Speaking at a press conference in Minneapolis on Wednesday, Trump’s Border Czar, Tom Homan announced that 700 federal immigration agents will be withdrawn from Minnesota, effective immediately. While Homan and the Trump administration scramble to claim this as a “victory,” it is clear that the administration is going forward with a partial drawdown in an attempt to bring down the heat in Minneapolis and nationally as outrage grows over Trump’s immigration crackdown and his approval ratings tank. It is a direct response to the massive solidarity and resistance in Minneapolis against ICE’s brutality.

Over two thousand federal agents still remain on the streets in Minneapolis and the raids, patrols, and deportations continue each day. Homan’s “proposal” is nothing other than a pathetic attempt for the Trump administration to save face. Meanwhile, neighborhoods and schools in Minneapolis are still organizing to fight back against Operation Metro Surge and make sure their communities are safe. They know that they will keep fighting until ICE is gone for good.

Homan claimed that the 25 percent reduction in agents on the ground in Minneapolis and St. Paul was the result of “unprecedented cooperation” between the federal government and state and local officials in Minnesota. Local sheriff departments around the state have signaled that they are willing to worker closer with ICE and CBP, including giving federal agents access to county jails to both detain and interrogate those incarcerated. Homan said that this is “smart law enforcement, not less law enforcement.”

This agreement is as clear a sign as any of the shared role played by the repressive forces of the state, whether they are federal immigration agents, local sheriff departments, or the police. County officials are opening their doors to ICE and CBP in an effort to support their immigration operations, not scale them down. The goal is to make them more effective in targeting immigrants and going ahead with mass deportation efforts, while reducing the risk of “errors” such as the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti that fanned the flames of protests in the area and nationally and have caused a deep crisis of legitimacy for the agency.

After Gregory Bovino was removed as head of the Minneapolis operation, Trump sent Homan in to de-escalate the situation in Minneapolis. Homan has the task of ensuring that Trump is not further weakened by the situation or seen as suffering a resounding defeat, at a moment when the MAGA coalition is particularly strained. At the same time, he must ease tensions in Minneapolis or risk further enflaming class struggle in the Twin Cities and nationally, and further damaging Trump’s abysmal approval ratings if ICE’s brutality continues unabated.

The result is a compromise that leaves the majority of Operation Metro Surge intact and cedes little ground to the demands of the tens of thousands of people across Minneapolis who are demanding the complete withdrawal of ICE from their streets.

For their part, the Democrats — both locally and nationally — are showing their cards. Governor Tim Walz took to social media today to applaud Homan’s announcement, calling the withdrawal of a fraction of federal forces a “step in the right direction” and calling for a “faster and larger drawdown of forces, state-led investigations into the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, and an end to this campaign of retribution.” Other Democratic Party figures like Senator Chuck Schumer echoed Walz’s statement.

The rhetoric is tough, but their actions show a party that is willing to negotiate with Trump while putting immigrants, people of color, and those who resist Trump’s agenda on the line. If Homan can claim that the state is “cooperating” with ICE, that’s only because Walz and Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey are on the other side of the table. Making backroom deals to more quietly and effectively abduct and incarcerate immigrants is not standing in solidarity with immigrants and the workers, students, and communities defending their cities; it’s an attempt to contain the protests in a moment when the Twin Cities region is uniting to fight against the Far Right and challenging the “order” enforced by their supposed representatives in the government. If we learned anything from BLM, it’s that the Democrats are primed to pacify the movement with empty promises as they pave the way Trump’s offensive.

Even as the White House commits to its racist campaign against immigrants and its imperialist offensive on Latin America, it’s clear that the administration has been shaken by what’s happening in Minneapolis and the solidarity it has inspired across the country. Homan’s withdrawal of 700 agents is a clear sign of that. But in a city in revolt from below, kicking ICE out of the communities is possible and within reach. That means organizing to sustain the struggle in our workplaces, schools, and communities. What’s critical in the next days and weeks is organizing spaces in our workplaces, schools, and communities to discuss, plan, and expand the struggle until every single immigration agent is out of the Twin Cities — and carrying the fight forward in Minneapolis and across the country until ICE is abolished and immigrants are safe in their communities and have full rights.

The post Trump Withdraws 700 Agents from Minnesota, but the Fight to Drive ICE Out Isn’t Over appeared first on Left Voice.

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