From ABC News, I'm Dave Packer, a monster storm about to sweep its way across much of the U.S.

More than half of the country on alert for heavy snow, crippling ice, and brutal wind.

States of emergency already in place, the winter weather maps showing watches and warning stretching from Montana to Maine and from New Mexico to the Carolinas.

ABC News meteorologist Melissa Griffin.

Here in the Southern Plains, we're going to see these icy conditions and the snow developed Saturday.

Saturday morning, it starts to stretch across the mid-south, places like Dallas, back through Memphis and Nashville,

all dealing with that snow and ice.

That ice stretching from Austin, Texas, all the way to Memphis,

and then back to the Carolinas as well, Charlotte up through Raleigh,

experiencing those icy conditions with heavy snow to just to the north of that ice.

And on Sunday, 6 to 12 inches of snow from the deep south all the way up to New England.

Vice President J.D. Vance making a stop in Minneapolis today,

meeting with ICE agents.

This comes amid scrutiny of the detention of a five-year-old boy and his father by federal

agents after arriving home from preschool. The vice president saying this when asked about the five-year-old taken by ice.

What are they supposed to do? Are they supposed to let a five-year-old child freeze to death?

Are they not supposed to arrest an illegal alien in the United States of America? If the argument

is that you can't arrest people who have violated laws because they have children, then every single

parent is going to be completely given immunity from ever being the subject of law enforcement.

That doesn't make any sense. No one thinks that makes any sense.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frye countering.

What we are seeing is this is more about political retaliation.

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