Two days after a man was shot and killed by a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Minneapolis, the White House defended its immigration crackdown in the city and again called for local law enforcement cooperation.
“Nobody in the White House, including President (Donald) Trump, wants to see people getting hurt or killed in America’s streets,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a news briefing Monday, where she blamed “deliberate and hostile resistance by Democrat leaders in Minnesota” for Alex Pretti’s killing before laying out Trump’s three-point plan to alleviate tensions that have led to ongoing immigration enforcement protests and violent clashes with federal authorities.
The plan calls for Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and other Democratic leaders to turn over all criminal undocumented immigrants that are currently incarcerated in their prisons and jails to federal authorities.
—Spectrum News' Susan Carpenter
A federal judge heard arguments Monday over Minnesota's challenge to the Trump administration's immigration enforcement crackdown, posing skeptical questions to both sides about the effort that has led to two fatal shootings by federal officers.
U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez is considering whether to grant requests by the state and the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul to temporarily halt the immigration operation. She said the case was a priority, though she issued no immediate ruling.
Lawyers for the state and the Twin Cities argued that the situation on the street is so dire as to require the court to halt the federal government's enforcement actions. Brantley Mayers, counsel to the Justice Department's assistant attorney general, said the government's goal is to enforce federal law.
—The Associated Press
Democratic senators are vowing to oppose a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security following the shooting death of a 37-year-old Minnesota man, a stand that increases the prospect of a partial government shutdown by the end of the week.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, in a social media post hours after the Saturday shooting, said that what is happening in Minnesota is "appalling" and that Democrats "will not provide the votes to proceed to the appropriations bill if the DHS funding bill is included."
Six of the 12 annual spending bills for the current budget year have been signed into law by President Donald Trump. Six more are awaiting action in the Senate, despite a revolt from House Democrats and mounting calls for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's impeachment. If senators fail to act by midnight Friday, funding for Homeland Security and the other agencies covered under the six bills will lapse.
Two Iranian-backed militias in the Mideast are signaling their willingness to launch new attacks, likely trying to back Iran, which is concerned about an approaching U.S. aircraft carrier after President Donald Trump threatened military action over its crackdown on nationwide protests.
Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthi rebels on Monday hinted they were ready to resume attacks on shipping in the Red Sea. That came just after Iraq's Kataib Hezbollah paramilitary group, long supported by Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, issued a direct threat late Sunday toward any attack targeting Iran, warning a "total war" in the region would be a result.
However, both the Houthis and Kataib Hezbollah sat out from Israel's 12-day war on Iran in June that saw the United States bomb Iranian nuclear sites. The hesitancy to get involved shows the disarray still affecting Iran's self-described "Axis of Resistance" after facing attacks from Israel during its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
—The Associated Press
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