No set end date for immigration crackdown in Minnesota, says Border Patrol leader

Federal agents have no plans to end the surge of immigration enforcement in Minnesota, U.S. Border Patrol Cmdr. Greg Bovino said at a news conference.

Asked whether agents had a targeted end date or arrest quota for Operation Metro Surge, the name given to the Trump administration’s crackdown in Minnesota, Bovino said the operation would continue “until there are no more of those criminal illegal aliens roaming the streets of Minneapolis.”

“There is a number,” Bovino said on Jan. 22. “It’s called all of them.”

Bovino said he was “vastly more” worried about U.S. citizens who were victims of crimes committed by undocumented immigrants.

“We’re going to make Ma and Pa America safe,” Bovino said.

Bovino spoke at his second Twin Cities news conference of the week, applauding the efforts of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol and condemning protesters and observers, which he referred to as “violent mobs,” “agitators” and “anarchists.”

For weeks, Minnesota has been the epicenter of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, with thousands of federal agents on the ground in Minneapolis.

Because of protests, Bovino said Minnesota’s climate is “not very favorable to federal law enforcement.” Bovino, who has become the public face of the ICE crackdown in Minnesota, was seen on video throwing a smoke cannister into a crowd at a park in Minneapolis on Jan. 21.

That encounter — and another where agents held a person down and sprayed a chemical irritant directly into their face — came just after a federal appeals court undid a lower court order that had limited immigration agents’ ability to use force against protesters and observers.

Bovino claimed agents are being “violently assaulted by agitators and anarchists” and called encounters with protesters and bystanders a “great use of force.”

“Whether or not that ruling was in effect, we still did that yesterday,” Bovino said.

Bovino blamed Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, saying their criticisms of the operation “vilifies law enforcement and creates very unsafe situations.”

He said federal agents were stalked for much of the day Jan. 21 and called Minneapolis police, who he said did not respond. The Minneapolis Police Department didn’t immediately return an email seeking comment.

In an address on Jan. 14, Walz criticized ICE’s tactics and called on the Trump administration to “end this occupation.” He applauded Minnesotans for distributing supplies and caring for their neighbors.

“We’re an island of decency in a country being driven toward cruelty,” Walz said. “We will remain an island of decency, of justice, of community, of peace.”

He said the immigration surge isn’t really about immigration, calling it a “campaign of organized brutality against the people of Minnesota by our own federal government.”

A spokesperson said the city doesn’t participate in federal immigration enforcement “so that our resources can keep focused on protecting public safety for everyone.”

Marcos Charles, executive associate director of enforcement and removal operations for ICE, said federal agents had arrested more than 10,000 undocumented people in the last year, including 3,300 since Operation Metro Surge began in late November. He listed several individuals federal authorities say they’ve arrested in recent days with criminal records.

Charles urged Walz and Frey to work with ICE, though he acknowledged the Minnesota Department of Corrections honors immigration detainers.

“ICE is only in this state to pick up the ball that local leadership has dropped,” Charles said.

Charles also responded to questions about an internal memo obtained by the Associated Press telling agents they can force their way into homes without a signed judicial warrant for an individual’s arrest. The memo says officers can enter a residence with an administrative warrant.

ICE agents burst into the home of ChongLy Scott Thao of St. Paul, a U.S. citizen with no known criminal record on Jan. 18, leading him out wearing only his boxers and a blanket despite the frigid weather.