Minnesota resistance movement says drawdown is 'hard-fought community victory'

MINNEAPOLIS — Battle-hardened ICE protesters celebrated border czar Tom Homan’s announcement on Feb. 12 that Operation Metro Surge will soon come to a close. Lasting nearly three months, the operation involved thousands of federal agents descending on Minnesota in the nation’s largest-ever immigration enforcement action, during which masked agents swept up immigrants who are in the country legally and illegally, citizens and American Indians.

But even as leaders of Minnesota’s globally recognized resistance movement claimed victory, they acknowledged a long road ahead of picking up the pieces. Immigration agents shot three people in Minneapolis, killing two: Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Prominent activists and journalists continue to face federal charges for demonstrating against the Trump administration’s policies and covering those protests. Immigrant business corridors have become dead zones, school attendance plummeted and many immigrant families who haven’t been detained and deported are now facing the prospect of eviction after weeks of sheltering in place.

“These masked agents leaving our state can be spun any way people want, but history will show what this was: regular people, clergy and teachers, janitors and soccer moms, people across all of our complicated differences, simply refusing to let our neighbors be attacked and abducted without a fight,” the ICE Out of Minnesota Coalition said in a statement. “Many Minnesotans were forever changed by these surges.”

The coalition comprises longtime immigrant rights, faith and labor organizations, including Unidos MN and Centro De Trabajadores Unidos En La Lucha (CTUL).

MN8, a group assisting Southeast Asians facing deportation, said the surge will have a long-lasting impact.

“Businesses were forced to close, community members had to halt their entire lives in order to prioritize their safety, and people were taken to be rapidly moved out of state,” MN8 said in a statement. “We, as a community, have no reason to believe or trust this news.”

Legal groups helping immigrants with their cases were also skeptical of the drawdown promise.

“No one knows the terror, harm and impact of Operation Metro Surge better than our clients,” Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid, a nonprofit that provides free attorneys to immigrants, said in a statement. “When our clients again feel safe to leave their homes, pursue legal remedies, work unencumbered and live in peace — they’ll know it and so will we.”

Homan’s announcement comes as funding for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is set to run out on Feb. 13. Senate Democrats are demanding ICE change its tactics in exchange for votes to fund the agency.

They’ve asked that immigration agents unmask, wear identification, stop targeting people based on their race and seek judicial warrants for arrests. Republicans have rejected those requests and responded with demands to require proof of citizenship to vote and an end to local policies limiting cooperation with immigration enforcement.

A DHS shutdown would not have an immediate impact on immigration enforcement because that got $75 billion in last year’s budget reconciliation bill. But a shutdown will affect the Transportation Security Administration and Federal Emergency Management Agency.

At a news conference on Feb. 12, protest movement leaders credited public pressure and national scrutiny for ending Operation Metro Surge.

“This is a hard-fought community victory,” said Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “But it comes after real trauma, real harm and the loss of life.”

While most federal agents are expected to leave Minnesota over the next week, protesters cautioned that enforcement will continue to ripple across the country. They called for independent investigations into use-of-force incidents that took place during Operation Metro Surge, legal support for affected families and the return of people wrongfully detained and flown to out-of-state detention facilities.

The legal team for the family of Renee Good, who was fatally shot by ICE agent Jonathan Ross, said they were cautiously optimistic about the drawdown of federal agents.

“The nation will be watching to see if and where these agents are redeployed. The agents’ departure from Minnesota does not dismiss the absolute need for accountability for their actions during Operation Metro Surge,” the Good family’s legal team said in a statement.

Nekima Levy Armstrong, an activist and attorney who is facing a federal felony charge for disrupting a church service because one of the pastors works for ICE, said she also welcomed the news of a federal drawdown but is reluctant to believe it until it’s proven.

“At the end of the day, what they want is for people to stop watching, to stop whistling, and to get out of the streets,” she said. “Well, that is exactly what we must not do.”

The Whittier Alliance, the association of the south Minneapolis neighborhood where Pretti was fatally shot by federal agents on Jan. 24, put out a call for rental assistance donations.

“We’ll believe it when we see it,” the association said of the agents’ scheduled departure.

In his address, Homan called Operation Metro Surge a success and said it led to increased coordination with state and local officials to achieve mutual goals.

It’s unclear whether local cities and law enforcement agencies have agreed to any policy changes to assist with federal immigration enforcement.

“This isn’t as a result of capitulation from elected leaders,” Minneapolis Council Member Jason Chavez said, rejecting Homan’s notion that the surge is ending because the federal government accomplished what it set out to do in Minnesota.

“I am still asking the community to remain cautious and vigilant until we can confirm what this truly means,” he said, asking observers to stay on the lookout. “We are still mourning, demanding justice, and we will never forget.”

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