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Feb 12 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Thursday ordered U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to ensure that detainees have access to their attorneys in Minnesota, after finding that the agency had blocked thousands of people from seeing their lawyers during a recent ‌enforcement surge.

U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel, who was appointed by President Donald Trump in his first term, said ICE's practices during the ‌recent Operation Metro Surge, including a policy of quickly moving detainees out of Minnesota and depriving them of phone calls, "all but extinguish a detainee's access to counsel."

Brasel made the initial ruling in ​a class action lawsuit that was filed on behalf of detainees on January 27 and her order will remain in place for 14 days while the proceedings play out.

The court order requires the government to stop rapidly transferring detainees out of the state and to allow attorney-client visits and private phone calls between detainees and their lawyers.

A U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said detainees have access to phones that they can use to contact their families and lawyers and denied that there ‌was any "overcrowding" at the Minneapolis federal building where detainees ⁠are processed.

Democracy Forward, a nonprofit that filed the lawsuit on behalf of detainees, said that the right to a lawyer is not "optional" in the U.S.

"DHS has been detaining people in a building never meant for long-term custody, shackling them, secretly transferring ⁠them out of state and blocking access to counsel and oversight in a deliberate effort to evade accountability," Democracy Forward President Skye Perryman said in a statement.

ICE did not dispute that detainees had a constitutional right to counsel and it said it does not have a policy of preventing detainees from seeing their lawyers, according to the ​ruling. ​But in practice, it provided conditions that isolated thousands of people from their attorneys, Brasel ​said.

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The plaintiffs, who are noncitizen detainees, had provided substantial and ‌specific evidence about their detention conditions, which contradicted ICE's "threadbare" explanations of its policies and its protestations that it did not have enough resources to provide detainees with access to their lawyers, the judge found.

"Defendants allocated substantial resources to sending thousands of agents to Minnesota, detaining thousands of people and housing them in their facilities," Brasel said in her ruling. "Defendants cannot suddenly lack resources when it comes to protecting detainees' constitutional rights."

Most detainees are initially held at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis, but many are immediately transferred out of state, without notice, with no way for attorneys to contact them, according to the ‌ruling.

Detainees are sometimes moved so quickly and frequently that ICE loses track of where they ​are, the judge found.

Most detainees are provided some phone access, but that falls short of ​providing adequate legal representation, Brasel's ruling said.

ICE does not always provide the ​name or phone number of a lawyer when detainees ask and phone calls often take place in a public area ‌where ICE personnel and other detainees can listen in, according to ​the ruling.

One detainee in the lawsuit, ​a 20-year-old asylum seeker with a government-issued work permit, was sent to a detention center where ICE provided two flip phones to be shared among 72 detainees in a single holding cell, according to the court ruling. The detainees each had no more than two minutes for a ​call, it said.

The 20-year-old detainee was released after 18 ‌days in detention, despite a court order requiring his release after five days. In the meantime, he was transferred first to Texas ​and then to New Mexico before being returned to Minnesota; ICE officers never told him why he was detained or why he ​was released, according to the ruling.

(Reporting by Dietrich Knauth; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus)

Not heard at the time: the buzz of "cartel drones."

Trump administration officials and security experts say drones used by Mexican criminal organizations to smuggle drugs or surveil border security forces represent a potential security threat – one that provoked a sudden, eight-hour closure of the nearby El Paso International Airport on Feb. 10.

An administration official publicly blamed the no-fly order on a "cartel drone incursion," before competing accounts from other officials suggested border agents fired a new laser technology onwhat turned out to be a party balloon, according to multiple media reports. The FAA abruptly shut down the airport as a precaution.

Experts say it's true Mexican cartels are using drones with greater frequency and growing capabilities. The cartels are surveilling U.S. law enforcement at the border and smuggling in payloads of drugs. Inside Mexico, they've begun outfitting drones with explosives to attack rival criminal organizations and security forces.

But the last thing Mexican criminal organizations want is to attack Americans or U.S. law enforcement and provoke the wrath of the U.S. government, said Juan Camilo Jaramillo, a Colombia-based investigator for the cartel research group InSight Crime.

"That is a line they aren't going to cross," he said.

'No evidence ... of weaponized drones on the US side'

In a 2025 executive order, PresidentDonald Trumprecategorized six Mexican cartels as "Foreign Terrorist Organizations," a move that U.S. officials have claimed lends them greater authority to target the organizations with military force. Experts havequestioned the legality of that assertion.

The Department of Homeland Security has trackedtens of thousands of suspected drone sightingsin recent years, but none has yet posed a deadly threat inside U.S. territory, experts say.

The Pentagon recently supplied DHS with anti-drone laser technology, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection deployed it in El Paso on Feb. 9, people familiar with the matter told USA TODAY.

DHS didn't respond to a request for comment regarding the agency's deployment of the technology or its role in the airport closure.

Sunland Park is part of the El Paso metropolitan area, where the U.S.-Mexico border fence cuts through urban sprawl for miles, separating the city and southern New Mexico communities from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. At ports of entry, U.S. Customs and Border Protection uses thermal and other technologies to detect people trafficking drugs, includingcarrying drugs internally. But drones present new challenges.

Ina Senate hearingin July, Steven Willoughby, director of a DHS program to counter unmanned aircraft, said border agents detected more than 27,000 drones near the border, on the U.S. or Mexican sides, in the last six months of 2024. Many were flying above the legal altitude, and at night when darkness can shroud illegal activity.

As rival cartels use explosive-laden drones to attack each other, he warned lawmakers, "it is only a matter of time before Americans or law enforcement are targeted in the border region."

Jaramillo, the InSight Crime investigator, said most cartel drone capacity is basic and business-related, involving commercially available drones used to surveil smuggling routes and competitors.

Warring criminal factions are increasingly using drones to carry improvised explosive devices, he said, but their use has been concentrated in lawless regions of Mexico's interior.

Forty percent of all IED seizures in Mexico occurred near the border between Michoacán and Jalisco in the country's south, according todata obtained by InSight Crimefrom Mexico's defense department. That's where theJalisco Cartel New Generationhas battled disparate armed criminal groups for control of smuggling routes.

Mexican states such as Guerrero, Zacatecas and Sonora have seen "exponential increases" in the use of drones, as well, InSight Crime reported.

Still, "there is no evidence in the public sphere of weaponized cartel drones on the U.S. side of the border," said Austin Doctor, director of strategic initiatives at the University of Nebraska'sNational Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology and Education Center.

"They are primarily targeting either rival cartel forces, local civilian populations to motivate displacement or to attack local security forces," he said. "The question is, are we at a growing risk of that shift?"

'The threat has been neutralized'

The morning of the El Paso airport closure, on Feb. 11 at 7:37 a.m. local time, Transportation Department Secretary Sean Duffy posted on social media that the FAA and the Pentagon had "acted swiftly to address a cartel drone incursion."

"The threat has been neutralized," he wrotein a post on X, "and there is no danger to commercial travel."

Other administration officials challenged that version of events as the day progressed. Shortly after Duffy's post, a reporter asked Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo what her government knew about the so-called incursion.

She had no information, she said. "If the FAA or any other part of the U.S. government has any information, they can ask the Mexican government (about it)," she added. "We will maintain what we have always maintained: permanent communication."

U.S.-Mexico cooperation on security matters has improved dramatically under Sheinbaum Pardo, said Roberta Jacobson, a former U.S. ambassador to Mexico and co-founder of consultancyDinámica Americas. That includes partnering on extraditions, intelligence-sharing and joint surveillance, she said.

Over the last year, Sheinbaum Pardo has faced perilous political obstacles in her country's relationship with its powerful northern neighbor. But every time Trump takes to social media, angered by drug trafficking – or drone incursions, Sheinbaum Pardo has deftly reminded him of their working partnership, Jacobson said.

The two leadersspoke in January. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Mexican counterpart followed up days later, and a "ministerial security" meeting was planned for February.

"Maybe ironically, maybe not, it has always seemed to me that the best cooperation occurs behind the scenes without much fanfare," Jacobson said. "It comes from the unglamourous and behind-the-scenes sharing of information that happens behind the scenes."

Lauren Villagran covers immigration and the border for USA TODAY and can be reached at lvillagran@usatoday.com.

Cybele Mayes-Osterman covers national security.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:CBP may have downed a balloon with a laser. Is a 'cartel drone' next?

Elden Law Firm confirmed to CNN on Thursday that Jagland is "charged with aggravated corruption," adding that he "denies all charges."

Økokrim, Norway's investigative agency for economic and environmental crime, said it will now question Jagland as part of its ongoing investigation.

The agency's director, Pål Lønseth, said searches were carried out Jagland's residence in Oslo on Thursday, as well as at two other properties. "Økokrim cannot comment on any potential seizures. The investigation will now take its course," he said in a statement.

It comes as Norway's royal familybattles scandals on multiple fronts, with charities this week moving to cut or review ties to the crown princess due to her past contact with Epstein, who died in 2019.

Last week, Økokrim said Jagland was under investigation "on suspicion of aggravated corruption" based on information in the latest batch of Epstein documents released by the US Justice Department.

Investigators said they were looking into "whether gifts, travel and loans were received in connection with his position." Jagland – who was prime minister from 1996 to 1997, as well as serving as foreign minister and secretary-general of the Council of Europe – has denied any wrongdoing related to Epstein.

Earlier Thursday, Jagland's lawyer said the searches carried out at the former prime minister's "home and leisure properties" are "a normal part of an investigation of this type."

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"As an automatic consequence of the search, Jagland now has formal status as a suspect," his lawyer Anders Brosveet said in a statement.

"Jagland wants to contribute to the case being thoroughly investigated, and the next step is that he will appear for questioning at Økokrim."

The newly released Epstein files also revealed extensive correspondence between Norway's Crown Princess Mette-Marit and Epstein – something the princess has since expressed regret over – years after the financier pleaded guilty to soliciting sex from a minor.

Last week, Norway's royal house said Mette-Marit "strongly disavows Epstein's abuse and criminal acts" and is sorry for "not having understood early enough what kind of person he was."

The controversy has sparked an open public discussion in Norway about whether Mette-Marit should become queen, experts say.

It also raises uncomfortable questions about her position within the royal clan, particularly given the advanced age of King Harald V, who at 88 is Europe's oldest monarch.

Harald's physical health hasdeteriorated in recent years, requiring his son, the Crown Prince Haakon, to act as regent on occasion.

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The Ole Miss quarterback was granted an injunction in Mississippi state court on Thursday that allows him to play for the Rebels in 2026. Chambliss, who transferred from Ferris State, had argued that he should have received a medical redshirt in 2022 while he was playing for the Bulldogs and dealing with health issues before his tonsils were removed in 2024. Chambliss redshirted in 2021 while he was at Ferris State and didn't appear in a game in 2022.

The injunction from Judge Robert Whitwell came afterthe NCAA twice denied Chambliss' requestfor a sixth year of eligibility. In January, the governing body denied his request for a waiver and then subsequently denied his appeal. During the hearing Thursday, news emerged that the NCAA had denied Chambliss' request to reconsider its decision.

Whitwell noted before he issued the injunction that the NCAA's lawyers had left the courtroom and were not present at the time of his ruling Thursday afternoon. Whitwell talked for over an hour before issuing his ruling, and it was obvious over the course of his remarks that he was going to rule in Chambliss' favor as he noted that the NCAA had operated "in bad faith" and that it disregarded Chambliss' medical issues in refusing to grant him the waiver.

Whitwell also made clear that he was not ruling that the NCAA's rules were illegal or making a larger example of the NCAA's eligibility system.

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Chambliss, 23, was one of college football's breakout stars in 2025. After relieving an injured Austin Simmons in Ole Miss' second game of the season, Chambliss totaled 30 touchdowns and threw just three interceptions as the Rebels made it to the semifinals of the College Football Playoff before losing to Miami in the Fiesta Bowl.

Chambliss' performance in the quarterfinals against Georgia was a game that will live forever in Ole Miss lore. He was 30-of-46 passing for 362 yards and two scores as the Rebels outscored the Bulldogs 27-13 in the second half for a 39-34 Sugar Bowl win.

His return to Ole Miss is a huge boost for the Rebels as they look to get back to the College Football Playoff under new coach Pete Golding. The former Ole Miss defensive coordinator became the team's head coach ahead of the playoff in December as Lane Kiffin decided to leave Ole Miss for the open job at LSU.

To say that having Chambliss back for a second season in Oxford is massive may be an understatement. Simmons transferred after the season to Missouri and, had Chambliss not come back, Auburn transfer Deuce Knight would have been the prohibitive favorite to start for the Rebels.

Chambliss will likely be one of the favorites to win the Heisman Trophy ahead of the 2026 season even with Kiffin and former offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. now at LSU. Ole Miss added the No. 18 transfer class in the country this offseason, according to On3, and signed Michigan State RB Makhi Frazier and(controversially) Clemson LB Luke Ferrelliamong others.

With Chambliss now set to play for the Rebels next season, there's still one more eligibility case among starting quarterbacks in the SEC remaining. Tennessee QB Joey Aguilarhas received a temporary restraining orderin his efforts to play for a seventh season of college football, with a hearing set for Friday over a possible injunction that would clear the way for him to play next season.

Fauria, a two-time Super Bowl champion, also wanted to make it clear his publiccritique of Deion Sandershad "nothing to do" with his son Caleb, who was on the Colorado team when Sanders was hired in December 2022 but then left the team in 2023 before transferring to Delaware.

Fauria had ripped Sandersduring a podcastwith host Zach Gelb on Tuesday, Feb. 10, saying Sanders is not "very bright" and that "brainwashed" people support him "regardless of how stupid he is sometimes."

Oops:Why Devin Hester's help was among two Colorado NCAA violations

USA TODAY Sports followed up on those remarks with Fauria, who played at Colorado from 1990 to 1994 before moving on to the NFL, where he won two Super Bowls with the New England Patriots.

"I don't want Colorado to fail — I want them to succeed!" Fauria said in an email. "But I find the head coach's priorities off-putting. I officially tapped out in April 2025, when athletic director Rick George allowed the University of Colorado to retire Shedeur Sanders' No. 2 jersey."

2003: Deion Sanders and family celebrate Kids Day at the New York Knicks vs. New Orleans Hornets NBA game at Madison Square Garden in New York, on Nov. 29, 2003.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> 2000: Washington's Deion Sanders jukes the Detroit Lions' Brock Olivo at the Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan, on Sept. 10, 2000.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> 1997: Deion Sanders at the plate for the Cincinnati Reds during the 1997 season. The Reds were among four different MLB teams that Sanders played for during a nine-season career.

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See Deion Sanders' 'Prime Time' career in football, baseball and coaching

The jersey retirement beef at Colorado

This is a sore subject for many former Colorado players, particularly those who played at Colorado around the time the Buffaloes won the1990 national championship. USA TODAY Sports previously reportedColorado went against previous standards for lifetime player honorslast year when itretired the jersey numbersof Shedeur Sanders and Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter. Colorado hasn't even retired the jersey number of Darian Hagan, who led the Buffaloes to three straight Big Eight titles and the national championship with a 28-5-2 record as quarterback. Shedeur Sanders' starting record was 13-11 with no championships or bowl games victories, including 9-4 in 2024.

Hagan even told USA TODAY Sports last year he was"flabbergasted" by the decision, which the school said was made at the discretion of the athletic department administration and head coach. Before last year, Colorado had only retired four football jersey numbers in school history.

"Believe me, I can root for Shedeur as a player while still calling his jersey retirement what it was: a vanity project driven by his father," Fauria told USA TODAY Sports. "It's this strange, twisted loyalty from Sanders die-hards — now spilling over into the NFL — that I want no part of. So I hold my nose and move on."

Fauria clarifies some criticism about Deion Sanders

In the podcast, Fauria said he wasn't a fan of Sanders' coaching style or messaging. He also said he wasn't very smart. USA TODAY Sports asked him to clarify.

(USA TODAY Sports also reached out to Colorado to see if Sanders or the university wanted to respond. Colorado declined comment.)

Fauria said Sanders' messaging is "confusing and contradictory."

"It flips as fast as the weather at the base of the Flatirons," Fauria told USA TODAY Sports. "One minute it's all empowerment, family and toughness; the next it's excuses, deflections, or bizarre postgame word salads that leave you scratching your head. What boggles my mind most is how reporters rarely challenge him onlate-game managementor coaching decisions."

Criticism of Deion Sanders unfairly labeled as hate

Fauria said Sanders and some of his followers have "thin skin," where any criticism is considered "hate" even if it's valid and constructive. Sanders' three-year record is 16-21, including 3-9 in 2025.

"What I find comical is that any criticism of Deion Sanders gets labeled as 'hate,'" Fauria told USA TODAY Sports. "Apparently, only blind loyalty is acceptable — no matter how self-serving or self-promoting his personality comes across. Those traits are ones I personally don't value and never will.  Ask anyone who knows me or anyone I played with at any level."

Does issue with Deion Sanders involve Fauria's son?

Some questioned whether Fauria's criticism had something to do with the fact his son left the team under Sanders. Fauria said that's not true.

"He loved it there and his teammates," Fauria said ofhis son Caleb. "That angle is fabricated and used to create a narrative that isn't true. Responding to those comments is just a waste of my time and energy."

Fauria's remarks also aren't isolated among former Colorado players. They want the program to succeed but have questioned Sanders'roster-building strategy, hisclock management in gamesand his perceived lack of care for Colorado history and tradition, such as not having his team learn the fight song.

Former Colorado lineman Matt McChesney talked about it Feb. 12 onhis own podcast"Zero 2 Sixty." McChesney questioned the need to attack Sanders' intelligence but otherwise supported Fauria.

"I'm glad that Christian's saying some of the stuff he's saying," McChesney said. "I can't sit here and disagree with him, honestly."

Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer@Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Why Deion Sanders was slammed by ex-Colorado star Christian Fauria