Minneapolis, MN

F-bomb heard across the nation: Minneapolis’ mayor tries to break ICE

Published

2 weeks ago

January 10, 2026

F-bomb heard across the nation: Minneapolis’ mayor tries to break ICE

For many Americans, the first introduction to Jacob Frey may have come this week in the form of press conference footage in which the Minneapolis mayor, visibly upset by Wednesday’s fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good by a federal immigration agent, had the following words for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement: “Get the f—- out of Minneapolis.”

But the third-term mayor with the boyish smile is no stranger to high-profile situations, adept at navigating crises with resolve and authenticity while fiercely aligning himself with the Minnesota community he represents. Now at odds with the Trump administration as leader of the latest Democratic-led city to be targeted by the president’s stepped-up deportation efforts, he’s shown he’s unafraid to challenge the federal government.

Frey’s emotional statement was in sharp contrast to the state’s “Minnesota Nice” stereotype.

“He just basically tells people the truth, whether they want to hear it or not,” said former longtime Minneapolis councilmember Lisa Goodman, who now serves in Frey’s administration as the city’s director of strategic initiatives. “He’s not passive-aggressive, which is alarming to some people, especially in Minnesota. He speaks his truth, and he doesn’t back down from that.”

The mayor’s statement “was very forceful in tone, sure, and in turn, probably represents the feelings of most Minneapolis residents,” said Andy Aoki, a professor of political science at the city’s Augsburg University.

“Otherwise, he doesn’t come across as the loud, abrasive, over-the-top politician ready with a soundbite. He comes across as more thoughtful, measured, and now more direct.”

This week’s incident was the spark many feared amid a growing powder keg of heightened activity by immigration authorities in Minneapolis and nationwide. But it was just the latest adversity Frey, 44, has faced in his eight years as the city’s mayor.

In May 2020, George Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer less than a mile from the site of this week’s ICE incident; in August, two children were killed and 14 injured in a mass shooting at the city’s Annunciation Church; and more recently, President Donald Trump broadly attacked the state’s Somali community after reports of fraud involving Somali immigrants.

Then, on Jan. 7, a U.S. immigration agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good in her vehicle, an encounter captured on video and subsequently dissected and hotly debated while initially appearing to contradict the administration’s characterization of what happened.

On Friday, Frey doubled down on his outrage over the Trump administration’s portrayal of Good’s shooting as an act of self-defense, penning a guest editorial in the New York Times headlined “I’m the Mayor of Minneapolis. Trump Is Lying to You.”

“The chaos that ICE and the Trump administration have brought to Minneapolis made this tragedy sadly predictable,” he wrote.

Aoki said the resilience and resolve Frey has exhibited since Good’s death stems from “a political savvy, an everyman approach” that he has polished over the years. He thinks the mayor’s heated declaration to federal officials reflected the frustration that has built up over several weeks of ICE presence in the area.

“This is going to be a test of his patience, resilience, and all of his political savvy,” Aoki said. “He’s in the crosshairs of the federal government, and you just can’t just fight them tit-for-tat. He has to figure out the best path to succeed while getting pressure from all sides. This is going to test his political skillset in many ways.”

Jim Scheibel, who served as Saint Paul mayor from 1990 to 1994 and now assists the associate provost at the city’s Hamline University, said he has received positive reviews from around the country about Frey’s handling of the situation.

“He’s very visible, and speaking for myself, his controlled anger in this situation is important,” Scheibel said. “People are looking for someone to articulate what people in the Twin Cities are feeling.”

Scheibel said Frey’s emotions strike him as genuine, not theatrics.

“It’s really from his heart and his head that he’s speaking,” he said. “Hubert Humphrey would be very proud of the kind of leadership that Mayor Frey is showing right now.”

Frey’s path to mayor

Frey, a native of Northern Virginia and the son of professional modern ballet dancers, attended the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg on a track scholarship, earning a government degree and a shoe company contract that allowed him to run professionally. He ran as many as 120 miles a week while attending Villanova Law School in Philadelphia, where he graduated cum laude.

According to his biography, Frey developed an affection for Minneapolis while running the Twin Cities Marathon and moved there to work as an employment and civil rights lawyer. He fell into community organizing work, chosen as the city’s first annual recipient of its Martin Luther King Jr. Award for his efforts on behalf of marriage equality, housing, and worker non-discrimination rights.

In 2013, he successfully ran for the Minneapolis City Council, representing the city’s Third Ward. Five years later, he became the city’s second-ever Jewish mayor and its second youngest ever, winning on a platform that included mending police-community relations with local frustrations still simmering after two police-involved killings.

Two years later, the police-community relations issue would explode with global reverberations when George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who had kneeled on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes. Captured on video, the incident would bring national tensions over police brutality to a head, igniting months of demonstrations around the country.

Frey’s handling of the crisis, including his call to fire and charge the offices involved, drew both acclaim and disapproval; as Minneapolis structures were set ablaze amid protests that immediately following Floyd’s killing, On social media, President Donald Trump – then finishing his first term – decried Frey’s “total lack of leadership” and threatened to deploy the National Guard.

When a reporter related Trump’s remarks to Frey, the mayor responded by saying Trump knew nothing of the city’s toughness.

“Weakness is refusing to take responsibility for your actions,” he said. “Weakness is pointing your finger at somebody else during a time of crisis…. Is this a difficult time period? Yes. But you better be damn sure that we’re gonna get through this.”

In December, after Trump maligned Somali immigrants as “garbage” while federal immigration agents ramped up activity in the Twin Cities area, Frey came to the community’s defense, saying Minneapolis was “proud” to host the country’s largest Somali community.

“They are our neighbors, our friends, and our family – and they are welcome in our city,” he said. “Nothing Donald Trump does will ever change that.”

Latest crisis could test city’s accord

Good’s fatal shooting occurred as the community and police were showing signs of rebuilding trust post-George Floyd, said Muhammad Abdul-Ahad, executive director of T.O.U.C.H Outreach, a Minneapolis violence prevention nonprofit.

Abdul-Ahad hopes ICE’s presence won’t derail progress made thus far, though he said some residents have questioned why Minneapolis police haven’t taken a more forceful stance against the agency. He hopes the mayor and police chief have a strategy in place with larger protests scheduled for this weekend.

“We don’t want to see an ‘Us versus Them,’” he said. “We’ve worked too hard since Floyd. It’s going to take all of us to show up together for our communities in times like this, versus blank stares and disbelief.”

The mayor, Abdul-Ahad, said, “is going to have to do more than talk about that he’s with the people; he’s going to have to show it.”

Aoki, of Augsburg University, said while Frey has his detractors, his willingness to take on the Trump administration on the community’s behalf in the wake of Good’s fatal shooting has earned him broad support.

“He has come to grips with the divisions on the council and in the city and he decidedly knows where he stands,” Aoki said. “Early in his first term, he was trying to appeal to everybody, and that didn’t work. Now he knows how to appeal to the moderates and try to peel off a couple of left-leaning council members to get what he needs done.”

Former councilmember Goodman said that while Frey also has learned to negotiate with a “fairly purple” state legislature, his longevity in office illustrates that city voters believe in his authenticity. Goodman said while Frey would be considered extremely progressive in almost any other city, “clearly some of his detractors see him as not progressive enough.”

“A strong leader is out there emotionally, intellectually, in partnership with others. You can’t do it alone,” Goodman said. “You have to be working with others…And Jacob is very good at that.”

She believes the mayor still considers the city’s police reform strategy a crucially important component of unfinished business.

“The city is making progress, and he is very committed to that,” Goodman said. “He is committed to making policing community-based, with many alternative responses – and not the way it was, which facilitated the murder of George Floyd.”

That Frey survived the aftermath of that issue to be re-elected twice “should count for something, Aoki said.

“I think because of (Floyd), he’s more adept at handling crises this time around,” he said. “It doesn’t make it any easier, but how can you not lean into that experience, for better or worse?”

Abdul-Ahad thinks a resilient Frey would like to be recognized for guiding Minneapolis through a historically tumultuous time, but says that will have to be earned through action, not just words.

“He’s been through so much, we all have,” Abdul-Ahad said. “But as mayor, it’s his job to stand up and take accountability for the city. He’s been ridiculed so many times over the last five years, and I’m sure he doesn’t want to go through that again…. He’s been humiliated. But he keeps coming back.”

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Minneapolis, MN

Video shows teen chased and detained by Border Patrol in Minneapolis after crash

Published

11 hours ago

January 23, 2026

Press Room

Video shows teen chased and detained by Border Patrol in Minneapolis after crash

A Border Patrol agent was recorded on video in Minneapolis chasing down a teenager, locking him in between his legs on the ground, and detaining him.

The video, taken Thursday, showed an agent wearing a Border Patrol vest chase after the teen, who can be heard yelling in Spanish that he is legal.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said the incident unfolded as Border Patrol agents were conducting targeted immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis. They had attempted to stop a black Toyota Camry, but the car allegedly sped away.

The driver, whom the department identified as Joffre Alexander Jara Llangari, then crashed into a tree, the spokesperson said. DHS described Llangari as “a 19-year-old illegal alien from Ecuador.”

He and the passenger, Rosa Florinda Llangari-Tenecoraa, fled on foot until they were arrested, the spokesperson said.

DHS said Llangari had been served a notice to appear in 2024 and Llangari-Tenecoraa had been served with a notice to appear in 2022.

Cell phone video shows a teenager being chased and detained by a Border Patrol agent.Skylar Fehlen

“Both will remain in custody pending removal proceedings,” DHS said.

Skylar Fehlen, a local resident, witnessed the crash and recorded the video.

In it, the agent can be seen chasing a teen wearing a gray hoodie. The woman filming is heard screaming, “Stop! Stop! No!”

The teen was later seen laying on his stomach on the snow-covered street, in between the legs of the agent standing above him.

On January 22, Border Patrol agents were conducting targeted immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis when they attempted to stop a black Toyota Camry. — Border Patrol agents were conducting targeted immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis when they attempted to stop a Toyota Camry on Thursday, the Department of Homeland Security said.
Skylar Fehlen

Someone can be heard in the video asking the agent if he had a warrant, to no response.

The teenager yelled in Spanish, “Yo soy legal, yo soy legal,” meaning “I’m legal, I’m legal.”

The woman filming repeatedly blew a whistle, a community effort to alert the public about the presence of immigration officers.

The agent brought out a pair of handcuffs, and moments later the boy was seen standing with his hands cuffed behind his back, being escorted into a black SUV by three people. The SUV later drove off.

Fehlen told The Associated Press she was in her living room when she saw a car hit a tree and two teens run out. She grabbed her whistle and ran outside and eventually found the one of the teens.

“He yells for help, ‘Help me, help me, help me,’ and the ICE agent ends up coming, running and tackling him in the middle of the street, pins him down, is speaking to him in Spanish, trying to get him to calm down, and then he arrests him,” she said.

Fehlen criticized the federal immigration crackdown that has rocked the nation, most prominently Minneapolis, over the last few months.

“They don’t care about documentation. They’re absolutely taking everybody, and then they end up releasing them just because they’re on this power trip,” she told the AP.

The Trump administration’s immigration crackdown has targeted major blue cities across the nation. In Minneapolis, there have been more than 3,000 federal immigration personnel since December, in what the administration has dubbed Operation Metro Surge.

Officers have apprehended more than 3,000 undocumented immigrants in Minnesota over the past six weeks alone, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

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Minneapolis, MN

The occupation of Minneapolis: how residents are resisting Trump’s ICE ‘invasion’ – video

Published

23 hours ago

January 23, 2026

Press Room

The occupation of Minneapolis: how residents are resisting Trump’s ICE ‘invasion’ – video

Following the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good by ICE agents in Minneapolis, the Guardian’s Oliver Laughland and Tom Silverstone travel to the heart of affected neighbourhoods to speak with residents who are fighting to defend their community from violence and intimidation. They embed with ICE watch groups, hear from Somali-American residents, and witness a swarm of federal agents conduct a sweep in the suburbs

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Minneapolis, MN

Bovino criticizes Minneapolis police for not helping ICE agents Wednesday, but department says they never asked

Published

1 day ago

January 22, 2026

Press Room

Bovino criticizes Minneapolis police for not helping ICE agents Wednesday, but department says they never asked

A day after Border Patrol Commander at Large Greg Bovino was seen in Minneapolis streets, he is calling out local police for not helping federal agents deal with protesters.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol held a news conference on Thursday, updating the public on their immigration enforcement efforts in Minnesota.

Bovino spoke out with ICE Executive Assistant Director of Enforcement and Removal Operations Marcos Charles.

“Where was Mayor Frey? Or Governor Walz? I didn’t see him around anywhere,” said Bovino.

The two spoke at a podium inside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, alongside Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. The building holds the region’s federal immigration court.

They showed those on screens they’ve detained, who they say are the “worst of the worst,” and asked for Gov. Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and everyone in between to help them.

“We’re all on the same team and our cooperation will help save lives,” said Charles. “The people we’ve arrested here are not ones you’d want living next door to your families, children, parents or best friends.”

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security says, as of Thursday, it has now arrested over 3,300 people since Operation Metro Surge began. Those are numbers WCCO hasn’t been able to verify.

When WCCO asked if they have updated numbers on the number of agents in the state, Bovino said he would not give an exact number, “but several thousand.”

Charles added that protesters across the state are trying to defend those who’ve committed crimes.

Bovino also criticized the Minneapolis Police Department for not helping during Wednesday’s protest. When asked if they called for help, he only mentioned they did at some point.

“Minneapolis Police Department’s been called on several situations that they have not responded,” Bovino said.

In response to Bovino’s claims, the Minneapolis Police Department said it “receives and processes numerous 911 reports of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity throughout the city each day,” but it has “no record of a request from federal agents for assistance” on Wednesday.

“The presence of protestors alone is not sufficient reason for MPD to respond where ICE activity is occurring,” a spokesperson for the Minneapolis Police Department said.

Minneapolis police on Wednesday did, however, recover a magazine loaded with ammunition that had been left on a sidewalk by a federal agent, according to the department.

When asked about the end in sight, Bovino said, “This mission’s ongoing until there’s no more of those criminal illegal aliens roaming the streets of Minneapolis.”

On Thursday, ICE said in a release its officers and agents rank among the world’s most skilled and experienced.