Homan says ICE fixed Minneapolis crackdown after deadly backlash

Tom Homan tried to cast the Minneapolis immigration crackdown as a corrected lesson, not a policy failure, even after two people were killed and residents were left living with the fallout of a federal surge that put roughly 2,000 agents in the Twin Cities.

In a May 5 interview with Camilo Montoya-Galvez, Homan said “things weren’t perfect” during the operation and that ICE “fixed it,” a line that signaled the Trump administration’s argument that it had learned to apply “smarter” deportation tactics after the backlash. He also stressed that the government was not backing down from mass deportations.

The operation, known as Operation Metro Surge, began in early January 2026 amid a widening fraud scandal. Federal agents flooded Minneapolis and nearby cities with a level of force that quickly turned the city into a national flashpoint over immigration, policing and civil liberties. On Jan. 7, ICE officer shot and killed Renee Nicole Good during a protest over ICE operations in south Minneapolis. Eighteen days later, on Jan. 25, Border Patrol agents shot and killed 37-year-old Alex Pretti, deepening fear across the city.

After the killings, federal officials shifted their language. On Jan. 29, Homan said agents would “draw down” in Minnesota and move toward more targeted enforcement focused on public-safety threats and criminals. On Feb. 12, he said the Minnesota crackdown was ending. Homan later tied the drawdown to access in state jails, saying the plan depended on federal officials being able to use those facilities.

What changed in practice remains the central question. Homan’s new account described a cleaner, narrower approach, but the public record of the operation is still defined by protest, deaths and a heavy federal footprint that swept through neighborhoods with little room for due process or trust. State and local officials warned that the crackdown caused deaths, trauma and fear, and immigration lawyers said the operation spread confusion well beyond the people agents claimed to be targeting.

The conflict also widened into a legal fight. CBS News reported that the Justice Department investigated Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey over alleged efforts to impede immigration agents, and federal prosecutors later sought subpoenas tied to the broader clash.

For Minneapolis, the legacy of the surge was not just the size of the operation, but the violence and fear it left behind. The administration now says it has corrected course. The unanswered question is whether the fix reduced mistakes, or merely made the enforcement less visible.