MINNEAPOLIS — Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement director Tom Homan announced a drawdown of immigration agents in Minnesota on Feb. 4, following the late-January killings of two American citizens in Minneapolis by immigration officers. In the five weeks that followed, ICE arrests nationwide fell by an average of nearly 12%.

Renee Good and Alex Pretti were killed in Minneapolis in late January. Top immigration officials were replaced after the killings, and Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino was removed from his role. "Turn and burn," Bovino said. Homan was sent to Minneapolis to oversee a new course for immigration enforcement.

ICE averaged 7,369 arrests per week nationwide in the five weeks after Feb. 4, down from 8,347 per week in the five weeks before. Arrests had peaked at nearly 40,000 in December, with January figures nearly as high. At the peak of the crackdown, ICE arrested thousands of people each week in Texas, Florida, and California, and carloads of masked immigration officers were frequently present in the streets of Minneapolis.

"The Trump administration says: 'We're not slowing down,' 'Nothing has changed,'" Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, said. "But it's very clear that they have pulled back from some of the tactics of Operation Metro Surge."

Arrests declined in Minnesota and Texas after Feb. 4 but rose in Kentucky, Indiana, North Carolina, and Florida. In Kentucky, weekly ICE arrests more than doubled, reaching 86 by early March. In some of those states, weekly counts hit their highest levels since the start of President Donald Trump's second term.

The Trump administration said it was targeting the most vicious criminals living illegally in the United States, with Trump referring to them as "the worst of the worst." In the five weeks after Feb. 4, 41% of people ICE arrested had no criminal charges or convictions, compared with 46% in the five weeks before. The post-Feb. 4 figure was above the 35% weekly average since the start of Trump's second term.

A 21-year-old Honduran man with no criminal record was arrested by ICE officers on Feb. 22 during a suburban San Diego traffic stop, according to federal court filings. He had been under ICE surveillance before his arrest and had three U.S. citizen children ages 5, 3, and 10 months. He filed a petition for release.