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The weekly arrests by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) dropped nearly 12% nationwide following the deaths of two American citizens at the hands of federal agents in Minneapolis and a restructuring of the leadership in Trump's immigration policy.
According to an analysis by the agency Associated Press based on records from the Deportation Data Project at the University of California, Berkeley, the weekly average of arrests decreased from 8,347 in the five weeks leading up to the announcement of changes, to 7,369 in the five weeks following, the most recent period with available data.
The turning point was the death of two 37-year-old American citizens during the so-called "Metro Surge Operation" in Minneapolis.
Renée Nicole Macklin Good, mother of three, was shot on January 7, 2026, by ICE agent Jonathan Ross on Portland Avenue in the Central neighborhood of Minneapolis.
Minnesota's Attorney General, Keith Ellison, and Representative Ilhan Omar stated that Good was acting as a legal observer of ICE activities at the time she was shot.
Then-Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem claimed without evidence that Good "had been harassing and obstructing ICE all day."
The police chief of Minneapolis, Brian O'Hara, described the shooting as "predictable and preventable."
On January 24, 2026, Alex Jeffrey Pretti, an intensive care unit nurse at a Veterans Affairs hospital, was shot by Border Patrol agents during a protest.
Verified videos by Reuters contradict the official version of the Department of Homeland Security, which claimed that Pretti was carrying a weapon: the footage shows that the weapon was taken from his waist before the shots were fired and that he was motionless on the ground after the tear gas.
The deaths triggered an unprecedented political crisis, with massive protests, lawsuits, and bipartisan criticism.
Under pressure, the "border czar" Thomas Homan traveled to Minneapolis, dismissed the commander of the Border Patrol Gregory Bovino, and on February 4, 2026, announced a reduction of 700 agents in Minnesota, from about 2,700 to 2,000.
On February 12, Homan officially declared the end of Operation Metro Surge, describing the situation in Minneapolis as a "great change."
On March 5, Trump dismissed Kristi Noem as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, in part due to polls showing that the public considered the operations in Minnesota excessive, and nominated Senator Markwayne Mullin as her successor.
In April, the interim director of ICE also resigned amid the controversy.
Despite the decline, arrest levels remain historically high: in December 2025, ICE arrests reached a peak of nearly 40,000 weekly nationwide, far exceeding records from the Biden era.
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