Vice President JD Vance visited Minneapolis on Thursday to address mounting tensions over the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement campaign, blaming “far-left people” and state and local officials for the chaos that has unfolded. Vance said Minnesota leaders should “meet us halfway” and insisted he was working to lower tensions, even as his visit coincided with a planned day of statewide protests by faith leaders, labor unions, and hundreds of businesses. The visit came weeks into an aggressive federal immigration enforcement operation that has drawn sharp rebukes from Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Gov. Tim Walz, who have accused federal agents of racial profiling and terrorizing immigrant communities.
The Justice Department is investigating Walz and Frey over whether they have obstructed immigration enforcement through their public criticism of the administration. The investigation, combined with the death of Renee Good—a U.S. citizen killed by an ICE agent in January—has intensified the conflict between federal immigration authorities and Minnesota’s political leadership.
Vance defends federal enforcement
Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers stood behind Vance as he spoke, underscoring the administration’s commitment to the operation. Vance defended the agency’s actions and said mistakes in law enforcement are inevitable. “The number one way where we could lower the mistakes that are happening, at least with our immigration enforcement, is to have local jurisdictions that are cooperating with us,” Vance said.
When asked whether the administration would invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy military forces to address unrest, Vance said, “Right now, we don’t think that we need that.” The White House had previously threatened military intervention if unrest continued.
Local opposition and planned protests
Walz and Frey, both Democrats, have challenged the federal operation’s conduct. Walz called for an end to the “show of force.” “Take the show of force off the streets and partner with the state on targeted enforcement of violent offenders instead of random, aggressive confrontation,” he wrote on social media.
Frey accused immigration officials of racial profiling. “They are detaining people that have done nothing wrong,” Frey said. “They are going after people exclusively based on the fact that they look like they are Somali or Latino, and no reason beyond that.” He characterized the enforcement measures as political retaliation. “This is more about, tragically, terrorizing people than it is about safety, than it is even about immigration,” Frey said.
Minnesota faith leaders, backed by labor unions and hundreds of Minneapolis-area businesses, are planning a day of protests on Friday. Nearly 600 local businesses have announced plans to shut down, according to MoveOn.
Vance praised the arrest of church service protesters who disrupted worship on Sunday with chants of “ICE out” and “Justice for Renee Good.” “They’re scaring little kids who are there to worship God on a Sunday morning,” Vance said. “Just as you have the right to protest, they have a right to worship God as they choose. And when you interrupt that, that is a violation of the law.”
Disputed death of Renee Good
The conflict has sharpened over the fatal shooting of Renee Good, a U.S. citizen and mother of three, by an ICE agent in early January. Vance has defended the officer, saying Good’s death was “a tragedy of her own making.” On Thursday, he repeated claims that Good “rammed” an agent with her car, an account that has been disputed based on video evidence of the incident.
Vance also defended the detention of a 5-year-old boy whose father was targeted for arrest. “When they went to arrest his illegal alien father, the father ran. So the story is that ICE detained a 5-year-old. Well, what are they supposed to do?” Vance said. The boy and his father were taken to a detention facility in Texas. The child was the fourth student from a Minneapolis suburb to be detained by immigration officers in recent weeks.
Warrant authority questioned
The Trump administration faces mounting legal challenges over its detention authority. The Associated Press reported that federal immigration officers were asserting sweeping power to forcibly enter houses without a judicial warrant, according to an internal ICE memo—a reversal of long-standing guidance meant to respect constitutional limits on government searches. Officers can instead issue administrative warrants signed by ICE officials rather than by an independent judge.
Vance said warrants would remain part of immigration enforcement but did not specify which type. “Nobody is talking about doing immigration enforcement without a warrant,” Vance said. “We’re never going to enter somebody’s house without some kind of warrant, unless of course somebody is firing at an officer and they have to protect themselves.”
Earlier in the day, Vance visited Toledo, Ohio, where he focused on promoting the administration’s economic message, urging patience as it addresses problems he said Trump inherited. “You don’t turn the Titanic around overnight,” Vance said. “It takes time to fix what is broken.”