Judge Sides With Texas Over Minnesota on Extradition of ICE Agent

© David Guttenfelder/The New York Times


© David Guttenfelder/The New York Times

Christian Castro charged with assault after allegedly shooting Venezuelan man and remains in custody in Texas
A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent accused of firing his gun and wounding a Venezuelan man in the leg is caught in an interstate extradition dispute between Texas and Minnesota – and could walk out of a Texas jail as soon as Wednesday after a federal judge refused to intervene.
Christian Castro is charged in Minnesota with assault and falsely reporting a crime by another, in relation to the incident in which he was involved in the wounding of 24-year-old Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis in January.
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© Photograph: Yuki Iwamura/AP

© Photograph: Yuki Iwamura/AP

© Photograph: Yuki Iwamura/AP

DHS officers posed as concerned citizens, joining Signal groups and taking photos of community meetings
Newly disclosed records reveal how undercover federal agents posed as concerned community members to spy on residents and activists who opposed Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) crackdown in Minnesota.
Internal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) files, disclosed in federal court and reviewed by the Guardian, document the actions of several undercover agents, including one who went by the username “peanutbutterjelly” in Signal chats with activists. The documents show that the officer kept records of Signal conversations, screenshotting chats about protest plans and volunteer recruitment, and offering to help with fundraising efforts.
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© Photograph: Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

© Photograph: Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

© Photograph: Stephen Maturen/Getty Images


© Jenn Ackerman for The New York Times


© St Petersburg Times/Zuma Press Wire, via Reuters

The former Sunday Night Football stalwart is now one step from a seat in the US Senate. And she could cause a shock in liberal Minnesota
As the third leg of NBC’s Sunday Night Football crew alongside play-by-play man Al Michaels and the tart-tongued analyst Cris Collinsworth, Michele Tafoya was a paragon of deference and neutrality for 11 years as an NFL sideline reporter, dutifully relating boilerplate tactics, talking points and injury updates when she wasn’t nodding along to softball interviews or fumbling through hammy production gimmicks for viewers who might have been too offline to get the bit. She was almost pathologically committed to not doing anything to draw attention to herself or her gender in an era when sideline reporting was a fast track to national celebrity. Even her football takes hewed to the middle. (“New Orleans doesn’t want to lose to Atlanta twice in a season …”) Anyone who says they saw the 61-year-old emerging as a rightwing firebrand was watching a different game.
And yet here we are. Last week, Tafoya was the decisive winner of Minnesota’s US Senate Republican primary, earning the party’s nomination for November’s general election. Even more striking: she beat back eight challengers, not least Adam Schwarze, the party-endorsed pro-gun, pro-military ex-Navy SEAL, and Royce White, the anti-leftist, anti-trans NBA flameout currently testing WNBA gender norms.
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© Photograph: Star Tribune/Getty Images

© Photograph: Star Tribune/Getty Images

MyPillow founder and Trump ally lost primary to Lisa Demuth by 11 points, but still refuses to concede defeat
The pillow salesman, Donald Trump supporter and election denier Mike Lindell has offered to personally fund a recount and audit of every paper ballot cast in Minnesota’s Republican gubernatorial primary, which he lost last week.
Lindell’s announcement on Wednesday escalates his bid to challenge the results of last week’s vote, after finishing a distant second to the Minnesota house speaker, Lisa Demuth.
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© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

Minnesota attorney general sues Texas governor in case of ICE agent charged with wounding a man in Minneapolis
Minnesota’s attorney general has sued the governor of Texas to force him to extradite an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent charged with wounding a man and then lying to justify the shooting during the US agency’s controversial crackdown in Minneapolis.
Keith Ellison, Minnesota’s attorney general, is asking a federal judge to bar the sheriff in Cameron county, Texas, from releasing ICE agent Christian Castro, and to order Greg Abbott, Texas’s governor, to sign his extradition warrant so that Minnesota officers can take custody.
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© Photograph: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images

© Photograph: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images


© Christopher Lee for The New York Times


© Angelina Katsanis for The New York Times


© Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York Times

The FBI from the 1950s to the 1970s tried to infiltrate and discredit leftist organizations. Trump seems to be repeating that sordid practice
It is bad enough that the Trump administration blocked a federal criminal investigation when an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent killed Renee Good as she was turning her car away from him in Minneapolis the past January. Just before the shooting, Good and her partner had been observing and protesting against ICE officers.
Instead, it turns out the administration has been investigating progressive and even mainstream groups that have been involved in protests against Donald Trump’s sweeping deportations, according to newly released government documents.
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© Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP

© Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP

© Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP


© Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York Times