White House border czar Tom Homan declared a victory of sorts in Minneapolis, saying the feds are now receiving “unprecedented cooperation” from local communities and the Department of Homeland Security will remove 700 officers from the state.
He said about 2,000 will remain.
The government also announced that the 2-month-old operation had resulted in 4,000 arrests.
Mr. Homan said the drawdown, which he teased last week, was made possible by the increased cooperation.
“This is smarter enforcement, not less enforcement,” Mr. Homan said.
He said his goal is for a “complete drawdown,” but that’s contingent on the demonstrators who have been violently clashing with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection officers.
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He said it’s not the retreat some have suggested.
“We are not surrendering the president’s mission on a mass deportation operation. If you’re in the country illegally, if we find you, we’ll deport you,” he said.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, said the feds need to go further.
“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,” he said on social media.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey was similarly unimpressed. He said 2,000 officers still in place “is not de-escalation.”
“Operation Metro Surge needs to end,” he said.
President Trump, speaking to NBC News, said the government has “to be tough,” though he added that he learned lessons from how the Minnesota operation has played out.
“Maybe we could use a little bit of a softer touch,” he said.
Mr. Homan said the federal government has had to keep a large contingent of personnel in Minnesota just to protect other officers from hostility in the community, which he blamed on overheated rhetoric from the state’s politicians.
He was particularly troubled by roadblocks that protesters set up in the streets this week to try to hinder ICE deportation efforts.
“Stop impeding, stop interfering,” he said during a press conference in Minneapolis.
Mr. Homan said the idea to deploy body-worn cameras to all Homeland Security Department personnel taking part in Operation Metro Surge grew out of his conversations with those on the ground.
Some officers did have cameras, and others didn’t. He said that “inconsistency was unacceptable.”
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Monday that the cameras will be rushed to the state, with a goal of a nationwide rollout later.
“We have nothing to hide,” Mr. Homan said.
Mr. Trump deployed Mr. Homan to Minnesota late last month to take over from Gregory Bovino. As Border Patrol commander-at-large, Mr. Bovino oversaw the troubled surge and two killings of U.S. citizens in confrontations with ICE and CBP personnel.
Mr. Homan quickly moved to meet with state and local officials to help calm tensions.
The result, he said, was promises of better cooperation in turning over people from state and local prisons and jails. He said that cooperation means fewer people need to enter communities to pick them up.
Fewer officers in communities also means fewer chances for rank-and-file illegal immigrants without criminal records to get snared, though Mr. Homan said they are still in the country illegally and can be arrested.
The 2,000 officers who remain are well above the usual 150 personnel based out of Minneapolis.
“The more cooperation we get, the less rhetoric and hate we see, and the less attacks means we can draw down even quicker. A lot of this has to do with the assistance from the community,” he said.
Mr. Homan said he considered the surge to be a success, though not “a perfect operation.”
The operation resulted in some 3,500 arrests as of a week ago.
The White House said Wednesday that officials had arrested “more than 4,000 dangerous criminal illegal aliens.” The Homeland Security Department later clarified that the 4,000 figure was for total illegal immigrant arrests.
Many of them don’t have any criminal record in the U.S., according to voluminous court filings detailing some of the cases.
Mr. Homan ticked off some of those arrested over the past two months: 14 with homicide convictions, 139 with assault convictions, 87 sex offenders and 28 gang members.
“We’re taking a lot of bad people off the street,” he said.
While Mr. Homan was in Minneapolis, Ms. Noem was on the other side of the country in Nogales, Arizona, taking a victory lap around the security of the U.S.-Mexico border.
She said it is “the most secure border in American history.”
The latest data showed Border Patrol agents arrested 6,073 illegal immigrants attempting to cross in January. That was down from nearly 30,000 in January 2025, most of which were under President Biden, and it was way down from the nearly 125,000 arrests in January 2024.
Measured another way, it adds up to 196 border arrests per day in January. Mr. Biden averaged more than 5,000 arrests a day and, at the worst point, more than 10,000.
Ms. Noem said January also marked the ninth straight month in which no one arrested at the border was caught and released.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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