In downtown St. Paul, vandals sneaked into the shuttered Alliance Bank Center last weekend and trashed an entire floor by emptying fire extinguishers, throwing around appliances and damaging other property, according to St. Paul Police and the mayor’s office.

Police were called to the vacant 16-story office building Sunday on reports people had been accessing the condemned structure, according to a written statement from the mayor’s office. Officers discovered extensive damage throughout a single floor, which was empty of commercial tenants.

“Unfortunately, individuals broke in and took advantage of the empty space,” said Jennifer Lor, a spokesperson for the mayor’s office, in a written statement.

“What happened at Alliance Bank is a crime,” Lor wrote. “The St. Paul Police Department will be investigating this and any other similar incidents as such. Our priority remains keeping the building safe for our first responders and keeping the public safe while the building is not occupied.”

The mayor’s office announced April 2 that the city would maintain the Alliance Bank Center’s basic utilities following property owner Madison Equities’ decision to stop paying for utilities and maintenance.

The building, which has been condemned by the city, lost its last commercial tenants March 31.

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By COLLIN BINKLEY, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration revoked Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students in its escalating battle with the Ivy League school, saying thousands of current students must transfer to other schools or leave the country.

The Department of Homeland Security announced the action Thursday, saying Harvard has created an unsafe campus environment by allowing “anti-American, pro-terrorist agitators” to assault Jewish students on campus. It also accused Harvard of coordinating with the Chinese communist party, saying it hosted and trained members of a Chinese paramilitary group as recently as 2024.

“This means Harvard can no longer enroll foreign students and existing foreign students must transfer or lose their legal status,” the agency said in a statement.

Harvard enrolls almost 6,800 foreign students at its campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, accounting for more than a quarter of its student body. Most are graduate students, coming from more than 100 countries.

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Harvard called the action unlawful and said it’s quickly working to provide guidance to students.

“This retaliatory action threatens serious harm to the Harvard community and our country, and undermines Harvard’s academic and research mission,” the university said in a statement.

The dispute stems from an April 16 request from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. The letter demanded that Harvard turn over information about foreign students that might implicate them in violence or protests that could otherwise lead to their deportation.

In a letter to Harvard on Thursday, Noem said the school’s sanction is “the unfortunate result of Harvard’s failure to comply with simple reporting requirements.”

Noem said Harvard can regain its ability to host foreign students if it produces a trove of records on foreign students within 72 hours. Her updated request demands all records, including audio or video footage, of foreign students participating in protests or dangerous activity on campus.

“This administration is holding Harvard accountable for fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus,” Noem said in a statement.

The administration revoked Harvard’s certification in the Student and Exchange Visitor Program, which gives the school the ability to sponsor international students to get their visas and attend school in the United States.

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

By JANIE HAR, Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A judge in California blocked the Trump administration Thursday from terminating the legal status of international students nationwide while a court case challenging previous terminations is pending.

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The order by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey S. White in Oakland bars the government from arresting or incarcerating the plaintiffs and similarly situated students; from transferring any of them outside the jurisdiction of their residence; from imposing any adverse legal effect on students and from reversing the reinstatement of the legal status until the case is resolved. Students can still be arrested for violent crimes.

White said the government’s actions “wreaked havoc not only on the lives of Plaintiffs here but on similarly situated F-1 nonimmigrants across the United States and continues do so.”

By VALERIE GONZALEZ

McALLEN, Texas (AP) — The Trump administration filed a motion on Thursday to end a policy cornerstone that since the 1990s has offered protections to child migrants in federal custody, in a move that likely will be challenged by advocates.

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The protections in place, known as the Flores Settlement, largely limit to 72 hours the amount of time that child migrants traveling alone or with family and detained by the U.S. Border Patrol can be kept in U.S. Customs and Border Protection custody. They also ensure the children are kept in safe and sanitary conditions.

The Flores settlement is named for a Salvadoran girl, Jenny Flores, whose lawsuit alleging widespread mistreatment of children in custody in the 1980s prompted special oversight.

This is the second time the federal government under Trump has attempted to end the policy. In August 2019, the first Trump administration asked a judge to dissolve the agreement. Its motion eventually was struck down in December 2020 by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Under the Biden administration, oversight protections for child migrants were lifted for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services after new guidelines were put in place last year.

The Department of Homeland Security is still beholden to the agreement, including Customs and Border Protection, which detains and processes children after their arrival in the U.S. with or without their parents. Children then are usually released with their families or sent to a shelter operated by HHS, though processing times often go up when the number of people entering increases in a short time period.

Even with the agreement in place, there have been instances where the federal government failed to provide adequate conditions for children, as in a case in Texas where nearly 300 children had to be moved from a Border Patrol facility following reports they were receiving inadequate food, water and sanitation.

Court-appointed monitors provide oversight of the agreement and report noncompliant facilities to Chief U.S. District Judge Dolly M. Gee of the Central District of California. CBP was set to resume its own oversight but in January a federal judge ruled it was not ready and extended the use of court-appointed monitors for another 18 months.