A big part of the reason that ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) actions are more complicated and potentially dangerous in Minnesota is that some of the local jails aren't cooperating with ICE in honoring the agency's detainers.
If they did that, then the targets could be picked up at the jails, and agents wouldn't have to go out into the community to hunt them down and pick them up. That would lessen conflict with anti-ICE agitators and be safer all around, including for the federal agents. It's also one of the reasons they needed more personnel to make the arrests, to help secure the areas, because they know they may have to deal with anti-ICE people.
People like Democrat MN Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey stoked a lot of the tension against ICE.
When Frey went on CNN on "The Arena with Kasie Hunt," he may not have expected Hunt to corner him and make a great point. She brought up how the Dems had cooperated with ICE in the past under Barack Obama.
CNN: "During the Obama years, the Hennepin County Jail actually had a policy where they let an ICE agent keep an office there and allowed them to talk to immigrants.
— Alpha News (@AlphaNews) February 6, 2026
"Do you think it's good policy for the jails to follow an ICE detainer and hand someone over if they've committed… pic.twitter.com/bkxezC3pLb
"The Hennepin County Jail actually had a policy where they let an ICE agent keep an office there and allowed them to talk to immigrants," Hunt says.
She points out how "the policy has clearly been under a Democratic president what now the Trump administration is asking for."
Once again, they cooperated under Obama, but now they don't want to do the same thing for the Trump administration. So the problems are a result of the actions of Minnesota officials.
Hunt even asked if Frey thought that was "good policy for the jails to follow an ICE detainer and hand someone over if they've committed a crime."
Frey was clearly not prepared for the point or the question, and tried to deflect, "And while I don't have full expertise in how the operations at the jail are conducted, again, that's not our jurisdiction. What I would say there are mechanisms for doing this lawfully."
Yeah, no, he can't wiggle out of things. He helped to create this situation by inciting people against ICE.
When even CNN is calling them out on their actions, they had to know they are in a bad position.
Now, under the pressure from the Trump administration, Border Czar Tom Homan said they would be able to pull some of the extra agents because now they were getting "unprecedented cooperation."
“More officers taking custody of criminal aliens directly from the jails, means less officers on the street doing criminal operations,” Homan said. “This is smart law enforcement, not less law enforcement.”
That's exactly what Hunt was talking about; that's what they had done before under Obama. It's what other states are doing, and why there are fewer problems in those states.
There also appears to be more action from the local police as well, in terms of dealing with the anti-ICE folks, such as taking down the checkpoint they'd set up to block an intersection in Minneapolis.
READ MORE: Anti-ICE Crew Is Not Happy at All About What Just Happened to Their 'Checkpoint' in Minneapolis
Homan Nukes ‘ICE Retreat’ Narrative With 700-Agent Drawdown Announcement
Hopefully, that keeps up and expands. So that may lead to a much more orderly situation in Minnesota going forward.
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