House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., on Sunday defended the credibility of Immigration and Customs Enforcement while blaming Minneapolis' Democrat leaders for what he called "chaos" surrounding a major federal deployment and protests that followed the shooting death of Alex Pretti.
However, in an interview with CBS' "Face the Nation," Scalise said he did not support calls from a fellow Louisiana lawmaker, Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, for a joint federal-state investigation into the Minneapolis incident.
ICE "is doing an incredibly hard job," said Scalise, pointing instead to what he called repeated failures by city leadership.
"ICE is operating in a lot of cities, Margaret, and you don't have these kinds of incidents in any other city but Minneapolis," Scalise told host Margaret Brennan, adding that he wished "yesterday didn't happen."
Brennan pressed Scalise on the scale of the federal presence, saying nearly 3,000 federal agents were deployed in Minneapolis, far more than in other cities such as New Orleans.
Scalise responded that Minneapolis officials had left their police force "stretched thin," citing the city's past decision to cut police funding, and said local leaders chose not to assist ICE.
He added that federal agents have "arrested thousands of violent criminals" in Minneapolis and claimed those arrests were a key driver in declining crime.
He also tied ICE's actions to President Donald Trump's immigration agenda, saying the president was elected to remove criminals from communities.
Scalise repeated a claim that "416,000 criminals have been arrested by ICE just in the last year," calling that work a major factor in community safety.
Brennan cited polling showing more than half of Americans say ICE is making communities less safe and nearly two-thirds dislike the president's approach to deportations, asking whether the administration should reassess how enforcement is being carried out.
But Scalise disputed the premise, saying most Americans would support deporting violent criminals in the country illegally, and criticized what he called "sanctuary city policies."
He also condemned people who "interfere with law enforcement," calling such actions a felony.
Asked about a letter sent by Attorney General Pam Bondi to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz offering to end the federal surge if the state provides access to food assistance program data and voter registration logs, Scalise said he had not read the letter.
However, he said that Congress is investigating "tens of billions of dollars" in potential fraud in Minnesota and said lawmakers are pushing federal election integrity legislation, including the SAVE Act and voter ID requirements.
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