NEW YORK — When Carlos Correa picked up the phone on the afternoon of July 31, he could almost sense the words he was about to hear by the tone in Derek Falvey’s voice.

“Something was different, and that’s when I knew,” Correa said.

Suddenly, he had a decision to make.

Correa had never envisioned leaving the Twins, but given the option to go back to Houston, where he began his career, where he maintains his offseason home, where he would be playing for a first-place team, or stay in Minnesota, where it became clear that much of the roster was about to be torn down as the Twins hit the “reset” button.

The three-time all-star took time to process his options. He called his wife, Daniella, a Texas native. He phoned his agent, Scott Boras. Then he chose Houston, and waived his no-trade clause.

“I love Minnesota. I love my house there, living there and the people. So, I never thought I would leave,” Correa said Sunday, hours before he went 2 for 5 with a home run in the Astros’ win over the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium. “Then this opportunity arose where the situation in Minnesota, the next three years, I don’t want to be rebuilding. I wanted to be able to have a chance to win.”

Increasingly, that looked less and less likely in Minnesota.

Correa and Falvey, the Twins’ president of baseball and business operations, had spoken on Wednesday. Falvey, he said, did not use the word “rebuild,” but the infielder got the sense that the trades — many of them — were coming.

Still, he didn’t think the sell-off would include him. Correa found out on Wednesday morning that the Astros, the team that drafted him first overall in 2012, had engaged the Twins in trade conversations. Correa’s contract included a no-trade clause and there was only one team he would waive it to go to.

Talks weren’t close initially.

The Astros wanted the Twins to pay down more of Correa’s contract — he is making $36 million this year and had three more years remaining on his six-year, $200 million contract after this one — while the Twins were trying to shed payroll.

Correa traveled to Cleveland with his teammates that Wednesday night and on Thursday, the day of the trade deadline, he detached from his phone and everything going on. The noted Marvel fan instead went to the movies to see “The Fantastic Four: First Steps.”

After the film finished, he headed back to the team’s hotel. He was hanging out there when Falvey called.

He approved the deal and was heading back to Houston. In return, the Twins received minor league pitcher Matt Mikulski, who has yet to pitch above Single-A Advanced at age 26. The Twins were sending money along with Correa, but will ultimately save around $70 million across the life of the contract.

Almost as stunningly as he arrived, Correa was gone.

Minnesota Twins’ president of baseball operations Derek Falvey, left, takes questions alongside Twins’ Carlos Correa, center, and agent Scott Boras during a baseball press conference at Target Field, Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2023, in Minneapolis. The team and Correa agreed to a six-year, $200 million contract. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

The Twins first agreed to a middle-of-the-night deal with Correa in March of 2022 after he was unable to find the long-term deal he was looking for in free agency during the lockout-disrupted offseason. He signed a three-year, $105.3 million deal with the Twins but opted out after a strong first year in Minnesota in search of a more-permanent home.

He seemed to find it in San Francisco, and then New York, agreeing to deals with the Giants and Mets before each team backed out because of an ankle issue stemming many years back. Finally, he told Boras to get him to Minnesota. The Twins had been interested in bringing him back, though they were not offering nearly as much as either of the other two clubs.

Still, Correa’s contract, the largest in team history, represented a large financial commitment from ownership. Months later, the Twins made another big commitment, handing out a four-year contract extension to ace Pablo López worth $73.5 million.

Those two helped the Twins win a division title in 2023. Once in the playoffs, the Twins laid to rest their 18-game playoff losing streak, which dated back to 2002, before eventually falling in the American League Division Series to the Astros.

It was a time of great optimism in Minnesota. The taste of playoff success had seemingly rejuvenated the team and its fanbase. But almost as soon as that hopefulness returned, it was tugged away when ownership decided to slash payroll.

“I think it was a shock to all of us after the playoffs in ’23 and then when they cut back, it was a little confusing to a lot of us in there, but that’s the way it happened,” Correa said.

Even so, he said, “I never thought I would get traded,” even though he was most expensive player on a team intent on lowering its expenses. Less than halfway into the life of his contract, he was on the way out.

He has fit seamlessly back into the Houston clubhouse, reuniting with old teammates such as Jose Altuve and Lance McCullers Jr., with whom he won a World Series with in 2017.

Correa is a third baseman now, welcoming the change after asking the Twins in recent years if he could shift off shortstop, believing it would be better for his health. Though his defensive numbers had slipped a bit, Correa was still the best shortstop within the Twins’ organization, which is why the move never happened.

Houston Astros’ Carlos Correa runs the bases after hitting a home run during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees, Sunday, Aug. 10, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)

It’s something, he said, he started asking about two years ago when he started dealing with plantar fasciitis, first in his left foot and then last year in his right foot, limiting him to 86 games.

“I felt like it would be better for my body and it would also help my hitting because I wouldn’t feel as tired going into the games and the recovery process and all that,” Correa said. “Now that I’m playing third base, I can see how good it is.”

After a slow start to the season at the plate, Correa said he felt good at there in July, though was not getting the results for which he was looking. But through his first nine games as an Astro, he said, “Everything (is) clicking.” Correa is hitting .405 with a 1.098 OPS, two home runs, a pair of doubles and six RBIs since the trade.

He will return to Houston finally — the Astros have been on the road since the trade deadline — on Monday, where he is sure to get a hero’s welcome at Daikin Park. He was never able to accomplish what he set out to do in Minnesota, but now right back where he started, he has that chance again.

“We never got the job done like we wanted,” Correa said. “I wish that would have been the case, but now it’s a new chapter in my journey.”

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By LISA MASCARO, Associated Press Congressional Correspondent

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan visited Capitol Hill just weeks after Inauguration Day, with other administration officials and a singular message: They needed money for the White House’s border security and mass deportation agenda.

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By summer, Congress delivered.

The Republican Party’s big bill of tax breaks and spending cuts that Trump signed into law July 4 included what’s arguably the biggest boost of funds yet to the Department of Homeland Security — nearly $170 billion, almost double its annual budget.

The staggering sum is powering the nation’s sweeping new Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations, delivering gripping scenes of people being pulled off city streets and from job sites across the nation — the cornerstone of Trump’s promise for the largest domestic deportation operation in American history. Homeland Security confirmed over the weekend ICE is working to set up detention sites at certain military bases.

“We’re getting them out at record numbers,” Trump said at the White House bill signing ceremony. “We have an obligation to, and we’re doing it.”

Money flows, and so do questions

The crush of new money is setting off alarms in Congress and beyond, raising questions from lawmakers in both major political parties who are expected to provide oversight. The bill text provided general funding categories — almost $30 billion for ICE officers, $45 billion for detention facilities, $10 billion for the office of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem — but few policy details or directives. Homeland Security recently announced $50,000 ICE hiring bonuses.

And it’s not just the big bill’s fresh infusion of funds fueling the president’s agenda of 1 million deportations a year.

In the months since Trump took office, his administration has been shifting as much as $1 billion from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other accounts to pay for immigration enforcement and deportation operations, lawmakers said.

“Your agency is out of control,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., told Noem during a Senate committee hearing in the spring.

FILE – A protestor holds a sign during a demonstration organized by the Service Employees International Union protesting ICE detentions, in New Orleans, July 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

The senator warned that Homeland Security would “go broke” by July.

Noem quickly responded that she always lives within her budget.

But Murphy said later in a letter to Homeland Security, objecting to its repurposing funds, that ICE was being directed to spend at an “indefensible and unsustainable rate to build a mass deportation army,” often without approval from Congress.

This past week, the new Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Andrew Garbarino of New York, along with a subcommittee chairman, Rep. Michael Guest of Mississippi, requested a briefing from Noem on the border security components of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, or OBBBA, which included $46 billion over the next four years for Trump’s long-sought U.S.-Mexico border wall.

“We write today to understand how the Department plans to outlay this funding to deliver a strong and secure homeland for years to come,” the GOP lawmakers said in a letter to the homeland security secretary, noting border apprehensions are at record lows.

“We respectfully request that you provide Committee staff with a briefing on the Department’s plan to disburse OBBBA funding,” they wrote, seeking a response by Aug. 22.

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to The Associated Press the department is in daily discussions with the committee “to honor all briefing requests including the spend plan for the funds allocated” through the new law.

“ICE is indeed pursuing all available options to expand bedspace capacity,” she said. “This process does include housing detainees at certain military bases, including Fort Bliss.”

Deportations move deep into communities

All together, it’s what observers on and off Capitol Hill see as a fundamental shift in immigration policy — enabling DHS to reach far beyond the U.S. southern border and deep into communities to conduct raids and stand up detention facilities as holding camps for immigrants.

The Defense Department, the Internal Revenue Service and other agencies are being enlisted in what Kathleen Bush-Joseph, an analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, calls a “whole of government” approach.

FILE – Federal agents escort a family to a transport bus after they were detained following an appearance at immigration court, July 22, 2025, in San Antonio, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

“They’re orienting this huge shift,” Bush-Joseph said, as deportation enforcement moves “inward.”

The flood of cash comes when Americans’ views on immigration are shifting. Polling showed 79% of U.S. adults say immigration is a “good thing” for the country, having jumped substantially from 64% a year ago, according to Gallup. Only about 2 in 10 U.S. adults say immigration is a bad thing right now.

At the same time, Trump’s approval rating on immigration has slipped. According to a July AP-NORC poll, 43% of U.S. adults said they approved of his handling of immigration, down slightly from 49% in March.

Americans are watching images of often masked officers arresting college students, people at Home Depot lots, parents, workers and a Tunisian musician. Stories abound of people being whisked off to detention facilities, often without allegations of wrongdoing beyond being unauthorized to remain in the U.S.

A new era of detention centers

Detention centers are being stood up, from “Alligator Alcatraz” in Florida to the repurposed federal prison at Leavenworth, Kansas, and the proposed new “Speedway Slammer” in Indiana. Flights are ferrying migrants not just home or to El Salvador’s notorious mega-prison but far away to Africa and beyond.

Homan has insisted in recent interviews those being detained and deported are the “worst of the worst,” and he dismissed as “garbage” the reports showing many of those being removed have not committed violations beyond their irregular immigration status.

FILE – White House border czar Tom Homan speaks with reporters at the White House, Aug. 6, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

“There’s no safe haven here,” Homan said recently outside the White House. “We’re going to do exactly what President Trump has promised the American people he’d do.”

Back in February, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the Republican chairman of the Budget Committee, emerged from their private meeting saying Trump administration officials were “begging for money.”

As Graham got to work, Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, the chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and a leading deficit hawk, proposed an alternative border package, at $39 billion, a fraction of the size.

But Paul’s proposal was quickly dismissed. He was among a handful of GOP lawmakers who joined all Democrats in voting against the final tax and spending cuts bill.

By JESSE BEDAYN, Associated Press

Texas Republicans will again try to convene the state Legislature Monday for a vote on redrawing congressional maps in their party’s favor, an effort that already sparked a national political brawl and prompted Democratic lawmakers to leave the state to deny Republicans the quorum they need.

The Republican majority is seeking to redraw five U.S. House districts at President Donald Trump’s urging as he tries to avoid a replay of the 2018 midterms. Those elections installed a new Democratic majority in the U.S. House that stymied the president’s agenda and twice impeached him.

Now, Democratic-controlled states including California, New York and Illinois are threatening to retaliate against Texas and Trump by proposing their own redistricting, putting the nation on the brink of a tit-for-tat overhaul of congressional boundaries that are typically redrawn only once a decade.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he’ll call lawmakers back to the Statehouse again and again until enough Democrats show up to reach the 100-member threshold required to vote on the bill. Democratic leaders in other states are planning out their retaliatory redistricting plans if Abbott succeeds.

FILE – Empty chairs belonging to House Democrats remain empty during session convocation in protest to a redistricting map in the State Capitol, Aug. 5, 2025, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Rodolfo Gonzalez, file)

“Texas, knock it off. We’ll knock it off. Let’s get back to governing,” said New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on “Fox News Sunday.”

As for the Democratic lawmakers who bolted from Texas — some of whom have been appearing alongside the likes of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker at news conferences — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is asking the state’s Supreme Court to remove some of them from office or give them a 48-hour warning to return.

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“If they show back up in the state of Texas, they will be arrested and taken to the Capitol,” said Abbott on “Fox News Sunday.”

When pressed about blue states’ threats to retaliate — such as Newsom’s proposal to effectiveely cut five GOP-held seats in California — Abbott argued that many had already squeezed the juice out of their gerrymandering and would be hard-pressed to push it further.

Democratic leaders say Abbott’s plans are nothing more than a power grab.

“They know that they’re going to lose in 2026 the Congress, and so they’re trying to steal seats,” Pritzker said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Past attempts by Texas Democrats to halt votes by leaving the state were typically unsuccessful, and several of the blue states face more hurdles to redistricting than Texas does.

California, for example, has an independent commission that runs redistricting after each decade’s census. Changes require approval from both voters and state lawmakers, who have said they plan to call a special election in November to set the process in motion.