DHS to pull 700 officers from Minnesota, leaving about 2,000 officers on the ground. Here’s what we know

By Hanna Park, CNN

(CNN) — The Trump administration has announced it is reducing its federal law enforcement presence in Minnesota and President Donald Trump suggested using a “softer touch” in carrying out his aggressive immigration crackdown, after the second fatal shooting of a US citizen by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis.

The Twin Cities has been the focal point of Trump’s crackdown since early December, when the Department of Homeland Security launched Operation Metro Surge, which saw the deployment of roughly 3,000 federal agents to Minnesota and sparked nationwide protests over federal agents’ aggressive tactics and confrontations with the public.

White House border czar Tom Homan said Wednesday that 700 federal law enforcement personnel will be withdrawn from Minnesota “effective immediately,” leaving “around 2,000” immigration officers still in the state.

Homan said the drawdown was a result of increased cooperation between Minnesota county jails and federal immigration officials. The administration’s goal is “to achieve a complete drawdown,” he said, but noted that depends on additional cooperation and an end to security threats against federal officials operating in the state.

Here’s what we know about the latest developments:

Trump signals ‘softer touch’ on immigration

President Trump told NBC News he directed the reduction in federal personnel in Minnesota and signaled the possibility of less aggressive tactics in his immigration crackdown.

“Maybe we can use a little bit of a softer touch, but you still have to be tough,” Trump said in an exclusive interview with NBC News when asked what he had learned from the escalating situation in Minneapolis in recent weeks.

The president insisted his administration will continue to target criminals and, like Homan, indicated the reduction in federal personnel was due to increased coordination between local jails and Immigration and Customs Enforcement regarding undocumented immigrants in custody.

“Give us the murderers that they’re holding, and all of the bad people, drug dealers, all of the bad people we allowed in our country,” Trump told NBC News.

Homan, who arrived in Minnesota last week in the wake of Pretti’s killing, said “an unprecedented number of counties (are) communicating with us now,” noting, “More officers taking custody of criminal aliens directly from the jails means less officers on the street doing criminal operations.”

But Homan also reiterated that immigration enforcement efforts would continue and that undocumented criminals would not be the only ones detained.

“If you’re in the country illegally, you are not off the table,” Homan had told reporters. “Let me be clear, President Trump fully intends to achieve mass deportations during this administration, and immigration enforcement actions will continue every day throughout this country.”

Homan said the administration’s goal is to eventually draw down all of the federal personnel in Minnesota as part of the immigration surge, but doing so will require further cooperation from state and local officials.

“A complete drawdown is going to depend on cooperation, continued cooperation, of local and state law enforcement and the decrease of the violence, the rhetoric and the attacks against ice and border patrol,” Homan said.

DHS rollout of body-worn cameras will start in Minneapolis, Homan says

The Trump administration plans to roll out body-worn cameras for federal agents nationwide, beginning with a focused deployment in Minneapolis, Homan said Wednesday, acknowledging that body cameras were not consistently used during enforcement operations in the city.

Homan said the issue was raised directly by officers in the field as he began to “walk around and talk to the people here,” noting that some Minneapolis officers were equipped with body cameras while “others didn’t.”

“During our efforts to identify and implement improvements of how operations are planned, conducted, and managed, we identified a gap in regard to the use of body-worn cameras. That inconsistency was unacceptable, so we moved immediately to prioritize full body cam deployment in this city,” Homan said.

The comments come two days after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced that all DHS officers operating on the ground in Minneapolis will be issued body cameras.

Following Pretti’s killing last month by immigration agents, investigators reviewed footage from more than 30 body cameras worn by officers that day as they worked to reconstruct the events leading up to his death.

Minnesota officials respond to drawdown

State and local leaders in Minnesota welcomed the drawdown announcement but urged for the complete withdrawal of immigration officers in the state.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said the drawdown was “a step in the right direction,” but added that “2,000 ICE officers still here is not de‑escalation.”

“My message to the White House has been consistent – Operation Metro Surge has been catastrophic for our businesses and residents. It needs to end immediately,” Frey told CNN in a statement.

Gov. Tim Walz echoed that sentiment on social media, calling for “a faster and larger drawdown of forces, state‑led investigations into the killings” of Pretti and Good, and “an end to this campaign of retribution.”

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison agreed with Walz’s assessment that the drawdown “would be a step in the right direction,” but added that he and his team are “still fighting to end this unlawful and unconstitutional surge.”

“I hope Mr. Homan is successful in his goal of achieving a complete draw-down and ending the surge as soon as possible. The people of Minnesota want and need no less,” the attorney general said in a statement.

Children and families torn apart

The partial pullback comes as children and families across Minnesota continue to be held in immigration detention, amid growing scrutiny of how arrests involving minors are carried out.

Two elementary school brothers from Minnesota were released from immigration detention in Texas with their mother on Wednesday, days after 5‑year‑old Liam Ramos – in a now-infamous blue bunny hat – from the same school district returned home from his own detainment at the facility.

The brothers recognized another student from their school while inside the detention facility’s cafeteria, the Columbia Heights Public Schools district said, adding the boys and their mother are “in good health” and eager to resume the boys’ schooling.

At least six students from the district have been detained this year, CHPS said, prompting school leaders to remain committed to bringing those still in custody home.

Several Minnesota school districts filed a federal lawsuit in US District Court on Wednesday seeking to block immigration enforcement operations at or near schools and bus stops without a judicial warrant or exigent circumstances.

Educators across Minnesota have described half‑empty classrooms and parents fearful of sending their children to school, with one of the state’s education union presidents calling immigration agents “one of the greatest threats to the health and safety of Minnesota’s school-aged children right now.”

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CNN’s Alejandra Jaramillo, Michael Williams, Jennifer Sherwood, Rebekah Riess, Holly Yan, Chris Boyette and Danya Gainor contributed to this report.