While we have been supportive of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) surge in immigration enforcement in Minnesota, we have also advocated for the DHS to improve its messaging. Accuracy is a must.
Operation Metro Surge has been a statistical success with DHS reporting that some 2,400 people have been arrested on immigration violations since early December. However, throughout the effort, the official information shared has originated from too many sources, and has often lacked timeliness, completeness, and accuracy. Those unforced errors have lent themselves to a growing cynicism towards the information shared.
The latest example played out earlier this week. The DHS reported:
“Governor Tim Walz and Mayor Jacob Frey continue to refuse to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and have released nearly 470 criminal illegal aliens back onto the streets of Minnesota since President Trump took office.
Yesterday, DHS called on Governor Walz and Mayor Frey to put the safety of Minnesotans first and honor ICE arrest detainers of the more than 1,360 aliens, including violent criminals, in the state’s custody.”
The problem with the report is that the DHS offered no source for the data and appears to have conflated aliens in the custody of DOC prisons, with aliens in the custody of Minnesota’s 87 county jails and detention facilities (each having individual policies regarding ICE detainers). A message focusing on those held in local custody but never transferred to ICE is a message that likely resonates with Minnesotans, especially outstate. But that message was fumbled.
The lack of sourcing and specificity begged for a rebuttal, and last evening the DOC delivered. Minnesotan’s may be surprised to learn that despite the rhetoric, the DOC does honor ICE detainers, and, as a matter of policy, Minnesota’s prisons transfer custody of those under detainer to ICE when released.
The DOC published a detailed response calling the DHS allegations “categorically false.”
The DOC clarified that the DOC honors ICE detainers by policy. The DOC disputed the claim that it currently held 1,370 people with ICE detainers, noting that just 207 of its 8,000 inmates were non-U.S. citizens. In 2025, according to the DOC, it released 84 inmates with ICE detainers – all of them to ICE – directly contradicting the DHS allegation that the “state” had released 470 “criminal aliens” back onto the street.
The DOC then dissected the DHS’s list of the “Worst of the Worst” arrestees to show that either those individuals had never been in DOC custody, or if they had the DOC had honored the ICE detainer request.
The apparent inaccuracies by the DHS have unnecessarily damaged its credibility, and undermined the important and legitimate immigration enforcement it is carrying out.
We again call on the DHS to establish a consistent method of disseminating information regarding Operation Metro Surge, focusing on accuracy, completeness, and timeliness. Avoiding this improvement only serves to magnify efforts to undermine the credibility and legitimacy of the ICE mission in Minnesota.
