President Donald Trump’s top immigration enforcer says hundreds of federal agents are leaving Minnesota, but lawmakers and civil rights groups argue the announcement masks the continued presence of a massive enforcement operation that has already resulted in deaths, alleged constitutional violations, and international scrutiny.
On Wednesday, Tom Homan, whom Trump has repeatedly described as his “border czar,” announced that 700 immigration agents would be withdrawn from Minnesota as part of what the administration calls “Operation Metro Surge.” Roughly 2,000 agents, however, are expected to remain deployed across the state, including in Minneapolis and Saint Paul, where federal immigration operations have sparked weeks of protests and condemnation.
Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, whose congressional district includes Minneapolis, said the drawdown does not meaningfully change conditions on the ground. In a pair of social media posts responding to Homan’s announcement, Omar said that “every single ICE and CBP agent should be out of Minnesota. The terror campaign must stop.”
“This occupation has to end!” she added.
Operation Metro Surge has brought agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection into multiple Minnesota cities. According to the reporting provided, the operation has involved violent actions, including the fatal shootings of Minneapolis residents Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Those deaths have become central to calls for accountability from community leaders, civil rights organizations, and members of Congress.
Despite the announced drawdown, enforcement operations are expected to continue. Homan’s statement did not indicate that raids or patrols would cease, only that a portion of the deployed force would leave the state. Critics argue that with the vast majority of agents still present, the underlying dynamics remain unchanged.
Omar has also renewed her call to abolish ICE, a position that, according to the source material, is being adopted by growing shares of federal lawmakers and the public as Trump’s mass deportation agenda has expanded beyond Minnesota. Similar large-scale operations have been reported in the Twin Cities, the Chicago and Los Angeles metropolitan areas, multiple cities in Maine, and other communities across the country.
The dispute is unfolding amid a broader fight in Congress over funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees both ICE and CBP. A bill signed by Trump on Tuesday funds DHS only through the middle of the month. At the same time, Republicans provided ICE with an additional $75 billion in last year’s budget package, a move progressives argue has enabled the scale of enforcement now seen in Minnesota.
Trump claimed personal credit for the partial drawdown during an on-camera interview with NBC News’ Tom Llamas. After what the source material describes as a factually dubious rant about crime rates, Llamas asked the president what he had learned from the Minnesota operation.
“I learned that maybe we can use a little bit of a softer touch. But you still have to be tough,” Trump said.
“We’re really dealing with really hard criminals,” he added.
Those assertions have been repeatedly challenged. According to the provided reporting, data have shown that most immigrants detained by federal officials over the past year do not have criminal convictions, despite administration claims that operations target “the worst of the worst.”
On the ground in Minnesota, protests against Operation Metro Surge have been persistent, with solidarity actions spreading to other states. Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the administration’s decision to withdraw some agents reflects sustained public resistance rather than a policy reversal.
“The limited drawdown of ICE agents from Minnesota is not a concession. It is a direct response to Minnesotans standing up to unconstitutional federal overreach,” Hussein said.
“Minnesotans are winning against this attack on all our communities by organizing, resisting, and defending our constitutional rights. But this moment should not be a victory lap,” he continued. “It must instead be a call to continue pushing for justice.”
Hussein emphasized that the most serious issues remain unresolved. “The deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti at the hands of federal immigration agents remain uninvestigated, and communities and prosecutors alike have raised grave concerns about violations of their oaths and the Constitution,” he said. “This is not the time to pull back, it is the time to deepen our resilience, increase our support for one another, and keep fighting for our democracy and accountability until justice is served.”
National advocacy groups echoed that assessment. The Not Above the Law coalition, whose co-chairs include Praveen Fernandes of the Constitutional Accountability Center, Kelsey Herbert of MoveOn, Lisa Gilbert of Public Citizen, and Brett Edkins of Stand Up America, said Homan’s announcement amounts to little more than symbolic retreat.
“Tom Homan’s announcement that 700 federal immigration agents will be withdrawn from Minnesota is more a minor concession than a meaningful policy shift,” the co-chairs said. “The vast majority, approximately 2,000 federal agents, remain deployed in the state, and enforcement operations continue unabated.”
“This token gesture does nothing to address the ongoing terror families face or the constitutional crisis this administration’s actions have created,” they added.
The coalition called for comprehensive accountability, not partial withdrawals. “The killings of Minnesotans demand real accountability,” the statement said. “Families torn apart by raids and alleged constitutional violations deserve justice. Real change means the complete withdrawal of all federal forces conducting these operations in Minnesota, full accountability for the deaths and violations that have occurred, and congressional action to restore the rule of law.”
“The American people deserve better than political theater when constitutional rights hang in the balance,” the group concluded.
Civil liberties organizations have taken the unprecedented step of appealing to the international community. On Tuesday, the national ACLU and the ACLU of Minnesota asked the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to use its “early warning and urgent action procedure” in response to what they described as a human rights crisis in the Twin Cities.
In its submission, the ACLU alleged that federal immigration officials “have ignored basic human rights in their enforcement activity against Minnesotans, especially targeting Somali and Latino communities,” and urged the committee to intervene and investigate what it called grave violations of U.S. human rights obligations.
Jamil Dakwar, director of the ACLU’s Human Rights Program, said the United States is violating international treaty obligations under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which prohibits “the use of racial and ethnic profiling, extrajudicial killings, and unlawful use of force against protesters and observers.”
Teresa Nelson, legal director of the ACLU of Minnesota, said the urgency of the request reflects conditions on the ground. “The Trump administration’s ongoing immigration enforcement operations in Minnesota are being carried out by thousands of masked federal agents in military gear who are ignoring basic constitutional and human rights of Minnesotans,” Nelson said. “Their targeting of our Somali and Latino communities threatens Minnesotans’ most fundamental rights, and it has spread fear among immigrant communities and neighborhoods.”
For Omar and other critics, the announced drawdown does not resolve the fundamental questions raised by Operation Metro Surge. Thousands of agents remain deployed, enforcement continues, and the deaths of two Minnesotans have yet to be fully investigated. As protests persist and international bodies are asked to intervene, calls are growing not just for fewer agents, but for an end to the operation altogether.
“This occupation has to end!”
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