White House May Reduce Federal Immigration Agents in Minnesota

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0:20The White House will consider reducing the number of federal immigration agents in Minneapolis. Plus, tax season kicks off today, and you might find you're getting bigger deductions than in past years. And for some people on Obamacare plans, a jump in monthly premiums is forcing tough choices. Folks who feel like they really need insurance are finding a way to make it work because they have health issues, they need to see the doctor. But people who are healthier are just dropping insurance and hoping for the best. It's Monday, January 26th. I'm Alex Osola for The Wall Street Journal. This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today.

1:05We begin this evening in Minneapolis, where residents are still reeling from the fatal shooting of Alex Preddy this weekend, the second killing of a U.S. citizen by federal immigration authorities in the city this month. WSJ national affairs reporter Joe Barrett has been on the ground in Minneapolis. Yesterday, I went to the scene of the shooting. There were a lot of people there paying their respects. I then went to a protest that I just happened to see in downtown near my hotel. There were 300 people screaming their heads off and doing protest-y things, not always peacefully. And then at the end of the night, there was a vigil I went to in a park that's just down the street from where Mr.

1:42Preddy lived. Three different vibes in three different places. There's a lot of anger. There's a lot of sadness. And people are out on the streets expressing that. Today, Joe said the big action has moved to the courtroom. In one hearing, a federal judge addressed a Minnesota lawsuit seeking to end what the state has called an unlawful federal immigration operation. She said she really wants to get this done and that if she had a front burner in front of her front burner, that's what this would be on. She made a really interesting comparison saying that there were 400 extra agents surged into Illinois and Chicago.

2:15And here we're talking about 3 ,000 to 4 ,000 in a much, much smaller state. just really asking the government specifically, is there a point at which your enforcement is just too much? What is that point? The government lawyer just chafed at the whole idea saying, if you were going to get into that case, then, you know, you'd be down to the point of like, where do we put each of our agents? Because it's our purview to mobilize our agents the way we see fit. In today's other case, federal officials said they're ensuring that the evidence from Preddy's shooting is preserved. Meanwhile, in Washington, President Trump said he had a, quote, very good call with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and that he was sending border czar Tom Homan to Minneapolis.

2:54White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt at a briefing this afternoon spoke extensively about Minneapolis. Nobody in the White House, including President Trump, wants to see people getting hurt or killed in America's streets. This includes Renee Good, Alex Preddy, the brave men and women of federal law enforcement, and the many Americans who have have been victimized at the hands of illegal alien criminals. Saturday's shooting remains under active investigation by Homeland Security Investigations and the FBI. Levitt also said that Trump will reduce the number of federal agents in Minnesota if local officials there increase their cooperation with federal authorities.

3:35Michelle Hackman, who covers immigration for the journal, has been following this story. Michelle, what we've been hearing from Levitt and the president, Is this a de-escalation that we're seeing from the administration? It definitely looks that way. You know, Caroline Levitt spoke from the podium today and laid out all these conditions that they want Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota to meet in order for them to draw down the federal immigration presence in Minneapolis. But the conditions are a little wishy-washy. One of them is that they want more state cooperation on immigration enforcement, specifically for state prisons to turn over immigrants in the country illegally who are in their jails and prisons serving criminal sentences.

4:19The Minnesota government has actually already been doing that. And so that's one of those things where you can sort of call an easy win. it looks to me as though the administration is looking for a way to de-escalate the situation, but not look like it's a total retreat with your tail between your legs. As I mentioned just a minute ago, President Trump is sending Tom Homan to Minneapolis. What does that show us about a potential shift in the Trump administration's tone or strategy? It points, again, strongly in the direction of the idea that this administration is looking to de-escalate. Tom Homan has long been an advocate for focusing ICE primarily on going after criminals.

5:02And that has been an idea that hasn't been so popular inside the administration. Do we have a sense of how folks in the White House are talking about the situation in Minneapolis? The first shooting of Renee Goode had an almost, you know, rally around the flag effect. That was the sentiment inside the administration that they were doing nothing wrong. The word that I heard administration officials use was righteous. But that sentiment has changed after Preddy's death? Administration officials have been passing around polling showing that their operation is really unpopular with voters and not just with Democrats.

5:40And so all of that was freaking people out and having them look for an off-ramp. That was WSJ reporter Michelle Hackman. Thank you, Michelle. Thank you. We have a more in-depth episode featuring Michelle about how ISIS authority has changed under President Trump. That What's New Sunday episode came out yesterday, so you can find it in your feed and we'll leave a link to it in our show notes.

6:05And in the latest developments from the Middle East, Israel has recovered the body of the last hostage taken into Gaza on October 7th, 2023. Israel says it will now reopen the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt after the return of the body of Ron Gveli, who was a 24-year-old Israeli military police sergeant. The return of Gveli's body and the opening of the Rafah crossing were both crucial requirements of the first phase of the U.S. peace plan for Gaza. The next phase requires Hamas to disarm, which it has resisted, and for Israel to pull its troops out of most of Gaza. Meanwhile, the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and its accompanying warships have arrived in the Middle East, giving President Trump additional capabilities if he chooses to attack Iran.

6:48Trump pulled back from an attack earlier this month, but he hasn't taken strikes off the table. Coming up, who's seeing their health insurance payments go up and who's seeing their tax bills fall? That's after the break.

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7:39other. The central battle in last year's government shutdown was over continuing some Obamacare subsidies that helped bring down the cost of health care. But the shutdown ended and there was no resolution. Millions of Americans are now seeing the result of that as their monthly health insurance bills rise. It's forcing some people to make a difficult choice, figure out how to pay up or go without. Rebecca Yates, a health insurance broker from Utah, says some of her clients have had strong reactions to their rates increasing. I've been yelled at. I've had a lot of people crying. I've had people telling me that they are just going to go completely without insurance.

8:16And these are not people that have not used the system. I mean, we've had people that had a heart attack in the last year that have just said, I can't because their premium went from$200 to over$2 ,200. WSJ economics reporter Rachel Ensign spoke to people whose insurance bills are rising, and she joins us now. Rachel, the amount that health premiums are going up varies from state to state depending on your income, but broadly speaking, how much are people's premiums rising? So for people with Obamacare who were getting some kind of subsidy from the government, including people who are middle income, maybe even a little bit upper middle income, In general, those folks are seeing their premiums go up 114 % on average.

9:02They're facing increases of hundreds or thousands of dollars a month. So people are getting confronted with these increases in their monthly premiums. How are people responding? It's kind of how you would expect. Folks who feel like they really need insurance are finding a way to make it work because they have health issues, they need to see the doctor. But people who are healthier are just dropping insurance and hoping for the best. I spoke to a couple whose premium was going to jump to be about three times as much as their mortgage payment. And they're pretty healthy, so they're just going to save that money that they were paying for insurance.

9:42But it's a pretty precarious existence. They're really worried that if something bad happens to them and they're hospitalized, it's just going to completely ruin them financially. And then there are other people who are going to find a way to make it work financially. You know, it's not great, but it's manageable. It's just yet another rising cost in a world where it feels like everything is significantly more expensive than it was five years ago. And where affordability is kind of the number one issue for a lot of people and the reason people feel bad about the economy. Is there a government plan to restore these subsidies?

10:15Well, the House has passed legislation to extend them. In the Senate, there was a bipartisan group trying to work towards a solution. But my colleagues in Washington tell me it seems like the odds are pretty long, especially because President Trump has come out and offered this other plan this month, which does not appear to include extending the subsidies. That was WSJ reporter Rachel Ensign. Thanks, Rachel. Thank you.

10:49U.S. stock markets moved higher today, with the Dow leading the gains in the indexes and closing up 0.6%. Equities gained, but so did precious metals, as gold continued its historic rally, closing above$5 ,000 a troy ounce, while silver soared 14%, its biggest one-day jump in 40 years, to its latest record. The metal closed above$115 a troy ounce. And there's a winter storm and cold streak in much of the U.S. that today disrupted thousands of flights and left hundreds of thousands still without power. And it's helped natural gas prices extend their rally. Futures for February delivery have roughly doubled from a week ago.

11:27And in the latest AI infrastructure deal, NVIDIA is investing an additional$2 billion in CoreWeave to build new AI factories that use NVIDIA technology. NVIDIA has been investing billions of dollars into other AI companies and already owned a 6.6 % stake in CoreWeave.

11:47Today is the first day you can start filing your 2025 tax returns, and many Americans may find they're getting bigger refunds this year. Richard Rubin, who covers tax policy for the journal, says one of the changes with the biggest impacts is the new higher maximum deduction for state and local taxes. So in dollar terms, some of the biggest ones are going to be the state and local deduction cap. People living in high-tax states, New York, New Jersey, California, who either couldn't itemize their deductions before, didn't make sense to, or they were itemizing but had that cap of$10 ,000 but can now deduct up to$40 ,000.

12:21That$30 ,000 additional deduction, if you just add that to what your normal refund might be, is going to be about a 24 % tax rate,$7 ,000 or something, right? So this is potentially significant additional dollars. These tax cuts and others are the result of a bunch of new tax rules that came from Republicans' One Big Beautiful Bill Act. And a final note, this morning's episode of What's News incorrectly called the U.S. gun advocacy group, the NRA, the National Rifle Administration. It is the National Rifle Association. And that's What's News for this Monday afternoon. Today's show is produced by Pierre Bien-Aimé with supervising producer Tali Arbel.

12:59I'm Alex Osola for The Wall Street Journal. We'll be back with a new show tomorrow morning. Thanks for listening.

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