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Minnesota faith leaders are sounding the alarm regarding the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) surveillance of churches during and after Operation Metro Surge, President Donald Trump’s violent immigration crackdown in the state earlier this year.

A motion filed in federal court on August 13 revealed that DHS agents surveilled multiple churches in the Twin Cities — as well as schools, libraries, and restaurants — following the launch of Operation Metro Surge in December 2025. The surveillance operation in the Twin Cities lasted through the spring of 2026, and culminated in the prosecution of the Minnesota 15, a group of activists facing federal conspiracy charges after organizing protests against Trump’s deportation campaign.

The months-long surveillance operation included sending undercover agents inside University Baptist Church and Prince of Peace Church, both churches in Minneapolis. Federal agents recorded meetings in the churches and wrote up lists of attendees. They also took down license plate numbers of attendees, and used their license plate information to find their names, then searched for their images on social media.

“It is deeply disturbing that churches can become targets of government surveillance,” particularly when they “care for their neighbors, provide safe places for people to gather, and work together for justice,” Reverend Cody J. Sanders, interim pastor at the University Baptist Church, said in a statement.

Sanders learned that an undercover agent had worn a wire to a self-defense class in his church in May.

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Sanders told Truthout that “it was a shock” to find out that his church had been surveilled, but that it “made........

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