The president of the St. Paul Police Federation said recent fatal shootings in Minnesota involving federal immigration agents could have been avoided if city and state leaders had allowed greater cooperation between local law enforcement and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
In an interview with the New York Post on Wednesday, federation President Mark Ross argued that restrictions on coordination between local police and federal agents left Border Patrol and ICE officers operating in volatile urban environments without the crowd-control support local departments are trained to provide.
"I believe, had we been able to do that, that there would be no loss of life at this point," Ross said.
Minnesota has seen two fatal shootings this month during encounters involving federal agents serving immigration-related warrants, incidents that have drawn national attention and ignited protests.
In several cases, agents faced hostile crowds while attempting arrests, escalating confrontations that later ended in gunfire. State and local officials have emphasized Minnesota's limits on cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, citing sanctuary-style policies adopted by many cities.
Ross said those policies directly contributed to chaos during enforcement operations. He noted that since the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota law enforcement agencies have received extensive training in mobile field force tactics and crowd management for large-scale events and demonstrations.
"Because of that, I think we're in the best position to deal with that," Ross said. "Unfortunately, our local politicians would not allow us to do that."
According to Ross, federal agents are accustomed to far different conditions along the southern border, where violence from cartels and traffickers is common and officers are trained to respond forcefully to threats.
When those same agents operate in dense urban areas such as Minneapolis and St. Paul, he said, differences in policing philosophy can become dangerous.
"As soon as you start to intervene or interfere, they're taking action," Ross said, contrasting that approach with local police tactics that emphasize warnings, distance, and graduated responses to crowd behavior.
Ross blamed political leadership for preventing communication between agencies, saying local police officers have been caught in the middle of a widening conflict between federal enforcement efforts and progressive city governments.
"Public safety is everybody's responsibility," he said. "We want to be out there. We want to be keeping people safe, and it's been really tough."
As investigations into the shootings continue, Ross said the lesson is clear: Without cooperation between local police and federal authorities, similar incidents are likely to happen again.
On Thursday, border czar Tom Homan told reporters in Minneapolis that ICE agents would not be "surrendering the president's mission and immigration enforcement," and clarified federal officials would stay in Minneapolis and just be conducting their mission "smarter."
James Morley III ✉
James Morley III is a writer with more than two decades of experience in entertainment, travel, technology, and science and nature.
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