Six minutes of news from around the nation.

Trump's border czar is pulling 700 immigration officers out of Minnesota immediately; Kentucky pastor in Minneapolis: 'We need sustained resistance'; AR educators prepare for ICE interaction; OR hunger hits new high amid calls for state to fund SNAP; VA labor advocates eye repeal of 'right-to-work bill.

TRANSCRIPT

The Public News Service Daily Newscast, February 5, 2026.

I'm Mike Clifford.

The Trump administration is reducing the number of immigration officers in Minnesota, but will continue its enforcement operation that has sparked weeks of tensions and deadly confrontations.

Border Czar Tom Homan said on Wednesday, that for the Associated Press.

They report about 700 federal officers, roughly a quarter of the total deployment to Minnesota, be withdrawn immediately after state and local officials agreed over the past week to cooperate by turning over arrested immigrants.

The AP notes Homan did not provide a timeline for when the administration might end the operation that has become a flashpoint in the debate over Trump's mass deportation efforts.

Meantime, in the aftermath of the killings of Alex Pretty and Renee Good by ICE officers in Minneapolis, a Kentucky pastor joined a contention of over 1,200 clergy who traveled to the city to bear witness to the ICE crackdown.

Reverend Kent Gilbert with Union Church in Berea says he saw ICE arrest reporters and intimidate lawful and peaceful protesters.

He adds ICE is already making inroads in Kentucky and deploying similar tactics. 26 counties house ICE inmates voluntarily.

They're wanting to expand operations and build operational centers outside of Shelbyville.

And all of this suggests to me that we are not seeing any slowdown of these overreaching tactics.

A new poll from the Pew Research Center shows most Republicans say it is acceptable for immigration officers to increase their presence in neighborhoods with many immigrants and arrest U.S. citizens who help others avoid arrest.

Most Democrats disagree.

This is Nadia Ramligan for Kentucky News Connection.

And school districts across Arkansas have not received instruction from the Department of Education or State Board of Education on how to respond to possible interactions with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

But teacher groups are urging educators to mobilize.

Jessica Tang is president of the American Federation of Teachers Resistance Committee.

She says they're training local chapter members to interact with ICE using nonviolent tactics.

They're called MOVE trainings and that stands for mobilize, organize, vote and empower and we've been supporting our members and understanding the authoritarian threat as well as what we can do to stand up for our rights, due process and fight for a better democracy.

The Department of Homeland Security says ICE is not conducting enforcement operations at or raiding schools and ICE is not going to schools to arrest children.

Students at Fayetteville High School participated in a walkout earlier this week to protest the federal government's immigration crackdown.

I'm Freda Ross reporting.

This is public news service.

New data shows rates of hunger in Oregon and southwest Washington are at record levels with one in seven adults and one in six children in the state facing food insecurity.

The data collected by Oregon Food Bank shows that visits to food pantries have grown by more than 50 percent in the last two years.

The Food Bank's President Andrea Williams gave her annual state of hunger address today in Salem where she presented the new data.

She says the state has an opportunity this session to make critical investments so that Oregonians can keep their SNAP benefits.

We all remember what it was like last October November when SNAP was delayed when over 700,000 Oregonians suddenly didn't have money on their EBT card to go to the grocery store and what a crisis and catastrophe that was.

She says the Food for All Oregonians coalition is advocating for state to provide the Department of Human Services with the funding it needs to upgrade its technology, hire more staff, and expand its capacity to maintain SNAP.

I'm Isabel Charlet.

Next, Virginia labor advocates are calling on the General Assembly to pass a bill that will repeal the state's 80 year old right to work law.

Passed in the 1940s, the law restricts workplaces from requiring union membership or collecting union dues as a condition of employment.

Senate Bill 32 would repeal the law, which labor advocates argue weakens unions and the state.

Kayla Mock with the United Food and Culinary Workers Local 400 says the policy results in open shops where workers who don't pay union dues still receive the same benefits as those who do.

If I'm your union rep, I have to represent all of the workers equally.

Whether they pay dues or not, it really stretches the resources of labor unions very thin because they're representing and providing benefits to folks who don't pay into this system.

Opponents of the repeal argue the law protects workers from being forced to financially support a union and gives them freedom to choose.

They also worry about the impacts on Virginia's economy.

I'm Zamone Perez.

Finally, more schools across New England are getting phone free and seeing positive results.

Massachusetts and Connecticut schools which ban phone use during instructional time are considering so-called bell-to-bell bans while some Vermont school districts are already implementing a full-day prohibition before a new state law kicks in this year.

Cooper Marshall is the assistant principal at Camden Hills Regional High School in Rockport, Maine.

He says students there are looking up.

Kids seem happy at lunch when they're chatting with each other.

Kids seem happy during passing time when they're walking the halls and engaging with people and it doesn't seem like kids are missing out on using it.

He notes a dramatic decline in school vandalism and vaping violations since the new phone-free policy began last year and that kids seem to be making less impulsive decisions.

This story is based on original reporting from Drew Himmelstein with Midcoast Villager.

I'm Catherine Carley.

This is Mike Clifford for Public News Service.

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