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Border Czar Says, Immigration Enforcement Surge in Minnesota is Ending; Guthrie's Neighbors Being Asked for Video from Jan. 11 and 31; Conflicting Explanations on Sudden, Drastic El Paso Airspace Closure. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired February 12, 2026 - 10:00   ET

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

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[10:00:00]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, breaking news, the immigration enforcement surge of Minnesota is ending. Border Czar Tom Homan announced that just moments ago. We are following the very latest.

Plus, gathering clues and asking for video, the search for Nancy Guthrie now in its 12th day.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, new questions on what actually led to the temporary closure of the airspace around El Paso. What we're now learning from sources that contradicts what the Trump administration is saying.

Plus, new details about the shooter in one of Canada's deadliest school shootings.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer with Pamela Brown, and you're in The Situation Room.

We're following breaking news this morning. The border czar, Tom Homan, saying the surge of federal agents in Minnesota is ending.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM HOMAN, BORDER CZAR: I have proposed, and President Trump has concurred that this surge operation concluded.

A significant drawdown has already been underway this week, and we'll continue to the next week.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: This comes as key federal immigration officials, as well as local leaders from Minnesota are testifying before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee right now.

All of this stemming from the immigration enforcement we've seen in Minnesota in recent weeks, which has sparked bipartisan backlash following the very deadly shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. This hearing comes as the Department of Homeland Security is facing a potential shutdown tomorrow night, as lawmakers face a funding deadline to keep the agency fully operational.

Joining us now, CNN's Whitney Wild and Manu Raju. Whitney, what stood out to you from the latest statement from Tom Homan?

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Border Czar Tom Homan really stressed the cooperation from state and local officials in Minnesota for allowing them to do their job the way that they want to do it, Wolf. And one of the things that Tom Homan has perfected throughout his career and certainly ushered into Minnesota was this ability for immigration agents to get into jails and arrest people in a very controlled setting. And what he said was take these public safety risks off the street before they can do any further harm in an extremely controlled situation.

And he said that that is really the pinnacle of the way that local and federal officials should operate in terms of affecting these immigration policies. He did not say that immigration enforcement is done in Minnesota. In fact, he said the opposite. He said that that will continue in Minnesota. He continued to commit to mass deportations, but said, because of that cooperation and the way that they've streamlined their own processes, they've seen enough success in Minnesota to say, hey, look, this surge, which had been the biggest surge that immigrations and enforcement operations have ever conducted anywhere, which really reached at least 2,000 to 3,000 agents on the ground in Minnesota. Again, the biggest operation ever could come to a conclusion, Wolf.

I want to talk about a couple things that they did on their side because we've talked a lot about what the State of Minnesota and local officials have done. They've increased cooperation, increased communication. Again, they're allowing immigration agents for the most part to get into local jails to arrest people on the street. They're being more helpful when some of these agents are running into problems on the ground with protesters. So, those are all the ways that local officials have helped out immigration.

On the other side, DHS has changed how it's operating. They streamlined their processes. They streamlined their chain of command, which meant that Customs and Border Protection agents as well as ICE agents were working together under one team instead of being siloed. They were all under the same chain of command, all held to the same expectation.

And then further, Wolf, this was something notable we haven't talked a lot about, Mr. Homan last week again today said that there was ramped up I.A. presence from DHS on the ground signaling that they would be -- that these agents would be under more heightened scrutiny from DHS as well as a stronger legal footprint. So, those were the changes that he made under his tenure over the last couple of weeks, which, again, he is saying has resulted in enough success for them to conclude, although he hasn't said exactly when this operation will completely be finished.

[10:05:00]

He talked about going to a smaller footprint prior to this surge. There are around 150 immigration agents in the state of Minnesota. ICE has operated there for decades. So, it's possible that they will see a footprint that is more similar to that.

And then finally, Wolf, I'll leave you with this. Mr. Homan said that they hadn't made more than 4,000 arrests as part of this surge, which began December 1st, but he did not say what percent of those represented heightened security risks, national security threats, violent criminals, that kind of thing. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right. Whitney Wild, excellent reporting, thank you very, very much. Pamela?

BROWN: All right. I want to go live now to Manu Raju, who is live for us on Capitol Hill. Tell us more, Manu, about what's going on with the Department of Homeland Security and this potential shutdown.

MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this is looming at the end of the day on Friday. A deal must be reached to fund the Homeland Security Department. Otherwise, the agency will shut down and all the components underneath it, not just in dealing with immigration enforcement, but also TSA and FEMA and the Coast Guard, major federal agencies, all because of this fight over ICE. Democrats have been demanding significant changes the way that ICE agents are being deployed by President Trump, new policies, everything ranging from use of force, policies that they want changes, to new body cameras to be worn by federal officers, and to have them remove their masks while conducting these law enforcement operations, changing how warrants are issued, many proposals that the White House and other Republicans simply will not go for.

The White House proposed its own counteroffer last night, and I'm told from Democratic sources that they are not in favor of it, which raises the serious possibility of a shutdown, the third shutdown of Donald Trump's second term in office.

And I talked to a number of Democrats about whether they'd be willing to accept even a short-term extension of Homeland Security Department funding to avoid a damaging shutdown, and the short answer is no.

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RAJU: But it -- will you guys suffer some political blowback? Do you think if DHS is shut down because FEMA could be impacted, TSA could be impacted?

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): Yes. I don't cast votes based on what is, what the politics of them are. I think we have to sit about what's right for the American people and what's not right for the American people. I think continuing to give ICE money without reining in anything of what they're doing is not something that should merit the Democratic caucus' support.

SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-CT): The American people are demanding that there be significant far-reaching reforms to eliminate the brutality and violence and violation of basic rights on the part of ICE and CBP. Until those demands are met, the American people's demand, I am unwilling to approve any more spending.

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RAJU: And a key vote is slated for this afternoon to take up a house bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security through September that would require 60 votes in order to overcome a Democratic filibuster. And we do expect Democrats to block this bill this afternoon. The big question is going to be whether or not senators and House members stick around because they are slated to begin a recess as soon as the end of today -- end of the day today, and be out all of next week. So, if there is no resolution and members go home, we could see a shutdown of this critical agency last through next week and into the week be after that. Wolf and Pamela?

BROWN: All right. Manu Raju, thank you so much. Wolf?

BLITZER: I want to bring in CNN Correspondent Priscilla Alvarez right now. Priscilla, I want to get your reaction to this dramatic announcement from the borders are Tom Homan. What are you hearing from your sources?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, there were two themes here in the course of that press briefing and it was targeted enforcement and cooperation.

Now, targeted enforcement was important from the get-go. Remember, it was President Trump that dispatched the border czar, Tom Homan, about two weeks ago to the state to rectify the issues after there were two deaths of Americans. And so what he has been stressing is that he wants federal agents to know who they're going after, to identify them ahead of time, to create a strategy, an operation, and go after that individual or individuals.

This is something that Tom Homan has been doing for many decades and something that is very much what he believes in and has believed in. That doesn't foreclose that others could be wrapped up in that, but, certainly, this was something that he came to Minnesota to try to fix, in comparison to then Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino, who had a more sweeping approach to immigration enforcement. So, he talked about that often.

But cooperation was the other part of this, and the political back and forth between the White House and local and state officials. It always came back to limiting cooperation with the federal agents on the ground. And that was something that when Tom Homan came in, he said that he was going to talk to the county jails to have those conversations so that when they release an undocumented immigrant with criminal records, that ICE could take them into custody.

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So, he spent the first part of that speech really talking about that work and talking about that cooperation leading up to and justifying the drawdown of a surge in Minnesota.

Now, of course, we can't overlook how we got to this point. Two Americans died in Minnesota. There was the aggressive confrontations between the federal agents and with protesters. And so now we're at a point where they're saying they're going to draw down the search even with immigration enforcement continuing, as you heard there from Whitney, ICE has been in Minnesota for many decades. So, they will continue the work they've been doing, but continue to do it the way that they have been doing it for years, not this surge of thousands of federal agents deploying to the state.

So, this has been a bit of a -- this is a major shift in the way that they have been talking about Minnesota, certainly. I think we still need to hear from the state and local officials to see how they are receiving this because, of course, they have been calling for the administration to draw down the number of agents in the state.

BLITZER: Lots going on. Priscilla, thank you very, very much.

BROWN: Thank you.

Still ahead, sifting through thousands of tips, the new request for doorbell cam video and the search for Nancy Guthrie. Weare live in Tucson.

And what really caused the FAA to temporarily shut down the El Paso airspace? Turns out it was because of counter drone lasers being used on party balloons.

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BLITZER: In Arizona right now, a new plea for people living near Nancy Guthrie's house just north of Tucson. Residents are being asked to check their cameras, their doorbell cameras for video on January 11th between 9:00 P.M. and midnight, and January 31st between 9:30 A.M. and 11:00 A.M. The alert says a suspicious car was seen on the 31st, the day when loved ones last saw her.

Since her disappearance, investigators say they've received 18,000 calls and tips. They're investigating all of these leads, including this, a New York Post reporter witnessing agents picking up a glove off the side of the road about a mile and a half from her home. It's not clear if authorities believe it's the same glove worn by the person captured on her doorbell camera.

Let's go live right now to CNN's Ed Lavandera, who's in Tucson for us. Ed, you've been there from the very beginning. What can you tell us about this new request for neighbors to check their camera footage?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. First of all, we want to kind of highlight that this is a thing that has happened routinely. There's always these calls going out for some specific information. Presumably, this is one where neighbors are being asked, as you mentioned, those dates January 11th. And what is significant about that is that it's so much more earlier than anything we had heard about up until this point. So, January 11th, which is about 20 days before Nancy Guthrie was abducted, and the specific time hour, times, from 9:00 P.M. to midnight. But even in that note, it also said that especially along this road that we're on right now, this is one of the main roads that leads towards Nancy Guthrie's home. So, if you presume that whoever abducted her drove into this neighborhood, this could have been this roadway that you see, one of the ways that this person would've escaped from the neighborhood at around 2:30 in the morning when all of this had happened. So, those dates in this request and of these neighbors to look on their home cameras for a suspicious vehicle is interesting at this point in the investigation also. That second date or that second timeframe, a little bit earlier in the day on January 31st.

Wolf, what's also interesting as this alert has gone out, we were on this road yesterday and we saw FBI agents canvassing the area. They were going up and down this stretch, walking through all of the brush, all of this kind of terrain that you see behind me. They were going through the area trying to see if they could find anything on the ground. So, this particular roadway has been an area where investigators have been focused on for several days.

BLITZER: Ed Lavandera, thank you very much for that update.

And to our viewers, if you have any information at all that potentially could help investigators, please call the numbers on your screen. The FBI tip line is 1-800-CALL-FBI, and the Pima County Sheriff's Department is (520) 351-4900.

BROWN: All right, Wolf. Happening now, differing explanations on what led to an abrupt closure of El Paso's airspace. Sources tell CNN Border Patrol didn't coordinate with the FAA before firing a high energy laser, like the one you see here, to shoot down what we are told are balloons. The Trump administration says a Mexican cartel drone that crossed into U.S. airspace is what triggered the closure of El Paso's Airport. Attorney General Pam Bondi repeated that in her testimony before Congress.

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PAM BONDI, ATTORNEY GENERAL: I think you've seen the news this morning, the news is reporting that cartel drones are being shot down by our military. That's what we all should care about right now, protecting America.

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BROWN: While questions grow this morning over the use of this high energy laser and what really happened, El Paso's mayor says his city is being left in the dark.

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MAYOR RENARD JOHNSON, EL PASO, TEXAS: This created complete chaos and confusion in our community. You can't just come in and shut down the airport without giving us any notice or telling us why you're doing it.

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BROWN: CNN Correspondent Pete Muntean joins us now. He has been digging into all of this.

So, Pete, this all started with some balloons?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Yes. You know, the plot here really kind of keeps thickening. Here is the latest. We now know that it was a Customs and Border Protections use of this laser weapon on party balloons prompted the FAA to make this bold move to shut down the airspace over El Paso. That's according to multiple sources who have spoken to CNN.

These sources tell us that the laser system was on loan from the Defense Department, and one source tells us military personnel were present when that weapon was used to shoot down four Mylar balloons earlier this week. This technology is called a high energy laser. And this is Pentagon video of a similar system back from 2018.

High energy lasers are considered non-kinetic weapons, meaning they don't use bullets but they use concentrated heat to disable target. It's great for stopping drones in their tracks, which are a growing threat at the border. An Air Force top brass said back in 2024 there were more than a thousand drone incursions at the border each month.

Now, sources tell CNN FAA officials were concerned about the safety impact of using that technology in your civilian flight paths, and that a meeting between the Pentagon and the FAA had already been scheduled for February 20th, that date's important, to review the risks, but the system was used before that meeting could take place. And so the FAA's restriction was really to slate February -- end on February 21, which was one day after that meeting. So, now the timing sorts to all makes sense.

The FAA's underscored in the past, over and over again, the unique safety concerns of lasers near airplanes, including the potential for pilots to temporarily go blind, especially from pranksters on the ground. These new details though really highlight that what the White House has said about the FAA's airspace shutdown probably not true.

Here's the post from Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who said this was all because of a breach of a cartel drone over the U.S. border. FAA Administrator Brian Bedford was on Capitol Hill yesterday, spoke to the Senate Commerce Committee in a closed door briefing. He did not answer any questions about this last night.

So, still some questions here to get to the bottom of this, but we now know a much clearer explanation about why this was so mysterious, this FAA shut down at the beginning, and why the FAA took such incredible, unprecedented action to shut down the airspace over El Paso.

BROWN: But don't they have technology to decipher a Mylar balloon versus a drone from the Mexican cartel? I mean --

MUNTEAN: They should. And, to me, the fact that they shot down Mylar balloons, according to our sources, really speaks to whether or not CBP knew what they were doing with this technology and knew the power of it. And so if they misidentified something, that's central to using any sort of ground-to-air weapon, they call it IFF, identify friend or foe. You have to be able to tell what is legitimately an enemy and what is not. And so if they shut down Mylar balloons raising questions with the FAA, you can see why they took this move.

BROWN: Absolutely. And I also want to just ask you about this testimony that's happening on Capitol Hill right now about that collision that happened at DCA last year.

MUNTEAN: This is a Senate Commerce Committee hearing, testimony from NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy about the January 29th tragic midair collision of American Eagle Flight 5342 and an Army Black Hawk helicopter. Probably not going to get a bunch of new bombshells here, although this will be in, a lot of ways, a review of what we have already heard from the NTSB about this.

In its most recent meeting two weeks ago, we got new in cockpit renderings, essentially of what the pilots of each aircraft saw in the final moments leading up to that collision, essentially underscoring that there was really no way for the pilots of the helicopter or the pilots of American Eagle 5342 to see the collision that was unfolding in front of them.

We're also going to get a bit of a preview into what exactly is in the final report that the NTSB will put out. We've now heard that will come out next Tuesday, February 17th.

BROWN: All right. Pete Muntean, thank you so much.

BLITZER: And just to recap the subject close to my heart, no more military helicopters are flying around Reagan National Airport now.

MUNTEAN: And, essentially, the FAA will stop air traffic if helicopters do need to fly in that area. So, it's essentially a no-fly zone to helicopters and the FAA is trying to do, in a big way, insulate military traffic from civilian traffic, not only at Reagan National Airport, but at other airports across the country.

BLITZER: Which is so important. Thank you very, very much.

Also coming up, we'll be joined by Democratic Congressman Lou Correa as lawmakers clash over Trump's immigration crackdown.

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BROWN: Happening now, there is gridlock on Capitol Hill as Republicans and Democrats clash over the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. The Department of Homeland Security is set to run out of money at midnight tomorrow night, and Congress is nowhere close to reaching a deal. Democrats want sweeping reforms to ICE in exchange for funding DHS, but Republicans say many of those demands are now non-starters.

BLITZER: All this as President Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, just announced the administration's controversial operation in Minnesota is ending.

Joining us now to discuss this and more, Democratic Congressman Lou Correa of California. He serves on the house Homeland Security and Judiciary Committees. He's a busy guy. Congressman, thanks so much for joining us.

What's your reaction, first of all, to the news from the border czar out of Minneapolis just a little while ago?

REP. LOU CORREA (D-CA): Well, you know, we should not have roving patrols. We should not have ICE in our streets or anywhere in this country. They're supposed to be operating at the border. They're supposed to be going after targeted individuals.

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But right now they've turned on American citizens, residents, all of the above. And that's not their job and that is not supposed to be their job.