White House border czar Tom Homan said Wednesday that effective immediately the federal government is withdrawing 700 federal law enforcement personnel from Minnesota.
That will leave the number of agents in the state at about 2,000, he said — still a far cry from the 150 agents who are permanently stationed in Minnesota to carry out immigration enforcement.
Homan said his goal is to reduce the footprint back to that 150 number and said it will happen once residents of Minnesota stop “impeding” Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection agents from doing their job.
“Protest, but stop impeding,” Homan said. “Because we will arrest you.”
Homan said the reduction comes in the wake of “significant progress” in cooperation between state and federal officials — including an “unprecedented” number of counties that are cooperating with the federal government to coordinate the transfer of immigration targets to federal officers from county jails.
The Minnesota Star Tribune reported on Feb. 3 that Homan and James Stuart, the executive director of the Minnesota Sheriffs’ Association, have been negotiating a deal for county jails to cooperate with federal immigration officials.
Homan said that the “goal is to achieve a complete drawdown and end this surge, as soon as we can.”
He said that conversations with officials ranging from Gov. Tim Walz to county sheriffs across the state have left him “amazed at the cooperation and agreements we have already talked about and the willingness to work with us.” But he added that drawdown will be tied to an end to civil disruption and “hostile incidents” involving anti-ICE activists. Homan pointed to roadblocks that were constructed this week in Minneapolis as part of the problem.
