Former acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf pushed back Monday against Minnesota leaders who have questioned the training of federal immigration officers amid unrest in Minneapolis.
Wolf said that ICE agents and Border Patrol officers are prepared for the missions that have drawn protests in the city.
Speaking on Newsmax's "Wake Up America," Wolf, now chair of the Center for Homeland Security at the America First Policy Institute, said criticism from Minnesota's governor and mayor that ICE officers are "poorly trained" is unfounded and misrepresents federal law enforcement preparation.
Wolf said ICE agents are trained at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, Georgia — the primary training institution for thousands of federal, state, and local law enforcement officers — and receive additional instruction if assigned to special response teams.
"ICE officers and agents go to the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, Georgia, just like many other local and state law enforcement officers," Wolf said. "It's the premier training academy."
He added that Border Patrol agents "also have special teams that get trained on riot control and crowd control."
Wolf said, "These officers are fully trained to do the mission that is unfolding there in Minneapolis."
His comments come as demonstrations continue following multiple fatal shootings involving federal agents, intensifying calls for ICE to leave the city.
Several Republicans have called for ICE agents to receive additional training after the fatal shootings in Minneapolis, with reports indicating that traditional longer preparatory periods have been shortened in recent years, though experienced agents — like the one involved in the killing of Renee Good earlier this month — were trained under previous standards.
The unrest in Minneapolis has been driven by a series of confrontations between federal agents and residents. The fatal shooting of 37-year-old Alex Pretti, a U.S. citizen and nurse, by a Border Patrol agent on Jan. 24 drew national attention and protests.
"You can look at one image or one video from a couple of different angles and start to draw conclusions," Wolf said. "But you don't know until you start interviewing eyewitnesses and start understanding the full picture of everything that's going on."
An earlier fatal shooting involved ICE agent Jonathan Ross in the case of Renee Good on Jan. 7, an incident that intensified scrutiny of federal enforcement tactics and officer interactions with the community.
Protesters have rallied in Minneapolis and across the nation, with gatherings in cities including San Francisco, Boston, and New York, demanding accountability and changes to federal immigration enforcement. A broader anti-ICE movement has coalesced around these events, reflecting deep divisions over the Trump administration's immigration policies.
State and local leaders, including Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, have repeatedly called for ICE to withdraw from the city, accusing the federal agents of exacerbating tensions and employing excessive force.
Wolf dismissed that stance, saying the federal agents will remain in Minneapolis and suggested that reducing violence should start with cooperation from local authorities.
"If local police takes up that mission as they should, as they do in every other jurisdiction across the country, well, then you can start to remove some officers as that violence starts to decrease," he said.
"ICE is not going anywhere," Wolf said. "They have a mission to do."
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Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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