As Operation Metro Surge comes to an end, Border Czar Tom Homan has gained cooperation from almost every Minnesota county despite the protests and the sanctuary pushback. Beyond the headlines, a bold Minnesota sheriff who puts public safety before politics offered some unique perspective about the chaos and the hard-won cooperation.
WATCH:
Mille Lacs County Sheriff Kyle Burton joined Liz Collin on her podcast. In what now seems like a prediction, Sheriff Burton previously joined Collin back in September and talked about the need for cooperation between federal and local law enforcement.
The chaos and the anti-ICE rhetoric that has unfolded since seems to have proved his point.
“I definitely support people’s First Amendment right to peacefully protest. And while there was some of that going on down there, a lot of what we saw was not peaceful exercise of your First Amendment rights. When you start seeing people blocking roads with vehicles, throwing rocks and bottles and chunks of ice and whatever else they can get their hands on at law enforcement officers, that’s outside the scope of your First Amendment rights,” Sheriff Burton said.
“I think most of the people that sat back and watched probably felt the same way you and I did. We’re disgusted by it,” he added.
🚨VIDEO: “Little baby b*tches”
“Go f*** yourself”
“C*nt”
15 seconds outside the Whipple Federal Building as @AlphaNews returned to cover the end of Operation Metro Surge.
The scene has played out for months for those who work in the building as they come and go.
Profanity… pic.twitter.com/55oKSjAhWx
— Liz Collin (@lizcollin) February 18, 2026
As anti-ICE activity continued outside the Whipple Federal Building, Alpha News viewers wondered why this was allowed to happen in the first place—and why it was allowed to continue for so long.
Collin asked Sheriff Burton about what would happen if that took place in Mille Lacs County.
“Well, we would have a zero tolerance policy for it. We’ve already put internal memos out to all my staff in the event something like that were to happen and all of our police chiefs in the county are on board too, that it would be zero tolerance. If you’re actively obstructing any law enforcement, it doesn’t matter what three letter agency they work for. If you’re putting your vehicle in the street or putting hands on officers, agents, or throwing things at them, you’re going to jail,” Sheriff Burton explained.
“I think the reason you saw that down there is because Minneapolis in particular made it very clear back as early as last summer that they were not going to help at all, even with crowd control, so it’s not really a surprise — it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anybody that it got as bad as it did,” he said.
While ICE was carrying out Operation Metro Surge, Sheriff Burton met with Border Czar Homan. Burton explained that, “When we met with the border czar … they’re not expecting us to be federal agents. They’re not expecting us to be immigration agents. They’re just expecting basically two things.”
“One, if we’ve got people inside of our jails that they have detainers on, we at least pick up the phone and call them and say, ‘Hey, this person is going to be released at such and such a time,’ and to try to facilitate as best as possible transfer of custody like we would for anybody else, right? If the Washington County Sheriff’s Office calls me tomorrow and says, ‘Hey, you know, you’ve got one on one of our warrants. We’d like to come get them.’ We’re absolutely going to try to facilitate the transfer of custody inside of a sally port rather than just saying this guy can go wait on the sidewalk for Washington County to get here. That doesn’t make any sense,” Burton explained.
He continued by explaining that, “The other thing is just some help with situations like we saw where you’ve got violent agitators and rioters out getting in their way, throwing things at them, assaulting them, hurling fluids on them, whatever the case, some support on that front to actually throw people in jail for doing those things, because they shouldn’t be doing them. They should be held accountable for them. And it’s disturbing that as much of it was allowed to go on as it did.”
“And then you’ve got some of these certain politicians, whether it’s Mayor Frey, Walz, Peggy Flanagan, making public statements saying that, you know, we’re not going to support immigration enforcement … you have all these government officials for months and months telling people, feeding all this information to people, and they’re consuming that, and these are the leadership, it’s no wonder they act out the way they do,” Burton added.
“You’ve got all this propaganda, for lack of a better term, and these people are consuming it, and then they act accordingly. It’s pretty simple,” he said.
Sheriff Burton took the media to task for their role in all of the chaos, and how one city in his county has been treated for its agreement to cooperate with ICE, specifically addressing a recent Star Tribune story on the city of Isle.
Burton also offered advice for other law enforcement leaders, and those who may be skeptical about ICE cooperation.
“Immigration enforcement is going to happen whether you like it or not. It’s going to happen in your community. It’s going to happen in your county and in your town, whether you agree with it or not politically. And if you’re a police chief or a sheriff, you better get on the front end of that and get involved and communicate because if you don’t, you’re going to have no say in what that looks like in your community,” Burton said.
“I think it’s much better to have the local law enforcement paired with the federal agents,” he added. “It helps with transparency. It helps with accountability. I don’t understand why anybody has a negative view of it at all. That doesn’t make any sense to me.”
Liz Collin
Liz Collin is a multi-Emmy-Award-winning investigative reporter, news anchor, and producer who cares about Minnesota. She is the producer of The Fall of Minneapolis and Minnesota v We the People documentary films, and author of the Amazon best-selling book, They’re Lying: The Media, the Left, and The Death of George Floyd. Her work has prompted important state laws. Yet perhaps most of all, Liz has been giving a voice to the truth—and helping others tell their stories—for more than 20 years.
Dr. JC Chaix
Dr. JC Chaix is an editor, educator, and an expert in media studies. He wrote and directed the Alpha News documentary "The Fall of Minneapolis" and "Minnesota v We the People."
