Mayor Frey, Governor Walz concede to U.S. Border Czar

In an Epoch Times article released on Thursday, January 29, White House border czar Tom Homan announced in a press conference that meetings held in Minneapolis on Tuesday (January 27) of this week yielded "significant progress" towards getting state and local officials to cooperate with federal enforcement of immigration laws. In spite of Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey yelling and shouting on multiple occasions that ICE and the feds had to leave the state, immigration law enforcement will continue.

Prior to being named Border Czar under the current term of President Donald Trump, Homan worked for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.) under President Barack Obama and also during Trump's first term.

In a statement released by Homan, he described the discussion as follows, "We all agree that we need to support our law enforcement officers and get criminals off the streets. While we don’t agree on everything, these meetings were a productive starting point and I look forward to more conversations with key stakeholders in the days ahead. President Trump has been clear: he wants American cities to be safe and secure for law-abiding residents — and they will be."

The Epoch Times also reported Homan as saying that state and city officials agreed to honor Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainers in prisons across the state, and the degree to which the state allows this will open the door to a drawdown of federal agents. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison agreed with Homan that jails will notify ICE before detained illegal immigrants are released to the public. Instead, federal agents will take that person into federal custody.

In his press conference, Homan said, "The withdrawal of law enforcement resources here is dependent upon cooperation. As we see that cooperation happens, then the redeployment will happen."

According to Homan, during his meetings with Walz and Frey, all agreed to the fact that federal immigration laws were passed by Congress and are the law of the land to be respected by everyone. Furthermore, Homan said that Walz and Frey agreed that ICE is a "legitimate law enforcement agency charged with enforcing those federal laws."

It is unclear at this point whether or not Walz or Frey or any of their subordinates in state or municipal government will communicate to the rioters acting out in the Metro Area the same type of messaging that supports ICE's mission.