Border Czar Tom Homan announced Thursday that Operation Metro Surge has come to a close. That immigration enforcement effort, which began in December, saw thousands of immigration agents come to Minnesota and attracted national media attention.
Citing the “unprecedented levels of coordination we have obtained from state and local officials,” as well as the “success that has been had arresting public safety threats,” Homan said he proposed to President Donald Trump that Operation Metro Surge conclude.
According to Homan, immigration officers have already begun leaving Minnesota, and the departure of those officers will continue into next week. However, the border czar did say immigration enforcement will continue in Minnesota despite the operation’s conclusion.
Notably, Homan rejected the idea that the Trump administration is backing away from its pledge to carry out mass deportations, saying, “Look at the data. Record number of arrests and deportations under President Trump’s first year, and we’ll continue that effort.”
While much of the mainstream media has focused on the clash between state, local, and federal entities that happened during Operation Metro Surge, less attention has been paid to what was achieved during the immigration enforcement effort itself.
‘We got more cooperation with more jails than we had before we got here’
Last year, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison issued a legal opinion which said county jails are not allowed to keep an illegal alien in their custody just because ICE issues a civil immigration detainer requesting custody of that illegal alien.
In short, Ellison explained that jails can hold suspected criminals until they post bail, but ICE detainers do not give jails authority to hold an inmate past the point when they would otherwise be released. According to Ellison, such a hold would be an unlawful arrest.
Like many places throughout the country, Minnesota jurisdictions have allowed illegal aliens to cycle in and out of jails without alerting federal authorities.
Announcing the conclusion of Operation Metro Surge, Homan said the attorney general has acknowledged that county jails can notify ICE about illegal aliens in their jails as long as those jails do not hold those aliens longer than when they would normally be released.
Alpha News reached out to Ellison for this story but did not hear back prior to publication.
“We now have the ability to arrest criminal aliens in the safety and security of jails throughout the state at the time that they’re being released, like we’ve done in other states,” Homan said.
To that end, Homan ordered strategic placement of immigration officers around the state so federal officials can quickly respond to jails with illegal aliens. Homan said arresting those illegal aliens in jails is safer and does not require large operations.
“I have not met one county jail that has said no to us, they want to work with us,” Homan said at his press conference. He later noted that “we got more cooperation with more jails than we had before we got here. That’s a good thing.”
Operation Metro Surge by the numbers
“As a result of this surge operation, we have greatly reduced the number of targets for enforcement actions,” Homan said on Thursday. “And many criminal aliens have been arrested and taken off the streets including murderers, sex offenders, national security threats, gang members, and other violent criminals.”
A spokesperson for DHS told Alpha News that “DHS law enforcement have arrested over 4,000 criminal illegal aliens including vicious murderers, rapists, child pedophiles and incredibly dangerous individuals” since Operation Metro Surge began.
DHS has published a database containing the “worst of the worst criminal aliens” that have been arrested by ICE. When searching Minnesota records, that database yields over 480 individuals from countries such as Somalia, Mexico, Laos, El Salvador, and Liberia.
The DHS spokesperson also said the agency “will continue [to] enforce the laws of this country, including in Minneapolis and across the state of Minnesota.”
During his Thursday press conference, Homan said “in addition to taking public safety threats off the street, ICE here in this state have located 3,364 missing, unaccompanied alien children; children the last administration lost and weren’t even looking for.”
Alpha News reached out to DHS to get more details about the missing children who were located in Minnesota. The agency said DHS Secretary Kristin Noem is “leading efforts to rescue and stop the exploitation of the 450,000 unaccompanied children the Biden administration lost or placed with unvetted sponsors.”
“Many of the children who came across the border unaccompanied were allowed to be placed with sponsors who were smugglers and sex traffickers,” DHS continued. “The Trump administration has located more than 145,000 of these children in-person, in the United States, through visits and door knocks.”
During his press conference, Homan acknowledged that there were “issues” with Operation Metro Surge, but “we fixed those issues.”
“We’ve had great success with this operation, and we’re leaving Minnesota safer,” Homan said. “The surge is leaving Minnesota safer, Minneapolis safer, because of the cooperation we got with the counties and the state and local law enforcement responding to our needs. I’ll say it again, [Minnesota is] less of a sanctuary state for criminals.”
Luke Sprinkel
Luke Sprinkel previously worked as a Legislative Assistant at the Minnesota House of Representatives. He grew up as a Missionary Kid (MK) living in England, Thailand, Tanzania, and the Middle East. Luke graduated from Regent University in 2018.
