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MINNY SOPHISTRY: CBS’s Sganga Continues to Stoke Anti-ICE Rage
The new and improved CBS Evening News burst upon the scene with a fundamental promise of getting the story right. While this new iteration is a significant improvement over prior news product, there remain opportunities for improvement. Case in point, the most recent reporting out of Minneapolis.
Correspondent Nicole Sganga is, for some reason, still on the scene in Minneapolis. The last time we examined Sganga’s reporting, she referred to the shooting of Renee Nicole Good as a “murder”. Now, she is framing the DHS as dishonest by default when talking about jail cooperation- a key component to helping keep ICE off the streets and out of dangerous situations.
Her report begins with a setting meant to evoke fear: the empty Hmong marketplace, and a chat with the mayor of St. Paul, who claims that her parents are more afraid of ICE than of the communists during the Secret War in Laos.
Sganga’s then video package runs reel of the ICE official denouncing the state’s release of illegals in police or state custody. Sganga brings on the director of the state’s correctional system to refute ICE. Watch:
WATCH: ICE official denounces Minnesota's release of criminal aliens in police or state custody", prior to CBS correspondent Nicole Sganga bringing on the director of the correctional system to refute. No consideration of the county jails. pic.twitter.com/tYc1YD88WJ
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) January 22, 2026
MARCOS CHARLES: Since President Trump took office one year ago today, the state of Minnesota has released nearly 500 criminal aliens who were in police or state custody, rather than turning them over to ICE.
PAUL SCHNELL: If ICE has a detainer, they want them to take custody of them. We will facilitate the transfer of custody. Period.
SGANGA: Commissioner Paul Schnell oversees Minnesota's Department of Corrections, including the state’s prison system.
Does it feel like the Department of Homeland Security is lying when it says that state authorities are not cooperating?
SCHNELL: It is fundamentally false. We cooperate with ICE And ICE detainers. We have, as a matter of policy, done that for a long, long time.
SGANGA: The Department of Homeland Security says roughly 450 criminals have been released into Minnesota's streets. And you say you don't know where that number comes from?
SCHNELL: We have no idea where that number comes from. We know we released 84 people --
SGANGA: To ICE
SCHNELL: -to ICE that were subject to detainers. And so this notion that Minnesota is not honoring federal ICE detainers is utterly untrue.
State correctional agencies typically have oversight over state prisons and, in some states, juvenile detention facilities. These entities are separate from county jails, and so it is entirely plausible that there would be a discrepancy between what the state has and what DHS has.
The main sticking point with ICE has always been access into the county jails. Sanctuary jurisdictions deny ICE the access to detain illegal aliens housed in county jails. This is where the numerical discrepancy might come from. But this is never explored. ICE is left holding the bag and appearing to look deceitful. Narrative construction clearly on display.
A reasonable individual might think that this is a minor distinction hardly worth examining. But once a correspondent refers to an unfortunate agent-involved shooting as a “murder,” without evidence, then it becomes time to examine everything else.
Click “expand” to view the full transcript of the aforementioned transcript as aired on the CBS Evening News on Wednesday, January 21st, 2025:
TONY DOKOUPIL: We are going to turn to new developments in the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. Late today, we received a copy of an internal ICE memo authorizing federal agents to forcibly enter homes without a warrant from a judge. The directive was provided to Congress by whistleblowers who say this goes against standard training in the Department of Homeland Security. Tonight, Nicole Sganga has new reporting on how immigrants in Minnesota are responding to what is happening there.
NICOLE SGANGA: In St. Paul, Minnesota’s Hmong Village, empty stalls line a once-busy marketplace.
KAOHLY HER: On a normal day, all of these stalls would be open.
SGANGA: It’s a sign, the city's mayor explains, of the deeply rooted fear spreading within immigrant communities.
HER: They’re afraid to leave their homes, they’re afraid to let their children go to school.
SGANGA: Mayor Kaohly Her says that fear has driven naturalized U.S. citizens, including her own parents, to hide in their homes.
HER: When I talk to them they’re telling me they are more afraid now than they were fighting communism in Laos during the Secret War.
SGANGA: Top Homeland Security officials have declared Operation Metro Surge, laser focused on arresting what DHS calls the worst of the worst, convicted felons and violent offenders, accusing Minnesota officials of not cooperating.
MARCOS CHARLES: Since President Trump took office one year ago today, the state of Minnesota has released nearly 500 criminal aliens who were in police or state custody, rather than turning them over to ICE.
PAUL SCHNELL: If ICE has a detainer, they want them to take custody of them. We will facilitate the transfer of custody. Period.
SGANGA: Commissioner Paul Schnell oversees Minnesota's Department of Corrections, including the state’s prison system.
Does it feel like the Department of Homeland Security is lying when it says that state authorities are not cooperating?
SCHNELL: It is fundamentally false. We cooperate with ICE And ICE detainers. We have, as a matter of policy, done that for a long, long time.
SGANGA: The Department of Homeland Security says roughly 450 criminals have been released into Minnesota's streets. And you say you don't know where that number comes from?
SCHNELL: We have no idea where that number comes from. We know we released 84 people --
SGANGA: To ICE
SCHNELL: -to ICE that were subject to detainers. And so this notion that Minnesota is not honoring federal ICE detainers is utterly untrue.
SGANGA: CBS News reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for clarity. The department responded just moments ago, doubling down on their numbers. They again are asking Minnesota elected officials to honor all ice detainers. Tony.
DOKOUPIL: Nicole, thank you very much.
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