Minnesota's state-appointed Truth Council issued its preliminary report on October 31, 2026, concluding that two federal immigration operations in the state — Operation Metro Surge and Operation PARRIS — disrupted families, schools, healthcare and the economy on a statewide scale, and putting a price on the damage: an estimated $244 million in lost wages in Minneapolis and St. Paul alone over three months last winter, and $445 million in lost revenue for Twin Cities businesses.
Source: Minnesota Truth Council / Office of Governor Tim Walz (mn.gov)
The body — formally the Governor's Council to Record the Truth of Operation Metro Surge and Operation PARRIS on Minnesotans — was created by Governor Tim Walz through Executive Order 26-05, signed on March 25, 2026, to build a comprehensive public record of what the two operations did to the state. It is chaired by retired Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill, who presided over the 2021 murder trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. The council has met 13 times since June, held four public hearings at which 74 people testified, and documented accounts from nearly 2,500 people and 185 community organizations.
Source: American Immigration Council
What the preliminary report says
In his preface to the preliminary report, Chair Peter Cahill wrote that Operations Metro Surge and PARRIS “violated the U.S. and Minnesota Constitutions and laid waste to due process and the rule of law.” The report, as summarised in coverage of its release, cites what it calls cruel and inhumane actions by federal agents, including the killing of two American citizens and the detention of more than 70 children. The two citizens shot and killed by federal agents during the operations were Renee Good and Alex Pretti; Governor Walz continues to demand impartial investigations into both deaths.
Source: Center of the American Experiment / Office of Governor Walz
The economic cost, counted two ways
The council's September 9 report on wages and labour markets found that workers across the Twin Cities metro area lost $244 million in wages as businesses closed and employees stayed home, while businesses lost $445 million in revenue; 60% of businesses reported a measurable drop in revenue, with restaurants and retail hit hardest. Independent researchers at North Star Policy Action and the W.E. Upjohn Institute, using statistical methods to strip out seasonal effects, estimated that employment in the Twin Cities fell by almost 3% in the first six weeks of the surge and that workers lost at least $106 million in wages between early January and mid-February alone; statewide, the leisure and hospitality industry lost an estimated 4,600 jobs, 3.8 million work hours and more than $70 million in wages.
Source: Twin Cities Business / North Star Policy Action research
Children, schools and missed healthcare
A council report on children found that more than 70 Minnesota children were detained between December 1, 2025, and March 10, 2026 — many held for weeks, and some deported. Eighty percent of public school leaders statewide reported that the operations “negatively impacted students' ability to learn,” more than 75% of schools reported increased absences, and one district reported that nearly 30% of its students stayed away in the week after federal agents detained a student. Missed pediatric care for Spanish-speaking families rose 80%, Minneapolis schools served over 183,000 fewer meals in January than in the same month a year earlier, and food-assistance requests to the Twin Cities United Way nearly doubled in January.
Source: American Immigration Council summary of council reports
Use-of-force reports and the 'worst of the worst' audit
A September 29 council report compiled nearly 4,200 individual, crowd-sourced volunteer reports of federal officer conduct during and after the operations: in 431 of them — more than 10% — observers reported threats or other hostile actions by agents, 287 of those directed at the observers themselves; officers were reported to have drawn a gun in 55 cases and a taser or pepper-ball gun in 60 cases. A separate data report tested the federal claim that the operations targeted the “worst of the worst”: of 677 people DHS listed under that label from the Minnesota operations, a Minnesota Department of Corrections audit found 72% (487 people) had never served time for a felony in Minnesota, and 27% had in fact been transferred to ICE through existing procedures.
Source: American Immigration Council summary of council data reports
Three organisations alone — Faith in Minnesota, MN Unidos and the Immigrant Defense Network — ran more than 100,000 volunteer trainings, mutual-aid networks raised over $21 million for rent relief in the Twin Cities metro, and Faith in Minnesota testified it raised $7.7 million and trained 6,500 people. Cahill praised that response in the report as a “model to which the world can look to when facing the darkest of days.”
Background: what the two operations were
Operation Metro Surge, launched by the Department of Homeland Security in December 2025 and described in the governor's executive order as the largest immigration enforcement action in the agency's history, focused personnel and resources on Minnesota for about ten weeks in early 2026. Operation PARRIS — Post-Admission Refugee Reverification and Integrity Strengthening — followed in January 2026 and focused on refugee communities in the state. Thousands of immigrants were arrested during the operations, some of them lawfully present, according to the council's record, and the operations drew sustained protests across Minneapolis and St. Paul.
Source: American Immigration Council / Center of the American Experiment
What is solid
- The council was created by Executive Order 26-05 on March 25, 2026, and issued its preliminary report on October 31, 2026
- A final report with findings and recommendations is due December 1, 2026, to the Governor, legislative leaders and Minnesota's congressional delegation
- Two U.S. citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, were shot and killed by federal agents during the operations
What is only claimed
- The council's findings of widespread harm and constitutional violations — based largely on testimony and accounts gathered from affected residents and community groups
- Critics at the Center of the American Experiment call the council a one-sided, politically motivated exercise that collected only viewpoints critical of enforcement, and note the preliminary report's October 31 deadline — three days before the November 3 general election — was set in the governor's own executive order
- Whether DHS's 'worst of the worst' characterisation of those arrested is accurate — the state audit disputes it; federal officials have stood by the operations' targeting
Why this matters beyond Minnesota
For immigrant families across the United States — including Minnesota's refugee and immigrant communities, among them Somali, Latino and Asian families who were at the centre of these operations — the council's work is the fullest official record yet assembled by any state of what a mass federal enforcement surge does to wages, schools, hospitals and small businesses, and it follows a similar documentation effort by Illinois after Operation Midway Blitz in Chicago. Supporters say that record can guide other states; critics say a council appointed by one side of the argument cannot settle it. Both readings now go to voters and lawmakers with the final report still to come.
Source: American Immigration Council
What happens next
The council will convene at least four public meetings in total under its mandate and will issue its final report on December 1, 2026, with findings and recommendations meant, in the executive order's words, to prevent the recurrence of unlawful or harmful conduct by federal agents, to document the harms residents, businesses, schools and childcare providers experienced, and to record how Minnesotans supported one another through the operations. The preliminary report's release three days before the November 3 midterm elections — in a state where immigration enforcement has become a central issue in a closely fought U.S. Senate race — ensures its findings will be argued over in the campaign's final hours as well as in the legislature that receives the final report.
Source: Minnesota Truth Council / Office of Governor Tim Walz (mn.gov)