Seven hundred federal immigration agents will leave Minneapolis, but around 2,000 will remain, border czar Tom Homan announced during a press conference Wednesday.
Homan cited meetings with Minnesota sheriffs in agreeing to the reduction in federal law enforcement in the Minneapolis area, which has been roiled by weeks of aggressive immigration enforcement operations and the killings of two U.S. citizens by federal law enforcement agents.
“We currently have an unprecedented number of counties communicating with us now and allowing ICE to take custody of illegal aliens before they hit the streets,” Homan said during his second press conference from Minneapolis since taking over “Operation Metro Surge” from Greg Bovino, the former commander-at-large for the Border Patrol.
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Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and other state and local officials have repeatedly called for the Trump administration to withdraw the thousands of federal agents from the city, with their calls to end the deportation surge gaining urgency following the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
“Today’s announcement is a step in the right direction, but we need 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,” Walz said in a Wednesday post on X following Homan’s press conference.
Frey echoed Walz’ statement, saying in a post on X that it wasn’t a de-escalation to keep 2,000 immigration agents in the city.
Homan reiterated his goal to end the deportation surge, returning the number of immigration agents in the area to around 150. He said this would only happen with cooperation of the community and local law enforcement.
“President Trump sent me here to help de-escalate what was going on,” he said. “We’re not surrendering our mission, we’re not walking away from our mission, we’re just making this more effective and more smart.”
Those departing will be a mix of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents. The law enforcement officers from the two sub-agencies under the Department of Homeland Security will also be answering to a unified chain of command — a change Homan said would improve operations, along with the use of body cameras by all agents.
“Some officers and agents had them, some didn’t,” Homan said. “That inconsistency was unacceptable, so we moved immediately to prioritize full body cam deployment in the city.”
Despite Homan’s mission to de-escalate the situation, tensions remain high, with immigration agents still drawing their guns to arrest activists following them in their cars, the Associated Press reported.
This article has been updated to include comments from Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.
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