By Julia Harte
Feb 12 (Reuters) – White House border czar Tom Homan announced on Thursday that U.S. President Donald Trump had agreed to end an immigration-enforcement surge in Minnesota, drawing down thousands of federal agents whose presence provoked tumultuous protests for weeks.
Here’s a timeline of events in the operation:
December 1, 2025: The federal government launches Operation Metro Surge “to significantly increase ‘at-large’ arrests of illegal aliens in the Twin Cities metropolitan area.” The move comes after attacks by Trump and other federal officials on Minnesota’s Somali community, which they accuse of fraud involving millions of federal dollars intended for social services. Operation Metro Surge will ultimately send nearly 3,000 additional federal officers and agents to the Twin Cities.
December 18: Minneapolis police chief criticizes federal immigration officers for dragging a woman through a snowy city street and waving a firearm at onlookers, some of whom were recording the scene. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says in a statement that agents arrested two U.S. citizens for assaulting federal officers.
January 7: Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three who had been observing ICE operations is shot dead in her car by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, setting off protests and a sharp debate about her killing. State investigators say they are shut out of the federal inquiry into the shooting.
January 8: As protests over the shooting of Good reverberate across Minnesota and the U.S., a U.S. border agent shoots and wounds two people in Portland, Oregon, while conducting a vehicle stop.
January 11: Tens of thousands of protesters take to the streets of Minneapolis and other U.S. cities as part of more than 1,000 rallies organized to protest the Trump administration’s deportation drive.
January 12: Minnesota sues the Trump administration in an effort to block the surge of immigration-enforcement officers, accusing the Republican administration of racially profiling its citizens and of targeting Minnesota because of its Democratic leanings. Democratic stronghold Illinois, where an immigration crackdown named “Operation Midway Blitz” began in 2025, files a similar lawsuit.
January 13: At least a dozen federal prosecutors indicate plans to leave the U.S. Justice Department over the Trump administration’s handling of Good’s shooting and other civil rights cases.
January 16: Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey accuse Trump of weaponizing the Justice Department against his enemies after it is reported that the agency has opened a criminal investigation into them and other state officials over an alleged conspiracy to impede immigration agents.
January 20: ICE agents detain five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Ecuadoreans who both entered the U.S. legally as asylum applicants, as they arrive home from preschool. Both are taken to a family detention facility in Texas. ICE agents apprehend three other students from Conejo Ramos’ school district in the same week.
January 22: Federal agents arrest three Minnesotans who took part in a demonstration inside a church against a pastor they say has a leadership role with ICE. Eventually nine people, including former CNN host Don Lemon who had been covering the protest, will face federal charges of violating religious rights in connection with the demonstration, alarming First Amendment proponents.
January 24: Federal immigration officers fatally shoot Alex Pretti, an intensive-care nurse trying to help other protesters. Video of the encounter verified by Reuters shows Pretti holding a cellphone as he was wrestled to the ground by agents, and an officer removing a gun from Pretti’s body shortly before the first shots were fired.
January 26: The Trump administration confirms that Homan is taking over Operation Metro Surge from Gregory Bovino, a top U.S. Border Patrol official who has drawn heavy criticism from Democrats and civil liberties proponents. After a private phone call, Trump and Walz signal a thaw in their relationship and a mutual effort to defuse tensions.
February 4: The Trump administration withdraws some 700 federal immigration-enforcement agents from Minnesota, leaving about 2,000 agents in place.
(Reporting by Julia Harte; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
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