ACLU sues Trump administration for ‘racial profiling campaign’ against Somali and Latino communities in Minnesota surge – live
"The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, claiming that it has used federal law enforcement to target Somali and Latino communities in Minnesota.
The ACLU is suing on behalf of three US citizens from the North Star state, all of whom were arrested or accosted by federal immigration officers. The suit alleges that the president’s xenophobic rhetoric in recent weeks and months has led to law enforcement “indiscriminately” arresting Minnesotans “without warrants or probable cause” but “solely because the agents perceived them to be Somali or Latino”.
“The government can’t stop and arrest people based on the color of their skin, or arrest people with no probable cause,” said Kate Huddleston, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project. “These kinds of police-state tactics are contrary to the basic principles of liberty and equality that remain a bedrock of our legal system and our country.”
Donald Trump is meeting with the 2025 Stanley Cup champions, the Florida Panthers, currently at the White House.
Wishing energy secretary Chris Wright happy birthday at the start of the event, who Trump calls his “oil man”, the president said, “We are now drilling more oil than anytime, any country ever in history. And oil prices in many states are down to $1.90 a gallon. That’s like a major tax cut.”
Saying he felt uncomfortable on stage with a group of young, powerful men, Trump later quipped, “But I’ve got power too, it’s called the United States military.”
As Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, was scheduled to meet with senators in Washington, following her meeting with Donald Trump, acting Venezuelan president Delcy Rodríguez spoke to the National Assembly in Caracas.
Rodríguez asked lawmakers to reform the oil industry to allow greater foreign investment during her first state of the union speech. “Let us not be afraid of diplomacy” with the US, she said. Rodríguez also leveled a veiled critique of Machado, saying: “And if one day, as acting president, I have to go to Washington, I will do so with my head held high, not on my knees.”
Machado is currently meeting with a bipartisan group of senators, which includes Democrats Dick Durbin, Jeanne Shaheen, Peter Welch, Tim Kaine, Ruben Gallego, Alex Padilla, Chris Murphy and Jacky Rosen; Republicans Rick Scott, Ted Cruz, Bernie Moreno, and John Curtis; and independent Angus King.
The American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit over the Trump administration’s immigration operation in Minneapolis describes a mass “racial profiling campaign” resulting in “an unprecedented level of violence” against Minnesotans of color.
“People targeted by ICE have been handcuffed, tackled, and beaten by federal agents. Agents have broken car windows, dragged people from their cars, and used pepper spray and tear gas against compliant, non-violent people,” the lawsuit reads.
The three plaintiffs in the case, who are all US citizens, are Mubashir Khalif Hussen, a 20-year-old Somali man who grew up in the United States after his family came to the country as refugees, Mahamed Eydarus, a 25-year-old Somali-American and Javier Doe, a 22-year-old Hispanic man.
On December 10, 2025, Hussen encountered immigration agents while on his lunch break. The lawsuit describes agents pushing him into a restaurant, dragging him outside, placing him in a headlock, and then driving him to an ICE field office where he was denied medical assistance and water – despite Hussen’s repeated statements that he was a US citizen.
Also on December 10, Eydarus was shoveling his parking space after leaving work when ICE agents approached him and his mother, asked his mother to remove her niqab, a cultural and religious face covering, and criticized them for speaking a “foreign language”.
And on January 8, 2026, Doe was approached by four masked Border Patrol agents and CBP commander Gregory Bovino. After asking if he was a citizen, which Doe said he did not need to answer, an agent tackled Doe to the ground, pinned him, and pressed his knee to Doe’s neck.
ACLU sues Trump administration for targeting Somali and Latino communities in Minnesota
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, claiming that it has used federal law enforcement to target Somali and Latino communities in Minnesota.
The ACLU is suing on behalf of three US citizens from the North Star state, all of whom were arrested or accosted by federal immigration officers. The suit alleges that the president’s xenophobic rhetoric in recent weeks and months has led to law enforcement “indiscriminately” arresting Minnesotans “without warrants or probable cause” but “solely because the agents perceived them to be Somali or Latino”.
“The government can’t stop and arrest people based on the color of their skin, or arrest people with no probable cause,” said Kate Huddleston, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project. “These kinds of police-state tactics are contrary to the basic principles of liberty and equality that remain a bedrock of our legal system and our country.”
Border patrol commander confirms arrests of protesters outside Minneapolis federal building
Border patrol commander Gregory Bovino told Fox News today that “recent arrests”have been made outside the federal building in Minneapolis where demonstrators congregated to protest federal immigration agents. He did not confirm the number of arrests or when exactly they took place.
Bovino added that “rioters want to block the road, make it difficult for federal law enforcement to do its job, so they’re being pushed out of the road, and if they don’t move, they’re being arrested”.
The senior official claimed that some of the protesters came from “out of state” and suggested that law enforcement is looking into whether they’re paid and the “groups that are assisting, aiding and abetting these rioters”.
Teargas used on protesters outside DHS building in Minneapolis
Federal agents have deployed teargas to disperse dozens of protesters outside the a federal building in Minneapolis that houses Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Demonstrations have been consistent outside the facility since Wednesday’s shooting of an undocumented immigrant by an ICE agent. An incident that the administration has described as self-defense, after the man allegedly hit the federal officer with a snow shovel and broom handle.
Machado leaves White House after first meeting with Trump
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has left the White House after her first meeting with Donald Trump. She was seen waving to supporters as she left the building and heading to the US Capitol to meet with a bipartisan group of senators. She’s due to hold a press conference on the Capitol steps later.
On the topic of Greenland, Karoline Leavitt said that the Wednesday meeting between vice-president JD Vance, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and the foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland was “productive”.
“In that meeting of the two sides agreed to really establish a working group of individuals who will continue to have technical talks on the acquisition of Greenland. Those talks will take place, I’m told, every two to three weeks,” the press secretary told reporters. “This is a conversation the administration intends to keep having with the Danes and with the respected delegation from Greenland. But the President has made his priority quite clear, he wants the United States to acquire Greenland. He thinks it’s in our best national security to do that.”
This comes as a new CNN poll released Thursday showed that 75 % of Americans oppose the US attempting to take control of Greenland.
In the briefing room today, Karoline Leavitt said that Donald Trump spoke with Benjamin Netanyahu, but did not confirm reports that Israeli prime minister urged the US to postpone military action on Iran.
“It’s true that president spoke with prime minister Netanyahu, but I would never detail details about their conversation without giving the expressed approval by the president himself,” the press secretary said.
Earlier, we reported on the president’s interview with Reuters in which he said that “we shouldn’t even have an election” when discussing the upcoming midterms.
Today, the press secretary brushed off Trump’s remarks as lighthearted jokes.
“It was a closed door interview, obviously there was not audio or video. The president was simply joking,” Leavitt said. “He [Trump] was saying: ‘We’re doing such a great job. We’re doing everything the American people thought, maybe we should just keep rolling.’ But he was speaking facetiously.”
On the situation in Iran, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that “the 800 executions that were scheduled and supposed to take place yesterday were halted”.
She noted that the Donald Trump and his team are still monitoring the situation closely, and “all options remain on the table”.
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