ICE Melts in the Minneapolis Winter

In addition to the killings, arrests and detentions, and deportations of men, women and children, the economic impact of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s “Operation Metro Surge” has been overwhelming. The fear that gripped the city was palpable. Workers and customers were afraid to leave their homes, leaving restaurants and stores struggling to stay open. “The long road to recovery begins now,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said Thursday, announcing a plan to provide “$10 million in direct assistance to help businesses impacted by Operation Metro Surge stabilize, protect jobs and get back on solid footing.”

In a nation run by responsible adults with a modicum of interest in public service, this relief would be coupled with federal financial assistance. But President Trump and the Republican Congress are still trying to give Noem and her cronies more money to expand ICE operations. Perhaps they recognized their mistake in targeting Minneapolis, but they did not learn their lesson. And they were not held accountable.

“Operation Metro Surge is ending because Minnesotans fought back,” said Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who added, “We still deserve transparency, and Renee Good and Alex Pretti deserve justice. I will continue to demand independent investigations into their deaths and any excessive use of force by federal agents.”

This is an essential part of the accountability equation. But it doesn’t stop there, as US Representative Ilhan Omar explained.

“Two of my constituents, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, were killed by federal immigration enforcement agents. A third was shot and killed under questionable circumstances. Thousands of people were tear-gassed and shot with less-lethal weapons and harassed by masked agents. What we witnessed was not law enforcement, but militarized racial terror unleashed on the streets of Minnesota in a deliberate attempt to demonize the Somali community,” Omar said.

“Operation Metro Surge has exposed the lengths to which ICE is willing to go to intimidate and terrorize our state’s Black, Brown, and immigrant communities. Nearly all Somalis in Minnesota are citizens, but ICE agents harassed residents by demanding proof of documentation, and when citizens sought to document these illegal stops, they were met with deadly force. Latino, Asian, and other communities of color were forced to to hide regardless of their status, and those who dared to live their lives were often arrested without reason. It was not public safety. It was an authoritarian abuse of power.

Omar says, “Nothing we witnessed was normal. Businesses are reeling from economic devastation. Families are broken. Children will carry the trauma of federal agents descending on their neighborhoods for the rest of their lives. The pain inflicted on this community will not fade – it will stay with them as their own government turned against them.”

Accountability, the representative said, requires bold action. It is time, she explains, “to abolish this dishonest agency so that no community in America will ever be terrorized like this again.”

Omar also supported House Resolution 996, which seeks to impeach the DHS secretary for high crimes and misdemeanors. As of this week, 187 House members have joined as co-sponsors of the resolution, making it one of the most widely supported impeachment initiatives in American history.

Declaring: “I will not rest until we can ensure that this abuse of power and terror never happens again,” Omar said, “There must be justice and accountability. This administration must cooperate fully with the independent investigations into the murders of Renée Good and Alex Pretti. Congress must withhold funding from illegal actions and ensure that federal dollars never fund civil rights violations. We should bring cabinet secretaries and agency heads before congressional committees and require sworn testimony to explain who authorized these actions, what legal justifications were used, and why constitutional protections were ignored.