Tom Homan Said "Done." People Over Papers Says Otherwise.
- Patrick Duggan
- Feb 17
- 3 min read
# Tom Homan Said "Done." People Over Papers Says Otherwise.
The Victory Lap
On February 12, Tom Homan went on Fox News and declared Operation Metro Surge complete. "Arrest illegal aliens with a focus on criminals. Over 4,000 arrests, done. De-escalation, done. Collaboration and cooperation with the prisons and the counties, done."
Done. Done. Done.
Three "dones" and a victory lap. The largest immigration enforcement operation in American history — 3,000 federal agents deployed to a single metropolitan area — wrapped up with a cable news soundbite.
Except it isn't done.
What the Map Says
People Over Papers is a community-run tracking platform. Volunteers report ICE sightings in real time. No agenda beyond documentation. Think of it as a neighborhood watch app, except the thing being watched is the federal government.
On February 15-16 — three days after Homan's "done" — the map showed 35+ active reports across Minnesota:
**2 Critical** — Willmar and Mankato. Agricultural towns. Meatpacking corridor.
**8 Active** — Clustered in the south metro. Burnsville. Chaska. Dakota County. The I-35 corridor south of Minneapolis proper.
**25+ Observed** — Scattered across the Twin Cities metro, Rochester, and outstate.
Foot chases reported in Litchfield. Arrests in Baldwin, Wisconsin — across the state line. Rochester still active. The map doesn't lie.
The Numbers Don't Add Up
Governor Tim Walz noted that Minnesota normally has about 150 immigration officers statewide. Operation Metro Surge deployed 3,000. Homan says 1,000 have left. The Associated Press confirmed "hundreds more will depart in the coming days."
Mayor Jacob Frey did the arithmetic everyone else was too polite to do: "2,000 ICE officers still here is not de-escalation."
He's right. Going from 3,000 to 2,000 is a 33% reduction. Going from 2,000 to 150 — the normal staffing — would be a 93% reduction. Homan announced the first third and called it "done."
That's like eating a third of a sandwich and telling everyone you finished lunch.
The Cost
Minneapolis released its impact assessment: $203.1 million. That's the damage from two months of Operation Metro Surge — lost wages, shuttered businesses, housing instability, mental health services, and the general economic paralysis that comes when a significant portion of your workforce is afraid to leave the house.
Two of Minneapolis's three homicides in 2026 were committed by ICE agents. Two federal officers are on administrative leave for making false statements about a shooting. CNN reported that charges were dropped against one shooting victim after what it called a "startling admission" from the agents involved.
Community Safety Commissioner Todd Barnette put it plainly: residents experience "fear and uncertainty" that disrupts schools, businesses, and daily life.
The I-35 Pattern
The People Over Papers map reveals what the press conferences don't: a geographic pattern. The active reports cluster along the I-35 corridor south of Minneapolis — Burnsville, Lakeville, Faribault — and in agricultural towns along Highway 212 west toward Willmar.
This isn't random. These are the meatpacking towns. Worthington. Willmar. Marshall. The communities where immigrant labor processes the chicken and pork that ends up at every grocery store in the Midwest. The I-35 corridor connects them to the metro.
The "drawdown" pulled agents from visible downtown Minneapolis locations — where the cameras are, where the protests happened, where Mayor Frey holds press conferences. The map suggests they redistributed to the supply chain towns where nobody's filming.
What "Done" Means
When Homan says "done," he means the PR operation is done. The cable news cycle has moved on. The 2,000 remaining agents — thirteen times the normal staffing level — will continue operating in places like Willmar and Mankato where local newspapers have two reporters and no one's livestreaming.
People Over Papers will keep mapping. The volunteers will keep reporting. The ground truth will keep contradicting the soundbites.
"Done" is what you say when you want people to stop paying attention.
Minnesota isn't done. Check the map.
Sources: NPR, City of Minneapolis, FOX 9, Bring Me The News, NBC News, People Over Papers
*Her name was Renee Nicole Good.*
*His name was Alex Jeffery Pretti.*
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