Homan Withdraws 700 Agents From Minnesota, Citing Some Cooperation with State Authorities

The American border tsar, Tom Homan, announced Wednesday the immediate removal of 700 federal immigration officers in Minnesota after local and state officials agreed to transfer immigrants with criminal records from prisons to federal custody. Mr. Homan’s announcement marked the latest step the Trump administration has made to ease tensions in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area since the launch of Operation Metro Surge, which resulted in two fatal, federal law enforcement-involved shootings of local protesters.“Given this increase in unprecedented collaboration, and as a result of the need for less public safety officers to do this work and a safer environment, I am announcing, effective immediately, we’ll draw down 700 people effective today,” Mr. Homan said. An estimated 3,000 federal officers had been deployed to Minnesota since the Department of Homeland Security launched Operation Metro Surge, which Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting director Todd Lyons called “the largest immigration enforcement operation ever.” The operation came alongside the exposure of alleged widespread welfare fraud involving members of Minnesota’s large Somali community. Mr. Homan credited his “productive discussions” with Democratic state officials, including Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and State Attorney General Keith Ellison, about increasing coordination “in a lawful way” between county jails and ICE. He also said that due to a reduction in their “target list” of illegal immigrants, he was able to reduce the number of agents currently on the ground.“With the efficiencies of the jails, with the efficiencies of the prison system working with us, and the target list decreasing, we had a whole team looking at what makes sense without risking officer safety and security teams,” Mr. Homan added.Also on Wednesday, Mr. Homan announced he would fully integrate Customs and Border Protection personnel into one ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations team structure.“Any law enforcement operation I’ve ever been involved with, there’s one chain of command, and that’s where we’re moving forward,” Mr. Homan said. During Wednesday’s press conference, Mr. Homan said that since arriving in Minneapolis last week, an internal investigation identified a “gap” in the use of body-worn cameras that he said was raised by his workforce.“Some officers and agents had them, some didn’t. That inconsistency was unacceptable, so we moved immediately to prioritize full body-cam deployment in the city,” Mr. Homan said. The Department of Homeland Security secretary, Kristi Noem, announced Monday that her department would deploy body cameras to all officers in the field in Minneapolis. Last month’s fatal Border Patrol officer-involved shooting of intensive care nurse Alex Pretti has led the Trump administration to take steps it appeared reluctant to consider just a few weeks prior. Mr. Homan was deployed to Minnesota to replace the Border Patrol senior official overseeing the agency’s enforcement operations, Gregory Bovino, who has since been demoted by President Trump to sector chief in El Centro, California.The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division opened a federal investigation into the fatal shooting of Pretti last week.At first, the DHS investigation agency was leading the federal probe into Pretti’s death, a move that was considered a break from protocol as the agency does not typically investigate officer-involved shootings. The FBI has since taken charge of the investigation, with the DHS investigators working in a support role. The Justice Department has not opened a civil rights probe into the fatal ICE-involved shooting of Renee Good earlier this month. FBI agents initially drafted a warrant to search Good’s car to reconstruct the trajectory of the bullets fired by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, Jonathan Ross, during the January 7 incident in Minneapolis, according to reports. Instead, aides to Mr. Blanche allegedly intervened by asking the U.S. Attorney’s Office and FBI agents to redraft the search warrant to focus on whether Good, 37, intentionally attacked the officer with her Honda Pilot. Mr. Homan did not criticize Mr. Bovino’s handling of immigration enforcement, despite frequent clashes between protesters and Minnesota residents, adding that it was “very effective as far as public safety goes” and that he would not “point the finger at anybody.”“Was it a perfect operation? No,” he added.But Mr. Homan still defended his federal officers in the face of “the hate, the rhetoric, the attack” from protesters.“You really think you’re going to stop ICE and CBP from doing their job? It’s a joke,” Mr. Homan said. “The only people you are hurting is your own community. … Stop. Stop.”

Homan Withdraws 700 Agents From Minnesota, Citing Some Cooperation with State Authorities

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