The Minnesota Precedent

The Feds broke the sanctuary city model in Minnesota

Border Czar Tom Homan announced on Thursday that Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota is officially coming to an end. Homan explained the conditions on the ground, particularly in the Twin Cities, have met the criteria to no longer need thousands of extra Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and Border Patrol agents. Many Democrats and leftists are declaring victory. Blackpillers are claiming Trump caved. Both are wrong.

What happened in Minnesota over the past six weeks was not primarily a law enforcement operation. It was a political one and it worked.

Since day one of the second Trump administration, Homan has stated that if the Department of Homeland Security was not going to be supported in sanctuary cities, then extra personnel and resources will be sent to those areas to get the job done. Minnesota tested that promise under the worst possible conditions — and the result is that local Democratic leaders who were actively encouraging mobs six weeks ago are now ordering their police to cooperate with federal agents.

That capitulation is the real story, not the 4,000 arrests.

As someone who was on the ground this time last month, the transformation is significant. When violent protests started to occur at the Whipple Federal Building, it was only ICE and Border Patrol agents responding to the rioters. No police or the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office were on scene to respond. This went on for days, until sheriff’s deputies were finally ordered to put themselves between the hostile crowds and federal property.

When hotels that were accused of housing the extra federal agents were under siege from anti-ICE mobs, Minneapolis police were nowhere to be seen. The only time I saw the department intervene was to get one of their squad cars out of the area after it had been surrounded. Once the vehicle was finally away, the anti-ICE crowd started to attack the officers, which included Chief Brian O’Hara. It was only after the crowd broke into the hotel and fought with private security did riot police from the Minnesota State Troopers and Minnesota Department of Natural Resources secure the scene. The whole situation was pointless due to the fact there were no federal agents staying at that hotel, I later confirmed.

What made the situation more perilous was Democrat leaders were egging on and defending the savage mobs. This is why it was necessary to have over 3,000 agents on the ground, not only to increase the number of arrests, but to be part of Quick Reaction Forces to protect the agents making arrests.

That was January. Here is February: in the weeks since the two fatal shootings involving both ICE and Border Patrol, local politicians have wised up to allow their departments to do their jobs and intervene with violent protests before they get too out of hand. Homan pointed out the need for QRFs to intervene has dropped significantly. While protests still occur in Minneapolis and at the Whipple Building, they are barely worth reporting on.

The question now is whether Minnesota is a one-off or a template.

The logic is straightforward. The administration surged overwhelming federal resources into a hostile jurisdiction. Local leaders had two options: cooperate, or watch their cities become indefinite federal occupation zones. They chose cooperation. The surge ends, but the precedent remains — and every sanctuary city mayor watched it happen.

The enforcement results speak for themselves. The enhanced operation resulted in over 4,000 arrests. Homan did not say DHS is leaving the state entirely, just the extra resources and personnel. Operations are still being conducted in Tim Walz’s state. The agents leaving Minnesota will now be able to focus on other parts of the country to continue the mission.

But the broader deterrence picture matters more than any single operation. At the same time critics are claiming mass deportations are “over,” CBS News acknowledged the number of DHS detainees choosing to leave had risen every month in 2025. In December, that number reached 38%. This trend is happening with the increased population of illegal aliens sitting in detention. An assistant professor at Syracuse University took part in a project to map out detention centers across the United States. According to his research, the network of facilities has nearly doubled.

I say this as someone who believes the “in your face” operations are more effective in getting illegal aliens to self-deport, in addition to making more arrests with the extra agents. At the end of the day, it will be the people who make the decision to leave on their own accord that will make mass deportations truly achieved.

The next few weeks are crucial to see if ending the surge in Minnesota will work to maintain the peace. I have previously written about my concerns with DHS backing down in the face of leftist violence, but there has not been any significant confrontations since the Alex Pretti shooting and getting greater cooperation with local law enforcement.

Should Minneapolis and St. Paul react with violence again, I’m confident the Trump administration will deploy resources needed to address the problem. And every blue city mayor knows it.

Julio Rosas is an acclaimed journalist who has worked at The Blaze, Townhall, Washington Examiner, Mediaite, and the Independent Journal Review. One of Chris Rufo’s initial Manhattan Institute Logos Fellows, Julio is author of Fiery But Mostly Peaceful: The 2020 Riots and the Gaslighting of America, a book based on his nationally recognized field reporting that year. He now works as a Field Reporter at MostlyPeaceful.media.