Keith Ellison: Trump Hates Minnesotans Because We Love Each Other
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Keith Ellison: Trump Hates Minnesotans Because We Love Each Other
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/ February 9, 2026
Keith Ellison: Trump Hates Minnesotans Because We Love Each Other
The president has gone after us because of who we are and what we value. We have an obligation to resist.
Keith Ellison
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Minneapolis, February 3, 2026.(Charly Triballeau / AFP via Getty Images)
This article appears in the
March 2026 issue, with the headline “Why We Fight.”
Operation Metro Surge, the Trump administration campaign that has targeted the city of Minneapolis and the state of Minnesota, which I serve as attorney general, appears to be the single largest deployment of immigration agents in the history of the United States. This domestic invasion has inflicted tremendous damage on our state.
Federal agents have killed two people in two weeks—Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old poet and mother of three, and Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse who worked at the Minneapolis VA hospital. (There has been at least one additional nonlethal shooting.)
Agents have stopped countless numbers of people and demanded, in effect, that they show their papers—in America. We have seen door-to-door searches where agents barge into people’s homes without cause. We have seen stores shuttered, markets shut down, restaurants under siege, employees afraid to go to work, and students afraid to go to school. We will be living with the scars from these abuses for years to come.
That is why my office sued the Trump administration. We sought a restraining order to halt Operation Metro Surge in its tracks. The lawsuit that we filed was, to my mind, necessitated by the federal government’s unprecedented abuse of the Constitution and by President Trump’s overt promise of “retribution” against the state of Minnesota. We have been able to marshal facts to show that the reason Trump’s domestic army has flooded our state is not because we have an especially large population of undocumented immigrants. Rather, we have been targeted because Trump sees us as his political enemy. That is a violation of our First Amendment right to free expression.
In addition, the 10th Amendment gives Minnesota dual sovereignty with the federal government. Yet we have seen the White House try to force elected leaders to bend to its will rather than to the will of the people of our state. The federal government has deployed more than 3,000 masked and heavily armed agents to achieve what Congress or a court would never grant: coerced control over the politics of Minnesotans.
People may ask, “Why is Minnesota having to deal with this targeted oppression?” One answer is that we voted against the president three …
This isn't complicated—it's willpower.
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Keith Ellison: Trump Hates Minnesotans Because We Love Each Other
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/ February 9, 2026
Keith Ellison: Trump Hates Minnesotans Because We Love Each Other
The president has gone after us because of who we are and what we value. We have an obligation to resist.
Keith Ellison
Share
Copy Link
X (Twitter)
Bluesky Pocket
Ad Policy
Minneapolis, February 3, 2026.(Charly Triballeau / AFP via Getty Images)
This article appears in the
March 2026 issue, with the headline “Why We Fight.”
Operation Metro Surge, the Trump administration campaign that has targeted the city of Minneapolis and the state of Minnesota, which I serve as attorney general, appears to be the single largest deployment of immigration agents in the history of the United States. This domestic invasion has inflicted tremendous damage on our state.
Federal agents have killed two people in two weeks—Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old poet and mother of three, and Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse who worked at the Minneapolis VA hospital. (There has been at least one additional nonlethal shooting.)
Agents have stopped countless numbers of people and demanded, in effect, that they show their papers—in America. We have seen door-to-door searches where agents barge into people’s homes without cause. We have seen stores shuttered, markets shut down, restaurants under siege, employees afraid to go to work, and students afraid to go to school. We will be living with the scars from these abuses for years to come.
That is why my office sued the Trump administration. We sought a restraining order to halt Operation Metro Surge in its tracks. The lawsuit that we filed was, to my mind, necessitated by the federal government’s unprecedented abuse of the Constitution and by President Trump’s overt promise of “retribution” against the state of Minnesota. We have been able to marshal facts to show that the reason Trump’s domestic army has flooded our state is not because we have an especially large population of undocumented immigrants. Rather, we have been targeted because Trump sees us as his political enemy. That is a violation of our First Amendment right to free expression.
In addition, the 10th Amendment gives Minnesota dual sovereignty with the federal government. Yet we have seen the White House try to force elected leaders to bend to its will rather than to the will of the people of our state. The federal government has deployed more than 3,000 masked and heavily armed agents to achieve what Congress or a court would never grant: coerced control over the politics of Minnesotans.
People may ask, “Why is Minnesota having to deal with this targeted oppression?” One answer is that we voted against the president three …
Keith Ellison: Trump Hates Minnesotans Because We Love Each Other
This isn't complicated—it's willpower.
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Keith Ellison: Trump Hates Minnesotans Because We Love Each Other
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Current Issue
Activism
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Comment
/ February 9, 2026
Keith Ellison: Trump Hates Minnesotans Because We Love Each Other
The president has gone after us because of who we are and what we value. We have an obligation to resist.
Keith Ellison
Share
Copy Link
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Bluesky Pocket
Email
Ad Policy
Minneapolis, February 3, 2026.(Charly Triballeau / AFP via Getty Images)
This article appears in the
March 2026 issue, with the headline “Why We Fight.”
Operation Metro Surge, the Trump administration campaign that has targeted the city of Minneapolis and the state of Minnesota, which I serve as attorney general, appears to be the single largest deployment of immigration agents in the history of the United States. This domestic invasion has inflicted tremendous damage on our state.
Federal agents have killed two people in two weeks—Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old poet and mother of three, and Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse who worked at the Minneapolis VA hospital. (There has been at least one additional nonlethal shooting.)
Agents have stopped countless numbers of people and demanded, in effect, that they show their papers—in America. We have seen door-to-door searches where agents barge into people’s homes without cause. We have seen stores shuttered, markets shut down, restaurants under siege, employees afraid to go to work, and students afraid to go to school. We will be living with the scars from these abuses for years to come.
That is why my office sued the Trump administration. We sought a restraining order to halt Operation Metro Surge in its tracks. The lawsuit that we filed was, to my mind, necessitated by the federal government’s unprecedented abuse of the Constitution and by President Trump’s overt promise of “retribution” against the state of Minnesota. We have been able to marshal facts to show that the reason Trump’s domestic army has flooded our state is not because we have an especially large population of undocumented immigrants. Rather, we have been targeted because Trump sees us as his political enemy. That is a violation of our First Amendment right to free expression.
In addition, the 10th Amendment gives Minnesota dual sovereignty with the federal government. Yet we have seen the White House try to force elected leaders to bend to its will rather than to the will of the people of our state. The federal government has deployed more than 3,000 masked and heavily armed agents to achieve what Congress or a court would never grant: coerced control over the politics of Minnesotans.
People may ask, “Why is Minnesota having to deal with this targeted oppression?” One answer is that we voted against the president three …
