Por Samantha Delouya, CNN

Los techadores rechazan trabajos. Los pintores se encierran en las casas que están terminando. Los equipos de concreto tienen listas de espera de meses.

En las Ciudades Gemelas -Minneapolis–Saint Paul- y los suburbios circundantes, la ofensiva inmigratoria de la administración Trump ha ralentizado la construcción de viviendas, en un momento en que Minnesota, como gran parte del país, enfrenta una grave escasez de viviendas.

La Casa Blanca ha comenzado a reducir la intensificación de las medidas de control que se han extendido durante meses en el estado. Sin embargo, en el mercado inmobiliario, las secuelas aún persisten.

“Creo que la mayoría preferiríamos al covid-19 a esto”, manifestó un importante constructor de viviendas del área de Minneapolis, quien pidió no revelar su nombre, ya que algunos de sus sitios de trabajo han sido blanco de agentes de inmigración en las últimas semanas. “Esto es una miseria para nosotros en el sector inmobiliario”.

El presidente Donald Trump ha hecho de la asequibilidad de la vivienda un pilar central de su agenda nacional, y la Cámara de Representantes de Estados Unidos aprobó este mes una ley destinada a fomentar la construcción de casa.

Sin embargo, el aumento de las medidas inmigratorias del presidente amenaza con socavar ese esfuerzo, marginando a los trabajadores necesarios para construir nuevas viviendas.

Como en muchos otros estados, la industria de la construcción en Minnesota depende en gran medida de la mano de obra inmigrante.

El constructor, que supervisa cientos de proyectos residenciales en el Medio Oeste, comentó que muchos de sus trabajos se enfrentan a meses de retrasos, ya que decenas de equipos de construcción dudan en regresar.

Comentó que agentes del Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas de Estados Unidos (ICE) estuvieron apostados en la obra de uno de sus grandes proyectos de construcción de apartamentos durante semanas, esperando para realizar arrestos.

Más de nueve equipos abandonaron el trabajo tras ver a los funcionarios, añadió.

En un momento dado de este mes, solo seis de los 80 techadores que había contratado seguían presentándose, independientemente de su estatus inmigratorio.

Incluso en los días posteriores al anuncio de la Casa Blanca de que la operación de inmigración en Minnesota terminaría, el constructor señaló que todavía había interacciones con ICE en sus lugares de trabajo.

“En dólares reales, estamos viendo una disminución en los ingresos de entre el 25 % y el 30 %, y eso se atribuye directamente al hecho de que no podemos poner en marcha el trabajo”, lamentó.

En su apogeo, alrededor de 3.000 agentes federales fueron desplegados como parte de la Operación Metro Surge, la ofensiva de inmigración a gran escala llevada a cabo principalmente por ICE y Aduanas y Protección Fronteriza.

Lo que comenzó en diciembre en Minneapolis y St. Paul se extendió rápidamente al resto del estado y condujo a enfrentamientos entre funcionarios federales y manifestantes, incluidos los tiroteos fatales de dos ciudadanos estadounidenses por parte de los efectivos federales y la detención de miles de personas.

En todo Estados Unidos, los inmigrantes desempeñan un papel desproporcionado en la industria de la construcción: según un informe reciente de la Asociación Nacional de Constructores de Viviendas, los trabajadores nacidos en el extranjero representan más del 25 % de la fuerza laboral de la construcción, un récord histórico.

No se sabe con certeza cuántos de estos trabajadores son indocumentados.

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El discurso del Estado de la Unión del presidente Donald Trump llegó en un momento de alto riesgo, a pocos meses de las elecciones intermedias y cuando sus índices de popularidad están en los niveles más bajos de su mandato. Para intentar calmar las aguas, Trump destacó sus logros en seguridad fronteriza, además de una de las más grandes preocupaciones de los estadounidenses: la economía y el costo de vida. Aquí un resumen de lo más relevante.

• CNN verifica: Trump emite afirmaciones falsas durante el discurso sobre el Estado de la Unión
• Menos referencias a América Latina, mismo tono contra la migración y algunas sorpresas: el discurso de Trump de 2026 vs. 2025

Trump tiene razón: la economía de EE.UU. está fuerte, pero el presidente no ve el gran problema. Análisis

• Trump propone la “ley Dalilah” que prohíbe licencias de conducir a inmigrantes indocumentados
• “Nos estaban estafando”, dice Trump sobre los aranceles en el discurso del Estado de la Unión

México ha luchado durante décadas contra los carteles. El regreso de Trump a la presidencia de EE.UU. le sumó un nuevo reto a esa batalla: perseguir a los capos que manejan las organizaciones. La misión nunca fue sencilla, pero hoy parece incluso más compleja que nunca, ya que en los últimos años Read more

By Dana Karni, Oren Liebermann, CNN

Jerusalem (CNN) — The US embassy in Israel has announced its first-ever event offering diplomatic services in a Jewish settlement in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The announcement on Tuesday said consular offices would provide “routine passport services” to American citizens in the settlement of Efrat, south of Jerusalem, in a one-day event on Friday. The embassy said the outreach effort was part of the “Freedom 250” initiative to reach all American citizens.

This move appears to signal further US legitimization of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which is considered by much of the international community as land for a future Palestinian state.

It breaks with decades of US foreign policy, which has held that Israeli settlements in the West Bank are an obstacle to peace. But President Donald Trump is no stranger to such dramatic shifts in American policy. During his first administration, the US reversed its longstanding position on settlements when then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said they were not inconsistent with international law.

Consular events will also be held in the Palestinian city of Ramallah and the settlement of Beitar Illit in the West Bank, as well as the cities of Jerusalem, Haifa, Netanya and Beit Shemesh, though no dates have been announced.

Israel’s foreign ministry celebrated the announcement as a “historic decision” to “extend consular services to American citizens in Judea and Samaria,” using the biblical term for the West Bank.

Xavier Abu Eid, a former spokesman for the Palestine Liberation Organization’s negotiations department, said on social media: “Five months after President Trump said that he is against annexation, his representatives on the ground are providing services inside Israeli settlements, effectively treating all the land as part of Israel. Normalizing annexation step by step.”

Just days ago, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told conservative commentator Tucker Carlson that it would be “fine” if Israel took over much of the Middle East. Asked if Israel should be allowed to take over land extending as far as the Euphrates River in Iraq, Huckabee said, “It would be fine if they took it all,” before adding, “I don’t think that’s what we’re talking about here today.”

A group of Arab and Muslim countries denounced Huckabee’s expansionist comments as “dangerous and inflammatory,” calling them a “flagrant violation of international law.”

The Palestinian foreign ministry said Saturday that Huckabee’s remarks “contradict religious and historical facts, international law, and the position expressed by US President Donald Trump rejecting the annexation of the West Bank.”

Trump has said that he will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank, but Israel’s government has pushed forward with a surge in settlement expansion and tightened the country’s grip on the territory.

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By Samantha Delouya, CNN

(CNN) — Roofers are turning down jobs. Painters are locking themselves inside the homes they’re finishing. Concrete crews have monthslong waiting lists.

In the Twin Cities and surrounding suburbs, the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown has slowed home construction to a crawl – at a time when Minnesota, like much of the country, faces a steep housing shortage.

The White House has begun scaling back its monthslong enforcement surge in the state. But across the housing market, the aftershocks are still unfolding.

“I think most of us would probably take Covid over this,” said one large homebuilder in the Minneapolis area who asked for his name not to be shared since some of his job sites have been targeted by immigration officers over the last few weeks. “This is misery for us in the housing industry.”

President Donald Trump has made housing affordability a central pillar of his domestic agenda, and the US House of Representatives passed legislation this month intended to encourage more homebuilding. But the president’s stepped-up immigration enforcement threatens to undercut that effort, sidelining the workers needed to build new homes.

As in many other states, the construction industry in Minnesota is heavily reliant on immigrant labor.

The homebuilder, who oversees hundreds of residential projects across the Midwest, said many of his jobs are now facing monthslong delays as dozens of construction crews hesitate to return. He said US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were stationed at the site of one of his large apartment construction projects for weeks, waiting to make arrests. More than nine crews walked off the job after seeing the officers, he said. At one point this month, only six of the 80 roofers he had contracted were still showing up, regardless of their immigration status.

Even in the days after the White House announced that the immigration operation in Minnesota would wind down, the builder said there were still interactions with ICE around his job sites.

“In real dollars, we’re seeing a decline in revenues of somewhere between 25% and 30% – and that’s directly attributed to the fact that we can’t put work in place,” he said.

Workers fear showing up

At its height, about 3,000 federal officers were deployed as part of Operation Metro Surge, the large-scale immigration operation primarily carried out by ICE and Customs and Border Protection.

What began in December in Minneapolis and St. Paul quickly spread to the rest of the state and led to confrontations between federal agents and protesters, including the fatal shootings of two US citizens by federal agents and the detention of thousands of individuals.

Across the US, immigrants play an outsized role in the construction industry: According to a recent report from the National Association of Home Builders, immigrant workers account for more than 25% of the construction workforce, a historic high. It is unclear how many of those workers are undocumented.

Builders in Minnesota told CNN they estimate thousands of construction workers, both documented and undocumented, are avoiding work for fear of harassment, detainment, or violent confrontations.

Tenants’ rights groups say eviction filings could rise if renters who fear going to work fall behind on rent payments. Last week, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board voted to temporarily suspend evictions for its rental properties in response to Operation Metro Surge, Read more

By Kati Chitrakorn, Leah Dolan, CNN

London (CNN) — This season at London Fashion Week, designers made it clear that a runway is no longer the only way to go about staging a show. For every high-octane catwalk across the five-day schedule, there were a number of relaxed presentations and informal gatherings as some brands looked to save money, slow things down and connect with their community beyond the rigidity of assigned seating.

In her second season as CEO of the British Fashion Council, Laura Weir summarized it best during her opening speech on Friday morning. “This week is not only a schedule of shows,” she said, reeling off the numerous presentations, dinners and events taking place. London’s strength, she continued, is in the fact that the city doesn’t “follow a formula” but sets “the cultural temperature.”

Indeed, long viewed as the scrappy sibling on the fashion calendar, London’s brands are unlike the more commercially viable labels at New York Fashion Week, which earlier this month demonstrated their prowess in knowing how to sell clothes, often with wider appeal. That’s not to say that London designers don’t know how to sell, but their approach is more targeted.

Whether it’s Chet Lo’s recreation of a Hong Kong night market, Chopova Lowena’s folklore mashup for quirky girls, or Tolu Coker’s exploration of diasporic black identity, London’s indie brands tend to spotlight and cater to the underserved – from LGBTQ+ community individuals to people of color. In doing so, several designers have amassed a devoted following. And it was these communities that they sought to engage – not only through the clothes, but this time through moments that encouraged guests to mingle with the designers as well as each other.

Laura Ingham, deputy director of Vogue’s global fashion network, recalled to CNN a conversation the past week with a colleague, in which they discussed “the power that fashion has to tell stories from different cultures, and the importance of community.” Fashion, she said, can play a role in “unifying all communities, whilst also shining a light” on the city’s most promising designers, many of which were “doubling down on their unique points of view.”

As designer Emma Chopova, one half of the brand Chopova Lowena, known for its fashionably unfashionable aesthetic, said: “Our community is everything to us.” Since 2022, Chopova and co-founder Laura Lowena-Irons have shown their designs via a catwalk only once a year, typically releasing a digital lookbook instead. For the first time, they held a presentation, complete with AstroTurf for guests to play mini-golf and garden-themed cupcakes to nibble on. “We want to keep feeding our people,” Chopova said – seemingly both figuratively and literally.

Among the designers who also eschewed the catwalk this season was Talia Byre, who instead hosted an intimate gathering to celebrate a limited-edition zine that documented the process of making her latest collection. Meanwhile, designer Kazna Asker offered iftar, a meal for those in observation of Ramadan, as she presented textiles collected from her recent trips to the Middle East. And Knwls co-founders Alex Arsenault and Charlotte Knowles opened a pop-up store decorated with paintings by artists they had known since school. One morning, the duo, who have had a partnership with Nike since 2025, hosted a Pilates session in the space. Arsenault hoped such activities would appeal to fans. “That’s what people want these days, they’re craving something physical,” he said.

Elsewhere, Talia Loubaton presented her sought-after brand, Liberowe, at London Fashion Week for the first time. While many of her peers at Central Saint Martins (Loubaton graduated from the MA Fashion course) tend to make more challenging, ava