The White House border coordinator, Tom Homan, said on Sunday, the 15th, that about 1,000 immigration agents have already left the Twin Cities region in Minnesota, and that hundreds more are expected to depart in the coming days, as part of the reduction of the Trump administration’s enhanced immigration enforcement operation.
The border czar, Homan, stated in an interview on CBS’s Face the Nation that a “small” security force will remain for a limited period to protect the agents who remain in the state and to act in risky situations, when “agents are surrounded by agitators and things get out of control.”
He did not detail the size of this contingent. According to the aide, the agents will also continue investigating fraud allegations and the protest against the immigration operation that interrupted a religious service at a church. “We have already removed well over 1,000 people, and between Monday and Tuesday, we will remove several hundred more,” said Homan. “We will return to the original size of the force.”
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Thousands of agents were dispatched to the Minneapolis and St. Paul areas in the “Metro Surge Operation,” conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) classified the action as the largest immigration enforcement operation ever conducted and said it was successful. The hardening, however, has drawn criticism as the climate grew tenser and two American citizens were killed.
Protests became frequent, and a network of residents organized to support immigrants, alert about the presence of agents, and film the enforcement actions. The deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, shot by federal officers, drew public condemnations and questions about the conduct of the agents, leading to changes in the operation.
Homan had announced last week that 700 federal officers would leave the state immediately, but more than 2,000 agents remained in Minnesota. On Thursday, he stated that a “significant” reduction of personnel was already under way and would continue throughout this week.
The aide said that enforcement would not be interrupted and that large-scale deportation operations would continue to be carried out in other parts of the country. The agents leaving Minnesota should return to their home bases or be relocated to other areas.
When asked whether future operations could have the same scale as the action in the Twin Cities, Homan replied that it “depends on the situation.”
