It feels like seven years but it was just seven weeks ago that state Sen. Jim Abeler, R-Anoka, wrote to President Trump asking him not to demonize Minnesota’s Somali immigrant population.
Abeler’s note came at the start of Operation Metro Surge, a movement of several thousand federal immigration agents into Minnesota resulting in street protests and agents fatally shooting Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
In an interview on Monday, Abeler made points that Gov. Tim Walz and other DFLers would heartily agree on: that the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension must have the chance to investigate why agents fired multiple shots at Pretti and Good. That the presence of thousands of immigration agents in Minnesota is excessive. And that lawful citizens should not be apprehended.
“I am very concerned about the welfare of innocent immigrants,” Abeler said. “When you pick up law-abiding citizens in a rude and aggressive way, that is very troubling to me.”
The Republican lawmaker’s remarks came as Walz and Trump met about deescalating an immigration enforcement action that has traumatized many Minnesotans and reinforced political tribalism. Walz and Trump each said the meeting was productive, and there were reports that Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino and others would be leaving the state as soon as Tuesday.
But concluding that Pretti’s death will mark a turning point in Operation Metro Surge is premature.
As of Monday afternoon, Abeler and a handful of Minnesota Republican state lawmakers (all from the Twin Cities suburbs) expressed their desire to see the federal immigration enforcement action soon end. But they are outliers.
Here is a look at what politicians from both parties are saying – and not saying – and what it bodes for exhausted and anxious Minnesotans.
What has changed since Alex Pretti’s killing on Saturday in Operation Metro Surge?
After a year at each other’s throats, Walz and Trump each said that they had a good call with one another Monday. The president remarked that he and the governor are “on the same wavelength.”
Walz’s office said that the president “agreed that he would talk to his Department of Homeland Security about ensuring the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is able to conduct an independent investigation” into the fatal shootings of Pretti and Good and another shooting that injured Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis.
Walz warned previously that there cannot be an impartial investigation into these shootings unless state officials can access evidence.
The president and governor also reached an agreement on cutting the number of federal agents on the ground, according to Walz’s office.
Also, the Trump administration swapped out Bovino for Tom Homan, the Trump administration’s border czar, to helm Minnesota operations.
Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, praised Homan’s arrival as “an opportunity to reset,” adding in a statement, “I’m encouraged that Governor Walz and the president are having conversations about where do we go from here.”
Walz’s office declined to comment on whether they view Homan more favorably than Bovino.
Walz and Trump talked after a few congressional Republicans said they want to investigate federal immigration agents’ tactics, which is much farther than any elected Republican went after Good’s death two weeks earlier.
Also, state GOP lawmakers Julia Coleman, Zach Duckworth, Danny Nadeu, and Nolan West each made statements that deviated from Trump administration orthodoxy.
For example, West, who hails from suburban Blaine and does not exactly evoke law-and-order Republicanism (a pet issue is legalizing pot), tweeted Sunday, “It’s clear that Operation Metro Surge is causing more harm than good.”
And Nadeau, a House member from Rogers, said on the BBC that the Department of Homeland Security erred in blocking out the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension from investigating Good’s death.
“It doesn’t help when the federal government wants to keep local law enforcement from doing a parallel investigation,” he said.
You only found five Minnesota Republican state lawmakers who were saying something significantly different from the Trump administration?
So far. One lawmaker said that she could not speak today because of doctor’s orders. Another said he was dealing with a cyber attack.
Rep. Natalie Zeleznikar, R-Fredenberg Township, said that the Walz and Trump discussion Monday inspired optimism at a time of “such division and polarization.”
But Zeleznikar, a former nursing home operator who focuses on health care policy, said it was outside her field of expertise to say if ICE agents should leave Minnesota or the state ought to get the tools to review Pretti’s death.
Meanwhile, Demuth’s remarks over the past couple of days come from a distinct, if unclear, perspective.
In the same statement where she praised the Trump-Walz meeting, the candidate for governor – without citing any evidence or specifying whom she was talking about – said elected officials participate “in group chats where agitators discuss tactics and strategy to actively disrupt law enforcement efforts” and cause “unlawful riots.”
On Saturday, following Pretti’s death, Demuth again blamed unnamed political leaders who urged the “throwing of dangerous objects” that “put the lives of officers and the public at risk.”
When asked for an interview, a Demuth spokesperson declined and referred back to these statements.
On the other hand, Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson, R-East Grand Forks, had a very clear message: Pretti’s death was Walz’s fault.
“Today’s events are frustrating and tragic, and we are exhausted that Minnesota is once again in the headlines for violence and chaos,” Johnson said in a statement Saturday. “This tragedy is the result of escalating tensions led by Governor Walz.”
A spokesperson said Monday that Johnson did not have time by deadline for an interview.
What about DFLers?
Pretti’s death only emboldened DFL rhetoric.
For example, Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy, DFL-St Paul, repeated Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey’s line that ICE “get the fuck out of Minnesota.”
And at a press conference Sunday, Walz compared children afraid to leave their houses because of ICE to Anne Frank hiding in her father’s company’s annex in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam.
Walz is currently trying to thread the needle between slamming the Trump administration and negotiating with them. The governor’s op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on Monday called Operation Metro Surge “a campaign of organized brutality” a term he also used after the second shooting by agents on Jan. 14.
What comes next for Operation Metro Surge?
As politicians craft their own versions of who is to blame, the future of Operation Metro Surge may play out in the courts.
A federal judge on Monday cast doubt on the public safety logic of roving ICE agents in Minneapolis. Attorney General Keith Ellison sued to get immigration agents out of Minnesota, arguing it violates state sovereignty.
Meanwhile, Minnesotans stay in the crosshairs of political violence and unrest.
“I’m proud of Minnesotans showing the world how good and resilient we are,” said Judy Seeberger, DFL-Afton. “I’m proud of that.”
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(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
