By Susan Heavey and Jonathan Allen
WASHINGTON, Feb 12 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan said on Thursday that a significant drawdown of immigration enforcement agents in Minnesota was underway and that he had proposed and Trump had agreed that the surge there should end.
Under Operation Metro Surge, Trump had deployed about 3,000 armed immigration agents by late January to deport migrants in Minnesota.
The surge has led to tumultuous scenes in Minneapolis, the state’s biggest city. Residents have come out onto the streets, some blowing whistles, in protest against masked agents in military-style gear. On different days in January, immigration agents fatally shot two U.S. citizens who had come out to protest or observe the agents.
“I have proposed and President Trump has concurred that this surge operation conclude,” Homan told reporters at a press conference.
A week ago, Homan announced that about 700 out of 3,000 immigration agents would be withdrawn. He said on Thursday that many of the remaining agents deployed from other states would be sent home in the coming week, citing in part what he called “unprecedented” coordination with local law enforcement agencies in Minnesota. Before the surge, about 150 immigration agents worked in Minnesota.
The deportation sweeps have been staunchly opposed by Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat, and other elected officials in the state. His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who last month joined Walz in suing the Trump administration and asked a judge to restrain the surge, said in a statement that the increased deployment had been catastrophic.
“They thought they could break us, but a love for our neighbors and a resolve to endure can outlast an occupation,” Frey said as he welcomed Homan’s announcement.
The chief federal judge in Minnesota has reprimanded Trump administration officials, saying the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has defied dozens of court orders to free wrongly arrested migrants.
Some of Trump’s fellow Republicans have also criticized the way the deportation surge has been carried out and how the administration has handled the killings of two Americans, Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
As Homan made his announcement, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison was in Washington testifying before a Senate committee that oversees homeland security.
Rand Paul, the committee’s Republican chairman, criticized how the Trump administration had described Good and Pretti after they were killed. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and other administration officials initially called them “domestic terrorists.”
“The First and Second Amendment are not suspended during periods of unrest or during protests,” said Paul, a libertarian from Kentucky, referring to constitutional rights to free speech and to carry weapons. “When officials speak imprecisely or rashly about constitutional limits, especially in volatile moments, they risk inflaming the situation rather than stabilizing it.”
(Reporting by Susan Heavey in Washington and Jonathan Allen in New York; Additional reporting by Helen Coster, Ted Hesson and Katharine Jackson; editing by Michelle Nichols, Paul Thomasch and Rosalba O’Brien)
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