Border Czar Tom Homan has taken a swipe at Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem as he announced the Trump administration is pulling 700 federal agents out of Minnesota.
Homan conceded that Noem’s immigration crackdown had not been a ‘perfect operation’ at a news conference in Minneapolis on Wednesday after the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
Noem’s longtime rival Homan was parachuted into Minneapolis last week after the Homeland chief infuriated Donald Trump when she parroted White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller’s claim that Pretti was a ‘domestic terrorist.’
Homan thanked Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey as he announced a deal with the Democratic leaders to deport illegal immigrants from local jails, meaning fewer federal agents will be required on the streets to make arrests.
‘Effective immediately, we will draw down 700 people, effective today, 700 law enforcement personnel,’ Homan said.
It comes after Vice President JD Vance denied the suggestion that Trump was backing down from his mass deportation pledge in an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail on Tuesday.
‘We’re not moving back on anything. We’re just trying to actually encourage cooperation so that we get a little bit less chaos,’ Vance told the Mail.
Operation Metro Surge has seen 3,000 additional immigration officers sent to the northern state. It has yielded thousands of immigrant arrests but also resulted in the deaths of two Americans who confronted law enforcement officers.