President Donald Trump on Tuesday defended the work of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Minnesota and said local Democrats are supporting "anarchists and professional agitators" to deflect attention from massive government fraud allegations within the state.
In a Truth Social post, Trump argued ICE officers are trying to remove dangerous criminals from communities, blaming what he called former President Joe Biden's "HORRIBLE Open Border's Policy" for allowing violent offenders to enter the country illegally.
"Do the people of Minnesota really want to live in a community in which there are thousands of already convicted murderers, drug dealers and addicts, rapists, violent released and escaped prisoners, dangerous people from foreign mental institutions and insane asylums, and other deadly criminals too dangerous to even mention," Trump wrote.
"All the patriots of ICE want to do is remove them from your neighborhood and send them back to the prisons and mental institutions from where they came."
Trump said crime drops when ICE ramps up enforcement, citing Chicago as an example.
"Every place we go, crime comes down," he wrote, adding that "Thousands of Criminals were removed!"
The president also aimed criticism at Minnesota Democrats, saying unrest in the Twin Cities is being exploited for political cover.
"Minnesota Democrats love the unrest that anarchists and professional agitators are causing because it gets the spotlight off of the 19 Billion Dollars that was stolen by really bad and deranged people," Trump wrote. "FEAR NOT ... THE DAY OF RECKONING & RETRIBUTION IS COMING!"
Trump's comments came as Minnesota, Minneapolis, and St. Paul filed a lawsuit against the administration seeking to block or limit a stepped-up immigration enforcement operation.
State Attorney General Keith Ellison accused federal authorities of violating First Amendment and constitutional protections and sought a temporary restraining order.
"This is, in essence, a federal invasion of the Twin Cities in Minnesota, and it must stop," Ellison said at a Monday news conference.
The lawsuit follows outrage after the fatal shooting of a Minneapolis woman, Renee Nicole Good, who was shot by a federal officer during a confrontation while she was behind the wheel of her SUV.
Protests and vigils have been held in Minnesota and across the country, and activists have circulated videos of tense encounters involving federal agents, including the use of tear gas to disperse crowds.
The Department of Homeland Security has defended its actions and said it is deploying more than 2,000 immigration officers into Minnesota.
DHS has also said it has made more than 2,000 arrests since December, calling the surge its largest enforcement operation ever.
Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin pushed back on state and local leaders, saying Trump's administration is enforcing the law and prioritizing public safety.
"President Trump's job is to protect the American people and enforce the law," she said.
As the legal fight intensifies, the issue is shaping up as another showdown between the Trump administration's border security agenda and Democrat-led governments resisting federal enforcement — with Trump insisting ICE is targeting criminals, not communities, and promising accountability for what he described as massive fraud and lawlessness in the state.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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