deploys

WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday that it launched what it described as the largest immigration enforcement operation ever carried out by the agency — with 2,000 federal agents and officers expected in the Minneapolis area for a crackdown tied in part to allegations of fraud involving Somali residents.

“The largest DHS operation ever is happening right now in Minnesota,” the department said in a post on X, dramatically expanding the federal law enforcement footprint in the state amid heightened political and community tensions.

The government planned to send about 2,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and officers to Minnesota, according to a U.S. official and a person briefed on the matter. The agents are expected to be dispatched in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, the person said. The people were not authorized to publicly discuss operational details and spoke with the Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.

Immigrant rights groups and elected officials in the Twin Cities reported a sharp increase Tuesday in sightings of federal agents, notably around St. Paul. Numerous agents’ vehicles were reported making traffic stops, outside area businesses and apartment buildings.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was also present and accompanied U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers during at least one arrest. A video posted on X showed Noem wearing a tactical vest and knit cap as agents arrested a man in St. Paul. In the video, she tells the handcuffed man: “You will be held accountable for your crimes.”

DHS said in a news release that the man was from Ecuador and was wanted in his homeland and Connecticut on charges including murder and sexual assault. It said agents arrested 150 people Monday in enforcement actions in Minneapolis.

Minnesota governor blasts surge

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, criticized the federal enforcement surge as “a war that’s being waged against Minnesota.”

“You’re seeing that we have a ridiculous surge of apparently 2,000 people not coordinating with us, that are for a show of cameras,” Walz told reporters in Minneapolis on Tuesday, a day after announcing he was ending his campaign for a third term.

Many residents were already on edge. The Trump administration has singled out the area’s Somali community, the largest in the U.S. Last month, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara criticized federal agents for using “questionable methods” following a confrontation between agents and protesters.

Molly Coleman, a St. Paul City Council member whose district includes a manufacturing plant where agents arrested more than a dozen people in November, said Tuesday was “unlike any other day we’ve experienced.”

“It’s incredibly distressing,” Coleman said. “What we know happens when ICE comes into a city, it’s an enforcement in which every single person is on guard and afraid.”

Julia Decker, policy director at the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota, said there had been an increase in sightings of federal agents and enforcement vehicles in locations like parking lots.

“We can definitely a feel a heavier presence,” said Dieu Do, an organizer with the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee, which dispatches response teams to reports of agents.

Surge includes investigators focused on fraud allegations

Roughly three-quarters of the enforcement personnel are expected to come from ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, which carries out immigration arrests and deportations, said the person with knowledge of the operation. The force also includes agents from Homeland Security Investigations, ICE’s investigative arm, which typically focuses on fraud and cross-border criminal networks.

HSI agents were going door-to-door in the Twin Cities area investigating allegations of fraud, human smuggling and unlawful employment practices, Lyons said.

The HSI agents are largely expected to concentrate on identifying suspected fraud, while deportation officers will conduct arrests of immigrants accused of violating immigration law, according to the person briefed on the operation. Specialized tactical units are also expected to be involved.

The operation also includes personnel from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, including Cmdr. Gregory Bovino, the person familiar with the deployment said. Bovino’s tactics during previous federal operations in other cities have drawn scrutiny from local officials and civil rights advocates.

Hilton drops Minnesota hotel that canceled agents’ reservations

Hilton said in a statement Tuesday that it was removing a Minnesota hotel from its systems for “not meeting our standards and values” when it denied service to federal agents.

The Hampton Inn Lakeville hotel, about 20 miles outside Minneapolis, apologized Monday for canceling the reservations of federal agents, saying it would work to accommodate them. The hotel, like the majority of Hampton Inns, is owned and operated by a franchisee.

The Hampton Inn Lakeville did not respond to requests for comment.

Federal authorities began increasing immigration arrests in the Minneapolis area late last year. Noem and FBI Director Kash Patel announced last week that federal agencies were intensifying operations in Minnesota, with an emphasis on fraud investigations.

President Trump has repeatedly linked his administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota to fraud cases involving federal nutrition and pandemic aid programs, many of which have involved defendants with roots in Somalia.

The person with information about the current operation cautioned that its scope and duration could shift in the coming days as it develops.

Santana and Balsamo write for the Associated Press. Balsamo reported from New York. AP journalists Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis, Sophia Tareen in Chicago and Sarah Raza in Sioux Falls, S.D., Russ Bynum in Savannah, Ga., and Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report.

Dec. 28 (Asia Today) — A research team at Yonsei University has built a generative AI-based medical record system that is now being used at Severance Hospital, aiming to cut doctors’ documentation time and allow more focus on patient care.

The system, known as Y-NOT and implemented through the hospital’s “Y-NOT” record platform, uses a large language model to draft admission and discharge notes for clinicians to review, according to Professor Yoo Seung-chan of Yonsei University’s Department of Biomedical Systems and Information Science.

“Why should we spend more time sitting in front of computers than seeing patients?” Yoo said, describing a question often raised by emergency care staff that helped drive the project.

Yoo said he began full-scale development last year as administrative burdens on medical staff intensified during tensions between doctors and the government. He said the team judged AI technology had matured enough to meaningfully reduce record-keeping workload and started development.

The project began in July last year and was deployed in clinical settings by November, Yoo said, with model development and hospital rollout carried out in parallel. He said the team focused first on achievable clinical usefulness rather than pushing only for maximum model performance.

Some medical staff initially expressed concerns, including the risk of errors in records, questions over responsibility for mistakes and worries that the system could infringe on physicians’ authority. Yoo said two surveys conducted after implementation showed those concerns eased, with especially strong satisfaction among older staff.

He said the team framed the system as supporting, not replacing, clinicians. Doctors continue to diagnose and make decisions, he said, while the AI drafts and organizes documentation for verification. Yoo added that some staff said the system made care easier because it reduced the need to manually search through past electronic records.

The “Y-NOT” system is now used beyond the emergency department, including operating rooms and inpatient wards, for broader record management, Yoo said.

The time required to create emergency room medical records fell by more than half, according to the report, dropping from 69.5 seconds to 32 seconds. Staff have said the reduced documentation burden gives them time to make eye contact with patients, Yoo said.

He said evaluations indicate record completeness and standardization have improved across care teams, including nurses, and that the time saved helps emergency physicians move quickly to the next patient or offer additional guidance to patients leaving the hospital.

Yoo said the longer-term goal extends beyond a documentation tool to an intelligent agent system designed to support safe care aligned with global standards. That direction is tied to Severance Hospital’s “Doctor Answer 3.0” project, he said, and future plans include exploring ways for patients to communicate with an AI system based on their own medical records.

Yoo said AI could help address rising medical demand tied to population aging and a decline in essential medical staff. He said it could support guideline-based care for clinicians and help patients maintain a sense of continuous connection to the hospital after discharge.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, left, is deploying up to 350 Louisiana National Guard members to New Orleans through February to ensure safety and assist the Trump administration’s federal immigration law enforcement efforts there. File Photo by Samuel Corum/UPI | License Photo

Dec. 25 (UPI) — Up to 350 Louisiana National Guard members began deploying this week in New Orleans and will stay through February to help maintain peace and safety during New Year’s and special events.

The deployment also comes amid efforts to locate and deport those who illegally are in the United States.

“These National Guard troops will support federal law enforcement partners, including the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security, as they enforce federal law and counter high rates of violent crime in New Orleans and other metropolitan areas in Louisiana,” Defense Department spokesman Sean Parnell said in a prepared statement on Tuesday.

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry maintains his command and control of the state’s National Guard, whose mission is to enhance safety.

He said the troops will be fully deployed ahead of New Year’s Eve and will stay in New Orleans at least through February.

The deployment was announced after the Supreme Court on Tuesday struck down President Donald Trump’s effort to deploy the Illinois National Guard in Chicago over the protests of Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.

The troops will be tasked with ensuring safety in the French Quarter during New Year’s celebrations and during the Sugar Bowl and Mardi Gras.

“We know how to make cities safe, and the National Guard complements cities that are experiencing high crime,” Landry said during an appearance on The Will Cain Show.

He cited President Donald Trump’s National Guard deployment in Washington, D.C., as an example of how the troops can make cities safer for residents and visitors.

“When he wanted to send the National Guard into Washington, D.C., Louisiana was one of the first to raise its hand and say our troops will go there,” Landry said. “And the city is so much better.”