Senate Funding Deal, Border Czar Homan In Minnesota, Georgia Election Ballots Seized
Up First from NPR
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4.6 • 59K Ratings
🗓️ 30 January 2026
⏱️ 14 minutes
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Summary
Border Czar Tom Homan suggested a possible drawdown of federal immigration agents in Minnesota, only for President Trump to later say there would be no pullback at all, as arrests and protests continue on the ground.
And the FBI seizes hundreds of thousands of ballots and election records from Fulton County, Georgia, as the Trump administration escalates scrutiny ahead of the midterms.
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Today’s episode of Up First was edited by Anna Yukhananov, Gigi Douban, Ben Swasey, Mohamad ElBardicy, and Alice Woelfle.
It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas, Ava Pukatch and Christopher Thomas.
We get engineering support from Neisha Heinis. Our technical director is Carleigh Strange.
Our Executive Producer is Jay Shaylor.
(0:00) Introduction
(01:53) Senate Funding Deal
(05:38) Border Czar in Minnesota
(09:51) Georgia Election Ballots Ceased
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Senators cut a deal to fund most government agencies. |
| 0:05.0 | The agreement likely came too late to avoid a brief government shutdown. |
| 0:09.0 | The idea is to keep the government open while lawmakers negotiate new restrictions for immigration agents. |
| 0:14.0 | I'm Leila Faudil with Steven Ski, and this is up first from NPR News. |
| 0:24.8 | The president's borders are Tom Homan suggested some immigration agents could leave Minnesota. Trump didn't seem to know about it when asked if agents are pulling back. |
| 0:29.7 | No, no, not a row. |
| 0:30.9 | So what is the plan for Minneapolis? |
| 0:33.1 | Also, we try to answer questions about an FBI raid in Georgia. The agency seized |
| 0:37.3 | thousands of ballots |
| 0:38.5 | from the 2020 election that President Trump lost. What does this imply for future elections? |
| 0:44.2 | Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your day. |
| 0:52.8 | The federal government is on the brink of a partial shutdown. |
| 0:56.5 | Again. |
| 0:57.1 | The hope is that it won't last long because senators did reach a deal. |
| 1:02.0 | Democrats declined to approve funding for the Department of Homeland Security. |
| 1:05.3 | They've now agreed with President Trump on a two-week extension to allow time to negotiate reforms after |
| 1:12.2 | federal agents killed two Americans. They'll make an effort to fund other agencies as well. |
| 1:17.9 | And Pierce, Hema Bistillo, has been tracking it all. |
| 1:19.9 | Jimenez, good morning. Good morning. Okay, so what's in the deal? |
| 1:23.6 | The plan senators have would allow them to approve the five bipartisan bills that fund other agencies and take Homeland Security Department's funding part out and essentially temporarily strip it out. |
| 1:36.9 | It would give them two weeks to keep negotiating just that part. |
| 1:42.2 | However, the way Congress works is that if one chamber makes any change, |
... |
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