President Trump’s aggressive and unprepared approach has hindered the policy goals he pushed for, turned Americans against his position and is putting strain on the rest of the system.
Tom Homan says 700 immigration enforcement personnel will leave Minnesota
President Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan announced a drawdown of 700 federal immigration enforcement personnel from Minnesota on Feb. 4.
Border czar Tom Homan, the new lead of President Donald Trump’s immigration operation in Minnesota, has announced a 700-person drawdown in federal law enforcement presence.
This came after two fatal shootings involving federal agents and a great deal of turmoil in Minnesota that involved partisan rhetoric from Democrats and Republicans trying to get control of a devolving situation. Now the administration is talking about a “drawdown.”
“My goal is, with the support of President Trump, to achieve a complete drawdown. And end the surge as soon as we can,” Homan said as he marked a sharp retreat on the matter from the rhetoric Americans heard in January.
Trump’s policy goals in Minnesota might have been correct and needed, but he navigated the issue in a very Trumpian way: shortsighted, incompetent and brash.
Actual progress on any mass deportation and on changing how we enforce immigration laws demands a completely different approach. It demands a level of precision and nuance this administration doesn’t have.
Trump has blown his immigration policy opportunity with pure malpractice
Heading into Trump’s second term, about half of Americans supported the mass deportation effort that he campaigned on for reelection, and more Americans at different times in 2024 believed that he was better suited to handle immigration issues than Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
Fast-forward to January 2026, and just 39% of Americans approve of Trump’s handling of immigration. The president has exhausted all of the grace voters gave him, and it is in large part due to incompetence and self-inflicted political wounds.
I have no critique of the basic policy that people who are here illegally are deported; federal law demands that they are, regardless of whether they are violent criminals or peaceful workers. I think Minnesota leaders did a great deal to obstruct the enforcement of federal immigration law and Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in the state, and that their role in escalating the issue bears half the blame for what has happened.
However, Trump should have seen the turmoil coming and better planned things out.
U.S. Border Patrol officers, for example, lack the specialized urban law enforcement skills that a mass deportation operation within a city demands, particularly those obstructed by protesters. Yet, a large chunk of the law enforcement force sent to Minneapolis was Border Patrol agents.
These officers were likely redirected to Minnesota because they were available due to Trump’s successes at the border itself. A surplus of forces to take on cities facing serious issues sounds good in principle, but it requires they be trained to do so, not sent into an unfamiliar environment unprepared.
The administration then kept making things worse with how it responded to the fatal shootings by calling the victims “terrorists” and villainizing one of the victims for being lawfully armed.
Trump’s Minneapolis surge was shortsighted
The consequences for such a haphazard operation are real. Two people have been shot and killed, one of whom I believe appears to lack any justification. Other alleged abuses, including deprivation of the right to an attorney and entering homes without a judicial warrant, have become the narrative out of Minnesota.
The effects of the administration’s mishandling of the ICE operations extend past the protests and shootings. The system is overwhelmed by caseloads, several lawyers from the U.S. attorney’s office have resigned and lawyers are actively crashing out in court.
Nearly all of these issues can be attributed to the administration’s shallow view of these matters. They believe they can get a win by flooding the zone, using overwhelming force and taking a forceful stance against anyone in opposition. The reality is that making progress on the deportation front demands extreme competence, especially when local authorities and protesters are actively resisting you.
Trump’s mass deportations plan is failing because it is being run the way this president does everything. His aggressive and unprepared approach has hindered the policy goals he was pushing for, has turned Americans against his position and is also putting strain on the rest of the system.
Dace Potas is an opinion columnist for USA TODAY and a graduate of DePaul University with a degree in political science.