More Than 2,300 Immigrants Arrested in Operation Metro Surge Were Deported or Left the Country

Updated ICE data obtained by the Deportation Data Project show that more than 2,300 immigrants arrested during Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota left the country, up from the Minnesota Reformer’s earlier tally of 1,760. The total includes 2,019 people explicitly recorded as deported and 315 who left under circumstances unclear from the data. ICE recorded around 3,600 arrests from December 1, 2025, to February 15, 2026, the rough span of the surge, and more than 400 people were deported after February. More than 80 people were deported to Laos and 14 to Somalia, and about 140 people arrested in the surge remained detained at the end of August 2026. ICE did not respond to a question about how many people arrested in the surge are still in detention.