NEW YORK — Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Sonia De Los Santos is the latest performer to cancel an appearance at the Kennedy Center in Washington. She had been scheduled to give two concerts for young people on Feb. 7, followed by a “creative conversation” with the audience.
De Los Santos, a Mexican American whose 2018 release “¡Alegría!” received a Latin Grammy nomination for best children’s album, cited her background as a reason for calling off the shows.
“As an artist, I treasure the freedom to create and share my music, and for many years I have used this privilege to uplift the stories of immigrants in this country,” she wrote Thursday on Instagram. “Unfortunately, I do not feel that the current climate at this beloved venue represents a welcoming space for myself, my band, or our audience.”
In an email to The Associated Press, De Los Santos shared her Instagram statement and said she would have no additional comment. Kennedy Center spokesperson Roma Daravi challenged De Los Santos’ citing of immigration policy.
“This country was built on legal immigrants and as a first generation American, I find her statement highly offensive,” Daravi wrote in an email. “Refusing to engage with an institution open to everyone is, in fact, a step towards discrimination.”
Artists ranging from “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda to rock star Peter Wolf have called off events at the Kennedy Center since President Donald Trump ousted the previous leadership early last year and arranged for himself to head the board of trustees. Trump has highlighted the Kennedy Center in his wide-ranging fight against what he calls “woke” bias at cultural institutions.
The board’s decision in December to rebrand the venue the Trump-Kennedy Center, a change that scholars say can only be enacted through Congress, led to a new wave of cancellations. Jazz musician Chuck Redd called off a planned Christmas Eve show, and the jazz group The Cookers withdrew from their New Year’s Eve concerts.
Last week, the Grammy-winning banjo player Bela Fleck announced that he had canceled three scheduled appearances next month with the National Symphony Orchestra, writing on social media that playing at the center had become “charged and political.” Ric Grenell, a diplomat and Trump ally whom the president appointed to lead the center, wrote on X that Fleck had “made it political and caved to the woke mob.”
Other recent withdrawals include “Wicked” composer Stephen Schwartz, who had been expected to host an opera gala in the spring, and the variety show Asian AF, whose shows in May were listed as canceled on the Kennedy Center website, then removed entirely. Daravi cited a “scheduling conflict.” A representative for Asian AF did not immediately responds to requests for comment.
With multiple unanswered questions and the investigation into the Minnesota shooting only in its early stages, former U.S. Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger says that coming to any conclusions this soon is “inappropriate and irresponsible.”
With multiple unanswered questions and the investigation into the Minnesota shooting only in its early stages, former U.S. Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger says that coming to any conclusions this soon is “inappropriate and irresponsible.”
“I’ve been responsible for dozens of investigations into law enforcement’s use of deadly force,” he said. “I don’t know how anyone within an hour, two hours, even five or six hours, can say definitively this shooting was justified.”
Not long after Wednesday’s deadly shooting of Renee Nicole Good by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem described the incident as an “act of domestic terrorism.”
Noem went on to allege Good, a mother from Minnesota, made up part of a “mob of agitators,” and that the ICE officer was simply following his training in the lead-up to the fatal shooting. She claimed Good tried to use her vehicle to run over the ICE officer.
The secretary’s comments came as the investigation into the fatal shooting was just getting underway.
“Frankly, it shows that they really don’t care about the facts,” Manger told WTOP.
With decades’ worth of policing experience, Manger said one of the adjustments made to trainings over the years has been to stress that officers do not take positions in areas of danger, such as standing in front of vehicles during any level of confrontation.
Prior to the shooting, the officer that fired into Good’s SUV positioned himself in front of the vehicle.
“The first thing you do is do not put yourself in the position where you are in danger,” Manger said. “So if you have the choice not to be in front of a car that’s moving, don’t.”
“All of these things are very fluid, all of these things are very chaotic in the moment,” Manger added.
The former police chief of Fairfax and Montgomery counties also underscored the importance of de-escalation tactics.
“Is the initial action something that escalated the situation, or was there a better way to approach it to get this vehicle moved out of the way?” he said.
Aftermath of Minnesota shooting
In the hours after the shooting, Minnesota’s leadership has split between urging for calm in the area and calling for the departure of ICE agents.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey rejected Noem’s claims that the shooting was an example of domestic terrorism, saying that all ICE agents “are doing is causing chaos and distrust.”
“They’re ripping families apart,” he said. “They’re sowing chaos on our streets, and in this case, quite literally killing people.”
Similarly outraged, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz referred to the shooting as both “predictable” and “avoidable.”
Walz said he was prepared to deploy the National Guard, if necessary, in the face of protests.
Thousands gathered Wednesday night to hold a vigil for Good in an area that sits less than a mile from where George Floyd was killed in May 2020.
The Associated Press and WTOP’s Gaby Arancibia contributed to this report.
The death of Renee Good, a 37-year-old woman who was shot and killed by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis on Wednesday, has sparked national outcry.
Good, who was a U.S. citizen, was a legal observer of federal actions in the city and was not a target for arrest by ICE agents, city leaders said.
CBS Minnesota reports Good was a mother of three who had recently moved to the area with her 6-year-old son and partner.
Her ex-husband told The Associated Press that she had just dropped the child off at school and was driving home with her partner when she encountered the ICE agents.
Here’s what we know so far about Good and the fatal shooting.
Good recently moved to Minneapolis
Born in Colorado, Renee Good described herself in the bio of her Instagram profile as a “poet and writer and wife and mom” who was currently “experiencing Minneapolis.”
Her mother, Donna Ganger, told the Minnesota Star Tribune that the family was notified of the death late Wednesday morning. Ganger told the newspaper that her daughter wasn’t part of a protest and said her daughter “was probably terrified.”
“Renee was one of the kindest people I’ve ever known,” Ganger told the Tribune. “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.”
Good was widowed when her husband Timmy Ray Macklin Jr. died in 2023 at age 36, the Tribune reported. He was her second husband and the father of her young son, according to the AP, which reported that Good had two older children, a 12-year-old son and 15-year-old daughter, with her first husband.
Good earned a degree in English from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, according to the school. She graduated in December 2020. Earlier that year, Good received a poetry prize from the university, its English department announced in a Facebook post at the time. The post said Good studied creative writing and hosted a podcast.
“It is with great sadness that Old Dominion University mourns the loss of one of our own, Renee (Macklin) Good,” said Brian Hemphill, the university’s president, in a statement.Hemphill described her death as a “tragic killing” and “yet another clear example that fear and violence have sadly become commonplace in our nation.”
Her ex-husband told the AP that Good had worked as a dental assistant and at a credit union before becoming a stay-at-home mother in recent years.
AP also reports it appears she was never charged with anything involving law enforcement beyond a traffic ticket.
“Devastated for that whole family”
Joan Rose, who was Good’s former neighbor in Kansas City, Missouri, told CBS affiliate KCTV that Good’s family had lived across the street from her until December 2024. Rose said she didn’t know the family well but called them “lovely neighbors.” Good had lived in the Waldo neighborhood with her partner, young son and dogs, and Rose said the two older children routinely visited them.
Rose said she thought Good’s family had planned to move to Canada when they left Missouri last year.
“I heard they were moving to Canada because of the politics here,” she told KCTV. “I had thought about them sometimes, you know, passing by their house thinking, ‘Oh, I hope they’re OK in Canada, you know, I hope that they’re living, you know, a good life and that they’re, they’re worry free.’ And this is just the opposite of that. So, I’m just devastated for that whole family.”
A GoFundMe campaign established in the wake of the shooting is asking the public to “support the wife and son of Renee Good as they grapple with the devastating loss of their wife and mother.”
“Renee was pure sunshine, pure, love,” reads the fundraiser’s description. “She will be desperately missed.”
The campaign has raised nearly $500,000 as of Thursday morning.
A community vigil held for Good in Minneapolis Wednesday night drew a large crowd of attendees, many of whom shared emotional and frustrated remarks about the latest ICE operations that have recently ramped up across the region, CBS Minnesota reported. Protests also took place in other cities around the U.S.
People protest in San Francisco on Jan. 7, 2026, after an ICE officer shot and killed Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis.
Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle via AP
The agent involved in the shooting was part of a surge of roughly 2,000 federal agents and officers the Trump administration recently deployed to the Minneapolis-St. Paul area in a response to both immigration and Minnesota’s fraud scandal.
Shooting captured on video
Police responded to a call reporting the shooting, which happened in a neighborhood in south Minneapolis, at about 9:30 a.m. local time Wednesday, according to the city. When officers arrived, they found that a woman, later identified as Good, had been shot in the head. She was rushed by firefighters to a Minneapolis hospital, where she later died, the city said.
Federal officials, including Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, characterized the shooting as an act of self-defense on the part of the ICE agent who fired the weapon when the driver “attacked them and those surrounding them and attempted to run them over and ram them with her vehicle.” However, numerous witnesses and local leaders are questioning that account.
Multiple videos have circulated online of the incident, which show the woman in a maroon Honda Pilot SUV on a residential street when an ICE agent approached and addressed her through the window of her vehicle. Several other agents stood nearby.
In one of the videos, an officer can be heard telling the woman to “get out of the f****** car” before reaching for the Honda’s door handle. At that point, the Honda is seen backing up as another agent steps in front of the car. The Honda then begins to drive away, and the agent in front of it fires his weapon into the car. Whether the agent was hit by the car, as federal officials have said, is not clear based on the videos. They show the agent move to the side of the SUV as he fires several more shots, and the car moves forward down the street before crashing into another car.
The FBI and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension have launched a joint investigation into the shooting, said Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara.
Pictures were released of Renee Nicole Good, the U.S. citizen killed by a masked ICE agent in Minneapolis during the Trump administration’s migrant sweep on Wednesday.
The fatal shooting happened during a migrant crackdown in south Minneapolis, where Good was struck while inside her car.
Good, 37, was pronounced dead after being struck by gunfire. The agent who shot the woman has not been publicly identified, and the incident remains under investigation.
Photographs were released on Wednesday showing Good in professional portraits and with her family.
Pictures were released of Renee Nicole Good, the U.S. citizen killed by a masked ICE agent in Minneapolis.(ODU English Department/Facebook)
Members of the Minneapolis City Council, in a joint statement, demanded that ICE leave the city following the shooting.
“This morning an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, a member of our community,” the statement said. “Anyone who kills someone in our city deserves to be arrested, investigated, and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
The council members said they support Minneapolis’ immigrant community and accused federal immigration authorities of bringing “chaos and violence” to the city, vowing to work with state partners to protect residents.
Additional Democrats in Minnesota and across the country condemned ICE for the killing and called for them to leave Minneapolis.
“ICE’s actions today were unconscionable and reprehensible,” Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., said on X. “I am beyond outraged that their reckless, callous actions led to the killing of a legal observer in Minneapolis. My heart breaks for the victim’s family, who will have to forever live with the pain caused by the Trump Administration’s reckless and deadly actions.”
“This is not law enforcement. It is state violence. It is simply indefensible, and ICE must be held accountable,” she added.
Renee Nicole Good was pronounced dead after being struck by gunfire.(@Renee.N.Good/Instagram)
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., told reporters that she believed the ICE agent murdered Good.
“This has now become what we feared most about ICE for a long time—that it would be used as an anti-civilian force with no accountability. At the end of the day, what we saw today was a murder, and murders in cold blood need to be prosecuted,” she said.
President Donald Trump, administration officials and congressional Republican leaders purported that Good attempted to run over agents with her vehicle, but several Democrats noted that the video footage shows that is not what happened.
“Watch it for yourself and make that assessment for yourself on which of these leaders are lying to you,” Ocasio-Cortez told reporters.
But Republicans have reaffirmed their support for ICE despite criticism from Democrats and the public over the killing.
“I want every ICE officer to know that their president, vice president, and the entire administration stands behind them,” Vice President JD Vance wrote on X.
ICE agents were also seen blocking a witness who said he was a doctor from attending to Good after the shooting, telling the physician they had their own medics on the way.
Democrats condemned ICE for the killing of Renee Nicole Good and called for them to leave Minneapolis.(Donna Ganger/Facebook)
Good’s mother, Donna Ganger, told The Minnesota Star Tribune her daughter lived in the Twin Cities with her partner and that the family was notified of her death late Wednesday morning.
“That’s so stupid” she was killed, Ganger told the outlet after learning details of the incident. “She was probably terrified.”
Ganger told the newspaper her daughter was not involved in protests against ICE agents and described Good as “one of the kindest people I’ve ever known,” calling her compassionate and devoted to caring for others.
Fox News’ Stepheny Price, Alexandra Koch and Bill Melugin contributed to this report.
Protesters gather outside Orlando City Hall after ICE fatally shoots Minneapolis woman
AND THERE HAVE BEEN PROTESTS ERUPTING ACROSS THE COUNTRY AFTER THIS. THIS IS A LOOK AT DEMONSTRATIONS IN LOUISIANA AND NEW YORK. AND EVEN HERE IN CENTRAL FLORIDA. THE GROUP ORLANDO, 5150, RALLIED OUTSIDE OF ORLANDO CITY HALL TONIGHT PROTESTING THE MINNEAPOLIS SHOOTING. WESH 2’S TONY ATKINS IS THERE LIVE RIGHT NOW? TONY. THE GROUP ORGANIZED A PROTEST JUST HOURS BEFORE IT HAPPENED. YEAH. JESSE. TONIGHT THEY CALLED IT AN EMERGENCY PROTEST. ABOUT FOUR DOZEN DEMONSTRATORS GATHERED OUTSIDE CITY HALL HERE. IN RESPONSE TO THAT ICE INVOLVED SHOOTING. THAT HAPPENED MORE THAN 1500 MILES NORTH IN MINNESOTA. COCO TRUMP AND I HAVE GOT TO GO. HEY, HEY! HO HO. A GROUP OF DEMONSTRATORS GATHERED OUTSIDE ORLANDO CITY HALL DECRYING ICE AND ITS PRESENCE OVER THE COURSE OF THE PAST YEAR. TRUMP AND THE BILLIONAIRE CRONIES WILL STOP AT NOTHING FROM USING ICE AS A SWORD AGAINST THE WORKING CLASS. THE UPROAR COMES AFTER A 37 YEAR OLD WOMAN WAS SHOT AND KILLED BY AN ICE AGENT DURING A PROTEST WEDNESDAY. THE NEWS, EMOTIONAL FOR PASTOR SARAH ROBINSON, WHO JOINED THE ORLANDO DEMONSTRATION. YOU KNOW, IT’S THE REASON I BECAME A PASTOR. NO. KNOW I STAIN OUR STREETS TO LOVE PEOPLE. WELL, THERE’S NO PEACE TO CARE FOR OUR COMMUNITIES, TO MAKE THRIVING. FLOURISHING COMMUNITIES. WHAT’S HAPPENING NOW IS SO ANTITHETICAL TO THAT. STAND UP. FIGHT BACK. WEDNESDAY’S PROTEST WAS ORGANIZED 2.5 HOURS BEFORE IT HAPPENED IN DOWNTOWN ORLANDO. ORGANIZERS CALLING IT AN EMERGENCY PROTEST. THIS PERSON WAS SHOT AT POINT BLANK RANGE IN A HIGHLY STRESSFUL SITUATION, AND THE ICE AGENTS HAD NO JUSTIFICATION WHATSOEVER FOR THIS KILLING. EVERYONE IS HERE BECAUSE OF THEIR LOVE FOR OTHERS. THAT’S WHY WE’RE HERE. AND THIS IS OUR LOVE. OUT LOUD. AND ORGANIZERS SAY THEY’RE GOING TO CONTINUE TO DEMONSTRATE AS THEY CONTINUE TO PUSH FOR CHANGE FOLLOWING THIS DEADLY SHOOTING. I’M COVERING ORANGE COUNTY LIVE IN DOWNTOWN ORLANDO AT CITY HALL. TONY ATKINS WESH TWO NEWS. ALL RIGHT, TONY, THANK YOU. NOW, THIS SHOOTING, EXPERTS SAY, WILL HAVE IMPACTS ON IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT NATIONWIDE. THOSE ARE YET TO BE SEEN. OF COURSE, WE’RE GOING TO CONTINUE FOLLOWING ALL OF THIS
Protesters gather outside Orlando City Hall after ICE fatally shoots Minneapolis woman
A protest was organized outside of Orlando City Hall at approximately 5:45 p.m. on Wednesday, where people gathered to repudiate the fatal shooting of a woman in Minneapolis by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.Groups including Orlando 50501, The Family Support Network, the Immigrants Are Welcomed Here Coalition and the Hope Community Center, will be there.>> This is a developing story and will be updated as new information is released.
ORLANDO, Fla. —
A protest was organized outside of Orlando City Hall at approximately 5:45 p.m. on Wednesday, where people gathered to repudiate the fatal shooting of a woman in Minneapolis by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.
Groups including Orlando 50501, The Family Support Network, the Immigrants Are Welcomed Here Coalition and the Hope Community Center, will be there.
>> This is a developing story and will be updated as new information is released.
President Donald Trump claimed that the woman who was shot and killed by an ICE officer in south Minneapolis Wednesday “viciously ran over the ICE Officer” prior to her death, though the video evidence he shared showed no sign of an officer being run over in the incident.
Trump posted a video of the encounter to Truth Social, which he owns, Wednesday afternoon. In his comments, he claimed “the woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting.”
The video, which appears to have been taken from a nearby residence above ground level, shows the woman’s vehicle appear to drive away as multiple federal agents approach. However, the video also shows that no officer was run over by the vehicle.
While Trump said the video “is a horrible thing to watch,” he also said “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.”
U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem earlier characterized the driver’s actions as an “act of domestic terrorism.” However, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who said he’s also seen the witness videos, called the ICE narrative of the encounter “bulls**t.”
Witnesses have told WCCO that the incident happened at about 9:30 a.m. near the intersection of 34th and Portland. Witnesses say they saw a Honda Pilot blocked by multiple federal agents. Other video angles WCCO has obtained show an agent trying to open the driver’s side door, before the driver attempts to drive away. Witnesses said they then heard three shots fired.
The Pilot is seen in other videos driving another several feet before crashing into another vehicle.
The victim was a 37-year-old woman, according to Frey, and a U.S. citizen, according to Sen. Tina Smith. City leaders said the victim was a legal observer of federal actions in the city and wasn’t a target for an ICE-related arrest.
For the first time in modern history, the United States is on the brink of losing its most basic engine of growth: more births than deaths.
According to the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) Demographic Outlook, released Tuesday, the year 2030 marks a tipping point that will fundamentally reshape the economy and social fabric. That’s the year the “natural” U.S. population—the balance of births over deaths—is projected to vanish.
“Net immigration (the number of people who migrate to the United States minus the number who leave) is projected to become an increasingly important source of population growth in the coming years, as declining fertility rates cause the annual number of deaths to exceed the annual number of births starting in 2030,” the CBO writes. “Without immigration, the population would begin to shrink in 2030.”
From that point on, every additional person added to the U.S. population will come from immigration, a demographic milestone once associated with aging countries like Italy and Japan.
The shift is striking not only for what it says about America’s rapidly aging society, but also for how soon it is expected to arrive. Just a year ago, many demographic forecasts—including the CBO’s own forecast—placed this crossover well into the late 2030s or even the 2040s. The updated outlook from CBO moves the timeline forward by nearly a decade.
This rapid acceleration, the CBO said, is driven by the “double squeeze” of declining fertility and an aging populace, combined with recent policy shifts on immigration. CBO analysts have drastically lowered their expectations for the total fertiility rate, now projecting it to settle at just 1.53 births per woman — well below the 2.1 “replacement rate” needed for a stable population. At the same time, the massive “Baby Boomer” generation is reaching ages with higher mortality rates, causing annual deaths to climb.
The timeline further compressed following the passage of the 2025 Reconciliation Act, which increased funding for more ICE agents and immigration judges to process cases faster, resulting in approximately 50,000 immigrants in detention daily through 2029, CBO said. The office calculated that these provisions will result in roughly 320,000 fewer people in the U.S. population by 2035 than previously estimated.
The new projections show that U.S. population growth will steadily decelerate over the next three decades until it finally hits zero in 2056. For most of the 20th century, the population grew at close to 1% a year: a flat population would represent a historic break from that norm.
The economic consequences of this shift are hard to overstate. While the number of retirees swells, the pool of workers funding the social safety net — and caring for the aging population — is narrowing. Americans aged 65 and older are the fastest-growing segment of the population, pushing the “old-age dependency ratio” sharply higher. In 1960, there were about five workers for every retiree. Today, that ratio is closer to three-to-one. By the mid-2050s, the CBO projects it will fall to roughly two workers per retiree. The contraction will have “significant implications” on the federal budget, including outsized effects on Social Security and Medicare, placing pressure on those trust funds which rely on a robust base of payroll taxes that a stagnant population cannot easily provide.
Further, because national GDP is essentially the product of the number of workers multiplied by their individual productivity, the loss of labor force growth means the American economy will have to rely almost entirely on technological breakthroughs and AI to drive future gains. This may be happening ahead of schedule, as continued weak employment growth in December showed a “jobless expansion,” in the words of KPMG chief economist Diane Swonk, as Fortune previously reported.
The killing of a woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis sparked protests nationwide Wednesday, including a rally at Boston Common.
NBC News reports 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good was shot Wednesday by one of several ICE agents conducting an immigration enforcement operation. Authorities said Good allegedly blocked the street with her SUV, leading to a confrontation that escalated within seconds and ended with gunfire.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said the city is demanding accountability.
“We, collectively, are going to do everything possible to get to the bottom of this, to get justice,” Frey said. “What they are doing is causing chaos and distrust.”
The Department of Homeland Security defended the agents’ actions, claiming Good used her vehicle as a weapon. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem described the incident as “an act of domestic terrorism.”
She added, “a woman attacked them and those surrounding them and attempted to run them over and ram them with her vehicle.”
Political commentator Sue O’Connell talks about what the Minneapolis shooting in which an ICE agent killed a woman.
Protesters expressed shock and outrage, with some saying the killing is reminiscent of George Floyd’s death at the hands of police in Minneapolis nearly 6 years ago.
“It’s our job to stand against this and say, ‘No, we don’t stand for this,’” said Kojo Acheampong, an activist with the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
Immigrant advocacy organizations say they have long feared that aggressive enforcement tactics could result in deadly outcomes.
“We have feared that without appropriate checks and constraints on the agency, that there have been more violent incidents,” said Elizabeth Sweet, executive director of the MIRA Coalition.
Sweet acknowledged the risks protesters face, adding, “sometimes you need to think about, ‘Where are appropriate places to be speaking up and protesting and ensuring that we are following all the rules?’”
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz issued a warning to the Trump administration after ICE agents fatally shot a woman in Minneapolis. “We do not need any further help from the federal government. To Donald Trump and Kristi Noem: you’ve done enough.”
Retired Newton Police Chief John Carmichael urged patience as investigators review the incident.
“This is an awful tragedy, a situation that probably could have and should have been avoided,” Carmichael said.
He also cautioned against rushing to judgment.
“We have to allow law enforcement to do their job, and again, if we don’t like that, society doesn’t like that, then we take the correct avenues to change that,” he said.
Noem said the ICE agent who fired the shot was allegedly struck by the vehicle and was treated and released from a hospital.
In Massachusetts, Gov. Maura Healey called ICE’s tactics “dangerous,” while Boston Mayor Michelle Wu called for an end to the “mass deployment of ICE agents into American cities” and urged the federal government to restore accountability.
More anti-ICE rallies are expected to take place across the Bay State in the coming days.
An ICE agent questions a U.S. citizen on Monday, Jan. 5, 2026, in Salisbury, N.C.
Video screenshot
Cellphone video circulating online shows Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents telling two men in Salisbury to stop recording them at a traffic stop on Monday, as well as the fracas that followed.
Charlotte ICE spokesperson Lindsay Williams confirmed it was ICE agents who were seen in the video.
“Do me a favor and turn off your video. You’re being detained right now, so you’re not free to record,” one agent told the men, whom advocacy group Siembra NC identified as Edwin Godinez and Yair Alexander Napoles.
When Godinez and Napoles responded that they were not being detained, the agent reached through the car’s driver-side window and tried to grab Napoles’ cellphone, then grabbed him by his hoodie and yanked him. Then, agents opened the car door and tussled with him inside the vehicle.
“Get off the phone!” the agent who told them to stop recording said before he started yelling more commands.
A different agent also reached into the car and yanked Godinez by his coat before pointing his finger in his face and telling him to put his hands on the dashboard.
Agents eventually removed the two from the car. They were not charged, Siembra spokesperson Marley Monacello said.
Both are United States citizens and step-brothers, according to Siembra, and were picking up a work truck left behind after two people in their family’s business — Adelso Perez Sales and Alejandro Domingo Ambrosio Bamaca — were arrested by ICE.
“I can record for my safety, right?” Godinez asked in the video, before the struggle.
“Sure,” an agent answered before pulling his face mask up.
The agent then asked him how he got “in the United States.”
The Charlotte Observer asked ICE for more information about the incident and whether agents in the video violated any policies. The First Amendment allows Americans the right to record or photograph police.
“Federal agents should not be targeting us for the color of our skin,” Napoles said in a statement. “They kept saying, ‘You’re not a citizen, you’re not a citizen’ to me, even when I told them I was, just because of how I look.”
Godinez added in his own statement that agents are arresting “hard-working people, not hardened criminals,” and should “stop abusing our community.”
Ryan Oehrli covers criminal justice in the Charlotte region for The Charlotte Observer. His work is produced with financial support from the nonprofit The Just Trust. The Observer maintains full editorial control of its journalism.
This story was originally published January 7, 2026 at 3:30 PM.
Ryan Oehrli writes about criminal justice for The Charlotte Observer. His reporting has delved into police misconduct, jail and prison deaths, the state’s pardon system and more. He was also part of a team of Pulitzer finalists who covered Hurricane Helene. A North Carolina native, he grew up in Beaufort County.
After U.S. officials arrested Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis lauded the operation, saying the state’s large Venezuelan population knows firsthand how “destructive” Maduro’s policies were.
DeSantis also said during a Jan. 5 press conference that Maduro was “releasing people from his prisons and sending them to our southern border under the Biden administration” and that he “deserves to be brought to justice.”
DeSantis repeated the comments the following day, adding that Florida would consider bringing state drug charges against Maduro.
Then and now, we found no evidence, such as in academic or government reports, that Maduro purposely freed Venezuelan prisoners and sent them to infiltrate the U.S. before, during or after Joe Biden’s presidency. Groups that track Venezuelan prisons say they remain overcrowded.
PolitiFact contacted DeSantis for comment but received no response.
Narrative rose to prominence in U.S. after anonymous source in 2022 article
In September 2022, as immigration at the southern U.S. border surged, 13 Republican Congress members sent a letter to then-Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, requesting information on an “intelligence report” they said his department sent to Border Patrol agents.
According to the lawmakers, DHS had told agents to be on the lookout for violent criminals who Venezuela was deliberately releasing from prisons and encouraging to join caravans headed to the U.S.
When we examined the claim at the time, we found its only source was a Sept. 18, 2022, article by conservative news website Breitbart, which credited an anonymous U.S. Customs and Border Protection source who it said was not authorized to speak to the media.
The article vaguely described the DHS intelligence report and did not link to it. The lawmakers sent a second letter to Mayorkas in February 2024 letter, again referring to the intelligence report and asking him to investigate.
We reached out again to DHS and CBP about the report’s existence and asked for a copy. We received no response. In 2022, the fact-checking organization Factchequeado reported that DHS responded to its inquiry about the Breitbart article and said the article’s claims “are not verified.”
Experts say there’s no evidence for the prison claim
Experts in Venezuelan politics said Maduro could have been capable of such actions, and the FBI says some Venezuelan criminals have come to the U.S.
But immigration experts in the U.S. and Latin America and Venezuelan criminologists said the assertion that the government freed Venezuelan prisoners and sent them to the U.S. southern border is baseless.
“There is no evidence that (Maduro’s) government is freeing prisons or sending prisoners to the United States,” Universidad Central de Venezuela criminology professor Luis Izquiel told PolitiFact in 2024.
Mike LaSusa, deputy director of content at InSight Crime, a think tank focused on crime and security in the Americas, previously told PolitiFact that Venezuela’s government “has no known policy of selecting particular migrants to send them to any specific country, including the United States.”
The Observatorio Venezolano de Prisiones, an independent nonprofit that tracks Venezuela’s prison population, hasn’t reported that prisons emptied out during the Biden administration. In its 2023 report, the group said 64% of Venezuela’s prisons were overcrowded, estimating there were more than 33,500 inmates imprisoned, compared with a 20,000-person capacity.
The non-governmental organization A Window to Freedom, which has monitored Venezuela’s prison population and conditions for over 25 years, reported that overcrowding in the country’s pretrial detention centers, known as police cells, in 2023 was 189% — a 13% increase from 2022.
On May 5, 2025, the federal National Intelligence Council released a declassified memo that found no evidence that the Venezuelan government under Maduro directed the Tren de Aragua gang or sent its members to the U.S. The gang formed in a Venezuelan prison.
The U.S. does not admit people with criminal convictions who it encounters at U.S. ports of entry unless there are extenuating circumstances. Part of the entry process involves Border Patrol checking immigrants’ backgrounds and taking their fingerprints and other biometric information.
Crime has declined in Venezuela in recent years, but experts say that isn’t evidence Maduro sent freed prisoners to the U.S. It’s because of a confluence of factors, including a humanitarian crisis and a declining economy, pushing close to 8 million people to flee Venezuela since 2014. Most have migrated to Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Chile.
Many of the people who lived in poor and rural areas — who were often victims of crime — have left the country, experts said.
“The opportunities for crime were lost,” Roberto Briceño León, founder and director of the Venezuelan Observatory of Violence, which monitors crime in Venezuela, told PolitiFact in 2024. “Generalized poverty in the country, the absence of money circulating, the bankruptcy of companies and commerce all made the opportunities for crime in the country drop.”
Our ruling
DeSantis said Maduro “was releasing people from his prisons and sending them to our southern border under the Biden administration.”
We found no evidence, such as academic or government reports, that Maduro freed prisoners and sent them to the U.S.
Immigration experts said Venezuela has no known policy or practice of sending prisoners to any specific country, including the U.S. And groups that track Venezuelan prisons said they remain overcrowded.
MINNEAPOLIS — An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a Minneapolis driver on Wednesday during the Trump administration’s latest immigration crackdown on a major American city — a shooting that federal officials said was an act of self-defense but that the mayor described as reckless and unnecessary.
What You Need To Know
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey says the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who shot and killed a motorist acted recklessly, and he rejected federal officials’ claims that the officer had acted in self-defense
During a Wednesday news conference hours after the ICE officer shot the woman, an angry Frey blasted the federal immigration crackdown on the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul
Frey accused the federal officers of “sowing chaos on our streets, and in this case, quite literally killing people”
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, during a Texas visit, described the incident as an “act of domestic terrorism” carried out against ICE officers by a woman who “attempted to run them over”
The 37-year-old woman was shot in the head in front of a family member in a snowy residential neighborhood south of downtown Minneapolis, just a few blocks from some of the oldest immigrant markets and about a mile from where George Floyd was killed by police in 2020.
Her killing after 9:30 a.m. was recorded on video by witnesses, and the shooting quickly drew a crowd of hundreds of angry protesters. By evening, hundreds were there for a vigil to mourn the death and urge the public to resist immigration enforcers.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, while visiting Texas, described the incident as an “act of domestic terrorism” carried out against ICE officers by a woman who “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.”
In a social media post, President Donald Trump made similar accusations against the woman and defended ICE’s work.
Hours later, at an evening news conference in Minnesota, Noem didn’t back down, claiming the woman was part of a “mob of agitators.” She said the veteran officer who fired his gun had been rammed and dragged by an anti-ICE motorist in June.
“Any loss of life is a tragedy, and I think all of us can agree that in this situation, it was preventable,” Noem said, adding that the FBI would investigate.
But Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey blasted Noem’s version of what happened as “garbage” and criticized the federal deployment of more than 2,000 officers to the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul as part of the immigration crackdown.
“What they are doing is not to provide safety in America. What they are doing is causing chaos and distrust,” Frey said, calling on the immigration agents to leave. “They’re ripping families apart. They’re sowing chaos on our streets, and in this case, quite literally killing people.”
“They are already trying to spin this as an action of self-defense. Having seen the video myself, I wanna tell everybody directly, that is bullshit,” the mayor said.
Frey said he had a message for ICE: “Get the f— out of Minneapolis.”
People protest as law enforcement officers attend to the scene of the shooting involving federal law enforcement agents, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Tom Baker)
A shooting caught on video
Videos taken by bystanders with different vantage points and posted to social media show an officer approaching an SUV stopped across the middle of the road, demanding the driver open the door and grabbing the handle. The Honda Pilot begins to pull forward and a different ICE officer standing in front of the vehicle pulls his weapon and immediately fires at least two shots into the vehicle at close range, jumping back as the vehicle moves toward him.
It was not clear from the videos if the vehicle made contact with the officer. The SUV then sped into two cars parked on a curb nearby before crashing to a stop. Witnesses screamed obscenities, expressing shock at what they’d seen. After the shooting, emergency medical technicians tried to administer aid to the woman.
“She was driving away and they killed her,” said resident Lynette Reini-Grandell, who was outdoors recording video on her phone.
The shooting marked a dramatic escalation of the latest in a series of immigration enforcement operations in major cities under the Trump administration. The death of the Minneapolis driver, whose name wasn’t immediately released, was at least the fifth linked to immigration crackdowns.
The Twin Cities have been on edge since DHS announced Tuesday that it had launched the operation, which is at least partly tied to allegations of fraud involving Somali residents. Noem confirmed Wednesday that DHS had deployed more than 2,000 officers to the area and said they had already made “hundreds and hundreds” of arrests.
A large throng of protesters gathered at the scene after the shooting, where they vented their anger at the local and federal officers who were there, including Gregory Bovino, a senior U.S. Customs and Border Patrol official who has been the face of crackdowns in Los Angeles, Chicago and elsewhere.
In a scene that hearkened back to the Los Angeles and Chicago crackdowns, bystanders heckled the officers, chanting “Shame! Shame! Shame!” and “ICE out of Minnesota,” and blew whistles that have become ubiquitous during the operations.
Governor calls for calm
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said he’s prepared to deploy the National Guard if necessary. He said a family member of the driver was there to witness the killing, which he described as “predictable” and “avoidable.” He also said like many, he was outraged by the shooting, but he called on people to keep protests peaceful.
“They want a show. We can’t give it to them. We cannot,” the governor said during a news conference. “If you protest and express your First Amendment rights, please do so peacefully, as you always do. We can’t give them what they want.”
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara briefly described the shooting to reporters but, unlike federal officials, gave no indication that the driver was trying to harm anyone.
“This woman was in her vehicle and was blocking the roadway on Portland Avenue. … At some point a federal law enforcement officer approached her on foot and the vehicle began to drive off,” the chief said. “At least two shots were fired. The vehicle then crashed on the side of the roadway.”
There were calls on social media to prosecute the officer who shot the driver. Commissioner Bob Jacobson of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety said state authorities would investigate the shooting with federal authorities.
“Keep in mind that this is an investigation that is also in its infancy. So any speculation about what has happened would be just that,” Jacobson told reporters.
The shooting happened in the district of Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, who called it “state violence,” not law enforcement.
For nearly a year, migrant rights advocates and neighborhood activists across the Twin Cities have been preparing to mobilize in the event of an immigration enforcement surge. From houses of worship to mobile home parks, they have set up very active online networks, scanned license plates for possible federal vehicles and bought whistles and other noisemaking devices to alert neighborhoods of any enforcement presence.
The Trump administration is dramatically expanding a policy requiring some foreign travelers to post bonds of up to $15,000 before entering the United States.
The State Department on Tuesday added 25 countries to its visa bond list, nearly tripling the total shortly after adding seven more as part of the Trump administration’s moves to tighten immigration enforcement.
There are now 38 countries subject to the requirement, most of them in Africa with others in Latin America and Asia, a move that could make obtaining a U.S. visa unaffordable for many travelers.
The bond requirement for the latest additions, including Venezuela, will take effect Jan. 21.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrives for a closed-door meeting with lawmakers on Capitol Hill on December 16, 2025, in Washington, DC.(Heather Diehl/Getty Images)
Travelers eligible for a B1/B2 visa from countries on the list must post a bond of $5,000, $10,000 or $15,000, with the amount set during the visa interview, according to a notice posted on the State Department’s website.
Paying the bond will not guarantee a visa’s approval, but the amount will be refunded should the visa be denied, or when a visa holder demonstrates compliance with the terms of the visa.
The expansion follows a pilot program launched by the State Department in August that requires certain visa applicants from countries with high overstay rates and deficient document security controls to post a bond.
Travelers from certain countries will be required to post bonds of up to $15,000 under an expanded State Department policy.(iStock)
The Trump administration rolled out numerous immigration policy changes last year, impacting the way people travel, obtain visas and become citizens in the United States, with some measures scheduled to take effect in 2026.
The Trump administration requires citizens from all countries that require visas to sit for in-person interviews and disclose years of social media history, along with information about their families’ previous travel and living arrangements.
President Donald Trump signed two executive orders on Sept. 19, 2025, establishing the “Trump Gold Card” and introducing a $100,000 fee for H-1B visas. The “Trump Gold Card” is a visa program that allows foreign nationals permanent residency and a pathway to U.S. citizenship for a $1 million investment in the United States.(Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
President Donald Trump also recently announced the launch of the much-anticipated “Trump Gold Card,” an immigration initiative designed to provide a new, streamlined path to U.S. citizenship, which he has said could generate billions of dollars.
The new countries added to the visa bond requirement beginning Jan. 21 are Algeria, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Bangladesh, Benin, Burundi, Cape Verde, Cuba, Djibouti, Dominica, Fiji, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Nigeria, Senegal, Tajikistan, Togo, Tonga, Tuvalu, Uganda, Vanuatu, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.
Countries already on the list include Bhutan, Botswana, the Central African Republic, the Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Malawi, Mauritania, Namibia, São Tomé and Príncipe, Tanzania, Turkmenistan and Zambia.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem appears before the House Committee on Homeland Security on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has launched what officials describe as the largest immigration enforcement operation ever carried out, preparing to deploy as many as 2,000 federal agents and officers to the Minneapolis area for a sweeping crackdown tied in part to allegations of fraud involving Somali residents.
The deployment, which began over the weekend, represents one of the largest single-city mobilizations of Department of Homeland Security personnel in years, according to a person briefed on the operation. The surge dramatically expands the federal law enforcement footprint in Minnesota amid heightened political and community tensions.
The person was not authorized to publicly discuss details of the operation and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.
Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Todd Lyons said during an interview with Newsmax that the agency was carrying out its “largest immigration operation ever,” though he did not specify how many officers were involved.
Roughly three-quarters of the personnel are expected to come from ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, which carries out immigration arrests and deportations, the person said. The operation also includes agents from Homeland Security Investigations, ICE’s investigative arm, which typically focuses on fraud and cross-border criminal networks. HSI agents were going door-to-door in the Twin Cities area investigating allegations of fraud, human smuggling and unlawful employment practices, Lyons said.
The HSI agents are largely expected to concentrate on identifying suspected fraud, while deportation officers will conduct arrests of immigrants accused of violating immigration law, according to the person briefed on the operation. Specialized tactical units are also expected to be involved.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was also in the Minneapolis–St. Paul area and accompanied ICE officers during at least one arrest. In a video posted on the social media platform X, Noem is seen wearing a tactical vest and knit cap as agents arrest a man in St. Paul. In the video, she tells the man, whose hands are cuffed behind his back, “You will be held accountable for your crimes.”
The Department of Homeland Security said in a news release that the man arrested was from Ecuador and that he was wanted in Ecuador and Connecticut on charges including murder and sexual assault.
When asked how many officers and agents had been deployed to Minnesota, Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin declined to provide a figure, citing officer safety. She said DHS had surged law enforcement resources to the state and had already made more than 1,000 arrests of people it described as killers, rapists, child sexual offenders and gang members.
The operation also includes personnel from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, including Commander Gregory Bovino, whose role in previous federal operations in other cities has drawn scrutiny from local officials and civil rights advocates, the person familiar with the deployment said.
Federal authorities began increasing immigration arrests in the Minneapolis area late last year. Noem and FBI Director Kash Patel announced last week that federal agencies were intensifying operations in Minnesota, with an emphasis on fraud investigations.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly linked his administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota to fraud cases involving federal nutrition and pandemic aid programs, many of which have involved defendants with roots in Somalia.
The person with information about the current operation cautioned that its scope and duration could shift in the coming days as it develops.
The Trump administration has begun a massive deployment of hundreds of Department of Homeland Security agents to the Twin Cities area as it escalates its federal crackdown amid a widening fraud scandal in Minnesota, multiple law enforcement officials familiar with the plan told CBS News.
The crackdown could involve roughly 2,000 agents and officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s deportation branch and Homeland Security Investigations, the agency’s investigative arm tasked with fighting transnational crimes, the officials said. They requested anonymity to discuss operations that have not been publicly announced.
The plan is for the agents and officers to oversee a 30-day surge in operations in the Twin Cities area, making the region the first major target of the Trump administration’s expanded immigration crackdown in the new year, officials said. Agents deployed from Homeland Security Investigations are expected to probe alleged cases of fraud, building on last month’s inspection of dozens of sites in the Minneapolis area.
Officials said U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commander Gregory Bovino, who has overseen controversial immigration roundups in Los Angeles, Chicago, Charlotte and New Orleans, is expected to arrive in Minnesota to help lead immigration enforcement efforts, along with an unknown number of U.S. Border Patrol personnel.
The deployment, which began Sunday, represents one of the largest concentrations of DHS personnel in an American city in recent years. The move greatly expands the federal law enforcement footprint in Minnesota at a time of heightened political and community tension there.
According to senior law enforcement officials, the surge includes several hundred additional agents from Homeland Security Investigations, as well as hundreds of officers from ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, which carries out immigration arrests and deportations. Tactical units known as Special Response Teams are also slated to be part of the operation, along with a layered command structure of dozens of high-ranking supervisors.
One former law enforcement official described the scale as extraordinary, noting that the number of HSI agents being sent to Minneapolis is roughly equivalent to the entire HSI workforce assigned to the state of Arizona. “This is a massive resource allocation,” the official said, adding that Minneapolis is effectively becoming “the new Chicago,” referencing past large-scale federal enforcement deployments in Illinois.
Multiple officials told CBS News the total federal presence could ultimately become even larger, with as many as 600 HSI agents and up to 1,500 ICE ERO officers rotating through the Minneapolis area over the course of the month-long deployment.
CBS News has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment.
Late last year, ICE launched an immigration enforcement campaign in the Twin Cities, dubbed Operation Metro Surge, targeting immigrants who had been issued deportation orders, including those from Somalia. As of Dec. 19, ICE had carried out nearly 700 arrests as part of the operation, according to DHS.
The new surge comes amid intense state and federal scrutiny of Minnesota following years of high-profile fraud cases involving federally funded programs. They have included some of the largest pandemic-era and post-pandemic fraud schemes in the country, like the Feeding Our Future case, which led to dozens of indictments and convictions.
Federal prosecutors have charged more than 90 people in Minnesota-based fraud cases since 2021, with more than 60 convictions so far, according to court records. Investigators have revealed the alleged schemes span multiple federal programs, including nutrition, housing stabilization and child care assistance, with potential losses estimated in the billions of dollars.
In recent weeks, federal activity across the Minneapolis area has increased, with HSI agents canvassing businesses and ICE officers conducting arrests in and around immigrant-populated neighborhoods. That uptick in law enforcement activity has prompted protests, confrontations and widespread fear among immigrant communities — particularly within Minnesota’s large Somali-American population.
President Trump has regularly cited Somalia — often in incendiary terms — to justify his mass deportation campaign. Last month, Mr. Trump called people from Somalia “garbage” and said they “contribute nothing.”
“I don’t want them in our country. I’ll be honest with you,” the president said. “Their country’s no good for a reason. Their country stinks.”
At the same time, Minnesota officials led by Democratic Gov. Tim Walz have pushed back on claims that the state failed to act, pointing to audits, third-party reviews, the appointment of a program-integrity director and the creation of a statewide fraud-prevention council.
But Walz, the Democratic nominee for vice president in 2024, announced Monday that he will not seek reelection to a third term as criticism has boiled over.
Two sources familiar with the matter told CBS News that the governor met with Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar on Sunday, as the fellow Democrat considers whether or not to enter the race.
The Department of Health and Human Services has frozen $185 million in federal child care payments to Minnesota, citing ongoing fraud concerns. The governor and other state leaders have warned that the move, along with a heightened federal law enforcement presence, risks harming legitimate businesses and families who rely on public assistance programs.
A Minnesota hotel that wouldn’t allow federal immigration agents to stay there this month is apologizing and saying the refusal violated its own policies. The Department of Homeland Security had accused the global Hilton hotel chain of a “coordinated” effort to refuse service to its employees.
Hilton and local operators of the Hampton Inn Lakeville property released statements within hours apologizing and said the messages refusing to serve agents who were focused on immigration enforcement didn’t reflect their policies.
In a social media post, DHS posted screenshots of a message sent Friday from a Hilton email address saying that immigration agents would not be allowed to stay at the hotel about 20 miles (32.19 kilometers) south of Minneapolis, and that their reservation was canceled.
“When officers attempted to book rooms using official government emails and rates, Hilton Hotels maliciously CANCELLED their reservations,” DHS said in the post, accusing Hilton Hotels of deliberately undermining and impeding law enforcement from enforcing immigration laws.
Hampton Inn locations are under the Hilton brand, but a Hilton representative said the property is independently operated. The majority of Hampton Inns are owned and operated by franchisees.
“We have been in direct contact with the hotel, and they have apologized for the actions of their team, which was not in keeping with their policies,” the statement said.
Everpeak Hospitality, the hotel operators, said in a statement that the cancellation was inconsistent with their policy.
“Everpeak Hospitality has moved swiftly to address this matter as it was inconsistent with our policy of being a welcoming place for all,” the company said in a statement. “We are in touch with the impacted guests to ensure they are accommodated. We do not discriminate against any individuals or agencies and apologize to those impacted.”
A Hilton-branded hotel in Minneapolis is facing scrutiny after allegedly canceling reservations made by federal immigration agents, prompting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to publicly question the decision.
Emails that ICE shared on social media appear to show staff at the Hampton Inn by Hilton Lakeville Minneapolis informing individuals associated with reservations for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that the property would not allow ICE or other immigration agents to stay.
Hilton did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
“We have noticed an influx of GOV reservations made today that have been for DHS, and we are not allowing any ICE or immigration agents to stay at our property. If you are with DHS or immigration, let us know as we will have to cancel your reservation,” an email from a staff member at the Hilton-branded hotel allegedly reads.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers question a man about his status on Lake Street near Karmel Mall in Minnesota on Dec. 10, 2025.(Christopher Juhn/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“Please pass on this info to your coworkers that we are not allowing any immigration agents to house on our property.”
A follow-up email several hours later then allegedly stated, “After further investigation online, we have found information about immigration work connected with your name and we will be cancelling your upcoming reservation. You should see a proper cancellation email in your inbox shortly from Hilton.”
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News Digital in a statement: “Hilton has launched a coordinated campaign in Minneapolis to REFUSE service to DHS law enforcement. When officers attempted to book rooms using official government emails and rates, Hilton Hotels maliciously CANCELLED their reservations.”
“This is UNACCEPTABLE,” said McLaughlin. “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?”
The exchange prompted the official ICE account on X to post screenshots of the conversation.
The revelation of the alleged hotel cancellations comes as CBS News reported Monday that the Trump administration has begun a large-scale deployment of DHS personnel in Minnesota as part of an expanded federal crackdown tied to a widening fraud scandal in the state.
CBS News reported the crackdown could involve roughly 2,000 agents and officers from ICE’s deportation branch and Homeland Security Investigations.
ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida is awaiting approval from federal officials to open a third immigration detention center, following “Alligator Alcatraz” and “Deportation Depot,” and the state also is looking into a potential fourth detention facility, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Monday.
Florida officials were waiting for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to sign off on the third detention center in the state’s Panhandle, DeSantis said at a news conference outside the facility which was Florida’s second immigration detention center, dubbed “Deportation Deport,” at the former Baker Correctional Institution in northeast Florida.
“So, if they approve, we will open,” DeSantis said. “If they don’t, then we will stand by, and that’s fine. But I think it should be approved since I don’t think they’re where they need to be on detention space.”
The governor said there was “another option potentially” in South Florida, where state officials already have constructed an immigration detention center dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” at a remote airstrip in the Florida Everglades.
When asked by email about the specific locations of the two potential detention facilities, DeSantis press secretary Molly Best said the Panhandle location would be announced once it’s approved by federal officials.
“Until this and the proposed additional South Florida location have been approved and finalized, we are unable to provide additional details. Stay tuned!” Best said.
DeSantis said that there had been 10,000 arrests of people in the U.S. illegally in Florida during the past year through a state initiative with federal law enforcement, and that local law enforcement had made an additional 10,000 arrests for a total of 20,000 arrests. Under the state initiative, 63% of those arrested had a criminal arrest or conviction, DeSantis said.
Florida has led other states in constructing facilities to support President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, with DeSantis saying the Trump administration needs the additional capacity to hold and deport more immigrants. The Trump administration has trumpeted the Republican governors’ efforts to expand their immigration detention capacity, calling Florida’s partnership a model for other state-run holding facilities.
Attorneys for detainees at the Everglades facility have called the conditions deplorable, writing in court documents that rainwater floods their tents and officers go cell-to-cell pressuring detainees to sign voluntary removal orders before they’re allowed to consult their attorneys.
Three federal lawsuits in Florida are challenging practices at the Everglades facility.
In one lawsuit, detainees are asking for the facility to be closed since immigration is a federal issue, and Florida agencies and private contractors hired by the state have no authority to operate it under federal law. In a second lawsuit, detainees were seeking a ruling that would ensure that they have access to confidential communications with their attorneys.
In the third lawsuit, a federal judge in Miami last summer ordered the facility to wind down operations over two months because officials had failed to do a review of the detention center’s environmental impact. But an appellate court panel put that decision on hold for the time being, allowing the facility to stay open.
“American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again,” Trump proclaimed just hours before Maduro was perp-walked through the offices of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in New York.
The new, aggressive foreign policy — which Trump now calls the “Donroe Doctrine,” in reference to 19th-century President James Monroe’s belief that the U.S. should dominate its sphere of influence — has carved the hemisphere into allies and foes.
“The Trump administration in multiple different ways has been trying to reshape Latin American politics,” said Gimena Sanchez, Andes director for the Washington Office on Latin America, a think tank. “They’re showing their teeth in the whole region.”
Reactions to US raid put regional divisions on display
Saturday’s dramatic events — including Trump’s vow that Washington would “run” Venezuela and seize control of its oil sector — galvanized opposite sides of the polarized continent.
“On the other side,” he added, “are those accomplices of a narco-terrorist and bloody dictatorship that has been a cancer for our region.”
Other right-wing leaders in South America similarly seized on Maduro’s ouster to declare their ideological affinity with Trump.
In Ecuador, conservative President Daniel Noboa issued a stern warning for all followers of Hugo Chávez, Maduro’s mentor and the founder of the Bolivarian revolution: “Your structure will completely collapse across the entire continent.”
Lula said the raid set “an extremely dangerous precedent.” Sheinbaum warned it “jeopardizes regional stability.” Boric said it “violated an essential pillar of international law.” Petro called it “aggression against the sovereignty of Venezuela and of Latin America.”
The attack recalls a painful history of US intervention
For Lula — among the last surviving icons of the so-called “pink tide,” the leftist leaders who dominated Latin American politics from the turn of the 21st century — Trump’s military action in Venezuela “recalls the worst moments of interference in the politics of Latin America.”
The historical echoes in Maduro’s downfall fueled not only harsh condemnations and street protests among Trump’s left-wing opponents but also uneasy responses from some of his close allies.
Usually effusive in his support for Trump, President Nayib Bukele was oddly quiet in El Salvador, a nation still scarred by a brutal civil war between a repressive U.S.-allied government and leftist guerillas. He posted a meme mocking Maduro after his capture Saturday, but expressed none of the jubilation seen from regional counterparts.
“Bolivia reaffirms that the way out for Venezuela is to respect the vote,” Paz said.
“The Trump administration, it appears at this point, is making decisions about the democratic future of Venezuela without referring back to the democratic result,” said Kevin Whitaker, former deputy chief of mission for the State Department in Caracas.
When asked Sunday about when Venezuela will hold democratic elections, Trump responded: “I think we’re looking more at getting it fixed.”
As the right rises, Trump puts enemies on notice
The Trump administration’s attack on Venezuela extends its broader crusade to assemble a column of allied — or at least acquiescent — governments in Latin America, sailing with the political winds blowing in much of the region.
Recent presidential elections from Chile to Honduras have elevated tough, Trump-like leaders who oppose immigration, prioritize security and promise a return to better, bygone eras free of globalization and “wokeness.”
“The president is going to be looking for allied and partner nations in the hemisphere who share his kind of broader ideological affinity,” said Alexander Gray, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, a Washington research institute.
Those who don’t share that ideology were put on notice this weekend. Trump said Cuba’s Communist government “looks like it’s ready to fall.” He slammed Sheinbaum’s failure to root out Mexican cartels, saying that “something’s going to have to be done with Mexico.” He repeated allegations that Petro “likes making cocaine” and warned that “he’s not going to be doing it very long.”
“We’re in the business of having countries around us that are viable and successful, where the oil is allowed to really come out,” he told reporters Sunday on Air Force One. “It’s our hemisphere.”
DeBre reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Associated Press writers Maria Verza in Mexico City and Darlene Superville aboard Air Force One contributed to this report.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
A man wipes his tears as members of the Venezuelan exile community gather in prayer during Sunday Mass led by Reverend Israel Mago, one day after the United States attacked Venezuela and captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, on Sunday, January 4, 2026, in Doral, Florida.
Carl Juste
cjuste@miamiherald.com
During a national television appearance on Sunday morning, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said that the hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan immigrants in the U.S. who lost deportation protections under the Trump administration have the opportunity to apply for refugee status.
In the wake of the United States’s capture of Venezuela strongman Nicolás Maduro, the remarks generated confusion among Venezuelan immigrants. But even before the U.S. government carried out the dramatic military operation Saturday, Venezuelan immigrants were already living in vast uncertainty as high-profile targets of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda.
The Trump administration has stripped over 600,000 Venezuelans of their work permits and deportation protections under Temporary Protected Status. He has also invoked an 18th Century law, the Alien Enemies Act, to deport Venezuelans to a notorious prison in El Salvador; ended a parole program that legally brought over 117,000 Venezuelans to the United States, and arrested asylum seekers at their court hearings.
What’s next for Venezuelan immigrants in the United States? Here are answers to some key questions:
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said “every individual that was under TPS has the opportunity to apply for refugee status.” What does that mean?
In a word: unclear.
Under federal law, individuals must be located outside the United States to become part of the U.S. Refugee Program. They must also be referred by someone else for their applications to be considered.
President Trump’s administration set a historically low cap of 7,500 refugees nationally for fiscal year 2026,down from 125,000 in fiscal year 2025 under President Joe Biden. Trump also directed the 2026 admissions to be largely allocated to Afrikaners from South Africa.
The Department of Homeland Security rejected interpretations that Noem’s comments mean that the over half-a-million Venezuelans that lost TPS would now be considered for refugee admissions.
“This is not what Secretary Noem said. President Trump is bringing stability to Venezuela and bringing to justice an illegitimate Narco Terrorist dictator who stole from his own people,” the agency said on social media. “Secretary Noem ended Temporary Protected Status for more than 500,000 Venezuelans, and now they can go home to a country they love.”
Many former TPS recipients from Venezuela have pending asylum cases. And if a former TPS recipient had not applied for asylum, they might still have some time. Having TPS status stops the clock on the requirement to file for asylum within a year of arriving to the United States as long as the one-year-clock has not expired.
But the Trump administration has made it harder for immigrants to apply for asylum, even asking immigration judges to close people’s cases in court and then arresting them after their hearing.
“She made [the remarks] in the narrowest possible way. Anyone can apply for anything but there are no plans to grant them asylum,” said David Bier, director of Immigration Studies at the Cato Institute.
The administration stripped over 600,000 Venezuelans of protections and work permits under Temporary Protected Status. What happens to them now?
For now, nothing changes.
The Trump administration stripped hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans from their immigration relief under TPS, which is granted to people already in the United States who came from countries in turmoil. The administration said that conditions like healthcare and crime had improved in Venezuela, making it possible for Venezuelans to return home. But they noted that regardless of conditions, Venezuela’s TPS designation was not in the best interest of the United States.
For many former TPS holders, their only remaining pathway to stay in the United States is seeking asylum. But some experts think that it will be harder now for Venezuelan immigrants to claim asylum based on a claim of political persecution.
“They have no status and the administration will argue that now that Maduro is gone, their persecution claims are invalid,” Bier said.
What will happen to U.S. deportation flights to Venezuela?
Between February and November 2025, the U.S. conducted 73 deportation flights to Venezuela, sending back 13,656 of its nationals, according to Human Rights First, which tracks removal flights.
But the United States unilaterally suspended deportation flights to the South American country in mid-December, according to Venezuela’s government. That could soon change as part of any negotiations between Washington and Caracas.
“Expect an increase in deportation flights to Venezuela as a condition that the U.S. will require Delcy Rodriguez to meet,” said Jason Marczak, vice president and senior director of the Atlantic Council, in reference to Maduro’s vice president, who the Venezuelan Supreme Court ordered to be interim president. “These regular deportation flights have been one of the few points of cooperation with Venezuela over the course of the last year.”
The U.S. used the Alien Enemies Act last year to deport to El Salvador hundreds of Venezuelans accused of being gang members. Could the administration try to invoke the act again?
In March 2025 Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act against alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, saying they were trying to invade the United States. He sent about 250 Venezuelans to CECOT, a notorious prison in El Salvador. Public records later showed most of the men deported did not have criminal records in the U.S. and they were later sent back to Venezuela.
The Washington Post has reported that Stephen Miller, White House senior advisor to Trump, has said that “a strong reaction from Caracas could provide the pretext to invoke the Alien Enemies Act to quickly deport hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan immigrants from the United States.”
However, to invoke the Alien Enemies Act the United States would have to declare war against Venezuela. After the U.S. attack on Caracas, Trump and other officials have emphasized that no further military operations are planned. However, Trump did say the United States is “ready to stage a second and much larger attack.” although he mentioned it won’t likely be needed. And Congress has not voted on or approved a declaration of war.
“They could try to invoke the Alien Enemies Act, but they are simultaneously arguing that we aren’t at war with Venezuela, so legally and politically, it wouldn’t make sense,” Bier said.
This story was originally published January 4, 2026 at 5:10 PM.
Syra Ortiz Blanes covers immigration for the Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald. Previously, she was the Puerto Rico and Spanish Caribbean reporter for the Heralds through Report for America.
