The Homan Effect: Local Minnesota Police Finally Begin To Arrest Anti-ICE Agitators

Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons revealed Tuesday that police in Minnesota arrested dozens of anti-ICE protesters in Minneapolis overnight, signaling a massive change in support from local authorities after the arrival of White House border czar Tom Homan.

Lyons made the revelation at a House Homeland Security hearing while being questioned by Republican Texas Rep. Michael McCaul, who attributed the change in local authorities finally supporting ICE to the recent arrival of Homan after weeks of leaving them to fend off violent agitators themselves.

President Donald Trump sent Homan to Minneapolis last month to replace Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino — known for his aggressive and sweeping immigration raids — after the fatal shootings of two anti-ICE activists.

Bovino’s tactics, along with sanctuary laws and anti-ICE “rhetoric on the Left … created the perfect storm” for a surge in attacks on ICE agents, McCaul explained.

“Your officers are not trained to effectuate crowd control; they are trained to move and surgically go in to remove these dangerous, violent criminals from the United States of America. I’ve called for de-escalation after the two deaths, the two shootings that took place. I believe that these roving patrols should be done at the border rather than in the major cities of the United States,” McCaul said while addressing Lyons.

Since Homan’s arrival in Minneapolis, he has held meetings with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, and local police chiefs. Those meetings have resulted in “unprecedented” cooperation from local authorities in Minnesota, leading to a “drawdown” of 700 federal agents that Homan announced last week.

“And what has been done since Mister Homan came into the job … We now have targeted law enforcement operations, he’s returning to the original mission of ICE. He is working with state locals to do the crowd control. He is getting them to honor the ICE detainers. He is also getting the body cameras put on them and the roving patrols, in his words, to me should be done at the border, not in major cities,” McCaul said.

McCaul then asked Lyons how things have changed on the ground in Minneapolis since Homan’s arrival.

“So we’ve seen a de-escalation in the fact that the protests, while they still go on, have subsided, and ICE has been allowed to do their targeted intelligence-driven enforcement operation. Just last night, local authorities arrested 54 protesters at the local level, where ICE officers did not have to be engaged,” Lyons said.

.@RepMcCaul says he believes Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino’s presence in Minneapolis “escalated the situation” in Minneapolis.

With Homan’s arrival, McCaul says order has been restored.

Acting ICE Director responds, saying that since Homan’s arrival, protests have… pic.twitter.com/dajDyOQBBn

— Jennie Taer (@JennieSTaer) February 10, 2026