ICE In Minneapolis

A Federal judge on January 31 declined to halt Operation Metro Surge, a large Federal immigration enforcement effort in Minnesota, allowing the operation to continue while legal challenges move forward.

The operation has drawn national attention following two fatal shootings involving federal immigration agents in Minneapolis. Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was shot and killed on January 7. On January 24, Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, was killed in a separate confrontation. Both were U.S. citizens.

“I think that our country needs to be better at providing immigrants with an easier pathway to citizenship, and that people need to be respectful of our government's authority, but at the same time, the way our government is going about treating immigrants in this country is not fair. 
The way they're treating them is completely inhumane, people need to speak up because they can't continue treating them like this,” NHS senior Cali Taylor said.

U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez denied Minnesota’s request for a temporary restraining order, ruling that the state had not met the legal standard required to block federal immigration enforcement. The decision allows federal immigration agents to continue operating across the Twin Cities.

Menendez acknowledged the impact of the operation on Minnesota communities but said an injunction would cause significant harm to the federal government’s ability to enforce immigration law. Minnesota officials argued that Operation Metro Surge violates the Constitution’s Tenth Amendment by pressuring the state to abandon sanctuary-style policies and cooperate more fully with federal immigration authorities, but Menendez said the arguments were not strong enough at this stage to justify blocking the operation.

“The Eighth Circuit has recently reiterated that entry or injunction barring the federal government from enforcing federal law imposes significant harm on the government,” Menendez wrote.

Operation Metro Surge began in December when the Trump administration deployed approximately 3,000 federal immigration agents to the Twin Cities. According to the Department of Homeland Security, more than 3,000 undocumented immigrants have been arrested since the operation began.

The deaths prompted daily protests in Minneapolis and demonstrations in cities including Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York City, and Atlanta. Some protests included school walkouts and calls for a nationwide strike opposing federal immigration enforcement tactics.

Polling conducted in January showed growing public opposition to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions. A New York Times/Siena poll found that 61% of voters said ICE enforcement tactics had gone too far following Good’s death.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said the state would continue to challenge the operation in court.

“History is on our side and Minnesotans are meeting its call,” Ellison said. “I will keep matching your bravery.”

In her ruling, Menendez noted that federal authorities did not dispute claims that immigration agents engaged in racial profiling, excessive use of force, and other harmful conduct.

“Defendants do nothing to refute the negative impacts described by Plaintiffs in almost every arena of daily life,” she wrote.

She cited increased police overtime costs, declining school attendance, delayed emergency responses, and hardship for small businesses.

In a separate ruling, a federal judge in Texas ordered the release of a five-year-old boy and his father who were detained by ICE following an arrest outside their Minneapolis home. The child, Liam Conejo Ramos, and his father were transferred to a detention facility in San Antonio.

U.S. District Judge Fred Biery granted an emergency request for their release and ordered federal officials to free them by February 3.

“The case has its genesis in the ill-conceived and incompetently implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas,” Biery wrote.

Operation Metro Surge remains active as legal challenges and protests continue in Minnesota and across the country.

“Whatever happens, it's gonna take years in the courts to figure out convictions or not, and we're hearing all these anecdotal stories of the worst and the worst. So we have to sort through all these individual stories and really get back to a fundamental understanding of which layer of government is supposed to be doing what,” NHS Social Studies teacher Jason Edwards said.

Information in this article is current as of February 2.