Human Rights Watch condemns federal government in Operation Metro Surge report

A global watchdog group has released a damning report on Operation Metro Surge earlier this year in Minnesota, calling for federal leaders to be investigated for creating a "human rights crisis," and urging local leaders to step up support for those impacted.

Human Rights Watch released its findings Thursday on what the U.S. Department of Homeland Security called the largest federal immigration law enforcement deployment in the nation's history. In the report entitled "A Manufactured Crisis," the group's researchers used information gathered from sources such as interviews with 136 Minnesotans, analysis of photo and video evidence, data from federal, state and local agencies, as well as a community-managed database.

The group calls on Congress to hold hearings about the conduct of federal agents with leadership from Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Patrol, the Bureau of Prisons and the Department of Justice.

"The Trump administration claimed that Operation Metro Surge was designed to keep Americans safe and often stated that it was targeting noncitizens with violent criminal histories. But the operation itself caused significant harm, and nearly two out of three immigrants arrested by ICE during Operation Metro Surge had no prior US criminal history whatsoever," the report states.

The group urges lawmakers to pass legislation barring federal agents from locations like schools, places of worship, courthouses and hospitals; explicitly outlawing racial profiling; prohibiting agents from wearing face coverings, concealing their identities, agencies and vehicles; conducting "robust oversight" of immigration detention facilities; and better funding and staffing government oversight agencies.

The report also makes dozens of recommends for several bodies, like imploring the Trump administration to "end any formal or informal immigration arrest and deportation quotas;" for Homeland Security to pull all remaining surge-deployed federal officers from the state; for the justice department to work with state and local authorities to investigate the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti and the shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis; and for state and local law enforcement to avoid participating in federal immigration actions.

The surge began in December 2025 amid President Trump's inflammatory remarks about Minnesota's Somali community and the state's ongoing fraud crisis, leading to weeks of near-daily clashes between protesters and authorities. By the surge's end in April, thousands of metro residents had been detained, with most spending time in makeshift jail facilities inside Minneapolis' Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building.

Multiple federal officers are facing criminal charges levied by the Hennepin County Attorney's Office in Minnesota, and several Twin Cities residents have been charged by the U.S. Attorney's Office for allegedly threatening federal law enforcement during the surge. Dozens of protesters have also been charged federally for disrupting a church service in St. Paul where a local ICE leader also serves as a pastor.

According to a report from Minneapolis city leaders, the surge led to a wage loss of nearly $700 million, with $203 million lost in January alone. Dozens of businesses were also shuttered.