President Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, announced a drawdown of 700 federal immigration enforcement personnel from Minnesota on Feb. 4.
Homan said an “unprecedented” amount of cooperation between local authorities and Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the state since he was deployed there in late January has enabled the shift.
“Given this increase in unprecedented collaboration and as a result of the need for less law enforcement officers to do this work in a safer environment, I have announced, effective immediately, we will draw down 700 people effective today,” he said Feb. 4.
About 2,000 federal personnel will remain in the state, Homan said.
Meanwhile, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who has urged the administration to withdraw the surge of agents from the state, said Operation Metro Surge is “not making Minnesota safer.”
“Today’s announcement is a step in the right direction, but we need a faster and larger drawdown of forces, state-led investigations into the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, and an end to this campaign of retribution,” Walz, a Democrat who ran for vice president in 2024, said in a Feb. 4 social media post.
Homan said local law enforcement officials have been communicating with ICE and allowing the agency to take custody of undocumented immigrants before they are released from jails. That allows for fewer officers, just one or two, to be sent to take custody in a controlled environment rather than a team sent into communities for arrests, Homan said.
“This is smart law enforcement, not less law enforcement,” he said. “This coordination also makes it far more safe for the Twin Cities.”
The announcement comes after weeks of unrest in the streets of Minneapolis after two U.S. citizens, Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, were fatally shot by immigration officers. On Jan. 29, Homan first announced his intention to “draw down” the federal presence in Minnesota, but Trump later said the administration would “not at all” be pulling back its deployment in the state.
Thousands of federal immigration officials were deployed to Minnesota in December as part of what the administration dubbed Operation Metro Surge. Homan previously said immigration agents would be shifting their focus to “targeted, strategic” operations, where agents would seek out known targets for arrest with a focus on those deemed public safety threats. He said it’s the same approach ICE has taken for decades.
Still, Homan said anyone in the country illegally is at risk for deportation and “not off the table.”
“Let me be clear, President Trump fully intends to achieve mass deportations during this administration, and immigration enforcement actions will continue every day throughout this country. President Trump made a promise. And we have not directed otherwise,” he said.
Homan said protesters have been setting up roadblocks on the streets in an attempt to “impede” immigration officers, and said in a message to them: “You’re not going to stop ICE.”
The 700 officials leaving Minnesota will not include personnel providing “security” for officers and responding to “hostile incidents,” Homan said. Homan said the administration’s goal is to return Minnesota to the same “footprint” of ICE operations it had before Operation Metro Surge.
“A complete drawdown is going to depend on continued cooperation of local and state law enforcement and the decrease of the violence, the rhetoric and the attacks against ICE and Border Patrol,” Homan said.
Also on Feb. 4, DHS Secretary Noem spoke on the president’s immigration agenda in a news conference at the southern border, calling it the “most secure border in history.” She said January 2026 was the fourth straight month of decline in apprehensions at the southwest border, at just over 6,000.