I'm Will Cain. I'm Dana Perino. I'm Greg Jarrett and this is the Fox News Rundown. Thursday, February 12th, 2026. I'm John Saucier. The Department of Homeland Security has been basically begging local officials to work with them in Minnesota and now it looks like that's happening. And as a result, Borders are Tom Homan says ICE operations are winding down now. I think the main difference is cooperation with the jails takes less of a burden on ICE and requires less manpower to do the same job. This is the Fox News Rundown Evening Edition. Porter's R. Tom Homan now says there's been more cooperation from local law enforcement in Minnesota and had an announcement to make this morning in Minneapolis. I have proposed and President Trump has concurred that this surge operation conclude. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz says nothing has changed and claims this is just an excuse. My take was they knew they needed to get out of here, but in very Trumpian fashion, they needed to save face. The border czar says deportation efforts will continue in Minnesota and across the country. Anti-ice protests have intensified after the fatal shooting of two U.S. citizens in Minnesota by federal agents over the last month. Over at the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson saying it was the rhetoric from Democratic state officials, including Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, that led to all this violence. I, as a government official, would have said, back off. Let us work with ICE. Let's cooperate with them. Let's see if we can't de-escalate this. But Attorney General, you did the exact opposite. And two people are dead because you encouraged them to put themselves into harm's way. Nevertheless, ICE operations are winding down in Minnesota as the government battle over DHS funding heats up in Washington. It seems like the most important thing that's happened there, and Tom said it today, but basically they've been getting cooperation with the local sheriffs and local jails to turn criminals over to ICE. Our guest today is former federal prosecutor, former acting ICE director, and former DHS Deputy Assistant Secretary Jonathan Fahey. And they're not necessarily honoring detainers per se, but what they're doing is basically these local jails are letting ICE know 48 hours before they're about to release an illegal alien. So ICE could be there to pick them up when they're released. So I think that's the biggest change, because before they weren't doing that, they would just be releasing them onto the streets. And then ICE or CBP also is up there. They then have to try to track these people down in the neighborhood, which led to more agents being out on the streets. I think that's the biggest change is sort of I would call it the cooperation change. And I think sort of within that, I think there's probably more communication between the administration and the locals. And it also seems more coordination within ICE. It seems way Tom Holm was just talking about sort of chains of command and things like that. So everyone is sort of with on the same page with enforcement priorities. But I think overall, this is going to be, you know, as far as the immigration enforcement has been quite successful. I think they've they've, you know, arrested about 4000 people, a lot of people, serious criminal records. And remember, you know, there was this midway surge or midway blitz, I think, several months ago. And that ended, too. So, you know, this wasn't meant to be permanent. But I think the main going back to my first point I think the main difference is cooperation with the jails takes less of a burden on ice and requires less manpower to do the same job Yeah absolutely I mean if someone already in jail the second they walk out if the ice officers are right there it a lot easier to make that apprehension than running around in the community and trying to catch people when you got protesters there I want to just comment on something you said there, that this operation has been quite successful. I wonder how the protesters have played a role in maybe pressuring local politicians or pressuring the ICE agents themselves to leave. Because when I hear quite successful, I think of the two American citizens who were killed during these operations. Now, there's obviously a lot to be made about this, about whether or not they should have even been there and interacting with the ICE agents, agitating those ICE agents. I know one of these protesters was armed at the time, but two American citizens being killed really is a serious, serious problem there. And it seems to me like a blight on this operation. Yeah, I don't mean to like discount the deaths or anything else. But again, those are still under investigation. In my view, I think both will not result in charges and don't deserve to have charges against the agents. But I meant just successful in terms of removing illegal aliens. And I really do believe that a lot of the chaos and I mean, almost all of the chaos was caused by a lot of these officials like Governor Walsh, Jacob Frey, that are essentially egging people on to protest, to thwart ICE, you know, with the inflamed rhetoric, the things about resisting them. So they've really encouraged so much of this obstructive behavior. And in many respects, you know, a lot of the deaths should be, you know, a lot of the responsibilities should be laid on their feet because they've been doing this because, and let's be honest, their main issue is not ICE tactics. Their main issue is the substance of people illegally in this country being removed. And that's really what this is all about. And the Democrats have been fighting this every step of the way. And you notice, you know, they even fight illegal aliens that are in jails for being deported. They also never say anything good about what's going on at the border, which no one's coming across. And they also never say anything about the Trump administration voluntary deportation programs, which they're paying people to self-deport, which have led to over 2 million people deporting. So it really just shows on substance, the Democrats are against deportations as part of sort of their open borders, mass amnesty agenda. So, you know, a lot of what went in there with these protests, riots, obstructive behavior was egged on by the politicians. And that led to that's what led to this. If we had a serious mayor or a serious governor, they could have stopped this, nipped this in the bud. But remember, Minneapolis, I think, in my view, was the worst city on the BLM. You know, they had $500 million in damage during those riots, and they just handled them poorly. They're surrendering police stations, and they do not have not handled things well, and they could have really stopped this. But instead, they let this get out of control. But I don't mean to say when people die that that's not a big deal. It is and should be investigated. No one from law enforcement, you know, they're the ones that least want to ever have to use their firearms, anything like that. But again, you know, successful in the sense of they're removing criminals, making the community safer. I put the, you know, the riots, obstruction sort of in a separate category as, you know, multiple things to be discussed there. Yeah. And the point you made about the rhetoric was actually brought up today during a Senate committee on Homeland Security and governmental affairs by Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson. He directly accused the Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison saying it was rhetoric from Democratic state officials which led to the violence there. So two sides to the coin absolutely on that argument Our guest today is Jonathan Fahey someone who is very well versed in immigration enforcement He a former federal prosecutor and former acting ICE director and former DHS deputy assistant secretary Now, Jonathan, you well know we've got a Friday midnight deadline here where the federal government could be shut down again. Another partial government shutdown. The big holdup this time is funding for the Department of Homeland Security. Democrats want serious reforms this time. They've got a list of demands here. I'm not going to go down through all of them. But there are a few things here which caught my eye. First of all, we've seen all the images of ICE agents in Minneapolis and other places wearing masks, wearing hats kind of down over their eyes. So you really can't identify and make out the face of who this person is who's working for ICE. Now, obviously, we know the argument with this as far as, you know, they could be doxxed. It's dangerous. You get their face on social media. I feel, though, the Democrats are really going to dig in their heels on this issue. and the government is going to shut down. Can you just give me your take on the no masks request for immigration agents? Yeah, I think it's on a reasonable request in terms of, like you said, these agents are being doxxed regularly. Todd Lyons was testified, I think it was today or yesterday, about how people have put videos of his wife going to work and things like that. So I think you can't ask these guys to take their masks off when they're getting the numbers of 8,000% increase in death threats and stuff. It's really dangerous for them. And remember, these aren't the only law enforcement agents that wear masks. You know, oftentimes in like drug interdictions, arrests, search warrants involving drug traffickers, the agents wear masks as well to protect their identity. So it's not unique to ICE, but ICE is, you know, the situation they're under is unique because I can't think of another scenario where law enforcement has been under such constant attack, not only from activists, but politicians as well. And you have to think about this idea of being, you know, we're in a different era now because of doxing and things like that. And if any of these members of Congress, how would they feel if all of their staff members were being doxed? They would be outraged by it. And that's what these men and women of advice are. These are people that are just simply law enforcement agents that are enforcing laws passed by Congress. They're not the villains in this. If people don't like the policies, like Tom Holman said today, they should be petitioning Congress, not petitioning ICE. So I don't think they will give in, meaning the administration will give in on this mask issue because it's too important to keep these agents safe. And they're not going to risk their lives to appease the Democrats for this government shutdown. So I think, in my view, that will be a non-starter. And also, you don't want to give the legislative branch control over an executive agency as to making determinations of what's safest for the agent. I do think certain things they've put in there, like the request for body cams, I think the administration's fine with that. And I think, ultimately, as we've seen from sort of post-George Floyd era, body cams generally, you know, I think to the surprise or disappointment of the activists, routinely vindicated the police officers when there were these types of incidents. So I think that part of it will be agreed to. But I think most of these other things are probably going to be non-starters. And I view all of these, quite honestly, as not really issues that they have with ICE, but sort of tactics to achieve their goal of slowing down or stopping deportations, like this idea of you need judicial warrants or other things like that. It's everything the Democrats have done in this immigration issue has been in favor of bringing people in illegally and keeping them here illegally because everything ICE does they fight Like I just said about the self that should be universally celebrated and yet they never mention it. And they never mention the fact that our border is as secure as it's ever been and nobody's coming across. And they never mention the fact that we have the lowest murder rate in history. We have a drug overdose death rate that is significantly lower this year than last year and certainly lower than the average during the Biden administration. And all of these things are intertwined. You can't have a secure border if once people get here, they get to stay and are, in effect, citizens because then people still keep trying to go. So all of these things have to work together. And that's what I think the Democrats, the real goal is to stop enforcement and just sort of go real quick back to the rhetoric thing. and Minnesota. If you remember, Tim Walz was calling ICE agents Nazis in May of this year, before this operation even started. So this was part of their tactics to call these agents Nazis, to delegitimize them, to dehumanize them. So he was doing this at a commencement speech, no less, but it was way back in May. So again, this is part of an overall strategy to prevent deportations, prevent, you know, because, you know, in my view, they want to make the illegal alien citizens and they think that'll help them electorally. Things may finally be coming down in Minneapolis's borders. Our Tom Holman says ICE is ending its operation metro surge in Minneapolis. Democrats in Washington want some big changes in how immigration and customs enforcement operates, though. We're speaking all about it today with Jonathan Fahey. He's former federal prosecutor, served as an acting ICE director and former DHS deputy assistant secretary. Ahead, we'll talk about why ICE won't really even be affected, even if the government partially shuts down by Friday night's deadline. It's all next. Jonathan, one last thing for you quickly here, because we're running out of time. I'm just mentioning that government shutdown. It looks like it may happen here Friday at midnight in case no deal gets done. How do you think this shutdown is going to affect DHS agencies? Because, I mean, it's their funding that's being negotiated right now. If they don't have the funding, what's going to happen there? Yeah, it's kind of interesting because the agencies that will be affected won't even be ICE because ICE got most of their funding through that big, beautiful bill last summer. So it's going to be things like FEMA, things like TSA that actually affect people's lives day in, day out, going through the airport and if, God forbid, we have a natural disaster or things like that. So it can be very impactful on the American people in a negative way. But unfortunately for the Democrats, it won't really impact ICE operations. So I think they're going to have a tough time holding on to whatever shutdown we have to keep it going for a long time. Because at least in my experience, generally the people that shut down the government are held accountable for it, meaning the party that does so. And if it's perceived that the Democrats shut the government down, it may hurt them in the midterms coming up. Jonathan Fahey, former federal prosecutor, former acting ICE director, former DHS deputy assistant secretary and current partner of the law firm of Holtzman Vogel. Thank you, Jonathan, for your unique insight. Really good stuff. Thanks for being with us on the Fox News Rundown, an evening edition podcast. And Prime members can listen to the show ad-free on Amazon Music. And for up-to-the-minute news, go to foxnews.com.
