DHS formally announces New Orleans immigration operation
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced it had started its immigration enforcement operation in New Orleans today.
In a statement, the department said Operation Catahoula Crunch would target “criminal illegal aliens roaming free thanks to sanctuary policies”. New Orleans is the latest Democratic-run city (albeit in a Republican-led state) to see federal immigration agents on its streets. Most recently, the Trump administration targeted Charlotte, North Carolina, and touted the arrest of more than 300 undocumented immigrants.
Today, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said that “it is asinine that these monsters were released back on to New Orleans streets to COMMIT MORE CRIMES and create more victims. Catahoula Crunch targets include violent criminals who were released after arrest for home invasion, armed robbery, grand theft auto and rape.”
Key events
Trump pardons Democratic congressman in federal bribery case
Donald Trump announced today that he is pardoning representative Henry Cuellar, the House Democrat who is facing federal bribery and conspiracy charges alongside his wife, Imelda.
In a post on Truth Social, the president said the couple would receive a “full and unconditional” pardon. He also called the case against Cuellar – in which the lawmaker and his wife were accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars to advance the interests of an Azerbijani oil company and a Mexico bank – an example of the Biden administration’s allegedly weaponized justice department. Trump said that Cuellar was only indicted for disagreeing with his predecessor’s border policies.
“Sleepy Joe went after the Congressman, and even the Congressman’s wonderful wife, Imelda, simply for speaking the TRUTH,” the president wrote.
GOP lawmakers demand answers on Hegseth's defense of second strike on alleged drug boat
Several Republican lawmakers have weighed in since the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, explained the sequence of events leading up to the second military strike on a suspected drug-trafficking boat in early September.
Hegseth has steadfastly denied a Washington Post report which said that he issued the directive to kill the remaining survivors on the vessel after the first strike. At Donald Trump’s cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Hegseth reaffirmed that the decorated US navy admiral Frank Bradley ultimately “sunk the boat and eliminated the threat”. Hegseth said that while he “watched that first strike” he did not “stick around for the hour or two hours” after.
“A couple of hours later, I learned that that commander had made the [decision], which he had the complete authority to do,” Hegseth said at the White House.
In response, GOP senator Rand Paul remained unconvinced with the administration’s explanation. “In this sense, it looks like they’re trying to pin the blame on someone else,” Paul told reporters on Capitol Hill on Tuesday evening.
The Republican lawmaker from Kentucky, who is frequently at odds with the president, called out the series of responses since the Washington Post report. “On Sunday, Secretary Hegseth said he had no knowledge of this, and it did not happen,” Paul added. “And then the next day, from the podium at the White House, are saying it did happen. “So, either he was lying to us on Sunday, or he’s incompetent and didn’t know it had happened.”
Meanwhile, Republican senator Jim Justice of West Virginia said that a “two blow” operation made him “uncomfortable” in an interview with MS Now. He added that if the Pentagon did order a strike to kill survivors on the boat it would be “unacceptable”.
For his part, Roger Wicker, who chairs of the Senate armed services committee, said that members would conduct “vigorous oversight to determine the facts related to these circumstances” in a statement last week. Admiral Bradley is also due to sit with top lawmakers on the both the House and Senate armed services committees for a classified briefing on Thursday about the events of 2 September.
Outgoing North Carolina senator Thom Tillis said that confirming last week’s reporting was crucial to determine next steps. “If it is substantiated, whoever made that order needs to get the hell out of Washington,” he said in an interview with CNN. “And if it is not substantiated, whoever the hell created the rage-bait should be fired.” Tillis cast a deciding vote to confirm Hegseth in January, a move that he’s since expressed regret over. “With the passing of time, I think it’s clear he’s out of his depth as a manager of a large, complex organization,” the retiring Republican said in an interview with CNN in July.
Coming to Hegseth’s defense amid the scrutiny, Republican senator Roger Marshall of Kansas said that he stood behind the Pentagon chief. “This is a war, and it’s ugly. War is never pretty. I want to gather all the facts,” he told MS Now’s Morning Joe. “Let’s gather the facts, but let’s not pronounce judgment here.”
Marshall went on to defend the strikes writ large: “We’re losing a couple hundred Americans every day to this drug poisoning, and I think that these strikes are slowing down the import of those deadly, deadly drugs.”
A White House official confirms Fox News’ reporting earlier that Donald Trump will unveil a “reset” of federal fuel standards that were “heightened” under the Biden administration. A reminder that these are programs like the corporate average fuel economy (Cafe) standard, which include regulations for automakers to meet miles-per-gallon standards for their vehicles.
Trump will make the announcement at 2.30pm ET in the Oval Office.
Hegseth speaks to new Pentagon ‘press corps'
The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, is now speaking to the new batch of reporters who comprise the Pentagon “press corps”, according to a photo posted to social media by far-right activist Laura Loomer.
“He’s taking everyone’s questions with no scripts and no pre planned questions,” Loomer wrote. “The attacks on Hegseth by the Fake News media are unfounded. He is taking EVERY question.”
The defense department saw a mass exodus of at least 30 major news outlets after they refused to sign a new restrictive press policy.
Somali prime minister urges calm following Trump's xenophobic White House rant
Faisal Ali
Somali officials have largely remained diplomatically tight-lipped about Donald Trump’s frequent verbal attacks on the Somali community in the US and on Somalia itself, a pattern of remarks that go right back to his first term.
In a statement today, Somalia’s prime minister, Hamza Barre, kept to that approach, noting that Trump had “insulted many countries, including Nigeria and South Africa”, while urging calm.
“There are things that do not need comment, we just leave them and move on. It is better to ignore than to make his words look like an issue,” Barre said.
Barre’s tone contrasted with the government’s earlier response to a previous string of attacks on congresswoman Ilhan Omar, during which Trump called her “SCUM” and described Somalia as “plagued by persistent poverty, hunger, resurgent terrorism, piracy, [and] decades of civil war”, after she criticised Charlie Kirk’s views, following his killing.
At the time, defence minister Moallim Fiqi, who is a more outspoken Somali official, said, Iif our daughter is being targeted because of her identity, we stand firmly by her side,” adding that Omar had “elevated both her own name and the name of her ancestral homeland to a place of prominence.”
Per our earlier post about Matt Van Epps’ victory in Tennessee, Donald Trump weighed in late on Tuesday to congratulate the representative-elect.
“The Radical Left Democrats threw everything at him, including Millions of Dollars. Another great night for the Republican Party!!!” he wrote on Truth Social. The president had thrown his support behind Van Epps, who beat his progressive challenger, Aftyn Behn, by single digits.
While it’s a needed victory for the GOP, other congressional Republicans have said race foreshadows a bitter fight in the 2026 midterms.
“Tt’s going to be a turnout election, and the left will show up,” Republican senator Ted Cruz of Texas said in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday. “Hate is a powerful motivator. They hate President Trump.”
DHS formally announces New Orleans immigration operation
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced it had started its immigration enforcement operation in New Orleans today.
In a statement, the department said Operation Catahoula Crunch would target “criminal illegal aliens roaming free thanks to sanctuary policies”. New Orleans is the latest Democratic-run city (albeit in a Republican-led state) to see federal immigration agents on its streets. Most recently, the Trump administration targeted Charlotte, North Carolina, and touted the arrest of more than 300 undocumented immigrants.
Today, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said that “it is asinine that these monsters were released back on to New Orleans streets to COMMIT MORE CRIMES and create more victims. Catahoula Crunch targets include violent criminals who were released after arrest for home invasion, armed robbery, grand theft auto and rape.”
Somali American councillor says ‘many families are fearful tonight' but ‘Minneapolis stands with you'
Frances Mao
Jamal Osman, a Somali American city council member in Minneapolis, also spoke alongside Mayor Jacob Frey at last night’s press conference, delivering a message in both Somali and English to his worried community.
As reports spread on Tuesday that ICE agents were due to launch raids, he had visited affected neighbourhoods.
Osman said: “I know many families are fearful tonight, but the city stands behind you and we are here to stand with you.
“Our community has lived through fear in the past and we’re not going to let this divide us.”
He said city officials were doing everything so residents “know their rights, they know where to turn for help … Minneapolis will not abandon [you].”
He also said that everyone knew President Trump is “racist, xenophobic, Islamophobic” and “we are going to fight that. America has a history of fighting and stopping those kinds of individuals who continue to divide people and divide communities.”
“Many Somalis that live in this community are working, working at your groceries, working in your hospitals… they are successful individuals.”
The mayor and the city’s police chief also stressed that no local police would be involved in ICE operations.
Donald Trump is in Washington today. He’ll take part in the White House internship class photo at 10.30am ET, which is closed to the press.
Then he’ll make an announcement in the Oval Office at 2.30pm ET. We’ll bring you the key lines as it happens.
Tennessee special election takeaways
Voters may have elected Republican Matt Van Epps to fill the vacant seat in the state on Tuesday, but the single-digit win is being interpreted by some as a warning sign for the GOP ahead of midterms next year.
Trump won the district by 22 points last year, while Van Epps only won by nine points over Democrat Aftyn Behn – a secure lead but seen as underperforming. Behn ran an unapologetically progressive campaign in a seat viewed as safely red.
Democrats are now left wondering what could have been if they had run a more moderate candidate, while Republicans are counting the costs of an expensive race and the departure of some voters. The district’s former representative Mark Green won the seat by 21 points last year.
Van Epps’ win now pads out the Republican majority in the house to 220-214.
Trump and other senior officials had signalled tightening restrictions on immigration – it has been a flagship policy of his second term – but this was ramped up after the deadly shooting in Washington DC last week.
The main suspect in the shooting, which killed one, is an Afghan national who entered the United States during mass evacuations as US and foreign forces withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021.
He pleaded not guilty to murder charges on Tuesday.
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services memo said it “plays an instrumental role in preventing terrorists from seeking safe haven in the United States”.
The country had recently seen “what a lack of screening, vetting, and prioritizing expedient adjudications can do to the American people”, it added, citing the Afghan murder suspect.
Immigration halted for 19 countries
Trump had threatened the dramatic crackdown on immigration from the 19 already-targeted countries, following the shooting of two national guard members by an Afghan suspect last week.
He said he would “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the US system to fully recover”.
The affected nations are: Afghanistan, Burundi, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Laos, Libya, Myanmar, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Togo, Turkmenistan, Venezuela and Yemen.
They’re among the poorest in Africa, the Middle East and central and south-east Asia.
‘We stand with you’: Minneapolis mayor supports Somali community
Minneapolis is home to the country’s largest Somali population, with about 80,000 living in the state. Most are US citizens or legal residents.
In response to Trump’s attack and the looming immigration crackdown reported, the city leaders held a press conference on Tuesday.
Mayor Jacob Frey said the city stands with its Somali community, delivering the message first in Somali and then in English.
“To our Somali community, we love you, we stand with you and we aren’t backing down,” he said. “That commitment is rock solid.”
He condemned the plan to target people who just look like they could be from the East African nation, saying it violates basic principles of American democracy.
“Targeting Somali people means that due process will be violated, mistakes will be made, and let’s be clear, it means that American citizens will be detained for no other reason than they look Somali,” Frey said.
The city’s police chief has said that his department had not received advance notice of any operations, and besides, Minneapolis police do not assist federal agents with immigration enforcement.
ICE planning operations targeting Somalis -report
The New York Times reported on Tuesday that the Minneapolis-St Paul metro area, where most Somalis reside, would see stepped-up deportation efforts this week, focusing primarily on Somalis who have final deportation orders.
It would use “strike teams” of ICE agents and other federal officers, bringing in about 100 agents from across the country, the Times reported. Other media outlets, including the Associated Press, have confirmed the reporting.
The move comes after the right has seized on several fraud cases, spanning multiple years, that involve dozens of Somali residents who prosecutors allege lied to the state to receive reimbursements for meal disbursements, medical care, housing and autism services. The Trump administration previously threatened to revoke temporary protected status for Somalis in Minnesota, citing the state as a “hub of fraudulent money laundering activity”.
Scott Bessent, the treasury secretary, also announced on Monday that his agency would be investigating whether taxpayer dollars from Minnesotans had “been diverted to the terrorist organization Al-Shabaab”, sharing a recent story from a rightwing outlet that made such claims.
Trump attacks Somali immigrants and calls Ilhan Omar ‘garbage’
Rachel Leingang
In a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Trump went off on Somalis and Ilhan Omar, the congressional representative who is from Somalia and is a US citizen. He said Somalia “stinks” and is “no good for a reason”.
“They contribute nothing. I don’t want them in our country, I’ll be honest with you,” he said. He called Omar “garbage” and said “we’re going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country”.
“These are people who do nothing but complain,” he said. “They complain, and from where they came from, they got nothing … When they come from hell and they complain and do nothing but bitch, we don’t want them in our country. Let them go back to where they came from and fix it.”
“His obsession with me is creepy,” Omar responded in a social media post. “I hope he gets the help he desperately needs.”
Welcome to US politics live
Good morning and welcome to our US Politics live blog, as we track the escalating attacks against immigrants being launched by the Trump administration.
Yesterday, President Trump called Somali immigrants “garbage” in a xenophobic rant in cabinet where he said “I don’t want them in our country” and they should “go back to where they came from”. It comes amid reports ICE agents are about to launch crackdowns targeting the Somali communities in Minnesota.
The Trump administration yesterday also halted all immigration for people from 19 nations – including Somalia, Afghanistan, Yemen and Haiti.
The 19 non-European countries have been under a partial travel ban since June – but this dramatic move brings to a halt all stages of the journey including green card and US citizenship processing.
It’s a move that affects countless people, and with no word as to how long the pause will last, it’s almost certain that families will remain separated for longer, in limbo.
I’m Frances Mao, stay with me as I take you through the key details.
