AP photo
MINNEAPOLIS (Minnesota Reformer) — Department of Homeland Security officials say fewer than 500 immigration agents remain in Minnesota now that Operation Metro Surge has concluded, U.S. Rep. Angie Craig said Friday after touring the Whipple Federal Building with U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar.
That’s still three times the pre-surge number of ICE agents in Minnesota, which was 150, Gov. Tim Walz said earlier this month.
Omar, a Minneapolis Democrat, and Craig, a suburban Democrat running for U.S. Senate, inspected the Whipple building Friday at noon after providing seven days’ notice to Homeland Security, which the agency now requires.
All detainees were moved out of the building half an hour before the members of Congress arrived, Omar and Craig said.
“It seems a little too convenient, knowing that our scheduled visit was going to be at 12 p.m., that the last detainees would be transported out of the facility at 11:30,” Omar said.
Democratic lawmakers have sued the Trump administration over its policy requiring visits to ICE detention facilities be scheduled a week in advance; federal law grants them unannounced access to facilities holding people awaiting deportation.
Craig said the Whipple building’s detention area was clean and empty.
“What we saw today was very, very different from what the state has experienced under Operation Metro Surge,” she said.
Immigration agents are now averaging around 20 arrests per day, Craig said, and those detainees are quickly transferred and held in county jails.
Craig said she’s taking everything DHS says with a grain of salt, but that agency officials told her ICE agents should tell members of the public their badge numbers when asked. The anonymity of federal agents has been a point of contention since they started wearing masks last year, unlike other law enforcement agencies.
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