Trump Admin Ending Immigration Surge In MN As Local Leaders Focus On Recovery
The Trump administration is ending its immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, Border Czar Tom Homan announced Thursday morning. Homan said local immigration enforcement will continue, but that most federal agents will be leaving in the next two weeks.
In Minnesota, local leaders are saying it is now time to focus on recovery. Gov. Tim Walz (D) responded that the state is “cautiously optimistic” and now focused on accountability, after the deployment led to two fatal shootings and sparked significant backlash. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D) said, "This operation has been catastrophic for our neighbors and businesses, and now it's time for a great comeback."
INSIDE THE OPERATION
DHS says “Operation Metro Surge” led to more than 4,000 undocumented migrants arrested, including some with violent criminal histories. Since the immigration crackdown began late last year, about 3,000 federal officers were sent to the state. By comparison, Minneapolis has only about 600 police officers in a city of roughly 430,000 people.
REWIND: Homan, who has already pulled hundreds of federal agents from the state, said Trump agreed to end the surge.
Homan was sent to Minneapolis after the killing of two Americans by federal immigration officers: Alex Pretti in late January and Renée Good weeks earlier. Both were protesting agents' actions.
Walz said the surge left “deep damage” and “generational trauma” in the community. He also raised questions about investigations into the deaths of Good and Pretti, and asked for additional information on detained children.
UNACCOMPANIED, UNDOCUMENTED CHILDREN
Homan also said Thursday that ICE agents located nearly 3,400 “missing, unaccompanied alien children” during the operation in Minnesota, which he accused the Biden administration of losing track of after they crossed the border alone.
The nonprofit National Immigration Forum called this categorization inaccurate, saying children who arrive in the U.S. without a parent or guardian are processed and placed with sponsors — usually family members — while they await court hearings. It added that the claim that these children are unaccounted for is based on their failure to appear at immigration hearings, which “is a valid basis of concern” but does not mean they are missing.
A 2024 audit by DHS’s internal watchdog found that ICE struggled to monitor the whereabouts of about 30,000 children who came to the country illegally from 2019 and 2023.
Mo News reached out to DHS, but we haven’t heard back yet.
Big picture: The federal crackdown in Minnesota drew widespread protest and scrutiny — including over aggressive tactics and mass arrests.
About six in 10 Americans believe Trump has “gone too far” by sending the federal agents into American cities, according to a new AP-NORC poll.