After more than two months of an aggressive—and deadly—occupation of the Twin Cities, top immigration official Tom Homan said during a press conference on Thursday that the Trump administration is scaling back “Operation Metro Surge.” Yet some local officials who have long been at odds with federal leaders aren’t buying it.
Elliott Payne, the president of the Minneapolis City Council said, “I’ll believe it when I see it.”
Immigration enforcement will still continue in the region, Homan also admitted, adding that removing agents depends partly on if “agitators” behave as the administration sees fit.
Homan cited “unprecedented levels of coordination” from state and local law enforcement, as well as elected officials, as one of the main reasons they are reportedly slowing down operations. But that coordination hasn’t been solely friendly. At one point, he said “I have not met with one county jail that says no to us.” But, according to the New York Times, the Hennepin County jail “has not agreed to change its policy of non-cooperation on civil immigration enforcement in any way.”
The announcement follows an aggressive takeover of the Twin Cities by immigration enforcement that included agents fatally shooting Renée Good and Alex Pretti, repeatedly using harmful chemical weapons, targeting operations at schools and on children, and overall creating an environment of fear that led many immigrants to fear leaving their homes. The Trump administration’s action in the area sparked nationwide protests and economic strikes. Homan was sent in to replace Border Patrol “commander-at-large” Greg Bovino, who oversaw the majority of the violent operation in the Twin Cities.
Last week Homan announced that the Trump administration was removing 700 immigration agents from the area, yet around 2,000 federal law enforcement officials still remain in the Twin Cities. That’s nearly four times the number of officers in the Minneapolis Police Department.
Aisha Gomez, a Minnesota State Representative, released a statement calling the operation “authoritarianism” and vowed to continue fighting federal officials “until every abducted neighbor is returned to the arms of their family.”
