At the state Capitol on Tuesday, Brooklyn Park Police Chief Mark Bruley described a deluge of 911 calls this winter as residents checked if the masked men in unmarked cars driving through the city were legitimate federal agents.

Marshaling the resources needed to respond to those calls is just one example of how the actions of federal immigration agents drained local staff time and money. “Our community was rightfully disturbed,” Bruley said. “That is not a scene that has ever been seen in the city of Brooklyn Park.”

Bruley was speaking in support of a bill that would spread $10 million across Minnesota cities to help them recover such costs incurred during Operation Metro Surge. The funds would cover unexpected expenses related to public safety, emergency management, public works and legal services between Dec. 1, 2025, and May 31, 2026.

Related: Operation Metro Surge triggered a wave of lawsuits. What happened to them?

So far, the total economic impact of the federal immigration enforcement surge is unknown – although it’s estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars across local governments, lost business revenue and other outcomes, per a recent legal filing.

And as a result, several bills have been introduced in the Minnesota Legislature that attemp to inject money back into the system.

Sen. Scott Dibble, DFL-Minneapolis, introduced his proposal on cities April 9 — about a month before the end of the session. It’s seen relatively quick support from lawmakers, who laid it over for possible inclusion in an omnibus tax bill following a Senate Taxes Committee hearing.

At the committee hearing, he referenced costs just to the Minneapolis Police Department: over $6 million in overtime between Jan. 7 and March 28, according to a new legal filing. 

Ninety-five officers responded just to the Jan. 7 shooting of Renee Good. In January, the police department canceled nearly 1,000 scheduled days off. 

Dibble said that when federal actions create extraordinary local costs, it’s the state’s role to provide targeted relief that prevents property taxpayers from absorbing them.

“Cities don’t control federal enforcement decisions, but they are responsible for keeping streets safe and managing emergency response, supporting impacted residents and maintaining public order,” Dibble said.

Absorbing a 10-week federal operation 

For cities with tight budgets, the unanticipated costs of the enforcement surge were particularly high and unexpected.

That’s the message from the April 21 committee hearing, which drew testimony from city officials representing Minneapolis, Crystal and Brooklyn Park. They also represented the Cities for Safe and Stable Communities, a 33-city coalition advocating for economic recovery in response to Operation Metro Surge.

The cities in the coalition logged over $400,00 in direct costs, such as police overtime and emergency communications, plus $1.4 million in emergency grant dollars and $180,000 more still pending.

“These are dollars that came out of our city budgets that were never designed to absorb a 10-week federal operation,” said Julie Deshler, mayor of the city of Crystal who spoke on behalf of the coalition. 

Hundreds of local businesses reported monthly revenue losses of 50% or more, she said. 

And for cities, that represents dips in sales tax revenue. 

As an example, she cited Richfield, where local sales tax receipts in January were $100,000 below projections. That represents a $20 million drop in taxable business activity, Deshler said. 

Bruley, the Brooklyn Park police chief, said the department logged over 200 overtime hours in response to federal immigration agents’ activities since Jan. 1. Those hours cost approximately $24,000, he said.

He listed several types of resources drained in the surge.

For example, his officers spent time towing cars that were abandoned in the middle of traffic after federal agents detained the drivers. The city spent money on emergency communications to clarify that federal agents are not the same as local police, he said, in an effort to maintain community trust. 

Brooklyn Park officers also responded to 911 calls for such things as vehicle pursuits by federal agents “racing through the city.” They also responded when federal agents themselves called 911 to report threats against them or people tampering with their vehicles, he said.

And, when protest activity was high in Minneapolis, Brooklyn Park officers helped answer 911 calls there, Bruley said.

Brooklyn Park is another member of the 33-city coalition, which also includes Bloomington, Golden Valley, St. Louis Park and others.

“We are speaking with one voice because we recognize that unsupervised federal actions created a fiscal ripple effect that no single city should have to absorb alone,” he said.

Under Dibble’s proposal, cities would need to tally the costs and submit a request for reimbursement to the state auditor. It also requires cities to make “reasonable, good faith efforts” for reimbursement from the federal government. 

Cities would be paid proportionally depending on their share of the requested dollars.

Bill adds to other recovery efforts in Legislature

In an email, Dibble said the timing of the bill reflects when lawmakers were able to gather reliable, detailed data from cities. It’s also a tax bill, which operates on a different timeline than other policy areas, he said.

“It may be late in the session, but it is timely in terms of the need — and I believe it’s critical that we step in to help cities close these unexpected budget gaps,” he said. 

He said it complements, but doesn’t replace, other economic recovery bills by focusing just on cities. 

Related: The 12 hours of Whipple evidence that made a judge side with those detained during Operation Metro Surge – again

A related proposal would provide $100,000 for small business recovery loans. Funds would be distributed to businesses that can show they lost over 30% of their revenue as a result of the federal surge due to a drop in customers, staffing shortages or other impacts. 

That bill is still in committee. 

So far, there have been dozens of bills that respond to the federal immigration surge — but they have seen little bipartisan support.

“This bill is part of getting on the record about what’s happened here, and I think that is critically important now, but also for the future of our state and frankly, our democracy,” Dibble said.

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