The latest on ICE in Minnesota

Vice President JD Vance talks in Minnesota, calls for cooperation

JD Vance speaking in Minneapolis2
U.S. Vice President JD Vance gives remarks while standing in front of ICE agents following a roundtable discussion with local leaders and community members amid a surge of federal immigration authorities in the area, at Royalston Square on Thursday.
Kerem Yücel | MPR News

Vice President JD Vance spoke to reporters in Minneapolis following an event the White House described as a roundtable with local leaders and community members “focused on restoring law and order in Minnesota.” 

He said the surge by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was not an attempt to send a message to the state’s Democratic political leaders and that the federal government was only there to enforce immigration law.

Vance said one of the reasons there are so many federal agents in Minnesota is because they’re needed as backup to protect other federal agents.

He said agents only employ tactics such as tear gas and pepper spray when “violence is committed against officers” but that belies videos taken at the scene of incidents around the Twin Cities where tear gas and pepper spray were deployed on people who were not attacking officers.

“Do we want these arrests to be so chaotic? No we don’t,” he said of ICE actions. “If we have a little cooperation from local and state officials, I think the chaos would go way down in this community.”

— Peter Cox, MPR News

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