President Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan has announced the drawdown of several hundred federal agents from Minnesota after the administration secured “unprecedented cooperation” between Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and local jails.
During a press conference on Wednesday, Homan announced the drawdown of about 700 federal agents from Minnesota — citing talks between the Trump administration and Gov. Tim Walz (D), Attorney General Keith Ellison (D), and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D), which have secured increasing cooperation between ICE agents and local jails.
Homan said:
I had productive discussions with state and local officials, including the governor, the attorney general, Mayor Frey, and law enforcement officials about increasing coordination in a lawful way between the county jails and ICE to avoid public safety threats being released back into the community.
We currently have an unprecedented number of counties communicating with us now, allowing ICE to take custody of illegal aliens before they hit the streets — unprecedented cooperation.
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We are not requiring jails to hold people past their normal release times … we’re not asking anyone to be an immigration officers. We’re not asking any state or local official to do immigration enforcement activity. They are not by merely notifying us before they release them.
“Given this increase in unprecedented collaboration … I have announced, effective immediately, we will draw down 700 [law enforcement personnel] effective today,” he continued.
Homan said the president “fully intends to achieve mass deportations during this administration and immigration enforcement actions will continue every day throughout this country” and said that “smart law enforcement” is the administration’s goal, “not less law enforcement.”
For months, the Trump administration had urged Walz and Frey to allow ICE agents to swiftly take custody of criminal illegal aliens while they are in local custody rather than having local law enforcement release illegal aliens, whom agents then have to locate in the community.
As Breitbart News reported, from Fiscal Year 2023 to Feb. 6, 2025, Minnesota jails and prisons refused to turn some 823 illegal aliens over to ICE agents. For this period, Minnesota was among the top ten states releasing illegal aliens from jail rather than turning them over to ICE agents.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.