Fewer than 1,000 officers remain of the more than 4,000 federal agents deployed to Minnesota at the height of Operation Metro Surge, according to new federal court filings.
The surge, which the government called the largest immigration enforcement operation in U.S. history, resulted in the arrest of roughly 4,000 immigrants in the Twin Cities, according to an affidavit from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) St. Paul Field Office Director Sam Olson.
Operation Metro Surge began in early December. The flood of immigration agents caused widespread fear, protest and an outpouring of volunteer activity in Minnesota. Renée Nicole Macklin Good and Alex Pretti, both U.S. citizens were shot and killed while observing immigration agents. A Venezuelan man was shot in the leg by an ICE agent and survived.
Olson and Marty Raybon Sr., who led U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s involvement in the surge, detailed their personnel numbers at the order of U.S. District Judge John Tunheim, as part of a lawsuit accusing the federal government of rampant racial profiling and unlawful detentions.
This week, just under 1,000 ICE agents remain in Minnesota, according to Olson’s statement. That includes roughly 270 deportation officers from the Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) division and 700 from the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) division. More than 150 ICE deportation officers were scheduled to leave Minnesota on Wednesday, Feb. 25, court filings state.
The St. Paul Field Office typically employs about 190 agents, 80 of whom work in the Twin Cities with the remainder spread throughout Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota, according to Olson. By March, ICE expects to have 407 extra agents on the ground in Minnesota, 300 of whom will be HSI personnel.
All U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents deployed to Minnesota left the state Monday, according to Rayborn. More than 1,000 Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection agents were in the Twin Cities on Feb. 3.
Operation Metro Surge began in December and expanded in January. Additional agents were sent after ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed observer Renée Nicole Macklin Good on Jan. 7.
More than 3,000 ICE agents were sent to Minnesota during Operation Metro Surge, according to Olson. Those agents were here “at different times and for varying lengths of time,” Olson wrote.
The operation intended to “significantly increase” the number of at-large arrests of people living in the country illegally, Olson wrote. It was solely carried out by federal agents without the assistance of state and local law enforcement, he said.
The largest single drawdown of immigration officers occurred Feb. 4, when 680 Border Patrol agents left the Twin Cities, according to Raybon. That’s the day White House border czar Tom Homan said roughly 700 agents were leaving Minnesota.
More Border Patrol agents steadily left the state in February, with the final 67 agents assigned elsewhere Monday, court filings state.
