Over 1,000 agents leave Minnesota as immigration surge winds down
US border tsar says a ‘small’ security force will remain to protect remaining personnel following weeks of volatile protests
White House border tsar Tom Homan said on Sunday that more than 1,000 immigration agents have left Minnesota’s Twin Cities area and hundreds more will depart in the days ahead as part of the Trump administration’s drawdown of its immigration enforcement surge.
He also said agents will keep investigating fraud allegations as well as the anti-immigration enforcement protest that disrupted a service at a church.
“We already removed well over 1,000 people, and as of Monday, Tuesday, we’ll remove several hundred more,” Homan said. “We’ll get back to the original footprint.”
Thousands of officers were sent to the Minneapolis and St Paul area for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) “Operation Metro Surge”.
The Department of Homeland Security said it was its largest immigration enforcement operation ever and proved successful. But the crackdown came under increasing criticism as the situation grew more volatile and two US citizens were killed.