The Trump administration announced Wednesday morning that it is withdrawing 700 immigration agents from Minnesota, effective immediately.
The move leaves roughly 2,300 agents in the state as part of Operation Metro Surge, which began late last year.
President Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan said a full withdrawal is contingent on “the end of the illegal and threatening activities against ICE and its federal partners that we’re seeing in the community.”
When pressed to answer whether agents would stop random citizenship checks of people of color and detaining citizens without charges, Homan replied only that the operation is “targeted.”
Over the past month, immigration agents have shot three people, killing two; racially profiled people, asking them to produce proof of legal residency; detained legal immigrants and shipped them across state lines, including young children; caused numerous car crashes; deployed chemical irritants on public school property; smashed the car windows of observers and arrested them before releasing them without charges; and threatened journalists who were filming them from a distance in a public space, among other high-profile incidents.
Homan, who reportedly was investigated for receiving $50,000 in cash from an undercover FBI agent in 2024 in an alleged bribery scheme, said the reduction in force is due to “unprecedented cooperation” from local law enforcement agencies. He also said he’s not asking jails to hold undocumented immigrants any longer than they would hold anyone else — which is illegal under state law, according to a 2025 opinion from the attorney general.
The number of Minnesota law enforcement agencies that have signed agreements with ICE has not changed since Isle Police Department entered into a contract on Jan. 26; before that, the last contract was renewed in October of 2025. (The list was last updated Tuesday at 2:47 p.m.)
Tens of thousands of Minnesotans have protested the sweeping ICE operations here, and many have joined patrol and rapid response networks dedicated to tracking and disrupting ICE activities. The Trump administration has recently started charging those people with obstructing law enforcement operations.
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