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We have more on the phone call that took place today between Donald Trump and Minnesota governor Tim Walz, which we covered per Trump’s perspective earlier.
According to a statement from Walz’s office, the two held a “productive” call where the president “agreed to look into reducing the number of federal agents in Minnesota and working with the state in a more coordinated fashion on immigration enforcement regarding violent criminals”.
Trump also agreed to talk to the Department of Homeland Security “about ensuring the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is able to conduct an independent investigation, as would ordinarily be the case”, the statement says.
Per my colleague Hugo Lowell, Trump’s call with Walz comes amid widening public backlash to the aggressive immigration operation in Minnesota, which could be compounded with further bad news if a federal judge finds as early as today that Operation Metro Surge was broadly illegal.
Minnesota governor Tim Walz addresses a news conference on the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, in Blaine, MN, on Sunday. Photograph: Abbie Parr/APShareUpdated at 19.36 CET
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Homeland security secretary Kristi Noem is slated to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on 3 March as tensions escalate amid the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota, US Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin confirmed on Monday.
“Secretary Noem refused to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee last year and now tells us that she will be available in five weeks—should she still be DHS Secretary at that time,” Durbin said in a statement.
“With all of the violence and deaths involving DHS, the Secretary is apparently in no hurry to account for her mismanagement of this national crisis,” Durbin added. “And she expects us to rubber stamp her record-breaking budget in the meantime.”
The announcement comes as several lawmakers from both aisles have called for an independent investigation into the killings in Minnesota this month.
ShareThe San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, approved the use of a military base in Minnesota to extend support for federal immigration agents in the state.
The Chronicle obtained an email showing a request by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to use Fort Snelling, a decommissioned military base near the Minneapolis-St Paul international airport, to house US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) personnel and store weapons, vehicles and aircraft.
“The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) requests support from the Department of War (DoW) to provide existing infrastructure to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), a component of DHS, specifically an area for parking approximately 300-500 vehicles and 10 storage trailers, a ready room space for approximal 500-800 CBP personnel, a space to house, maintain and operate five CBP Air Assets, access to a magazine to store munitions, and other necessary facilities to support operations in the Minneapolis, Minnesota metropolitan area,” reads the email from CBP obtained by the outlet.
Hegseth approved the request, per the Chronicle.
ShareUpdated at 23.11 CET
Lauren GambinoRuben Gallego said he wasn’t opposed to funding the DHS, but said Democrats needed to use their leverage to extract concessions on how federal agents carry out enforcement operations.
The Arizona senator, seen as a leading voice in the party on immigration, called for a pause in operations in Minnesota, and said he wants to see provisions added to the homeland security funding that would prevent racial profiling, require the use of warrants to enter people’s homes and ensure an independent investigation into fatal encounters.
In the event of a funding lapse, Gallego acknowledged that the DHS could possibly tap money provided for the department in Trump’s sweeping domestic policy law, known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
“It’s not my responsibility to make their jobs any easier, especially when they’re killing US citizens on the streets of this country,” he said.
He added: “The most important thing we need to do is we need to make sure that the American public understands how dangerous the situation is right now.”
Gallego, who represents a border state and was elected with the support of many voters who backed Trump, said Arizonans and the broader public still support immigration enforcement and border security – and it was important for Democrats to continue to do so as well.
But what was happening now, he said, was not that.
“There’s a reason why the American public has now moved against what’s happening with the president’s immigration enforcement law,” he said, “because they don’t see how logically this makes sense, how this brings in more security. If anything, they see them bringing more chaos and less security into their neighborhoods.”
ShareUpdated at 22.40 CET
Lauren GambinoThe US government appears to be on track for another government shutdown amid a Democratic revolt against a funding bill that includes more than $60bn for homeland security.
Following the death of 37-year-old VA nurse Alex Pretti, a stream of Democrats announced their opposition to the government funding package, demanding conditions on ICE’s enforcement operations in exchange for their votes.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Senator Ruben Gallego, Democrat from Arizona, vowed to vote against the package that included funding for DHS.
Gallego said he was “confident” enough Democrats would vote against the funding bill to ensure it doesn’t move forward, at least for now. “For how long? That’s a totally different question,” he said.
Several Senate Democrats who previously bucked their party to avert a shutdown have now said they will not authorize homeland security spending. Gallego and other Democrats have called on Senate Republicans to separate the DHS funding bill from the rest of the spending package, which includes funding for defense, transportation, housing and other major government departments.
Republican leadership has indicated that they will not separate the bills, instead daring Democrats to withhold the votes needed to avert another funding lapse.
Senator John Fetterman, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, who frequently breaks with his party, was sharply critical of ICE’s conduct, but said in a statement that he would “never vote to shut our government down”.
“I want a conversation on the DHS appropriations bill and support stripping it from the minibus,” Fetterman said. “It is unlikely that will happen and our country will suffer another shutdown.”
ShareUpdated at 22.38 CET
Minnesota governor Tim Walz called the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in the state “chaos”, “illegal” and “un-American” in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal today.
“The Trump administration’s assault on Minnesota long ago stopped being a matter of immigration enforcement. It is a campaign of organized brutality against the people of our state. It isn’t just. It isn’t legal. And, critically, it isn’t making anyone any safer,” said Walz in the op-ed.
“That isn’t effective law enforcement. It isn’t following the rule of law. It’s chaos. It’s illegal. And it’s un-American” he added. “This assault on our communities is not necessary to enforce our immigration laws. We don’t have to choose between open borders and whatever the hell this is.”
ShareUpdated at 22.38 CET
Federal agents in Minneapolis have been deploying crowd control gas against protesters.
The Minnesota Star Tribune has put together an explainer to help residents identify what federal agents are firing at them.
ShareUpdated at 22.02 CET
Gregory Bovino will reportedly leave Minneapolis on TuesdayThe senior border patrol official Gregory Bovino is poised to leave Minneapolis on Tuesday, dealing a blow to someone who had been seen as a main figure in Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement surge, CNN reports.
Bovino’s expected departure came to light hours after Trump announced that he was sending border czar Tom Homan to Minneapolis.
Sources told CNN that Trump administration officials were displeased with Bovino’s handling of Alex Pretti’s death at the hands of federal agents.
“According to one official, Trump spent several hours on Sunday and Monday watching the coverage and was personally unhappy by how his administration was coming across,” CNN said.
“Others say that Bovino, who became the face of Trump’s immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota, only made matters worse by claiming Pretti intended to ‘massacre’ federal agents.”
ShareUpdated at 22.35 CET
Minnesota officials and the justice department are now squaring off in court over local and state law enforcement’s request that federal agents preserve evidence in Alex Pretti’s killing.
A judge issued a temporary restraining order late Saturday requiring that federal agents retain evidence. This temporary restraining order came after the Minnesota bureau of criminal apprehension and Hennepin county attorney’s office alleged that federal agents were stymying access to evidence.
A justice department attorney said in court that federal agents had “preserved everything they have collected,” the New York Times reports, echoing Department of Justice court papers that claimed the TRO and request were non-starters.
More developments soon …
ShareUpdated at 21.45 CET
Republican Senator Rand Paul, who chairs the homeland security and governmental affairs committee, has requested that the leaders of US immigration agencies, including ICE and CBP, testify.
Paul is requesting that the testimony take place at an open hearing by 12 February.
ShareUpdated at 21.31 CET
The day so farGood afternoon and thank you for reading our live coverage today.
Most of Monday’s political news stems from the aftermath of Alex Pretti’s death at the hands of federal immigration agents in Minneapolis this weekend. State officials are trying to stop Donald Trump’s deployment of 3000 immigration agents to Minneapolis. Some local law enforcement are claiming that the feds are already blocking investigation of Pretti’s killing.
Here is a quick recap of where things stand.
Two federal judges are weighing cases that involve the legality of federal agents’ activity in Minneapolis. One case, which was argued this morning, challenged the legality of this surge. Another case, which will be argued at 2pm local time, involves local officials’ claims that federal agents are getting in the way of their investigation of Pretti’s death.
Donald Trump is sending border czar Tom Homan to Minnesota on Monday night. “He has not been involved in that area, but knows and likes many of the people there. Tom is tough but fair, and will report directly to me,” the president said in a Truth Social post.
Chris Madel, an up-and-coming Republican gubernatorial candidate in Minnesota, dropped out of the race because of the GOP’s “stated retribution on the citizens of our state”. In what the Minnesota Star Tribune described as a “stunning exit”, Madel also said: “United States citizens, particularly those of color, live in fear. United States citizens are carrying papers to prove their citizenship. That’s wrong.” That Madel said this is, in fact, stunning: He provided legal counsel to Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who earlier this month shot and killed Renee Good.
Chuck Schumer, Senate Democratic leader, ramped up his request to separate Department of Homeland Security funding from a six-bill package. “Senate Democrats have made clear we are ready to quickly advance the five appropriations bills separately from the DHS funding bill before the January 30th deadline,” Schumer said in a statement. “The responsibility to prevent a partial government shutdown is on Leader Thune and Senate Republicans … If Leader Thune puts those five bills on the floor this week, we can pass them right away. If not, Republicans will again be responsible for another government shutdown.”
Minnesota governor Tim Walz’s office said in a statement that he and Trump had a “productive” phone call where the president “agreed to look into reducing the number of federal agents in Minnesota and working with the state in a more coordinated fashion on immigration enforcement regarding violent criminals”. In the statement, Walz’s team said Trump agreed to talk with the Department of Homeland Security about making sure the Minnesota bureau of criminal apprehension is able to investigate.
ShareUpdated at 21.14 CET