In March 2026, Governor Walz who has referred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents as “modern day Gestapo,” announced that he was establishing “The Governor’s Council on Recording the Truth of Operation Metro Surge and Operation PARRIS.”
The Executive Order, number 26-05, was signed by Governor Walz and signed and filed by Secretary of State Steve Simon on March 25th. The order instructed the council to report its findings in writing by December 1st, but curiously also ordered that a report with preliminary findings be issued by October 31st, just three days before the general election.
The preliminary report, was issued October 31st as directed. It is difficult to read the preliminary report and not recognize the inherent bias that comes from a process designed to only collect information and viewpoints critical of enhanced, proactive immigration enforcement. As such, the self-proclaimed “Truth Council” has been exposed as a one sided, politically motivated effort.
Metro Surge and Operation Parris
Following four years of unprecedented illegal border crossings that occurred under the Biden administration, President Trump was elected in 2025 with a clear mandate to address border insecurity and the overwhelming number of illegal aliens who had entered the country causing strain on limited safety net services, housing, and public safety.
The Trump administration immediately surged resources to shut off the influx of illegal aliens at our borders and put into action surges in resources to a variety of metro areas, many which had taken on “sanctuary” policies to protect those here illegally. Operation Metro Surge focused personnel and resources in Minnesota for about ten weeks in early 2026. Operation PARRIS (Post-Admission Refugee Reverification and Integrity Strengthening), was also initiated in Minnesota to address the massive amount of fraud being carried out by recent refugee populations.
Unfortunately for Minnesotans, a massive activist effort to oppose these initiatives violently took to the streets – and it was anything but organic and spontaneous “neighbors helping neighbors.” I wrote about this fallacy here. Instead it was organized by national activist groups who have opposed these surges across the country.
The Minnesota Truth Council’s own documentation of its first meeting also confirmed this (while omitting the violent counteraction by activists):
“The community response was not spontaneous. Immigrant-and refugee-led networks carried core leadership, both during the crisis and through years of preparation before it. Mutual aid scaled overnight. Legal observation, rapid information sharing, cross-network coordination, and broad community participation made collective action passible…What unfolded in Minnesota offers a window into what civil infrastructure looks like when it is built before a crisis hits, and what it takes to sustain it.”
The whole resistance effort was orchestrated to delegitimize the federal effort to conduct immigration enforcement – a legitimate responsibility of the federal government. The entire goal of the resistance was to physically impede federal agents from conducting their work – knowing that this would cause confrontation and an escalation of force.
Sadly, Minnesota’s Truth Council is operating as a key component in this effort to obfuscate the facts and delegitimize the federal effort to enforce our immigration law. The casual social media consumer will digest the “findings” of the “Truth Council” and never be the wiser to the manipulation in play. When that manipulation is spoon fed days before an election, that’s problematic.
Preliminary Report findings
Chair Cahill prefaced the preliminary report by alleging that Operations Metro Surge and PARRIS “violated the U.S. and Minnesota Constitutions and laid waste to due process and the rule of law.” Then he complimented the orchestrated resistance by calling it a “model to which the world can look to when facing the darkest of days, a model which we very well may need again.” He even used socialist-like rhetoric in describing the spirit of the resistance, declaring that “Solidarity is powerful.”
The bulk of the information collected by the Truth Council appears to have come from personal accounts from individuals. As of October 2026, the Truth Council has documented “stories” from nearly 2,500 people and 185 community organizations.” 74 people testified to the Truth Council in one of four public hearings.
I’m not in a position to dispute any of these stories – those descriptions are part of the history of what took place. But they don’t represent the whole history, and they don’t automatically represent “the truth.” Instead, they represent one side of a torrent of allegations that were baked into the resistance from the start – all to delegitimize ICE and its mission.
The preliminary report also contains links to a variety of “Truth Council Data Reports.” What is striking is that the sources of much of the data involve “survey data” collected by the “U.S. Immigration Policy Center, University of California,” and “Physicians for Human Rights and the Human Rights Center at the University of California, Berkley.” These groups took survey data and concluded things that they couldn’t conclude without knowing the law enforcement side of the story – such as whether agents had “randomly stopped” individuals, whether crowd control devices had been used properly, or whether “journalists” were “targeted” or simply exposed to gas munitions due to their inappropriate proximity to illegal actions by protesters.
Other claims of impacts on the economy and education are equally questionable, and require a willingness to ignore once again that the key to the success of the resistance relied on negative impacts to our economy, etc. Activists have said the quiet part out loud – this wasn’t an organic event, but rather a highly organized effort to sow chaos and create disfunction – the results of which they have blame on ICE.
The takeaway
The governor and secretary of state were not oblivious to the date of the general election when Governor Walz filed his executive order requiring the “preliminary report” of the Minnesota Truth Council be issued three days before the election.
The work of the Minnesota Truth Council fulfills a pre-determined process to delegitimize federal immigration enforcement in Minnesota. The process was not organic, but rather orchestrated by activists to create chaos wherever ICE was attempting to operate. The chaos was designed to elicit a force response by ICE, and the results of that force were blamed solely on ICE, not those who created the conflict. A very important step in the process is the validation of the resistance by the “Truth Council” – validation that even foreshadows the likely need for further resistance.
The entire process brings to mind the modern adage, “Every accusation is a confession.”