Here's the latest
• Anti-ICE protests: Protesters are gathering outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in the Minneapolis area, part of the nationwide demonstrations expected today against President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement efforts. Organizers are calling for a boycott of school, work and shopping. It comes as White House border czar Tom Homan ordered federal immigration authorities to work on a drawdown plan for law enforcement in Minnesota.
• Don Lemon in custody: The former CNN anchor was taken into custody, according to his attorney, in connection to a protest in which dozens of anti-ICE demonstrators rushed into a church in St. Paul, Minnesota, leading to tense confrontations. Independent journalist Georgia Fort, who was filming the protest, also was taken into custody.
• Alex Pretti shooting: DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said she was using “the best information we had at the time” when making initial statements about Pretti’s killing.
• Trump on Pretti: In a social post, Trump said Pretti appeared “crazed” during a separate confrontation with federal agents 11 days before his death, calling him an “agitator and, perhaps, insurrectionist.” Pretti’s family has previously said nothing could justify his death.
Trump judges are letting immigration enforcement blitz continue
As President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown has whisked through major US cities, trial-level judges attempting to restrain the frenzied actions of federal agents have been repeatedly slapped down by higher courts – often with the help of judges the president put on the bench in his first term.
A series of rulings from the Supreme Court and federal appeals courts dominated by Trump nominees have overturned early victories secured by opponents of the immigration blitzes in California, Chicago and Minnesota.
The administration’s latest win came Monday, when a three-judge federal appeals court panel indefinitely paused a Minneapolis judge’s decision to put tight guardrails on how agents can respond to individuals peacefully protesting Operation Metro Surge, which has sparked intense opposition in the Twin Cities and led to the fatal shooting of two US citizens by federal officers.
Trump and his allies have long complained that lower court judges have acted out of bounds in cases challenging his agenda, particularly in the immigration context, over which they argue he has broad, unreviewable authority.
Protesters chant "ICE out!" at Whipple building in Minneapolis area
A large crowd of protesters is outside the Whipple Federal Building, the Minneapolis-area site of daily demonstrations against the federal government’s immigration enforcement operations.
“ICE out!” demonstrators chanted, bundled up in heavy coats and scarves amid frigid temperatures in Minnesota.
“No hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here,” sounded another chant.
Questions remain about possible Minneapolis drawdown after Trump says no plans to pull back
President Donald Trump said Thursday evening that there were no plans to pull immigration enforcement agents out of Minneapolis, after border czar Tom Homan announced earlier in the day he had ordered federal immigration authorities to work on a drawdown plan.
Asked if he’d be pulling back immigration agents, Trump said, “We’ll do whatever we can to keep our country safe.” Pressed again if he was not pulling back, Trump said, “No, no not at all.”
Trump’s comments — made at the premiere of first lady Melania Trump’s documentary at the Kennedy Center — followed Homan’s remarks that morning that he was working on a “draw down plan” to begin reducing the number of immigration agents in the state and insisted that upholding “public safety should be paramount.”
Speaking on the red carpet Thursday evening, Trump heaped praise on Homan, calling the border czar “terrific.”
“I think he’s terrific but we have to get rid of the criminals,” Trump said. “We have to take criminals out of our country so from that standpoint, nothing’s going to change.”
Press freedom advocates condemn arrests of journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort
Press freedom groups are condemning the arrests of journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort in connection with their coverage of an anti-ICE protest inside a Minnesota church on January 18.
“These arrests under bogus legal theories for obviously constitutionally protected reporting are clear warning shots aimed at other journalists,” said Seth Stern, the chief of advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation. “The unmistakable message is that journalists must tread cautiously because the government is looking for any way to target them.”
Stern told CNN: “The answer to this outrageous attack is not fear or self-censorship. It’s an even stronger commitment to journalism, the truth, and the First Amendment. If the Trump administration thinks it can bully journalists into submission, it is wrong.”
Katherine Jacobsen, the US, Canada and Caribbean program coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists, said Lemon’s arrest “should alarm all Americans.”
“As an international organization, we know that the treatment of journalists is an indicator of the condition of a country’s democracy. The United States is doing poorly,” Jacobsen said.
Lisa Gilbert, co-president of the nonprofit advocacy group Public Citizen, called the action against Lemon an “authoritarian breach” and an “egregious violation of the First Amendment.”
“Reporters in America are free to view, document, and share information with the public,” Gilbert said. “This arrest is a constitutional violation, an outrage, an authoritarian breach, and utterly appalling.”
Correction: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated the date of the church protest.
Independent journalist Georgia Fort taken into custody following Minnesota church protest
Independent journalist Georgia Fort was taken into custody by federal agents Friday morning, an official who was briefed on the arrest told CNN’s Sara Sidner Friday morning.
Fort’s arrest comes the morning after former CNN anchor and independent journalist Don Lemon was taken into custody.
Both Fort and Lemon filmed dozens of anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protesters as they rushed into church in St. Paul, Minnesota, earlier this month, interrupting a service, leading to tense confrontations.
US Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed in a post this morning on X that Lemon and Fort, as well as two others, were arrested in connection with the church protest. Federal agents arrested the four at Bondi’s direction, the post reads.
“This is all stemming from the fact that I filmed a protest as a member of the media,” Fort said during a Facebook Live this morning before she surrendered to agents.
Details on what charges Fort and Lemon face weren’t immediately available.
“It’s hard to understand how we have a constitution, constitutional rights, when you can just be arrested for being a member of the press,” Fort said before ending this morning’s live video.
Journalist Don Lemon taken into custody after Minnesota church protest
Journalist Don Lemon was taken into custody on Thursday night in connection to a protest at a church in St. Paul, Minnesota, according to his attorney.
Lemon, a former CNN anchor, was with dozens of anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protesters as they rushed into Cities Church in St. Paul earlier this month, interrupting a church service and leading to tense confrontations.
Court records related to his arrest were not immediately available. Lemon is expected to appear in federal court in Los Angeles on Friday. Lemon was in Los Angeles to cover the Grammy Awards and was arrested after 11 p.m. local time in a hotel lobby in Beverley Hills as he was leaving for an event.
CNN has reached out to the Department of Justice for for information.
“Don Lemon was taken into custody by federal agents last night in Los Angeles, where he was covering the Grammy awards,” his attorney Abbe Lowell said in a statement early Friday. “Don has been a journalist for 30 years, and his constitutionally protected work in Minneapolis was no different than what he has always done. The First Amendment exists to protect journalists whose role it is to shine light on the truth and hold those in power accountable.”
Read more here.
This post has been updated.
Trump called Alex Pretti an "agitator." What is an agitator and who gets called one?
Overnight, US President Donald Trump in a social media post referred to Alex Pretti, the man fatally shot by Customs and Border Protection agents in Minneapolis Saturday, as an “agitator and, perhaps, insurrectionist.”
This matches the language the Trump administration has been using when classifying protesters across the country, calling those demonstrating their opposition to Trump’s immigration offensive “agitators.”
Here’s the backstory on how the word has been used:
- American English authority Merriam-Webster defines “agitator” as “one who stirs up public feeling on controversial issues.” Exactly who is instigating public unrest or stirring up public feeling is a matter of interpretation.
- 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,” said Aldon Morris, a professor emeritus of sociology at Northwestern University
- Per Morris, the “agitator trope” was used by enslavers to describe abolitionists, by business magnates to characterize labor union organizers and by segregationists to smear Black civil rights activists. (In some instances, so-called agitators appear to have claimed the label as a point of pride.)
- Despite warnings by Martin Luther King Jr., one of the most well-known figures ever to be considered a “rabble rouser” and “outside agitator,” the idea of the “outside agitator” — along with its siblings “paid agitator” and “professional agitator” — has endured.
- Authorities invoked the phrase in 2020 during the Black Lives Matter demonstrations and in 2024 during university campus protests against Israel’s slaughter in Gaza. The word transcends US politics — Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei recently referred to the protesters challenging his regime as “agitators who want to please the American president.”
Read more here.
Noem says she was using “best information” available when she first spoke about Alex Pretti's killing
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said last night that she was using “the best information we had at the time” when she made her initial statements about the killing of Alex Pretti, the second person killed by federal agents in Minneapolis this month.
Noem, who was among the top officials claiming in the immediate aftermath of the shooting that ICU nurse Alex Pretti was a “domestic terrorist” who posed a threat to law enforcement, on Thursday described the situation as “chaotic” and noted she was “being relayed information from on the ground from (Customs and Border Protection) agents and officers that were there.”
Noem’s comments come as she faces increased scrutiny of her job performance and her initial statements on the circumstances around Pretti’s killing.
CNN reported earlier Thursday that President Donald Trump and his top officials have publicly and privately maintained that the president still has full confidence in Noem, even as he has moved to sideline one of his top officials on the ground, Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino, putting border czar Tom Homan in charge of immigration operations in Minneapolis.
Trump’s deal with Senate leaders to avert government shutdown hits snags
Senate leaders have a bipartisan funding deal in hand, but it remains to be seen whether they will avert a costly government shutdown as the clock ticks down toward Friday’s midnight deadline.
While negotiations appeared to stall late Thursday evening, the pace at which they had moved in recent days underscored the White House’s desire to avoid another prolonged federal funding fight. It also stood as a tacit acknowledgement of the political risks of ignoring the public outcry over ICE’s harsh tactics.
Lawmakers left Capitol Hill late Thursday after all rank-and-file senators could not come to agreement to swiftly move the spending package — the contours of which negotiators from both parties and the White House struck earlier in the day. Senators are set to return today with an eye toward sending the bills back to the House for final approval, but negotiations can change rapidly.
The deal, announced by Minority Leader Chuck Schumer hours before, includes a two-week stopgap funding extension for the Department of Homeland Security that Democrats had requested.
It also separates the DHS bill from a package of bipartisan spending bills to fund critical agencies through September, including the departments of Defense, Health and Human Services, Labor, Education, Transportation and Housing and Urban Development.
Even if the Senate is successful Friday, final passage could still be delayed until Monday — past the official shutdown deadline — as the House would have to return to Washington from its week-long recess. Speaker Mike Johnson, so far, has been non-committal on when exactly that might be, but swift approval by his chamber could blunt impacts of any lapse in funding to the federal workforce.
Nationwide protests planned as Trump's border czar suggests possible drawdown in Minnesota. Here's the latest
Protests against President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown are expected across the country today, with organizers calling for demonstrators to boycott school, work and shopping.
Friday’s demonstrations come as Trump’s border czar Tom Homan attempts to restore order in Minneapolis, saying Thursday that he had ordered federal immigration authorities to work on a drawdown plan to reduce the number of federal agents in Minnesota.
Operations on the ground will be targeted, he said, adding he’s “staying ‘til the problem’s gone.”
If you’re just catching up, here’s what else to know.
- The drawdown plan is contingent on increased cooperation between county jail systems and immigration authorities, Homan said. For weeks, federal and state officials have exchanged barbs over the issue of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement detainers — which allow ICE to take custody of incarcerated immigrants — as neither party can agree on how many of these people even exist in the system, CNN has reported. When Trump was asked Thursday night whether he would pull immigration agents out of Minnesota, the president said “no, no, not at all.”
- Commenting on video of Alex Pretti in a clash with federal agents 11 days before he was killed, Trump said he appeared “crazed and out of control.” In the video, Pretti is seen shouting at federal agents and kicking their vehicle’s taillight as the agents are driving away.
- Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said she was using “the best information we had at the time” when she made her initial statements about the killing of Pretti, telling Fox News her agency sought to be “transparent” with “what we knew to be true on the ground.” Many of Noem’s initial claims about the killing were either contradicted by video footage or unsupported by any evidence presented so far.
- A CNN analysis of footage from the killing of Pretti shows two officers pepper-spraying and striking him repeatedly in the face and on the head –– then drawing their weapons and firing at him, even after he was on the ground and unarmed.
- The administration is considering new guidelines for federal immigration officers in Minnesota, including plans to avoid engaging with “agitators” and only focusing on immigrants with convictions or facing criminal charges, officials told CNN.
- ICE pushed back on the Ecuadorian government’s description of an “attempted incursion” at a Minneapolis consulate by its agents, saying the ICE officers were not aware the building housed the country’s consulate while conducting an enforcement operation.
Trump says Pretti was "crazed and out of control" in video showing clash with federal agents days before he was killed
President Donald Trump said Alex Pretti, the man fatally shot by Customs and Border protection agents in Minneapolis Saturday, appeared “crazed and out of control” in video of a separate confrontation with federal agents 11 days before his death.
In the video that surfaced this week, Pretti is seen shouting at federal agents and kicking their vehicle’s taillight as the agents are driving away. The agents stop, exit their vehicle and tackle Pretti to the ground. The interaction in Minneapolis lasts a few seconds before Pretti gets up and the agents walk away. It is unclear what took place immediately before or after the footage.
Pretti suffered a broken rib during the encounter, sources told CNN.
Video of agents shooting Pretti and the Trump administration’s efforts to paint him as an “assassin” or “domestic terrorist” drew quick condemnation, including from some Republicans.
“A week before Alex was gunned down in the street – despite posing no threat to anyone – he was violently assaulted by a group of ICE agents,” Steve Schleicher, attorney for the Pretti family, told CNN when the video was released.
Asylum seekers and refugees in Minnesota have been detained by ICE and flown to Texas to face deportation
Dozens of asylum seekers and refugees who passed a rigorous, years-long vetting process before being admitted to the United States, have been arrested in Minnesota in recent weeks, immigration lawyers and advocates say.
The immigrants are shackled and placed on flights to detention facilities in Texas, where they are forced to recount painful asylum claims with limited or no contact with family members or attorneys, lawyers and advocates say.
Some, after days of interviews with officers, have been released in Texas without money, identification or phones. Others remain detained without information about why they’re being held.
Late Wednesday, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order preventing the Trump administration from arresting or detaining resettled refugees in Minnesota while a class-action lawsuit challenging the practice plays out. The judge also ordered the immediate release of all detained refugees in Minnesota, as well as the release of those taken out of the state within five days and gave the government 48 hours to provide a list of detained refugees.
CNN reached out to US Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Department of Homeland Security and ICE for comment.
Man who filmed clash between Pretti and agents 11 days before death speaks out
Max Shapiro, who recorded video of a clash between Alex Pretti and federal officers 11 days before the ICU nurse was fatally shot by federal agents, talks about witnessing the scene and his interaction with him.
Protesters have called for a "national shutdown" today. Here's what to know
Nationwide protests against President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown are expected today – with organizers calling for a boycott of school, work and shopping in areas across the country.
The demonstrations follow an “economic blackout” in Minneapolis last week, where hundreds of businesses were urged to shut for the day and thousands, gathering in stadiums or taking to the streets in sub-zero temperatures, called for ICE to get out of the city.
“The people of the Twin Cities have shown the way for the whole country – to stop ICE’s reign of terror, we need to SHUT IT DOWN,” organizers of today’s protests, endorsed by hundreds of organizations across the country, wrote on the shutdown’s website.
Elsewhere around the country, dozens of demonstrations and marches have been organized.
Protesters are expected to gather outside Minneapolis’ Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building starting at 8 a.m. local time, and a “national shutdown” march beginning at the city’s Government Plaza will begin at 2 p.m. Friday, according to organizers.
In New York City, protesters are expected to gather at 11 a.m. ET for an “ICE Out” demonstration at Foley Square, while in Atlanta, a “national shutdown” rally will take place at 5 p.m. ET on Buford Highway, a thoroughfare known for its vibrant mix of international cuisine and culture in the city.
Correction: A previous version of this post included the incorrect time zone for the protest planned at the Whipple building.
Noem "should come out and say her comments were inappropriate," Hennepin County Attorney says
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty rejected Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s defense of her initial statements about Alex Pretti’s shooting, saying they were irresponsible.
Residents of rural Minnesota county that voted for Trump say ICE tactics in state are "deplorable"
Some residents of a rural Minnesota county won by Trump in the 2024 election are denouncing how federal agents are handling immigration enforcement in the state –– with many calling for ICE to get out.
“I think what’s happening is deplorable,” Meeker County resident Emma Wettstein told CNN affiliate WCCO. Trump, who delivered strong messaging on immigration enforcement in 2024, won the county by 30%.
“It’s just bullying people around. There is no apparent reason to it … You are almost looking for conflict rather than going the other way around,” Mike Katleck of Meeker County’s Grove City told WCCO.
Linda Kuhl from the nearby city of Hutchinson said both Democrat and Republican leaders are to blame for the chaos.
Are we any closer to seeing ICE agents leaving Minnesota? Sen. Klobuchar weighs in
White House Border Czar Tom Homan said there would be a drawdown of ICE agents in Minnesota, but President Donald Trump said he won’t be pulling agents back. Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar told CNN’s Laura Coates she “can’t believe Trump said that.”
