MINNEAPOLIS — Tom Homan, the White House's border czar, said in a press conference Thursday the federal government is working on a plan to reduce the number of federal immigration enforcement officers in Minnesota.
Homan's announcement comes a few days after he arrived in the midwestern state to oversee Operation Metro Surge, an aggressive immigration crackdown that has brought about 3,000 federal agents to the state, led to the arrest of undocumented immigrants without a criminal record, and to the death of two U.S. citizens: Renee Macklin Good and Alex Pretti.
"I do not want to hear that everything that's been done here has been perfect," Homan said. "Nothing's perfect, anything can be improved on, and what we've been working on is making this operation safer, more efficient, by the book. The mission is going to improve because of the changes we're making internally."
Homan said the plan to pull out federal agents depends on cooperation from Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. Homan said he wants federal agents to have "access to undocumented immigrants who are in state prisons and county jails.
The Minnesota Department of Corrections has claimed all along that they already honor ICE detainer requests despite previous claims to the contrary made by other members of the Trump administration. An ICE official acknowledged this cooperation with state prisons earlier this month.
Homan appeared to anticipate backlash from immigration enforcement hardliners.
"We are not surrendering the president's mission on immigration enforcement," he told reporters.
In a statement to NPR, Frey said "Any drawdown of ICE agents is a step in the right direction- but my ask remains the same: Operation Metro Surge must end."
Homan took over Minnesota's immigration operation on Tuesday after the Trump administration removed Greg Bovino, the divisive and controversial Border Patrol commander.
Bovino had been in charge of indiscriminate sweeps across the Minneapolis region. Those operations have included masked federal agents breaking into people's homes and the intimidation of legal observers who have tracked federal agents' movements in Minneapolis to alert neighbors.
On Thursday, Homan admitted improvements needed to be made to the operation.
"I didn't come to Minnesota for photo-ops and headlines," he said, in a comment seemingly pointed at Bovino, whose presence on social media and the streets have contributed to public outrage over Customs and Border Protection's tactics.
Homan said the administration will prioritize the arrests of known undocumented immigrants with an existing criminal record, and those who pose a public safety threat.
The Trump administration has long maintained that the enforcement surges, which have targeted Democratic and sanctuary cities, were based on enforcing federal law and targeting known criminals. But collateral arrests of undocumented immigrants who are not known targets could still continue, Homan said.
"Members of the community are not the targets of our operations," he said.
Whether or not the drawdown leads to meaningful changes on the streets remains to be seen, and many protesters continue to demand a complete end to ICE presence in Minneapolis.
Homan was asked in the briefing about a new video that has surfaced of Pretti in an encounter with federal agents 11 days before his killing. The video shows Pretti protesting the presence of federal agents and kicking the tail light of one of their vehicles as the agents went to drive away. They then forcefully wrestle him to the ground.
Homan said he wouldn't comment on the video, and said he'd let the investigation into Pretti's shooting play out.
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