In a visit to Minneapolis Thursday, Vice President JD Vance implored Minnesota officials and law enforcement to cooperate with federal immigration agents, but he did not proactively bring up the arrest of children and U.S. citizens, accusations of racial profiling, or agents’ use of force.
Vance’s seven-minute speech focused on defending U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s activity in the Twin Cities. He addressed some of the controversies when asked about them during a 25-minute round of questions with the media.
Vance’s visit comes a day after Columbia Heights school officials accused ICE agents of using 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos as “bait” to draw people out of a home, and two weeks after an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Macklin Good as she monitored ICE activity in south Minneapolis.
“We’re doing everything that we can to lower the temperature, and we would like state and local officials to meet us halfway,” Vance said at an afternoon news conference in the warehouse district of downtown Minneapolis.
Vance was in Minneapolis to meet with ICE officials, and hosted a roundtable with local business leaders to discuss the current situation in the city. Vance’s media officials did not disclose who participated in the roundtable.
Vance said it was “terrible” to hear about the incident with Liam, but added that agents had no choice but to arrest the boy after his undocumented father “ran” from the scene, leaving him behind.
An adult who lived in the same home as Liam “begged” agents to let him care for the boy, but was refused, according to Columbia Heights Public Schools Superintendent Zena Stenvik.
Vance argued that “far left people” and some state and local law enforcement officials are to blame for the current atmosphere in Minneapolis.
Brooklyn Park Police Chief Mark Bruley, St. Paul Police Chief Axel Henry and Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt held a news conference Tuesday calling out a “small group” of federal agents for racially profiling off-duty officers and the public, and for “questionable and unethical actions.”
“Is it a concern? Absolutely,” Vance said about the allegations that local police are being racially profiled. “The first thing we have to figure out is whether it happened or not, and then if it happened, whether there is a good explanation or a bad explanation, and of course, if somebody violated the law, if somebody racially profiled, if somebody violated the rights of one of our fellow citizens, that is something we will take very seriously.”
Regarding the arrest of U.S. citizens, Vance argued that it was only happening when citizens violate the law.
“There have been a number of situations that I’ve looked into personally where I say, ‘Wait a second, we don’t want ICE arresting American citizens,’” Vance said. “Then I look into it, and I find out that the American citizen who was arrested took a swing at an ICE officer. You can’t have that happen.”
However, several U.S. citizens have reported being arrested by immigration authorities for doing nothing. Nasra Ahmed said she was pinned down after agents requested her ID; ICE agents broke into ChongLy Scott Thao’s home in St. Paul Sunday and forced him out into freezing temperatures while he was wearing only shorts. Both were eventually released.
Feds blame Minneapolis for conflict
Vance said ICE agents in other U.S. cities aren’t facing as much resistance as they do in Minneapolis.
“There’s been a very unique, very Minneapolis-specific reaction to our enforcement of federal immigration laws,” Vance said.
He said that one of the reasons for the influx of ICE agents is because many are there to protect other ICE agents from “rioters” who are conducting immigration enforcement. Vance said if local law enforcement agreed to do this work instead, there wouldn’t be a need for as many ICE agents here.
In a news conference later Thursday afternoon, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey argued that the ICE agents were the ones causing chaos.
“What makes Minneapolis different is that we have an influx of 3,000 federal agents on our street, and we’re not the size of New York City or Los Angeles,” Frey said. “What makes us different is we’re seeing constitutional violations play out in real time.”
Vance said the White House’s chief of staff is in “constant contact” with Gov. Tim Walz’s staff to come up with a solution.
“I actually think that there’s some hope, some reason to think that there’s going to be better cooperation in the weeks and months to come,” Vance said.
Walz responded on X afterwards, saying that he was “glad the Vice President agrees the temperature needs to be turned down, but actions speak louder than words.”
“We don’t need 3,000 ice agents in our streets — more than every local police department combined,” Walz tweeted. “Take the show of force off the streets and partner with the state on targeted enforcement of violent offenders instead of random, aggressive confrontation.”
Frey said he was “willing to work with anybody that is willing to work in good faith with me.” But he argued that ICE’s operations in Minneapolis are not really about curbing violent crime.
“I get that they’ve got a messaging challenge here, and it’s predominantly because anybody can see with their own two eyes what’s going on,” Frey said. “You can’t say with a straight face that pulling citizens off the street or going into a school is a targeted action when clearly it’s not”
Vance on Good’s killing
Vance, along with others in President Donald Trump’s administration, has defended ICE officer Jonathan Ross, who shot Good on Jan. 7, and the Department of Justice’s decision not to investigate him. The federal government’s decision to investigate Good’s widow, who was at the scene, prompted the mass resignation of federal prosecutors in both Minnesota and Washington D.C.
On Thursday, Vance addressed prior comments he made that Ross had “absolute immunity” in his actions.
“I didn’t say, and I don’t think any other official within the Trump administration said that officers who engaged in wrongdoing would enjoy immunity. That’s absurd,” Vance said. “What I did say is that when federal law enforcement officers violate the law, that is typically something that federal officials would look into. We don’t want these guys to have kangaroo courts.”
On warrants, Vance said that the Trump administration believes that administrative warrants from Homeland Security are sufficient to enforce federal immigration law. He didn’t directly address whether they are strong enough to justify forcibly entering a home, which, without a judicial warrant, violates the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
“I’m sure the courts will weigh in on that,” Vance said, adding later that “it’s possible, I guess, that the courts will say no, and of course, if the courts say no, we would follow that law.”
