Tom Homan, President Donald Trump‘s border czar, announced on Wednesday that 700 federal law enforcement agents will leave Minnesota “effective immediately” as part of an eventual drawdown of the Trump administration’s surge in ICE operations that have left two U.S. citizens dead, causing outrage and protests.
Homan characterized the pullout as “smart law enforcement, not less law enforcement” and said it followed meetings with state and local officials, including Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. He said the Democratic leaders agreed to increase “coordination in a lawful way between the county jails and ICE to avoid public safety threats being released back in the community.”
“It’s safer for the community, safer for the officers, and safer for the alien. This coordination also makes it far more safe for the Twin Cities,” Homan said at a news conference in Minneapolis.
The Trump official said that the federal government’s goal is a “complete drawdown” and to “end this surge as soon as we can.”
Wednesday’s announcement comes after the Trump administration’s ICE operation in Minnesota, dubbed Operation Metro Surge, deployed 3,000 federal officers, including ICE and Border Patrol agents, to the Twin Cities. For months, residents in the St. Paul-Minneapolis community say they had been terrorized and brutalized by federal agents executing President Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement.
Chaos on the ground reached a fever pitch after the January fatal shootings of 37-year-olds Renee Good and Alex Pretti, who were citizens trying to protect individuals being apprehended by agents. The administration also took heat after the detainment of 5-year-old Liam Ramos and his father, who were sent to a Texas detention facility before a judge ordered their release on Sunday.
While the Trump administration was initially unapologetic and defended the fatal shootings, White House officials softened their tone amid political blowback, including from members of their own party, and public polling showing a majority of Americans were critical of the government’s tactics.
The change of course by the Trump administration could also be credited to the unrelenting protests in Minneapolis, which at one point drew tens of thousands of demonstrators to the streets demanding that ICE leave the city.
Rod Adams, executive director and founder of racial justice advocacy group New Justice Project in Minnesota, told theGrio that the partial retreat of ICE and DHS was “not a victory.” The community leader said the initial surge of federal agents to Minneapolis was a “reckless decision.”
“Removing 700 agents doesn’t erase the harm that has been done. Three thousand federal agents never should have been deployed to Minnesota in the first place,” he said. “This ill-planned and ill-executed surge didn’t make our communities safer; instead, it traumatized families, destabilized our neighborhoods, and treated our state like a testing ground for Trump’s fear-based politics.”
“Scaling down an operation that was wrong from the start is not something to celebrate; it’s the bare minimum of accountability,” Adams added. “Until ICE is no longer used as a political weapon against immigrants anywhere, our work isn’t done.”
Despite the administration’s drawdown, Homan refused to acknowledge the excessive force and violence of federal agents. He instead pointed the finger at the community.
“We want to get back to the normal operational footprint here. But that depends on the people out there putting up illegal roadblocks. That depends on people that want to intimidate and interfere and put hands on ICE officers,” said the Trump official. “Tone down the rhetoric. Stop violating the law and impeding and interfering with us and they’ll draw down be quicker.”
