“Some people may have breathed a sigh of relief when Bovino was pulled and replaced by Homan, but many educators did not,” said the Minneapolis teachers’ union president. “The agenda is still the same’
Don’t believe any of the hype about the federal government supposedly toning down its mass deportation agenda in Minnesota – or anywhere else in the country for that matter. All you have to do is look at the reality on the ground. “ICE is very active right now including indiscriminately stopping people,” said Minneapolis City Council President Elliott Payne, noting reports that community members who were carrying out their legal right to observe and record federal immigration enforcement activities have been arrested and detained by masked agents. The Intercept reports at least four individuals have been targeted:
We’ve seen lots of reports of legal observers being arrested in North Minneapolis, South Minneapolis, and Eden Prairie. Exercising your first amendment right to observe is not a crime. This is exactly why congress can’t give another penny to DHS.
— Elliott Payne (@elliottpayne.org) 2026-02-06T23:08:32.892Z
In one instance, observers received an urgent plea from an individual whose friend had already been detained, The Intercept reported. “‘Please help,’ the woman said, again and again, her voice rising to a scream. Then, her pleas stopped.” The report said that by the time others arrived at the scene, “the observer was gone. All that remained was an empty SUV, engine running, abandoned in the middle of the city’s snow-lined streets.”
“Referred to locally as abductions, it was at least the fourth such disappearance of the day — the third in a span of less than 30 minutes,” The Intercept continued.
These disappearances came just days after so-called “border czar” Tom Homan arrived in the state to stage a photo-op that had a singular goal of directing heat off the federal government’s back following national outrage over its brutal and outright lawless tactics that have most recently claimed the life of VA ICU nurse Alex Pretti. During his PR event, Homan “announced a ‘drawdown’ of 700 federal officers and agents,” which has drawn “much of the recent media attention surrounding Metro Surge,” The Intercept reported.
But as the report notes, approximately 2,000 officers and agents are actually still on the ground disrupting and endangering the lives of Minnesotans. And, that number “is still 13 times larger than the agencies’ normal footprint, outnumbering the Minneapolis Police Department three to one.”
The AP has also noted reports of federal agents possibly impersonating workers in order to stalk community members, including one reported incident outside Minnesotan Luis Ramirez’s family restaurant just one day before Homan’s photo-op.
“They wore high-visibility vests and spotless white hard hats, he noticed, even while parked in their vehicle. His search for the Wisconsin-based electrician advertised on the car’s doors returned no results,” the report said. “On Tuesday, when their Nissan returned to the lot outside his restaurant, Ramirez, 31, filmed his confrontation with the two men, who hide their faces as he approaches and appear to be wearing heavy tactical gear beneath their yellow vests.” While the AP reports that not all of the reported incidents have been verified, keep in mind that ICE already has a documented history of impersonating police in order to trick individuals into opening the doors of their homes. The reported behavior from Minnesota tracks with the documented tactics.
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The idea that the administration has been deescalating anything following the tragic killings of Pretti on Jan. 24 and Renee Nicole Good on Jan. 7 would be laughable if the situation weren’t so serious or outrageous. Just look at the Tuesday House hearing where acting ICE Director Todd Lyons refused to apologize to Good’s family after the administration falsely labeled her a “domestic terrorist.” In a Jan. 30 article at Jesuit magazine America, one community member wrote that the reality of their daily lives “is worse than the national media is showing … It is not the America I love, and I’m terrified for our future as a country and terrified for all of our friends and neighbors and colleagues that aren’t white.”
Another community member wrote that what the rest of the country is seeing “is only a fraction of what’s happening, and it is real, and it is awful. I wish people would recognize that this is not just as simple as ‘follow the laws and you’re all right.’ People are following laws, and they’re still being hurt.” During the Tuesday House hearing, Rep. Nellie Pou (NJ-09) also threw cold water on Lyons’ claim that racial profiling isn’t happening. Communities already know the answer:
That "no" doesn't erase our reality. It doesn't put our communities at ease. It doesn't bring back our neighbors who were taken into unmarked cars.Thank you to my Congresswoman, @repnellie.bsky.social, for not letting ICE hide behind a polite "no, ma'am."
— Ruth Delgado (@heylookitsruth.bsky.social) 2026-02-10T21:20:51.293Z
“So many people I know are scared to leave their homes, not going to work or church out of fear,” another community member continued in America magazine. “My husband is from Mexico and has legal status, but is terrified going to work every day, as is his family. A lot of my white friends have no idea. We are getting my toddler a passport just in case. I feel the heaviness which is of course different for me as a white woman who is a citizen; I’ll never fully understand. But I see hope in the people in my community who are caring for each other, delivering food, giving rides, not giving up. I have to believe that we will get through this and see the other side.”
The claim that the administration is seeking to bring any semblance of calm and order to Minnesota looks even more ridiculous considering who’s still driving this anti-immigrant agenda. Homan, who replaced tear gas-wielding CBP officer Greg Bovino, previously promised mass havoc if Trump returned to power, stating that “I’ll be on his heels coming back, and I will run the biggest deportation force this country has ever seen,” he said. “They ain’t seen shit yet. Wait until 2025.”
And let’s be real: as long as de facto President Stephen Miller is still the driving force behind this agenda, nothing will begin to truly change. Miller “wants everybody arrested,” as one DHS official said following a May 2025 meeting where he ordered agents to stalk hardworking immigrants at Home Depots and 7-Elevens in order to help massively inflate daily arrests by a whopping 450%. And when Trump briefly floated a plan to exempt farms, restaurants, and hotels from raids after his wealthy buddies panicked over losing workers and profits, it was Miller who was key to the plan’s reversal. “The Washington Post reports that Trump adviser Stephen Miller opposed making any exceptions for specific industries, despite warnings from business leaders about the economic fallout of the raids,” as Democracy Now! reported.
The people on the ground know the truth, and we’d all be wiser to listen to them than to the federal officials who once claimed that our Haitian neighbors were stealing and eating pets.
“We have no assurances that our neighbors, our students, the families we serve and our relatives are safe,” Minneapolis teachers’ union president Marcia Howard told The Guardian. One middle school educator who teaches English learners told the Minnesota Reformer that many of her students are now skipping school out of fear of immigration enforcement. “Since her district introduced an online learning option, her typical class of 20 students is down to just four or five students in person. Many students are also not showing up online either,” the report said. “One student has temporarily moved in with family out of state because their parents believe they are safer there.”
Last week, we joined @momsrising.org and @letkidsthrive.bsky.social to highlight the reality of this administration’s anti-immigrant agenda, the lasting harm on children, families, and the nation’s already fragile child care system.davisvanguard.org/2026/02/immi…
— America's Voice (@americasvoice.bsky.social) 2026-02-10T20:14:42.735Z
Remember that five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos remains a target of the administration even after he was traumatized with detention. “The truth is, he’s not the same boy he was before. Ever since he went in there, he’s suffered psychological trauma; he’s very scared,” said his dad, Adrian Conejo Arias. “He can’t sleep well at night. He wakes up three or four times a night screaming, ‘Daddy, Daddy.’”
“Some people may have breathed a sigh of relief when Bovino was pulled and replaced by Homan, but many educators did not,” Howard continued to The Guardian. “The agenda is still the same.” The Guardian reported that at a vigil at Pretti’s memorial, a speaker told community members that “we’re still not safe.” The crowd “nodded in agreement,” the report noted.
