Venezuelan officials say at least 24 of the country’s security officers were killed in the dead-of-night U.S. military operation to capture Nicolás Maduro and spirit him to the United States to face federal drug charges. Venezuela’s Attorney General Tarek William Saab said Tuesday that overall “dozens” of officials and civilians were killed and that prosecutors would investigate the deaths in what he described as a “war crime.” He didn’t specify if the estimate was specifically referring to Venezuelans. The death toll for Venezuelan security officials comes after Cuba’s government on Sunday announced that 32 Cuban military and police officers working in Venezuela had died in the operation, prompting two days of mourning on the Caribbean island.
The Trump administration has launched what officials describe as the largest immigration enforcement operation ever carried out, preparing to deploy as many as 2,000 federal agents and officers to the Minneapolis area for a sweeping crackdown tied in part to allegations of fraud involving Somali residents.
The deployment, which began over the weekend, represents one of the largest single-city mobilizations of Department of Homeland Security personnel in years, according to a person briefed on the operation. The surge dramatically expands the federal law enforcement footprint in Minnesota amid heightened political and community tensions.
The person was not authorized to publicly discuss details of the operation and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.
Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Todd Lyons said during an interview with Newsmax that the agency was carrying out its “largest immigration operation ever," though he did not specify how many officers were involved.
Roughly three-quarters of the personnel are expected to come from ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, which carries out immigration arrests and deportations, the person said. The operation also includes agents from Homeland Security Investigations, ICE’s investigative arm, which typically focuses on fraud and cross-border criminal networks. HSI agents were going door-to-door in the Twin Cities area investigating allegations of fraud, human smuggling and unlawful employment practices, Lyons said.
The HSI agents are largely expected to concentrate on identifying suspected fraud, while deportation officers will conduct arrests of immigrants accused of violating immigration law, according to the person briefed on the operation. Specialized tactical units are also expected to be involved.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was also in the Minneapolis–St. Paul area and accompanied ICE officers during at least one arrest. In a video posted on the social media platform X, Noem is seen wearing a tactical vest and knit cap as agents arrest a man in St. Paul. In the video, she tells the man, whose hands are cuffed behind his back, “You will be held accountable for your crimes.”
The Department of Homeland Security said in a news release that the man arrested was from Ecuador and that he was wanted in Ecuador and Connecticut on charges including murder and sexual assault.
When asked how many officers and agents had been deployed to Minnesota, Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin declined to provide a figure, citing officer safety. She said DHS had surged law enforcement resources to the state and had already made more than 1,000 arrests of people it described as killers, rapists, child sexual offenders and gang members.
The operation also includes personnel from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, including Commander Gregory Bovino, whose role in previous federal operations in other cities has drawn scrutiny from local officials and civil rights advocates, the person familiar with the deployment said.
Federal authorities began increasing immigration arrests in the Minneapolis area late last year. Noem and FBI Director Kash Patel announced last week that federal agencies were intensifying operations in Minnesota, with an emphasis on fraud investigations.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly linked his administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota to fraud cases involving federal nutrition and pandemic aid programs, many of which have involved defendants with roots in Somalia.
The person with information about the current operation cautioned that its scope and duration could shift in the coming days as it develops.
President Trump has been talking with House Republicans on how to maintain their majority in the 2026 elections. Speaking at the annual GOP House Retreat, the president said healthcare should be a winning issue for Republicans. He said congressional candidates need to remind voters that his administration has lowered prescription drug prices. And he wants to bypass insurance companies. He also said if Republicans lose the midterms, Democrats will impeach him.
Abortion will remain legal in Wyoming after the state Supreme Court struck down laws that include the country’s first explicit ban on abortion pills, ruling Tuesday that they violate the state constitution.
The justices sided with the state’s only abortion clinic and others who had sued over the bans passed since 2022, when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision.
Wellspring Health Access in Casper, the abortion access advocacy group Chelsea’s Fund and four women, including two obstetricians, argued that the laws violated a state constitutional amendment ensuring that competent adults have the right to make their own health care decisions.
Attorneys for the state, however, argued that abortion can’t violate the Wyoming constitution because it is not health care.
Voters approved the constitutional amendment in 2012 in response to the federal Affordable Care Act. The justices recognized that the amendment wasn't written to apply to abortion but said it's not their job to “add words” to the state constitution.
“But lawmakers could ask Wyoming voters to consider a constitutional amendment that would more clearly address this issue,” the justices wrote in summarizing their 4-1 ruling.
Gov. Mark Gordon, a Republican, said in a statement that he was disappointed by the ruling and called on state lawmakers meeting this winter to pass a proposed constitutional amendment banning abortion that would go before voters this fall.
“This ruling may settle, for now, a legal question, but it does not settle the moral one, nor does it reflect where many Wyoming citizens stand, including myself. It is time for this issue to go before the people for a vote,” Gordon said.
Such an amendment would require a two-thirds vote to be introduced for consideration during the monthlong legislative session devoted primarily to the state budget. But it would have wide support in the Republican-dominated statehouse.
One of the laws overturned Tuesday sought to ban abortion except to protect a pregnant woman’s life or in cases involving rape or incest. The other law would have made Wyoming the only state to explicitly ban abortion pills, though other states have instituted de facto bans on abortion medication by broadly prohibiting abortion.
Abortion has remained legal in this conservative state since Teton County District Judge Melissa Owens in Jackson blocked the bans while the lawsuit challenging them went ahead. Owens struck down the laws as unconstitutional in 2024.
Wellspring Health Access and attorneys on both sides of the case didn't immediately reply to requests for comment.
Last year, Wyoming passed additional laws requiring abortion clinics to be licensed surgical centers and women to get ultrasounds before having medication abortions. The Supreme Court ruling means those limitations could take effect, although a judge in a separate lawsuit has blocked them from taking effect while the case proceeds.
Indiana U.S. Rep. Jim Baird is expected to make a full recovery after his vehicle was struck in a car accident that hospitalized him, the Republican's office said Tuesday.
“He is extraordinarily grateful for everyone’s prayers during this time,” Baird's congressional office said in a statement.
The statement did not include further details about the crash. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the congressman's wife was also hospitalized.
“They’re going to be okay, but they had a pretty bad accident, and we’re praying that they get out of that hospital very quickly,” Trump said while speaking to House GOP members at a retreat at the Kennedy Center. “He’s going to be fine. She’s going to be fine.”
Baird, who represents the 4th Congressional District in west central Indiana, was first elected to congress in 2019. He is 80 years old.
House Republican Rep. Doug LaMalfa of California has died at the age of 65, according to information released Tuesday. Details surrounding his death were not immediately provided.
LaMalfa represented a large portion of Northern California and served as chair of the Congressional Western Caucus, where he was a leading voice on agriculture, land use and rural policy issues.
His death further narrows the Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, bringing the balance to 218 Republicans and 213 Democrats.
House leaders are expected to announce arrangements and next steps in the coming days.
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