Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz is demanding that the federal government “pay for what they broke” after the Trump administration announced it would draw down its immigration enforcement presence in the Twin Cities.

During a press conference following Border Czar Tom Homan’s announcement that the administration would be ending its “Operation Metro Surge” in Minnesota, Walz said that federal law enforcement’s presence in the state was leaving “deep damage” and “generational trauma.”

“The federal government needs to pay for what they broke here,” said Walz. “There [is] going to be accountability on the things that happened, but one of the things is, the incredible and immense costs that were borne by the people of this state. The federal government needs to be responsible: You don’t get to break things, and then just leave without doing something about it.”

“So, we’re going to be asking the federal delegation to be investing and doing the things necessary,” he added.

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Walz, who is best known for being former Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate in the 2024 election, has been at odds with the administration throughout much of the operation, which was meant to crack down on rampant fraud and abuse in the state.

Regarding the federal drawdown, Walz said, “We are cautiously optimistic … that this surge of untrained, aggressive federal agents are going to leave Minnesota, and I guess they’ll go wherever they’re going to go.”

“The fact of the matter is, they left us with deep damage, generational trauma, they left us with economic ruin in some cases, they left us with many unanswered questions: Where are our children? Where and what is the process of the investigations into those that were responsible for the deaths of Renee and Alex?” he continued.

“So, while the federal government may move on to whatever next thing that they want to do, the State of Minnesota and our administration is unwaveringly focused on the recovery of what they did.”

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Homan announced Thursday that the administration will conclude Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota. Homan told reporters during a news conference at the Bishop Whipple Federal in Minneapolis that the operation succeeded in reducing public safety threats with “unprecedented levels of coordination” from state officials and local law enforcement.

“As a result of our efforts here, Minnesota is now less of a sanctuary state for criminals,” Homan said, adding, “I have proposed, and President Trump has concurred, that this surge operation conclude.”

Homan said “a significant drawdown” of immigration agents was already underway and will continue through next week.

The border czar announced last week that 700 federal officers would leave Minnesota, though 2,000 officers will remain. He cited improved cooperation with jails and said a complete drawdown was the goal, but it was “contingent upon the end of illegal and threatening activities against ICE.”

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He said only a “small footprint of personnel” will remain for a period of time, while he will also remain on the ground to oversee the operation’s drawdown and success.

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“Additionally, federal government personnel assigned to conduct criminal investigations into the agitators, as well as the personnel assigned here for the fraud investigations, will remain in place until the work is done,” Homan said.

Fox News Digital’s Stephen Sorace contributed to this report.

Conversations about Culver City — the vibrant enclave on Los Angeles’ Westside often called “the Heart of Screenland” — usually include phrases such as “walkable” and “green spaces” and “Erewhon.”

So when U.S. Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi insinuated the city of 39,000 residents is a crime haven during a heated exchange with Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Los Angeles) Wednesday, local officials and personalities responded with statistics, memes and wry mockery.

Bondi slipped in the jab near the end of an arduous House hearing largely focused on the Department of Justice’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation. Kamlager-Dove, whose district includes Culver City, hammered Bondi over deleted Department of Justice data linking far-right ideology with political killings, asserting that “there are violent, dangerous people out there with real threats.”

“There are — in your district,” Bondi responded. “Her district includes Culver City, and she’s not talking about any crime in her district. Nothing about helping crime in her district. She’s not even worth getting into the details.”

Hometown names stepped up to defend the burg by posting photos of clean streets, manicured parks and humming community events.

Political commentator and Angeleno Brian Taylor Cohen called the city “one of the most non-controversially safe” places in L.A., while Culver City-based comedian Heather Gardner said: “The worst crime of the century is that this woman had made a mockery of our justice system. Release the un-redacted files. Prosecute the REAL crimes.”

Kamlager-Dove shrugged off Bondi’s comment, saying Culver City was known for “breakfast burritos — not crime.”

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for Bondi to clarify her statements.

Crime in Culver City declined 9.7% in 2024 and was down an additional 6.1% in the third quarter of 2025 compared with the same period of 2024, according to the Culver City Police Department. Violent crime declined 3.9% in 2024 — the last full year of available data.

Over that period, murders dropped to zero while aggravated assault, kidnapping and robbery also fell. There were 26 cases of sexual assault in the city in 2024, compared with 25 in 2023. The only violent crime that saw a significant increase were simple assaults, which rose 8.1%.

The California Department of Justice and the FBI reported in 2024 that crime in the state had fallen to “among the lowest levels ever recorded.”

Mayor Freddy Puza, in an interview Thursday, described Culver City as a “strong and vibrant community” of people with no shortage of job opportunities at small businesses and corporations alike, including TikTok, Pinterest and entertainment giants Apple, Amazon and Sony.

He said the local government has been able to lower crime rates through community-based policing and by providing housing and social services to its unsheltered population. The mayor characterized Bondi’s retort as a “knee-jerk reaction” from an attorney general faced with damaging public trust concerns at her department.

“My read of it is that she’s trying to deflect,” he said. “I think she could really spend her time prosecuting the people in the Epstein files and making sure that information from the federal government is transparent.”

The city had seen no ideological violence, he said, adding, “but the potential for it is right around the corner. There’s no doubt that it is on the rise and the president is stoking it. People are becoming further and further polarized.”

At the hearing, Bondi faced sharp criticism over the Justice Department’s Epstein investigation — specifically over redaction errors in the release millions of case files last month. In one instance, the attorney general refused to apologize to Epstein victims in the room, saying she would not “get into the gutter” with partisan requests from Democrats.

Her performance has already prompted a volley of bipartisan demands for her resignation, including from conservative pundits including Megyn Kelly, Nick Fuentes and Kyle Rittenhouse.

Culver City was not Bondi’s only target Wednesday. She called Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) a “washed-up loser lawyer,” accused Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of suffering from “Trump derangement syndrome,” and branded former CNN anchor Don Lemon a “blogger.”

Since the hearing, however, she has stayed silent as locals continue to question her intel and chuckle over images of the pylon-protected war zone of Culver City.

“The worst crime in Culver City,” Gardener joked again on TikTok, “is that they charge $24 for a smoothie at Erewhon.”