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/

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/

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

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

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

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.