U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), in coordination with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, announced on September 30, 2025, that it had conducted “Operation Twin Shield,” a “targeted surge of fraud detection and deterrence activities across Minneapolis-St. Paul and surrounding areas” from September 19 to 28, 2025. According to USCIS, Operation Twin Shield was “the first time USCIS dedicated resources on this scale in a single geographical area.” USCIS Director Joseph Edlow warned that the operation was the “first of many” and said that “[a]ny city should be prepared to be the next site for an operation of this magnitude.”
The operation focused on site visits and targeted verifications for applicants and petitioners with pending immigration benefits who matched “specified risk criteria,” USCIS said without elaborating. Employment authorizations and certain parole-related requests, among others, were investigated. USCIS officers focused on more than 1,000 cases that had “fraud or ineligibility indicators” and conducted more than 900 site visits and in-person interviews. USCIS said they found evidence of fraud, noncompliance, or public safety or national security concerns in 275 cases. USCIS issued Notices to Appear (NTAs) or referred people to ICE in 42 cases, and four people were “apprehended.”
USCIS said it expects that data on NTAs, referrals to ICE, and adverse adjudicative actions in the Minneapolis-St. Paul cases to increase as more administrative investigations are completed.
