Trump’s ‘border tsar’ says 700 federal agents leaving Minnesota

In December, US President Donald Trump ordered a wave of federal immigration agents to Minnesota as part of a crackdown on illegal immigration to the US.

About 2,000 agents from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) and other federal agencies were deployed Minneapolis as of 14 January, officials previously told BBC’s US partner CBS News, as well as an additional 800 US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents including Border Patrol staff.

It is thought some agents had left prior to Homan’s decision to cut the number by 700 today. He said 2,000 officers would remain.

Homan was drafted to run the operation in Minneapolis following mass protests against the fatal shootings of two US citizens – Renee Good and Alex Pretti – by federal agents in Minnesota in January.

In response, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey called for federal immigration enforcement agents to be removed entirely from the state’s capital region, while Trump said his administration was “going to de-escalate a little bit”.

What comes next is unclear.

Homan said today that his plan is to get back to the usual number of officers in Minneapolis before the December deployment.

But he added that any further withdrawal would depend on the co-operation of local law enforcement and the wider community.