Minnesota ICE live: Nationwide protests continue over fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti – UK Times

New details have emerged about the face recognition app that federal immigration agents use to identify people and speed up arrests.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s use of Mobile Fortify has already been reported on, but the Department of Homeland Security’s 2025 AI Use Case Inventory released Wednesday gave new insight into the technology that agents are using to carry out President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts.

Customs and Border Protection said the app became “operational” in early May 2025, and ICE got access to it later that month, according to Wired.

Read more about Mobile Fortify:

The world’s largest tequila maker is blaming President Donald Trump’s heavy-handed immigration crackdowns on its slumping sales.

Proximo Spirits — the U.S. distribution arm for Becle, which owns Jose Cuervo tequila — said that fear in the Hispanic community has kept some at home rather than going out and having drinks.

“The tension of the immigration policies has created a very difficult atmosphere with consumers, especially with immigrants, with Hispanics, [who] obviously make up a big portion of our particular business,” Lander Otegui, Proximo Spirits’ head of marketing, told The Financial Times.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries sparred with Fox News’ Martha MacCallum Thursday over President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Earlier Thursday, the Senate failed to advance a six-bill government funding package that the House previously passed, as Democrats refused to fund the Department of Homeland Security following the two fatal shootings of U.S. citizens by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis this month.

“These six bills were signed as part of the hangover from the last [government] shutdown, and they were all agreed to before what happened in Minneapolis, which was very tragic,” MacCallum said.

Jeffries tried to interject, but the host continued, “But Minneapolis is a unique situation.”

“Well, let me just address the statement that you just made because that’s inaccurate. The Homeland Security funding bill was…prior to the cold-blooded killing of Alex Pretti. And the overwhelming majority of House Democrats voted against it,” Jeffries said.

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus has called on the Department of Homeland Security to release five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father after the pair was taken into federal custody outside their Minnesota home last week.

The preschooler and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, are currently in a detention center in Texas.

Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino has sent a heartfelt message to the federal immigration agents he oversaw in Minnesota, praising them and sending them love in a video filmed in front of Mount Rushmore.

Bovino, who was recently demoted from his role leading the aggressive deportation operation in Minnesota, made a pit stop Thursday in South Dakota as he makes his way back to his original post in California.

Stephen Miller was not present at Donald Trump’s first full cabinet meeting of the New Year, according to pool reports.

It comes after the senior White House advisor suggested that Alex Pretti, who was shot and killed by federal agents in Minneapolis, was a “would-be assassin,” sparking intense backlash.

The Independent has contacted the White House for comment about Miller’s reported absence from the meeting.

The White House has responded to a new Minneapolis protest song written and released by Bruce Springsteen.

“The Trump administration is focused on encouraging state and local Democrats to work with federal law enforcement officers on removing dangerous criminal illegal aliens from their communities — not random songs with irrelevant opinions and inaccurate information,” a spokesperson told The Independent.

“The media should cover how Democrats have refused to work with the Administration, and instead, opted to provide sanctuary for these criminal illegals.”

The Boss, one of the staunchest Trump critics in music dedicated the new song to Renee Good and Alex Pretti, who were both killed in Minneapolis by federal agents.

In “Streets of Minneapolis,” Springsteen hurls insults at Trump and his ICE agents’ ongoing invasion of the Minnesota city with pointed lyrics about “King Trump” and his “private army.”

Steve Schleicher, an attorney for Alex Pretti’s family, has said the 37-year-old was “violently assaulted” during an incident 11 days before his death.

“A week before Alex was gunned down in the street – despite posing no threat to anyone – he was violently assaulted by a group of ICE agents,” Schleicher said in a previous statement to The Independent.

“Nothing that happened a full week before could possibly have justified Alex’s killing at the hands of ICE on Jan 24.”

New footage of the incident, obtained by The Independent, emerged on Thursday. Watch it below: