Minneapolis police caught between federal immigration agents and city residents

The Minneapolis Police Department says its roughly 600 officers are stuck between the Trump administration’s Operation Metro Surge and residents of Minneapolis and St. Paul after a surge of about 3,000 federal immigration agents, and in the wake of two recent deaths, the New York Times reported on Jan.

28, 2026. The Trump administration has accused local police of abandoning federal agents, while some community members say they have been left unprotected by officers. Chief Brian O’Hara has warned that officers who do not intervene when federal agents use excessive force could lose their jobs, and Mayor Jacob Frey has said local officers are overwhelmed.

The department’s staffing shortage predates the surge, the Times reports, tracing it to fallout from George Floyd’s murder in 2020, the protests and subsequent prosecutions. Former Minneapolis chief Janeé Harteau called the situation “an almost no-win situation” for frontline officers.

Union and police officials say morale has plummeted as officers are pressured from both sides. Tensions escalated after the killings of two people: Renee Good, shot Jan. 7 while in the driver’s seat of her S.U.V., and Alex Pretti, who was shot on a Saturday. Chief O’Hara said the episodes and other aggressive actions by federal agents — including the shooting of a Venezuelan man and the arrest of a Hmong immigrant who was a U.S.

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