It’s ICE that ‘engineered chaos’ in my Minneapolis community

ON SATURDAY MORNING, Border Patrol agents fatally shot Alex Pretti on a busy Minneapolis street.

- Adam Minter

The Trump administration wasted no time in doing a bit of preemptive inoculation.

In a post on X Saturday, Vice-President JD Vance claimed that “far left agitators, working with local officials,” had “engineered chaos” in Minneapolis. President Donald Trump echoed the sentiment in a series of social media posts on Sunday, blaming local authorities for refusing to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The messages from the president and vice-president were clear: If the city erupts, it won’t be ICE's fault. Responsibility would belong to Governor Tim Walz and Mayor Jacob Frey.

But Vance and Trump had the story backwards. What local officials engineered wasn’t chaos. It was a firewall. By separating local law enforcement from ICE operations, they’ve earned public trust and reminded wary Minneapolis residents that ICE is the source of the city’s recent tumult.

It’s been a daunting task.

Since launching in December, Operation Metro Surge, as ICE calls the crackdown, has become the agency’s largest-ever immigration enforcement action. It’s a striking escalation of aggression in a state that isn’t on the US-Mexico border, given the Trump administration’s stated emphasis on the southern border as the epicenter of immigration challenges.

As of Sunday, roughly 3,000 agents were taking part, a number roughly triple the number of sworn police officers in Minneapolis and St. Paul.

For me and thousands of other Twin Cities residents, they’re a pervasive source of dread and anger.