{"id":121,"date":"2026-02-19T21:29:32","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T21:29:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/accessu.hubbardschool.org\/upended\/?p=121"},"modified":"2026-03-05T21:11:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T21:11:17","slug":"mitiku-nies-we-are-much-bigger-than-operation-metro-surge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/accessu.hubbardschool.org\/upended\/2026\/02\/19\/mitiku-nies-we-are-much-bigger-than-operation-metro-surge\/","title":{"rendered":"Mitiku Nies: &#8216;We are much bigger than Operation Metro Surge.&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Mitiku Nies, 23, is a senior sociology major at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. Nies works as a Minneapolis park ranger and has accepted a position as a police officer in Arizona following graduation.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI was born in Ethiopia and moved to St. Cloud, Minnesota, when I was 7 years old. Adjusting to life in the United States was difficult, especially growing up in Sartell with a mostly white population. I was behind many of my classmates because I was still learning English, and I also felt out of place since I was two years older than most of them. Over time, though, I learned to accept myself and take pride in my cultural background. I\u2019ve always represented Ethiopia while also learning to love America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAfter spending my first year of college at the University of Wisconsin\u2013Milwaukee, I decided to transfer back home to the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities because I missed my home state. The campus environment at Minnesota felt more welcoming and gave me opportunities to find communities where I could truly express myself and feel a sense of belonging. I found a strong sense of connection through playing soccer and basketball, spending time every day at the soccer dome and RecWell. Playing alongside people from many different cultures showed me how sports can bring people together rather than divide them, which ultimately sparked my interest in studying sociology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cMy experience during Operation Metro Surge was very unsettling, and I was scared to even go outside at times. As an Ethiopian immigrant, I felt the need to carry my passport to class, even though I am a U.S. citizen. While working for the City of Minneapolis as a park ranger, I also felt stressed and had to stay constantly aware of my surroundings, even at work. I was uncomfortable with some of the University of Minnesota\u2019s actions at the start of the semester. Although I appreciated certain precautions they took, I believe the university should have done more to protect students like me. I was also concerned about my apartment building, as management did not release any procedures regarding protection from Operation Metro Surge, and it would be very easy for someone to walk into our building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI believe Operation Metro Surge has reshaped the Twin Cities community I once knew. The operation has hurt our image nationwide, leading people outside the state to misunderstand who we are. Our city is deeply diverse, but recent events have made it harder for that diversity to be fully recognized to certain people. I came to Minneapolis to meet people from many different cultures, yet lately that diversity has been viewed as a threat rather than a strength.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAt the same time, I believe the protests that followed showed how much people in this city care about one another. One of the largest protest movements in the past 80 years revealed the kind of people who stand up for Minnesota and proved that we are much bigger than Operation Metro Surge. Those protests demonstrated how Minnesota communities come together during times of tension, reinforcing the sense of unity that first drew me to the Twin Cities as both a student and a person.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>This interview has been edited for length and clarity.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Interview by Dylan Petersen<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mitiku Nies, 23, is a senior sociology major at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. Nies works as a Minneapolis park ranger and has accepted a position as a police officer in Arizona following graduation. \u201cI was born in Ethiopia and moved to St. Cloud, Minnesota, when I was 7 years old. Adjusting to life in&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":122,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[19],"class_list":["post-121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-voices"],"authors":[{"term_id":19,"user_id":10,"is_guest":0,"slug":"pet03942","display_name":"Dylan Petersen","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2a43a3fe534269c678f1f77886ebf637b033461a76798a5bdcdf949ec6f8f952?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","first_name":"Dylan","last_name":"Petersen","user_url":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/accessu.hubbardschool.org\/upended\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/accessu.hubbardschool.org\/upended\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/accessu.hubbardschool.org\/upended\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accessu.hubbardschool.org\/upended\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accessu.hubbardschool.org\/upended\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/accessu.hubbardschool.org\/upended\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123,"href":"https:\/\/accessu.hubbardschool.org\/upended\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121\/revisions\/123"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accessu.hubbardschool.org\/upended\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/accessu.hubbardschool.org\/upended\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accessu.hubbardschool.org\/upended\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accessu.hubbardschool.org\/upended\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accessu.hubbardschool.org\/upended\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}