McALLEN, Texas — The Trump administration said Friday that it would pay migrant children $2,500 to voluntarily return to their home countries, dangling a new incentive in efforts to persuade people to self-deport.

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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement didn’t say how much migrants would get or when the offer would take effect, but The Associated Press obtained an email to migrant shelters saying children 14 years of age and older would get $2,500 each. Children were given 24 hours to respond.

The notice to shelters from the U.S. Health and Human Services Department’s Administration for Families and Children did not indicate any consequences for children who decline the offer. It asked shelter directors to acknowledge the offer within four hours.

ICE said in a statement that the offer would initially be for 17-year-olds.

“Any payment to support a return home would be provided after an immigration judge grants the request and the individual arrives in their country of origin,” ICE said. “Access to financial support when returning home would assist should they choose that option.”

ICE, the Department of Homeland Security and the Health and Human Services Department did not immediately respond to questions about the amount of the payment and age eligibility.

ICE dismissed widespread reports among immigration lawyers and advocates that it was launching a much broader crackdown Friday to deport migrant children who entered the country without their parents, called “Freaky Friday.”

The administration has also offered $1,000 to adults who voluntarily leave the country. Advocates said $2,500 may prevent children from making informed decisions.

“For a child, $2,500 might be the most money they’ve ever seen in their life, and that may make it very, very difficult for them to accurately weigh the long-term risks of taking voluntary departure versus trying to stay in the United States and going through the immigration court process to get relief that they may be legally entitled to,” said Melissa Adamson, senior attorney at the National Center for Youth Law.

Murad Awawdeh, president of the New York Immigration Coalition, echoed concerns about the offer, saying it “pressures children to abandon their legal claims and return to a life of fear and danger without ever receiving a fair hearing.”

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U.S. border authorities have arrested children crossing the border without parents more than 400,000 times since October 2021. A 2008 law requires them to appear before an immigration judge before being returned to their countries.

Children have been spending more time in government-run shelters since the Trump administration put them under closer scrutiny before releasing them to family in the United States to pursue their immigration cases.

The additional scrutiny includes fingerprinting, DNA testing and home visits by immigration officers. Over the summer, immigration officers started showing up and arresting parents.

The average length of stay at government-run shelters for those released in the U.S. was 171 days in July, down from a peak of 217 days in April but well above 37 days in January, when Trump took office.

PORTLAND, Ore. — Five years after protests roiled Portland, Oregon, the city known for its history of civil disobedience is again at the center of a political maelstrom as it braces for the arrival of federal troops being deployed by President Donald Trump.

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Months of demonstrations outside Portland’s immigration detention facility have escalated after conservative influencer Nick Sortor was arrested late Thursday on a disorderly conduct charge by Portland Police.

On Friday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the agency would send additional federal agents and the Justice Department was launching a civil rights investigation into the circumstances surrounding Sortor’s arrest, and whether Portland Police engage in viewpoint discrimination.

Meanwhile, a federal judge heard arguments Friday — but did not immediately rule — on whether to temporarily block Trump’s call-up of 200 Oregon National Guard members to protect the ICE facility and other federal buildings.

The escalation of federal law enforcement in Portland, population 636,000 and Oregon’s largest city, follows similar crackdowns to combat crime in other cities, including Chicago, Baltimore and Memphis. He deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles over the summer and as part of his law enforcement takeover in Washington, D.C.

A conservative influencer arrested in Portland

Sortor, 27, who’s a regular guest on Fox News and whose X profile has more than 1 million followers, was arrested Thursday night with two other people outside the city’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement building. He is set to be arraigned on Monday.

What exactly led up to the arrests was not immediately clear. Portland police said in a news release that officers observed two men fighting and one of the men was knocked to the ground. Neither of the men wanted to file a police report. Police moved in about three hours later, as fights continued to break out, and arrested Sorter and two others.

All three were charged with second-degree disorderly conduct. Sorter was released Friday on his own recognizance, according to Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office’s online records. An email seeking comment from Sortor sent Friday went unanswered and no one answered phone numbers listed for him.

In a post on X on Friday morning, Sortor said his arrest proved that Portland Police are corrupt and controlled by “vioIent Antifa thugs who terrorize the streets.”

“You thought arresting me would make me shut up and go away,” he wrote.

Sortor also said that Attorney General Pam Bondi had ordered an investigation into the circumstances of his arrest and of the Portland Police Bureau.

A history of Portland protests led to this moment

Portland famously erupted in more than 100 days of sustained, nightly protests in 2020 during the Black Lives Matter movement. In his first term, Trump sent federal law enforcement to the city to protect the U.S. District Courthouse in the heart of Portland after protests attracted thousands of people following George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police.

The presence of the federal agents further inflamed the situation, with federal officers repeatedly firing rubber bullets and teargassing protestors. Viral videos captured militarized federal officers, often unidentified, arresting people and hustling them into unmarked vehicles.

At the same time, Portland police were unable to keep ahead of splinter groups of black-clad protesters who broke off and roamed the downtown area, at times breaking windows, spraying graffiti and setting small fires in moments that were also captured on video and shared widely on social media.

A report by the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general found that while the federal government had legal authority to deploy the officers, many of them lacked the training and equipment needed to carry out the mission.

The tensions reached a peak in September 2020 when a self-identified member of the far-left anti-fascist movement fatally shot 39-year-old Aaron “Jay” Danielson in the chest. Danielson and a friend were seen heading downtown to protect a flag-waving caravan of Trump supporters shortly before the shooting.

The shooter, Michael Forest Reinoehl, was himself later shot and killed when he pulled a gun as a federal task force attempted to apprehend him near Lacey, Washington.

A different context for today’s protests

The situation in Portland is very different now.

There’s been a sustained and low-level protest outside the Portland ICE facility — far from the downtown clashes of 2020 — since Trump took office in January. Those protests flared in June, during the national protests surrounding Trump’s military parade, but have rarely attracted more than a few dozen people in the past two months.

Trump has once more turned his attention to the city, calling Portland “war ravaged,” and a “war zone” that is “burning down” and like “living in hell.” But local officials have suggested that many of his claims and social media posts appear to rely on images from 2020. Under a new mayor, the city has reduced crime, and the downtown has seen a decrease in homeless encampments and increased foot traffic.

Most violent crime around the country has actually declined in recent years, including in Portland, where a recent report from the Major Cities Chiefs Association found that homicides from January through June decreased by 51% this year compared to the same period in 2024.

City leaders have urged restraint and told residents not to “take the bait” this week after the announcement that the National Guard would be sent to Portland.

Oregon seeks to block National Guard deployment by Trump

On Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Karin J. Immergut heard arguments on whether to block the deployment of National Guard troops in Portland, where they would defend federal buildings such as the ICE facility from vandalism.

Oregon sued to stop the deployment on Sept. 28 after Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek failed to convince Trump to call off the deployment in a 10-minute phone call on Sept. 27.

Immergut did not immediately issue a ruling Friday after a short hearing and said she would issue an order later that day or over the weekend.

Meanwhile, the National Guard troops — from communities not too far from Portland — were training on the Oregon Coast in anticipation of deployment.

Thursday’s arrest of Sortor, however, likely means more federal law enforcement presence in Portland.

In an X post, which reposted a video from the protest and a photo of Sortor being detained, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said there would be an immediate increase in federal resources to the city with enhanced Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement resources.

“This violence will end under @POTUS Trump,” McLaughlin wrote.

3M Co. is considering selling billions of dollars of assets from its industrials operations as it looks to carve out low-growth businesses, according to people familiar with the matter.

William Brown

The conglomerate has been speaking with Goldman Sachs as it reviews potential divestments, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly.

3M’s safety and industrials unit, which generated about $11 billion in revenue last year, encompasses businesses such as aftermarket auto products, personal safety equipment and industrial adhesives and tapes, among others.

A final decision to pursue a separation of the assets hasn’t been made and 3M could opt to move forward with its current structure, the people added.

Representatives for Maplewood-based 3M and Goldman Sachs declined to comment.

Shares of 3M closed flat Friday at $158.66, giving the company a market value of about $84 billion. The stock has gained about 18% in the past year.

Since taking the reins last year, 3M Chief Executive Officer William Brown has spoken on earnings calls about looking at asset sales “where appropriate.”

Earlier moves by 3M have included spinning off its health care arm into a new public company called Solventum Corp. last year. Solventum’s shares have since rebounded from a low in July 2024, giving the St. Paul-based company a market value of almost $13 billion.

“3M’s leadership has reset priorities to reinvigorate growth by shifting RD toward product development and improved commercialization,” Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Mustafa Okur and Karen Ubelhart said in a research note this week. “Product pruning is underway, but bigger portfolio changes may be needed.”

Brown has also tried to push 3M back into organic sales growth, with all of its three business groups having grown during the past three quarters. Brown has also had to contend with the Trump Administration’s tariffs, deploying mitigation measures such as shifting production and pricing changes.

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A guest at a wedding in a Maplewood park pulled out a gun and shot a man who was arguing with the groom, according to charges filed Friday.

Police were sent to Keller Lake Regional Park about 5:30 p.m. Sept. 27 and found a 36-year-old St. Paul man on the ground in the parking lot with gunshot wounds. Good Samaritans had removed their belts and wrapped them on the man’s legs to stop the bleeding. He was taken to Regions Hospital and survived.

The man’s 7-year-old daughter told officers that her dad was talking to the groom, and that it looked like they might be getting into an argument. A third man with long dreadlocks approached, and she thought he was going to split the two men up.

Instead, the girl told police, the third man pulled out a handgun and shot her father, according to a criminal complaint filed Friday in Ramsey County District Court.

Witnesses told police that the third man, who was later identified as Stephan Andrew James, of South St. Paul, then ran across the parking lot and got into a Dodge SUV. He left after a woman and three children got inside the SUV.

Stephan Andrew James (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

An investigator spoke to the wedding photographer, who said he saw the St. Paul man and groom hug and walk a short distance. He heard shouting, saw James shove the man, then heard “two bangs,” the complaint says.

A police canine located a 9 mm Hornady casing in grass off the walking path near the park’s pavilion.

The groom told an investigator they were about to cut the wedding cake when the St. Paul man, who was not invited to the wedding, approached him. The groom said the man was “aggressive and mad at him” because the groom had not attended a funeral. “The groom claimed he did not see the shooting – he only heard it,” the complaint says.

At the hospital, the St. Paul man told an investigator that he went to the wedding to pick up his girlfriend and kids. He said he took the opportunity to talk with the groom about missing a funeral and not having his kids in the wedding. He claimed the groom shoved him and denied that he verbally or physically responded, according to the complaint.

He said the shooter pulled out a gun and told him, “We aren’t playing that (expletive)” before firing. He identified James as the shooter through photos provided to police.

Police conducted surveillance on James and arrested him Wednesday after pulling over a vehicle in St. Paul.

“Officers noted James had cut off his dreadlocks,” the complaint says.

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A black Smith and Wesson 9mm handgun was found under the front passenger seat where James had been sitting. Three of the seven rounds in the gun were marked with Hornady headstamps.

In an interview, James said he went to the wedding in a Dodge Durango. He couldn’t specifically say where he went afterward. He then asked for an attorney, the complaint says, and told investigators that if they “talked with other people, you should understand I’m not a bad person or aggressor.”

The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office charged James, 33, with one count each of first- and second-degree assault. He was scheduled to make a first appearance on the charges Friday afternoon.

James has one criminal conviction: gross misdemeanor possession of a pistol without a permit in 2018 in Ramsey County.