By Max Nesterak | Deputy Editor
Good morning, Reformers.
Reformer contributor Peyton Haug was in Mueller Park in south Minneapolis in January when federal agents led by then-Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino let loose a torrent of chemicals on protesters and observers. In freshly fallen snow just a few feet from a playground, she found a beige rifle magazine with at least a dozen live bullets abandoned by one of the agents.
She called 911 to have a police agent pick up the magazine so that it wouldn’t be found by one of the students about to be released from a nearby elementary school.
The incident raised an important question: how much dangerous detritus did ICE agents leave across Minneapolis during Operation Metro Surge?
She submitted a public records request and, in typical fashion for the city of Minneapolis, encountered delays and vague non-response responses. Eventually, she did receive an accounting of some abandoned vehicles and other items, like spent flash grenades, taken into city custody.
You can read more about what they collected in her story today.
Various chemical irritants, the canisters that contain them, and broken vehicle parts were scattered around the state by federal agents. (Photo collage by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)
By Tim Henderson
A surge in voluntary departure agreements in immigration courts is raising concerns that Trump administration tactics are unfairly pressuring immigrants into leaving the United States, even if they have a legal right to stay.
Voluntary departures during the second Trump administration reached 89,494 cases as of May 1, according to an analysis of immigration court data processed by the Deportation Data Project, an academic research initiative. That’s more than seven times the number recorded in the last 16 months of the Biden administration (11,977).
A 10-month-old policy of mandatory detention without bond, now being challenged in appeals courts and likely to be resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court, increases the pressure on immigrants to leave.
By Betsy Froiland
Minnesota led the country in farm bankruptcies during the first quarter of 2026, continuing last year’s steady nationwide climb that was particularly steep for Midwest farmers. Eight Minnesota farmers have already filed for bankruptcy this year, double the amount for the entire year of 2024.
“I know a lot of farmers that are really struggling,” Bob Worth, who farms corn and soybeans in southwestern Minnesota, said in an interview.
Bankruptcy filings are a lagging indicator, depicting the past few years — not months — of economic pressures on farmers. Worth looked back to inflation under the Biden administration as when input costs started to rise and squeeze margins, but cited policies under the Trump administration as making matters worse.
“The trade war hasn’t helped a thing,” Worth said, referring in part to Trump’s tariffs on China, which have dampened demand for soybeans.
IN OTHER NEWS
Hope fades in Minnesota immigration court | Star Tribune
Can this guy get people to live in America’s emptiest downtown? | Wall Street Journal (Surprisingly, not about St. Paul!)
OH BY THE WAY
I hope everyone had a restful Memorial Day weekend.
We took our 11-month-old camping for the first time in Camden State Park near Marshall in southwestern Minnesota. The park is roughly 2,000 acres of woods and prairie surrounded by farm fields with a picturesque swimming hole and trout fishing in the winding Redwood River. There’s also a very busy train line and the blaring horn invites the mind to wonder, especially at 2 o’clock in the morning, what’s in all those train cars and where is it going at this hour?
It was a great trip although we are coming back a bit worse for the wear: the baby spiked a fever with a new-to-us virus that made his throat break out in painful blisters; I crashed my bike and sprained my wrist; and my dog escaped from my mom’s tent and spent one night wandering the campground and sampling trash.
On the way down we listened to the recent episode of Search Engine about the modern history of Taiwan and how it became the powerhouse producer of semiconductors in the world. I highly recommend it.
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