Closing summary
We’re wrapping up our live coverage for today. We’ll be back on Wednesday with more. Here is a summary of the day’s developments:
Ilhan Omar was attacked at a town hall event in Minneapolis on Tuesday evening. She was speaking about abolishing ICE when a man lunged toward her with a syringe and sprayed the congressman with an unknown substance before security tackled him to the ground. Officers witnessed the attack and arrested him for third-degree assault. Forensic scientists are evaluating the scene.
Pressure continues to mount for Kristi Noem to resign. Republican senators Lisa Murkowski and Thom Tillis on Tuesday said she should leave her post as the Department of Homeland Security secretary. More than 75% of House Democrats support her impeachment and top Democrats have said Trump should fire her, or they will move with proceedings.
Donald Trump said his administration plans to “de-escalate” in Minnesota after weeks of a massive, and deadly, immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis-St Paul. His comments came after Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, sat down with Governor Tim Walz, Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey and law enforcement in the state on Tuesday. Both Homan and Frey described the meeting as “productive”.
Republican Senator Susan Collins asked Kristi Noem to pause immigration operations in her home state of Maine as well as Minnesota, and called for an investigation into the shooting death of Alex Pretti.
A Customs and Border Protection official told Congress that two federal officers fired their weapons in the encounter in Minneapolis that killed Pretti, an American citizen and ICU nurse.
A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that a five-year-old Minnesota boy and his father cannot be immediately deported, one week after their arrest sparked international outrage.
At the Minnesota State Capitol on Tuesday, school superintendents, teachers and parents described how the federal immigration surge is reshaping classrooms across the state. “These actions have changed the very fabric of our Columbia Heights schools and made every student, teacher and parent less safe,” said Peg Nelson, an elementary teacher in the district where five‑year‑old Liam Conejo Ramos was detained. “Students are afraid to come to school. We haven’t seen absenteeism like this since Covid.”
In nearby Fridley, superintendent Brenda Lewis said families are so worried about being picked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that she has twice cancelled in‑person classes since the start of the year and created a remote option for those afraid to leave home. She added that requests for door‑to‑door transportation have surged because parents don’t want their children waiting at bus stops where they fear federal agents could appear.
As families hesitate to send children to school, lawmakers said they’ve worked with the governor’s office to give districts more flexibility in applying a state rule requiring schools to drop students after 15 days of absences.
For Mary Granlund, chair of the Columbia Heights school board, Ramos is not the only child in her district that’s been taken into custody. In recent weeks, another preschooler and two high‑school students were also detained. Only one of the four has returned home, while Ramos remains in a Texas detention facility.
“Today, people across Columbia Heights woke up to cars still running, doors open, empty, left in the street,” Granlund said, noting that another student was reportedly pulled over by ICE and released only because they had their passport. She added that on Tuesday morning she opened her front door to find two unmarked vehicles parked outside; local police later confirmed they belonged to ICE.
“This message is to remind people that this is not over. It’s still happening, and we need your help to bring our kids home and make our families and communities whole again,” she said.
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The US Capitol Police issued a statement in response to the attack on Ilhan Omar, calling it an “unacceptable decision that will be met with swift justice”.
“We are grateful for the rapid response of onsite security and our local law enforcement partners. We are now working with our federal partners to see this man faces the most serious charges possible to deter this kind of violence in our society,” the agency said.
Threats against members of Congress have been on the rise for years, and Omar has received more than any other member.
The US Capitol police investigated nearly 9,500 concerning statements and direct threats against members of Congress, as well as their families and staff, in 2024, more than double the number seen in 2017.
Omar has had the highest level of death threats, something she has attributed to Donald Trump’s frequent attacks on her.
“Now, in the four years when [Joe] Biden was president, my death threats went to almost zero,” she told the Guardian last month. “Now they are back up and so there is a clear correlation between his presidency and the political violence that we see and the political danger that a lot of members of Congress and electeds feel across the country.”
Hours before she was assaulted on Tuesday, Donald Trump yet again spoke of Omar at a rally in Iowa. “She comes from a country that’s a disaster. It’s not even a country,” he said. In December, he referred to her as “garbage”.
The man who attacked Ilhan Omar has been arrested, the Minneapolis police department confirmed to media on Tuesday.
Officers saw a man use a syringe to douse liquid on the congressman and immediately arrested him, spokesperson Trevor Folke told the Associated Press in an email. The suspect was booked at the county jail for third-degree assault. Meanwhile, forensic scientists responded to the scene, police said.
In a statement published online on Tuesday evening, Omar said she was OK.
“I’m a survivor so this small agitator isn’t going to intimidate me from doing my work. I don’t let bullies win. Grateful to my incredible constituents who rallied behind me. Minnesota strong.”
The attack on Ilhan Omar has drawn condemnation from elected officials.
“Unacceptable. Violence and intimidation have no place in Minneapolis. We can disagree without putting people at risk,” Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey said, writing that such behavior “will not be tolerated in our city”.
Nancy Mace, a Republican congresswoman from South Carolina, said she was “deeply disturbed” by the assault.
“Regardless of how vehemently I disagree with her rhetoric — and I do — no elected official should face physical attacks. This is not who we are,” she said.
In the moments before she was attacked during a town hall in Minneapolis, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar was calling to abolish US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“ICE cannot be reformed. It cannot be rehabilitated. We must abolish ICE for good. And DHS secretary Kristi Noem must resign or face impeachment,” Omar said, moments before a man lunged toward her, spraying an unknown substance with a syringe before security tackled him to the ground.
In video footage of the incident, individuals seated behind Omar urged her to get check out before continuing, but she refused to stop, saying “please don’t let them have the show”.
“Here’s the reality that people like this ugly man don’t understand; we are Minnesota strong and we will stay resilient in the face of whatever they might throw at us,” Omar said.
She told reporters as she departed: “I’ve survived war. And I’m definitely going to survive intimidation and whatever these people think they can throw at me because I’m built that way.”
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Ilhan Omar attacked with unidentified substance at town hall in Minneapolis
At her first in-person town hall of the year in Minneapolis, congresswoman Ilhan Omar was sprayed with an unidentified substance while making her opening remarks. Omar had just started speaking when a man stood up and sprayed her from the front row of the community center where the event is taking place in the north of the city.
The man was swiftly tackled to the ground by security, but Omar insisted on continuing the town hall – refusing to let it stop her addressing constituents. The attacker was quickly escorted out of the room, as the crowd applauded his removal.
“I learned at a young age that you don’t give into threats,” Omar said.
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Republican Senator Susan Collins said she has asked Kristi Noem to pause immigration operations in her home state of Maine as well as Minnesota, and called for an investigation into the shooting death of Alex Pretti.
“I believe they should be reviewed and far more targeted in their scope,” Collins said in a statement posted on social media. “At this time of heightened tensions, these steps are necessary to help improve trust, accountability, and safety.”
The senator told Maine Public Radio that she’s received calls from constituents fearful and angry over the campaign in her state, which has affected residents who are in the US legally. The White House’s recent changes, such as the decision to send Tom Homan to Minnesota, made Collins hopeful, the outlet reported.
Homan, Trump’s border czar, sat down with Governor Tim Walz, Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey and law enforcement in the state on Tuesday, a meeting both Homan and Frey described as “productive”.
“We all agree that we need to support our law enforcement officers and get criminals off the streets. While we don’t agree on everything, these meetings were a productive starting point and I look forward to more conversations with key stakeholders in the days ahead,” Homan said.
Both Frey and Walz have asked that Operation Metro Surge end as soon as possible.
Speaking on the Senate floor earlier today, the Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, said Noem was “vicious” and a “liar” and must be fired in the wake of two fatal shootings in Minnesota.
“Donald Trump must fire her at once before another American is killed under her watch,” Schumer said.
Schumer’s caucus is facing a major decision as they prepare to vote against DHS funding, which is presently tied to a broader government funding package. To avert a partial shutdown, Republicans must persuade 10 Democrats to support the bill. But support for the measure, which appeared on track to pass last week, collapsed after Pretti’s killing, with nearly all Senate Democrats refusing to lend their votes without significant guardrails being placed on DHS.
Democrats have asked the Senate majority leader, John Thune, to strip DHS funding from the package and allow a vote to proceed with bipartisan support on funding the other departments, including, among others, defense, transportation and housing.
“The ball is in Leader Thune’s court,” Schumer said.
Thune has indicated that he is unlikely to split the package, and called on Democrats to clearly state their demands.
“Productive talks are ongoing, and I urge my Democrat colleagues to continue their engagement and find a path forward that will avoid a needless shutdown and not jeopardize full funding for key agencies like FEMA and the Coast Guard,” Thune said earlier.
The Republican senators Lisa Murkowski and Thom Tillis on Tuesday said Kristi Noem should resign from her post as the Department of Homeland Security secretary.
The senators are the first Republicans in Congress to do so, and their comments come as top House Democrats told Donald Trump to fire Noem or they would launch impeachment proceedings against her. More than 75% of House Democrats support efforts to impeach Noem, a number that has grown in recent days following the killing of Alex Pretti.
Tillis told reporters on Capitol Hill that he did not have confidence in Noem, NBC News reported. “I think she should go,” he said, describing some of her actions as “unacceptable” and “amateurish”.
Murkowski also told the outlet that Noem should go.
Two federal officers fired shots during encounter that killed Alex Pretti, DHS tells Congress
A Customs and Border Protection official told Congress that two federal officers fired their weapons in the encounter in Minneapolis that killed Alex Pretti, an American citizen and ICU nurse.
The Associated Press reports that a communication sent to Congress, and obtained by the news outlet, states that a border patrol officer fired his Glock and a CBP officer fired his. The agency is required to send such notifications to Congress.
According to the notification, investigators with CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility reviewed body-worn camera footage and agency documentation. An official alleged that Pretti resisted officers as they tried to take him into custody, and that amid a struggle a border patrol agent yelled “he’s got a gun” several times.
The killing, which was captured on camera, has sparked outrage and protests, particularly as Trump administration officials have sought to paint Pretti as a “would-be assassin” who was acting violently. Video of the incident directly contradicts that characterization of the shooting, and shows Pretti holding a phone when he was swarmed by federal agents, taken to the ground, and shot.
As the administration faces growing pressure over the incident, Donald Trump, who said Pretti should not have been carrying a gun, said on Tuesday: “I want to see the investigation. I’m going to be watching over it, and I want a very honorable and honest investigation. I have to see it myself.”
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More than 75% of House Democrats support the impeachment of homeland security secretary Kristi Noem.
The office of Robin Kelly, an Illinois congresswoman who introduced the articles of impeachment, reported that 162 of the 213 House Democrats had signed on as co-sponsors by Tuesday.
Noem has faced growing criticism in recent days following the killing of Alex Pretti, a US citizen killed in the street by federal immigration agents. The secretary has claimed Pretti was “brandishing” a weapon, and acting “violently” toward officers, a characterization contradicted by video footage of the incident.
Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, and other top Democrats have urged Donald Trump to fire Noem otherwise they will seek her impeachment.
“The violence unleashed on the American people by the Department of Homeland Security must end forthwith. Kristi Noem should be fired immediately, or we will commence impeachment proceedings in the House of Representatives,” Jeffries said in a joint statement, along with his two deputies, Katherine Clark and Pete Aguilar.
Trump said today that Noem has “done a very good job”.
Federal judge blocks deportation of five-year-old Minnesota boy and his father
A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that a five-year-old Minnesota boy and his father cannot be immediately deported, one week after their arrest sparked international outrage.
A Texas-based judge issued an order saying Liam Ramos, the preschooler, and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, cannot be removed or transferred out of the judicial district where they are being held while the litigation challenging their detention proceeds.
Liam’s arrest seven days prior went viral and became a symbol of the Trump administration’s relentless crackdown on immigrant communities in the Minneapolis region. Attorneys for the family have said the father and son have an active asylum case and had entered the US at an authorized port of entry.
Donald Trump said his administration plans to “de-escalate” in Minnesota after weeks of a massive, and deadly, immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis-St Paul.
In an interview with Fox News on Tuesday, the US president defended his administration’s campaign in the state, stating that ICE had taken “thousands of criminals out of Minnesota”. The operation and the killings of two US citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, by federal agents has drawn fierce condemnation and major protests.
Trump said border czar Tom Homan met with Minnesota governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey on Tuesday, and that “we’re gonna de-escalate a little bit”.
Congressman Joaquin Castro is set to meet with Liam Ramos, the preschooler who was detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Minnesota, and his father at a Texas detention center.
The Texas lawmaker said that he planned to visit Dilley Detention Center alongside Representative Jasmine Crockett on Wednesday.
Federal agents took the father and son, who have an active asylum case, into custody last week as the five-year-old returned home from school. Images of the child in a blue hat and an agent gripping the Spiderman backpack he carried sparked widespread outrage.
“He has become emblematic of the monstrosity of the ICE system and the detention system,” Castro said in a video shared on social media. “But the truth is Liam will be one of many kids … who are there in Dilley at that detention center.”
While speaking to diners in Iowa, Trump was asked if the US is now a defacto member of OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) vis a vis Trump “running” Venezuela.
Trump didn’t answer directly: “We are a very strong presence in Venezuela. We’re going to get a lot of money for Venezuela. Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world … And we are working beautifully with Venezuela.”
After the US capture of Nicolás Maduro, Trump said Venezuela “going to do better now than they ever did that they’ve done ever had any point, and we’re going to be making a lot of money for them and a lot of money for our country.”
He was then asked what this means for Cuba. Looking around at the diners in Iowa, Trump asked: “Anybody interested in Cuba? Not too many.” He then quipped that there were many people who cared about the island’s fate in Miami.
“Cuba will be failing pretty soon,” he continued. “Cuba is really a nation that is very close to failing.”
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Trump says Alex Pretti 'shouldn’t have been carrying a gun' and claims ignorance of his team's false claims about slain VA nurse
Answering reporter questions in the restaurant, Trump once again declined to agree with characterizations by his own team of Pretti as a domestic terrorist, claiming not to have heard those comments.
“He shouldn’t have been carrying a gun,” Trump said, adding “I don’t like that he had a gun.” Minneapolis Police has said Pretti was a lawful gun owner with a valid permit to carry a firearm. The assertion that he should not have carried a gun has drawn significant pushback from pro-second amendment groups, including the NRA, which are usually in lockstep with Republicans on matters of gun rights.
Even then, he said you’d have to be a “stupid person” not to think what happened to Pretti was “very unfortunate”.
Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff and the architect of Trump’s immigration agenda, described Pretti as a “would-be assassin” and a “domestic terrorist” who “tried to murder federal law enforcement”.
Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem claimed Pretti was “brandishing” a weapon, acting “violently” toward officers, which is plainly contradicted by video footage showing that he was holding a phone, not a gun, and was disarmed before he was killed.
Gregory Bovino, who has since left his post as Border Patrol commander, claimed without any evidence that Pretti wanted to “massacre law enforcement” and that the agents were “the victims”.
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Trump stopped at the Machine Shed restaurant in Urbandale, Iowa, wearing a dark winter coat and one glove. Diners greeted the president with applause.
“Iowa loves you,” one diner shouted. Trump walked around the room, going table to table to shake hands and pose for photos.
Speaking to the room, he bragged about the state of the economy and the record-low numbers of crossings at the border. “There’s never been a year like this in the history of the country,” he declared.
Trump said he would continued to travel across the country ahead of the fall elections, while lamenting the historical trend of a president’s party losing ground in the midterms.
“Hopefully we win the midterms,” he said. “It’s very scary.”
Trump has landed in Iowa, where he is due to give a speech focused on the economy and “affordability.”
As he arrived, the president blasted of a Truth social post, weighing in on the nomination of Iraq’s former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki to serve again in the role.
“I’m hearing that the Great Country of Iraq might make a very bad choice by reinstalling Nouri al-Maliki as Prime Minister,” Trump wrote, threatening to withdraw US support if he is re-instated.
“Because of his insane policies and ideologies, if elected, the United States of America will no longer help Iraq and, if we are not there to help, Iraq has ZERO chance of Success, Prosperity, or Freedom,” the US president continued. “MAKE IRAQ GREAT AGAIN!”
Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey said he told Trump’s border czar, that the city “does not and will not” enforce federal immigration law and urged an end to Operation Metro Surge “as quickly as possible”.
In a statement, Frey said he was joined by police chief Brian O’Hara for a “productive” meeting with Homan.
“I reiterated that my main ask is for Operation Metro Surge to come to an end as quickly as possible,” Frey said.
He continued: “I shared with Mr. Homan the serious negative impacts this operation has had on Minneapolis and surrounding communities, as well as the strain it has placed on our local police officers.
“I also made it clear that Minneapolis does not and will not enforce federal immigration laws, and that we will remain focused on keeping our neighbors and streets safe.”
Trump administration officials have repeatedly blamed so-called “sanctuary” laws for exacerbating tensions on the ground. Minneapolis, along with Hennepin County, restricts coordination between local law enforcement and federal immigration agents.
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed on Monday, the state’s governor, Tim Walz forcefully rebutted the administration’s claim that state prisons simply release the “worst of the worst” onto the streets.
“In reality, the Minnesota Department of Corrections honors all federal and local detainers by notifying Immigration and Customs Enforcement when a person committed to its custody isn’t a US citizen,” Walz wrote. “There is not a single documented case of the department’s releasing someone from state prison without offering to ensure a smooth transfer of custody.”
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A person was in critical condition on Tuesday following a shooting involving the Border Patrol near the US- Mexico border, the Associated Press reported, according to local officials.
In a short statement, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department said it was “working in coordination with” the FBI and US Customs and Border Protection in response to the shooting in Arivaca, Arizona, a community just over 10 miles from the border.
The Santa Rita Fire District told the AP it had responded to the shooting and the person who was wounded was in custody.
“Patient care was transferred to a local medical helicopter for rapid transport to a regional trauma center,” the fire district said.
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Republican congressman Andrew Garbarino, chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, announced that Todd Lyons, head of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will testify at a public oversight hearing next month.
In a statement, Garbarino announced that Lyons, ICE’s acting director, will appear before the panel on 10 February alongside US Customs and Border Protection commissioner Rodney Scott and US Citizenship and Immigration Services director Joseph Edlow.
“The hearing will provide an opportunity to conduct oversight of each agency and ensure they are fulfilling their duty to protect the homeland as part of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) core mission,” he said.
The committee had invited Lyons, Scott and Edlow to testify before Pretti was shot and killed, but followed up with a formal request on Saturday.
Noem must be fired — or face impeachment proceedings, House Democratic leaders say
In a joint statement, House Democratic leaders are threatening to launch impeachment proceedings if Noem isn’t fired “immediately”.
The statement, co-signed by Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, Katherine Clark, the Democratic Whip and Pete Aguilar, the Democratic Caucus Chair, accused the Trump administration of using taxpayer dollars to “kill American citizens, brutalize communities and violently target law-abiding immigrant families”.
“Kristi Noem should be fired immediately, or we will commence impeachment proceedings in the House of Representatives,” they said. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way.”
The leaders’ impeachment threat represents something of a tactical shift for Democrats, who are endorsing more aggressive actions following Pretti’s killing. In the Senate, Democrats said they are prepared to vote down a federal spending bill that includes more than $60bn in funding for DHS, risking a partial government shutdown.
“Taxpayer dollars should be used to make life more affordable for everyday Americans, not kill them in cold blood,” the House leaders wrote in a scating statement.
In the House, support for impeaching Noem has exploded since Pretti’s death. New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was among the most recent signatories to congresswoman Robin Kelly’s articles of impeachment, which the Illinois Democrat filed after the fatal killing of Renee Good earlier this month.
What started as an effort mostly backed by progressive Democrats to the dismay of more centrists, has quickly gained traction in every corner of the party.
Kelly could force a vote on her articles of impeachment, according to House rules, though they are unlikely to win enough support in the Republican-controlled chamber.
So far no Republicans have signed onto the impeachment resolution, which accuses Noem of obstructing Congress, violating the public trust and self-dealing. DHS has called the effort “silly” and a distraction, arguing that Democrats should be more focused on fighting crime in their districts.
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Meanwhile, in Minneapolis, Walz met with Homan in the city as the administration attempted to reset and work with officials there to de-escalate the conflict between residents of Twin Cities and federal agents.
“Governor Walz met with Tom Homan this morning and reiterated Minnesota’s priorities: impartial investigations into the Minneapolis shootings involving federal agents, a swift, significant reduction in the number of federal forces in Minnesota, and an end to the campaign of retribution against Minnesota,” the governor’s office said in a statement following the meeting on Tuesday.
It continued: “The Governor and Homan agreed on the need for an ongoing dialogue and will continue working toward those goals, which the President also agreed to yesterday. The Governor tasked the Minnesota Department of Public Safety as the primary liaison to Homan to ensure these goals are met.”
Homan was expected to meet with Minneapolis mayor, Jacob Frey, later today.
Trump says Noem doing a 'very good job' and won't step down
Asked whether Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem would step down, Trump replied that she would not.
“I think she’s done a very good job",” he said of Noem, as calls mount for her resignation. “I think she’s doing a very good job. The border is totally secure.”
He continued: “You know, you forget we had a border that I inherited where millions of people were coming through. Now we have a border where no one is coming through. They come into our country only legally. So you have to remember those things. You know people forget. As soon as you accomplish something, it goes into history, and nobody ever wants to talk about it.”
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Speaking briefly to reporters as he departed the White House for Iowa, Trump said he would be “watching over” the investigation into Pretti’s killing by federal agents.
“Well you know we’re doing a big investigation,” Trump said, as the blades of Marine One spin loudly behind him on the White House lawn. “I want to see the investigation. I’m going to be watching over it. I want a very honorable and honest investigation. I have to see it myself.”
In response to another question about the fatal encounter, which was difficult to hear, Trump said: “I’m looking at that whole situation. I love everybody. I love all of our people. I love [Pretti’s] family. And it’s a very sad situation.”
He said his border czar Tom Homan had just met with Walz in Minneapolis and would meet with the city’s mayor, Jacob Frey, later today. “All going very well,” Trump said. (He offered a similar assessment of the US economy, Russia and Syria.)
My colleague, Joseph Gedeon, is reporting that Minnesota’s top federal judge has summoned Todd Lyons, the acting head of ICE, to appear before him on Friday, warning he may be held in contempt for allegedly defying court orders.
Chief US district judge Patrick Schiltz demanded Lyons explain himself personally in a three-page order issued Monday evening, declaring that “the court’s patience is at an end”.
Schiltz, appointed by George W Bush, accused the Trump administration of deliberately delaying or ignoring judicial directives across Minnesota’s federal courts. His order stemmed from a case involving a man he had ordered released on 15 January who remained in custody as of Monday night.
Read the full story here
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Celebrated composer Philip Glass withdraws the premiere of his new symphony from Kennedy Center, amid Trump’s efforts to remake the performing arts center in his name.
Glass’s symphony is based on Abraham Lincoln’s 1838 Lyceum Address, in which the future 16th president warned that the greatest threat to American democracy was not from foreign invasion, but from internal strife, mob rule and disregard for law.
— Philip Glass (@philipglass) January 27, 2026
“Symphony No 15 is a portrait of Abraham Lincoln, and the values of Kennedy Center today are in direct conflict with the message of the symphony,” Glass wrote in a letter shared on social media. “Therefore I feel an obligation to withdraw the Symphony premiere from the Kennedy Center under its current leadership.”
Glass is among several artists and performance companies to cancel after Trump named himself chairman of the center’s revamped board that is now packed with the president’s allies.
Last month, the board of trustees voted to add Trump’s name to the building, which was designated as a living memorial to John F Kennedy.
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Alex Pretti suffered broken rib in confrontation with federal agents a week before he was fatally shot - CNN
CNN has learned that federal immigration officers have been collecting personal information about protesters in Minneapolis – and had documented details about Alex Pretti before he was fatally shot 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, Pretti “suffered a broken rib when a group of federal officers tackled him while he was protesting their attempt to detain other individuals”.
Per CNN’s report: “The earlier incident started when [Pretti] stopped his car after observing Immigration and Customs Enforcement 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.”
DHS did not respond to CNN’s questions about Pretti’s previous encounter or more details about efforts to collect information on protesters.
A memo sent earlier this month to agents temporarily sent to Minneapolis instructed 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.
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Trump held two-hour meeting with Noem last night amid backlash over second fatal Minneapolis shooting
Donald Trump held a two-hour meeting with homeland security secretary Kristi Noem and her top aide Corey Lewandowski in the Oval Office on last night after Noem asked to meet, the New York Times reported yesterday.
Trump did not suggest that Noem and Lewandowski’s jobs were in jeopardy, the source told the Times. But it is the latest sign that the president is in full damage control mode amid national outrage over the second fatal shooting of a US citizen this month by federal agents. Indeed, the killing of Alex Pretti has become a full-blown bipartisan political crisis for Trump, with even some Republicans in Congress calling for investigations.
Also present at the Oval Office meeting were several of Trump’s top aides, including Susie Wiles, his chief of staff, Karoline Leavitt, his press secretary, and Steven Cheung, his communications director.
The meeting came after Trump announced he was sending his “border czar” Tom Homan to oversee the operation in Minneapolis (along with reports of Greg Bovino being moved out of the city), and struck a more conciliatory tone in public remarks.
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'We are not a nation that guns down our citizens in the street': Biden says Minneapolis violence 'betrays our most basic values'
Former president Joe Biden has condemned the “senseless” killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti as betraying “our most basic values as Americans”, and praised the people of Minnesota for “speaking out against injustice when they see it”.
“What has unfolded in Minneapolis this past month betrays our most basic values as Americans,” Biden said in a post on X. “We are not a nation that guns down our citizens in the street. We are not a nation that allows our citizens to be brutalized for exercising their constitutional rights. We are not a nation that tramples the 4th Amendment and tolerates our neighbors being terrorized.”
Biden said Minnesotans protesting the federal government’s immigration crackdown have “reminded us what it is to be American, and they have suffered enough at the hands of this Administration”.
“The people of Minnesota have stood strong — helping community members in unimaginable circumstances, speaking out against injustice when they see it, and holding our government accountable to the people,” he wrote.
Biden did not mention Donald Trump by name, but alluded to the president, before calling for a “full, fair, and transparent investigation” into the killings.
Violence and terror have no place in the United States of America, especially when it’s our own government targeting American citizens.
No single person can destroy what America stands for and believes in, not even a President, if we — all of America — stand up and speak out. We know who we are. It’s time to show the world. More importantly, it’s time to show ourselves.
Now, justice requires full, fair, and transparent investigations into the deaths of the two Americans who lost their lives in the city they called home.
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‘A militia that kills’: uproar in Italy over ICE security role at Winter Olympics
Angela Giuffrida in Rome and Jakub Krupa
A unit of US immigration and customs enforcement agents (ICE) will have a security role in the upcoming Winter Olympic Games in Italy, sparking uproar and petitions against the deployment.
Sources at the US embassy in Rome confirmed a statement from ICE, the agency embroiled in a brutal immigration crackdown in the US, saying that federal agents would support diplomatic security details during the Milan-Cortina games but would not run any enforcement operations.
The statement said: “At the Olympics, ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) is supporting the US Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service and host nation to vet and mitigate risks from transnational criminal organisations. All security operations remain under Italian authority.”
Speculation over ICE’s involvement in the games fuelled outrage in Italy over ICE’s immigration operations, especially after the fatal shootings this month of the US citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.
Milan’s mayor, Giuseppe Sala, told RTL radio that the agents would not be welcome in the city “because they don’t guarantee they’re aligned with our democratic security management methods”.
This is a militia that kills. It’s clear that they are not welcome in Milan, there’s no doubt about it. Can’t we just say no to Trump for once?
We can take care of their security ourselves. We don’t need ICE.
Two small opposition parties – the Green and Left Alliance (AVS) and Azione – have started petitions calling on the Italian government and the Olympics organising committee to prevent the ICE agents’ entry and involvement in the security operations. AVS said:
ICE is the militia that shoots people on the streets of Minneapolis and takes children away from their families.
Read the full report here:
Rand Paul calls for officers involved in Pretti shooting to be put on administrative leave 'immediately'
Republican senator Rand Paul, who chairs the Senate homeland security committee, has said that the officers involved in the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti should “immediately” be placed on administrative leave “until an independent investigation is concluded”.
Paul, of Kentucky, wrote on X:
Local police routinely, put officers involved in deadly shootings on administrative leave until an independent investigation is concluded. That should happen immediately. I can’t recall ever hearing a police chief immediately describing the victim as a ‘domestic terrorist’ or a ‘would-be assassin’.
For calm to be restored, an independent investigation is the least that should be done.
Yesterday, he summoned three top immigration enforcement officials - Rodney Scott, the commissioner of CBP; Joseph Edlow, director of USCIS; and Todd Lyons, acting director of ICE - to testify before his panel on 12 February.
US border patrol commander Greg Bovino said on Sunday that the agents that were involved in the scene of Alex Pretti’s killing were still working “not in Minneapolis, but in other locations, that’s for their safety”.
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'Americans have died': Fetterman calls for Trump to fire Noem
Democratic senator John Fetterman has called on Donald Trump to immediately fire Kristi Noem after the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
Fetterman, of Pennsylvania, said in a statement:
President Trump: I make a direct appeal to immediately fire Secretary Noem. Americans have died. She is betraying DHS’s core mission and trashing your border security legacy. DO NOT make the mistake President Biden made for not firing a grossly incompetent DHS Secretary.
Unlike others in his party, Fetterman has broadly defended some aspects of Trump’s border policy and was one of seven Democrats who voted to confirm Noem as DHS secretary last year. He has also said he would not risk a partial government shutdown at the end of this week by voting to block DHS funding.
But he has joined other Democrats in criticizing federal actions in Minneapolis. In a statement yesterday, he called for a halt to so-called “Operation Metro Surge”. “Ms. Good and Mr. Pretti should still be alive. My family grieves for theirs,” he said.
The operation in Minneapolis should stand down and immediately end. It has become an ungovernable and dangerous urban theatre for civilians and law enforcement that is incompatible with the American spirit.
Other Democrats have called for Noem’s impeachment or resignation after she branded Pretti a “domestic terrorist” without evidence. While the White House insisted yesterday that Noem still has Trump’s “utmost confidence and trust”, press secretary Karoline Leavitt distanced the president from Noem’s rhetoric. “I have not heard the president characterize Mr. Pretti in that way,” she said, adding that Trump wanted the investigation “to play out”.
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Kyle Rittenhouse has urged gun owners to “carry everywhere” in the wake of criticism from the Trump administration over Alex Pretti having a gun on his person when he was fatally shot by federal immigration officials in Minnesota on Saturday.
“Carry everywhere,” Rittenhouse wrote on X. “It is your right.” Per my colleague Ramon Vargas, this comes of course after Rittenhouse shot two people to death during 2020 protests in Wisconsin ignited by the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, where federal agents fatally shot Renee Good and Pretti this month. He was later tried on but acquitted of various felonies, including first-degree intentional homcide, having argued that he acted in justifiable self-defense.
On Sunday we reported that the National Rifle Association (NRA) had joined other gun lobbying and advocacy groups that are typically aligned with Donald Trump in calling for the Republican president’s administration to conduct a “full investigation” into the killing of Pretti. The 37-year-old ICU nurse was legally permitted to carry a gun and is a citizen of the US, where there is a constitutional right to bear arms.
More on that here:
'If you give us the criminals, it all goes away,' Trump tells Minnesota leaders
In an interview on on WABC radio’s “Sid & Friends in the Morning”, Donald Trump has said that his calls with Minnesota governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey were “very good” and “very respectful.”
Asked about the possibility of a compromise with Minnesota officials, Trump replied: “I think so.” He added:
What we need is their criminals. You know, they have criminals. And all I said, ‘Just give us your criminals. And if you give us the criminals, it all goes away.’ They’re there to pick up murderers.
Walz said in a statement yesterday that in his phone call with the president he reminded him that “the Minnesota Department of Corrections already honors federal detainers by notifying Immigration and Customs Enforcement when a person committed to its custody isn’t a U.S. citizen.”
The governor implored Trump on Sunday to withdraw federal agents from his state, saying: “President Trump, you can end this today. Pull these folks back; do humane, focused, effective immigration control – you’ve got the support of all of us to do that. Please show some decency. Pull these folks out.”
Police have told CNN that approximately 26 people were arrested last night after dozens of protesters gathered at a hotel in Minneapolis where border patrol commander Greg Bovino was believed to be staying.
Bovino has become the public face of the Trump administration’s crackdown in Minnesota, and calls for him to be kicked out of the city have grown after federal agents killed intensive care nurse Alex Pretti on Saturday. Bovino – who is expected to depart Minneapolis today – has been condemned for claiming baselessly that Pretti had been planning to “massacre law enforcement officers”.
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Melania Trump calls for unity after fatal shootings in Minnesota
Melania Trump has called for “unity” in the wake of the fatal federal law enforcement shootings of US citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis and widespread peaceful protests this month.
Asked about the tensions in Minneapolis on Fox News this morning, the first lady said:
We need to unify. I’m calling for unity. I know my husband, the president, had a great call yesterday with the governor and the mayor, and they’re working together to make it peaceful and without riots.
It marks a rare comment on current events from the first lady since Donald Trump took office for the second time last year.
“I’m against the violence. So please if you protest, protest in peace, and we need to unify in these times,” she said.
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Key event
The leader of Congress’s progressive caucus yesterday called for Democratic senators to demand “real reforms” to Immigration and Customs Enforcement before voting for a key spending bill, and warned that Republicans would take the blame if the standoff sparks another government shutdown.
The call from Greg Casar, the Texas congressman who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, comes after the Saturday killing of US citizen Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis upset delicate negotiations in Congress intended to keep the government running beyond Friday, when the current spending authorization expires.
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer has said his party will not provide the votes necessary to advance a measure funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), noting that it includes funding for ICE, which is among the federal agencies that has flooded Minneapolis in the weeks leading up to Pretti’s killing.
More here:
Investigators reviewing body camera footage in fatal shooting of Alex Pretti
Federal investigators are reviewing body camera videos from immigration agents in the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed to NBC News yesterday.
Homeland security investigators have videos recorded by cameras worn by multiple agents, department spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said, adding that the agents involved were part of the Border Patrol Tactical Unit, a specialized force. Two law enforcement officials told NBC News that unit has more body-worn cameras.
The New York Times hears the same, quoting a statement from the DHS that says:
There is body camera footage from multiple angles, which investigators are currently reviewing.
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‘It’s about freedom of the press’: photographer tackled by ICE throws camera to save it
Last week, John Abernathy, an the independent photographer, was tackled to the ground by federal immigration agents during a protest in Minneapolis. He said he threw his camera in the hope of saving his photographs because the images of the protests ‘deserve to be seen’.
The Department of Homeland Security told CNN Abernathy had been arrested for obstructing pedestrian and vehicle traffic on federal property. Images of his arrest, in which he tossed his Leica camera to prevent agents from confiscation his documentation of the protest, have been circulating the Internet as a sign of the authoritarian reach of the Trump’s immigration crackdown.
“I think it’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen here before. It’s a different kind of aggression somehow, against people who are using their right to speak,” Abernathy told the Guardian.
As the federal immigration crackdown in Minnesota continues, Donald Trump is scheduled today to travel to Iowa to shore up political support amid growing anxiety over weak crop prices.
As the nation’s largest producer of corn, hogs and ethanol, Iowa is critical to Trump’s rural coalition.
Lance Lillibridge, a 56-year-old corn and cattle farmer, told Reuters that though he would describe himself as a Trump supporter “for the most part”, he and other farmers have been hit hard by the trade war with China and rising costs of seeds and fertilizer.
“There’s going to have to be something because right now everything’s just terrible. I’ve never been so cash poor in my entire life,” Lillibridge said, adding that he hopes the administration will pursue another multibillion-dollar farm bailout.
Analysis: The rise and fall of Gregory Bovino, US border patrol’s menacing provoker-in-chief
Critics have called him a would-be Napoleon and mocked his “Nazi” aesthetic, but with Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant surge into Minneapolis, Gregory Bovino seemed to have found the political moment he had long been seeking.
Bovino, 55, a senior US border patrol official, initially rose to prominence as the figurehead of immigration crackdowns in Los Angeles, Chicago and other cities.
But his provocatively unapologetic utterances in Minneapolis after the shooting of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old American citizen, by border patrol officers propelled him to a new level of notoriety that finally exceeded the tolerance even of the Trump administration.
With the White House under intense pressure amid a fierce backlash against Pretti’s fatal shooting, Bovino – rather than being lionised – has become an early casualty of the Trump administration’s efforts to change its posture. Officials revealed that he was to be withdrawn from his frontline role in the midwestern city. He was expected to be pulled out as Tom Homan, Trump’s “border tsar”, was sent in to oversee the operation on the ground.
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The Guardian’s George Chidi, Rachel Leingang and Lauren Gambino report that the efforts of Donald Trump to deploy militarized immigration agents in US cities may finally be reaching a reckoning following the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by federal officers in Minneapolis.
Jacob Frey, mayor of Minneapolis said the administration would begin to scale back the number of federal agents in Minneapolis starting on Tuesday, a day after a federal judge heard arguments about whether to end the federal officer surge in the city.
More here:
Here are some images coming out of Minneapolis overnight over the wires:
White House avoids Minneapolis tirade as signs suggest Trump backing down
What Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, did not say on Monday was more important than what she did.
When Leavitt stepped up to the briefing room podium to address the deadly shooting of Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis, she avoided the kind of victim-blaming tirade that has become de rigueur for Donald Trump’s administration.
Instead the spokeswoman called Pretti’s death a “tragedy”, said the US president wanted to let the investigation take its course, and, strikingly, refused to endorse adviser Stephen Miller’s slander of Pretti as a “would-be assassin”.
Bovino to leave Minneapolis as White House walks back initial claims about Alex Pretti
Hello and welcome to our live coverage.
Gregory Bovino, the border patrol commander, is expected to leave Minneapolis today following the weekend killing of Alex Pretti, the second civilian to be fatally gunned down in the streets by federal immigration agents this month.
Bovino, an aggressive promoter of Donald Trump’s deportation agenda, has become the public face of the administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota – and a lightning rod for criticism from Democrats and civil liberties activists.
An unnamed source told Reuters that Bovino had been stripped of his specially created title of “commander at large” of the border patrol, but the Department of Homeland Security has pushed back on the demotion reports. “Chief Gregory Bovino has NOT been relieved of his duties,” DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said, pointing to earlier comments from the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, praising Bovino as a “key part of the president’s team and a great American”.
Leavitt spent Monday’s press briefing walking back initial claims made by senior administration officials about Pretti. Stephen Miller, the deputy chief of staff, called the victim “a domestic terrorist who tried to assassinate law enforcement”, and Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, accused him of perpetrating “the definition of domestic terrorism” – characterizations that have been undercut by video footage that showed Pretti getting shot in the back multiple times after being tackled to the ground by a group of US border patrol agents whom he had been filming, and disarmed of his gun.
Trump himself on Monday said he had a “a very good call” with Tim Walz, the Minnesota governor, who he had perviously blamed for Pretti’s death. Walz said on X that he had a “productive” call with Trump, who had agreed to look at pulling federal agents out of the state and committed to talking to DHS about allowing the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is able to conduct an independent investigation into the shootings by federal agents, which would include the one earlier this month that killed Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old woman and mother of three.
More to come.
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