Border chief Tom Homan announced the end of “Operation Metro Surge” in Minneapolis while declaring the successful arrest of more than 4,000 illegal migrants.
Federal officers will remain in the city to deport dangerous migrants, and to pick up migrants who have been jailed by local police, Homan told reporters this morning:
I’m very pleased to report that the surge operation and our work here with state and local officials to improve coordination and achieve mutual goals … have yielded the successful results we’ve came here for. The Twin Cities and Minnesota in general are and will continue to be much safer for the community because of what we have accomplished under President Trump’s leadership.
Homan promised that the nation’s popular immigration laws would continue to be enforced in Minnesota:
Prioritization of public safety threats doesn’t mean we forget about everybody else [non-violent migrants]. We’re going to enforce the immigration law. We’re going to have a mass deportation. President Trump promised that, and we’re committed to that.
He continued:
Many criminal aliens have been arrested and taken off the streets, including murderers, sex offenders, gang members, and other violent criminals … We have already arrested more than 200 people for violations [of criminal law].
Nationwide, Homan and his peers have deported more than 400,000 migrants since Trump’s confirmation in January 2025, including more than 150,000 economic migrants. The vast majority of deportations have been done without alarming swing-voters because GOP-aligned voters control the local governments and police forces.
But the Minneapolis pullback is also a political concession to the pro-migration nexus of Democrats, far-left radicals, business groups, and establishment media.
The nexus has been defending Minnesota’s peculiar “Sanctuary City Economy” which uses illegal migrants to grow the local economy by lowering Americans’ wages and raising their rents. T
The migrants also fill out low-wage jobs, rent additional apartments, and serve as real or fraudulent clients for the city’s various aid, welfare, and education agencies that pull funds from the nation’s taxpayers. The Sanctuary City economic strategy helps local employers and property owners, and it helps local politicians hide their failure to raise local wages and wealth via higher productivity.
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The nexus staged many Antifa-like street actions to provoke conflicts with federal agencies, to blame federal officers for the resulting casualties and costs, and to escalate the conflict where possible. Two activists were killed by federal agents in staged street confrontations, so allowing a wide range of Democrats to claim the ICE agents are “killers” and “murderers.”
The establishment media’s anti-enforcement barrage has shifted national polls against Trump and vigorous enforcement. Myriad pro-migration reports have spotlighted plaintive stories from sympathetic migrants and personable protestors, and have broadcast many scenes of street chaos.
Despite the media barrage, many national polls still show that a clear majority of Americans want all illegal migants — criminal or not — to be sent home.
The state’s establishment has made some concessions to federal agencies, mostly by turning over more jailed migrants to federal agencies. Homan said:
I have also received commitments from state and local law enforcement that they will respond if federal law enforcement is being impeded or assaulted, they will shut down unlawful agitator activity, including arresting agitators involved.
…
We got more cooperation from more jails than they had before we got here. That’s a good thing. We’re having conversations with the state, and the state already accepted retainers, but we’re moving further on our agreements for the state. So the cooperation we have here is going to keep this city safer. It’s going to keep our agents safer.
Homan did not discuss the status of federal investigations into the widespread and tolerated local fraud against federal aid and welfare programs.
The Democrats’ pushback against Trump’s deportations is an indirect attack on Trump’s low-migration, high-productivity national economic strategy and his 2026 policy on affordability.
Under Trump’s low-migration, high-deportation reforms, Americans’ wages are up, housing costs are down, inflation is declining, transport costs are shrinking, crime is dropping, and corporations are spending heavily to help Americans become more productive and earn more wages for each working hour. His economic reforms, however, are opposed by establishment Republicans and their progressive partners.
RestaurantBusinessOnline.com reported on January 23 that Trump’s deputies are raising voters’ wages by deporting illegal migrants: “Fewer workers mean restaurants will once again have to compete for employees the only way they can, by paying higher wages.
Wages over the next two years are expected to accelerate, according to Oxford Economics, from 3.7% this year to 5.6% by 2027.
The pro-citizen, pro-wage policy is deeply opposed by Democrats, who instead promise to raise living standards for migrants and citizens via government benefits.
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