Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey escalated his long-running feud with federal immigration authorities on Wednesday, unleashing a profanity-laced tirade against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after an ICE agent fatally shot a 37-year-old woman who allegedly tried to run them down with her car.
According to The Post Millennial, the confrontation unfolded after a female suspect reportedly attempted to run over ICE agents with her vehicle, prompting one of the agents to open fire. Frey, who has repeatedly aligned himself with progressive activists against federal immigration enforcement, immediately cast doubt on the official account, blasting federal authorities attempt to "spin this as an action of self-defense" as "bullsh*t," and insisting that he has "seen the video myself."
Frey used a press conference to deliver a pointed message not only to residents but directly to federal officers operating in his city. "Theres little I can say that will make this situation better. But I do have a message for our community, for our city, and I have a message for ICE. To ICE, get the f*ck out of Minneapolis. We do not want you here," he declared, accusing the agency of undermining, rather than enhancing, public safety.
The Democratic mayor went further, claiming that ICEs presence has inflicted lasting damage on immigrant communities and the broader city. "Your stated reason for being in this city is to create some kind of safety, and you are doing exactly the opposite. People are being hurt. families are being ripped apart," Frey said, arguing that "Long-term Minneapolis residents that have contributed so greatly to our city, to our culture, to our economy, are being terrorized, and now somebody is dead. Thats on you. And its also on you to leave."
Frey framed the incident as part of a broader moral struggle, casting ICE as an instrument of "hate" and vowing that Minneapolis would resist federal enforcement efforts on its own terms. "Its on you to make sure that further damage, further loss of life and injury, is not done," he continued, before adding later that "we are better than a bunch of ICE agents being deployed to cities around the country and ripping apart families and communities. Were better than that, and so we are going to meet that hate with love. We are going to meet that despair with hope."
The mayor also suggested, without evidence presented publicly, that the federal government is seeking to provoke unrest in order to justify a heavier-handed response. "We are going to meet that injustice with constitutional justice ourselves, and were going to make sure that in this very difficult moment, we do not take the bait that these ICE agents are trying to create, and that the federal government, to be clear, wants, they want us to respond in a way that creates a military occupation in our city. They want an excuse to come in and show the kind of force that will create more chaos and more despair," Frey claimed, echoing rhetoric often heard from the far left during the Trump years.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian OHara, by contrast, offered a more restrained and factual account of the shooting, underscoring the basic sequence of events rather than assigning political blame. He stated that the woman had been blocking Portland Avenue between 33rd and 34th streets with her vehicle, and that "At some point, a federal law enforcement officer approached her on foot and the vehicle began to drive off. At least two shots were fired, the vehicle then crashed on the side of the roadway."
When Minneapolis officers arrived, they discovered the woman suffering from a gunshot wound to the head and immediately attempted lifesaving measures at the scene. She was transported to Hennepin County Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead, leaving federal investigators, local authorities, and a deeply divided city to sort through the facts while elected leaders like Frey rush to turn a complex law-enforcement encounter into another flashpoint in the ongoing ideological war over borders, sovereignty, and the rule of law.
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