Leading Democrats’ virulent anti-ICE rhetoric ramped up Thursday — the day after a Minneapolis mom was killed by an immigration officer — with Gov. Hochul chiming in that she once confronted a federal agent, and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey doubling own on his calls for federal agents to “get the f–k out” of town.
Gov. Tim Walz, meanwhile, activated the Minnesota National Guard and complained about the FBI taking over the investigation from Minnesota.
He also claimed “the tragedy will be magnified 100-fold,” if ICE “violence” enters local schools.
The comments come as anti-ICE protests have raged in Minneapolis, New York and other cities — with hundreds filling the streets first-thing Thursday to march against the killing of Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old activist shot in the head by a federal agent after she veered her car toward him.
Those demonstrations started almost immediately after the shooting and demanded ICE abandon its sweeping operations in the city, with Mayor Frey making no effort to hide his support for cause within hours.
“To ICE, get the f–k out of Minneapolis. We do not want you here,” he said in a fiery press conference Wednesday.
Frey stood by his comments and refused to dial back his tone after conservatives accused him of provoking tensions.
“I’m so sorry if I offended their Disney princess ears, but here’s the thing — if we’re talking about what’s inflammatory, on one hand you got someone who dropped an f-bomb, and you got someone who killed somebody else,” he told CNN Wednesday night.
“I think the most inflammatory action is killing somebody. And so once again, let’s be real and just honest and straight up about what’s happening here. This is not okay,” he added.
Across the country in New York, Gov. Hochul weighed in during an MS NOW’s “Morning Joe” Thursday to share a story about once haranguing an ICE agent who was working in Lower Manhattan — telling how she accused him of terrorizing people.
“I said, ‘Why do you wear a mask? No other law enforcement does this, our police don’t do it, our FBI agents don’t do it, why are you doing this?’” Hochul said.
“They said, ‘Because we get doxed, our family gets harassed, etc.’ I said, ‘Why do you think you are more than anybody else?’” she said. “‘Come on, you’re just trying to terrorize people.’”
As those comments flew from all corners of the left, images of chaos continued to flow out of Minneapolis as throngs of protestors clashed with law enforcement.
One of the protests gathered outside the federal Whipple Building Downtown, where people chanted anti-ICE slogans. Federal agents in tactical gear were eventually deployed to disperse the crowd.
In the face of such rhetoric, Vice President Vance took to the White House podium Thursday and told people to “stop assaulting and inciting violence against law enforcement,” calling Good’s death a “tragedy of the making of the far-left.”
Vance claimed the protests were part of a “broader left-wing network” and a “group of left-wing radicals” who were “working tirelessly … using domestic terror techniques,” to impede President Trump’s agenda.
The vice president’s comments came soon after Walz accused Trump of sabotaging the investigation into Good’s death, saying it would be “very, very difficult that we will get a fair outcome,” and that the White House was spreading “verifiably false claims” about the shooting.
Walz also demanded that ICE “stay out of our schools” after agents clashed with protestors near a Minneapolis High School.
“The tragedy will be magnified 100-fold if the violence enters [our schools],” Walz cautioned, while also encouraging the protestors to remain peaceful and avoid giving Trump “an excuse to put more troops on the ground.”
Some Democrats, however, called for cool heads to prevail on both sides of the aisle.
“It’s probably always more helpful to turn the temperature down and just withhold the kinds of extremes,” US Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) told reporters after the shooting.
“Let’s everybody turn the temperature down, honestly, whether that’s coming from some kinds of rhetoric from Secretary Noem or the President or the mayor or governor,” he added.
“Let’s just turn down the temperature. And we can’t forget someone’s lost their life and now we have to investigate the circumstances, because that should never happen.”
