Federal agents still active in Twin Cities suburbs, observers say
It's been almost a week since White House border czar Tom Homan said he was ending the ICE surge in Minnesota, but not everyone is seeing a drawdown just yet.
Dan Kessler is a state Senate candidate for District 48 and a constitutional observer in the Chaska area.
"We are not seeing a drawdown, in fact, we are seeing a ramping up," said Kessler in a video posted to his Facebook page Tuesday. That day, he reported eight confirmed ICE vehicles in Chaska, along with agents taking someone into custody.
"Yesterday we saw more vehicles out than we've seen in a while, maybe ever," said Kessler. "We're not seeing any real change in the number of vehicles out here. We're still seeing constitutional observers approached and threatened with arrest for exercising their constituional right to observe."
It's a similar story up in Blaine, where ICE observer Nikki Aune said ICE have been shifting tactics. Aune says agents are out in the afternoon, as opposed to the morning.
"Even in our neighborhood, our residential neighborhoods, we're still seeing vehicles, we're seeing them staging in different businesses. They kind of hop around," said Aune.
Across the state, volunteer-run website iceout.org has tracked 78 reported federal agent sightings as of 5 p.m. Wednesday. Exactly one week before, there were 187.