Are there fewer federal agents in Minnesota?
Border czar Tom Homan's announcement Sunday of a steep drawdown of federal forces in Minnesota has been met with some skepticism.
"The parking lot at the Whipple looks a little bit emptier, but even if they've left the Twin Cities metro area, they're still here," said Emily Phillips.
Phillips has been a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement observer since August. While she said she has seen fewer immigration agents in Minneapolis and St. Paul, she said they are still out in the suburbs and other areas outside the metro. They are in areas like Rochester and as far east as central Wisconsin, according to her.
State Rep. Andy Smith said in a video posted to Facebook that federal agents raided a Rochester restaurant Monday morning, taking two people into custody.
"Generally, we have seen a decrease overall in reports coming out of the Twin Cities area," said Celeste, CEO and cofounder of iceout.org.
Celeste has been tracking federal agents from the Bay Area.
On Sunday, her volunteer-run website recorded roughly 79 alleged ICE sightings in Minnesota. That is down from a week before when there were 196.
"My concern is that even though we have less reports, less people maybe out patrolling, people may be less vigilant and the media is maybe slowly moving on from this story. We're going to potentially see the same level of arrests happening and it's just going to garner less and less attention, less and less of the theatrics that we saw in the past," said Celeste.
