MINNESOTA PRISON RECORDS CHALLENGE ICE ARREST CLAIMS AS COMMISSIONER ACCUSES DHS OF PROPAGANDA

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Minnesota prison records and custody-transfer videos are receiving renewed attention after Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell accused federal officials of misrepresenting immigration arrests during Operation Metro Surge. A November 4 FOX 9 report revisits Schnell’s challenges to the Department of Homeland Security’s public account of the operation, including claims that dangerous offenders had been released into Minnesota communities before federal agents captured them.

The Minnesota Department of Corrections documented a different sequence in cases it reviewed: people completed their state prison terms and were handed directly to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The department said federal announcements subsequently presented those transfers as enforcement-operation arrests. Schnell told FOX 9 his agency checked the names and records and tried to correct the information with federal officials. He described the continued messaging as a “propaganda game.” Those words reflect Schnell’s assessment of the federal government’s conduct.

One documented dispute involved Meng Khong Yang and Joshua Fornoh. In a January 22 statement, DOC said both were transferred directly to ICE on January 12, with federal agents present at a state facility to receive them. According to the department, a January 13 DHS announcement then described the men as having been arrested the previous day during Operation Metro Surge. DOC released transfer footage and said neither person had been let into the community before the handoff. The agency said ICE had received advance notice and coordinated the pickups with prison staff.

The department expanded its public challenge on January 26, saying it had identified 68 cases of mischaracterized custody movements or arrest claims. Its review used custody information and comparisons with names and photographs displayed in DHS materials. That figure describes the department’s findings at that time; it is not a newly announced November arrest total. The examples included Jose Eliborio Ocampo-Leon, whom DOC said it transferred from Moose Lake directly to ICE on January 22, and Heydi Aguilera-Bustillo, whose transfer from Shakopee was recorded January 6. DOC said both handoffs were subsequently represented as federal enforcement arrests.

Another January example involved Mauricio Morales-Morales. DOC said he had been taken from St. Cloud prison for a federal court proceeding in June 2025 and returned to state custody that September. The department disputed a federal portrayal of him as a community arrest and said he remained in state prison when its January statement was issued. That statement does not establish his custody status today.

Federal officials also publicly distinguished Minnesota’s state prison system from its county jails. At a January 22 briefing covered by MPR News, ICE enforcement and removal operations official Marcos Charles acknowledged that the Minnesota Department of Corrections honors detainers and turns people over to ICE. Charles instead criticized county-level cooperation and urged reporters to examine county records. Schnell responded that the governor does not control county jails and disputed the suggestion that Minnesota sheriffs had failed to cooperate. The state-prison transfer records address specific DOC cases and do not, by themselves, resolve every dispute involving a county jail.

FOX 9’s November report also includes criticism from Rep. Walter Hudson, R-Albertville, who argued that failures to cooperate with federal law enforcement were at the root of the conflict. Schnell and Gov. Tim Walz told the station that communication improved after Tom Homan took charge of the immigration operation. The reporting accompanies FOX 9’s three-part documentary series, “Thin I.C.E.,” examining federal immigration operations in Minneapolis and Chicago.

Sources: FOX 9’s November 4 report, DOC’s January 22 transfer-video statement, DOC’s January 26 records release, and MPR News coverage of ICE’s January 22 briefing. This article draws on those reports and published statements; Minnesota Now did not independently audit all underlying custody files.