adding a whole new section?

Operation Metro Surge Didn’t End — It Just Went DarkFor about a month, Operation Metro Surge turned Minneapolis–St. Paul into the most closely watched domestic story in the United States. Masked federal agents fanned out through neighborhoods, schools closed, families hid indoors, and at least two U.S. citizens—Renée Good and Alex Pretti—were killed by federal immigration officers. Evidence in their cases was withheld from state investigators, and thousands of people, including citizens, were swept up and disappeared into a rotating archipelago of detention sites. Then, on February 12, Trump’s border czar Tom Homan announced that Metro Surge was ending.Since that day, almost everything the public thinks it knows about the “end” of the operation comes from Homan’s mouth and from politicians’ victory laps. Almost nothing comes from verifiable reporting on the ground.The spectacle was real. The ending is not.I. The SpectacleFor weeks, the country watched an unprecedented domestic deployment of ICE and related federal forces into Minnesota’s largest cities. The numbers and images were staggering:

• At its peak, roughly 3,000 federal immigration officers operated in the state—many masked, often unidentifiable, moving through residential neighborhoods and around schools.
• At least two citizens, Renée Good and Alex Pretti, were killed by these agents; another person died in federal custody.
• Minnesota’s attorney general, Keith Ellison, testified that his office had been denied basic evidence in the Good and Pretti cases: the weapon, shell casings, even access to a victim’s car. State investigators were told, in effect, to accept federal word on faith.
• Residents described people being grabbed off streets and out of vehicles, then vanished into far-flung detention centers before lawyers or family could locate them. Some estimates put the number of those swept up at well over 4,000.

This was not “routine immigration enforcement.” It looked and felt like an occupation: masked agents, opaque chains of custody, a cloud of terror that drove families underground and forced neighbors to improvise support networks just to get food and basic supplies to those too afraid to leave their homes.For about a month, media volume matched the stakes. Minnesota dominated domestic coverage; international outlets in Europe ran segments and explainers. The spectacle was impossible to ignore.II. The PivotOn February 12, the narrative changed with a single statement.Tom Homan announced that Operation Metro Surge was ending. He did not present data, manifests, or third-party confirmation. He simply stated that the operation was over, that hundreds of officers would leave, and that Minnesota would see a return to an “original footprint” of 80–150 agents.In the following days, he appeared on major Sunday shows. On CBS’s Face the Nation, he claimed that “well over 1,000 people” had already been “removed,” and that several hundred more would leave imminently. The phrasing was vague: did “people” mean federal agents, deported migrants, arrestees transferred out of state, or some combination? He did not clarify. He also listed so many carve-outs—rapid-response teams, church protection units, fraud investigators, jail liaisons—that the promised return to a small footprint became mathematically and operationally incoherent.Still, that was enough. Within a day, most major outlets were reporting that Metro Surge was “ending,” “over,” or “winding down.” Very few readers would have realized that the only basis for those claims was a set of uncorroborated assertions by Tom Homan—the border czar brought in as the 'grown up' to replace the more volatile CBP commander, Gregory Bovino, whose aggressive rhetoric had become 'bad optics,' effectively rebranding rather than ending the operation.What followed, almost immediately, were two mutually incompatible victory narratives.III. Two Potemkin VictoriesOn the Republican side, the line was simple: the surge worked.In this telling, Minnesota had been forced into “unprecedented cooperation.” Homan and allies suggested that the state had finally come around on enforcing federal immigration law and that the operation’s success justified similar surges in other “sanctuary” jurisdictions. The message to other states was clear: resist and you will get Minneapolis.On the mainstream Democratic and liberal side, an apparently opposite story took hold just as quickly: activists had won.Television segments and op-eds framed the announced wind-down as a civil-rights-style victory. Commentators praised Minnesota’s protesters, legal observers, and local leaders for “standing up” and “staring down” federal power. The mayor of Minneapolis, appearing on The Daily Show, credited community resistance, detailed the economic damage, and then pivoted to a tourism pitch: book a flight, stay in a hotel, come enjoy a newly peaceful city. The governor thanked activists in a jogging-shorts video and urged people to get outside and enjoy the weather.These narratives contradict each other. Either Minnesota made real concessions in exchange for the surge’s end, as Homan claimed, or it did not, as state officials insisted. Either the operation ended because it succeeded on federal terms, or it ended because it failed in the face of local resistance. They cannot both be true.Yet both parties had strong incentives to maintain their Potemkin versions. Republicans needed a success story to justify the surge model and to warn other states. Democrats needed a story of activist triumph to offer their base some sense of agency and to avoid admitting how thoroughly they had been outflanked on the ground.In the middle sat Minnesotans who had actually lived through the occupation—many of whom said nothing fundamental had changed.IV. The Black HoleThe most telling fact about Metro Surge after February 12 is not what has been reported but what hasn’t.In the days following Homan’s announcement, one would expect a basic set of questions to be answered by reporters:

• How many federal agents have actually left Minnesota?
• What is the visible presence of ICE and related units on Minneapolis and St. Paul streets now?
• Are families who spent weeks hiding indoors now venturing out?
• Have arrests, raids, and harassment truly stopped, or merely slowed?

Instead, coverage evaporated.National outlets that had saturated the surge itself sent no one back for “after” shots. There were no datelined dispatches from hotel lobbies or airport gates, no counts of departing convoys, no interviews with residents describing a tangible shift in day-to-day life. Local TV and print ran a handful of desk-written “drawdown” stories that simply repeated Homan’s numbers and administration talking points.Investigative outlets that might have been expected to dig deeper remained silent. Five days after the supposed end of one of the most aggressive domestic deployments in recent U.S. history, there were no major investigative pieces testing the official claims. The journalists who did the hard work of documenting abuses during the surge did not, or could not, deliver a public audit of its conclusion.On social media, the collapse was even more dramatic. A story that had been a top trending topic for weeks essentially disappeared. Posts from Minnesota residents saying “I still see them out my window” or sharing new videos of harassment drew a few dozen views. Discussions about the surge mutated almost entirely into abstract talk about funding levels and congressional negotiations. Almost nobody seemed interested in the basic question: Did the agents actually leave?It is hard not to describe that as an information black hole. The closest recent parallel, in terms of a story that went from all-consuming to opaque, is the Nord Stream sabotage: immense initial attention, followed by years of unresolved core questions and a vacuum filled mostly by speculation. In Minnesota, the energy dissipated even faster.V. What Didn’t EndWhile the “ending” of Metro Surge dominates the political and media narratives, the underlying architecture that made it possible is still expanding.

• A large federal presence remains in Minnesota. Even after a reported withdrawal of 700 officers earlier in February, estimates still put roughly 2,000 federal immigration agents in the state. Officials talk of “residual” security forces, rapid-response teams, and specialized units that will stay in place indefinitely. Local observers continue to report ICE activity at levels similar to during the surge, including harassment of legal observers and residents.
• ICE and DHS are quietly building out a national grid. Leaked documents and reporting show more than a hundred new leases and expansions for ICE offices and warehouse-style facilities in or near major urban areas, including proximity to schools, hospitals, and government service centers. The intent is clear: a permanent, geographically distributed infrastructure capable of rapid surge into any city, with 150+ new locations secured through multi-year leases.
• Detention capacity is increasing rapidly. ICE’s detained population has reached record highs, and planned capacity is moving toward six figures with $38.3 billion allocated for 92,600 beds operational by November 2026—the midterm election month. These are not temporary overflow facilities; they are long-term carceral investments.
• Data collection and targeting are accelerating. At the same time that surges have rolled through cities, the federal government has pressed states to turn over complete voter rolls and welfare data (encompassing 40+ million records from 12 states), and has integrated facial recognition and other technologies into immigration and “public safety” operations. The same apparatus that can disappear residents into detention can also flag and pre-label people as “agitators” or “threats” well before anyone arrives on their block, with 655+ protesters, journalists, and legal observers added to surveillance lists.

In other words: the named operation may have been declared over, but the system that produced it is only getting stronger.VI. The Authoritarian LessonSeen in this light, Operation Metro Surge looks less like a one-off crisis and more like a test.From the administration’s perspective, the test was straightforward:

• Could they flood a major American city with masked federal agents exercising broad and abusive powers?
• Could they get away with killing citizens in broad daylight caught on film, while contradicting footage that showed the unjustifiable killings by labeling the victims as domestic terrorists who had been trying to kill the agents? Could they withhold evidence, and face no meaningful criminal consequences?
• Could they pressure a state government by tying the withdrawal of forces to unrelated demands, like access to voter rolls and welfare databases, as AG Pam Bondi did in a letter addressed to Governor Tim Walz?
• Could they defy court orders thousands of times, disappear people into a nationwide detention archipelago, and still ride out the media and political backlash?
• Could they then declare the operation “ended” on their own timetable, on their own terms, without having to submit to an external audit?

On each point, the answer appears to be yes. There were political and reputational costs, especially in the early days of the surge. But those costs have proved navigable. The forces are still in place in significant numbers. The national infrastructure has grown. The narrative of an “ending” has been broadly accepted in official circles.From the perspective of democracy, this is not a test you can afford to pass.What has emerged in the wake of Metro Surge is not a functioning representative democracy confronting and correcting an abuse. It is a political system in which both major parties have chosen optics over substance, competing Potemkin victories over a shared commitment to truth, and short-term narrative control over long-term institutional repair.The people who lived through the surge—those who lost family members, those who were disappeared and returned, those who are still hiding—are left in a kind of double exile: first from the protection of their own state, and then from its memory.If there is a window left for reversing that trajectory, it will not be found in official statements about “missions changing,” nor in talk show applause lines about activist victories. It will begin with something much simpler and harder: a refusal to accept announcements as endings, and a renewed insistence on seeing, counting, and naming what is actually happening on the ground—even, and especially, when the cameras have moved on.References /Bibliography: (Topically Organized)I. Authoritarian Consolidation Framework
Levitsky, Steven and Lucan Way. "The Price of American Authoritarianism." Foreign Affairs, December 2025/January 2026.
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/price-american-authoritarianism-trumpII. Minnesota Operation Metro Surge - Track 1 (Visible Operations & Timeline)
Politico. "Homan announces end to Minnesota immigration enforcement surge." February 12, 2026.
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/02/12/homan-announces-end-to-minnesota-immigration-enforcement-surge-00777990
Politico. "Homan offers praise for Minnesota's Walz and Frey on immigration talks." February 15, 2026.
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/02/15/homan-minnesota-walz-frey-immigration
USA Today (Christopher Cann). "Homan says 'security force' will remain in Minnesota amid drawdown." February 16, 2026.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/02/16/homan-minnesota-security-force/
CBS News. "Transcript: Tom Homan on 'Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.'" February 15, 2026.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tom-homan-face-the-nation-transcript-02-15-2026/
CNN. "State of the Union with Jake Tapper." February 15, 2026.
[Transcript noted in analysis; URL not provided in original materials]
Fox News. "Fox & Friends Weekend interview with Tom Homan." February 15, 2026.
[Transcript provided; URL: https://www.foxnews.com/transcript/fox-friends-weekend-tom-homan-interview-02-15-2026]
PBS NewsHour. "Brooks and Capehart on Minnesota resistance." February 13, 2026.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/brooks-and-capehart-on-minneapolis-immigration-protests
The Guardian. "'It's happening here': ICE turns quiet Minnesota suburbs into conflict zones." February 12, 2026.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/12/minnesota-ice-suburbs-conflict
KARE 11 (Minneapolis). Community tracking of continued ICE operations. February 15-16, 2026.
[Local coverage noted; specific URL not provided]
CBS Minnesota (WCCO). "Operation Metro Surge Ends, Walz Warns 'Deep Damage.'" February 12, 2026.
https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/operation-metro-surge-ends-walz-deep-damage/
Minneapolis City Government. Economic impact assessment: $203.1 million costs and disruptions. February 13, 2026.
[Official city document cited; URL not provided]
"Whipple Walrus" account (community ICE tracking). Real-time observations of continued operations. February 2026.
[Social media/community source noted in local reporting]III. Track 2: National Infrastructure Expansion
WIRED (Dhruv Mehrotra and Dell Cameron). "ICE Is Preparing Offices in Every Major US City for Workplace Immigration Raids." February 10-11, 2026.
https://www.wired.com/story/ice-offices-150-cities-immigration-raids/
Associated Press. "ICE detention expansion: $38.3 billion allocation for 92,600 beds." February 13, 2026.
https://apnews.com/article/ice-detention-expansion-2026-infrastructure
ACLU-New Hampshire. "State documents on detention facility expansion in Chester, NH." February 2026.
[Cited as source for NH case study; URL not provided]
General Services Administration (GSA) documents. Leaked procurement records showing ICE office leases.
[Referenced in WIRED investigation; primary documents not publicly accessible]IV. Legal Architecture & Court Defiance
Reuters (Kristina Cooke, Mica Rosenberg, Ted Hesson). "Exclusive: US immigration courts have found over 4,400 ICE detentions unlawful. The government is ignoring them." February 14, 2026.
https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/exclusive-us-immigration-courts-have-found-over-4400-ice-detentions-unlawful-2026-02-14/
Supreme Court. CASA v. United States (elimination of nationwide injunctions). June 2025.
[Legal decision cited; official Supreme Court docket reference needed]
Supreme Court. Perdomo v. Mayorkas (authorization of racial profiling in immigration enforcement). September 2025.
[Legal decision cited; official Supreme Court docket reference needed]
Department of Justice. Guidance on administrative warrants for home entry. 2025-2026.
[Policy guidance referenced; specific DOJ publication URL not provided]
ICE Director Patrick Lyons. Memo authorizing warrantless home entry under expanded "pursuit" and "exigent circumstances" interpretations. May 2025.
[Internal ICE policy document cited; not publicly available]V. Lethal Force, Evidence Fabrication & Accountability Failures
NBC News. Investigation documenting 25 ICE/CBP shootings in nine months with zero prosecutions. February 14, 2026.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/ice-cbp-shootings-investigation-2026
CNN, New York Times, Washington Post. Video evidence contradicting official narratives in Renee Good and Alex Pretti shootings. January-February 2026.
[Multiple outlets obtained and published video evidence; specific URLs for each outlet not consolidated]
Politico. "White House reckons with GOP backlash after federal agents kill a second person in Minneapolis." January 26, 2026.
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/26/white-house-reckons-with-gop-backlash-after-federal-agents-kill-a-second-person-in-minneapolis-00746737
Politico. "Noem: Pretti shooting." January 29, 2026.
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/29/noem-pretti-shooting-00756830
Politico. "'Highly problematic': Trump admin faces internal doubts over ICE shooting response." January 9, 2026.
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/09/highly-problematic-trump-admin-faces-internal-doubts-over-ice-shooting-response-00720663
Politico. "Leavitt briefing on Minneapolis, Trump, Walz, Alex Pretti." January 26, 2026.
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/26/leavitt-briefing-minneapolis-trump-walz-alex-pretti-00747495
Politico. "Minnesota shooting: agents placed on administrative leave." January 28, 2026.
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/28/minnesota-shooting-agents-leave-00753083
Washington Post. "Minneapolis shooting video shows gun [contradicting official account]." January 25, 2026.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2026/01/25/minneapolis-shooting-video-gun/VI. Database Integration, Surveillance & Targeting Infrastructure
New York Times (Eileen Sullivan and Zolan Kanno-Youngs). "ICE compiled surveillance lists with 655+ targets including legal observers, protesters, and journalists." January 30, 2026.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/us/politics/ice-surveillance-protesters-journalists.html
New York Times. "DHS sent hundreds of administrative subpoenas to tech companies demanding identifying information for accounts that 'track or criticize' ICE operations." February 13, 2026.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/technology/dhs-subpoenas-social-media-ice-criticism.html
Attorney General Pam Bondi. "Bondi letter" model demanding voter roll data from states. 2025-2026.
[Referenced as policy framework; specific letter/document not publicly available]
Palantir Technologies. ELITE system integration (voter rolls, SSA appointments, Medicaid, DMV, facial recognition data).
[System referenced in multiple investigative reports; Palantir corporate information: https://www.palantir.com]VII. Media Coverage Patterns & Information Warfare
PBS NewsHour. David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart segment comparing Minnesota resistance to civil rights movement. February 13, 2026.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/brooks-and-capehart-on-minneapolis-immigration-protests
The Daily Show (Comedy Central). Mayor Jacob Frey interview on Minneapolis tourism and "ending." February 13, 2026.
[Television broadcast; specific episode URL: https://www.cc.com/video/daily-show-jacob-frey-february-2026]
USA Today. Article documenting contradictions between Homan and Frey claims. February 16, 2026.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/02/16/homan-minnesota-security-force/VIII. New York City Operations (Template 2.0)
Governor Kathy Hochul. "Keeping New Yorkers Safe: Governor Hochul Introduces the 'Local Cops Local Crimes Act.'" January 30, 2026.
https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-hochul-introduces-local-cops-local-crimes-act
ABC7 New York. "Mayor Mamdani signs executive order on sanctuary laws to strengthen protections for New Yorkers." February 6, 2026.
https://abc7ny.com/nyc-sanctuary-executive-order-mamdani/14420871/
THE CITY (NYC). "ICE Moved Detainees to Previously Undisclosed Floor of 26 Federal Plaza." February 9, 2026.
https://www.thecity.nyc/2026/02/09/ice-detainees-26-federal-plaza-undisclosed-floor/
Community sources (NYC). Reports of "hub targeting" at immigrant-owned cafes and community centers, "30-second arrests" in transit hubs. February 2026.
[Referenced in local reporting and community documentation; specific URLs not consolidated]IX. Political & Elite Response
Politico. "Tim Walz subpoena: Trump immigration crackdown." January 20, 2026.
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/20/tim-walz-subpoena-trump-immigration-crackdown-00738096
Politico. "Trump administration will pull 700 immigration officers from Minneapolis." February 4, 2026.
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/02/04/trump-administration-will-pull-700-immigration-officers-from-minneapolis-00763994
Politico. "Noem: Walz and Frey 'need to grow up.'" January 11, 2026.
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/11/noem-walz-frey-grow-up-00721363
Politico. "Amy Klobuchar announces run for Minnesota governor." January 29, 2026.
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/29/amy-klobuchar-minnesota-governor-00754285
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. Press conference announcing "Phase 2 guardrails" negotiations. February 13, 2026.
[Referenced in multiple news reports; specific Senate.gov URL not provided]
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell. Testimony before Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee. February 12, 2026.
[Congressional testimony cited in Politico Feb 12 article]X. Additional Context & Related Operations
Wikipedia. "Operation Metro Surge."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Metro_Surge
Capital B News. "Where Trump Has Sent Troops So Far, and Which Cities Are Next." January 26, 2026.
https://www.capitalbnews.org/trump-troops-deployment-cities-2026/
NBC News. "ICE to focus immigration operations on three cities each week." January 28, 2025.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/ice-three-cities-weekly-operations-2025
American Immigration Council. "Understanding ICE Raids at American Workplaces." October 9, 2025.
https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/ice-workplace-raids
Ballard Spahr (legal firm). "ICE in the Workplace: 2026 Update." February 4, 2026.
https://www.ballardspahr.com/insights/alerts-and-articles/2026/02/ice-in-the-workplace-2026-update
ICE.gov. "Enforcement Actions at or Focused on Sensitive Locations" (Policy Memorandum 10029.2).
https://www.ice.gov/doclib/ero-outreach/pdf/10029.2-policy.pdfXI. Social Media & Community Documentation
X (formerly Twitter). Senator Amy Klobuchar statement on Minnesota operation conclusion. February 12, 2026.
https://x.com/amyklobuchar/status/2021963516333445185
X (formerly Twitter). Mayor Jacob Frey statement celebrating "patriots of Minneapolis." February 12, 2026.
https://x.com/mayorfrey/status/2021962671311233438
Truth Social. President Trump characterization of Mayor Frey "violating the law." [Date from context: January-February 2026]
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115972940749866695
Community surveillance networks. "Whipple Walrus" and similar accounts providing real-time ICE tracking.
[Social media-based community documentation; platforms and specific URLs vary]