Minnesota Truth Council opens hearings into federal immigration raids

The Minnesota Truth Council held its first public meeting on August 26 at the State Capitol in St. Paul, opening a state-led effort to document the effects of two federal immigration enforcement operations that ran from December 2025 through February 2026, according to the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder.

Governor Tim Walz created the 15-member council by executive order on March 26, saying “Minnesotans demand and deserve a public record that reflects the violent, cruel, inhumane, and deeply disturbing actions of federal immigration agents,” according to a report by JURIST.

The council is investigating Operation Metro Surge and Operation PARRIS, short for Post-Admission Refugee Reverification and Integrity Strengthening, focusing on allegations of chemical agent use against peaceful protesters, harm to children, unwarranted stops and arrests, civil rights violations and economic harm, JURIST reported. The council will not investigate three shooting deaths connected to the operations, referring those cases to law enforcement instead.

The Advocates for Human Rights, a Minneapolis nonprofit, is serving as the council’s implementing partner. Its deputy executive director, Jennifer Prestholdt, is vice chair of the council. “This is our collective story. This is our story from Minnesota,” Prestholdt said at the August 26 meeting, according to the Spokesman-Recorder. “We can’t let that narrative be developed outside of Minnesota or have the federal government say this is what happened.”

Volunteer collectors trained by the Advocates for Human Rights have gathered hundreds of personal accounts since mid-May through secure audio recordings, taken individually or through community dialogues organized with faith groups and grassroots organizations, the Spokesman-Recorder reported. Prestholdt said the effort also aims to support healing in the communities affected. “There are ongoing needs for mental health support,” she said. “I think there’s a lot of potential for public healing through this process as well.”

Human Rights Watch researcher Reagan Williams wrote in a September 1 dispatch that the council marks a rare instance of a US state building its own record of alleged federal abuses. Williams cited a Human Rights Watch report from June that documented excessive force, racial profiling, unlawful detentions and abusive detention conditions during the operations, and said two US citizens were unlawfully killed by federal agents in Minnesota in January, according to Human Rights Watch. Separately from the council’s own work, Minnesota prosecutors have filed criminal charges against individual agents involved in the operations, and both chambers of Congress have held oversight hearings on the matter, Williams wrote.

The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights welcomed the council’s creation in March and urged other states to pursue similar investigations, saying “victims must know the full truth about the violations, receive comprehensive reparation and be protected from further violence or retaliation,” JURIST reported.

The council will hold at least four public meetings, all livestreamed, and continues to collect testimony from immigrants, refugees, US citizens, journalists, legal observers and other community members through the end of 2026. Participation is voluntary, and anonymous accounts are accepted, according to Advocates for Human Rights.

The council is due to deliver its final report to Governor Walz, the Minnesota Legislature and the state’s congressional delegation by December 1.