Around 30,000 observers are monitoring for federal agents, Minnesota nonprofit says

Driving west on Lake Street in Minneapolis, Emily Phillips abruptly stopped talking mid-sentence, noticing a pickup truck with heavily tinted windows. 

"That's a suspicious vehicle," Phillips noted before making a quick note in her phone and opening up an encrypted messaging service, part of her work as a constitutional observer. 

The title belongs to those who say they have undergone training to learn their legal rights, aiming to keep a close eye on federal agents as Operation Metro Surge continues. Some tell WCCO that, while border czar Tom Homan said 700 federal agents would be leaving starting Wednesday, they are not seeing much change when it comes to aggression on Minnesota streets. 

Observers belong to a series of vast networks, some falling under the banner of large immigrant rights organizations. Other groups may have just a handful of people who came together because they live on the same block. Communities Organizing Latine Power and Action Minnesota said that, as of this week, after the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deployment swelled and the number of arrests skyrocketed, the number of observers in its greater network has grown to about 30,000. 

Phillips and a fellow observer, Lee Steadman, said that the situation in Minnesota is not getting any better in their opinion.

Steadman said that he is noticing ICE turn up the heat on observers and increasing their presence in suburban and rural areas. 

"They are now starting to target observers who have been documenting this happening, going after independent media, going after organizers," Steadman said.

On Tuesday, ICE agents drew guns on a car full of activists that the Associated Press reports was following them in their car. Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin claimed agents detained the activists after they hindered efforts to arrest a man who could not stay in the country legally. 

On Friday, Phillips and others reported that at least two observers were detained from their cars in two separate incidents in Minneapolis. 

While WCCO rode with Phillips and a man who wished to be identified as Matt, they received a tip that ICE agents had visited a shop just across the street from the growing memorial for Alex Pretti, who was shot and killed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents nearly two weeks ago. 

Phillips, at one point, got out of the car, took photos, and the patrol resumed, explaining that the work is driven in part by an ever-evolving database of vehicles used by ICE. They are also prepared to deploy as quickly as possible to locations where ICE is detaining people. 

Homan said that 2,000 agents will remain in Minnesota as he and others negotiate with local officials on "cooperation" with ICE. He said that some of those agents are here to protect their own, condemning those who are "impeding" operations. 

"If your agents need to be protected from primarily people with cameras and megaphones, then you have a problem of your own making," Phillips said.