ICE Drawdown in Minnesota

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation in Minnesota is coming to an end, according to border czar Tom Homan. The drawdown, which Homan said is happening at the direction of President Donald Trump, will take a couple of weeks, and “a small footprint of personnel” will temporarily stay behind to oversee the transition. Over the course of ICE’s deployment to Minnesota, thousands of arrests were made and two protestors were killed in clashes with agents.

Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which houses ICE, is now technically in a partial government shutdown. However, the vast majority of DHS employees—including ICE agents and TSA officials—are deemed essential and will remain on the job. Many of them, however, will not be paid until the funding dispute is resolved.

Analysis and eternal perspective: Minnesota has been in the thick of it lately! Not a week has gone by in recent months without a controversial story involving the surge in ICE agents deployed to Minnesota. There is now at least some consensus that a period of calm is needed, and that tensions must ease. It remains to be seen if this drawdown will help achieve those goals.

As The Equipped community, we should continue to pray for both law enforcement as they put themselves in harm’s way to protect our communities, and for the people of the Minneapolis area. We should pray for a sustained peace and calm (Ps. 34:14), and that love for neighbors would “cover a multitude of sins” (1 Pet. 4:8).

The drawdown may be underway, but the wounds are deep and the potential for entrenched bitterness great. Pray this week for love and peace to take the place of division and chaos. Pray also for those who are working without a paycheck, that they would have provision in this period of waiting.

The preceding article originally appeared in Thann’s “The Equipped” Weekly Newsletter. For more information on Thann’s weekly email, click here.