President Donald Trump ordered DHS Secretary Kristi Noem on February 8, 2026 to intensify pressure on federal immigration authorities in Minnesota as his administration expanded what it calls “Operation Metro Surge.”
Trump’s directive pushed the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement to publicly release detailed information about arrests in Minnesota, aiming to rally public support and counter mounting political opposition.
In a Truth Social post tied to the order, Trump wrote: “The people will start supporting the Patriots of ICE, instead of the highly paid troublemakers, anarchists, and agitators! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.”
DHS has described Operation Metro Surge as the “largest immigration enforcement operation ever carried out,” with Minnesota at the center of its intensified enforcement and messaging strategy.
The administration’s new emphasis on publishing detailed arrest information came as Minnesota officials and institutions challenged the surge’s footprint, and as federal scrutiny grew after fatal shootings involving federal agents.
A week of announcements in early February traced the administration’s dual track of tougher enforcement paired with new accountability measures.
On February 4, 2026, Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin marked what DHS called a milestone in the operation and framed it as a response to violence against officers.
“Despite coordinated attacks of violence against our law enforcement, our officers have made more than 4,000 arrests of illegal aliens including murderers, pedophiles, rapists, gang members, and terrorists in Minnesota since Operation Metro Surge began. We will not back down from our mission to remove criminal illegal aliens from American neighborhoods,” McLaughlin said.
That same day, White House Border Czar Tom Homan announced what he called a tactical drawdown of personnel from Minnesota, arguing that cooperation with county jails reduced the need for a larger federal presence.
“We currently have an unprecedented number of counties communicating with us now and allowing ICE to take custody of illegal aliens BEFORE they hit the streets,” Homan said.
Days earlier, on February 2–3, Noem announced body cameras for officers in Minneapolis and signaled a broader rollout, describing the move as immediate.
“Effective immediately we are deploying body cameras to every officer in the field in Minneapolis. As funding is available, the body camera program will be expanded nationwide,” Noem said.
Trump added another layer of messaging on February 4 in an interview with NBC News, pointing to a tougher approach while also suggesting selective changes in tone.
“I learned that maybe we can use a little bit of a softer touch. But you still have to be tough. These are criminals we’re dealing with, really hard criminals,” Trump said.
DHS launched Operation Metro Surge in late 2025, surging federal agents into the Minneapolis-St. Paul area and scaling the operation to a statewide footprint.
Officials have measured the surge publicly through arrest announcements and by releasing increasingly granular descriptions of who was taken into custody, a strategy the February 8 directive sought to intensify.
Alongside the enforcement surge, DHS also launched a separate refugee re-examination effort called Operation PARRIS, which stands for Post-Admission Refugee Reverification and Integrity Strengthening.
The PARRIS effort focuses on refugees in Minnesota who have not yet obtained green cards, placing their cases back under review and raising the stakes for families who believed their status had stabilized after admission.
The administration has not framed PARRIS as a benefits expansion, and it has not described it as voluntary, instead treating it as an integrity and enforcement-adjacent initiative that runs alongside the Metro Surge crackdown.
Noem’s body-camera announcement became the administration’s main oversight and transparency step after backlash over enforcement tactics and the operation’s public visibility in Minneapolis.
Officials described body-worn cameras as a means of accountability and evidence collection, and as a way to increase public confidence, while also tying expansion to funding availability.
The Trump administration’s transparency push has centered on releasing detailed arrest information, an approach officials have presented as a way to defend the surge and counter political opposition.
That push has also sharpened the public categories used to describe arrests, with federal statements emphasizing allegations of violent crime, sexual offenses, gang membership, and terrorism.
Minnesota’s political leadership has rejected the surge model and described the federal presence as a destabilizing force for communities and local institutions.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey have formally demanded an “end to the occupation,” as the operation expanded around neighborhoods, schools, and public services.
Several school districts escalated their resistance in court on February 4, 2026, when Fridley and Duluth filed a lawsuit seeking to block ICE from operating near schools.
The districts argued that immigration enforcement activity near schools threatens education access and erodes community trust, and they cast the federal presence as a public-safety and child-welfare issue rather than a routine law-enforcement deployment.
Local actors have also argued that fear of enforcement changes how families use public services, including whether parents send children to school or attend appointments at clinics.
Federal officials, in contrast, have framed the operation as a crime-focused mission, with the DHS milestone statement emphasizing arrests the department associates with serious criminal allegations.
The intensifying conflict has also played out against a backdrop of deadly incidents involving federal agents in Minnesota.
Two U.S. citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, died in shootings by federal agents on Jan. 7 and Jan. 24, events that sparked nationwide protests and drew a federal civil rights investigation by the Department of Justice.
The administration has not retreated from its core surge strategy in response to the shootings, but it has pointed to body cameras and public data releases as steps toward oversight and transparency.
Critics have described the body-camera move as overdue, while federal officials have treated it as part of a broader effort to defend the operation’s conduct and outcomes.
Minnesota has become the primary testing ground for what the administration describes as a shift from traditional “targeted enforcement” to a “mass surge” model, tying the state’s experience to the second-term deportation strategy associated with Donald Trump.
The surge’s community impact has also drawn attention beyond the Twin Cities, including reports of changes in school attendance and daily routines.
Local reports indicate significant drops in school attendance and avoidance of public spaces, including “up to 417% among non-English speaking students in Rochester.”
Those local reports have described a climate of fear that can alter daily decisions about work, school, and travel, especially in mixed-status families and in communities with large refugee populations.
PARRIS has added another layer of anxiety for refugees who entered the United States lawfully and have built lives in Minnesota while awaiting permanent residency.
The prospect of renewed scrutiny, along with enforcement activity connected to the surge, has raised concerns in immigrant and refugee communities about detention risk and the uncertainty that can follow an administrative review.
DHS has presented its oversight concessions as a balance between aggressive enforcement and accountability, pointing to cameras and to the public release of detailed arrest data as steps that provide evidence, documentation, and transparency.
The administration’s approach has also tried to separate enforcement messaging from benefits messaging, with officials directing the public to different agencies and channels for updates.
Readers seeking official federal announcements can track DHS press releases through the agency’s DHS Newsroom, which includes Minnesota-related updates tied to Operation Metro Surge.
DHS has also provided a Minnesota-facing tracking page for the operation through the Operation Metro Surge Data portal, which the administration has used to publicize enforcement activity.
For immigration benefits updates that do not involve enforcement actions, USCIS posts announcements in its USCIS Newsroom, which the administration has treated as separate from DHS enforcement messaging.
Minnesota’s litigation and state actions, including updates tied to legal challenges involving federal activity, appear in the Minnesota Attorney General’s news releases.
Even as the administration promoted cameras and public arrest disclosures, Trump’s February 8 directive signaled that the White House wanted a sharper public posture from DHS and ICE in Minnesota, not a smaller fight.
“The people will start supporting the Patriots of ICE, instead of the highly paid troublemakers, anarchists, and agitators! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN,” Trump wrote.
Donald Trump Directs Kristi Noem to Ramp Up Pressure on Federal Immigration Authorities in Minnesota
President Trump has escalated ‘Operation Metro Surge’ in Minnesota, ordering the DHS to release granular arrest data to counter political opposition. While federal officials cite 4,000 arrests of criminals, local leaders and school districts have filed lawsuits to block enforcement near schools. The administration is also implementing body cameras and ‘Operation PARRIS,’ a refugee reverification program, amid rising community fear and fatal incidents involving federal agents.
