The Department of Homeland Security launched Operation Metro Surge in December 2025, expanding it in January 2026 to what officials called the largest immigration enforcement operation in U.S. history. By the time the operation ended in February, 2,000 ICE agents had swept through Minneapolis–Saint Paul, leaving the region's group homes, residential programs, and home health services scrambling to cover shifts.

Roughly 30% of long-term care workers and 32% of home health workers are immigrants. When ICE detained workers (including some with valid work permits) and others became too afraid to report to their jobs, families depending on disability services lost care. One couple from Russia, both holding valid work permits and working in Twin Cities group homes, saw the husband detained by immigration agents in December 2025. Three months later, he still hadn't come home.

What Changed

Operation Metro Surge didn't create the staffing crisis; it compounded it. Minnesota's caregiving workforce was already recovering from pandemic-era shortages when Congress approved Medicaid cuts in late 2025. Then came the ICE operation.

Nicole Mattson of Care Providers of Minnesota told the Star Tribune that providers were "at a teeter-totter point where this is really going to destabilize the system." She described widespread anxiety in the field during the operation. Staff were stopped before or after work. Some employees continued going in because they had to pay rent, but they were scared.

The operation officially ended in February 2026, but a residual force of 650 immigration officers remained in Minnesota as of early March. The fear hasn't gone away.

Why This Matters to Disability Families

Group homes and residential programs rely on workers who help with bathing, meals, medication management, and daily safety monitoring. Home health agencies send workers into family homes to provide respite, personal care, and skilled nursing. When those workers don't show up (because they've been detained, because they're afraid, or because agencies can't fill shifts), families are left covering care themselves or watching their child's safety needs go unmet.

The consequences are already visible. NPR reported that health care providers in Minnesota started informal underground medical networks to care for patients at home because immigrants were too afraid to go to hospitals. Minnesota State Senator Alice Mann, a physician, said in March 2026 that "letting people die at home or come close to death because they are terrified to go into the hospital, in 2026, is outrageous."

The American Association of People with Disabilities stated in March 2026 that immigrants, especially non-citizens, have "feared showing up to work, knowing they may be targeted for deportation. This leaves disabled people without home care, nursing facilities without staff, and care workers and the disabled people who rely on them more susceptible to danger and death."

Who Is Affected

Any family relying on group homes, residential programs, or home health services is potentially affected. The impact is highest in areas with:

• High immigrant workforce participation in caregiving sectors
• Active ICE enforcement operations or residual presence
• Pre-existing staffing shortages in disability services

Minnesota was the epicenter in early 2026, but the precedent affects planning nationwide. Other regions with similar workforce demographics face the same risk if enforcement operations expand.

What This Means for Families

You need to know whether your provider has a staffing contingency plan. If your child lives in a group home or receives regular home health visits, you should be asking questions now, not after a shift goes unfilled or a program suddenly reduces services.

Providers may not volunteer this information. Staffing problems are sensitive, and agencies often don't disclose workforce composition or immigration status of employees. You'll need to ask directly.

If you're relying on Medicaid waiver services, understand that reimbursement rates were already low before the Medicaid cuts Congress approved in late 2025. Agencies operating on thin margins can't easily absorb sudden workforce losses. When they can't fill shifts, they cancel them, and families get the call an hour before the worker was supposed to arrive.

What Families Can Do Now

• Ask your provider directly about staffing stability. You don't need to ask about immigration status. Ask: "What's your current staffing level? Do you have a waitlist for shifts? What's your plan if you lose workers suddenly?" A provider with a plan will answer directly. One without a plan will deflect.

Where to Find More Information

The American Association of People with Disabilities published a policy statement on immigration enforcement's impact on disability services in March 2026. The Minnesota Reformer maintains a timeline of Operation Metro Surge. The Star Tribune's April 2026 investigation, "Minnesota's caregiving workforce was already short-staffed. Then ICE came," documents the direct impact on disability services.

If you're experiencing care disruptions you believe are related to workforce instability, report them to your state's disability services oversight agency. In Minnesota, that's the Department of Human Services. Other states have similar agencies, and your provider is required to tell you how to file a complaint.