{"id":19079,"date":"2026-02-17T01:20:50","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T01:20:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/trumps-border-czar-says-small-security-force-will-remain-in-minnesota-after-enforcement-drawdown\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T01:20:50","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T01:20:50","slug":"trumps-border-czar-says-small-security-force-will-remain-in-minnesota-after-enforcement-drawdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/trumps-border-czar-says-small-security-force-will-remain-in-minnesota-after-enforcement-drawdown\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump&#8217;s border czar says &#8216;small&#8217; security force will remain in Minnesota after enforcement drawdown"},"content":{"rendered":"<div xmlns:xlink=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/1999\/xlink\">\n<div>\n<p>                                <bsp-timestamp data-timestamp=\"1771185816000\" data-recent-thresholdinhours=\"1\">                    <template data-date-tpl>Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year]<\/template>                    <span data-date><\/span>                <\/bsp-timestamp>            <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>                                    <bsp-page-actions>                            <\/bsp-page-actions>                                                            <\/div>\n<div xmlns:xlink=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/1999\/xlink\">\n<p>WASHINGTON (AP) &mdash; White House border czar Tom Homan said Sunday that more than 1,000 immigration agents have left Minnesota&rsquo;s Twin Cities area and hundreds more will depart in the days ahead as part of the Trump administration&rsquo;s drawdown of its <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/minnesota-metro-surge-ice-523d18d5d75c81cbf9f24c602f1884ff\">immigration enforcement surge<\/a><\/span>. <\/p>\n<p>A &ldquo;small&rdquo; security force will stay for a short period to protect remaining immigration agents and will respond &ldquo;when our agents are out and they get surrounded by agitators and things got out of control,&rdquo; Homan told CBS&rsquo; &ldquo;Face the Nation.&rdquo; He did not define &ldquo;small.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>He also said agents will keep <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/minnesota-fraud-immigration-enforcement-somali-76e246b70d582f1dd42f1242cf7d7a66\">investigating fraud allegations<\/a><\/span>  as well as the anti-immigration enforcement protest that <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/ice-protest-church-minneapolis-fcc97a29b9c4434c665d76d4811c5a3e\">disrupted a service<\/a><\/span>  at a church service. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We already removed well over 1,000 people, and as of Monday, Tuesday, we&rsquo;ll remove several hundred more,&rdquo; Homan said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll get back to the original footprint.&rdquo; <\/p>\n<p>Thousands of officers were sent to the Minneapolis and St. Paul area for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement&rsquo;s &ldquo;Operation Metro Surge.&rdquo; The Department of Homeland Security said it was its <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/immigration-enforcement-ice-noem-minnesota-somali-db661df6de1131a034da2bda4bb3d817\">largest immigration enforcement operation ever<\/a><\/span>  and proved successful. But the crackdown came under increasing criticism as the situation grew more volatile and two U.S. citizens were killed.<\/p>\n<div data-align-center>                    <bsp-figure>    <\/p>\n<figure data-openoverlay>                        <a id=\"image-100000\"><\/a>                             <picture data-crop=\"imgEn-medium-nocrop\"><source media=\"(min-width: 768px)\" type=\"image\/webp\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\"><source media=\"(min-width: 768px)\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\"><source media=\"(min-width: 600px)\" type=\"image\/webp\" width=\"767\" height=\"511\"><source media=\"(min-width: 600px)\" width=\"767\" height=\"511\"><source type=\"image\/webp\" width=\"599\" height=\"399\"><source width=\"599\" height=\"399\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"People take part in an anti-ICE protest outside the Governors Residence in St. Paul, Minn., on Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. (AP Photo\/Ryan Murphy)\" fetchpriority=\"high\" width=\"599\" height=\"399\" src=\"https:\/\/dims.apnews.com\/dims4\/default\/dc35e44\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/3000x2000+0+0\/resize\/599x399!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2F62%2F5c%2F95e624a343ad8732bd680b715cc3%2Fap26038051234700.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<div><bsp-read-more data-more-button-text=\"Read More\" data-less-button-text=\"Read Less\" data-expand=\"ReadMore-expand\" data-limit=\"110\" data-main-class=\"ReadMore\"><figcaption>\n<p>People take part in an anti-ICE protest outside the Governors Residence in St. Paul, Minn., on Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. (AP Photo\/Ryan Murphy)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/bsp-read-more><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>        <template data-bsp-figure-overlay-template>                                <\/p>\n<div data-slidenumber=\"0\" data-slidescount=\"1\">                        <bsp-carousel-read-more data-show-less data-expand=\"ReadMore-expand\" data-main-class=\"ReadMore\" data-more-id data-less-id>                            <\/p>\n<p>People take part in an anti-ICE protest outside the Governors Residence in St. Paul, Minn., on Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. (AP Photo\/Ryan Murphy)<\/p>\n<p>                        <\/bsp-carousel-read-more>                    <\/div>\n<p>    <\/template>    <\/bsp-figure>                <\/div>\n<p><span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/protests-activists-minnesota-immigration-enforcement-ice-f86ce49f26230a1e5ad1592dcac0a5a9\">Protests<\/a><\/span>  became common. A network of residents worked to help immigrants, warn of approaching agents or film immigration officers&rsquo; actions. The shooting deaths of <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/ice-shooting-minneapolis-minnesota-9aa822670b705c89906f2c699f1d16c5\">Renee Good<\/a><\/span>  and <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/immigration-enforcement-minnesota-ice-b0cec9d1c5bae4b62469011775082300\">Alex Pretti<\/a><\/span>  by federal officers drew condemnation and raised questions over officers&rsquo; conduct, prompting changes to the operation.<\/p>\n<p>Homan <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/immigration-enforcement-drawdown-minnesota-homan-963adf341325d7f6eb5673e1c00d3c2a\">announced last week<\/a><\/span>  that 700 federal officers would leave Minnesota immediately, but that still left more than 2,000 in the state. He said Thursday that a &ldquo;significant drawdown&rdquo; was already underway and would continue through this week. <\/p>\n<p>Homan said enforcement would not stop in the Twin Cities and that mass deportations will continue across the country. Officers leaving Minnesota will report back to their stations or be assigned elsewhere.<\/p>\n<p>When asked if future deployments could match the scale of the Twin Cities operation, Homan said &ldquo;it depends on the situation.&rdquo; <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/homan-immigration-agents-minnesota-enforcement-operation-drawdown-5a7940eb9b5100d46efc33a97f524da0\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year] WASHINGTON (AP) &mdash; White House border czar Tom Homan said Sunday that more than 1,000 immigration agents have left Minnesota&rsquo;s Twin Cities area and hundreds more will depart in the days ahead as part of the Trump administration&rsquo;s drawdown of its immigration enforcement surge. A &ldquo;small&rdquo; security force [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19080,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trump"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}