Minnesota State Lawmaker Hammers Point About How 'Chaos' Didn't Have to Happen During CNN Town Hall

A key point we've made throughout some of the more contentious immigration enforcement operations is that the confrontations between agitators and ICE/CBP agents, which in some cases have gotten violent, wouldn't have happened if Democrat "leaders" in blue cities and states would honor ICE detainers on criminal illegal immigrants.

What's worse is that some of the Democrat elected officials effectively whip up the rage mobs with their characterizations of agents as supposedly being part of a "modern-day Gestapo," with comparisons of President Trump to Hitler, and also by using words like "occupation" and "murder" to describe operations and defensive actions.

Though various Trump administration figures have previously made this point, it was another Republican, this time from the Minnesota state legislature, who repeatedly hammered it during a Wednesday CNN town hall, even as the left-wing co-hosts - Anderson Cooper and Sara Sidner - repeatedly spouted Democrat talking points.

During the "State of Emergency: Confronting the Crisis in Minnesota" town hall, which was held in Minneapolis, both Cooper and Sidner questioned the panelists, which included GOP state Rep. Elliott Engen, on where they stood on recent incidents, including the deaths of anti-ICE protesters Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

Engen, who is also running for state auditor (with a campaign pledge to end the fraud and corruption), didn't waver for a second in pinning the lion's share of the blame for the devolving situation on the fact that Democrats in the state including Gov. Tim Walz refused to cooperate with the feds on criminal illegals, and in fact have openly bragged about the lack of cooperation - as we saw, for instance, with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.

Here is a partial transcript (edited for clarity) of what went down:

COOPER: I mean, everybody is saying we want to go after hardened criminals, whether that's actually happening here or not I guess is --
ENGEN: Anderson, I don't [mean] to jump in here, but you have 1,600 people who were on a list, and that would have been a targeted approach without raids that looked chaotic and that led to violence, that led to tragedy that has led to a lot of heartbreak and chaos here in Minnesota for all the wrong reasons. And even before that, we were in chaos and in dire times because of all the fraud.
So, it seems as if Minnesota just is the epicenter of chaos right now. But there was a roadmap for none of this to occur. It would have been Donald Trump doing the exact same thing as Gretchen Whitmer, Democrat governor --

COOPER: If that's the case, though, they've been here a while. They've been here a while. If it's 1,600 people they were after, you would think they would have picked them up by now.

ENGEN: No, because the state has impeded and gotten in the way and passed legislation.

COOPER: So, you don't think they picked up 1,600 people?

ENGEN: No, there were 1,600 people that were picked up because Tim Walz did not hand over that detainer list. So, now, anybody that you interact with as an ICE agent with orders to detain and remove people that the administration wants to, they're going to have that. So, there were more because of what Governor Walz did.

Sidner then jumped in, but Engen just kept hammering the point.

SIDNER: The administration though said that they were initially going after the "worst of the worst," quote/unquote.

ENGEN: That was their goal. The worst of the worst was held back.

SIDNER: Now, people are being picked up who are legally here, detained for days and then let go. And there have been American citizens picked up. Do you think that's what they should be doing?

ENGEN: I think that that would not have happened had Governor Walz and other leaders here in the state not made it their stated goal to impede everything that the federal administration does.

SIDNER: Do you think the administration has any role in this? Because I know you're putting the blame on the governor but --

ENGEN: Of course, they both have a role. So, a heightened tension or a heightened escalation from the state where they say they're going to get in the way, that they're going to fight it at every turn, that's been met with equal force from the federal government. Now, do I like it when I hear that Americans have been apprehended based off of skin color, as some have said? No, of course I don't. That's disgusting. We shouldn't be doing that. But when you have a concerted and very calculated effort to impede that same administration at every turn, when they're trying to remove people who are literally killing Minnesotans.

A woman in Shakopee, America Thayer, was beheaded by an illegal immigrant with a machete, that right now is not allowed to be known. If that person were still on our streets, living in our communities, we would not know that because the federal government doesn't have a detainer list. We could end all of this right now if leaders want to get to solutions and not chaos.

Sidner then apparently ran out of talking points because at that point she pivoted to an audience question.

Watch:

WATCH: MN State Rep @elliottengenMN SCHOOLS the CNN hosts on jail detainers and how this could have all been avoided pic.twitter.com/MJk2vATTfg
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) January 29, 2026

It's that persistent lack of cooperation, the Democrats siding with criminal illegals over American citizens, that makes the assignment of border czar Tom Homan to now lead the Minnesota operation so critically important.

As RedState's Jennifer Oliver O'Connell reported earlier, Homan reaffirmed in a Thursday morning presser that the administration isn't surrendering on the mission. But what they have pushed for is "common sense cooperation" from Gov. Walz and Mayor Frey, and state Attorney General Keith Ellison (D), which, it sounds like, they are now getting:

Homan talked about his "very good meeting" with MN Attorney General Keith Ellison, and that Ellison "clarified for me" that the county jails may notify ICE about the criminal illegals in the jails, so that ICE can take custody of them. Homan emphasized that this is the safest way to fulfill the mission of removal and would facilitate the goal of drawdown so that fewer federal resources are being poured into the state.

I have zero doubt that some Trump-style "art of the deal" tactics have been going on behind the scenes to make this happen, and it likely had to do with some very pointed conversations about the billions in Minnesota fraud and how life could soon get even more uncomfortable for the state if cooperation wasn't given.

Further, the Trump administration also seems to be keenly aware that taking back control of the message will go a long way to reassuring a public that has been bombarded with media/Democrat negativity about the operations that they are, in fact, necessary for the protection of their communities, and the agents tasked with carrying the mission out.

This is a point my colleague Bonchie made on Monday after news broke about Homan heading to Minnesota:

Why does it matter how DHS leadership chooses to message the situation? And why does it matter to the agents on the ground? Because the job is already difficult enough, and the tactical considerations in Minneapolis are complicated, to say the least. Maintaining as much credibility with the broader public is an important part of ensuring enforcement can continue without interruption, and just as importantly, be maximally effective without creating any unnecessary issues.

This is, of course, an evolving situation. We'll be sure to keep you posted on developments

Editor’s Note: Democrat politicians and their radical supporters will do everything they can to interfere with and threaten ICE agents enforcing our immigration laws.

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