The U.S. Department of Homeland Security deployed 3,000 federal immigration agents to Minneapolis and St. Paul in December 2025, under the name Operation Metro Surge. Previously, there were 190 agents working across five states, including Minnesota. Agents shot three people, killing two — Renee Good and Alex Pretti — during the operation. 

In the absence of state or local government support, residents have built on preexisting structures and created new ways to protect each other. Like neighbors mucking-out flooded basements in McDowell County, to public showings of solidarity across the rust belt, to miners striking in the 1920s — Minneapolis is leading in the long grassroots tradition of mutual aid to protect their community from the inside out.

Following nearly two months of grassroots organizing to counter the historic federal immigration operation, Border czar Tom Homan announced the end of Operation Metro Surge and that just 500 immigration agents would remain in Minnesota. As of Feb. 24, court filings revealed that 970 agents remain in Minnesota with plans for 407 to stay into March, according to the ACLU of Minnesota, which is suing the Department of Homeland Security and has named director Kristi Noem in its lawsuit.