MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Gov. Tim Walz said Tuesday he expects the federal immigration crackdown in Minnesota to end in “days, not weeks and months,” based on his recent conversations with top Trump administration officials.
The Democratic governor said during a news conference that he spoke Monday with border Czar Tom Homan and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles Tuesday morning. Homan took over the Minnesota operation in late January after a second fatal shooting by federal officers and amid growing political backlash and questions about how the operation was being run.
“We’re very much in a trust-but-verify mode,” Walz said. He added that he expected to hear more from the administration “in the next day or so” about the future of what he said was an “occupation” and a “retribution campaign” against the state.
While Walz said he is hopeful at the moment because “every indication I have is that this thing is ending,” he added that things can change.
“It would be my hope that Mr. Homan comes out before Friday and announces that this thing is done, and they’re bringing it down and they’re bringing it down in days,” Walz said. “That would be my expectation.”
Officials with the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the governor’s remarks.
Walz said he has no reason to disbelieve Homan’s statement last week that 700 federal officers would leave Minnesota immediately, but the governor added that still left 2,300 on Minnesota’s streets. Homan at the time cited an “unprecedented increase in collaboration” that would result in the need for fewer federal officers in Minnesota, including help from prisons holding deportable inmates.
The governor also indicated that he expects the state to obtain “cooperation on joint investigations” into the shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal officials, but did not provide any details. That has been a point of friction between federal authorities and state investigators, who complain that they have so far been frozen out of those cases without access to evidence.
Walz called the news conference primarily to denounce the economic impact of increased enforcement. He spoke at The Market at Malcolm Yards, a food hall where owner Patty Wall said the entire restaurant sector of the local economy has become “collateral damage” from the increase.
Matt Varilek, the governor’s jobs and economic development commissioner, said Malcolm Yards is usually bustling, but now it’s struggling because employees and customers are afraid to come because of the restrictions.
“So it’s great news, of course, that the posture seems to have changed at the federal level toward their activities here in Minnesota,” Varilek said. “But, as the governor said, it is a situation of trust but verification. And frankly, the fear that was sown, I have “