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Banfield Resumes Testifying in Own Defense at Double Murder Trial; Minneapolis Mayor Speaks During Conference in Washington, D.C., Call Immigration Operation an Invasion; Border Czar Says ICE & CBP Are Working on Minneapolis Drawdown Plan; Government Inches Closer to a Shutdown; Trump Says Putin Agreed to Pause Some Strikes on Ukraine, Citing Cold. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired January 29, 2026 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[14:00:00]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Jean Casarez, thank you so much for that. Let's go straight to Minneapolis Mayor, Jacob Frey who's speaking right now at a conference of mayors in Washington, D.C. Let's listen.

MAYOR JACOB FREY, (D) MINNEAPOLIS: We feel the support from across the entire country and we recognize that one great American city is experiencing an invasion. That is an invasion on our democracy, on our republic, and on each and every one of us.

(APPLAUSE)

FREY: And the fact that you all are standing up means the world.

(APPLAUSE)

FREY: Never in a million years did I think that we would be in this place, where troops and federal agents by the thousands have been deployed on a great American city, where the Department of Justice is used as a weapon to silence dissent, where the very foundational principles of our democracy and of our republic are questioned.

I didn't take this job to get into the business of defending democracy. I did because being a mayor has always been my dream job. There is great honor in filling potholes. It is noble to keep people safe and to build affordable housing. That work, which we do every single day, is foundational to the principles of our republic.

And all the same, we find ourselves in a different position right now. We are on the front lines of a very important battle. And it's important that we aren't silenced, that we aren't put down. This is not a time to bend our heads in despair or out of fear that we may be next, because if we do not speak up, if we do not step out, it will be your city that is next.

(APPLAUSE)

FREY: For those of you that have been watching the news on what's happening in Minneapolis, I'll tell you, it is that bad. People's constitutional rights have been trampled. Thousands of federal agents have descended on a city that has 600 police officers. 600 police officers and somewhere between 3,000 and 4,000 federal agents, ICE, and Border Patrol.

People have been indiscriminately pulled off the street. Discrimination takes place only on the basis of are you Somali, are you Latino, or are you Southeast Asian. And then American citizens have been yanked away from their homes after that, solely, because they look like they are from Mexico or Ecuador or Somalia.

That's not how we operate in America. In America, we have these foundational principles of law. We abide by our Constitution. The rule of law is not just something that you say, but it is something that we practice each and every day. And as mayors, we know that. As mayors, we operate in the reality business. It is a reality that we've got to keep people safe on a daily basis.

And by the way, we do that, partnering with a number of different jurisdictions, working with our federal government. In Minneapolis, we've worked extensively with the ATF to the FBI and the DEA, the U.S. Attorney's Office, to successfully drive down crime. And despite what you may hear on different media channels, crime is down in virtually every category in virtually every neighborhood of Minneapolis.

Minneapolis is a safe city. It is less safe when chaos reigns supreme. It is less safe when families do not feel comfortable going to school or buying food at the grocery store because they're worried that their very family might get ripped apart.

It is less safe when we have roving bands of agents marching down the street just looking for somebody who might be concerned. And I've got to tell you, everybody is concerned when you have that kind of occupation. And so, we've been very clear. The Operation Metro Surge needs to end.

This kind of conduct and siege needs to stop, not just in Minneapolis. It needs to stop nationwide.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah.

(APPLAUSE)

FREY: What has become clear to me is this is obviously not about safety. This is not even about immigration. This is about silencing a narrative or a political position that differs from that of a federal administration.

We've seen this kind of conduct in other countries. We cannot see it right here in America. This is not a Democratic or a Republican issue.

[14:05:00]

Never once have I made this partisan. This is a foundational principle of making sure that the endurance of our republic can continue on. It may seem like I'm talking too much on the macro level, or maybe this is a concerning thing to say, but I've got to tell you, we're seeing it in our streets right now.

And it is up to each and every one of us to partner together, to work together, to protect those ideals that we hold firm. The power of the federal government is awesome. The military force that they have, they've got tanks. They've got bazookas. They can lay siege on American cities with thousands of agents and even troops.

SANCHEZ: We've been listening to Minneapolis Mayor, Jacob Frey at a conference for U.S. mayors, saying that his city is on the front lines of an important battle, calling the president's immigration crackdown, the deployment of federal troops to his city, an invasion on each and every one of us. Warning the mayors at the conference that if they do not speak up, they will soon be headed to their cities.

We did not see a direct response to Tom Homan. Of course, we heard earlier today from the president's border czar talking about perhaps a recalibration of the deployment of federal agents in Minnesota.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": He laid out his plans to lessen the surge of federal agents in Minnesota, the longtime border official acknowledging there are issues with the current operation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM HOMAN, BORDER CZAR: I didn't come here looking for photo ops or headlines. I come here looking for solutions. What we've been working on is making this operation safer, more efficient, by the book.

President Trump and I, along with others in the administration, have recognized that certain improvements could and should be made. You have the right to protest. I'm just asking you to keep it peaceful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: CNN's Priscilla Alvarez is with us now. So, Priscilla, walk us through Homan's plan as we understand it.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, as of now, the White House border czar has said that he is working on those plans with Immigration & Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs & Border Protection, two agencies that have been on the ground in Minneapolis, to draw down the number of federal agents that are there.

If you will recall, there were 3,000 federal agents that were deployed to Minnesota, an unprecedented number, as part of this Operation Metro Surge. Now, of course, the drawdown, according to Tom Homan, is still contingent on collaboration and cooperation with local officials and having access to county jails of any undocumented immigrants who have criminal records and are going to be released and transferring them to ICE custody. This is continuing to be part of the conversations that Tom Homan is having on the ground.

But in addition to that, he said that they are going to put a sharper focus on targeted operations. That is something that traditionally ICE has done, which is to say that they set up a plan and a strategy to go after an undocumented immigrant or immigrants with criminal records that they have identified. And in doing so, if they also come across other undocumented immigrants, what they call collaterals, they too may be swept up.

But the premise being that they are going after people with criminal histories. And that's something that you heard from the mayor there. This has been a city that has had a large number of federal agents there, a huge presence, and that there have been these broad immigration sweeps under the command of top Border Patrol official, Gregory Bovino.

Now, Bovino has since left, since Tom Homan came in to manage operations. And the question mark still is, what does this practically look like on the ground? That hasn't yet been answered. But what Tom Homan was expressing today was that there is going to be some change on the horizon in the way that people see these operations.

But again, as you heard there from the mayor, it's still a question as to what that looks like.

SANCHEZ: And Priscilla, what is this going to look like for those so- called collaterals? Because if they're talking about targeting and prioritizing criminals, people like five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father are caught in the crossfire, right? They came into the country using the CBP app. They don't have criminal records. They have a pending asylum case. And yet, they're in the situation that they're currently in.

ALVAREZ: That's right, Boris. And it's not the first time that ICE has picked up collaterals. For example, think back to the Obama administration. There was a similar type of strategy where they would go after a certain undocumented immigrant with criminal history, go to that household, and say that they lived with other undocumented immigrants. Those other undocumented immigrants may come into custody as well.

But the key part of this that Tom Homan didn't say, but generally is how ICE operates, is using discretion. So, what we heard from former ICE officials in the case of Liam and his father is that there are some officials who would have taken the position of using discretion and deciding not to pick them up because they were aware that they were going through their immigration proceedings, that they were showing up or planned to show up to court.

[14:10:00]

And so, that is the element of this that we just don't know yet, is are ICE agents also empowered to make those decisions so that it is strictly focused on those with criminal histories and not just anybody that gets in the way like a father and his son, Boris.

KEILAR: All right, Priscilla, thank you so much. And we are joined now by Jonathan Fahey. He served as Acting Director for Immigration and Customs Enforcement during President Trump's first administration. Jonathan, thanks for being with us. As we heard from Homan emphasizing targeted operations, he said all operations will be targeted, but the prioritization are going to be criminal aliens, public safety threats, and national security threats. Is that an admission that those things were not the priority before?

JONATHAN FAHEY, FORMER ICE ACTING DIRECTOR UNDER TRUMP: I don't think so. I think it's always been the priority. But I think what President Trump said the other day, this is an adjustment. If something bad happens, you take an adjustment. You put -- you know, one thing about Tom Homan, he was the Director of ICE.

He's worked in ICE. So ICE has been typically the branch that's been doing the interior enforcement. So it actually just makes a lot of sense. But they're also going -- you know, there's over one point -- it's like one point, something million people that have final orders of removal as well that the Biden administration was not removing. So, they're going to go after those people. But it's certainly perfectly fair to get, what you call, the collaterals because these are also people here illegally.

And just so, you know, the perspective and see how fair and reasonable this administration is being, they're going after the criminals. But the people that are here illegally have an option of getting a $2,600 check in their hand and taking a flight to leave. And that, you know, there can't be any more fair and reasonable law enforcement in any scope of law enforcement unless the only solution is just simply giving them amnesty, which isn't acceptable.

KEILAR: OK, but this is being sold as certain improvements could and should be made. So, am I hearing you right? You're saying you don't actually expect any changes in terms of who is going to be prioritized?

FAHEY: I don't know in terms of what -- the priorities seem to be criminals before, but I think it'll be a very tailored and focused approach. The other thing that I think will be --

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: Wait, let me ask you this because the deport -- no, people need to understand this.

The Deportation Data Project, which is a research group associated with UC Berkeley's Law School shows that during the Trump administration, there has been a 700 percent increase in ICE arrests of people without convictions, only a 30 percent increase in ICE arrests of people with violent crime convictions. So there's quite a disparity. You've got a lot of people --

(CROSSTALK)

FAHEY: You may want a little clarity on that. What the Biden administration wasn't doing, which is really shameful, they would not deport people arrested for crime. So if somebody's arrested for DWI, arrested for other offenses, they weren't even getting deported. Those people should -- everyone agrees, almost everyone, those people should be deported too.

So that's a lot of it. I think it's about 70 percent of the people deported have a criminal record, meaning either conviction or arrest. So these are the people that are getting deported. And remember, if you look at the crime numbers --

KEILAR: There were people being deported who were being convicted of crimes. I think we need to be clear about that.

FAHEY: Yeah, and that's perfectly fine and that's perfectly lawful, and actually the American people support that. But I think what's really important when -- you know, it's funny, Jacob Frey was talking about safety, which is really funny because if you look at Minneapolis, the eight years before he was the mayor, compared to the eight years he was the mayor, murder rates have doubled when he's been in charge.

And the great thing is, we have the lowest --

(CROSSTALK)

FAHEY: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. We have the lowest murder rate in the country because of Trump's policy.

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: Jonathan, I have you here not to sell the president's policy. The poll numbers --

FAHEY: I know, but if I could finish my points, because I think it's important.

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: Well, you're not answering my question.

FAHEY: You played the clip of Jacob Frey, and I think it's important to address that.

KEILAR: You're not answering my question.

FAHEY: What is the question?

KEILAR: Do you expect there to be a change in who they're targeting?

FAHEY: I think they will be targeting criminals and targeting people with prior deportation orders. They will also be focusing on people in the jails, hopefully with the cooperation of Walz and Jacob Frey.

And I think, ultimately, the people that -- and we've had two million people deported on the self-deportation mean (ph). So I think they're going to focus on the criminals and then sell the self-deportation aspect of this.

KEILAR: So, do you expect the overall numbers of who they're detaining to change? FAHEY: I don't think so, and here's why. Because now they're having more ICE agents, more Border Patrol agents, so they have the ability not only -- because, remember, there are lots of criminals out there that haven't been arrested yet, that are illegal aliens. So they're going to have more resources to not only go after those people and to arrest them and to deport them, plus a million-plus people with deportation orders.

They'll have more resources to go after them. So this is all really -- when you look at the overall --

KEILAR: So what's changing?

FAHEY: I think the changing is going -- is primarily going to be we have sort of an ICE approach.

[14:15:00]

We're going to have more cooperation with the locals, more communication. The other thing that I think is changing is there's not going to be as much direct interaction with the public, and hopefully we're going to get support. And another really quick point, Jacob Frey talks about the 600 police officers.

He doesn't talk about -- they used to have 900 before the BLM riots that he wasn't able to control, and they can't replenish their force because of people like him. So he fails to mention, they always say, we have 600. The reason they can't replace the people is because of -- because he's not only anti-ICE, he's always been anti-police, and everyone knows that.

KEILAR: So when Homan is actually emphasizing the prioritization of criminal aliens and public safety threats, he's not actually emphasizing anything new. I just want to be clear. That's your read on this. He's not emphasizing anything new. He's not --

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: Let me finish my question.

FAHEY: You've asked it, like, three times. I'm trying to answer the question as best as I understand it.

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: Because he's gone to Minneapolis, and he's stressed a new prioritization on what people want to see, which is public safety threats. The poll numbers are pretty clear here. You have 71 percent of independent voters who say that ICE is too aggressive. 27 percent of Republican voters say that they're too aggressive in their efforts to deport illegal immigrants.

And, I mean, you're very aware of the opinion on this.

FAHEY: Yeah.

KEILAR: That idea of the worst of the worst, the criminals they're fine with.

FAHEY: Yeah.

KEILAR: But the people who are, you know, not public safety threats and are, like, in the car with their babies in Maine, and, you know --

FAHEY: Right.

KEILAR: They're not cool with that, right?

FAHEY: Yeah.

KEILAR: That's what the polls are showing. So you're saying that that's just going to keep on going? I just want to be clear. Your expectation is that keeps going.

FAHEY: OK. The polls, it's usually anywhere 55 percent, 60 percent think everyone here illegally should be deported. Those are what the polls are. 85 percent of the people support or are against sanctuary cities. We all know that. Democrats are 100 percent, or maybe minus John Fetterman, in favor of sanctuary cities. We all know that's true.

So they are going to make it focused, tailored on the criminals, the people with deportation orders, and if there are collaterals, which you call them, or they call people with them, they have a responsibility to deport them. It's not an elective to enforce federal law for these agents. And Tom Homan made it very clear when he was talking about this.

These are people signing up to enforce laws passed by Congress, and Jacob Frey and Tim Walz don't have the ability --

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: Well, let's talk about what people --

(CROSSTALK)

FAHEY: No, no, no. They don't have the authority to veto federal laws. They think they do.

KEILAR: Let's talk about what people want. People are talking about what they want. And these numbers, by the way, they started collecting them before Pretti was killed in Minneapolis. Right?

So these are actual -- people who are -- they're not talking about academic ideas or theoretical ideas --

FAHEY: -- about what they think about immigration. They are looking at what ICE is actually doing, and they are telling Fox. They're telling Fox, even before Alex Pretti was killed, what they think about it. This isn't theoretical.

FAHEY: I understand that, but we still have -- we don't just say, hey, the polls have changed. This is no longer the law. That makes no sense. But remember, let's go back to May 2020, which I would call Jacob Frey's heyday as a mayor. Remember how popular BLM was and remember how the cities got burned down, 500 million in Minneapolis. They were really popular then in that summer, and people started to see over time the reality of it was horrible. They are going to see --

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: I'd really like to talk about immigration.

FAHEY: That's what I'm making the point on the polls. You asked about the polls. I'm giving you some context about the polls. The majority of the people think people here illegally should be deported. The Democrats -- and let's talk about why this is happening. And everyone knows Biden brought these people in intentionally with the intention of helping them electorally. It was a political power move, and you know it. Everyone knows it.

KEILAR: Jonathan, we are out of time.

FAHEY: Everyone knows what goes on here, though, right? Do any Democrats disagree?

(LAUGH)

KEILAR: Jonathan, Fahey, thanks for being with us.

FAHEY: Thank you.

KEILAR: Still ahead this hour, a first for a White House cabinet meeting with President Trump. We're going to look at why this meeting was very different from previous ones. Plus, the government inching closer to a shutdown after a key Senate vote fails. We'll look at how long that could last.

These stories and much more coming up on "CNN News Central."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:23:46]

KEILAR: Here in the last hour, President Trump wrapped his first cabinet meeting of the year.

SANCHEZ: CNN's Kevin Liptak is at the White House for us. Kevin, in an unusual move, the president didn't take questions from reporters at the end of it. He also didn't have all his cabinet secretaries speak, including Homeland Security Secretary, Kristi Noem. So what about addressing the immigration conflicts in Minneapolis, did he say?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: He didn't say anything, really. The president sort of avoiding that topic altogether. And certainly, it would have been something that reporters would have wanted to ask him about. And ordinarily, he does take questions at these meetings. They often stretch two hours, three hours, the president going around the table and having everyone discuss what their agency is doing. The president did say at the beginning of this that sometimes that got a little boring. And you'll remember in previous sessions, the president closed his eyes.

Clearly, the president didn't sort of want to engage in that kind of meeting this time around. That's not to say he didn't talk about some important topics. You know, he talked about Venezuela. He talked about the economy. There was an interesting moment when he was discussing the war in Ukraine. Clearly, the president believing that there is some momentum now to get the war over with.

[14:25:00]

He made a point of saying that he had talked to Putin. We don't know when this discussion with the Russian leader took place, but that he had asked him to pause attacks on Ukrainian cities, including the capital of Kyiv, for a week as the country undergoes a frigid cold snap. The Russians essentially bombarding that country, trying to freeze them into submission by targeting power plants, civilian centers. And the president saying that Russia had agreed.

He said he had personally asked Putin to do this. He thought it was "very nice" that they had agreed to this stipulation. Now, when this pause goes into effect, we don't know precisely.

Just two days ago, Russia targeted a civilian train in the northeastern part of Ukraine. Five people were killed as part of that. And so, it's not clear when precisely this temporary pause in the attacks might take place. But the president and his foreign envoy, Steve Witkoff, both suggesting that this was a sign that things are moving in the right direction.

SANCHEZ: Kevin Liptak, live for us at the White House. Thank you so much.

Up next, we have brand-new reporting on how President Trump is vowing to take Venezuela's oil and how him saying that could actually hurt his chances of doing so.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)