Trump administration says it is ending its immigration surge in Minnesota
By: Matt Lavietes (NBC News)
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LIBERATION DAY!
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S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Feb. 12, 2026
The Trump administration said Thursday it is ending its immigration crackdown in Minneapolis.
Speaking at a news conference in the city, border czar Tom Homan said coordination with local law enforcement and success of immigration enforcement have contributed to the end of Operation Metro Surge.
"I have proposed and President Trump has concurred that this surge operation conclude," he said.
The announcement comes weeks after federal authorities shot and killed two U.S. citizens, sparking outrage around the nation and the world.
Homan said "a significant drawdown" will begin this week and will continue into next week. He said he will remain on the ground "for a little longer" to ensure a successful end to the operation.
On Nov. 29, the Trump administration began surging more than 3,000 immigration agents to Minneapolis, in what officials dubbed Operation Metro Surge. Homan said at a press conference last week that roughly 150 federal immigration agents were present in the city before the operation began. The city of roughly 400,000 people has a police force of roughly 600 officers.
Homan, who is a former Obama staffer, said he is not removing all federal officers for safety reasons and that immigration enforcement will continue.
"If you're in this country illegally, you're not off the table," he said.
Immigration officers and agents have arrested 4,000 people since the operation began, the Department of Homeland Security said last week. DHS did not provide a breakdown of how many of those had criminal charges. Federal authorities have arrested more than 200 people for impeding the work of law enforcement officers, Homan said Thursday.
Amid the crackdown, immigration authorities shot and killed two U.S. citizens — Renee Good, 37, a mother of young children, and Alex Pretti, 37, an ICU nurse at a local Veterans Affairs hospital — in separate confrontations.
"I don't want to see any more bloodshed," Homan said. "I pray every night for the safety or law enforcement personnel and the safety of those in the community, whether you're here legally or illegally I don't want to say anybody harmed."
Authorities had already announced a drawdown of the operation in the days following Pretti's killing. Customs and Border Protection's Greg Bovino was removed from his post as commander at large and returned to his former post in El Centro, California. Homan then arrived to take control of the operation.
Homan acknowledged those setbacks Thursday.
"As I said in my first press conference a couple weeks ago, President Trump didn't send me here because operation were being run and conducted perfectly," he said. "I came here to identify issues and implement solutions to improve our mission execution."
Homan announced last week that the administration would send 700 agents home. He said the drawdown is partly a result of coordination between Minnesota county jails and federal immigration officials, making it easier for immigration authorities to apprehend targets.
Federal authorities also arrested and criminally charged several protesters last month for holding a demonstration during a church service led by a pastor who is allegedly also an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent. Former CNN anchor Don Lemon was also arrested for covering the event. Lemon's attorney said his client would plead not guilty to charges against him.
Homan insisted that ICE agents had not gone into churches or schools to make arrests. In the same breath, he emphasized that "those locations are not off the table."
He also said there would be "zero tolerance" for residents interfering with the work of immigration authorities.
"While the Trump administration supports everyone's first amendment right to freedom of speech and assembly and to petition, it has to be done lawfully and peacefully, because we will not tolerate unlawful actions committed by agitators, who are just causing havoc," he said. "This is not the way to express your disagreement or try to reform federal laws."
Instead, he said, those objecting to the administration's policies should write to their lawmakers.
Minneapolis Mayor Jaocb Frey, a Democrat, said in a series of posts on X that the operation "has been catastrophic for our neighbors and businesses."
"They thought they could break us, but a love for our neighbors and a resolve to endure can outlast an occupation," he said. "These patriots of Minneapolis are showing that it's not just about resistance — standing with our neighbors is deeply American."
New polling from the NBC News Decision Desk shows that support for the the Trump administration's immigration policies has taken a significant hit since the killings occurred last month.
Forty-nine percent of adults strongly disapprove of how Trump has handled border security and immigration, up from 38% strong disapproval last summer and 34% in April, according to the new poll.
Trump's overall approval rating has also declined slightly to 39% in the aftermath of the crackdown.
Matt Lavietes is a reporter for NBC News.
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What did Trump get for the $230 million Federal expenditure? ICE and CBP deported about 4,000 individuals at a cost of $1.5 million a head. (And that doesn't include the cost of detention elsewhere in the country.) 10% of those arrests were made at prisons, jails, and courts. Of the 1,300 ICE detainers, only about 300 were actually prisoners in correctional facilities. And the majority of the 'worst of the worst' arrests being touted by DHS were handed over by Dept. of Corrections before Operation Metro Surge began.
Operation Metro Surge was hugely expensive, highly inefficient, accomplished very little, and scored very few political points. Operation Metro Surge essentially killed immigration as a centerpiece for Republican politics. A typical Trump operation.
Has anyone seen Kristi Noem lately?
But did DHS release the number of those who were in this country LEGALLY?
How about how many were actual US citizens?
How many were protestors that were "arrested" then later released with no charges?
The estimate is 4,000 arrested, ostensibly to be deported. Those arrested individuals have been transferred to detention centers outside of Minnesota. However, there have been a flurry of habeas cases for release from detention and many are succeeding.
With the end of Operation Metro Surge most of the charges for protesters assaulting agents or interfering with operations have been downgraded to misdemeanors or have been dropped.
The only thing DHS has gotten is an agreement from Hennepin County to return to the policy of notification before release that was in effect before 2019 (during Trump's 1st term). I don't know if similar agreements have been reached with Ramsey, Dakota, and Anoka counties.
Minnesota law prohibits honoring any hold beyond eligible release without a judicial warrant. That's not limited to ICE detainers. Minnesota has been cooperating and coordinating with ICE by notification of pending release and using the practice of lobby arrests. Some counties adopted 'separation' policies that stopped the practice of notifying ICE in 2019 but the state continues to coordinate with ICE. (Most of the people of interest to ICE are held in state prisons.)
It might of interest to know that ICE had an office in the Hennepin County jail before 2019 so lobby arrests were easily facilitated. Trump's Federal overreach in 2017-2018 turned the issue of coordination with ICE into a policy issue. Trump screwed the pooch in 2017-2018 and Operation Metro Surge was supposed to unscrew the pooch using Federal violence. It only cost $230 million to try to repair the damage Trump caused during his 1st term. Trump has a golden touch.
That's not what they said, that is what people ass u me....
They wouldn't be arresting people who are here legally.
DNS won't be arresting U S Citizens unless they are swept up with Illegals which is possible.
That should be "0", I don't see DHS wasting their time arresting someone and not charging them.
Wrong.... Without due process how would anyone know?
I'm going to miss tuning into the news and seeing that ironic sight of whiny white upper middle-class men & aging white female activists facing off against Hispanic ICE officers.
Yeah, it was quite a contrast. Kind of feeds into the 'white minority' narrative.
Did you happen to notice which side was acting more like what's expected from a race riot? Which side was throwing things? Which side was attacking people? Which side was creating chaos? Which side was more disciplined? That kind of fed into the 'white majority' narrative, didn't it?
Apparently being on the side of law is quite a bit different than being on the side of right and proper. Apparently there are still enough white people to keep the country right and proper.
Yes, it seems that I've watched it since the late 60's, though they are far more violent now, perhaps because they have become the establishment and face little consequence.
Apparently being on the side of law is quite a bit different than being on the side of right and proper. Apparently there are still enough white people to keep the country right and proper.
Race is the substitute for class for the American Marxist.
The ICE agents weren't Marlboro men in white hats. The ICE agents did not look like the good guys and did behave like the good guys. The ICE agents weren't heroic. And the all too white protesters were not the enemy.
The enemy was supposed to be criminal immigrants. Trump wanted to see chaos and riots on the streets, like the George Floyd race riots. But ICE went off script and became the rioters. ICE escalated the violence trying to provoke the protesters. Maybe the protesters were just too white to behave like a minority?
Trump is the one who deployed a largely Hispanic army of Federal agents against an overwhelmingly white population. The Twin Cities metro area is about 72% white. (The Twin Cities metro is whiter than the Boston-Cambridge-Newton metro area. Let that sink in. You could be next.) The Black population won't turn out to protect Hispanics who are taking their jobs and competing for their welfare checks. And the Hispanics would naturally hide. So, who do you think would turn out to protest?
Trump created a situation where the optics would be against him. Trump wasn't going to get the pictures he wanted. That's either because Trump was too ignorant to know or too stupid to care. Trump was just trying to push buttons. Trump is responsible for the chaos but he didn't get the pictures he wanted. Operation Metro Surge was very expensive, accomplished little, creating a perception of government out of control, and shifted the politics away from illegal immigration onto ICE. I'm not sure the whole thing could have been screwed up any worse than what Trump accomplished.