Vance defends ICE during visit to Minneapolis following weeks of unrest

By Heather Schlitz and Joseph Ax

MINNEAPOLIS, Jan 22 (Reuters) – Vice President JD Vance delivered a broad defense of the thousands of federal agents leading an aggressive immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis, arguing that “far-left agitators” and uncooperative local officials are to blame for chaos on the streets.

Vance’s visit to the city marked a renewed effort by President Donald Trump’s administration to win public support for its immigration crackdown, amid signs that even some of the president’s supporters are growing wary of the aggressive tactics on display in Minneapolis, where scores of heavily armed masked agents have flooded the streets.

Flanked by federal officers and two Immigration and Customs Enforcement patrol cars bearing the slogan “Defend the Homeland,” Vance repeated his assertion that Renee Good “rammed” her car into an ICE officer before he fatally shot the 37-year-old mother of three on January 7, sparking weeks of unrest.

“I think that Renee Good’s death is a tragedy,” he said. “I also think that she rammed an ICE officer with her car.”

Analyses of bystander video by Reuters and other outlets show Good’s wheels were turned away from the officer, Jonathan Ross, and that his legs were clear of the vehicle at the time he fired. It is unclear whether the car made contact with Ross, but he did not fall during the incident and can be seen walking afterward.

Democratic leaders in Minnesota have rejected Vance’s account, and state authorities have launched an investigation into the shooting.

5-YEAR-OLD BOY DETAINED

In an incident that provoked new outrage, school officials in the suburb of Columbia Heights said on Wednesday that immigration officers had detained a 5-year-old boy on Tuesday.

Vance accused the media of misrepresenting that incident, saying the boy was left behind when his father fled agents.

“What are they supposed to do?” he said. “Are they supposed to let a 5-year-old child freeze to death?”

The child watched masked agents take his father from the driveway of their home before they pointed the boy to the back door of the house and motioned for him to knock, according to Rachel James, a Columbia Heights city council member who said she witnessed the incident. The boy was eventually taken from the scene.

A Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman said parents targeted by ICE operations are asked if they want their children taken with them or placed with a person they designate.

DHS said the boy’s father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, was in the country illegally but did not provide details or mention any criminal history. A school official said the family has an active asylum case with no deportation order.

CITY ON EDGE

The city has been on edge as roving federal officers have rounded up suspects they assert are dangerous criminal immigration violators, while sometimes ensnaring law-abiding U.S. citizens and immigrants. They have been met with throngs of demonstrators conducting their own patrols, blowing warning whistles and chanting at the agents, with some officers responding by deploying pepper spray and other chemical irritants.

Democratic officials, including Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, have accused the administration of deliberately trying to foment unrest and said the presence of federal officers is causing chaos. But Vance said local officials’ refusal to aid immigration agents was to blame.

“We’re doing everything we can to lower the temperature,” Vance said. “If we had a little cooperation from state and local law enforcement officers, I think the chaos would go way down.”

Frey’s office did not immediately respond to Vance’s comments.

Vance has taken a leading role in defending the Good shooting. Less than 24 hours after Good’s death,  Vance made a rare appearance in the White House briefing room, where he defended the officer, blamed Good and said the incident should be a political test ahead of the 2026 midterm elections that will determine control of Congress.

THREE ARRESTED AFTER CHURCH PROTEST

The administration has shown no sign of backing down in Minneapolis. Officials said on Thursday they had arrested at least three people in connection with a demonstration that interrupted a Sunday service in a St. Paul church, where civil rights leaders alleged a pastor is also a top local ICE official.

There are some 3,000 federal law enforcement officers in Minnesota, part of what DHS has described as its largest immigration operation ever. The city is the latest Democratic-leaning jurisdiction that Trump has targeted with a federal show of force.

Vance said on Thursday that Trump does not see the need “right now” to follow through on his threat to invoke the Insurrection Act, a centuries-old law that gives the president the power to dispatch troops in the U.S. to put down uprisings.

Trump has said he launched the Minnesota operation in response to fraud allegations against some members of the state’s sizable Somali American community; the president has described Somali immigrants as “garbage” and said they should be thrown out of the country.

Trump faulted the state’s leaders during his speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday, saying, “We actually are helping Minnesota so much, but they don’t appreciate it.”

Patty O’Keefe, a 36-year-old Minnesotan and non-profit worker who was pepper-sprayed and detained by federal agents in January after documenting ICE movements in the city, did not welcome Vance’s visit.

“He’s calling for law and order when it’s his federal agents who are creating chaos and escalating violence,” O’Keefe said. “His divisive rhetoric is not welcome here.”

(Reporting by Heather Schlitz in Minneapolis; Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu, Gram Slattery, Brad Brooks, Jasper Ward, Bo Erickson and Andrew Goudsward; Writing by Joseph Ax and Daniel Trotta; editing by Scott Malone, Deepa Babington, Rod Nickel)