WILLMAR — Approximately 100 demonstrators gathered outside the Law Enforcement Center last week in Willmar as a show of support for immigrants caught in the dragnet of immigration enforcement done by federal authorities. They also shared stories of other immigrants they know and how they’ve helped grow and be a positive asset for the communities they live in.

The jail facility in Kandiyohi County is one of three detention facilities in Minnesota that hold individuals for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Community members of Willmar, Alexandria and some from Northfield had come as a show of solidarity and support for immigrants in their communities who feel threatened by current federal policies.

Toward the end of the vigil, demonstrators shouted toward the jail facility, “We are here!” in both English and Spanish.

Visitation Pastor Andres Albertsen, of Vinje Lutheran Church in Willmar, led prayer and shared his story of how current federal policies had conflicted with his own life. Others also shared their concerns, and stories of how immigrants had enriched their lives and the communities they live in.

Albertsen, an immigrant from Argentina who has been living in the U.S. since 2011, just recently became a naturalized citizen. He said the reason he had come to the demonstration was for his friend Edward.

He said that he and Edward immediately bonded over the fact that, like Albertsen, Edward spoke Spanish with an Argentinian accent. Although he was born in Peru, Edward had spent much of his life in Argentina before coming to Minnesota.

Edward was arrested in Willmar weeks ago, on Oct. 25.

According to Albertsen, a friend was giving Edward a ride to work that Saturday when they were blocked by four cars, two unmarked, two others marked. They were ordered to exit the vehicle and then asked for their papers. When the two said they didn’t have any, they were immediately taken into ICE custody.

It is not known if the two marked squads were affiliated with the Kandiyohi County Sheriff’s Office or the Willmar Police Department, Albertsen said.

A few days after the arrest, Albertsen received a call from a public service number; it was Edward telling him he was in jail. Albertsen said he believed Edward had called him because he has no family in the area.

“Now we know within a couple of days, he is gone,” Albertsen said of Edward. “He will be leaving the country.”

Others who traveled from as far as Northfield had come to show their support of Adán Núñez Gonzalez, a Northfield resident for more than 10 years, who was arrested several days earlier in the same city.

According to reporting by the Northfield News, three videos captured by witnesses, including Núñez Gonzalez’s 15-year-old son, show masked agents in plain clothes and bulletproof vests surrounding a vehicle and questioning its occupants. Agents broke the window and forcibly extracted and arrested Núñez Gonzalez from the passenger seat without ever showing a warrant or credentials, despite urging to do so from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

A GoFundMe for Núñez Gonzalez and his family has raised over $20,000 as of Saturday to help them challenge his detention.

Duane Franz, a Mountain Lake farmer, shared that he has been volunteering to drive immigrants to ICE check-ins, court hearings, and other appointments as they navigate the immigration court system.

He said earlier this year he drove two immigrants to the ICE facility in Sioux Falls, S.D., for what was supposed to be a routine check-in, as both men had applied for asylum in the United States.

However, as he waited for both men to return, he was informed that only one would be going back home. When he asked why agents were holding the other man in custody, they simply told him that he had to stay with the agents, according to Franz.

“That was the first time that ever happened to me,” Franz said, explaining he had been driving others to these appointments for over a year. Franz said the experience shook him up, explaining that the man held was a farm worker with a wife and children who had been living in southwest Minnesota for about three years.

Albertsen said, in his closing prayer, that we need to regard immigrants as “members of our human family,” adding that their dignity is directly connected to our own.

By JOSH FUNK

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Tyson Foods’ decision to close a beef plant that employs nearly one third of residents of Lexington, Nebraska, could devastate the small city and undermine the profits of ranchers nationwide.

Closing a single slaughterhouse might not seem significant, but the Lexington plant employs roughly 3,200 people in the city of 11,000 and has the capacity to slaughter some 5,000 head of cattle a day. Tyson also plans to cut one of the two shifts at a plant in Amarillo, Texas, and eliminate 1,700 jobs there. Together those two moves will reduce beef processing capacity nationwide by 7-9%.

Consumers may not see prices change much at the grocery store over the next six months because all the cattle that are now being prepared for slaughter will still be processed, potentially just at a different plant. But in the long run, beef prices may continue to climb even higher than the current record highs — caused by a variety of factors from drought to tariffs — unless American ranchers decide to raise more cattle, which they have little incentive to do.

An increase in beef imports from Brazil, like President Donald Trump encouraged last week by slashing tariffs on the South American country, may help insulate consumers while ranchers and feedlots struggle with high costs and falling prices.

Here’s what we know about the impact of the plant closure and the changing tariffs:

A ‘gut punch’ to the community

Clay Patton, vice president of the Lexington-area Chamber of Commerce said Monday that Tyson’s announcement Friday felt like a “gut punch” to the community in the Platte River Valley that serves as a key link in the agricultural production chain.

When it opened in 1990, the Lexington plant that Tyson later acquired revitalized and remade the formerly dwindling town by attracting thousands of immigrants to work there and nearly doubling the population.

When the plant closes in January, the ripple effects will be felt throughout the community, undermining many first-generation business owners and the investment in new housing, Patton said. Tyson said it will offer Lexington workers the chance to move to take open jobs at one of its other plants if they are willing to uproot their families for jobs hundreds of miles away.

“I’m hopeful that we can come through this and we’ll actually become better on the other side of it,” Patton said.

Elmer Armijo was struck by how established the community when he moved to Lexington last summer to lead First United Methodist Church. He described solid job security, good schools and health care systems and urban development — all in doubt now.

“People are completely worried,” Armijo said. “The economy in Lexington is based in Tyson.”

Many local churches, Armijo’s included, are already offering counseling, food pantries and gas vouchers for community members.

Cattle prices falling in response

The prospect of losing a major buyer for cattle and increasing imports from Brazil, which already accounted for 24% of the beef brought into the country this year, only adds to doubts about how profitable the U.S. cattle business might be over the next several years, making it less likely that American ranchers will commit to raising more animals.

“There’s a just a lack of confidence in the industry right now. And producers are unwilling to make the investment to rebuild,” said Bill Bullard, president of Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America.

Boosting imports from Brazil has the potential to affect the market — much more than Trump’s suggestion to increase imports from Argentina — since the country sends more beef to America than any other. But for steak lovers, the sky-high price of the cut isn’t likely to be affected regardless, as most imports are lean trimmings that get mixed into ground beef.

Kansas State University agricultural economist Glynn Tonsor said it’s hard to predict whether imports will continue to account for roughly 20% of the U.S. beef supply next year. He pointed out that Trump’s tariffs have changed several times since they were announced in the spring and could quickly change again.

The only constant in the equation has been that consumers have continued to buy beef even as prices soar. Tonsor said on average Americans will consume 59 pounds (27 kilograms) of beef per person this year.

Tyson faces continued losses in the beef business

There has long been excess capacity in the meat business nationwide, meaning the nation’s slaughterhouses could handle many more cattle than they are processing. That has only been made worse in recent years as the government has encouraged more smaller companies to open slaughterhouses to compete with Tyson and the other giants that dominate the beef business.

Tyson expects to lose more than $600 million on beef production this year after already reporting $720 million of red ink in beef over the past two years.

Tonsor said it was inevitable that at least one beef plant would close. Afterward, Tyson’s remaining plants will be able to operate more efficiently at closer to full capacity.

Ernie Goss, an economist at Creighton University in Omaha, said the Lexington plant likely wasn’t measuring up in the industry increasingly reliant on technological advancements that enhance productivity.

“It’s very difficult to renovate or make the old plant fit the new world,” said Goss, who completed an impact study for a new Sustainable Beef plant. The Lexington facility “just wasn’t competitive right now in today’s environment in terms of output per worker.”

___

Associated Press writer Hannah Fingerhut contributed to this report from Des Moines, Iowa.

By ADRIAN SAINZ

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A task force ordered by President Donald Trump to combat crime in Memphis, Tennessee, has made thousands of arrests, compounding strains on the busy local court system and an already overcrowded jail in ways that concerned officials say will last months or even years as cases play out.

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Since late September, hundreds of federal, state and local law enforcement personnel tied to the Memphis Safe Task Force have made traffic stops, served warrants and searched for fugitives in the city of about 610,000 people. More than 2,800 people have been arrested and more than 28,000 traffic citations have been issued, data provided by the task force and Memphis police shows.

The task force, which includes National Guard troops, is supported by Republican Gov. Bill Lee and others who hope the surge reduces crime in a city that has grappled with violent crime, including nearly 300 homicides last year and nearly 400 in 2023.

On Monday, Attorney General Pam Bondi traveled to Memphis to meet with officers and tout the task force’s success in taking suspects and illegal guns off the street. Bondi and other law enforcement leaders later served food to officers to thank them for their work.

Asked about the strain on the local criminal justice system, U.S. Marshals Service Director Gadyaces Serralta said authorities are bringing as many cases as they can in federal court. He said federal officials are open to working with state prosecutors to find ways to speed up prosecutions.

“If we don’t speed up the process, it’s going to continue to back up,” Serralta said. But, he said, “because we can’t put them through the criminal justice system does not mean that it’s a free pass to commit crimes. We’re going to keep arresting folks. They keep committing crimes, we’re going to keep arresting them.”

From 2018 to 2024, homicides in Memphis increased 33% and aggravated assaults rose 41%, according to AH Datalytics, which tracks crimes across the country using local law enforcement data for its Real-Time Crime Index. But AH Datalytics reported those numbers were down 20% during the first nine months of this year, even before the task force got to work.

Opponents of the task force in majority-Black Memphis say it targets minorities and intimidates law-abiding Latinos, some of whom have skipped work and changed social habits, such as avoiding going to church or restaurants, fearing they will be harassed and unfairly detained. Statistics released at the end of October showed 319 arrests so far on administrative warrants, which deal with immigration-related issues.

FILE – Federal law enforcement officers detain a man, right, Oct. 11, 2025, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)

The effects have rippled beyond the streets, into the aging criminal courthouse and the troubled jail. Officials are concerned about long waits in traffic court causing people to miss work and packed criminal court dockets forcing inmates to spend extra days waiting for bail hearings.

“The human cost of it is astounding,” said Josh Spickler, executive director for Just City, a Memphis-based organization that advocates for fairness in the criminal justice system.

The mayor of Shelby County, which includes Memphis, has requested more judges to hear cases that could span months or years. County officials are discussing opening court at night and on weekends, a move that would help manage the caseload but cost more.

Meanwhile, Shelby County Jail inmates are being moved to other facilities because of overcrowding, officials say. Inmates at jail intake are sleeping in chairs, and jail officials are asking county commissioners for funding to help address problems, such as a corrections employees shortage.

These issues raise concerns from activists and officials about safety in a jail that has seen 65 deaths since 2019, according to Just City. Court case backlogs mean defendants and crime victims could spend an unfair amount of time dealing with the criminal justice system, said Steve Mulroy, the county’s district attorney.

“The task force deployment probably could have used more planning,” said Mulroy, a Democrat whose office is cooperating with the task force. “More thought could have been put into the downstream effects of the increased arrest numbers.”

Jail official asks for help

There were hundreds more jail bookings and bail settings during the first several weeks of the task force’s operation than during the comparable period last year, an increase of about 40% in each category, according to county statistics.

The jail, which has a regular capacity of 2,400, had an average daily population of 3,195 inmates in September, the most recent month when statistics were available. County officials said that number was expected to rise for October.

As of mid-November, 250 overflow jail detainees were being housed at other facilities, compared with 80 in November 2024. Some of those are outside Shelby County, which makes it harder for lawyers and relatives to visit and increases the cost of bringing defendants to Memphis for hearings.

In a letter to commissioners, Chief Jailer Kirk Fields has requested at least $1.5 million in emergency funds, noting that more inmates means more expenses for food, clothing, bedding and linens.

Help with the courts

One issue is whether there are enough judges to hear cases, especially after lawmakers eliminated two judgeships during last year’s session.

On Oct. 31, Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris wrote to state court officials asking for additional judges, saying the county is preparing for at least 3,500 to 5,000 people being arrested. More arrests increase jail expenses and the possible hiring of more public defenders, prosecutors and jail employees, he wrote.

“This places Shelby County in extreme financial peril,” Harris wrote.

The Tennessee Supreme Court’s response said that while lower court judges reported more judges are not necessary at this time, it has designated two senior judges to help should they be needed.

“Part of it is, understanding just what the cadence is going to look like over the next few months and then developing a strategy,” the governor said earlier this month, noting that the state is monitoring the situation.

FILE – Gov. Bill Lee speaks about the blast at Accurate Energetic Systems during a news conference, Sunday, Oct. 12, 2025, in McEwen, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, file)

Some officials have proposed Saturday court sessions and night court sessions two or three nights a week, Mulroy said. They’ve considered having a clinic where people facing misdemeanor warrants could surrender, to help clear those up.

Mulroy’s office also is reevaluating whether detention is necessary for people jailed in hundreds of low-level cases.

“If there’s no basis to think they’re a danger to the community or a flight risk, and they’re in there just because they can’t afford their bail, we can take a second look,” he wrote.

Task force says it’s being effective

Ryan Guay, a U.S. Marshals Service and task force spokesperson, told The Associated Press that the high volume of arrests reflects the force’s effectiveness.

“We recognize that this success places additional demands on the broader criminal justice system, including courts and detention facilities,” Guay said.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons has said that it is making a satellite prison camp available to the task force. The bureau said the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office would assume oversight of the facility. A sheriff’s office spokesperson declined to comment on the camp’s location, citing operational security.

Associated Press reporters Christopher L. Keller in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Alanna Durkin Richer in Memphis contributed.

By REBECCA SANTANA and ELLIOT SPAGAT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration plans a review of all refugees admitted to the U.S. during the Biden administration, according to a memo obtained Monday by The Associated Press, in the latest blow against a program that has for decades welcomed people fleeing war and persecution into the country.

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The review is likely to sow confusion and fear among the nearly 200,000 refugees who came to the United States during that period. It is likely to face legal challenges from advocates, some of whom said the move was part of the administration’s “cold-hearted treatment” of people trying to build new lives in the U.S.

The memo, signed by the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Joseph Edlow, and dated Friday, said that during the Biden years “expediency” and “quantity” were prioritized over “detailed screening and vetting.” The memo said that warranted a comprehensive review and “re-interview of all refugees admitted from January 20, 2021, to February 20, 2025.”

The memo indicated that there will be a list of people to re-interview within three months.

Advocates of the refugee program say that refugees are generally some of the most vetted of all people coming to the United States and that they often wait years to be able to come.

The memo also immediately suspended green card approvals for refugees who came to the U.S. during the stated time period.

“USCIS is ready to uphold the law and ensure the refugee program is not abused,” Edlow wrote.

People admitted to the U.S. as refugees are required to apply for a green card one year after they arrive in the country and usually five years after that can apply for citizenship.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Department of Homeland Security and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The moves described in the memo are the latest to take aim at the refugee program, which the administration suspended earlier this year and later set a limit for entries to 7,500 mostly white South Africans — a historic low of refugees to be admitted to the U.S. since the program’s inception in 1980. The Trump administration more broadly has ramped up immigration enforcement as part of its promise to increase deportations of illegal immigrants.

The Biden administration admitted 185,640 refugees from October 2021 through September 2024. Refugee admissions topped 100,000 last year, with the largest numbers coming from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, Venezuela and Syria.

Refugee advocates slammed news of the review, saying that it will traumatize people who have already gone through extensive vetting to make it to the U.S. in the first place.

“This plan is shockingly ill-conceived,” said Naomi Steinberg, vice president of U.S. policy and advocacy at HIAS, a refugee resettlement agency. “This is a new low in the administration’s consistently cold-hearted treatment of people who are already building new lives and enriching the communities where they have made their homes.”

USCIS expects to have a priority list for re-interviews within 90 days, Edlow wrote. His language points to a rigorous revisiting of why refugee status was granted in the first place.

“Testimony will include, but is not limited to, the circumstances establishing past persecution or a well-founded fear for principal refugees, the persecutor bar, and any other potential inadmissibilities,” he wrote.

Sharif Aly, President of the International Refugee Assistance Project, an advocacy group, criticized the administration’s actions in a statement late Monday, saying that refugees are “already the most highly vetted immigrants in the United States.”

“Besides the enormous cruelty of this undertaking, it would also be a tremendous waste of government resources to review and re-interview 200,000 people who have been living peacefully in our communities for years,” Aly said.

IRAP is currently part of a lawsuit seeking to overturn the administration’s suspension of refugee admissions.

Spagat reported from San Diego.