U.S. President Donald Trump's administration will reduce the number of federal immigration enforcement agents in Minnesota by 700, although about 2,000 agents will remain on the ground, White House border czar Tom Homan announced on Wednesday (February 4).

Trump has deployed thousands of armed immigration enforcement agents in and around Minneapolis this year to detain and deport migrants, drawing protests.

Homan said he was partially drawing down the deployment because he was seeing "unprecedented" cooperation from Minnesota's elected sheriffs who run county jails.

"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 at a news conference. "President Trump made a promise. And we have not directed otherwise."

Trump, a Republican, and his senior officials have said many migrants must be deported, blaming them, often in sweeping terms, for financial fraud and violent crimes.

Minnesota, which is governed by Democrats, has sued the Trump administration over the surge, which has sparked weeks of protests that led to the killings of two U.S. citizens by federal agents.

Homan wants more jails in Minnesota to allow immigration agents to transfer custody of detained migrants. Some already do. Others, including the main jail in Minneapolis, do not cooperate. Minneapolis and some other cities prohibit their employees, including police, from asking people about their citizenship or cooperating with federal immigration enforcement, saying it threatens public safety if migrants who are victims of or witnesses to crime are afraid to come forward.

DESCRIPCIÓN DE IMÁGENES

SHOWS: MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, UNITED STATES (FEBRUARY 4, 2026) (REUTERS - Access all)

1. WHITE HOUSE BORDER CZAR TOM HOMAN ADDRESSING A NEWS CONFERENCE

2. (SOUNDBITE) (English) WHITE HOUSE BORDER CZAR TOM HOMAN SAYING:

"We have made significant progress under the direction of President Trump. Working with state and local officials here in Minnesota, I expect that to increase in the coming weeks."

3. WIDE OF NEWS CONFERENCE

4. (SOUNDBITE) (English) WHITE HOUSE BORDER CZAR TOM HOMAN SAYING:

"Given this increase in unprecedented collaboration and as a result of the need for fewer law enforcement officers to do this work in a safer environment, I have announced effective immediately, we will draw down 700 people effective today.700 law enforcement personnel."

5. WHITE FLASH

6. (SOUNDBITE) (English) WHITE HOUSE BORDER CZAR TOM HOMAN SAYING:

"During my press conference last week, I announced that moving forward, ICE will be conducting targeted immigration enforcement operations, as ICE has traditionally done for decades. Based on reasonable suspicion to question and detain. ICE will conduct these operations and transnational criminal organization investigations with a focus on national security and public safety. I want to be clear, just because you prioritize public safety threats doesn't mean we forget about everybody else. We will continue to enforce the immigration laws in this country."

7. WHITE FLASH

8. (SOUNDBITE) (English) WHITE HOUSE BORDER CZAR TOM HOMAN SAYING:

"During our efforts to identify and implement improvements in how operations are planned, conducted, and managed, we identified a gap in regard to the use of body-worn cameras. This was actually raised by the workforce when I started walking around talking to people here. Some officers and agents had them, some didn't. That inconsistency was unacceptable, so we moved immediately to prioritize full body cam deployment in the city. I discussed this with Secretary Noem a couple of days ago, and she made the decision to deploy them. The plan is to deploy them nationwide, but it's a priority for the city right now."

9. WHITE FLASH

10. (SOUNDBITE) (English) WHITE HOUSE BORDER CZAR TOM HOMAN SAYING:

"For those who are not a national security threat or public safety risk, you are not exempt from immigration enforcement actions. If you're in the country illegally, you are not off the table. And 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. President Trump made a promise, and we have not directed otherwise.I heard rumors we have, untrue."

11. WHITE FLASH

12. (SOUNDBITE) (English) WHITE HOUSE BORDER CZAR TOM HOMAN SAYING:

"My goal with the support of President Trump is to achieve a complete drawdown and end this surge as soon as we can. But that is largely contingent upon the end of the illegal and threatening activities against ICE and its federal partners that we're seeing in the community. We will not draw down on personnel providing security for our officers. I will not let our officers be put at risk, so we will not draw down on personnel providing security and responding to hostile incidents."

13. WHITE FLASH

14. JOURNALIST (OFF-SCREEN) ASKING HOMAN: "So 700 leaving effective immediately. How many will that leave here once that group is out?"

HOMAN: "Right around 2000"

JOURNALIST: "And what is the pre-operation footprint?"

HOMAN: "150, but we got to remember now that there's special agents on detail here doing the fraud investigation. They're not going anywhere."

15. WHITE FLASH

16. HOMAN LEAVING ROOM