Where things stand now
• New operation: An immigration enforcement campaign is underway in Maine, a state that is home to a sizable Somali population.
• Officials subpoenaed: Leaders in Minnesota and the Twin Cities have criticized the Justice Department for subpoenaing them as part of an investigation into whether local officials obstructed federal immigration enforcement efforts that have drawn strong backlash.
• Church protest investigated: Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said there would be arrests made related to the protests that disrupted a service at a St. Paul church where an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent reportedly serves as a pastor. The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division is investigating. The church said it welcomes “respectful dialogue,” and is evaluating “next steps with our legal counsel.”
• Immigration tensions: Maine and Minnesota are the latest targets of the Trump administration’s turbocharged, coast-to-coast immigration enforcement crackdown.
Officials in Portland, Maine, say they are concerned with ICE tactics as operation begins
Officials in Portland, Maine, are concerned with enforcement tactics used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, as they are already seeing reports of people being detained by the agency.
City Councilor Wesley Pelletier was one of the most outspoken on the council, saying, “This is a war of terror that’s being waged on our city by the federal government.”
Mayor Mark Dion said it isn’t clear how many people have been detained so far. While the city respects the law, he said, “we challenge the need for a paramilitary approach to the enforcement of federal statutes.” He added that local police do not assist ICE agents in their enforcement but will respond to incidents where there is imminent danger.
So far, Portland Public Schools has seen attendance down more than 5% overall across the district, Superintendent Ryan Scallon said, adding some schools have individually seen an attendance decrease by about 15 to 20%.
“People are afraid, they are scared,” at-large councilor Pious Ali said.
Immigration officer fires weapon in vehicle-ramming incident near Los Angeles, DHS says
A Customs and Border Protection officer on Wednesday opened fire during a pursuit with a suspect in the Willowbrook community near Los Angeles, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
“DHS law enforcement officers were conducting a targeted operation in Compton, California, to arrest a violent criminal illegal alien from El Salvador,” the department said in a statement.
DHS said the suspect “weaponized his vehicle and rammed law enforcement.”
“Fearing for his life and safety, an agent fired defensive shots,” the statement read.
The officer, who was not identified, was injured, according to DHS. Details of the injury were not immediately released.
The suspect was not injured and was “successfully apprehended by law enforcement,” the spokesperson said.
A crowd gathered at the scene after the incident, and some people were shouting at federal officers, video from CNN affiliate KABC showed.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said it was asked to “provide outside perimeter traffic control” at the scene but “was not directly involved in the incident.”
Two Venezuelan men, including one shot by ICE agent in Minnesota, ordered held in custody
A Minnesota federal judge ruled Wednesday that two Venezuelan men arrested by ICE agents last week, including one who was shot by a federal agent, should continue to be held in custody.
Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna, an undocumented immigrant from Venezuela, is accused of leading ICE agents on a 15- to 20-minute chase in Minneapolis before fleeing on foot into an apartment building where the other defendant, Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, was standing, according to a court affidavit.
Both men are accused of hitting an agent with a broomstick in the ensuing struggle.The agent also said he believed a third, unidentified person struck him with a snow shovel, according to the affidavit.
At the Wednesday hearing, which lasted about 40 minutes, US Magistrate Judge Doug Micko found enough probable cause in the case to proceed to trial, according to CNN affiliate KARE.
Judge Micko initially ordered the men released on personal recognizance with conditions. Federal prosecutors swiftly voiced their objection and made clear they plan to appeal. Judge Micko paused their release pending appeal, the court docket shows.
The two men will remain in federal custody pending the outcome of the stay.
Aljorna’s defense attorney, Frederick Goetz, confirmed to CNN that Judge Micko granted a conditional release. CNN has reached out to Sosa-Celis’ attorney but has not heard back.
At the hearing, an FBI agent testified the ICE officer said Sosa-Celis hit the agent with a broom and the ICE agent suffered a gash to his hand, according to KARE.
The FBI agent also said the agent fired his weapon during the struggle, striking Sosa-Celis in his thigh, according to KARE.
Defense attorneys questioned why the government has not produced any evidence related to the shooting other than the statements made by agents, according to KARE.
Government attorneys said they plan to appeal the decision by Judge Micko granting a personal recognizance bond while the stay allowing the men to remain in custody is in place.
The government has until 12 p.m. Thursday to file an appeal in the case.
Students in St. Paul who "don't feel comfortable" going to school can attend online classes
Saint Paul Public Schools will offer a temporary online learning option for all students starting tomorrow as ICE activity in the area continues.
“Over the past several days, I’ve received hundreds of messages about offering a temporary learning option for students who do not feel comfortable coming to school right now,” said Stacie Stanley, the school district’s superintendent, in a video message to families.
The virtual option is being offered “for safety reasons.” It is unclear how long the e-learning option will be available to students.
Saint Paul Public Schools is Minnesota’s second-largest school district and is comprised of 69 schools and more than 33,000 students. It is one of state’s “most diverse” districts, according to its website.
ICE launches immigration enforcement campaign in Maine
Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced a new enforcement operation in Maine, a state that is home to a sizable Somali population, after Minnesota’s Somali population has been targeted in recent enforcement.
The campaign, dubbed “Operation Catch of the Day” by the agency, officially launched yesterday, it said.
“Governor Mills and her fellow sanctuary politicians in Maine have made it abundantly clear that they would rather stand with criminal illegal aliens than protect law-abiding American citizens,” Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.
Maine Gov. Janet Mills acknowledged the potential operation was coming in a statement last week, saying the agency’s “tactics are not welcome here.” CNN has reached out to the governor for comment.
US Sen. Angus King denounced the operation Wednesday, along with several other actions by President Donald Trump, and said he plans to “curtail the budget of ICE until such time that they respect our Constitutionally-guaranteed rights (and take off the masks).”
Appeals court freezes order that put guardrails on federal agents interacting with protesters in Minnesota
A federal appeals court has frozen a judge’s order that put guardrails on how federal agents can operate around peaceful protesters in Minnesota.
The administrative stay by the Eighth US Circuit Court of Appeals is intended to give the court more time to consider whether to indefinitely pause the order issued Friday by a federal judge in Minneapolis.
The Trump administration Tuesday asked the appeals court to shelve the ruling from US District Judge Katherine Menendez, arguing it was a judicial overreach replete with “vague terms that (Department of Homeland Security) officers must interpret and apply in dynamic and dangerous law-enforcement situations under penalty of contempt.”
Menendez’s ruling, Justice Department lawyers told the Eighth Circuit, “harms DHS officers’ ability to protect themselves and the public in very dangerous circumstances.”
“By limiting how DHS officers may respond to violent, dangerous, and obstructive conduct and subjecting DHS officers to contempt proceedings for their efforts to protect themselves and others, the injunction places DHS officers and the public in harm’s way,” DOJ lawyers said.
Under the preliminary injunction issued by Menendez, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, federal agents working in Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota were not allowed to arrest peaceful protesters or stop people in their cars without cause, among other things.
Her order said federal agents cannot do the following to peaceful protesters: retaliate, arrest or detain them, or use pepper spray or other nonlethal munitions. Menendez also said they can no longer stop and detain drivers when there is “no reasonable articulable suspicion” they are forcibly obstructing or interfering with federal agents’ operations.
“The act of safely following” the officers “at an appropriate distance does not, by itself, create reasonable suspicion to justify a vehicle stop,” the judge wrote in her lengthy decision.
The order was meant to be in effect until the operation ends or when “conditions change such that it is no longer necessary.” It applied in Minnesota and only to agents involved in the current operation, and did not apply to other federal officers handling routine duties elsewhere.
Taylor Romine contributed.
Vance to meet with ICE agents in Minneapolis Thursday
Vice President JD Vance is planning to travel Minneapolis on Thursday where he will meet with ICE agents and give remarks defending their immigration operations, White House officials told CNN.
Vance’s visit comes days after the Justice Department subpoenaed several high-profile Minnesota officials, including Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Attorney General Keith Ellison, as part of an investigation into whether the state and local leaders obstructed federal immigration enforcement efforts.
The trip, which is scheduled to follow the vice president’s visit to Toledo, Ohio, earlier Thursday, also comes as heightened tension roil the city, with continued protests following the fatal shooting of Renee Good earlier this month by an ICE agent.
Vance has repeatedly defended the ICE agent following Good’s death and argued that the shooting was a result of “radical left-wing” violence in response to the administration’s immigration policies.
“The Vice President will highlight the Administration’s commitment to restoring law and order in Minneapolis,” a White House official told CNN about the trip, adding that Vance “will point out how Minneapolis’s sanctuary city policies have degraded public safety and endangered ICE officers. He will also celebrate the essential work ICE agents have done to take dangerous, criminal illegal aliens off of America’s streets.”
Vance is also expected to address recent fraud allegations against Somali-run childcare centers in Minnesota, which spurred the ramped-up presence of the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI in the state.
Vance also recently announced a new assistant attorney general position to investigate fraud and abuse of tax-payer funded programs in Minnesota and other states, something he is also expected to focus on during his trip.
“Democrat officials in Minnesota have willfully neglected largescale fraud and undermined federal immigration authorities in their investigations of criminal wrongdoing,” a White House official said.
ICE is not conducting enforcement activities at hospitals, DHS says
After several doctors sounded the alarm about federal agents aggressively approaching patients and staff at hospitals and clinics in a news conference yesterday, the Department of Homeland Security responded to their claims.
“We would only go into a hospital if there were an active danger to public safety,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to CNN.
McLaughlin added ICE doesn’t conduct enforcement activities at hospitals.
“If anyone is impeding Minnesotans from making appointments or picking up prescriptions, its violent agitators who are blocking roadways, ramming vehicles, and vandalizing property,” McLaughlin said.
Context: At yesterday’s news conference, Minnesota state Sen. Matt Klein, a Democrat who is an internal medicine physician at the Mayo Clinic said “patients are afraid to come in and seek care.”
“And when they do come in, ICE is pursuing them with or without legal means or justification for that, and our medical staff feel intimidated and afraid to do the good work that they should do,” Klein said.
Minnesota politician calls ICE operations "a campaign against Minnesotans”
Legislative leaders from across the state gathered in St. Paul this morning to support the upcoming “ICE Out of Minnesota” protest in response to the federal immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota.
“President Trump, Vice President Vance’s campaign of retribution against the people of Minnesota is not a Minneapolis thing, a St. Paul thing, an urban thing versus suburban thing, a red district or a blue district kind of thing,” state Rep. Brad Tabke said. “This is a campaign against Minnesotans.”
Organizers describe “ICE Out of Minnesota” as a statewide protest Friday.
“Faith leaders, business owners, workers, and concerned Minnesotans have called for a statewide day of public mourning and pause through ‘No Work, No School and No Shopping’ and a massive, peaceful march in downtown Minneapolis that afternoon,” organizers wrote in a news release.
New court documents describe ICE agents’ account of events leading up to shooting of Venezuelan man in Minnesota
Newly released court documents describe federal agents’ account of events leading up to the recent shooting of a Venezuelan man in Minneapolis.
Two ICE agents, driving in an unmarked vehicle last week, ran the license plate of a nearby vehicle and found it was registered to someone living in the United States illegally, an FBI agent described in a court affidavit.
Then they began pursuing the vehicle for 15 to 20 minutes, with the vehicle zig-zagging through traffic, the affidavit states. Eventually the vehicle they were pursuing hit a light pole and the driver left the car, with an ICE agent following him on foot.
The driver, Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna, an undocumented immigrant from Venezuela ran up to a nearby apartment building, where Julio Sosa-Celis, another undocumented Venezuelan man, was standing, the affidavit states.
The affidavit alleges that both Aljorna and Sosa-Celis used a broomstick to hit the agent in the ensuing struggle – in which he believed a third, unidentified person struck him with a snow shovel – before the agent fired his gun, striking Sosa-Celis in his upper thigh.
At the time, the agent was “uncertain if his shot struck any of them,” the document said.
The two men were taken into custody after the agents used tear gas to force Aljorna and Sosa-Celis to surrender, the affidavit states.
The account differs from the Department of Homeland Security’s initial statement after the shooting, which said the agents were conducting a “targeted traffic stop,” in which Sosa-Celis resisted arrest and assaulted one of the officers, before two people came out of a nearby apartment and attacked the officer.
The affidavit also states Aljorna was not the person the agents originally identified as the car’s registration holder.
Both men stand accused of assaulting an ICE agent and are due in federal court today.
READ MORE about the incident here.
Twin Cities mayors say subpoenas from the DOJ are political retribution
The mayors of St. Paul and Minneapolis said their subpoenas from the Department of Justice as part of a probe into whether local leaders obstructed federal immigration enforcement efforts are a sign of political retribution.
“There’s nothing that brings two mayors together like a bullshit federal investigation,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said at an event hosted by St. Thomas University in St. Paul.
“The fact that this is happening to leaders should make everybody, Republican and Democrat, livid, furious. This is about the underpinnings of our Constitution and the endurance of our republic,” Frey said.
“And if we allow this kind of political retribution to take place, it’s just going to continue happening.”
Frey pushed back on the idea that his rhetoric has inflamed the situation in Minneapolis, saying that he’s channeling what residents in his city are feeling.
But St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her said “it doesn’t matter what language he uses” because “I haven’t dropped any F-bombs … and I received the same subpoena as he did.”
“We are a target, and we’re going to continue to be a target,” she said. “And let’s not forget that the aggressor is our federal government, not us.”
Who gets called an "agitator"?
In the words of the Trump administration, Renee Good, the woman killed by an ICE agent while protesting enforcement actions in Minnesota was part of a “mob of agitators.” Likewise, a bystander who could be heard in a video of the interaction yelling “shame, shame” and other residents protesting since then have been called “paid” or “professional” agitators.
But exactly who is instigating public unrest or stirring up public feeling is a matter of interpretation.
“Agitator” is a Latin word meaning driver or charioteer, from the verb agitāre, meaning to put into motion, to rouse up or to disturb.
Throughout US history, the label “agitator” has largely been deployed in one direction — “by the powerful to delegitimate real grievances of the marginalized and oppressed seeking change,” Aldon Morris, a professor emeritus of sociology at Northwestern University, wrote in an email to CNN.
The “agitator trope” was used by enslavers to describe abolitionists, labor union organizers and to smear Black civil rights activists, Morris said. Martin Luther King Jr. is one of the most well-known figures ever to be deemed an “agitator.”
Still, “agitator” didn’t always have a negative connotation. Before it was first used as a synonym for “instigator” around the 1700s, the term meant an “agent,” or a person who acts on behalf of others.
The now-obsolete meaning of “agitator” as someone acting on behalf of others might apply to Good. Her wife, Becca Good, said in a statement last week the couple had “stopped to support our neighbors.” She added, “We had whistles. They had guns.”
Read more about what “agitator” means and how it has been used here.
Are federal agents allowed to do that? What about protesters?
Minneapolis remains on edge two weeks after an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good. As the Justice Department opens criminal investigations into state and local officials and vows to charge protesters who disrupted a church service Sunday, some activists wonder if it’s safe to keep speaking out.
Hear from one of them – and get a lesson on the legal issues that could also be relevant in other cities:
Faith leaders to deliver letter with 2,000 signatures calling for charges against ICE agent who killed Good
Religious leaders from across the country say they will present Congress with a letter Wednesday signed by more than 2,000 faith leaders that calls for the ICE agent who killed Renee Good to be charged and for the federal government to stop all ICE operations in Minnesota and across the county.
The letter calls for Congress to investigate what led up to the fatal shooting. It also implores the FBI to make information available to Minnesota law enforcement after the Justice Department blocked state investigators from joining in a federal probe.
Before delivering the letter Wednesday, “Faith leaders will gather to mourn the loss of life, offer prayer, and call for moral accountability from the Trump Administration and urgent action to address the ongoing abuse of power at the hands of ICE,” a press release from the national organization Faith in Action and the Minnesota-based group ISAIAH said.
ISAIAH said it will host a strike Friday, calling for “No Work. No School. No Shopping.” The group will also hold a march in downtown Minneapolis Friday afternoon.
Local police chiefs say ICE has targeted off-duty officers. DHS says it has no record of this
Amid mounting reports of ICE agents targeting some law enforcement officers, the Department of Homeland Security says it has no record of such interactions.
“DHS is able to find no record of ICE or Border Patrol stopping and questioning a police officer. Without a name, we cannot verify these claims. We will continue to look into these claims,” a DHS spokesperson told CNN on Wednesday.
Police leaders in the Twin Cities area say they’ve received “endless reports” about ICE agents violating civil rights – particularly in the past two weeks. And reports from their own officers paint a similar story, local police chiefs said at a news conference Tuesday.
Brooklyn Park Police Chief Mark Bruley alleged some of his off- duty officers — all people of color — have been targeted by ICE agents in recent weeks, without quantifying how many.
In one instance, a female off-duty officer was pulled over during a traffic stop and boxed in by ICE agents, who demanded to see her paperwork, Bruley said. The officer was held at gunpoint, her cellphone was knocked out of her hand, and she wasn’t allowed to record the interaction, Bruley said.
To de-escalate the situation, the officer identified herself as a police officer, and that’s when agents “immediately left after hearing this, making no other comments,” Bruley said.
Bruley was joined at the press conference by St. Paul Police Chief Axel Henry and Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt in calling for better supervision and accountability from federal agents.
Two Venezuelan nationals accused of assaulting an ICE officer are due in federal court today
Two Venezuelan nationals accused of assaulting an ICE agent a week ago in Minnesota are scheduled to appear in federal district court today in St. Paul, Minnesota, court records show.
Federal agents were conducting a “targeted traffic stop” when an undocumented Venezuelan national, Julio Sosa-Celis, resisted arrest and started to “violently assault” an agent, the Department of Homeland Security has said. During the struggle, two people came out of a nearby apartment and attacked the agent using a snow shovel and a broom handle, DHS said.
In self-defense, the ICE agent targeted, chased, then shot Sosa-Celis as the agent was being “ambushed” by three people, DHS said last week in a statement. ICE also detained another undocumented Venezuelan national, Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna, during the encounter.
Videos from Sosa-Celis’ family and outside their home, however, appear to contradict what DHS has said about the identity of the person federal agents chased and the details of the shooting.
Sosa-Celis and Aljorna are due in court this morning.
READ MORE about the incident here.
For context: The encounter marked the second time in a week an immigration agent shot someone while on the job, sparking street protests and prompting President Donald Trump to threaten to use the Insurrection Act in Minnesota.
Trial to begin for man acccused of putting a bounty on Bovino's head
Opening statements are set to begin today in the trial of a man accused of offering a $10,000 bounty for the life of Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino in Chicago last year.
Juan Espinoza Martinez, 37, faces one count of murder-for-hire, according to the Associated Press. He has pleaded not guilty. A jury was selected yesterday.
Federal prosecutors allege Espinoza Martinez sent a Snapchat message in October to other gang members that read, in part: “10k if u take him down,” along with a picture of Bovino. The suspect allegedly offered $2,000 for information about the commander.
A criminal complaint cites an anonymous source who accused Espinoza Martinez of being a “ranking member of the Latin Kings.”
But his family and attorneys say he’s not in a gang. The father of three worked as a carpenter, according to the AP.
Born in Mexico, Espinoza Martinez has lived in the US for more than 30 years. He does not have legal permission to stay in the United States.
If convicted, Espinoza Martinez faces up to 10 years in prison.
Federal agents’ tactics have been scrutinized after operations in Los Angeles, Chicago, New Orleans, and currently in the Twin Cities of Minnesota. Arrests by armed and masked agents have led to protests and intense standoffs in each region.
No one gets to impede law enforcement investigations, FBI director says
FBI Director Kash Patel defended subpoenas sent to several Democratic officials in Minnesota – including Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey – as part of a probe into whether they obstructed federal immigration enforcement efforts.
Asked about the probe Tuesday night on Fox News, Patel said he “can’t comment on ongoing investigations.”
“But generally speaking, when you have subpoenas out, it’s not rocket science. Investigations are done by acquiring records. Investigations are then furthered by putting witnesses to the grand jury,” he told Fox’s Sean Hannity.
“No one – elected official, private citizen or otherwise – gets to impede and obstruct a law enforcement investigation,” Patel said.
Protesters confront federal agents, saying race is a factor in who ICE stops
A crowd of anti-ICE protesters in St. Paul confronted several ICE agents’ cars on Tuesday.
Some protesters argued with one agent, who can be seen wearing a mask, about whether race is a factor in recent arrests.
Watch the moment unfold here:
Hennepin County Attorney had this to say about the DOJ subpoenaing the offices of Minnesota officials
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty, whose county was subpoenaed in the DOJ’s inquiry into several Minnesota government offices, condemns federal officers’ actions in the state.
