Vice President Vance Visits Minneapolis, Discusses ICE Operations in Minnesota

Vice President JD Vance visited Minneapolis on Thursday, where he delivered remarks regarding ongoing ICE operations, part of “Operation Metro Surge”, taking place in the Twin Cities area.

Vance’s visit comes amidst heightened tensions between federal agents and protesters in the region, who have clashed on numerous occasions since the January 7th fatal shooting of Renee Good. Protests have taken place against ICE in numerous locations, including daily gatherings outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, located just outside Minneapolis city limits.

Vance spoke about reports of ICE arresting American citizens, stating in a number of cases that he has looked into, “I found 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”.

Responding to a question about invoking the Insurrection Act, Vance said “Right now, we don’t think that we need that” and “we think that federal law enforcement officers can do the job of federal law enforcement”. He added that he worries about “if the chaos gets worse, if more and more ICE agents start getting assaulted, if other law enforcement officers start getting assaulted, that would be a real problem”, but that “we have so much federal law enforcement resources here right now. We have so many people here that we do not want to have here.”

Watch video of Vice President Vance’s full remarks here: