Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem made comments that could lead people to misinterpret her agency’s role in elections as she lobbied for legislation that would require photo ID to vote and documentary proof of citizenship for voter registration.
“Although the Constitution gives states the primary responsibility for running their elections, Congress also gives authorities and duties to the federal government,” Noem said Feb. 13 at a press conference. “Now, as the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, those authorities lie within my department. And the responsibility lies with me.”
Her comments came two days after House Republicans passed the SAVE America Act, legislation backed by President Donald Trump.
Noem then described what she said is her role in elections:
“I have the responsibility of not just pointing out different vulnerabilities that we may see in our election systems, but also with making sure that we’re putting forward mitigation measures that can be enacted at the state and local level to make sure that our elections are run correctly, that the votes are counted and tabulated and that the people that were elected were put into those positions.”
A phrase she later used about making sure “we have the right people voting, electing the right leaders” drew alarm from Democrats.
After CNN’s Jake Tapper questioned her remarks about the “right people” voting, Noem responded on X: “We must build election infrastructure that makes it easy and secure for eligible American citizens to vote — while preventing noncitizens, including illegal aliens, from casting ballots. The choice of who to vote for is obviously up to the voters themselves.”
States administer elections while Homeland Security plays a very limited part. We contacted Noem’s agency for evidence to support her statements and received no response.
Homeland Security agency assists in protecting elections, but doesn’t operate them
In 2018, Trump signed a law creating the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency within the Department of Homeland Security to protect critical infrastructure including elections from physical and cyber threats. The agency says such infrastructure is considered so vital that if incapacitated or destroyed it would harm security, national public health or safety.
The agency works with state and local governments, election officials, federal partners and private sector partners to manage risks to voting sites, databases and equipment.
CISA provides these partners with quick security alerts, training, and physical and cybersecurity assessments of election facilities.
Wendy Weiser, a lawyer at the left-leaning Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, pushed back on Noem’s remarks in an X post, saying Homeland Security is not in charge of elections.
“There is no law that ‘delegates’ power over elections to DHS. None,” Weiser wrote. “There are laws that give DHS duties with respect to America’s ‘critical infrastructure,’ but they do not put DHS in charge of that infrastructure, and especially not elections.”
The agency offers risk assessments, advice and support, Weiser wrote, “but only on a voluntary basis.”
The statute that created CISA says the agency “upon request, provide(s) analyses, expertise, and other technical assistance to critical infrastructure owners and operators” and when appropriate, shares it with other agencies.
Because of CISA security training, Rhode Island election workers knew how to respond in September 2024 when an envelope containing white powder with the return address “U.S. Traitor Elimination Army” arrived at the state’s Board of Elections. CISA had already distributed physical security and cybersecurity checklists with tips about how to address such a threat.
Which agencies oversee vote counting and tabulation?
Noem correctly acknowledged that “the Constitution gives states the primary responsibility for running their elections.” The Constitution delegates to states the authority to set “the times, places and manner” of holding congressional elections, while Congress can pass election laws.
Congress has passed only a few statutes relating to state election administration, such as the National Voter Registration Act, which sets certain voter registration requirements such as compelling government offices to offer opportunities for people to register to vote.
But “none confer oversight authority over state election administration” to Homeland Security, said Rebecca Green, a William and Mary Law School professor.
CISA “has no independent authority or oversight role in how states run their elections,” Green said.
Other federal agencies have limited tasks in elections. The Justice Department can file lawsuits alleging violations of federal laws while the Election Assistance Commission tests and certifies election equipment.
The Internal Revenue Service improperly disclosed the confidential taxpayer information of thousands of people with the Department of Homeland Security as part of the agencies’ controversial agreement to share immigrant data to help identify those living in the country illegally, according to a new court filing.
The Treasury Department, the IRS and the Department of Homeland Security finalized a deal last spring to allow taxpayer data to be shared with immigration authorities to help them find illegal immigrants.
The agreement, which led to the resignations of top IRS officials, authorized Immigration and Customs Enforcement to submit names and addresses of illegal immigrants to the IRS for cross-verification against tax records.
In a declaration filed Wednesday, IRS Chief Risk and Control Officer Dottie Romo said the IRS was able to verify roughly 47,000 of the 1.28 million names ICE requested that were then disclosed to the immigration enforcement agency.
The Internal Revenue Service improperly disclosed the taxpayer information of thousands of people with the Department of Homeland Security.(Getty Images)
The IRS gave ICE additional address information for under 5% of those names, potentially violating privacy rules created to protect taxpayer data.
The tax-collecting agency said it recently discovered the mistake and is working with other federal agencies to resolve the matter.
Romo said the Treasury notified DHS last month of the error and asked for its assistance in “promptly taking steps to remediate the matter consistent with federal law,” which includes “appropriate disposal of any data provided to ICE by IRS based on incomplete or insufficient address information.”
The Treasury Department, the IRS and the Department of Homeland Security finalized a deal last spring to allow taxpayer data to be shared with immigration authorities.(Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The agreement last year between the IRS and DHS sparked litigation against the Trump administration and broke a longstanding IRS policy that encouraged immigrants to pay taxes even if they are not in the U.S. legally by assuring them that their data was safe.
A lawsuit was filed against Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on behalf of several immigrant rights groups shortly after the agreement was signed.
Last week, a federal judge ordered the IRS to stop disclosing residential addresses to ICE, marking the second ruling blocking the IRS-DHS agreement.
In November, a different federal judge blocked the IRS from sharing information with DHS, saying the IRS illegally disseminated the tax data of some migrants over the summer, violating a taxpayer confidentiality law.
A lawsuit was filed against Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on behalf of several immigrant rights groups shortly after the agreement was signed.(Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Advocate groups expressed concern that the potential unlawful release of taxpayer records could be used to maliciously target U.S. citizens and violate their privacy.
“Once taxpayer data is opened to immigration enforcement, mistakes are inevitable and the consequences fall on innocent people,” Tom Bowman, policy counsel for the Center for Democracy & Technology, told The Associated Press. “The disclosure of thousands of confidential records unfortunately shows precisely why strict legal firewalls exist and have — until now — been treated as an important guardrail.”
When asked why the NFL chose Bad Bunny at an October 22, 2025, press conference, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell answered, “He’s one of the leading and most popular entertainers in the world. That’s what we try to achieve. It’s an important stage for us. It’s an important element to the entertainment value. It’s carefully thought through.”
Goodell added that the NFL is not going to cancel Bad Bunny’s performance due to the backlash.
“I’m not sure we’ve ever selected an artist where we didn’t have some blowback or criticism,” he said. “It’s pretty hard to do when you have hundreds of millions of people that are watching. But we’re confident it’s going to be a great show.”
Clearly, the NFL didn’t hire Bad Bunny by accident, and executives knew there would be some right-wing backlash. As Wired’s Anna Lagos put it, this was “a calculated business move and a continuation of its strategy to rejuvenate and diversify its audience.” Lagos explained:
The league is aware that its traditional viewership base is aging. Attracting younger audiences and the growing Hispanic market is a business imperative. Bad Bunny, the most-listened-to artist on Spotify worldwide from 2020 to 2022, represents the key to accessing that global market.
The NFL’s partnership with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation, launched in 2019, was designed to do just that: inject cultural relevance into the halftime show, an event that had become predictable and artistically safe. Kendrick Lamar’s acclaimed and politically charged performance in 2024, which used American symbolism to deliver a blunt critique of racism, demonstrated that the NFL is willing to take calculated risks if the result is cultural relevance and global conversation.
By choosing Bad Bunny, the NFL not only secures a global superstar, but also aligns itself with a narrative of inclusion and representation.
Jay-Z defended Bad Bunny to a TMZ photographer who asked on October 27, 2025, “Why are people hating on him?” Hov responded, “They love him. Don’t let them fool you.”
Democratic California Rep. Robert Garcia, the ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, laid out four of the report’s key findings:
“The Trump Administration’s extreme policies, violent tactics, and culture of impunity led to the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.”
“The Trump Administration’s lies about the killings cannot cover up what the American people saw with their own eyes.”
“The available evidence suggests that the Trump Administration is attempting to cover up misconduct.”
“The Trump Administration is continuing its cover-up by impeding thorough and impartial investigations into the shootings.”
The report also highlights how evidence counters the administration’s initial claims that both victims were domestic terrorists aiming to harm federal law enforcement.
“Let’s be clear: the killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti could have been prevented, and they should both still be alive,” Garcia wrote. “President Trump, [Homeland Security Secretary] Kristi Noem, and [the U.S. Department of Homeland Security] have lied over and over again and are now trying to cover up the truth. The Trump Administration needs to be held accountable.”
In a statement to WCCO, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson defended the work of federal officers.
“Federal law enforcement officers are heroically removing dangerous criminal illegal aliens from American communities – including murderers, rapists, and pedophiles. The Trump Administration is grateful for their important work,” Jackson said.
WCCO has also reached out to Homeland Security for comment.
The committee, chaired by Kentucky Republican Rep. James Comer, is currently comprised of 44 representatives: 24 Republicans and 20 Democrats.
Republican members include Reps. Jim Jordan, Paul Gosar, Virginia Foxx, Pete Sessions, Nancy Mace and Lauren Boebert. Its Democratic members include Reps. Eleanor Holmes Norton, Kwesisi Mfume, Shontel Brown, Jasmine Crockett, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib.
Good’s brothers, Brent and Luke Ganger, testified Tuesday at a public Congressional forum co-led by Garcia on “the violent tactics and disproportionate use of force by agents of the Department of Homeland Security.”
A federal judge on Monday blocked the Trump administration from revoking legal protections for Haitians enrolled in the Temporary Protected Status program, granting a last-minute reprieve to 350,000 immigrants who were set to lose their deportation protections on Tuesday.
U.S. District Court Judge Ana Reyes indefinitely paused the planned termination of Haiti’s TPS program, explicitly barring the federal government from invalidating the legal status and work permits of active enrollees and from arresting and deporting them.
In an opinion accompanying her order, Reyes issued a forceful rebuke of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s decision to end the TPS policy for Haitians.
Reyes concluded Noem’s decision was “arbitrary and capricious” and in violation of the Administrative Procedures Act, writing that it failed to fully consider “overwhelming evidence of present danger” in crisis-stricken Haiti, which remains plagued by political instability, gang violence and widespread poverty.
Reyes also found Noem’s decision was “in part” rooted in “racial animus,” citing disparaging remarks that the secretary and President Trump have made about Haiti and immigrants.
“Kristi Noem has a First Amendment right to call immigrants killers, leeches, entitlement junkies, and any other inapt name she wants,” Reyes wrote. “Secretary Noem, however, is constrained by both our Constitution and the APA to apply faithfully the facts to the law in implementing the TPS program. The record to-date shows she has yet to do that.”
In a statement, Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin suggested the Trump administration would ask the Supreme Court to intervene in the case.
“Supreme Court, here we come,” she said. “This is lawless activism that we will be vindicated on.”
“Haiti’s TPS was granted following an earthquake that took place over 15 years ago, it was never intended to be a de facto amnesty program, yet that’s how previous administrations have used it for decades,” McLaughlin added.
TPS was created by Congress in 1990. Since then, Democratic and Republican administrations have used the policy to provide temporary legal refuge to foreigners from countries facing armed conflict, an environmental disaster or another emergency that makes their return unsafe.
The Trump administration has moved to dismantle most TPS programs, raising the specter of deportation for hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Honduras, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicaragua, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria and Venezuela.
The Trump administration argues these programs attract illegal immigration and that they have been abused and extended for too long by Democratic administrations.
The mayor of Portland, Oregon, is calling on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to leave his city after federal agents deployed tear gas at a crowd of demonstrators, including young children, outside an ICE facility over the weekend.
Mayor Keith Wilson characterized the protests on Saturday as peaceful, as federal agents reportedly used tear gas, pepper balls, flash-bang grenades and rubber bullets against the anti-ICE demonstrators.
Wilson urged ICE agents to resign and for the agency to leave Portland, denouncing their “use of violence” and the “trampling of the Constitution.”
“Today, federal forces deployed heavy waves of chemical munitions, impacting a peaceful daytime protest where the vast majority of those present violated no laws, made no threat, and posed no danger to federal forces,” he said in a statement on Saturday.
Mayor Keith Wilson characterized the protests in his city as peaceful, as he called for ICE to leave.(Ali Gradischer/Getty Images)
“To those who continue to work for ICE: Resign. To those who control this facility: Leave. Through your use of violence and the trampling of the Constitution, you have lost all legitimacy and replaced it with shame. To those who continue to make these sickening decisions, go home, look in a mirror, and ask yourselves why you have gassed children. Ask yourselves why you continue to work for an agency responsible for murders on American streets. No one is forcing you to lie to yourself, even as your bosses continue to lie to the American people,” the mayor continued.
The mayor added that this nation “will never accept a federal presence where agents wield deadly force against the very people they are sworn to serve.”
“I share the impatience with those who demand we use every legal tool at our disposal to push back against this inexcusable, unconscionable, and unacceptable violence against our community,” Wilson said. “I share the need to act. Actions that can withstand the scrutiny of the justice system take time – and we cannot afford to lose this fight.”
Federal agents deployed tear gas at a crowd of demonstrators, including young children, outside an ICE facility in Portland.(Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Portland officials are working to operationalize an ordinance, which went into effect last month, that imposes a fee on detention facilities that use chemical agents, the mayor said.
“As we prepare to put that law into action, we are also documenting today’s events and preserving evidence. The federal government must, and will, be held accountable,” he wrote.
“Portland will continue to stand firmly with our immigrant neighbors, who deserve safety, dignity, and the full protection of the communities they help build,” he continued. “We are also proud of the Portlanders who showed up today in peaceful solidarity, demonstrating the strength and clarity of those shared values in the face of federal overreach.”
This comes amid national unrest and bipartisan scrutiny of immigration enforcement tactics following two killings of U.S. citizens by federal immigration agents last month in Minneapolis.
The Trump administration has faced bipartisan scrutiny over its immigration enforcement tactics following two killings of U.S. citizens by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis.(Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Renee Nicole Good was shot and killed by ICE agent Jonathan Ross on Jan. 7 in Minneapolis, and Alex Pretti was fatally shot on Jan. 24 by Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez while he was recording immigration enforcement operations in the same city.
Pretti, an ICU nurse, appeared to be attempting to assist a woman agents had knocked down when he was sprayed with an irritant, pushed to the ground and beaten, according to video and witness accounts. An agent was later seen pulling Pretti’s lawfully owned firearm from his waistband before other agents fired several shots, killing him.
Senate Democrats are threatening to block legislation that would fund the Department of Homeland Security and several other agencies Thursday, potentially bringing the government a step closer to a partial shutdown if Republicans and the White House do not agree to new restrictions on President Donald Trump’s surge of immigration enforcement.As the country reels from the deaths of two protesters at the hands of federal agents in Minneapolis, irate Senate Democrats laid out a list of demands ahead of a Thursday morning test vote, including that officers take off their masks and identify themselves and obtain warrants for arrest. If those are not met, Democrats say they are prepared to block the wide-ranging spending bill, denying Republicans the votes they need to pass it and triggering a shutdown at midnight on Friday.Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday that Democrats won’t provide needed votes until U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is “reined in and overhauled.”“The American people support law enforcement, they support border security, they do not support ICE terrorizing our streets and killing American citizens,” Schumer said.There were some signs of possible progress as the White House has appeared open to trying to strike a deal with Democrats to avert a shutdown. The two sides were talking as of Wednesday evening, according to a person familiar with the negotiations who requested anonymity to speak about the private talks. One possible option discussed would be to strip the funding for the Homeland Security Department from the larger bill, as Schumer has requested, and extend it for a short period to allow time for negotiations, the person said. The rest of the bill would fund government agencies until September.Still, with no agreement yet and an uncertain path ahead, the standoff threatened to plunge the country into another shutdown just two months after Democrats blocked a spending bill over expiring federal health care subsidies, a dispute that closed the government for 43 days as Republicans refused to negotiate.That shutdown ended when a small group of moderate Democrats broke away to strike a deal with Republicans, but Democrats are more unified this time after the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good by federal agents.Democrats lay out their demandsThere’s a lot of “unanimity and shared purpose” within the Democratic caucus, Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith said after a lunch meeting Wednesday.“Boil it all down, what we are talking about is that these lawless ICE agents should be following the same rules that your local police department does,” Smith said. “There has to be accountability.”Amid the administration’s immigration crackdown, Schumer said Democrats are asking the White House to “end roving patrols” in cities and coordinate with local law enforcement on immigration arrests, including requiring tighter rules for warrants.Democrats also want an enforceable code of conduct so agents are held accountable when they violate rules. Schumer said agents should be required to have “masks off, body cameras on” and carry proper identification, as is common practice in most law enforcement agencies.The Democratic caucus is united in those “common sense reforms” and the burden is on Republicans to accept them, Schumer said, as he has pushed for the Homeland spending to be separated out to avoid a broader shutdown.Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has indicated that he might be open to considering some of the Democrats’ demands, but he encouraged Democrats and the White House to talk and find agreement.Many obstacles to a dealAs the two sides negotiated, it was still unclear whether they could agree on anything that would satisfy Democrats who want Trump’s aggressive crackdown to end.The White House had invited some Democrats for a discussion to better understand their positions and avoid a partial government shutdown, a senior White House official said, but the meeting did not happen. The official requested anonymity to discuss the private invitation.The House passed the six remaining funding bills last week and sent them to the Senate as a package, making it more difficult to strip out the homeland security portion as Democrats have demanded. Republicans could break the package apart with the consent of all 100 senators or through a series of votes that would extend past the Friday deadline.Even if the Senate can resolve the issue, House Republicans have said they do not want any changes to the bill they have passed. In a letter to Trump on Tuesday, the conservative House Freedom Caucus wrote that its members stand with the president and ICE.“The package will not come back through the House without funding for the Department of Homeland Security,” according to the letter.Republican oppositionSeveral Republican senators have said they would be fine with Democrats’ request to separate the Homeland Security funds for further debate and pass the other bills in the package. But it might be more difficult to for Democrats to find broad GOP support for their demands on ICE.North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis said he’s OK with separating the bills, but is opposed to the Democrats’ proposal to require the immigration enforcement officers to unmask and show their faces, even as he blamed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for decisions that he said are “tarnishing” the agency’s reputation.“You know, there’s a lot of vicious people out there, and they’ll take a picture of your face, and the next thing you know, your children or your wife or your husband are being threatened at home,” Tillis said. “And that’s just the reality of the world that we’re in.”Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said that “what happened over the weekend is a tragedy,” but Democrats shouldn’t punish Americans with a shutdown and a “political stunt.”Democrats say they won’t back down.“It is truly a moral moment,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. “I think we need to take a stand.”___Associated Press writer Michelle Price in Washington contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON —
Senate Democrats are threatening to block legislation that would fund the Department of Homeland Security and several other agencies Thursday, potentially bringing the government a step closer to a partial shutdown if Republicans and the White House do not agree to new restrictions on President Donald Trump’s surge of immigration enforcement.
As the country reels from the deaths of two protesters at the hands of federal agents in Minneapolis, irate Senate Democrats laid out a list of demands ahead of a Thursday morning test vote, including that officers take off their masks and identify themselves and obtain warrants for arrest. If those are not met, Democrats say they are prepared to block the wide-ranging spending bill, denying Republicans the votes they need to pass it and triggering a shutdown at midnight on Friday.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday that Democrats won’t provide needed votes until U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is “reined in and overhauled.”
“The American people support law enforcement, they support border security, they do not support ICE terrorizing our streets and killing American citizens,” Schumer said.
There were some signs of possible progress as the White House has appeared open to trying to strike a deal with Democrats to avert a shutdown. The two sides were talking as of Wednesday evening, according to a person familiar with the negotiations who requested anonymity to speak about the private talks. One possible option discussed would be to strip the funding for the Homeland Security Department from the larger bill, as Schumer has requested, and extend it for a short period to allow time for negotiations, the person said. The rest of the bill would fund government agencies until September.
Still, with no agreement yet and an uncertain path ahead, the standoff threatened to plunge the country into another shutdown just two months after Democrats blocked a spending bill over expiring federal health care subsidies, a dispute that closed the government for 43 days as Republicans refused to negotiate.
That shutdown ended when a small group of moderate Democrats broke away to strike a deal with Republicans, but Democrats are more unified this time after the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good by federal agents.
Democrats lay out their demands
There’s a lot of “unanimity and shared purpose” within the Democratic caucus, Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith said after a lunch meeting Wednesday.
“Boil it all down, what we are talking about is that these lawless ICE agents should be following the same rules that your local police department does,” Smith said. “There has to be accountability.”
Amid the administration’s immigration crackdown, Schumer said Democrats are asking the White House to “end roving patrols” in cities and coordinate with local law enforcement on immigration arrests, including requiring tighter rules for warrants.
Democrats also want an enforceable code of conduct so agents are held accountable when they violate rules. Schumer said agents should be required to have “masks off, body cameras on” and carry proper identification, as is common practice in most law enforcement agencies.
The Democratic caucus is united in those “common sense reforms” and the burden is on Republicans to accept them, Schumer said, as he has pushed for the Homeland spending to be separated out to avoid a broader shutdown.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has indicated that he might be open to considering some of the Democrats’ demands, but he encouraged Democrats and the White House to talk and find agreement.
Many obstacles to a deal
As the two sides negotiated, it was still unclear whether they could agree on anything that would satisfy Democrats who want Trump’s aggressive crackdown to end.
The White House had invited some Democrats for a discussion to better understand their positions and avoid a partial government shutdown, a senior White House official said, but the meeting did not happen. The official requested anonymity to discuss the private invitation.
The House passed the six remaining funding bills last week and sent them to the Senate as a package, making it more difficult to strip out the homeland security portion as Democrats have demanded. Republicans could break the package apart with the consent of all 100 senators or through a series of votes that would extend past the Friday deadline.
Even if the Senate can resolve the issue, House Republicans have said they do not want any changes to the bill they have passed. In a letter to Trump on Tuesday, the conservative House Freedom Caucus wrote that its members stand with the president and ICE.
“The package will not come back through the House without funding for the Department of Homeland Security,” according to the letter.
Republican opposition
Several Republican senators have said they would be fine with Democrats’ request to separate the Homeland Security funds for further debate and pass the other bills in the package. But it might be more difficult to for Democrats to find broad GOP support for their demands on ICE.
North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis said he’s OK with separating the bills, but is opposed to the Democrats’ proposal to require the immigration enforcement officers to unmask and show their faces, even as he blamed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for decisions that he said are “tarnishing” the agency’s reputation.
“You know, there’s a lot of vicious people out there, and they’ll take a picture of your face, and the next thing you know, your children or your wife or your husband are being threatened at home,” Tillis said. “And that’s just the reality of the world that we’re in.”
Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said that “what happened over the weekend is a tragedy,” but Democrats shouldn’t punish Americans with a shutdown and a “political stunt.”
Democrats say they won’t back down.
“It is truly a moral moment,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. “I think we need to take a stand.”
___
Associated Press writer Michelle Price in Washington contributed to this report.
The Department of Homeland Security released its latest list of the “worst of the worst” arrested in Minnesota. The feds say those are the people they’re targeting in Operation Metro Surge.
They called them kidnappers, pedophiles, violent assailants, and perpetrators of fraud. WCCO found court records on three of the five men and the information released on them is mostly accurate.
DHS says Ian Irungu is from Kenya and was convicted of selling heroin and dangerous drugs.
WCCO found he was convicted of selling drugs in Ramsey County and Kanabec County. The charging documents list fentanyl and marijuana as the drugs, with him being accused of being a heroin and fentanyl dealer.
He first had contact with law enforcement in Minnesota in 2014 during a traffic violation.
The feds say Melvin Hernandez Espana is from Honduras and was convicted of assault. WCCO found he was convicted of assault in Ramsey County. Court records show he first had contact with law enforcement in Minnesota in 2015 for driving without a license.
DHS says Oliverio Francisco-Esteban, from Mexico, has been removed from the U.S. five times. It also lists three counts of driving under the influence and illegal entry. Court documents show this is true.
WCCO could not verify the claim of possessing fraudulent immigration documents.
WCCO also could not find Minnesota or federal documents related to the other two, who are in custody. It’s possible the convictions happened in another state.
This is data on the names they released. WCCO has no way to check the criminal history of others arrested on Monday because the names have not been released.
DHS has a “worst of the worst” page where you can see who’s on that list and who has been arrested in Minnesota and across the country.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on Tuesday defended Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller after Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., criticized the pair for labeling the U.S. citizen killed by Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis as a “domestic terrorist.”
Tillis was the first Senate Republican to call for Noem to be fired after the killing of Alex Pretti, 37, who was shot by federal agents as he was recording immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis over the weekend.
“What she’s done in Minnesota should be disqualifying. She should be out of a job,” Tillis told reporters earlier on Tuesday. “It’s just amateur-ish. It’s terrible. It’s making the president look bad on policy that he won on. [President Donald Trump] won on a strong message on immigration. Now, nobody’s talking about that. … They’re talking about the incompetence of the leader of Homeland Security.”
Noem and Miller “told the president before they even had an incident report whatsoever that the person who died was a terrorist. That is amateur hour at its worst,” Tillis added.
Sen. Lindsey Graham defended Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller on Tuesday.(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Responding to Tillis, Graham said someone “must have a very high opinion of themselves” if they believe they can get President Donald Trump to distance himself from Miller.
“I’ve known Stephen Miller for a very long time. We have our differences, but we have more in common. When the clock strikes midnight for President Trump, there will be very few by his side. One will be Stephen Miller. If you don’t get that, you’ve missed a lot. No one has helped Trump more than Stephen Miller,” Graham told Fox News’ Chad Pergram.
“To convince yourself that you can get Trump to distance himself from Stephen Miller, you must have a very high opinion of themselves,” he continued.
The South Carolina lawmaker added: “To my Republican colleagues, you need to understand that the President’s confidence in Stephen Miller has been rock solid and unshakable. And Miller is part of that group.”
Sen. Thom Tillis was the first Senate Republican to call for DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to be fired after the killing of Alex Pretti.(Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Alex Pretti, 37, was shot and killed on Saturday by Border Patrol agents while recording federal immigration operations in Minneapolis. An ICU nurse, Pretti appeared to be attempting to attend to a woman agents knocked down when he was sprayed with an irritant, pushed to the ground and beaten.An agent was seen pulling Pretti’s lawfully owned gun from his waistband before other agents fired several shots and killed him.
Noem was quick to label Pretti a “domestic terrorist,” and Miller characterized him as things such as a “would-be assassin,” both of which are unsubstantiated claims that sparked bipartisan pushback.
The White House has sought to distance itself from the comments by Noem and Miller, with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying she has “not heard the president characterize” Pretti that way.
But despite calls from Democrat and Republican lawmakers to oust Noem over her response to Pretti’s killing, Trump expressed confidence in the secretary to continue leading DHS.
President Donald Trump expressed confidence in DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to continue leading the department.(Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
“I think she’s doing a very good job. The border is totally secure. You know, you forget we had a border that I inherited where millions of people were coming through. Now we have a border where no one is coming through. They come into our country only legally,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday.
Asked if he agreed with Noem and Miller labeling Pretti as a “domestic terrorist” and an “assassin,” the president said he had not heard those remarks.
“Well, I haven’t heard that. He shouldn’t have been carrying a gun,” Trump said.
Trump also said the shooting was a “very sad situation” and he wants a “very honorable and honest investigation” that he wants to see for himself.
A federal judge said there will be no decision on Monday in Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison’s bid to end to Operation Metro Surge.
The state of Minnesota and the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul are seeking a temporary restraining order in their lawsuit against Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and other Trump administration officials, arguing the influx of thousands of immigration agents to the state has caused “tremendous damage.”
Tricia McLaughlin, U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s assistant secretary, previously called the suit “baseless.”
Judge Kate Menendez, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, said at the end of Monday’s hearing she is going to take the time “to do everything I can to get it right” on whatever final decision she makes.
Menendez was just as skeptical of the rationale of the U.S. Department of Justice and Trump administration for the deployment and the number of federal officers deployed as she was the state’s arguments.
She started off by acknowledging the significance of Monday’s hearing and the weeks-long record of court filings in front of her, but said “most of the complexity … rests on the legal questions” of what Minnesota is asking for in the case and not on the actions of the Trump administration.
Judge Kate Menendez during the hearing in Minneapolis federal court on Jan. 26, 2026.
Cedric Hohnstadt
The plaintiffs’ arguments
Lindsey Middlecamp, an attorney with Ellison’s office, said Minnesota should not have to deal with this “unchecked invasion and occupation” another day, and asked Menendez to issue an immediate restraining order. Middlecamp argued that Operation Metro Surge, which she described as the largest federal deployment of law enforcement in U.S. history, has brought an “unprecedented force of masked agents” who are “racially profiling and inflicting violence” in their wake.
Ellison’s team also underlined the “pervasive and systematic retaliation against legal observers,” including the “indiscriminate use” of chemical irritants.
“They are finding any way they can to find and punish those who speak up against this misconduct,” Middlecamp said. “Harms are accruing every day.”
Menendez was skeptical of exactly what harms the state is alleging and under what past precedent case law can give her guidance to make a decision, and what exactly the solution is in this case.
Minnesota Assistant Attorney General Brian Carter then alleged that DHS “designed” plans to force Minnesota to expend its resources.
“The difficulty with the case law on this situation is that this situation is unprecedented in the 250-year history of this country,” Carter said. “We have never had a federal government amass an army of 3,000 to 4,000 masked federal agents and sent them into a state to essentially stir the pot with conduct that is pervasive and includes widespread and illegal violent conduct.”
Menendez replied that while Minnesotans are in “shockingly unusual times,” she’s unsure if she has the leverage to stop it as a whole. She added that the “defining principle” of the argument is something that she is “struggling with here,” adding that the federal government has tremendous power in immigration enforcement.
Carter said he has seen a “crystallization” of efforts, citing Bondi’s “shakedown” letter.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and his legal team during the hearing in Minneapolis federal court on Jan. 26, 2026.
Cedric Hohnstadt
“‘You need to do these three things, and if you do it, we’ll get these officers off your streets,’” Carter said. “It’s a particularly damaging flavor of extortion.”
Carter cited the 10th Amendment in the Bill of Rights, which states the “powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
“This administration is not content with the rule of law,” Carter said. “This administration is not content with the courts working this stuff out.”
Carter said instead, the administration is putting “violence on the streets” of Minnesota.
“That has to violate the 10th Amendment,” Carter said.
Menendez said she wants to know the parameters of the ruling if there is one, adding there is “no question” the federal government can enforce immigration laws, but she questioned how she is supposed to be able to delineate between legal response and illegal response by the government.
“I don’t know what the line is,” Menendez said. “Is it the motivation, is it the scope, is it the illegality?”
“That kind of coercion … when Congress legislating that states are required to run background checks, if those violate the 10th Amendment, this has to. It’s beyond debate,” Carter said. “This is so far beyond the pale of legality, this is such an affront on the sovereignty of the state.”
Carter also underlined the unprecedented nature of the Trump administration’s attack on states “based on personal animosity.”
“The president of the United States said, he said, ‘Minnesota, your day of retribution is here.’ That is crazy,” Carter said. “How can that not violate equal sovereignty … If this is the way things go, if this is not stopped, what is going to happen to the next administration?”
Menendez ultimately pushed back on the state’s requests for a temporary restraining order.
“You’re asking me for a TRO. What does it say? What exactly do I do?” Menendez said.
Carter argued that the easiest, most straightforward thing is to end Operation Metro Surge.
“The whole Operation Metro Surge is an illegal means to an illegal ends, so just end it,” Carter said. “End the whole thing, is the appropriate remedy here.”
Menendez replied with a question.
“I can do all that?” she said.
The defense’s arguments
After a brief recess, Menendez asked U.S. Department of Justice attorney Andrew Warden if the explicit goal of Operation Metro Surge was to get Minnesota to change the policies listed out in Bondi’s memo — the contents of which did not sit well with Menendez.
Warden replied that “the goal of the surge is to enforce federal law.” Menendez then pushed again, asking if Minneapolis changed its policies and the state did the same thing, would the surge end?
“I can’t commit to a specific numbers of officers leaving,” Warden said.
Menendez, pushing again, asked: “But it would change? Aside from the fact that policies have been in effect for years, if they changed policies tomorrow, you’d leave?”
“The goal of the surge is to enforce federal law,” Warden said.
Menendez then asked how Bondi’s letter and written statements to the court do not demonstrate that the purpose of the surge is to affect the three changes the U.S. attorney general listed. Warden deflected, adding there was a need for “compensation” to supplement the “vacuum” left by the state and local leaders on immigration enforcement.
“It’s not like you can fix it overnight, let’s say they fix it in a week. If it is true you’re there because those policies had consequences, do you think it’s true that the motivation matters?” Menendez said. “Let’s imagine Bondi said we are here till you change your policies? Does that not violate the anticommandeering principle?”
“If there is a less of a need for federal law enforcement, then our involvement will change,” Warden said, but added it’s “undisputed that federal law enforcement can be here enforcing federal immigration law.”
Menendez then pressed Warden on Mr. Trump’s comments on “retribution.”
“I have not exactly seen that Truth Social recently,” Warden said, referring to posts from the president’s social media platform.
Next, Menendez mentioned Chicago, which had a DHS surge last year, and cited the lower number of federal law enforcement officers who were deployed to a much larger city to deal with potentially a much larger problem. She said there are “vastly more” law enforcement in Minnesota “than was even thought to be necessary in Chicago.”
“Is there a point in which it can no longer be depicted as a rational law enforcement response?” Menendez said.
Warden responded by citing Trump’s Article II powers, and said it would be “difficult to craft a remedy in light of that,” adding that he doesn’t “see how a court can say this amount of officers is the right amount” if requested by DHS.
Menendez said Bondi’s letter “concerns” her in describing the DOJ’s goals, because all three points are already being litigated in federal court in the state.
Brantley Mayers, a U.S. Department of Justice attorney, addresses federal Judge Kate Menendez as Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and his team looks on during the hearing on Jan. 26, 2025, in Minneapolis.
Cedric Hohnstadt
“Is the executive trying to achieve a goal through force that it cannot achieve through courts?” Menendez said.
“No, your honor,” Warden said, adding that “when there’s a vacuum in law enforcement” the federal government has gone in historically. Warden said he “doesn’t see how” operating on one front in Minnesota stops the law enforcement there from enforcing other laws.
Warden and his justice department team finished their arguments by telling Menendez they do not see the grounds for an injunction of any type and that there would be an “administrability problem” with pausing Operation Metro Surge in any respect, adding it would be “very difficult to implement.”
The plaintiffs got the final word before recess on Monday, with Minneapolis city attorney Sarah Lathrop saying relief is needed because it’s “clear that the intense situation on the ground” is not getting better.
“The court in its exercise can say ‘we’re stopping, we’re pausing,’” Lathrop said, adding there’s a chance of proceeding the case over the long term.
“You don’t have to draw the lines now,” Lathrop said.
The plaintiffs asked for Menendez’s order to return the federal law enforcement back to the status quo in the state to Nov. 30, the day before Operation Metro Surge began.
Lathrop said an order needs to come now to “take down the temperature.”
“Not all crises have a fix from a district court injunction,” Menendez said. “There are other things that are supposed to reign in this kind of conduct. It must be that work is being done elsewhere to bring an end to what is described here, not just counting on a single district court writing a single preliminary injunction.”
Video footage of the fatal shooting of Minnesota resident Alex Pretti by a federal immigration officer contradicts Trump administration officials’ claims about the event.
Since Pretti’s Jan. 24 killing in Minneapolis, the federal government has provided no evidence to substantiate early statements and shared no details about what happened before the confrontation and in the moments leading to a Border Patrol officer firing his gun.
Pretti, 37, was a U.S. citizen who worked as an Intensive Care Unit nurse at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs hospital.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Pretti was “brandishing” a handgun and “attacked” officers. Social media videos verified by multiple news organizations show Pretti, who had a concealed carry permit, holding a cell phone as he directed traffic and tried to help a woman pushed to the ground by an officer.
White House senior adviser Stephen Miller called Pretti a “domestic terrorist,” the same term some Trump officials used to describe Renee Nicole Good, a Minneapolis woman killed Jan. 7 by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.
Noem, Miller and Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino said that because Pretti was carrying a handgun and ammunition, he planned to assassinate law enforcement — statements that incensed some Republicans who support Second Amendment rights.
“The suspect put himself in that situation,” Bovino said. “The victims are the Border Patrol agents there.”
Pretti’s parents called their son a “kindhearted soul” and said Trump officials were not telling the truth. “The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting,” their Jan. 25 press statement said.
With many questions remaining unanswered, here’s how Trump administration officials’ explanations conflict with available information.
Video does not show Pretti approaching immigration agents with handgun
Noem said Pretti “approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun.”
Bovino said, “This looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.”
News outlets’ analysis of videos of the incident from several angles do not show Pretti approaching immigration officials with a handgun.
In the footage, Pretti stands between an officer and two civilians. The officer disperses pepper spray at Pretti and the people standing behind him. A still image from bystander video shows Pretti holding up his left arm in reaction.
Several agents tackle Pretti to the ground. One officer appears to remove a gun from Pretti’s hip and walk across the street away from the group. Quickly after another officer fires several shots at Pretti as he is restrained by agents.
“What the videos depict is that this guy did not walk up to anybody from (Customs and Border Protection) in a threatening manner,” former acting DHS undersecretary for intelligence John Cohen told ABC News. “For (DHS) to construe that he arrived at that location with the intent to shoot those border patrol officers, there’s nothing in the video evidence that we’ve seen thus far that would support that.”
CBS News correspondent Margaret Brennan asked Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara if he had seen any evidence that Pretti was “brandishing” a gun, as Noem said.
“You have a Second Amendment right in the United States to possess a firearm. And there are some restrictions around that in Minnesota,” O’Hara said Jan. 25 on “Face the Nation.” “And everything that we see that we are aware of shows that he did not violate any of those restrictions.”
Trump administration officials called Pretti a ‘domestic terrorist’
Miller described Pretti as a “domestic terrorist” who “tried to assassinate federal law enforcement.”
In a press conference after the shooting, Noem said Pretti “came with weapons and ammunition to stop a law enforcement operation of federal law enforcement officers.” She said Pretti “committed an act of domestic terrorism. That’s the facts.”
“When you perpetuate violence against a government because of ideological reasons and for reasons to resist and perpetuate violence, that is the definition of domestic terrorism,” Noem said.
It’s the second time in a month that Noem said a person shot and killed by immigration officers was a domestic terrorist, before any investigation had taken place.
The FBI defines domestic terrorism as acts dangerous to human life that violate federal or state criminal laws and appear intended to intimidate or coerce civilians; influence government policy by intimidation or coercion; or affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination or kidnapping.
Legal experts questioned the characterization of Good as a domestic terrorist, telling PolitiFact the label was prejudicial and an attempt to malign her.
Editor’s note: This story will be updated with additional statements and analysis. Check back later Jan. 26.
Deep internal divisions have emerged within federal immigration enforcement over how the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is handling the public fallout and messaging after a deadly Border Patrol shooting in Minneapolis, Fox News has learned.
More than half a dozen federal law enforcement officials involved in immigration enforcement tell Fox News there is growing frustration with how senior officials have framed the incident publicly, fueling internal debates about tone, strategy and credibility as scrutiny intensifies.
The shooting happened during a morning immigration enforcement operation Saturday, when a Border Patrol agent fatally shot Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old Minneapolis resident and Veterans Affairs intensive care unit nurse. Authorities say Pretti was armed with a handgun and two magazines.
In the hours and days that followed, DHS officials publicly described Pretti as a domestic terrorist and said he was attempting to “inflict maximum damage” on federal agents or carry out a “massacre,” language that has drawn internal criticism from within the department, Fox News is told.
A woman blows her whistle at U.S. Border Patrol agents at a gas station in Minneapolis, Minn., on Jan. 21, 2026.(Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images)
Officials say multiple videos that later emerged have called into question the DHS narrative, fueling frustration among agents who believe senior officials moved too quickly to characterize the incident before all facts were known.
The internal disputes, officials say, have been damaging from a public relations and morale standpoint, eroding trust and credibility and intensifying broader debates within the administration over how DHS leadership handles high-profile, politically charged incidents.
The officials who spoke with Fox News said they support the mass deportation agenda, though they have serious hesitations about the messaging and how the agenda is being carried out.
Some officials described DHS’ response to the shooting as “a case study on how not to do crisis PR,” with one saying they are so “fed up” that they wish they could retire, another saying “DHS is making the situation worse,” and another adding that “DHS is wrong” and “we are losing this war, we are losing the base and the narrative.”
Fox News reached out to DHS for comment on concerns that its rhetoric and communications may have damaged the agency’s credibility.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem participates in a roundtable discussion with local ranchers and U.S. Customs and Border Protection employees in Brownsville, Texas, on Jan. 7.(Michael Gonzalez/Getty Image)
“We have seen a highly coordinated campaign of violence against our law enforcement,” DHS said in a statement to Fox News. “This individual committed a federal crime while armed as he obstructed an active law enforcement operation. As with any situation that is evolving, we work to give swift, accurate information to the American people as more information becomes available.”
Officials say those internal frictions have now escalated, with widespread criticism that the aggressive tactics pushed by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem are eroding public support for the mass deportation agenda and putting federal agents at risk.
Fox News previously reported in October that deep internal friction had emerged within the Trump administration’s mass deportation effort, with competing camps inside DHS divided over enforcement priorities, tactics and how aggressively to carry out deportations.
Greg Wehner is a breaking news reporter for Fox News Digital.
Story tips and ideas can be sent to Greg.Wehner@Fox.com and on Twitter @GregWehner.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara says “people have had enough” after Border Patrol shooting – CBS News
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Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara told CBS News “this is not sustainable” after a fatal shooting by a Border Patrol agent amid a weekslong immigation crackdown in the city.
Videos and witnesses of fatal Minneapolis shooting at odds with Trump administration’s statements – CBS News
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Videos and eyewitness accounts of a Border Patrol agent’s fatal shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis are differing from Trump administration statements. Lana Zak has the latest.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the majority of immigrants in federal immigration detention have a criminal history.
She made the statement during a lengthy and somewhat confusing back-and-forth with CBS News correspondent Margaret Brennan Jan. 18 on “Face the Nation“:
Brennan: “What’s the breakdown of the percentage of those you have in custody who have actually committed a criminal offense versus just the civil infraction?”
Noem: “Every single individual has committed a crime, but 70% of them have committed or have charges against them on violent crimes, and crimes that they are charged with or have been convicted of, that have come from other countries that are here illegally, first of all. And then they have committed a criminal act while they’ve been here or in their home countries as well.”
Brennan: “It’s not 70%.”
Noem: “Yes, it is. It absolutely is, Margaret. You guys keep changing your percentage, you pick and choose what numbers you think work, but that is the facts, is that 70% of the people that we have detained have charges against them or have been convicted of charges.”
Brennan: “OK, well, our reporting is that 47% — based on your agency’s own numbers — 47% have criminal convictions against them.”
Noem’s comments could be taken a number of ways. At first, Noem’s wording made it sound like she was referencing people with violent criminal convictions or charges. But she also talked about pending charges. And Brennan asked Noem about people currently in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, but Noem’s wording made it sound like she was describing detention more broadly under Trump’s entire first year in office.
Analysis of government data shows most people the government has detained have not committed violent crimes. And people who are facing criminal charges aren’t necessarily accused of a violent crime, and they could be acquitted.
While campaigning in 2024, President Donald Trump promised to prioritize deporting violent criminals, and he has since tried to assure Americans that’s what his administration is doing.
“We’re looking to get the criminals out right now, the criminals,” Trump said at a Jan. 20 press conference marking the one-year anniversary of his second term in office. “We’re focused on the murderers, the drug dealers.”
Entering the U.S. illegally is generally a misdemeanor and being in the U.S. illegally is generally a civil offense.
The percentage of immigrants who have criminal convictions or pending charges varies depending on the data’s time frame: Are we talking about Trump’s first year in office? Or are we taking snapshots of who’s in detention at any given time. Either way, Noem’s figure is higher than what the data reflects. Currently, about half of immigrants in ICE detention have criminal convictions or pending charges. But when we look at all immigrants who have been federally detained since Trump took office for his second term, the number goes up to approximately 64%.
The Department of Homeland Security didn’t respond to our request for comment. Here’s a breakdown of the numbers.
Have 70% of detained immigrants committed violent crimes?
Independent data analyses have found the percentage of detained immigrants convicted of violent offenses to be far below 70%.
But the figure is hard to quantify. DHS’ public data shows how many immigrants have been convicted or charged with a crime, but not what type of crime. So the group could include people who have been convicted of rape or murder as well as those convicted of property theft or traffic violations.
An October analysis by the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, found that 5% of detainees from Oct. 1 to Nov. 15 had been convicted of violent crime. Most detainees with a criminal conviction were found guilty of traffic violations.
The New York Times reached a similar conclusion, finding that from Jan. 20 to Oct. 15, 7% of immigrants arrested by ICE had violent convictions.
Do 70% of immigrants currently in detention have criminal convictions or pending criminal charges?
No, the percentage is about half. ICE periodically updates public-facing statistics about people who are in immigration detention. According to the latest data — from Jan. 7 — 68,990 people were in detention.
Of those, 17,729 were listed as having criminal convictions and 17,881 were facing pending criminal charges. That means about 26% of detained immigrants had a criminal conviction and another 26% had pending criminal charges. So about 52% of detained immigrants had either a criminal conviction or pending criminal charge.
Looking at a more recent time frame, CBS News reported Jan. 16 that internal DHS data showed a record-high of about 73,000 immigrants in ICE detention. About 47% of those detainees had criminal convictions or pending charges, CBS reported. Brennan cited this figure on air.
The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a research group that uses Freedom of Information Act requests to analyze government data, charts detention data snapshots taken twice a month. The percentage of immigrants with criminal convictions or pending charges during Trump’s first year in office ranged from 41% to 57%.
Do 70% of all the immigrants detained during Trump’s second term have criminal convictions or pending charges?
The best figures suggest it’s in that ballpark. University of California Los Angeles researchers at the Deportation Data Project collect and publish immigration data received via FOIA requests. A PolitiFact analysis of its data from Jan. 20, 2025, to Oct. 15 found 64% of immigrants who have been detained under Trump’s second term had either a criminal conviction or pending criminal charge.
About 66% of immigrants ICE arrested from Jan. 20, 2025, to Oct. 15 had criminal convictions or pending charges. Not everyone ICE arrests ends up in detention because there’s limited space.
The share of detained immigrants who have criminal charges or convictions has “fallen rapidly,” David Bier, associate director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, said. So it’s “bad faith to ignore the more recent share” of immigrants who have been booked into detention.
It’s important to note that people with pending charges may never be convicted of a crime; the charges could be dismissed, or they could be found innocent. Many people will miss their day in a U.S. court because they were deported.
About 30% of immigrants detained during Trump’s first year had criminal convictions, the Deportation Data Project found.
School district officials in Columbia Heights, Minnesota, say their sense of security is shaken and their hearts shattered after four students from the district were recently taken by officers with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The Columbia Heights Public School District says two children were taken on Tuesday, including a 17-year-old boy on his way to school. He was removed from his car and taken away.
Then in the afternoon, 5-year-old Liam Ramos was taken with his father while in their driveway after just arriving home from his preschool classroom. School officials say the child was used as bait to knock on the door and ask to be let in, letting officers see if anyone else was home.
“Why detain a 5-year-old? You can’t tell me that this child is going to be classified as a violent criminal,” said Superintendent Zena Stenvik.
The Department of Homeland Security later said that the child was not targeted by ICE, but was “abandoned” by his father. It said his father fled federal agents as they approached his vehicle, leaving the child. DHS said the father, whom they described as an illegal alien from Ecuador, was later taken into custody as other ICE officers stayed with the child.
School officials say there was an adult there who offered to take the child, but ICE did not allow that.
Federal officials said on Thursday that the boy and his father are together at an immigration processing center in Dilley, Texas.
An attorney for the Ramos family, Marc Prokosch, and the school district deny that Liam was abandoned by his father.
Prokosch said Liam and his father entered the U.S. legally from Ecuador and Liam’s father doesn’t appear to have a criminal record.
The Ecuadorian government said its consulate in Minneapolis contacted ICE as soon as it got word that Liam was being held, adding that it is “monitoring the situation of the child in order to safeguard their safety and well-being.”
Two weeks ago, a 10-year-old student in fourth grade was taken by ICE agents on her way to elementary school with her mother. During the arrest, the child called her father on the phone to tell her that ICE agents were bringing her to school. The father then came to the school to find out that both his daughter and wife had been taken.
School officials say both children and their parents are being held in a detention center in Texas. They say Liam Ramos’ family is following U.S. legal parameters and has an active asylum case with no order of deportation.
The school officials also said they don’t know what happened. They want the public to get involved as this is happening to students all across the state of Minnesota.
“We are asking to please reach out to your congressional representative to ask for an immediate and peaceful resolution to this occupation,” Stenvik said. “Please help us and other schools to again be a safe place where all belong and all succeed.”
The district also has an immigration lawyer to help figure out how to get the students back to Minnesota.
Democrats had planned to campaign in the midterm elections on affordability and health care, two issues where Americans are particularly unhappy with President Donald Trump. But the aggressive immigration crackdown in Minnesota, including the killing of Renee Good during a confrontation with federal agents, has scrambled the party’s playbook.
Now Democrats are trying to translate visceral outrage into political strategy, even though there’s little consensus on how to press forward on issues where the party has recently struggled to earn voters’ trust.
Others have taken a different approach, introducing legislation intended to curb alleged abuses by federal agents. But those ideas have been criticized by activists as insufficient, and there is mounting pressure to obstruct funding for deportations.
“We’re Democrats. I’m sure we’re going to have 50 different ideas and 50 different ways to say it,” said Chuck Rocha, a party strategist who is advising several House and Senate candidates on immigration this year.
If Democrats fail to strike the right balance, they could imperil their efforts to retake control of Congress and statehouses around the country. They could also hamper a chance to rebuild credibility with voters whose dissatisfaction with border enforcement under Democratic President Joe Biden helped return Trump, a Republican, to the White House.
Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress and Biden’s former domestic policy adviser, believes the party can thread the needle.
“It’s not too much to ask that we have a government that can produce a secure border, that can deport people who are not legally here, and that can also respect people’s civil and human rights,” she told The Associated Press. “This country has done that before, and it can do it again.”
Immigration crackdowns have spread from city to city since Trump took office, but the latest operation in Minnesota has generated some of the most intense controversy.
“I think the party is very unified in our disdain and concern of the actions certainly of DHS and ICE,” said Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. “We should campaign on fairness and due process for all people,” Garcia added, “which is being violated every single day by ICE and DHS. We should be aggressive in that posture.”
But pushing back on the administration requires Democrats to step onto difficult political terrain.
About 4 in 10 U.S. adults trusted Republicans more to handle immigration, according to a Washington Post/Ipsos poll from September, higher than about 3 in 10 who said the same about Democrats. On the issue of crime, Republicans also held the advantage. About 44% thought Republicans were better, compared with 22% for the Democrats.
Republicans feel confident that their intertwined messages on crime and immigration will resonate with voters in the midterms. They frequently highlight violent criminals detained or deported, downplaying examples of nonviolent migrants who have been swept up.
“If Democrats want to make 2026 a referendum on which party stands for strong immigration policies and protecting public safety, we will take that fight any day of the week,” said Republican National Committee spokeswoman Delanie Bomar.
Some Democrats are more interested in using the issue as a way to pivot back to core messages about health care and the cost of living.
“I want everybody to understand, the cuts to your health care are what’s paying for ICE to be doing this,” New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said last week. “The cuts to your health care are what’s paying for this.”
Democratic strategists have circulated the clip as an example of a potentially effective pitch, particularly after Trump slashed funding for some safety net programs during his first year in office.
The president’s approval may be slipping on the issue of immigration.
His approval rating on the issue has fallen since the start of his term, according to Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research polling, from 49% in March to 38% in January.
Juan Proaño, CEO of the League of United Latin American Citizens, the oldest Hispanic civil rights group in the U.S., said crackdowns have hurt Trump politically.
“Republican members of Congress are really uncomfortable with these agencies and their existing tactics, because they know it’s going to hurt them back at home come election cycle,” he said.
Proaño said he had been disappointed with how Democrats had accommodated the Trump administration on immigration in the last year, but he praised changes in the party’s strategy since Good’s death was captured on video.
“I think everyone just gasped at that, and I think there has been a marked shift since then,” he said.
Some people who have vocally supported Trump in the past, like podcast host Joe Rogan, have expressed reservations.
“Are we really going to be the Gestapo?” he asked recently.
But Trump has not shown any sign of backing down. The administration has ramped up the number of federal agents deployed to Minnesota and the Justice Department issued subpoenas to the state’s Democrats, including Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, as part of an investigation into whether they obstructed or impeded enforcement operations.
Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin, who used to lead the party in his home state of Minnesota, said “there’s a lot of pain and anguish.”
“It’s heartbreaking,” he said in a recent interview. “It’s chilling to think that this is the United States of America, what is supposed to be a beacon for democracy and freedom.”
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.”
This week on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem joins to discuss recent ICE operations in Minnesota. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey weighs in on the aftermath of the deadly shooting of Renee Good. Sen. Mark Warner and Rep. Mike Turner also join.
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.”
Why It Matters
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.
What To Know
“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.
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.
What People Are Saying
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.”
What Happens Next
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.
