Operation Metro Surge Is Over and Two American Citizens Are Dead
On December 4, 2025, the Department of Homeland Security announced Operation Metro Surge and sent roughly 3,000 federal agents to Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota. The stated goal: apprehend undocumented immigrants. What followed was 70 days of chaos, two dead American citizens, agents caught lying under oath, and a political retreat disguised as a victory lap.
On February 12, border czar Tom Homan announced the operation was ending. He called it a success. The body count says otherwise.
Renee Good, 37
January 7. Minneapolis. Renee Nicole Macklin Good was in her car, stopped sideways in the street, when ICE agents approached. Agent Jonathan Ross circled to the front-left of her vehicle. Another agent reached through the open window and ordered her out. Good reversed briefly, then moved forward and to the right, into the flow of traffic, turning away from Ross. Ross fired three shots. Renee Good -- a 37-year-old mother of three -- was hit in the head and killed.
She was an American citizen. She had nothing to do with immigration enforcement.
Alex Pretti, 37
January 24. Minneapolis again. Alex Jeffrey Pretti was an ICU nurse at the VA. He was filming federal agents with his phone and directing traffic when he stepped between a CBP officer and a woman the officer had pushed to the ground. Pretti put his arm around the woman. He was pepper-sprayed, wrestled to the ground by six agents, and shot multiple times.
He was 37. A US citizen. A nurse who treated veterans. Dead on the pavement.
The Lies
On February 13, DHS admitted that two ICE agents appear to have lied under oath about a separate shooting. Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis and Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna were charged with assaulting federal agents after officers claimed they were "ambushed and attacked" with a snow shovel and a broom handle during a traffic stop. Video evidence contradicted every word of it. Prosecutors dropped the charges. The agents are on administrative leave.
The Resistance
Minnesota fought back harder than any state has fought an immigration operation in modern memory.
January 23: 50,000 people marched through downtown Minneapolis in minus-20-degree temperatures. The "ICE Out" rally shut down the city.
January 26: University of Minnesota students chained themselves to the doors of Morrill Hall, demanding sanctuary campus status from President Rebecca Cunningham.
Three consecutive Fridays: Protests filled downtown Minneapolis. Hundreds of businesses closed in solidarity. Labor unions, faith leaders, and immigrant community organizations built a coalition that ground the Twin Cities to a halt.
Britannica's full timeline of the operation.
The Retreat
February 4: Homan announced the withdrawal of 700 officers. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem ordered body cameras for agents -- an admission that the agency could not trust its own people to tell the truth.
By February 12, Homan said the operation was over. He claimed 3,000 arrests. He did not mention the two dead American citizens, the agents who lied under oath, or the economic damage to Minnesota businesses.
ICE Is Leaving Minnesota... Kinda.
Operation Metro Surge was the largest immigration enforcement action in American history. It ended in disgrace.