ST. PAUL — A newly launched federal database is highlighting ICE arrests that have occurred across Minnesota in the past year, but questions remain about the presence of federal authorities and who is being arrested and why.

The Department of Homeland Security shared the information online a week after “Operation Metro Surge,” a federal operation targeting the Twin Cities and Minnesota’s Somali community, started on Dec. 1. It’s not clear how many of the arrests listed in the database were made as part of the effort, but ICE has identified at least 19 via news releases.

Within a sample review of 142 arrests since President Donald Trump took office in January, ICE conducted 28 of those arrests in Minneapolis, 19 in Rochester, 15 in Sandstone, eight each in Hibbing and St. Paul, and seve

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