Tim Walz Demands Federal Government Foot Bill For Minnesota’s ‘Recovery’ From Anti-ICE Riots

Last month, President Donald Trump sent Homan to Minnesota to personally oversee immigration enforcement operations and end the chaos, after ICE and CBP officers shot two protesters and the situation began to spiral out of control. Soon after, Homan successfully convinced Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey to allow local law enforcement to coordinate with federal agents, prompting an initial drawdown of 700 agents.

“Given this increase in unprecedented collaboration, and as a result of the need for less law enforcement officers to do this work in a safer environment, I have announced effective immediately, we will draw down seven hundred people effective today. Seven hundred law enforcement personnel,” Homan said at the time.

TOM HOMAN: “Given this increase in unprecedented collaboration and as a result of the need for less law enforcement officers to do this work in a safer environment, I have announced effective immediately, we’ll draw down 700 people effective today.” pic.twitter.com/uKPt9LPT4p

— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) February 4, 2026

On Thursday, Homan announced the end of Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota, declaring it a successful mission accomplished. The operation, which began in early December with approximately 3,000 immigration enforcement officers deployed to the sanctuary state, achieved thousands of arrests.

Border Czar Tom Homan said this morning in Minneapolis that the federal immigration enforcement surge operation for Minnesota is coming to an end.

He also said that fraud investigations will continue.

“With that, and success that has been made arresting public safety threats… pic.twitter.com/H8phRav8Ih

— Paul Villarreal (AKA Vince Manfeld) (@AureliusStoic1) February 12, 2026

Despite the operation’s obvious success, Gov. Tim Walz spun the news as a victory for the agitators and thanked Minnesotans for driving federal agents out. 

“Minnesota, on behalf of not just this state but the country, thank you. That same energy now needs to be directed towards recovery, to finding ways that people have done during these challenging months to go forward,” he said.

Walz then promptly pivoted to pushing the narrative that Minnesota needs to recover from immigration enforcement efforts that took place.

“So, I want to say, this damage is still being assessed, but we do know … we’re going to be proposing a reinstitution of our small business emergency fund. It’s what we use very successfully during COVID in the recovery, the economic recovery that we saw in Minnesota that outpaced most of the rest of the country. We’re going to be proposing a first-time $10 million one-time targeted loans, forgivable loans that we know, and I want to be very clear, is a very small piece of this.”

And Walz wants the federal government to pay for it.

“But what I am going to challenge, as we get ready to start here in a few days the legislative session, this legislative session needs to be about recovery of the damage that’s been done to us,” Walz continued. “I am also asking our team—and I’m going to make appeals to our federal delegation—the federal government needs to pay for what they broke here.”

According to a report, the city of Minneapolis spent $1 million in rental assistance for those impacted by the raids, and burned through $4.3 million in police overtime during the anti-ICE riots and protests, and that figure is still climbing. The department had only 600 officers trying to manage the chaos created by anti-ICE rioters destroying property.

“They are going to be accountability [sic] on the things that happen, but one of the things is the incredible and immense costs that were born by the people of this state,” Walz continued. “The federal government needs to be responsible. You don’t get to break things and then just leave without doing something about it.”

While Walz talks tough about demanding that the federal government pay for the mess he and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey created, he appeared to concede that the effort to get the federal government to fund this “recovery” plan would fail.

“So the changes that need to be made, the investments that need to come back, they need to show—they being the federal government and they being this administration—they need to do more. But I’m not going to hold my breath that the federal government is going to do the right thing.”