ICE access to jails is key to a drawdown in Minnesota, the Trump administration says. Here’s what we know
CNN, KARE, WCCO
By Elizabeth Wolfe, Lauren Mascarenhas, CNN
(CNN) — As tensions reached a fever pitch in Minnesota this week, the Trump administration sent in White House border czar Tom Homan, who said he’s ready to lower the temperature, ease frustrations and draw down the number of federal agents in the city — all while remaining focused on the president’s unprecedented deportation goals.
Homan announced Thursday he is working on a plan to eventually reduce the number of federal agents in the state. But he said the move will be contingent on whether local authorities allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement to take custody of immigrants in prisons and jails.
“More agents in the jail means less agents in the street,” Homan said.
In a city where detentions have largely played out on the streets, Homan’s comments have highlighted a battle that has been unfolding in the background. For weeks, federal and state officials have been exchanging barbs over the issue of ICE detainers — which allow ICE to take custody of incarcerated immigrants — as neither party can agree on how many of these people even exist in the system, CNN has reported.
State corrections officials have accused the Department of Homeland Security of presenting “misinformation” on how many ICE detainers are in the state.
Even as Homan strikes a more conciliatory tone on behalf of the Trump administration, it remains to be seen whether officials are ready to meet on common ground — or how long the drawdown will take.
Here’s what you need to know.
What is an ICE detainer?
If ICE believes there is probable cause to detain a migrant who is in prison or jail, it can send a formal request – known as an ICE detainer — to law enforcement asking that they notify ICE before the person is released. It can also ask for a detainee to be held for up to 48 hours beyond their scheduled release, so they can be turned over to federal custody.
Under Minnesota law, sheriff’s offices must notify ICE if a person being released is convicted of a felony and that person is not a citizen, according to state Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office. In all other cases, such as misdemeanor offenses, “it’s up to each county to decide,” a spokesperson said.
The Minnesota Department of Corrections has been honoring ICE detainers and cooperating with federal authorities, Homan said Thursday. The government is now looking for cooperation from local jails.
How did this become a flashpoint?
As Operation Metro Surge got into full swing earlier this month, more than 3,000 federal immigration agents flooded into Minnesota, carrying out sweeping detentions and facing off with protesters in tense confrontations.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz made a “direct appeal” to Trump in a January 15 post on X, saying, “Let’s turn the temperature down.”
ICE responded with its own post: “The buck stops with you, Governor. Tone down the hostile, inflammatory anti-ICE rhetoric. Honor our immigration detainers. And work with ICE to remove criminal illegal aliens from MN streets.”
Days later, ICE official Marcos Charles suggested detainers sent to “the state’s jails and prisons” weren’t being honored. He later acknowledged the state Department of Corrections had fully cooperated, but said most local sheriffs had not.
DHS has said there are about 1,360 people with ICE detainers in Minnesota prisons and jails. But the Minnesota Department of Corrections says there are only about 300 such people in state and county custody.
“They continue to publicly repeat information that is inaccurate and misleading. This is no longer simple misunderstanding,” Paul Schnell, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Corrections, said on January 22.
Schnell said his department has repeatedly asked DHS to provide underlying data, methodologies or jurisdictional breakdowns but has received no response. The corrections department has created a webpage it says is aimed at “combatting DHS misinformation.”
CNN has reached out to DHS for updated retainer data.
What is Homan’s plan?
Though Homan did not provide details, he said ICE and Customs and Border Protection staff are working on a “drawdown plan” in Minnesota “based on the cooperation” of local officials.
When speaking with state and city officials this week, he said there were many points on which they did not agree. But, he said, “What we did agree upon is not to release public safety risks back in the community and they could be lawfully transferred to ICE.”
Homan said operations in Minnesota will focus on detaining people who are “public safety threats and national security threats.” By allowing agents to arrest incarcerated migrants, he reasoned, fewer agents would have to be on the streets trying to make arrests.
He emphasized that the state corrections department has already been cooperative, and he is looking for collaboration from county jails.
Homan said Thursday morning that he spoke to Ellison, who “clarified for me that county jails may notify ICE of the release dates of criminal public safety risks, so ICE can take custody of them upon their release from the jail.”
Ellison said Thursday he made no agreement with Homan about “how sheriffs share with ICE information about people in their county jails.”
The state attorney general also noted it is against the law in Minnesota for jails to hold an incarcerated person past their scheduled release date, even if a sheriff’s office has agreed to cooperate with ICE. So, ICE would have to be ready to detain a person upon their release.
Is Operation Metro Surge coming to a close?
While Homan has suggested immigration enforcement in Minnesota will “prioritize” criminal arrests, he insisted agents will continue pursuing Trump’s aggressive deportation goals.
“We are not surrendering the president’s mission in immigration enforcement,” Homan said. “Let’s make that clear. Prioritization of criminal aliens doesn’t mean that we forget about everybody else.”
Other undocumented immigrants will still be subject to arrest, he said, vowing he would be “staying ‘til the problem’s gone.”
But Homan is not the only Trump administration official to give Minnesota officials an ultimatum in recent days.
On Saturday, US Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote a letter to Walz stating that he could “bring an end to the chaos in Minnesota” by abandoning sanctuary city policies, sharing confidential data from the state’s social services programs with the Trump administration, and turning over Minnesota’s full, non-public voter rolls to the Department of Justice.
Several Democratic state attorneys general blasted Bondi in a letter Thursday for making demands they said “are without lawful basis and inconsistent with fundamental principles of our federal system.”
It’s unclear how Bondi’s demands will play out now that Homan has tried to lay another path forward in the state.
CNN has sought comment from the Department of Justice.
How do Minnesotans feel?
Some Minnesotans reacted with doubt and concern to Homan’s announcement Thursday, as many residents’ trust in law enforcement has been eroded by the killings of two residents, weeks of clashes and a troubled history of high-profile tragedies.
Some residents said they’re bracing for a prolonged federal presence, questioning whether a drawdown will materialize at all.
Nick Kalt of Stillwater, Minnesota, described the announcement as something to “believe it when you see it.”
“We’re kind of prepping for a long game,” he told CNN.
In South Minneapolis, a resident named Christine said Homan’s comments don’t reflect what she’s witnessing on the streets. “In fact, in my neighborhood, there are more ICE officers out today while Homan was speaking,” she said, adding that she’s called legislators to report what she sees as an escalation, not a pullback.
Denise, a pastor from the South Uptown neighborhood of Minneapolis, lamented what she described as broad erosion of civil liberties in the state.
“Just to see everybody’s constitutional rights run over like a train,” she said. “We’re just simply putting our hands in the air and saying, ‘please stop.’”
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CNN’s Andy Rose, Alaa Elassar, Toni Odejimi and Tierney Sneed contributed to this report.
