Tracking ICE arrests during immigration operation in Minnesota remains a murky process

It’s a common scene in recent weeks: Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents swarm a Twin Cities business or home, meet resistance from protesters, and leave with at least one person in custody.

But what’s difficult to determine is how many times scenes like this have occurred since the Trump Administration launched Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis. An NBC News correspondent embedded with ICE told KARE 11 this week that the number topped 400, but federal officials are saying little publicly.

“It’s becoming very difficult. Transparency is almost nonexistent at this point,” said Julia Decker, policy director at the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota, who is skeptical of the reports. “I hope people are starting to take notice that the government is not providing information about the people it is taking away. This is a very troubling and potentially dangerous precedent for the government to set.”

On Monday, seven white Department of Homeland Security vans and one SUV carrying detainees arrived at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, said Nick Benson, a professional flight tracker and activist in the Twin Cities.

He estimates he has seen at least 71 detainees loaded onto aircraft on four occasions since Nov. 10. Benson said Monday’s action was the largest number of vehicles moving detainees since he began documenting the flights.

Observers like Benson have noticed a sharp increase in flight operations run on behalf of ICE this year. Human Rights First, a group that advocates for immigrant rights, said in its October monthly report that it counted 75 outbound flights from MSP since January.

ICE and the DHS have not publicly confirmed the 400 arrests that their agents claimed to NBC News. An ICE spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

In the week since Operation Metro Surge began, the Department of Homeland Security announced 19 individual arrests in Minnesota, but did not provide the full scope of the number of people they’ve taken into custody. The department also released a searchable database this week listing immigrants illegally residing in the United States who have been arrested since the beginning of President Trump’s second term. The website lists 60 people arrested by ICE in Minnesota, but the cases include arrests made prior to the latest immigration operation.

Three Minnesota counties — Sherburne, Kandiyohi and Freeborn — have federal contracts to hold immigrant detainees, but they do not list names on public jail logs.

“That’s fundamentally the problem,” said Ana Pottratz Acosta, a visiting professor with the University of Minnesota Law School. Unlike inmate rosters in county jails, there’s no easy way to look up the total number of people taken into immigration custody in a day. In some cases, a detainee will be temporarily moved to a facility out of state.

Five other counties have enforcement partnerships with ICE, but do not typically hold detainees in their jails. ICE has a website to track detainees, but a name or “alien number” is required to find someone. Adding to the difficulty, it can take days or weeks for someone who has been detained to have their first immigration court hearing.

The Deportation Data Project is the best source of ICE arrest data, which receives individual arrest information under the Freedom of Information Act.

Pottratz Acosta said it’s unlikely Minnesotans will get a full picture about the number of arrests during Operation Metro Surge until the initiative is over. Referring to the reported 400 detainees, she raised concern about whether any of the arrested were taken into custody in error and later released after they were found to be U.S. citizens.

“This has been promoted publicly as enforcement that’s targeting the Somali community in Minnesota, and most Somali people in Minnesota are U.S. citizens,” she said.