Homan Declares Victory and Pulls Federal Agents From Minnesota

When Law Enforcement Actually Works

Tom Homan stood in Minneapolis on Thursday and said something you don’t hear often enough from government officials: mission accomplished. Operation Metro Surge is ending. The federal immigration officers flooding Minnesota since late January will draw down over the next week, heading back to their home stations or deploying elsewhere to continue the work that frankly should’ve been done years ago.

The border czar didn’t mince words at his news conference at Fort Snelling. He looked at two things before recommending the drawdown to President Trump. First, the operation netted a significant number of public safety threats. You know, the kind of people who shouldn’t be walking our streets in the first place. Second, the need for quick response force teams dropped dramatically because the “agitators” causing chaos mostly disappeared.

“I don’t want to see any more bloodshed,” Homan said. Simple. Direct. Exactly what you’d want from someone actually trying to protect communities instead of scoring political points.

The Usual Suspects Respond Predictably

Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey wasted no time painting this as some kind of occupation coming to an end. Walz talked about a “long road to recovery” like federal law enforcement doing its job somehow devastated the state. Frey went even further, calling it an “occupation” and framing resistance as patriotic.

Let’s be clear about something. Enforcing immigration law isn’t an occupation. It’s governance. When you have sanctuary policies that essentially roll out the welcome mat for people who entered illegally and then committed additional crimes, you’re not being compassionate. You’re being reckless with your citizens’ safety.

Attorney General Keith Ellison testified before the Senate the same morning, calling the operation “real harm” and claiming it was retribution against Minnesota’s policies and values. Here’s the thing though. If your policies create a magnet for criminal aliens, maybe the problem isn’t the federal response. Maybe it’s the policies.

U.S. House Majority Whip Tom Emmer said it plainly at that same hearing. The clashes in Minnesota stemmed directly from “radical sanctuary state and city policies” that turned the state into a safe haven for people who shouldn’t be here. That’s not rhetoric. That’s cause and effect.

What Actually Happened Here

The surge brought roughly 2,000 federal agents into Minnesota, up from around 150 before the operation began. That’s a massive deployment, and it happened because the situation demanded it. Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino and his team arrived in late January. By early February, Homan announced a partial drawdown of 700 personnel as progress became evident.

This wasn’t about terrorizing communities. It was about removing public safety threats. The kind of individuals who’ve already broken our laws by entering illegally and then decided to break more laws once they got here. Every community deserves protection from violent criminals, regardless of immigration status. But when those criminals are foreign nationals who exploited our border security failures, there’s an added layer of absurdity to defending their presence.

The Real American Values at Stake

Mayor Frey talked about love for neighbors and resolve to endure. Those are fine sentiments. But you know what else is deeply American? Following the law. Protecting citizens. Maintaining sovereignty over who enters and stays in our country.

The left loves to frame immigration enforcement as somehow un-American or cruel. They’ve successfully convinced huge swaths of people that compassion means ignoring laws and consequences. That’s not compassion. That’s chaos dressed up in moral superiority.

Real compassion means protecting the communities where legal immigrants and native-born citizens live, work, and raise families. It means not allowing criminal aliens to victimize people just because enforcing the law might make some politicians uncomfortable.

Where We Go From Here

Homan made it clear that the agents leaving Minnesota aren’t going on vacation. They’re heading to other parts of the country where similar work needs doing. President Trump promised strong border security and consequences for illegal entry. That promise is being kept, one operation at a time.

The Minnesota surge worked because it focused on public safety threats and didn’t back down when activists tried to interfere. That’s the model. Go in with overwhelming force, remove the dangerous individuals, and establish that federal law means something again.

Will Minnesota’s leaders learn anything from this? Probably not. Walz and Frey seem committed to their sanctuary approach despite the obvious problems it creates. But at least for now, the communities those leaders claim to care about are safer than they were six weeks ago.

That’s what winning looks like when you’re serious about law enforcement instead of just posturing about values. The operation ended because it succeeded, not because anyone gave up. And those federal agents who made it happen deserve credit for doing a tough job in a hostile political environment.

The work continues elsewhere. As it should.

American Conservatives