Operation Metro Surge was an operation by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) with the stated purpose of apprehending undocumented immigrants and deporting them. Beginning in December 2025, it initially targeted the Twin Cities (Minneapolis and Saint Paul), and later expanded to all of Minnesota. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) called it "the largest immigration enforcement operation ever carried out".
The surge was characterized by an escalation in the severity of ICE tactics, harassment, and threats against observers. It involved the detention of US citizens and the arrest of 3,000 people. Federal agents killed two civilian protestors during the operation: Renée Good and Alex Pretti, who were both US citizens. One person detained by ICE during the operation died while in custody. The operation disrupted the economy and civil society of Minnesota, with schools transitioning to remote learning and immigration arrests disrupting everyday business activities.
Thousands in Minneapolis have protested the ICE activity. The governor and attorney general of Minnesota challenged the operation, stating that its primary purpose was "retribution" instead of immigration enforcement. On January 28, 2026, Minnesota chief US District judge Patrick Schiltz found that ICE violated at least 96 court orders in Minnesota since January 1, 2026. On February 3, Judge Jerry W. Blackwell said that the "overwhelming majority" of cases brought to him by ICE involved people lawfully present in the United States.
The operation ended in February 2026, although a residual immigration officer force remained in the state, numbering 650 in early March. In the following weeks, ICE continued to be active in the Twin Cities suburbs.
One of Donald Trump's key campaign promises during his 2024 presidential campaign was a crackdown on illegal immigration and to commence mass-deportation operations. After his inauguration for his second term, Trump signed multiple executive orders related to immigration in the United States, and the Department of Homeland Security and ICE agents began raids across the country.
On December 4, 2025, DHS announced Operation Metro Surge, and on January 6, 2026, DHS announced an expansion of the effort to what it called the largest immigration enforcement operation ever carried out, sending agents to the MinneapolisâÂÂSaint Paul metropolitan area. The surge included Homeland Security Investigations officers focused on the 2020s Minnesota fraud scandals, as the White House announced a multiagency effort to investigate these scandals. In addition, Donald Trump announced an effort to deport people of Somali descent in Minnesota that he said were involved in fraudulent activity, describing them as "garbage". Saint Paul City Council member Molly Coleman described the first day of the action as "unlike any other day we've experienced".
A Department of Justice attorney testified that, as of January 26, at least 2,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers and 1,000 Customs and Border Patrol officers were participating in the operation. ICE says it has arrested 3,000 people in Minneapolis since the start of the operation. ICE detainee flights from Minneapolis more than doubled from December to January. Data released via a FOIA request in March 2026 showed that the operation resulted in at least 3,789 arrests, the majority of arrestees being from Ecuador and Mexico. Fewer than one quarter had a criminal record, while around 13% had pending criminal charges. About 35% of cases were "collateral" arrests resulting from street sweeps, not targeted action.
Although the effort was reputedly focused on fraud centered in the Somali-American community, only 106 arrestees (fewer than 3%) were from Somalia, and none had ties to the social services frauds under investigation. Following the killing of Renée Good by a federal agent in January 2026, the largest fraud prosecution (Feeding Our Future) faced setbacks due to the resignation of six federal prosecutors, including lead attorney Joe Thompson. Persons detained on the basis of their actual or suspected immigration status have included restaurant, airport and hotel workers, Target employees, children and families, Native Americans, students and commuters. Many detained individuals have been US citizens, legal residents with work authorization, or asylum seekers. The operation has seen a surge in lawsuits for wrongful detention in Minnesota.
Attempts by US citizens to observe or protest federal immigration raids have been met with surveillance, threats, arrests, and use of force including beatings, the use of chemical irritants, flashbangs, and LRADs. Journalists have been arrested after covering protests against ICE. Despite widely publicizing dozens of arrests of protestors, and referring to arrestees as violent "rioters" who assaulted federal agents, the Department of Justice repeatedly reduced formal charges against protestors to the level of a misdemeanor, or dismissed their charges altogether. This pattern led to criticism from former federal attorneys that the arrests and charges were sought in order to intimidate opponents, rather than seek convictions.
Operation Metro Surge cost Minneapolis more than $200 million for the month of January 2026. The city Emergency Operations Center's preliminary impact assessment calculated four sectors: food, livelihood, shelter, and mental health services, plus city operations including $5 million in police overtime. Local businesses lost $81 billion in revenue, and workers lost $47 million in wages. Hotels lost $4.7 million due to cancellations. 76,200 people experience food insecurity. 8,713 school-aged children needed food services because of the operation. Mental health services providers reported a 50% reduction in client contact.
At the beginning of December, ICE announced an enforcement surge in the Twin Cities. At least 12 people were arrested between December 1 and 5. CNN reported the operations were set to be primarily focused on undocumented Somali immigrants. Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino requested identification from employees of an auto repair business after the owner, a US citizen who had fled Somalia, advised a man that he didn't have to answer their questions. Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey signed an executive order banning federal officials from using city property for staging areas. In late December, ICE agents threatened a pair of observers with arrest, then drove to the home of one of the observers and photographed it.
On January 14, 2026, Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, a Venezuelan man, was shot in the leg by a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in Minneapolis. The shooting took place in the north Minneapolis area. Protests developed near the scene, with federal agents firing tear gas and protesters throwing rocks and fireworks. Following the shooting, Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey said the ICE deployment to Minneapolis was "not sustainable" and was putting Minneapolis in an "impossible situation", and he called for protests to be peaceful.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, there was a car chase and then a struggle with a federal agent in front of a residence, where two other people attacked the officer. The sworn statement provided to the court alleged that the agent was attacked with a snow shovel and the handle of a broom, with Sosa-Celis said to have used the broom handle in the attack. Agents said they shot Sosa-Celis in self-defense, who went inside the residence and refused to come out. Federal agents went inside the residence. Sosa-Celis was transported to a hospital. In an affidavit filed in federal court January 16, a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent gave an account of the incident that varied in several details from the government's first account. According to the FBI affidavit, ICE agents identified the license plate of a car as belonging to a man their records showed had unlawfully entered the US. They identified the driver, who said he had recently purchased the car, as the man they were looking for although the driver was 50 pounds heavier and five inches taller than ICE's suspect; both had short brown hair. Sosa-Celis, the man who was shot and who ICE said was the target of the stop, was not in the car. The driver fled the stop, crashing into a light pole near the house where Sosa-Celis was standing on the porch. The ICE agent, who had not been identified, caught the driver in the yard and an altercation ensued between the two. Sosa-Celis tried to pull the driver away from the ICE agent; as the ICE agent drew his pistol both fled toward the house and Sosa-Celis was shot 10 feet away from the agent. The ICE agent reported a "bloody gash" to his hand. The third man supposedly involved in the altercation was not mentioned in the FBI affidavit nor could it be confirmed that he was at the scene.
Two videos were released in the days after the shooting that contradicted the federal government's account of the incident. From inside the house, Sosa-Celis' wife filmed a Facebook live streaming video of her call to 911 during the incident. She told the 911 operator that agents fired through the front door, striking Sosa-Celis. Photographic evidence of a bullet hole in the front door presented at a court hearing on February 3, 2026, confirmed the family's account of the incident. There were five people inside the house, including a small child, when agents fired at Sosa-Celis. Shortly thereafter, U.S. attorney Daniel Rosen moved to dismiss with prejudice the charges against Sosa-Celis and the other man, stating that "newly discovered evidence" was "materially inconsistent" with the charges. Two ICE agents have been suspended and face a criminal probe as to whether they lied to the jury.
An internal ICE memo from May 2025 asserts that ICE officers have the authority to forcibly enter homes of those subject to removal orders with an administrative warrant, rather than a judicial warrant, allowing for search and seizure without approval from a federal district judge or federal magistrate judge. According to a whistleblower, ICE trainees are taught to follow the memo's guidance instead of training materials which contradict the memo.
On January 11, federal immigration agents arrested a Liberian immigrant after breaking into his home with a battering ram despite only having an administrative warrant issued by an immigration officer and not a judicial warrant, and despite the fact that he had regular meetings with immigration authorities for years prior to his arrest. On January 15, Minnesota US District Court judge Jeffrey Bryan ruled that the forced entry into the Liberian immigrant's home constituted a warrantless search in violation of the Fourth Amendment and ordered his release. However, ICE detained the Liberian immigrant a second time only a day later when he and his attorney attended a subsequent routine check-in at a federal building.
On January 18, a Hmong American citizen was mistakenly arrested by ICE agents after they forced entry into his home without presenting any warrant; the target of the search has reportedly been in prison since September 2024. In a review of 33 wrongful detention lawsuits filed in the Minnesota US District Court on January 16 and 17, the Minnesota Star Tribune found that there was no evidence of a warrant in the majority of the lawsuits.
Minnesota attorney general Keith Ellison described the federal immigration enforcement deployment as "in essence, a federal invasion of the Twin Cities and Minnesota, and it must stop" asserting that the thousands of armed ICE and DHS agents had caused serious harm and chaos under the guise of immigration enforcement. He criticized the operation in a press conference on January 12 as not helpful: "This surge has made us less safe. Thousands of poorly trained, aggressive, and armed agents of the federal government have rolled into our communities. They have fired chemical irritants at people obeying lawful orders. This is an unlawful commandeering of police resources."
On January 15, Minnesota governor Tim Walz insisted that the Trump administration "stop this campaign of retribution". After the killing of Alex Pretti, Walz likened the impact of federal immigration enforcement in Minnesota to the experiences of Anne Frank during the Holocaust. Walz stated that like Frank, many children were hiding in their homes and afraid to leave due to the ongoing immigration actions in the state. The US Holocaust Museum later criticized his comparison of Franks experiences and those of immigrant children, stating that Frank was targeted and murdered solely for being Jewish, and any false equivalences are not acceptable especially while antisemitism levels increase.
On January 16, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey criticized the broader operation, stating it was "not normal immigration enforcement" and calling on the federal government to halt "unconstitutional conduct that is invading our streets each and every day". Regarding discrimination of specific groups, he added "We have seen consistent unconstitutional practice by ICE discriminating only on the basis of are you Latino, are you Somali".
Minneapolis police chief Brian O'Hara criticized the operation, stating that local police received constant 911 calls about ICE actions and that ICE and DHS had eroded public trust in law enforcement gained since 2020. Brooklyn Park police chief Mark Bruley stated that the operation had caused "civil rights violations in our streets" and alleged that multiple off-duty officers had been racially profiled and harassed by federal agents. Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt called the actions of federal agents "not just only wrong, but illegal".
Vice President JD Vance defended the ICE agent involved in the killing of Renée Good and rejected claims of unlawful actions by federal agents, remarking that characterizations of Good as an innocent civilian were "a lie" and that the officer was acting in self-defense.
After Alex Pretti's killing, President Donald Trump spoke with Walz by phone about the operation. Trump subsequently announced that he would be sending White House Border Czar Tom Homan to Minnesota to oversee the operation. Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino was reportedly expected to leave the state with some agents. Trump blamed Democrats for the killings of Pretti and Renée Good, arguing that they had encouraged obstruction of law enforcement operations.
On February 2, Noem announced that all DHS law enforcement officers deployed to Minnesota were being issued body cameras.
On January 8, a day after the killing of Renée Good, representative Robin Kelly (IL-D) announced plans to introduce articles of impeachment against Kristi Noem; the articles were formally introduced on January 15. By January 26, days after the killing of Alex Pretti, the articles had 140 Democratic cosponsors.
On January 22, 2026, the House passed an appropriations package that included funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), including ICE. On the same day, Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to Kristi Noem saying they are outraged by 53 deaths in ICE/CBP custody and accusing DHS of a "callous disregard for human life". Hours after the January 24 killing of Alex Pretti, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (NY-D) said that Senate Democrats would not pass appropriations that included the DHS funding; support from Senate Democrats is necessary to pass the bill. If appropriations are not passed by January 30, the government will enter a partial government shutdown. Susan Collins (ME-R), chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said that Republicans are open to reforms for DHS but opposed a separated DHS funding measure; she said the current bill included items such as increased DHS oversight and $20 million for body cameras.
On January 29, eight Republicans joined all the Democrats in the Senate to block the government spending bill that would fund DHS over concerns about immigration enforcement following the killing of Alex Pretti. Democrats said they would not approve the spending bill that includes DHS "[u]ntil ICE is properly reined in and overhauled legislatively."
Minneapolis labor unions and community organizations called for a January 23 general strike in response to the ICE surge. The name of the strike is "ICE Out of MN: Day of Truth and Freedom." On January 23, thousands of Minnesotans participated in the strike against ICE actions in their state. In the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area, hundreds of businesses closed to protest Operation Metro Surge. Businesses across the state also closed in solidarity. State museums were also closed.
Dozens of priests and clergy members were arrested during their protest at the MinneapolisâÂÂSaint Paul International Airport. Despite frigid weather, in Minneapolis, The Guardian reported that "tens of thousands" of protesters marched through the streets. The march began at 2:00 pm and started at The Commons, located near US Bank Stadium. The march ended at the Target Center.
Over a thousand labor unions endorsed the general strike, including the Minnesota AFL-CIO. The strike was also endorsed by the Minneapolis city council. It may be one of the state's largest strikes.
The day after the Jan 23 strike, VA nurse Alex Pretti was shot and killed by CBP. A second strike was organized for Friday, Jan 30, with protests and vigils on Saturday, Jan. 31.
By January 15, Minneapolis church Dios Habla Hoy had delivered over 12,000 boxes of food in six weeks to families in hiding during the operation. Native American groups, including the American Indian Movement, Indigenous Protector Movement, and Little Earth Protectors, began monitoring and conducting patrols in Minneapolis in response to the operations.
On January 28, Bruce Springsteen released the protest song "Streets of Minneapolis", condemning the violence of federal agents in the city. A lyric video for the song was released on January 29. The song ended up going number-one in 19 different countries.
In response to the killings of Good and Pretti, on February 4, 2026, punk band Dropkick Murphys, along with hardcore punk band Haywire, released the song "Citizen I.C.E.", a re-working of the Dropkick Murphys 2005 song "Citizen C.I.A.".
On January 25, an open letter was posted to the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce website signed by over 60 CEOs of Minnesota-based companies calling for an "immediate deescalation of tensions". Signers included the CEOs of 3M, Cargill, Mayo Clinic, Target, Best Buy, UnitedHealth Group, and General Mills.
In response to ICE actions in Minneapolis, officials in Italy expressed concern over the reported planned involvement of ICE in providing security for US officials during the 2026 Winter Olympic Games.
On January 12, the state governments of Minnesota and Illinois and the city governments of Minneapolis and Saint Paul filed federal lawsuits against the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and top federal officials, including the heads of ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). They argued that the large-scale deployment of ICE agents is unconstitutional, unlawful, and has disrupted civic life and violated civil liberties. The State of Minnesota invokes the Tenth Amendment, arguing that the unilateral deployment of federal agents to perform general policing duties constitutes an unconstitutional commandeering of state resources and a violation of the state's sovereign police powers. The City of Minneapolis challenges the operation under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), contending that the sudden designation of schools and hospitals as enforcement zones was an "arbitrary and capricious" policy change made without the required public notice or comment period. On January 19, the Justice Department filed a request to reject lawsuit's motion for a preliminary injunction and temporary restraining order. Oral arguments began being held in the case on January 26. At least 20 state attorneys general have filed amicus briefs in favor of Minnesota.
On January 31, Minnesota US District Court judge Katherine M. Menendez denied a preliminary injunction requested by the plaintiffs against federal government, arguing that "the relative merits of each side's competing positions are unclear" that weighed against approval.
In a letter to Minnesota governor Tim Walz dated January 24, Attorney General Pam Bondi requested that the state government repeal sanctuary policies in the state, give the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division access to the state's voter rolls, and share its Medicaid, Food and Nutrition Service, and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program records with the Justice Department for its investigation of the 2020s Minnesota fraud scandals. Bondi asserted that this was part of an effort to "restore the order of law, support ICE officers and bring an end to the chaos in Minnesota".
Walz's office issued a press release after receiving Bondi's letter saying, "This is not common sense, lawful immigration enforcement. That is not what this occupation is about. And it's not what the attorney general's letter is about", and at a press conference on January 26, Walz said "This has nothing to do with fraud." Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon refused Bondi's request and called the letter "an outrageous attempt to coerce Minnesota into giving the federal government private data on millions of US Citizens in violation of state and federal law". Simon noted: "Attorney General Bondi knows full well that the Governor has no formal role in managing our elections or maintaining our voter registration system. She is also well aware that this specific request is the subject of active litigation with our office."
On January 25, Donald Trump called on Congress to pass legislation to ban state and local government sanctuary policies and called on Walz, Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey, and all Democratic governors and mayors "to formally cooperate with the Trump Administration to enforce our Nation's Laws, rather than resist and stoke the flames of Division, Chaos, and Violence." At a press conference on January 29, White House Border Czar Tom Homan appeared to suggest that reductions in the number of immigration officers deployed to the Twin Cities were contingent on "cooperation" from state and local government leaders. On January 26, Minnesota US District Court judge Katherine M. Menendez referenced the letter on the first day of oral arguments in the class-action lawsuit filed by Minnesota against DHS when questioning the Justice Department's lawyers.
On December 17, 2025, individual plaintiffs and the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota filed a class-action lawsuit (Tincher et al. v. Noem et al.) alleging constitutional violations by federal agents participating in Operation Metro Surge. The complaint referenced events on December 9, 2025, also documented by MPR-News and argued that agents engaged in retaliatory arrests against observers and conducted traffic stops without reasonable suspicion, violating First and Fourth Amendment rights.
On January 15, 2026, the ACLU has filed a second class-action lawsuit alleging widespread racial profiling by federal immigration agents under the surge. In the complaint the ACLU argues that arrests based solely on ethnic appearance or accent violate the Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause as well as the prohibition against arbitrary detention without probable cause.
On January 16, Minnesota US District Court judge Katherine M. Menendez issued a preliminary injunction in the first lawsuit filed by the Minnesota ACLU in December placing specific restrictions on federal agents participating in "Operation Metro Surge" in Minnesota. The ruling ordered agents not to retaliate against individuals "engaging in peaceful and unobstructive protest activity". Specifically, the court prohibited the use of pepper spray or other "crowd dispersal tools" as retaliation for protected speech and barred agents from detaining motorists who were not "forcibly obstructing or interfering with" officers. On January 21, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit issued an administrative stay of the Minnesota US District Court ruling to allow for the administration to file an appeal. On January 26, it issued a formal stay to block the injunction during the appeals process, finding the injunction to be "vague and overly broad" and that parts of it were essentially orders to "obey the law".
In a review of federal court filings in Minnesota for wrongful detention lawsuits, the Minnesota Star Tribune found 288 cases filed from January 1 through January 21 and 344 filed from December 1 through January 21, which compared with 128 filed in 2025 in total and 375 filed between 2016 and 2024. Politico subsequently reported that the judges of the Minneapolis US District Court have consistently ruled that the Trump administration had violated the law (sometimes egregiously), ruling in favor of the administration in only a handful of cases.
On January 27, Minnesota US District Court Chief judge Patrick J. Schiltz ordered ICE acting director Todd Lyons to appear in court over the agency failing to follow dozens of court orders in the wrongful detention lawsuits, with Schiltz threatening to hold Lyons in contempt of court for failure to do so. While Schiltz acknowledged in the ruling that ordering the head of an agency to appear in federal court was extraordinary, Schiltz also wrote that "the extent of ICE's violation of court orders is likewise extraordinary, and lesser measures have been tried and failed." The next day, Schiltz temporarily withdrew his order for Lyons to appear after the agency released a wrongfully detained person that led Schiltz to issue the order. Schiltz issued a broadside saying that ICE had violated nearly 100 court orders, and that, in January alone, ICE had disobeyed more court directives than "some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence".
Also on January 27, Western Texas US District Court judge Samuel Frederick Biery Jr. issued an order blocking the deportation of Liam Conejo Ramos, a 5-year old Ecuadorian boy, and his father, who were detained in Minneapolis a week earlier and removed to a family detention center near San Antonio, while a wrongful detention lawsuit to allow them to stay in the country proceeds. On January 31, Biery ordered that Ramos and his father be released.
On January 7, Minnesota governor Tim Walz issued a warning order to the Minnesota National Guard following the killing of Renée Good. The next day, Walz ordered the Minnesota National Guard to be "staged and ready"; Walz's office issued a press statement saying: "[The National Guard] remain[s] ready in the event they are needed to help keep the peace, ensure public safety, and allow for peaceful demonstrations". On January 17, the Minnesota National Guard announced that it had been mobilized but not deployed by Walz to support the Minnesota State Patrol with activated members planning to wear yellow reflective vests to "help distinguish them from other agencies in similar uniforms", while the Minnesota Department of Public Safety stated that the Minnesota National Guard "are not deployed to city streets at this time, but are ready to help support public safety". Following the killing of Alex Pretti on January 24, Walz deployed the Minnesota National Guard to assist local law enforcement at the request of the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office and the Minneapolis city government.
On January 15, President Donald Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807 in response to the Renée Good protests in Minneapolis against ICE operations in the city, which Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has said he will challenge in court if Trump does so. Legal scholars dispute that the conditions that permit invocation of the Insurrection Act have occurred in Minneapolis based on historical precedent despite the law's facially broad language. Trump backtracked from the threat the next day, saying there was not a "reason right now" to do so but reiterated that "It's been used a lot, and if I needed it, I'd use it". On the same day, a grand jury issued subpoenas to Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey as part of a United States Department of Justice investigation of whether Walz and Frey obstructed federal immigration law enforcement through public statements. On January 20, six subpoenas were sent to the offices of Walz, Ellison, Frey, Saint Paul Mayor Kaohly Her, and local government officials in Ramsey County and Hennepin County.
On January 18, the United States Department of Defense reportedly ordered 1,500 active-duty soldiers to prepare for a possible deployment to Minnesota, including two battalions from the 11th Airborne Division of the United States Army based in Alaska. In an emailed press statement, department spokesperson Sean Parnell stated, "The Department of War is always prepared to execute the orders of the Commander-in-Chief if called upon", but an unnamed Trump administration source has said that the standby order does not guarantee a deployment will occur or is imminent. An unnamed Defense Department source has confirmed that the standby order was issued in response to Trump's threats to invoke the Insurrection Act. In response to the reports of the standby order, Frey said in an interview: "It's ridiculous, but we will not be intimidated by the actions of this federal government[...] It is not fair, it's not just, and it's completely unconstitutional." On January 20, the Defense Department reportedly issued a second standby order to a brigade of the Military Police Corps stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina to prepare for potential deployment to Minneapolis.
On February 3, ABC News reported that the United States Northern Command had issued a stand down order the previous weekend to the service members that had been mobilized by the standby orders.
DHS reported by December 13, 2025, the operation had resulted in the arrest of 400 undocumented immigrants, claiming this included pedophiles, rapists, kidnappers, and drug traffickers. In January 2026, ICE reported that 103 out of 2,000 arrestees, or about 5 percent, had records of violent crimes. A review of a list of names of individuals ICE said it had arrested in Minneapolis, however, showed that at least several had not in fact been arrested in the operation but had been transferred from state custody to DHS before December 1, 2025, including one individual who had been transferred in 2003. On January 19, 2026, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem claimed in a post on Twitter that ICE had "arrested over 10,000 criminal illegal aliens" in Minneapolis, including 3,000 in the past six weeks.
Data released via a FOIA request in March 2026 showed that the operation resulted in at least 3,789 arrests. The majority of arrestees were from Ecuador and Mexico; the next most-represented countries were Guatemala, Honduras, Venezuela, and El Salvador. Fewer than one quarter had a criminal record, while around 13% had pending criminal charges. About 35% of cases were "collateral" arrests resulting from street sweeps, not targeted action. Arrests peaked in early January shortly after the killing of Good.
In the weeks following Homan's announcement of the end of the operation, ICE reduced their presence in the Twin Cities while continuing to operate in the suburbs including Coon Rapids, Minnetonka, Eden Prairie, Cedar-Riverside, Fridley, Columbia Heights, and Apple Valley. Tactics included using drones, traveling in smaller groups while wearing plain clothes, going door-to-door pretending to be environmental canvassers, and monitoring bus stops. Senator Erin Maye Quade stated that following Homan's announcement of the operation ending, there was an increase in aggressive behavior from ICE towards observers documenting their behavior. Animal shelters reported a sizable increase in surrendered animals from the suburbs as a result of pet owners detained by immigration agents.
On February 20, 2026, Representatives Ilhan Omar and Angie Craig visited the Whipple Federal Building and saw it empty. Omar expressed concern that this was due to ICE requiring seven days notice before their visit, providing ample time to create an appearance that ICE had withdrawn, despite continued reports in the suburbs. The field office director told them that fewer than 500 ICE agents remained.
In March 2026, Kristi Noem testified before the Senate, where she was quizzed about several things, including the killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti. Later, Trump announced that Noem would no longer head the Department of Homeland Security, and nominated Markwayne Mullin to replace her.
Green Beret veteran Anthony Aguilar and American professor Chris Hughes said the violence of Metro Surge reflected the imperial boomerang theory. According to Tim Walz, Trump compared the operation to the 2026 United States intervention in Venezuela.