Minneapolis
Minnesota's largest city; hosts four 2026 World Cup group-stage matches at US Bank Stadium.
Minneapolis is a 2026 World Cup host city where federal agents killed two people during Operation Metro Surge, prompting France to become the first country to name a host city in a travel advisory, issued 19 April.
Last refreshed: 28 July 2026 · Appears in 3 active topics
Timeline for Minneapolis
Minneapolis kills a free Skydio trial
Drones: Industry & DefenceMentioned in: Kansas City's tills beat its hotels
2026 FIFA World CupMentioned in: Fairfax pre-empts; Sabey pulls Seattle plan
Data Centres: Boom and BacklashScheduled a moratorium vote for 21 May alongside the statewide HF 4888 pause
Data Centres: Boom and Backlash: Five US moratorium votes in seven daysMentioned in: Gallup finds 71% oppose local data centres
Data Centres: Boom and BacklashBackground
Minneapolis, Minnesota's largest city and economic centre, is one of sixteen US host cities for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, with US Bank Stadium in its downtown staging four group-stage matches. The city operates as a sanctuary jurisdiction, a status that put it in direct friction with federal immigration enforcement during the tournament build-up.
That friction became lethal under Operation Metro Surge, a federal enforcement operation launched in December 2025 that produced more than 3,000 arrests and allegations of warrantless detentions. Two US citizens, Renée Good and Alex Pretti, were shot dead by federal agents in the city in January 2026 .
The episode Left Minneapolis carrying a distinct reputational profile among World Cup hosts: named in a foreign government's travel advisory and absent from the published human rights plans that other host cities produced, a marker of the wider tension between the tournament's sanctuary-city venues and federal enforcement policy.
Minneapolis misses the human rights bar
France's 19 April travel advisory told citizens to avoid Minneapolis city centre, citing protest violence around federal immigration agents; it was the first advisory to single out a named World Cup host city . The warning followed the deaths of Renée Good, shot by an ICE agent on 7 January, and Alex Pretti, shot by CBP officers on 24 January while protesting Good's killing.
Minneapolis was not among the four host cities with a published human rights plan when Human Rights Watch's 11 May Deadline passed, and Minnesota and Hennepin County were separately suing the federal government for withholding evidence from the Pretti investigation. The federal probe remained unresolved as of April, with no resolution reported since.