Minnesota ICE crackdown will finish : NPR

[ad_1] <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/2407x1604+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F23%2F84%2F64ec55734b42a24e2cb53d54606f%2Fap26043511018917.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/2407x1604+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F23%2F84%2F64ec55734b42a24e2cb53d54606f%2Fap26043511018917.jpg" class="img" alt="White House border czar Tom Homan holds a news conference at the Bishop Whipple Federal building on Feb. 12, 2026 in Minneapolis." fetchpriority="high"/> White Home border czar Tom Homan holds a information convention on the Bishop Whipple Federal constructing on Feb. 12, 2026 in Minneapolis. Steve Karnowski/AP disguise caption

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Steve Karnowski/AP The Trump administration will finish the immigration enforcement crackdown in Minnesota that prompted widespread protests and claimed the lives of two U.S. residents, border czar Tom Homan introduced Thursday.

"I've proposed, and President Trump has concurred, that this surge operation conclude," Homan stated at a information convention in Minneapolis. "A big drawdown has already been underway this week and can proceed to the following week."

Homan stated the choice to finish what the administration known as "Operation Metro Surge" after two months adopted improved cooperation between federal, state and native regulation enforcement. That permits extra immigration detentions to happen at jails moderately than in operations on the road. He additionally stated native regulation enforcement businesses are responding extra rapidly and constantly to protests.

"This surge operation and our work right here with state and native officers to enhance coordination and obtain mutual targets, in addition to our efforts to handle problems with concern right here on the bottom, have yielded the profitable outcomes we have now got here right here for," Homan stated. "We're leaving Minnesota safer."

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who from the outset fiercely opposed the Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation, declared victory.

"They thought they might break us, however a love for our neighbors and a resolve to endure can outlast an occupation," Frey posted on X. "These patriots of Minneapolis are exhibiting that it isn't nearly resistance — standing with our neighbors is deeply American."

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz stated the state can now transfer ahead.

"The lengthy highway to restoration begins now," Walz posted on X after Homan's information convention. "The influence on our economic system, our colleges, and other people's lives will not be reversed in a single day. That work begins at the moment."

In a information convention Thursday morning, Walz acknowledged it would take time for a lot of Minnesota residents to really feel protected sufficient to go away their properties with out worry of apprehension by federal immigration brokers.

"It'll be an extended highway," he stated. "Our sense of normalcy was shook to the core. The trauma that is been inflicted, actually throughout an immigrant neighborhood, however to each single Minnesotan, is in contrast to something we have witnessed."

Walz stated nothing has modified about the best way Minnesota is addressing immigration enforcement. The state helps focused enforcement, he stated. When requested what has modified, Walz stated border czar Tom Homan's arrival in Minnesota final week kicked off conversations with state and native officers.

Walz criticized different Trump administration officers, together with Division of Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem and Greg Bovino, the Border Patrol commander who beforehand led operations on the bottom in Minnesota, saying that they had not engaged in talks — a transfer Walz characterised as "conceitedness."

Walz additionally stated Homan's earlier comment that the 2 leaders disagree on a number of issues was "an understatement."

The governor's tackle at the moment's announcement is that the Trump administration knew it wanted to withdraw federal brokers, significantly after the killings of Renee Macklin Good and Alex Pretti, "however in very Trumpian vogue, they wanted to avoid wasting face," Walz stated.

In January, federal immigration brokers shot and killed Pretti and Macklin Good, two U.S. residents. The Division of Justice's Civil Rights Division is investigating Pretti's loss of life however not the killing of Macklin Good.

Homan notably didn't point out the names of Pretti or Macklin Good throughout Thursday's information convention.

"I do not wish to see any extra bloodshed," he stated. "I pray each evening for the protection of our regulation enforcement personnel and the protection of these locally, whether or not you are right here legally or illegally. I do not wish to see anyone harmed. In case you break the regulation, we'll arrest you."

Earlier this week, Walz advised the tip of the crackdown was imminent, following current talks with White Home officers.

On Feb. 4, Homan introduced plans to withdraw 700 of the roughly 3,000 brokers despatched to Minnesota. Additional reductions, he stated then, could be contingent on extra cooperation from native officers. That included giving federal officers higher entry to native jails to select up undocumented folks set to be launched. In Thursday's briefing, Homan stated these agreements have been strengthened.

"Below President Trump's path, we have now obtained an unprecedented degree of coordination with regulation enforcement officers that's centered on selling public security throughout the whole state," he stated. "Whereas I do not agree with Gov. Walz and Legal professional Basic [Keith] Ellison on all the things, I respect the help the governor offers the state businesses, who coordinate with us in a fashion meant to advertise public security. And I respect the AG having an open dialogue with me."

Homan stated a "small footprint of personnel" will stay to shut out the operation and "transition full command and management again to the sector workplace." Homan will stay in Minneapolis to supervise the drawdown.

Throughout his briefing Thursday, Homan spent a number of minutes defending the work of ICE brokers and touting hundreds of arrests of undocumented folks he known as criminals. He reported a "notable lower" in exercise from what he known as illegal agitators.