Vice President JD Vance told Newsmax on Thursday that protesters who interrupt church services or assault law enforcement officers "ought to get arrested" and "ought to go to prison," as federal authorities announced charges tied to a disruptive protest in the Twin Cities area.
Vance spoke to "Carl Higbie FRONTLINE" during a visit to Minnesota, hours after the Department of Justice announced three arrests connected to a group of anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protesters who interrupted a Jan. 18 service at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Demonstrators have claimed a pastor at the church has ties to federal immigration enforcement.
"Well, first of all, if you interrupt a church service, you ought to get arrested. You ought to go to prison," Vance said.
"And I think we wanted to send a very clear signal at the Department of Justice that you cannot interrupt people's rightful worship without expecting there to be any consequences," he continued.
"In the same token, you can't assault a law enforcement officer without expecting to get arrested, either."
Tensions have escalated in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area following two recent shootings involving federal law enforcement officers.
On Jan. 7, Renee Nicole Good, 37, was shot and killed by an ICE officer during a federal immigration enforcement operation.
A week later, a federal officer shot a man in the leg during a traffic stop.
The Department of Homeland Security said the man was an illegal alien from Venezuela and that the officer was assaulted with a shovel and a broom handle.
Vance said the DOJ's involvement in Minnesota stems from an investigation that began as an anti-fraud operation, not an immigration crackdown.
"This really started as an anti-fraud operation," he said.
"I think a lot of folks in the Democratic Party decided they didn't want to talk about fraud from Somalians," Vance continued.
"They wanted to talk about the brutality of immigration enforcement, as they call it."
Federal investigators have accused nonprofit networks linked to Minnesota's Somali community of misusing billions of dollars in federal funds, allegations that have fueled ongoing investigations and prosecutions.
Vance accused Democrats and far-left activists of attempting to distort the situation to shift attention away from fraud investigations and border enforcement failures under former President Joe Biden.
"What you've seen a lot is this sort of viral effort to try to inflate what's actually going on, to overstate the wrongs that have been committed and understate the very serious problems that we have with immigration enforcement in this country for a long time," he said.
"They're just trying to distract. They think that if they can turn ICE into this evil monster, it will distract from the fraud and it will distract from the Biden open border," Vance added.
"And we're just not going to let it. We're not going to let that happen."
He rejected claims that immigration enforcement itself is driving unrest, pointing to differences between cities and states across the country.
"If you look at blue states, blue cities, you look at Memphis, Tennessee, not a Republican mayor," Vance said.
"You look at red states like Texas, but blue cities like Austin, you do not see this level of chaos over the enforcement of immigration laws," he said.
"What you have is a small band of very far-left people who are doing everything that they can — up to and including assaulting law enforcement officers and raiding churches — to try to make ICE out to be the ultimate enemy," he added.
"It's absurd. It's added a lot of chaos here in Minneapolis, and it's one of the problems why I'm here to fix it."
Vance also said many protesters do not fully understand the policies they are opposing.
"I'd ask them, why are they here. 'Like, what are you really?'" he said, referring to demonstrators he encountered during his visit.
"Most of them have been fed a bunch of lies," Vance continued.
"And most of them fundamentally are people who think — if you really drill down to the root of it — they think that all immigration enforcement is illegal and immoral. We don't."
Vance said the Trump administration remains committed to accelerating deportations, while rebuilding enforcement capacity weakened under Biden.
"We inherited an ICE that was totally destroyed by the Biden administration," he said.
"Many of the people that we hired because the 'Big Beautiful Bill' haven't even started yet. Some of them haven't even started training yet."
Still, he pointed to early results.
"Two-and-a-half million in the very first year, 2 1/2 million fewer illegal aliens in this country," Vance said.
"It's a lot of success to hang our hat on, but as President [Donald] Trump always says, go faster. We need to do more."
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Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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