The immigration crackdown in Minnesota that led to mass detentions, protests and two deaths is coming to an end, border czar Tom Homan said Thursday.

“As a result of our efforts here Minnesota is now less of a sanctuary state for criminals,” Homan said at a news conference.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement launched Operation Metro Surge on Dec. 1.

Federal authorities say the sweeps focused on the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area have led to the arrest of more than 4,000 people. While the Trump administration has called those arrested “dangerous criminal illegal aliens,” many people with no criminal records, including children and U.S. citizens, have also been detained.

About 6 in 10 U.S. adults say President Donald Trump has “gone too far” in sending federal immigration agents into U.S. cities, according to a new AP-NORC poll.

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Fiery exchanges between Republicans and Ellison at Senate hearing

Republican senators sparred with Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison in a tense hearing over immigration enforcement in the state.

Ron Johnson of Wisconsin drilled in over the role of activists in protesting immigration enforcement in Minnesota, suggesting Minnesota officials were essentially encouraging them while Josh Hawley of Missouri hammered Ellison over fraud investigations in the state.

At one point, Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio attacked Ellison as a “low caliber” witness.

“A tragedy was going to happen. And you encouraged it,” Johnson yelled.

Ellison replied: “Are you asking me for comment, Senator? Because everything you said was untrue.”

Trump’s weak numbers hold steady in new AP-NORC poll

Trump’s approval on immigration hasn’t moved since January despite a month of immigration-related turmoil, according to a new AP-NORC poll.

About 38% of U.S. adults approve of Trump’s handling of immigration more broadly, in line with a January AP-NORC poll conducted just after the death of Renee Good, the first U.S. citizen in Minnesota killed by federal agents.

The president’s overall approval rating has declined slightly since the beginning of his second term and remains low.

Overall, 36% of U.S. adults say they approve of the way Trump is handling the presidency. His approval ratings on the economy and foreign policy are similar to his overall approval and functionally unchanged from January.

Melania Trump says more Russian and Ukrainian children have been reunited with their families

The U.S. first lady also urged the warring countries to step up their efforts to safely return children who’ve been displaced because of the nearly 4-year-old war.

Her announcement Thursday marked the third time she’s helped get Russian and Ukrainian children back to their families.

Five children — four boys and one girl, aged 4 to 15 — were reunited with their families in Ukraine, while one child returned to their family in Russia, said Maria Lvova-Belova, the Kremlin’s commissioner of children’s rights.

Asked about the issue last week, Melania Trump said, “I’m working on it, and we are in the process. So I hope to have success very soon. I will keep you posted.”

US Navy ships collide in the Caribbean, leaving two sailors with minor injuries

The destroyer USS Truxtun and the USNS Supply collided Wednesday as the warship was getting a new load of supplies, the U.S. military says.

The maneuver typically has the vessels sailing parallel, usually within hundreds of feet, while fuel and supplies are transferred across the gap via hoses and cables.

U.S. Southern Command said in a statement Thursday that two personnel reported minor injuries after the collision a day earlier and that both are in stable condition. It says both ships now are sailing safely.

The USS Truxtun is a recent addition to the military buildup in the Caribbean, which stands at 12 ships.

The Trump administration has massed the largest military presence in the region in generations before carrying out deadly strikes on alleged drug boats, seizing sanctioned oil tankers and conducing a surprise raid that captured Venezuela’s then-president, Nicolás Maduro.

Judge blocks Trump administration from moving former death row inmates to ‘Supermax’ prison

A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from transferring 20 inmates with commuted death sentences to the nation’s highest security federal prison.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly ruled late Wednesday that the government cannot send the former death row inmates to the “Supermax” federal prison in Florence, Colorado, because it likely would violate their Fifth Amendment rights to due process.

Kelly cited evidence that officials from the Republican administration “made it clear” to the federal Bureau of Prisons that the inmates had to be sent to ADX Florence — “administrative maximum” — to punish them because Democratic President Joe Biden had commuted their death sentences.

“At least for now, they will remain serving life sentences for their heinous crimes where they are currently imprisoned,” wrote Kelly, who was nominated to the bench by President Trump.

In December 2024, less than a month before Trump returned to the White House, Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row, converting their punishments to life imprisonment.

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‘The people of Minnesota have won’

Some activists expressed relief at Homan’s comments, even as they warned they didn’t believe their fight was over.

“The people of Minnesota have won,” said Lisa Erbes, a leader of the progressive protest group Indivisible Twin Cities. “We’ve beaten them back and we made them leave.”

But officials, she said, must be held accountable for the chaos of the crackdown.

“People have died. Families have been torn apart,” she said. “We can’t just say this is over and forget the pain and suffering that has been put on the people of Minnesota.”

Sen. Lankford announces to panel the end of ‘Metro Surge’ in Minnesota

At the beginning of a Senate hearing on immigration enforcement in Minnesota, the state’s Attorney General, Keith Ellison, asked for an end to the enforcement surge in his state, saying “it’s already gone too far.”

At the same time in Minnesota, border czar Tom Homan was announcing that it was ending.

But that news didn’t make it into the senate hearing for roughly an hour.

At that point, Republican Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford told the panel about Homan’s announcement, saying it was probably news that those on the panel hadn’t heard yet.

People attending congressional hearings, members of Congress and their staff usually have access to their phones so they can keep up with fast-changing news while hearings are going on. But witnesses giving testimony usually don’t look at their phones during the hearings.

Trump invites Latin American leaders to March 7 summit, White House official says

Trump is inviting the leaders to talks in Florida at a moment when the administration is spotlighting what it sees as concerning Chinese influence in the region.

The summit was confirmed by a White House official who was not authorized to comment publicly about the yet-to-be formally announced gathering of leaders. It will also come just weeks before Trump is expected to travel to Beijing for talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The Trump administration has made it a priority to assert dominance over the Western Hemisphere, where China has long built influence through massive loans and high trade volumes.

The administration last month launched an audacious military operation to oust Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and whisk him and his wife to New York to face federal drug conspiracy charges.

— Aamer Madhani

Minnesota officials post initial reactions to the immigration crackdown’s end on X

— Gov. Tim Walz: “The long road to recovery starts now. The impact on our economy, our schools, and people’s lives won’t be reversed overnight. That work starts today.”

— Sen. Amy Klobuchar: “Minnesotans stood together, stared down ICE, and never blinked.”

— Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey: “They thought they could break us, but a love for our neighbors and a resolve to endure can outlast an occupation.”

Minnesota’s attorney general says still no cooperation with feds on investigations into shootings

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison says it’s highly unusual for the state to be shut out of investigations of shootings like they have in the aftermath of the deaths of two Americans.

Ellison is appearing at a Senate hearing to look at immigration enforcement in the state.

He was asked by Democratic Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan about what type of cooperation the state has had with the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department on investigations into the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

“We haven’t had any cooperation up until now which is really unusual,” Ellison said.

Peters also asked whether the federal government was stonewalling the state and Ellison agreed.

Independents largely disapprove of Trump’s immigration approach

Despite their strong support for Trump, Republicans are increasingly alone in supporting Trump on his immigration enforcement tactics, a new AP-NORC poll finds.

About 6 in 10 independents now say Trump has “gone too far” in deporting immigrants living in the U.S. illegally, an apparent increase from 46% in an AP-NORC poll in April.

Only about 2 in 10 independents have a positive view of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“Having the border shut, that’s OK. But what Trump is doing with ICE and Homeland Security? You don’t go yanking people out of cars. You don’t go shooting people,” said independent Rick Kinnett, a 60-year-old Navy veteran from Crawfordsville, Indiana.

Agriculture secretary says US schools to receive new rules on school lunches in coming weeks

Brooke Rollins and HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy, Jr., last month unveiled new dietary guidelines, which back away from long-standing advice to limit saturated fats and urge Americans to choose whole-food sources of saturated fat — such as meat, whole-fat dairy or avocados — while continuing to limit saturated fat consumption to no more than 10% of daily calories.

Those guidelines could have a big impact on U.S. schools districts that receive federal funding for school meals and must follow rules set by the Agriculture Department.

“We expect the actual rules to come out probably in four to six weeks, but we are working very diligently on that right now,” Rollins said Thursday. “We want to ensure that we can move very quickly as we’re working to get better, more nutritious, more wholesome foods into our schools.”

Homan said last week that 700 federal officers would leave Minnesota immediately

But that still left more than 2,000 on Minnesota’s streets. The border czar said Thursday that the drawdown began this week and will continue next week.

He also said he plans to stay in Minnesota to oversee the drawdown.

Homan took over the Minnesota operation in late January after the second fatal shooting by federal immigration agents and amid growing political backlash and questions about how the operation was being run.

US judge says Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the BBC can go to trial next year

Judge Roy K. Altman of the federal court for the Southern District of Florida rejected an attempt by Britain’s national broadcaster to delay proceedings. He set a February 2027 trial date.

Trump filed a lawsuit in December over the way the BBC edited a speech he gave on Jan. 6, 2021. The claim seeks $5 billion in damages for defamation and $5 billion for unfair trade practices.

The speech took place before some of Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol as Congress was poised to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election that Trump falsely alleged was stolen from him.

The BBC had broadcast the documentary — titled “Trump: A Second Chance?” — days before the 2024 U.S. presidential election. It spliced together three quotes from two sections of the 2021 speech, delivered almost an hour apart, into what appeared to be one quote in which Trump urged supporters to march with him and “fight like hell.” Among the parts cut out was a section where Trump said he wanted supporters to demonstrate peacefully.

The broadcaster has apologized to Trump over the edit of the Jan. 6 speech. But the publicly funded BBC rejects claims it defamed him.

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Sen. Rand Paul says ICE must restore public trust

The Republican Kentucky senator says he called an oversight hearing to evaluate “the facts” around immigration enforcement in Minnesota and across the country.

Paul said during his opening statement that any time an American citizen is killed is a “tragedy” but made clear that filming government officials in a free society is a “constitutional right” and not “an act of aggression.”

Paul criticized what he called a “rush to judgment” after the shootings and said while he supports Immigration and Customs Enforcement that they had work to do to “restore public trust.”

Federal authorities announce an end to the immigration crackdown in Minnesota

The immigration crackdown in Minnesota that led to mass detentions, protests and two deaths is coming to an end, border czar Tom Homan said Thursday.

“As a result of our efforts here Minnesota is now less of a sanctuary state for criminals,” Homan said at a news conference.

“I have proposed and President Trump has concurred, that this surge operation conclude,” he continued.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement launched Operation Metro Surge on Dec. 1.

Federal authorities say the sweeps focused on the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area have led to the arrest of more than 4,000 people. While the Trump administration has called those arrested “dangerous criminal illegal aliens,” many people with no criminal records, including children and U.S. citizens, have also been detained.

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Republicans strongly support Trump on immigration

While most U.S. adults think Trump has overstepped on immigration enforcement in cities, only about one-quarter of Republicans agree, according to a new AP-NORC poll.

About half of Republicans say Trump’s actions have been “about right,” while about one-quarter of Republicans say he hasn’t gone far enough.

Teviss Crawford, a 20-year-old student from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, said he’s pleased with Trump’s leadership on immigration, although he wishes the president could find a way to deport more immigrants who are in the country illegally.

“I don’t think the deportations have been enough, to be honest. I think it’s much too lax,” he said of Trump’s crackdown.

Europe warily awaits Rubio at Munich Security Conference as Trump roils transatlantic ties

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is leading a large U.S. delegation this week to the Munich Security Conference where increasingly nervous European leaders are hoping for at least a brief reprieve from President Trump’s often inconsistent policies and threats that have roiled transatlantic relations and the post-World War II international order.

A year after Vice President JD Vance stunned assembled dignitaries at the same venue with a verbal assault on many of America’s closest allies in Europe, accusing them of imperiling Western civilization with left-leaning domestic programs and not taking responsibility for their own defense, Rubio plans to take a less contentious but philosophically similar approach when he addresses the annual gathering of world leaders and national security officials Saturday, U.S. officials say.

The State Department’s formal announcement of Rubio’s trip offered no details about his two-day stop in Munich, after which he will visit Slovakia and Hungary. But the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to preview the trip, said America’s top diplomat intends to focus on areas of cooperation on shared global and regional concerns, including in the Middle East and Ukraine as well as China, an economic powerhouse seeking to take advantage of the uncertainty in U.S.-European ties.

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— Matthew Lee

Only part of the money to celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary has been distributed

The Interior Department has distributed only a fraction of the $150 million Congress set aside in last year’s sprawling spending bill for the celebration of the nation’s 250th anniversary.

A spokesperson for the department said Wednesday that the single biggest recipient of funding is America250, which has gotten $25 million of the money set aside in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act for celebrations and commemorations of America 250. The money went to Interior to distribute but did not specify recipients or amounts. The spokesperson said decisions are being made on how to disperse the money.

The acknowledgement comes one day after a congressional subcommittee hearing where Democrats raised questions about how much public funding Freedom 250, created by President Donald Trump, has received and whether that was to the detriment of America250.

Freedom 250 has received less than $4 million from the pool, said someone with knowledge of the money that organization has received.

Four members of Idaho’s congressional delegation sent a joint letter to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum last September requesting money be dispersed to A250 commissions in all 56 states and territories to support local history organizations. The congressional delegation hasn’t received a response.

— Gary Fields

Venezuela’s acting president says Maduro remains country’s ‘legitimate’ leader

“I can tell you President Nicolás Maduro is the legitimate president,” Venezuela’s Delcy Rodriguez said in an NBC News interview.

With the comments, Rodriguez is continuing to make the case that last month’s U.S. operation to capture Maduro last was a violation of Venezuelan sovereignty even as the Trump administration says she’s cooperating with their effort to overhaul Venezuela’s vast oil industry.

U.S. forces whisked Maduro and his wife to New York to face drug conspiracy charges. Rodriguez in the interview said the Maduros are “innocent.”

Rodriguez met with Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Wednesday in Caracas.

GOP loses its advantage on immigration in new AP-NORC poll

A new AP-NORC poll also finds the Republican Party’s advantage on Trump’s signature political issue has shrunk since October.

About 3 in 10 U.S. adults trust Republicans to do a better job handling immigration, while a similar share say the same of Democrats. An additional 3 in 10, roughly, don’t think either party would do a better job handling the issue, and about 1 in 10 say both parties would handle it equally well.

In October, 39% of U.S. adults said they trusted the Republicans to better handle immigration, while 26% said that about the Democrats, giving the GOP a 13-point edge. In the new poll, the difference between the parties is only 4 points.

Most think Trump has ‘gone too far’ on immigration enforcement in cities, AP-NORC poll finds

About 6 in 10 U.S. adults say President Donald Trump has “gone too far” in sending federal immigration agents into U.S. cities, according to a new AP-NORC poll.

The new polling comes as the nation watches the human impact of Trump’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota, where thousands of heavily armed masked agents have descended upon the capital city to find and remove immigrants in the country illegally.

There have also been numerous violent clashes with protesters, including two U.S. citizens were killed by federal agents in recent weeks.

About 6 in 10 Americans also believe Trump has “gone too far” when it using federal law enforcement at public protests in U.S. cities, the poll found.