How federal policing upended daily life, public trust in Minneapolis

Brooklyn Park, Minn. — “Operation Metro Surge” has transformed daily life in the bustling, diverse suburb north of Minneapolis, with businesses shuttering and residents now in hiding, local officials say. 

Brooklyn Park Police Chief Mark Bruley and Mayor Hollies Winston argue the temporary surge of federal immigration officers has created permanent damage that will outlast the federal agents who will eventually pick up and leave the Twin Cities.

“A lot of our community is terrified,” Winston said, describing critical business corridors where shops have closed. “Many community members are not coming out of their house because they’re so fearful,” the mayor said, adding that the fear is not limited to undocumented residents.

“We’re talking about citizens of the United States [who] are too scared to come out on a city street in America,” he said.

Economic impact could last for years, mayor says

In a city where roughly 65% of residents are people of color, Winston said neighbors are weighing whether to avoid going outside altogether, opting for grocery delivery. He compared the economic impact to the COVID pandemic and predicted the effects could linger for years. 

“We will be grappling with this five to ten years from now,” Winston said, unless a “recovery effort” follows any de-escalation.

Winston reported that the economic impact has been immediate and severe, with some businesses seeing revenue down 50%, while others “just closed up.”

“It’s having a chilling impact across all sectors of our city,” Winston said, warning the economics are “just not sustainable.”

Police chief says off-duty officers stopped, one “boxed in” at gunpoint

Bruley said he decided to speak publicly after learning that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents had stopped not only community members, but also Brooklyn Park police officers and civilian staff — people he said were U.S. citizens and “people of color” — and demanded proof of citizenship.

In one case, Bruley said, ICE agents with guns drawn “boxed in” an officer who had a child in the vehicle and “demanded paperwork to prove that they were essentially a U.S. citizen.”

Bruley said he initially hesitated to go public because he feared people would assume he only cared once federal agents targeted his own staff, adding that is not the case. He said that as a police chief, he could not rely solely on word-of-mouth or social media clips.

“When my staff … people that can go to court and testify… come to me in tears … telling me they’re stopped because of the color of their skin, guns drawn on them, demanding [their] paperwork … It just affirmed how much of this is going on all over the Metro area and throughout the state,” Bruley said.

The police chief said similar experiences have since been reported by other law enforcement officials, including the St. Paul police chief. “These are police officers that do the job of law enforcement every day telling me that other law enforcement are out of control,” he told CBS News. “Everybody in the nation should step back and go, whoa, what is going on?

Federal agents’ presence eroding trust in local law enforcement, mayor warns

Winston expressed a deeper concern about trust — and how mistrust of federal tactics can spill over onto local police legitimacy.

The mayor warned the federal presence risks unraveling years of investment in community policing and alternative response approaches, saying that work has helped drive crime down and improve relationships.

“Not everyone can differentiate between what our local police do and what they see at the federal government,” Winston said.

Operation Metro Surge, which the Department of Homeland Security says is the largest operation of its kind, has also been different from other federal law enforcement operations in the past, according to the Brooklyn Park mayor and police chief.

“We’re not seeing that partnership, and we know what it looks like, because we’ve had it forever. We’ve had great partnerships,” Bruley said. “This has been different.”

The city partnered with federal law enforcement last year when former Speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives Melissa Hortman was assassinated at her home in Brooklyn Park. Chief Bruley said he was proud of the law enforcement partnership between his police force and the federal force on what he called “an incredibly difficult mission.”

Mayor Winston said having a strong partnership would serve to de-escalate tensions in the community, and the city has faith in its local law enforcement: “We know what it looks like for it to be done well. And so that’s all we’re really asking for as a state here. And I think that just builds legitimacy across the entire country.”

On ICE body cameras: “Late by 10 years”

On Monday, Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem announced federal immigration agents in Minneapolis will begin wearing body cameras effective immediately.

Winston said he welcomed the built-in accountability of body cameras, conceding the move came late but calling it “an opportunity to de-escalate and start talking about how is there gonna be long-term accountability.”

Bruley called the new bodycams “late by 10 years,” arguing the technology improves transparency and legitimacy in policing. Still, he said he has noticed a change since Border Czar Tom Homan arrived in Minnesota.

“There has been a noticeable difference in the temperature… they’re just acting better,” the police chief said, adding that “a lot of the behaviors that we’ve seen stopped,” when Homan arrived.

Bruley said that his core objection to federal officers isn’t to immigration enforcement itself, but rather the way this surge has been carried out. He described a mindset he believes some federal teams brought to the operation. That “ends justify the means” approach, he argued, is fundamentally incompatible with American policing.

“It doesn’t matter if you arrest 15 people, but you violated the Constitution. It was wrong,” Bruley said, emphasizing Fourth Amendment protections — the right to be free from being “contacted, searched [or] interrogated because of the color of their skin” — and said “that type of behavior cannot be tolerated in our streets in this country.”

One of the most unusual dynamics Bruley described was residents calling 911 asking for local police help because they believe ICE is “watching them, following them, trying to get in their apartment.” 

He recounted an incident where a person ran into the police department lobby “begging” for help as ICE agents chased the individual inside and took them into custody.

What’s happening is not a “blue state problem,” police chief warns

The police chief also warned about what he called “mission creep,” or a so-called broadening of the original objective of the operation.

“It’s not just violent people,” he said. “Everybody’s getting stopped, including the U.S. citizens and demanded paperwork.”

Asked what they would tell leaders who see this as a “blue state problem,” Bruley said that’s happening is unacceptable regardless of party: “American citizens … are being snatched up off the street, demanding their paperwork, just because of color of their skin.”

Winston also made the broader argument that coercive tactics used first against marginalized communities often “creep” outward to others, pointing to the war on drugs as an example. He cautioned that if the justification works in Minnesota, “it can be used anywhere in the country when it serves anybody’s purpose.”

For other cities preparing for a similar surge, Bruley offered blunt advice, saying that while there is “no playbook,” leaders must “do what’s right,” document what they can and push for transparency. 

“Immigration enforcement needs to happen,” he said. “We also can say that the way it’s being executed – with faces being covered … is an unacceptable way to do law enforcement.”