Tom Homan ends the Minnesota surge, claiming 2,000 officers are drawn down despite Governor Walz denying policy changes. Attorney General Keith Ellison faces grilling from Senators Rand Paul and Josh Hawley over immigration cooperation, while Todd Lyons addresses polling place deployments under the Insurrection Act. Investigators seek footage for missing Nancy Guthrie, and a Pentagon laser mistakenly targeted an El Paso party balloon, sparking safety concerns from Senators Cruz and Cornyn regarding commercial flight paths. [Automatically generated summary]
State And Local Law Enforcement Commitments00:14:48
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Good morning, everyone.
I'm Emily Dushinsky, host of After Party and the Megan Kelly Wrap-Up Show on SiriusXM Channel 111.
It's Friday, February 13th, 2026, and this is your AM update.
Operation Metro Surge is ending.
Borders are Tom Homan announcing the end of the federal surge into the Twin Cities, setting newly forged cooperation agreements with local authorities.
I should call you a prisoner because you ought to be in jail.
Temperatures flaring on Capitol Hill as Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison appears before the Senate Homeland Security Committee.
The search intensifies in Tucson.
Investigators cast a wider net in the search for Nancy Guthrie.
New reporting reveals what really triggered the El Paso airspace shutdown.
And get ready.
It involves lasers.
All that and more coming up in just a moment on your AM update.
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Borders are Tom Homan yesterday announcing the end of Operation Metro Surge in the Twin Cities, marking the drawdown of roughly 2,000 federal officers remaining in the field.
Homan crediting increased cooperation from Minnesota state and local officials, saying new coordination agreements now allow federal agents to safely take custody of criminal illegal aliens directly from local jails, eliminating the need for large-scale surge operations.
However, both Governor Tim Walz and the Sheriff's Office in Hennepin County, which runs the largest jail in the state, telling the New York Times there had been no changes in their policies.
Homan, yesterday, however, says coordination between the federal government and state and local officials has improved and outlined some of the changes.
While I don't agree with Governor Waltz and Attorney General Ellison and everything, I appreciate the support the governor gives to state agencies who coordinate with us in a manner intended to promote public safety.
And I appreciate the AG having an open dialogue with me early on, the first meeting I had, acknowledging that county jails may notify ICE of the release date of an inmate, just as long as they don't hold him past the time they would normally release them.
We now have the ability to arrest criminal aliens in the safety and security of jails throughout the state at the time they're being released, like we've done in other states.
I've also directed the strategic placement of officers in certain areas throughout the states that can respond quickly to sheriffs that want to release somebody and nullify us.
We need to be nearby so they don't hold them unnecessarily.
So we worked on a strategic plan to reassign officers in those key locations.
Homan also making clear the drawdown is not a full retreat, saying ICE officers, including quick response forces, or QRFs, will remain in Minnesota to respond to potential unrest.
ICE has had an office here for decades, before it was called INS, Immigration Naturalization Service.
This footprint will remain here, and they'll continue to do immigration enforcement here.
But as President Trump has said from day one, we're going to prioritize the public safety threats.
They're going to get back to the footprint here, the normal footprint here, but there will be some security teams staying here, the QRFs, until we're assured that those agitators incidents either stay low or further decline.
I'm not going to remove everybody out of state or officers, but like I said, Operation Metro Surge is ending.
Since the beginning of the surge, organized anti-ICE activist networks rapidly deploying to enforcement operations, sometimes warning suspects, disrupting arrests, and confronting federal agents.
The trainings from these networks contributing to two fatal encounters with federal officials.
The Trump administration previously citing the lack of local police support as the reason thousands of additional federal officers had to be deployed.
Homan now saying, local law enforcement has committed to protecting federal officers and shutting down unlawful interference from agitators.
I have also received commitments from state and local law enforcement that they will respond if federal law enforcement is being impeded or assaulted.
They will shut down unlawful agitator activity, including arresting agitators involved and seeing them follow through.
I want to thank Governor Walsh for his messages focusing on peace and his support for the Minnesota state troopers to respond to unlawful situations that put federal officers and the public at risk.
I also want to thank Mayor Fry for taking a public stance against agitators setting up barricades that block streets and endanger public safety and for directing the police to take those roadblocks down.
Additionally, I want to thank Police Chief O'Hara, Sheriff Witt, and various other local law enforcement for their responsiveness and efforts to maintain law and order in the streets.
We've seen a big change here in the last couple weeks, and it's all good changes.
Homan also reporting that during Operation Metro Surge, ICE locating 3,364 missing unaccompanied alien children and arresting more than 4,000 criminal illegal aliens, including violent offenders, sex offenders, and gang members.
Minnesota Governor Democrat Tim Walz reacting to the news yesterday.
I'm certainly not going to spike the football, but you're not going to hear me express any gratitude for the people who caused this unnecessary, unwarranted, and in many cases, unconstitutional assault on our state.
In America, you cannot expect that the people are going to be okay with masked, unidentified people running you off the road and coming to your vehicle at gunpoint like we saw in St. Peter, Minnesota.
The Senate Homeland Security Committee yesterday holding back-to-back hearings focused on immigration enforcement in Minnesota.
The first panel featuring Minnesota officials, including State Attorney General Keith Ellison.
The second panel, including acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott, and more.
Democrat Senator Alyssa Slotkin of Michigan, former CIA officer and participant in the controversial video urging service members to disregard hypothetical illegal orders, veering off topic, pressing lions on a Democratic claim that President Trump could deploy ICE agents to polling places.
If the President of the United States gets Christy Noam on the phone and she gets you on the phone and she says, we've heard there's a problem in Georgia or in Michigan or somewhere else.
I need you to go and physically deploy around polling locations.
You will say no.
There's no reason for us to ploy Minneapolis.
Well, then you should say no, right?
It's not fantasy.
It's not made up.
These are things that the president and his cabinet have suggested.
They've suggested invoking the Insurrection Act, which would allow active duty military to do the very same thing.
So this isn't someone who thinks the sky is falling.
The president and his cabinet are suggesting.
So you're going to be the guy standing in the breach.
There's no reason.
I guess I give him.
There's no reason to use ICE officers in that.
Great.
Well, I hope that in the privacy of that meeting, when that comes down and the president feels like he's going to lose the midterm elections, that you don't buckle.
And because I think our democracy literally is dependent on it.
But the most heated moments of the hearing coming during confrontations between Republican senators and Minnesota A.G. Ellison as lawmakers probed Minnesota's cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
Head of the committee, Senator Rand Paul, attempting to clarify how cooperation between Minnesota and ICE actually works.
So what happens right now, Mr. Ellison, Attorney General Ellison, if I'm from ICE and I call Minneapolis and I say, John Smith is wanted and will you help us?
What happens?
Is the local police force going to give them help or do they have to bring in all ICE agents to do it?
Certainly targeted enforcement is not the problem, as has been said.
But I think that's what has been said of some of your policies and the interpretation is that they don't have to and won't cooperate with ICE.
A month ago, if ICE called the local Minneapolis police and said, we want to arrest this person, will the Minneapolis police help ICE to arrest a person?
I think so, yes.
Now we're at a question of facts.
But see, Mr. Chairman, most people are arguing that that's not true and that that's a reason for the surge.
If it is true, then the local officials need to say they will.
A.G. Ellison, sidestepping the core question in this exchange, was Senator Bernie Moreno of Ohio.
Do you think that people who are here in this country illegally, meaning they either entered illegally or overstayed a visa, should be deported?
Yes.
Simple yes or no.
If they have a pending asylum petition, I think it should be heard.
Just a quick question.
If you enter the country illegally or you overstay a visa, should you be deported?
My simple answer is, sir, it depends.
Okay, so if somebody breaks into your home, should they be arrested for breaking entry or does it depend?
It's an entirely different scenario.
How's that?
Because immigration is essentially civil and that breaking into my home is a criminal matter.
Oh, okay, gotcha.
So if there's, so there's laws that should be enforced, so we shouldn't enforce civil violations?
We absolutely should enforce them.
But you just said that it's a civil matter, so it's different.
So if somebody commits a civil infraction, it shouldn't be enforced.
It should be.
Okay, so they should be deported.
No, they should have due process that is associated with their petition.
Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri grilling Ellison for nearly seven minutes, accusing Ellison of enabling fraudsters in exchange for campaign donations.
Are you the Attorney General of the State of Minnesota, yes or no?
You know the answer.
Let's try another question.
Are you familiar with the $9 billion in historic fraud out of your state, including the $250 million in the Feeding Our Future program alone?
Are you familiar with that?
Don't turn to the pages in your book to get your potted answers.
Are you familiar with it?
Yes or no?
Yes, I am familiar with it.
Very familiar, aren't you?
Because the people who ran the Feeding Our Futures program came to you in your official office in the state capitol on December 11th, 2021, and asked for your help in getting investigators off their backs.
So, first of all, you're cherry-picking quotes out of there.
Why did you help them?
I thought you were going to let me answer.
Why did you take their money?
I didn't.
You took $10,000.
That's a false statement.
$10,000 nine days after the meeting.
Don't talk over me.
As early as 2019, it's my hearing, pal.
As early as 2019.
Don't call me.
Whistleblowers came to well.
I should call you a prisoner because you ought to be in jail.
Well, we'll see what you can do.
In 2019.
Yikes.
Coming up, still no sign of Nancy Guthrie as investigators widen the search and make a sweeping new request to the public.
And what triggered the sudden El Paso airspace shutdown?
New reporting points to a Pentagon anti-drone laser.
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84-year-old Nancy Guthrie remains missing as investigators in Tucson intensify their search for answers, expanding efforts across her neighborhood and beyond.
The Pima County Sheriff's Department now urging residents to turn over any surveillance or doorbell footage showing vehicles, traffic, pedestrians, or anything unusual between January 1st and February 2nd.
MK True Crime host Phil Holloway, reporting from Tucson, tells us what investigators may be looking for.
What I draw from the request for video from specific dates and even the most recent one, the sheriff just said, give us everything you can find going back 30 days.
FAA Shutdown Of El Paso Airspace00:03:30
I think they're following up on Lisa.
They also might be checking to see what kind of delivery drivers have been in the area.
It's not hard to find out what someone's Amazon purchase history is, for example.
We saw that in the Coburger case.
And so you know when a person might have been expecting a delivery.
So you might be wanting to get a bead on just who was in and out of that driveway dropping things off.
Since arriving in Tucson, Holloway is speaking to several neighbors of Nancy's daughter, Annie, and son-in-law, Tommaso.
He tells us they have theories of their own.
The neighbors that I've spoke to were not closely acquainted with that family.
They tended to say that they hadn't been there all that long.
They didn't engage very socially with others in the neighborhood.
And they did express some specific opinions about the case and about the neighbors.
And in fact, I think a lot of them believe that there is a direct connection between that house and the crime scene.
But this is based on their personal observations and I guess their opinions based on those observations.
But they are not surprised.
The big takeaway is they are not surprised that the investigation is physically focusing more and more on that geographic location.
Megan will have much more on this case later today on the Megan Kelly Show.
Anyone with information is urged to call 1-800, call FBI, or submit tips at tips.fbi.gov.
New reporting shedding light on what actually triggered Wednesday's brief shutdown of airspace over El Paso, Texas.
On Tuesday night, the FAA issuing a notice to airmen, or NOTAM, blocking flights in the airspace over El Paso and nearby Santa Teresa, New Mexico, from Wednesday through February 21st, citing, quote, temporary flight restrictions for special security reasons.
Within hours of issuing the 10-day ground stop, an unprecedented action quickly raising alarm, the FAA suddenly lifting the order.
Secretary Duffy announcing the closure was caused by a cartel drone incursion, but the threat had been neutralized.
According to the New York Times, the FAA ordered the abrupt closure after U.S. Customs and Border Protection deployed a high-energy laser weapon provided by the Pentagon, quote, without giving aviation officials enough time to assess the risks to commercial aircraft.
The Times reporting, multiple people familiar with the situation say CBP officials believed they were firing at a cartel drone, but sources saying it turned out to be a party balloon.
Fort Bliss, near El Paso, has for a long time been active in counter-drone testing and operations, particularly along the southern border, where cartel drone activity remains an ongoing concern.
Pentagon and FAA officials planning to meet on February 20th to discuss the safety implications of deploying laser weapons near commercial flight paths, reports the Times.
As Trump administration officials remain tight-lipped in the fallout, Senate leaders now searching for answers.
Senators from Texas, Republicans Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, both publicly calling for a classified briefing from the FAA and Department of War.
Pentagon Laser Weapons Meeting Plans00:00:44
That'll do it for your AM update.
I'm Emily Jashinsky, host of After Party, Catch the Megan Kelly Show, live on SiriusXM's The Megan Kelly Channel 111 at Noon East on youtube.com/slash MeganKelly and all podcast platforms.