Name: Trump's border czar Tom Homan announces end to the ICE surge in Minnesota
Uploaded: 2026-02-12T23:01:42.000Z
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US President Donald Trump's border czar says a drawdown of immigration enforcement agents in Minnesota has now started.

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Speaking in Minneapolis, Tom Homan said the surge of operations in the city will end.

It comes after immigration officers in the city shot and killed two U.S. citizens last month.

The killings of Renee Goode and Alex Brittany in two separate incidents have led to condemnations and protests.

President Trump had promised the largest domestic deportation operation in American history.

President Trump has concurred that this surge operation conclude a significant drawdown has already been underway this week and will continue to the next week.

Meanwhile, the US Senate Homeland Security Committee is holding a hearing on federal immigration enforcement after those controversial operations in Minnesota.

First, we're hearing from elected and executive officials from the state and that's happening right now, which is focusing on the local fallout from the operations, including the fatal shooting of nurse Alex Pretty.

Then a second panel a little bit later is questioning federal witnesses and that includes the heads of U.S.

immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE and the U.S. customs and Border Protection activists from Minnesota.

They're rallying outside Capitol Hill calling for ICE funding to be cut.

Our demands are simple and they're non negotiable.

We immediately want ICE out of all of our communities.

We want ICE out of all indigenous lands across Turtle island across the United States to immediately end the occupation and to end the violence.

It breaks my heart that anyone is afraid to leave their home out of fear they will not return at the hands of our US Government.

And the damage caused by ICE in our communities will take a long time to heal and repair.

Al Dazir, is Heidi J. Castro standing by for us on Capitol Hill.

And Alan, tell us more about the border czars announcements and coming at the time that it has.

Well, Operation Metro surge saw 4,000 arrests, many, many protests and of course, three shootings, two of them fatal.

But it was bad publicity for Donald Trump and he was getting a great deal of criticism, not just from Democrats, not just from people in the state, but

from Republicans around the country as well, that this was not the image that they wanted to portray.

Tom Homan says that they will continue with their mass deportations.

In fact, he wants them to hit record number.

But they're going to start a drawdown of people in the state now.

Around 3,000 will leave over the next week or so, but they will continue operations there.

Tom Holman says it's important that they've now gained local cooperation and they'll continue to carry out their operations.

But, of course, everyone sees that it was a PR disaster for Donald Trump.

And that's reflected in the polls which showed that most Americans, including even Republicans, were dead set against the way ICE was carrying out operations in Minnesota.

All right, let's head from the short distance from the White House to Capitol Hill.

We've got these hearings, Heidi, two elements to them.

They've been hearing from elected and executive officials from state, and

then we're on to the federal witnesses, including the head of ice.

Of course, we're seeing the reaction to Holman's announcement about that end of the immigration operation in Minneapolis.

We're seeing that reaction from those Minneapolis, Minnesota officials in real time because of course, they are here, are here on Capitol Hill.

This was news to them, the surprise announcement.

And Keith Ellison, the Minnesota's attorney general, the highest law enforcement official in the state, took in that news, but

he wasn't given much of a chance to really react to it.

Republicans on the Senate Homeland Security Committee were grilling him on other Trump administration favorite talking points, attacking Ellison for allegations that he accepted campaign contributions from individuals who were later convicted of fraud.

Ellison, trying to narrow the scope of these hearings back down to immigration, saying that 77% of those who were arrested in Minnesota due to this surge did not have criminal records, he said, and

he was supported by Democrats on the panel saying although this surge in Minnesota appears to be coming to an end, there is still healing to be done in that state.

And there are still questions as to how ICE continues to enact these mass deportations through the rest of the country, including what will be the next target, the Trump administration.

And of course, the context here is that Congress only has until this Friday to agree on a funding plan for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees immigration, because there could be another partial government shutdown on Saturday if they do not agree.

Democrats are insistent on these legal guardrails for the way I speak conducts its immigration raids and arrests.

Some Republicans, including the committee's chair, Rand Paul, also citing concerns just about the spending, the funding that the agency is requesting.

All of those things are still unresolved as the time ticks toward another possible government shutdown.

as you're talking, it looks like that first session, the first element of the panels has just is just winding up.

So, Alan, President Trump, of course, had promised the largest domestic deportation operation in American history.

Now he's had to pull back in Minneapolis.

Might that have a knock on effect on the overall Trump policy on immigration?

Well, they'll obviously look at the way the operation was carried out there, but

it's not going to stop these sort of raids in various places around the country.

He believes that this is an election promise that has to be followed through.

He believes that Republicans in their heart believe that this is the right thing to do.

He thinks the base thinks this is a very popular idea.

And of course, with Kristi Noem, Tom Homan and particularly Stephen Miller, his deputy chief of staff, who has 10 o' clock meetings every morning to discuss how these operations are ongoing.

But clearly what happened in Minnesota was a bad look.

When you have three shootings, two of them fatal, when you have massive protests not just there, but

a around the country against the way ICE are doing business, when you have Republicans on the House and in the Senate saying this is not how America should be operating, then you have a huge PR problem.

He said in a couple of interviews that he didn't think this was carried out the way it should have been.

it's certainly not going to mean that they're going to stop this kind of operation in various places around the United States.

All right, Alan Fisher and Heidi Joe Castro, thank you.

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