100 clergy members arrested at Minneapolis airport amid protests over ICE immigration surge – live | US immigration

Nekima Levy Armstrong and Chauntyll Allen, two activists who had been arrested and charged for his or her function in an anti-ICE demonstration that disrupted church providers in St Paul, Minnesota, on Sunday, had been launched on Friday.

Video of the 2 ladies rising from detention posted online confirmed them elevating their fists and embracing their family members. “Thanks all for being right here,” Levy Armstrong mentioned. “Glory to God!”

A federal choose ordered their release, ruling that the federal government had failed “to satisfy its burden to reveal {that a} detention listening to is warranted, or that detention is in any other case acceptable”.

On Thursday, the White Home was caught posting a digitally altered image of Levy Armstrong’s arrest on social media, which had been manipulated to falsely painting her as crying, and to darken her pores and skin.

The deception was shortly uncovered by the Guardian and different information retailers, partly as a result of the homeland safety secretary, Kristi Noem, had earlier posted the unique picture which confirmed Levy Armstrong wanting composed.

On Friday, the Associated Press reports, Levy Armstrong launched video of her arrest recorded by her husband, Marques Armstrong, which additional revealed the extent to which the White Home had distorted actuality to manufacture propaganda meant to embarrass the activist.

In keeping with a transcription of the video by the AP, Levy Armstrong had even requested the brokers why they had been recording her detention.

“I’m asking you to please deal with me with dignity and respect,” she mentioned to the brokers.

“We’ve to place you in handcuffs,” one agent mentioned, whereas one other held up a cellphone and appeared to file a video.

“Why are you recording?” Levy Armstrong requested. “I’d ask that you just not file.”

“It’s not going to be on Twitter,” the agent filming mentioned. “It’s not going to be on something like that.”

“We don’t wish to create a false narrative,” the agent mentioned.

At no level within the greater than seven-minute video – which exhibits Levy Armstrong being handcuffed and led right into a authorities car – did Levy Armstrong seem to cry. As a substitute, she talked with brokers about her arrest.

“You already know that it is a important abuse of energy,” she mentioned. “As a result of I refuse to be silent within the face of brutality from ICE.”

“I’m not in right here to get in a political debate,” the agent filming mentioned.

In a social media post, accompanied by video, the US navy’s Southern Command simply introduced that it had carried out “a deadly kinetic strike” on a ship suspected of carrying medication.

Two of three folks within the boat, in keeping with the US army, “had been killed and one survived the strike”. The US Coast Guard was alerted to seek for the survivor, the Pentagon mentioned.

Within the final 4 months of 2025, the Pentagon introduced 35 such strikes, killing no less than 123 folks.

Video and photographs posted on social media present that hundreds of anti-ICE protesters in Minneapolis have poured into the Goal Middle, the world that’s house to the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves, for a rally scheduled to start shortly.

Among the pictures present that the massive overhead display that hangs above the basketball court docket has the phrases “ICE Out of Minnesota” spelled out in big letters.

Two weeks in the past, the identical display was used to point out photographs of a memorial for Renee Good, the Minneapolis girl killed by an ICE agent, when the NBA crew hosted a pre-game a second of silence for her.

Whereas the usage of the Goal Middle, and a web-based sign-up listing for the rally, has been criticized by some activists outdoors town, because the retailer that pays for the naming rights has been the topic of a boycott over its failure to dam federal immigration brokers from its parking heaps and shops, protesters within the metropolis cited the necessity for a heat place to carry the rally on a freezing chilly day.

“Folks out right here chasing ICE vehicles round all day advising folks not to join a ticket to the Goal Middle to allow them to go heat their toes after protesting in -20, as a result of what if the feds get the signup listing? Guys! The chilly is extra harmful than the feds for protesters!” the activist Will Stancil wrote on Bluesky.

The picture of Liam Ramos, a five-year-old preschooler in Minneapolis being detained by ICE agents this week, and allegedly used “as bait” to attempt to lure different members of his family, has reverberated nationwide.

On Friday, one protester within the massive anti-ICE march making its means by means of the streets of town, held up a handmade poster with a drawing of the younger boy’s blue bobbled winter hat above the phrases: “Don’t Look Away”.

Whereas Donald Trump has no public occasions on his schedule immediately – the White Home steering for the media informs us that later this afternoon “THE PRESIDENT participates in coverage time”, which seems like, “executive time”, the euphemism his first time period employees used to explain his hours of watching tv – the president has been busy pursuing his new grudge towards the nation of Canada on social media.

“Canada is towards The Golden Dome being constructed over Greenland, although The Golden Dome would shield Canada,” Trump posted this afternoon. “As a substitute, they voted in favor of doing enterprise with China, who will ‘eat them up’ throughout the first yr!” he added.

Like lots of Trump’s feedback, it takes an unhealthy familiarity with is shorthand and obsessions to unpack this remark from the president of america.

The “Golden Dome” is Trump’s hyper-Trumpy title for a whimsical missile protection defend he hopes to construct to intercept missiles that may very well be launched on the US from China, Russia or North Korea, regardless of his shut private relationships with the despots ruling all three nations.

Like Trump’s slogan “Make America nice once more”, the idea of such a system, designed to guard the US even from weapons fired from area, appears to be borrowed from a earlier Republican president, Ronald Reagan, whose Strategic Protection Initiative was higher often called Star Wars.

Trump allegedly needs to take management of Greenland due to the important thing function that territory would play as a base for intercepting missiles aimed on the US.

Canada, which already participates within the present system for defending North America, by means of the North American Aerospace Protection Command (Norad), had beforehand expressed no less than some curiosity in participating within the new dome, ought to it transfer from fantasy to actuality.

The Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, mentioned in Could that participation had been mentioned at a excessive stage with US officers because the menace from missiles that “within the not too distant future, might come from area”, was one Canada took critically.

“We’re acutely aware that we now have a capability, if we so select, to finish the Golden Dome with investments and partnership, and it’s one thing that we’re ,” Carney informed the state broadcaster CBC on the time.

However then, this week, Carney mentioned in a blistering speech at Davos that, in gentle of Trump’s threats to annex Greenland, and, presumably, Canada, his nation and others wanted to simply accept that “a rupture” within the international order overseen by the US was going down, they usually would possibly have to fend for themselves.

That speech, and Canada’s resolution to extend commerce in electrical automobiles with China, now that Trump’s tariffs have shattered Canada’s frequent auto trade with the US, aggravated Trump sufficient that he spent a part of his largely free day attacking Canada on social media.

We’re getting extra footage from the demonstration in downtown Minneapolis immediately, the place lots of of outlets, eating places and companies shut their doorways in solidarity with these protesting the federal immigration surge all through Minnesota. A reminder, this comes greater than two weeks after the deadly taking pictures of Renee Good by an ICE agent.

Gregory Bovino, a senior border patrol official, mentioned that the five-year-old who was taken into custody on Tuesday as he and his father arrived house from preschool within the Minneapolis suburb.

“That youngster is within the least restrictive setting attainable,” he mentioned of Liam Ramos at a press convention in Minneapolis immediately. Bovino added that Liam and his father, had not been separated, and each had been at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Texas.

Earlier this week, we introduced you the information that the Division of Homeland Safety had began a immigration crackdown in Maine, dubbed ‘Operation Catch of the Day’. Talking to Fox Information, Patricia Hyde, deputy assistant director of ICE, mentioned the company has compiled an inventory of 1,400 people in Maine it intends to focus on.

In a press release to the Guardian on Friday, DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin mentioned ICE brokers had already arrested “greater than 100 unlawful aliens” because the operation started. The division mentioned a few of these taken into custody are “the worst of the worst” and have been “charged and convicted of horrific crimes,” however highlighted the identical 4 examples it launched earlier within the week.

Immigrant rights teams have been on alert as ICE concentrates its operation on Maine’s two largest cities, Portland and Lewiston. Organizers say brokers have been focusing on African nationals from Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Angola, lots of them asylees who’ve made the coastal state house in latest many years.

On Wednesday, an area ICE sighting hotline – organized and run by Maine Immigrant Rights Coalition – said they obtained greater than 1,100 names, a 35% enhance in calls from the day gone by. Immigrants in Maine solely signify about 4% of the state’s whole inhabitants, most of whom have authorized standing to reside and work within the US, in keeping with a recent report by the Migration Coverage Institute.

At a press convention in Portland on Thursday, Janet Mills, the state’s Democratic governor, mentioned the Trump administration has not returned her calls because the operation started. She added that her workplace has obtained experiences of individuals with no felony file being detained and urged homeland safety to be clear in its actions, saying she can be “shocked” if federal legislation enforcement situated 1,400 people with felony backgrounds.

“If they’ve warrants, present the warrants,” she mentioned. “We don’t consider in secret arrests or secret police.”

Mills additionally described widespread concern in faculties, workplaces, and companies which can be shedding workers who’ve both been detained or usually are not displaying up, regardless of residing within the state legally.

Earlier this week, a video by 28-year-old Crisitan Vaca – an Ecuadoran immigrant residing in Maine with legitimate immigration standing – went viral on-line. Within the footage, federal brokers seem outdoors Vaca’s house in Biddeford, 18 miles south of Portland, the place he lives together with his spouse and younger son. In an interview with the Related Press in Spanish by means of a translator, Vaca mentioned that he approached the officers after they had been taking footage outdoors his home.

When Vaca refused to go outdoors, the video shows one of many brokers telling him that they’ll “come again on your entire household” by means of Vaca’s display door.

“I’ve been on this nation since September 2023,” Vaca, who works as a roofer, informed the AP. “I’ve immigration standing … the choose postponed my court docket date to a different day. Now I’ve a brand new court docket date. I’ve my work allow. I’ve my social safety quantity [sic].”

Native authorities additionally decried the scope of the federal immigration dragnet this week. Cumberland County sheriff Kevin Joyce mentioned that on Wednesday night one among his corrections officer recruits was arrested by ICE brokers. “That is a person that had permission to be working within the state of Maine. We vetted him,” the sheriff mentioned of the unnamed recruit. Joyce was one among greater than 100 nationwide sheriffs who met with Trump’s border czar Tom Homan final yr. “The ebook and the film don’t line up,” he informed reporters on Thursday. “We’re being informed one story, which is completely totally different than what’s occurring.”

In keeping with the Immigrant Authorized Advocacy Venture (ILAP), Maine’s solely statewide immigration authorized providers group, they’ve obtained a number of fearful calls because the crackdown continues. This features a pregnant girl who reached out to ILAP as a result of she was “terrified to depart her house to go to a medical appointment”. One other particular person known as and mentioned somebody had “pulled the hearth alarm in her constructing, desperately attempting to avoid wasting folks from ICE”. ILAP mentioned that they obtained experiences of academics escorting immigrant kids house from college who had brokers observe them and push their means into an house constructing foyer.

“It’s clear the general operation is something however focused,” mentioned Sue Roche, the group’s govt director. “Individuals are being racially profiled on the streets and of their vehicles. As is their playbook, ICE is doing every thing they’ll to inflict most cruelty and chaos.”

ILAP additionally famous that they’re seeing arrested folks transferred out of the state to detention amenities in New England. DHS didn’t reply to Guardian’s request for remark about the place detainees are being held since Maine doesn’t have a devoted immigration detention facility.

In Lewiston, it’s “exhausting to overstate the extent of concern throughout the group” in keeping with Democratic congressional candidate Jordan Wooden, who’s working to exchange outgoing US consultant Jared Golden. “I’ve heard that as many as 20% of scholars at sure faculties didn’t present up,” Wooden, who was born, raised and lives within the space, informed the Guardian.

He added that the group response to the ICE surge – from making certain immigrants know their rights to sharing the place brokers have been noticed – has been massively encouraging. “It’s essential to simply know the group that that they’re coming after received’t stand idly by whereas our neighbors are terrorized,” Wooden mentioned.

At her press convention in Portland, Mills nonetheless wished extra details about the choice to focus on the Pine Tree State. “Why Maine? Why now? What had been the orders that got here from above? Who’s giving the orders?,” she mentioned, including that state officers have reached out to the Trump administration however nonetheless “don’t have any solutions”.

We’re getting an replace that 100 clergy members had been arrested whereas protesting federal immigration enforcement outdoors Minneapolis-St Paul worldwide airport immediately. They had been arrested by members of the airport employees and native legislation enforcement, in keeping with organizers.

They added that the religion leaders “prayed collectively, sang songs and hymns, and shared tales of those that have been kidnapped by ICE whereas at work or commuting to and from the airport” in an effort to name on airways firms – notably Delta and Signature Aviation – to “stand with Minnesotans in calling for ICE to right away finish its surge within the state”.

‘You’ve an ally within the White Home,’ Vance tells anti-abortion protesters

Carter Sherman

Reporting from the March for Life

Hundreds of anti-abortion activists poured on to the Nationwide Mall for the most important annual anti-abortion gathering within the US.

“You’ve an ally within the White Home,” Vice-President JD Vance informed the marchers in his speech.

Vance rattled off various anti-abortion insurance policies enacted by Trump administration, together with its resolution to pardon individuals who had been convicted for blockading clinics, banning the use of fetal tissue from abortions in some government research and expanding the so-called Mexico City policy, which bans teams from receiving international help if they supply abortions or promote the suitable to the process abroad.

Whereas anti-abortion activists applauded these actions, they’ve grown more and more disenchanted with the Trump administration over the past yr. Abortion foes had hoped the administration would implement the Comstock Act, a Nineteenth-century legislation that, if enforced, might lead to a de facto nationwide abortion ban. They’d additionally hoped that the administration would transfer to curtail entry to abortion drugs, which have develop into a serious avenue of abortion entry within the years because the US supreme court docket overturned Roe v Wade.

Nevertheless, the administration has not taken significant motion on both concern. Trump has additionally repeatedly backed away from opposing abortion rights. Most People help a point of entry to the process.

“I have to handle an elephant within the room,” Vance mentioned. “A concern that a few of you could have that not sufficient progress has been made, that not sufficient has occurred within the political area, that we’re not going far sufficient, that our politics has did not reply the clarion name to life that this march represents.”

He added: “I hear you, and I perceive.”

Vance additionally celebrated his spouse Usha’s new being pregnant, suggesting that he had talked her into it.

“Let the file present: You’ve a vice-president who practices what he preaches,” he mentioned. “Usha and I introduced this week that we expect our fourth and it will likely be our third child boy, so we’ll take no matter prayers you may give.”

We’re getting various footage from the nationwide March for Life in DC. Regardless of the district getting ready for extreme winter climate, hundreds of anti-abortion demonstrators gathered within the district. Earlier, Vice-President JD Vance addressed the crowds.

CNN has spoken to the Columbia Heights, Minnesota, college district superintendent Zena Stenvik about ICE’s detention of 4 college students within the metropolis, together with five-year-old Liam Ramos.

A reminder that Liam was taken into custody on Tuesday as he and his father arrived house from preschool within the Minneapolis suburb. In keeping with college officers, an ICE agent used the kid to knock on the household’s entrance door to find out if anybody else was inside, earlier than detaining father and son. They had been later transported to Texas.

Stevnik described arriving to the scene to folks crying on the street who informed her the kid had been taken. The daddy’s automotive was additionally nonetheless working, she informed CNN, contradicting claims from homeland security that he had tried to flee on foot and deserted Liam. Stevnik additionally mentioned that one other grownup on the house had pleaded to maintain Liam however was denied.

Vice-president JD Vance has defended ICE’s detainment of Liam, claiming the kid would’ve been left to “freeze to demise” if he wasn’t taken together with his dad. Requested if the kid would’ve been deserted and left outdoors, Stevnik mentioned, “Not an opportunity.” She informed CNN she spoke to Liam’s mom, the college board chair and neighbors near the household, all of whom wished to take him.

I entered the house and the mom was distraught. She wished Liam, she wished to open the door. And I can’t even think about as a mom myself how conflicted she will need to have been. That is what she informed me, seeing her husband standing within the driveway in handcuffs saying, don’t open the door and in addition listening to her baby.

And she might see the ICE agent standing there on the door. So, I – I simply can’t think about as a mom what she was going by means of. It was heartbreaking for me to listen to her. And she or he appeared up at me and – and mentioned, I don’t perceive what’s occurring. We’re not criminals. And as our – because the household’s lawyer said yesterday, they’ve adopted every thing that they’ve wanted to do by way of the authorized processes.

Stevnik went on:

Right here within the Twin Cities proper now, it’s fairly frequent that individuals are not opening their doorways as a result of as soon as anybody cracks open their door, the ICE brokers are bursting by means of and even breaking doorways down. So, that’s the conduct that we’re seeing. So, that’s the one conduct that we are able to assume would have occurred.

Marc Prokosch, an lawyer representing the household, has mentioned the Ramos household had adopted correct authorized procedures. They have an active asylum case and entered the US at an official port of entry, he mentioned.

The household did every thing they had been imagined to in accordance with how the principles have been set out. They didn’t come right here illegally. They aren’t criminals.

Extra on this story right here:

FBI director Kash Patel has carried out one other purge of discipline workplace leaders and senior brokers linked to the 2 felony investigations of Donald Trump, MS NOW reports citing a number of folks briefed on the matter.

Whereas the precise quantity ousted is unclear, two folks acquainted with the matter informed MS NOW that the particular agent in cost in Atlanta has been eliminated, as has the performing assistant director accountable for the New York discipline workplace and a former particular agent in cost in New Orleans.

What’s extra, two folks mentioned that as many as six brokers in Miami had been pressured out over their connection to the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago, and different brokers pushed out had been concerned within the “Arctic Frost” investigation of Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election.