MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A judge made no immediate decision Wednesday on Minnesota's request to suspend the Trump administration's immigration crackdown in the state, where federal agents have yanked people from cars and confronted angry bystanders demanding they pack up and leave.
Plumes of tear gas, the deployment of chemical irritants and the screech of protest whistles have become common on the streets of Minneapolis, especially since an immigration agent fatally shot Renee Good in the head on Jan. 7 as she drove away.
“What we need most of all right now is a pause. The temperature needs to be lowered," state Assistant Attorney General Brian Carter said during the first hearing in a lawsuit filed by Minnesota and the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.
U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez promised to keep the case “on the front burner” and gave the U.S. Justice Department until Monday to file a response to the request for a restraining order. Local leaders say the government is violating free speech and other constitutional rights with the surge of law enforcement.
Menendez said the state and cities will have a few more days to respond.
“It is simply recognition that these are grave and important matters,” the judge said of the timetable, noting there are few legal precedents to apply to some of the key points in the case.
Justice Department attorney Andrew Warden suggested the slower approach set by Menendez was appropriate.
The judge is also handling a separate lawsuit challenging the tactics used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal officers when encountering protesters and observers. A decision could be released this week.
The Department of Homeland Security says it has made more than 2,000 arrests in the state since early December and is vowing to not back down. The Pentagon is preparing to send military lawyers to Minneapolis to assist, CNN reported.
“What we see right now is discrimination taking place only on the basis of race: Are you Latino or are you Somali? And then it is indiscriminate thereafter,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey told Fox News. “In other words, they are pulling people off the streets. They have pulled U.S. citizens off the streets and you don’t need to take my word for it at this point. This has been very well documented."
The president of Oglala Sioux Tribe in South Dakota said four tribal members were detained while at a homeless camp in Minnesota last week. Three remained in custody late Tuesday.
“Enrolled tribal members are citizens of the United States by statute and citizens of the Oglala Sioux Nation by treaty,” said tribe President Frank Star Comes Out, who demanded their release.
Associated Press reporters Ed White in Detroit and Graham Lee Brewer in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, contributed.
Federal officers stand guard after detaining people outside of Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
People visits a makeshift memorial for Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an ICE officer last week, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
A person is detained by federal agents near the scene where Renee Good was fatally shot by an ICE officer last week, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans are facing intense pressure from President Donald Trump to vote down a war powers resolution Wednesday that is aimed at limiting the president's ability to carry out further military action against Venezuela.
Five GOP senators joined with Democrats to advance the resolution last week, but Trump has lashed out at the defectors as he tries to head off passage of the bill. Democrats are forcing the vote after U.S. troops captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in a surprise nighttime raid earlier this month.
“Here we have one of the most successful attacks ever and they find a way to be against it. It’s pretty amazing. And it’s a shame," Trump said at a speech in Michigan Tuesday. He also hurled insults at several of the Republicans who advanced the legislation, calling Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky a “stone cold loser” and Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine “disasters.”
Trump's latest comments followed earlier phone calls with the senators, which they described as terse. The fury being directed their way from the president underscored how the war powers vote has taken on new political significance as Trump expands his foreign policy ambitions in the Western Hemisphere.
The legislation, even if passed by the Senate, has virtually no chance of becoming law because it would eventually need to be signed by Trump himself. But it represented both a test of GOP loyalty to the president and a marker for how much leeway the Republican-controlled Senate is willing to give Trump to use the military abroad.
Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican who helped advance the war powers resolution last week, has indicated he may change his position.
Hawley said that Trump's message during a phone call last week was that the legislation “really ties my hands." The senator said he had a follow-up phone call with Secretary of State Marco Rubio that was “really positive.”
Hawley said that Rubio told him Monday "point blank, we’re not going to do ground troops.” The senator said he also received assurances that the Trump administration will follow constitutional requirements if it becomes necessary to deploy troops again to the South American country.
“I’m in listening-and-receive mode at this time,” said Hawley, adding, “I don’t know how we’re going to proceed next on the floor.”
Collins had voted against similar war powers resolutions in previous months before voting last week to advance the one currently before the Senate. She said Wednesday that she would still support the resolution.
That likely left Sen. Todd Young, an Indiana Republican, with the crucial vote. He declined repeatedly to discuss his position but said he was “giving it some thought.”
Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine, who has brought a series of war powers resolutions this year, said he wasn't surprised at Trump's reaction to Congress asserting its ability to check the president.
“They're furious at the notion that Congress wants to be Congress,” he said. “But I think people who ran for the Senate, they want to be U.S. senators and they don't want to just vote their own irrelevance.”
Under the Constitution, Congress alone has the ability to declare war. But U.S. presidents have long stretched their powers to use the might of the U.S. military around the globe.
Ohio State University professor Peter Mansoor, a military historian and retired U.S. Army colonel with multiple combat tours, said that trend since World War II allows Congress to shirk responsibility for war and put all the risk on the president.
In the post-Vietnam War era, lawmakers tried to take back some of their authority over wartime powers with the War Powers Resolution of 1973, which allows lawmakers to hold votes on measures that restrict a president from using military force in specific conflicts without congressional approval.
“Politicians tend to like to evade responsibility for anything -- but then this gets you into forever wars,” Mansoor said, arguing that debate in Congress before formal declarations of war would force an agreement on clearer goals for military conflict.
Trump has used a series of legal arguments for his campaign against Maduro.
As he built up a naval force in the Caribbean and destroyed vessels that were allegedly carrying drugs from Venezuela, the Trump administration tapped wartime powers under the global war on terror by designating drug cartels as terrorist organizations.
The administration has claimed the capture of Maduro himself was actually a law enforcement operation, essentially to extradite the Venezuelan president to stand trial for charges in the U.S. that were filed in 2020.
In a classified briefing Tuesday, senators reviewed the Trump administration's still undisclosed legal opinion for using the military for the operation. It was described as a lengthy document.
As he exited the classified briefing room at the Capitol, Paul said, “Legal arguments and constitutional arguments should all be public, and it’s a terrible thing that any of this is being kept secret because the arguments aren’t very good."
Lawmakers, including some Republicans, have been alarmed by Trump's recent foreign policy talk. In recent weeks, he has pledged that the U.S. will “run” Venezuela for years to come, threatened military action to take possession of Greenland and told Iranians protesting their government that “ help is on its way.”
“It's amazing. He's concerned about the protesters in Iran, but not concerned about the damage that ICE is doing to the protesters and Americans in Minnesota and other places,” said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, referring to the fatal shooting of a woman in Minnesota by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.
Republican Senate leaders were looking for ways to defuse the conflict between their members and Trump and were eager to move on quickly to other business.
In a floor speech Wednesday morning, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., vented his displeasure at the measure as he questioned whether this war powers resolution should be prioritized under the chamber's rules.
“We have no troops on the ground in Venezuela. We're not currently conducting military operations there,” he said. “But Democrats are taking up this bill because their anti-Trump hysteria knows no bounds.”
Republican leaders could move to dismiss the measure under the argument that it is irrelevant to the current situation, but that procedure would still receive a vote.
Schumer said he hoped at least the five Republicans would hold to their position because they “understand how important this is.”
Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro and Joey Cappelletti in Washington and Bill Barrow in Atlanta contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with oil executives in the East Room of the White House, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., talks with reporters outside the Senate chamber during a vote at the Capitol, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., speaks with reporters at the Senate Subway on Capitol Hill, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., speaks during a news conference at the Capitol, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
