The Latest: Trump hosts Cabinet meeting as Democrats threaten partial shutdown over ICE reform

President Donald Trump has gathered his Cabinet for a video broadcasted meeting that’s expected to be another lengthy, praise-heavy affair. Since returning to office, the president has used these meetings to review his administration’s accomplishments and provide Cabinet members with an opportunity to shower him with superlatives.

Trump said his administration is speaking with Senate Democrats who are threatening to block legislation that would fund the Department of Homeland Security and several other agencies, potentially bringing the government a step closer to a partial shutdown if Republicans and the White House do not agree to new restrictions on Trump’s surge of immigration enforcement. “We don't want a shutdown,” Trump said at his Cabinet meeting.

As the country reels from the killings of two protesters by federal agents in Minneapolis, irate Senate Democrats are demanding that officers take off their masks, identify themselves and obtain judicial warrants showing probable cause for arrests. If those are not met, Democrats say they are prepared to block the wide-ranging spending bill, denying Republicans the votes they need to pass it and triggering a shutdown at midnight on Friday.

Meanwhile, FBI raid in Georgia highlights Trump’s 2020 election obsession and hints at possible future actions. A federal appeals court ruled that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem acted illegally when she chose to end legal protections that gave Venezuelans permission to live and work in the U.S. And Sen. Amy Klobuchar says she's running for governor of Minnesota as a unifier who will take on Trump.

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The participation of the director of national intelligence was unusual, given that Gabbard is not part of the FBI or federal law enforcement.

Asked to explain, a senior administration official said in a statement that “Gabbard has a pivotal role in election security and protecting the integrity of our elections against interference, including operations targeting voting systems, databases, and election infrastructure.”

Trump has long insisted that the election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden was stolen from him even though courts, his own former attorney general and audits have concluded that there was no widespread fraud that could have altered the outcome of the 2020 contest.

Trump said he informed Venezuela’s leader Delcy Rodríguez on Thursday that he’s going to be opening up all commercial airspace over Venezuela and Americans will soon be able to visit.

Trump said he instructed U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and U.S. military leaders to open up the airspace by the end of the day Thursday.

“American citizens will be very shortly able to go to Venezuela and they’ll be safe there,” Trump said.

The U.S. suspended commercial travel to Venezuela in 2019.

The president, as he kicked off his Cabinet meeting, said his administration is speaking with congressional Democrats on avoiding a partial government shutdown.

“We’re working on that right now,” Trump said while declining to go into specifics. He added: “We don’t want a shutdown.”

Congress has to pass the remaining government funding by Jan. 31 to avoid a partial shutdown; the money for the Department of Homeland Security has been tied up in the aftermath of the shooting death of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis as Democrats demand changes to federal immigration enforcement tactics.

Trump opened his Cabinet meeting by briefly highlighting improvements to the room, then moving on to his administration’s successes.

He touched on his administration’s efforts on crime before moving to Venezuela, where he thanked staff involved with the military operation to end the presidency of Nicolás Maduro.

House Republicans are proposing sweeping changes to the nation’s voting laws before Americans get their say in this fall’s midterm elections.

The package to be released Thursday, a long-shot Trump priority, includes requirements for photo IDs before people can vote, proof of citizenship and prohibitions on universal vote-by-mail and ranked choice voting.

“These reforms will improve voter confidence, bolster election integrity, and make it easy to vote, but hard to cheat,” said Rep. Bryan Steil, chairman of the House Administration Committee, in a statement.

The GOP election rules legislation a long road ahead in the narrowly-split Congress, where Democrats have rejected similar ideas as disenfranchising Americans’ ability to vote. According to a one-page bill summary:

They say such changes could lead to widespread problems for voters. For example, they say prior Republican efforts to require proof of citizenship have disenfranchised married women whose last names on their photo IDs don’t exactly match their birth certificates or other proofs of citizenship.

The Brennan Center for Justice and other groups estimated in a 2023 report that 9% of U.S. citizens of voting age, or 21.3 million people, do not have proof of their citizenship readily available. Almost half of Americans do not have a U.S. passport.

Majority Leader John Thune opened the Senate as Republicans and Democrats eye an emerging deal to consider immigration enforcement changes and prevent a federal shutdown.

“We’re getting closer,” the GOP leader said.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said immigration changes must be included in any deal to fund the government.

“This is a moment of truth,” Schumer said.

Democrats want an end to roving patrols and a requirement that federal agents use body cameras and unmask themselves.

Schumer decried the “thugs roaming our streets” during immigration enforcement.

“Enough is enough,” he said.

Kevin Couch confirmed in an email to The Associated Press on Thursday that he resigned Wednesday, without providing an explanation. It’s the latest sign of turmoil at the iconic performing arts venue.

The Kennedy Center’s Trump-appointed president, Ric Grenell, had welcomed Couch to the role “as we expand our commonsense programming.”

Couch’s exit comes as Trump and first lady Melania Trump are expected to walk the red carpet at the Kennedy Center on Thursday for the premiere of “Melania,” a documentary she produced.

The center is navigating a wave of artist cancellations in protest of Trump ’s new leadership, which added his name to the venue. In just the past week, composer Philip Glass called off a world premiere of a symphony about Abraham Lincoln, and Grammy-winning soprano Renée Fleming withdrew from two scheduled appearances.

Homan vowed to hold ICE and CBP officers accountable for their actions but didn’t go into specifics of the Saturday shooting or indicate anything he thought they’d done wrong during the course of the operation.

“For decades, ICE and CBP have carried out their duties with integrity, professionalism and compassion. That remains the expectation under President Trump. And we will, I will, hold our agents and officers to that standard,” Homan said.

Homan also blamed “hateful rhetoric” for ratcheting up attacks on his officers who he called “American patriots.”

The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee wants to know why Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard joined an FBI search of a Georgia election office that was featured in bogus conspiracy theories over Trump’s 2020 election loss.

Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia said that if Gabbard believes a foreign intelligence service tried to swing the election she is obligated to inform his committee. Otherwise, “she is simply attempting to inject the non-partisan intelligence community into a domestic political stunt designed to legitimize conspiracy theories that undermine our democracy,” Warner said at a committee hearing Thursday.

Gabbard’s office did not immediately respond to questions about Wednesday’s action, which involved the FBI executing a search warrant and taking away many boxes of ballots cast by voters. Trump’s claims of a stolen election have been repeatedly rejected by courts and state and federal officials, who found no evidence of fraud that would have altered the outcome.

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ICE has historically relied on cooperation from local and state jails and prisons with immigrants in custody who’ve committed or are accused of crimes to alert ICE so that agents can pick them up before they’re released.

Many urban areas don’t have such cooperation agreements, saying that keeping detainees beyond their release dates or otherwise working with ICE makes victims or witnesses to crimes more reluctant to support prosecutions. The Hennepin County Jail, which serves Minneapolis, and the Ramsey County jail, which serves St. Paul, don’t honor such “detainers,” but both do hand over prisoners if there is an arrest warrant signed by a judge.

ICE argues that arresting immigrants while they’re still in custody is safer and better for immigrant communities by avoiding street operations that might result in detentions of other people who are in the country illegally but haven’t committed any crimes.

Homan said he appreciates that Minnesota’s state prisons honor ICE detainers, “and we’re going to expand upon that.”

Trump and his Cabinet have a meeting set for 11 a.m. Eastern. Anyone planning on tuning in should be prepared for a long haul.

The most recent Cabinet meeting ran past the two-hour mark — long enough that the president was caught closing his eyes. While officials defended this as a sign of the president’s active listening, he recently suggested in an interview with New York Magazine that he did so because the meeting was boring. December’s still fell short of an August meeting that went more than three hours and 15 minutes.

Since returning to office, Trump has used his cabinet meetings to review his administration’s accomplishments and provide Cabinet members with an opportunity to shower him with superlatives. Past meetings have also included questions from reporters.

Mayor Frey’s office says he’ll attend the U.S. Conference of Mayors on Thursday to advocate for an end to the immigration enforcement surge in Minneapolis. He’ll also meet with federal lawmakers as Senate Democrats threaten to hold up this year’s Homeland Security budget unless the Trump administration agrees to limit ICE arrests to the targets of judicial warrants.

“Minneapolis may be where we’ve seen one of the largest ICE deployments in the country, but it will not be the last if we fail to act,” Frey said in the statement. “I’m going to Washington to make the case for ending this strategy and replacing it with approaches that build trust, improve safety, and put our residents first.”

“I’m staying until the problem’s gone,” Homan said.

He said he’s made some progress while meeting with elected officials and law enforcement leaders across the city and state, seeking common ground.

More agreements are now in place between Immigration and Customs Enforcement and local jails to hand over immigrants in their custody, and he said this means fewer officers will be needed in the streets, which in turn will allow the Trump administration to draw down staff.

Homan also seemed to suggest a renewed focus on what Immigration and Customs Enforcement calls “targeted operations” designed to focus their arrest efforts on apprehending immigrants who’ve committed crimes.

Homan said they would conduct “targeted strategic enforcement operations” where they would prioritize “public safety threats.”

He also called on local jails to alert immigration enforcement when they have someone in their custody who is an immigrant about to be released, saying that transferring people over to ICE while they’re still in jail is safer for the officers and means they aren’t out on the streets.

“Give us access to illegal aliens, public safety threats in the safety and security of a jail,” Homan said.

The Trump administration is looking at basing Trump’s new international Board of Peace in the Washington building that formerly housed the U.S. Institute of Peace, according to four administration officials.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said the subject has been a matter of serious discussion but stressed that a final decision has not yet been made about where the board’s administrative staff will be located.

The building is the subject of litigation brought by former USIP employees and executives after the administration seized the facility last year and fired almost its entire staff. The building has since been renamed the Donald J. Trump U.S. Institute of Peace, but its name and status remains in legal limbo.

Trump unveiled the board last week in Davos, Switzerland, and it currently has 27 “founding members,” whose first task is to oversee the Gaza peace plan.

— By Matthew Lee

The judge’s temporary restraining order, which aims to prevent federal officers from arresting and detaining resettled refugees in Minnesota, responded to a lawsuit challenging a new Homeland Security operation to to reevaluate the refugee status of nearly 5,600 people.

The order calls for the immediate release of refugees detained in Minnesota and release within five days of those transferred to Texas.

Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller’s quick social media response: “The judicial sabotage of democracy is unending.”

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Chief Judge Patrick Schiltz warned the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency that it had violated 96 court orders in 74 cases this month.

“This list should give pause to anyone — no matter his or her political beliefs — who cares about the rule of law,” he wrote. “ICE has likely violated more court orders in January 2026 than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence.”

It was Schiltz who ordered ICE’s acting director Todd Lyons to personally appear in his courtroom Friday after the agency failed to obey an order to release an Ecuadorian man from detention in Texas. The judge canceled the order after the agency freed the man, but warned ICE that future noncompliance may result in orders requiring the personal appearances of top government officials.

ICE didn’t respond to an email seeking comment.

Trump’s border czar says the administration is open to a drawdown of agents in Minneapolis but only after he sees cooperation from state officials.

Trump sent Tom Homan to Minneapolis after the shooting of two U.S. citizens by federal immigration officers.

At a Thursday news conference, Homan doubled down on the need for local jails to alert Immigration and Customs Enforcement to people in their custody who ICE can remove from the country. Homan said that means that fewer agents have to actually be out on the streets looking for people.

He acknowledged that immigration enforcement operations in Minnesota haven’t been perfect but was adamant that the administration isn’t surrendering.

If there’s been a soundtrack to life in Minneapolis, it’s the shrieking whistles and honking horns of thousands of people following immigration agents across the city. They are the ever-moving shadow of the Trump administration’s Operation Metro Surge.

They are teachers, scientists and stay-at-home parents. They own small businesses and wait tables. Their network is sprawling, often anonymous and with few overall objectives beyond helping immigrants, warning of approaching agents or filming videos to show the world what is happening.

And it’s clear they’ll continue despite the White House striking a more conciliatory tone after the killing of Alex Pretti, including the transfer of Gregory Bovino, the senior Border Patrol official who was the public face of the immigration crackdown.

“I don’t think the threat that we’re under will change because they change out the local puppets,” said Andrew Fahlstrom, who helps run Defend the 612, a hub for volunteer networks.

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Sen. Susan Collins said Thursday that immigration officials have ceased their “enhanced operations” in the state after more than 100 arrests in an enforcement surge.

She made the announcement after saying she had several direct communications with Noem.

“There are currently no ongoing or planned large-scale ICE operations here,” Collins said in a statement. “I have been urging Secretary Noem and others in the Administration to get ICE to reconsider its approach to immigration enforcement in the state.”

Collins said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and border patrol officials “will continue their normal operations that have been ongoing here for many years.”

Jeff Landry, Trump’s envoy to Greenland, says in a New York Times op-ed that the framework of an agreement on Arctic security that Trump and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte agreed upon last week builds on existing defense agreements between the U.S. and Denmark.

“It would expand America’s operational freedom, support new bases and infrastructure, facilitate deployment of advanced missile-defense systems like the Golden Dome and crowd out hostile Chinese and Russian influence,” Landry writes.

U.S., Danish and Greenland officials held their first technical talks on Wednesday aimed at securing an Arctic security deal.

The talks follow Trump’s repeated calls for the U.S. to take over Greenland for security reasons.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar said Thursday she is running for governor of Minnesota, promising to take on President Donald Trump while unifying a state that has endured a series of challenges even before the federal government’s immigration crackdown.

Klobuchar’s decision gives Democrats a high-profile candidate and proven statewide winner as their party tries to hold onto the office occupied by Gov. Tim Walz. The 2024 Democratic vice presidential nominee, Walz abandoned his campaign for a third term earlier this month amid criticism over the mismanagement of taxpayer funding for child care programs.

Klobuchar cited Trump’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota, federal officers killing two Minnesotans who protested, the assassination of a state legislative leader and a school shooting that killed multiple children — all within the last year. She avoided direct mention of ongoing fraud investigations into the child care programs that Trump has made a political cudgel.

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A federal appeals court ruled late Wednesday that the Trump administration acted illegally when it ended legal protections that gave hundreds of thousands of people from Venezuela permission to live and work in the United States.

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling that found Noem exceeded her authority when she ended temporary protected status for Venezuelans. The decision, however, will not have any immediate practical effect after the U.S. Supreme Court in October allowed Noem’s decision to take effect pending a final decision by the justices.

The 9th Circuit panel also upheld the lower court’s finding that Noem exceeded her authority when she decided to end TPS early for hundreds of thousands of people from Haiti. A federal judge in Washington is expected to rule any day now on a request to pause the termination of TPS for Haiti while a separate lawsuit challenging it proceeds. The country’s TPS designation is scheduled to end on February 3.

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Senate Democrats are threatening to block legislation that would fund the Department of Homeland Security and several other agencies, potentially bringing the government a step closer to a partial shutdown if Republicans and the White House do not agree to new restrictions on Trump’s surge of immigration enforcement.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday that Democrats won’t provide needed votes until U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is “reined in and overhauled.”

“The American people support law enforcement, they support border security, they do not support ICE terrorizing our streets and killing American citizens,” Schumer said.

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Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, left, and FBI Deputy Director Andrew Bailey, enter a command vehicle as the FBI takes Fulton County 2020 Election ballots, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, in Union City, Ga., near Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., stands during a press conference on Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

People gather during a vigil where Alex Pretti was shot and killed by federal immigration enforcement in Minneapolis, on Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

A protester yells at a vehicle at Bishop Whipple Federal building in Minneapolis on Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Laura Bargfeld)

Law enforcement officers prepare to make arrests after declaring an unlawful assembly during a noise demonstration outside the Graduate by Hilton Minneapolis hotel on Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

President Donald Trump gestures during the launch of a program known as Trump Accounts at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union agreed Thursday to list Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization over Tehran’s bloody crackdown on nationwide protests, the bloc’s top diplomat said, in a largely symbolic move that adds to international pressures on the Islamic Republic.

The EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said foreign ministers in the 27-nation bloc unanimously agreed on the designation, which she said will put the regime “on the same footing" with al-Qaida, Hamas and the Islamic State group.

“Those who operate through terror must be treated as terrorists," Kallas said.

Meanwhile, Iran faces the threat of military action from U.S. President Donald Trump in response to the killing of peaceful demonstrators and over possible mass executions. The American military has moved the USS Abraham Lincoln and several guided-missile destroyers into the Mideast. It remains unclear whether Trump will decide to use force.

Activists say the crackdown has killed at least 6,443 people. “Any regime that kills thousands of its own people is working toward its own demise,” Kallas said.

For its part, Iran has said it could launch a preemptive strike or broadly target the Mideast, including American military bases in the region and Israel.

Iran issued a warning to ships at sea Thursday that it planned to run a drill next week that would include live firing in the Strait of Hormuz, potentially disrupting traffic through a waterway that sees 20% of all the world's oil pass through it.

Other countries, including the U.S. and Canada, have designated the Guard as a terrorist organization.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi dismissed the designation as a “PR stunt” and said Europe would be affected if energy prices surge as a result of the sanctions.

“Several countries are presently attempting to avert the eruption of all-out war in our region. None of them are European,” he wrote on X.

France originally objected to listing the Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization over fears it would endanger French citizens detained in Iran, as well as diplomatic missions, but the country reversed course. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot told the Foreign Affairs Council on Thursday in Brussels that France supports more sanctions on Iran and the listing “because there can be no impunity for the crimes committed.”

“In Iran, the unbearable repression that has engulfed the peaceful revolt of the Iranian people cannot go unanswered,” he said.

Edouard Gergondet, an lawyer focused on sanctions with the firm Mayer Brown, said the Revolutionary Guard will be notified of the listing and given the opportunity to comment before the measure is formally adopted.

Kristina Kausch, a deputy director at the German Marshall Fund, said the listing is “a symbolic act” showing that for the EU “the dialogue path hasn’t led anywhere, and now it’s about isolation and containment as a priority.”

“The designation of a state military arm, of an official pillar of the Iranian state, as a terrorist organization, is one step short of cutting diplomatic ties," she said.

The EU on Thursday also sanctioned 15 top officials and six organizations in Iran, including those involved in monitoring online content, as the country remains gripped by a three-week internet blackout by authorities.

The sanctions mean that affected officials and organizations will have their assets frozen and their travel to Europe banned, according to Barrot.

The Revolutionary Guard holds vast business interest across Iran, and sanctions could allow its assets in Europe to be seized.

Iran already struggles under the weight of multiple international sanctions from countries including the U.S. and Britain.

Iran’s rial currency fell to a record low of 1.6 million to $1 on Thursday. Economic woes sparked the protests, which broadened into a challenge to the theocracy before the crackdown.

The Guard emerged from Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution as a force meant to protect its Shiite cleric-overseen government and was later enshrined in its constitution. It operated in parallel with the country’s regular armed forces, growing in prominence and power during a long and ruinous war with Iraq in the 1980s. Though it faced possible disbandment after the war, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei granted it powers to expand into private enterprise, allowing it to thrive.

The Guard's Basij force likely was key in putting down the demonstrations, starting in earnest from Jan. 8, when authorities cut off the internet and international telephone calls for the nation of 85 million people. Videos that have come out of Iran via Starlink satellite dishes and other means show men likely belonging to its forces shooting and beating protesters.

Iranian men once reaching the age of 18 are required to do up to two years of military service, and many find themselves conscripted into the Guard despite their own politics.

In other developments, a notice to mariners sent Thursday by radio warned that Iran planned to conduct “naval shooting” in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday and Monday. Two Pakistani security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to journalists, also confirmed the warning had been sent.

Iran did not immediately acknowledge the drill. The hard-line Keyhan newspaper raised the specter of Tehran attempting to close the strait by force.

“Today, Iran and its allies have their finger on a trigger that, at the first enemy mistake, will sever the world’s energy artery in the Strait of Hormuz and bury the hollow prestige of billion-dollar Yankee warships in the depths of the Persian Gulf,” the newspaper said.

Such a move would likely invite U.S. military intervention. American military officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Elsewhere, Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, whose Green Movement rose to challenge Iran’s disputed 2009 presidential election, again called for a constitutional referendum to change the country’s government. A previous call failed to take hold.

The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency reported that the violence in Iran has killed at least 6,443 people in recent weeks, with many more feared dead. Its count included at least 6,058 protesters, 214 government-affiliated forces, 117 children and 54 civilians who were not demonstrating. More than 47,208 have been arrested, it added.

The group verifies each death and arrest with a network of activists on the ground, and it has been accurate in multiple rounds of previous unrest in Iran. The communication cutoff imposed by Iranian authorities has slowed the full scale of the crackdown from being revealed, and The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the death toll.

Iran’s government as of Jan. 21 put the death toll at a far lower 3,117, saying 2,427 were civilians and security forces and labeled the rest “terrorists.” In the past, Iran’s theocracy has undercounted or not reported fatalities from unrest.

That death toll exceeds that of any other round of protest or unrest in Iran in decades and recalls the chaos surrounding the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writer Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed to this report.

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas speaks with the media as she arrives for a meeting of EU foreign ministers at the European Council building in Brussels, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

FILE- A currency exchange bureau worker counts U.S. dollars at Ferdowsi square, Tehran's go-to venue for foreign currency exchange, in downtown Tehran, Iran, April 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)

This handout image from the U.S. Navy shows an EA-18G Growler landing on the flight deck of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Indian Ocean on Jan. 23, 2026. (Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Daniel Kimmelman/U.S. Navy via AP)

This handout photograph from the U.S. Navy shows sailors taxiing an F/A-18E Super Hornet on the flight deck of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Indian Ocean on Jan. 25, 2026. (Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Shepard Fosdyke-Jackson/U.S. Navy via AP)

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas speaks with the media as she arrives for a meeting of EU foreign ministers at the European Council building in Brussels, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)