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Soldiers with the 11th airborne unit based in Fairbanks, Alaska, are on standby for possible deployment to Minneapolis as protests against ICE operations continue in the city, a U.S. defense official confirmed to CBS News. Ian Lee reports.
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Protests were peaceful outside the Whipple building midday Sunday, a week and a half since Renee Good was killed by an ICE agent in south Minneapolis.
Now, 1,500 active-duty soldiers are on standby for possible deployment to the area — so too is the Minnesota National Guard — as President Trump has said he’s considering the insurrection act.
Around midday Sunday, no federal officers were spotted standing guard outside Whipple, but Hennepin County sheriff’s deputies were on scene.
A spokesperson with the sheriff’s office said more deputies will be deployed, if needed, to keep the peace and maintain public safety.
On Friday, a federal judge ordered immigration agents stop using tear gas and detaining peaceful protestors.
“That federal order was a little ridiculous,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem told host Margaret Brennan Sunday.
Chemical agents are only used when there’s violence being perpetrated, Noem said.
“That judge’s order didn’t change anything for how we’re operating on the ground, because it’s basically telling us to do what we’ve already been doing,” said Noem.
So far, about 3,000 federal agents have been deployed to Minnesota and more than 2,500 people have been arrested.
On Sunday, Noem said 70% of those detained have charges against them, while Brennan said CBS reporting showed that number was only 47%, based on information provided by Noem’s own agency.
As for protestors, like those out on Sunday, Noem suggested they be confined to a peaceful protest zone. Mayor Frey responded.
“First amendment speech is not limited to one park or one section of the city,” said Frey. “You are allowed to protest, so long as you’re doing it peacefully.”
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Jason Rantala
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WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has ordered about 1,500 active duty soldiers to be ready in case of a possible deployment to Minnesota, where federal authorities have been conducting a massive immigration enforcement operation, two defense officials said Sunday.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military plans, said two infantry battalions of the Army’s 11th Airborne Division have been given prepare-to-deploy orders. The unit is based in Alaska and specializes in operating in arctic conditions.
One defense official said the troops are standing by to deploy to Minnesota should President Donald Trump invoke the Insurrection Act, a rarely used 19th century law that would allow him to employ active duty troops as law enforcement.
The move comes just days after Trump threatened to do just that to quell protests against his administration’s immigration crackdown.
In an emailed statement, Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell did not deny the orders were issued and said the military “is always prepared to execute the orders of the Commander-in-Chief if called upon.”
ABC News was the first to report the development.
On Thursday, Trump said in a social media post that he would invoke the 1807 law “if the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job.”
He appeared to walk back the threat a day later, telling reporters at the White House that there wasn’t a reason to use it “right now.”
“If I needed it, I’d use it,” Trump said. “It’s very powerful.”
Trump has repeatedly threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act throughout both of his terms. In 2020 he threatened to use it to quell protests after George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police, and in recent months he threatened to use it for immigration protests.
The law was most recently invoked by President George H.W. Bush in 1992 to end unrest in Los Angeles after the acquittal of four white police officers in the beating of Rodney King.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat and frequent target of Trump, has urged the president to refrain from sending in more troops.
“I’m making a direct appeal to the President: Let’s turn the temperature down. Stop this campaign of retribution. This is not who we are,” Walz said last week on social media.
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Gina Vega wipes tears from her eyes and she pleads for the return of her beloved son detained by ICE.
Photo by Dean Moses
Gina Vega sat weeping in the living room of her basement apartment in Queens. It was eerily empty and quiet; the sound of her teenage son within its walls had vanished after he was detained by ICE last year, leaving her alone with her own despair.
The Ecuadorian mother wiped away tears from her eyes as she thought of her 18-year-old boy, whom she has not seen in more than two months. Despite the overwhelming sense of anguish, she is fighting for his release from an immigration detention center in Virginia.
Jorge David Delgado Videla was detained on Nov. 5 inside 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan, after arriving with his mother for what they believed to be a routine ICE check-in on the fifth floor.
“They told me to take Jorge’s things and go,” Vega recalled. “I haven’t seen him since then. They said to be grateful they weren’t detaining me, too.”
While homeland security officials continue to claim that ICE is apprehending “the worst of the worst,” meaning violent criminals, Videla has only one misdemeanor arrest to his name.
Videla was arrested by the NYPD in August after he got into an argument with a man in the Flushing train station. According to Vega, the stranger began yelling at Videla, and they got into a verbal confrontation.
Although the fight never got physical, the pair were arrested and charged with menacing, a misdemeanor offense. It was only months later when ICE sent a letter demanding that he appear at the fateful check-in.
Vega escorted Videla inside 26 Federal Plaza when an ICE agent suddenly pointed to the student and took him to another room, where they announced they would be taking fingerprints and photographs. It would be the last time she saw him.
The female ICE agent then returned with Videla’s belt and headphones and said they would call her later. ICE agents then confiscated her passport as well, without explanation.
Both Vega and her son had applied for asylum in the United States after escaping a threat from an Ecuadorian gang, “Los choneros or Aguilas,” that had unsuccessfully tried to recruit the teenager two years prior. Videla’s friends lost their lives to the same gang. He had been attending the Pan American International High School and had been scheduled to graduate in July 2026.
That same afternoon of his detention, Vega received a call from her son confirming what she feared: that ICE was holding him against his will indefinitely. With a friend’s help, she later learned that her son had been transferred out of the Big Apple to another detention center in Virginia.
Videla’s detainment on the fifth floor comes after amNewYork made a special report last year, outlining the rise of immigrant arrests in that particular area of 26 Federal Plaza. Access is restricted on the fifth floor, with all detainment activity taking place out of sight of the press and the public.
According to Vega, Videla is now being held in a cell with people much older than him, despite only being 18 years old. Detention officials allow him limited recreational time and access to a gym, but he refuses most meals and eats only instant noodles that the center’s staff provides.
“He cries. He says he is not meant to be locked up; he is not a criminal. He asks why they keep him locked up,” Vega said, sharing what she has learned through the infrequent calls with her son.
Since his detainment, ICE offered him a “voluntary departure” to Mexico even though he is of Ecuadorian descent and has no ties to Mexico. A court hearing is scheduled for Jan. 20, at which it will be determined whether he will face deportation.
Other family members also spoke to amNewYork in defense of the young man.
Jorge’s aunt, Yadira, describes her nephew as a calm, respectful person who always helps others. She also railed that the detention has been horrific for his mother since he is also the breadwinner for the family.
“It’s very hard for his mother,” Yadira said. “She’s depressed because he is her only companion here. Every day we pray for strength – that he can stay here and start his life again.”
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By Dean Moses and Florencia Arozarena
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As residents in the Twin Cities protest in the streets against ICE and federal immigration enforcement actions, Minnesota’s battle against the federal surge is also playing out in the federal court system.
One lawsuit by the ACLU has already resulted in a federal judge, Kate Menendez, issuing an order restricting what ICE agents can do when confronting peaceful protestors.
The judge’s order says there can be no ICE retaliation against protestors, no detaining people without probable cause unless they are obstructing agents or committing a crime, no using pepper spray on a peaceful protest, and allowing drivers to follow ICE agents’ vehicles at a safe distance. On “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” this Sunday morning, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the order changes nothing about how federal agents are conducting their business in Minnesota.
Another development is that the U.S. Justice Department has opened criminal investigations into Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey for allegedly obstructing the work of federal agents.
Appearing on WCCO Sunday Morning with Esme Murphy, Attorney General Keith Ellison called this latter investigation “from the playbook.”
“This is the president who is persecuting Jerome Powell of the Fed, who tried to prosecute James Comey of the FBI, and the current attorney general of New York, Letitia James. He uses the criminal justice system to persecute the people he doesn’t like,” Ellison said.
The second federal lawsuit against ICE was filed late last week by the state of Minnesota and the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. It seeks to stop ICE activity throughout the state. The lawsuit argues the unprecedented surge of an estimated 3,000 federal agents is endangering citizens. It accuses ICE of violating the First and Tenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
That lawsuit argues that President Trump is retaliating against Gov. Tim Walz, who ran against Mr. Trump and Vice President JD Vance on Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ ticket, for his objections to ICE activity.
“What the federal government needs to do is leave and stop the surge,” Ellison said.
The Tenth Amendment protects states’ sovereignty and limits federal powers to those granted in the U.S. Constitution. It provides autonomy to the states in issues like education, elections and public safety. While Ellison is optimistic, some legal experts think the lawsuit is a long shot because it would be similar to telling the FBI it could not operate in the state.
The state, in this second lawsuit, is seeking an immediate temporary restraining order limiting ICE activities. The judge in the case is Kate Menendez, the same judge who issued that first order favorable to peaceful protestors. The judge said last week she would not issue the temporary restraining order until she heard a response from the federal government. That response is due to be filed at 5 p.m. Monday, which is the federal Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
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Esme Murphy
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As its immigration crackdown in Minneapolis intensifies, the Trump administration is leaning into messaging that borrows from phrases, images and music about national identity that have become popular among right-wing groups.
On Jan. 9, two days after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent’s shooting of Renee Good sent tensions in Minneapolis to a fever pitch, the Department of Homeland Security posted to social media an image of a man on a horse riding through a snowy, mountainous landscape with the words “We’ll have our home again.” That’s the chorus to a song about ousting a foreign presence by a self-described “folk-punk” band that the Proud Boys and other far-right and white supremacist groups have used.
The next day, the Department of Labor posted on X: “One Homeland. One People. One Heritage. Remember who you are, American.” Several Trump critics on the social media site drew a parallel to a notorious Nazi slogan, “One People, One Realm, One Leader.”
And this past week, as President Donald Trump stepped up his pressure campaign to claim Greenland, the White House posted an image on X that showed a dog sled facing a fork in the trail, one that leads to an American flag and the White House and another that leads to the Russian and Chinese flags. Above the image was the phrase, “Which way, Greenland Man?”
The post refers to a meme that riffs off the title of a notorious white supremacist book titled “Which Way Western Man?” The administration had already used the framing in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement recruiting post last year, which asked, “Which way, American Man?”
The flurry of posts has renewed criticism about a recurring pattern in Trump’s second term — the sometimes cryptic use of imagery popular with the far right and white supremacists in the administration’s campaign to rally the nation behind its immigration crackdown, which it frames as a battle to preserve Western civilization.
The administration says it’s tired of criticism that its messaging is framed around white supremacy or Nazi slogans.
“It seems that the mainstream media has become a meme of their own: The deranged leftist who claims everything they dislike must be Nazi propaganda,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said. “This line of attack is boring and tired. Get a grip.”
Referring to the “We’ll Have Our Home Again” post, DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said it “was a reference to 20-plus million illegal aliens invading the country.”
“I don’t know where you guys are getting this stuff,” she added, “but it is absurd.”
César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, a law professor at Ohio State University, said the administration’s references are a choice.
“You don’t have to dip into white supremacist sloganeering to promote immigration regulation,” he said, noting that former President Bill Clinton signed two bills toughening penalties on immigrants who were in the country illegally in the 1990s without doing so.
He added that the administration seems to calibrate its references.
“The imagery is not simply a reproduction of common white supremacist imagery or text, but a play on that imagery — and that gives them the breathing room they want,” Garcia Hernández said.
Trump won his second term with robust support from Latino voters and increased his backing among both Black and Asian voters, all while running on pledges of tough border enforcement and mass deportations.
Still, Trump for years has created enthusiasm among white supremacist groups, who see his nationalist and anti-immigrant stance as validating their own.
The president has complained that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country” and spoken favorably about white immigrants compared to other immigrants. In his first term, he bemoaned the number of immigrants coming from what he called “shithole countries” such as Haiti or ones in Africa, while wondering why the U.S. doesn’t draw more people from Norway. Last month, he called Somali immigrants “garbage.”
Trump changed immigration policy to favor whites in one area by shutting down the admission of refugees except for white South Africans, whom he contends, against evidence, are being discriminated against in their home country.
Some of Trump’s most prominent supporters have openly embraced the cause of white nationalists.
Elon Musk, who was Trump’s biggest donor during the 2024 presidential campaign and ran the president’s Department of Government Efficiency for the first part of last year, recirculated a user post on X, the social platform he owns, that called for “white solidarity” to prevent the mass murder of white men and added a “100” emoji indicating agreement.
The administration’s history has led to claims that it’s using white supremacist language even when there is no evidence for it.
In the aftermath of the Good shooting in Minnesota, a sign that appeared on Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem’s lectern during a news conference — reading “One Of Ours, All Of Yours” — drew widespread attention on social media, with many commentators suggesting it was a Nazi phrase. The Southern Poverty Law Center, however, could not trace the words to any Nazi slogan.
McLaughlin, the DHS spokeswoman, said it was a reference to the subject of the press conference: “a CBP officer who was shot — he was one of our officers and all of the country’s federal law enforcement officer,” she wrote in an email.
Hannah Gais, a senior researcher with the SPLC, has long tracked white supremacist groups and said she thinks the administration knows what it’s doing with its messaging slogans.
“They know their base is this overly online right-winger who they know will go nuts if they say ‘Which Way, Western Man?’” Gais said. “I don’t think it’s a tenable strategy for the long term because the stuff is incomprehensible to most people. And if it is comprehensible, people don’t like it.”
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ATLANTA (AP) — Against a backdrop of political division and upheaval, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s daughter said the holiday honoring her father’s legacy comes as “somewhat of a saving grace” this year.
“I say that because it inserts a sense of sanity and morality into our very troubling climate right now,” the Rev. Bernice King said in an interview with The Associated Press. “With everything going on, the one thing that I think Dr. King reminds people of is hope and the ability to challenge injustice and inhumanity.”
The holiday comes as President Donald Trump is about to mark the first anniversary of his second term in office on Tuesday. The “three evils” — poverty, racism and militarism — that the civil rights leader identified in a 1967 speech as threats to a democratic society “are very present and manifesting through a lot of what’s happening” under Trump’s leadership, Bernice King said.
King, CEO of the King Center in Atlanta, cited efforts to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives; directives to scrub key parts of history from government websites and remove “improper ideology” from Smithsonian museums; and immigration enforcement operations in multiple cities that have turned violent and resulted in the separation of families.
“Everything President Trump does is in the best interest of the American people,” White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said in an email. “That includes rolling back harmful DEI agendas, deporting dangerous criminal illegal aliens from American communities, or ensuring we are being honest about our country’s great history.”
Maya Wiley, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, one of the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights coalitions, said King’s words “ring more true today.”
“We’re at a period in our history where we literally have a regime actively working to erase the Civil Rights movement,” she said. “This has been an administration dismantling intentionally and with ideological fervor every advancement we have made since the Civil War.”
Wiley also recalled that King warned that “the prospect of war abroad was undermining to the beloved community globally and it was taking away from the ability for us to take care of all our people.” Trump’s administration has engaged in military strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats and captured Venezuela’s president in a surprise raid earlier this month.
Bernice King said she’s not sure what her father would make of the United States today, nearly six decades after his assassination.
“He’s not here. It’s a different world,” she said. “But what I can say is his teachings transcend time and he taught us, I think, the way to address injustice through his nonviolent philosophy and methodology.”
Nonviolence should be embraced not just by those who are protesting and fighting against what they believe are injustices, but should also be adopted by immigration agents and other law enforcement officers, she said. To that end, she added, the King Center previously developed a curriculum that it now plans to redevelop to help officers see that they can carry out their duties while also respecting people’s humanity.
Even amid the “troubling climate” in the country right now, Bernice King said there is no question that “we have made so much progress as a nation.” The civil rights movement that her parents helped lead brought more people into mainstream politics who have sensitivity and compassion, she said. Despite efforts to scrap DEI initiatives and the deportation of people from around the world, “the inevitability is we’re so far into our diversity you can’t put that back in a box,” she said.
To honor her father’s legacy this year, she urged people to look inward.
“I think we spend a lot of time looking at everybody else and what everybody else is not doing or doing, and we’re looking out the window at all the problems of the world and talking about how bad they are and we don’t spend a lot of time on ourselves personally,” she said.
King endorsed participation in service projects to observe the holiday because they foster connection, sensitize people to the struggles of others and help us to understand each other better. But she said people should also look at what they can do in the year to come to further her father’s teachings.
“I think we have the opportunity to use this as a measuring point from year to year in terms of what we’re doing to move our society in a more just, humane, equitable and peaceful way,” she said.
Associated Press writer Matt Brown in Washington contributed.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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More Americans now describe ICE’s operations as too tough when stopping and detaining people, and there’s a growing view that President Trump’s deportation program is targeting more people than just dangerous criminals.
Meanwhile, Republicans overwhelmingly feel the protesters have gone too far.
In the wake of events in Minneapolis, overall support for the deportation program — which has roughly divided the nation for months — has dipped even as it continues to draw strong backing from Republicans and especially strong backing from MAGA.
And in sum, the public expresses a difference between how they see the goals of the deportation program and how it’s being carried out.
There are shifting perceptions of who is being targeted by the program. Americans are increasingly likely to say the administration isn’t prioritizing dangerous criminals, and most think the administration is trying to deport more people than they thought it would.
So, as Americans look overall, a slight majority feel ICE is making the communities where it is conducting operations less safe, many more than feel it’s improving safety.
Over the course of the term, overall approval of the deportation program started net positively, became more divided over the summer, and then hovered near that division for months. In the wake of events in Minneapolis, it dropped to its lowest overall mark of the term.
More people like what they believe the program’s goals are than like the approach being taken. The former is mixed, while the latter is negative.
Overall, Mr. Trump’s approval on handling immigration has also ticked down to its lowest point of his second term, though it continues to outpace his approval on the economy and inflation.
Views on the shooting of Renee Good by an ICE agent in Minneapolis hew closely to party lines. Republicans tend to call it justified, while Democrats and independents say it was not. Most also say that they don’t believe the administration’s response to it has been fair.
Non-MAGA Republicans are less inclined than MAGA to call the shooting justified.
Thinking about what should be next for ICE, the recent events in Minneapolis appear to have at least partially reinforced preexisting views about the deportation program. Democrats say recent events mean ICE operations in the U.S. should be decreased, though they already opposed the program. Republicans either say it means operations should be increased or kept the same; they’ve long favored the program.
Looking overseas, with widespread opposition to the prospect of military action in Greenland or Iran, a majority of Americans appear pessimistic about what Mr. Trump’s policies might bring in terms of peace and stability in 2026.
Most Americans think the U.S. does have strategic interests in Iran, but they are more divided on whether or not it has moral responsibilities there.
Most don’t think the U.S. has effective plans for military action there, and two-thirds feel it would be a long and costly involvement. Those sentiments are closely connected to opposition to the idea of force.
The idea of using military force to take Greenland faces overwhelming opposition across party lines, including most MAGA Republicans, who say they would disapprove. For context, they have largely backed the president after he has taken military actions, including in Venezuela and the strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities last year.
Whether they support military action in Greenland and Iran or not, most Republicans do think Mr. Trump has made the U.S. position in the world stronger.
What do Americans think would happen if the U.S. took Greenland by force?
Some think taking Greenland would constitute a show of force to Russia and China, and just over half think it would provide access to needed natural resources. But large majorities also think it would cause the U.S. to leave the NATO alliance and create instability in the world.
Views about the latter two implications are very closely associated with opposition to the idea.
This CBS News/YouGov survey was conducted with a nationally representative sample of 2,523 U.S. adults interviewed between January 14-16, 2026. The sample was weighted to be representative of adults nationwide according to gender, age, race, and education, based on the U.S. Census American Community Survey and Current Population Survey, as well as 2024 presidential vote. The margin of error is ±2.3 points.
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WASHINGTON — “Abolish ICE.”
Democratic lawmakers and candidates for office around the country increasingly are returning to the phrase, popularized during the first Trump administration, as they react to this administration’s forceful immigration enforcement tactics.
The fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent this month in Minneapolis sparked immediate outrage among Democratic officials, who proposed a variety of oversight demands — including abolishing the agency — to rein in tactics they view as hostile and sometimes illegal.
Resurrecting the slogan is perhaps the riskiest approach. Republicans pounced on the opportunity to paint Democrats, especially those in vulnerable seats, as extremists.
An anti-ICE activist in an inflatable costume stands next to a person with a sign during a protest near Legacy Emanuel Hospital on Jan. 10 in Portland, Ore. The demonstration follows the Jan. 7 fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis as well as the shooting of two individuals in Portland on Jan. 8 by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
(Mathieu Lewis-Rolland / Getty Images)
“If their response is to dust off ‘defund ICE,’ we’re happy to take that fight any day of the week,” said Christian Martinez, a spokesperson for the National Republican Congressional Committee. The group has published dozens of press statements in recent weeks accusing Democrats of wanting to abolish ICE — even those who haven’t made direct statements using the phrase.
Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Corona) amplified that message Wednesday, writing on social media that “When Democrats say they want to abolish or defund ICE, what they are really saying is they want to go back to the open borders policies of the Biden administration. The American people soundly rejected that idea in the 2024 election.”
The next day, Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.) introduced the “Abolish ICE Act,” stating that Good’s killing “proved that ICE is out of control and beyond reform.” The bill would rescind the agency’s “unobligated” funding and redirect other assets to its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security.
Many Democrats calling for an outright elimination of ICE come from the party’s progressive wing. Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) said in a television interview the agency should be abolished because actions taken by its agents are “racist” and “rogue.” Jack Schlossberg, who is running for a House seat in New York, said that “if Trump’s ICE is shooting and kidnapping people, then abolish it.”
Other prominent progressives have stopped short of saying the agency should be dismantled.
A pair of protesters set up signs memorializing people who have been arrested by ICE, or have died in detention, at a rally in front of the Federal Building in Los Angeles on Friday.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
Sen. Alex Padilla, (D-Calif.) who last year was forcefully handcuffed and removed from a news conference hosted by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, joined a protest in Washington to demand justice for Good, saying “It’s time to get ICE and CBP out,” referring to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
“This is a moment where all of us have to be forceful to ensure that we are pushing back on what is an agency right now that is out of control,” Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said on social media. “We have to be loud and clear that ICE is not welcome in our communities.”
Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Corona) said Democrats seeking to abolish ICE “want to go back to the open borders policies of the Biden administration.”
(Jose Luis Magana / Associated Press)
Others have eyed negotiations over the yearly Homeland Security budget as a leverage point to incorporate their demands, such as requiring federal agents to remove their masks and to turn on their body-worn cameras when on duty, as well as calling for agents who commit crimes on the job to be prosecuted. Seventy House Democrats, including at least 13 from California, backed a measure to impeach Noem.
Rep. Mike Levin (D-San Diego), who serves on the House Committee on Appropriations, said his focus is not on eliminating the agency, which he believes has an “important responsibility” but has been led astray by Noem.
He said Noem should be held to account for her actions through congressional oversight hearings, not impeachment — at least not while Republicans would be in control of the proceedings, since he believes House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) would make a “mockery” of them.
“I am going to use the appropriations process,” Levin said, adding that he would “continue to focus on the guardrails, regardless of the rhetoric.”
Chuck Rocha, a Democratic political strategist, said Republicans seized on the abolitionist rhetoric as a scare tactic to distract from the rising cost of living, which remains another top voter concern.
“They hope to distract [voters] by saying, ‘Sure, we’re going to get better on the economy — but these Democrats are still crazy,’” he said.
Dozens of Angelenos and D.C.-area organizers, along with local activists, rally in front of the Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles on Friday. Democrats have for years struggled to put forward a unified vision on immigration — one of the top issues that won President Trump a return to the White House.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
Democrats have for years struggled to put forward a unified vision on immigration — one of the top issues that won President Trump a return to the White House. Any deal to increase guardrails on Homeland Security faces an uphill battle in the Republican-controlled Congress, leaving many proposals years away from the possibility of fruition. Even if Democrats manage to block the yearly funding bill, the agency still has tens of billions of dollars from Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Still, the roving raids, violent clashes with protesters and detentions and deaths of U.S. citizens and immigrants alike increased the urgency many lawmakers feel to do something.
Two centrist groups released memos last week written by former Homeland Security officials under the Biden administration urging Democrats to avoid the polarizing language and instead channel their outrage into specific reforms.
“Every call to abolish ICE risks squandering one of the clearest opportunities in years to secure meaningful reform of immigration enforcement — while handing Republicans exactly the fight they want,” wrote the authors of one memo, from the Washington-based think tank Third Way.
“Advocating for abolishing ICE is tantamount to advocating for stopping enforcement of all of our immigration laws in the interior of the United States — a policy position that is both wrong on the merits and at odds with the American public on the issue,” wrote Blas Nuñez-Neto, a senior policy fellow at the new think tank the Searchlight Institute who previously was assistant Homeland Security secretary.
Roughly 46% of Americans said they support the idea of abolishing ICE, while 43% are opposed, according to a YouGov/Economist poll released last week.
Sarah Pierce, a former policy analyst at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services who co-wrote the Third Way memo, said future polls might show less support for abolishing the agency, particularly if the question is framed as a choice among options including reforms such as banning agents from wearing masks or requiring use of body cameras.
“There’s no doubt there will be further tragedies and with each, the effort to take an extreme position like abolishing ICE increases,” she said.
Laura Hernandez, executive director of Freedom for Immigrants, a California-based organization that advocates for the closure of detention centers, said the increase in lawmakers calling to abolish ICE is long overdue.
“We need lawmakers to use their power to stop militarized raids, to close detention centers and we need them to shut down ICE and CBP,” she said. “This violence that people are seeing on television is not new, it’s literally built into the DNA of DHS.”
Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.) introduced the “Abolish ICE Act.”
(Paul Sancya / Associated Press)
Cinthya Martinez, a UC Santa Cruz professor who has studied the movement to abolish ICE, noted that it stems from the movement to abolish prisons. The abolition part, she said, is watered down by mainstream politicians even as some liken immigration agents to modern-day slave patrols.
Martinez said the goal is about more than simply getting rid of one agency or redirecting its duties to another. She pointed out that alongside ICE agents have been Border Patrol, FBI and ATF agents.
“A lot of folks forget that prison abolition is to completely abolish carceral systems. It comes from a Black tradition that says prison is a continuation of slavery,” she said.
But Peter Markowitz, a law professor and co-director of the Immigration Justice Clinic at the Cardozo School of Law, said the movement to abolish ICE around 2018 among mainstream politicians was always about having effective and humane immigration enforcement, not about having none.
“But it fizzled because it didn’t have an answer to the policy question that follows: If not ICE, then what?” he said. “I hope we’re in a different position today.”
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Andrea Castillo, Ana Ceballos
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In a ruling on Friday, a judge restricted federal officers from detaining or using tear gas against peaceful protesters who are not obstructing authorities in Minneapolis, where demonstrations over President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown are expected to continue this weekend. Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement responding to the preliminary injunction, “D.H.S. is taking appropriate and constitutional measures to uphold the rule of law and protect our officers and the public from dangerous rioters.”ICE’s tactics have faced criticism from Democratic leaders, like Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.”What we’re seeing on our streets is unnecessary abuses of force. This is an invasion for the sake of creating chaos by our own federal government,” Frey said on Friday.Both Frey and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz are reportedly under investigation. The Justice Department is looking into whether Frey and Walz impeded law enforcement through past public statements, according to the Associated Press. “Weaponizing the justice system against your opponents is an authoritarian tactic,” Walz said in a social media post on Friday.”A reminder to all those in Minnesota: No one is above the law,” Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote in a separate post, which didn’t explicitly mention the probe. The warning comes as Minneapolis braces for another weekend of demonstrations. Clashes with protesters have escalated following the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an ICE agent in a highly contested incident last week. “While peaceful expression is protected, any actions that harm people, destroy property, or jeopardize public safety will not be tolerated,” Minnesota Department of Public Safety Commissioner Bob Jacobson said Friday. Earlier this week, President Donald Trump warned that he could invoke the rarely used Insurrection Act to deploy troops to Minneapolis in response to protests. “If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job, I will institute the INSURRECTION ACT, which many Presidents have done before me, and quickly put an end to the travesty that is taking place in that once great State,” Trump wrote on social media Thursday.Trump appeared to walk back that threat, at least for now, while speaking to reporters Friday. “I don’t think there is any reason right now to use it, but if I needed it, I would use it,” Trump said.Minnesota’s Attorney General Keith Ellison has said that he would challenge the use of the 19th-century law in court if necessary. He’s already suing to try to stop the recent surge in immigration enforcement in the Twin Cities. DHS says officers have arrested more than 2,500 people as part of its “Metro Surge” operation to date.
In a ruling on Friday, a judge restricted federal officers from detaining or using tear gas against peaceful protesters who are not obstructing authorities in Minneapolis, where demonstrations over President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown are expected to continue this weekend.
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement responding to the preliminary injunction, “D.H.S. is taking appropriate and constitutional measures to uphold the rule of law and protect our officers and the public from dangerous rioters.”
ICE’s tactics have faced criticism from Democratic leaders, like Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.
“What we’re seeing on our streets is unnecessary abuses of force. This is an invasion for the sake of creating chaos by our own federal government,” Frey said on Friday.
Both Frey and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz are reportedly under investigation. The Justice Department is looking into whether Frey and Walz impeded law enforcement through past public statements, according to the Associated Press.
“Weaponizing the justice system against your opponents is an authoritarian tactic,” Walz said in a social media post on Friday.
“A reminder to all those in Minnesota: No one is above the law,” Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote in a separate post, which didn’t explicitly mention the probe.
The warning comes as Minneapolis braces for another weekend of demonstrations. Clashes with protesters have escalated following the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an ICE agent in a highly contested incident last week.
“While peaceful expression is protected, any actions that harm people, destroy property, or jeopardize public safety will not be tolerated,” Minnesota Department of Public Safety Commissioner Bob Jacobson said Friday.
Earlier this week, President Donald Trump warned that he could invoke the rarely used Insurrection Act to deploy troops to Minneapolis in response to protests.
“If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job, I will institute the INSURRECTION ACT, which many Presidents have done before me, and quickly put an end to the travesty that is taking place in that once great State,” Trump wrote on social media Thursday.
Trump appeared to walk back that threat, at least for now, while speaking to reporters Friday.
“I don’t think there is any reason right now to use it, but if I needed it, I would use it,” Trump said.
Minnesota’s Attorney General Keith Ellison has said that he would challenge the use of the 19th-century law in court if necessary. He’s already suing to try to stop the recent surge in immigration enforcement in the Twin Cities. DHS says officers have arrested more than 2,500 people as part of its “Metro Surge” operation to date.
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A Minnesota judge issued a ruling Friday barring federal officers from detaining or deploying tear gas against peaceful protesters who are not obstructing authorities while participating in Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis.
The order from U.S. District Judge Kate Menendez restricting the actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and federal agents comes amid ongoing protests and heightened tension in Minneapolis after an ICE agent fatally shot Minnesota resident Renee Good earlier this month.
The ruling prohibits officers from retaliating against anyone peacefully protesting or observing the actions of immigration officers, adding that federal agents must show probable cause or reasonable suspicion that someone has committed a crime or is interfering with law enforcement operations.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said following the ruling that the First Amendment does not protect “rioting,” adding that DHS is “taking appropriate and constitutional measures to uphold the rule of law and protect our officers and the public from dangerous rioters.”
Law enforcement officers stand amid tear gas at the scene of a reported shooting on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Minneapolis. (Adam Gray/AP Photo)
“We remind the public that rioting is dangerous—obstructing law enforcement is a federal crime and assaulting law enforcement is a felony,” McLaughlin said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “Rioters and terrorists have assaulted law enforcement, launched fireworks at them, slashed the tires of their vehicles, and vandalized federal property. Others have chosen to ignore commands and have attempted to impede law enforcement operations and used their vehicles as weapons against our officers.”
McLaughlin added that “assaulting and obstructing law enforcement is a felony.”
“Despite these grave threats and dangerous situations, our law enforcement has followed their training and used the minimum amount of force necessary to protect themselves, the public, and federal property,” she stated.
MINNESOTA ANTI-ICE AGITATORS SWARM, CONFRONT FEDERAL AGENTS DURING ENFORCEMENT OPERATIONS
Federal immigration officers confront protesters outside Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Jan. 15, 2026. (Mostafa Bassim/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Under the ruling, federal agents cannot use pepper-spray or other non-lethal munitions and crowd dispersal tools against peaceful protesters, the ruling states.
Additionally, Menendez wrote that safely following officers “at an appropriate distance does not, by itself, create reasonable suspicion to justify a vehicle stop.”
The ruling stems from a case filed in December on behalf of six Minnesota activists, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota, who argued that government officers were violating the constitutional rights of Twin City residents.
Federal agents deal with agitators outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Jan. 14, 2026. (Jamie Vera/Fox News)
Government attorneys said officers were acting within their legal authority and appropriately to violence as they’ve enforced immigration laws across the country and in Minnesota.
The ongoing unrest in Minneapolis comes after two recent shootings involving ICE agents in the city.
Good died on Jan. 7 after an ICE agent shot into her vehicle through the driver’s side windshield and open window after she allegedly attempted to run him over. He could be heard on video after the fact saying “f—ing b—h” as her car crashed into a parked car.
While Democrats and local residents have condemned the shooting as a murder and called for the agent’s prosecution, the Trump administration and Republican lawmakers have defended the incident, arguing it was a justified shooting.
Members of law enforcement work the scene following the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good by an ICE agent during federal operations on Jan. 7, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
Then, in a separate incident Wednesday, an ICE officer was seriously injured after allegedly being ambushed during a traffic stop by three illegal immigrants, according to federal officials. One suspect was shot, and all three were taken into custody, authorities said, after a traffic stop targeting a Venezuelan national escalated into a foot chase and violent struggle.
Menendez is presiding over a separate lawsuit filed Monday by the state of Minnesota and the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul seeking to suspend the enforcement crackdown.
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The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Sophia Compton and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Montgomery County Council members Will Jawando and Kristin Mink are proposing bills to limit U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement access to county facilities and bar the use of masks by law enforcement.
Montgomery County Council members Will Jawando and Kristin Mink are proposing bills to limit U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement access to county facilities and bar the use of masks by law enforcement.
Mink is introducing the “County Values Act” which, she told WTOP, builds on existing state law.
Referring to ICE’s ability to carry out enforcement at certain locations, she said the state’s existing legislation “established that a judicial warrant requirement must be used at certain sensitive locations which were defined by the state as places like schools, libraries, et cetera.”
Mink’s bill expands on that state legislation to include the judicial warrant requirement at all county facilities, including recreation centers.
Asked about the language in the bill that refers to nonpublic areas, Mink explained that would be any part of a county facility where residents are required to sign in to use a space, or to show ID to prove they’re a county resident and therefore have access to a space.
For example, she said, at a recreation or aquatic facility, “to get into the pool area, there’s a process, right? That’s not just open for anybody to walk in.”
“We need to make sure that all of our county staff know, that wherever they are, whatever building they’re in,” they do not need to let ICE agents or officers in without a judicial warrant, Mink said. “And they can get legal support on the phone right away to review that.”
Mink said county council members have heard from residents — including U.S. citizens — who are concerned about immigration enforcement efforts in their neighborhoods.
“We have to stand with the community,” she said. “In this moment, as a county, we have to be able to look back and say that we did every single thing that we could possibly do … from the terrorism that is being wrought upon us.”
Mink’s bill would also deny ICE access to county parking garages, parking lots and county-owned vacant lots.
Council member Jawando will also be introducing a bill — the “Unmask ICE Act” — that would prohibit law enforcement from wearing masks, with some exceptions.
Law enforcement “are not to wear masks in our community,” Jawando said. “And our law enforcement already doesn’t wear masks, but this would be codifying that practice.”
Asked about whether the ban on face coverings on agents and officers in law enforcement could stand up to legal challenge, Jawando said, “The state of California and … LA County passed this legislation. It’s being challenged by the Trump administration. I suspect they may challenge this one in court as well, and I’m happy to have that debate.”
The bills will be introduced at Tuesday’s council session. The lawmakers plan a news conference later that day to discuss details and introduce supporters of the bills.
WTOP has reached out to ICE for comment on the proposed legislation.
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Kate Ryan
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The junior senator from California took to X to counter Trump’s comments on the midterm elections, ICE and the economy
Suspending midterm elections, sending armed federal agents into American cities and the state of the economy – these were just some of the issues Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) touched on in a video responding to President Trump’s latest interview with Reuters.
In a nearly eight-minute clip posted to X yesterday, the junior senator from California rebuked the president’s suggestion of canceling midterm elections, saying that Trump “knows he’s gonna lose” and is trying to discourage voter and volunteer participation.
“We’re having a midterm election whether he likes it or not,” Schiff told his 3.3 million followers on X. “Do not let Donald Trump persuade you otherwise.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt later claimed that Trump was “simply joking” and “speaking facetiously,” telling reporters the president was saying, “we’re doing such a great job, maybe we should just keep rolling.”
Donald Trump doesn’t think we need a midterm election.
Donald Trump thinks the economy is the best it’s ever been.
Donald Trump’s latest interview shows him increasingly losing touch with reality.
I break it down: pic.twitter.com/JBPK9Htz4g
— Adam Schiff (@SenAdamSchiff) January 16, 2026
Schiff also touched on the state of the economy, which Trump told Reuters was the strongest “in history.”
“We’re still plagued by high inflation, we’re seeing unemployment numbers tick up,” Schiff said. “Trump has failed to keep his campaign promise to bring down prices on day one or even the first year.”
While prices for staple goods such as eggs, milk and gas have fallen since Trump took office, overall annual inflation remains above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, resting at 2.7%, down from 3% in January last year.
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The Democratic senator went on to criticize Trump for calling the shooting of Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer “unfortunate,” while continuing to increase ICE’s presence in American cities.
“What Trump doesn’t acknowledge is that the provocation he creates by sending armed federal agents into American cities is endangering communities and causing tragic losses of life,” Schiff said.
He also attacked Trump over blaming Ukraine for failing to reach a peace settlement with Russia and shrugging off bipartisan criticism of threats to invade Greenland and investigate Fed Chair Jerome Powell.
Schiff’s latest clip is part of a recent campaign to create daily social media videos focused on “identifying something really important that happened today, what we should make of it” and how Democrats can fight back.
The first-term Senator consistently ranks among the top-performing Democratic lawmakers on social media by embracing what he calls an “all-of-the-above” approach to engaging with digital platforms.
“We need to make sure people hear our message, and that we’re not just talking to the same people over and over again,” Schiff said in an interview with Axios.
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Aidan Williams
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Illinois U.S. Senator Dick Durbin wrote to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem on Friday, telling her he was outraged at “repeated targeting and racial profiling” of American citizens by her agents carrying out “citizen checks.”
In a letter exclusively shared with Newsweek, the Democrat told Noem that statements she and U.S. Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino had made that U.S. citizens needed to prove their identity were false.
“To state the obvious, we are not a ‘papers, please’ country,” Durbin wrote. “American citizens generally do not have ‘immigration documents’, and to require them to carry such documents to avoid being violently stopped or interrogated by federal immigration agents is absurd and unconstitutional. There is no requirement in the law for U.S. citizens to carry identification to avoid arbitrary arrest and detention.”
The letter came after Noem spoke to reporters on Thursday, saying that ICE agents may ask U.S. citizens for proof of citizenship during enforcement operations that have seen protesters clash with federal officers and citizens temporarily detained. Some video has shown citizens reacting angrily to such requests, saying they do not need to prove who they are, with concerns around Fourth Amendment protections.
“If we are on a target, there may be individuals surrounding that criminal that we may be asking who they are and why they’re there and having them validate their identity,” Noem said Thursday, after questions over why some Americans were being asked for proof of citizenship.
Bovino, who has been the face of DHS’ large-scale operations in Chicago, Charlotte and now Minnesota, has made comments on social media with a similar message, adding that a REAL ID is not proof of citizenship.
Durbin, who has been outspoken over the Trump administration’s actions over the past year already, said he was deeply concerned at Bovino’s comments.
“The founders included explicit protections from unreasonable searches and seizures in the U.S. Constitution to prevent the types of arbitrary and indiscriminate arrests of U.S. citizens that are currently occurring in American cities,” Durbin told Noem, adding that current Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh had affirmed these protections recently.
“Unfortunately, these caveats have not prevented an escalating number of arbitrary stops, arrests, and detentions of U.S. citizens by federal immigration agents,” the senator added.
He went on to outline multiple incidents in Minnesota alone in the past few weeks, which have seen U.S. citizens detained by federal agents, who at times have been seen using aggressive tactics to do so. Tensions have been especially high in the Twin Cities following the death of Renee Nicole Good, who was shot by an ICE agent on January 7.
“The Department’s cavalier attitude towards the law continues to lead to frequent abuses against American citizens,” Durbin wrote.
The senator also said that agents had approached multiple non-white people in Minneapolis, and elsewhere, and asked where they were born and for their identification, with at least one person told “we are doing a citizen check.”
Under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), immigrants in the U.S. are required to carry proof of their status. The rule has not been strictly enforced through fines for several years, but under the Trump administration, there have been a few instances of people being fined for not carrying documentation.
When the rules were tightened, some experts did warn that if one group had to carry documentation, then all people in the U.S. would be affected, even if not legally required to carry proof of nationality.
The Trump administration, including Noem and Bovino, has insisted agents are working within the law to enforce immigration laws and deliver on the president’s promise of mass deportations of illegal immigrant criminals. DHS has also made it clear that it will seek to prosecute anyone who attacks or impedes federal agents in this work.
Durbin, in his letter to Noem: “Terrifying experiences like these undoubtedly will become more commonplace for American citizens unless the Department abides by the law and reins in its reckless immigration enforcement operations.
“Please immediately issue a correction to the Department’s false statement that U.S. citizens must carry proof of citizenship and immediately instruct your employees that unconstitutional “citizen checks” are not permitted and must immediately cease.”
Mubashir, a Minnesota community member, to members of Congress Friday: “At no time did any officer ask me whether I was a citizen or if I had any immigration status. They did not ask for any identifying information, nor did they ask about my ties to the community, how long I had lived in the Twin Cities, my family in Minnesota, or anything else about my circumstances.”
Bovino, on X December 11: “One must carry immigration documents as per the INA. A Real ID is not an immigration document.”
Michael McAuliffe, former federal prosecutor and ex-elected state attorney, to Newsweek Thursday: “Standing near someone who may be illegally in the country is not a crime, and is not––alone––grounds to require someone to identify themselves. If one adds to the scenario any facts that might support a suspicion that a person is helping the suspect, or obstructing the agent’s attempts to evaluate the suspect’s status, it could change what the officer can do in terms of seeking identification, requiring someone to move, or detaining the person.”
As protests and enforcement efforts continue across the U.S., Durbin has called for Noem to respond with information on the questions DHS officials are legally allowed to ask people to determine citizenship, what documents were shared with agents giving the impression they were allowed to carry out “citizen checks,” and what criteria agents are using to determine if there is a reason to believe a person is not legally in the U.S.
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Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey made national headlines when he used an expletive to demand Immigration and Customs Enforcement leave the city after an ICE agent fatally shot a resident.
But he didn’t utter new statements saying he wants city police to “fight ICE.” Some social media posts mischaracterized comments Frey made during a Jan. 14 press conference.
In an X post that clipped 55 seconds of a 15-minute press conference, conservative influencer Mario Nawfal focused on six of Frey’s words.
“‘Fight ICE agents on the street’ is an insane thing to say out loud as a mayor,” Nawfal’s Jan. 15 post said before referencing Police Chief Brian O’Hara, who stood near Frey as he spoke.
“Watch the chief,” Nawfal’s post said. “You can literally see him dissociate in real time. The 1000 yard stare of someone calculating his pension and whether it’s worth it.”
Earlier that same day, President Donald Trump had threatened to use the Insurrection Act in the wake of protests, lawsuits and statements by Frey and other Minnesota politicians challenging ICE’s tactics.
Frey and O’Hara addressed the media Jan. 14 to share details about an ICE-involved shooting in north Minneapolis that evening, a week after another ICE agent fatally shot Renee Good.
But Frey’s full comments make it clear he was not calling for police to fight ICE. He was describing Minneapolis residents’ pleas for local officials to rebuff ICE and explaining why such a “fight” is not possible. Frey called for deescalation of violence and peace amid anti-ICE protests.
Here’s what he said. (The sentences in bold were among those social media posts referenced as well as moments when he called for peace.):
“What I can tell you for certain is that this is not sustainable. This is an impossible situation that our city is presently being put in and at the same time, we are trying to find a way forward, to keep people safe, to protect our neighbors, to maintain order. And we’re in a position right now where we have residents that are asking the very limited number of police officers that we have, to fight ICE agents on the street, to stand by their neighbors. We cannot be at a place right now in America where we have two governmental entities that are literally fighting one another.
“We cannot be at a place right now in America where we have two governmental entities that are literally fighting one another. Why are we put in this position? We’re put in this position because we have approximately 600 police officers in Minneapolis, far fewer that are able to work at any given time. And there are approximately 3,000 ICE agents in the area. Three thousand. The 600 police officers that we have are charged on any given day with investigating crime, stopping homicides from taking place, preventing carjackings. That’s the work of a police officer in a city. Meanwhile, we have ICE agents throughout our city and throughout our state who along with border control are creating chaos. This is not the path that we should be on right now in America.
“Thankfully there’s another path, and I want to talk to everybody who’s out there, even people who aren’t living in Minneapolis right now. Maybe you just put your kids to bed, maybe you’re cleaning up the dishes. I’m sure you love your family, there’s no doubt in my mind that you love your town. Imagine if that city or that town was suddenly invaded by thousands of federal agents that do not share the values that you hold dear. Imagine if your daily routines were disrupted. The local cafe that you eat at was shut down because they’re scared that their own family might get torn apart. Imagine if schools shut down and suddenly parents got to figure out what to do for daycare. This is not creating safety. It’s certainly not creating safety when a huge percentage of the shootings that have taken place so far this year in Minneapolis have been by ICE. So let’s be very clear. I have seen conduct from ICE that is disgusting and is intolerable. If it were your city, it would be unacceptable there too. And for anyone that is taking the bait tonight, stop, that is not helpful. Go home, we cannot counter Donald Trump’s chaos with our own brand of chaos.”
He also said he applauded peaceful protests, but said protesters who do not remain peaceful are “not helping the undocumented immigrants in our city.”
Minnesota has an estimated 130,000 unauthorized immigrants, according to 2023 data analyzed by the Pew Research Center; about 2% of the state population.
Frey has not called the Minneapolis police to fight ICE in any of his other recent public statements. Frey’s spokesperson Ally Peters told PolitiFact that Frey has consistently called for peace.
Minnesota, Minneapolis and St. Paul filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration Jan. 12, calling the surge of federal law enforcement into the state “unlawful violent conduct” and “excessive force.”
The lawsuit seeks a court order to halt the immigration crackdown. So far no temporary measures have been ordered, and the lawsuit is pending.
PolitiFact Senior Correspondent Amy Sherman contributed to this report.
RELATED: Fact-checking Sen. Mark Warner that Trump shortened ICE agent training to 47 days
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A Liberian Minnesotan is back in custody Friday, his lawyer said, a day after a judge ordered him released because federal agents broke down his door in Minneapolis to arrest him without a judicial warrant.
The dramatic arrest of Garrison Gibson last weekend by armed immigration agents using a battering ram was captured on video. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Bryan ruled the arrest unlawful on Thursday, but Gibson was detained again when he appeared at an immigration office, attorney Marc Prokosch said.
“We were there for a check-in and the original officer said, ‘This looks good, I’ll be right back,’” Prokosch said. “And then there was a lot of chaos, and about five officers came out and then they said, ‘We’re going to be taking him back into custody.’ I was like, ‘Really, you want to do this again?’”
The Department of Homeland Security has been ramping up immigration arrests in Minnesota in what the department has called its largest enforcement operation. DHS says its officers have arrested more than 2,500 people since Nov. 29.
Marc Prokosch, Gibson’s attorney, said Thursday was “thrilled” by the judge’s order. He had filed a habeas corpus petition, used by courts to determine if an imprisonment is legal, and called the arrest a “blatant constitutional violation” since the agents did not have a proper warrant.
Gibson’s wife was inside their Minneapolis home with the couple’s 9-year-old child during the raid. Prokosch said she was deeply shaken by the arrest.
Gibson, 37, was being held at an immigration detention center in Albert Lea after being held at a large camp on the Fort Bliss Army base in El Paso, Texas, according to ICE’s detainee locator.
John Locher / AP
DHS did not immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press requesting comment on the order and has not responded to a prior email with follow-up questions about Gibson’s case.
Gibson, who fled the Liberian civil war as a child, had been ordered removed from the U.S., apparently because of a 2008 drug conviction that was later dismissed by the courts. He had remained in the country legally under what’s known as an order of supervision, with the requirement that he meet regularly with immigration authorities.
Only days before his arrest, Gibson had checked in with immigration authorities at regional immigration offices — the same building where agents have been staging enforcement raids in recent weeks.
Bryan said in his Thursday order that he agrees with Gibson’s assertions that since he had already been released on an order of supervision, officials “violated applicable regulations” by not giving him enough notice that it had been revoked and the reasoning, as well as not providing him an interview right after he was detained.
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Homeland Security Department, had said that Gibson has “a lengthy rap sheet (that) includes robbery, drug possession with intent to sell, possession of a deadly weapon, malicious destruction and theft.” She did not indicate if those were arrests, charges or convictions.
Court records indicate Gibson’s legal history shows only the one felony in 2008, along with a few traffic violations, minor drug arrests and an arrest for riding public transportation without paying the fare.
The Twin Cities — the latest target in President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement campaign — has been wracked by fear and anger in the aftermath of the killing of Renee Good, who was shot Jan. 7 during a confrontation with agents. On Wednesday, a man was shot and wounded by an immigration officer who had been attacked with a shovel and broom handle.
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CBS Minnesota
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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is holding about 73,000 people facing deportation, a new record high, according to data. CBS News’ Camilo Montoya-Galvez reports.
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