker Kristin Peter, 30, said Good was on the same ICE Watch team as one of her coworkers. Peter said she herself was planning to go to one of the group’s meetings Thursday night. The Trump administration says the ICE officer acted in self defense, but Democrats, like New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, have classified his actions as "murder.” The Department of Homeland Security blamed the "malicious rhetoric of sanctuary politicians" for a 1,300% increase in assaults, 3,200% surge in vehicle attacks, and an 8,000% increase in death threats against ICE, in a statement shared with The Daily Wire Thursday.

The Hill [1/8/2026 11:35 AM, Max Rego, 12595K] reports Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) pushed back on the Trump administration’s claims about the woman who was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer Wednesday in Minneapolis. “There’s no indication she’s a protester, there’s nothing that — at least you can see on the video, and therefore nothing that the officers on the ground could see —that identify her as someone who’s set out to try to do harm to an ICE officer,” Warren said late Wednesday on MS NOW’s “The Weeknight.” The woman, 37-year-old Renee Nicole Macklin Good, was shot and killed in her car by an ICE officer. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) surged federal immigration enforcement to the city earlier this week, amid the administration’s probe into fraud within Minnesota’s social services programs. Video of the incident shows masked officers approaching Macklin Good’s car, with one grabbing the driver’s side door handle. Macklin Good backed up the vehicle and then began driving forward. The ICE officer standing in front of the vehicle then fired multiple shots at her. Warren called for a full investigation into the shooting, adding it is “sensible to say everybody wants to wait” to get all of the details. Democrats in the House have also suggested a probe is necessary and suggested legal action could be taken against the officer who fired the shots. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said at a press conference Wednesday that the victim “attempted to run a law enforcement officer over” in an “act of domestic terrorism.” Noem characterized the officer who shot Macklin Good as having acted in self-defense. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D) pushed back on those assertions. The governor urged the public not to “believe this propaganda machine” in response to the DHS claiming Macklin Good was attempting to run over ICE officers. Frey, meanwhile, asked immigration officials to leave the city in remarks Wednesday. “We do not want you here,” the mayor said. “Your stated reason for being in this city is to create some kind of safety, and you are doing exactly the opposite. Walz also issued a “warning order” to prepare the state National Guard on Wednesday, as protests have spread throughout Minneapolis in the aftermath of the shooting.

Washington Post [1/9/2026 5:01 AM, Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Annie Gowen, and Praveena Somasundaram, 24149K] reports Renee Nicole Good came to this city almost a year ago looking for a place that she, her wife and 6-year-old son could feel comfortable. They seemed to have found it in the diverse, progressive stronghold on the south side of Minneapolis. “They wanted community,” said Kimmy Hull, a neighbor, who on Thursday stood on the porch of Good’s gray-blue two-story house, next to an inflatable penguin, snowman, Christmas tree and a “We Are Southside” sign stuck in the snowy lawn. That community is grieving, and hundreds of people are protesting, after Good, 37, was shot and killed Wednesday morning just blocks from her home by an ICE agent, who federal officials say fired in self-defense. Details of the shooting, which was captured in multiple videos by private citizens, are in dispute. Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, told Fox News on Thursday that Good “was stalking agents all day long, impeding our law enforcement.” Asked by The Washington Post what she was basing that description on, McLaughlin said the information came from “firsthand accounts” from law enforcement officers who had been in contact with Good. In multiple interviews this week, friends and family members painted a picture of a woman who lived a quiet life not shaped by overt activism — a sharp contrast to the allegations made by Vice President JD Vance, who blamed Good for her own death and accused her of perpetrating “an attack on federal law enforcement.” Her family members have said they do not believe Good was an aggressive activist tailing ICE officers. She had just dropped her son at school, they said. Her father, Tim Ganger, in a brief interview Wednesday, said she got “caught up in a bad situation. I think she was just caught in the crossfire.”

USA Today [1/8/2026 2:21 PM, Mike Snider, 67103K] reports a GoFundMe campaign for the family of Renee Nicole Good, who was killed Jan. 7 in Minneapolis, has raised more than $700,000. The campaign, started on Wednesday, Jan. 7, aims to "support the wife and son of Renee Good as they grapple with the devastating loss of their wife and mother," according to its description. Good was shot while in her Honda SUV by an unidentified Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent on Wednesday in a residential neighborhood south of downtown Minneapolis. President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have said the agent was acting in self-defense. However, videos taken by eyewitnesses have led many to decry the shooting as unwarranted. The Minneapolis City Council put out a statement saying Good was "out caring for her neighbors this morning and her life was taken today at the hands of the federal government.” Good, 37, lived with her partner in Minneapolis, just a few blocks from where she was fatally shot, the Minnesota Star Tribune reported. She was a mother of three: a 15-year-old daughter and two sons, ages 12 and 6, according to Washington Post. Good, who was a poet, also hosted a podcast with her husband at the time, comedian Tim Macklin, when she lived in Colorado Springs, the Star Tribune reported. Good shared one son, the 6-year-old, with Macklin, who died in 2023, the outlet reported. Good’s mother told the Star Tribune that her daughter was "extremely compassionate," and not the type of person to confront ICE agents. "Renee was one of the kindest people I’ve ever known," she said. "She was extremely compassionate. She’s taken care of people all her life. She was loving, forgiving and affectionate. She was an amazing human being.” As of Jan. 8, the GoFundMe campaign for Good’s family has raised over $718,000 with more than 17,000 donations. Donations have come from beyond the United States, with commenters saying they reside in Canada, the U.K. and Germany. Minneapolis City Council member Jason Chavez posted on social media that he had vetted the GoFundMe campaign. "Please support the wife and son of Renee Good as they grapple with the devastating loss of their wife and mother. May she rest in peace.” USA TODAY contacted the GoFundMe organizer, Mattie Weiss, and Chavez on Jan. 8, but has not yet received a response.

ABC News [1/8/2026 1:19 PM, Staff, 30493K] Video: HERE reports Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said he doesn’t have "a predetermined notion" about what happened during the shooting of a 37-year-old woman by an ICE agent.

CBS News [1/8/2026 5:24 PM, Kathryn Watson, 39474K] reports Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on Thursday took aim at what he called a "disconnect" between Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s swift assessment of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer’s shooting of a Minnesota woman, and ICE director Tom Homan’s comment on "CBS Evening News" Wednesday that it would be "unprofessional to pass judgment" on the incident before a full review. Walz held a press conference Thursday as Minnesota officials and federal officials disagree over what happened during the incident as well as the handling of the investigation into the incident, with the FBI taking charge of the investigation. Noem on Wednesday characterized the woman’s actions leading up to the shooting as constituting an "act of domestic terrorism." Homan was initially more cautious in casting judgment, saying they should "let the investigation play out," although he has since amended his assessment so that it matches up more closely with Noem’s. In his interview with CBS News on Wednesday, Homan said the investigation had "just started" and he was "not going to make a judgment call on one video when there’s a hundred videos out there."

The Hill [1/8/2026 6:26 PM, Max Rego, 12595K] reports Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) authorized his state’s National Guard to be “staged and ready” Thursday, amid protests after a federal immigration officer fatally shot a woman in Minneapolis. Citing “potential capacity concerns from local leaders” in response to demonstrations against the shooting and the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the city, Walz ordered Maj. Gen. Shawn Manke, the adjutant general of the Minnesota National Guard, to call up personnel, equipment and facilities “at a time deemed appropriate.” Earlier Thursday, protesters and law enforcement clashed outside a federal immigration building in Minneapolis. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has surged federal immigration enforcement to the city, amid the Trump administration’s probe into fraud within Minnesota’s social services programs. The governor previously said Wednesday that he had issued a “warning order” to the Minnesota National Guard in the wake of the shooting, which occurred in south Minneapolis on Wednesday morning. Brig. Gen. Simon Schaefer, the Minnesota National Guard’s joint staff director, said Wednesday the state’s guard consists of 13,000 soldiers and airmen. Schaefer added that the agency had begun preparations in the event the guard needed to activated, including equipment checks and notifying service members. NewsMax [1/8/2026 6:39 PM, Mark Swanson, 4109K] reports "Yesterday, I directed the National Guard to be ready should they be needed. They remain ready in the event they are needed to help keep the peace, ensure public safety, and allow for peaceful demonstrations," Walz said in a statement. The Minnesota State Patrol has mobilized 85 members of its Mobile Response Team to support law enforcement efforts in the Twin Cities, Walz’s office said. Walz’s move follows Wednesday’s fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good. Federal officials said Good, a U.S. citizen, attempted to use her vehicle to strike law enforcement officers and was shot by an ICE agent. Good was not the target of immigration enforcement action, but the encounter began because her vehicle was blocking federal agents in the roadway. Good ignored an agent’s order to get out of her car. Instead, she attempted to drive off but struck another agent and was fatally shot. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called the incident "domestic terrorism."

Reported similarly:
Breitbart [1/9/2026 3:45 AM, Staff, 2416K]

FOX News [1/8/2026 10:46 AM, Leo Briceno, 40621K] reports that Republican lawmakers are urging President Donald Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act against Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz after the Democrat warned he could deploy the National Guard in response to federal immigration enforcement actions in his state. "Invoke the Insurrection Act. Arrest Tim Walz," Rep. Mary Miller, R-Ill., said in a post to X on Wednesday evening. Miller’s calls to apply the law, which gives the president powers to arrest suspects obstructing federal law enforcement, follow Walz’s suggestion that he might deploy the National Guard to push back on President Donald Trump’s use of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). "We do not need any further help from the federal government. To Donald Trump and Kristi Noem, you’ve done enough. I’ve issued a warning order to prepare the Minnesota National Guard," Walz said in a press event. Walz’s warning on Wednesday came on the heels of a deadly encounter between ICE and a woman. A law enforcement officer shot Renee Nicole Good, 37, when she confronted agents from inside her car in Minneapolis, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Walz’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

CNN [1/9/2026 4:02 AM, Andy Rose, 18595K] reports with rising anger and tension over the fatal shooting of a woman by an ICE agent, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is telling residents to be ready for something they haven’t seen in Minneapolis and St. Paul since the destructive aftermath of George Floyd’s murder: National Guard troops on the streets. “I directed the National Guard to be ready should they be needed. They remain ready in the event they are needed to help keep the peace, ensure public safety, and allow for peaceful demonstrations,” the governor said in a statement Thursday. With the fragile situation in the Twin Cities following an aggressive increase in immigration enforcement there, another battle over control of the National Guard could be brewing as the president continues to test his authority to use the military in domestic conflicts and state officials continue to fight back. Walz – himself a retired National Guard veteran – indicated a direct confrontation with federal agents is not on the table, saying in an executive order troops would “support public safety, security services, and law enforcement activities.” In contrast to the unrest surrounding Floyd’s killing, the possibility of calling up the guard now comes in a very different context, following a year of President Donald Trump’s mostly unsuccessful efforts to federalize National Guard troops in large cities with Democrat-run administrations, calling those cities “lawless” and “hellholes.” In his first public statement on the shooting of Renee Nicole Good on Wednesday, Trump immediately struck an antagonistic tone, posting, “The reason these incidents are happening is because the Radical Left is threatening, assaulting, and targeting our Law Enforcement Officers and ICE Agents on a daily basis.” With the president’s initial response to Good’s fatal shooting echoing the attitude that she was at fault and Minnesota law enforcement saying federal officials are making it impossible to do their own investigation, the tension between federal and local authorities is only growing, as fingers keep pointing. “From here on, I have a very simple message: We do not need any further help from the federal government. To Donald Trump and Kristi Noem, you’ve done enough,” said Walz.

Reuters [1/8/2026 8:07 PM, Staff, 36480K] reports that, in separate briefings on Thursday (January 8), Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz had contrasting accounts of the fatal shooting by a U.S. immigration agent that killed a 37-year-old mother of three in Minneapolis. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

The Hill [1/8/2026 12:34 PM, Tara Suter, 12595K] reports Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan (D) slammed the Trump administration’s claims about the fatal shooting of a woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer in Minneapolis on Wednesday. “First of all, I would say that Renee Nicole [Macklin] Good should be alive,” Flanagan told MS NOW’s Chris Hayes on “All In” late Wednesday. “She was shot and killed by ICE agents, and I know that folks here are incredibly upset, they’re angry, they are peacefully protesting in the streets as we speak, and have just — deep heartache” “And I am, uh, she had stuffed animals in the car for her child, for her 6-year-old child. And the, just, lies that are coming out of Donald Trump and Kristi Noem,” she added. President Trump has claimed the ICE officer was acting in self defense, while Noem, the Homeland Security secretary, has accused Macklin Good of “domestic terrorism” for allegedly attempting to weaponize her car. “Right, we all can see with our own eyes, with this video, with the eyewitness account from Emily Heller that you just had on your show, it is so clear that ICE being in our community has made us so much less safe. And the fact that they’re trying to spin this story is, frankly, disgusting,” Flanagan said. Renee Nicole Macklin Good, whose death has sparked protests in Minneapolis, was 37 years old and had three children, according to The Associated Press. Originally from Colorado, she recently moved to Minnesota. Trump, in an interview with New York Times published Thursday, said Macklin Good had “behaved horribly” before her shooting. “And then she ran him over. She didn’t try to run him over. She ran him over,” he claimed. Videos of the incident show the vehicle’s wheels were turned away from the officer, but possibly making contact with his leg as he opens fire and moves out of the way. The officer did not fall down and walked away after shooting Macklin Good. “ICE officers in Minneapolis were conducting targeted operations when rioters began blocking ICE officers and one of these violent rioters weaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them—an act of domestic terrorism,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement emailed to The Hill.

CBS News [1/8/2026 8:49 PM, Faris Tanyos, 39474K] reports Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey indicated Thursday that the city is united in the wake of Wednesday’s shooting of a 37-year-old woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in a residential neighborhood. "What I appreciate about this situation right now is we in Minneapolis are all singing with one accord," Frey told "CBS Evening News" anchor Tony Dokoupil. "Which is, one, we’re gonna stand up for our immigrant community. Two, we’re gonna keep people safe. And three, we’re not gonna take the bait.” Frey said his first priority was "to keep the people of Minneapolis safe.” "We know that the underlying intention of ICE is not safety, it’s not reducing crime, what it is, is to cause chaos and disruption in our city," Frey said. "Clearly they want to deploy additional military resources, and we’re not gonna take the bait.” According to Frey, the protests that have taken place since the killing of Renee Good do not mirror the violence that engulfed Minneapolis and other U.S. cities following the May 2020 murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. "If you’ve watched how a lot of these protests have carried out, this is not some repeat of what we saw in 2020," Frey said. "What we see is people saying, ‘Hey, hang on one second, ICE wants us to take the bait, they want us to screw up, do something wrong, and ultimately see even greater military presence in our city.’". In an interview with CBS News on Wednesday, White House border czar Tom Homan said that he wanted ICE agents to be given access to local jails and prisons in order to apprehend undocumented immigrants, arguing that this would make the current situation safer. When pressed on whether he would consider opening up local jails, Frey said that "the cities don’t run the jail, the jails are under the purview of the sheriff," adding that mistrust exists between federal authorities and local residents and municipalities. This comes after Frey, in a news conference Wednesday, demanded that ICE "get the f*** out of Minneapolis." The Trump administration has surged about 2,000 federal immigration agents to the Twin Cities area as part of both an immigration crackdown and in response to the state’s fraud scandal. "There’s not a lot of confidence in this federal administration that they are going to do the right thing, either by our immigrant community, or perhaps more importantly, under the Constitution of the United States," Frey said. The mayor said that the Obama administration built trust with "mayors, chiefs and sheriffs around the country," something this White House has failed to do, he argued. Frey also took aim at claims from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who on Wednesday described Good’s actions leading up to the shooting as an "act of domestic terrorism.”

Politico [1/8/2026 3:38 PM, Liz Crampton, 13586K] reports Minneapolis has been thrust back in the center of a national political convulsion following the fatal shooting of a local woman by an ICE official — and its mayor has been returned to the heart of the storm. Just hours after an ICE agent shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Good, Democratic Mayor Jacob Frey had an expletive-laden message for the federal government: “Get the fuck out of Minneapolis.” He called the Department of Homeland Security’s characterization of the events leading up to the shooting “bullshit,” taking an adversarial stance against the administration and vowing to pursue justice in the case. For Frey, who oversaw Minneapolis during the George Floyd killing in 2020 and subsequent weeks of protests and riots over police brutality, the ICE killing stands as the latest moment that will define his leadership. “The mayor is channeling the universal anger of this city and it mirrors what we’re seeing across the country,” said former Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, also a Democrat. “This isn’t a debatable issue. It is deeply, deeply wrong. I don’t fault him for showing that rage. It simply reflects what most of us would feel.” A spokesperson for Frey did not offer further comment beyond his past public statements, including that the agent who shot Good was “recklessly using power that resulted in somebody dying, getting killed.” Frey, who last year was elected to his third and final term, drew some criticism in the aftermath of the Floyd murder, which fueled the Black Lives Matter movement and set off calls from activists across the nation to slash public resources for law enforcement. He was elected in 2018 on a platform promising to reform policing and mend the relationship between the community and law enforcement. But after Floyd’s death, he was attacked from the left for his refusal to defund the Minneapolis police department, including by members of the Minneapolis city council, while conservatives blasted him for not responding more forcefully to restore order in the city. Frey instead sought structural changes with the police department, like banning chokeholds and requiring officers to step in when they see another officer applying improper force, and last year, he promised to continue following a federal consent decree mandating police reforms despite it being dropped by the Trump administration. Last August, Frey and Minneapolis were both back in the national spotlight. After a shooter opened fire on a Catholic mass, leaving two children dead, Frey called for gun control while criticizing those who tied the shooting to transgender issues because federal officials said the shooter was trans. “Anybody who is using this as an opportunity to villainize our trans community or any other community out there has lost their sense of common humanity,” Frey said at the time.

NewsMax [1/8/2026 9:35 AM, Charlie McCarthy, 4109K] reports that a Minnesota police group issued a statement Thursday slamming political leaders, such as Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, for "irresponsible, reckless rhetoric" following a fatal shooting by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer. In a statement posted to X, the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association (MPPOA) warned that heated political attacks on law enforcement can have "real and dangerous consequences," especially as tensions rise nationwide over immigration enforcement operations. "The Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association stands firmly behind law enforcement officers, accountability under the law, and the safety of every Minnesota community," Interim Executive Director David Titus said in the statement. Titus specifically called out political leaders who, in the aftermath of Wednesday’s shooting, have attacked federal officers and inflamed anger in the streets. "Irresponsible, reckless rhetoric from political leaders such as Frey attacking law enforcement has real and dangerous consequences for officers on the street," Titus said. "When officers are vilified, demonized, or used as political props, it fuels hostility, emboldens bad actors, and puts lives directly at risk.” The union urged elected officials to stop stoking tensions and allow investigators to determine what happened. "MPPOA calls on leaders to stop the inflammatory language and respect the legal and investigative process," Titus said.

The Hill [1/8/2026 3:55 PM, Ashleigh Fields, 12595K] reports Minneapolis City Council member Robin Wonsley (D) on Thursday rebuked the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in Minnesota after a woman was shot and killed by one of the agency’s officers Wednesday. Renee Nicole Macklin Good was fatally shot by an ICE officer while in her car after another officer had attempted to open her car door. Local officials have shared outrage for the use of violence against residents amid the uptick in federal enforcement. Frey, Wonsley and other Democratic lawmakers have rejected the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) claims that Macklin Good was using her vehicle as a deadly weapon against the officer, who was identified as Jonathan Ross. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has doubled down on this claim, saying Macklin Good was committing an act of domestic terrorism.

The Hill [1/8/2026 4:05 PM, Tara Suter, 12595K] reports Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D) took a swing at Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Thursday over the fatal shooting of a woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer in his city, saying “she knows her narrative about domestic terrorism is bulls‑‑‑.” Noem on Thursday raised her position again that the woman who was shot had been committing an act of “domestic terrorism.” Renee Nicole Macklin Good, the woman who was killed, was involved with a group that “followed” and “harassed” ICE officers on Wednesday, according to Noem. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) pushed the Trump administration Thursday to work with his state on an investigation into the shooting.

ABC News [1/8/2026 2:34 PM, Justin Gomez and Lalee Ibssa, 30493K] reports President Donald Trump said the 37-year-old woman who was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis on Wednesday was at fault because she tried to "run over" the officer, according to an interview with The New York Times published on Thursday. "I want to see nobody get shot. I want to see nobody screaming and trying to run over policemen either," Trump told the publication, calling it a "vicious situation.” State and local officials have pushed back on the assertions from the White House and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey calling the claims about the driver "b-------" and telling ICE to "get the f--- out" and Gov. Tim Walz calling it "propaganda.” The fatal shooting was captured on video by bystanders. In the video, which ABC News has verified, the driver, who was identified by city council members as Renee Nicole Good, is driving her SUV on a road near ICE officers. As one officer reaches for the SUV’s door handle, the vehicle lurches backward and then begins moving forward, rightward, seemingly away from the officers. One of the officers can be seen firing into the moving vehicle. Protesters gathered on the city’s streets on Wednesday. Noem on Wednesday described the driver’s actions as an "act of domestic terrorism," saying that an "anti-ICE rioter weaponized her vehicle against law enforcement.” "An ICE officer, fearing for his life, the lives of his fellow law enforcement and the safety of the public, fired defensive shots," Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant secretary of Homeland Security, said in a statement posted on social media.

FOX News [1/8/2026 6:19 PM, Staff, 40621K] Video: HERE reports Fox News correspondent Garrett Tenney reports live from Minneapolis on the investigation into an ICE-involved shooting and the escalating protests surrounding it on ‘Special Report.’

CNN [1/8/2026 10:22 AM, Priscilla Alvarez, 606K] reports multiple Department of Homeland Security officials privately expressed shock Wednesday over the department’s immediate response to the fatal shooting of a woman by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, seeing it as a break from precedent that generally points to an investigation before reaching a firm conclusion. Multiple current and former Homeland Security officials initially privately questioned the officer’s conduct, though cautioned that the preceding events remained unclear and stressed that an investigation was necessary. Only a few hours after the shooting, DHS released a statement calling the incident an "act of domestic terrorism," and stated that the ICE officer relied on his training and "fired defensive shots" at the vehicle, which they argued was trying to "run over" agents. (Videos of the incident show the woman appearing to attempt to drive away, though one video also seems to show the car making contact with an officer before he fired his gun.). Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem reiterated the statement at a press conference on the US southern border and again in Minneapolis later in the day. The identity of the officer is unknown, though Noem described him as "experienced.” Tom Homan, the Trump administration’s border czar, initially gave a more measured response, telling CBS News he wouldn’t jump to a conclusion after watching one video or comment on an ongoing investigation. Later on Wednesday, Homan released a statement saying "the brave men and women of ICE are heroes. Like all Americans, our officers have a right to self defense. Full stop.” Generally, ICE policy says deadly use of force is only warranted if the subject poses an imminent threat of serious injury and or death. Flight of a vehicle doesn’t typically constitute deadly force. ICE officers are trained to approach a vehicle by forming what’s known as a "tactical L" to avoid being in front of the vehicle and prevent injury. "I don’t recognize my former agency. This is truly heartbreaking," a veteran ICE agent told CNN.

The Hill [1/8/2026 9:44 AM, Sarah Fortinsky, 12595K] reports two high-profile Democrats are calling for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer involved in a fatal Wednesday shooting in Minneapolis to be prosecuted. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) called the shooting a “murder” and said ICE “has now turned into what our greatest fear is and has been for a long time … that this will be used as an anti-civilian force, that it has no accountability at the end of the day.” “What we saw today is a murder, and murders in cold blood need to be prosecuted,” she told reporters at the Capitol on Wednesday evening. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), a Silicon Valley representative, called for the officer to be arrested. “I saw the video. I was disgusted. I was horrified. That ICE agent needs to be arrested, and he needs to be prosecuted. He needs to be put on trial,” Khanna told a reporter Wednesday evening. “We cannot have a lawless agency continue in this country the way they are,” Khanna continued. “There needs to be accountability.” Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), who represents Minneapolis, condemned ICE’s actions as “unconscionable and reprehensible,” and called for “legal action.” “This is not law enforcement. It is state violence. It is simply indefensible, and ICE must be held accountable. That must include a full, comprehensive investigation and legal action against the agency,” she said in a statement.

FOX News [1/8/2026 10:36 AM, Lindsay Kornic, 40621K] reports "CBS Evening News" anchor Tony Dokoupil sparred with Trump border czar Tom Homan over allegations of "excessive force" by Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) agents in the field Wednesday. Dokoupil pressed Homan on the news of an ICE agent who fatally shot a woman in Minnesota after the protester allegedly attempted to run the agent down with her vehicle. Administration critics have said the use of deadly force was improper and even murder, while supporters have said the agent acted in self-defense. During the interview, Dokoupil asked Homan whether he’s seen "any examples of clear, excessive force displayed by ICE agents and officers in the field" during his time in the Trump administration. Homan replied that he had not. "When I hear a thing or see a story that an allegation is made, I follow up, make sure that it’s being fully investigated. But I haven’t seen one ICE officer found guilty of anything inappropriate," Homan said, adding that he is not involved in every arrest. "I want to ask you kind of a bald question here," Dokoupil followed up. "Just a straight-up question. You’re telling me you’ve never seen, in your tenure, any example of excessive force? You’re telling me you’ve not heard any comment from any member of this administration that is inflammatory or racist or in any way demeaning toward the immigrant community? That’s what you’re telling me?". He continued, "I know, because I’ve talked to people out there all over the country, a lot of Americans are going to hear that, and they are going to be yelling at their television. They are going to be saying — the idea that there is zero, there is nothing there there, you’re calling them crazy...” "I’m not calling anybody crazy," Homan interjected. "I’m telling you what I know, and I’ve seen, and I told you, there are over 2,000 arrests a day, I can’t see every arrest.” "But it just comes down to zero issue, zero problems, zero comments," Dokoupil said. "It’s just not believable to a lot of people, including myself. There is nothing that you would have ICE do differently? In any of these cases? We’ve seen all of these videos. Nothing?" Homan reiterated that he has not seen any ICE agent act outside agency policy and that any officer found to have violated policy would be held accountable after an investigation.

The Hill [1/8/2026 10:45 AM, Sarah Fortinsky, 12595K] reports border czar Tom Homan blamed Wednesday’s fatal shooting of a 37-year-old U.S. citizen in Minneapolis on the “hateful rhetoric” used against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers and Border Patrol agents. “The incident in Minneapolis today is yet another tragic example of the results of the hateful rhetoric and violent attacks against the men and women of ICE and BP,” Homan wrote in a post on the social platform X on Wednesday evening. “These brave men and women are forced to conduct law enforcement operations in heightened threat environments every day,” he continued. “Like all Americans, our officers have a right to self defense.” Homan, in a CBS News interview earlier Wednesday, initially refrained from commenting on videos of the incident, saying, “I’m not going to make a judgment call on one video when there’s 100 videos out there.” “I wasn’t on the scene. I’m not an officer that may have body cam video,” he continued. “It would be unprofessional to comment on what I think happened in that situation. Let the investigation play out and hold people accountable based on the investigation.” He declined to answer questions on why the Department of Homeland Security quickly called the incident an act of “domestic terrorism” without first investigating the matter, saying, “That’s a question for Homeland Security. I’m the border czar.” Later in the day, Homan clarified his remarks in the interview, which he said “was taped earlier today before I had the opportunity to see all the footage and learn the details of the incident. “ “I do not comment before I have the facts. As I repeatedly have said, the brave men and women of ICE are heroes. Like all Americans, our officers have a right to self defense. Full stop,” he added.

Daily Caller [1/8/2026 10:16 AM, Jason Cohen, 835K] reports Border czar Tom Homan pushed back hard on Wednesday when "CBS Evening News" anchor Tony Dokoupil asked, "Where’s the heart," in President Donald Trump’s administration’s deportations. During Dokoupil’s extended interview with Homan, the CBS News anchor quoted Trump from his October 2024 meeting with The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board, in which the then-candidate said "we have to have the heart" regarding mass deportations. When Dokoupil followed up, asking, "Where’s the heart in this?" Homan defended the policy and those enforcing it. "[Immigration and Customs Enforcement] ICE doing everything they can to enforce the laws enacted by Congress," Homan said. "ICE said the vast majority of everybody they arrest are public safety threats. They’re making this country safe.” "I want people to remember this. ICE agents, Border patrol agents, are mothers and fathers, too. They don’t hang their heart on the hook every day they come to work. They got a tough job … Enforcing the law sometimes is sad," he added. "But because of the actions of President Trump, thousands of lives are being saved every month. Ninety-six percent less people are coming because they know there’s consequences now, which means the most vulnerable people in the world aren’t giving the criminal cartels their life savings to make that dangerous journey.” Homan asserted that sex trafficking had plunged and that the Trump administration had located more than 129,000 migrant children out of 300,000 that former President Joe Biden’s administration "lost track of and wasn’t even looking for." He also pledged that the Trump administration would locate all of the missing children.

Washington Examiner [1/8/2026 12:16 PM, Jenny Goldsberry, 1394K] reports Border czar Tom Homan suggested he was right in his prediction that negative rhetoric about Immigration and Customs Enforcement would lead to "bloodshed.” Homan reacted to the ICE shooting in Minneapolis on CBS News’s Evening News on Wednesday. Host Tony Dokoupil showed a video of 37-year-old Renee Good driving her car in the middle of an ICE operation when she was approached by three ICE officers. One officer shot Good as she continued to maneuver her car, and she died as a result. "There’s 100 different videos out there, and there may be body cam videos, I’m not going to comment," Homan said. "But I think it’s reckless what I’m seeing on social media. I’ve seen at least seven or eight members of Congress make the comment that ICE just murdered somebody. Murdered. "When the rhetoric started escalating back in late March, I said, ‘If this rhetoric continues, there will be bloodshed.’ I’ve seen this movie before. I’ve done this for over 40 years. And sadly, I was right," he said. The officer involved in the shooting was "dragged" in a vehicle ramming months before, according to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. This comes as the Department of Homeland Security reported assaults against ICE officers surged by 1,153% in 11 months. Additionally, the number of death threats made against ICE officers increased by 8,000%, according to the Center Square. "Look, enforcing immigration law sometimes — just being a cop, sometimes I’ve seen some terrible things in my career. I’ve seen some very sad things. Enforcing the law is sometimes sad," Homan said. "But because of the actions of President Trump, thousands of lives are being saved every month," he said. "Ninety-six percent less people are coming because they know there’s consequences now.” DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin agreed with Homan in blaming rhetoric for the escalation of violence against ICE. "After months of Democrat politicians comparing ICE to Nazis, the Gestapo, slave patrols, and even encouraging illegal aliens to resist arrest, our brave ICE law enforcement have been assaulted 238 times," McLaughlin said in a press release.

Breitbart [1/8/2026 11:56 AM, AWR Hawkins, 2416K] reports the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association issued a statement Wednesday night criticizing "reckless rhetoric" against law enforcement which politicians were hurling in opposition to ICE and others. The statement came hours after an ICE agent in Minneapolis shot and killed a woman who allegedly drove her vehicle at an agent on Wednesday. Homeland Security said the woman "weaponized her vehicle," adding, "An ICE officer, fearing for his life, the lives of his fellow law enforcement and the safety of the public, fired defensive shots. He used his training and saved his own life and that of his fellow officers.” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D) responded to the incident by telling ICE, "We do not want you here…" and by telling ICE to "get the f*ck out of Minneapolis.” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) responded by intimating that protesting ICE is "a patriotic duty at this point in time" and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D) posted to X, "We need this rogue agency out of our neighborhoods. Abolish ICE now.” Wednesday night, the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association warned, "Irresponsible, reckless rhetoric from political leaders attacking law enforcement has real & dangerous consequences for officers on the street.”

New York Post [1/8/2026 6:40 PM, Alex Oliveira, 42219K] reports leading Democrats’ virulent anti-ICE rhetoric ramped up Thursday — the day after a Minneapolis mom was killed by an immigration officer — with Gov. Hochul chiming in that she once confronted a federal agent, and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey doubling own on his calls for federal agents to "get the f–k out" of town. Gov. Tim Walz, meanwhile, activated the Minnesota National Guard and complained about the FBI taking over the investigation from Minnesota. He also claimed "the tragedy will be magnified 100-fold," if ICE "violence" enters local schools. The comments come as anti-ICE protests have raged in Minneapolis, New York and other cities — with hundreds filling the streets first-thing Thursday to march against the killing of Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old activist shot in the head by a federal agent after she veered her car toward him. Those demonstrations started almost immediately after the shooting and demanded ICE abandon its sweeping operations in the city, with Mayor Frey making no effort to hide his support for cause within hours. "To ICE, get the f–k out of Minneapolis. We do not want you here," he said in a fiery press conference Wednesday. Frey stood by his comments and refused to dial back his tone after conservatives accused him of provoking tensions. "I’m so sorry if I offended their Disney princess ears, but here’s the thing — if we’re talking about what’s inflammatory, on one hand you got someone who dropped an f-bomb, and you got someone who killed somebody else," he told CNN Wednesday night. "I think the most inflammatory action is killing somebody. And so once again, let’s be real and just honest and straight up about what’s happening here. This is not okay," he added.

Breitbart [1/8/2026 1:58 PM, Jasmyn Jordan, 2416K] reports progressive Democrats are threatening to leverage the end-of-January government funding deadline to push restrictions on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), escalating tensions within their party following the fatal shooting of a woman who struck an ICE agent with her car in Minneapolis. Anger erupted among progressive lawmakers following the January 7 shooting of a 37-year-old woman by an ICE officer during operations in Minneapolis. According to the Department of Homeland Security, the woman “weaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them — an act of domestic terrorism.” An ICE officer, “fearing for his life, the lives of his fellow law enforcement and the safety of the public,” fired defensive shots, according to the agency. In response, a growing number of Democrats are demanding restrictions on ICE operations and are considering withholding support for Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding as the January 31 deadline approaches. While House and Senate Democrat leaders attempted to focus attention on healthcare-related policy priorities, such as extending Affordable Care Act tax credits, a growing faction within the party is linking the DHS appropriations process to immigration enforcement changes. “Democrats cannot vote for a DHS budget that doesn’t restrain the growing lawlessness of this agency,” remarked Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) in a post on X. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) also stated: “We can’t just keep authorizing money for these illegal killers. That’s what they are, this rogue force.” Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-IL) expressed a similar view, emphasizing the end-of-month continuing resolution (CR) deadline as an opportunity to act: “Statements and letters are not enough, and the appropriations process and the CR expiring Jan. 31 is our opportunity.” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) told Axios that the ICE agent involved should be arrested, and called for opposition to the “hundreds of billions of dollars going to a lawless agency.” Calls for DHS-related shutdown leverage put Democrats on a collision course with their leadership. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) earlier explained that a shutdown was “not on the table,” but also refused to rule one out when discussing Democratic plans to extend expiring health insurance subsidies. “We’re not going to get healthcare done if the Republicans stay in shambles,” he argued, calling the Democrat-led proposal “the only way to get this done.”

CNN [1/8/2026 5:26 PM, Manu Raju and Sarah Ferris, 606K] reports Congress’ most liberal Democrats are pushing for an all-out fight to rein in President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration policy after this week’s deadly shooting by an ICE officer in Minnesota — even if it means risking another government shutdown. But those progressives are running into resistance from others in the party who are eager to avoid another huge funding showdown with Trump, leaving Democrats divided in the final weeks before Washington’s January 30 spending deadline. "I think it should be a red line," Rep. Jimmy Gomez, a California Democrat, told CNN when asked if his party should insist on changes to ICE in the funding bill. "I think we should take a hard stand against this funding.” Another liberal, Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, has already begun to press his party leaders on forcing the issue. "I just don’t understand how we provide votes for a bill that funds the extent of the depravity. I know we can’t fix everything in the appropriations bill but we should be looking at ways we can put some common-sense limitations on their ability to bring violence to our cities," Murphy, a top Senate appropriator, told CNN. Gomez and Murphy are among many enraged liberal Democrats who told CNN they want their party to force the White House to curb ICE’s powers using the upcoming spending battle. That includes dozens of members of the House’s Progressive Caucus and the Hispanic Caucus, who both discussed the issue at meetings earlier Thursday, according to multiple people who were in the meetings. But more moderate members of the party oppose the idea, which they see as unrealistic. "I think there are other ways to deal with ICE," Rep. Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat who broke with her party to vote to the end the 43-day shutdown in November, told CNN. Pressed on the potential of a shutdown, Rep. Robert Garcia of California told CNN, "I think we have to use everything that we can to stop ICE this moment. I think that’s going to be negotiated.” "Nobody wants another government shutdown, but we have to force DHS and Kristi Noem to do the right thing," he added. Rep. Mark Pocan, a senior Wisconsin Democrat who sits on the House spending panel, was even more blunt. "I don’t think there’s any way you’re going to see a Homeland Security appropriations budget get through Congress. I mean, the divide is too strong," he told CNN, instead predicting a long-term funding extension. Republicans don’t appear to have an appetite to have an immigration policy debate as part of the funding bill. One Senate GOP appropriator, Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama, said any "reforms" that liberal Democrats might want should be done by the Judiciary committee, not appropriations.

Washington Examiner [1/8/2026 1:12 PM, Emily Hallas, 1394K] reports Democrats are splitting over whether to allow an investigation to play out before backing charges against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who fatally shot a Minnesota protester who struck him with her SUV this week. Party members have broadly condemned the shooting but disagree on the timeline for "accountability" amid widespread debate as to the circumstances of the incident, and whether lethal force was warranted. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), and Ro Khanna (D-CA) on Wednesday said the federal agent must be swiftly prosecuted for killing an "unarmed" woman whom Minneapolis police said was "blocking the street" with her vehicle to thwart an ICE operation. "What we saw today is a murder, and murders in cold blood need to be prosecuted," Ocasio-Cortez said in a statement accusing ICE of being an "anti-civilian force" acting with "no accountability.” "That ICE agent needs to be arrested, and he needs to be prosecuted," Khanna said. "He needs to be put on trial.” The demands from House lawmakers, known as leading progressives, place them at odds with caucus leaders, as well as top Democratic Minnesota officials. Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), Democratic Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) are among those who have shied away from calling for charges to be pursued before allowing an investigation to play out. Jeffries said the ICE officer should be "investigated to the full extent of the law for acting with depraved indifference to human life." Schumer said on Thursday morning that there needs to be "a full investigation at the federal level" and local levels. "Obviously, and I have to always lead with this caveat, because it is true, an investigation still does need to be conducted," Frey said in a press conference hours after the shooting, when pressed on whether he would seek legal recourse against the ICE officer. However, shortly after Frey’s comments, 11 of 13 sitting members on the liberal Minneapolis City Council urged officials to go further. Anyone who kills someone in the city "deserves to be arrested, investigated, and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," they demanded in a joint statement.

NewsMax [1/8/2026 10:07 AM, Staff, 4109K] reports that Democrat leaders’ rhetoric against federal immigration agents is contributing to the protests and violence in the nation’s cities, including the demonstrations Thursday morning in Minneapolis after an ICE agent shot and killed a local woman, Rep. Brandon Gill told Newsmax. "It’s not just rhetoric coming from influencers or newscasters on the left," the Texas Republican told Newsmax’s "National Report." "It’s coming from the Democrat Party’s elected officials, which I think is the most disappointing." State and local officials have called for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to leave the state after 37-year-old Renee Nicole Macklin Good was shot in the head on Wednesday, but Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said agents would continue their operations there. "We have hearings where we have Democrats, members of Congress, referring to ICE agents as members of the Gestapo, referring to them as Nazis," Gill said. "Whenever you call somebody a Nazi, whenever you label them with what is widely considered really the most heinous accusation, this is the result," he added. "You have people who believe that they are somehow righteous in attacking or intimidating ICE agents who are carrying out lawful orders, who are carrying out the law that the American people voted for, particularly last November.” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey on Wednesday, using profanity, called for ICE to leave his city, and Gill said that language send the message that "domestic immigration enforcement is somehow illegitimate or somehow morally wrong, and that is leading to this type of violence."

NewsMax [1/8/2026 11:43 AM, Staff, 4109K] reports that the shooting death of a Minnesota woman is "very tragic," but she was killed while "impeding the legal authorities" of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at a time when threats and violence against them are surging, Sen. Joni Ernst insisted on Newsmax Thursday. "Today we have a young woman who has lost her life," the Iowa Republican told Newsmax’s "National Report.” "Protesting is fine, but when you try to intervene in legal activities of our law enforcement agents, there are repercussions," she continued. "Unfortunately, this one was very extreme." An ICE agent on Wednesday shot 37-year-old Renee Nicole Macklin Good in the head, sparking protests in Minnesota while federal government officials, including President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, insist she was killed in self-defense after attempting to hit agents with the truck she was driving. Ernst, however, urged Americans not to interfere with law enforcement operations. "Our ICE agents have had a 1,300% increase when it comes to actions against them of physical violence just in the recent year," she said. "We’ve seen an 8,000% increase of death threats against our ICE agents, and let me tell you, these threats, these physical actions against law enforcement officers, it’s completely despicable," Ernst added. Ernst also defended Noem and ICE officers, saying they have the legal authority to enforce immigration laws. "Those agents that serve under [Noem] have authority. They are legally acting," Ernst said.

FOX News [1/8/2026 5:06 PM, Greg Wehner, 40621K] reports Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, warned that nationwide protests will erupt unless an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer involved in a fatal shooting in Minneapolis, Minnesota, is identified and prosecuted, calling the incident a "state-sanctioned execution" as she accused Republicans and the administration of ignoring deadly misconduct. Tensions flared during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on bail reform Thursday as Democrats criticized the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) following the fatal shooting of a woman by an ICE officer in Minneapolis the day before. Crockett escalated her criticism during the hearing, warning lawmakers that protests would spread nationwide without criminal accountability. "There are gonna be protests around this entire country because of the state-sanctioned execution that we all saw unfold unless there is some kind of justice that takes place, and we get the name of that officer and that officer is prosecuted," Crockett said. The remarks came amid sharp partisan exchanges as the committee debated public safety and bail reform. Democrats used the hearing to press DHS officials over the shooting and the lack of publicly available information about the officer involved. "Long story short, we are sitting in the judiciary and no one on that side of the aisle seems to care that this particular person, whose name we don’t know at this point, became the judge, jury, and executioner," Crockett said, taking a dig at Republican lawmakers. "I don’t know how you square that.” Crockett accused Republicans of minimizing the shooting and shielding federal law enforcement from scrutiny despite calls for transparency. She argued that officers should be held to the same legal standards as civilians when deadly force is used. "A child has lost her mom, and y’all want to pretend that it is okay," Crockett said while becoming emotional. "Is there anyone that will stand for the very people that elected us and sent us to Congress?". Her comments drew audible reactions in the hearing room as she described the impact of the shooting on the victim’s family. Crockett framed the incident as a moral issue, urging lawmakers to prioritize accountability over politics. "I remember when Charlie Kirk got killed. Do you remember what our response was?" Crockett asked. "Our response wasn’t to sit there and pretend like it was okay.”

FOX News [1/8/2026 6:46 PM, Paul Steinhauser Fox, 40621K] reports with the national spotlight firmly on a fatal shooting in Minnesota involving an ICE agent, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California used a high-profile speech to target President Donald Trump over "citizens shot" and what the likely Democratic presidential contender claimed was "using American cities as training grounds for the United States military.” Newsom’s comments Thursday in his final State of the State address as governor of the nation’s most populous state came in the wake of the shooting death of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good after she confronted ICE agents from inside her car in Minneapolis. Video of the incident has gone viral, and while Democrats have heavily criticized the shooting, the Trump administration is vocally defending the actions of the ICE agent. "The woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self-defense," Trump said in a social media post. And the president argued "the reason these incidents are happening is because the Radical Left is threatening, assaulting, and targeting our Law Enforcement Officers and ICE Agents on a daily basis.” Vice President JD Vance at a White House briefing Thursday claimed Good was "brainwashed" and suggested she was connected to a "broader, left-wing network.” Hours after the incident, Newsom alleged it was "state-sponsored terrorism.”

Los Angeles Times [1/8/2026 8:13 PM, Melissa Gomez, 14862K] reports a day after a woman in Minneapolis was killed by an immigration federal agent, clergy leaders and advocates gathered on the steps of the downtown Los Angeles federal immigration building to honor her and denounce the killing. Holding printed photos of Renee Nicole Good, the woman shot in the head by a federal immigration agent, a crowd of about 100 people gathered Thursday morning for a vigil organized by the Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice and joined by immigrant rights groups. They held signs that read "Justice for Renee.” "We stand holding the fear and the terror and the sorrow, the deep grief that has transpired needlessly," said Rev. Francisco Garcia. "Murder at the hands of our tax dollars. State sanctioned. This cannot be, this cannot stand, and we offer our continued witness to stand against these atrocities, against this evil.” Good, a mother of three who had recently moved to Minneapolis, was driving her car Wednesday morning when she was stopped by federal immigration agents. Videos of the shooting have spread online and appear to show Good, 37, being told to get out of her car, with one agent walking and prying at the door handle. She is seen backing up when another agent stands in front of her car and, as she appears to drive forward, shoots her. Good’s death has sparked protests that have filled the streets of Minneapolis, putting the city on edge. Similar protests have spread across the country. In Sacramento, police said protesters vandalized a federal building during a march in response to the shooting. TV station KCRA reported that the protest was largely peaceful until a small group of protesters pushed open a security gate and threw rocks at parked cars and the building. In San Francisco, several hundred people marched through downtown Wednesday, chanting, "Trump must go now, " according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Breitbart [1/8/2026 9:08 PM, Pam Key, 2416K] reports Thursday on CNN’s “The Lead,” Democrat New York State U.S. House candidate George Conway said Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are “domestic terrorists.” Host Jake Tapper said, “I do want to get your take on the situation in Minneapolis. What’s your take on how President Trump and Vice President Vance and Secretary Noem have been handling it?” Conway said, “Mendacious and heartless? Absolutely horrible. The way they’ve talked about this. I mean, the notion that Donald Trump thinks that this is somehow, or claims that this is somehow, making the country safer is absurd. It’s making the country more dangerous. It’s making people on the streets fear federal agents. And it’s as we saw in Minneapolis, it’s just asking for some tragedy to occur. And that’s exactly what happened. He added, “And as for the claim, you know, the that Kristi Noem made, that this woman was a domestic terrorist, I mean, it’s ridiculous. I mean, she was just an ordinary woman who, with a 6-year-old kid in a in an SUV. And I mean, the domestic terrorists are ICE. This is this is what’s happening here in this country, which is just hard to believe. We have a criminal president running a lawless government trying to intimidate the people of this country through force.” [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Washington Examiner [1/8/2026 3:14 PM, Asher Notheis, 1394K] reports late-night host Jimmy Kimmel applauded Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey’s response to Immigration and Customs Enforcement after Frey told the agency to "get the f*** out" following a fatal shooting on Wednesday. Kimmel said Trump "isn’t just killing people overseas," while discussing the Minneapolis shooting, in which an ICE officer shot and killed a woman who attempted to "weaponize her vehicle," according to the Department of Homeland Security. Kimmel said he watched the video of the shooting and suggested the woman was shot after she "got scared" and "tried to drive away" from the ICE officers. "To ICE: get the f*** out of Minneapolis. Get the f*** out of all of these cities," Kimmel said. Frey addressed the shooting on Wednesday afternoon, calling claims that the ICE officer acted in self-defense "bulls***." Kimmel said Frey’s message is "the shirt I want to see," displaying a black shirt with his quote. Earlier in the show, Kimmel made digs at President Donald Trump and Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-SC) warning to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Graham warned the ayatollah on Tuesday that "Donald J. Trump is going to kill you" if he continues "killing your people." Kimmel then showed a red shirt with white letters with the quote, "Donald J. Trump is gonna kill you," in a similar style to Trump’s "Make America Great Again" hat. Kimmel made headlines last year when his show was briefly suspended after he commented on the assassination of Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk. Kimmel also thanked "Donald Jennifer Trump" during his acceptance speech for best talk series during the 2026 Critics Choice Awards on Sunday night. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a Wednesday evening press conference that the woman who was killed in Minneapolis has been identified as 37-year-old Renee Good. Noem said Good used her vehicle to block the path of ICE officers. Noem added that the ICE officer who fired the shots was briefly treated at a local hospital before returning to his family. Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) also pushed back against the argument that the ICE officer acted in self-defense, telling others not to believe "this propaganda machine." He ensured "a full, fair, and expeditious investigation" would be conducted.

USA Today [1/8/2026 10:55 AM, Brendan Morrow, 67103K] reports late-night hosts are weighing in after a 37-year-old woman was fatally shot by an immigration agent in Minneapolis. In his Wednesday monologue, Jimmy Kimmel reacted to the death of Renee Nicole Good, who earlier in the day was shot by an ICE agent in her car amid an immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota. Video of the shooting has quickly spread, sparking outrage and protests. Kimmel criticized President Donald Trump for a Truth Social post where he alleged Good was acting in a "very disorderly" manner and "viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self defense.” "This maniac, he isn’t just killing people overseas: An ICE agent today shot and killed and unarmed, 37-year-old woman during an ICE operation in Minneapolis," Kimmel said Jan. 7 while introducing the news. Kimmel said sarcastically that Trump "weighed in with compassion" before reading the president’s Truth Social post and objecting to the way he described what happened. "Now, I saw this video," Kimmel said. "It didn’t look like anybody got run over to me. It looked to me like a woman got scared, tried to drive away, and they shot her. That’ll be for the court to decide.” Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin alleged Good "weaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them," and said an officer "fired defensive shots." Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem also maintained that the officer "followed his training" and "did exactly what he was supposed to do.” But local officials including Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey have disputed this narrative, with Frey saying at a news conference that while "they are already trying to spin this as an action of self defense," having "seen the video myself I want to tell everybody directly, that is bull----.” On his show, Kimmel sided with Frey and played a clip of the mayor telling ICE to "get the f--- out of Minneapolis," prompting cheers from the comedian’s studio audience. "Now, that is the shirt I want to see," Kimmel said before holding up a shirt that read, "Get the f--- out of MPLS." Kimmel also urged ICE to get out "of all of these cities.”

FOX News [1/8/2026 1:11 PM, Greg Norman-Diamond, 40621K] reports photos emerged Thursday showing a crane removing the sign of a Hampton Inn hotel in the Minneapolis area that allegedly refused to accommodate U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and immigration officers. The formerly Hilton-branded property in Lakeville was stripped of its Hilton label by the hotel chain on Tuesday morning after a video surfaced appearing to show that the location continued to deny immigration officers despite Hilton Hotels saying that the venue had apologized and that "properties are open to everyone, and we do not tolerate any form of discrimination.” The images showed the sign being lifted off its supports by a crane set up in the hotel’s parking lot. Hilton did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday from Fox News Digital. It’s unclear who is now operating the hotel. A phone number linked to the property appeared to be disconnected when called. The General Services Administration (GSA) said earlier this week that it is terminating the Hampton Inn Lakeville in Minnesota from its list of approved lodging sites for all federal employees. Several emails posted by the Department of Homeland Security and ICE on Monday showed that the hotel was "not allowing any ICE or immigration agents to stay at our property.” FOX Business [1/8/2026 3:37 PM, Daniella Genovese, 10085K] reports DHS and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) posted screenshots of what appeared to be emails from staff at the Hampton Inn by Hilton Lakeville, Minnesota, telling people linked to DHS reservations that the property would not allow ICE or other immigration agents to stay. The Trump administration deployed federal agents to the Minneapolis–St. Paul area last month to crack down on illegal immigration and alleged fraud. After the emails were leaked on social media, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News Digital in a statement that this was unacceptable. "Why is Hilton Hotels siding with murderers and rapists to deliberately undermine and impede DHS law enforcement from their mission to enforce our nation’s immigration laws?" she said in a statement.

The Hill [1/8/2026 2:23 PM, Sophie Brams, 12595K] reports that a Minnesota hotel accused by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) of refusing service to federal immigration officers will no longer participate in a government program that offers federal employees and military officers discounted room rates, according to the General Services Administration (GSA). The agency said it has removed the independently operated hotel, once part of Hilton Hotels, from all government lodging programs, citing the property’s recent decision to cancel upcoming reservations for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers and other DHS personnel. “After I was informed that a local Hilton property canceled rooms reserved for ICE, GSA immediately reviewed the matter and found the hotel to be in clear violation of its government lodging program requirements,” GSA Administrator Edward C. Forst said in a statement. “The property has been removed from the programs and booking tools effective immediately. GSA unequivocally supports our federal law enforcement partners,” he added. The GSA partners with lodging properties to provide federal employees traveling on official business with temporary, long-term or permanent accommodations at or below their daily allotment. “When officers attempted to book rooms using official government emails and rates, Hilton Hotels maliciously CANCELLED their reservations,” the department wrote. “This is UNACCEPTABLE. Why is Hilton Hotels siding with murderers and rapists to deliberately undermine and impede DHS law enforcement from their mission to enforce our nation’s immigration laws?” they added.

NBC News [1/8/2026 6:19 PM, Joe Murphy and Corky Siemaszko, 34509K] reports just a few hours after an ICE officer ignited nationwide outrage Wednesday by fatally shooting Renee Nicole Good on a snowy street in Minneapolis, U.S. Border Patrol agents clashed with teachers and protesters at a high school less than 3 miles from where the 37-year-old mom was killed. The Department of Homeland Security said it arrived at Roosevelt High School after a 5-mile car chase in pursuit of a suspect and were attacked by at least one teacher. Witnesses described a chaotic scene between the agents and students, school employees and members of the community. A local resident named Carol, who asked that her last name be withheld out of fear of retribution, said she and her grown daughter were driving home when suddenly “a caravan of SUVs sped past us and stopped at the entrance to Roosevelt High School.” “This is so upsetting,” Carol said Thursday as she tearfully recounted what she had witnessed. “All these men, who were fully armed, suddenly jumped out of the SUVs and started running towards the school.” School was being dismissed at the time, and hundreds of students were walking out of the building, she said. “Some of the teachers and school workers were trying to keep the Border Patrol away from the students, telling them to stay off school property,” she said. “They just pushed [the teachers] away. I saw one teacher get tackled.” While that was going on, Carol said, dozens of neighborhood residents spilled out of their homes. “They were blowing whistles and screaming at the Border Patrol people to get away from the school, get away from the students,” Carol said. “The agents started scuffling with the people.” In the midst of that, Carol said, she saw a Border Patrol commander, Gregory Bovino, dressed in camouflage like the agents, walk to one of the school’s entrances trailed by an agent who appeared to be recording him. “They were filming this whole thing like it was a reality TV show,” Carol said. “He was standing in the doorway and one of his men was filming him and he was looking at us with contempt, like we were not even human beings.” DHS said in a statement that it was at Roosevelt High School because a U.S. citizen who had rammed his car into a government vehicle while it was conducting “immigration enforcement operations” had led them on a 5-mile car chase that ended at the school. “While the subject was being removed from his vehicle, an individual who identified himself as a teacher proceeded to assault a border patrol agent,” DHS said in a statement. “While this was happening, a crowd began to form and grow—rioters threw objects and dispersed paint on the officers and their vehicles. Despite repeated warnings to cease, the crowd continued with their hostilities and assaults. Officers used targeted crowd control for the safety of law enforcement and the public. No tear gas was deployed.” The Minneapolis Federation of Teachers posted a statement on Facebook saying that an educator was arrested and released. And while DHS denied using tear gas, the union alleges that agents had deployed tear gas on people at the scene. “We will not tolerate ICE inhibiting our city’s youth from their constitutional right to attend school safely or inhibiting educators from doing their job,” the union said.

Reported similarly:
Bloomberg [1/8/2026 12:18 PM, Staff, 18207K] Video: HERE
The Hill [1/8/2026 10:30 AM, Lexi Lonas Cochran, 12595K]
USA Today [1/8/2026 2:12 PM, Michelle Del Rey, 67103K]
Blaze [1/8/2026 2:45 PM, Carlos Garcia, 1442K]

Axios [1/8/2026 2:49 PM, Mike Deehan, 12972K] reports activists across Massachusetts swiftly mobilized opposition to the Minneapolis ICE shooting this week, with demonstrations erupting in Boston and Worcester. Locals said they worry tensions between Massachusetts officials who back immigrant protections and federal enforcement agencies could lead to more ICE presence in metro Boston or a similar deadly incident. The Trump administration intensified its legal battle against Boston’s sanctuary policies this week, filing court documents arguing the city actively obstructs federal enforcement. Justice Department lawyers submitted a 28-page motion Tuesday opposing Boston’s attempt to dismiss a federal lawsuit challenging the city’s sanctuary policies. Federal prosecutors claim the sanctuary law enables deportable individuals to evade apprehension. Trump’s DOJ characterized Boston’s stance as "obstructionist" discrimination against federal immigration enforcement.

Univision [1/8/2026 8:52 AM, Staff, 5004K] reports hundreds of people took to the streets of Manhattan to express their outrage after the fatal shooting in Minneapolis, where an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen, during an immigration raid. The demonstration began in Foley Square and moved toward Federal Plaza in southern Manhattan, with chants of "We want ICE off our streets" and "No justice, no peace." Attendees demanded an end to immigration raids and a transparent investigation. "Many people have come out because they feel this outrage. We want to protect the right to protest and demand what we have been asking for months: that ICE leave our communities," said one of the protesters during the march. During the protest, several people questioned the budget allocated to immigration agencies. "We are here to demand that ICE be removed from our streets and communities. The money used for ICE could be used for many other things that benefit people," said another participant. Some protesters carried white flowers as a sign of mourning. Adriana, one of the attendees, was visibly affected by the case. "The truth is, my heart is broken. No one deserves to die like that, no one," she said as she held a bouquet of flowers. The protest in New York came after an ICE agent shot the woman during an immigration raid in Minneapolis, the capital of Minnesota. According to federal authorities, the woman allegedly attempted to run over an agent, so the shooting was classified as an act of self-defense. However, the mayor of Minneapolis described the incident as reckless and unnecessary, a position that has been supported by activists and civil rights organizations. "We all saw the video. It was not necessary to kill that woman. ICE now feels empowered by an administration that believes it has a mandate to crack down on immigrants," said one of the protesters in Manhattan. While a crowd held a vigil in Minneapolis in memory of the deceased woman, the protest in New York proceeded peacefully, under the watchful eye of the New York Police Department (NYPD). For approximately one hour, activists, representatives of community organizations, and elected officials took the stage to denounce immigration raids and warn of the impact of lethal force on vulnerable communities. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Breitbart [1/9/2026 2:41 AM, Paul Bois, 2416K] reports a crowd of protesters were heard chanting "Kristi Noem will hang" at Foley Square in New York City on Thursday. Video of the protest and the chants were shared to social media on Thursday, showing people waving anti-ICE signs while calling for violence against federal officials. As Breitbart News reported on Thursday, federal agents reportedly shot two people in Portland, Oregon, on Thursday afternoon, according to city leaders and local authorities. "Details were scant, but city officials announced that the police responded to a report of gunshots in southeast Portland at 2:18 p.m. Pacific Time," per New York Times. "Officers were told a man had been shot and was requesting help; the police found a man and a woman with gunshot wounds, according to a police press release.” The exact circumstances of the shooting remain unknown, but Mayor Keith Wilson said two were "shot and injured by federal agents.” Portland City Council president Elana Pirtle-Guiney said during a council meeting that the two shot are still alive. According to a statement from Homeland Security on X, the shooting occurred while two U.S. Border Patrol agents were conducting "a targeted vehicle stop in Portland, Oregon.” "The passenger of the vehicle and target is a Venezuelan illegal alien affiliated with the transnational Tren de Aragua prostitution ring and involved in a recent shooting in Portland," noted the DHS. "The vehicle driver is believed to be a member of the vicious Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.” "When agents identified themselves to the vehicle occupants, the driver weaponized his vehicle and attempted to run over the law enforcement agents," it continued. "Fearing for his life and safety, an agent fired a defensive shot. The driver drove off with the passenger, fleeing the scene. This situation is evolving and more information is forthcoming.” The shooting occurred days after ICE agents shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during an operation when she accelerated her vehicle while an agent was present in front.

FOX News [1/8/2026 8:01 PM, Asra Q. Nomani , Nikolas Lanum , Michael Dorgan, 40621K] reports socialist and communist protest groups ramped up their coordinated demonstrations in blue cities Thursday, escalating their anti-government messaging and vilifying Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem after the fatal shooting of a woman in Minneapolis. The groups, including the Democratic Socialists of America, the Party for Socialism and Liberation and The People’s Forum, rallied their members in New York City, Chicago and elsewhere, while the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, a self-described communist group, activated its members in cities from New Orleans to Minneapolis. The mobilization spawned demonstrations in multiple other cities, including Burlington, Vermont; Philadelphia; San Francisco; Seattle; Atlanta; and Washington, D.C. Protesters chanted "Killer Kristi!" at a demonstration in downtown Manhattan, where Noem announced the arrest of 54 alleged Dominican Trinitarios gang members. "Go to hell, Kristi Noem!" they yelled. Other groups, closely aligned with the Democratic Party, including Indivisible and 50501, supported anti-ICE protests around the nation. By late Thursday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a nonprofit that has led anti-Israel protests for years, joined the cacophony of anti-ICE denouncements, declaring, "This is state violence.” In New York, a crowd of about 300 people carried signs that said "ICE Cold Killers" and "ICE is Trump’s Gestapo.” The demonstrations followed the fatal shooting of anti-ICE protester Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer during an ICE enforcement operation in South Minneapolis Wednesday. Demonstrators accused the ICE agent of "cold-blooded murder," while Trump administration officials said he acted in self-defense after the woman drove her Honda Pilot SUV at him, threatening his life. Extremism experts are warning that the highly coordinated and choreographed demonstrations risk inciting violence against law enforcement and may be designed to manufacture the appearance of widespread chaos while advancing a coherent ideological agenda that exploits domestic flashpoints to destabilize the country. "I just wish the average American realized that there is a network of far-left agitators in America who are Marxist-Leninists, socialists, Maoists and even North Korean apologists," Stu Smith, a researcher at the Manhattan Institute with an expertise on domestic terrorism, told Fox News Digital. "As these ideologues say the issue is never the issue. It’s all about the revolution. After this terrible situation in Minneapolis, they used social media and their networks to mobilize and get on the streets to hurt America.” At Foley Square in New York, near local ICE offices, leaders from The People’s Forum, a nonprofit activist hub that has received funding from a tech billionaire, Neville Roy Singham, and has close ties to the Chinese Communist Party, stage-managed most of the day’s protest.

The AP [1/9/2026 12:01 AM, Rebecca Santana, Tim Sullivan, and Giovanna Dell’orto, 31753K] reports as anger and outrage spilled out onto Minneapolis’ streets Thursday over the fatal shooting of a woman the day before by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, a new shooting by federal officers in Oregon left two people wounded and elicited more scrutiny of enforcement operations across the U.S. Hundreds of people protesting the shooting of Renee Good marched in freezing rain at night down one of Minneapolis’ major thoroughfares, chanting “ICE out now” and holding signs saying, “killer ice off our streets.” Protesters earlier vented their outrage outside a federal facility that is serving as a hub for the administration’s latest immigration crackdown on a major city. The shooting in Portland, Oregon, took place outside a hospital in the afternoon. A man and woman were shot inside a vehicle, and their conditions were not immediately known. The FBI and the Oregon Department of Justice were investigating. Mayor Keith Wilson and the city council called on ICE to end all operations in the city until a full investigation is completed. Just as it did following the Minneapolis shooting, the Department of Homeland Security defended the actions of the officers in Portland, saying the incident occurred after a Venezuelan man with alleged gang ties and who was involved in a recent shooting tried to “weaponize” his vehicle to hit the officers. It was not yet clear if witness video corroborates that account. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, President Donald Trump and others in his administration have repeatedly characterized the Minneapolis shooting as an act of self-defense and cast Good as a villain, suggesting she used her vehicle as a weapon to attack the officer who shot her. Vice President JD Vance said the shooting was justified and Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was a “victim of left-wing ideology.” “I can believe that her death is a tragedy while also recognizing that it is a tragedy of her own making,” Vance said, noting that the officer who killed her was injured while making an arrest last June. But state and local officials and protesters rejected that characterization, with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey saying video recordings show the self-defense argument is “garbage.” FOX News [1/8/2026 2:16 PM, Anders Hagstrom, 40621K] reports that hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the Whipple Building in Minneapolis, rallying against the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good and increased immigration enforcement across the city. Federal authorities appeared to detain at least four protesters during the demonstration. Protesters were heard yelling "shame" at the officers and telling them to "go home." ICE was seen shooting pepper balls and deploying tear gas against the protesters as multiple scuffles broke out. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem defended the shooting in a Wednesday press conference just hours after her death. Noem told reporters that ICE agents repeatedly instructed the victim to get out of her car and stop "obstructing" law enforcement, but she did not comply. She added that Good had been "stalking and impeding" agents all day. Noem claimed the woman was trying to "weaponize her vehicle" and "attempted to run a law enforcement officer over." [Editorial note: consult video at source link] The Hill [1/8/2026 11:54 AM, Sarah Fortinsky, 12595K] reports protesters and law enforcement clashed outside a federal immigration building in Minneapolis Thursday, a day after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer fatally shot a 37-year-old woman, leaving the city on edge. Dozens of demonstrators gathered outside the building, which has served as a base for the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in the city, as they shouted at officers, saying, “Go home, Nazis,” ‘Justice now,” “No more ICE” and “Quit your job,” among other chants. Border Patrol agents pushed them back from the gate, firing smoke grenades in their direction to clear the area. “We should be horrified,” Shanta Hejmadi, one of the protesters, told The Associated Press. “We should be saddened that our government is waging war on our citizens. We should get out and say no. What else can we do?” The city has been on high alert since Wednesday morning, when an unidentified ICE agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, 37, in the head, as she appeared to be driving away from their efforts to remove her from the vehicle. Video shared online shows masked officers approaching a car sitting in the middle of the street. After the vehicle starts moving forward and accelerating, an officer is seen opening fire at the driver, who then veers into the side and crashes into other cars parked on the street. The shooting set off an immediate firestorm around the country, with some Democrats accusing the ICE agent of committing “murder” and many Republicans standing by the administration’s explanation that the agent acted in self-defense against “an act of domestic terrorism.”

New York Times [1/8/2026 5:46 PM, Zach Montague, Devlin Barrett, and Ashley Ahn, 153395K] reports Attorney General Pam Bondi warned protesters in Minnesota on Thursday not to obstruct or attack federal law enforcement, while other members of the Trump administration pushed baseless claims about the woman killed by an ICE agent, accusing her of “domestic terrorism.” In a social media post, Ms. Bondi, the nation’s top law enforcement official, noted that peaceful protest was a “sacred American right,” but she said anyone interfering with federal personnel or damaging federal property will be prosecuted, adding, “Do not test our resolve.” Speaking at the White House news briefing, Vice President JD Vance reiterated the administration’s line, which has been disputed by Minnesota officials, that Renee Nicole Good was trying to ram the agent with her car and the agent shot her in self-defense. A New York Times video analysis of the incident concluded that Ms. Good appeared to be turning away from the officer as he opened fire. Mr. Vance also repeated unestablished claims that Ms. Good was part of a “broader left wing network” that used “domestic terror techniques” to target federal agents. He called the media “agents of propaganda” for reports indicating that Ms. Good never put the ICE agent in danger before she was shot. And, without supporting evidence, he added that journalists were “actively covering for people who were committing acts of violence against federal law enforcement.” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem echoed that during a news conference in New York City. Specifically, Ms. Noem said officers “commanded” Ms. Good to get out of her vehicle “several times; she did not.” She said the shooter was “an experienced officer who followed his training” and the shooting was caused by “protesters and the violent criminals that were attacking our law enforcement.”

Reported similarly:
FOX News [1/8/2026 2:21 PM, Ashley Carnahan, 40621K]
NewsMax [1/8/2026 5:14 PM, Michael Katz, 4109K]

Telemundo 52 [1/8/2026 9:48 AM, Staff, 76K] reports that two consecutive demonstrations criticizing the fatal shooting of a woman by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent during an immigration operation in Minneapolis are scheduled for this morning in front of the Federal Building in downtown Minneapolis. At 9 a.m., a coalition of civil rights activists, led by Najee Ali, will demand the arrest of the agent who fired the shots Wednesday, killing 37-year-old Renee Good. A demonstration to “denounce” the shooting is scheduled for 10 a.m. It is organized by Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE Justice), which describes itself as an organization that brings together “religious and lay leaders of all faiths with the marginalized, the voiceless, and the least protected—low-wage workers and immigrants—in strategic campaigns for dignity, justice, and a more sacred and just society.” About 80 people gathered at Placita Olvera in downtown Los Angeles Wednesday night to protest against ICE, according to the Daily News. Organizers demanded that the agent who shot Good be charged with murder, the Daily News reported. Some participants carried signs reading “Stop ICE terror now!” and “ICE out of our communities,” according to the Daily News. Representative Robert Garcia, a Democrat from Long Beach, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, demanded an immediate investigation into the shooting.

San Diego Union Tribune [1/8/2026 11:28 PM, Alexandra Mendoza and Caleb Lunetta, 1538K] reports hundreds of people gathered during separate protests Thursday in front of the Edward J. Schwartz Federal Building in downtown San Diego to condemn the fatal shooting of a 37-year-old woman by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis. At a nighttime demonstration, more than 200 people filled the plaza, some holding signs that called for “Justice for Renee Nicole Good,” the mother-of-three who was killed, or demanded that “ICE get out of SD.” While cars and trucks driving by the scene honked to show their support, the crowd chanted: “Donald Trump, let’s be clear, immigrants are welcome here.” The demonstration, and another that drew more than 100 people earlier in the day, were among several across the country this week in response to the deadly use of force in Minnesota, where federal agents are carrying out a large deportation operation. Mairene Branham, president of Latinos en Accion, said that while the shooting happened in the Midwest, she warned similar violence could be coming to San Diego soon. “This is where this administration is heading, this is where we’re heading because we’re a border town,” Branham said during the evening protest. “We are responsible for what happens in this city. That’s why it’s important that San Diego also stands up.” Since late August, an array of community groups, including labor organizations, have held protests every Thursday morning outside the federal building, which houses an immigration court and local ICE offices, to voice their opposition to anti-immigrant policies. But on this Thursday morning, many in the crowd indicated by a raise of hands that it was their first time there. The death of Good, a U.S. citizen whose killing Wednesday was caught on video, has mobilized people in cities across the country. “We’re having a morning where we’re standing up against injustice, and standing for people who may not be able to stand for themselves,” Crystal Irving, president of Service Employees International Union 221, said at the morning protest. Pedro Ríos, director of the American Friends Service Committee’s U.S.-Mexico Border Program, said the morning protest was to address “the violent nature that ICE and Border Patrol operations are having in our communities.” Just minutes before the 11 a.m. protest began, an SEIU organizer was briefly detained and ticketed by federal officers for “parking on or adjacent to federal property in unauthorized locations.” Dan Shook-Castillo said that he was handcuffed for dropping off on a red curb water bottles for people attending the protest. An ICE spokesperson said Thursday that the agency “encourages Americans to exercise their Constitutional rights of free speech and peaceful assembly,” but warned peaceful protesters to remain cautious of “agitators fueled by unhinged rhetoric by activists and politicians.” “The vilification of the brave men and women in ICE law enforcement must STOP!” the statement added, saying ICE officers are facing an unprecedented increase in assaults and death threats.

The New York Times [1/8/2026 12:23 PM, Hamed Aleaziz and Madeleine Ngo, 135475K]
The Trump administration is deploying more than 100 U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents and officers to Minnesota from operations in Chicago and New Orleans after the fatal shooting of a 37-year-old woman, according to documents obtained by The New York Times. The Department of Homeland Security plans to pause operations in Chicago — where Gregory Bovino, a Border Patrol official, has led controversial arrest efforts — to support the immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota. Border Patrol officials also plan to send all nonlethal weapons housed in Chicago to Minnesota, according to the documents. The increased presence of Border Patrol agents is expected to last through the weekend, with a planned return to their cities on Sunday. The Department of Homeland Security declined to comment on the plans. The surge of Border Patrol agents in the Twin Cities comes as local officials have called on immigration officers to leave Minneapolis after the killing of Renee Nicole Good on Wednesday. The New York Times [1/8/2026 8:16 PM, Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, Mitch Smith, Jacey Fortin, 19051K] reports that disputes between Minnesota officials and the Trump administration intensified Thursday over a federal agent’s fatal shooting of a woman, after the state withdrew from the investigation into the incident because federal officials had denied it access to evidence. The death of Renee Nicole Good, 37, prompted furious demonstrations; protesters were met with tear gas at a federal building Thursday morning and at least 1,000 people gathered in south Minneapolis in the evening. Gov. Tim Walz activated the state’s National Guard “out of an abundance of caution,” according to his office, though the troops have not yet been deployed. Documents obtained by The New York Times suggested that at least 100 more federal agents were being deployed to Minnesota. Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis said in an interview on Thursday that the Trump administration would use any chaos as an opportunity to “occupy Minneapolis in some form.” “Our community members are not taking the bait,” he said. Officials have described the killing of Ms. Good in starkly different terms. She was killed on Wednesday during a protest on a residential street as federal agents ordered her to move her vehicle. NewsMax [1/8/2026 12:07 PM, Staff, 4109K] reports ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons said Thursday that agents briefly paused enforcement efforts after the shooting but have since resumed operations. "We’re going to keep doing the work," Lyons said.

Reported similarly:
Reuters [1/8/2026 12:47 PM, Staff, 19051K]

NewsNation [1/8/2026 12:59 PM, Jeff Arnold, Ali Bradley, and Brooke Shafer, 8017K] reports that U.S. Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino has arrived in Minneapolis in the wake of a 37-year-old woman was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer. NewsNation reported this week that Bovino would be leading a large-scale federal immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis that is slated to include up to 2,000 federal agents and officers. ICE officers arrived in Minnesota in early December, but more federal agents who worked under Bovino in previous enforcement operations were scheduled to arrive in Minneapolis this week. Bovino was present on Thursday at the scene of protests, which ramped up after Renee Nicole Macklin Good was shot and killed by an ICE officer on Wednesday. Bovino arrived in Minnesota on Wednesday and was seen patrolling streets with Border Patrol agents that same day. Bovino declined to comment on the fatal shooting when approached by NewsNation outside the federal building on Thursday. "We’re just protecting federal facilities and making sure that order remains as it should," Bovino told NewsNation. Asked if he supported the use of force used in Wednesday’s deadly shooting, Bovino replied, "No comment." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Wall Street Journal [1/8/2026 5:52 PM, Staff, 646K] reports the tragic killing of a 37-year-old woman in Minneapolis by a federal immigration agent is again showing America’s political leaders at their worst. In a rush to control the narrative, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem claimed the officer fired defensively to halt an “act of domestic terrorism.” Mayor Jacob Frey demanded that the feds “get the f— out of Minneapolis.” Each side sees what it wants in the bystander videos of the confrontation that are circulating. One story is that Renee Nicole Good disobeyed a clear order by police to “get out of the f— car,” with an officer reaching to try to open the driver’s side door. Instead she hit the gas and attempted to drive off. An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, standing near the front corner of her vehicle, fired the fatal shots while jumping out of the way. Another story is that the officer, identified in the press Thursday as Jonathan Ross, was never in real danger, since the footage shows the car’s wheels pointing away from him, and he wasn’t in the vehicle’s path when he fired. Three shots can be heard, yet photos show one bullet hole in the front windshield, suggesting the others may have entered the car from the side as it moved past. The uncomfortable reality is that these two sets of details aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive. It’s possible to believe Good was trying to escape from the agents—not “run them over and ram them,” as Ms. Noem alleged—and also to wonder whether the officer reasonably might have feared for his safety when the vehicle advanced. Mr. Ross reportedly received dozens of stitches last year after a fleeing car dragged him about 300 feet.

CNN [1/8/2026 4:11 PM, Aaron Blake, 18595K] reports videos emerged almost instantly of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent shooting and killing a motorist. But politicians and many Americans – those on social media, at least – quickly came to starkly different conclusions about what had happened and who was at fault. The scene Wednesday in Minneapolis has injected urgency into a debate over ICE and its controversial tactics. Americans have been quite skeptical of ICE for much of the past year. Now we have a flashpoint that could move or harden views about one of the most significant ways in which Trump has recast American society.

New York Times [1/8/2026 4:53 PM, Michelle Goldberg, 153395K] reports throughout Donald Trump’s second term, when he’s sent armed, masked ICE agents into cities, locals have tried to resist by organizing neighborhood watches, both to warn people that agents are coming and to document the arrests they make. Minneapolis, where this week ICE launched what its acting director called the “largest immigration operation ever,” was no different. Keith Ellison, Minnesota’s attorney general, told me that since ICE ramped up its operations in Minneapolis, it’s felt “like we are being inundated with a hostile paramilitary group that is mistreating, insulting, terrorizing our neighbors.” And the residents of Minneapolis have responded: “People have got their whistles, and they’ve got their little alert system to tell people ICE is in the neighborhood. They’ve been protesting. They’ve been out there trying to protect their neighbors.” Many of these people probably believed that even in Trump’s America, citizens still have inviolable liberties that allow them to stand up to the jacked-up irregulars who’ve descended on their communities. The civil rights of immigrants have been profoundly curtailed; even green card holders are on notice that this government may detain and deport them simply for protesting. But Americans — particularly, let’s be honest, white Americans — might have thought themselves immune from ICE abuses. The killing of Renee Nicole Good, a mother of three and widow of a military veteran, tests that assumption. ICE, said Ellison, is all but telling people, “‘You want to defend your neighbors, you’re going to do it at the risk of your own life.’ I think that’s the unmistakable message. Just looking at the tape, they could have said, ‘You get out of here,’ right? And then she gets out of there. They didn’t want her to get out of there. They wanted to either drag her out of that car or do what they did. And it was all about teaching lessons.” The lesson didn’t end with Good’s killing — the administration had to smear her afterward. As The New York Times reported, bystander footage filmed from several different angles shows that the agent who shot Good wasn’t in the path of her S.U.V. when he fired on her. That did not stop Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem from accusing Good of trying to run agents over in “an act of domestic terrorism.” Vice President JD Vance called her a “deranged leftist.”

Wall Street Journal [1/8/2026 5:16 PM, Kimberley A. Strassel, 646K] reports many months before Minnesota’s scandal exploded into national news, Sen. Tina Smith announced she wouldn’t seek re-election. The Democratic primary to replace her was shaping up as a high-profile battle for the party’s soul, national figures splitting to back their ideological horses. On one side, supporters of Rep. Angie Craig, a moderate Democrat. On the other, backers of an unalloyed progressive, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan. With Gov. Tim Walz exiting stage left, Republicans are wasting no time shifting attention to the other top official who sat idly while crooks looted at least $9 billion from the state’s welfare programs. “Peggy Flanagan is just as much of a failure as Tim Walz,” said Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer, the House majority whip. Adam Schwarze, a GOP Senate candidate and retired Navy SEAL, went further: “In the military, if your squad fails the mission, you certainly don’t get a promotion. Peggy Flanagan failed Minnesota by turning a blind eye to the fraud and abuse in our state. She should suspend her campaign for U.S. Senate.” She’ll find it hard to wiggle out of responsibility, especially as this history comes more to light. National headlines so far are focused on federal criminal charges that started in 2022 and center on the fraudulent Feeding Our Future program, a scam child-nutrition outfit. But Minnesota leaders were alerted to their state’s burgeoning welfare-fraud problem more than a decade ago. Mr. Walz and Ms. Flanagan were well aware of the explosive issue, and in fact promised to address it on taking office in 2019.

FOX News [1/8/2026 9:56 AM, David Marcus, 40621K] reports the buzz around Hollywood is that the new film "One Battle After Another," which features left-wing vigilantes triumphing over the evil American government, is set up to win a Best Picture Oscar. In Minneapolis Wednesday, we saw what happens when this silver screen fantasy meets the bloody reality of the actual world, where, during an altercation with ICE agents, 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good was shot and killed. Over the past day, various videos of the confrontation have been scrutinized as if they were the Zapruder film. What seems clear is that an officer was struck by Good’s car as she attempted to flee the scene, and he shot her through the windshield. What is less clear, at least to the critics of law enforcement, mainly on the left, is whether the officer in question could have used less deadly means in the situation. But the thorniness of that very issue is precisely why the anti-cop vigilante tactics used by Good are a terrible and deadly idea. In the leftist world of protesting, there are two basic methods. The first is known as indirect action, such as holding a sign, chanting or marching along a sanctioned route. The other method is direct action, which is basically anything that might get you arrested. According to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Good, along with others, including her wife, had spent the day impeding ICE officers who were doing their legal job. The purpose of Good and her comrades was to create confrontation with law enforcement, and that is exactly what happened. Nobody will ever know if Good intended to hit the officer with her car, or just panicked trying to get away. While it may feel viscerally like her death was too high a price to pay, these are the wages of direct action vigilantism.

Daily Wire [1/8/2026 12:54 PM, Matt Walsh, 2494K] reports whether we realize it or not, we all have a tendency to assume that "nothing ever happens." That’s the zoomer way of referring to a well-known phenomenon called "normalcy bias." Essentially, most people generally believe that life, as we know it, will continue, in more or less the same way, for the rest of our lives. We’ll learn about major, civilization-defining events in world history — like World War I, or the Revolutionary War — and we’ll assume that, well, history is history. Those kinds of events simply don’t happen anymore. "Nothing ever happens," as the saying goes. The idea of a new civil war, or a new world war, seems too distant and implausible to consider very seriously. We’re simply too advanced for that kind of thing. But the funny thing about World War I and the Revolutionary War — and most other conflicts throughout history — is that, at one point, they also seemed unthinkable. In fact, in 1909, someone named Norman Angell wrote a book called "The Great Illusion." The premise of the book — which became an international best-seller, and gained a massive following on college campuses — was that war was a thing of the past. Countries that were economically connected, he argued, would never fight major conflicts with one another, because they had too much to lose. At the time, everyone thought that the book made a really compelling point. No one took issue with it. War had been solved! And then, five years later, World War I began. Tens of millions of people died. I begin with this context because we are now trending, very clearly, towards a particularly brutal war that seemed unthinkable until recently. It’s increasingly evident that millions of people living in this country are so committed to an explicitly anti-American, post-national ideology that they cannot be reasoned with. Video evidence means nothing to them. They’re not interested in logic, laws, or decency. In some cases, they don’t even care about self-preservation. Their primary belief system revolves around a mixture of nihilism, irony, ghoulishness and intense jealousy and insecurity. And these millions of people are well-represented in government. They’re represented by politicians who are now openly threatening that they will start a new Civil War over the fact that the Trump administration is enforcing immigration laws that were passed in a free and open democratic fashion. Those politicians include Tim Walz, who’s obviously eager to distract from his involvement in a generational scheme to defraud taxpayers out of hundreds of millions of dollars.

USA Today [1/8/2026 6:45 PM, Nicole Russell, 67103K] reports my home state of Minnesota, a beautiful place full of hardworking, kind people, continues to be at the center of the national spotlight − and not for those good reasons. This time, it is due to the death of Renee Nicole Good on Jan. 7. She was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent as she appeared to attempt to drive through a group of ICE agents in her vehicle. Good, a mother of three, was a poet and a new resident of the North Star State. About 2,000 federal agents were deployed to Minneapolis on Jan. 6 as part of the Trump administration’s most recent immigration enforcement initiative. I am saddened and angry by what I am seeing unfold in Minnesota. After reviewing video clips, I think two things can be true at once: ICE must review this incident carefully to determine if lethal force was necessary. And Good appears to have purposefully driven into officers, violating the law by obstructing a federal enforcement operation, and faced an immediate, fatal consequence. I’m grieved to see the death of a mother, but I am also disappointed that neither Republican nor Democratic leaders − from President Donald Trump to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz − took a moment before issuing inflammatory, reactive remarks. I’m especially frustrated that Minnesota lawmakers immediately condemned ICE officers for attempting to restore law and order to Minneapolis. It seems like they learned little from the costly aftermath of George Floyd’s murder and are eager to whip up Minnesotans into a riotous state of reactive, angry people to defend their progressive ideology.

USA Today [1/8/2026 11:10 AM, Rex Huppke, 67103K] reports I watched the video of a mother being gunned down in her car by federal agents on a residential Minneapolis street and was told by my government to believe she was a domestic terrorist. Her name was Renee Nicole Good, and she was not, in any way, a domestic terrorist. According to The Associated Press, Good had three children, was a devout Christian and her ex-husband "had never known her to participate in a protest of any kind.” She was a 37-year-old mom born in Colorado – a poet, a daughter, a citizen keeping watch over our government’s actions – with a glove compartment overflowing with stuffed animals. She was, as her mother told The Minnesota Star Tribune, "one of the kindest people I’ve ever known.” I watched a video of the Jan. 7 incident unfold, saw Good’s obvious attempt to leave a chaotic scene involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, heard the sound of an agent’s gun firing and saw no reason for it. None. I read an evaluation of the video by an expert on police use of force quoted in The New York Times. Geoffrey Alpert of the University of South Carolina said: "The way you evaluate this is you look to see what’s the imminent threat to life, and there is none. She’s leaving.” If that agent kept his gun holstered, nothing bad was going to happen. Three children would still have their mother, a mother would still have her daughter, a family wouldn’t be mourning and the world would have continued as a better place with Good in it. But I was told by the Trump administration that she was going to kill people. That her vehicle was a weapon. That she was likely trained by some nefarious others. And I knew it was bull----. Because I have eyes. Because I watched different videos of the shooting and saw what actually happened and felt my stomach clench and anger well up in my throat, knowing the government – my government, our government – was lying shamelessly. Trump and Republicans blame the victim in Minneapolis killing. A federal agent shot and killed a woman on a street in America, then the president and his head of homeland security and assorted members of his increasingly soulless political party didn’t have the basic human decency to muster a gram of empathy. They went straight to lying, defaming and attacking. President Donald Trump swiftly posted about the video on social media: "The woman screaming was, obviously, a professional agitator, and the woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self defense. Based on the attached clip, it is hard to believe he is alive, but is now recovering in the hospital.” There’s video footage of the incident, and nothing Trump said is true. The officer who shot Good is on video walking away, showing no sign of injury.

CBS News [1/8/2026 5:50 PM, Megan Cerullo, 39474K] reports Avelo Airlines said that it will no longer carry out migrant deportation flights for the Department of Homeland Security, ending a contract that supported the U.S. government’s immigration enforcement efforts. The Houston-based carrier, founded in 2021, said its deal to handle Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation flights did not sufficiently boost the airline’s financial position. As a result, the low-cost carrier is shutting down its hub at Mesa Gateway Airport in Phoenix, where its migrant flight operation was based, the company said in a statement to CBS News. DHS has long partnered with CSI Aviation, which subcontracted with Avelo to provide ICE with air charter services. The federal agency also subcontracts with other charter companies, including GlobalX, which handles roughly 70% of DHS’ flights, according to Tom Cartwright of Witness at the Border, an activist group monitoring ICE operations. "ICE never contracted directly with Avelo Airlines," DHS said in a statement to CBS News. "ICE will continue to utilize its contracted service provider, which works with multiple airlines to support the American people’s mandate for mass deportations of criminal illegal aliens." The Houston Chronicle [1/8/2026 5:38 PM, Julián Aguilar, 2983K] reports Avelo’s CEO, Andrew Levy, told employees the move to work with the federal government "provided short-term benefits" but did not provide sustained revenue, CNBC reported, citing an email sent to employees. The company’s agreement with the federal government sparked protests outside its Houston headquarters last May. It’s unclear how many deportation flights the company conducted.

Reported similarly:
The Hill [1/8/2026 12:58 PM, Juliana Lepore and Michael Bartiromo, 12595K]

FOX News [1/8/2026 6:47 PM, Bonny Chu, 40621K] reports the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced Thursday that ICE agents reported an "unprecedented increase" of 3,200% in vehicular attacks over the past year, leading up to Wednesday’s incident in which an ICE officer shot and killed a driver during a protest in Minneapolis. The data, which cite multiple instances in which attackers used their cars to ram law enforcement, sometimes causing injuries, suggest that Wednesday’s shooting is just one of numerous incidents officers have faced over the past year. Along with the rise in vehicular attacks, authorities also saw more than a 1,300% increase in assaults and an 8,000% increase in death threats toward ICE agents, according to DHS. DHS said the increase in attacks has been spurred by "radical rhetoric by sanctuary politicians," citing Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who called for ICE to "get the f--- out of Minneapolis" after Wednesday’s shooting. "Sanctuary politicians have created an environment that encourages rampant assaults on law enforcement," DHS said. Since Jan. 21, 2025, ICE officers experienced 66 car attacks, compared with just two during the same period the previous year, resulting in a 3,200% increase. During the first year of the second Trump administration, from Jan. 20, 2025, to Dec. 31, 2025, DHS officials reported 275 assaults, up from 19 during the same period in 2024. "This is a horrific 1,347% increase in assaults against ICE officers," DHS said. Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin blamed sanctuary leaders for the violence, arguing that their rhetoric "demonizes our law enforcement" officers, who are targeting criminal illegal immigrants in the U.S. "This unprecedented increase in violence against law enforcement is a direct result of sanctuary politicians and the media creating an environment that demonizes our law enforcement and encourages rampant assaults against them. Dangerous criminals — whether they be illegal aliens or U.S. citizens — are assaulting law enforcement and turning their vehicles into weapons to attack law enforcement," McLaughlin said in a statement. "Still, the brave men and women of DHS will not be deterred and will continue arresting the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens. Anyone who attacks law enforcement will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.” DHS said Secretary Kristi Noem’s message is clear: "You will not stop or slow us down. ICE and our federal law enforcement partners will continue to enforce the law. And if you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer, you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

Reported similarly:
New York Post [1/8/2026 3:12 PM, Chris Nesi and Anna Young, 42219K]

New York Times [1/8/2026 1:35 AM, Hamed Aleaziz, 135475K] reports that, weeks before the fatal shooting of a driver in Minneapolis by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, officials at ICE warned agents on the ground to remain vigilant about protesters and be “prepared to take appropriate and decisive action should you be faced with an imminent threat.” The Dec. 12 email noted an increase in protest activity and threats against officers, and contained a reminder to “maintain a heightened sense of awareness of your surroundings.” It included a reminder to call 911 in an emergency. “I have full faith and confidence that each of you possess the training and knowledge to exercise the appropriate response,” said the note, signed by Marcos Charles, head of Enforcement and Removal Operations for ICE. The stark counsel, delivered to all agency deportation staff members from a leading ICE official, underscores the atmosphere of alarm that has pervaded the agency over increasingly hostile protests as the Trump administration has stepped up immigration enforcement in cities. Protesters have yelled expletives, blown whistles, thrown snowballs and blocked ICE vehicles as officers hunted down those with deportation orders, or questioned those believed to be unlawfully in the country. Officers have at times responded violently. The Minnesota woman who was killed on Wednesday, Renee Nicole Good, 37, was a U.S. citizen who had been in her vehicle in a residential area where protesters had gathered to oppose the presence of ICE agents. Federal officials said she was part of the protest and had tried to ram the officer when he fired into the car, killing her. But a New York Times analysis of bystander videos found that her car appeared to be turning away at the time of the shooting, and local officials have called the official narrative false. “We’ve been warning for weeks that the Trump administration’s dangerous, sensationalized operations are a threat to our public safety, that someone was going to get hurt,” Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, a Democrat, said at a news conference on Wednesday. He added that “today, that recklessness cost someone their life.” Another shooting took place on Thursday, when U.S. Border Patrol agents trying to stop a vehicle in Portland, Ore., opened fire after a driver tried to run over agents, a Homeland Security Department spokeswoman said in a statement. Federal authorities have issued numerous warnings to ICE personnel in recent months about the increasingly tense protests and other threats they face from those opposing their efforts. “We are living in a time of heightened threats, some of which are direct, deliberate and deeply concerning,” read a Nov. 10 email to deportation staff viewed by The Times.

NPR [1/9/2026 4:40 AM, Steve Inskeep, 34837K] reports U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement hired over 12,000 officers and reduced training time to aid with deportation efforts. Steve Inskeep speaks with a homeland security expert about that training. [Editorial note: consult audio at source link]

New York Times [1/8/2026 3:21 PM, Karoun Demirjian, 135475K] reports President Trump voiced frustration with his administration for targeting highly skilled workers in his immigration crackdown, revealing stark differences with Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff and domestic policy architect, on immigration. Mr. Trump said in an Oval Office interview with New York Times reporters that he was “not happy” about a September raid that detained 475 workers, mostly from South Korea, who were building a Hyundai plant in Georgia. Mr. Trump argued that foreigners attempting to expand U.S. operations in globally competitive sectors would be dissuaded by such hostile treatment. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 475 people in the raid. “You have to allow them to bring some of their experts with them or they’re never going to be able to open their plant or factory,” he said of foreign companies in specialized industries that were looking to operate in the United States. “They brought people that make batteries,” he added about the Hyundai raid. “And those people would have trained our people how to make batteries, and at some point they would have gone back because they want to go back to their country.” While Mr. Trump presented his views as business-minded pragmatism, they contrasted sharply with those espoused by Mr. Miller, who has called for limiting immigration across the board, with few exceptions for highly skilled workers in competitive sectors. When asked if that meant he disagreed with Mr. Miller, Mr. Trump did not criticize his aide personally, calling Mr. Miller “a very strong voice” in his administration. “He feels that people who come into our country should be able to love our county and be able to contribute,” Mr. Trump said of Mr. Miller, skipping over Mr. Miller’s hard-line approach to immigrants, including naturalized citizens, and their children. While much of Mr. Miller’s efforts have focused on deporting immigrants without legal authorization to be in the United States, he also has pushed for the Trump administration to significantly limit the distribution of skilled worker visas and green cards, arguing they pose a threat to U.S.-born workers. Earlier this year, Mr. Miller also set a target of 3,000 immigration arrests per day, which some have cited as a factor in driving I.C.E. to conduct large-scale workplace raids like the one that rounded up the Hyundai workers in Georgia.

Washington Examiner [1/8/2026 2:20 PM, David Zimmermann, 1394K] reports former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot launched an independent initiative on Thursday to document the alleged abuse of power by federal immigration officers in response to the Trump administration’s "Operation Midway Blitz" in the Windy City. The new initiative, dubbed the "ICE Accountability Project," aims to hold officers working for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection accountable during the Chicago immigration operation. In pursuit of that goal, the project’s website will keep a centralized, public archive to collect incidents involving allegedly reckless actions conducted by federal officers. Lightfoot said information about such incidents is scattered, making it more difficult for the public to keep track. "We aim to preserve evidence, to facilitate transparency and accountability," she said at a press conference on Thursday morning. "We also intend to unmask those agents who have been alleged to have committed crimes or to have engaged in other unlawful conduct.” The announcement comes one day after an ICE-involved shooting left one woman dead in Minneapolis. Lightfoot started the press conference by invoking the death of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, who was fatally shot in her vehicle by an ICE officer after she struck him with her SUV. The former mayor revealed the initiative will only target officers conducting potentially unlawful actions, not those who are fulfilling their oaths. "Our project is focused instead on those federal immigration agents who cross the line, who have violated residents’ rights, and believe that they are above the law," she said. "Those agents who have allegedly committed homicide, shootings, use excessive force, and indiscriminate use of chemical agents, or projectiles like pepper balls, and other actions against peaceful protesters.” In September 2025, ICE launched Operation Midway Blitz to begin detaining illegal immigrants in Chicago en masse. The operation has resulted in more than 4,500 arrests, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Lightfoot left office in May 2023. She was succeeded by Mayor Brandon Johnson, who remains opposed to the Trump administration’s hard-line immigration agenda.

Reported similarly:
Chicago Tribune [1/8/2026 4:38 PM, Rebecca Johnson, 4829K]

NewsMax [1/8/2026 1:03 PM, Theodore Bunker, 4109K] reports that Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., on Newsmax on Thursday accused Democrats of fueling hostility toward federal immigration officers, saying rhetoric targeting Immigration and Customs Enforcement has led to a surge in assaults and threats against agents and contributed to a deadly confrontation now under investigation. Speaking during an interview with "National Report," Britt, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said ICE officers are carrying out the law and should not be vilified by elected officials. Her comments came after a shooting in Minneapolis involving an ICE agent and a woman who died after a confrontation during an enforcement action. "This is a tragic situation," Britt said. "Any loss of life is something that we all mourn." She added that Democrats "have to assume responsibility for creating an environment that should have never existed." Britt said criticism of law enforcement has been building for years and has intensified in recent months as immigration enforcement has increased. She pointed to rhetoric that likens ICE officers to Nazis or a Gestapo-style force, arguing such language emboldens people to resist officers in dangerous ways. The shooting has prompted sharp criticism from Democrats, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., who said there was "no evidence that has been presented to justify the shooting of an unarmed woman" and called for a criminal investigation of the agent involved. Jeffries also questioned the credibility of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

FOX News [1/8/2026 12:19 PM, Peter D’Abrosca, 40621K] reports in the wake of an ICE shooting that killed a woman in Minneapolis on Wednesday, academics have joined the chorus of left-wing radicals seeking to abolish the federal law enforcement agency. "Abolishing ICE is the moderate position," said Victor Ray, an associate professor of sociology, criminology and African American studies at the University of Iowa. In another social media post, Ray referred to the shooting, which killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, as a "murder." Nobody has been charged with murder in the case. He also reposted an inflammatory message from "Jeopardy!" host Ken Jennings, who said, "The ‘prosecute the former regime at every level’ candidate has my vote in 2028.” At George Washington University, associate professor David Karpf of the school’s media and public affairs department, trashed the United States in the wake of the shooting. "Most days, it doesn’t really feel like this country is gonna make it," he said on Bluesky. "Today it doesn’t feel like it deserves to.” In response to a story by Minnesota Public Radio, which quoted federal agents as saying the ICE officer who shot Good was "fearing for his life," Karpf replied, "Let him tell that s--- to a jury and then rot in prison for the rest of his life.” He also reposted Jennings’ call to prosecute "the former regime" after President Donald Trump leaves office. "I watched a video of government agents murdering a woman. It left me feeling shocked and sad, and I expressed that shock and sadness," Karpf told Fox News Digital. "I think enforcement of immigration law should not include government agents murdering unarmed citizens.” When prompted whether "murder" was the proper term, given that nobody has been charged with murder, Karpf clarified. "I watched what appeared to me to be a government agent murdering a woman. It left me feeling shocked and sad," he said.

New York Post [1/8/2026 2:36 PM, Emily Crane, 42219K] reports that a slew of Democrats have been dramatically arrested for allegedly trying to block ICE agents or wreak havoc at protests ever since the Trump administration started cracking down on illegal immigrants across the country. From elected officials in New York City to senators in California, the handful of lefty names have been hellbent on causing a scene in a bid to thwart Trump’s agenda. In the wake of the deadly Minneapolis ICE shooting, liberals were quick to blame Republicans for fueling the violence that led to the female protester, Renee Nicole Good, being fatally shot by a federal agent. Brad Lander was dramatically arrested at a federal immigration courthouse in Manhattan in June last year after he attempted to intervene as masked federal agents were intercepting an immigrant leaving a hearing. Chaotic video, which was widely ripped at the time as a political stunt, captured the failed mayoral candidate demanding to judicial warrant before being cuffed on charges of assaulting law enforcement and impeding a federal officer. After spending several hours in custody, he was cut loose and the charges were dropped. Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) was hit with a federal assault charge last spring for allegedly assaulting ICE agents during a skirmish at one of the Garden State’s immigration detention centers. McIver was among several elected officials, including Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who were nabbed while trying to gain access to Delaney Hall, a 1,000-bed facility, during the rowdy protests in May. Senator Alex Padilla was booted out of a Los Angeles news briefing last June as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem discussed the ongoing anti-ICE riots that were engulfing the city.

Washington Post [1/9/2026 5:00 AM, Douglas MacMillan, 24149K] reports the latest movement to resist President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda didn’t announce itself with protest signs, chanted slogans or bullhorns. It arose inside a dimly lit assembly room in this Republican stronghold 45 miles east of Atlanta, where residents voiced their anger over a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement plan to convert a local warehouse into one of the nation’s largest immigrant detention centers. “I’m supportive of the president, but I don’t particularly want this,” Victor Crawley, 57, said in an interview following the town-hall discussion. The city learned about the plans from a recent report in The Washington Post, but has heard nothing from federal officials. Crawley, like many at the Tuesday night gathering, doesn’t see the logic in his small town of 5,000 people being saddled with a massive facility holding up to 9,000 migrants at a time, as outlined in an internal ICE document. Social Circle’s water and sewer systems are already near capacity. The town usually has only two to three police officers on duty. And residents have raised concerns that the warehouse most likely to be used for the project is a 20-minute walk from the town’s elementary school. The frustrations in Social Circle reflect the confusion and unease in many of the 23 towns and cities across the country where the administration plans to convert warehouses into immigrant detention centers. A draft solicitation the federal government prepared for potential contractors suggests that these facilities would have capacity for 1,500 to 10,000 people each. ICE says in its internal document that it aims to create a streamlined system of processing centers that will feed into large-scale warehouses where people will be prepared for deportation. Currently, immigrants are shuffled between more than 200 facilities across the country based mainly on where bed space is available, according to interviews with former ICE officials. But the government has not yet publicly confirmed any details about the project, including how it selected the cities on the list, whether it plans to buy or lease the industrial buildings and how quickly it plans to convert them into detention centers capable of housing people. Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, said in an email that the department has “no new detention centers to announce at this time” but that the planned projects “are not warehouses — they are detention facilities.” “While we cannot get into contract specifics, Secretary [Kristi L.] Noem has stated that she is willing to work with officials on both sides of the aisle to expand detention space to help ICE law enforcement carry out the largest deportation effort in American history,” McLaughlin said.

FOX News [1/8/2026 3:53 PM, Alexandra Koch, 40621K] reports Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey on Thursday demanded that two private airline companies stop providing flights for ICE to quickly remove illegal immigrants who have been detained, citing the recent ICE-involved shooting in Minneapolis. In a letter to top executives of GlobalX Airlines and Eastern Air Express, Healey criticized the companies for "sever[ing illegal immigrants] from their family, friends, community, and legal counsel without due process of law." Healey also alleged the Trump administration’s use of private jets for ICE activity is costing taxpayers, while private airlines profit. The letter comes after Healey demanded that ICE halt ICE flights out of Hanscom Field airport, which is located roughly 20 miles outside Boston in Bedford, Massachusetts.

FOX News [1/8/2026 12:43 PM, Hanna Panreck, 40621K] reports that Gov. Kathy Hochul, D-N.Y., said Thursday she had previously told an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in New York that they were "terrorizing people" after questioning why the officer was wearing a mask. Hochul was asked on MS NOW’s "Morning Joe" about the fatal shooting in Minneapolis that occurred Wednesday during an ICE enforcement operation in the city. "I have a lot of respect for law enforcement — tremendous respect — but I’ve asked an ICE agent, ‘Why are you wearing the mask?’ When I was down there at the 26 Federal Plaza, I said, ‘Why do you wear the mask?’" Hochul told the hosts. "No other law enforcement does this. Our police don’t do it, our FBI agents don’t do it," she said. "‘Why are you doing this?’ And they said, ‘Because we get doxxed, our family gets harassed, etc.’ I said, ‘Why do you think you are more than anybody else?’" Hochul said she admonished the ICE agent. "You’re just trying to scare people, you’re terrorizing people yourselves, and I don’t want to see that. So we don’t need that here," she said. The governor said New York was doing fine and said she was trying to prevent efforts to "militarize" their streets. "They never should have been in Minneapolis in the first place, that’s the catalyst for this," she said. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Politico [1/8/2026 2:42 PM, Nick Reisman, 13586K] reports Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul wants expanded legal options for New Yorkers negatively impacted by President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement efforts — and is poised to push for them in the coming days. “Let’s start holding these people accountable,” Hochul said Thursday morning during an appearance on MSNOW’s “Morning Joe.” The governor is expected to propose a measure that would enable New Yorkers to file lawsuits in state court against federal officials accused of violating a person’s constitutional rights — a plan she’s expected to formally detail in her State of the State address next week. Similar bills have been introduced in the Democratic-dominated state Legislature in response to Trump’s push to significantly expand deportations. “New Yorkers who have had their constitutional rights violated because of an ICE agent — whether you’re a member of the media who was beaten up or someone whose business has been ransacked because the ICE agents come in and make them lose money or someone whose mother is murdered — they would have recourse against these individuals,” Hochul said. The proposal is being weighed after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed a mother in Minneapolis when a group of people gathered to protest an enforcement operation. Outraged Democrats across the country condemned the incident while Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem accused the woman of committing “an act of domestic terrorism.” Noem, who was in New York City on Thursday to tout immigration enforcement efforts there, announced the arrests of 54 people allegedly linked to the Manhattan shooting of an off-duty Customs and Border Patrol officer in July. She warned people not to confront officers. “If you lay a finger on one of our officers, we will catch you, we will prosecute you, and you will feel the full extent of the law,” Noem said. Hochul in her TV appearance blasted the death of the Minnesota woman, identified as 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good. “I’m so sickened as a mom that there’s a child that woke up yesterday, a 6-year-old, who had a loving mother and goes to bed an orphan,” Hochul said. “I’ll tell you, I’m going to defend rights — at least in New York.”

CBS Pittsburgh [1/8/2026 7:00 PM, Chris Hoffman, 39474K] reports Pittsburgh Mayor Corey O’Connor said the city will continue not to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations. One day after an ICE officer fatally shot a woman in south Minneapolis, O’Connor told KDKA he doesn’t want the city helping with ICE operations. He called the shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good a "tragedy.” "If you’re coming from another country, we want Pittsburgh to be your home. We want to be welcoming. We know that we can grow our population by more people moving here," Mayor O’Connor, a Democrat, said. Not working with the federal agency is not the response the City of Pittsburgh Republican Committee wanted to hear. Chairman Todd McCollum argued the city can’t ignore federal law. "This is just silly. You can’t à la carte what laws you’re going to pick and choose to enforce," McCollum said. The committee agreed that Wednesday’s death was a tragedy, but McCollum said the mayor’s rhetoric contributes to people clashing with ICE agents. He added that there was a deadly hit-and-run last year by an undocumented immigrant in the Pittsburgh area. "These broad statements are emboldening people to stand up against legal law enforcement activities," McCollum said.

CBS Baltimore [1/8/2026 7:41 PM, Mike Hellgren, 39474K] reports a Baltimore mother is back home with her family in Maryland, 25 days after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents detained her in the city. Dulce Consuelo Diaz Morales, 22, said she was born in the United States, and her lawyers presented her birth certificate and immunization records as proof. But the government has yet to back down, and the case remains open. Diaz Morales spent the holidays in ICE facilities across the country, including in Maryland, Louisiana, Texas, and New Jersey. On Wednesday, her lawyers finally got the call they had been seeking. "Dulce is being released. We’ve been driving, actually, for about 2 and a half hours because we suspected it was going to happen, and we wanted to be there to make sure that she was processed correctly and actually got out," her lawyer, Victoria Slatton, said in a TikTok video. Slatton’s law firm later posted a picture of Diaz Morales smiling after her release from a government facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey. "I’m one of the attorneys who has been working with her most while she was detained. I’ve been the most in direct communication with her," lawyer Zachary Perez told WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren. "I can definitely say that there is a palpable sense of relief, but there’s a lot of apprehension as well because the situation has not been resolved.” Perez told Hellgren his client has always been "firm in her truth" about her U.S. citizenship. In a prior statement to WJZ, a Department of Homeland Security official insisted Diaz Morales’ birth certificate is not valid and that Diaz Morales provided no other proof of citizenship.

Reported similarly:
Univision [1/8/2026 5:58 PM, Staff, 5004K]

Washington Post [1/8/2026 9:48 AM, Jenny Gathright, 24149K] reports that a D.C. Council committee slammed Mayor Muriel E. Bowser’s administration Thursday for what it said was a failure to level with residents about police cooperation with federal immigration enforcement efforts.Bowser (D) and public safety officials have repeatedly stressed that D.C. police do not enforce immigration laws or initiate immigration investigations. Still, citing resident testimony and media reports, the council’s public works and operations committee, chaired by Brianne K. Nadeau (D-Ward 1), issued a blistering report that accused the administration of allowing police officers to patrol with immigration authorities and refusing to clarify the extent of the city’s cooperation with deportation efforts. The committee’s most significant finding, Nadeau said in an interview, was that residents have lost trust in their police department as a result of perceived coziness with immigration authorities. Nadeau, whose committee oversees the office of human rights — which she said gave her jurisdiction over the matter — said those perceptions would cause immigrants to fear police, who had previously assured residents that reporting a crime would not lead to deportation. “It took generations to build that trust,” Nadeau said, “and it is now going to take generations to rebuild it.” At a news conference Thursday — the day after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot a woman in Minneapolis — Bowser declined to comment on the D.C. Council report but said outrage about ICE activity should be directed toward the federal government, not the city. “You could ask me a thousand questions, you could send a thousand questions to the chief about ICE,” she said. “ICE is patrolling American cities. If we don’t want that, the Congress has to stop funding ICE, because thousands of agents who are untrained to police urban environments are on our streets. That’s where the questions should be placed.” D.C. lawmakers have been pursuing answers from Bowser’s administration and the police about the extent of their collaboration with federal immigration agents over the past six months, as ICE boosted its presence in the city and the Trump administration urged D.C.’s government to comply with their aggressive deportation agenda. While Bowser administration officials have stressed that immigration enforcement is not a local police goal, they have repeatedly declined to explain why D.C. police have been present during stops that led to deportations. The committee acknowledged that Bowser had been put in a difficult position under President Donald Trump, who often retaliates against politicians who provoke his ire. Still, the report urged Bowser and D.C. police to roll back policies that opened the door to more collaboration with federal immigration agents, and called on them to be more transparent about what kinds of cooperation have transpired.

CBS News [1/8/2026 11:27 AM, Dan Raby, 39474K] reports a New York man has pleaded guilty to threatening the wife of a Georgia ICE deportation officer. Ronkonkoma resident Anthony Noto was indicted on charges of knowingly transmitting a threat to injure on Instagram in September 2025. Authorities say Noto posted a comment on a Tennessee resident’s Instagram that revealed identifying information about the officer and the officer’s wife. "Anybody wanna test the sites [sic] on their new A-R? There’s a pretty good target right there," Noto wrote, according to officials. Noto was tried in Georgia because the agent and his wife lived in the northern part of the state. "Threatening to harm a federal agent’s spouse, child, or other loved one is inexcusable, outrageous, and illegal," said U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg. "Through swift and aggressive prosecution, my office will bring to justice anyone who commits or threatens violence against federal agents and their families.” Noto’s is scheduled to be sentenced on April 16.

Axios [1/8/2026 8:42 AM, Chelsea Brasted, 12972K] reports Louisiana is paying — and getting federal reimbursement for — a $949,000 monthly fee to house hundreds of immigration detainees at Angola prison, according to public records Axios New Orleans obtained. Why it matters: The contract with a corrections operator from the northern part of the state offers the most extensive look yet into how Louisiana operates a federal detention facility on the grounds of the nation’s largest maximum security prison. Catch up quick: Louisiana is already one of the largest players in the Trump administration’s massive immigration detention and deportation strategy. But its role grew larger last summer when Gov. Jeff Landry announced the state would start using a then-defunct facility within the Louisiana State Penitentiary, also known as Angola, to house Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees. The strategy had already been deployed elsewhere, including in Florida’s Alligator Alcatraz and Indiana’s Speedway Slammer. State and federal officials celebrated the opening of the Angola facility, dubbed "Louisiana Lockup," in September. State of play: The Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections contracted with LaSalle Corrections on Aug. 29, 2025, to operate the facility for up to two years. The contract outlines an arrangement made possible by a separate agreement between the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the state Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness empowering DPSC with facility management for immigration detention. Axios did not obtain a copy of that agreement.

CBS News [1/8/2026 11:31 PM, Lexi Salazar, Ken Molestina, Katie Standing, 39474K] reports nearly a year into his presidency, Donald J. Trump has taken significant action to follow through on his campaign promise of ramping up deportations. One part of his strategy has involved deputizing some local and state police forces through a decades-old federal program. The job of enforcing immigration laws has typically been the responsibility of federal law enforcement agencies. However, since 1996, state and local law enforcement agencies, like police departments and sheriff’s offices, have been able to partner with the Department of Homeland Security to conduct some of those immigration enforcement duties through a voluntary program called 287(g). The program gives deputies or officers with state and local departments the authority to carry out some immigration duties, either in the field or in jails. While the program isn’t new, it’s dramatically grown in Texas over the past 12 months. In December of 2024, there were 26 total 287(g) agreements in Texas. As of last month, there were 254. That number will only grow this upcoming year. A state law passed last legislative session requires nearly all county sheriffs to enter into a 287(g) agreement. Counties must be in compliance by Dec. 1. The program has come under scrutiny, with immigration activists worried it leads to racial profiling and can drain police resources. Dallas Police Chief Daniel Comeaux cited that concern during a city council meeting last November, when he explained his decision to reject a $25 million offer from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to enroll in the program. "You take 250 officers away from patrol, it would hurt us really bad," said Comeaux at the time. "Call times would skyrocket.” But those enrolled say there are misconceptions about the program. "No one is raiding schools or churches," said Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourne. Tarrant County has been enrolled in the jail model of 287(g) for years. "They are going after selected targets that are criminal." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CBS Colorado [1/8/2026 7:42 PM, Staff, 39474K] Video: HERE reports a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit is yielding new details about how Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on detention capacity in Colorado. "We’re still trying to pry the documents from ICE’s hands," said Timothy Macdonald, Legal Director for the American Civil Liberties of Colorado. For months, the ACLU of Colorado has been working to obtain details about how ICE intends to spend taxpayer funds to detain more people in the state. Although new documents are heavily redacted, they show the private prison company GEO Group that operates the detention center in Aurora was approved for a $39 Million contract to operate a facility in Hudson, Colorado for six months. ICE is referring to that facility as the Big Horn Correctional Facility. The documents show that GEO was awarded a sole source contract to operate Big Horn.

CBS San Francisco [1/8/2026 6:24 PM, Carlos E. Castañeda, 39474K] reports additional protests were organized in the Bay Area on Thursday in reaction to the deadly shooting in Minnesota involving a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent. Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three and U.S. citizen, was shot and killed by an ICE officer in Minneapolis on Wednesday. The killing, captured on video by multiple witnesses, has sparked national outcry against the agency and the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policies. Hours after the shooting, hundreds of protesters rallied in San Francisco outside ICE offices downtown, and later a march was held in the city’s Mission District. In Oakland, another protest was held in the city’s Fruitvale neighborhood. There were no arrests reported in any of the protests. On Thursday morning, protesters held a press conference in San Jose outside a local union office building, calling for the end of ICE operations in Bay Area neighborhoods and independent investigations into all violent acts involving ICE. Later Thursday, more protests were planned in Pleasanton at Delucchi Park in the city’s downtown area, and in Brentwood, where participants were set to march along an overpass above state Highway 4. ICE and the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have defended the fatal shooting, with Noem claiming Good’s actions before she was shot constituted a "domestic act of terrorism" and that the shooting was in self-defense.

Breitbart [1/8/2026 11:09 AM, John Binder, 2416K] reports Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX) and Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) are introducing legislation that will codify into law a fortified "public charge" rule to prevent welfare-dependent legal immigrants from resettling in the United States. The legislation known as the Public Charge Clarification Act of 2025, shared exclusively with Breitbart News, would put into law the Trump administration’s original public charge rule, which enforced inadmissibility statutes of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) to ensure legal immigrants prove their ability to be self-sufficient before securing green cards. The Biden administration, in 2022, watered down the rule by exempting the use of taxpayer-funded benefits from being considered when a legal immigrant is seeking to resettle in the U.S. Nehls told Breitbart News the legislation is critical to ensure another administration cannot come along and strip the public charge rule of all enforcement mechanisms. "The Biden Administration not only scrapped President Trump’s effective border security policies, which kept the American people safe from illegal aliens coming from all corners of the world, but also altered policies that safeguarded public benefits meant for American citizens, to allow for foreign nationals to drain these vital resources and encouraged dependency on these programs," Nehls said.

New York Times [1/8/2026 1:20 PM, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, 135475K] reports President Trump said his administration was taking steps to strip some naturalized Americans of their citizenship, with a particular eye for those of Somali descent. “I would do it in a heartbeat if they were dishonest,” Mr. Trump said in an Oval Office interview. “I think that many of the people that came in from Somalia, they hate our country.” During a nearly two-hour interview with New York Times reporters, Mr. Trump said that his administration was examining the criteria for taking away citizenship. He said his effort was not limited to the Somali community but declined to specify the other groups of foreign-born American citizens his administration was targeting. “If they deserve to be stripped, I would, yes,” Mr. Trump said. Stripping some naturalized Somalis of their citizenship would be a significant escalation in Mr. Trump’s immigration crackdown, which has begun moving beyond those in the country illegally. He has fixated for years on the Somali community, but in recent months has focused on an investigation into fraud that had taken place in pockets of the Somali diaspora in Minnesota to make broad assertions about the community. Since 2022, federal prosecutors have convicted dozens of people on felony charges, accusing them of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from a government program meant to keep children fed during the Covid-19 pandemic. Many Somali-Americans have expressed concern that the fraud damaged the reputation of tens of thousands of people at a moment when their political and economic standing was on the rise. Mr. Trump’s comments came after New York Times last month reported that the administration issued guidance to field offices for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the nation’s legal immigration agency, asking that they “supply Office of Immigration Litigation with 100-200 denaturalization cases per month” in the 2026 fiscal year. Under federal law, people may be denaturalized only if they committed fraud while applying for citizenship, or in a few other narrow circumstances. The administration, however, has not hesitated to use every tool at its disposal for Mr. Trump’s immigration crackdown. Activists have warned that the denaturalization effort could sweep up people who had made honest mistakes on their citizenship paperwork.

Bloomberg Law News [1/8/2026 6:41 PM, Andrew Kreighbaum, 91K] reports a Department of Homeland Security rule ending automatic extension of immigrants’ work permits with pending renewal applications is unlawful and should be set aside, a new lawsuit filed by spouses of H-1B visa holders argues. The October interim final rule eliminating those work permit extensions violated the Administrative Procedure Act because it was arbitrary and capricious and failed to establish good cause for skipping notice and comment rulemaking, according to a complaint in the Central District of California.

Univision [1/8/2026 2:43 PM, Staff, 5004K] reports in a hearing held this Wednesday in a New York court, Miami immigration lawyer Marc Prada continued to lead a legal battle that could change the future of Cubans with I-220A visas. The crucial hearing was held in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York, and the decision made in the future could redefine the immigration status of thousands of Cubans living in the United States who were processed using Form I-220A upon entering through the southern border. The case in question revolves around Aguilar Díaz, a Cuban who was denied residency based on a previous decision by the immigration appeals board, which stated that form I-220A does not constitute parole and therefore does not entitle one to an adjustment of status. More than 400,000 Cubans, many of whom are trapped in a migration limbo with pending asylum applications or under threat of deportation, could be affected by the final decision.

AP [1/8/2026 5:59 PM, Josh Funk] reports North Carolina could lose nearly $50 million in federal funding if the state doesn’t revoke commercial driver’s licenses from immigrants who aren’t qualified to hold them after an audit uncovered problems, the U.S. Transportation Department said Thursday. North Carolina is the ninth state to be targeted since Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy launched the nationwide review last year to make sure only qualified drivers hold licenses to drive semitrailer trucks or buses. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration reviewed 50 commercial driver’s licenses that North Carolina had issued to immigrants in its audit and found problems with more than half of them. That’s what prompted the threat to withhold funding if the state doesn’t clean up its licensing program. Records show that 924 of these kind of licenses remain unexpired in North Carolina.

NPR [1/9/2026 4:39 AM, Brian Mann and A Martínez, 34837K] reports a new study indicates the amount of fentanyl being smuggled into the U.S. fell dramatically during the Biden administration. [Editorial note: consult audio at source link]

Washington Examiner [1/8/2026 6:29 PM, Staff, 1394K] reports a Mexican national has been charged with illegally possessing and firing a loaded handgun in Chicago near immigration enforcement actions last year. Federal prosecutors allege Hector Gomez brandished a firearm at a victim on Nov. 8, 2025. Shortly after, Chicago police officers found the gun in Gomez’s lap while he was parked in the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago. Four hours earlier, prosecutors allege "at least two rounds were discharged from the same gun about two blocks from the parking lot.” "The rounds were fired in the proximity of U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents who were engaged in the performance of their official duties," the indictment said. Gomez had previously been convicted of a felony and was removed from the United States on at least four different occasions between 2008 and 2015, prosecutors said. The safety of federal officers enforcing federal immigration law has continued to be an issue. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says attacks on ICE officers are up over 1,300%. ICE reports car attacks on officers and agents are up over 3,200% since last year.

Breitbart [1/8/2026 10:14 AM, Randy Clark, 2416K] reports Texas Highway Patrol Troopers on horseback tracked and arrested an illegal alien on a remote border ranch in Maverick County on New Year’s Day. The troopers closed in on their target just outside Eagle Pass, Texas, shortly before noon. Troopers identified the man as a previously deported illegal alien — a convicted sex offender with multiple convictions for child-related crimes. Despite low border crossings, the DPS Border Mounted Patrol continues to keep a keen eye out for those attempting to elude apprehension after crossing the border illegally. The unit’s unwavering focus on remote border areas makes escape from Border Patrol even more unlikely. Troopers identified the subject as 41-year-old Marcio Steven Izaguirre, a citizen of Honduras captured as he attempted to make his way farther into the United States after illegally crossing the border near Eagle Pass. In a video posted on social media, the troopers can be seen moving through the scrub brush on the remote ranch as they move in on Izaguirre. After spotting the illegal alien "gotaway" lying on the ground attempting to avoid detection by the mounted patrol members, the troopers shout instructions in Spanish. Translated to English, the troopers yell out, "Stay there, stay there, show me your hands. Stand up, stand up, stand up!". The troopers then perform a cursory search for weapons within Izaguirre’s belongings as he is taken into custody. Likely due to the unseasonably warm weather in South Texas, Izaguirre immediately asks for water. The arresting officer tells Izaguirre he will be provided with water soon. Izaguirre boldly asks one trooper if he can get on his horse, to which the trooper quickly says, "You’re not getting on the horse.” After conducting a thorough investigation of Izaguirre’s background, Texas Highway Patrol troopers discovered the illegal alien had been deported from the United States on multiple occasions dating as far back as 2004. Izaguirre also has a criminal history that includes convictions for crimes committed in Cobb County, Georgia, including furnishing alcohol to a minor, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and child molestation. Izaguirre was transferred to the Border Patrol for processing and prosecution. Because of the seriousness of his previous criminal record and his return to the United States illegally, Izaguirre faces stiff penalties under federal law that could result in a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years for felony Reentry after Deportation (Removal).

FOX 14 El Paso [1/8/2026 11:41 AM, Erika Esquivel, 40621K] reports U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at the El Paso field office have made several arrests this week involving individuals attempting to conceal themselves inside trains crossing the border. The officers apprehended the stowaways, highlighting their vigilance and dedication to border security, according to CBP. It’s unknown when and where in El Paso the incident took place. No other information was provided.

Federal News Network [1/8/2026 6:19 PM, Justin Doubleday, 986K] reports the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s workforce continues to face uncertainty amid abrupt cuts to disaster response staff and planning emails that show FEMA has been contemplating deeper reductions. Late last month, FEMA sent non-renewal notices to 50 Cadre of On-Call Response/Recovery Employees (CORE) whose terms ended between Jan. 1 and Jan. 4. CORE employees are hired for two-to-four year terms, but they are often renewed to continue ongoing disaster work. CORE staff make up the majority of FEMA’s workforce, constituting 39% as of 2022. FEMA did not respond to a request for comment. In other stories on the CORE cuts, a FEMA spokesman has characterized them as "a routine staff adjustment of 50 staff out of 8,000.” But a current FEMA supervisor and former FEMA supervisor, who were granted anonymity to candidly discuss the situation, both disputed the characterization of the terminations as "routine.” They said FEMA CORE staff are almost always renewed due to demand for staff to respond to an increasing rate of disasters and other agency tasks in recent years. CORE staff are often among the first FEMA employees to be deployed in a disaster, according to Rafael LeMaitre, a former FEMA director of public affairs who now serves on the advisory council for the advocacy group Sabotaging Our Safety. "While they serve two-year contract terms, those are routinely renewed, because the number of disasters that the nation has been dealing with has not gone down," LeMaitre said. "If anything, it’s increased, both in the number of disasters and the severity of disasters, given changes to the climate, and frankly, additional pressures that FEMA has been put under to respond to non-traditional types of emergencies.” But the FEMA supervisors also described how, contrary to the recent non-renewals, decisions about extending CORE appointments are typically done on a case-by-case basis. The process typically includes an analysis of the employee’s workload and the need for them to continue working on a given disaster. "We never fire people just because their renewal dates happened to fall in a given time frame," the current FEMA supervisor said. The Trump-appointed FEMA Review Council’s report has been delayed, leaving to question the administration’s long-term plan for FEMA. However, both President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have expressed a desire to eliminate or downsize FEMA, and instead shift more disaster recovery responsibilities to state and local governments. "Even considering cuts of this scale is more evidence of the Trump administration’s reckless and dangerous behavior and sends a clear message that the administration is willing to gamble with Americans’ lives and violate federal law that Congress passed to ensure readiness for disasters," House Homeland Security Committee Ranking Member Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) said in a statement.

AP [1/8/2026 4:23 PM, Mike Schneider, 31753K] reports federal and state officials withheld evidence that the Department of Homeland Security had agreed to reimburse Florida for some of the costs of constructing an immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades known as "Alligator Alcatraz," according to environmental groups suing to shut down the facility. The Everglades facility remains open, still holding detainees, because an appellate court in early September relied on arguments by Florida and the Trump administration that the state hadn’t yet applied for federal reimbursement, and therefore wasn’t required to follow federal environmental law. The new evidence — emails and documents obtained through a public records request — shows that officials had discussed federal reimbursement in June, and that the Federal Emergency Management Agency confirmed in early August that it had received from state officials a grant application. Florida was notified in late September that FEMA had approved $608 million in federal funding to support the center’s construction and operation. An appellate panel in Atlanta put a temporary hold on a lower court judge’s ruling that would have closed the state-built facility. The new evidence should now be considered as the judges decide the facility’s permanent fate, Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity, said in court papers on Wednesday.

ABC News [1/8/2026 3:58 PM, Eric Noll, Esther Castillejo, and Ivan Pereira, 30493K] reports a year ago, the deadly wildfires in Southern California left behind a trail of destruction and forced desperate families to flee for their lives. The embers are gone and the dust has settled a year later, but most of those houses are still vacant lots and families remain stuck in limbo. "World News Tonight" anchor David Muir returned to the neighborhood to mark the anniversary of the disaster and reunited with some of the residents he met in January 2025. Many said they are still struggling to pick up the pieces and some are making the tough decision to leave the neighborhood they once called home. Nearly 24,000 acres burned in the Palisades fire alone, with nearly 7,000 structures -- most of them homes -- going up in smoke. The blaze erupted on Jan. 7, 2025, along with the Eaton fire that destroyed more than 9,000 buildings. Together, the fires claimed the lives of at least 31 people.

CBS News [1/8/2026 7:11 PM, Staff, 39474K] reports the White House said Thursday that it was not feasible to save the building’s East Wing because of structural issues, past decay and other major concerns, as officials shared details of President Trump’s planned ballroom at a public meeting of the planning commission charged with approving it. It was the most comprehensive explanation to date for the dramatic demolition of the East Wing in October to make way for a 90,000-square-foot ballroom. The demolition caused a public stir when it began in October with little advance notice, drawing criticism from Democrats and historic preservation groups. Josh Fisher, director of the White House Office of Administration, ticked off a list of problems in explaining why it was more economical to tear down the East Wing than to renovate it, saying that there were "significant deficiencies and overall poor structural design and construction.” "The colonnade was structurally unstable. The roof systems had exceeded their service life, and the underpinnings were not sufficient to support the necessary upgrades," Fisher told members of the National Capital Planning Commission. "In the East Wing, there was chronic water intrusion, accelerated deterioration and mold contamination. The electrical infrastructure was obsolete, deemed undersized and non-compliant with current code. Facilities were also non-compliant with both ADA and Secret Service requirements.” "Because of this and other factors, the cost analysis proved that demolition and reconstruction provided the lowest total cost ownership and most effective long-term strategy," Fisher continued. The project’s architect, Shalom Baranes, joined other construction and White House officials in presenting a detailed plan to the commission Thursday about what the new ballroom would look like. They said its design is expected to include adding a second story to the colonnade outside the West Wing, which would help make the building more uniform with the new ballroom being built on the other side of the White House. It would also dramatically alter the iconic space outside the Oval Office.

Breitbart [1/8/2026 5:45 PM, John Hayward, 2416K] reports Wednesday’s seizure of a rogue Russian-flagged tanker in the North Atlantic marked a significant escalation of U.S. efforts to shut down the dangerous "shadow fleet" of sanctions-defying invisible ships created by Russia, China, Iran, and other hostile powers – a fleet that poses serious threats to the environment, maritime safety, legitimate global shipping, and the world’s economic security. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced "two predawn operations" on Wednesday, in which "the Coast Guard conducted back-to-back meticulously coordinated boarding of two ‘ghost fleet’ tanker ships – one in the North Atlantic Sea, and one in international waters near the Caribbean." Noem identified the ships as Motor Tanker Bella I and Motor Tanker Sophia, and said both were "either last docked in Venezuela or en route to it." She noted that Bella I had been "trying to evade the Coast Guard for weeks, even changing its flag and painting a new name on the hull while being pursued, in a desperate and failed attempt to escape justice." In fact, the Bella I had changed its name to "Marinera" by the time U.S. Coast Guard helicopters dropped security forces on her deck. The Marinera changed its course to head for northern Russia shortly before it was boarded. The ship had already resisted one U.S. Coast Guard boarding attempt in the Caribbean last month. Shortly after that incident, it hastily painted a Russian flag on its hull and declared it was sailing under Russian registration.

Daily Caller [1/8/2026 4:31 PM, Mark Tanos, 835K] reports U.S. forces struck at the network of vessels that help fund Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war machine by seizing a Russian-flagged tanker Wednesday. Navy SEALs and the U.S. Army special operations aviators called the “night stalkers” boarded the Marinera, two individuals briefed on the operation told CNN. The boat was taken roughly 190 miles off Iceland’s southern coastline, MarineTraffic data indicated. The Coast Guard Cutter Munro tracked the ship for weeks across the Atlantic, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said. The United Kingdom provided basing and aerial surveillance to support the operation. The tanker fled the U.S. blockade near Venezuela last month, its crew later painting a Russian flag on the hull and registering the ship under the name Marinera, according to CNN. U.S. Southern Command announced a second seizure the same day. Forces captured the M/T Sophia in the Caribbean.

ABC News [1/8/2026 1:48 PM, Staff, 30493K] reports U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Kevin Lunday breaks down the U.S. seizure of Venezuelan oil tankers in an exclusive ABC News interview. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

USA Today [1/8/2026 2:18 PM, Michelle Del Rey and Natalie Neysa Alund, 4030K] reports thermal footage released by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security shows troops boarding an oil tanker with reported ties to Venezuela on Wednesday, Jan. 7. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced the military operation in a post on X and released the thermal footage. Noem said troops conducted back-to-back coordinated boarding of two “ghost fleet” tanker ships — "one in the North Atlantic Sea and one in international waters near the Caribbean." “Ghost fleets” are ships that transport oil in violation of sanctions. The ships − the Motor Tanker Bella I, now named the Marinera, and the Motor Tanker Sophia − were last docked in Venezuela or en route to the country, Noem said. Noem claimed the Marinera had been attempting to evade the Coast Guard for weeks, with the crew painting a new name on the hull and changing its flag during authorities’ pursuit. “The world’s criminals are on notice. You can run, but you can’t hide,” Noem’s statement continued. The thermal footage shared by Noem of one of the missions shows a helicopter hovering over Motor Tanker Sophia and armed troops walking up a set of stairs. Troops can be seen in the clip lowering themselves onto the vessel using a rope. The remainder of the footage shows the troops at various angles standing at a railing platform on the ship. There were no reported injuries to U.S. forces.

USA Today [1/8/2026 12:30 PM, Anastasiia Riddle, 67103K] reports the U.S. Coast Guard boarded and seized an oil tanker linked to Venezuela, said the Department of Homeland Security. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Reuters [1/9/2026 4:56 AM, Lucy Papachristou, 36480K] reports the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday that the United States had released two Russian crew members from a Russian-flagged oil tanker seized on Wednesday in the Atlantic Ocean. In a statement, Maria Zakharova, the ministry’s spokesman said: "We welcome this decision and express our gratitude to the U.S. leadership. "We are proceeding with the urgent practical work on all issues related to ensuring the speedy return of our compatriots to their homeland." Russia’s Transport Ministry said on Wednesday that it had lost contact with the vessel, the Marinera, after U.S. naval forces boarded it near Iceland as part of what Washington says are efforts to block oil exports from Venezuela.

CyberScoop [1/8/2026 12:30 PM, Tim Starks, 122K] reports the Trump administration is withdrawing the United States from a handful of international organizations that work to strengthen cybersecurity. As part of a broader pullback from 66 international organizations, the administration is leaving the Global Forum on Cyber Expertise, the Online Freedom Coalition and the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats. Trump’s decision is in line with a president who has expressed hostility toward the existing international order, an approach critics fear creates a leadership power vacuum for U.S. adversaries to fill. “The Trump Administration has found these institutions to be redundant in their scope, mismanaged, unnecessary, wasteful, poorly run, captured by the interests of actors advancing their own agendas contrary to our own, or a threat to our nation’s sovereignty, freedoms, and general prosperity,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement Thursday. “President Trump is clear: It is no longer acceptable to be sending these institutions the blood, sweat, and treasure of the American people, with little to nothing to show for it. The days of billions of dollars in taxpayer money flowing to foreign interests at the expense of our people are over.” Rubio criticized the international organizations over “DEI mandates,” “‘gender equity’ campaigns” and activities that “constrain American sovereignty.”

Bloomberg [1/8/2026 10:47 AM, Andrew Martin, 18207K] reports one reason cybercrime appears to get worse every year is because hackers continually shift their tactics and cannily adopt new technologies. It happened with cryptocurrencies and the malicious code known as ransomware. Now it’s happening with artificial intelligence. In November, Anthropic PBC disclosed that a suspected Chinese state-backed hacking group had manipulated the AI startup’s Claude large language model to orchestrate attacks on about 30 targets worldwide. The company said the campaign, which succeeded “in a small number of cases” was the first documented case of a large-scale cyberattack executed without substantial human intervention. Cybersecurity firms are also busy adopting AI to better shield clients from hackers. Some $213 billion was devoted to protecting computer networks in 2025, up 10% from 2024, according to research and advisory firm Gartner. Yet for all the investment in firewalls, data security and access management, there’s little to suggest cybercrime is on the retreat. It’s still a relatively low-risk business considering the potential rewards, and AI is making it easier — and faster — to execute. So forget about just remembering a password. Better to use a password manager that generates a complex password, even if it’s difficult to memorize, and some type of multifactor authentication on top of that. And beware of the familiar sounding voice on the phone asking for your login details. Most hackers are in it for the money, and there’s a lot of it to be had. The introduction of ransomware in the late 1980s and cryptocurrency a decade later allowed criminals to attack the network of any organization that had valuable data at little risk to themselves. They often demand payment in Bitcoin or another cryptocurrency as the money can be sent quickly across borders and is generally difficult to trace as it bypasses the regulated banking system. This has encouraged the emergence of hacking collectives in countries beyond the reach of Western law enforcement. As more people and companies move their activities online, hackers have more opportunities to cause harm, a problem compounded by the introduction of technologies such as internet-of-things devices and generative AI. Energy utilities, for example, have expanded computer networks to monitor and control more equipment in real time so they can ensure a reliable supply of power. This has created new entry points for hackers to potentially disrupt their operations.

AP [1/9/2026 12:00 AM, Michael R. Sisak, Larry Neumeister, 4722K] reports Luigi Mangione is due in federal court Friday for a pivotal hearing in his fight to bar the government from seeking the death penalty against him in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Mangione’s lawyers contend that authorities prejudiced his case by turning his December 2024 arrest into a “Marvel movie” spectacle and by publicly declaring their desire to see him executed even before he was formally indicted. If that doesn’t work, they argue, the charge that has enabled the government to seek the death penalty — murder by firearm — should be thrown out because it is legally flawed. Federal prosecutors say Mangione’s lawyers are wrong, countering that the murder charge is legally sufficient and that “pretrial publicity, even when intense” is hardly a constitutional crisis. Any concerns about public perceptions can be alleviated by carefully questioning prospective jurors about their knowledge of the case, prosecutors wrote in a court filing. Mangione has pleaded not guilty to federal and state murder charges, which carry the possibility of life in prison. Friday’s hearing, Mangione’s first trip to Manhattan federal court since his April 25 arraignment, is also expected to cover the defense’s bid to exclude certain evidence. U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett has said she also plans to set a trial date. A cause célèbre for people upset with the health insurance industry, Mangione’s court appearances have draw dozens of supporters, some of whom wear green clothing or carry signs expressing solidarity with him. Mangione’s lawyers have asked the judge to bar the government from using certain items found in a backpack during his arrest, arguing that the search was illegal because police had not yet obtained a warrant. Those items include a gun that police said matched the one used to kill Thompson and a notebook in which he purportedly described his intent to “wack” a health insurance executive. One big question is whether Garnett will need to hold a separate hearing on the evidence issue like one last month that took three weeks in Mangione’s parallel state murder case.

New York Times [1/8/2026 3:22 PM, Edgar Sandoval, 135475K] reports that, as the man armed with a long rifle stalked Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas, before the mass shooting in 2022, a former teacher remembered arming herself with scissors while watching her students grab them, too. “We came up with a plan. Do what we have to do. Defend. They all got theirs,” she said, referring to pairs of safety scissors. The former third-grade teacher, Stephanie Hale, recounted the harrowing moment during the trial of the first of two officers charged with negligence, Adrian Gonzales, who prosecutors said was the first officer to arrive at the scene and learn the whereabouts of the gunman moments before the assailant entered the school. Mr. Gonzales is facing 29 counts of abandoning and endangering children. His lawyers argued that he did the best he could with the information he was given at the time. Ms. Hale’s testimony played out as expected, causing lawyers and families of the victims in the Corpus Christi courtroom to become emotional. But what she said next threw the opening days of the much anticipated trial — the first criminal trial connected with the massacre — into legal chaos that threatened to derail the proceedings at one point. Struggling at times to speak, Ms. Hale stunned the room when she told the jury she saw the long-haired gunman armed with a rifle, wearing all black, outside the campus’s south end, near the vicinity where Mr. Gonzales was calculating his next move after responding to the scene. “The things you’re testifying to here today are not the things that you said to the Ranger at the time. Did you know that?” asked Jason Goss, a lawyer for the defense, referring to a Texas Ranger investigator, part of the state police. The testimony raised concerns among Mr. Gonzales’s defense team. Mr. Goss argued that Ms. Hale had discussed seeing the gunman with investigators for the Uvalde District Attorney’s office but that prosecutors failed to relay those details as required by law. That issue led to tense courtroom moments during the first days of testimony, with defense lawyers asking for a mistrial and the judge overseeing the case, Sid Harle, calling the prosecution’s omission unintentional but “negligent.” Judge Harle denied the defense’s motion for a mistrial on Wednesday, but on Thursday told the jury to disregard Ms. Hale’s testimony altogether. “Don’t speculate about it,” Judge Harle told the jury. Mr. Goss and Nico LaHood, another lawyer for the defense, said Ms. Hale discussed seeing the gunman with prosecutors in December. Her testimony this week also differed from what she told investigators days after the tragedy as well, the defense team said. “This is the first time that I’m hearing of this in a trial of this magnitude,” Mr. Goss said. “And so if she did report these things to the prosecution, we were entitled to that to prepare for this. This is a trial by ambush.”

ABC News [1/8/2026 5:05 PM, Peter Charalambous, 30493K] reports Robb Elementary School’s former afterschool coordinator, Emilia "Amy" Marin-Franco, held back tears and visibly shook in her seat when she testified on Thursday in the trial of former Uvalde, Texas, school police officer Adrian Gonzales. Gonzales, who was one of nearly 400 law enforcement officers to respond to the Robb Elementary School mass shooting, is charged with child endangerment for allegedly ignoring his training during the botched police response. Nineteen students and two teachers were killed, and investigations have faulted the police response and suggested that a 77-minute delay in police mounting a counterassault could have contributed to the carnage. Gonzales has pleaded not guilty and his legal team says he did all he could to help students. Marin testified that on May 24, 2022, she saw a man crash his truck near the school. She was one of the first people to call 911 -- first to report the crash, and then realized he was armed and heading to the school. Jurors heard her 911 call, in which Marin simultaneously tried to get police to respond while encouraging students to hide. "There is a guy with a gun. ... Oh my god. I think he came on campus now," she told a dispatcher, while telling students, "Come on guys, hurry.” In deeply emotional testimony, she told the jury, "I kept asking the operator, ‘Where are the cops? Where are the cops?’ And I tell her, ‘There are kids running everywhere.’". Marin told jurors that she feared for her and her students’ lives as she sheltered in a classroom and heard countless gunshots.

FOX News [1/8/2026 1:23 PM, Morgan Phillips, 40621K] reports that President Donald Trump called for defense spending to be raised to $1.5 trillion, a 50% increase over the current budget. "After long and difficult negotiations with Senators, Congressmen, Secretaries, and other Political Representatives, I have determined that, for the Good of our Country, especially in these very troubled and dangerous times, our Military Budget for the year 2027 should not be $1 Trillion Dollars, but rather $1.5 Trillion Dollars," Trump wrote on Truth Social Thursday evening. "This will allow us to build the "Dream Military" that we have long been entitled to and, more importantly, that will keep us SAFE and SECURE, regardless of foe." The president said he came up with the number after tariff revenues created a surplus of cash. He claimed the levies were bringing in enough money to pay for both a major boost to the defense budget "easily," pay down the national debt, which is more than $38 trillion, and offer "a substantial dividend to moderate income patriots." The boost likely reflects efforts to fund Trump’s ambitious military plans, from the Golden Dome homeland missile defense shield to a new "Trump class" of battleships. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget found that the increased budget would cost about $5 trillion from 2027 to 2035, or $5.7 trillion with interest. Tariff revenues, the group found, would cover about half the cost — $2.5 trillion, or $3 trillion with interest. The Supreme Court is expected to rule in a major case Friday that will determine the legality of Trump’s sweeping tariff strategy. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Wall Street Journal [1/8/2026 10:42 PM, Clara Hudson, 646K] reports lawmakers from both parties want to usher in a new era of nuclear energy, but some Democrats say they are uneasy about how it is taking shape. At a hearing of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on Wednesday, Democrats said they have safety concerns regarding the oversight of the nuclear build-out in the U.S. following President Trump’s firing of a commissioner at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission last year, as well as staff cuts and a shake-up from the Department of Government Efficiency. “I’ve been supportive of [nuclear], and we’ve been supportive of it as Democrats mostly on a bipartisan basis, but all that is linked to safety,” said Frank Pallone (D., N.J.). “If anything happens that gives the impression or actually makes it so that people’s lives are at risk, or we have some kind of incident, that’s going to be the end of it. I’ll speak for myself but I won’t be able to support it anymore.” Many Democrats emphasized how essential they think it is to build up the nuclear industry as a source of clean energy. Nuclear energy is appealing because it releases minimal carbon emissions while providing round-the-clock power—particularly as companies are looking to fuel their artificial intelligence ambitions. Plus it has support from the Trump administration, as the president has said he wants to quadruple nuclear power generation over the next 25 years. “We need confidence in the safety of the reactors,” said Kathy Castor (D., Fla.). “If the American public loses that confidence, then the industry will wither.” Castor cited what she described as reckless attacks on other renewable-energy projects—such as wind power—and the independence of the NRC. The lawmakers also said they are worried about how the nuclear industry—and the broader renewable-energy sector—can navigate regulatory and political instability amid the Trump administration’s focus on securing Venezuelan oil, as well as its recent halt on offshore wind projects. Lawmakers from both parties backed the Advance Act, passed in 2024, which directed the NRC to streamline its licensing process.

Telemundo [1/8/2026 11:38 PM, Marina E. Franco, 2218K] reports that, after the US military intervention in Venezuela that ended with the capture of Nicolás Maduro last Saturday, US President Donald Trump insisted Thursday night that he did not rule out taking similar actions in Mexico, a country that earlier in the day announced that its homicide rate had fallen to its lowest level in a decade and that in the past has been critical of this suggestion by Trump. “Now we’re going to start attacking the cartels on the ground,” the Republican asserted during an interview on Fox News. “Because the cartels are controlling Mexico,” he added, without offering any evidence of how he reached that conclusion. Analysts point out that there are indeed limited parts of Mexican territory where the strength of the cartels sometimes exceeds that of local police without sufficient resources, but that does not mean that the cartels govern or control Mexico. "We would love for Mexico" to take action, Trump said, without mentioning that there has been bilateral cooperation on this issue on several occasions in the last year . "They are capable of doing it, but unfortunately, the cartels are very strong in Mexico," he repeated in the interview. The cartels, Trump asserted, "are killing 250,000 or 300,000 [people] in our country every year," without explaining how he arrived at that figure. He has mentioned the number in the past, claiming he believes it is the number of people who die from overdoses in the United States. But overdose deaths in that country actually number around 70,000, according to official figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And analysts have said that attributing all overdose deaths solely to drug cartels ignores the fact that many cases are due to fentanyl-laced pills obtained within the United States, which government agencies link to China, not Mexico . In addition, the Border Patrol estimates that more than 90% of the people arrested for attempted drug dealing at the border are U.S. citizens. This is not the first time Trump has suggested he would like to take direct military action against drug trafficking groups operating in Mexico, which he has designated as “terrorist” organizations, such as the Sinaloa Cartel. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Breitbart [1/8/2026 1:43 PM, Staff, 2416K] reports the US Senate took a major step Thursday toward passing a resolution to rein in President Donald Trump’s military actions in Venezuela — a rare bipartisan rebuke following alarm over the secretive capture of leader Nicolas Maduro. The Democratic-led legislation, which bars further US hostilities against Venezuela without explicit congressional authorization, got through a key procedural vote with support from five Republicans. The vote on final passage, expected next week, is now seen as little more than a formality, and would mark one of Congress’s most forceful assertions of its war-making authority in decades. The effort is seen as largely symbolic however, as the resolution faces a steep climb in the US House and almost no prospect of surviving a likely veto by Trump. The president lashed out at the five Republican rebels for their "stupidity" on his Truth Social platform and said they "should never be elected to office again.” "Republicans should be ashamed of the Senators that just voted with Democrats in attempting to take away our Powers to fight and defend the United States of America," he added. The vote followed a dramatic escalation in US action — including air and naval strikes and the nighttime seizure of Maduro in Caracas — that lawmakers from both parties said went beyond a limited law-enforcement operation and crossed unmistakably into war. "Less than courageous members of Congress fall all over themselves to avoid taking responsibility, to avoid the momentous vote of declaring war," said Senator Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican who broke with much of his party to co-sponsored the measure. "But make no mistake, bombing another nation’s capital and removing their leader is an act of war, plain and simple. No provision in the Constitution provides such power to the presidency.” Trump said in an interview published Thursday the United States could run Venezuela and tap into its oil reserves for years, telling The New York Times "only time will tell" how long Washington would demand direct oversight of the South American nation.

Reported similarly:
Daily Wire [1/8/2026 7:09 AM, Hank Berrien, 2494K]

New York Times [1/8/2026 1:51 PM, Emma Bubola, 135475K] reports Venezuela’s government announced the release of what it described as “an important number” of political prisoners, both Venezuelan and foreign national, on Thursday, the first ostensible gesture of change by the new administration since the ouster of President Nicolás Maduro. Jorge Rodríguez, the head of Venezuela’s National Assembly, did not specify how many people would be freed but said that the releases would take place “in the next few hours.” The decision was made as “a unilateral gesture to reinforce our unwavering decision to consolidate peace in the republic and peaceful coexistence among all, regardless of political, religious, economic, or social differences,” Mr. Rodríguez said. Prisoners’ rights groups estimate that between 800 and 900 political prisoners are incarcerated in Venezuela, and they say that most are charged with crimes such as incitement of hate, conspiring to overthrow the government or terrorism for simply exercising basic political rights. The announcement, a longtime demand of the opposition in Venezuela, offered a flicker of hope, even as interrogations and detentions on the streets have continued. Martha Tineo, co-founder of the nonprofit Justicia, Encuentro y Perdón, a Venezuelan human rights group, told New York Times that some of the first political prisoners to be released would be those held in El Helicoide — an infamous prison known for its torture of inmates that was originally built as a modern mall in the heart of Caracas. “This announcement, if fully implemented, could represent a necessary step on the road to restoring democracy and unrestricted respect for human rights,” Ms. Tineo’s organization said in a statement, calling for the release of every prisoner. For years, Venezuela’s crackdowns have been followed by limited reprieves, which have included prisoner releases — a cycle that has exhausted Venezuelans. It remains unclear whether Thursday’s announcement signals any real shift toward political opening in the country. Mr. Maduro jailed thousands of people who protested his unsubstantiated victory claim in the 2024 presidential election, and in recent months he had stepped up the arbitrary detentions amid escalating tensions with the United States. Since the detention of Mr. Maduro, President Trump had largely sidelined the issue of human rights in Venezuela to focus on the country’s oil reserves. When Mr. Trump was asked by reporters on Sunday whether he had discussed with the Venezuelan government the release of political prisoners or the return of opposition politicians to Venezuela, he said, “We haven’t gotten to that yet.” “What we want to do now is fix up the oil,” he added.

Washington Examiner [1/8/2026 9:35 AM, Mike Brest, 1394K] reports the United States intends to sell sanctioned Venezuelan oil, a senior administration official said on Wednesday morning, as news broke of two U.S. Coast Guard seizures of connected oil tankers. Several administration officials have said in recent days the South American country’s oil was a defining part of their strategy, which culminated last weekend with the daring U.S. mission to capture former Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. "The United States continues to enforce the blockade against all dark fleet vessels illegally transporting Venezuelan oil to finance illicit activity, stealing from the Venezuelan people," Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said on Wednesday. "Only legitimate and lawful energy commerce—as determined by the U.S.—will be permitted.” U.S. European Command confirmed that it had successfully seized the Bella 1 oil tanker in the North Atlantic Ocean and U.S. Southern Command announced another seizure, this one of the M/T Sophia, in the Caribbean Sea. U.S. personnel sought to board and seize the Bella 1 tanker previously but it fled before the mission was completed. The two seizures were the first since Maduro’s arrest, but not the first since the U.S. began turning up its pressure on his regime.

CBS News [1/8/2026 2:49 PM, Jennifer Jacobs and James LaPorta, 39474K] reports a Chinook helicopter pilot who helped plan the operation to capture former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was wounded in the leg during the pre-dawn mission, said U.S. officials who spoke to CBS News under the condition of anonymity to discuss national security matters. At the outset of the daring operation, a formation of U.S. Army helicopters carrying a squad of Delta Force commandos slipped toward Caracas largely unnoticed. But as the aircraft drew closer to the heavily fortified compound where Maduro was believed to be holed up, the calm broke. Venezuelan defensive positions opened fire, and U.S. helicopters responded with their own suppressive fire, according to the U.S. officials. A heavy, twin-rotor MH-47 Chinook, the lead aircraft in the formation tasked with inserting the assault team, was struck by hostile fire. Though damaged, it remained airborne and completed its run. The U.S. officials who spoke to CBS News said the Chinook pilot who also helped plan the mission was wounded multiple times in the leg during the engagement. On Tuesday, a Pentagon official told CBS News that two U.S. service members were still recovering from injuries sustained during the incursion into Venezuela that the Defense Department dubbed Operation Absolute Resolve. "They are receiving excellent medical care and are well on their way to recovery. Five additional service members suffered injuries but have already returned to duty. The fact that this extremely complex and grueling mission was successfully executed with so few injuries is a testament to the expertise of our joint warriors," said the Pentagon official. The New York Times first reported the details of the engagement with the Chinook and the pilot being wounded.

Wall Street Journal [1/8/2026 4:42 PM, Brett Forrest, Josh Dawsey, and Alexander Ward, 646K] reports White House officials excluded the top U.S. intelligence officer, Tulsi Gabbard, from Venezuela planning since last summer, according to people with knowledge of the matter. As President Trump’s national-security team huddled last week to make final preparations for the operation to snatch Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Gabbard was posting social-media photos of herself on a beach in Hawaii, where she grew up, ignorant of the operation’s details. Trump isn’t particularly close with Gabbard, a senior administration official said, and wanted to limit the number of people who knew about the Venezuela mission. She didn’t need to know about it, the official said. Gabbard’s office provided “intelligence analysis that assisted in the overall mission from the analytical side,” a second administration official said. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was among the top officials who preferred Gabbard remain sidelined from the discussions, according to two of the people with knowledge of the situation. Gabbard, Rubio “and President Trump’s entire team have worked together in lockstep to deliver on his agenda,” said Tommy Pigott, a State Department spokesman. “This is a tired and false narrative attempting to promote a fake story of ‘division’ when there is none.” The move highlights the increasing isolation and the turbulent tenure of Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, amid her struggle to penetrate the president’s inner circle and influence policies. She has fallen in and out of favor with Trump, who has grown increasingly reliant on Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe for key intelligence consultations. “That’s completely false,” Vice President JD Vance said when asked about Gabbard’s exclusion from the Venezuela planning during a Thursday White House briefing. “We kept it very tight to the senior cabinet-level officials and related officials in our government.”

Washington Post [1/8/2026 11:56 AM, Kevin Sieff, 24149K] reports that days after publicly weighing an invasion of Colombia, President Donald Trump appeared to call it off on Wednesday night. He said he had spoken to an erstwhile nemesis, Colombian President Gustavo Petro. Trump had previously called Petro a “drug leader” who had “better watch his ass.” But after the Wednesday night call, Trump wrote on Truth Social: “I appreciated his call and tone.” The two men agreed to meet in Washington. It was the most recent jolt to one of the Western Hemisphere’s closest relationships. Days earlier, when Trump said that invading Colombia “sounds good to me,” he was threatening to attack a top recipient of U.S. military assistance.On Thursday morning, as tensions appeared to ease, Petro reflected on the call, which he said in an X post was brokered by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) and lasted for 55 minutes. “I know that President Trump doesn’t agree with me, but it’s more convenient to start a dialogue … than to settle it on battlefields,” he wrote. No country in Latin America has a closer partnership with the Pentagon. The two countries share intelligence daily; U.S. military liaisons are fixtures in Colombia’s Defense Ministry; and the United States has vetted specialized units within Colombia’s military and police, according to past statements by both governments. Yet, as the relationship between Trump and Petro deteriorated, the countries found themselves in the bizarre position of being historic partners whose leaders were acting as if they were preparing for war. In the wake of the U.S. seizure of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, analysts and Colombian officials said they couldn’t entirely discount Trump’s threats to Colombia, even though they seemed profoundly unlikely. Trump called Petro a “sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it.” In response, Petro said he was preparing his “people” to defend him “from any illegitimate violent act.” A former rebel, he said in a post on X that “for the sake of the fatherland I will take up weapons again.” He sent 30,000 troops to the Venezuela border. Colombia’s Foreign Ministry did not respond to requests for comment. On Tuesday, the country’s foreign minister, Rosa Villavicencio, said at a news conference that it would respond militarily to any U.S. “aggression.”

Reuters [1/8/2026 8:07 PM, Staff, 36480K] reports Vice President JD Vance at a White House briefing on Thursday (January 8) told Europeans that they should take the security of Greenland more seriously amid President Donald Trump’s renewed push to bring the Arctic island under U.S. control. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [1/8/2026 2:51 PM, Greg Norman-Diamond, 40621K] reports that European allies are working together on a plan in case the Trump administration acts on acquiring Greenland, a report said Wednesday. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told France Inter radio that the subject will be raised at a meeting with the foreign ministers of Germany and Poland. "We want to take action, but we want to do so together with our European partners," Barrot said, according to Reuters. A German government source also told Reuters that Germany is "closely working together with other European countries and Denmark on the next steps regarding Greenland." The White House said on Tuesday that President Donald Trump views acquiring Greenland as a national security priority and that the use of the U.S. military remains an option as his administration weighs how to pursue control of the Arctic territory. "President Trump has made it well known that acquiring Greenland is a national security priority of the United States," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to Fox News. "The President and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal, and of course, utilizing the U.S. Military is always an option at the Commander in Chief’s disposal," she added. When asked Wednesday for a response to the Reuters report, the White House referred Fox News Digital to Leavitt’s remarks.

NBC News [1/8/2026 7:05 PM, Abigail Williams, et al., 34509K] reports the top representatives to the U.S. from Denmark and Greenland met with White House officials Thursday, according to a source familiar with the discussions, to seek a better understanding of U.S. policy on the semiautonomous island. A White House official confirmed the meeting with the Danish ambassador to the U.S., Jesper Møller Sørensen, and Greenland’s representative to the U.S., Jacob Isbosethsen, but both sources declined to say who from the Trump administration participated in the discussions. President Donald Trump has said he needs the Arctic island for national security purposes, with White House officials publicly discussing a range of options to acquire the Danish territory, from using the U.S. military to purchasing the land. Asked about Greenland in a recent New York Times interview, Trump said that "ownership is very important.” Ownership is "what I feel is psychologically needed for success," Trump said. "I think that ownership gives you a thing that you can’t do with, you’re talking about a lease or a treaty. Ownership gives you things and elements that you can’t get from just signing a document.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet with the foreign ministers from Denmark and Greenland next week for further discussions. Vice President JD Vance, who took questions from reporters at Thursday’s White House briefing, reiterated the U.S. interest in Greenland. "We’ll continue to deliver some of these messages in private, some of them in public, but I guess my advice to European leaders and anybody else would be to take the president of the United States seriously," Vance said. "Number one, Greenland is really important, not just to America’s missile defense, but to the world’s missile defense. Number two, we know that there are hostile adversaries that have shown a lot of interest in that particular territory, that particular slice of the world," he said. "So what we’re asking our European friends to do is to take the security of that land mass more seriously, because if they’re not, the United States is going to have to do something about it.”

FOX News [1/8/2026 4:34 PM, Bonny Chu, 40621K] reports the Trump administration is considering paying each Greenland resident thousands of dollars as part of a bid to encourage the territory to secede from Denmark and join the United States, according to Reuters. U.S. officials, including White House aides, have discussed payment figures ranging from $10,000 to $100,000, the outlet reported, citing sources. For an island with a population of roughly 57,000, the total cost could range from more than half a billion dollars to nearly $6 billion. While discussions of a lump-sum payment are not new, Reuters reported that officials have become more serious in recent days and are considering higher amounts. The White House referred Fox News Digital on Thursday to remarks by Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who said during a Wednesday briefing that buying Greenland would benefit U.S. national security. "The acquisition of Greenland by the United States is not a new idea," Leavitt said. "The president has been very open and clear with all of you and the world that he views it as in the best interest of the United States to deter Russian and Chinese aggression in the Arctic region," she said. "That’s why his team is currently talking about what a potential purchase would look like.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday that he plans to meet with his Danish counterpart next week to discuss Greenland. Trump has long contended that the U.S. should acquire Greenland, arguing that its mineral resources are vital in advancing U.S. military technologies and that the Western Hemisphere should broadly fall under Washington’s geopolitical influence. "This is enough," Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday, responding to Trump’s Sunday remarks about acquiring the island. "No more pressure. No more hints. No more fantasies about annexation.” On Tuesday, Nielsen added that Greenland will remain part of Denmark despite U.S. efforts. "Our country isn’t something you can deny or take over because you want to," he added. "Once again, I urge the United States to seek respectful dialogue through the correct diplomatic and political channels and utilizing pre-existing forums that are based on agreements already in place with the United States. The dialogue must take place with respect to the fact that Greenland’s status is rooted in international law and the principle of territorial integrity.”

The Hill [1/8/2026 5:52 AM, Chan Ho-Him, 12595K] reports China said on Thursday it would assess and investigate Meta’s acquisition of artificial intelligence startup Manus, in a move highlighting its technology rivalry with the U.S.. Meta announced last week it was buying Manus, which is Singapore-based with Chinese roots, as the California tech giant behind Facebook and Instagram expands its AI offerings across its platforms. It is a rare acquisition by a U.S. tech group of an AI company with Chinese roots, at a time of heightened frictions between Washington and Beijing. On Thursday, China’s Commerce Ministry spokesperson He Yadong told reporters that it would work with relevant departments to assess and investigate whether Meta’s acquisition of Manus is consistent with Chinese laws and regulations. Any enterprises engaging in outward investment, technology export, data transfer and cross-border mergers and acquisitions must comply with Chinese laws, He said.

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