The number of illegal aliens arrested for crime In Minneapolis

1. Federal tallies vary widely and are presented as headline achievements

Department of Homeland Security and ICE statements repeatedly publicized large arrest totals tied to “Operation Metro Surge,” with DHS saying ICE has arrested “more than 400” in one release ^[1], touting 3,000 arrests in another ^[4], and in different briefings asserting thousands more — including statements characterizing “more than 2,000” arrests and even language claiming “over 10,000” in some materials ^{[5] [4] [2]}.

2. Local news tallies give different snapshots, often smaller than the most expansive federal claims

Local outlets and affiliates report different figures: KARE11 cited a figure of about 2,400 arrests in the Twin Cities since Operation Metro Surge began ^[2], while FOX 9 noted DHS saying roughly 2,000 arrests in Minnesota and identified 212 people listed by DHS as convicted “worst of the worst” in the state ^[5]. These local totals are narrower than some DHS press statements and appear to reflect rolling tallies rather than a single audited dataset ^{[2] [5]}.

3. State officials and independent reporters flag disputes over custody and classification

Minnesota state authorities publicly disputed a DHS claim that “1,360 criminal illegal aliens” were in the state’s custody, and criticized federal messaging that frames local policies as responsible for criminality — underlining that custody numbers, deportation status and who qualifies as a “criminal illegal alien” are contested and depend on differing agency definitions and data windows ^[3]. OPB and other reporting also note that DHS’s characterization that “70% of illegal aliens arrested by ICE have been charged with or convicted of a crime” is a federal claim that has drawn scrutiny for context and sourcing ^[6].

4. “Worst of the worst” lists are specific but limited in scope

DHS and ICE releases repeatedly highlighted named individuals — murderers, child sexual offenders, gang members and people with long criminal histories — and some releases list roughly two hundred-plus convicted individuals in Minnesota whom DHS labels the “worst of the worst” ^{[7] [8] [5]}. Those named-case lists illustrate the agency’s targeting priorities but do not exhaust the full universe of arrests and do not by themselves quantify total arrests across all categories ^{[7] [8] [5]}.

5. Data limitations and the honest answer

Available reporting shows multiple, inconsistent totals: federal statements and press releases cite hundreds to thousands ^{[1] [4]}, local news reports place totals in the low thousands ^{[2] [5]}, and state officials dispute some custody numbers ^[3]. Independent datasets that would definitively reconcile who was arrested in Minneapolis, their immigration status, and criminal histories are not present in the provided reporting, and broader demographic sources (e.g., Migration Policy or Minnesota data trackers) describe unauthorized populations but do not enumerate arrests tied to this operation in a verifiable, single-source way ^{[9] [10]}. Therefore the most defensible statement is that DHS/ICE claim multiple thousands of arrests tied to Operation Metro Surge while local reporting documents between several hundred and a few thousand arrests and Minnesota officials dispute specific custody claims — but no single, independently verified number emerges from the materials reviewed ^{[1] [2] [3]}.

Conclusion

The materials show aggressive federal enforcement messaging and named-case arrests in Minneapolis, with DHS/ICE publicizing figures that vary by release and local reporters capturing somewhat smaller totals; Minnesota officials contest some federal custody counts. Without an independent, auditable dataset released by a neutral party or matched public records reconciliations, the exact number of “illegal aliens arrested for crime in Minneapolis” cannot be definitively stated from the provided reporting — the documented range in these sources spans from the low hundreds (explicit named lists) to multiple thousands claimed by federal releases ^{[5] [2] [1] [4] [3]}.