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Sheriff Asks Nancy Guthrie's Neighbors for Videos; Trump's Border Czar Holds News Conference in Minneapolis. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired February 12, 2026 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

CLARE DUFFY, CNN TECH CORRESPONDENT: Platform, but we're getting a sense again of how the plaintiffs in this case are building their argument ahead of trial. Meta continuing to argue that it is the fault of Kaylee's sort of difficult childhood and abusive father that caused her mental health challenges. But, again, you know, Kaylee's lawyer says this platform, these platforms had an overriding impact on her well-being.

This is just the first of the executives that we will hear from in this case. Zuckerberg is expected to testify next week, along with the YouTube CEO Neal Mohan.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Obviously, the language here that they all use so carefully, lawyer there. Problematic but not addictive. He says, though, he's no clinician

Clare Duffy, thank you for covering this so well for us.

DUFFY: Thank you.

BERMAN: A lot of news. Brand new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news, investigators are now looking into a new timeline when it comes to the abduction of Nancy Guthrie. Two new dates that they're focused on and a suspicious vehicle. There's a new plea to her neighbors this morning.

And we're standing by any minute now. President Trump's border czar set to give an update from Minneapolis. And it is one thing to be competitive, it is another thing to start an all-out brawl over pickleball. This couple now facing charges.

I'm Kate Bolduan with John Berman. Sara is out today. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

BERMAN: And the breaking news this morning, a new alert sent out to Nancy Guthrie's neighbors as investigators say they're searching for a suspicious vehicle. Now, officials are asking the neighbors, people who live near Guthrie's home, to check their home camera footage on two specific dates and times. Now, one of them is actually three weeks before Guthrie disappeared,

January 11th, between 9:00 p.m. and midnight. They want them to look there. Also January 31st between 9:30 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. That's the day Guthrie was last seen. And when they say a suspicious vehicle was spotted around 10:00 a.m. so interesting, they're looking both basically the day she disappeared, but also three weeks before that.

Also, the "New York Post" is reporting that investigators found a black glove less than two miles from Nancy Guthrie's home. Now, it isn't clear whether they believe this is the same glove worn by the person seen in the doorbell video that was released by the FBI.

Let's get right to CNN's Ed Lavandera, who's live on the scene.

Ed, you were the one who got ahold of that alert that neighbors all got there. It's a really a new request from officials. It seems to expand the span of time that they're investigating.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. And we know that over the last several days, we have seen and even yesterday, investigators, FBI investigators, literally walking through the desert brush here in the neighborhood, especially along the roadways, trying to see if anything might have been discarded, as you saw yesterday, the reports of a black glove being picked up along the side of one of those roads.

But let's go over some of those key timelines because this is important for people. It's also want to stress, too, that in getting to know many neighbors here, they have been very invested in trying very hard to help out investigators find whatever they can to help them. So this is specific around January 11th between 9:00 p.m. and midnight. So that's like 20 days, almost three weeks before the abduction of Nancy Guthrie.

And then on January 31st, which is the Saturday before Nancy was abducted, is between 9:30 and 11:00 in the morning. And the request and the concern is about a suspicious vehicle. So they're asking people, especially along one specific street here in this neighborhood to check their cameras to see if what kind of vehicles might have been picked up on that. The alert does not say what kind of vehicle.

Obviously, that might be something that investigators at this point are continuing to keep close to the vest. But we do know that there has been an intense effort to gather up as much video evidence, especially from home video camera systems which, as we've reported on the last 12 days has been very difficult to obtain just because of the landscape of this particular neighborhood.

But all of that work continues. And, you know, we're still seeing investigators canvasing and recanvassing these areas, hoping to still uncover that one clue that could lead them to Nancy Guthrie -- John.

BERMAN: All right. Ed Lavandera for us in Pima County, Arizona.

We're going to break away from the Guthrie story for one second and go to Minnesota, where border czar Tom Homan is giving a news conference, maybe for an update on the deployment in Minneapolis.

TOM HOMAN, BORDER CZAR: Chris Kuhn, deputy chief patrol agent for the United States Border Patrol. I'm very pleased to report that this search operation and our work here with state and local officials to improve coordination and achieve mutual goals, as well as our efforts to address issues of concern here on the ground have yielded the successful results we have came -- came here for.

[09:05:12]

The Twin Cities and Minnesota in general are and will continue to be much safer for the communities here because of what we have accomplished under President Trump's leadership. I previously shared with you before I got here, before I even got here, I met with -- I said I was going to meet with the governor, the AG and the Mayor Frey, Mayor Her, and I've done all of that.

I've also met with various police chiefs and sheriffs, and one thing we all had in common was the importance of ensuring and maintaining public safety. Overall, we made a lot of progress through extensive engagement, meeting with them and other key stakeholders, and it is expected that those engagements and discussions will continue going forward in order to enhance exchange of information and more coordination.

As a result of this surge operation, we have greatly reduced the number of targets for enforcement action and many criminal aliens have been arrested and taken off the streets including murderers, sex offenders, national security threats, gang members and other violent criminals. Just this week, ICE arrested a criminal alien with criminal convictions for rape, acts with a child under 14 years of age with force, lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14.

ICE also arrested two criminal aliens with criminal sexual misconduct convictions among other violent criminals. Through targeted enforcement operations based on reasonable suspicion and prioritizing safety and security ICE will continue to identify, arrest, and remove illegal aliens that pose a risk to public safety like we've done for years. And our officers will carry out those duties with professionalism, integrity and compassion like we've done for years.

We will enforce immigration law against all persons in the United States illegally. I want to say something about the various unfounded complaints I'm hearing about ICE enforcement operations. During the search operation ICE has not arrested anybody inside a hospital. We have not arrested anybody inside of a school, an elementary school. We have not arrested anybody inside a church.

As a matter of fact, the only ones that disrespected the sanctuary of church were the agitators that have been arrested and prosecuted. And so far we have nine of them. However, those locations are not off the table. I said in day one. There is no sanctuary for a significant public safety threat or national security threat. But as far as those stories about ICE going into churches, arresting people in hospitals, it simply has not happened.

And if you have a case where it happened, do you let me know. Because all the digging I've done here, I can't find a single one.

Under President Trump's direction, we have obtained an unprecedented level of coordination with law enforcement officials that is focused on promoting public safety across the entire state. While I don't agree with Governor Walz and Attorney General Ellison on everything, we -- I appreciate the support the governor gives to state agencies who coordinate with us in a manner intended to promote public safety.

And I appreciate the AG having an open dialogue with me. Early on, the first meeting I had, acknowledging that county jails may notify us of the release date of an inmate, just as long as they don't hold them past the time they would normally release them. We now have the ability to arrest criminal aliens in the safety and security of jails throughout the state at the time they're being released, like we've done in other states.

I've also directed the strategic placement of officers in certain areas throughout the states that can respond quickly to sheriffs that want to release somebody and notify us. We need to be nearby so they don't hold them unnecessarily. So we worked on a strategic plan to reassign officers in those key locations.

Arresting a public safety threat in the safety and security of a jail is safer for the alien. It's safer for the officer and safer for the community. I think we all can agree on that. It requires less resources for at large operations. It just makes sense. I'll say it again as I've said many times, we are not asking local law enforcement to act as immigration officers. I don't want them to be immigration officers. We're the immigration officers. We just want them to be cops.

[09:10:03]

We're asking law enforcement to coordinate with other law enforcement to help keep public safety risk to the communities. We have also strengthened our existing coordination with the state to target and take custody of criminal aliens more efficiently and effectively. As a result of our efforts here, Minnesota is now less of a sanctuary state for criminals, and we are proud of the public safety threats we have removed from the criminal aliens out of the state.

As I said in my first press conference a couple of weeks ago, President Trump didn't send me here because operations were being run and conducted perfectly. I came here to identify issues and implement solutions to improve our mission execution. Since that time, in order to improve target enforcement operation, I and my team here, we made personnel changes. We integrated BP with the ICE teams.

We established a single unified chain of command structure. We strengthened joint intelligence and targeting capabilities. We deployed body cameras. We increased the footprint of internal affairs. We commuted zero tolerance for misconduct. President Trump also deployed me here to work with state and local officials to de-escalate the intense volatile reactions and conflicts that have unfolded on the streets here between federal law enforcement and unlawful agitators. While working to course correct and improve how enforcement operations

are being run and executed here, and even before I was sent up here, I've been saying over and over that forcibly assaulting, resisting, opposing impeding, intimidating or interfering with a federal law enforcement officer is a crime in violation of USC 111. It's not OK and will not be tolerated. Zero tolerance if you cross that line and put your hands on an ICE officer. Not only is such activity unlawful, it is dangerous. And sadly, we have seen tragic consequences as well as adverse impacts on businesses and the communities here in the city.

While the Trump administration supports everyone's First Amendment right to freedom of speech and assembly and to petition, it has to be done lawfully and peacefully because we will not tolerate unlawful actions committed by agitators who are just causing havoc. This is not the way to express your disagreement or try to reform federal laws. Go talk to your members of Congress if you want the laws changed in this country.

Nor is doxing federal law enforcement personnel and their families. It's just not right. Enough is enough with this misguided, reckless and shameful behavior. We don't want to see any more bloodshed. I don't want to see any more bloodshed. I pray every night for the safety of our law enforcement personnel and the safety of those in the community, whether you're here legally or illegally.

I don't want to see anybody harmed. And if you break the law, we're going to arrest you. We have already arrested more than 200 people for violations of USC 111. The U.S. attorney's office has already accepted many for prosecutions and some are still pending. I have also received commitments from state and local law enforcement that they will respond if federal law enforcement is being impeded or assaulted.

They will shut down unlawful agitator activity, including arresting agitators involved in and seeing them follow through. And we're seeing them follow through on those commitments. We've seen this past weekend that the state and local law enforcement have taken actions when it comes to public safety. And bless them for doing that.

Since I have been here I've repeatedly emphasized that the unlawful and violent agitator activity is unacceptable and must wind down as the condition for further draw down of law enforcement personnel. I cannot remove law enforcement personnel while violence poses serious risks to our officers. I will not leave my officers in that position.

It is worth knowing that in all my meetings and discussions since I got here, I've not heard one federal, state or local law enforcement or judicial official, nor any member of the business or faith communities that I met with say that ICE is an illegitimate agency that doesn't have a real mission. Quite the opposite. All I've heard is the acknowledgment that federal immigration laws passed by Congress do exist, and ICE has a legitimate responsibility to enforce those laws.

ICE is a legitimate federal law enforcement agency. We're not out scouring the streets to disappear people or deny people their civil rights or due process. In addition to taking public safety threats off the street, ICE here in this state have located 3,364 missing unaccompanied alien children.

[09:15:01]

Children in the last administration lost and weren't even looking for. That's because the leadership of President Trump, these children were located.

As part of the de-escalation efforts, I have called on state and local officials these past few weeks to tone down the rhetoric and denounce unlawful activities being conducted by the agitators. We don't have to agree on everything, and we definitely do not. But we all agree that lawlessness and chaos and disruption that is occurring on the street needs to end.

I want to thank Governor Walz for his messages focusing on peace and his support for the Minnesota State Troopers to respond to unlawful situations that put federal officers and the public at risk.

I also want to thank Mayor Frey for taking a public stance against agitators, setting up barricades that blocked streets and endangered public safety, and for directing the police to take those roadblocks down.

Just say I want to thank Police Chief O'Hara, Sheriff Witt, and various other local law enforcement for their responsiveness and efforts to maintain law and order in the streets. We've seen a big change here in the last couple of weeks, and it's all good changes.

I'm also pleased to report that we're seeing a notable decrease in unlawful agitator activity here in Minneapolis and overall throughout the state. This is great news for Minnesota communities that have been adversely impacted by the lawlessness and chaos on the street. We have what we call here QRFs, Quick Response Force, security teams that get called out when ICE officers are out doing operations, they get into trouble.

If agitators get out of control, if there's a danger and public safety at risk, these QRFs respond to help these officers get off the action and get out of that situation. I asked day when I got here, I want a number. I want to know what the QRFs call outs are, what their deployments are. I want to know every time a QRF is called out.

The QRF deployments have dropped dramatically because we have less of that occurring, less of the agitator that crossed that line. That is a good thing. That is a win for everybody, not just for the safety of law enforcement officers. It's a win for this community.

With that in success that has been made, arrests and public safety threats and other priorities since the surge operation began, as well as the unprecedented levels of coordination we have obtained from state officials and local law enforcement I have proposed, and President Trump has concurred, that this surge operation conclude. A significant drawdown has already been underway this week and will continue through the next week.

We have a lot of work to do across this country to remove public safety risk who shouldn't even be in this country and to deliver on President Trump's promise for strong border security, mass deportation, law enforcement officers drawing down from this surge operation will either return to their duty stations or be signed elsewhere to achieve just that. We will continue to enforce Title Eight immigration law throughout this nation prioritizing national security threats and public safety risks makes sense.

But I'll continue to say over and over again, if you are here in the country illegally, you're not exempt from our immigration laws. If we encounter you, we'll take appropriate enforcement action. For those that say we are backing down from immigration enforcement or the promise of mass deportations, you are simply wrong. Look at the data, record number of arrests and deportations under President Trump's first year and will continue that effort.

Prioritizing public safety threats and national security threats doesn't mean we'll forget about everybody else. We will take action on everybody else. That's just a stone cold fact. A small footprint of personnel will remain for a period of time to close out and transition full command and control back to the field office, as well as to ensure agitator activity continues to decline in that state and local law enforcement continue to respond to ensure officer and community safety.

Additionally, federal government personnel assigned to conduct criminal investigation into the agitators, as well as the personnel assigned here for the fraud investigations, will remain in place until the work is done.

I will also remain on the ground for a little longer to oversee the drawdown of this operation and ensure its success. In closing, I want to thank the leadership and senior management that I've worked with for your efforts into these issues determine deficiencies and challenges, present solutions and implement improvements that will benefit how operations are run and executed nationwide.

[09:20:09]

God bless the men and women of ICE. Men and women of Border Patrol. Appreciate everything you've done for us. Also, with sincere gratitude, President Trump and I want to thank the men and women of ICE and CBP and partner agencies who have been assigned here during Operation Metro Surge. You achieved a great success for the Minnesota communities. Thank you to your families as well, because I know they sacrifice also.

Thank You, President Trump, for your vision as well as your support and confidence in these brave dedicated patriots that work hard to deliver on your strong commitment to law and order, public safety, prosperity for American communities. Today, we have the most secure border in American history. We are seeing record numbers of people being arrested and deported. Your promise to make America safe again is being played out every day on the streets of this country.

I've said it many times. I work for six different presidents, 10 different administrations. No one has done it better than President Trump.

God bless this great country. I'll take questions now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll take a couple questions. No follow-ups.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Yes. Mr. Homan, as immigration enforcement continues across the country here in Minnesota as well, how do you hope to gain the trust of individuals here that have kind of been wary of seeing federal officers on the street, but let's say six months from now, we still have the office here, we still are enforcing immigration across the country. What do you hope things to look like? And what are you asking for the public?

HOMAN: Look, I just want people to look at the data on what this administration has done. You know, the number of public safety threats we removed from the streets across this country that makes these communities safer. ICE has had an office here for decades. Before it's called INS, Immigration and Naturalization Service. This footprint will remain here, and they'll continue to do immigration enforcement here.

But as President Trump has said from day one, we're going to prioritize the public safety threats. Again, but prioritization doesn't mean forget about everybody else. That means you have a criminal alien here and non-criminal here. The criminal always comes first because he's the biggest threat to the communities. We're going to continue to enforce immigration law, but won't get back to the footprint here, the normal footprint here, but there will be some security teams staying here, the QRFs, until we're assured that those agitators, incidents, either stay low or further decline.

I'm not going to remove everybody. The safety of our officers, but like I said and Operation Metro Surge is ending. And in the next week, we're going to deploy the officers here on detail back to their home stations or other areas of the country are needed. But we're going to continue to enforce immigration law. That's what the American people voted for but it has to be a priority of criminals.

And look, I hear all the hate about, you know, you should arrest everybody. Well, we are, but we're prioritizing those who are the biggest threat to our community. The rapists, the murderers, the child molesters. That's the right thing to do but I'll say it again. President Trump made a promise of mass deportation. And that's what this country is going to get. With a smart law enforcement do to targeted enforcement operations.

Now, I've heard people attack me using the word targeted. I sat for the last two months when I watched this operation. Daily press briefings are talking about targeted operations. Nothing changed other than we're going to make sure they're targeted and make sure we know who we're going for, what their immigration record, what their criminal history. That comes first but enforcement of Title Eight is not going to end.

If you're in this country legally, you're not off the table. And I think we've proven that if you look at the data. UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. Homan, I just had a question about the

final number of arrests you had, and how many of those people arrested were those targeted security threats you were after?

HOMAN: I don't have that exact breakdown. I know we made over 4,000 arrests here. That is something local field office can supply. I don't have the exact breakdown, but I can tell you, since I've been on the ground, they've been targeting enforcement arrests. I believe there are targeting enforcement arrests before I got here. What I did is create one chain of command so everybody knows what everybody else is doing.

And there's -- and integrate operation command centers. There were there were some issues here and we address those issues, but I'm not going to sit here and say anybody did anything wrong and that, you know they were, you know, unprofessional. I'm going to say there's some issues here. We fixed those issues.

[09:25:01]

We've had great success with this operation and we're leaving Minnesota safer. The surge is leaving Minnesota safer. Minneapolis safer because of the cooperation we got with the counties and the state and local law enforcement responding to our needs. I'll say it again, it's less of a sanctuary state for criminals.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Sorry to go a little off topic here, but can you confirm that CPB actually hit a party balloon instead of a drone with a laser during the incident in El Paso? And why wasn't that action coordinated with the FAA?

HOMAN: I have no information on that. It's out of my league.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to keep the questions to Minnesota. The topic. Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. Homan, can you specify how many county sheriffs, local jails have agreed to work with you and honor ICE detainers?

HOMAN: I have not met one county jail that says no to us. They want to work with us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, we have time for one more. Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Yes. Hi, Mr. Homan, can you -- you talked about this unprecedented level of cooperation between local officials and yourself. Can you explain more what is changed now in terms of that cooperation?

HOMAN: Well, several things have changed. First of all, when the agents are out doing operations and the agitators got out of hand and pose a public safety threat, not just to the officers but the communities, law enforcement response has been sporadic at best. I think at what you've seen now, what you saw this past weekend, as law enforcement is responding to public safety needs quickly. And people were arrested for violating city ordinances as far as, you

know, unlawful assembly and so forth. They've come to assist us make sure our officers, the person we have in custody, lead that scene safely. You've seen it this weekend, and I'm happy that the local and state and state was there also that responded. And we haven't seen any incidents of them not responding since we have these agreements in place now.

As far as the jails, we got more cooperation, more jails than they had before we got here. That's a good thing. We're having conversations with the state and, you know, state already accept our detainers, but we're moving further on our agreements with the state. So the cooperation we have here is going to keep this city safer. It's going to keep our agents safer. Arresting public safety threats in a jail just makes sense.

You know, if you look at -- I was talking to my chief of staff this morning on my way over here. I see that most people on the other side, I say the other side, they say, you know, this argument with Democrats versus Republicans, whatever. But most of the people, even Democrats, are saying they want public safety threats to be the focus. They think public safety threats, illegal aliens, should be addressed.

But to say that and not let us into jail? You can't square that. I just noticed the governor of New York, my home state, you know, I've heard her say that she believes public safety for illegal aliens should be the focus of ICE. But they have a press conference last week to lock us out of the jails and N-287 jail agreements. How do you square that? You can't. So again, prioritization of public safety threats don't mean forget about everybody else.

We're going to enforce immigration law. We're going to have a mass deportation. President Trump promised that and we're committed to that. However, it should not be -- it shouldn't be a partisan issue that you arrest public safety threats and the safety and security of a jail. Releasing public safety threats back in the public is just stupid. And I've been arguing this for years and I hope Congress takes action on sanctuary cities and sanctuary states.

It makes sense if you think about it. Even the, you know, the argument I hear, well, victims and witnesses of crime that are in the country illegally want to feel safe to come to law enforcement and to report those crimes without fearing that this law enforcement agency is working with ICE. That's just -- that's a bunch of crap. Because victims and witnesses of crime don't want the bad guy released to the neighborhood either. It's ridiculous.

We want access to the person that you chose, the local jurisdiction chose to lock in a jail cell and we have that cooperation here now. It's the right thing to do, and it makes us -- it makes this community safer. This community is safer because we arrested 4,000 illegal aliens in over 4000 illegal aliens here many public safety threat. Not all of them. As I said, we're going to enforce immigration law, but this community is much safer because of President Trump's leadership and the men and women standing on this stage.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you. That's all the questions we're going to take.

BERMAN: This Tom Foreman, the border czar --

BOLDUAN: Tom Homan.

BERMAN: Finishing up in Minnesota, walking off there. He spoke for nearly half an hour. But I have to say, the headline can all be boiled down to one sentence. The border czar, who's been in charge of the immigration enforcement.