What it's been like on City Council

Council members in Minnesota’s two largest cities have approved various measures in the aftermath of Operation Metro Surge. Minneapolis has strengthened its separation ordinance, increased the legal aid fund to $1 million, and set aside $7 million for small business recovery funds and $3.8 million in rental assistance.

A pre-eviction notice of 60 days was vetoed by Mayor Frey, and council is now seeking an extension of 45 days (which Frey also just vetoed). St. Paul has approved an ordinance prohibiting law enforcement staging on city land, banning facial coverings by any law enforcement, requiring law enforcement identification, offering $4 million in rental assistance, and extending pre-eviction notices from 30 to 60 days.

St. Paul Council Member Molly Coleman (Ward 4) marked the Nov. 18 raid on Bro-Tex as the start of large-scale raids in the Twin Cities. “We had a significant number of people detained. We had protesters arrested and taken to Whipple,” Coleman said. “We had the lies from the federal government about what they were doing and under what authority they were operating. We had the violence, we had the tear gas. We had all of it.”

Coleman, who was new to St. Paul City Council – she took office in late August 2025 – described the past six months as a time of both overwhelming terror and pride. “It’s been nonstop. I don’t think anybody has had… the time to stop and reflect and really do the soul-searching that we all need to do at some point,” she said. “We’ve seen the very worst of humanity. We’ve seen the very best of humanity and that continues… through to today.”

One of the most crucial requests Minneapolis City Council Member Jason Chavez (Ward 9) has for his constituents today is to stay vocal. He asked Minneapolis residents “to hold their elected officials accountable, to watch how their elected officials speak about our immigrant neighbors… continue to raise their voice and demand the changes that our neighbors need desperately.”

Chavez recalled that he “saw so many of our neighbors politically engaged in policy and government at the height of the operation, to the point that it made it very hard for elected officials to ignore them.” He said continued vocal engagement from residents is key as the city council continues to address economic and legal challenges in the wake of Operation Metro Surge.

Chavez said the council is currently working with the Minneapolis City Attorney on an agent identification ordinance that “would be similar” to one recently passed in St. Paul. It would require outer-layer agent identification and prohibit face coverings “with some exceptions… that will be public soon.”

Chavez clarified that this would pertain to any law enforcement officer working within Minneapolis, whether that officer is federal, state, county, metropolitan, or municipal. This agent ID ordinance is still early in its proposal process. A public hearing is forecasted for May 13 and final vote on May 21.

While ordinances make their way through hearings, votes, and implementation, Chavez is grateful for the continued neighbor-to-neighbor care happening throughout the city, because the trauma and the needs are still ongoing. “Folks are still patrolling. They’re still observing. They’re still helping neighbors with… basic necessities,” he said. But on the flip side, “it’s hard to put it on the community when it should be the job of government, whether it’s a city, county, state, or federal government.”

Looking back while walking forward

Chavez said it’s important to remember the roots of the current situation go back farther than January of 2026 or even November 2025. He pointed to the last federal election season and how then-candidate Donald Trump “promised to have the largest mass deportations efforts ever. So, once he got elected, obviously a lot of our neighbors were already fearful.” He also pointed out that targeted deportation strategies predate this administration.

Chavez recalled how he felt the first tremors of intensified ICE actions, when a number of college students were targeted for deportation earlier in 2025. Then, at a press conference in October 2025, then-Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem threatened deployment of thousands of new ICE agents throughout the nation, including focused deployment in the Twin Cities.

Shortly thereafter, the multiple ICE raids in St. Paul in November prompted Chavez to hold a community meeting to train neighborhood volunteers how to use whistles to alert at-risk neighbors.

The day before Operation Metro Surge formally began in December, Chavez had been in the Phillips neighborhood counseling a family that was affected by an ICE action. “That day we felt that the presence of ICE was only going to increase,” Chavez said. “We felt some really negative energy and (saw) suspicious vehicles all over our neighborhoods.”

Throughout the winter, there were days and nights of sitting with families who had been directly harmed by Metro Surge, connecting them with legal help and other resources, and posting their GoFundMe links directly on his social media pages to lend them legitimacy and public visibility. Every one of those posts was someone he’d connected with one-to-one.

“Many of us are really exhausted, and our constituents are very exhausted, and we’re trying our best to keep our heads up high,” he said, commenting on the amount of trauma in his community. “We’re going to feel this for years to come… But we have a responsibility to not give up, and we have a responsibility to do what we can to improve people’s lives.”
 
There hasn’t been time for soul-searching
Benefiting from support from newly elected St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her, the St. Paul City Council was able to pass three significant ordinances at the start of 2026. While noting that there is always more the city could do, St. Paul Council Member Molly Coleman (Ward 4) said they were able to accomplish a lot in a short time.

“When you look at the sort of legislative bodies that have responded to Trump’s attacks on municipalities and states across the country, I really do think that we are one of the most productive legislative bodies in the country,” Coleman said.

Looking forward toward other potential measures, St. Paul City Council held a public hearing in early April regarding “strengthening training and reporting requirements” related to the city’s existing separation ordinance. Known as Chapter 44a, the proposed additions would strengthen transparency and reporting requirements and increase “council oversight so that we have the information we need to make critical decisions about our city departments showing up in the way that we want them to,” Coleman said.

Those city departments include the St. Paul Police, as well as other city department workers ranging from library staff to parks and recreation employees. Chapter 44a would refine training so that “city employees are equipped with consistent guidance on how to respond to immigration enforcement activity,” according to a City of St. Paul press release. Coleman said the public hearing for Chapter 44a yielded “nothing but good feedback from the community.”

Coleman reflected on how Chapter 44a could contribute to the continuing conversation about “what we saw on Rose Avenue on Nov. 25,” referring to an incident when protesters gathered in response to an immigration enforcement action, and local police used chemical irritants and less-lethal munitions against the protesters. “There are a lot of conversations that we’re having about the mobile field force (of the SPPD),” Coleman said. “We’re still waiting for the results of the investigation into the Rose Avenue incident… \I don’t think the conversation is anywhere close to done.”

Coleman acknowledged the frustrations of residents who feel not enough was done soon enough. She described the amount of time it takes to propose an ordinance, let the public weigh in, vote, pass, and implement. “It’s been around the clock, trying to figure out how do we do what we can do… How do we push our capacity, but also recognizing that we can’t do everything we want,” Coleman said. “We have a constitution, we have a supremacy clause… we have limits to our power when it comes to how we interact with the federal government, and that’s hard and frustrating.”

She also highlighted a long-term and national-level perspective on local ordinances. “I hope that in some ways, we’ve helped make it easier for future cities that are impacted by the Trump administration like we have been… We didn’t come into this with a playbook,” Coleman said. She hopes that the St. Paul ordinances serve as that playbook for other cities. “Part of our goal there is to build national pressure for federal level changes,” she said. When policies differ in adjacent municipalities, it can complicate law enforcement. Ultimately, “it can’t be a patchwork of municipalities or states saying, ‘these are our policies’...What is ultimately going to be needed here is national action,” Coleman said.

While acknowledging the frustration of residents who want more done faster, Coleman also addressed concerns that some measures reached too far. This was the case when it came to landlord response to the pre-eviction notice extension. Noting landlords’ concerns about being able to pay their own expenses, Coleman said, “This isn’t forgiving rent. This isn’t relieving anybody of the obligation to pay their housing costs… It’s about giving them the time that they need to make those payments.”

She noted that the county is giving property owners a two-month extension on property taxes, and the eviction notice extension was intentionally paired with an increase in emergency rental assistance funds. “This is not an eviction moratorium. This is not a multi-year policy change. This is a very time-bound… limited temporary change that is designed to ensure that people can stay housed and that rent can get paid.”

While economic challenges in St. Paul persist and immigration enforcement activity continues, the Twin Cities have fallen out of the national news cycle. “There are so many other layers… that aren’t as visible… they don’t make the same type of headlines,” Coleman said. She described the latest figures for economic damages– including $118 million in lost wages in January and February alone – as well as the hard-to-measure effects of trauma on both adults and children and families that have been broken apart. “We are never going to get people to pay attention to that in the same way that they paid attention to the very worst moments of Operation Metro Surge. But the destruction continues.”

Coleman said she sees great hope in the midst. “I saw every single person in my life… in my neighborhood, figuring out how they could chip in, and that looked really different for different people,” she said. She recalled that earlier in the “Trump era” people were “looking for who or what will save us, and I think we answered that question so loudly and so forcefully in Minnesota by saying, ‘we will save us… It is our collective responsibility to save our community.’”

She also commented on how the end of Operation Metro Surge has not translated into an end of enforcement actions. “Our neighbors are still at risk. Our country is still at risk… so we need to be in this for the long haul,” Coleman said. But she also noted how community members need to find ways to make their continued efforts sustainable and find “the joy and the beauty” in the midst of that work. “This has to be sustainable,” stated Coleman. “It’s not just about ICE. It is about how do we build a better world, a fundamentally different, safer, more just world.”

Jason Chavez

Minneapolis, Ward 9

https://www.minneapolismn.gov/government/city-council/members/ward-9/ https://www.instagram.com/jchavezmpls/

Molly Coleman

St. Paul, Ward 4

https://www.stpaul.gov/department/city-council/ward-4

https://www.instagram.com/councilmembermollycoleman/

Emergency Resources:

St. Paul Rental Assistance

Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) Application available the first 2 days of each month and distributed by lottery due to severe demand. Apply at:

https://www.stpaul.gov/departments/planning-and-economic-development/housing/emergency-rent-assistance-program-era

Other St. Paul Community-based Resources

Multiple non-profits listed at:

https://www.stpaul.gov/departments/mayors-office/citys-response-federal-operation-metro-surge

Minneapolis Rental Assistance

Distributed through local non-profits contracted by Hennepin County.

As of publication, these organizations are accepting applications:

• Comunidades Latinas Unidas En Servicio (CLUES)
• Isuroon
• Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center (MIWRC) 

General State-Based Benefits

https://mnbenefits.mn.gov/#about-programs