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![Mayor Jacob Frey at his office in City Hall; Minneapolis, Minnesota, Jan. 26, 2026. Erin Trieb for TIME](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7e9fb62bbcf090b3/6998cf2bf1b08286716f2402/minneapolis-ice-protests-community-frey-2026-32_b79c04.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp)


# Inside Mayor Jacob Frey's Fight For Minneapolis

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<!-- video src="https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/av8AWBaO.m3u8" -->
## Video: Minneapolis Mayor Frey Responds After Vice President Vance Blames Local Officials for Unrest

[Watch (HLS stream): Minneapolis Mayor Frey Responds After Vice President Vance Blames Local Officials for Unrest](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/av8AWBaO.m3u8) (5:26)

![Minneapolis Mayor Frey Responds After Vice President Vance Blames Local Officials for Unrest](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/av8AWBaO/poster.jpg?width=720)

_Published 2026-01-23. Vice President JD Vance on Thursday blamed “far-left people” and state and local law enforcement officials for the chaos that has unfolded during the White House's aggressive deportation campaign. Vance insisted that he was in Minnesota to calm tensions, and said the Insurrection Act wouldn’t be needed “right now” in Minneapolis after meeting with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in the city, which has emerged as a national focal point in the clash over the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, other local officials, the city's police, religious leaders and the business community, have pushed back against the federal action that coincided with community outrage, after an agent fatally shot Renee Good, a U.S. citizen and mother of three, during a confrontation earlier this month._


![Mayor Jacob Frey at his office in City Hall; Minneapolis, Minnesota, Jan. 26, 2026. Erin Trieb for TIME](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7e9fb62bbcf090b3/6998cf2bf1b08286716f2402/minneapolis-ice-protests-community-frey-2026-32_b79c04.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=4:5)

The mayor at his city hall office on Jan. 26

The mayor at his city hall office on Jan. 26 Erin Trieb for TIME

---

Story

by 

[Julia Terruso](https://time.com/author/julia-terruso/)

Feb 5, 2026 12:00 PM UTC

The mayor at his city hall office on Jan. 26 Erin Trieb for TIME

Jacob Frey had just helped his 5-year-old daughter into her ballet slippers at dance class when Minneapolis police chief Brian O’Hara called. Federal agents had shot someone, O’Hara told the mayor: “It was bad.”

It was Saturday morning, Jan. 24\. A few miles away, an ICU nurse named Alex Pretti had been shot to death across from a doughnut shop on Nicollet Avenue, the second American citizen in three weeks killed by federal agents in this city under siege. Frey rushed for his coat, arranged for another parent to take his daughter home after class, and darted out the door. “I didn’t say goodbye, which I felt really badly about,” he recalls in an interview in his city hall office.

Frey, 44, is in his third term as mayor of Minneapolis, a tenure marked by an almost unfathomable series of tragedies. Two years after he took office, COVID crippled the city’s downtown. Then came George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis cop, catalyzing protests and riots, a painful fight over police reform, and a depletion in the department’s ranks. Last June, two Democratic state legislators in the Minneapolis suburbs were shot along with their spouses in what authorities called an act of targeted political violence. In August, two children were killed and more than two dozen others were injured in a shooting at a school Mass at the city’s Annunciation Catholic Church. The current Immigration and Customs Enforcement occupation was preceded by a scandal involving the defrauding of social-service programs. That put the city under the MAGA movement’s microscope, which many, including Frey, believe figured in the Trump Administration’s decision to make Minneapolis the focus of the largest federal immigration-enforcement deployment in American history.


![Siege of an American City Minneapolis Time Magazine cover](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3e04e35672c29f80/6998cdd27323af8bf52bd3f0/TIM260223-Mineapolis-Cover.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp)

Photograph by Brandon Bell—Getty Images

Operation Metro Surge, launched in December, has brought some 3,000 agents, many heavily armed, masked, and dressed in tactical gear, to this frozen city of lakes, often tailed by protesters wielding cell phones documenting their aggressive tactics. Photos showed Liam Conejo Ramos, a 5-year-old in a blue bunny cap, being taken into federal custody. Video captured a woman on her way to a medical appointment dragged from her car, her seat belt slashed as she struggled. Protesters have been manhandled, pepper-sprayed at close range, enveloped in plumes of tear gas. At some schools, absenteeism jumped as high as 40%. Immigrant-owned businesses pull down their gates as sales plummet and workers stay home. Residents monitor preschools, log unfamiliar license plates, and gather in protest, trying in ways big and small to help their neighbors.


Frey is at the center of it all, caught between a President who casts him as a radical leftist defying federal authority and a progressive city of 430,000 that wants him to do more to resist the immigration crackdown and regain control. Frey’s governing creed, forged in the crucible of previous crises, is that resistance is most effective when it is deliberate and restrained. Part of the pushback is “showing that we can have Democratically run cities that can work,” he says: picking up trash, de-icing alleyways, removing graffiti, filling in potholes. He’s given fiery speeches, demanding ICE “get the f-ck out” after Renee Good was killed by an ICE agent in early January. But in some ways, his performance demonstrates the limits of his powers.

A reprieve appears to be coming. With polls showing a growing majority of Americans believe ICE has gone too far, the DOJ opened a civil rights probe into Pretti’s death. President Trump softened his tone and swapped out the aggressive commander of the Minneapolis operation for his border czar, Tom Homan, who announced a partial drawdown of federal forces. But a sizeable number of agents will remain. “There’s a very straightforward antidote, and that is to leave,” Frey told me. “They leave, those businesses have customers again. They leave and fear is reduced on the street. But of course, this is not about safety. This is not even about immigration. This is a political narrative that they’re trying to concoct.”


Minneapolis isn’t the first city to contend with the consequences of Trump’s immigration crackdown. But it has become the clearest warning of what a mass-deportation campaign that aims to remove 1 million people from the U.S. each year can look like on the ground—and of the reckoning awaiting more of America’s mayors and citizens when the federal government turns its power inward.

---

**I first met** Frey on an icy Wednesday morning as he dropped his two girls off at day care. The mayor helped his 5-year-old daughter step carefully along a frozen sidewalk as he toted his 6-month-old baby in her carrier. It’s often the one time of day he gets to see his kids, and he lingers inside with them for a few minutes before wishing them a good day.


![Crowds gather at a vigil for Alex Pretti who was fatally shot and killed by federal ICE agents in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Jan. 26, 2026. Erin Trieb for TIME](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd2305c92d7fdb14d/6998cf2b93610c4a27c308fe/minneapolis-ice-protests-community-frey-2026-34_e9ddbd.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp)

Crowds gather at a vigil for Alex Pretti who was fatally shot and killed by federal ICE agents in Minneapolis, on Jan. 26 Erin Trieb for TIME

Riding to city hall in his black Escalade, the mayor reflected on the latest attack from the President. The day before, Frey had a call with Trump that he describes as “pretty collegial.” But then Frey reiterated on X that the city’s roughly 600 police officers would not participate in immigration enforcement. “I don’t want them spending a second hunting down a father dropping his kids off at day care who is about to go work a 12-hour shift,” he tells me. In response, Trump had launched another broadside that morning, saying Frey was “playing with fire.” The warning was an attempt at coercion, Frey says—a nod to the recent federal subpoena he’d been served as part of a Department of Justice investigation.


Frey is a Minneapolis transplant. A former professional distance runner from Virginia, he fell in love with the city’s trails and lakes and moved there in 2009 to practice employment and civil rights law. In 2011 he helped organize the first Big Gay Race, a charity event to raise money for marriage equality. Two years later he was elected to the city council. “He didn’t have a legacy here,” says council member Linea Palmisano, an ally of the mayor’s. “He’s always had to be his own self-made man.” Frey campaigned as a unifier, pledging to mend the city’s divisions and becoming the second youngest mayor in Minneapolis history and second Jew to hold the office. Colleagues saw a leader with boundless energy and a desire to talk to people who disagreed with him.

The unity appeal collided with the turmoil that befell the city after Floyd’s murder, which led to a protracted fight over the future of policing in Minneapolis. Frey opposed calls to defund the police, a position that was unpopular on the left at the time. The critics from back then are on him again now—except this time many are urging him to have local police act more proactively to protect residents from ICE’s excesses and to hold the line on noncooperation with DHS. 


For all the attention Frey has received for his impassioned public defense of the city, in person he is cautious, pausing carefully to choose his words. In the mayor’s third-floor office suite, thick stacks of printed talking points sit on desks. 

Around a conference table at city hall, Frey convenes a morning meeting. He asks O’Hara, the police chief dialing in on Zoom, for the latest intel on ICE operations. The chief reports a slight decrease in activity, then recounts a few unconfirmed rumors. One is that a federal agent staked out a home with a hostile sign in the window. Another alleges that an agent impersonated a volunteer at a food--distribution center. Police were also called to a hotel housing ICE officers, where protesters had gathered to make noise outside.

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt15ede2676241897a/6998cd1e1f67093723f571bf/MINNEAPOLIS-SHOOTINGS-GOOD-PRETTI-map.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp)

Base map: Frank Ramspott/Getty Images


City leaders have no comprehensive way of tracking Department of Homeland Security activity. Much of the information they have about the ongoing federal operation arrives the same way it does for local residents, via viral videos, social media posts, and word of mouth. Frey and his team try to keep track of incidents by following the frenetic stream of 911 calls and dispatches from the -independent trackers who blanket the city in organized neighborhood groups. (Hundreds are coordinating across more than a dozen separate Signal chats.) Residents are encouraged to report incidents of suspected DHS abuse to a state attorneys general website. The mayor’s staff of 15 has been bombarded by some 30,000 constituent complaints in the past two months. Some have received threatening messages, prompting the office to remove their contact information from the city’s website.

The hub of community resistance has been the Whipple Federal Building, where people detained by ICE are held in crowded cells. Some report an absence of access to food, water, or medical care. On a freezing Thursday morning, a small band of locals—a music teacher, a retired veteran, a grandmother of three—stood shoulder to shoulder, screaming “Shame” and “Traitor!” as agents drove in and out of the facility in unmarked cars. 


Frey hasn’t visited the demonstrations at Whipple. And while he joined thousands of locals marching in a recent “ICE Out” protest, the self-described “pragmatic progressive” has drawn criticism from liberals on the city council, some of whom are helping to organize the resistance movement. “I personally have never heard or seen him out in the streets,” says Elizabeth Bonin, communications coordinator for the Twin Cities Democratic Socialists of America group, which opposed Frey in November’s election. “Our community is out here every day watching over the streets, making sure kids get to school safely. We’re delivering groceries to neighbors, we’re printing whistles on people’s 3D printers, we’re raising money to pay rent because our system of government has failed us.”

After the meeting with city officials, Frey visits the 24 Somali Mall, a shopping center filled with vendors, many of them citizens who’ve lived here for decades, selling everything from rugs to electronics to tax services. These days, it’s about 50% vacant. Dozens of immigrant business owners are too fearful to go to work. Others have shuttered shops because of decreased foot traffic. But as word spread the mayor was paying a visit, Frey was swarmed. People called his name and grabbed his arms, sharing a chorus of concerns: _No one is coming. People are scared. When will they leave?_ “We’re working on it,” Frey tells them as he buys tea and samosas.


Minnesota has the largest Somali community in the U.S., and Frey has worked to ingratiate himself. He’s picked up some of the language; his older daughter can count to five in Somali. He bristles at what he sees as the precipitating reason for Operation Metro Surge: the sprawling scandal in which, as of January, 64 people, most of whom are of Somali descent, had been convicted of taking state and federal funding for phony social-service programs. A former senior policy aide of Frey’s was among those arrested. For Trump, the scandal presented a political opportunity. Minnesota is a blue state Republicans have sought to put into play in presidential elections, led by a governor who was on the 2024 Democratic ticket, and the chaos that engulfed Minneapolis after Floyd’s killing made it a national symbol of the Black Lives Matter movement. A historic immigration-enforcement operation in a city a fraction of the size of Chicago or Los Angeles—one with a lower-than-average proportion of undocumented immigrants—doesn’t make much sense until you consider how it intersects with themes of Democratic mismanagement and crimes committed by foreigners. “Look, the fraud is real,” Frey says. But “you do not hold an entire community accountable for the actions of the criminal.”


Latino businesses have been hit hard. The Lake Street corridor, a commercial and cultural artery, is quiet. Rebuilding a sense of security will take time even after the federal footprint decreases, Frey says: “People need to have confidence leaving their home that they’re gonna come back to it.” Critics say Frey needs to do more to support the city in the meantime. The mayor is good at translating the surreal reality on the ground for the cameras, says council member Robin Wonsley, who is urging Frey to back an eviction moratorium, “but that’s not translating to what is a clear coordinated plan of how he’s using the city’s reservoir of resources to show up in this moment.” 

![Mayor Jacob Frey visits the 24 Somali Mall to greet and spend time with the local Somali population; Minneapolis, Minnesota, Jan. 26, 2026. Erin Trieb for TIME](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf35733226170ea27/6998cf2b07a30dfc5477dead/minneapolis-ice-protests-community-frey-2026-33_3bba4d.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp)

Vendors seek Frey’s help during the mayor’s visit to the 24 Somali Mall Erin Trieb for TIME


---

**Later that afternoon**, Frey escorts 24 new police-academy grads down the aisle of the opulent Basilica of St. Mary in downtown Minneapolis. Bagpipes echo through the church as the officers prepare to take the department’s oath to protect and serve. “The work ahead is not going to be easy,” Frey tells the cadets. “The bright lights—not just of this church, but of the world—will be directly on this department.”

Frey’s efforts to rebuild trust between the department and the city ranks among his proudest accomplishments. “We’ve done a lot of work over these last five years,” Frey says. “The good news is it’s being recognized. The bad news is that trust is also fragile.”

The department lost roughly 300 officers in the aftermath of Floyd’s killing, as progressives called for its abolition and a federal civil probe found a pattern of discrimination and unconstitutional policing. Meanwhile, each video clip of immigrants, demonstrators, or bystanders being harassed—and in some cases assaulted—by federal agents deepens a perception that federal authority is being wielded indiscriminately and that local leaders are powerless to stop it. Under the direction of Frey and O’Hara, Minneapolis police have adhered to the city’s separation ordinance, which dictates they avoid involvement in immigration enforcement. Part of this is ideology—Minneapolis is a sanctuary city—but it’s also an issue of limited capacity. 


For now, Frey has managed to navigate the challenges of the city’s parallel police presences, says former police chief Medaria Arradondo. But if people “witness their rights being violated by members wearing these federal uniforms, and members of the MPD are not stepping in and intervening and protecting them,” Arradondo says, “it’s not going to matter which uniform they’re seeing.”

The day after we met, Frey traveled to Washington to meet with fellow mayors in a gathering he called a needed “therapy session.” He cast his colleagues as defenders of the Republic at this precarious moment. “We are on the front lines of a very important battle,” he told them. “If we do not speak up, if we do not step out, it will be your city that is next.” —_With reporting by_ Leslie Dickstein/New York


## Transcript

I wanted to meet with business leaders, with Ice officers, with local law enforcement, to try to understand a little bit better what's going on so that we can tone down the temperature a little bit, reduce the chaos, but still allow us, as a federal government to enforce the American people's immigration laws. That is the purpose of my visit. If you look at the context of what's going on, you understand that these people are under an incredible amount of duress, an incredible amount of chaos. And because of a few very far left agitators, a lot of these guys are unable to do their jobs without being harassed, without being doxed and sometimes without being assaulted.

That's totally unacceptable. And that's one of the things that I want to send a message to is, yes, come out and protest, protest me, protest our immigration policy, but do it peacefully. Now imagine, if you would, your life and your perspective on law enforcement. If you can't even go to a restaurant without some agitators locking the door and making you feel like your life is in danger. That is the environment that has been created, I think, by a lot of very frankly, far left people, but also by some of the state and local law enforcement officials who could do a much better job in cooperating and working.

You know, you asked a question about this five year old kid. I actually saw this terrible story while I was coming to Minneapolis. We just left Toledo, Ohio, this morning for an economic event. And I see this story. And I'm a father of a five year old, actually, a five year old little boy. And I think to myself, oh my God, this is terrible. How did we arrest a five year old? Well, I do a little bit more follow up research, and what I find is that the five year old was not arrested, that his dad was an illegal alien. And then they went when they went to arrest his illegal alien father, the father ran.

So the story is that Ice detained a five year old. What are they supposed to do? Are they supposed to let a five year old child freeze to death? Are they not supposed to arrest an illegal alien in the United States of America? If the argument is that you can't arrest people who have violated our laws because they have children, then every single parent is going to be completely given immunity from ever being the subject of law enforcement. That doesn't make any sense. No one thinks that makes any sense. Now, you you know, there are so many of these cases like that where if you just understand the context, there have been a number of situations that I've looked into personally where I say, wait a second, we don't want ice in arresting American citizens.

They're supposed to be enforcing the immigration laws against illegal aliens. So then I look into it, and I find out that the American citizen who was arrested took a swing at an Ice officer. You can't have that happen. And of course, they have to defend themselves. And of course, they have the right to detain somebody who assaults a law enforcement officer. Now, this is my point. Do we want these things to happen? Do we want these arrests to be so chaotic? No we don't. These guys want at least of all. But if we had a little cooperation from local and federal, excuse me, from local and state officials, I think the chaos would go way down in this community.

So it sounds like JD Vance is taking a whole lot of my talking points, but not all of them. He said, quote, come out and protest, but do it peacefully. That sounds exactly like what I've been saying since the very first moments following the shooting of Renee. Good protest peacefully, but don't take the bait. Don't counter the chaos of Donald Trump with our own brand of chaos here. And so to the extent he's telling people to protest peacefully, we're in agreement. Second, and quote, we want to enforce the laws on one hand, while on the other, making sure people in Minneapolis are able to go about their day.

It sounds a lot to me like he wants to be mayor of the city, only he's only been here for two hours, whereas we in this city have been working through these issues and this chaos for the last several weeks. Uh, peace is not spraying irritants and chemicals at peaceful protesters. It's not detaining a five year old. It's not dragging a pregnant woman through the streets. You achieve peace by working directly with communities. You lower crime by strategically going after people that have committed it. The vice president said he would love to be able to send some of these agents home. You know, there's no disagreement there.

We've been encouraging that for weeks. So what's changed? What's changed is the response that we're seeing. What's changed is that we have 3000 plus Ice agents and border control that are on our streets without a clear plan. What's changed is we've got this huge influx of what feels like an occupation in a city in the upper Midwest. And what's changed is that they are arresting United States citizens. They are detaining people that have done nothing wrong. They're going after people exclusively based on the fact that they look like they're Somali, or they look like they are Latino. And no reason beyond that.

What we are seeing is this is more about political retaliation. This is more about tragically terrorizing people than it is about safety, than it is even about immigration.

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