Top Trump administration official Tom Homan took the podium Thursday to propose a deal: If Minnesota's jails cooperate with ICE, federal agents can start going home.

The big picture: With congressional critics pressing the Trump administration and many Minnesotans outraged over its operations, federal officials are looking for an off-ramp.

• But Minnesota jails' coordination with immigration enforcement may not be easy.

What they're saying: "It's not always as simple as it looks," Minnesota Sheriffs' Association CEO James Stuart told Axios. "It's going to take some rolling up our sleeves."

The latest: Homan — Trump's "border czar" — told reporters that he's looking for "commonsense cooperation" from Minnesota before sending some of the estimated 3,000 federal agents home.

• Homan acknowledged state prisons have long honored ICE detainers — which ask law enforcement to hold a person suspected of being in the country illegally — walking back the administration's prior claims.
• Homan indicated his focus now is on securing similar cooperation from jails.

Reality check: Minnesota's prisons have an easier time handing an immigration suspect over to ICE than county-run jails for two key reasons:

1. Logistics: Prison release dates are set long in advance, so it's easy to tell ICE when to show up. Minnesota jails churn through 69,000 bookings a year — and some inmates walk free within hours.
2. Legalities: Under Minnesota law, jails have been successfully sued for holding someone longer solely because of an ICE detainer — which doesn't have the force of a judicial warrant or a court order.

Friction point: Jails in the state's 87 counties each handle ICE holds differently, with policies often shaped by the county's political leanings.

• Under a 2021 policy, Hennepin County's jail — the state's largest — does not inform ICE when it releases someone under an immigration detainer.
• Dakota County does inform immigration officials of releases, but "sometimes [ICE] doesn't make it," Sheriff Joe Leko told Fox9.
• Eight more conservative counties have signed active cooperation agreements with ICE — including Sherburne County, which includes some metro exurbs.

What we're watching: Stuart, a former three-term Anoka County Sheriff, told Axios that the sheriffs' association has been working behind the scenes with local, state and federal officials to help "broker a peace.

Full story

Bots are driving about one-third of social media discourse about the ICE operations in Minnesota, according to data from PeakMetrics.

Zoom in: On X, pro-ICE bots dominated by amplifying posts that portrayed federal agents as being under siege, the analysis found.

• Meanwhile, a coordinated bot campaign surfaced anti-ICE content across Reddit.

What to watch: AI-generated content could supercharge bot networks and accelerate the spread of misinformation.

Why it matters

👉 The Trump administration directed federal agents to avoid engaging with "agitators" in orders sent Wednesday, though it's not clear whether all officers' tactics have changed. (Reuters)

🪧 Anti-ICE demonstrators are planning a march in downtown Minneapolis starting at 2pm amid calls for a nationwide "Day of Action." (See which businesses are closing)

🎒 Two more children — a second grader and a fifth grader — were taken into federal custody to be with their detained mother, because they had no family members to take care of them. (MPR News)

🏛️ The man who sprayed Rep. Ilhan Omar with vinegar during a town hall now faces assault charges in both federal and state court. (KSTP)

• Omar is a frequent target of President Trump. In announcing the parallel case, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty noted a state-level conviction couldn't be reversed by a presidential pardon.

🤔 A Mankato man was arrested at a New York jail after authorities say he impersonated an FBI agent in a plot to free Luigi Mangione, who's accused of killing UnitedHealthcare's CEO. (CNBC)

Brian Cornell's missteps at the end of his tenure as CEO of Target will likely overshadow the bold moves he took 12 years ago to get the struggling company back on solid ground.

The big picture: Cornell, who hands over the reins to Michael Fiddelke on Sunday, leaves behind a mixed legacy at the Minneapolis-based retailer.

Flashback: When he took over in 2014, Target was in the midst of a botched expansion into Canada and was bleeding money. A few months later, he pulled the plug, shutting down 133 stores north of the border and taking a $5.4 billion hit.

• A year later, he sold Target's money-losing pharmacy business to CVS for $1.9 billion. Target got out at the right time, as the retail pharmacy industry has fallen into significant struggles.
• That same year, he laid off 1,700 corporate workers and announced increased investment in e-commerce, turning stores into shipping hubs. That positioned the company to benefit from a rise in online shopping that sped up during the pandemic.

Yes, but: Target's stock price went from around $60 when he started to $260 during the pandemic, but has fallen back to around $102.

Context: The company has waffled on social issues. A Pride merchandise collection upset conservatives and a rollback of DEI initiatives led to a sustained boycott that company leaders acknowledged has contributed to declining sales.

The bottom line: Cornell's last several weeks on the job came as the Trump administration sent an unprecedented surge of federal immigration agents to the company's hometown, where they arrested store employees, used store bathrooms and staged vehicles in parking lots.

• Employees, clergy and the company's more liberal customer base called on Target to take a stand against ICE.
• After years of being in the middle of culture wars, Cornell stayed silent.

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Sunday will mark 140 years since the opening of the very first St. Paul Winter Carnival — and the debut of the first ice palace to be built in the U.S.

• The first of 37 ice palaces in the carnival's history stood 100 feet tall and was constructed out of 35,000 ice blocks.

This year's Winter Carnival runs through Sunday, but sadly, there's no official palace.