Since taking over the Minnesota operation in late January, Tom Homan has linked changes to the size of the federal force to the level of cooperation he said state and local officials have provided. On Wednesday, he said the Trump administration is reducing the number of immigration officers in Minnesota by pulling out about 700, while continuing the enforcement operation that has become a flashpoint in the broader debate over President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts. Homan spoke as the campaign drew weeks of tensions involving residents and heavily armed federal officers, including deadly shootings involving Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.
Homan said the immediate drawdown would remove roughly a quarter of the officers previously deployed to Minnesota. He said the reduction followed an agreement reached during the past week in which state and local officials would cooperate by turning over arrested immigrants. He did not lay out a timeline for when the administration might end the operation altogether, and he said about 2,000 officers would remain in the state after the drawdown.
Homan said the administration’s decision reflects a shift in how the operation can be carried out, pointing to cooperation that he described as “unprecedented collaboration” and concluding that fewer public safety officers were then needed in Minnesota. He said he believes the ICE effort in Minnesota has been effective as far as public safety goes, but he also said it was “not” a perfect operation. In the same remarks, he said the administration is not backing down from the broader mission, saying it is not surrendering the “president’s mission on a mass deportation operation,” and that protesters were “irritating your community” rather than stopping ICE or Border Patrol.
Homan framed a larger or more widespread reduction as conditional. He said a broad pullout would occur only after there is more cooperation and protesters stop interfering with federal agents carrying out arrests. Trump’s border czar also said the operation’s drawdown depends on coordination with state and local detention practices, including cooperation on alerting ICE about inmates who could be deported.
In describing what drives cooperation, Homan pointed to a longstanding dispute in which the Trump administration has complained that some local governments limit law enforcement cooperation with the department by limiting compliance often described as “sanctuary jurisdiction” policies. Minnesota officials said many of the state’s prisons and nearly all county sheriffs already cooperate with immigration authorities, while questions have centered on detention facilities that take in the largest numbers of inmates for Minneapolis and St. Paul.
The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, which serves Minneapolis and nearby suburbs, said its policies have not changed, and the county attorney, Mary Moriarty, said the jail provides ICE with legally required information. Moriarty said handing over someone before they are convicted “strips our community of the accountability it deserves and harms victims by robbing them of a court process.” The Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office in St. Paul did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
Democratic leaders who have criticized the federal surge in Minnesota said Wednesday that the drawdown should be faster and larger. Walz posted that pulling back 700 officers was a good first step but that the entire operation should end quickly, and he said the response should include state-led investigations into the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, along with an end to what he called a “campaign of retribution.” Frey, also a Democrat, joined the criticism while urging an end to the operation.
Vice President JD Vance said in an interview on “The Megyn Kelly Show” that the officers being sent home were mainly in Minneapolis to protect those carrying out arrests, and he said “We’re not drawing down the immigration enforcement.” Earlier, Trump told NBC News that he ordered the reduction and said one lesson from the turmoil was “maybe we can use a little bit of a softer touch. But you still have to be tough.”
Legal action also moved forward in Minnesota as two school districts and a teachers union filed a lawsuit Wednesday seeking to block federal immigration authorities from conducting enforcement at or around schools. The lawsuit said the actions have disrupted classes, endangered students, and reduced attendance, and it argued that an operation called Operation Metro Surge marked a shift in policy that removed limits on enforcement in “sensitive locations,” including schools. Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in response that “ICE is not going to schools to arrest children — we are protecting children.”