MINNEAPOLIS (NewsNation) — Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem arrived in Minneapolis on Tuesday ahead of what is expected to be a large-scale immigration enforcement operation that could bring upwards of 2,000 federal agents to the Twin Cities.
Agents and officers from Homeland Security Investigations and Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division are surging to the region to conduct immigration enforcement, as well as activity linked to the alleged widespread fraud allegations connected to Somali nationals.
DHS sources confirmed that more federal agents, along with Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino, are expected to arrive this week. Noem joined federal agents on Tuesday when an Ecuadorian national, who officials say is in the United States illegally and who was previously convicted of robbery and wanted for murder and sexual assault, was arrested.
Like previous federal operations in Los Angeles, Chicago, Charlotte, North Carolina and New Orleans, DHS officials continue to tout the enforcement actions as going after what the Trump administration characterizes as the “worst of the worst”. DHS sources told NewsNation that there are 133,790 immigrants living in the U.S. illegally who reside in the greater Minneapolis area. Of those migrants, 33,780 have previously been ordered to leave the U.S. but have not.
Another 11,010 are convicted criminals and 3,020 are Somali nationals, sources said.
A highly placed DHS source told NewsNation that ICE has planes lined up to move migrants arrested by federal agents to detention centers in other parts of the country. Once at those centers, detainees will begin deportation proceedings, the source said.
Federal agents have been in Minneapolis for more than a month after ICE strike teams moved into the area in early December. However, much like in other Democrat-led cities, protesters and those opposed to President Donald Trump’s mass deportation plans have shown up.
Immigration rights groups have routinely pushed back against the agency’s claims about who is being arrested and stated that, in most cases, those detained by federal agents had no criminal history. According to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, 26% of the more than 65,000 detainees in ICE custody as of the end of November have previous criminal convictions and 26% have pending criminal charges.
Yet, DHS officials and federal agents and officers have remained undeterred in carrying out the operations. A NewsNation source said Monday that the upcoming enforcement activity will focus largely on Somali neighborhoods in a state that boasts the nation’s largest Somali population.
Asked about the looming immigration enforcement action on Tuesday, Minnesota’s Democratic Gov. Tim Walz expressed concern for Somali immigrants who are “minding their own business.”
“We’ve got 2,000 folks,” Walz said. “We don’t know who they are. They’ll be wearing masks, being here in Minnesota harrassing (migrants).”
A spokesperson for Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said that DHS did not provide the city with advanced notice that federal agents would be moving in. He said that city agencies are not cooperating with immigration enforcement efforts, which is prohibited under Minneapolis’ separation ordinance.
“If the (Trump) administration were serious about cracking down on crime or fraud, they wouldn’t be bringing chaos and division to our streets,” Frey said in a statement provided to NewsNation on Tuesday. “Deploying thousands of ICE agents and border control to our city is not about safety — the goal is to terrorize and scare our immigrant communities. In Minneapolis, we stand rock solid with our immigrant families.”
Just as the Minneapolis operation is getting rolling, however, a suburban Minneapolis hotel was dropped from the Hilton chain after a video surfaced of a front-desk clerk denying someone a room because they were part of the immigration enforcement operation. Hilton distanced itself from the hotel on Monday and initially said that the Hampton Inn in Lakeville, Minnesota, had apologized for violating what Hilton says are its core values.
However, a video posted to social media late Monday showed a clerk denying access to someone who said he worked for the Department of Homeland Security.
Hilton issued a new statement Tuesday, saying the national hotel chain had removed the Hampton Inn from its family of lodging options.
“Hilton is — and always has been — a welcoming place for all,” the statement read in part, adding the hotel chain is working with franchisees to ensure an incident like this week’s does not happen again.
On Tuesday, the U.S. General Services Administration announced the termination of its relationship with the hotel as part of of the federal government’s lodging program. As part of the action, GSA removed the Hampton Inn in Lakeville from all of its lodging programs through which the federal goverment books hotel rooms.
After I was informed that a local Hilton property canceled rooms reserved for ICE, GSA immediately reviewed the matter and found the hotel to be in clear violation of its government lodging program requirements,” GSA Administrator Edward C. Forst said in a statement released by the agency.