Border czar Tom Homan says administration will remove 700 officers from Minnesota

The Trump administration is pulling 700 of the approximately 3,000 federal officers and agents out of Minnesota, border czar Tom Homan said Wednesday, indicating that it plans to continue large scale immigration operations in Minneapolis.

Homan credited the move to “unprecedented cooperation” with state and local officials, and said the departure would leave approximately 2,000 officers remaining in the state. He acknowledged that 150 personnel are typically present in Minnesota.

Homan took over the Minneapolis enforcement operation for former Border Patrol commander-at-large Gregory Bovino. Homan said that the cutting down of federal immigration agents and officers represented a more “economical” approach, saying it was “smarter law enforcement, not less law enforcement.”

Homan said that the Trump administration remains fully intent on carrying out a mass deportation of migrants in the country illegally. Even with fewer agents on the ground in Minneapolis, he said the Department of Homeland Security’s missioin will not change.

“One hundred and thirty-nine assault convictions, 87 sex offenses, 28 gang members have been arrested, just to name a few,” Homan said at a news conference. “We’re taking a lot of bad people off the street. Everybody should be grateful to that.”

Homan said that the 700 agents being removed from the Minnesota operation are a blend of Customs and Border Protection agents and ICE officers. Residents have called for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to leave the city after two fatal shootings by federal agents in January. In response, protesters and agitators have erected their own barricades and patrolled the streets for ICE vehicles.

“We will not draw down on personnel providing security for our officers. I will not let our officers be put at risk. So, we will not draw down on personnel providing security and responding to hostile incidents,” Homan said.

John Sandweg, who served as the ICE director under President Barack Obama, told NewsNation that the shift in leadership marks a return to how federal immigration operations have traditionally been run.

Homan said that moving forward, the operation will be targeted at removing what the Trump administration considers “the worst of the worst”, but repeated again on Wednesday that migrants in the country illegally are “not off the table.”

“For those who are not a national security threat or public safety risk, you are not exempt from immigration enforcement actions,” Homan said. “If you are in the country illegally, you are not off the table.”