On 23 January 2026, the largest city in Minnesota shut down. Tens of thousands of people of all ages, backgrounds and faiths walked out of their houses and into the streets of Minneapolis, where they were greeted by sub-zero temperatures and biting Arctic winds. The cold came as a bitter shock to out-of-towners, but the locals simply piled on an extra layer and got on with it. They had come prepared to weather the storm, having already spent hours upon hours in the weeks leading up to that day devoted to the city’s newest outdoor activity: tracking Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids.
Beginning on 4 December, the Trump administration flooded the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, and surrounding areas, with approximately 3,000 armed ICE, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Homeland Security agents, ostensibly as part of a larger crackdown on illegal immigration. In fact, ‘Operation Metro Surge’ seemed to be a politically motivated farce fuelled by Donald Trump’s personal dislike of state governor Tim Walz and Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar.1 But it quickly turned to tragedy.
