Democratic lawmakers say ‘dramatic changes’ needed from DHS as negotiations continue
Speaking at the US Capitol today, Senate and House Democrats said that “dramatic changes” are needed at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as they continue their negotiations over a full-year appropriations bill
A reminder that Trump signed a stopgap spending measure on Tuesday that funds the DHS until 13 February while lawmakers hammer out guardrails.
The Senate’s top Democrat, Chuck Schumer, said that the party is also demanding the end of “roving patrols”, “independent oversight by state and local governments” and “no secret police”.
Democrats have pushed for the need of judicial warrants to conduct raids, a reduction in aggressive tactics, and for agents to not wear masks.
“You can’t just stop anybody on the street … and not even tell them why they’re picked up,” Schumer said today. He added that Democrats hope to get a legislative proposal together to submit “within the next 24 hours”.
Schumer said that he hopes Republicans in both chambers will negotiate in good faith, but they also need to get the White House “on board”.
Key events
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Here’s the full report:
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The US Bureau of Labor Statistics has said that January’s employment report will be released next Wednesday after being delayed by the three-day government shutdown, Reuters reports.
The BLS said the consumer price index report for January will now be published next Friday instead of on Wednesday; while the job openings and labor turnover survey report for December, which was due on Tuesday, will be released on Thursday this week.
Democratic lawmakers say ‘dramatic changes’ needed from DHS as negotiations continue
Speaking at the US Capitol today, Senate and House Democrats said that “dramatic changes” are needed at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as they continue their negotiations over a full-year appropriations bill
A reminder that Trump signed a stopgap spending measure on Tuesday that funds the DHS until 13 February while lawmakers hammer out guardrails.
The Senate’s top Democrat, Chuck Schumer, said that the party is also demanding the end of “roving patrols”, “independent oversight by state and local governments” and “no secret police”.
Democrats have pushed for the need of judicial warrants to conduct raids, a reduction in aggressive tactics, and for agents to not wear masks.
“You can’t just stop anybody on the street … and not even tell them why they’re picked up,” Schumer said today. He added that Democrats hope to get a legislative proposal together to submit “within the next 24 hours”.
Schumer said that he hopes Republicans in both chambers will negotiate in good faith, but they also need to get the White House “on board”.
Jeremy Barr
The Washington Post laid off hundreds of employees on Wednesday, which its former executive editor said “ranks among the darkest days” in the newspaper’s history. Approximately one-third of employees were affected.
Staffers at the Post have been on edge for weeks about the rumored cuts, which the publication would not confirm or deny. “It’s an absolute bloodbath,” said one employee who was not authorized to speak publicly.
During the meeting, editor in chief Matt Murray told employees that the Post was undergoing a “strategic reset” to better position the publication for the future, according to several employees who were on the call.
“Today, the Washington Post is taking a number of actions across the company to secure our future,” he said, according to an audio recording of the meeting.
Over the past week, Post employees had been urging owner Jeff Bezos to stop – or at least soften – the planned cuts, signing letters and sending personalized messages on social media that conveyed the importance of the journalism the Post produces.
But Bezos has remained silent, and did not respond to a series of letters sent by staffers representing the newspaper’s foreign, local and White House reporting teams.
On Monday, though, he was there in person to warmly greet Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, on a tour of another one of the companies he owns, his Blue Origin spaceflight startup in Florida.
Read Jeremy’s full report here:
Trump touts ‘extremely good’ relationship with Xi Jinping following ‘excellent’ phone call
Donald Trump touted his “extremely good” relationship with Xi Jinping of China, after an “excellent” phone call today.
“It was a long and thorough call, where many important subjects were discussed,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social, before rattling off several topics from trade to the his upcoming trip to China in April.
Trump also noted that the pair discussed “lifting the Soybean count to 20 Million Tons for the current season”, after China significantly reduced their purchases of the crop last year.
“The relationship with China, and my personal relationship with President Xi, is an extremely good one, and we both realize how important it is to keep it that way. I believe that there will be many positive results achieved over the next three years of my Presidency,” Trump added.
As my colleague Pjotr Sauer reports, Ukrainian and Russian negotiators kicked off a second round of US-led peace talks in Abu Dhabi, in an attempt to end the nearly four-year war in Ukraine.
The two-day trilateral talks starting on Wednesday come after Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of exploiting a US-backed energy truce last week to stockpile weapons before launching a record number of ballistic missile attacks at Ukraine on Tuesday.
“Taking advantage of the coldest days of winter to terrorise people is more important to Russia than turning to diplomacy,” Zelenskyy wrote after the attacks, urging western governments to denounce the strikes.
Donald Trump said later on Tuesday that Vladimir Putin had “kept his word” on the ceasefire, adding that Russia’s pause in attacks was only meant to last until Sunday.
US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, have travelled to Abu Dhabi for the negotiations.
When it comes to protests, Homan noted that 158 people have been arrested for “assaulting, impeding, interfering” with immigration officers in Minnesota.
Homan said he’s had “frank, honest discussions” with the state’s governor, Tim Walz; Minneapolis’s mayor, Jacob Frey; and the state attorney general, Keith Ellison, while noting they “don’t agree on everything”.
He urged them to “ask for calm in the community and to end the resistance, the impediment, the interference” of federal law enforcement.
As I noted earlier, Homan was deployed to Minneapolis by Donald Trump to replace senior border patrol official Gregory Bovino. Backlash to Bovino’s handling of the immigration crackdown in the Twin Cities spread nationwide – with hundreds of protests in response to the use of deadly force by officers.
Today, Homan tried to mitigate any speculation about his takeover. “I brought a different set of eyes on this. I’ve done this for a long time,” he said. “I’m not going to sit and point fingers at anybody that they failed, because it was a great operation. We took a lot of public safety threats off the street.”
Homan added: “President Trump sent me here to help de-escalate. We’re not walking away from our mission … This is smart law enforcement. Smart law enforcement makes us safer.”
Another note from today’s press conference in Minneapolis, Homan said that all Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) officers in Minnesota will integrate with the ICE team on the ground to form “one unified chain of command”.
A reminder that ICE and CBP are separate agencies that fall under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Experts note that CBP officers have a different remit, particularly when carrying out their roles for interior immigration enforcement. They are, by definition, carrying out less targeted operations that are normally focused on profiling people who have made illegal border crossings. ICE, however, generally homes in on specific people in a particular area.
Homan reiterated his threat that while those with criminal convictions are the target of the operation, any undocumented immigrant could be apprehended. “Just because you prioritize public safety threats don’t mean we forget about everybody else,” he said.
Homan says ‘around 2000’ immigration officers remain in Minnesota
Tom Homan said that “around 2000” immigration officers remain in Minnesota after today’s most recent drawdown announcement.
He added that the pre-operation number was between 100 and 150 officers.
Homan elaborated on his ask of county jails. Namely, asking local officials to notify Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) when an undocumented immigrant who has been booked and arrested is released from jail. Homan said this would mean “the need for less law enforcement officers to do this work in a safer environment”.
However, legal experts and immigrant rights advocates told the Guardian that if counties cooperate with ICE, it can erode trust between police and immigrant communities, and lead to fewer people reporting crimes.
Homan says administration is drawing down 700 immigration enforcement officers
Speaking to reporters today, Tom Homan said that the Trump administration will draw down 700 immigration enforcement officers. He said this was as a result of increased coordination between county jails and federal officials.
“This frees up more officers to arrest or remove criminal aliens, more officers taking custody of criminal aliens directly from the jails, means less officers on the street doing criminal operations,” Homan said.
Notably, Homan has not confirmed which sheriffs have agreed to this increased coordination with federal immigration enforcement.
A reminder, the Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) already facilitate transfers of people who have completed felony sentences in state prisons, when federal agents are present to take custody. But DOC does not operate county jails – where most immigration encounters occur – and many sheriffs across the state choose not to work with ICE.
In Minneapolis, for example, Hennepin County does not notify federal immigration authorities when undocumented immigrants are booked or arrested, and is barred under state law from honoring requests to hold someone past their release time so immigration officers can take custody – known as ICE detainers.
Homan, however, said that he was “not requiring jails to hold people past their normal release time for immigration purposes” while addressing reporters today.
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