Senate to grill Minnesota, DHS leaders on Metro Surge

The U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, chaired by Sen. Rand Paul, will hold a high‑profile oversight hearing Thursday at 8 a.m. CT focused on immigration and law‑enforcement operations in Minnesota, including the controversial Operation Metro Surge in the Twin Cities. The first panel will feature Minnesota officials — U.S. House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, state House GOP leader Harry Niska, Attorney General Keith Ellison and Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell — who are expected to be questioned on state responses to ICE and Border Patrol tactics, habeas rulings, fraud probes and detainer practices. A second panel will bring in federal brass: USCIS Director Joseph Edlow, CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott and ICE Director Todd Lyons, putting the national architects of the surge on the record about shootings, raids and due‑process violations playing out in Minneapolis–Saint Paul. The hearing follows weeks of federal court rebukes, mass habeas filings, state‑federal lawsuits and calls for investigations into the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti and other disputed operations on city streets. For Twin Cities residents, this will be the first time top Minnesota officials and the key DHS leaders behind Metro Surge are questioned together under oath about what they’ve done — and failed to do — as thousands of federal agents have flooded the metro.