DHS Posts That ICE 'Has Initiated a Nationwide Public Safety Surge in Sanctuary Cities' While Denying a Daily Wire Report That ICE Was Told to Stop Non-Criminal Arrests

At 11:50 PM EDT on Saturday, September 26, 2026, the Department of Homeland Security posted on X, quote-posting Daily Wire reporter Jennie Taer’s scoop that ICE officers had been told that weekend to stop arresting non-criminals: “This is false. No one is off the table. We will continue to arrest any and all illegal aliens that come into our path. Anyone in our country illegally will be arrested and deported. In an effort to protect American citizens, ICE has initiated a nationwide public safety surge in sanctuary cities where our brave officers will be targeting criminal illegal aliens—many released from jails by sanctuary politicians—including murderers, rapists, child predators, and gang members.” Taer’s post had gone up at 9:22 PM EDT. The Daily Wire article as fetched (Sept 26 byline) already quotes a DHS spokesperson using the same language. Fox News’s Bill Melugin posted at 12:01 AM EDT on September 27 that “this verbal guidance did go out to ICE offices across the country last night,” that “It’s unclear who it started with,” that it was “erroneous” and a “miscommunication”, and that “new guidance went out to ICE field offices tonight to reaffirm” that arrests of people “without additional criminal history will continue.” The post names no jurisdictions, start date or operation name.

NewsNation reported on September 28 that “The states and jurisdictions identified by DHS include California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Washington, D.C., Illinois, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.” No DHS page naming them was located; the twelve match, in the same order, the states on the Justice Department’s sanctuary-jurisdiction list under Executive Order 14287. On September 30 the Salem Statesman Journal reported that a DHS spokesperson “declined to say when the surge started or which cities would be the focus,” and Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek’s office said it had “not been notified of any new official surge initiatives or actions by DHS in Oregon.” No reported Minnesota deployment or Minnesota official response to the post was found as of October 1.

Two days earlier, on Thursday, September 24, border czar Tom Homan told a Justice Department Victims of Violent Crime summit: “ICE will continue doing their job every day across this country, especially in sanctuary cities where we’ll surge resources and flood the zone” (DOJ press release, September 25). Minnesota is on the list about seven months after Homan announced the end of Operation Metro Surge on February 12, 2026. For the same weekend’s reversal of the verbal order, see 2026-09-27–ice-verbal-order-stop-non-criminal-arrests-reversed-white-house-official-confirms; related Minnesota entry: 2026-09-29–minnesota-truth-council-concludes-public-testimony-metro-surge.