Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officials have attracted criticism in Minneapolis once again—this time for letting the vehicle of a person they had detained roll away freely down a major city street.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has described the actions of the ICE agents who are currently flooding the Minnesota capital and its major cities as “stupid” and “not about safety.”
“An individual from a car that was in the middle of a pretty significant street was detained,” Frey explained at a press conference on Saturday, highlighting one example of the “chaos” he says federal agents are causing.
“[ICE] left the car in the middle of the street. The car wasn’t even in park. So you’ve got this vehicle that is just rolling down the street with nobody in it.”
“This wasn’t a Waymo, this was a car that was rolling down the street that could have hit anybody, including my own family members that live not too far from there.”
Minneapolis is at the center of an ICE backlash that has sparked nationwide protests, following the fatal shooting of 37-year-old mother Renee Nicole Good on Wednesday morning.
“This is not about safety, clearly. If this was about safety, you wouldn’t do stupid things like that,” the irate mayor continued.
“Somebody is going to get hurt. Somebody has gotten killed. That’s not the route how you do any of these exercises productively or safely.”
More than 2,000 federal agents began conducting immigration raids across the Twin Cities on Tuesday in what the Department of Homeland Security described as the “largest immigration operation ever.”
The crackdown follows the MAGA outcry over largely fabricated claims that Somali immigrants are running widespread welfare scams in the state, as alleged in a viral YouTube video by 23-year-old influencer Nick Shirley.
Frey characterized the operation as being without merit, stating that illegal immigration of Somalis is not a major problem in the city.
Therefore, Frey argued, deployed ICE officers without specific goals are simply going after suspects haphazardly and attempting to “bait” locals into confrontations.
“To have this kind of scattered, buckshot approach that we’re seeing—that is not strategic in any way,” Frey said.
“It not only endangers these community members that have been here for the long haul, it endangers these neighborhoods that they’re rolling through,” he continued.
In a statement to the Daily Beast, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin refuted the idea that the killing of Good was unwarranted, reiterating DHS’s argument since the incident.
“Clearly, Mayor Jacob Frey does not want the American people to see the newly released footage which corroborates what Secretary Noem has stated all along—that this individual was impeding law enforcement and weaponized her vehicle in an attempt to kill or cause bodily harm to federal law enforcement.”
“The officer was in fear of his own life, the lives of his fellow officers and acted in self-defense. The American people can watch this video with their own eyes and ears and judge for themselves.”
The footage referenced by McLaughlin, which is recorded from the perspective of Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who fired three shots through the windshield and side window of Good’s SUV.
The video shows a seemingly calm Good telling the ICE agent, “I’m not mad at you,” before attempting to drive her vehicle out of the area. Moments later, she was shot at point-blank range. An ICE agent can then be heard calling her a “f—ing b—h,” though it is unclear who uttered the slur.
Frey, 44, has previously been outspoken about the federal operation in Minneapolis, telling ICE to “get the f— out.”
“Your stated reason for being in this city is to create some kind of safety, and you are doing the exact opposite,” he said at a press conference on Wednesday following Good’s death.
The controversy surrounding the killing of Good has drawn condemnation from the left, while President Donald Trump effectively blamed “disorderly” Good for being in the way of a law enforcement operation.
Democrats are currently seeking to use the momentum to rein in “lawless” masked, armed officers who they claim have “blood on their hands.” A growing number are calling for the impeachment of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, who was the first to brand Good a “domestic terrorist.”
While ICE operations in Minnesota continue, Frey has encouraged locals to protest peacefully.
“We will not counter Donald Trump’s chaos with our own brand of chaos here,” he said. “We in Minneapolis are going to do this right.”
