Up First from NPR - Partial Drawdown In Minnesota, NPR Poll: Trump and ICE, Nuclear Treaty Expires

Episode Date: February 5, 2026

White House Border Czar Tom Homan says 700 federal agents will be leaving Minnesota after months of aggressive immigration enforcement, protests, and the killing of two U.S. citizens by federal agents.A new NPR/PBS/Marist poll finds most Americans now say ICE has gone too far, as the Trump administration shifts its tone on immigration enforcement.And the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty between the United States and Russia, the New START Treaty, is set to expire, raising new fears about unconstrained nuclear competition.Want more analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.Today’s episode of Up First was edited by Eric Westervelt, Dana Farrington, Robbie Griffiths, Mohamad ElBardicy, and Alice Woelfle.It was produced by Ziad Buchh and Nia DumasOur Director is Christopher Thomas.We get engineering support from Neisha Heinis. Our technical director is Carleigh Strange.Our deputy Executive Producer is Kelley Dickens.(0:00) Introduction(01:58) Partial Drawdown in Minnesota(05:36) NPR Poll: Trump and ICE(09:18) Nuclear Treaty ExpiresLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

700 federal agents are leaving Minnesota. The agents who remain want more access to a local jail. Does the administration have a plan for immigration enforcement with less chaos? I'm Leila Faudil. That's Stevenski, and this is up first from NPR News. Surveys used to show that border enforcement was the president's strongest issue. Now that Americans see how the administration is operating, two-thirds disapprove. Even the president said briefly that he learned from the public response. I learned that maybe we can use a little bit of softer touch, but you still have to be tough.

Also, the last major nuclear arms treaty between the U.S. and Russia expires today. What happens now? Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your day. White House borders are Tom Holman says 700 federal agents will be leaving Minnesota. It's the beginning. of a retreat from a state where federal agents confronted protesters and killed to Americans. But most agents that were brought in are still there, and Homan says any further drawdown

would depend on state and local cooperation. Let's talk about that with NPR's Meg Anderson, who's in Minneapolis. Meg, good morning. Good morning. How much is really changing? Yeah, so the numbers don't point to a big change. It still leaves around 2,300 federal agents here. That's still more than the combined Twin Cities police force.

It's more than the number they originally brought in before Renee Macklin Good was killed by an ICE agent. Holman did say he wants to see the presence of ICE officers in the state go back to what it was before the surge began. And he said he wants that partly because ICE has plans for operations in other parts of the country. We've got agents here from L.A. in New York and Portland, there's problems there too. So we want to get people back to their home stations and force immigration laws in those areas. Holman specifically zeroed in on the cooperation of sheriffs. So that makes sense. Sheriffs run county jails and around the country.

They've played a key role in holding undocumented immigrants for ICE. Okay, so he wants more state and local cooperation, but I feel we have to talk about this. Federal authorities have complained that state and local officials do not turn over people with deportation orders who turn up in jails or who are convicted of something and are in prison. State authorities say that's not true. Actually, they do cooperate and the feds pretend they don't. The state's turning over people from prison and from many jails. But there was one big jail that limited its cooperation up to now.

What do you hear from them? So I spoke with that jail system. I spoke with Hennepin County Sheriff Dewana Witt. That's the county that includes Minneapolis. And she said she has had, quote, healthy conversations with Homan. She expects them to continue. And she stressed that, you know, if ICE has a signed judicial warrant for someone in her jail, her officers do already honor those, like you said.

But often ICE does not have that. And so Witt is required by law to release those people. Jail is pre-trial detention, right? You can't hold those people indefinitely. She also said her office does not honor administrative detainers. That's when ICE asks a jail to hold someone but doesn't have that warrant signed by a judge. But Sheriff Witt told me she's considering changing that policy. If that were to change, and that's a if, right, you're going to have to show me how it's going to make Kenneppen County residents safer.

and you're going to have to actually act good on what you say. You know, she said these are ongoing negotiations and no one is going to get everything they want. Okay, so she says she is open to a change in course. How are other local leaders responding to the new leadership, at least in Minnesota, from immigration authorities? Right. So the consensus so far is that this drawdown is progress, but it's not enough. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison called it a step in the right direction,

but that the surge needs the end. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frye also called for it to end saying it's been catastrophic for residents and businesses. A coalition of Minnesota, faith, labor, and other community groups dismissed the announcement. In a statement, they said there are still thousands of, quote, masked unaccountable agents terrorizing the community. And, you know, it is very much still an emergency here for many people. People who are not white are carrying their passports around. Immigrants are sheltering in place. Children are not going to school.

NPR's Meg Anderson in Minneapolis. Thanks for the update. Really appreciate it. You're welcome. 65% of Americans, 65% say immigration and customs enforcement has gone too far. That is according to a poll released today by NPR, PBS News, and Marist. This increased concern about ICE comes on the heels of the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens in Minnesota at the hands of federal immigration agents. NPR senior political editor and correspondent to many of many. Montanaro takes us through the numbers very often and once again this morning. Domenico, good morning. Hey there. Two-thirds of Americans disagree with the administration. That sounds like a lot.

Yeah, I mean, that's jumped double digits from last summer, you know, on something that really used to be Trump's strongest issue here, immigration. So, you know, no surprise we've seen changes from the Trump administration. Trump reassigned Greg Bovino, who was in charge of operations in Minnesota. The administration is now pulling 700 agents from the state as well. And there's been a different tone. I mean, here's Trump yesterday with a decidedly different tone in an interview with NBC News after being asked what he'd learned from Minneapolis. I learned that maybe we can use a little bit of soft a touch, but you still have to be tough. These are criminals. We're dealing with really hard criminals. So he's not completely backing down there from the tough rhetoric.

I mean, despite neither American who has killed Renee Mackling Good or Alex Prattie meeting Trump's description of criminals. And his vice president, J.D. Vance yesterday refused to apologize to Preddy's family for amplifying claims, countered by video that Preddy was a cool would-be assassin. But Trump's tone is a definite adjustment, and it's pretty rare to hear him reflect and even give an iota of admitting a mistake. Even if he effectively took it back in the next phrase, yeah. How are people viewing the president's job overall? It's really low. I mean, his approval overall is just 39% with 30% of independence approving, and they're always key in those swing districts.

His approval rating has now been below 40% in the Marist poll since November on the economy, which is what got Trump reelected in the first place. Six and 10 disapprove. Trump's tariffs are playing a big part in that. A majority think that they're hurting the economy. And far in a way, people say Trump's top priority should be lowering prices. And yet what's gotten the most buzz and dominated the news and headlines over the past month, ICE, military action in Venezuela and Trump's threats to take over Greenland. Oh, I'm glad you mentioned that. How are people viewing the president's foreign policy threats on Greenland and everything else?

Only 37% are approving of his handling of foreign policy. You know, when it comes to Venezuela and Greenland, a solid majority say the president should have to go to Congress before taking military action. Almost seven in ten opposed the idea of taking over Greenland. And that repeated threat was upsetting NATO allies and led to a decline in the stock market. Overall, when it comes to NATO, two-thirds in this poll say that the U.S. has benefited from that alliance. So, you know, with all of that, you can see maybe why Trump backed off from those Greenland threats. The president backed off, but also said that taking over Greenland was a popular idea. Do they know something we don't? You know, I like to say that you don't have to believe the polls, watch what politicians do.

And for someone like Trump who usually caters to his base and rarely dials things back, these shifts are pretty significant. And it shows the reality that aside from Republicans who have steadfastly stood by Trump, these policies and actions over the past month have been wildly unpopular. And what has been revealed here is that underneath all the lies and boasts and threats to sue the pollsters, President's actions tell us that he in the White House see that he's in a real vulnerable position here. NPR's Domenico Montanaro. Thanks so much. You're welcome. The last nuclear arms control agreement between the United States and Russia expires today. The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, known as New Start, put limits on the nuclear arsenals of the former Cold War superpowers and its demise.

has raised fears of a new global arms race. NPR's Russia correspondent Charles Mainz is on the line from Moscow. Hey there, Charles. Good morning. What did Start actually do? Well, you know, New Start was signed in 2010 by President Obama at a time when his message of hope and change included resetting relations with Moscow. You know, this was also a period when Vladimir Putin had at least nominally given up the Russian presidency to his prime minister, Dmiti Medvedev, who was then seen as something of a liberal modernizer. And the treaty itself, you know, it capped nuclear warheads for both Russia and the U.S. at 1550 apiece.

It also critically allowed for each country to carry out regular on-site inspections of each other's nuclear facilities. So it really was built on the same trust but verify formula that was baked into earlier arms control agreements with Russia and the USSR, none of which now exists. A new start was the last. Okay, so each country still had enough weapons ready to incinerate the planet if necessary, but they were trying to make things regular, trying to make things transparent, a little bit more calm. How are people responding where you are in Moscow to this treaty going away? Well, officially Russia was trying to keep the treaty alive until the last minute. Russian President Vladimir Putin offered to de facto continue to observe the limits of the treaty for a year.

That was if Washington agreed to do the same. The idea being that it would allow negotiators to work out a new agreement, but President Trump didn't seem all that interested. A White House official told NPR Trump had his own timeline when it came to nuclear security. The Kremlin, meanwhile, is warning that without new start, we're entering into a more dangerous world, and many arms control experts agree. Dmitri Stefanovic of the Primakov Institute here in Moscow tells me that an arms race won't start tomorrow, but without new start, it's coming.

Both countries will plan for the worst-case scenario. And the worst-case scenario is always your adversary is capable of major tricks, and you need tenfold of what you have right now to somehow hedge against such a possibility. and this is where we are heading. Other than hearing that the president of the United States was not that interested in the treaty, I don't understand where things went wrong here. Well, you know, there were always accusations

that one side or the other wasn't living by the letter of the agreement, particularly as both the U.S. and Russia developed next generation conventional weapons that could be retrofitted as nuclear capable. The COVID pandemic, frankly, didn't help. It saw the suspension of inspections. But Steve, the real nail in the coffin was Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. With the clock ticking on New Start, Russia refused to engage the then-Biden administration on arms-controlled negotiations because the U.S. was supporting Ukraine militarily. In fact, Putin suspended Russia's participation in the treaty as a result in 2023.

Oh, that's helpful context. So what is the U.S. proposing now? Well, Trump says he wants limits on nuclear weapons, but that new start is just outdated, particularly in a world where you have new emerging nuclear powers like China. So Trump's looking for a better deal, in his words. But even there, Moscow's view is, well, then, okay, let's talk about caps on the arsenals of other nuclear powers like the UK or France. Meanwhile, we have Pakistan, India, and North Korea. So this gets unwieldy very quickly. And meanwhile, the fact is that Russia and the U.S. have close to 90% of the world's nuclear weapons.

So their leadership, or lack thereof on this issue, really matters. Charles Means in Moscow, thanks so much. Thank you. And that's up first for this Thursday, February. 5th. I'm Steve Inskeep. And I'm Leila Faudil. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Eric Westervelt, Dana Farrington, Robbie Griffith, Mohammed al-Berdisi, and Alice Wolfly. It was produced by Ziyadh-Butch and Nia Dumas. Our director is Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott,

and our technical director is Carly Strange. Our deputy executive producer is Kelly Dickens. Join us again tomorrow. Are you on tomorrow, Leila? I am. Are you on? Then I will join you. Okay, good, good, good, good. Want to hear this podcast without sponsor breaks? Amazon Prime members can listen to Up First sponsor-free through Amazon music. Or you can also support NPR's vital journalism and get UpFirst Plus at plus.npr.org.

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