By Madison McVan | Reporter
Good morning, Reformers.
The New York Times published an accounting of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign based on interviews with current and former employees of the Department of Homeland Security. (Gift link)
An anonymous ICE agent on Operation Metro Surge:
“...I didn’t want people to know I was with ICE. I even intentionally took one of my wife’s girly suitcases to make it look like I was traveling with a woman…
There were protests outside the Whipple Building, which was our operating center. Driving in, I’d try to look straight ahead while I was being cursed out. They would be like: Kill yourself. You’re Nazi trash. I mean, anything you would think of. They’d also protest outside certain hotels and make noise. We’d get messages saying: If you’re at this hotel, just stay in your room. Don’t leave. Guys would book the hotel with their personal credit card instead of their government card because it was safer. One guy put a Harris-Walz sticker on his bags. Another guy put an anti-Trump sticker.”
And, a senior ICE officer:
“We were going around in rental cars arresting people. That was really wild to me. It would trip me out that anyone would pull over to a Nissan Altima with a blue light on it. It doesn’t look legit.
We have no authority to question a United States citizen. And they would do that. I saw officers block someone in, put them in a car, drive away and, once we get to a more secure location, look at the person and say, Oh, shoot, that’s not our target.”
None of this is new to people who saw the operation up close — the rental cars, the boxing-in, the flagrant misidentification of targets, the stickers on bumpers and items on dashboards meant to obscure ICE vehicles. But I find it striking to hear the agents fessing up to it.
To the rest of the news:
A file photo of Ramsey County Attorney John Choi, taken on Sept. 3, 2025. Choi’s office is investigating immigration officers for potential violations of state law. (Photo by Max Nesterak/Minnesota Reformer)
By Madison McVan
Ramsey County authorities are investigating federal officers for potential crimes committed during Operation Metro Surge — including kidnapping, burglary and false imprisonment.
Two of the investigations are “active” and three are “preliminary,” Choi said.
For now, Choi’s office has released the details of only one active case, involving ChongLy Scott Thao, a U.S. citizen. On Jan. 18, immigration agents forcibly entered Thao’s home, handcuffed him, removed him from the house in just Crocs and boxers, and questioned him in the car for about an hour before returning him home.
By Max Nesterak
U.S. Rep. Angie Craig called on the Trump administration on Monday to release a woman in ICE detention who is suffering from a tennis ball-sized ovarian cyst at risk of rupture and needing urgent medical treatment.
“I am not exaggerating when I say that this is a life-or-death situation,” Craig said on Monday.
Andrea Pedro-Francisco, who first shared her story with the Reformer, was detained by ICE on her way to work cleaning houses on Feb. 5 and quickly transferred to Camp East Montana, a crowded, disease-ridden tent detention center outside El Paso.
By Brian Martucci
A ratepayer advocacy group shared stories of ratepayers struggling with bills during a recent hearing of the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission, the state’s utility regulator. In multiple cases, utility bureaucracy or gaps in Minnesota’s social service system made a bad situation worse. The PUC and the Legislature are working on parallel tracks to make the energy assistance program more robust and work better.
Minnesota gas and electric utilities disconnected 90,433 customers in 2025, according to public data collected by CUB Minnesota. Xcel Energy was the runaway disconnection leader with 56,823 last year, followed by CenterPoint Energy with 21,007. Utilities are required to report monthly disconnection figures to the commission.
By Chuck Johnson
Chuck Johnson, former deputy commissioner at the Minnesota Department of Human Services, writes that a report on program integrity in Minnesota’s social services was right to point to the agency’s culture as part of the problem.
But the culture of the agency’s employees is influenced by other factors, like politicians’ unwillingness to add more employees to handle the workload, or lobbying by private providers for simpler rules.
IN OTHER NEWS
Reps. Swalwell, Gonzales to quit Congress as 2 more US House members may face expulsion votes | Reformer via States Newsroom’s D.C. Bureau
OH BY THE WAY
The song for your Tuesday is Thundercat and Mac Miller’s “She Knows Too Much,” which came out last month, nearly six years after Miller’s death. Thundercat was a close friend and frequent collaborator with the rapper, playing bass for Mac Miller’s iconic Tiny Desk Concert, released one month before his death.
That’s all from me. Have a great day!
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