Border Czar Tom Homan is making changes in Minneapolis, and while the left may think the changes signal a retreat, they do not. It’s anything but.
“Given this increase in unprecedented collaboration, and as a result of the need for less law enforcement officers to do this work in a safer environment, I have announced effective immediately, we will draw down seven hundred people effective today. Seven hundred law enforcement personnel,” Homan said.
He also said Customs and Border Protection personnel have been fully integrated into the ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) team under a single, unified chain of command. “We have also fully integrated CBP personnel into the ICE ERO team structure under one unified chain of command. Not two chains of command, there’d be one chain of command here,” Homan said, adding that the approach reflects standard practice in major enforcement efforts. “Any large enforcement operation I’ve ever been involved with, there’s one chain of command, and that’s where we’re moving forward.”
Homan said ICE will return to its traditional model of targeted immigration enforcement. He noted that, “moving forward, ICE will be conducting targeted immigration enforcement operations, like ICE has traditionally done for decades, based on reasonable suspicion to question and detain.” He said those operations, along with investigations into transnational criminal organizations, will focus on national security and public safety. “ICE will conduct these operations and transnational criminal organization investigations with a focus on national security and public safety,” Homan said.
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Homan emphasized that prioritizing serious threats does not mean abandoning broader enforcement. “I want to be clear, just because you prioritize public safety threats don’t mean we forget about everybody else,” he said. “We will continue to enforce the immigration laws in this country.”
TOM HOMAN: “Given this increase in unprecedented collaboration and as a result of the need for less law enforcement officers to do this work in a safer environment, I have announced effective immediately, we’ll draw down 700 people effective today.” pic.twitter.com/uKPt9LPT4p
— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) February 4, 2026
Some on the left may see this as a victory for their cause. Trust me, it’s not. Homan called it a “safer, smarter ICE strategy” that is only possible due to the cooperation with local authorities and a more efficient use of manpower. He said ICE now has “an unprecedented number of counties communicating with us now and allowing ICE to take custody of illegal aliens before they hit the streets,” calling the level of cooperation “unprecedented.”
In other words, the Trump administration has persuaded Walz and Frey to allow local law enforcement to assist ICE agents, making it easier and safer for them to do their jobs.
“I’ll say it again, this is efficient and requires only one or two officers to assume custody of a criminal alien target, rather than eight or ten officers going into the community and arresting that public safety threat,” Homan said, adding that this model “frees up more officers to arrest or remove criminal aliens.”
He stressed that pulling agents off repetitive street operations and instead taking custody of offenders directly from jails increases overall enforcement capacity. “More officers taking custody of criminal aliens directly from the jails means less officers on the street doing criminal operations,” Homan said, adding that “this is smart law enforcement, not less law enforcement.”
Homan said the strategy improves safety across the board. “It’s safer for the community, safer for the officers, and safer for the alien,” he said, and he pointed specifically to coordination in Minnesota as an example: “This coordination also makes it far more safe for the Twin Cities.” He added, “arresting a public safety threat in the safety and security of a jail is the safest thing we could do.”
.@RealTomHoman in Minnesota: “We currently have an unprecedented number of counties communicating with us now and allowing ICE to take custody of illegal aliens BEFORE they hit the streets.”pic.twitter.com/Ec7pQaiMWk
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) February 4, 2026
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