Perilously cold temperatures threatened millions of Americans Monday in the wake of a sprawling winter storm that left at least 23 people dead as it knocked out power and paralyzed transportation.A frigid, life-threatening Arctic air mass could delay recovery as municipalities from New Mexico to Maine tried to dig out following the storm, which dropped a vicious cocktail of heavy snow and wind, along with freezing rain and sleet.Forecasters warned that much of the northern half of the country will see temperatures that are “continuously below freezing through February 1,” and “record low temperatures tonight across the South are particularly dangerous in the wake of the weekend winter storm with many still without power,” the National Weather Service said in an X post.While skies began clearing in parts the country, relentless snowfall in the northeast meant parts of Connecticut saw over 22 inches (56 cm) of snow, with more than 16 inches (40.6 cm) recorded in Boston, Massachusetts.The storm was linked to at least 23 deaths, according to a compilation of state government and local media reports, with causes including hypothermia as well as accidents related to traffic, sledding, ATVs and snowplows.One man was found in the snow unresponsive with a shovel in his hand.In New York City, eight more people were found dead amid plummeting temperatures, and an investigation to determine the causes was underway. It was not known if all of these fatalities were storm-related.Electricity began blinking back on across the south but as of Monday evening well over 550,000 customers remained without it, according to the tracking site Poweroutage.com.Tennessee, Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana — southern states unaccustomed to intense winter weather — were especially impacted.Approximately 190 million people in the United States were under some form of extreme cold alert, the National Weather Service (NWS) told AFP.The Great Lakes region’s residents woke up to extreme temperatures that could cause frostbite on exposed skin within minutes. In parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin, the NWS reported early Monday morning temperatures as low as -23F (-30.6C), with windchills exacerbating the bite.Over the weekend nearly half of the states in the contiguous US received at least a foot of snow (30.5 cm), and in many cases far more. The NWS said New Mexico’s Bonito Lake accumulated the highest US total over the weekend with 31 inches (78.7 cm).Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell told journalists that trees were continuing to fall under the weight of encrusted ice across the Tennessee capital city — sometimes knocking out power that had already been restored.Nashville and other municipalities across the country were establishing emergency warming shelters.NWS meteorologist Allison Santorelli told AFP this storm recovery was particularly arduous because so many states were impacted — meaning northern states with more winter supplies were unable to share their resources with less-prepared southern regions.”A lot of those locations don’t have the means or the resources to clean up after these events,” she said. “We’re particularly concerned about the folks in those areas that are without power right now.”- Polar vortex -At least 20 states and the capital Washington were under states of emergency in order to deploy emergency personnel and resources.The snowfall and biting icy pellets that pummeled cities left impassable roads along with canceled buses, trains and flights — thousands of departures and arrivals were scrapped over the weekend.The storm system was the result of a stretched polar vortex, an Arctic region of cold, low-pressure air that normally forms a relatively compact, circular system but sometimes morphs into a more oval shape, sending cold air pouring across North America.Scientists say the increasing frequency of such disruptions may be linked to climate change, though the debate is not settled and natural variability plays a role.Dave Radell, a NWS meteorologist based in New York, told AFP that the character of this storm’s snow was “very dry” and “fluffy,” meaning the wind could lash it around with ease, impeding roadway-clearing efforts and visibility.”That makes it even more challenging,” he said.

President Donald Trump sent his top border enforcer to Minneapolis on Monday and struck a conciliatory note in a bid to tamp down nationwide outrage over the second killing of a US citizen protesting militarized immigration raids this month.The White House was scrambling as video of the latest shooting went viral, prompting street protests, criticism from former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama and, increasingly, from within Trump’s Republican Party.Trump said Tom Homan, his point man for border security, “will report directly to me.”Homan’s new role appears to acknowledge the administration has run into political damage, with polls showing a majority of Americans disapprove of the often brutal crackdown by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.In a marked change of tone, Trump said he held a “very good” talk with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat whom he has repeatedly accused of corruption. Trump also said he had called Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, another Democrat, with the latter saying “the president agreed the present situation can’t continue.”Frey also said “some federal agents” will begin leaving Minneapolis on Tuesday, without providing specifics.White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that “nobody in the White House, including President Trump, wants to see people getting hurt or killed.”She also expressed sorrow for the death of Alex Pretti, an intensive care unit nurse who was gunned down Saturday at point blank range by immigration officers while protesting in Minneapolis. Earlier, top Trump officials had branded Pretti, 37, a “domestic terrorist.”Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison on Sunday accused the Trump administration of pushing a “flat-out insane” narrative.- DHS denies Bovino ouster -In yet another indication of a pivot, US media reported that controversial Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino was leaving Minneapolis — though the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has vehemently denied he is being let go.”Chief Gregory Bovino has NOT been relieved of his duties,” DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin posted on X, reiterating the White House messaging that Bovino “is a key part of the President’s team and a great American.”Despite his recent moves, there was no sign Trump was retreating from the broader, hardline policy of sending heavily armed, masked and unidentified ICE agents into Democratic-run cities to track down people breaking immigration laws — actions that Bovino has relished leading.There remain “hundreds of thousands” of “the worst illegal aliens” left to deport, Leavitt said.Campaigning against illegal immigration helped Trump get elected in 2024, but daily videos of violent masked agents, and multiple reports of people being targeted on flimsy evidence, have helped send Trump’s approval ratings plummeting.Minneapolis has become ground zero in the turmoil. Huge rallies took place despite bitter cold on Friday to protest an ICE agent’s killing of protester Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three on January 7.Like Pretti, she had been shot at close range and was a US citizen.- Race against shutdown -Opening a new front in the crisis, a federal judge in Minneapolis heard arguments Monday on whether the deployment of federal officers violates the state of Minnesota’s sovereignty.In a separate hearing, a judge was considering a request to force federal officials to preserve evidence in the killing of Pretti, saying she would rule quickly.Pressure is also mounting in Congress, where Democrats are threatening to hold up funding for the US government unless immigration enforcement agencies are reformed.Monday’s shift in White House messaging came as Republicans — who rarely criticize their 79-year-old party leader in public — began to express alarm, including House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer and Texas Governor Greg Abbott.Republican Chris Madel sent shockwaves when he dropped out of the running for Minnesota’s upcoming governor race to replace Walz, saying he could not remain a member of a party inflicting “retribution on the citizens of our state.”

Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown across the United States is the signature issue of his second term — but deadly violence in Minneapolis risks making it a liability for a president who already looks vulnerable in the polls.Outrage over the death of nurse Alex Pretti — the second US citizen killed by federal agents this month while protesting militarized immigration raids in the city — has forced Trump on the defensive.The raids were a cornerstone of Trump’s election pledges, but they are making even some of the Republican’s core voters uncomfortable one year after his return to power.Combined with multiple polls showing declining approval for the 79-year-old overall, alarm bells now appear to be ringing ahead of crucial US midterm elections in November.”There is support for the idea of tougher immigration, but there is real pushback on the means and the methods being used, the heavy-handedness, the violence,” Garret Martin, professor of international relations at American University, told AFP.Recent polls show that even when voters approve of Trump’s deportations and hard line on immigration, they oppose the often brutal methods of his Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.A Siena/New York Times poll last week found the number of those who think ICE tactics have “gone too far” has ticked up over the past year to 61 percent.The poll was carried out before Pretti’s killing — but after mother of three Renee Good, also 37, was shot dead by an ICE agent in Minnesota on January 7.A YouGov poll carried out hours after Pretti’s shooting, a majority of 46 percent — 34 percent strongly and 12 percent somewhat — support “abolishing ICE.””It’s a problem for the president because it means that the focus of the conversation is much more now on ICE and the scrutiny on how ICE is acting, as opposed to the issue of immigration, which Trump would like to put forward,” said Martin.- ‘Rock and a hard place’ -Worse for Trump is that allies have soured on the crackdown. Influential podcaster Joe Rogan earlier this month compared ICE raids to the Gestapo in Nazi Germany, while the normally loyal Texas Governor Greg Abbott urged Trump on Monday to “re-calibrate” his approach in Minnesota.Trump scrambled to pivot on Monday, taking a more conciliatory tone with local Democrat leaders and dispatching his border chief to the state.But it it has further pierced the aura of invincibility that Trump has sought to project since returning to power a year ago.Polls show that Trump is on the back foot on a series of issues, most notably the economy that he boasted he would return to a new “golden age.”A series of polls also show that Trump is losing support among the groups that helped him get reelected in 2024, including Hispanic, Black and and young voters.A Pew Research Center survey showed that 61 percent of Hispanic voters are dissatisfied with the US president’s economic policies and that 65 percent reject his anti-immigration policies.Trump has responded in typical fashion to such polls — saying last week that he would sue the New York Times over the Siena survey and suggesting that what he called “fake” surveys should criminalized.But that’s unlikely to ease concerns among Republicans about the midterm elections on November 3.Minnesota Republican Chris Madel, a defense attorney for Renee Good’s shooter,  dropped out of the race for governor Monday, saying “national Republicans have made it nearly impossible for a Republican to win a statewide election in Minnesota.” Traditionally a chance for voters to give incumbent presidents a hammering, Trump’s party is at risk of losing control of one or both chambers of Congress — although the leaderless Democrats also have dismal ratings.But despite Trump’s poll numbers, Republican lawmakers still have to contend with a deeply loyal “Make America Great Again” base in an election that Trump wants to make about himself.”They’re caught between a rock and a hard place,” said Martin.

The fatal shooting of two civilians in Minneapolis has reignited accusations that federal agents enforcing US President Donald Trump’s militarized immigration crackdown are inexperienced, under-trained and operating outside law enforcement norms.The deaths of US citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both 37, on the streets of Minneapolis in broad daylight “should raise serious questions within the administration about the adequacy of immigration enforcement training and the instructions officers are given on carrying out their mission,” said Lisa Murkowski, a Republican senator from Alaska.Minnesota’s Democratic Governor Tim Walz said Sunday the Trump administration needs to “pull these 3,000 untrained agents out of Minnesota before they kill another person.”Minneapolis has become the latest epicenter of Trump’s immigration crackdown — a top domestic priority this term — with the Department of Homeland Security’s federal agents carrying out patrols and raids.Thousands of masked agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) have been roving Minneapolis streets, despite protest of local leaders and residents in the wake of the killings and conflicts that occur in the course of their enforcement activities.”These untrained, masked agents aren’t making communities safer — they’re occupying cities, inciting violence, and violating the Constitution,” wrote New Jersey governor Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat, in a post on X.- ‘Streamlined training’ -A national recruitment campaign for ICE — promising $50,000 bonuses for new signups amid a flood of increased Congressional funding — has seen the controversial force more than double in size, rising to 22,000 from 10,000, according to DHS figures.The glut of new recruits has caused the standard training course to be shortened from five months to 42 days, causing backlash and accusations of under-training agents before giving them firearms.DHS in a statement released Thursday defended the changes, saying it “has streamlined training to cut redundancy and incorporate technology advancements without sacrificing basic subject matter content.”The six-week training program focuses on “arrest techniques, defensive tactics, conflict management and de-escalation techniques, extensive firearms and marksmanship training, use of force policy and the proper use of force,” DHS said, denouncing the criticism as “smears and lies.”However, a report in US magazine The Atlantic said one ICE official found many candidates who became agents under the expansion “would have been weeded out during a normal hiring process,” with some appearing physically unfit for the demands of the job.- Unprepared -Even with the critiques of poor training, federal authorities have said the agents who shot and killed Good and Pretti were veterans of the force, with multiple years under the belt.John Sandweg, who served as acting ICE director under former president Barack Obama, said the lack of preparedness for ICE and CBP agents, especially when faced with protesters, “created a very high-risk situation.”He added that dispatching Border Patrol agents to control crowds in Minneapolis “is just so far outside of their normal experiences. They work at dawn in the middle of the Arizona desert, in the middle of the night.””There’s a thin line between what constitutes impeding a federal officer doing his job and what is protected First Amendment activity. But we’re using Border Patrol agents who just never have to encounter that,” he continued.”You put those agents en masse in a city like Minneapolis, you encourage them, you talk about ‘absolute immunity,'” Sandweg said, referencing Vice President JD Vance’s characterization of the agent who shot and killed Renee Good, “you talk about how these are domestic terrorists they are confronting, how everything that impedes them is a crime, and — I hate to say it — this is what you need to expect to happen.”