#operation-metro-surge

#operation-metro-surge

He had one big takeaway from his visit: "ICE will not win there." The out gay president and CEO of Interfaith Alliance - a progressive religious organization working to challenge Christian nationalism and religious extremism - told LGBTQ Nation that he was utterly blown away by the determination of those protesting the Trump administration's brutal Operation Metro Surge, which resulted in the deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good and in the suffering of countless others.

Police at the University of Minnesota arrested 67 protestors two weeks ago during a demonstration outside a hotel where ICE agents were staying, among them a street medic, a volunteer who is trained to assist protesters related to medical matters, who was there to "make sure that nobody got hurt."

The operation has seen around 3,000 Department of Homeland Security agents (DHS) - including agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) - flood Minnesota over the past two and a half months, taking particular aim at Minneapolis and St. Paul. The agents have harassed and abducted residents, showing blatant disregard for due process rights and frequently making headlines for their brutality.

MINNEAPOLIS -- The immigration crackdown in Minnesota that led to mass detentions, protests and two deaths is coming to an end, border czar Tom Homan said Thursday. "As a result of our efforts here Minnesota is now less of a sanctuary state for criminals," Homan said at a news conference. "I have proposed and President Trump has concurred, that this surge operation conclude," he continued.

"It is very expensive to be sheltering in place," Yusra Murad, a communications organizer at Inquilinxs Unidxs por Justicia, told Truthout. Murad's group is a Twin Cities-based tenants' rights collective that is one of the groups leading the call for the eviction moratorium.

We all agree that we need to support our law enforcement officers and get criminals off the streets. While we don't agree on everything, these meetings were a productive starting point and I look forward to more conversations with key stakeholders in the days ahead, Homan said in a post on X. Today I met with Governor Walz, Mayor Frey, and top law enforcement officials to discuss the issues on the ground in Minnesota.

Democratic senator John Fetterman has called on Donald Trump to immediately fire Kristi Noem after the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Fetterman, of Pennsylvania, said in a statement: President Trump: I make a direct appeal to immediately fire Secretary Noem. Americans have died. She is betraying DHS's core mission and trashing your border security legacy. DO NOT make the mistake President Biden made for not firing a grossly incompetent DHS Secretary.

The state of Minnesota and the cities of Minneapolis and St Paul sued the Department of Homeland Security earlier this month, five days after Renee Good was shot by an Immigration and Customs (Ice) officer. The shooting of Alex Pretti on Saturday by a Border Patrol officer has only added urgency to the case. Since the original filing, the state and cities have substantially added to their original request.

The six-minute speech aired just hours after the Department of Homeland Security announced that Operation Metro Surge had resulted in 2,500 arrests across the state since last month. Federal officials said that roughly 800 Customs and Border Protection agents are now operating in the Minneapolis area, in addition to about 2,000 ICE and other federal agents already deployed in what the administration has described as the largest DHS operation in history.