Stewart Huntington and Amelia Schafer
ICT
Native leaders reacted with caution Thursday after the Trump administration said it is ending the immigration crackdown in Minnesota that led to thousands of arrests, violent protests and the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens over the past two months.
“I’m relieved that this violent paramilitary force will be removed from our streets but I won’t believe it until they’re actually gone,” said Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, a White Earth Ojibwe citizen, in a statement.
President Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan said Thursday that “Operation Metro Surge” is coming to an end. He called the Department of Homeland Security’s effort, which began in December, the “largest immigration enforcement operation ever.”
The presence of thousands of immigration law enforcement officers in the state has been a flashpoint in the debate over Trump’s mass deportation efforts, flaring up after Renee Good and Alex Pretti were killed by federal officers in Minneapolis.
Voices in the Native community were muted in response.
“We will wait and see,” said Robert Rice, the White Earth Ojibwe citizen who owns the Powwow Grounds Coffee house in Minneapolis. The Powwow Grounds morphed into the center of the Native response to the federal law enforcement surge, primarily as a collection point and distribution center for food and supplies for community members afraid to venture from their homes for fear of being caught up in an immigration raid.
The Powwow Grounds Coffee shop in Minneapolis, shown here on Monday, Jan. 19, 2026, has served as a refuge for the Native community and others as immigration agents have swept the community. Credit: Stewart Huntington/ICT
Flanagan noted the strong response in the Native community to the federal actions.
“I think Donald Trump underestimated the people of Minnesota and how we have responded,” she told ICT before Homan announced the end of the federal immigration crackdown in Minnesota. “I’ve watched the Indigenous Protector Movement be on the front lines of looking out for folks through nonviolent, peaceful protest, helping to patrol communities and neighborhoods and keep people safe. That is truly at the heart of who we are. And Native people have been a really important part of the resistance to ICE in the federal government.”
In her statement Thursday, Flanagan added, “Minnesotans stood together against this chaos and cruelty. We never gave up on our neighbors. But I will never, EVER, forget nor forgive the fear, violence and chaos the federal government has laid on our doorstep.”
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation focused on the Minneapolis-St. Paul area resulted in more than 4,000 arrests, Homan said, touting it a success.
“The surge is leaving Minnesota safer,” he said.
Mike Focia, president of the Twin City Chapter of the American Indian Movement and citizen of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, disagreed.
The ICE surge, he told ICT, “caused terror in our city and it’s going to take a long time to recoup from this, you know? Let’s just hope it’s over. And let’s hope any other city doesn’t have to fear what we faced.”
Ruth Buffalo, chief executive of the Minneapolis Indian Women’s Resource Center, told ICT from Washington, D.C., that leaders are waiting to see what happens next.
“We have been tracking the news back home in Minnesota closely today but everyone says we will believe it when we see it,” said Buffalo, a Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation citizen. “We are here to urge Congress to not provide any further funding or additional funding to (the Department of Homeland Security.)”
The announcement from the administration marked a significant retreat from an operation that has become a major distraction for the Trump administration and has been more volatile than prior crackdowns in Chicago and Los Angeles. It comes as a new AP-NORC poll found that most U.S. adults say Trump’s immigration policies have gone too far.
But Trump’s border czar pledged that immigration enforcement won’t end when the Minnesota operation is over.
“President Trump made a promise of mass deportation and that’s what this country is going to get,” Homan said.
Democratic Gov. Tim Walz said Tuesday that he expected Operation Metro Surge, which started in December, to end in “days, not weeks and months,” based on his conversations with senior Trump administration officials.
“The long road to recovery starts now,” Walz posted on social media after Homan’s announcement. “The impact on our economy, our schools, and people’s lives won’t be reversed overnight. That work starts today.”
Some activists expressed relief at Homan’s announcement, but warned that the fight isn’t over. Lisa Erbes, a leader of the progressive protest group, Indivisible Twin Cities, said officials must be held accountable for the chaos of the crackdown.
“People have died. Families have been torn apart,” Erbes said. “We can’t just say this is over and forget the pain and suffering that has been put on the people of Minnesota.”
While the Trump administration has called those arrested in Minnesota “dangerous criminal illegal aliens,” many people with no criminal records, including children and U.S. citizens, have also been detained.
Homan announced last week that 700 federal officers would leave Minnesota immediately, but that still left more than 2,000 on Minnesota’s streets. At the time, he cited an “increase in unprecedented collaboration” resulting in the need for fewer federal officers in Minnesota, including help from jails that hold deportable inmates.
Homan said Thursday that he intends to stay in Minnesota to oversee the drawdown, which he said began this week and will continue next week.
The widespread pullout comes as protests on the streets have started to wane, Homan said.
“We’ve seen a big change here in the last couple of weeks,” he said, crediting cooperation from local leaders.
During the height of the surge, heavily armed officers were met by resistance from residents upset with their aggressive tactics.
“They thought they could break us, but a love for our neighbors and a resolve to endure can outlast an occupation,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said on social media.
Forcia, the AIM leader, agreed and went even further. If it comes to pass that the immigration officers finally leave the territory, he told ICT his parting words would be, “Good riddance.”
ICT’s Jourdan Bennett-Begaye and The Associated Press contributed to this report
The post ‘Good Riddance’: Native leaders relieved but skeptical about plans to end immigration operation in Minnesota appeared first on ICT.
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