Some federal agents to leave Minneapolis on Tuesday, mayor says
Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey said he spoke with President Donald Trump today, asserting that “some federal agents will begin leaving the area tomorrow, and I will continue pushing for the rest involved in this operation to go”.
For his part, Trump said that “lots of progress is being made”, and that his conversation with mayor Frey was “very good”.
Frey is slated to meet with Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan on Tuesday to “discuss next steps”, according to the mayor.
“Minneapolis will continue to cooperate with state and federal law enforcement on real criminal investigations – but we will not participate in unconstitutional arrests of our neighbors or enforce federal immigration law,” Frey said in a statement. “Violent criminals should be held accountable based on the crimes they commit, not based on where they are from.”
Key events
Republican senator John Curtis said he supports an independent investigation into the shooting of a 37-year-old man in Minneapolis, joining a slew of other GOP lawmakers pressing for a deeper probe into the tactics executed by federal immigration agents.
“We must have a transparent, independent investigation into the Minnesota shooting, and those responsible—no matter their title—must be held accountable,” said the Utah senator in a post on X. “Officials who rush to judgment before all the facts are known undermine public trust and the law-enforcement mission.”
He added: “I disagree with Secretary Noem’s premature DHS response, which came before all the facts were known and weakened confidence.”
Curtis says he plans to work with senators from both parties to push for oversight and transparency, supporting senator Rand Paul’s call “for leaders of these operations to testify, so trust can be restored and justice served.”
Senior border patrol official Gregory Bovino removed from his role – report
Gregory Bovino has been removed from his role as border patrol “commander at large”, the Atlantic reports.
According to the magazine, Bovino will return to his previous job in El Centro, California, where he is expected to retire soon, citing a homeland security official and two people with knowledge of the removal.
Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the department of homeland security, said that Bovino “has NOT been relieved of his duties”.
In a post on X, she said that Bovino “is a key part of the President’s team and a great American”. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt reposted McLaughlin’s remarks.
Democratic senator Peter Welch called for homeland security secretary Kristi Noem to leave her post following the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, both of whom were shot dead by federal immigration agents in the city.
“Noem’s got to go. I mean, we have the head of this department who spends a lot of her time in self-promotion, the $200 million video shoot in Mount Rushmore,” the Vermont senator said in an interview on MS Now’s Ana Cabrera Reports.
“She is the real problem, because what she’s doing is turning the function of immigration enforcement away from enforcement and into being kind of a shock troop that goes into cities and acts with impunity,” Welch added. “She’s blown the job. You know, we need immigration enforcement, but that’s not what she’s doing. It’s mass intimidation.”
Joseph Gedeon
A federal court in Minneapolis heard arguments on Monday on whether the Trump administration’s deployment of 3,000 immigration agents to Minnesota has crossed the line from law enforcement into unconstitutional occupation.
Hours later, Kate Menendez, the Biden-appointed US district judge overseeing the case, ordered the federal government to respond to the assertion that the Trump administration’s so-called “Operation Metro Surge” enforcement campaign was intended to “punish plaintiffs for adopting sanctuary laws and policies”.
She gave the Trump administration lawyers until Wednesday evening to respond, suggesting a ruling was not imminent.
The extraordinary legal question centers on the 10th amendment, which reserves to the states all powers not explicitly granted to the federal government in the constitution. Lawyers for Minnesota and the cities of Minneapolis and St Paul claim in their suit that Operation Metro Surge has become so intrusive and dangerous that it amounts to an illegal occupation of the state.
Read the full story here:
NBC News reports that Lindsey Halligan, a federal attorney appointed by Donald Trump who led the failed prosecutions of two of the president’s political foes, is no longer an employee of the justice department.
Halligan left her position as interim US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia last week after several judges criticized her, with one of them finding she held the position unlawfully.
Sources told NBC News that she is no longer an employee at the justice department, and it remains unclear whether she was hired elsewhere.
After Halligan was sworn in as interim US attorney in September, she oversaw the indictments of fierce Trump opponents Letitia James, the New York attorney general, and James Comey, the former FBI director. A judge dismissed the cases in November.
At about 9am on Saturday, US federal agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, a Minneapolis nurse who was observing immigration officers in the city.
The Guardian’s video team has pieced together footage posted to social media, showing the attack from different angles:
Some federal agents to leave Minneapolis on Tuesday, mayor says
Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey said he spoke with President Donald Trump today, asserting that “some federal agents will begin leaving the area tomorrow, and I will continue pushing for the rest involved in this operation to go”.
For his part, Trump said that “lots of progress is being made”, and that his conversation with mayor Frey was “very good”.
Frey is slated to meet with Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan on Tuesday to “discuss next steps”, according to the mayor.
“Minneapolis will continue to cooperate with state and federal law enforcement on real criminal investigations – but we will not participate in unconstitutional arrests of our neighbors or enforce federal immigration law,” Frey said in a statement. “Violent criminals should be held accountable based on the crimes they commit, not based on where they are from.”
More pressure from Republican lawmakers is mounting on the Trump administration to investigate the killing of 37-year-old nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis by immigration officers.
“Any loss of life under politically-charged circumstances is a tragedy,” said senator Michael Crapo of Idaho in a post on X. “I support a full and impartial investigation into the events leading up to the death of Alex Pretti. His family, law-abiding citizens exercising their Second Amendment right and the trust of the American people deserve a fair process.”
“I am deeply troubled by the shootings in Minneapolis involving federal agents,” said Republican senator Jerry Moran of Kansas on X. “This tragic circumstance should be investigated to the fullest extent to ensure transparency and accountability.”
According to a post on Truth Social, Donald Trump said he would increase tariffs on some South Korean imports into the United States.
Trump said tariffs on autos, lumber and pharmaceuticals will rise from 15% to 25%, accusing the country of “not living up” to its trade deal with the US.
“South Korea’s Legislature is not living up to its Deal with the United States,” Trump said.
He added: “Because the Korean Legislature hasn’t enacted our Historic Trade Agreement, which is their prerogative, I am hereby increasing South Korean TARIFFS on Autos, Lumber, Pharma, and all other Reciprocal TARIFFS, from 15% to 25%.”
Homeland security secretary Kristi Noem is slated to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on 3 March as tensions escalate amid the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota, US Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin confirmed on Monday.
“Secretary Noem refused to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee last year and now tells us that she will be available in five weeks—should she still be DHS Secretary at that time,” Durbin said in a statement.
“With all of the violence and deaths involving DHS, the Secretary is apparently in no hurry to account for her mismanagement of this national crisis,” Durbin added. “And she expects us to rubber stamp her record-breaking budget in the meantime.”
The announcement comes as several lawmakers from both aisles have called for an independent investigation into the killings in Minnesota this month.
The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, approved the use of a military base in Minnesota to extend support for federal immigration agents in the state.
The Chronicle obtained an email showing a request by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to use Fort Snelling, a decommissioned military base near the Minneapolis-St Paul international airport, to house US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) personnel and store weapons, vehicles and aircraft.
“The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) requests support from the Department of War (DoW) to provide existing infrastructure to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), a component of DHS, specifically an area for parking approximately 300-500 vehicles and 10 storage trailers, a ready room space for approximal 500-800 CBP personnel, a space to house, maintain and operate five CBP Air Assets, access to a magazine to store munitions, and other necessary facilities to support operations in the Minneapolis, Minnesota metropolitan area,” reads the email from CBP obtained by the outlet.
Hegseth approved the request, per the Chronicle.
Lauren Gambino
Ruben Gallego said he wasn’t opposed to funding the DHS, but said Democrats needed to use their leverage to extract concessions on how federal agents carry out enforcement operations.
The Arizona senator, seen as a leading voice in the party on immigration, called for a pause in operations in Minnesota, and said he wants to see provisions added to the homeland security funding that would prevent racial profiling, require the use of warrants to enter people’s homes and ensure an independent investigation into fatal encounters.
In the event of a funding lapse, Gallego acknowledged that the DHS could possibly tap money provided for the department in Trump’s sweeping domestic policy law, known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
“It’s not my responsibility to make their jobs any easier, especially when they’re killing US citizens on the streets of this country,” he said.
He added: “The most important thing we need to do is we need to make sure that the American public understands how dangerous the situation is right now.”
Gallego, who represents a border state and was elected with the support of many voters who backed Trump, said Arizonans and the broader public still support immigration enforcement and border security – and it was important for Democrats to continue to do so as well.
But what was happening now, he said, was not that.
“There’s a reason why the American public has now moved against what’s happening with the president’s immigration enforcement law,” he said, “because they don’t see how logically this makes sense, how this brings in more security. If anything, they see them bringing more chaos and less security into their neighborhoods.”
Lauren Gambino
The US government appears to be on track for another government shutdown amid a Democratic revolt against a funding bill that includes more than $60bn for homeland security.
Following the death of 37-year-old VA nurse Alex Pretti, a stream of Democrats announced their opposition to the government funding package, demanding conditions on ICE’s enforcement operations in exchange for their votes.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Senator Ruben Gallego, Democrat from Arizona, vowed to vote against the package that included funding for DHS.
Gallego said he was “confident” enough Democrats would vote against the funding bill to ensure it doesn’t move forward, at least for now. “For how long? That’s a totally different question,” he said.
Several Senate Democrats who previously bucked their party to avert a shutdown have now said they will not authorize homeland security spending. Gallego and other Democrats have called on Senate Republicans to separate the DHS funding bill from the rest of the spending package, which includes funding for defense, transportation, housing and other major government departments.
Republican leadership has indicated that they will not separate the bills, instead daring Democrats to withhold the votes needed to avert another funding lapse.
Senator John Fetterman, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, who frequently breaks with his party, was sharply critical of ICE’s conduct, but said in a statement that he would “never vote to shut our government down”.
“I want a conversation on the DHS appropriations bill and support stripping it from the minibus,” Fetterman said. “It is unlikely that will happen and our country will suffer another shutdown.”
Minnesota governor Tim Walz called the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in the state “chaos”, “illegal” and “un-American” in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal today.
“The Trump administration’s assault on Minnesota long ago stopped being a matter of immigration enforcement. It is a campaign of organized brutality against the people of our state. It isn’t just. It isn’t legal. And, critically, it isn’t making anyone any safer,” said Walz in the op-ed.
“That isn’t effective law enforcement. It isn’t following the rule of law. It’s chaos. It’s illegal. And it’s un-American” he added. “This assault on our communities is not necessary to enforce our immigration laws. We don’t have to choose between open borders and whatever the hell this is.”
Federal agents in Minneapolis have been deploying crowd control gas against protesters.
The Minnesota Star Tribune has put together an explainer to help residents identify what federal agents are firing at them.
Gregory Bovino will reportedly leave Minneapolis on Tuesday
The senior border patrol official Gregory Bovino is poised to leave Minneapolis on Tuesday, dealing a blow to someone who had been seen as a main figure in Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement surge, CNN reports.
Bovino’s expected departure came to light hours after Trump announced that he was sending border czar Tom Homan to Minneapolis.
Sources told CNN that Trump administration officials were displeased with Bovino’s handling of Alex Pretti’s death at the hands of federal agents.
“According to one official, Trump spent several hours on Sunday and Monday watching the coverage and was personally unhappy by how his administration was coming across,” CNN said.
“Others say that Bovino, who became the face of Trump’s immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota, only made matters worse by claiming Pretti intended to ‘massacre’ federal agents.”
Minnesota officials and the justice department are now squaring off in court over local and state law enforcement’s request that federal agents preserve evidence in Alex Pretti’s killing.
A judge issued a temporary restraining order late Saturday requiring that federal agents retain evidence. This temporary restraining order came after the Minnesota bureau of criminal apprehension and Hennepin county attorney’s office alleged that federal agents were stymying access to evidence.
A justice department attorney said in court that federal agents had “preserved everything they have collected,” the New York Times reports, echoing Department of Justice court papers that claimed the TRO and request were non-starters.
More developments soon …
Republican Senator Rand Paul, who chairs the homeland security and governmental affairs committee, has requested that the leaders of US immigration agencies, including ICE and CBP, testify.
Paul is requesting that the testimony take place at an open hearing by 12 February.
The day so far
Good afternoon and thank you for reading our live coverage today.
Most of Monday’s political news stems from the aftermath of Alex Pretti’s death at the hands of federal immigration agents in Minneapolis this weekend. State officials are trying to stop Donald Trump’s deployment of 3000 immigration agents to Minneapolis. Some local law enforcement are claiming that the feds are already blocking investigation of Pretti’s killing.
Here is a quick recap of where things stand.
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Two federal judges are weighing cases that involve the legality of federal agents’ activity in Minneapolis. One case, which was argued this morning, challenged the legality of this surge. Another case, which will be argued at 2pm local time, involves local officials’ claims that federal agents are getting in the way of their investigation of Pretti’s death.
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Donald Trump is sending border czar Tom Homan to Minnesota on Monday night. “He has not been involved in that area, but knows and likes many of the people there. Tom is tough but fair, and will report directly to me,” the president said in a Truth Social post.
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Chris Madel, an up-and-coming Republican gubernatorial candidate in Minnesota, dropped out of the race because of the GOP’s “stated retribution on the citizens of our state”. In what the Minnesota Star Tribune described as a “stunning exit”, Madel also said: “United States citizens, particularly those of color, live in fear. United States citizens are carrying papers to prove their citizenship. That’s wrong.” That Madel said this is, in fact, stunning: He provided legal counsel to Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who earlier this month shot and killed Renee Good.
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Chuck Schumer, Senate Democratic leader, ramped up his request to separate Department of Homeland Security funding from a six-bill package. “Senate Democrats have made clear we are ready to quickly advance the five appropriations bills separately from the DHS funding bill before the January 30th deadline,” Schumer said in a statement. “The responsibility to prevent a partial government shutdown is on Leader Thune and Senate Republicans … If Leader Thune puts those five bills on the floor this week, we can pass them right away. If not, Republicans will again be responsible for another government shutdown.”
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Minnesota governor Tim Walz’s office said in a statement that he and Trump had a “productive” phone call where the president “agreed to look into reducing the number of federal agents in Minnesota and working with the state in a more coordinated fashion on immigration enforcement regarding violent criminals”. In the statement, Walz’s team said Trump agreed to talk with the Department of Homeland Security about making sure the Minnesota bureau of criminal apprehension is able to investigate.
