ICE Shooting Protests: Trump Administration to Withdraw 700 Federal Immigration Agents from Minnesota

The Trump administration has announced a partial drawdown of federal immigration personnel in Minnesota, with around 700 agents set to be withdrawn from the state. The announcement was made on Wednesday by White House border czar Tom Homan, amid sustained protests over aggressive immigration enforcement and the fatal shooting of a local woman last month.

The move comes after President Donald Trump ordered the deployment of thousands of heavily armed Federal Agents in and around Minneapolis earlier this year, a decision that sparked widespread demonstrations and renewed debate over federal intervention in Democratic-led states.

Homan explained that the reduction was made possible due to what he described as the “unprecedented” cooperation of Minnesota’s elected county sheriffs, who oversee local jail systems and have agreed to work more closely with federal immigration authorities.

“Let me be very clear,” Homan said during a press conference. “President Trump fully intends to carry out mass deportations during this administration. Immigration enforcement operations will continue every single day across this country.”

He stressed that the withdrawal does not signal a policy reversal. “The president made a promise, and we have not received any new instructions to change course,” Homan added.

Despite the pullback, Homan confirmed that approximately 2,000 federal immigration agents will remain active across Minnesota, continuing enforcement operations throughout the state.

The announcement follows a statement by President Trump over the weekend, in which he said the Department of Homeland Security had been instructed not to involve itself in protests in Democratic-controlled cities unless local authorities formally request federal assistance or federal property is under threat.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump emphasized that state and city governments are primarily responsible for maintaining Law and Order within their jurisdictions. However, the administration clarified that ICE and US Border Patrol officers would continue to provide security at federal facilities in the meantime.

The decision comes in the wake of nationwide protests on Friday, including a major demonstration in Minneapolis, where activists demanded the removal of federal immigration agents from Minnesota altogether.

Public anger intensified after the shooting deaths of two US citizens in recent weeks. In Minneapolis, tensions escalated when the Trump administration deployed roughly 3,000 federal officers as part of an intensified immigration enforcement push, leading to confrontations between agents, protesters, and civil rights groups.

The Minnesota deployment aligns with a broader Trump strategy of sending federal law enforcement personnel or, in some cases, the National Guard into Democratic-leaning cities such as Portland, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington, DC, to address immigration violations and crime.

While Trump argues that these interventions are necessary to maintain law and order, local leaders in many of these cities have rejected claims of widespread crime, highlighting ongoing friction between federal authorities and state or municipal governments.

Fatal ICE Shooting Triggers Nationwide Outrage

The protests were further fueled by the killing of 37-year-old Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer last month while sitting in her car.

Good was a volunteer with a community-based network that monitors, tracks, and documents ICE operations in Minneapolis. Her death occurred shortly after the Department of Homeland Security—ICE’s parent agency—deployed around 2,000 federal officers to the city as part of what it described as the “largest DHS operation ever.”

Civil liberties groups and migrant rights organizations responded by organizing demonstrations across the country, condemning what they called excessive force and unchecked federal authority.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat, strongly criticized the deployment, calling it “reckless” and likening the administration’s approach to “governance by reality television.”

Minnesota had already emerged as a focal point for the Trump administration’s immigration agenda months before the shooting, particularly amid a major welfare Fraud investigation involving members of the state’s large Somali-American community. Trump and senior officials repeatedly accused the state’s Democratic leadership of failing to address immigration and fraud issues.

With federal agents now partially withdrawing, tensions may ease in the short term. However, the administration has made it clear that Minnesota will remain a key battleground in its broader push for stricter immigration enforcement and mass deportations.