Trump's border czar pulling 700 immigration officers out of Minnesota immediately

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Trump administration is reducing the number of immigration officers in Minnesota but will continue its enforcement operation that has sparked weeks of tensions and deadly confrontations, border czar Tom Homan said Wednesday.

About 700 federal officers — roughly a quarter of the total deployed to Minnesota — will be withdrawn immediately after state and local officials agreed over the past week to cooperate by turning over arrested immigrants, Homan said.

But he did not provide a timeline for when the administration might end the operation that has become a flashpoint in the debate over President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts since the fatal shootings of U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have said the surge in Minnesota that ramped up dramatically in early January is its “largest immigration operation ever.” Masked, heavily armed officers have been met by resistance from residents who are upset with their aggressive tactics.

A widespread pullout, Homan said, will only occur after protesters stop interfering with federal agents carrying out arrests and setting up roadblocks to impede the operations. About 2,000 officers will remain in the state after this week's drawdown, he said.

“Given this increase in unprecedented collaboration, and as a result of the need for less public safety officers to do this work and a safer environment, I am announcing, effective immediately, we’ll draw down 700 people effective today — 700 law enforcement personnel,” Homan said during a news conference.

He didn't say which jurisdictions have been cooperating with the Department of Homeland Security.

Trump's border czar took over the Minnesota operation in late January after the second fatal shooting by federal officers and amid growing political backlash and questions about how the operation was being run.

Homan said right away that federal officials could reduce the number of agents in Minnesota, but only if more state and local officials cooperate. He pushed for jails to alert ICE to inmates who could be deported, saying transferring such inmates to ICE is safer because it means fewer officers have to be out looking for people in the country illegally.

The Trump administration has long complained that places known as sanctuary jurisdictions — a term generally applied to local governments that limit law enforcement cooperation with DHS — hinder the arrest of criminal immigrants.

Minnesota officials say its state prisons and nearly all of the county sheriffs already cooperate with immigration authorities.

But the county jails that serve Minneapolis and St. Paul and take in the most inmates had not previously met ICE’s idea of full cooperation, although they both hand over inmates to federal authorities if an arrest warrant has been signed by a judge. It wasn’t immediately clear after Homan’s remarks whether those jails have since changed their policies.

Homan said he thinks the ICE operation in Minnesota has been a success, checking off a list of people wanted for violent crimes who were taken off the streets.

“I think it’s very effective as far as public safety goes,” he said Wednesday. “Was it a perfect operation? No.”

He also made clear that pulling a chunk of federal officers out of Minnesota isn't a sign that the administration is backing down. “We are not surrendering the president’s mission on a mass deportation operation,” Homan said.

“You’re not going to stop ICE. You’re not going to stop Border Patrol,” Homan said about the ongoing protests. “The only thing you’re doing is irritating your community”

Associated Press reporters Corey Williams in Detroit and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed.

Federal agents look on as White House border czar Tom Homan holds a news conference at the Bishop Whipple Federal building on Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026 in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)

White House border czar Tom Homan holds a news conference at the Bishop Whipple Federal building on Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026 in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)

Activists are approached by federal agents for following agent vehicles, on Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)

An person is detained by federal agents on Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)

White House border czar Tom Homan holds a news conference at the Bishop Whipple Federal building on Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026 in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)

White House border czar Tom Homan holds a news conference at the Bishop Whipple Federal building on Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026 in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Russian missiles and drones have pounded Ukraine’s energy grid in recent weeks, plunging people into frozen darkness in one of the country’s coldest winters on record.

Ukraine has accused Russia of illegally targeting power infrastructure during the war to deny civilians light, heating and running water.

"Taking advantage of the coldest days of winter to terrorize people is more important to Russia than diplomacy,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday, on the eve of a new round of talks about ending the conflict and as temperatures in Kyiv hovered around minus 20 C (minus 3 F).

Russia says its attacks are a legitimate part of its military campaign against its neighbor. Moscow's invasion of Ukraine itself is widely regarded as an illegal act of aggression.

So, are attacks on energy installations allowed during war?

Combatants can legally target a power grid if the attack “directly affects a valid military target” — but they cannot cause excessive civilian casualties, said David Crane, former chief prosecutor at the United Nations Special Court for Sierra Leone.

In the case of Russia's attacks on Ukraine, “the indiscriminate and widespread targeting does not come close to what is legal,” he said in an emailed response to questions from The Associated Press.

The International Committee of the Red Cross says that parts of energy systems providing essential services to civilians “are in principle civilian objects, and as such are protected against direct attack and reprisals as well as incidental harm.”

Pretrial judges from the International Criminal Court, in fact, issued arrest warrants in 2024 for top Russian military brass and the country’s former defense minister for their alleged involvement in missile strikes targeting electricity infrastructure.

In announcing warrants for former Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Russia’s chief military officer, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, the court said that judges found “reasonable grounds to believe that the alleged strikes were directed against civilian objects, and for those installations that may have qualified as military objectives at the relevant time, the expected incidental civilian harm and damage would have been clearly excessive to the anticipated military advantage.”

Russia is not a member of the court, rejects its jurisdiction, and refuses to extradite suspects to face justice in the ICC’s courtrooms in The Hague, Netherlands.

The Russian military has repeatedly said that it has targeted energy facilities and other infrastructure that support Ukrainian military industries and armed forces. It has denied targeting residential areas despite daily evidence to the contrary.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted Wednesday that “our military is striking the targets that they believe are associated with the military complex of the Kyiv regime, the operation is continuing.”

Kyiv accuses Russia of seeking to wear down Ukrainians’ appetite for the fight by inflicting grinding hardship on civilians forced to live in dark, freezing homes.

Authorities say Russia has tried to cripple Ukraine's electricity network by targeting substations, transformers, turbines and generators at power plants. Ukraine’s largest private power company, DTEK, said that this week's overnight attack was the ninth major assault since October.

Ukraine’s energy sector has suffered more than $20 billion in direct war damage, according to a joint estimate by the World Bank, the European Commission and the United Nations.

Yuliia Dolotova, 37, pulls her son in his stroller up the stairs in an apartment block during a power outage caused by Russia’s repeated air strikes on the country’s power grid, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, Feb. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Sergey Grits)

Yuliia Dolotova, 37, receives hot food at a distribution point during a power outage caused by Russia’s repeated air strikes on the country’s power grid, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, Feb. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Sergey Grits)

An elderly woman carries her bags out of a hot food distribution point during a power outage caused by Russia's repeated air strikes on the country's power grid, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, Feb. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Sergey Grits)