The Trump administration has reportedly begun deploying up to 2,000 Department of Homeland Security personnel to the Minneapolis-St. Paul area for a month-long surge targeting immigration enforcement and alleged large-scale fraud.
The operation includes hundreds of Homeland Security Investigations agents and up to 1,500 ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations officers, supported by tactical teams and senior supervisors, officials told CBS News.
The deployment, which began Sunday, is among the largest DHS deployments in a U.S. city in recent years.
Homeland Security agents are expected to expand fraud probes tied to federally funded programs while ICE officers focus on arrests of migrants with deportation orders.
The surge comes amid heightened scrutiny of Minnesota following major pandemic-era fraud cases and growing tension within immigrant communities.
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Newsmax on Friday that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz might already be under federal investigation for knowledge of Minnesota's Somali child care fraud exposed last month by independent journalist Nick Shirley.
"I'm not going to get too far ahead of it," McLaughlin said on "Finnerty," "but he should be aware that we're looking at culpability in this."
House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., said in a televised interview Sunday that "Tim Walz better lawyer up."
"I don't think Walz has really comprehended the severity of this issue," Comer said, adding that Walz rejecting appearing before the Congress he used to serve in would ostensibly amount to an admission of guilt.
"My biggest frustration is that people haven't been held accountable. Slapped with handcuffs. If I could do that we would already have a bunch of people in jail," Comer added.
"But the entire Trump administration is on this. We all want people in jail."
Newsmax writer Eric Mack contributed to this report.
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