In Ward 10, the Minneapolis neighborhood where ICU nurse Alex Pretti was gunned down by federal agents, neighbors are turning to each other for everything from groceries to school dropoffs.

“We have people who are, every single day, taking their vulnerable neighbors’ kids to school for them; taking them to work; taking them to do their laundry; bringing groceries to folks so they can be safe in their homes,” Aisha Chughtai, the Minneapolis council member representing Ward 10, told Talking Points Memo. 

“This is the most Minnesotan thing I know. This is the most compassion-for-neighbors thing I know.”

Federal agents have occupied Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota since December as part of “Operation Metro Surge,” a deportation campaign aimed at the Twin Cities. That surge has resulted in the deaths of both Pretti and 37-year-old mother and activist Renée Good. As ICE increased its presence in the city this month, Minnesotans also stepped up, with tens of thousands braving harsh winter weather to protest, act as legal observers, and participate in mutual aid. These acts, Twin Cities residents say, constitute basic care for their communities. But the GOP wants to cast these support networks as something more sinister: a conspiracy, possibly even a criminal one.

It’s a familiar tactic by a Trump administration that has often alleged dark motives for acts of decency. In Minnesota, though, that tactic is backfiring on a historic scale.

“As the risk has gone up, other people — maybe people who have never organized or done rapid response or mutual before — are only showing up in greater numbers,” Kai Shelley, a community organizer who works as a senior policy aide for Chughtai, told TPM.

On Tuesday morning, Minneapolis residents were reviewing their digital safety measures. The previous day, FBI Director Kash Patel had announced on a right-wing podcast that he was opening a criminal investigation into Minnesotans’ Signal group chats, after a different right-wing social media personality........

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