Three grants have been awarded to University of Minnesota faculty
The Community Action Research Grant encourages faculty to partner directly with Minnesota community organizations to address critical regional concerns spanning criminal justice, housing, environment, healthcare, and other social issues. This year, applicants were specifically asked for research related to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) "Operation Metro Surge." Three projects were selected for funding.
The "Chilling Effect of Operation Metro Surge: A Mixed-Methods Analysis of Primary Care Utilization and Clinical Resilience.
Dr. Serena Xiong, assistant professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health
Heightened immigration enforcement, exemplified by "Operation Metro Surge," creates a 'chilling effect' that deters immigrant and refugee communities from access primary care, disrupting continuity and worsening chronic disease management. M Health Fairfiew clinics which are committed to advancing health equity and serving diverse communities across the Twin Cities have observed declines in routine visits during this period.
We will use a convergent mixed-methods design to evaluate the surge’s impact on primary care operations and equity. An interrupted time series analysis will assess changes in patient volume, including subgroup effects among limited English proficient patients and those in high-enforcement ZIP codes. A phenomenological study of clinicians and staff will explore lived experiences and
adaptive strategies to maintain care continuity.
Integrated findings will inform development of a Sanctuary Healthcare Toolkit to help clinics proactively safeguard access, protect continuity of care, and reduce preventable disparities during future enforcement activities.
The Impact of Operation Metro Surge on African Immigrant Communities in Minnesota
Dr. Olihe Okoro, associate professor in the College of Pharmacy at the University of Minnesota-Duluth
In 2025 ICE launched Operation Metro Surge, a sustained and intensified immigration enforcement campaign targeting the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area and surrounding Greater Minnesota communities. The operation has involved visible enforcement actions across neighborhoods, workplaces, schools, and healthcare facilities, generating widespread fear, displacement, and disruption throughout immigrant communities.
African immigrant communities in Minnesota are diverse. They span East Africa (e.g. Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, South Sudan, Tanzania, etc.), West Africa (Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Senegal, etc.), and Central Africa (Cameroon, Congo, etc.), and constitute a substantial and economically productive segment of the state's population. They are concentrated in various sectors and industries including healthcare, food, transportation, construction, and hospitality, and sustain vibrant cultural and commercial ecosystems in neighborhoods throughout the metro area and Greater Minnesota. These communities have been significantly impacted by Operation Metro Surge enforcement activities.
We propose a mixed-methods community-engaged study examining the impact of Operation Metro Surge across five interconnected domains of wellbeing among African immigrant populations in the Twin Cities metropolitan area: (1) healthcare access and utiliztion; (2) employment and income stability; (3) housing security; (4) food access and food security; and (5) psychological safety and well-being.
Organizing for Community Safety in the Frictious Space of Federal Immigration Enforcement and Sanctuary Cities
Dr. Kathy Quick, Gross Family Chair and professor at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs
This action research project will examine and strengthen emerging policy and organizing strategies in Minnesota for protecting the safety of immigrant communities in relation to current U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) activities. The policy focus is the range of actions being taken - or not taken - by local city and county governments in response to law enforcement and constituent advocacy. Specifically, the project focuses on the dynamic interplay of arguments for and against sanctuary city policies as community organizations, elected officials, police leaders, and community members debate how to handle federal immigration enforcement activities in their cities.
This project will trace the framings and reframings of the public issues and policy solutions in a dynamic environment in which sanctuary cities policies have been characterized as important for the safety of immigrants, the protection of civil and constitutional rights, the self-determination of cities and protection from federal overreach, and/or trust in local law enforcement. The variety of these framings both provide options for diverse coalitions to form powerful alliances to promote change and present risks of overly diffuse organizing or division.
The objective of this research project is to provide a real-time, ongoing analysis of thosedynamics, specifically for the purpose of supporting Minnesota community organizers and local governments who want to solidify their efforts to promote community safety.
The Community Action Research Grant exemplify CURA's commitment to leveraging university resources for community-driven change, producing scholarship that informs policy and practice while building meaningful connections between academic expertise and community knowledge.
The research from these projects will be published in The CURA Reporter.
Edward Goetz
Edward G. Goetz is director of CURA and a faculty member at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs.
Ed specializes in housing and local community development planning and policy. His research focuses on issues of race and poverty and how they affect housing policy planning and development. Before coming to the University of Minnesota in 1988, he worked at the mayor's Office of Housing and Economic Development in San Francisco and for several nonprofit community developers in Los Angeles and San Francisco. He has served on the board of directors of nonprofit housing agencies in the Twin Cities, and on several regional commissions related to affordable housing and development.
He is the author of The One-Way Street of Integration: Fair Housing and the Pursuit of Racial Justice in American Cities (Cornell University Press, 2018), New Deal Ruins: Race, Economic Justice, and Public Housing Policy (Cornell University Press, 2013), Clearing the Way: Deconcentrating the Poor in Urban America (2003, Urban Institute Press), Shelter Burden: Local Politics and Progressive Housing Policy (1993, Temple University Press), and co-editor of The New Localism: Comparative Urban Politics in a Global Era (1993, Sage Publications).
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