Vice President JD Vance stood by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in Minneapolis and urged local officials to “tone down the temperature” amid protests that have rocked the city since the shooting of Renee Good.
Flanked by ICE-branded SUVs and immigration enforcement officers, the vice president struck a somewhat conciliatory tone, pleading with local Democrats to “meet us halfway” and expressing optimism that they will soon become more cooperative.
“This is a beautiful city. I’ve only been here a few times, but I love it. Even in this weather, I love Minneapolis,” the vice president stressed. “We could do a lot better. We could do a lot more with more cooperation. …The directive that I got, the president of the United States is meet these guys halfway.”
“So that we can make these immigration enforcement operations successful without endangering our ICE officers, and so that we can turn down the chaos a little bit, at least I think a lot, actually,” he added. “But for us to do that, we need some help from the state and local officials.”
Protests have rocked Minneapolis over recent weeks amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on the city, which began late last year in response to controversy over the growing welfare fraud scandal that a former federal prosecutor estimated had cost taxpayers over $9 billion.
Unrest intensified after Good was shot in response to her accelerating her SUV in his direction. President Trump was resolute in the face of the mayhem, and roughly 3,000 federal immigration officers have been deployed to Minneapolis, which has a police force of about 600 cops, according to Mayor Jacob Frey.
“We have so many people here that we do not want to have here. I do not want so many ICE officers in Minneapolis right now. I mean, look, it’s really, really freaking cold outside,” Vance said.
“They’re here not even to enforce immigration laws, but to protect the people from the rioters. That’s an absurd state of affairs, and we wouldn’t need it if we had a little bit more cooperation.”
One of the top gripes of the Trump administration, expressed by Border Czar Tom Homan and others, is ordinances on the books that restrict city employees from assisting the feds on immigration enforcement. Just last month, Minneapolis’ city council voted to strengthen those policies.
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“I don’t need Tim Walz or Jacob Frey or anybody else to come out and say that they agree with JD Vance or Donald Trump on immigration,” Vance stressed. “What I do need them to do is empower their local officials to help our federal officials out in a way where this can be a little bit less chaotic, and it can be a little bit more targeted, like if we’re trying to find a sex offender, tell us where the guy lives.”
“Simple things like that.”
Vance gave a spirited defense of ICE officers when pressed about multiple flashpoint incidents by local media, praising their efforts while acknowledging that it’s the “nature of law enforcement” for mistakes to be made on occasion in tough circumstances.
Though he warned of consequences for agitators who assault ICE officers or storm church services, as was the case on Sunday with ex-CNN anchor Don Lemon: “We’re going to try very hard … to put you in prison,” Vance said.
The vice president revealed that he has not spoken with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) during his trip to the Land of 10,000 Lakes. He also downplayed the chances of Trump invoking the Insurrection Act to deploy military resources to the state.
“Right now, we don’t think that we need that,” Vance told reporters when asked.
“Now, I will say on one final positive note, 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,” he added at a different point during his address. “That’s something I’m going to work on when I get back to Washington.”
