Somalian Immigrants

A preliminary CBP Office of Professional Responsibility review sent to Congress says two CBP officers—a Border Patrol agent and a CBP officer—fired during the encounter that killed Alex Pretti, noting an agent shouted “He’s got a gun!” and both fired seconds later, that a 9mm was later recovered from Pretti’s waistband, and that the report does not allege he brandished the weapon. CBS and other outlets report both officers have been placed on administrative leave and that Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino has been relieved of his Minneapolis command amid scrutiny and calls for independent review.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said firing DHS Secretary Kristi Noem would be "a start" but "not enough," calling DHS under the Trump administration a "killing machine" after the fatal ICE shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis and other recent vehicle‑related encounters (including a Portland shooting), and laying out demands — warrants for arrests, bans on masks, mandatory body cameras and criminal accountability — before Democrats will back the GOP DHS funding bill. The Minneapolis killing, disputed by local officials and captured on bystander video, has spurred nationwide "ICE Out For Good" protests, intensified calls for oversight and hearings, and prompted many Democrats to threaten to withhold funding unless statutory guardrails are enacted.

As Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino is reassigned and border czar Tom Homan takes over federal operations in Minneapolis, the agency’s large deployment and tactics have come under intense scrutiny after the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti — the second U.S. citizen killed in recent Minnesota federal actions — with bystander videos, local officials and DHS offering sharply conflicting accounts. Critics point to CBP’s documented history of excessive force and limited urban crowd‑control training amid a surge of protests, strikes and political condemnations, while DHS alleges agitators attacked agents, prompting calls for independent investigations and a pullback of the federal presence.

House Oversight Chair James Comer has scheduled a Jan. 7 hearing into Minnesota social‑services fraud and alleges Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison not only ignored but retaliated against whistleblowers who raised concerns, inviting both to testify and lining up state GOP legislators as witnesses; Comer says dozens have been charged (he cited 98 defendants, many reportedly Somali) and that state appointees suppressed fraud. Federal enforcement — including ICE executing warrants and DHS launching a "massive operation" while ICE probes possible criminal and overseas terrorist links — accompanies congressional and SBA scrutiny of as much as $9 billion in alleged abuse across daycare, Medicaid and food‑assistance programs, even as Ellison calls the hearing political and a private complainant has filed a state criminal complaint accusing Walz of daycare‑related misconduct.

A House panel has opened what it calls an "industrial‑scale" probe into Minnesota's Medicaid program, expanding scrutiny and warning that demands on Gov. Tim Walz are "just the beginning." Whistleblower Faye Bernstein, a 20‑year Minnesota DHS contract‑management and compliance official, says lax contracting and a lack of guardrails by 2018–2019 left the agency open to fraud and that she was silenced and sidelined after raising concerns—while internal 2024 emails show members of the public repeatedly warned DHS about suspected fraud; the agency says federal data put the state's Medicaid improper‑payment rate at about 2.1% versus 6.1% nationally and that it has strong internal controls it is working to improve.

ICE launched "Operation Catch of the Day" in Maine as part of a broader Trump-era crackdown, deploying roughly 200 federal agents to pursue about 1,400 targets — including many Somali, other African and Central American immigrants — and has arrested over 200 people amid growing fear, school absences and protests in Portland and Lewiston. Governor Janet Mills has demanded answers and urged President Trump to withdraw the agents, calling the tactics reckless, while DHS defends the sweep as targeting the "worst of the worst" and warns of prosecutions for obstruction even as court records and local officials show many arrestees had minor or no convictions.

Minnesota officials, led by Attorney General Keith Ellison, and House Judiciary Democrats are pressing the Justice Department for records and answers after DOJ lawyers reportedly told its Civil Rights Division not to investigate the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti during Operation Metro Surge and state investigators were blocked from evidence access. The lawmakers allege DOJ ordered investigative targeting of Good’s widow and unusually gave ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations lead responsibility in the Pretti case rather than an independent or FBI review—actions that coincided with the Minnesota BCA’s withdrawal from the Good probe and a federal order preserving evidence in Pretti’s case.

At a Minnesota event Vice President JD Vance said the state Department of Corrections was not among the “worst offenders” in cooperating with ICE, and DOC Commissioner Paul Schnell confirmed the agency routinely coordinates with ICE weeks before inmates’ release to arrange custody transfers. ICE deportation branch head Marcus Charles likewise acknowledged that Minnesota DOC notifies ICE of soon-to-be-released undocumented prisoners, while blaming county jails for often failing to honor ICE detainers.

President Trump demanded an immediate probe into Rep. Ilhan Omar’s finances and alleged political crimes after disclosures reportedly showed her net worth rose by more than $30 million, saying the investigation should start “NOW.” His call comes as House Oversight chair James Comer advances hearings into alleged widespread fraud in Minnesota—prompting DOJ, DHS and HHS enforcement surges, freezes on child‑care funds and the deployment of thousands of federal agents—while prosecutors have charged and convicted dozens in related cases and Omar and Minnesota Democrats say the federal response is politically motivated.

St. Paul’s mayor says members of the city’s Hmong community are sheltering indoors and “afraid to leave their homes” amid a recent surge in ICE activity. Reporting from the Twin Cities documents similar behavior — including a Minneapolis asylum‑seeker family who haven’t left their apartment for weeks — and pediatricians say many children are showing stress‑related symptoms, with some injured after exposure to tear gas and other chemical irritants at protests and near schools.

The 8th Circuit granted an administrative stay pausing U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez’s preliminary injunction — which barred federal agents in Minnesota from using pepper spray or nonlethal munitions on peaceful protesters, arresting peaceful protesters, or stopping or detaining drivers and passengers near protests without reasonable articulable suspicion — while the government pursues an appeal. The injunction, filed by the ACLU on behalf of six community members (one plaintiff, Susan Tincher, said she was handcuffed within 15 seconds of arriving and held for five hours), came amid deployment of thousands of federal agents to Minneapolis and has drawn political reactions, with Attorney General Pam Bondi calling the stay a victory and reports noting ICE guidance asserting broader force and entry authorities.

The Pentagon is recruiting military judge advocates for short‑term details to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota, after the Justice Department asked for additional attorneys to be sent to Minneapolis as Special Assistant U.S. Attorneys beginning in March, according to an internal request obtained by CBS News. DOJ is also in talks with the Pentagon to deploy forensic auditors to Minnesota to work on COVID‑era welfare‑fraud cases and serve as expert witnesses, while separately detailing civilian prosecutors from nearby districts in Iowa, Michigan, Nebraska, Wisconsin and the Dakotas to backfill an office that has lost about 10 AUSAs, including veterans of the 'Feeding Our Future' child‑nutrition fraud investigation. The surge comes as DOJ expands probes into what the Trump administration brands 'Somali‑fraud' in Minnesota social‑services programs and as Minneapolis hosts the largest DHS deployment in its history under Operation Metro Surge, combining immigration raids with welfare‑fraud enforcement. Multiple senior Minnesota prosecutors recently resigned, in part over DOJ leadership’s refusal to treat ICE agent Jonathan Ross’s fatal shooting of Renee Good as a civil‑rights case and reported pressure to investigate her widow instead, and FBI and Civil Rights Division attorneys have been ordered to stay away from the shooting. The unusual use of military lawyers and auditors inside a civilian U.S. attorney’s office, especially against the backdrop of an aggressive, politicized fraud narrative centered on Somali‑Americans and the sidelining of civil‑rights oversight, is already raising alarms among legal observers who see echoes of past efforts to blur the line between military and domestic justice.

President Trump says the media is overfocusing on ICE raids in Minnesota and underreporting what he calls a massive fraud scandal — repeating an $18 billion figure, linking alleged abuses to Minnesota’s Somali community and urging that the case be a template for probes in other states. Federal authorities have charged about 78 people in the Feeding Our Future child‑nutrition scheme (with more than 60 convictions or guilty pleas), noted meal‑claim growth from $3.4 million in 2019 to nearly $200 million in 2021, and prosecutors estimate up to $9 billion in broader social‑services fraud; the response has included CMS Medicaid audits and clawbacks, DHS worksite enforcement and a 30‑day HSI surge, DOJ prosecutorial deployments, a House Oversight hearing and federal funding freezes — actions critics warn risk stigmatizing the Somali community.

Minnesota police chiefs allege ICE and Border Patrol agents have "targeted" off‑duty officers of color during Operation Metro Surge, citing incidents in which officers were boxed in, ordered to produce proof of citizenship and, in one case, had a phone knocked from her hand while recording. Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt and St. Paul Police Chief Axel Henry called the stops civil‑rights violations that undermine community trust and urged greater oversight and vetting of the roughly 3,000 federal agents deployed, while a Border Patrol commander declined to address the Brooklyn Park incident and said agents will continue their Title 8 mission.

Video and medical records show masked, unmarked Border Patrol agents boxed in and repeatedly rammed a white van during an Oct. 23 Houston stop — injuring the driver’s 16‑year‑old U.S.‑citizen son, who was treated at a children’s trauma unit, while the seized phone later surfaced sold in a Walmart lot and DHS’s account that the driver rammed a federal vehicle conflicts with the footage, prompting a local probe. The incident arrives amid a broader Trump‑era escalation in interior enforcement — financed by GOP tax-and-spending changes that helped swell ICE ranks (to about 22,000) and fund billions for enforcement — as joint operations and pressure for mass deportations bring high‑risk tactics once used at the border into U.S. cities and stoke political and legal controversy.

The Trump administration’s Justice Department has asked a federal judge to reject Minnesota’s request for an injunction limiting Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in the state, arguing the move would amount to an 'unprecedented act of judicial overreach' and give the state an unconstitutional veto over federal law enforcement. In a Monday filing responding to Minnesota’s lawsuit, DOJ lawyers called the state’s theory 'legally frivolous' and an 'absurdity,' insisting the Tenth Amendment does not let states eject federal officers simply because they dislike current enforcement. Minnesota is seeking to block a massive ICE surge that has brought more than 2,000 federal immigration officers into the Twin Cities, which state officials say has terrorized communities, disrupted local policing and followed the fatal Jan. 13 shooting of 37‑year‑old Renee Good by an ICE agent in south Minneapolis. DOJ counters that ICE and other DHS personnel in and around Minneapolis are facing rising 'threats, violence, aggression, attacks, vehicle block‑ins, and obstruction,' framing the surge as both lawful and necessary in the face of what DHS says is a 1,300% increase in assaults on agents. The state has until Thursday to respond, setting up a fast‑moving test of how far federal courts are willing to go in refereeing clashes between a state government and an administration that is using an aggressive immigration crackdown as a centerpiece of its domestic agenda.

Masked ICE agents forced open the St. Paul home of ChongLy “Scott” Thao without a warrant, pointed guns at family members and led the longtime U.S. citizen outside in only underwear, sandals and a blanket in subfreezing temperatures as neighbors filmed and a 4‑year‑old cried. DHS called it a “targeted” operation aimed at two convicted sex offenders and said Thao matched a description and refused biometric checks, but his family disputes that anyone with such convictions lived there, state registry records show none at the address, and agents—after driving him to an undisclosed location to photograph him—allowed him to prove his citizenship and returned him home without apology.

A Minnesota home health owner has been charged in a yearslong Medicaid fraud scheme alleged to have cost about $3 million. The case is far smaller than the state's largest recent probe — the Feeding Our Future scandal, pegged at roughly $250 million and resulting in a jury conviction and multimillion-dollar forfeiture against organizer Bock, who has said she tried to root out fraud by terminating dozens of suspect sites, a claim critics say highlights missed warning signs by regulators.

Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego has called for ICE to be "totally torn down" and remade in the wake of the Minneapolis shooting of U.S. citizen Renee Nicole Good. Other Democrats, including Sen. Mark Warner, have also criticized ICE and the Biden administration’s handling of the border — with Warner claiming roughly 75% of ICE arrestees in Virginia have no criminal record — underscoring intra‑party debates over local cooperation with the agency after multiple controversial shootings.

Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., is preparing to introduce the Stop Citizenship Abuse and Misrepresentation (SCAM) Act, a White House-backed bill that would make it far easier for the federal government to strip naturalized Americans of citizenship for up to 10 years after they take the oath. The proposal creates a post‑naturalization window in which conviction for defrauding any level of U.S. government of $10,000 or more, committing espionage, an aggravated felony, or affiliating with a foreign terrorist organization would serve as automatic proof that the person never met the 'good moral character' requirement and can be denaturalized and deported. The bill includes a built‑in fallback: if courts strike down the 10‑year window as unconstitutional, it would automatically revert to a five‑year period rather than invalidating the whole law. Schmitt frames the measure as a response to the sprawling Minnesota social‑services fraud scandal—where prosecutors estimate up to $9 billion was stolen and some defendants are Somali immigrants—while senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller calls it a necessary response to what he labels the 'Somali fraud scandal.' Immigrant‑rights lawyers and some constitutional scholars have already warned in other forums that broad new denaturalization powers risk creating a second‑class form of citizenship for the foreign‑born, setting up a likely court fight if the bill advances.

Maine Gov. Janet Mills said in a Jan. 16 TV interview that she has received no confirmation or denial from the Trump administration about reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement could begin a major operation in Portland and Lewiston as soon as next week, but is preparing for the possibility after local mayors alerted residents. Mills, a former district attorney and attorney general, condemned Trump’s recent claim at the Detroit Economic Club that 'Somali scams' are happening in Maine, calling it unconstitutional and discriminatory to target an entire Somali‑American community over alleged misconduct by a few individuals. She stressed that the state is ready to investigate any substantiated fraud cases but warned that 'provocative' ICE tactics or sweeps that endanger civil rights and civil liberties 'are not welcome here,' contrasting Maine’s training standards for law enforcement with violent arrest videos emerging from Minnesota. The interview signals a looming confrontation between a Democratic governor and federal immigration agencies as Trump’s Minnesota‑style crackdown appears to expand to new states with sizable Somali‑American populations.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has opened a formal civil‑rights investigation into the city of Minneapolis, alleging that its housing policies unlawfully prioritize resources based on race and national origin in violation of the Fair Housing Act and Title VI. In a Thursday letter to Mayor Jacob Frey, HUD Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity Assistant Secretary Craig Trainor cited language in the city’s "Minneapolis 2040" comprehensive plan and its Strategic and Racial Equity Action Plan, including directives that the Community Planning and Economic Development department prioritize rental housing for Black, Indigenous, people of color and immigrant communities. HUD Secretary Scott Turner told Fox News the probe is tied to what he calls Minnesota’s "cynical game of racial and ethnic politics" and is being launched against the backdrop of a separate, sprawling fraud scandal in state‑administered social‑services programs. If HUD ultimately finds violations, Minneapolis could face requirements to change its housing plans or risk its federal funding, a warning shot for other jurisdictions that have built race‑conscious equity goals into housing and planning documents. The investigation puts federal muscle behind a long‑brewing legal fight over how far cities can go in explicitly race‑targeted housing policies while still taking HUD dollars.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced a tightened federal probe into Minnesota fraud, creating an IRS task force to investigate financial institutions tied to the Feeding Our Future case — including wire flows to banks in Kenya and China — and requiring all financial institutions in Hennepin and Ramsey counties to report overseas transfers of $3,000 or more while four Twin Cities businesses are under investigation. Bessent also unveiled cash rewards for whistleblowers and Attorney General Pam Bondi said she is sending federal prosecutors to Minnesota as the administration has frozen some federal funding streams amid ongoing legal challenges.

DHS and USCIS have launched Operation PARRIS (Post‑Admission Refugee Reverification and Integrity Strengthening), begun in mid‑December to reexamine roughly 5,600 refugees in Minnesota from 39 “countries of concern” named in Trump travel‑ban proclamations by conducting onsite reinterviews, background checks and document verification to determine whether refugee status should be maintained, revoked, or referred to ICE. The operation is tied to a sprawling Minnesota fraud probe into daycare, Medicaid and social‑services billing that federal officials say has produced dozens of criminal charges and convictions; DHS is also reviewing naturalization cases involving migrants from 19 countries for possible denaturalization, and the DOJ and some lawmakers have signaled further enforcement and legislative action.

Senior Minnesota federal prosecutors, including First Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson, were fired by the Department of Justice after a dispute over how to handle the federal probe into the shooting of an ICE officer; Thompson reportedly favored treating the incident as an assault/obstruction on a federal officer and opposed investigating the officer’s widow and possible co‑conspirators. Their removal also takes a lead off a major Minnesota welfare‑fraud investigation tied to alleged Somali‑run nonprofit schemes, prompting DOJ to send additional prosecutors and federal agents while Treasury and IRS units probe money‑movement and tax irregularities — a surge that Minnesota officials have criticized as politically driven and harmful to public trust.