ICE’s Operation Metro Surge has led to more than 400 arrests in Minnesota and involved roughly 100 agents flown in from around the country. NBC News observed agents operating in subzero conditions while protesters confronted and tracked teams, at times blocking access and delaying attempts to arrest targets. Local leaders say the surge has resulted in wrongful detentions and heightened fear in communities with large Somali populations, while DHS defends its tactics as lawful enforcement based on intelligence and reasonable suspicion.
ICE Surge in Freezing Minnesota Spurs Hundreds of Arrests, Protests and Claims of Wrongful Detention
ICE agents enter a home outside St. Paul, Minn., looking for a suspect charged with criminal sexual contact on Dec. 10. (Bill Angelucci / NBC News)
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Immigration and Customs Enforcement has conducted more than 400 arrests in Minnesota since launching "Operation Metro Surge" earlier this month, an ICE spokesperson said. NBC News was granted exclusive access to the operation on a frigid day in the Twin Cities, where wind chill made conditions well below freezing.
The operation — which ICE says includes roughly 100 agents flown in from around the country — has drawn intense local pushback, protests and threats. ICE asked NBC News to conceal the identities of most agents during the visit, saying protesters had attempted to block vehicles, tail teams and even attach Apple AirTags to track officers.
On the Ground: Planning, Waiting, and Missed Opportunities
Agents left a federal building in St. Paul around 6 a.m. and deployed in several vehicles to make targeted arrests. In one early attempt, officers surrounded a suburban home looking for a Somali man whom ICE said entered the U.S. in 2019 and had a prior conviction for criminal sexual conduct. When a woman at the home said the man was staying elsewhere, agents moved on to other targets. Many attempts, officers said, end without an arrest because suspects are not home or access is blocked by property managers or protesters.
At another location, agents believed a 68-year-old Somali man with a past conviction was upstairs in an apartment above a business. The property manager refused entry and the team abandoned the attempt. Around midday, a transport team returned to the staging area with three undocumented immigrants from Ecuador who had been taken into custody earlier that morning.
Confrontations and Collateral Detentions
NBC News reported multiple confrontations throughout the day: protesters approached unmarked ICE vehicles, blew whistles and interfered with operations. ICE officials described one instance in which a person allegedly rammed two ICE vehicles and was arrested. During the roughly eight hours NBC News spent with agents, fewer than a dozen people were detained who were not the original targets—what DHS has described as "collateral arrests."
Three men from Ecuador being processed at a federal facility in St. Paul, Minn., on Wednesday. (Bill Angelucci / NBC News)
"The frigid temperatures means that people aren’t out and about as much, so it makes it a little tougher," said Marcos Charles, acting executive associate director for ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations.
In one dramatic episode in Burnsville, officers obtained a warrant and used a battering ram after a suspected target fled into a residence; the original target escaped, but another undocumented person staying in the home was arrested.
Community Response and Political Rhetoric
Although ICE said the operation is not targeting any particular ethnic group, the surge has focused attention on Minnesota’s large Somali community amid heated rhetoric from the White House. President Donald Trump and senior adviser Stephen Miller have criticized Somali immigrants and other African countries, comments that local leaders and community advocates say unfairly stigmatize an entire population many of whom are U.S. citizens or lawful residents.
"The mistakes of a few individuals can never be used to generalize or stereotype an entire community," said Imam Hassan Jamma, executive director of the Islamic Association of North America.
Local officials in Minneapolis and St. Paul have accused ICE of wrongfully detaining at least one U.S. citizen during the surge. A 20-year-old who identified himself as Mubashir said he was tackled during a lunch break and briefly detained; officials later released him after checking his passport. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara apologized for the incident.
DHS defended its actions, saying officers act on "reasonable suspicion" and are trained to determine immigration status; DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin called allegations of racial profiling "disgusting, reckless, and categorically FALSE."
The day’s reporting shows an operation characterized by extensive planning and frequent setbacks: arrests that proceed without incident, attempts that fail because someone is not home, and operations that are complicated by protest activity and refusals of access. The long-term outcomes for many of those arrested, including whether they will be deported and on what timeline, remained unclear.
