Report: Federal 'Metro Surge' in Minneapolis–St. Paul Involved Two Unlawful Killings and Thousands of Detentions

Human Rights Watch on Thursday released a 180-page report alleging that a sweeping federal immigration crackdown in Minnesota involved two unlawful killings, thousands of detentions, racial profiling and months of disruption to daily life in immigrant communities.

The report, “A Manufactured Crisis: Minnesota Communities Terrorized by the Federal Government,” examines Operation Metro Surge, a large immigration-enforcement deployment that Human Rights Watch said ran from December 2025 to March 2026, centered on Minneapolis and St. Paul. The watchdog said the operation led to about 4,000 detentions and widespread fear that kept people from work, school and medical care.

The report is significant because it adds a detailed evidentiary record to allegations that were already at the center of lawsuits, court orders and public controversy in Minnesota. Human Rights Watch said it interviewed more than 130 people, including immigrants, lawyers, health providers, educators, public officials and other witnesses. It also said it reviewed photos, videos, sworn declarations, legal petitions, judicial decisions, government data and surveys.

According to the report, federal agents used repeated excessive force, carried out unlawful detentions, relied on racial profiling and held people in abusive conditions. Human Rights Watch also said more than 500 U.S.-citizen protesters were arrested during the operation, citing data from the National Lawyers Guild of Minnesota.

“The federal government sent hordes of masked, armed agents to grab people off the street, whisk them away in shackles, and abuse those who sought to bear witness,” Reagan Williams of Human Rights Watch said in a statement released with the report.

Among the most serious findings are two fatal shootings in Minneapolis that Human Rights Watch said were unlawful. The report identifies the dead as Renée Nicole Good, who was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent on Jan. 7, 2026, and Alex Jeffrey Pretti, who was fatally shot by federal agents on Jan. 24, 2026.

Human Rights Watch said more than 75% of the roughly 4,000 people detained during the operation had no U.S. criminal convictions. It said lawyers challenged many arrests through habeas corpus petitions, a legal process used to contest detention, and that nearly 90% of 532 resolved cases between Dec. 1, 2025, and May 15, 2026, ended with release orders or bond hearings.

The report also argues that the operation disproportionately targeted people of color. Citing a survey by the UC San Diego Immigration Policy Center, Human Rights Watch said respondents of color in Minneapolis were about 40% more likely than white residents to report an interaction with federal agents.

At the center of the detention system, the report said, was the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, which Human Rights Watch described as the main intake and holding site. Detainees reported overcrowding, continuous shackling, sleeping on cold floors without bedding, bright lights and inadequate access to medical care and lawyers, according to the report.

Human Rights Watch said the effects spread far beyond those arrested. Some clinics saw patient volume fall by as much as 50% at the peak of the operation, the report said. Thousands of students missed school or shifted to virtual learning, and some workers lost wages or jobs because they were afraid to travel.

That broader impact is part of what gives the report significance beyond Minnesota. Human Rights Watch described Metro Surge as the largest interior deployment of immigration agents since President Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025, making it a test case for how aggressive federal immigration enforcement can affect an entire metropolitan area.

The Trump administration had previously defended the operation as focused on criminals and said agents acted in self-defense in some incidents. White House border czar Tom Homan announced a drawdown on Feb. 12, saying, “I have proposed, and President Trump has concurred, that this surge operation conclude.”

Human Rights Watch said it sent a summary of its findings and questions to Department of Homeland Security agencies on April 30 and had not received a response by the time the report was published Thursday.

The report lands as legal fights over the operation continue. Minnesota, Hennepin County, Minneapolis and St. Paul have challenged Metro Surge in federal court, and emergency litigation followed the Pretti shooting over preservation of evidence. Human Rights Watch said the Minnesota operation shows a need not only for investigation of individual conduct, but for broader federal accountability and structural changes to immigration enforcement.