When federal agents flooded Minneapolis streets, the Department of Homeland Security called it the largest operation in its history. The city had become Ground Zero in what the Trump administration frames as its signature agenda: mass arrests and deportations pulled from American neighborhoods, workplaces, and public spaces.
What began as raids in Democratic strongholds has metastasized into a coast-to-coast operation. Officers are moving through homes, businesses, parking lots, schools, hospitals, and courthouses. Families are being torn apart. People are dying. And the machinery doing this is far more complicated than most Americans realize.
The Department of Homeland Security, the third-largest federal agency in government, sits at the center of it all. DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin replaced Kristi Noem after she was fired in March 2026. Noem had become the public face of enforcement, posing for photos while cheering the removal of over 200 Venezuelans to a notorious El Salvador prison and making false claims about a protester killed by immigration officers. Mullin has promised a lower profile, though the machinery itself continues to accelerate.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement is the main engine. ICE, created after 9/11 when Congress fused immigration enforcement with national security, now operates with unprecedented resources. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act nearly tripled ICE's budget to $28.7 billion for 2025-2026. The agency more than doubled its officer count from roughly 10,000 to 22,000, with aggressive recruiting ongoing. Congress awarded the entire DHS $175 billion.
ICE splits into two operational branches. The Enforcement and Removal Operations division, or ERO, handles deportations. Historically, ERO officers waited for local jails to hand off unauthorized immigrants arrested for unrelated crimes. The Obama administration limited this. Democratic cities began refusing cooperation. But Trump's White House demanded arrests and deportations surge, so ERO pivoted. Officers now target people at job sites and on public streets at levels the agency has never attempted. This visibility is new. The aggression is new. The scale is unprecedented.
Homeland Security Investigations is the investigative branch. HSI agents hold federal classification matching FBI agents and typically undergo far more rigorous training than ERO officers. They traditionally pursued international crime, trafficking, and drug cartels. Under Trump, HSI agents are being reassigned to support ERO raids and street operations.
Customs and Border Protection traditionally staffed legal ports of entry. CBP had minimal interior enforcement role until now. Some CBP officers are now supporting ERO field offices away from the border. But the real shift comes from the US Border Patrol, CBP's paramilitary division.
Border Patrol has moved from the borderline into American cities. Officers have become heavily involved in urban raids and confrontations with protesters, a role the agency was never designed for. Legally, Border Patrol officers lose enforcement authority beyond 100 miles from a border or coastline. Greg Bovino became the face of this new hardline strategy, orchestrating crackdowns in New Orleans, Charlotte, Chicago, and Los Angeles before being abruptly demoted following the killing of two US citizens in Minneapolis. He later retired.
The Trump administration has conscripted agencies with no traditional immigration role into the operation. The FBI, DEA, ATF, US Marshals Service, Federal Bureau of Prisons, and Diplomatic Security Service are all now involved. Personnel wear various paramilitary uniforms and tactical gear, creating such confusion that the Minnesota National Guard, placed on standby by Governor Tim Walz, announced it would wear reflective yellow vests if activated to distinguish itself from other federal agencies.
Local police and sheriffs offices face pressure to participate. Some, particularly in Republican jurisdictions, willingly assist under ICE supervision through formal partnerships called 287(g) agreements, which have been rising. Many Democratic cities explicitly refuse. Sanctuary jurisdictions limit or obstruct cooperation with ICE, declining to hold individuals for federal transfer. This has created a patchwork of cooperation and resistance across the country.
The scale of this machinery is staggering. The budget is enormous. The personnel are multiplied. The agencies are consolidated. And the operation continues to expand into spaces it has never occupied before.
Author James Rodriguez: "What should concern Americans most is not the enforcement itself, but how quickly the government assembled this force and how little transparency surrounds it."
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