"My main focus now is drawdown."
And with that statement, White House border czar Tom Homan wrapped up about a 45 minute press conference in the Twin Cities where he pressed for the need for cooperation between state, local and federal officials when it comes to immigration enforcement.
Homan, who was sent to Minnesota this week after the fatal shooting of 37-year old Alex Pretti by Border Patrol agents last Saturday, said that he's had some good conversations and substantial progress over the last few days.
He noted conversations with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, and what he referred to as "many" local sheriffs and police chiefs. Homan says while they did not agree on everything, and he says he didn't expect to, most of the conversations showed progress for cooperation in enforcing federal immigration laws.
"More agents in the jail means less agents in the street," said Homan. "This is common sense cooperation that allows to draw down on the number of people we have here. Yes, I said it. Draw down the number of people here."
Homan also admitted despite the rhetoric from the White House recently, that state officials with the Department of Corrections do cooperate with federal officials when it comes to sharing information and handing over criminals. That's something DOC Commissioner Paul Schnell said has always been happening.
“Give us access to illegal aliens, public safety threats in the safety and security of a jail,” Homan said.
Homan also said Ellison gave him assurances there would be more cooperation from the county level when it comes to alerting ICE about undocumented immigrants who are being held.
Homan says a drawdown of federal agents in Minnesota is possible if the state moves toward a "jail-first" enforcement model with more cooperation from local sheriffs and police chiefs.
"The data proves it, anybody can find that data," says Homan. "So God bless this great nation. God bless Minnesota. We can do better, and I think the local and state police leaders meeting with me, we made some significant gains. And you're gonna see some massive changes occurring here in this city."
Homan says his goal is to prioritize "common sense" transfers moving forward over volatile public arrests, noting that his team is already drafting a formal plan that significantly scales down the federal manpower in communities across the state.
Admission previous federal leadership in Minnesota wasn't working
Also of note, Homan did say the mission "will improve," an admission that it did go off course under the leadership of Border Patrol Commandeer Greg Bovino and DHS Sec. Kristi Noem, both of whom are no longer in Minnesota.
Homan did stress they'll go back to more targeted enforcement when they "hit the streets," and he says they'll know who they're looking for and how to find them. That's a distinction between what has been happening, where sweeps of agents were going door-to-door in some places, raiding homes which at times were not the correct locations, not knowing who was inside, and doing so without proper warrants.
As for protests and what the White House calls attacks on federal agents, Homan talked about what he called the hateful rhetoric coming from protestors, saying it's not helping. Homan said those activities have forced security teams to go out on operations with agents, increasing the likelihood of violence to occur.
"I begged for the last two months on TV for the rhetoric to stop," Homan said. "I said in March if the rhetoric didn't stop, there's going to be bloodshed. And there has been. I wish I wasn't right. I don't want to see anybody die, not officers, not members of the community, and not the targets of our operations."
Homan added those words about nobody dying were the same President Donald Trump left him with when he was sent to Minnesota.
When asked about the death of Pretti, Homan declined to answer specifically on that incident, but did say it's important to let the investigation play out.
"I'm not here because this mission was carried out perfectly. Nothing is perfect," Homan added.
Minnesota's chief federal judge would certainly agree to that statement about not being perfect.
Judge Patrick Schiltz Wednesday saying that ICE has disobeyed at least 96 judicial directives stemming from immigration cases this month alone. He says that’s more than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence. The judge wrote:
“This list should give pause to anyone — no matter his or her political beliefs.”
Schiltz had ordered ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons to appear in his courtroom this Friday to explain the violations but canceled that after ICE agreed to release an immigrant Schiltz ruled had been wrongly detained.
But Homan was also adamant that the administration isn’t surrendering their mission, saying that drawdown of agents could happen faster with more cooperation locally.
Mayor Frey heading to Washington urging an end to ICE operations
Mayor Jacob Frey is traveling to Washington, D.C. Thursday to attend the U.S. Conference of Mayors, where he will meet with mayors and federal lawmakers from across the country to advocate for an end to Operation Metro Surge and what they are calling "other unlawful ICE operations."
“Minneapolis may be where we’ve seen one of the largest ICE deployments in the country, but it will not be the last if we fail to act,” said Mayor Frey. “I’m going to Washington to make the case for ending this strategy and replacing it with approaches that build trust, improve safety, and put our residents first.”
The mayor will also meet with federal lawmakers to discuss the impacts ICE operations have had in Minnesota, and most specifically in Minneapolis. These conversations come as the Senate debates the 2026 budget for the Department of Homeland Security.
Senate Democrats are threatening to block legislation Thursday to fund the Department of Homeland Security and several other agencies, potentially bringing the government a step closer to a partial shutdown Friday if Republicans and the White House don’t agree to restrict President Donald Trump’s surge of immigration enforcement.
As the country reels from the killings of two protesters by federal agents in Minneapolis, irate Senate Democrats are demanding that officers take off their masks, identify themselves and obtain judicial warrants showing probable cause for arrests. If those are not met, Democrats say they are prepared to block the wide-ranging spending bill, denying Republicans the votes they need to pass it and triggering a shutdown at midnight on Friday.
Feds already signal a shift in strategy in Maine
U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said Thursday that immigration officials have ceased their "enhanced operations” in the state, the site of an enforcement surge and more than 200 arrests since last week.
Collins, a Republican, made the announcement after saying she had several direct communications with Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem.
“There are currently no ongoing or planned large-scale ICE operations here,” Collins said in a statement. “I have been urging Secretary Noem and others in the Administration to get ICE to reconsider its approach to immigration enforcement in the state."
Collins said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and border patrol officials “will continue their normal operations that have been ongoing here for many years.”