ICE To Send 1,000 More Agents To Twin Cities, Totaling Up To 3,000

MINNEAPOLIS, MN — The Trump administration is reportedly escalating its immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota, announcing plans to send roughly 1,000 additional federal officers to the Twin Cities on top of an already massive deployment that has sparked lawsuits, protests, and an ongoing investigation into a fatal ICE shooting.

The New York Times, among others, reported the latest surge.

The expansion would bring the total number of federal immigration officers operating in the Minneapolis–St. Paul region to about 3,000, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Customs and Border Protection officers are expected to join approximately 2,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other DHS agents already deployed as part of what federal officials have described as their largest immigration enforcement operation to date.

By comparison, the Minneapolis Police Department employs roughly 600 sworn officers, while the St. Paul Police Department has about 550 sworn officers. Even before the latest expansion, the federal deployment already nearly doubled the combined size of both city police forces.

The additional surge comes amid growing strain on local governments and residents, following days of heightened enforcement activity, widespread sightings of armed federal agents, and the Jan. 7 shooting death of Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, by an ICE officer in south Minneapolis.

Federal officials have said the shooting was an act of self-defense. State and city leaders, however, have raised concerns about transparency, accountability, and the sheer scale of the federal presence.

That scale has prompted an unusually forceful response from Minnesota officials. On Monday, Attorney General Keith Ellison, along with the cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, filed a federal lawsuit seeking to halt what they call an “unprecedented” and unlawful surge of immigration agents into the state.

The lawsuit argues the deployment violates constitutional limits on federal power, including the First and Tenth Amendments, and accuses the federal government of using immigration enforcement as a politically motivated show of force rather than a narrowly tailored public safety operation. Officials say the surge has disrupted daily life, triggered school lockdowns, shuttered businesses, and forced local governments to divert emergency and law-enforcement resources.

Local leaders say the impacts are measurable. Minneapolis police reported more than 3,000 surge-related overtime hours in just a few days, with estimated costs exceeding $2 million. Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security has not released a public estimate of how much the federal operation itself is costing taxpayers.

A Dakota County commissioner recently attempted to calculate a conservative daily cost using publicly available federal salary and travel data, estimating the deployment could cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars per day before accounting for detention, transportation, or administrative expenses.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has defended the operation and the decision to send additional officers. She has said the expanded presence allows federal law enforcement to operate safely and warned that people who interfere with enforcement actions or engage in violence against officers would be held accountable.

The federal surge has also complicated the investigation into Good’s death. The FBI removed the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension from the case, preventing state investigators from accessing evidence and witnesses. In response, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office and the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office launched a public evidence submission portal to preserve videos, photos, and other materials related to the shooting outside the federal probe.

Federal officials say Operation Metro Surge is focused on immigration enforcement and alleged fraud, including human smuggling and unlawful employment practices. DHS has reported more than 400 arrests so far, including 22 individuals identified as having violent criminal histories, but has not released a detailed breakdown of arrests, costs, or the duration of the expanded deployment.

As the number of federal agents continues to grow, Minnesota officials say they are preparing for further disruption while awaiting court rulings that could determine whether the surge continues.