Mastodawn

Paul Cantrell Feb 12

Please do not waste your time listening to, reading, or analyzing what Tom Homan actually said this morning. That man is full of shit, everything that comes out of his mouth is shit, and you don’t need to eat it.

I hope ICE and CBP actually leave soon. I’ll believe it when they do. They’re still out there right now. They’re still horrible. They’re still destroying lives •this morning•.

https://minnesotareformer.com/2026/02/12/border-czar-tom-homan-announces-end-to-operation-metro-surge-claiming-success/

1/

Border Czar Tom Homan announces end to Operation Metro Surge, claiming success • Minnesota Reformer

President Trump’s border czar announced an imminent end to Operation Metro Surge on Thursday, claiming success from the unprecedented federal incursion that brought thousands of immigration officers to the state over the objections of local Democratic leaders, and that led to massive protests and two deaths. “The Twin Cities, and Minnesota in general, are and […]

Minnesota Reformer

Paul Cantrell Feb 12

Even if they do leave, they’ll still exist, they’ll still be funded like a national military, they’ll still be an authoritarian secret police in the making.

And the damage they did to my city, to the lives of my neighbors, will echo through generations.

2/

Paul Cantrell Feb 12

Do not rest easy, but hold on to this:

Operation Metro Surge was a catastrophic failure for the Trump regime. Yes, as a terrorist operation, it succeeded: they meant to hurt and terrorize black and Brown people and the whole opposition, and they succeeded at that. But in doing so they lost their credibility, they lost the support of mushy institutions and politicians, they lost much of the popular support a would-be authoritarian needs to consolidate power.

And they lost it because we stood up to them.

3/

Paul Cantrell Feb 12

The Trump regime is •still• in the “alignment” phase of establishing authoritarianism, trying to consolidate power and get all the loci of power lined up behind them.

Still. Meaning they haven’t done it yet. Still.

And they look a •lot• further from accomplishing it than they did at the start of the ICE invasion of MSP.

/end

Paul Cantrell Feb 12

From where I sit, I don’t think it’s a trap. It’s been clear for a while that they’re digging themselves deeper in a hole the longer they keep doing what they’ve been doing, and that they’re going to need to declare “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED” so they can switch to some different awful thing.

However, this is very much a “don’t let your guard down” moment. They’re gearing up for some different horrible thing. They’re not disappearing.

https://nrw.social/@elala/116058473879752331

[email protected] (@[email protected])

@[email protected] When I read the report about Homan's statements, my immediate thought was that he wants to divide the resistance and the solidarity community, because many people are naturally tired and want to believe that the paramilitary troops will withdraw when the demonstrations subside, while others assume that he is a liar. I think it's a trap, but I'm far away.

NRW.social

Paul Cantrell Feb 12

Honestly, I’ve been expecting the “mission accomplished” banner since the day they murdered Alex Pretti. Maybe they were hoping for an ICE officer to be shot in retaliation so they could go for martial law, but a few days later when that hadn’t happened and the country was still seething, the writing was on the wall.

Paul Cantrell Feb 12

If I’m guessing, I expect them to go hard on strategies that are much less visible: snatching people from jails instead of streets, mass detention camps that nobody can see inside, that sort of thing. They need to sustain the terror, but they can’t afford to keep looking so bad in videos while they do it.

Paul Cantrell Feb 13

Update from later in the day in MSP:

I’ve heard or uttered variations on the phrase “I’ll believe it when I see it” in numerous conversations through out the day. That seems to be the prevailing sentiment. People are willing to be hopeful, but nobody’s counting their chickens just yet.

In the meantime, please note carefully the rhetorical deception Republicans are playing in the Senate:

They are whining that Democrats are holding up funding for the whole DHS because “they’re angry about this incident” (meaning the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti) but “There are thousands of arrests that are happening every day that are happening by the book” (i.e. without a murder).

Deception: because the objection isn’t just the two murders; it’s the utterly reckless, unconstitutional, authoritarian behavior of ICE that Good and Pretti were protesting when ICE murdered them.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/12/dhs-funding-blocked-senate-democrats

Senate Democrats block DHS funding over immigration tactics

Though Department of Homeland Security almost certain to shutter at midnight Friday, ICE largely unaffected

The Guardian

Paul Cantrell Feb 13

More here:

https://hachyderm.io/@inthehands/115991716008786969

My request today from Minneapolis to the world, and especially the rest of the USA, is to keep the facts in that linked thread clear, and keep the pressure up on •all• the Senators accordingly.

The problem is not just that ICE murdered two people. The murders (it was more than two) are the tip of a horrible iceberg.

Paul Cantrell (@[email protected])

White people did not start protesting because ICE murdered Good and Pretti. ICE murdered Good and Pretti •because• white people were protesting — and fighting back. 4/

Hachyderm.io

Paul Cantrell Feb 13

OK, so yesterday I wrote that abductions were still continuing to happen in Minneapolis despite the big announcement, but today…abductions are also still continuing to happen.

George B Feb 13

Also 2 completely separate incidents (if you ignore another dozen or so incidents) point to something deeper even if they weren't also violating people's rights in a bunch of other ways.

Even in their dismissal they still have to acknowledge a large enough fuck up (2 unprovoked murders within a month caught on camera) to justify scrapping the whole agency

non-flirty & sorta-thriving Feb 13

@inthehands "they're angry about this incident" sorry, is it somehow unreasonable to be angry about murder?? and to reduce that to mere "incident"??

Alexa Fontanilla Feb 13

@shinealittlelove
#PostOfTheWeek (season 3):
President Donald Trump’s border czar announced on Thursday an imminent end to Operation Metro Surge, claiming success from the unprecedented federal incursion that brought thousands of immigration officers to Minnesota, ignited massive resistance and resulted in two killings of American citizens.

Alexa Fontanilla Feb 13

@shinealittlelove
“The Twin Cities, and Minnesota in general, are and will continue to be much safer for the communities here because of what we have accomplished under President Trump’s leadership,” Border Czar Tom Homan said during a morning news conference.

Alexa Fontanilla Feb 13

@shinealittlelove
He said a “small footprint of personnel” will remain for “a period of time” to wind down the operation. Within the next week, agents sent here from other states will be sent home or deployed elsewhere, he said. Homan, who reportedly was investigated for receiving $50,000 in cash from an undercover FBI agent in 2024 in an alleged bribery scheme, said the personnel here for fraud investigations will remain.

Alexa Fontanilla Feb 13

@shinealittlelove
The announcement comes a little over two weeks after Homan arrived in the state, taking over control of an operation that had, by any measure, spun out of control.

@inthehands "By the book" isn't supposed to mean Mein Kampf.

Jennifer Kayla | Theogrin 🦊Feb 13

Agreed: These are the two most well-documented and publicized murders by the Gestapo, but they're far from the only ones and I think people as a whole are realizing that. The expectation is that when the government is lying out their asses about something so clear and real, then the depths of their perfidy have no floor.

Funding isn't being withheld because of those two, not quite -- it's that their cases show a department which has dispensed with the very pretense of accountability, and that means that an infinite array of failures and monstrous abuses lies just below the already swastika-tattooed skin.

Nathan Salwen Feb 13

@inthehands Fine. Let them fund the rest of DHS without ICE and CBP.

Arena Cops 🇺🇦✌Feb 13

@NSalwen @inthehands And explicitly deny funding pup killer, national wrecking ball & security threat Kristi Noem, Stephen Miller's useful slavish co-idiot!

fan boy 🪭Feb 13

@inthehands
Ok, so let those folks be charged with murder then.