Good morning. Nothing like caucuses to put a spell on you, apparently. Read on for an explanation.

White House border czar Tom Homan announced yesterday that the federal government would scale back its immigration enforcement presence a bit but there will still be a rather large contingent in Minnesota. Homan said it follows unprecedented cooperation with county sheriffs. Homan said he would immediately withdraw 700 agents from the state, bringing the current number on the ground closer to 2,000. Typically the number of immigration enforcement agents in Minnesota is closer to 150. Homan said he was having constructive talks with Gov. Tim Walz, Attorney Ellison Keith Ellison and county law enforcement officials. Homan said federal agents are focused on “targeted” enforcement operations in Minnesota — though he said agents are ready to detain anyone in the country unlawfully and didn’t set a clear timeline for withdrawing additional agents from the state. “This is smarter enforcement, not less enforcement,” he said. “For those who are not a national security threat or public safety risk, you are not exempt from immigration enforcement actions. If you’re in the country illegally, you are not off the table.” He also urged Minnesotans not to impede federal agents’ work.

Minnesota leaders said the scale back was a good first step but wasn’t sufficient to quell tensions in the state. In a social media post, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said that “2,000 ICE officers still here is not de-escalation.” Gov. Tim Walz called for “a faster and larger drawdown of forces, state-led investigations into the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, and an end to this campaign of retribution.” A coalition of Minnesota faith, labor and other community groups opposed to the federal operation called Homan’s announcement a “political stunt,” saying that “there are still thousands of masked, unaccountable agents terrorizing our communities, attacking peaceful observers, and undermining Minnesotans’ constitutional and civil rights.” “This sudden shift in language is not accidental. It comes as federal agencies face budget negotiations and mounting public scrutiny,” the members of the ICE Out of Minnesota Coalition said in a statement. “Rebranding mass enforcement as ‘prioritized’ enforcement is an attempt to preserve funding, not to protect communities.”

Clear winners emerged yesterday in the precinct caucus straw polls for governor. House Speaker Lisa Demuth came away with about a third of the vote in the crowded GOP race, with businessman Kendall Qualls and MyPillow owner Mike Lindell rounding out the top three among nearly 18,000 votes. Eight other candidates received lower vote totals than those who voted undecided in the race. The result could narrow the field heading into endorsing conventions in May. On the DFL side, U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar picked up 79 percent of the vote, with 84 percent of precincts reporting. Another 16 percent voted uncommitted, and the remainder backed other candidates or abstained from voting. The result makes Klobuchar the party’s frontrunner and likely nominee by virtue of having no big-name opposition. The DFL says it had more than 30,000 attendees, which is right up there for nonpresidential years

The results led to an early round of shadow boxing over the two frontrunners. DFL Party Chair Richard Carlbom went at Lisa Demuth early Wednesday, saying “Demuth has chosen Trump over our state, and Minnesotans won’t forget” and said she has “fully embraced the most destructive Trump policies, from the tariffs that have devastated Minnesota’s working families to Operation Metro Surge.” In a statement of her own, Demuth clapped back at Democrats. “With more cash on hand than any candidate in the race, we are ready to win the endorsement and beat Amy Klobuchar this November,” Demuth said.

Meanwhile, in a caucus story none of us had on our bingo cards: a GOP caucus goer in Dilworth heckled those reading out straw poll results then hexed the people in the meeting. Our colleague with the infectiously positive personality, Tadeo Ruiz Sandoval, was on the ground for the caucus meeting . He reports that a person with a beard laughed loudly as the caucus organizers read that Mike Lindell picked up 23 votes in the straw poll at Dilworth Elementary School. The person was escorted out but not before accusing the Republican voters of killing Renee Macklin Good and Alex Pretti, two Minnesotans killed in Minneapolis while observing immigration enforcement actions. The individual claimed to be a witch and said they planned to hex the group. Following the person’s departure, the GOP voters prayed to cancel the hex. Caucus leaders said they hadn’t dealt with a heckler before. Will the hex work? Did the prayer effectively cancel it? Stay tuned to the year 2026 for details.

A U.S. Senate committee took on the issue of fraud in Minnesota on Wednesday, hearing from state Rep. Kristin Robbins. A subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing titled “Somali Fraud in Minnesota: The Tip of the Iceberg,” in which they heard from Robbins; David Hoch; who took part in a widely shared and loosely grounded video on the fraud scandal in the state; and Robert Weisman, the president of Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy organization. Robbins, the chair of the Minnesota House committee investigating fraud and a candidate for governor, said there are three key ways to stop fraud from happening: culture change, strong internal controls and ferreting out the truth. “We need your help to have more audits of these programs and to enforce current laws that require states to pay back in one year if there has been found fraud or overpayment,” she said. It was Robbins’ second appearance in front of a congressional committee on the issue. She testified to a House committee last month. The questions and comments on the issue broke similarly across party lines — with Democrats on the committee focusing on the ongoing ICE operation in Minnesota and pardons by President Trump of fraudsters, and Republicans on the committee pointing the finger at Minnesota Democrats for not doing enough to stop fraud from happening in the first place.