"They are trying to take dollars that local agencies have been depending on for years and saying, 'Oh, well, if you want these dollars, then you need to help us out with our immigration enforcement work." - Tahir Duckett, of CICS at Georgetown Law www.npr.org/2026/06/18/n...

Breaking News: A judge quashed the Justice Dept.’s subpoenas to Minnesota Democrats, including Gov. Tim Walz, finding that the Trump administration engaged in a politically motivated and improper use of the grand jury process over immigration policy.

A government document outlines plans to give local police working with ICE a facial recognition app. Every photo is stored for 15 years, regardless of whether there is an immigration violation. That suggests a long-term record of citizens and immigrants alike. www.npr.org/2026/06/19/n...

Today, the Star Tribune is set to announce buyouts and layoffs that will shrink the newsroom by 15% Good stewardship of the Strib is a big reason the Twin Cities is a vibrant media market. The staff cuts are a reminder: There's no law that says we'll remain that way. www.axios.com/local/twin-c...

Federal officials Tuesday said a grand jury indicted the 15 “for conspiracy to impede or injure federal officers,” and for efforts to allegedly “violently oppose immigration law enforcement.” Officials, however, declined to provide details about the specific acts that led to the charges.

“In a previously unpublicized letter sent to members of Congress in April, recently departed acting ICE director Todd Lyons acknowledged the agency gives itself wide latitude to collect information on individuals ...” www.npr.org/2026/06/10/n...

1 in 3 people in ICE detention are in GEO Group facilities. In 2025, its profits rose nearly 700% increase from the year before. "Last year was the most successful period for new business wins in our company's history." - CEO George Zoley on their latest earnings call. www.npr.org/2026/06/03/n...

“Roughly three-quarters of those children… are likely U.S. citizens”

No but like seriously everyone go pay for journalism. Pay NPR or if not us pay someone else. Just please pay someone or else seriously all these big ships are going to keep slowwwwwwly sinking.

ICE is promising local police a lot to work with them: new cars, reimbursed salaries, even bonuses for finding undocumented people. If every police agency gets what it’s been promised, a recent report estimated it could add up to $2 billion in 2026 alone. www.npr.org/2026/05/05/n...

Pulitzer-worthy reporting here from Minnesota immigrant news @sahanjournal.bsky.social. 70+ children detained during Operation MetroSurge. 30 sent to Dilley. Two dozen held >20 days, a Flores violation. 7 still detained as of March 10. ~20 have been deported. sahanjournal.com/immigration/...

Messages sent to the FBI by an investigator with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension went ignored for at least two days, per records obtained by @wired.com.

The technology ICE has "uses what is known as 'zero click' technology so that it can gain access to encrypted messages on a targeted device even if the user never clicks on a link," via @jjoffeblock.bsky.social www.npr.org/2026/04/07/n...

Essential reading from @sergiomarbel.bsky.social on conditions at a deadly ICE detention center in El Paso, including the account of a man who said he talked three people out of killing themselves while there. www.npr.org/2026/04/03/n...

"With the federal government refusing to identify agents or share evidence, the dispute has become a game of constitutional chicken over states’ rights versus federal immunity ..." by Andy Mannix / @propublica.org

NPR spent time inside a Minnesota school talking with educators, parents, and children as it tries to help kids feel safe again after the ICE surge.

"NPR found five other people in Illinois, Oregon and Minnesota who...said they were arrested, seemingly without provocation, while protesting ICE and then had officers take or try to take what appeared to be a sample of their DNA." www.npr.org/2026/03/18/n...

People arrested while protesting ICE say federal agents took samples of their DNA. It's legal, but experts say the practice raises questions about what the government is doing with that genetic data. n.pr/4lyzEDy

ICE is taking DNA from protesters they arrest. The feds CAN do this, but legal experts say it's concerning: "What are the charges they're facing if it's civil immigration authorities doing what seems to be unlawful interference with First Amendment rights?" www.npr.org/2026/03/18/n...

41 people have died in ICE detention since the start of the second Trump administration. 12 of those deaths have occurred since January 1, 2026, roughly one every six days. Adam Sawyer and I mapped every death. Here's what the data shows. 🧵

"I wish I could leave before the spelling bee" is absolutely gutting

A Minneapolis woman who opposed ICE woke up to a drone outside her second floor bedroom window. A man delivering groceries to a suburban distro house for mutual aid recorded a drone hovering above the house. Whose drones and why? (1) www.mprnews.org/story/2026/0...

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE and Border Patrol, is using a broad web of surveillance tools to monitor, apprehend and intimidate the people it seeks to deport and the U.S. citizens critical of its policies. n.pr/4sig14N

The artists started “Landscapes of Grief,” a project to create altars where federal agents have killed or taken Minnesotans... Anyone is welcome to leave a written or audio offering sharing a memory or story “to honor what, and who, we’ve lost..." www.mprnews.org/story/2026/0...

Reported a story with Kat Lonsdorf and @jjoffeblock.bsky.social, laying out the ways in which ICE and DHS are using a broad set of tech tools to monitor, apprehend and intimidate both the people it seeks to deport and the U.S. citizens critical of its policies. www.npr.org/2026/03/04/n...

The use of a chemical irritant by Greg Bovino is among 17 instances of “potential unlawful behavior” by federal agents in Minnesota currently being investigated for criminal charges, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said.

After a surge in December and January, ICE and Border Patrol have rapidly drawn down the number of federal agents, with fewer than 1,000 left in Minnesota, according to new court filings. By Andrew Hazzard

"In Chicago, of 92 people arrested for assaulting or impeding officers last fall, 74 cases have resulted in no charges; in 13 cases, charges were filed and dismissed; and five charged cases were still pending. . . there have been no convictions. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Dozens of people in the Twin Cities have been told by immigration agents they are commiting a federal crime by observing them. They're not. www.npr.org/2026/02/18/n...

hello minnesota and beyond! thank you for your kind messages. it is very weird to be the news when you cover the news. i love this beautiful state and journalism, and i am hopeful for better days. but we will be forever changed bc of the last two months.

I'm pretty proud of this poem I made out of the euphemisms that companies used to describe the ICE occupation in corporate communications. Also read the whole story: racketmn.com/corporate-co...

“All along the way, the community has stepped up with our whistles, with our cell phones and with our bodies to defend our neighbors,” Communities United Against Police Brutality president Michelle Gross said. “But what do we see from our public officials? They have utterly failed us.”

Super Bowl viewers Sunday speculated that 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos appeared in the halftime show. In fact, he has been in hiding with his family. “He can’t sleep well at night. He wakes up three or four times a night screaming, ‘Daddy, Daddy,’” Liam's father Adrian Conejo Arias, said.

BONUS RULING: Judge Thomas Johnston, a George W. Bush appoiintee in West Virginia, used a recent ruling to warn of the dangers of defying due process for immigrants because of what it could also mean for Americans. It's worth a read. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Nine-year-old Maria Antonia Guerra, from Colombia, drew a portrait of herself and her mother wearing their detainee ID badges. A note on the side said, “I am not happy, please get me out of here.” www.propublica.org/article/life...

ICE told nurses this Minneapolis man “purposefully ran headfirst into a brick wall.” What actually happened is that they pulled him from a car, beat him so viciously with a steel baton that he had 8 skull fractures, 5 life-threatening brain hemorrhages, and couldn’t remember he had a daughter.

One reason Minneapolis remains in the world's eye is we have one of the most robust & independent media ecosystems remaining in the country. You all need this...and more! @mprnews.org @startribune.com @sahanjournal.bsky.social @minnesotareformer.com @minnpost.bsky.social @racketmn.com etc.

Two Venezuelan men who were charged with assaulting a federal immigration agent in the north Minneapolis ICE shooting last month were re-detained after a judge ordered them to be released on Tuesday.

Heartstopping @ericmgarcia.bsky.social interview with Minneapolis detainee Aliya Rahman, an #autistic woman with a traumatic brain injury. Gets to the heart of how so many people here get labeled 'agitator' or 'domestic terrorist' for something as benign as turning onto the wrong street.

“If I am killed doing this, throw my body at the White House, martyr the shit out of me & raise hell. Do not be sad. Do not think I would do anything differently. I would do it over & over again — this is too important to sit down & shut up and not do anything.” www.mprnews.org/story/2026/0...

Additional context: There were ~2,000 immigration agents in Minnesota when Renee Good was killed. A few days after, they added an ~1,000 agents. So, a 700 drawdown is a de-escalation from an escalation, and leaves the state with a higher amount of federal officers than the original surge number.

Martinez: "[I] sat in federal court and watched from 20 feet away as the border patrol agent who attempted to kill me testified at a hearing. Agent Charles Exum—Charles Exum, my attempted executioner was Charles Exum—I hope the government does not consider my use of his name here to be...doxxing."

I interviewed a man who ran out of his restaurant when ICE officers surrounded his wife, to show ICE their passports. The officers told him: "Next time she should carry that all the time, because if she doesn't have proof of citizenship we're going to arrest her" www.npr.org/2026/02/01/n...

"MPR News has learned that the police chief in the small southern Minnesota city of St. Peter intervened Thursday afternoon to prevent federal immigration agents from arresting a local resident" who had been observing federal agents. www.mprnews.org/story/2026/0...

Did a ride along this week with Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara. It’s a bit unusual for us to do a story where we focus on one person, but the tension between local police and ICE is so central to what’s happening in the city, that it felt worth to sit with that. www.npr.org/2026/01/31/n...

In Minneapolis, they are starting to *wear their passports at all times* www.nytimes.com/2026/01/31/u...

Really enjoyed chatting with @geedee215.bsky.social about how crime is often used as a justification for many of the Trump administration's policies, including the ICE operation here in Minnesota, despite the fact that crime nationwide is at a historic low. www.npr.org/2026/01/31/n...

As I said on NPR this morning, @mprnews.org Minnesota Public Radio has done a fantastic job all month—has it only been a month?—covering the hardest of stories and often informing the whole country through reports heard on NPR.

Breaking on MS NOW: Career DOJ prosecutors in both Minnesota and Los Angeles refused to be involved in charging Don Lemon and the other journalists who covered the Minneapolis church protests. The prosecutors believe the evidence does not support the charges, per @carolleonnig.bsky.social.