Operation Metro Surge is a large‑scale Department of Homeland Security (DHS) immigration enforcement surge in the Minneapolis–St. Paul area, launched on December 1, 2025. DHS says it is run primarily by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and focuses on finding, arresting, detaining, and removing non‑citizens it labels “criminal illegal aliens,” especially those with prior arrests or convictions for violent or drug offenses, using ICE’s existing authority under the Immigration and Nationality Act to conduct immigration arrests and removals anywhere in the U.S. The State of Minnesota and the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul describe it in a federal lawsuit as an unprecedented deployment of “thousands of armed and masked DHS agents” carrying out militarized raids and mass stops under the banner of immigration enforcement.
A “final order of removal” is the government’s last administrative decision in an immigration case saying a non‑citizen must be deported. Under federal regulation, an immigration judge’s removal order becomes final when the person waives appeal, the appeal deadline passes with no appeal, the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) dismisses an appeal, an in‑absentia order is entered, or a voluntary‑departure order automatically converts after the person fails to depart on time. Once the order is final, DHS/ICE enters a 90‑day “removal period” during which it is supposed to arrange deportation and can generally detain the person; if removal takes longer, ICE may keep some people detained or release them under supervision, subject to limits under 8 U.S.C. §1231 and related case law.
For operations like Metro Surge, ICE builds the “criminal histories” in its press releases mainly from existing law‑enforcement and court records rather than doing its own criminal trials. When ICE encounters or targets someone, officers run fingerprints and biographical data through DHS and FBI systems (such as the Enforcement Integrated Database and Secure Communities fingerprint‑sharing with the FBI’s criminal databases), review state and federal “rap sheets,” and pull charging and conviction information from court and jail records, including via the Criminal Alien Program that screens people in custody. Those records are then summarized in press releases as prior “arrests” or “convictions,” but errors and mismatches in these databases are documented in oversight and research reports, so the histories may not always be complete or perfectly accurate.
In recent DHS and ICE communications, “criminal illegal alien” is not a technical legal category but a political label the department uses for people it considers unlawfully present (“illegal alien” is a term that appears in some federal statutes) who also have criminal records or open criminal cases. In practice, DHS uses the phrase for a wide range of situations, from people with past convictions (including for nonviolent or immigration‑only offenses) to those who have only been arrested or charged, as shown in Operation Metro Surge press releases that list both convictions and prior arrests. Legally, the key distinctions are: (1) a pending charge means the person is presumed innocent until proven guilty in criminal court; (2) a past conviction is a formal finding of guilt; and (3) civil immigration violations (like overstaying a visa) are separate from criminal law, even though DHS often groups them together rhetorically under “criminal illegal alien.”
In this context, saying someone “illegally entered the U.S. in July 2023 and was released into the country under the Biden administration” refers to the common practice of Border Patrol or ICE processing a person for immigration violations and then releasing them from custody inside the U.S. while their immigration case continues, rather than detaining them long‑term. That release can happen through mechanisms such as parole, release on recognizance or bond after issuing a Notice to Appear in immigration court, or other discretionary release pending asylum or removal proceedings. The DHS press release does not specify which of these applied to Danny Yasmani Suares Munoz; it only indicates he was not kept in detention after his 2023 entry.
Tricia McLaughlin is the Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. In that role she serves as the department’s chief spokesperson and oversees DHS communications and public messaging, including press releases and media strategy for agencies like ICE; she is not an operational ICE officer but the senior political appointee responsible for DHS’s public affairs.