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The Conversation
Nicole L. Novak, Research Assistant Professor of Community and Behavioral Health, University of Iowa

When ICE sweeps a community, public health pays a price – and recovery will likely take years

Minneapolis residents mobilized to protest against ICE and to support immigrant members of their community. Fibonacci Blue/Flickr via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY

The Trump administration announced on Feb. 12, 2026, that it is ending Operation Metro Surge, its deployment of more than 3,000 federal immigration enforcement agents in Minneapolis, St. Paul and the surrounding metro area. Federal officials say some agents will remain in the area and have vowed that similar immigration sweeps are coming soon to other U.S. cities.

As public health researchers who have been documenting the health impacts of immigration enforcement for over 10 years, we see these immigration sweeps as public health emergencies.

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