US withdraws 700 immigration agents from Minnesota
US President Donald Trump’s border tsar says he is reducing the number of immigration enforcement officers in Minnesota after co-operation with local officials.
US President Donald Trumpâs administration is withdrawing 700 federal immigration enforcement agents from Minnesota although about 2000 agents will stay in place, White âHouse border tsar Tom Homan says.
In an unprecedented surge, Trump has deployed thousands of armed immigration enforcement agents in and around Minneapolis this year to âdetain and deport migrants, resulting in angry and sometimes violent confrontations with residents and street protests across the United States.
Homan said the deportation campaign was in the interest of public safety.
He was partially reducing the deployment because he was seeing âunprecedentedâ co-operation from Minnesotaâs elected sheriffs â who run county jails, although he did not give more details.
âLet me be clear, President Trump fully intends to achieve mass deportations during this administration, and immigration enforcement actions will continue every day throughout this country,â Homan said at a press conference.
âPresident Trump made a promise. And we have not directed otherwise.â
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Homan also said there had been âa gapâ in giving agents body-worn cameras, which he was hoping to fix with Congress.
The deportation sweeps, dubbed Operation Metro Surge, have been opposed and denounced since early January by Minnesota governor Tim Walz, Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey and other elected Democrats.
They have sued the administration in federal court, demanding the restraining or withdrawal of a federal deployment that was about 20 times the normal number of immigration âenforcement agents in the state, âoutnumbering local police forces.
Both Walz and Frey, in separate statements, called Homanâs announcement encouraging but insufficient.
âThe drawdown and body-worn cameras are a step in the right direction but 2000 ICE officers still here âis not de-escalation,â Frey said.
âMy message to the White House has been consistent â Operation Metro Surge has been catastrophic for our businesses and residents. It needs to end immediately.â
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Grappling with one of the thorniest political crises of his tenure, Trump sent Homan to Minnesota in late January with a mission to talk with Walz and Frey and temper the outrage in Minneapolisâ streets, which intensified after immigration agents fatally shot US citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
The administrationâs aggressive deportation efforts, part of a country-wide campaign, have triggered protests, drawn criticism even from some of his fellow Republicans and stern rebukes from some federal judges asked to rule on the legality of migrantsâ detentions, who say their orders are being defied.
Homan âsaid on Wednesday his goal was to return to the usual force of about 150 federal immigration agents in Minnesota but did not say when that would be possible.
He said his meetings with Walz and Frey had been productive: âWhile we had our differences, one thing was clear â we are all committed to public safety,â he said.
Trump has said that many migrants must be deported, blaming them, often in sweeping terms, for financial fraud and âviolent crimes.
Homan âwants more jails in Minnesota to allow in immigration agents to question or take custody of âdetained migrants.
Some already do, although only seven sheriffs out of Minnesotaâs 87 counties have signed formal co-operation agreements with âICE.
Others, including the main jail in Minneapolis run by the Hennepin County sheriff, do not cooperate.
Minneapolis and some other cities prohibit their employees, including police, from asking about citizenship or co-operating with federal immigration enforcement, saying it threatens public safety if migrants who are victims of or witnesses to crime fear coming forward.
Asked if he thought Operation Metro Surge had been a success, Homan replied that he thought it had improved public safety.
âWas it âa perfect operation? No,â Homan said.
-with AAP
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