Transcript of Senate Funding Deal, Border Czar Homan In Minnesota, Georgia Election Ballots Seized

Senators cut a deal to fund most government agencies.

The agreement likely came too late to avoid a brief government shutdown. The idea is to keep the government open while lawmakers negotiate new restrictions for immigration agents.

I'm Leila Fadel with Stevenskip, and this is Up First from NPR News. The President's border Tsar Tom Homan suggested some immigration agents could leave Minnesota. Trump didn't seem to know about it when asked if agents are pulling back.

No, We're not at all.

So what is the plan for Minneapolis?

Also, we try to answer questions about an FBI raid in Georgia. The agency seized thousands of ballots from the 2020 election that President Trump lost. What does this imply for future elections? Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your day.

This week on the NPR politics podcast. For months, the President's immigration strategy has been on full display. Now, some Republicans are having a hard time defending it. Yeah, I think that's a good weather vein for where the politics are headed in all of this. Cracks in the MAGA Coalition this week on the NPR politics podcast. Listen on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

It is hard to get a house. Getting that down payment together? Brutal. You shipped off to Djibouti to afford a down payment for a house? Yes, sir.

100%.

On Planet Money, the high price of housing, what the Trump administration is trying to do about it, and will it work? Listen on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. President Trump says he wants Greenland for national security, but at least one Trump official has said it's also about critical minerals. Geologist Greg Barnes knows these minerals well.

I just couldn't believe that something of this size and quality was ever sitting out there.

On the indicator from Planet Money, is this really a land of untapped natural riches? Listen on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

The federal government is on the brink of a partial shutdown. Again.

The hope is that it won't last long because senators did reach a deal. Democrats declined to approve funding for the Department of Homeland Security. They've now agreed with President Trump on a two-week extension to allow time to negotiate reforms after federal agents killed two Americans. They'll make an effort to fund other agencies as well.

And, Piers, Ximena Bistillo has been tracking it all. Ximena, good morning. Good Good morning. Okay, so what's in the deal?

The plan senators have would allow them to approve the five bipartisan bills that fund other agencies and take Homeland Security Department's funding part out and essentially temporarily strip it out. Got it. It would give them two weeks to keep negotiating just that part. However, the way Congress works is that if one chamber makes any change, it has to go back to the other chamber. So the Senate still needs to vote on it, and then measure would need to be revoted on in the House, which is out this week. That means that a short term shutdown is all but inevitable. Once the House returns early next week, it's also not entirely clear if the new package can be approved by them. If the House does act quickly, the effects of the shutdown could be limited since most federal offices are closed over the weekend.

Okay, so they might have this worked out by Monday or Tuesday. Might have it worked out. Good to know the mechanics. Now, let's talk about the substance. What is it that Democrats want the Department of Homeland Security to do differently?

Senate Democrats have outlined three buckets of policy that they're pursuing. First, what they call ending, Roving Patrolls. This primarily has to do with the use of warrants. Officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement were using administrative and not judicial warrants necessarily to enter people's homes. A whistleblower memo described how the agency was giving itself permission to enter homes, and judicial warrants are approved by judges instead of by the agency. Second, Democrats want to make it easier to pursue legal action against immigration officers and, quote, independent investigations into ICE and other federal enforcement misconduct. They say that the agency is not doing a good job of investigating employee misconduct. Dhs, which is involved in the recent killings, is now investigating itself in these instances. Third, Democrats want to mandate that immigration agents display clear identification, not cover their faces, and wear body cameras.

Republicans had resisted some of these demands for the past year. What about now?

The shooting of Alex Pretty, a US citizen, was a turning point for them. Several Republicans called for hearings and independent investigations. Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Tom Tillis of North Carolina, who are frequent Trump critiques, also said Homeland Security Secretary Christie Noem should resign. Senate Homeland Security Committee Chair, Ran Paul, said he's, not a fan of administrative warrants, which has signaled perhaps some flexibility on that point of negotiations. And GOP Senator Susan Collins of Maine, another senator, has taken steps to curb ICE, particularly within her state. Still, divides continue to persist within the Republican Party. Several Republicans told us that they do believe ICE is doing their job and that the existing bill already includes additional mandates for reporting and training so they don't believe that Congress needs to go any further.

Okay, we'll hear how the debate unfolds in the days to come. Nprs. Jimena Bistillo, thanks so much.

Thank you.

The President's borders are. Tom Homan said the federal government is working on plans to pull some of the thousands of federal immigration agents out of Minnesota.

Homan said that as he arrived to oversee the government's military-style presence in Minneapolis. He acknowledged some problems with an operation that led to chaos and where federal agents shot and killed two Americans.

How quickly, if at all, is change coming? Npr Sergio Martínez Beltrán is in Minneapolis. Sergio, good morning. Good morning. What do you see so far?

It feels like nothing has changed, Steve. Federal agents continue to make arrests around the state. Minneapolis continues to see most of these pickups. In fact, just yesterday, the superintendent of the Columbia Heights School district, north of Minneapolis, said several of her students were harassed and stopped by ICE officers. One of the websites activists used to monitor ICE activity continues to show a high number of hits just all over the map. Npr asked Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey about this drawdown plan. He said in a statement, Any drawdown is a good step, but he said the search must end.

I do want to acknowledge there's a bit of a change in appearance and tone. Tom Homan comes there. He's wearing a civilian suit rather than a police or military-style uniform. Seemed to acknowledge some problems in this operation that has led to deaths. But how is the drawdown supposed to work once it gets going?

There is no timeline, and Holman did not offer any specifics as to how they would wind down operations here. Homan did say he's working on ways to make immigration enforcement safer, more efficient, and bite the book. But the big headline, Steve, is that all of these plans are dependent on the cooperation of state and local officials. Homan said that means more access prisons and jails, which would mean fewer agents on the streets. Homan also said the administration will prioritize the arrest of migrants with criminal records or who pose a public safety threat. It's important to note that the administration has said this all along, and yet has arrested a bunch of undocumented immigrants who have not committed crimes. So it will be important to see whether, in fact, there will be fewer collateral arrests in Minnesota from now on.

I want a little bit of clarity if you've got it. He says he wants more access to jails. I think Minnesota officials have said they give some access to jails. Is that right?

Yes. And that's something that Homan acknowledged yesterday in his press conference as well, and something that the administration of Governor Tim Walsh has maintained all along as well.

Okay, unusual. What do you hear from people who've been protesting?

Well, they have a lot of questions. And after what they've gone through over the past month, people here are super skeptical about anything the federal government says. I mean, President Trump said last night there would not be a pullback of federal agents in Minnesota. And we continue to see immigration agents making arrests. So the fear continues. And many people say, even if ICE hypothetically leaves the state, let's say tomorrow, there will be lingering effects. For example, it's the end of the month and there are many immigrants who have not left their homes in weeks or their primary breadwinner has been arrested by ICE, so they could miss rent. Now, mutual aid groups have been paying for some of those bills, but they're not sure how long they can keep it up, and they're calling on the governor to implement an eviction moratorium. So many residents in Minneapolis are, I would say, cautiously optimistic, and they have vowed to continue to protest until this surge ends.

Okay, so what are they going to do next, the protesters, I mean?

Yeah, there is another general strike planned. Exactly a week ago, there was a big statewide strike here in Minnesota, similar to what's expected here today. Today, that turnout stretched for blocks and blocks in downtown Minneapolis, and it was 20 degrees colder than it was today. So there could be a bigger turnout this time. On the other hand, Steve, the morning after that strike last week, Alex Freddie was killed by border patrol agents, and that has had a chilling effect on some of the activists here. One community organizer told me she's noticed an increase in fear among people doing simple things like delivering groceries to their neighbors. So there's this feeling like everybody's taking it day by day and things have the potential to become extremely volatile again.

And for Sergio Martínez Beltrán, thanks so much for your insights. Really appreciate it.

You're welcome.

The FBI has taken possession of hundreds of thousands of ballots from the 2020 election in Fulton County, Georgia. Fulton County includes most of Atlanta.

It was a hub of baseless fraud claims from the 2020 election. At one point, after his election defeat, Trump called a Georgia official and was heard on tape asking him to find exactly enough extra votes for Trump to win. Nationwide, thousands of election officials from both parties certified Trump's defeat in 2020. His own allies conducted an extended audit in Arizona and admitted finding no evidence to change the results.

The seizure of Georgia ballots is raising concerns about this year's elections. So we've called NPR Stephen Fowler, who is in Atlanta, and has covered this story for years and years. Hi there, Stephen. Good morning. What exactly happened in Fulton County?

Well, the FBI now has about 650-ish boxes worth of stuff from Fulton County's 2020 election. Earlier this week, there was a judge who signed off on a search warrant that asked where all the ballots tabulator tapes, the scanned images of the ballots, and all copies of voter rolls from that election. So several trucks came in to take them away late Wednesday night. I live in Fulton County. I voted here in 2020, so they have my ballot, Steve. The Republican-led State Election Board took the county to court last year, trying to access these ballots and records. While that was playing out, the Department of Justice also sued over these records. Now, somehow, we are here with this seizure.

Okay, we know that the Justice Department is now whatever Trump feels like telling them to do, but they seem to have gone to a judge, you say. So what evidence did investigators give for seizing voting material?

We don't know. That's because the warrant mentions an FBI affidavit, but that's under seal. In the search warrant, there are two criminal laws mentioned, one of them about counting of ballots that are fraudulent. The other has to do with keeping records of an election for two years after it's over. The FBI hasn't answered any of our questions, and I will note, we are more than five years after this election, so there are also questions about the statute limitations.

You mentioned a state lawsuit. There's the federal laws around Fulton County for years, right?

Well, the only reason these records are available to be seized by the FBI is because a court ordered them kept under seal because of numerous lawsuits making fantastical and unproven allegations of fraud in Georgia's most populous county that's also heavily democratic. I cover this election and its aftermath firsthand, which has included five years of constant false claims about how Fulton County ran its election, like workers pulling out suitcases of ballots to accusations that any ballot that wasn't cast on election day was somehow fake or illegitimate. Also, it's one of several places where Trump faced criminal charges for his efforts to overturn that election, though that case was dropped at the end of last year.

Why was Tulsi Gabbard, not at a law enforcement official, but the Director of National Intelligence, seen at the site of the ballot seizure?

Well, it's not something you would think It's in her purview, but the White House says Gabbard is playing a key role in making sure an election, Can never, ever be rigged again. At the same time, the Trump administration is inserting itself in elections in other ways, like suing states for unredacted voter roles and using data from other government agencies like Social Security to find evidence of non-citizen voting, which evidence has shown to be incredibly rare. All of this action by the Trump administration is ratcheting up tensions with state and local election officials who worry about what other steps the government might take in this midterm year.

And pair of political reporter, Stephen Fowler is in Atlanta. Stephen, thanks so much.

Thank you.

And that's a first for this Friday, January 30th. I'm Steve Inskeep.

And I'm Leila Fauden. President Trump has a vision for the American workforce. He says he wants to make America skilled again. But women in the skilled trades worry that his attack on DEI will undo decades of progress. You You cannot look at the workforce of the construction trades and say, Oh, they've taken DEI too far.

You look at the workforce of the construction trades and you see we have a long way to go.

This weekend on the Sunday Story, What role will Women Play in this Skilled Trades revival? Listen right here on NPR's Up First podcast.

Today's Up First was edited by Anna Yucananoff, Gigi Dubon, Ben Swayze, Mohamed El Bar-Disi, and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Ziyad Batch, Ava Puketch, and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Nisha Hainas. Our technical director is Carly Strange. Our executive producer is Jay Shaler. Join us again.

For 47 years, Iranians have lived under a dictatorship many no longer want. Now, the country may have reached a breaking point.

Iranians have recognized that they need to take matters into their own hands, pushing back against authority.

We ask three central questions about how Iran got here and what comes next. Listen to Through Line on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

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This week on Consider This, ICE agents in Minnesota now reporting to Tom Homen, the architect of the President's family separation policy. Who does Homen report to?

Up until now, it's been Stephen Miller, but I think the administration is seeing how much trouble listening to Miller has gotten them in when it comes to public opinion.

This week on Consider This, listen on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.