Border czar Tom Homan on Sunday said a small federal force will temporarily remain in Minnesota, days after the Trump administration announced it would end its Immigration and Customs Enforcement surge in the state.
“There will be a small force, a security force … that will respond to when our agents are out, and they get surrounded by agitators and things get out of control,” Homan said during a CBS News interview.
The federal contingency will likely be removed “really fairly quickly,” he added.
Homan’s comments come after the Trump administration announced on Feb. 4 plans to withdraw 700 federal law enforcement agents deployed to Minnesota as part of “Operation Metro Surge.” On Feb. 12, Homan revealed President Donald Trump had authorized a full end to the operation, saying that ICE now holds the ability to work with county jails in Minnesota and transfer illegal immigrants in custody directly into government hands. The development appeared to remove what the Homeland Security Department believed necessitated the need for “roving patrols” in the public domain to locate illegal immigrants released from local and state jails onto the streets, due to sanctuary policies.
Homan said the small-scale “security” force left in Minnesota would seek to ensure tight cooperation between state authorities and federal agents. Around 4,000 illegal immigrants have already been detained as part of the ICE surge in the Twin Cities.
“They’ll remain for a short period of time, just to make sure the coordination, the agreements we have with local and state law enforcement, stay in place, and they respond to a public safety threat when needed. And so hopefully those security forces — security — a small footprint of security forces can remove — can be removed really fairly quickly,” he said.
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Around 3,000 federal law enforcement personnel, primarily ICE officers and Border Patrol agents, were sent to Minnesota after Operation Metro Surge began last December. Sweeping protests against the surge sparked after Renee Good and Alex Pretti were killed during ICE-related operations, sparking scrutiny about tactics deployed by federal officers.
Homan said Sunday the Trump administration has removed “well over” 1,000 federal personnel. “As of Monday, Tuesday, we’ll remove several hundred more,” he said.
