The following statement was released earlier today by the Minnesota Indivisible Alliance.
Ten weeks.
And we’re still standing.
Today, Tom Homan announced that Operation Metro Surge will conclude, with agents drawing down over the next week.
For ten weeks, more than 3,000 armed, masked federal agents flooded our communities. They raided neighborhoods. They killed two of our neighbors – Renée Good and Alex Pretti. They detained thousands, including U.S. citizens, legal residents, and children. They disrupted businesses and turned ordinary streets into places of fear.
And Minnesota did not break.
We showed up. We stood together. We protected each other. We held the line.
Governor Tim Walz said it plainly today: “The dignity, the compassion, the love, the care, and the absolute determination to do what is right never wavered amongst Minnesotans.”
The country noticed. The pressure worked.
But this is not over.
Within an hour of this morning’s announcement, masked agents were still making stops. Arrests continued. Courthouses, schools, and bus stops across the metro remained under watch. Community trackers report that the pattern people have been calling abductions has not stopped. Rapid response chats continued with reports of sightings all over the place. One wonders if the agents were told to hit their quotas before they have to leave.
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty put it simply: we should be skeptical.
We are.
In addition, whether the surge ends tomorrow or next week, the damage done to our communities is real. And the work ahead is long.
We need independent investigations. At a Senate oversight hearing today, Alex Pretti’s killing was played frame by frame by GOP Chair Rand Paul. Leadership at ICE and CBP couldn’t defend the government’s story. Todd Lyons testified he never called Pretti a domestic terrorist – contradicting the narrative Kristi Noem pushed to the public. Rodney S. Scott committed to releasing body camera footage. Paul called it “terrible police work” and said public trust has been destroyed. That call was echoed by MN Attorney General Keith Ellison, who testified that Minnesota has received zero cooperation from federal investigators – and called for a full FBI investigation and a complete accounting of every person stopped, detained, arrested, and deported.
We also need answers to the numerous reports of civil rights violations. Story after story of racial profiling, retaliatory arrests, and stops without reasonable suspicion. People were detained based on appearance or accent. Native Americans were swept up. Families were pulled from their homes. Peaceful protestors and observers threatened or arrested. Attorneys who gained access to detention sites this week described people shackled, sleeping on concrete, with little access to counsel.
We need financial repair. Lake Street alone lost tens of millions in revenue. Businesses across the metro saw sales collapse. Workers lost jobs. Families lost income. Emergency funds from foundations are starting to move, and the Governor has proposed new relief. It’s a start. It is not enough. The Federal Government needs to pay for the damage they have wreaked.
And we need systemic change. A DHS funding vote failed today – Democrats held the line, refusing to fund these agencies without real reform: judicial warrants, body cameras, limits on where enforcement can happen. The bill fell short, 52-47. That’s a good outcome. And yet, as we’ve said in prior posts, Congress gave DHS too much money with too little oversight. You want to talk about fraud in government programs? DHS funding is a good place to look.
And one more thing. Homan credited “unprecedented cooperation” from local law enforcement as a key reason for ending this surge. We need to know exactly what was promised – and by whom. Which agencies agreed to new arrangements with ICE? What information is being shared? Deals negotiated under the pressure of an armed occupation deserve public scrutiny before they become permanent. Our local officials answer to us, not to DHS.
We also need to ask whether the surrender of our freedoms after 9/11 that led to Homeland Security is still a bargain worth paying. That discussion is the long fight.
To communities across the country: these agents are being reassigned elsewhere. If this comes to your city, your neighborhood, your neighbors – we will share everything we learned. The networks, the legal response, the rapid alerts. You are not alone. We will share what Los Angeles, DC, Portland and Chicago taught us. What we learned. And stop thinking this is just about immigration. That fiction ended on the day Pam Bondi asked for access to our voter information in exchange for a drawdown.
And to DHS and the rest of your federal friends: if you come back to Minnesota, we’ll be ready. Our legal infrastructure will be stronger. Our community networks deeper. Our resolve steady.
We see you.
We are tired. We are cautiously optimistic. But we will not stop.
The long road to saving our democracy faced a big test in Minnesota. For now, we’ve held the line. We will step up again.
The North remembers.
Related Off-site Links:
“Border Czar” Tom Homan Says Immigration Operation in Minnesota Will End Soon – Katelyn Vue (Sahan Journal, February 12, 2026).
“Not an Anomaly . . . A Blueprint”: Homan Says Minnesota ICE Surge Ending – But Mass Deportations Aren’t – Jessica Corbett (Common Dreams, February 12, 2026).
Yet Another Case of ICE Agents – and DHS Officials – Lying About Shooting Incident Emerges – Brad Reed (Common Dreams, February 12, 2026).
Charges Dropped Against Men Accused of Attacking ICE Officer – Matt Sepic (MPR News, February 12, 2026).
Twin Cities Health Care Workers Describe “Fear” and “Intimidation” Due to ICE in Hospitals – Erica Zurek (MPR News, February 11, 2026).
The People of Minneapolis Will Simply Not Let the ICE Thugs Prevail – Dan Simmons (The New Republic, February 5, 2026).
Anti-ICE Organizing Is Creating Counter-Institutions Based on Care – Rashida James-Saadiya (Truthout, February 4, 2026).
“Backing Down Isn’t an Option”: Minnesota ICE Shootings Mobilize Americans to Join ICE Observer Groups – Lex McMenamin (The Guardian, January 31, 2026).
Letter From Minnesota: Details From an Occupation – Angela Pelster (Literary Hub, January 29, 2026).
Meet the Minneapolis Parents Patrolling Their Schools Amid ICE Operations – Elizabeth Shockman (MPR News, January 16, 2026).
The Women Holding Minneapolis Together – Anna Moeslein Glamor, January 7, 2026).
UPDATES: What Minnesota Really Thinks of the End of Trump’s ICE Surge – Jennifer Bendery (The Huffington Post, February 13, 2026).
What We Can Learn From Minneapolis’ Model of Resistance – Gabriel Furshong (Common Dreams, February 13, 2026).
The Rise of the Rebel Loon Logos – The Nerd of The Rings (February 13, 2026).
‘Time to Speak Up’: In Columbia Heights, School Leaders Stepped in to Protect Families as ICE Surged – Elizabeth Shockman (MPR News, February 13, 2026).
Mayor Jacob Frey Calls on Feds and State to Help Pay ICE Surge Costs in Minneapolis – MPR News (February 13, 2026).
White House Official Says Hundreds of Federal Agents Are Leaving Minnesota, “Small” Security Force Will Remain for a Time – The Associated Press and MPR News (February 15, 2026).
See also the previous Wild Reed posts on the resistance to the Trump regime’s fascist occupation of Minnesota:
• Omar Fateh: Quote of the Day – December 4, 2025
• Photo of the Day – December 5, 2025
• Susie Hayward on What’s Happening in Minneapolis
• Doing What We Can to Stop Unjust Arrests of Immigrants
• Great Event, Great Sign, Great Nails
• Christmas Eve Musings
• May We Do Likewise
• “This Is What Fascism Looks Like” – January 7, 2026
• “It Was Murder”: 12 Powerful Responses to the Death of Renée Nicole Good
• Omar Fateh: “Folks Are Waking Up”
• A Good Faith Appeal and a Grim Response
• Why Minnesota?
• Chris Hedges on ICE: “I Have Seen These Masked Goons Before”
• Steven Donziger: “Let’s Get Real . . . ICE Is a Domestic Terrorist Organization”
• Historian Kyle Dekker: “It’s Not Nazi Ideology We Are Fighting. It’s American”
• Knowing Our Rights
• Mike Figueredo on Why Trump Might Be Pushing the U.S. to the Brink of Collapse
• A “Red Alert Moment for American Democracy”
• Dispatches from Occupied Minnesota
• Marianne Williamson on How to Psychologically Endure This Moment
• What Moral Clarity Looks Like in Minnesota This MLK Day
• Nemik’s Eulogy for Renée Nicole Good
• “It Was Never About Keeping America Safe”
• “ICE Out!”: The Minnesota General Strike – 1/23/26
• “This Was a Flat Out Execution”
• “Organized Sustained Systemic Resistance and Self-Defense Are Our Only Options”
• Honoring Alex Pretti
• George Conway: The Trump Administration Is a “Criminal Organization”
• In the Face of Fascist Lies, MN Governor Tim Walz Sets the Record Straight
• Adam Serwer on How “Every Social Theory Undergirding Trumpism Has Been Broken on the Steel of Minnesotan Resolve”
• “Trump Is Scared Shitless”
• “They Were Alive. Then They Were Not”
• Bruce Springsteen and the Streets of Minneapolis in the Winter of ’26
• Craig Mokhiber on the “Imperial Boomerang”: How U.S. War Tactics Abroad Are Now Used at Home
• January Vignettes (2026)
• Honoring Renée Good and the “Astonishing Surge of Courage” of Minneapolis
• A Luminous Celebration of Light, Love and Community
• More Dispatches from Occupied Minnesota
• Memes of the Times – February 2026
• Only the Beginning
Image: Artist unknown.
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