On January 6, 2026, DHS deployed 2,000 agents to Minneapolis in what it called the largest immigration enforcement operation in U.S. history. Over the following weeks, federal agents fatally shot two U.S. citizens — Renée Good on January 7 and Alex Pretti, a VA nurse, on January 24. Democrats voted to shut down DHS and demanded reforms: body cameras, judicial warrants before home entry, agents identifying themselves. None of it made it into the final bill. On June 10, Trump signed the Secure America Act — $69.5 billion for ICE and CBP through 2029, with no oversight strings attached. Today, a Human Rights Watch report gave the first comprehensive accounting of what that enforcement actually cost Minneapolis.

1. Democrats Were Using Funding as a Weapon (Speaker Mike Johnson, House Republican Leadership)

Republicans say they secured ICE from political interference — and that Democrats were never serious about border enforcement.

The three-year window was deliberate. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said it plainly: "By funding it for three years, we've taken away their ability to cut that funding or to take hostage the funding for the remainder of the Trump administration." Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) said Democrats "don't want to fund because they want open borders."

The White House called it ending obstruction. The official White House statement said the Secure America Act "ends Democrat obstruction" and "fully funds CBP, ICE, and President Trump's Border Security Agenda." Not one Republican in the House broke ranks — the 214-212 vote was entirely party-line.

Republicans routed the bill through budget reconciliation on purpose. Using reconciliation instead of annual appropriations locked in enforcement spending through 2029 and cut off Democrats' ability to attach conditions in future spending fights.

2. Congress Ceded Three Years of Accountability (Senate Democrats, National Immigration Law Center, Brennan Center)

Democrats say they didn't just lose a vote — they lost the only leverage they had over how ICE operates.

Republicans stripped every reform Democrats demanded. Democrats fought for body cameras, judicial warrants before home entry, a requirement that agents identify themselves, and a ban on face coverings. They got none of it. Heidi Altman, the National Immigration Law Center's vice president of policy, called the bill "very dangerous" and said ICE would have "even fewer accountability mechanisms" going forward. Past DHS funding bills included specific spending guardrails; this one doesn't.

Schumer called it a permission slip. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said Republicans were "leaving taxpayers to rely on nothing more than a promise from Donald Trump's personal fixer. That is not accountability. That is a permission slip." Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), the top Democrat on Senate Appropriations, put the math bluntly: "The hard truth is that Democrats must win political power to enact the kind of accountability we need."

ICE data shows how enforcement shifted. A February 2026 Brennan Center report by researchers Mark Krass and Margy O'Herron found that only 31% of new ICE detainees had criminal convictions by early October 2025. Before Trump's inauguration, that share was 63%. Violent crime arrests fell from 16% to 6% of new detainees over the same period. In September 2025, ICE imprisoned more people whose most serious offense was a traffic violation than people convicted of theft. The administration also diverted roughly half of all DEA agents and nearly all 6,000 HSI criminal investigators away from criminal cases and into immigration enforcement.

3. Cities Pay the Bill and Had No Vote (Mayor Jacob Frey, Human Rights Watch)

Local governments absorbed the costs of federal enforcement without any seat at the table.

Minneapolis is still counting the damage. A city assessment released June 10 puts the total cost of Operation Metro Surge at nearly $700 million: $445 million in lost business revenue, $152 million in lost worker wages, and $10 million in city operations including police overtime. Mayor Jacob Frey said the operation "forced many businesses to close, led to millions in lost wages, and traumatized neighborhoods."

Schools and health care took direct hits. Student departures from Minneapolis schools rose about 70% year-over-year during the surge. The district served 441,000 fewer meals. Rent assistance requests rose 85%. Suicide helpline calls to the National Alliance on Mental Illness Minnesota more than doubled, and at least three teenagers attempted suicide after ICE detained their parents.

ICE arrested U.S. citizens and school staff. HRW researcher Reagan Williams documented 4,000+ arrests during Metro Surge, with 64% of those arrested having no criminal record. Among the detained: 524 U.S. citizens, a preschool teacher, a special education staff member, and a parent taken at a school bus stop. The Secure America Act gives DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin $5 billion in discretionary funds through 2029 with no congressional reporting requirement attached.

Where This Lands

Republicans got what they came for: three years of enforcement funding, no oversight conditions, and Democrats cut out of the process. Democrats say Congress handed away its oversight role and point to data showing ICE increasingly arrests people with no criminal record. Minneapolis and other cities bear costs measured in hundreds of millions with no federal mechanism to recover them. The HRW report released today puts specific numbers on what the last big surge looked like. Congress has not committed to revisiting oversight. Cities have no federal mechanism to recover costs. The enforcement data is now on record.

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