What we know about the federal ICE surge in the Twin Cities

Scale is unusually large

• Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Todd Lyons described the Minneapolis deployment as the “largest immigration effort ever” in an interview with Newsmax, saying it is aimed at rooting out fraud and arresting people the agency describes as criminals.
• The surge could involve hundreds of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) personnel over a planned 30-day period that began Sunday, Jan. 4, first reported by CBS News on Monday. Anonymous law enforcement officials familiar with the plan told CBS that as many as 2,000 agents and officers could rotate through the Twin Cities, including ICE deportation officers and agents from Homeland Security Investigations.
• In an interview with Fox News on Tuesday night, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said her agency sent 2,000 agents to the Twin Cities as part of a recent enforcement surge.

DHS secretary promotes arrest

• Noem appeared in Minneapolis on Tuesday during an arrest promoted by the DHS on social media. Video posted by the agency shows Noem entering a building with officers as a man was taken into custody.
• In a post on X, Noem said Tomas Espin Tapia has an active warrant for murder and sexual assault in Ecuador, and was convicted in his home country of robbery and extortion. The DHS has not publicly released documentation supporting those assertions.
• An Ecuadorean court document from 2018 obtained by the Minnesota Star Tribune identifies the man as Tomas Espin Tapia and implicates him and several others in the kidnapping of a man as part of an alleged ransom scheme.
• A review of Minnesota court records shows Espin Tapia has lived in the state for at least several years and has been cited multiple times for driving without a license. He was scheduled to appear Jan. 7 in Dakota County District Court on that charge and had been granted permission to attend remotely after his attorney said he was working in New York. His attorney said Tuesday he was still trying to determine his client’s whereabouts.

Senior federal commanders expected in Minnesota

• CBS reported that U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commander Gregory Bovino, who has overseen large-scale immigration enforcement operations in other U.S. cities, is expected to lead the effort, along with an unspecified number of Border Patrol personnel.

Feds say arrests intensify

• The deployment follows “Operation Metro Surge,” an ICE enforcement campaign launched Dec. 1. As of Dec. 19, the DHS said nearly 700 arrests had been made under that effort. The agency this week claimed about 1,000 arrests in the region tied to recent enforcement activity but has not detailed over what time frame.
• In a post on X about her Fox interview, Noem wrote on Tuesday that “more than 1,500 crooks and creeps: murderers, rapists, pedophiles, and gang members” had been arrested as part of the surge. The Minnesota Star Tribune has been unable to verify that number and the agency has not released a list of those detained.

Minnesota’s fraud scrutiny

• The surge of federal agents follows intense national scrutiny over fraud cases looting the state’s social programs. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Dec. 31 announced a pause in federal child care funding to Minnesota amid allegations of fraud in the state’s day care centers.
• Federal prosecutors have charged more than 70 people in Minnesota in connection with the Feeding Our Future scandal, one of the largest pandemic-era fraud prosecutions in the country. Most of the defendants are of Somali origin.

Community response

• In recent weeks, federal agents have increased activity across immigrant-populated neighborhoods, prompting protests, confrontations and widespread fear — particularly within Minnesota’s Somali American community.

Key questions unanswered

• The DHS did not respond Tuesday to detailed questions about the operation’s scope, the criteria used for arrests or the total number of agents deployed.