Trump's Twin Cities immigration crackdown has made chaos and tension the new normal

Key Highlights

• "ICE out!” Things often turn uglier after nightfall, when the convoys return and the protesters sometimes grow angrier, shaking fences and occasionally smacking passing cars.
• Eventually, the federal officers march toward them, firing tear gas and flash grenades before hauling away at least a few people.“We’re not going anywhere!” a woman shouted on a recent morning.
• “We’re here until you leave.”This is the daily rhythm of Operation Metro Surge, the Trump administration's latest and biggest crackdown yet, with more than 2,000 officers taking part.
• The surge has pitted city and state officials against the federal government, sparked daily clashes between activists and immigration officers in the deeply liberal cities, and left a mother of three dead. The crackdown is barely noticeable in some areas, particularly in whiter, wealthier neighborhoods and suburbs, where convoys and tear gas are rare.
• And even in neighborhoods where masked immigration officers are common, they often move with ghostlike quickness, making arrests and disappearing before protesters can gather in force. Still, the surge can be felt across broad swaths of the Twin Cities area, which is home to more than 3 million people.“We don’t use the word ‘invasion’ lightly,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, a Democrat, told reporters this week, noting that his police force has just 600 officers.