WINONA, Minn. — Federal deportation agents have swung into Winona twice in the past week, according to a Winona Daily News report quoting Police Chief Tom Wiliams. In both cases, Williams said, he received a courtesy notification in advance. No assistance was requested from local police, WiIliams said. It was not known immediately whether anyone was arrested in Winona. Nor was it known whether the federal agents were part of President Trump’s 3,500-agent Operation Metro Surge that claims to have made 1,000 arrests in the state. Some Minnesota arrests have been brutal. One unarmed woman was shot and killed. The Metro Surge operation has focused on the Twin Cities, but there been numerous outstate swings, including to Albert Lea, Duluth and Rochester. The Winona, visits, as confirmed by Williams to the Daily News:
> January16 and 17: A Friday and Saturday
> January 23 and 24: Again a Friday and Saturday.
There has been no mention of ICE in daily police briefings to Winona news reporters. These briefings, on weekdays, are intended to keep the community informed in the interest of public accountability. Sheriff’s officers and police officers rotate briefing duties. These are the dates of briefings at which reporters could have been apprised of the presence of ICE agents in town but weren’t:
> January 19: A Monday. Briefing officers: Mark Dungy, sheriff’s investigator, and Nick Quimby, police sergeant
> January 24: A Friday. Scheduled briefing officers: Paul McKay, deputy sheriff, and Wade Anderson, police sergeant. This briefing was cancelled due to a cyberattack that partially disabled police communication.
Kindiger. Recent journalism graduate of Georgetown University. His LaCrosse Tribune beat is healthcare, energy, environment and LaCrosse County government.
WDN’s five-line scoop
There was mystery about how the Winona Daily News was tipped to the local ICE visit. The newspaper hasn’t a had news reporter in Winona for six weeks nor a resident editor in Winona for years. The WDN story was bylined to Cole Kindiger of the LaCrosse Tribune. Kindiger has been on the Tribune staff three months and has never reported Winona news. The Daily News doesn’t publish a daily print edition any more. A weekend print edition edited entirely out of LaCrosse. Kindiger’s story, only five lines, was posted on the company’s subscription-only online Winona website. The item was absent entirely the LaCrosse company’s Winona e-edition. The primary local news media — KWNO, the Winona Journal and the Winona Post, which lean heavily on daily police briefings for law enforcement news — were in the dark.