LONDON (AP) — U.K. government figures Sunday showed nearly 1,200 migrants arrived in the country Saturday in small boats from France across the English Channel, the highest number recorded on a single day so far this year.
The latest Home Office figures show that 1,194 migrants arrived in 18 boats Saturday in what were settled weather conditions, bringing the provisional annual total so far to 14,811.
That's 42% higher than the same point last year, an increase that has piled pressure on the Labour government, which returned to power nearly a year ago partly on disillusionment with the previous Conservative administration 's efforts to get a grip on the the numbers making the crossing.
Having ditched the Conservative government's plan to send migrants who arrived in the U.K. by unauthorized means to Rwanda, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said his government would get control by smashing the gangs and the business models that sustain their smuggling operations.
Since gaining power, Starmer's government has sought better intelligence-sharing internationally, enhanced enforcement operations in northern France and has adopted tougher rules in its immigration legislation.
French police officers were seen watching Saturday as migrants boarded at a beach in Gravelines, between Calais and Dunkirk, and authorities were then pictured escorting the boats. French authorities said they rescued 184 people.
“Pretty shocking, those scenes yesterday," Defense Secretary John Healey told Sky News.
He added that it is a “really big problem” that French police are unable to intervene to intercept boats in shallow waters, adding that the U.K. is pressing for the French to put new rules into operation so they can intervene.
“They’re not doing it, but, but for the first time for years … we’ve got the level of cooperation needed," he told Sky News. “We’ve got the agreement that they will change the way they work, and our concentration now is to push them to get that into operation so they can intercept these smugglers and stop these people in the boats, not just on the shore.”
Despite French and U.K. efforts, the cross-Channel route, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, remains a major smuggling corridor for people fleeing conflict or poverty. Many migrants favor the U.K. for reasons of language, family ties or perceived easier access to asylum and work.
The Home Office says 36,816 people arrived in the UK on small boats in 2024, 25% more than in 2023 (29,437). The highest number of arrivals was in 2022, with 45,774.
A group of people believed to be migrants are led through the Border Force compound in Dover, England, Sunday June 1, 2025, following a number of small boat crossings in the Channel yesterday. (Gareth Fuller/PA via AP)
Protesters confronted federal officers in Minneapolis on Thursday, a day after a woman was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.
The demonstrations came amid heightened tensions after President Donald Trump's administration dispatched 2,000 officers and agents to Minnesota for its latest immigration crackdown.
Across the country, another city was reeling after federal immigration officers shot and wounded two people in a vehicle outside a hospital in Portland, Oregon.
The killing of 37-year-old Renee Good in Minneapolis on Wednesday set off a clash between federal and state officials over whether the shooting appeared justified and whether a Minnesota law enforcement agency had jurisdiction to investigate.
Here's what is known about the shooting:
The woman was shot in her SUV in a residential neighborhood south of downtown Minneapolis, about a mile (1.6 kilometers) from where police killed George Floyd in 2020. Videos taken by bystanders and posted online show an officer approaching a vehicle stopped in the middle of the road, demanding the driver open the door and grabbing the handle.
The Honda Pilot begins to pull forward and a different ICE officer standing in front of the vehicle draws his gun and immediately fires at least two shots at close range, jumping back as the vehicle moves toward him.
It is not clear from the videos if the officer gets struck by the SUV, which speeds into two cars parked on a curb before stopping.
It’s also not clear what happened in the lead-up to the shooting.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the SUV was part of a group of protesters that had been harassing agents and “impeding operations” that morning. She said agents had freed one of their vehicles that was stuck in snow and were leaving the area when the confrontation and shooting occurred.
No video has emerged to corroborate Noem’s account. Bystander video from the shooting scene shows a sobbing woman who says the person shot was her wife. That woman hasn’t spoken publicly to give her version of events.
Good died of gunshot wounds to the head.
A U.S. citizen born in Colorado, Good described herself on social media as a “poet and writer and wife and mom." Her ex-husband said Good had just dropped off her 6-year-old son at school Wednesday and was driving home when she encountered ICE agents on a residential street.
He said Good and her current partner moved to Minneapolis last year from Kansas City, Missouri.
Good's killing is at least the fifth death to result from the aggressive U.S. immigration crackdown the Trump administration launched last year.
Noem said Thursday that there would be a federal investigation into the shooting, though she again called the woman’s actions “domestic terrorism.”
“This vehicle was used to hit this officer,” Noem said. “It was used as a weapon, and the officer feels as though his life was in jeopardy.”
Vice President JD Vance said the shooting was justified and referred to Good's death as “a tragedy of her own making.”
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara gave no indication that the driver was trying to harm anyone when he described the shooting to reporters Wednesday. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said he had watched videos of the shooting that show it was avoidable.
The agent who shot Good is an Iraq War veteran who has served for nearly two decades in the Border Patrol and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to records obtained by The Associated Press.
Jonathan Ross has been a deportation officer with ICE since 2015, records show. He was seriously injured this summer when he was dragged by the vehicle of a fleeing suspect whom he shot with a stun gun.
Federal officials have not named the officer. But Noem said he was dragged by a vehicle in June, and a department spokesperson confirmed Noem was referring to the Bloomington, Minnesota, case in which documents identified the injured officer as Ross.
Court documents say Ross got his arm stuck in the window as a driver fled arrest in that incident. Ross was dragged 100 yards (91 meters), and cuts to his arm required 50 stitches.
According to police, officers initially responded to a report of a shooting outside a hospital Thursday afternoon.
Minutes later police heard that a man who had been shot was asking for help in a residential area a couple of miles away. Officers went there and found a man and a woman with gunshot wounds. Officers determined they were wounded in a shooting with federal agents.
Police Chief Bob Day said the FBI was leading the investigation and he had no details about events that led to the shooting.
The Department of Homeland Security said the vehicle’s passenger was “a Venezuelan illegal alien affiliated with the transnational Tren de Aragua prostitution ring” who was involved in a recent shooting. When agents identified themselves to the occupants during a “targeted vehicle stop,” the driver tried to run them over, the department said. An agent fired in self-defense, it said.
There was no immediate independent corroboration of that account or of any gang affiliation of the vehicle’s occupants.
Trump and his allies have consistently blamed Tren de Aragua for being at the root of violence and illicit drug dealing in some U.S. cities.
Drew Evans, head of Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, said Thursday that federal authorities have denied the state agency access to evidence in the Good case, barring the state from investigating the shooting alongside the FBI.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz demanded that state investigators be given a role, telling reporters that residents would otherwise have a difficulty accepting the findings of federal law enforcement.
“And I say that only because people in positions of power have already passed judgment from the president to the vice president to Kristi Noem,” Walz said.
Noem denied that Minnesota authorities were being shut out, saying: “They don’t have any jurisdiction in this investigation.”
Dozens of protesters gathered Thursday morning outside a Minneapolis federal building being used as a base for the immigration crackdown. Border Patrol officers fired tear gas and doused demonstrators with pepper spray to push them back from the gate.
Area schools were closed as a safety precaution.
Protests were also planned across the U.S. in cities including New York, New Orleans and Seattle.
Associated Press writer Audrey McAvoy contributed.
Protesters confront federal agents outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minn. (AP Photo/Tom Baker)
People gather for a vigil after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a motorist earlier in the day, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Bruce Kluckhohn)
People participate in a protest and vigil after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis, on Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press via AP)
