‘Playing With Fire’: Trump Renews Threats Against Minneapolis Officials After Mayor Says Local Police Will Not Enforce Immigration Laws

President Trump’s attempt to de-escalate tensions between federal officials and Minnesota’s leaders appears to be on thin ice, with the president now saying that Minneapolis’s mayor, Jacob Frey, is “playing with fire” and violating the law by stating that local police will not enforce immigration laws. In a social media post Wednesday morning, Mr. Trump wrote, “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!”Enforcement of immigration law is primarily the responsibility of the federal government, though local law enforcement may make arrests depending on state and local laws. The mayor responded to the president’s warning, writing on X, “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 disagreement marks a departure from the messages the president posted about “good” phone calls he had with Mr. Frey and Minnesota’s governor, Tim Walz, earlier this week. It also comes after the Trump Administration’s border tsar, Tom Homan, met with Mr. Frey and Mr. Walz to discuss the federal government’s immigration operations. After the meeting, the mayor wrote on X that he asked for Operation Metro Surge, as the federal immigration enforcement operation has been dubbed, to “end as quickly as possible,” and said he shared the “serious negative impacts this operation has had on Minneapolis and surrounding communities.”“I also made it clear that Minneapolis does not and will not enforce federal immigration laws, and that we will remain focused on keeping our neighbors and streets safe. City leaders will continue to stay in conversation with Mr. Homan and his team,” Mr. Frey added.Mr. Walz told CNN Tuesday night that Mr. Homan is a “professional.” He also said that he wants immigration officials to leave Minnesota and called for justice for the two American citizens killed in recent weeks by federal agents, Renee Good and Alex Pretti.“It was progress,” Mr. Walz said. “I never got a call from [Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino] or [Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem].”He added, “I’m not interested in a more efficient Metro Surge. I’m looking for them to get out of here … They started this fire, so we’re not giving anybody credit for putting it out.”Mr. Walz told ABC News on Wednesday morning that he believes immigration officials will leave the state, but did not provide a timeline for when he thinks they will depart. Mr. Frey’s declaration that Minneapolis police will not enforce immigration laws comes as Trump Administration officials have called on Minnesota officials to honor ICE detainer requests.Minnesota’s Department of Corrections — which launched a website aimed at what it calls “combatting DHS misinformation” — has said that it honors detainer requests, which Trump Administration officials have acknowledged. Federal officials say they mainly encounter a lack of cooperation from local and other state agencies. On Wednesday, a DHS spokeswoman, Tricia McLaughlin, told Fox Business that city and county jails do not honor detainer requests and said officials want a “commitment” from officials in those facilities that they will honor detainer requests or “at least give us a notification” before illegal immigrants are released from local jails so that immigration officials can detain them. The head of the St. Paul Police Federation, Mark Ross, also urged state and local officials to let local law enforcement engage in crowd management while immigration officials conduct arrests. Mr. Ross told the New York Post that if there was such coordination between federal and local officials, Good and Pretti may not have been shot. While Mr. Trump delivered his warning to Mr. Frey, he told Fox News on Tuesday that he wants to “de-escalate” the situation in Minnesota “a little bit.” He insisted that the shakeup of the leadership managing the immigration operation is just a “little bit of a change,” and the “opposite” of a retreat. As Republicans have voiced concerns that the operation in Minnesota will hurt the party politically, Democrats handily won two special elections for the Minnesota state house on Tuesday. One of the races was uncontested. But the candidate in the race for District 64A at St. Paul, Meg Luger-Nikolai, received 95 percent of the vote. In 2024, Vice President Harris carried the district with 83 percent of the vote. The election results will leave the chamber tied, but a power-sharing agreement will let the Republican house speaker, Lisa Demuth, retain her position. And the left-wing activists behind the “No Kings” protests are planning a “No Kings 3” protest for March 28, which is supposed to be focused on Minnesota and opposing immigration enforcement. The organizers are planning a march in the Twin Cities and expect that there will be demonstrations across the country that day.

‘Playing With Fire’: Trump Renews Threats Against Minneapolis Officials After Mayor Says Local Police Will Not Enforce Immigration Laws

More from the New York Sun

‘My “No’s” Got Louder and More Desperate’: Trial of Hard-Partying Alexander Brothers Begins With Woman’s Vivid Description of Rape

Horrors of Dependency Weigh Heavily in New York Debut of ‘Blackout Songs’

Franklin’s Legacy of Thrift Tarnished by New York Lottery’s ‘Multiply Your Benjamins’ Campaign

More from the New York Sun

‘My “No’s” Got Louder and More Desperate’: Trial of Hard-Partying Alexander Brothers Begins With Woman’s Vivid Description of Rape

Horrors of Dependency Weigh Heavily in New York Debut of ‘Blackout Songs’

Franklin’s Legacy of Thrift Tarnished by New York Lottery’s ‘Multiply Your Benjamins’ Campaign

The Danger in Our Slowing Population Growth

Why Not Obey the Laws?

Top House Democrats Endorse Impeachment of Kristi Noem If Trump Keeps Homeland Security Secretary at Her Post

Risking Trump’s Ire, Britain’s Starmer To Visit Beijing in Search of Warmer Ties with President Xi

Trump Lawyer Alina Habba Rejected as United States Attorney, But Her Setback Could Lead to Supreme Court Win for Trump