Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey is heading to Washington, D.C. on Thursday to push for an end to “unlawful ICE operations,” his office announced. 

Frey’s trip to the nation’s capital comes as White House border czar Tom Homan vowed Thursday to remain in Minnesota leading Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations there “until the problem is gone.” It’s unclear if Frey will meet with the White House while he is in Washington, but he is expected to address the U.S. Conference of Mayors at 1:45 p.m. ET, before heading back home later Thursday evening.

“Mayor Jacob Frey is traveling to Washington, D.C. today to attend the U.S. Conference of Mayors, where he will meet with mayors and federal lawmakers from across the country to advocate for an end to Operation Metro Surge and other unlawful ICE operations,” his office said in a statement. 

“During the visit, Mayor Frey will also participate in national discussions focused on how cities can work together to keep communities safe while upholding the rule of law,” it added. “Since Operation Metro Surge began in Minnesota, families have been torn apart, small businesses have suffered economic losses, and local law enforcement agencies have experienced increased strain.”

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Frey said in his own statement that, “Minneapolis may be where we’ve seen one of the largest ICE deployments in the country, but it will not be the last if we fail to act.” 

Homan said Thursday morning that the Trump administration is working on a “drawdown plan” to decrease the presence of federal agents in Minnesota. 

In a Truth Social post on Wednesday, President Donald Trump said, “Surprisingly, Mayor Jacob Frey just stated that, ‘Minneapolis does not, and will not, enforce Federal Immigration Laws.’ This is after having had a very good conversation with him.” 

“Could somebody in his inner sanctum please explain that this statement is a very serious violation of the Law, and that he is PLAYING WITH FIRE!” Trump warned. 

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Frey responded to the president’s comments. 

“The job of our police is to keep people safe, not enforce fed immigration laws. I want them preventing homicides, not hunting down a working dad who contributes to MPLS & is from Ecuador. It’s similar to the policy your guy Rudy had in NYC. Everyone should feel safe calling 911,” the mayor asserted in a post on X, making an apparent reference to former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

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The president issued the warning on Wednesday after Frey, who met with Homan on Tuesday, declared in a Tuesday post on X that the city will not enforce federal immigration law. 

Fox News Digital’s Alex Nitzberg and Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report. 

King and queen of Washington Mardi Gras Gray Stream and Sarah Heebe, center, stand alongside House Speaker Mike Johnson, left, and Majority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives Steve Scalise, right, at the home of the Ambassador of France to the United States, Laurent Bili, back left, during a Washington Mardi Gras party on Wednesday, January 28, 2026. (Photo by Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune)

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson headed to Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to speak at the National Press Club luncheon.

The mayor plans to talk about the challenges of leading Chicago this past year, and what city officials learned about resisting federal overreach and responding to federal immigration raids in the city.

“I’m obviously very much still concerned about the private, masked, terrorizing police force that the Trump administration continues to sic on working people across this country,” said Mayor Johnson said Tuesday. “It’s why I’ve used every single tool available that’s available to me, and many mayors have looked to those tools that we’ve used, whether it’s through the ICE-free zones, and even the litigation around ICE-free zones, so that we can strengthen and codify our ability to enforce it.”

Mayor Johnson said the next step has to be “real organized resistance, as what we saw organized and prepared during the Civil Rights Movement.”

“We cannot just simply leave it to protests that just react to the egregious and the harmful and deadly actions coming from the Trump administration,” Johnson said.

Johnson is in Washington to attend the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

Meanwhile, Mayor Johnson also said he is extremely proud of how Chicago handled the 2024 Democratic National Convention. But he is concerned that if the city were awarded the 2028 convention, it would not receive the federal help needed for security for the event.

“You know, the Democratic National Convention would take place at a time in which the Trump administration will still be in charge, and what we’ve seen in cities across America — and more recently Minneapolis — that to turn over our security to the Trump administration, it’s not just me,” said Johnson. “There are a number of us that have profound concerns about that.”

In 2024, Chicago received a $75 million grant from the federal government for security costs.

Atlanta, Boston, Denver, Las Vegas, and San Antonio are also believed to be bidding to host the political convention in 2028.