Here's the latest
• FBI probe into ICE killing: The FBI briefly opened a civil rights probe into the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who fatally shot Renee Good this month in Minneapolis before shifting to whether the agent was assaulted, two sources told CNN. The focus is now on the conduct of Good and those around her, including her widow, they said.
• Troops on standby: The Pentagon has some 1,500 active-duty soldiers preparing for possible deployment to Minnesota, a source said, while state officials have mobilized the National Guard.
• Protests flare: Rocker Bruce Springsteen weighed in as demonstrations continue in the frigid Twin Cities. The Justice Department is investigating after protesters disrupted services at a church where they say an ICE official is a pastor. It is also appealing a judge’s order restricting how federal agents respond to protesters on the ground.
DOJ's Civil Rights Unit arrives in Minneapolis amid church protest probe, Deputy AG Blanche tells FOX
Officials with the Department of Justice’s Civil Right Unit are in Minneapolis investigating one day after protesters disrupted services at a church in St. Paul, United States Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told Fox News this afternoon.
“Our Civil Rights Unit has already sent experts out to Minneapolis today.” Blanche said. The US Attorney’s Office, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI are also investigating the incident, according to Blanche.
“What you saw there was anti-Christian, anti-law enforcement,” Blanche told Fox News. “Rioters storming a church in this country, and that’s a violation of law, and we are absolutely investigating.”
The DOJ is investigating potential violations of the federal FACE Act, according to the Associated Press.
Confirming the DOJ probe in a post on X Sunday, US Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, head of the department’s civil rights division, said the crowd was “desecrating a house of worship and interfering with Christian worshippers.”
Minnesota's governor and senator call for investigation into ICE facility after immigrant's death
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Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Sen. Tina Smith, both Democrats, are calling for an investigation after an immigrant, who was arrested in Minneapolis, died at an ICE facility in El Paso, Texas.
Victor Manuel Diaz, a 36-year-old of Nicaragua, died while in ICE custody January 14 “of a presumed suicide,” ICE said in a news release, noting the official cause of death is still under investigation.
Diaz, who was detained on January 6, had received a final order of removal two days before, according to the release.
Walz called the news “deeply disturbing, especially after reports of growing concerns about the conditions at this facility” in a post on X. “An investigation must take place.”
Smith, likewise, called for “a complete and impartial investigation of what is happening in these detention centers” on X.
Earlier this month, another detainee died at the sprawling Camp East Montana detention facility, ICE said. Staff members had tried to keep the detainee from killing himself, the Associated Press reported.
Organizer with group that disrupted church service brushes off DOJ investigation, more concerned about lack of investigation into ICE agents
An attorney and organizer who was part of the group that disrupted a St. Paul church Sunday after saying one of its pastors is an ICE official brushed off news of an investigation by the Department of Justice, instead saying she is more concerned with the lack of investigation into the ICE agent who killed Renee Good.
A group of protesters entered the Cities Church Sunday to protest David Easterwood being listed as a pastor there, said Nekima Levy Armstrong, an attorney and founder of the Racial Justice Network.
The acting field office director of ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations in St. Paul is named David Easterwood. A photo and videos of the pastor on the church’s website match the appearance of the ICE official in videotaped public events — including with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. The Department of Homeland Security declined to say whether Easterwood is an ICE official, calling the question an attempt to “to dox our law enforcement officers.”
When Armstrong was asked if she is concerned about the Department of Justice investigating the protest, she said “You know what I’m concerned about? The fact they are refusing to investigate Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who killed Renee Good.” She also said she hasn’t heard from anyone regarding the investigation.
“The reality is that it’s unconscionable and unacceptable for someone to claim to serve as a pastor while also being responsible for a lot of what is happening here in our community as a result of thousands of ICE agents descending upon the state of Minnesota and the Twin Cities in particular,” she said.
The group was peaceful during their demonstration and were there to engage in conversation, she said.
“We are supposed to be able to have open dialogue and speak the truth, and that’s what I was attempting to do yesterday at Cities Church.”
DOJ appeals judge's order restricting how federal agents respond to peaceful protesters
The Department of Justice is appealing a federal judge’s order restricting how federal agents respond to protesters on the ground in Minnesota, federal court records show.
Federal agents working in Operation Metro Surge are not allowed to arrest peaceful protesters or stop people in their cars without cause, a US District judge ruled in a preliminary injunction Friday.
The use pepper spray or other nonlethal munitions during nonviolent demonstrations are also not permitted, according to the order.
“That federal order was a little ridiculous, because that federal judge came down and told us we couldn’t do what we already aren’t doing,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on CBS’s Face the Nation yesterday.
The ruling came as part of a lawsuit from protesters. It is separate from a complaint filed by the state of Minnesota and the Twin Cities, which calls for an end to the “unprecedented surge” of federal agents. A judge has not yet ruled in the latter case.
DHS calls church protest "doxxing"
The Department of Homeland Security is declining to confirm whether a pastor at the church whose service on Sunday was interrupted by protesters is the ICE official those protesters intended to target.
Protesters entered the Cities Church in St. Paul on Sunday claiming their demonstration was motivated by David Easterwood being listed as a pastor there.
The acting field office director of ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations in St. Paul is named David Easterwood. A photo and videos of the pastor on the church’s website match the appearance of the ICE official in videotaped public events – including with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
“Our law enforcement officers are on the frontlines arresting terrorists, gang members, murderers, pedophiles, and rapists,” McLaughlin said. “Now, thanks to the malicious rhetoric of sanctuary politicians, they are under constant threat from violent agitators.”
It is unclear if Easterwood was at this Sunday service.
Easterwood’s ICE office and Cities Church have not responded to requests for comment.
Trump administration still discussing Insurrection Act in Minnesota, but it's seen as a last resort, officials say
Senior Trump administration officials are actively monitoring the situation in Minneapolis and discussing the potential use of the Insurrection Act, though as of now it remains a last resort, according to US officials with knowledge of the discussions.
Last week, President Donald Trump threatened to invoke the act, which allows the deployment of troops within the US in certain situations, in Minnesota. The law, which hasn’t been invoked since 1992, works in tandem with the Posse Comitatus Act, which generally prohibits the use of the military inside the US.
“It’s been used a lot. And if I needed it, I’d use it. I don’t think there’s any reason right now to use it, but if I needed it, I’d use it. It’s very powerful,” Trump told reporters while leaving the White House for Florida on Friday.
Administration officials maintain that invoking the act remains an option and caution the president can opt to do it at any time, though they haven’t yet moved closer to doing it.
The Pentagon on Sunday also ordered about 1,500 active-duty soldiers to prepare for possible deployment to Minnesota — a move administration officials chalked up to military readiness.
On the ground, there have been indicators that the situation is slightly improving, including with additional assistance from the local police department.
"Agitators aren’t just targeting our officers. Now they’re targeting churches, too," ICE says
After protesters disrupted a church service in St. Paul where an ICE official apparently serves as a pastor, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement said the focus of “agitators” has grown to include targeting churches, alongside agents.
“They’re going from hotel to hotel, church to church, hunting for federal law enforcement who are risking their lives to protect Americans,” the agency wrote on X Sunday.
In the post, ICE also claimed Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey were “responsible for whipping these mobs into a frenzy and then allowing them to run rampant.”
The First Amendment allows people to make their voices seen and heard on public property, but it’s different on private property, Carrie Cordero, a CNN legal analyst said.
The question now, Cordero said, is how will law enforcement protect the rights of demonstrators and allow them to protest while not impeding the rights of others.
AG Bondi vows “full force of federal law” after protest at a church where an ICE member is reportedly a pastor
US Attorney Pam Bondi slammed a protest at a St. Paul church on Sunday in which demonstrators started chanting, “ICE out” and “Justice for Renee Good.”
The protesters claim one of the church’s pastors — David Easterwood — also leads the local ICE field office overseeing the operations that have involved violent tactics and illegal arrests, The Associated Press reported.
“I just spoke to the Pastor in Minnesota whose church was targeted,” Bondi posted on X. “Attacks against law enforcement and the intimidation of Christians are being met with the full force of federal law. If state leaders refuse to act responsibly to prevent lawlessness, this Department of Justice will remain mobilized to prosecute federal crimes and ensure that the rule of law prevails.”
A livestreamed video posted on the Facebook page of Black Lives Matter Minnesota, one of the protest’s organizers, shows a group of people interrupting services at the Cities Church in St. Paul by chanting “ICE out” and “Justice for Renee Good.” The 37-year-old mother of three was fatally shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis earlier this month amid a surge in federal immigration enforcement activities.
Easterwood did not lead the part of the service that was livestreamed, and it was unclear if he was present at the church Sunday, the AP reported.
READ MORE: DOJ vows to press charges after activists disrupt church where ICE official is a pastor
Bruce Springsteen slams ICE, dedicates song to Renee Good during performance in New Jersey
Rock legend Bruce Springsteen, in a surprise performance at a concert in New Jersey on Saturday, condemned the Trump administration’s deployment of federal immigration agents across American cities.
“We are living through incredibly critical times. The United States, the ideals and the values for which it stood for the past 250 years, is being tested as it has never been in modern times,” Springsteen said, according to videos from the concert in Red Bank.
Later, paraphrasing Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, the longtime Trump critic said: “ICE should get the f**k out of Minneapolis.”
CNN has reached out to the White House and the Department of Homeland Security for comment.
The White House, in a statement to the New York Times, criticized Springsteen’s “bad political opinions.”
During the concert, Springsteen went on to explain the origin of his 1978 song “The Promised Land” was “an ode to American possibility … the beautiful but flawed country that we are, and to the country that we could be,” according to videos.
The star then dedicated the song to Renee Good, the 37-year-old who was fatally shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis.
Noem says 3,000 undocumented immigrants with criminal records have been arrested in Minnesota in last 6 weeks
The Department of Homeland Security said more than 10,000 undocumented immigrants with criminal records have been arrested in Minnesota since the start of the Trump administration.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced the figure Monday as she denounced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.
“PEACE AND PUBLIC SAFETY IN MINNEAPOLIS! We have arrested over 10,000 criminal illegal aliens who were killing Americans, hurting children and reigning terror in Minneapolis because Tim Walz and Jacob Frey refuse to protect their own people and instead protect criminals,” Noem posted on X.
“In the last 6 weeks, our brave DHS law enforcement have arrested 3,000 criminal illegal aliens including vicious murderers, rapists, child pedophiles and incredibly dangerous individuals. A HUGE victory for public safety.”
CNN has not independently verified Noem’s claims.
What is the FACE Act the DOJ is citing for possible violations during the weekend St. Paul church protest?
The Department of Justice is investigating potential violations of the federal FACE Act after protesters disrupted a St. Paul, Minneapolis, church service over the weekend, where a local US Immigration and Customs Enforcement official apparently serves as a pastor, The Associated Press reported.
So what exactly does the FACE Act say and how could it apply here?
The act, enacted in 1994, “prohibits the use or threat of force and physical obstruction that injures, intimidates, or interferes with a person seeking to obtain or provide reproductive health services or to exercise the First Amendment right of religious freedom at a place of religious worship.”
Confirming the DOJ probe in a post on X Sunday, US Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said that’s exactly what activists did over the weekend at a church in Minneapolis by “desecrating a house of worship and interfering with Christian worshippers.”
The act also prohibits intentional property damage at those facilities and allows the Attorney General to seek injunctive relief, statutory or compensatory damages, and civil penalties against violators.
As of 2024, the Department of Justice has filed more than 15 FACE Act actions in at least a dozen states, with ongoing investigations in others, according to a DOJ news release.
FBI briefly opened a civil rights investigation into ICE agent who shot Renee Good but then shifted to focus on his possible assault
The FBI briefly opened a civil rights investigation into the ICE agent who fatally shot 37-year-old Renee Good in Minneapolis before shifting to a probe focused on whether the agent was assaulted, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN.
The investigation now focuses on the conduct of Good and those around her, including her widow, rather than the agent, the sources said.
In the past, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division typically launched investigations into law enforcement-related shootings, potential police brutality, or possible hate crimes to ensure officers did not violate a victim’s rights — even if no charges were filed. Departing from that practice is highly unusual.
Some inside the Justice Department saw the switch as politically motivated, and CNN previously reported at least six federal prosecutors in Minnesota resigned after being told to shift their focus.
CNN has reached out to the Justice Department. The FBI declined to comment for this story.
In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the Justice Department only investigates law enforcement shootings when it’s “appropriate to investigate. And that’s not the case here.”
“The Department of Justice, our civil rights unit, we don’t just go out and investigate every time an officer is forced to defend himself against somebody for putting his life in danger,” Blanche said in an interview on “Fox News Sunday.” “We never do.”
The Justice Department is investigating whether Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey obstructed federal law enforcement through their public statements, CNN has reported.
Video shows federal agents rush Minneapolis pizza place; DHS says they were chasing "agitator"
Border Patrol agents descended on a pizza restaurant in Minneapolis last week, demanding entry, and videos show the moment unfold as they are met by angry onlookers.
Agents were responding to an “agitator” standing in front of Wrecktangle Pizza, who threw a block of ice at a Border Patrol vehicle, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement to CNN.
But the owners of the Wrecktangle Pizza, Breanna Evans and Jeff Rogers, told CNN they don’t think it was coincidental that just a few days prior they had announced a fundraiser to help those affected by ongoing incidents involving federal agents in the area.
An officer can be seen in surveillance video throwing the car door open and rushing to the front door of the restaurant.
Nearby community members and employees began blowing their whistles and yelling at the officers.
“We’re going in,” one officer can be heard in the video yelling as he stands in front of the restaurant’s front door. Another officer appears to step in to stop the first officer from entering, and the pair walked back to the vehicle, followed by the crowd.
Following the incident, the restaurant has been operating on limited hours due to safety concerns, the owners said.
The restaurant’s fundraiser the owners explained, offered a deal that with every pizza sold, they’d donate a frozen pizza to anyone affected by the increased ICE presence in the community.
The restaurant is located about a mile from where Renee Nicole Good was killed.
The current US political climate is spurring a "reclaim" and rallying on the MLK holiday
As communities across the country mark the 40th federal observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day with parades, panels, and service projects on Monday, the political climate for some is more fraught with tension than filled with reflection on the slain civil rights icon’s legacy.
In the year since Donald Trump’s second inauguration fell on King Day, the Republican president has taken a scorched-earth approach against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and targeted mostly Black-led cities for federal law enforcement operations, policies that many admirers of King have criticized.
The fatal shooting this month of an unarmed Minneapolis woman in her car by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents sent to target the city’s Somali immigrant population, along with Trump recently decrying civil rights as discrimination against white people, has intensified fears of a regression from the social progress King and others advocated.
DOJ is "closing the book before it's even opened" on Renee Good's killing, legal analyst says
The Department of Justice has said it does not need to investigate an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent’s killing of Renee Good, but a CNN legal expert called that conclusion “inexcusable.”
“You investigate essentially any time a police officer uses lethal force. There’s a long history of DOJ investigating excessive uses of force by local and federal police officers,” CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig said Monday. “I think it’s inexcusable. I think it’s the opposite of the way the Justice Department ordinarily does its business.”
US Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche defended the Justice Department’s decision not to investigate during a television appearance on Sunday.
“We don’t just go out and investigate every time an officer is forced to defend himself against somebody; we investigate when it’s appropriate to investigate. And that is not the case here,” Blanche said.
Honig says that is inaccurate.
“Todd Blanche seems to be on this campaign to justify closing the book before it’s even opened,” Honig told CNN’s Kate Bolduan.
The Justice Department has blocked Minnesota officials from investigating Good’s death.
Federal officials have cited cellphone video recorded by the agent who shot and killed Good to justify his actions.
“Without even judging it. You can look at that video and say, well, it’s a close enough call that they need to investigate,” Honig said.
A full investigation would also consider many factors beyond the video, according to Honig.
“There’s more information we need than what is in the video. We need to know, for example, the ballistics, how many shots were fired, which shot was the fatal shot?” He said. “We need to know the speed of the car, the angles, all of those things you would get in an investigation are extremely relevant to a determination of whether you would bring charges.”
Half of Americans think ICE is making US cities less safe, CNN poll finds
Half of Americans say Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions are making cities across the country less safe, not safer, according to CNN polling data.
A new CBS/YouGov poll shows net approval rating for the Trump administration’s contentious immigration deportation program has shifted significantly, CNN’s Chief Data Analyst Harry Enten explained, adding it once was “one of the most popular things in the Trump administration agenda.”
“Now the program is way, way, way under water,” Enten said. Among independents, the approval rating “has gone from plus 18 points in the positive all the way down to negative 20 points.”
A majority of Americans — 56% — believe the Trump administration is not prioritizing deporting dangerous criminals, the CBS/YouGov poll finds.
In CNN’s poll, Americans say by a 10-point margin, 47% to 37%, that they are more concerned about crackdowns on those protesting deportations than about the protests themselves getting out of hand.
Most Americans view the recent fatal shooting of Minneapolis resident Renee Good by an immigration officer as an inappropriate use of force, according to CNN poll data.
See what the rest of the polling data says here.
Invoking the Insurrection Act would be “wildly out of step” with how it’s been used in the past, analyst says
If President Donald Trump invokes the Insurrection Act in Minnesota – which he threatened to do last week – the move would be “a very dramatic step,” CNN Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig said.
The Insurrection Act, first passed in 1792, allows the deployment of troops within the US in certain situations. The law works in tandem with the Posse Comitatus Act, passed in 1878, which generally prohibits the use of the military inside the US.
No president has invoked the law since 1992, when California’s governor asked President George H.W. Bush for help handling riots in Los Angeles. The law was also invoked during the civil rights movement, “when certain towns and states resisted the Supreme Court’s order in Brown v. Board of Education,” Honig said.
If Trump uses the law, he could deploy members of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines “and turn them into local police, local law enforcement – which ordinarily is not permitted,” Honig told Kate Bolduan on CNN News Central.
“Donald Trump certainly does have broad authority here if he wants to invoke the Insurrection Act,” he said. “But I think it would be wildly out of step with the way it’s been invoked in our history.”
READ MORE: 1,500 soldiers on standby for possible Minnesota deployment, source says
Judge's decision in favor of MN protesters is about "sending a public message," says CNN legal analyst
A federal judge’s order over the weekend restricting how federal agents respond to protesters is not likely to make a substantial difference on the ground, CNN legal analyst Elie Honig says.
“The judge’s ruling essentially is that (the Department of Homeland Security) cannot use physical force, cannot use chemical irritants, cannot arrest people who are protesting peacefully, non-violently and unobstructively,” said Honig. Well, guess what? That’s the law anyway, hence Kristi Noem’s response there.”
“That federal order was a little ridiculous, because that federal judge came down and told us we couldn’t do what we already aren’t doing,” Noem said Sunday on CBS’s Face the Nation.
“This decision by this judge, I think, is more about public signaling and sending a public message than any real practical impact on the ground,” said Honig.
He noted the ruling came in a lawsuit from protesters that is separate from a complaint filed by the state of Minnesota and the Twin Cities, which calls for an end to the “unprecedented surge” of federal agents. A judge has not yet ruled in that case.
Some Minnesota hotels close or stop accepting reservations amid ongoing protests
At least three hotels in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area have closed or are not accepting reservations, with no rooms available for booking before early February at the DoubleTree and Intercontinental hotels in downtown St. Paul and the Hilton Canopy hotel in Minneapolis.
“We have made the decision to temporarily suspend operations at two of our St. Paul hotels - Intercontinental St. Paul Riverfront and DoubleTree St. Paul Downtown - in response to elevated safety and security concerns,” Minnesota property management group Mille Lacs Corporate Ventures, which owns the hotels, said in a Facebook statement Sunday.
The statement did not specify what the safety and security concerns were.
The group said the temporary suspension of bookings began at noon Sunday and applied to all guests. It did not mention when the suspension would be lifted.
Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino told Fox News that Border Patrol and ICE agents staying at the St. Paul hotels were told Saturday they needed to be out of the hotels by noon Sunday.
“The messaging given to our agents was very inconsistent, no reason given, just that you needed to be out,” Bovino said.
The DoubleTree and Intercontinental hotels had empty lobbies Sunday with signs out front stating “temporarily closed for business until further notice,” the Associated Press reported.
CNN has reached out to the hotels and the Department of Homeland Security for comment.
The Canopy by Hilton Minneapolis, which has been the site of protests by anti-ICE demonstrators in Minneapolis’ Mill district, was open Sunday but not taking reservations, AP reported. CNN has reached out to the Canopy Hotel for further information.
Possible deployment of National Guard and federal troops in Minnesota “unprecedented,” CNN analyst says
A scenario where Minnesota sees active-duty federal troops and the Minnesota National Guard deployed in the state is “unprecedented,” said CNN Senior National Security Analyst Juliette Kayyem.
The Pentagon has ordered about 1,500 active-duty soldiers to prepare for possible deployment to Minnesota, according to a Trump administration source, and Gov. Tim Walz has mobilized the state National Guard for possible deployment to support law enforcement in the Twin Cities.
We could see “two sets of troops under two types of commands. The National Guard reporting to the governor. The active military, if the President decides to deploy them, reporting to him,” Kayyem said, describing the scenario as scary.
Kayyem suggests Minnesota is already in a dangerous situation with federal immigration enforcement officials masked, dressed in camouflage and not identifying themselves as ICE agents.
“You could have an overlay of active military. We don’t quite know what that would look like,” she said, adding, “There’s been no planning, there’s been no scenarios around this.”
