Organization training thousands of legal observers says "things are not getting better" in Minnesota

One Minnesota group has been leading the charge to train legal observers and document tactics used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

Communities Organizing Latine Power and Action, or COPAL, is providing resources to those detained and their families who are left behind. 

Despite Border czar Tom Homan saying last week he would "draw down" 700 federal agents from the state and Gov. Tim Walz's statement earlier this week that he expects Operation Metro Surge to end within "days, not weeks," COPAL Executive Director Carolina Ortiz said things are not getting better on the ground.

"We have heard the nationwide narrative: 'Bovino left, there are less agents on the ground, things are getting better.' That is not what we are seeing," Ortiz said. "So we continue to get, on average, about 400 calls through our helpline each day and that is from people that say 'I need support with rent,' to 'I need support with getting medication,' to 'hey I just saw somebody getting detained.'" 

Ortiz says COPAL and its more than 100 affiliate organizations around the state have trained an estimated 30,000 Minnesotans to be ICE observers. One training session last month in Duluth saw hundreds of attendees. 

Ortiz says she and her observers have been followed even to their homes by agents in masks who did not have any kind of identification.

"They were covered and they were wearing ponchos and part of that was just, I could see their arms, like, see that they had weapons," Ortiz said.

Ortiz said she wants people to "understand that things are not getting better."

"What we have seen in Minnesota has been against many of us regardless of our status," she said. 

She added that COPAL has raised $1.5 million since the start of Operation Metro Surge and she has said all of that has gone directly to those in need.