By Hanna Park, CNN

(CNN) — Back home in Minneapolis after more than a week at an immigration facility in Texas, Ecuadorian preschooler Liam Conejo Ramos and his father are trying to regain a sense of normalcy amid ongoing court cases and a national firestorm, after a judge ordered they be released from federal immigration custody – ending their detention but leaving their future in the United States unresolved.

“We are pleased that the family will now be able to focus on being together and finding some peace after this traumatic ordeal,” the family’s lawyers said in a statement.

The 5‑year‑old and his father were taken from their snowy suburban Minneapolis driveway earlier this month and transported more than 1,300 miles to the Dilley family detention center in south Texas, a move that drew outrage after images circulated of an agent clutching the boy’s Spider‑Man backpack as he looked on beneath a cartoon bunny hat.

The family entered the US legally and applied for asylum upon arrival in 2024, their attorney has said. “They were following all the established protocols, pursuing their claim for asylum, showing up for their court hearings, and posed no safety, no flight risk and never should have been detained,” the family’s lawyer, Marc Prokosch has said.

Their release followed a Saturday ruling by US District Judge Fred Biery, who ordered that Liam and his father be freed, finding there wasn’t enough probable cause to detain them. The decision was narrowly focused on the legality of their detention and did not address the family’s immigration status or whether they can remain in the country.

Here’s what comes next as the family’s immigration case proceeds through the courts:

Trump administration weighs appeal

Trump administration signaled it may appeal the ruling that allowed Liam and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, to be released.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said Sunday the government is reviewing its options, though he declined to comment directly on the judge’s opinion.

“The immigration law, the body of immigration law, is much different than our typical criminal process because of the administrative nature of what we do every day,” Blanche said on ABC’s “This Week,” adding that while a judge ruled against the government, “to the extent that we need to appeal that judge’s decision, I promise we will.”

Blanche framed the case as part of a broader legal dispute over whether migrants should be held in custody while their immigration proceedings move forward or released pending those cases. He suggested appellate courts – and potentially the Supreme Court – may ultimately need to weigh in, describing what he called a “schism in the law” over immigration detention.

In his opinion, Biery took aim at administrative warrants, which federal immigration agents often use to make arrests and which do not require a judge’s signature. Calling the practice “the fox guarding the henhouse,” Biery wrote that the Constitution requires arrests to be authorized by an independent judicial officer.

While an appeal could clarify how far the government’s detention authority extends, the broader questions raised by the case may take months, or longer, to resolve.

A separate asylum case

In his opinion, Biery noted Liam and his father could still be required to leave the US under what he described as the “arcane” immigration system, possibly through deportation or voluntary departure. “But that result sh

By Alaa Elassar, CNN

(CNN) — Ryan Strandjord never imagined he would see the day his treelined, lake-dotted hometown, the quintessential image of the American idyll, morphed into a battleground.

His house in Minneapolis sits between two neighborhoods stained by bloodshed where Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti were killed by federal immigration officers during a surge of immigration enforcement that has ignited outrage and protests across the country.

Both were US citizens, and their deaths have become rallying points for a city struggling to make sense of the violence unfolding on its streets.

“I don’t think that ‘battlefield’ is a stretch to call what’s happening here, simply because when you look at the images of ICE and the way that they represent themselves, the way that they interact with the public, it very much feels like a military occupation,” Strandjord told CNN.

Minneapolis is at an inflection point. White House border czar Tom Homan said Thursday federal officials are working toward an eventual drawdown of immigration enforcement as part of Operation Metro Surge – the federal immigration operation that has seen thousands of agents dispatched to Minnesota’s Twin Cities and two Minnesotans killed – even as the Trump administration sends mixed signals about whether agents will actually pull back.

Meanwhile, in Minneapolis neighborhoods once alive with the pulse of immigrant communities, an anti-immigrant operation that has fractured families, rattled worried neighbors and left residents feeling unsafe shows no sign of slowing.

On these blocks, darkened by the presence of heavily armed federal agents, Minnesotans describe routine movements as calculated risks, unsure which block might erupt into confrontation.

“Even if you’re not feeling like you’re in hiding, you know someone that is,” Strandjord said.

“When you think about an occupation or a battlefield-like scenario, it extends far beyond physical fighting, and it pervades society in a way where kids aren’t going to school, people aren’t leaving their homes. There’s just overall, at times, a feeling of fear and dread,” he added.

Homan has offered no clear timeline for scaling back federal operations.

“In a lot of ways, it feels like the front line on the fight against fascism, and that we need to do something to rise to the occasion,” Strandjord said.

As tensions deepened, the consequences spread beyond the streets. Two journalists were arrested after livestreaming as dozens of anti-ICE protesters rushed into Cities Church in St. Paul on January 18, raising serious alarms about First Amendment violations. And while one Minnesotan’s death is being investigated, the other’s family has announced they intend to seek answers on their own. So, what’s next?

Residents remain skeptical of promised ‘drawdown’

Many residents in Minnesota are doubtful of Homan’s claim that federal immigration authorities are preparing a drawdown plan for law enforcement in the state.

Homan, who was deployed by the Trump administration to Minneapolis to replace Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino following

Por Logan Schiciano

El presidente Donald Trump respondió a las críticas del domingo por parte del presentador de los Grammy, Trevor Noah, sobre su amistad con el delincuente sexual convicto y financiero caído en desgracia Jeffrey Epstein.

“Noah dijo, INCORRECTAMENTE sobre mí, que Donald Trump y Bill Clinton pasaron tiempo en la Isla Epstein. ¡¡¡INCORRECTO!!! No puedo hablar por Bill, pero nunca he estado en la Isla Epstein ni en ningún lugar cercano, y hasta la declaración falsa y difamatoria de esta noche, nunca me habían acusado de estar allí, ni siquiera por los medios de comunicación que propagan noticias falsas”, escribió Trump en su Truth Social la madrugada del lunes.

Estos comentarios se producen después de que el Departamento de Justicia publicara más de 3 millones de páginas de archivos el viernes, incluyendo algunos que contienen referencias a Trump, al expresidente Bill Clinton y a otros.

Trump negó durante mucho tiempo cualquier irregularidad relacionada con Epstein o cualquier acusación de conducta sexual inapropiada. El año pasado, Trump declaró haber rechazado una invitación de Epstein para visitar su isla, en lo que él llamó un momento de buen juicio.

“Nunca tuve el privilegio de ir a su isla, y la rechacé. Mucha gente de Palm Beach fue invitada a su isla. En uno de mis mejores momentos, la rechacé. No quería ir a su isla”, declaró Trump a la prensa durante un viaje a Escocia el pasado julio.

Clinton también ha negado haber visitado la isla de Epstein y haber cometido cualquier delito, como informó CNN.

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By Tal Shalev, CNN

Jerusalem (CNN) — Gaza’s only border crossing with Egypt reopened partially on Monday morning after Israel closed it nearly two years ago, according to an Israeli security official, allowing a small number of Palestinians to enter and leave the war-torn enclave.

The European Union is operating the Rafah crossing as the final step of the first phase of the US-brokered ceasefire agreement in Gaza that went into effect in mid-October.

The crucial crossing, which has been largely closed since Israel seized it in May 2024, underwent a series of preparations on Sunday from the European Union, Egypt and other parties that will be involved in running the border crossing.

During the first few days of operation, only 50 people per day will be allowed to cross both ways, Egypt’s state-affiliates AlQahera News reported on Monday, citing an unidentified source.

CNN previously reported that a total of 150 Palestinians would be allowed to leave Gaza through the crossing each day, but only 50 would be allowed to enter.

The steep price of passing through the crossing coupled with lengthy bureaucratic and security processes mean few Palestinians can realistically expect to leave. Some Palestinians have reported paying thousands of dollars when it was open, which few can afford.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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By Andi Babineau, CNN

(CNN) — Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old man charged with the murder of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk, will appear in a Provo, Utah, courtroom Tuesday as his attorneys resume their questioning of Utah County Attorney Jeffrey Gray, whose office is prosecuting the case.

This hearing is the second in the defense team’s bid to get the county attorney’s office tossed from the case, citing a conflict of interest.

Robinson’s defense is arguing because the 18-year-old child of one of the prosecutors was present when Kirk was killed during a speaking engagement at Utah Valley University in September, a conflict of interest exists. The defense says the entire office should be removed because “no effort was made to shield their prosecution of this case from his conflict,” according to the motion to disqualify filed in December.

The county attorney’s office has repeatedly denied having a conflict of interest because the 18-year-old, a student at UVU, “did not see Charlie get shot,” and “did not see anyone (in the crowd or elsewhere) with a gun,” court documents show.

The office contends the 18-year-old will not be called as a witness in the case because their knowledge of the incident, despite being present, “is based entirely on hearsay.”

Does the 18-year-old’s presence qualify as a conflict of interest? Here’s what legal experts say.

What constitutes a conflict of interest?

Robinson’s defense cited Utah’s Code of Judicial Administration in their filing, which states attorneys can’t be involved in cases with “a concurrent conflict of interest,” which may include “a personal interest of the lawyer.”

But conflict of interest arguments are rarely accepted by the courts, according to Paul Cassell, a criminal law professor with the University of Utah’s S.J. Quinney College of Law.

“There’s a presumption of good faith for prosecutors, and more broadly the government, and without some clear showing that there is reason to doubt the fairness of the proceedings, generally the proceedings will move forward,” Cassell said. “The chances of this prevailing based on other similar claims that have been presented are very, very low.”

Still, CNN Legal Analyst Joey Jackson says the court will weigh whether the parties “are making decisions predicated upon the merits, the facts, the law, and the circumstances only, and that there are no outside influences that are going to impact the judgments that are being made.”

The defense estimated some 3,000 people were present at the event in their filing and attached declarations from five witnesses, some of whom described the scene as “pure panic” and “chaotic” in their accounts, with one disclosing, “I thought I was about to die.”

The county attorney’s office, in its opposition to the disqualification motion, said comparing the defense’s witness statements to that of the prosecutor’s child shows “just how unnecessary (the child’s potential testimony) is in the case.”

“It’s ultimately going to turn on, how did the (adult child) witnessing that impact, impair, affect the decision, if at all,” Jackson said. “The issue before the court is whether an actual conflict – not a perceived conflict – has been presented and can be established based upon the chain of events.”

If the judge does agree there is a conflict of interest, Cassell said the response would more likely be “disqualifying a person who has been tainted by a particular conflict,” rather than an entire office.

To disqualify the full office would be a serious step, according to Cassell, because the Utah