I’m going to focus on the immigration fight today. So much is happening in Minnesota and now in Maine. The murder of Alex Pretti has raised people’s consciousness in the public and even in Congress. The protests are working. I’m not kidding myself that Trump’s attempts to calm the federal government rhetoric are really sincere, but he seems to feel he needs to fake some semblance of compassion if only for a short time.
Federal immigration officers have been collecting personal information about protesters and agitators in Minneapolis, sources told CNN – and had documented details about Alex Pretti before he was shot to death on Saturday.
It is unclear how Pretti first came to the attention of federal authorities, but sources told CNN that about a week before his death, he suffered a broken rib when a group of federal officers tackled him while he was protesting their attempt to detain other individuals….
A memo sent earlier this month to agents temporarily assigned to the city asked them to “capture all images, license plates, identifications, and general information on hotels, agitators, protestors, etc., so we can capture it all in one consolidated form,” according to correspondence reviewed by CNN.
Pretti’s previous encounter is another reflection of the aggressive approach federal agents are taking with observers and protesters – a philosophy underscored by the request for agents to collect information about protesters whose activities are broadly protected by the First Amendment.
DHS has repeatedly warned of threats against federal law enforcement officers during immigration enforcement operations—and criticized protesters who they argue are impeding those operations. On Tuesday, the department also publicized an online tip form to share information about people allegedly harassing ICE officers….
The earlier incident started when he stopped his car after observing ICE agents chasing what he described as a family on foot, and began shouting and blowing his whistle, according to a source who asked not to be named out of fear of retribution.
Pretti later told the source that five agents tackled him and one leaned on his back – an encounter that left him with a broken rib. The agents quickly released him at the scene.
“That day, he thought he was going to die,” said the source.
Pretti was later given medication consistent with treating a broken rib, according to records reviewed by CNN.
“That day, he thought he was going to die,” Yet he went back out to observe ICE agents and help immigrants.
The two Border Patrol agents who subdued, punched, and fatally shot Veterans Affairs ICU nurse Alex Pretti have been placed on administrative leave, according to multiple reports.
The paid leave will only last three days, an anonymous official told MS NOW. An unnamed Homeland Security official claimed to The New York Times that the placement was “standard protocol.”
MS Now reported that those involved in the brutal killing will return to “desk duty” after three days, not field work. The report added that the two agents who opened fire at Pretti received “mental health support” after killing the 37-year-old in Minneapolis on Saturday morning.
Now Trump is pretending to “de-escalate.” I don’t buy it for one minute. It won’t last.
The government’s account of the killing on Saturday of Alex Pretti, a U.S. citizen with no criminal record, was unraveling. Stephen Miller, the mastermind of President Trump’s hard-line immigration policy, had called Mr. Pretti a “terrorist” and told other administration officials, including Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, to call him an “assassin.”
But videos clearly contradicted that story. Mr. Pretti was pinned down when immigration agents opened fire and killed him. Protests and a palpable sense of outrage were growing across the country. Even the president’s allies were alarmed. Many of them wanted to see changes on the ground, and several made a recommendation directly in calls to the president: Send Tom Homan, the White House border czar, to Minneapolis.
Early Monday, Brian Kilmeade, the co-host of “Fox & Friends,” of which Mr. Trump is a loyal viewer, repeated the message three times in two hours.
Twenty minutes later, the president announced on social media that he was sending Mr. Homan to Minneapolis, a tacit acknowledgment that he was losing control of a situation that posed one of the most serious political threats of his second administration.
Gregory Bovino, a Border Patrol official who had been directing on-the-ground operations in Minneapolis, and who was known for aggressive tactics, was out. “Bovino is pretty good, but he’s a pretty out-there kind of guy,” Mr. Trump told Fox News. “Maybe it wasn’t good here.”
And while there is no sign that Mr. Trump is repudiating the tactics used by the federal agents in Minnesota or the core tenets of his immigration policies, the moment was a rare example of the president moving to mitigate the harsh optics associated with a crackdown his administration has otherwise celebrated.
A bit more:
Mr. Trump has honed a survival tactic over many years facing criticism in the public eye: He creates diversions to barrel from one news cycle into the next. But in other moments, when he has faced particularly intense — and politically damaging — public outcry, he has taken stock of news coverage and decided to take a different tack, often temporarily.
Mr. Pretti’s killing and its aftermath created one of those moments. And Mr. Trump seemed to realize in this case that his message, at least, had to change. Shortly after he made the announcement about Mr. Homan, Mr. Trump and his press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, softened their tone about the shooting and distanced themselves from the incendiary comments made by Mr. Miller, Mr. Bovino and Ms. Noem. Mr. Trump also said he spoke with Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, whom he had castigated only days before.
And as the White House walks back some of its harshest statements, a blame game of sorts has erupted, with Mr. Miller suggesting immigration authorities in Minneapolis may not have been following protocol.
In a statement, Mr. Miller said the White House had advised Customs and Border Protection officials to create a “physical barrier” between “arrest teams” and “disrupters.”
“We are evaluating why the C.B.P. team may not have been following that protocol,” said Mr. Miller, who just days earlier had called Mr. Pretti a “would-be assassin.”
It remains to be seen if the rhetorical shift will tamp down the outcry or if there is any will inside the Trump administration to change tactics on the ground. Mr. Homan, a longtime ICE official, is seen among Mr. Trump’s allies as someone who could bring a measure of calm to the chaos in Minnesota, particularly because he has called for targeted arrests instead of sweeping raids. But he is fully on board with Mr. Trump’s mass deportation campaign; in 2018, he, along with two senior officials, recommended a policy that eventually led to families being separated at the southern border.
Homan was the architect of the family separation policy in Trump’s first term. He’s also on video accepting a $50,000 bribe. I’m not holding my breath expecting him to be a peacemaker.
The media verdict is in: President Trump has “softened” his stance on his paramilitary war on Minneapolis. He struck a “cooperative tone” in a call with Minnesota’s Democratic governor, Tim Walz. The administration hopes to “shift its strategy” on its ICE raids. Trump is executing a “pivot” and is attempting to “deescalate.”
You get the idea: Trump is chastened by the backlash to the ICE murders of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. So he’s now recalibrating the government’s approach in an effort to appear to dial down the violent social conflict that’s been unleashed.
Tom Homan and Kristy Noam
So let’s stipulate some threshold questions: Will any of this change how ICE is actually conducting its operations in American cities that fundamentally do not want ICE’s presence among their populations? Is Trump reversing the underlying reality of these operations—that they have become akin to military occupations of enemy territory within the American nation? Will there be serious governmental efforts to investigate those shootings, mete out accountability for them, and address what went wrong?
The answers to those questions sure look like “no,” “no,” and “no.” To wit, The Wall Street Journalreports that some Trump aides have realized that all this has become a “political liability,” so they’re in discussions over “how to continue deportations without clashing with protesters.” They’re also planning new steps to “improve ICE’s image.”
Meanwhile, The New York Timesreports that Trump met with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for two hours amid “concern” about the shootings. But Noem’s job is safe. Trump has replaced the public face of the Minneapolis occupation, removing Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino, who swaggers around these scenes of occupation like a conquering general, with border czar Tom Homan, who swaggers around on Fox News like a conquering general.
Note the problem here. Trump does apparently want to minimize clashes between government security services and protesters. But he doesn’t appear to want those heavily armed government militias to stop doing the things that are causing those clashes in the first place.
What’s really going on here is this: Trump is looking to defuse anger among congressional Democrats for purposes that don’t portend a meaningful shift. An administration official gave away the game to Punchbowl News, admitting that these “de-escalatory measures” are about placating Senate Democrats so they don’t seize this moment to demand restrictions on ICE as part of any government funding package.
I don’t think that is going to work. Democrats in the Senate at least seem to be getting the message that the majority of the public doesn’t like what’s happening.
ICE Barbie has passed the blame to Stephen Miller after she received calls to be fired in response to immigration officials killing another U.S. citizen, multiple sources told Axios.
“Everything I’ve done, I’ve done at the direction of the president and Stephen,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told one source who relayed her comments to Axios.
In an earlier copy of the Axios report, others blamed Miller for divisive comments about slain anti-ICE protestor Alex Pretti wanting to “massacre law enforcement,” which were made by Border Patrol senior official Greg Bovino.
Miller denied the blame placed upon him for the “massacre” statement, instead deflecting the fault to information provided by Customs and Border Protection, which is under Noem’s Department of Homeland Security.
“Any early comments made were based on information sent to the White House through CBP,” he told the outlet.
President Trump’s shakeup in Minnesota immigration operations in the wake of two fatal shootings is “a disaster” for Kristi Noem, sources have told the Daily Beast.
Kristy Noam and Cory Lewandowski
Trump, 79, announced Monday that border czar Tom Homan, 64, will now run the embattled Minnesota operation and report directly to him. He did so amid rising public anger over the brutal and deadly manner in which operations have been carried out on Noem’s watch under her Border Patrol “commander-at-large” Gregory Bovino, who has been shown the door by the president.
For months, senior officials have griped that Homeland Security Secretary Noem, 54, and her chief adviser and rumored lover, Corey Lewandowski, 52, built a parallel power structure around Bovino, 55. This, they say, marginalized ICE and cut Homan out of key calls as Noem and Homan both fought to lead Trump’s mass deportation drive.
With Homan now tapped to take the reins in Minnesota, administration insiders say it doesn’t bode well for Noem’s job prospects. “Homan taking control is a disaster for Noem,” one Department of Homeland Security source said, adding that Homan was likely to be everything that the publicity-obsessed Noem and Bovino were not.
Meanwhile, ICE is ramping up it’s operation in Maine.
As a snowstorm blanketed the region, the Department of Homeland Security said Monday that federal agents have so far arrested more than 200 people in the Trump administration’s ongoing immigration operation in Maine.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has dubbed its operation “Catch of the Day,” the latest in the administration’s immigration crackdowns across the country.
On Monday, the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project of Maine, the largest organization of its kind in the state, called for ICE to stop its operation, while also sending condolences to their counterparts in Minneapolis.
“There are not adequate words to describe how difficult the past week has been,” ILAP’s Executive Director Sue Roche said.“We are seeing mostly people in lawful immigration processes with no criminal records being arrested. Many have been racially profiled and abducted from their cars off the street, and some have been targeted at home. ICE is stalking grocery stores and schools. The lack of due process or humanity in this enforcement operation is appalling.”
The group added that it is leading a legal effort to file emergency habeas petitions and seek bond hearings “to try to secure the freedom of Maine residents swept up in the ICE operation.” As of Monday, ILAP said, it has received requests for emergency legal help from more than 60 people arrested in the operation, and federal judges have issued at least eight emergency orders blocking ICE from transferring individuals out of the area.
BIDDEFORD, Maine — Five-year-old Keyli Camila Espin Vaca expected her mother to come pick her up after school on Friday, just as she always did.
But her mother never came.
Mayra Vaca Latacunga, 25, had dropped Camila off at the Biddeford Primary School that morning, then went to get groceries. Soon after, ICE agents stopped her car and requested her documentation, her brother said. She didn’t have it. The agents handcuffed her and transferred her to Massachusetts.
Camila sat for a photo with her aunt and uncle, after Camila’s mother was detained by ICE in Biddeford, Maine.Finn Gomez for the Boston Globe
Vaca Latacunga, a single mother from Ecuador, was Camila’s sole caretaker. On Friday, school officials escorted the kindergartner to her Uncle Javier’s house. She stayed there for several days, pleading for her mom.
“Quiero mi mamá, tío,” Camila said in Spanish on Sunday. “Yo quiero estar con mi mamá.”
“I want my mom, uncle . . . I want to be with my mom.”
Camila is among a growing number of children who have been left without a parent as the Trump administration carries out a major immigration enforcement effort in Maine, according to local officials. “Operation Catch of the Day,” as the Department of Homeland Security calls it, is meant to arrest around 1,400 people. They have arrested more than 200 so far, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement Monday to the Globe….
On Tuesday morning, a few hours after the Globe published this article, ICE released Vaca Latacunga in Massachusetts with an ankle monitor, according to Javier. The family was fearful to pick her up because of their legal status, so Vaca Latacunga was in a waiting room at the Burlington field office until the family found an Uber to take her back to Maine. On Tuesday afternoon, she was reunited with Camila.
SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine — When Fátima Lucas Henrique left home before 6 a.m. last Friday to head to her shift as a certified nursing assistant, it was with a sense of resolve. She had come to the United States from Angola, and pursued a career as a nurse so she could help people and make a difference. The ongoing immigration crackdown in the state wasn’t going to change that.
Fátima Lucas Henrique moved to Maine over two years ago from Angola. She was arrested in South Portland on Friday when heading to work.David Fonseca
Then came the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, rushing to her and forcing her from her car as onlookers honked their horns and shouted for help. Her terrified, piercing screamsthroughout the arrest, captured in a video widely circulated on social media, confirmed the fears and panic that many here worried would take hold once federal agents arrived. Since the arrest, Henrique has been detained in Boston and not been able to communicate at length with friends or family.
“We’re not safe right now. We can’t go grocery shopping. We can’t even go put the trash out without being afraid,” said a close friend of Henrique, who asked to not be identified because of her immigration status. When she first saw the video, the friend said, she recognized Henrique’s desperation, because it could have been her. “I felt so impotent,” said the friend, who also came to Maine from Angola and has been following the legal process for applying for citizenship.
The arrest has been held up as an example over recent days of the sort of strong-arm tactics by agents that immigrant-rights advocates have been watching for, as they embark on a campaign to monitor and document an immigration enforcement operation that began in Maine last week and that continues today.
A bit more:
Over the last several weeks, in anticipation of the surge, a team of activists has been training people on what to look out for, preparing them to deploy with whistles and car horns to warn immigrants and to monitor the agents’ tactics. And they said they are already seeing it: The apprehension of people while still in their vehicles, seemingly based on racial profiling; the patrols of bus stops; the arrest of people with no criminal background who are pursuing immigration legally.
The attorney general’s office has also urged Mainers to send in reports of intimidating and excessive federal enforcement behavior, in response to “evidence of constitutionally-deficient, excessive, and intimidating enforcement tactics” in the state.
DHS has maintained it is going after people with criminal histories, though advocates say many of those taken into custody have no criminal backgrounds at all. And they say Henrique’s case has resonated widely because of the rawness of her screams and because she, also, is not a criminal.
A search of the Maine criminal history record information request service returned no results for Henrique. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment Monday about her case.
So that’s the latest on ICE in Minnesota and Maine. Here in Massachusetts, we are wonder if we’ll be next.
What do you think? What else is on your mind?
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Bovino is taken out of Minnesota. Well, supposedly he will be taken out. He has not been fired by the way…
Just a few other things before the cartoons:
🚨BREAKING: A federal judge in Oregon said Attorney General Pam Bondi’s recent letter to Minnesota reinforced unease about how the Justice Department is wielding its authority in its nationwide push for state voter rolls, suggesting the administration’s campaign may be driven by improper motives.
“Déjà vu all over again and again and again…” John Buss, @repeat1968
Good Day, Sky Dancers!
I had a difficult time sleeping last night and had to rely on all the furry creatures in the house to help. The furnace just couldn’t handle it. Very old houses in Tropical Zones are not cut out for weather in the 20-degree Fahrenheit range. It’s noon, 36, and lots of sun. I’m always thankful to my sister and daughters for sending their ski coats and thick sweaters my way when this happens. We missed the snow, unlike last year, but I still had to do the usual New Orleans thing of wrapping the outdoor faucets and leaving a few indoor faucets dripping overnight. Fortunately, no pipe breakages!
And of course, the cold, dark hand of winter isn’t the only systemic blast over us. The headlines are still about the nightmare in Minnesota, where ICE is pulling out all the stops. Even the Wall Street Journal and the NRA have had it with them. The NRA’s rationale was explored in USA Today. “Gun rights groups slam feds’ comments after Minneapolis shooting. “I don’t know of any peaceful protesters that shows up with a gun and ammunition rather than a sign,” said Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.”
Several prominent Second Amendment rights groups have blasted federal officials for suggesting it’s dangerous – and possibly an indication of mal intent – for lawful gun owners to protest while in possession of their legally obtained firearms.
The controversy came after a Border Patrol agent on Jan. 24 shot and killed Alex Pretti, a U.S. citizen and registered Veterans Affairs nurse, in Minneapolis. Federal officials said Pretti had a gun and intended to “kill law enforcement.” But videos and a witness account in federal court show Pretti holding a phone, not brandishing a firearm.
Hours after the fatal shooting, Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli in Southern California took to X and said, “If you approach law enforcement with a gun, there is a high likelihood they will be legally justified in shooting you. Don’t do it!” Other members of the Trump administration argued that peaceful protesters don’t show up with guns.
Several prominent gun rights groups took issue with Essayli’s statement, including the National Rifle Association.
“This sentiment from the First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California is dangerous and wrong,” the NRA said on X. “Responsible public voices should be awaiting a full investigation, not making generalizations and demonizing law-abiding citizens.”
Gun Owners for America said in a statement that its leaders “condemn the untoward comments” by Essayli.
Here’s the Wall Street Journal take. “Videos Contradict U.S. Account of Minneapolis Shooting by Federal Agents. See how immigration officers escalated a fatal confrontation Saturday..” Trump’s regime has morphed beyond the reaches of what used to be Republican Conservatism, and a lot of them now can finally smell the fascism.
Federal agents claimed Alex Pretti, 37, forced their hand, alleging he “violently resisted” disarmament until the officers fired “defensive shots.”
Bystander footage appears to tell a different story. A frame-by-frame review by The Wall Street Journal shows a federal officer pulling a handgun away from Pretti. Less than a second later, an agent fires several rounds. Pretti died at the scene.
“Where is the gun?” agents shouted in the chaotic aftermath.
Pretti, an intensive-care nurse, had been on a Minneapolis street Saturday morning and was filming Border Patrol agents. Videos appear to show what happened next.
Since the fatal shooting of Renee Good, the friction between Minneapolis residents and the federal agents patrolling their streets has intensified.
Massive anti-ICE protests have mobilized thousands, while a more granular resistance has taken hold in the city’s neighborhoods through ICE monitoring groups.
On Nicollet Avenue around 9 a.m. local time on Saturday, locals blew warning whistles and filmed masked federal agents walking through Minneapolis’s Whittier neighborhood.
Bystander footage shows Pretti standing in the street where he appears to film with his cellphone while other people approach the agents.
Seconds later, Pretti approaches the group, shouting, “Hey!” and continuing to film.
As Pretti and the two other civilians walk away, one of the agents follows them.
That agent then shoved someone who appeared to be with Pretti.
Pretti immediately puts himself between the fallen person and the officer, who appears to spray a nonlethal chemical agent on all three of them.
As a struggle ensues, agents pull Pretti from the others; at least five masked DHS agents surround him and force him to the ground.
Bystander footage shows one agent drawing his firearm and pointing it at Pretti.
Around the same time, a different video verified by the Journal shows Pretti pinned to the ground and agents appear to discover a firearm on him.
In a statement, DHS said, “The officers attempted to disarm the suspect but the armed suspect violently resisted.”
Less than a second later, one of the agents fires his weapon toward Pretti—the first of at least 10 shots within 5 seconds.
Each of these statements is followed by camera footage of the event. It’s pretty clear that the story told by Noem and other ICE representatives does not reflect the truth of the situation. After the Congress failed to defund ICE, there was widespread uproar from various quarters. AXIOS has the general overview of what’s going on in Congress right now. Will the Senate defund ICE? “DHS and ICE are under siege by Congress like never before.” Andrew Sollender has the lede.
The Department of Homeland Security is coming under unprecedented scrutiny from Congress in the wake of the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, with Democratic attacks more strident and Republican defenses more muted than ever before.
Why it matters: The growing tension could result in a government shutdown, politically charged hearings and even an impeachment vote.
More and more Democrats are signing onto Rep. Robin Kelly’s (D-Ill.) articles of impeachment against DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, with Kelly’s office telling Axios they expect a surge in co-sponsors in the coming day.
And Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.), the chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, has asked the heads of ICE, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to testify to his panel.
Driving the news: While many Republican leaders and loyal Trump allies leapt to DHS’ defense in the wake of the shooting, a noticeably large group of GOP lawmakers offered more equivocal statements than in the aftermath of the Renee Good shooting weeks earlier.
The office of Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.), a staunch conservative and Trump ally, said in a statement: “Leaders at every level must lower the temperature, enforce the law, and protect public safety. In the days ahead, we will work to ensure a full and transparent review of events.”
“Law enforcement should conduct an objective investigation and get the facts. We defend people’s free speech and right to protest,” said Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) in a statement to Axios, though he added that it is “not right to interfere or obstruct law enforcement in their official actions.”
Zoom in: The responses of Rep. Michelle Fischbach (R-Minn.) to two different shootings in her home state offer a revealing picture of how the GOP’s tone has shifted since the start of the year.
After Renee Good was killed on Jan. 7, Fischbach called the incident a “targeted assault on ICE agents” in a post on X, writing, “I stand with the officer who acted in self-defense to save lives.”
On Sunday, she wrote after Pretti was killed: “I am deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life in Minneapolis and fully support the ongoing investigation into this incident.”
NBC has this report on the Democrats who seemed in disarray about the situation last week. “Senate Democrats plot strategy as DHS standoff deepens heading into shutdown week. Two sources who were on a Democratic caucus strategy call Sunday said Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told the group the message must be to “restrain, reform and restrict ICE.” This is reported by Sahil Kapur and Frank Thorp V.
Senate Democrats held a conference call Sunday to discuss their strategy after they made it clear they will block a Department of Homeland Security funding bill if it does not include changes to impose conditions on immigration enforcement operations.
The Senate is heading into a critical week with a Friday deadline to fund the government or face a partial shutdown.
The package doesn’t have the 60 votes it needs. Without them, much of the federal government could shut down at 12:01 a.m. Saturday.
Two sources on the call told NBC News that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told the caucus the message had to be to “restrain, reform and restrict ICE.”
According to one of the sources, Schumer told them that the vote won’t come until Thursday and that he discussed the Democratic caucus’ unity in opposition to funding DHS without reforms. He said the five other funding bills apart from the DHS measure are acceptable.
“Basically DHS is the problem and needs to be stripped out,” the source summed up Schumer as saying.
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., pushed the caucus to come up with a demand for DHS reforms, two sources with knowledge of his comments said.
Republicans could limit the scope of a shutdown by voting on the non-DHS measures separately and passing them.
Ongoing concern about the health of the rotter in the White House continues to be a topic of discussion. This is from The Hill. “Trump on closing his eyes during Cabinet meetings: ‘Boring as hell’.” This is reported by Ashleigh Fields.
President Trump said he’s closed his eyes during Cabinet meetings because they are “boring as hell” but noted this isn’t a reflection of his health.
“It’s boring as hell; I’m going around a room, and I’ve got 28 guys — the last one was three and a half hours. I have to sit back and listen, and I move my hand so that people will know I’m listening,” Trump told New York magazine.
“I’m hearing every word, and I can’t wait to get out,” he added.
In recent months, speculation about the president’s ability to deal with chronic venous insufficiency and lead the country by past staffers, political strategists and the public has mounted.
But those in Trump’s orbit defended Trump’s behavior and noted his innate ability to notice details both small and large in a split second.
“The guy is too healthy. He’s too active,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told New York magazine, detailing one time when Trump surprised him with a set of medallion samples after noticing some were missing from chandeliers inside the State Department.
Rubio said when the White House leader closes his eyes, it’s a “listening mechanism” that tunes speakers in rather than drowning them out.
Amid support from one of his top Cabinet officials, the president says he regrets taking an MRI scan and heeding the advice of his medical professionals at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center this fall, as it caused more questions about the state of his health.
At least one of Trump’s unqualified buffoons is out of office. NBC News reports that “Lindsey Halligan is no longer employed by the Justice Department after departure from Virginia U.S. attorney’s office. Halligan, who had no prosecutorial experience, stepped down from her post in the Eastern District of Virginia after a judge found she was “masquerading” as U.S. attorney.” How many hundreds or thousands of them are left?
Donald Trump loyalist Lindsey Halligan, a former insurance attorney who brought two unsuccessful cases against two of the president’s perceived enemies, is no longer a Justice Department employee, two sources familiar with the matter told NBC News.
Halligan, who lacked any prior prosecutorial experience, stepped down last week from her proclaimed role as interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, a position a judge found she unlawfully held. It was not entirely clear last week whether Halligan would assume a new role at the Justice Department, as Alina Habba did after after federal appeals court judges upheld her disqualification as acting U.S. attorney for New Jersey in December.
But two sources familiar with the matter said Halligan is no longer a Justice Department employee. It is unclear whether she has a new job outside of the Justice Department.
A federal judge ruled last week that Halligan had to stop “masquerading” as the Eastern District’s top federal prosecutor.
It’s easy to portray these folks as a run away circus show, but the problem is that every decision they make impacts the lives of millions of Americans and folks around the world. They all need to be sent to one jolly prison to rot.
What’s on your Reading, Action, and Blogging lists today?
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Hello, I am writing this on a Saturday afternoon…because we are looking at a huge ice storm hitting my part of North Georgia. Power outages are expected, so I scheduled this post before the storm hits.
Cartoons via Cagle:
Read more about the beautiful human, nurse, outdoorsman, dog dad, and beloved son who ICE agents murdered this morning.www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026…
Holy crap.This is the most damning video yet.It shows Border Patrol agents clearly taking Alex's firearm, running it away, and THEN executed him in cold blood by emptying a clip into his face.Murder.
You have to read this. Firsthand affidavit from one of the women who was there and recording the video. She talks about how Alex Pretti was directing traffic when she arrived. She watched him be killed in front of her. She's afraid to go home, worried she'll be arrested.
BREAKING: Hours after federal immigration officers killed a man in Minneapolis, Attorney General Pam Bondi seized upon the incident to demand access to Minnesota’s voter rolls, directly tying the Trump administration’s quest for voters’ unredacted personal data to its aggressive immigration raids.
JUST IN: In a new lawsuit, Minnesota officials say DHS mishandled evidence from today's crime scene and made "astonishing" law enforcement decisions. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us…
Minneapolis protester as he's being brutalized by feds: "You're gonna have to kill me! You're gonna have to kill me! I've done nothing wrong! My name is Matthew James! I'm a US citizen! You're gonna kill me! Is that what you want?" (You can hear his wife screaming)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Federal immigration officers shot and killed a man Saturday in Minneapolis, drawing hundreds of protesters in a city already shaken by another fatal shooting weeks earlier.
The details surrounding the shooting weren’t immediately clear, but Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said the person was shot amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. A hospital record obtained by The Associated Press that a 51-year-old man who was shot by immigration officers had died.
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told the AP in a text messages that the person had a firearm with two magazines and that the situation was “evolving.” DHS also distributed a photo of a handgun they said was on the person who was shot.
The shooting happened amid widespread daily protests in the Twin Cities since the Jan. 7 shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good, who was killed when an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fired into her vehicle. Saturday’s shooting unfolded just over a mile away from where Good was shot.
After the shooting, an angry crowd gathered and screamed profanities at federal officers, calling them “cowards” and telling them to go home. One officer responded mockingly as he walked away, telling them: “Boo hoo.” Agents elsewhere shoved a yelling protester into a car. Protesters dragged garbage dumpsters from alleyways to block the streets, and people who gathered chanted, “ICE out now,” referring to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.
Man shot dead was pronounced dead at the scene, DHS says
The Department of Homeland Security, the parent agency of ICE and Border Patrol, has just said that the man shot dead by federal immigration enforcement earlier this morning was pronounced dead at the scene.
The federal agency said an agent fired “defensive shots”. It is now characterizing protesters as “rioters”, saying there are about 200 people on the scene in south Minneapolis trying to “obstruct and assault law enforcement”….
In a statement sent to the Guardian, assistant secretary of homeland security Tricia McLaughlin said that at 9.05am local time, “as DHS law enforcement officers were conducting a targeted operation in Minneapolis” against a person they said was in the country illegally, who she said was “wanted for violent assault”, “an individual approached US Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun.”
McLaughlin said that “the officers attempted to disarm the suspect but the armed suspect violently resisted” and that “more details on the armed struggle are forthcoming.”
“Fearing for his life and the lives and safety of fellow officers, an agent fired defensive shots” she said, adding: “Medics on scene immediately delivered medical aid to the subject but was pronounced dead at the scene.”
She added that the man also had “2 magazines and no ID”.
Minneapolis officials plead for calm, tell federal enforcement to leave
The police chief of Minneapolis, Brian O’Hara, has kicked off a press conference by acknowledging that people are angry about the latest fatal shooting by federal law enforcement of a man in the city.
He called on federal personnel in the city to conduct themselves with discipline and humanity.
Then he said that members of the public gathered to protest at the scene of the shooting in south Minneapolis were taking part in an “unlawful assembly”.
“There is a lot of anger and questions around what has happened,” O’Hara said.
And he called for calm and begged the public not to damage the city.
A couple more updates:
Man shot dead was 37-year-old US citizen, Minneapolis police chief says
Minneapolis police chief Brian O’Hara has said the city authorities know the identity of the man killed by federal officers this morning, but the name is not being released at this time.
He described the person shot dead as a white man, a resident of the city and a US citizen. O’Hara said the victim was 37 years old. Wire services had previously said the man was 51.
O’Hara said that the federal authorities have not provided any details about today’s incident to the police department and city authorities….
The Minneapolis police chief Brian O’Hara said it was his understanding that multiple federal officers were involved in the incident this morning where a man was shot dead by the government personnel.
O’Hara said that the Minnesota authorities have put National Guard troops on stand by.
The scene where the shooting took place this morning in the south of the city appears to be calming down somewhat at this moment.
MINNEAPOLIS — Thousands of people converged at a downtown park on Friday afternoon in the state’s biggest show of opposition yet to the Trump administration’s immigration operations in Minnesota, braving subzero temperatures and skipping work and school.
Hundreds of businesses in the Twin Cities closed for the day of action, an effort organized by faith leaders and labor unions amid continuing tensions over U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions in the state, including the fatal shooting of Renée Good by an ICE officer earlier this month.
On Friday morning, about 100 clergy members were arrested at a peaceful sit-in at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport protesting deportation flights. Labor leaders said more than 15,600 people had claimed tickets to the 2 p.m. march in Minneapolis — where the National Weather Service warned of minus-50 degree wind chill through Sunday morning.
Bundled in down coats, beanies and ski goggles, demonstrators chanted “What do we want? ICE out!” and held signs bearing slogans such as “No MN Nice for ICE” and “Leave Us Alone!” as they marched peacefully.
“This rally says it all. We’re fighting for truth and freedom,” said Mary Turner, a night-shift nurse in Robbinsdale, Minnesota, and a union member who joined the march.
Residents opposed to ICE’s actions in Minnesota say federal agents have gone far beyond their mission of removing undocumented criminals since starting operations there two months ago, instead detaining U.S. citizens, pulling people from their cars, appearing to stop people on the basis of race, and using chemical irritants on people demonstrating against or monitoring their work.
Federal immigration agents detained a two-year-old girl and her father in Minneapolis on Thursday and transported them to Texas, according to court records and the family’s lawyers.
The father, identified in court filings as Elvis Joel TE, and his daughter were stopped and detained by officers around 1pm when they were returning home from the store. By the evening, a federal judge had ordered the girl be released by 9.30pm. But federal officials instead put both of them on a plane heading to a Texas detention center.
Irina Vaynerman, one of the family’s lawyers, told the Guardian late Friday afternoon that immigration officials had since flown both of them back to Minnesota and released the two-year-old into the custody of her mother. The father remains detained in Minnesota, she said.
“The horror is truly unimaginable,” Vaynerman said. “The depravity of all of this is beyond words.”
Court records and the attorney’s accounts paint a harrowing picture of the toddler and father’s detention and the frantic efforts that followed to get her released from custody and reunited with her mother. The detention came two days after US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained five-year-old Liam Ramos in Minnesota, in a case that has prompted international backlash and increased scrutiny of the Trump administration’s aggressive crackdown in the region.
As the father and daughter were arriving home on Thursday, agents entered their backyard and driveway area, Kira Kelley, one of the family’s lawyers, wrote in a filing. The officers did not have a warrant, the attorney said. One agent then allegedly broke the glass window of the father’s car while the girl was inside.
The mother was by the door and stepped inside the house as the agents approached, Kelley wrote. The agents refused to allow the father to bring his daughter to the mother or other family members “waiting terrified inside the home”.
The two-year-old and her father were then placed in an immigration agent’s vehicle, which Kelley wrote did not have a car seat.
Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents refused to allow 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos to stay at his Columbia Heights home with family after being detained, observers said, despite people in the home, neighbors and school officials begging them to do so.
Those who saw the federal agents detain Liam Tuesday pushed back against claims this week by ICE and Vice President JD Vance that the child was abandoned by his family after the boy and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, were detained on their way home from school.
Neighbors and Columbia Heights school officials say they pleaded with agents to let the child enter the home to join his mother or to stay with a neighbor or school leader after agents took the father into custody.
They also say that they did not see Conejo Arias flee the scene and leave his son in the cold as ICE officials maintain.
“There was ample opportunity to be able to safely hand that child off to adults,” said Mary Granlund, chair of the Columbia Heights School Board who said she was at the scene and among those who offered to take Liam to his family or back to school.
“There was another adult who lived in the home that was there saying, ‘I will take the child. I will take the child.’ Somebody else was yelling … that I was there and said, ‘School is here. They can take the child. You don’t have to take them.’ And mom was there. She saw (through) the window, and dad was yelling, ‘Please do not open the door!’”
ICE officials say the father and son are together at an ICE residential family facility in Texas. Marc Prokosch, the lawyer representing Liam and his dad, said he had still not had direct contact with them.
ICE says the father is in the country illegally but Prokosch says that’s not the case.
The deployment of thousands of federal agents to Minnesota to round up undocumented immigrants has yielded no shortage of indelible images in recent weeks.
There was the American citizen dragged out of his home in subzero weather in his underwear. And the detention of a 5-year-old boy wearing a Spider-Man backpack and a hat with floppy ears drew outrage from school officials.
But photos of a Border Patrol agent squirting pepper spray in the face of a man who was being pinned down by fellow officers on Wednesday searingly captured why the ongoing immigration operation has been met with furious resistance on the streets of Minneapolis.
Images of the episode drew millions of views online, made the front page of The Minnesota Star Tribune and elicited blistering condemnation from local officials.
“No one looking at this image can seriously claim this is about public safety,” said Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis. “It should alarm every American because if it can happen here, it can happen anywhere.”
Gov. Tim Walz reposted the Star Tribune newspaper page on social media, along with a two-word comment: “Trump’s America.”
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, did not respond to an email asking about the confrontation and whether the use of force depicted in photos and videos taken by bystanders that day had violated use of force policies.
The identity and whereabouts of the man who was sprayed was unclear on Friday.
An F.B.I. agent who sought to investigate the federal immigration officer who fatally shot a 37-year-old woman in Minneapolis this month has resigned from the bureau, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The agent, Tracee Mergen, left her job as a supervisor in the F.B.I.’s Minneapolis field office after bureau leadership in Washington pressured her to discontinue a civil rights inquiry into the immigration officer, Jonathan Ross, according to one of the people. Such inquiries are a common investigative step in similar shootings.
After the incident, several Trump administration officials described Ms. Good as a “domestic terrorist,” accusing her of trying to ram Mr. Ross with her vehicle. But a video analysis by The New York Times showed no indication that he had been run over.
Senior Justice Department officials have repeatedly said there are no plans to follow the path normally taken in such situations and pursue an investigation into whether Mr. Ross, who fired multiple shots at Ms. Good, had used excessive force.
Federal investigators have also refused to cooperate with state and local prosecutors in Minnesota, complicating any efforts they might take to open their own investigations into Mr. Ross.
Trump has now sent his private army into Maine and Mainers are fighting back.
PORTLAND, Maine — Hundreds of protesters gathered here Friday in the largest demonstration since a federal immigration sweep began in Maine earlier this week, decrying the ongoing operation as cruel and illegal, while widespread fear continued to paralyze communities across the state, bringing some aspects of daily life to a halt.
On a frigid evening, a crowd nearing an estimated 1,000 people demonstrated at the rally in Portland’s Monument Square before marching through the streets. The energy from the crowd — bundled in hats, scarves, and gloves — was reverberating throughout the city.
“People are afraid,” Portland City Councilor Pious Ali told the Globe after leaving a mosque following a Friday prayer service in the city’s Bayside neighborhood. “There’s fear, there’s anxiety. There’s a feeling of not knowing what’s going to happen next.”
Thirty-five miles north, the streets of Lewiston were quiet, with a few stragglers going in and out of businesses. Shop owners said they had never seen business this slow — and signs on their doors warned of ICE presence in the area. Several stores were completely shuttered due to the increase in ICE activity.
“We are temporarily closed until further notice. Sorry for the inconvenience,” a sign on one Somali-owned food market on Lisbon Street downtown read.
The Department of Homeland Security said Friday US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has arrested more than 100 in Maine this week as part of “Operation Catch of the Day,” the latest initiative that is part of President Trump’s mass deportation agenda. The operation started on Tuesday.
While other cities, such as Chicago and Minneapolis, have seen large-scale deployments of immigration agents swarming neighborhoods, the operations here seem to be quicker and more targeted: A few ICE vehicles will be spotted in a neighborhood. Immigrant advocates who are watching the agents will blow whistles and honk horns. But quickly, the agents move in to arrest one or two individuals. Within minutes, they are gone.
Mainers are grappling with the increased presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in their cities as the state becomes the latest target for President Donald Trump’s mass deportations agenda.
Details, though, about who is being targeted and in which communities are thin, state and local officials say.
“Why Maine? Why now?” Democratic Gov. Janet Mills said Thursday. “We’ve reached out, we’ve asked questions. We have no answers.”
The Department of Homeland Security announced the launch of its Maine operation, “Catch of the Day,” earlier this week, saying agents were focused on “the worst of the worst” in its arrests.
But Mills said in a news conference that the increased ICE presence in the state has been disruptive to schools and businesses, adding that it’s been difficult to know the operation’s full scope and justification because federal agencies aren’t providing those details.
I have no idea how long this post is, but I’m going to end there. We are truly in a crisis as a country. How long before Trump tries sending in military troops? Congress must act now! Democrats need to find their spines and stand up to Trump. This is really getting terrifying.
Take care everyone.
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Each of these statements is followed by camera footage of the event. It’s pretty clear that the story told by Noem and other ICE representatives does not reflect the truth of the situation. After the Congress failed to defund ICE, there was widespread uproar from various quarters. 
NBC has this report on the Democrats who seemed in disarray about the situation last week. “Senate Democrats plot strategy as DHS standoff deepens heading into shutdown week. Two sources who were on a Democratic caucus strategy call Sunday said Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told the group the message must be to “restrain, reform and restrict ICE.” This is reported by Sahil Kapur and Frank Thorp V.
Ongoing concern about the health of the rotter in the White House continues to be a topic of discussion. 
At least one of Trump’s unqualified buffoons is out of office. 
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