‘Let him think he won': Inside Minnesota Dems' effort to fend off Trump's immigration surge
#Trump immigration surge #Minnesota Democrats #ICE crackdown #Operation Metro Surge #Renee Good #Alex Pretti #Insurrection Act #State-federal conflict
📌 Key Takeaways
- Minnesota Democrats coordinated to fight Trump's immigration enforcement
- Two Americans were killed during the immigration crackdown
- State officials had been preparing for federal crackdown since 2020
- The situation led to Trump ending 'Operation Metro Surge'
- Other cities are looking to replicate Minnesota's approach
📖 Full Retelling
Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, and Attorney General Keith Ellison spearheaded Minnesota's seven-week battle against President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown in early 2026, which left two Americans dead and prompted fears of federal military intervention after federal agents killed Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti. The tense standoff began when Trump deployed at least 3,000 ICE agents to Minneapolis, vastly outnumbering the city's police force, with administration officials claiming Minnesota leaders had 'incited this violent insurrection.' In a revealing phone conversation, Walz confronted Trump about the deaths, telling the president 'You didn't kill anyone there' in cities like Louisville and New Orleans where there had been less resistance. Minnesota Democrats responded with a coordinated campaign fighting the immigration enforcement in the courts while working to prevent the city from spiraling into chaos, fearing Trump might invoke the Insurrection Act as he had threatened multiple times. The situation reached a critical point when video of Pretti's death spread across social media, creating a national backlash that forced Trump to change course, pulling Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino from the city and dispatching his border czar Tom Homan to Minnesota, who eventually announced the end of 'Operation Metro Surge' on Feb. 12. Behind the scenes, state officials had been preparing for such a federal crackdown since 2020, after the upheavals following George Floyd's murder, overhauling emergency management protocols and attending FEMA training to simulate massive civil unrest scenarios.
🏷️ Themes
Immigration enforcement, State-federal relations, Political resistance, Public safety
📚 Related People & Topics
Killing of Renée Good
2026 shooting by a US immigration agent
Renée Nicole Macklin Good, a 37-year-old American woman, was fatally shot in Minneapolis, Minnesota, by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Jonathan Ross, on January 7, 2026. Good was in her car, stopped sideways in the street, which led Ross to circle her vehicle on foot. ...
Operation Metro Surge
US immigration enforcement operation
Operation Metro Surge is an ongoing operation by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) with the stated purpose of apprehending undocumented immigrants and deporting them. Beginning in December 2025, it initially targeted the Twin Citi...
Entity Intersection Graph
Connections for Killing of Renée Good:
🌐
Minneapolis
2 shared
🌐
Shooting
2 shared
🏢
Ministry of justice
1 shared
🌐
Killing of Alex Pretti
1 shared
Original Source
BREAKING NEWS US and Israel launch strikes against Iran ‘Let him think he won': Inside Minnesota Dems' effort to fend off Trump's immigration surge Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Attorney General Keith Ellison shared previously unreported details with POLITICO about the agonizing seven-week immigration crackdown that left two Americans dead. People protest against ICE after the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota on Jan. 9, 2026. A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good on the streets of Minneapolis on Jan. 7, leading to huge protests and outrage from local leaders who rejected White House claims she was a domestic terrorist. | Octavio Jones/AFP/Getty Images By Elena Schneider 02/28/2026 07:00 AM EST Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz finally got President Donald Trump on the phone seven weeks into the administration’s crackdown on Minneapolis — and the president had a complaint. Trump told the Democratic governor he didn’t “know what’s wrong with Minnesota,” comparing the state to cities like Louisville and New Orleans where there had been less fierce resistance to his immigration surges. Walz was furious. “You didn’t kill anyone there,” he fired back, two days after public outrage over Alex Pretti’s death at the hands of Customs and Border Protection agents forced Trump to change his approach. But the governor’s staffers, who were listening in, quietly urged him to “slow it down,” Walz said in an interview with POLITICO earlier this month. They feared if he let his rage take over he would antagonize the president. “It’s infuriating that you got to let him think he won or whatever,” Walz recalled. “That’s not how adults usually negotiate.” The call was one moment in an agonizing stretch for Democratic state and local officials as they sought to weather the Trump administration’s crackdown. In interviews with POLITICO, Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, Attorney ...
Read full article at source