ICE Leaving Minnesota, DHS Funding Deadline, EPA Vehicle Emissions

0:01Immigration agents are leaving Minnesota. They left us with deep damage, generational trauma. They left us with economic ruin in some cases. The governor wants the federal government to help pay for the damage. I'm Steve Inskeep with Leila Fadal, and this is Up First from NPR News. Funding for the Department of Homeland Security runs out tonight. The Senate could not get a spending bill passed because Democrats want concrete changes to ICE tactics. Democrats will not support a blank check for chaos. which parts of the government are likely to shut down. And the Environmental Protection Agency is abandoning regulations on greenhouse gases, including vehicle emissions.

0:43What could that mean for the auto industry and for drivers? Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day.

0:55White House Borders are. Tom Homan announced on Thursday that the surge of federal agents in Minnesota is coming to an end. So what comes after most of those agents leave, and who pays for the damage? The operation lasted more than two months. And entirely aside from people without legal status who were detained, the government seized American citizens, disrupted businesses, triggered weeks of street protests, and killed two Americans, each of them shot while on video. Reporter Estelle Timar Wilcox of Minnesota Public Radio joins us now with more. Good morning, Estelle. Good morning. So why did Tom Homan say this surge is ending in Minnesota?

1:33Well, Homan pretty much said mission accomplished. He said DHS agents have arrested more than 4 ,000 people. And he said cooperation from local elected officials and police has improved, including, Homan said, more access to undocumented inmates held at county jails here. We have obtained an unprecedented level coordination with law enforcement officials that is focused on promoting public safety across the entire state. Homan said he's now confident that ICE can work more closely with local and state law enforcement, though he didn't point to any specific changes in policy or practices in the state.

2:09So is that true? Have state and local leaders said they've changed anything when it comes to coordination with the federal government? Well, the officials we've heard from say they've had productive talks with Homan, but several county sheriffs say they didn't change any enforcement policies. So we're yet to see if county jails really do start giving ICE that increased access, as Helman mentioned. Governor Tim Walls said the state isn't changing its policies either. He called on residents to remain vigilant in the coming days as immigration officers leave. And he called this crackdown, quote, an unconstitutional assault on our state, and one that's negatively impacted nearly every sector of life in the Twin Cities.

2:49They left us with deep damage, generational trauma. They left us with economic ruin in some cases. They left us with many unanswered questions. Where are our children? Where and what is the process of the investigations into those that were responsible for the deaths of Renee and Alex? Walls and other officials have repeatedly pressed for state investigators to join federal agents in their investigations into the killings of Renee Macklin-Good and Alex Preddy. So far, they've been kept away. So Walls mentions the damages this operation has caused for Minnesotans. What are Minnesotans and community organizers saying about all this?

3:31Yeah, this surge operation has caused a lot of fear among immigrants, but also among citizens who are worried about aggression from ICE and particularly non-white citizens who've been carrying their passports around just in case they're stopped on the streets. And advocates say that's a fear that's not just going to go away. Anne Hill is the director of a community organization that's been delivering groceries to families who are struggling and still afraid to go out. Hill says she expects that need to continue. It's hard to know how this is really going to unwind. Are families really going to trust that ICE is gone after all the lies that have come out of the government?

4:11And while people stay home from work, lots of families have been relying on donations to pay rent. Organizers say that will continue too. Governor Walz says he's asking the federal government and state legislature for emergency funding for recovery. On the state level, he said he'll propose a$10 million emergency fund for small businesses. That's reporter Estelle Timar Wilcox of Minnesota Public Radio reporting from Minneapolis. Thank you so much, Estelle. You're welcome.

4:48Funding for the Department of Homeland Security expires at the end of the day. The Senate failed on Thursday to advance a spending bill that would have funded DHS through the end of September. Democrats have vowed not to support any bill without major changes to immigration enforcement. Here's Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Today's strong vote was a shot across the bow to Republicans. Democrats will not support a blank check for chaos. NPR congressional correspondent Barbara Sprunt joins us to talk through all this. Good morning, Barbara. Good morning. So is this one of those days where the clock is ticking down to a shutdown and then there's a last minute deal?

5:28You know, I don't think so this time. Both sides seem pretty far apart still. Some Democratic demands do have bipartisan support, like requiring body cameras for officers. But there are other proposals that Republicans have pushed back on, like having officers remove their masks. So I think it's going to be a holding pattern while both parties keep negotiating. Okay. So a shutdown, though, doesn't mean there won't be money for ICE, right? That's right. A shutdown here does not mean a shutdown of ICE. And that's because the agency got over$70 billion in separate funds from Congress over the summer as part of Republicans' massive spending and tax bill.

6:08So other agencies within the DHS will be affected by a shutdown like TSA and FEMA. Now we saw top officials from ICE and Customs and Border Protection testifying before the Senate yesterday. But Kristi Noem, the head of DHS, wasn't there, right? That's right. And her absence was mentioned a few times. Several senators said they want her to testify before the Homeland Security Committee. She's actually set to testify before a different committee come March. And you might remember that almost immediately after officers shot and killed Alex Preddy, Noam described him as a domestic terrorist. And she later said that she got that information from Border Patrol agents on the ground.

6:48But yesterday, CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott told the committee he never described Pretty as a terrorist, nor was he aware of anyone in his agency saying that, and he said he couldn't speculate as to why she would say that. Interesting. So he's directly contradicting what Noam said. What else stood out to you in the hearing? Well, we learned some important numbers. ICE acting director Todd Lyons said that there's been more than three dozen internal investigations into allegations of excessive use of force by its agents in the last year. 18 have been closed, 19 pending, and one referred for further action, although he didn't say which incident that was.

7:25And another thing that stood out to me, you know, senators spent a lot of time trying to clarify the use of force policies, how officers are trained in de-escalation. And committee chairman Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, played a video of Preddie and officers. and he paused the video several times, stopping to show officers pushing a nearby woman to the ground, spraying Freddie in the face surrounding him. I see nothing here. I mean, not even a hint of something that was aggressive on his part. Everything was retreat. He's over in the street. He retreats. He retreats. The woman is pushed to the ground.

8:01He tries to assist the woman to get up. He's violently sprayed and it just continues. Now, the officials in response wouldn't give specifics about this. They said it's an ongoing investigation. They said the body camera footage would eventually be released. But Paul made a point of saying that ICE and CBP have to admit their mistakes in order to restore the public's trust. That's NPR's Barbara Sprunt. Thank you, Barbara. Thank you.

8:30The Environmental Protection Agency says reducing greenhouse gases is none of its business. This is a big deal. Well, the EPA threw out the legal basis for its climate regulations, including rules for cars and trucks. For years, up to now, the EPA has regulated planet warming emissions because climate change hurts human health, among other things. NPR's Camilla Domenoski covers the auto industry and joins us now. Good morning, Camilla. Good morning, Layla. So start with laying out what exactly the administration has done here. They have rescinded the endangerment finding, which is this sort of bureaucratic but very important document from 2009.

9:09And it says, look, scientists know that climate change endangers human health. There's overwhelming consensus on that. And therefore, the EPA should regulate greenhouse gas emissions as part of its job, the same way that it regulates smog. And now the EPA has undone that, saying instead that if Congress wants it to regulate greenhouse gases, then they need to pass a law that does that specifically, which is not very likely right now. So greenhouse gas emission standards for cars and trucks are now gone. We should be clear that this is going to spark a giant legal battle, which will probably eventually go to the Supreme Court.

9:45So what does this mean for drivers? Well, more specifically for people buying new cars, right? One change that President Trump highlighted in particular, this removes the regulatory incentive for the start-stop feature a lot of new cars have that turns engines off when you're stopped at a red light. More fundamentally, this will mean fewer EVs and hybrids on dealer lots in the near term. Companies are not going to be under the same pressure to make cleaner vehicles that they were under strict Biden-era EPA emissions rules. For carmakers, this doesn't necessarily change their long-term plans because, one, they know that regulations could change again under a different administration, right?

10:26And globally, you know, they sell cars worldwide. Other countries still have emissions rules. They also have to compete with Chinese EVs. And a lot of executives still say that EVs are the future. But in the near term, they can sell as many big gas and diesel trucks and SUVs as they want with no penalty. Trump also says that this will save Americans a lot of money. EVs are expensive. But third-party analyses say that this change will actually cost drivers because we will collectively buy more gasoline. Did the auto industry want these rules eliminated? Well, big cars and trucks are very profitable.

11:07So rolling back these rules is a boost to bottom lines. It's actually partially offsetting the billions of dollars that companies are paying in tariffs. And a lot of companies had been warning that these Biden era rules were simply not realistic, that EV sales in the U.S. were not growing fast enough, even with incentives in place, to meet those targets. So the traditional automakers wanted easier rules for sure. But eliminating the regulations entirely, arguing that the EPA doesn't even have the right to regulate them, that is farther than the industry wanted to go. And that's because a huge legal battle means a ton of uncertainty.

11:46And companies would really prefer some stability in these regulations, although that's starting to seem like wishful thinking at this point. NPR's Camila Domenoski. Thank you, Camila. Thank you. Don't forget to follow up first on your podcast app. That way you'll get the coverage of the news you need to start your day delivered directly to you.

12:08And that's Up First for Friday, February 13th. I'm Leila Faldin. And I'm Steve Enskeep. For our Olympics coverage, check out Up First Winter Games, which is a video podcast from NPR News. New episodes drop throughout the games every afternoon at youtube.com slash NPR, which is to say the NPR channel on YouTube. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Eric Westervelt, Jason Breslow, Cara Platoni, Mohamed El-Bredisi, and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Ziyad Butch and Nia Dumas. Our director is Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Nisha Hines. Our technical director is Carly Strange, and our executive producer is Jay Shaler.

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