Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt is addressing the apparent end of Operation Metro Surge and clarifying her deputies' involvement in the operation.
The sheriff confirmed that while the federal operation is concluding, her office will not change its policies to include civil immigration enforcement.
Witt emphasized that deputies will focus on rebuilding community trust and maintaining public safety at locations around the metro, including the Whipple Federal Building at Fort Snelling, which has been the staging point for ICE and Border Patrol.
"Our office is operating in the exact same way as it did when I took office here at the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office," Witt said. "We have not entered into any new agreements with the federal government despite what some influential leaders have conveyed."
Witt says the department is now reviewing its performance during the surge to determine how to improve future local and federal coordination.
Sheriff Witt is also adding any allegations of "backroom deals" with federal authorities are false, and clarified a situation where eyewitnesses reported people being handed over to ICE inside the Hennepin County Government Center by deputities. Witt said those claims are full of "misinformation."
"I get how things can be perceived, but then that's why people should ask the questions again," Witt said. "We're not going to lie about the decisions we make, whether we're right or we're wrong. We're going to stand on them, and we're always going to try to improve ourselves to be better. But no, that just didn't happen. It didn't happen for any reasons like signing an agreement or anything like that."
An eyewitness to the situation, who is a public defender in Hennepin County, said it appeared that sheriff's deputies were assisting ICE, which the department clarified later in the day adding context to the situation and said the deputies involved were dispatched on a reported fight call. They arrived on scene to find federal agents attempting to take into custody two individuals.
White House border czar Tom Homan said on Thursday that they'll begin a significant draw down of federal, and he is crediting cooperation from state and local officials. Homan did not specify which local officials or counties were now cooperating when they previously hadn't been.
Witt along with many local and state officials have said numerous times since the start of Operation Metro Surge that they are willing to cooperate with federal officials, including turning over those in jails and prisons they are legally allowed to release. That does not include those still serving sentences, or situations where local authorities would be forced to hold someone longer than legally allowed.