Border Czar Tom Homan has announced that hundreds of immigration officers will leave Minnesota after months of operations have roiled the state.
‘Effective immediately, we will draw down 700 people, effective today, 700 law enforcement personnel,’ Homan said during a press conference Wednesday morning.
Operation Metro Surge has seen 3,000 additional immigration officers sent to the northern state.
It has yielded thousands of immigrant arrests but also resulted in the deaths of two Americans who confronted law enforcement officers.
Following the shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, protests erupted around Minnesota and across the US.
Agitators upset with ICE operations have set up road blocks in the city to scan for immigration agents in an attempt to deny them access to certain neighborhoods being targeted by raids.
Homan was dispatched to the state shortly after Pretti’s death at the hands of two Borer Patrol agents.
In his announcement, the border czar shared that since his arrival there has been ‘unprecedented cooperation’ between local Minnesota leaders and ICE.
‘We currently have an unprecedented number of counties communicating with us now and allowing ICE to take custody of illegal aliens before they hit the streets,’ Homan said.
Allowing ICE agents to apprehend criminal noncitizens from jails ‘requires only one or two officers to assume custody of criminal alien target, rather than eight or 10 officers going into the community and arresting that public safety threat.’
‘This frees up more officers to arrest or remove criminal aliens. More officers taking custody of criminal aliens directly from the jails. Means less officers on the street doing criminal operations.’