Running away

Homan announces end to Minnesota immigration enforcement surge

A “significant drawdown” in federal immigration agents is already underway, Border Czar Tom Homan told reporters, and will continue into the next week.

By Gregory Svirnovskiy and Eric Bazail-Eimil

The Trump administration’s massive immigration enforcement surge throughout Minnesota is coming to a close, White House Border Czar Tom Homan said during a press conference on Thursday.

“I have proposed, and President Trump has concurred, that this surge operation conclude,” Homan said, citing arrests of “public safety threats” in coordination with state officials.

A “significant drawdown” in federal immigration agents is already underway, Homan said, and will continue into the next week. But Homan has directed certain officers to remain in strategic areas throughout the state to coordinate with local sheriffs on more arrests.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey celebrated the pullback in a post on X.

“They thought they could break us, but a love for our neighbors and a resolve to endure can outlast an occupation,” he wrote. “These patriots of Minneapolis are showing that it’s not just about resistance — standing with our neighbors is deeply American.”

The White House has diminished its presence in Minneapolis amid public outcry after two federal agents shot and killed 37-year-old Alex Pretti, a local nurse, during a protest in January.

Protests raged after video surfaced that showed Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino had mischaracterized how the shooting unfolded after first describing Pretti as a would-be domestic terrorist. And the administration took heat from a surprising source, gun rights groups furious at the assertion that Pretti’s conceal-carry status contributed to his killing.

The agents were placed on administrative leave. Bovino was removed from his post overseeing the state operation. And just last week, Homan announced the White House would shrink the number of immigration officers in the state by 25 percent.

“Minnesotans stood together, stared down ICE, and never blinked,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who announced her run for governor of the state in January, wrote on X Thursday.

Homan characterized the White House pullback as evidence that the president had succeeded in his efforts to fight crime and remove violent undocumented people from the state.

And he praised Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, both Democrats, for their collaboration with federal authorities in recent weeks, and for using rhetoric that he said helped de-escalate the chaotic clashes between law enforcement and protesters.

Walz’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the end of the surge.

“We’ve seen a big change here in the last couple of weeks,” Homan said. “And it’s all good changes.”

Homan’s Thursday press conference was a major departure from the administration’s longstanding approach to the violence in Minnesota. In the wake of Pretti’s slaying and law enforcement’s earlier killing of Renee Good, another protester, White House officials blamed Democrats for the escalating violence and heaped pressure on Frey and Walz to stop “spreading lies.” The Department of Justice subpoenaed Walz, Frey and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison in January amid a federal investigation into the state’s response to the heightened immigration enforcement.

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the status of the probe in light of the Minnesota operation’s conclusion.

“This tragedy occurred as a result of a deliberate and hostile resistance by Democrat leaders in Minnesota,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters after Pretti’s death.

Meanwhile in Washington, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and Minnesota corrections chief Paul Schnell defended the state’s practices broadly in testimony to the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee. The two officials both rejected claims that the state wasn’t already cooperating with the federal government on immigration enforcement.

“Minnesota honors immigration detainers and has coordinated with federal authorities for many years. Any suggestion that we refuse to cooperate or harbor non-citizens is baseless,” Schnell said.

Schnell also said that the White House’s move to dispatch Homan to Minneapolis was a “positive” move, though he cautioned that issues with coordination between federal and state officials remain.

“Information sharing remains an issue,” Schnell said.

Ellison, for his part, insisted that Minnesota law does not bar local and state law enforcement from cooperating with ICE when there are final orders of removals filed against unauthorized immigrants. He also clarified that local jurisdictions can enter what are called “Section 287(g) agreements” with ICE that mean that unauthorized immigrants police apprehend are immediately turned over to ICE.

“We’re not saying that people can’t do ‘287(g) agreements.’ We’re saying that there is a procedure that they have to follow that involves engaging with their county board. That’s all,” Ellison said.