Leavitt says Homan struck deals with most Minnesota counties to hand over 'violent illegal aliens'

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA: White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said "Border Czar" Tom Homan has reached cooperation agreements with nearly every county in Minnesota to ensure “violent illegal aliens” are transferred from local jails to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody, calling it a key development in the administration’s Minneapolis enforcement surge.

On the Friday, February 6 episode of ‘The Alex Marlow Show’, the press secretary talked about Minnesota, praised Homan’s leadership, and said President Donald Trump made the right call by putting him in charge of the operation.

Karoline Leavitt says Tom Homan is the 'perfect guy' to be in charge of Minneapolis

“I think Tom Homan is the perfect guy to be in charge of Minneapolis and that’s why President Trump sent him there,” Leavitt said, adding that the decision “has proven true over the last two weeks.”

Federal immigration officials have reached cooperation agreements with nearly every county in Minnesota to transfer criminal illegal aliens from local jails into federal custody, Leavitt said, marking a notable shift in how ICE and local law enforcement coordinate.

The press secretary claimed, “Tom has been able to strike agreements with nearly every single county in the state of Minnesota to remove violent illegal aliens from the jails in these counties.”

She claimed that prior to Homan’s involvement, local officials were not cooperating with ICE detainers.

“What was happening before Tom showed up is that the local jails were refusing to hand over illegal aliens to ICE when they were being released,” Leavitt said. “That’s obviously unacceptable.”

“Governor Walsh and Mayor Fry were just allowing these very violent criminals to walk freely out of the jails and back into the community,” she said.

The number of agents on ground has been reduced to 700

Leavitt said the new county-level agreements were a major condition for scaling back part of the federal deployment in Minnesota.

“And that was one of the conditions that President Trump laid out if we were going to ever scale back the operation,” she said about county jails handing over illegal immigrants.

According to Leavitt, the administration has now reduced the federal footprint by 700 agents, while maintaining a large ongoing presence.

“Because Tom has been able to strike these agreements… there’s now been a drawdown of 700 agents,” she said. “There’s still about 2,000 on the ground.”

Leavitt added that the remaining personnel are focused not only on immigration enforcement but also on fraud investigations.

“There’s still about 2,000 on the ground who are committed not only to immigration enforcement, but also the fraud investigations that are taking place… to uncover the massive amounts of fraud that are taking place in Minnesota,” she said.

Leavitt also said the administration is continuing arrests tied to protests and disruptions.

“We also are continuing to arrest the leftist agitators and the violent criminals who were impeding these lawful law enforcement operations,” she said.