Newsmax's Jason Mattera: FOP Says Policies Made ICE Shooting 'Predictable'

Minnesota's Fraternal Order of Police says Minneapolis' sanctuary-style policies have made immigration enforcement more dangerous and were "predictable" precursors to tragedy, a complaint resurfacing as the FBI investigates the deadly shooting involving an ICE agent, Newsmax crime correspondent Jason Mattera reported.

The union said the danger has been building as city leaders restrict local officers from assisting federal immigration authorities, even in limited public-safety roles. "They want strong leadership, and they're not getting that," Mattera said in the interview, airing on Newsmax's "Wake Up America" on Friday. "They're getting just the opposite."

The FOP's central complaint is that when Minneapolis and other jurisdictions refuse to cooperate with ICE, agents are pushed into making arrests in uncontrolled public settings rather than coordinated operations with uniformed local police.

"When you have ICE working with local police, uniformed officers, things are much safer," Mattera said. "People know who's there. When you bring in marked squad cars and you work together."

In Minneapolis, however, Mattera reported officers are barred from helping ICE even with basic functions such as crowd control, a restriction the union says increases the likelihood of volatile encounters. The FBI probe into the deadly shooting, the union said, underscores those risks.

Mattera pointed to what the FOP described as a recent example: an attempted arrest on Dec. 15 in which ICE officers were surrounded by what he described as a violent mob.

Mattera said agents repeatedly tried to reach Minneapolis police from a command center outside the city but received no response and eventually contacted the sheriff's office. Minneapolis officers later arrived, he reported, but did not remain on scene.

"They responded, and within ten minutes, Assistant Chief Katie Blackwell got on the radio and ordered the Minneapolis officers to leave," Mattera said, even though the situation remained tense.

Mattera also cited a June 2025 memo he said was sent by Blackwell, reinforcing the department's position that personnel were not to assist ICE with "any immigration-related matters," including crowd control.

Veteran officers told Mattera that cooperation between local police and federal agents has long been standard practice and that the city's approach breaks from decades of coordination.

"For generations, the rank and file uniformed officers on the street and the federal agents that are working have always found a way to work good together," one veteran officer said. "They foster good relationships, good cooperation."

The union said limiting that cooperation does not reduce risk but instead shifts enforcement into neighborhoods and onto streets, where crowds can gather quickly, and encounters can escalate.

Mattera also highlighted what the FOP described as a safer alternative: making arrests in jail settings whenever possible, where suspects have already been searched, handcuffed, and secured.

But in Minneapolis, and in other progressive-run cities Mattera referenced, including Portland, ICE detainers are not honored, meaning suspects are released rather than transferred to federal custody.

The union said this forces ICE arrests into the community, where the risk of violence is significantly higher.

Mattera said Newsmax reached out to the Minneapolis Police Department for comment on the Fraternal Order of Police criticism, but had not received a response by airtime.

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