Mayor Discusses ICE Operations In His City
The deportation debate has entered a phase of willful amnesia — or strategic confusion, depending on how charitably one chooses to interpret Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey’s latest comments. Frey is publicly questioning why there’s an increased ICE presence in cities like his, but not in red states such as Florida, Texas, or Utah. It’s a question ICE officials could answer with a single phrase: local cooperation.
🚨 JUST IN: Jacob Frey: If this were about immigration enforcement, ICE wouldn’t be flooding Minneapolis. There are far more undocumented people in Florida, Texas, and Utah.
Why Minnesota? Politics. We have Democratic leadership.
Minneapolis and St. Paul each have ~600… pic.twitter.com/XMhF34jQCU
— Brian Allen (@allenanalysis) January 12, 2026
What Frey seems to ignore — or pretends not to understand — is that states like Florida and Texas actively assist federal immigration enforcement. They’ve passed legislation, built infrastructure, and devoted law enforcement resources to supporting ICE operations. Minnesota? Quite the opposite. Sanctuary policies have become standard operating procedure, and local officials routinely obstruct ICE efforts — blocking access to jails, refusing detainer holds, and vilifying agents as political enemies.
Q: Why is ICE in Minnesota and not in Florida, Texas, or Utah?
A: ICE has a presence in every state; however, we do not need to surge resources to Florida, Texas, or Utah because, unlike Minnesota, these states work WITH ICE to detain and deport criminal illegal aliens. pic.twitter.com/kVZqIEs4nn
— U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (@ICEgov) January 12, 2026
This isn’t a mystery. If federal authorities can operate freely in a jurisdiction, they don’t need to surge resources to compensate for local resistance. That’s why you don’t see ICE battalions rolling through Fort Worth or Tallahassee. It’s not about partisanship; it’s about cooperation. If ICE is forced to work alone, they send reinforcements. It’s not political theater — it’s logistics.
As for Frey, if he’s genuinely confused about the need for heightened ICE activity in Minneapolis, he need look no further than his own reflection. This is the mayor who famously told ICE to “get the f*** out” of his city, who openly embraces sanctuary policies that prioritize non-cooperation over public safety.
Red states don’t use fake sanctuary autonomous zones
— Brittany Rae (@legitbrittFLA) January 13, 2026
And then there’s the comparison — Florida vs. Minnesota — that reveals a deeper misunderstanding. In Florida, ICE agents routinely partner with local sheriffs. In Minneapolis, they’re protested, filmed, and chased. You don’t need an advanced degree in federalism to grasp why the response looks different.
If Democrats honored ICE detainers and let ICE into prisons, this wouldn’t be happening. https://t.co/QbeeIvG1tq
— Amy Curtis (@RantyAmyCurtis) January 12, 2026
The media narrative, predictably, tries to paint this as a federal overreach — a political stunt engineered by the Trump administration. But it’s not complicated. The more a city obstructs, the more federal agents are required to do the job alone. If Minneapolis doesn’t want an ICE surge, there’s an easy fix: stop resisting immigration enforcement at every turn