NPR News: 02-12-2026 2PM EST
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Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. White House Border Czar Tom Homan says more than two months of a federal immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota will soon be over. Estelle Timar-Wilcox of Minnesota Public Radio has the latest.
Homan said agents are now leaving and the drawdown will continue through the next week.
What recent developments are there in U.S. immigration enforcement?
He said the operation resulted in more than 4,000 arrests.
I'm very pleased to report that this surge operation and our work here with state and local officials to improve coordination and achieve mutual goals, as well as our efforts to address issues of concern here on the ground, have yielded the successful results we came here for.
Homan said a, quote, small footprint of personnel will remain for a period and continue immigration enforcement. Local leaders called this the start of a hard recovery from community distrust and the economic impact that the operation caused in the state. For NPR News, I'm Estelle Timar-Wilcox in Minneapolis.
Polls suggest a majority of Americans favor deportation for those in the U.S. illegally. But Democratic Governor Tim Walz warns of long-lasting trauma for communities that have witnessed immigration raids, mass protests, and the deaths of two Americans when they encountered federal agents. Two U.S. senators are raising issues of Justice Department surveillance as they examine the unredacted files related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. South Carolina's Nancy Mays, one of four Republicans who defied President Trump and the GOP to force the disclosures, spoke to NPR after spending two hours in a small room the DOJ set up to access the documents on computers.
There is someone or two people from the DOJ monitoring you as you sit on those computers. There is a tech person who logs you into the computer. They log you into the computer because they're giving you your own identification. They're tracking all of the documents that members of Congress open, and they're tracking everything that you do in that room.
Democrat Pramila Jayapal questioned the DOJ's surveillance process and Attorney General Pam Bondi's true intentions before she was set to testify in Capitol Hill yesterday.
I think she probably opened it up to us on Monday, two days before the hearing, so she could see what we were going to search and ask her about.
Jaya Palin-May speaking to NPR's Morning Edition. Defense Secretary Pete Hexeth is not attending today's meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels. NPR's Lauren Frayer says it's another sign the administration's pulling back from its leadership role in the alliance.
The United Kingdom is joining NATO's arms buying scheme for Ukraine. The UK is sending Kiev a new air defense package that includes 1,000 new missiles and is worth more than $680 million. U.S. U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey says this is part of an effort to build a, quote, new deal for European security within NATO. It's NPR.
The U.S. military says two of its vessels collided in the Caribbean yesterday. One was a Navy destroyer. The other was a supply ship. It says two people sustained minor injuries. No word yet on what led to the collision. Existing home sales in the U.S. fell sharply in January, according to the National Association of Realtors. It's a reversal from the strong sales figures at the end of 2025 that seem to be signaling an improving housing market. NPR's Stephen Basaja reports many renters remain locked out of homeownership, though.
Existing home sales fell almost 8.5% compared with December. Some of that could be blamed on bad weather, but also on consumers feeling down about the economy making them less likely to move. The median sales price was about $397,000, up just a bit less than a percent compared with a year ago. The good news is wages have grown faster, and the National Association of Realtors says housing affordability is the best it's been in about four years. But homeowners and will-be buyers are not looking back four years, but five, back when mortgage rates were half what they are today.
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