Barack Obama publicly gave his support to demonstrators in Minneapolis for standing up to the “unprecedented nature” of the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation in Minnesota.

Speaking in an interview with progressive YouTuber Brian Tyler Cohen on Saturday, the former president discussed the power that US citizens hold when standing up for the values they believe in and his hopes for the next generation of American leaders.

“The reason I point out that I don’t think the majority of the American people approve of this is because ultimately, the answer is going to come from the American people,” he said. “We just saw this in Minnesota, in Minneapolis.”

“It is important for us to recognize the unprecedented nature of what ICE was doing in Minneapolis, St Paul, the way that federal agents, ICE agents were being deployed, without any clear guidelines, training, pulling people out of their homes, using five-year-olds to try to bait their parents, all the stuff that we saw, teargassing crowds simply who were standing there, not breaking any laws,” he added.

The Twin Cities area of Minnesota has been the site of ongoing anti-immigration enforcement protests. These demonstrations have grown in scope following the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti at the hands of federal agents.

But this week, Tom Homan, the US border czar, said that the Trump administration would be drawing down its immigration crackdown in Minnesota following the killings after initial escalations by immigration agencies. Many have credited the decision to draw back as proof that the protests were successful in sending a message.

“Right now, we’re being tested, and the good news is, what we saw in Minneapolis and St Paul, and what we’re seeing in places across the country, including here in Los Angeles, has been the American people saying no,” Obama said. “At least a good number of the American people saying, we’re going to live up to those values that we say we believe in.”

“As long as we have folks doing that, I feel like we’re going to get through this,” he added.

Obama, along with the former first lady, Michelle Obama, called the killing of Alex Pretti “a heartbreaking tragedy” and “a wake-up call to every American, regardless of party, that many of our core values as a nation are increasingly under assault”.

In a statement released last month, the Obamas said federal law enforcement and immigration agents were not operating in a lawful or accountable way in Minnesota. They said the tactics employed by ICE and other federal agents seemed “designed to intimidate, harass, provoke and endanger the residents of a major American city”.