Ramsey County officials have opened an internal investigation after Brooklyn Center revoked the license of a hotel that was found to have a recuperative care business run by county directors.

The Brooklyn Center city council in late June revoked the hotel Suburban Studio’s license after city staff discovered a medical respite facility, also known as recuperative care, called Care Chexx serving homeless individuals was operating inside.

Ramsey County’s housing stability director Keith Lattimore is co-founder of Care Chexx which began providing recuperative care services at the hotel in June under a management and operations agreement with the hotel. Ramsey County’s deputy director of housing stability Kimberly Cleminson is listed as a partner with Care Chexx.

Recuperative care provides medical care and support services to homeless individuals too ill to recover from a physical illness or injury while in a shelter or who are otherwise unhoused but not sick enough to need hospitalization.

“Ramsey County is aware of the business Care Chexx, LLC,” Ramsey County officials said in a statement Wednesday. “In line with our commitment to transparency and accountability, we immediately initiated an internal investigation in accordance with our established policies and procedures when we learned of a potential county involvement with the business.”

Lattimore and Cleminson did not respond to efforts seeking comment.

Brooklyn Center vote

Brooklyn Center officials concluded the facility’s operation in the hotel violated the hotel’s hospitality accommodation license and council members voted 4-1 at their June 23 meeting that the hotel cease operations after 21 days.

The only question for the city council was whether there had been a zoning violation and “not the merits of … the things they do and the mission,” said council member Dan Jerzak during the meeting.

Care Chexx and BC Seva LLC, the hotel’s owner, are appealing the city’s decision, according to Bryan Huntington, the attorney representing them.

City officials first became aware of the recuperative care facility in late May when the Brooklyn Center fire department responded to a fire alarm call at Suburban Studios. While at the hotel, city officials observed activity that led them to believe the hotel was operating as something other than a hospitality accommodation.

Site inspection

A site inspection of the hotel in early June revealed that a recuperative care facility was operating out of the hotel with full-time medical staff, such as nurses, onsite and provided food service. They also learned that the owner of Suburban Studios had entered into a lease with Care Chexx.

According to Brooklyn Center staff, under city code, “hospitality accommodation” specifically excludes “hospitals, care facilities, senior living centers, residential treatment facilities, prisons, detention homes, and similar facilities.” Based on their findings, city staff concluded that Suburban Studios violated its hospitality accommodation license and zoning code by failing to go through a re-zoning process or use amendment.

A petition to the state Court of Appeals on behalf of Care Chexx and the hotel owners argues that the facility was no longer operating as a hotel.

“Among the inaccuracies was the assertion that the Property no longer operated as a hotel, instead operating solely as a recuperative care facility,” said a petition to the state court of appeals filed on behalf of BC Seva and Care Chexx on Tuesday. “Petitioners’ representatives attended the City Council meeting on June 23, 2025 and provided testimony correcting the City’s erroneous understanding. Despite there being no contrary evidence to Petitioners’ testimony, a majority of the City Council nevertheless adopted staff’s findings and the City approved a resolution based thereon.”

Care Chexx is one of around 35 recuperative care providers currently enrolled with the Minnesota Department of Human Services. Recuperative care is a new program with minimal activity and providers are not licensed by the state, but are required to meet specific enrollment requirements. Care recipients must be referred to recuperative care services by a hospital or clinic.

Appeal to Brooklyn Center

The Brooklyn Center city council will consider BC Seva and Care Chexx’s request for a stay on the hotel’s license revocation at their Monday meeting. If the city does not grant a stay, the court of appeals could grant one, according to Huntington.

“My clients will argue in court that the city’s interpretation of its ordinances to categorically exclude recuperative care services for all hospitality operators throughout the city is contrary to state and federal law,” Huntington said in an email. “State statute is clear that recuperative care services may be offered in any setting. Hotels are a proper setting for these services. The city’s position is contrary to the established law and policy of this state.”

Since the city council’s revocation of the hotel’s license, Care Chexx has furloughed around 30 staff members, including full-time and part-time staff and has begun relocating recuperative care recipients from the hotel.

Without immediate resolution, the city’s decision threatens continuity of care for vulnerable individuals and the hotel’s operations, according to Huntington.

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By LEA SKENE and BEN FINLEY, Associated Press

GREENBELT, Md. (AP) — A federal judge in Maryland scolded the Trump administration on Friday for its “utter refusal” to detail its deportation plans for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, including where the government plans to send him and whether he’ll get a chance to fight his expulsion before he’s whisked away.

The Salvadoran national could be released from a Tennessee jail as soon as next Wednesday to await trial on human smuggling charges. U.S. immigration officials have said they would immediately detain him and begin deportation proceedings.

“I’m deeply concerned that if there’s not some restraint on you, Mr. Abrego will be on another plane to another country,” U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis told Justice Department lawyers on Friday.

Supporters of Kilmar Abrego Garcia rally outside of the U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Md., where a hearing was scheduled to be held on returning him to Maryland, Monday, July 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Abrego Garcia became a flashpoint over Republican President Donald Trump’s immigration policies when he was wrongfully deported to his native El Salvador in March. That expulsion violated a U.S. immigration judge’s order in 2019 that shields Abrego Garcia from deportation to El Salvador because he likely faces threats of gang violence there.

The administration claimed that Abrego Garcia was in the MS-13 gang, although he wasn’t charged and has repeatedly denied the allegation. Facing mounting pressure and a U.S. Supreme Court order, the Trump administration returned Abrego Garcia to the U.S. last month to face the smuggling charges, which his attorneys have called “preposterous.”

The administration argues now that Abrego Garcia is a danger to the community and can be deported before his trial to a country other than El Salvador.

Abrego Garcia’s attorneys have asked Xinis to order the government to send him to Maryland if he’s released in Tennessee, a request that aims to prevent his expulsion before trial.

Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, an attorney for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, speaks to reporters after a hearing at the U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Md., Monday, July 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

In court on Friday, Abrego Garcia’s attorneys asked for at least a 72-hour hold that would prevent immediate deportation. Attorney Andrew Rossman called it the “critical bottom-line protection” needed to prevent a potentially egregious violation of due process rights.

Xinis didn’t rule from the bench Friday, but said she’ll issue an order before a federal judge in Tennessee holds a hearing on Wednesday to discuss Abrego Garcia’s release.

The smuggling case stems from a 2022 traffic stop for speeding, during Abrego Garcia was driving a vehicle with nine passengers without any luggage. Police in Tennessee suspected human smuggling, but he was allowed to drive on.

This courtroom sketch depicts, from left, Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s wife Jennifer Vasquez Sura; Kilmar Abrego Garcia and Cesar Abrego Garcia, Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s brother in court during Garcia’s detention hearing on Wednesday, June 25, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (Diego Fishburn via AP)

Abrego Garcia lived and worked in Maryland for more than a decade, working construction and raising a family. His American wife is suing the administration over his wrongful deportation in Xinis’s court in Maryland.

Given the history of the case, Xinis raised concerns on Friday that the government will take action without properly informing Abrego Garcia and his attorneys until it’s too late.

“The point is the utter refusal of your clients to engage in any conversation about what’s going to happen on Wednesday despite the extraordinary facts of this case,” Xinis told Justice Department attorneys.

Thomas Giles, an assistant director for U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, testified previously that Mexico or South Sudan may be willing to accept Abrego Garcia. But he said the Trump administration hasn’t decided on anything yet.

Xinis on Friday criticized Giles’ testimony, describing it as garden variety information that lacked specifics. She also expressed concern that Abrego Garcia could be deported to a nation that would just send him back to his native country.

Sarmad Khojasteh, a Justice Department attorney, declined to discuss in detail what could happen. But he said one possibility is the initiation of deportation proceedings to a third country. Another is revisiting the immigration judge’s 2019 order that shielded Abrego Garcia from deportation to El Salvador.

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When Abrego Garcia was mistakenly deported, he was first held in a notorious megaprison. Abrego Garcia’s lawyers recently alleged in court documents that he was beaten and subjected to psychological torture. El Salvador President Nayib Bukele denied the allegations.

Regarding deportation to a “third country,” Khojasteh told the judge that people are first told what country they’re being sent to, then allowed to express fear of going there. If the fear is deemed credible, the person gets a hearing before an immigration judge.

Khojasteh declined to discuss what happens after that, calling the line of questioning “like six layers deep in speculation.”

“These things haven’t happened yet,” he said. “The controversy’s not ripe.”

He said Abrego Garcia would be treated like any other immigrant under the circumstances.

But Xinis sharply rejected that notion. She said the case has already received so much attention that she can’t imagine it will be subject to a routine decision-making process among immigration officials.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on Friday called a special election for the Hennepin and Anoka County state House seat left vacant following the assassination of Brooklyn Park Rep. Melissa Hortman last month.

Hortman, the former House speaker and leader of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor caucus in the House, represented House District 34B, a district that includes Brooklyn Park, as well as parts of Champlin and Coon Rapids.

A special primary election for the seat is now scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 12. The special election is set to take place on Tuesday, Sept. 16.

Candidates can begin submitting paperwork to run starting July 15. Affidavits of candidacy and nominating petitions can be submitted to the Anoka and Hennepin county auditors or the Minnesota Secretary of State until July 22.

Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, were photographed Friday, June 13, 2025, at the annual Humphrey-Mondale Dinner in Minneapolis. (Courtesy of Minnesota House DFL Caucus)

House District 34B has been without a representative for nearly a month.

In the early morning hours of June 14, Hortman and her husband, Mark, were shot at their home by a gunman who was reportedly targeting state lawmakers. State Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, were shot at their home in Champlin and survived.

Hortman was first elected to the House in 2004 and was in her 11th term in the Legislature. She was elected speaker of the House in 2019, when the DFL took a majority in the House.

Hortman lost the speakership in 2025 after the 2024 election resulted in a House tied 67-67 between the parties.

The House is now split 67-66 between the parties, with Republicans at a one-seat majority.

Hortman had handily won reelection in District 34B and past districts that covered a similar footprint. In 2024, she won reelection with 63% of the vote.

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By AMY TAXIN, DAMIAN DOVARGANES and OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ, Associated Press

CAMARILLO, Calif. (AP) — Federal immigration authorities said Friday they arrested about 200 immigrants suspected of being in the country illegally in raids a day earlier on two California cannabis farm sites. Protesters engaged in a tense standoff with authorities at one of the farms during the operation.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that authorities executed criminal search warrants in Carpinteria and Camarillo, California, on Thursday. They arrested immigrants suspected of being in the country illegally and there were also at least 10 immigrant children on site, the statement said.

Four U.S. citizens were arrested for “assaulting or resisting officers,” the department said. Authorities were offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of one person suspected of firing a gun at federal agents. At least one worker was hospitalized with grave injuries.

Federal immigration agents toss tear gas at protesters during a raid in the agriculture area of Camarillo, Calif., Thursday, July 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Owen Baker)

During the raid, crowds of people gathered outside Glass House Farms at the Camarillo location to demand information about their relatives and protest immigration enforcement. A chaotic scene emerged outside the farm that grows tomatoes, cucumbers and cannabis as authorities clad in helmets and uniforms faced off with the demonstrators. Acrid green and white billowing smoke then forced community members to retreat.

On Friday, about two dozen people waited outside the Camarillo farm to collect the cars of their loved ones and speak to managers about what happened. Relatives of Jaime Alanis, who worked picking tomatoes for 10 years, said he called his wife in Mexico during the raid to tell her immigration agents had arrived and that he was hiding with others inside the farm.

“The next thing we heard was that he was in the hospital,” Juan Duran, Alanis’ brother-in-law, said in Spanish, his voice breaking.

Arturo Rangel hugs Judith Ramos whose father works at the greenhouse in the background as federal immigration agents block access during a raid in the agriculture area of Camarillo, Calif., Thursday, July 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Owen Baker)

It was not immediately clear how Alanis was injured. A doctor told the family that others who brought Alanis to the hospital said he had fallen from the roof of a building.

Alanis had a broken neck, fractured skull and a rupture in an artery that pumps blood to the brain, said his niece Yesenia, who didn’t want to share her last name for fear of reprisal.

Maria Servin, 68, said her son Rafael Ortiz has worked at the farm for 18 years and was helping build a greenhouse when federal immigrations agents arrived Thursday.

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Servin said she spoke to her son, who is undocumented, after hearing of the raid and offered to pick him up. “He said not to come because they were surrounded and there was even a helicopter. That was the last time I spoke to him,” Servin, who is a naturalized U.S. citizen, said in Spanish.

She said she went to the farm anyway Thursday, but agents were shooting tear gas and rubber bullets, and she decided it wasn’t safe to stay.

On Friday, she returned with her daughter and was told her son had been arrested. The family still doesn’t know where he is being held or how to contact him. “I regret 1,000 times that I didn’t help him get his documents,” Servin said.

Glass House said in a statement that the company does not violate “applicable hiring practices” and does not employ children.

Taxin reported from Orange County, Calif. and Rodriguez reported from San Francisco.